Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending November 19, 2017

I had a pretty crud week of training. Was hoping to hit 30 but ended up at 18. Ended up getting a really bad headache and just couldn't run. Oh well, the big TT is this week so should be fun. I just registered my kids for the 5k CC race. I'm going to pass on it and try doing better for the Turkey Trot.

M-5 miles with hills

T-7 miles with hills

W-biked 4 miles

T- 1 mile turned around head ache

F-off headache

S-off headache

S-5 miles easy

Great job to the racers. R4F and Laughlin always cool seeing people run good.

OR Yes you should do a Turkey Trot. How else can you say "Gobble Gobble MF'ers" without one?

Decided at beginning of week to just run as much or as little as I wanted and take it easy a bit. Recharge for the turkey trot and also just a down week before I start increasing base mileage after thanksgiving. I feel it's probably my last race until spring. I think I have races 5 5ks a 10k and a half marathon since mid august. Just kInd of raced out and ready for some volume.

Mon 4/4

Tues off - rode bike 34 miles total

Wed 4/12

Thu 4. Was going to run another 4-6 in afternoon but work got in way

Fri 10 total w 5x1000 3min rest in 3:27-26-27-28-27 (and maybe a second faster sometimes hard to hit touch screen lap button)

Sat off w daughter

Sun 10 this evening planned w a little intensity in the middle like 2x200 4x400 2x200

48ish total.

Hopefully the 5x1000 workout means I am ready for a good 5k time. Last 4 where 17:50 17:50 17:30 17:30. So time for another drop.

I'd skip the Turkey Trot, but my legs and deer always feel like crap after a marathon and I couldn't imagine feeling recovered enough to run, so I'm definitely viewing that through my own particular lens.

Pretty good week for me. Finally got in two workouts in one week and finally stretched out my long run.

M - 7 easy

Tu - AM: 4 easy; PM: 7 x 1 mile at 5:19 avg w/1:00 rest

W - 8 easy

Th - 10 miles with 20:00 tempo run (5:30.0) mixed in

F - off

Sa - 16 easy

Su - 11 easy

65 total miles

Tuesday was pretty manageable - get in control and felt like I could have run another pretty easily except my hamstrings were starting to tighten up; but I was very under control aerobically.

Thursday was a little rougher. Not sure that I was fully recovered from Tuesday, and I had a stressful day at work, and kind of decided to work the tempo effort in because my legs were feeling good; but it was dark and I had a little trouble with traffic. Still, it wasn't going to be much faster and the perceived effort was right.

I didn't want to take Friday off, but I was hosting a party for my middle daughter's birthday, so I had to prep for that and then sip beers continuously to be able to endure a dozen 8 year old girls running around my house.

So my mileage was down despite it being an up week on my calendar, but hats fine - still solid mileage and it actually makes sense to have a slightly lower volume week given the intensity went up because of the second workout.

I've averaged just over 64 miles the last 4 weeks, so I'm pretty happy with my overall volume for a half marathon - it should be enough.

Turkey Trotting Thursday, then a half marathon on 12/2, followed maybe by a 15k two weeks after that before peaking for Houston.

Yes, RRR...chill and then dial up the volume.

Thanks for the input, Smoove. Looks like you had a solid week.

Still mulling over the turkey trot. We will see...

Yeah my tentative plan is mileage all December and jan w a tempo or cruise interval effort once a week. And run hilly routes couple times week.

Feb add in a little more intensity. March a little more and run the local half I blew up in last year on April 7.

Easy-ish week for me, as I'm gearing up for Turkey Trot 5-miler. It took me like four days to feel like my legs had recovered from my 5k time trial from Sat., Nov. 11 (17:12).

Mon: easy 8 miles

Tues: easy 8 miles

Wed: easy 8 miles

Thur: followed advice from people in last week's thread, and decided to do 5x800 with full recoveries, targeting goal turkey trot pace on first four and hammering last one for some anaerobic pop. Splits: 2:46, 2:46, 2:43, 2:44, 2:27 . Rests were around 3:30 jogging with wife. total for day: 8 miles

Fri: off, traveling for work -- first day off in a few weeks; think legs need it

Sat: off, traveling for work -- no time

Sun: gonna do easy 8 this evening

TOTAL: 48 miles

Only noticing now that I generally get in 8 a day. In other weeks, I throw in a long run and my workout day tends to get to 10 miles, and I've been averaging in the 55-65 miles/week range for last couple months.

Primary goal for Thursday is beating 27:59 (my best ever for 5 miles, which I ran in high school -- time to drop that 16-year-old pr).

Secondary goal is getting under 28:15, which would be 5:39/mile

Stretch goal is 27:30 or better

Thanks everyone for the good vibes. Low week for me and I bailed on today(too windy to get out of bed)

Next race: Dec 2nd 5k sub 19 min?

Mon:6

Tue:9.25 w/ 3x1.5 mile cruise intervals(9:53,9:59,9:57)

Wed:6

Fri:4

Sat:2+mile w/u, 5mile race 1.5+ c/d

Splits were 6:31,6:26,6:22,6:15,6:00

Didn't have any plan or goal for Saturday just wanted to cruise in the beginning and see how I felt. After the first 2 miles I didn't feel like if break 32:30 but once I hit the halfway point I realized I felt good and strong and pushed it. Was happy with mile 3 and when I saw the clock at mile 4 I thought I'm breaking 32 min. Had some people pushing me especially at the end. The last mile is unexplainable. I've only run a mile faster than that in a race but that was 10 years ago in a 5k and i ran a 5:55 FIRST mile and completely died in route to a 19:50.

Good luck to all the turkey trotters this week and have a good Thanksgiving every one!

I've been feeling sluggish ever since taking 2 weeks completely off following Chicago but had my first decent workout on Tuesday (6 x mile @ 5:41 avg.) Decided somewhat last minute to jump in a local half this morning to gauge fitness and practice for my next goal race -- Houston half. Goal was to be conservative and break 1:20. Ended up running a pretty evenly split 1:19:36 to better my soft PR (technically from the second half of Chicago full) by 2.5 minutes. I wish it had felt easier but I'll take it.

As a side note, it's amazing how accurate those damn VDOT charts are:

Chicago (2:45:14) = 59.2 vdot

Today (1:19:36) = 58.7 vdot

Now I just need to find a way to lose the 10 lbs I've gained since Chicago.

AJ - Nice job with the half, and good intuition with just jumping into it...kinda takes the pressure off, right?

outsiderunner wrote:

AJ - Nice job with the half, and good intuition with just jumping into it...kinda takes the pressure off, right?

No doubt. Just like a workout except you've got people to pull you along. Hard to just jump in fulls but I should probably race shorter distances more frequently.

Have you come down off cloud nine yet?

Slowly building back this week after the marathon 3 weeks ago.

Monday off

Tuesday 5.5 miles

Wednesday 6 miles

Thursday 5.5 miles

Friday 5 miles

Saturday 12 hilly miles with 2 faster miles in there

Sunday 4 miles

38 miles total. Hamstrings a bit tight when I turned up the pace on Saturday but otherwise feeling good. 5 K turkey trot on Thu and a 10 mile trail race on Sunday

10 lbs?! Holy moly ... and not a beeer drinker! That took some serious effort no?!

runrincerepeat wrote:

10 lbs?! Holy moly ... and not a beeer drinker! That took some serious effort no?!

Taking it off took a lot of work. Putting it back on was easy. Just stopped running for a couple weeks, started eating sweets, and quit eating so much dang salad.

angryjohnny wrote:

runrincerepeat wrote:

10 lbs?! Holy moly ... and not a beeer drinker! That took some serious effort no?!

Taking it off took a lot of work. Putting it back on was easy. Just stopped running for a couple weeks, started eating sweets, and quit eating so much dang salad.

Haha I feel you. My saving grace is I do not eat/like sweets but I get all my empty calories from beer! Interestingly as someone who follows a vegan diet I do not eat salad ..hardly ever.

Went to lululemon to spend the first place prize from that half marathon , hollllly smokes that place is expensive. But I am in love w the running tank i got.

R4F - Great job on the race, so good when it all feels right.

AJ - Brave to jump into a half like that, I wouldn't be able to I don't think. Anything with PR's, standard distances I find pressure anyway.

I went -

M - 10 easy

T - 10 x (600, 200) all off about 70s. Hitting 1:54 and 34-5. Tried to let the group I normally pack with do they thing (they ran 1:49/50) and run it all relaxed. Except 2 of the 200s where I ran 29.

W - 10 easy

Th - 2 x 10 min tempo off 3 min jog. 5:48 and 5:40 avg pace, had to cut this short from 2 x 15 mins and much less warm up/down

F - Off

Sa - London XC Champs. Mens is a 10k but closer to 6.4 miles. Parliament Hill course so ankle deep mud and about 600ft of elevation gain, all steep as hell. Not actually a big race for my club (I was 2nd scorer whereas I was 12th team runner last week says volumes) so ran fairly conservatively. I hit a fairly massive negative split I think, running at 4:49 pace for the last, downhill 0.3. Anyway, 106th in London apparently. 39.49 and it's probably 4-6 mins slower as a course (than the track) looking at winners times and most people around me.

Su - 14.8 easy

Total - 55.5

Got the Inter-Financial Services XC Champs on Wednesday for my second claim club (London Stock Exchange AC) which should be fun and then South of Thames 5m Race next Saturday which is a much bigger deal than yesterday since gets a much better field

OR- great week even if it was a recovery week, envious of how comfortable you are at 6 minute mile pace!

Pappy- you're building back into it really quickly, nice progression man, what are you aiming for in the time trial?

RRR- nice 5x1k workout! I think you can run sub17 if you get in a good race and control the pacing a bit haha :)

Smoove- the consistency, as usual, is real; 7x1 mile workout is awesome; you still shooting for sub 16 before your half marathon, it looks like you could do it without much trouble.

youth in revolt: best of luck in the 5 mile!

runningforfun- wow, crazy negative split in the 5 mile race, looking very aerobically strong

angryjohnny- congratulations on the HM pb, and goes without saying, great time

martalus- solid week, and good to see you recovering from the marathon quickly!

HHH- sounds like a nasty course wow! Great running though

pretty good week for me

M- 33 minutes easy

T- 5x50m, 1x100m sprint

W- 40 minutes easy, 6x100m strides

Th- 2x2000m, 1x1600m tempo with 1:10 rest ( 8:47, 9:00, 7:14) 7:08 average pace, 3x200m, 2x400m (39,38,39,1:22,1:19), was hard but I felt controlled and in the right zone

F- rest

S- 5x1000m with 2:30 rest (4:08, 4:02, 4:00, 3:58, 3:54). This was really hard but again I felt in the right zone and it wasn't all out; I actually felt great despite it being a vo2max workout which I read are supposed to hurt and be quite unpleasant

Su- 40 minutes easy

I have a 1k time trial tomorrow and am hoping to run somewhere around 3:15 or a tad lower ideally. Below 3:10 is what I think an unrealistic goal but I'll be giving it almost 100% effort tomorrow so I'll see. Any advice on pacing friends? I was thinking a slight positive split so that the first 400 would be 1-2 sec faster than the second, and the last 200m would be maintaining pace or trying to muster a kick.

Good luck to all in practice or upcoming races!

angryjohnny wrote:

[quote]outsiderunner wrote:

Have you come down off cloud nine yet?

AJ: No way...not even close to coming down off of cloud nine. Looking forward to Thanksgiving, too. My little body could stand some good eats.

RRR: What is lululemon?

That's a pretty good photo from the course - although this was taken at the Nationals 2 years ago. Nationals are in Feb, so it's much more churned up by then. Wasn't quite this muddy on Saturday, but not a golf course either!

I'd probably say a positive split is best? Never raced anything that short but it sounds right to me, similar to an 800.