Road Racing and Training ending 12-10-17

There's some good work going on out there. Congrats hantph96 on your 10k PR.

Sun - 16 @ 7:05 avg

Mon - 6 easy

Tues - 6 miles of T pace (5:34 overall avg....)

Wed - 10 easy

Thur - 6 total including 8xhill sprints (~200m)

Fri - 6 easy

Sat - AM: 3x1600m, 2x800m (4:20/2:20 rests) @ 5:02 avg PM: 6 easy

TOTAL: 74 miles

More or less a copy of last week, though I struggled in workouts. I have a newborn and think the sleep deprivation is catching up. I felt no aerobic stress but just couldn't move my legs despite starting the workouts on pace.

I have a HM planned this week but my 2-year old is sick, so I'm waiting till the day of to register in case I catch it.... No use wasting $70 to run sick.

M - 6 Easy (8:17 pace)

T - 6.3 Super Easy (9:28 pace)

W - 8.5 Easy to Moderate (7:57 pace)

TR - AM: 6.6 Easy (8:09 pace) PM: 5.2 Easy (8:14 pace)

F - 5.6 Easy (8:28 pace)

Sa - 12 Easy (8:07 pace)

Su - OFF

Total: 50.3 Miles. My first 50+ mile week.

Nice work guys/gals! Still recovering from the marathon last sunday, so no running this past week. Just did yoga on Sunday and may run a bit moving forward. Good Luck to all.

Mon- Extremely sore

Tue - Very sore

Wed - Very sore throughout the day, but got a 20min massage in the evening

Thur - Felt better, able to walk downstairs without much soreness

Fri - Nearly 100% better, if attempted to stretch, I could feel soreness

Sat - Much better

Sun - Light Yoga, feeling ready to run again

So officially signed up for another 5K this weekend. Gonna cut 10% of total miles, see how that works. Legs are a little tired after today, but week's plan is looking like:

Sun- Easy 9

Mon- WU/CD/Drills + 5 x 1.2 mi @ 10K w/ 3:15 jg- totaled 9.7 mi

Tue- Easy 7?

Wed- mile/3K work, probably something like 2 x (5 x 300m @ 3K/mile w/ 100m jg) w/ 3-4 min in between sets

Thu- Easy 7

Fri- Easy w/ Strides, drills-5

Sat- 5K race

I've been averaging 55 MPW, so this should bring me close to 50 by Saturday

Let's see how this ends up.

Looks like a solid plan. The only thing I would say is be careful with the 300's on Wednesday. If you start hitting mile pace early in that workout that will be a lot of volume at a pretty quick pace. You have some time to recover before Saturday, but if you hit that workout too hard it's still close enough to have you feeling a little tired.

Thanks for the feedback.

I was super flat two weeks ago when my racing week schedule was:

Sun- Easy 6.7

Mon- Recover 4.5

Tue- Some 10k/3K work- 6.5 total

Wed- Easy 6.5

Thu- 8 x 200s @5K- about 4 mi

Fri- Really Easy 3 and Strides

Sat- Race- bombed. legs were "tired" felt like a lot of lactate, IDK wtf happened

Totaled 39 miles or so

This week trying to get the mileage a little higher and not running "too easy" during the easy days

sorry not lactate before I get corrected lol, acidic I guess?

I bought a '79 Raleigh Competition GS road bike today. It's a beauty. So rode around on that all evening instead of running. I'm gonna have to have a couple big days this week to hit my mileage goal!

J - looks like a solid plan. Good Luck!

Jeremy R wrote:

Thanks for the feedback.

I was super flat two weeks ago when my racing week schedule was:

Sun- Easy 6.7

Mon- Recover 4.5

Tue- Some 10k/3K work- 6.5 total

Wed- Easy 6.5

Thu- 8 x 200s @5K- about 4 mi

Fri- Really Easy 3 and Strides

Sat- Race- bombed. legs were "tired" felt like a lot of lactate, IDK wtf happened

Totaled 39 miles or so

This week trying to get the mileage a little higher and not running "too easy" during the easy days

I definitely like your approach this week a little better. I just know I can get sucked into a hard workout the week of a race and then regret it come race day. A B or B+ workout on Wednesday will suit you much better than a killer one while keeping the mileage up should prevent you from feeling too flat.

hantph96 wrote:

nice racing! What's up next?

thanks mate.. and congrats on your 10k!

i will run 1500m and 3.000m indoor in early February and i.m aiming for sub 4' and 8'25 (or something like that :D ).

until then not more than 1-2 other races

Ran 22:16 this past Sunday in a 4 miler.

Would have been thrilled with sub 22, but am pleased.

7th overall, 2nd age group (35-39).

Gonna take a few days off and then increase volume and start building towards a spring marathon.

Question for you marathoners. Do you ever ride a bike? As a kid I rode my bike a lot and still think it helps for recovery.

Pappy wrote:

Question for you marathoners. Do you ever ride a bike? As a kid I rode my bike a lot and still think it helps for recovery.

Biking certainly can be a good cross training option, but you really have to be careful with it. Unlike running, biking isolates a specific group of muscles: Quads, Glutes, and Hamstrings. As a result, there are two things runners have to cautious of. The first is going too hard too soon. If you are too aggressive too early, it's very easy to end up with some type of quad strain or similar injury, just because you haven't built up the necessary strength in those muscle groups. At it's core, biking is about power, while distance running is about efficiency. Obviously there are some aspects of both in each sport, I'm just talking about the main focus for each. The second risk to be aware of is even if you don't hurt yourself, you're still working those muscle groups more than you were previously. This can increase fatigue and general soreness, causing your running performance to suffer.

Lest you think I pulleth this out of mine ass, I spent 2.5 to 3 hours a week my junior year of college biking at a relatively high intensity. I think I usually averaged around 22-25 mph for the week. I ended up missing 2 weeks leading up to the conference meet with a quad strain and then underperforming in championship season as a result. It sucked.

All that being said, I think biking can be a good option, as long as you're aware of the potential pitfalls and are careful with it.

RE: Biking

Good question and great answer! I haven't really been cycling since I began running...

First peek at LRC in 2 days. Suddenly, unexpectedly busy at work. This is usually my dead season, the time of year I usually use to edit new editions of my books and plan new projects for the new year. This week, my tapered running hours have morphed into endurance hours at work. No stress or pressure and no loss of sleep; just a yin filling in for the lack of yang. I'm treating it as a blessing. Use the extra cash to buy extra beers after running extra fast on Sunday.

Everybody's looking goooood.

Any followers of MPR (Mark Hadley) here? I had completely forgotten reading some of his stuff until going back and looking over some of my logs from last year.

Pappy, because I have 3 young kids, I gave up my short experiment with cycling since getting in a good workout took so damn long. But when I had surgery in May, 2016, I took a bunch of time off from exercise altogether since I was in a boot and my weight skyrocketed by about 12 pounds in 2 or 3 months. My doc wouldn't clear me for anything but a stationary bike, so I was able to get on that some time in July, I think. I did that daily for about 6 weeks for 40-70 minutes a day, then when my doc cleared me for the elliptical, I moved over to that instead of the bike since the elliptical that I was using allowed me to mimic a running stride relatively closely, and thus allowed me to roughly imitate the same muscle emphasis as running.

The (stationary) bike had a huge positive impact on my fitness, helping me drop 5-7 of the 12 pounds that I had added, and bringing me into generally decent cardiovascular shape. When it came time to give running a try again at the end of September, 4 months after surgery, 1.5-2 months after getting on the bike, and about .5 -1.0 months after getting on the elliptical, it was a struggle for me to run. But that ended up changing pretty quickly and I snapped back into shape relatively quickly in large part because of all the time that I spent cross training on that awful stationary bike.

Pappy wrote:

Question for you marathoners. Do you ever ride a bike? As a kid I rode my bike a lot and still think it helps for recovery.

I have a road bike that I use primarily to cross train when I’m injured or recovering from a marathon. I don’t really have time for it when I’m running a lot of miles. I’m also terrified of getting run over by a car. Occasionally I will ride the bike a few miles on Saturday or Sunday afternoon to get out of the house / loosen up the legs.

I had a single speed i rode 70-80 miles a week on top of running (didnt count it or strava it etc) Def helped , plus all that extra calorie burn. I just bought a 1979 raleigh Competition GS old school racing bike. I will commute etc on it 70 a week or so with the off 30-40 mile ride. I enjoy it. In summer I would finis a long run on weekend with a bottle of water a a gentle 30 spin.. hydrate and keep the blood moving and heart rate up a bit.

Pappy wrote:

Question for you marathoners. Do you ever ride a bike? As a kid I rode my bike a lot and still think it helps for recovery.

This past year I incorporated cycling into my schedule, even before injuries forced me to. I agree that it aids muscle recovery, with less stress on joints. Plus it's fun. I am in a rural area, and can ride endless miles without traffic worries. Urban or suburban biking would be too stressful to enjoy.

As a serious training component, it really takes too much time to get the same return on investment, compared to running. Because of injuries, I substituted running with biking two or three days a week during my marathon training, and lost fitness. But I would typically ride only 25 miles at 19-20 mph. Not enough.

A woman on the 50-plus training thread was recently injured, and didn't run at all for maybe a couple months. But she biked three hours a day, and was able to immediately resume running 12-mile training runs at close to pre-injury level.

RRR - that Raleigh sounds great. Original components? Simplex derailleurs? That's what I recall from the early '70s ... Williams cranks, Weinmann brakes? I ride a classic steel-frame bike I bought used a dozen years ago. A joy!