RE: Road Racing and Training Thread. Week Ending May 27 2018

M58 -- 5'11" 164 lbs

Open PRs (1982) -- 16:04 5K, 2:40:30 marathon

Masters PRs (2003) -- 17:10 5K, 2:56:03 marathon

Last year (2017) -- 18:58 5K, 3:07:23 marathon

This year (2018) -- 19:35 5K

Goal -- Defend M55-59 title in 15K (August)

Training -- 9-day cycle with Long Run, VO2max and LT workouts

May 21 - 27, 2018

LR -- 19.1 miles @ 8:23/mi

Easy - 7.7 miles @ 7:51/mi (9:41 ... 7:16, 6:58)

Easy - 5.8 miles w/1 x 400m & 1 x 1200m @ 1-mi race pace

LT -- 2.5-mi up; 2 x 2.5 miles w/2-min static rest @ 6:46/mi, 6:40/mi; 2.5-mi down

Off

VO2 -- 2.0-mi warmup; 6 x 2:35 hill w/3:30 jog recoveries; 1.5-mi cooldown

Easy - 7.7 miles @ 8:27/mi (11:06 ... 7:31, 6:48)

WEEK TOTAL: 58.3 MILES

After last week's cutback with a mini-taper and 5K race, I got my mileage up this week and included a couple workouts. I will cut back again this coming week to accommodate another 5K.

OR: I included a some info beyond average pace for a couple of my easy runs -- first mile and last two miles. I have always needed to start very slowly, even as a teen.

Run well, race well, be well.

Allen - Thank you for the details. Nice volume, my friend, and a solid long run, too. You are looking very good. Will see about registering for the mile...

This includes the recent post on Base training Stone put up last week, along with a previous post on what he felt was the ideal set up for his training (you know, when life and things don't get in the way), and then the 13 week build to his marathon PR as they were posted week to week (quotes included!).

Thanks to Stone, Smoove, and Jewbacca for providing documents like these. I've got them all saved in a running folder, right next to my PDF versions of Daniels, Hadd, Hansons, and Pfitzinger.

outsiderunner wrote:

AJ - Welcome back. Good week. Wow, 14 miles in the Alabama heat. Did you carry water?

.

Negative. We’ve got a great running community with lots of water stops around town. Yesterday’s route had water at miles 5 and 8 and Gatorade at mile 12. I can’t remember the last time I carried water on a run.

angryjohnny wrote:

outsiderunner wrote:

AJ - Welcome back. Good week. Wow, 14 miles in the Alabama heat. Did you carry water?

.

Negative. We’ve got a great running community with lots of water stops around town. Yesterday’s route had water at miles 5 and 8 and Gatorade at mile 12. I can’t remember the last time I carried water on a run.

Indeed, that is a great running comminity. Water, water everywhere.

With jewbaca’s approval, would you mind sharing his, too?

angryjohnny wrote:

outsiderunner wrote:

AJ - Welcome back. Good week. Wow, 14 miles in the Alabama heat. Did you carry water?

.

Negative. We’ve got a great running community with lots of water stops around town. Yesterday’s route had water at miles 5 and 8 and Gatorade at mile 12. I can’t remember the last time I carried water on a run.

I typically carry a water bottle that I throw away closer to the end. I just sweat so hard. Lost 7 lbs in 10 miles today. There is an unlocked outdoor spigot about 4 miles from my house I can utilize as well.

OR, look at the heat as a hill or a headwind or altitude. It's a training stimulus that will have you giggling like a school girl on that first 50 degree day in the Autumn. After cursing the blazes out of the blazing heat every summer in Taipei, I finally decided to change my attitude. You might call it somewhat pagan, but like a ballplayer crosses himself and points to the sky after a home run, I faithfully give a buddhist bow to my mountains after a steep lung-busting trail run and a wink and two middle fingers to the sky at the end of a particularly sweltering workout. Just my way of saying "yes, I get it. it sucked, but it will be worth it. Screw you, but yeah, screw me, too."

I use to pour out libations to Zeus back in the day. Then I had a dream; Zeus whacked me upside the head and told me to stop wasting good wine. I literally woke up laughing.

Nietzsche understood some things. He understood Greek tragedy and Christianity. I understood Nietzsche. God may be dead. Nietzsche definitely is. I ain't. I win. I win daily. I say, bring it! The beer, I mean.

Hubris it what it comes down to in the end. Because in the end, it does all come down. So flip the god a bird. Agamemnon flipped a Cassandra. Odysseus (that man rocked) got his ass kicked by heaven and earth and still got all the girls, and his wife too. Epic dudes being epic.

So, yeah, OR, it's hot. But it's a not a Sisyphusian boulder of smolder... just hot enough long enough to get you mean and lean for autumn.

I think I have one more in the fridge.

Coach Jeff - This is GREAT stuff. Post of the week already, and we are only on the second page. Yes, my friend, there is a payoff, and I look forwad to giggling like a school girl. Will have to work more on solving the water/long run dilemma.

M34

Recent bests

10 miles - 55:31 (4/10)

Marathon - 2:37 (3/10)

Selected all time bests

Steeplechase - 9:24.07 (2005, had to look it up)

Goals

5k - under 16 (July)

10 miles - 54:30 (August)

Marathon - 2:30 (October)

Doing the work

Staying healthy

M - 8 easy

Tu - AM: 5 easy; PM 5 easy (treadmill in an Atlanta hotel)

W - OFF

Th - 5 easy (7:05)

F - 8 moderate (6:25). Got to Chastain Park which was nice, since where I was staying was an upscale suburban nonplace made for cars and not runners. Rolling hills with some low 6:00s. Good run.

Sa - 8 easy (6:50) back in D Sea.

Su - 5 at 10:45 out of spite for y’all saying jogging is dumb. Or because I was out running with my wife. Rolling Thunder passed by in our first mile.

Total: 44 miles.

Sort of a week off before summer base building and marathon work.

For the month of June, going to try to work up from 80 to 100 miles, with one long run (16-20), one medium long run (12-15), and one rep session (200s or 400s, maybe on a Hill). Might do a low key race or two as a time trial. There’s a 4 mile out and back on a tow path, where in 2007 I won a mug and a coffee table book on North American trains. Maybe work in some tempo runs, but focusing on good volume first.

Don’t consider myself a Lydiard guy for training, but I do for shoe lacing, and converted my wife to that method this week.

My hunch is that slow running (for me, thinking 7:30-8:30) is beneficial for neuromuscular coordination, even if it doesn’t stress the aerobic system. People often think of running as not requiring any coordination, but this is not the case. I’m quite well coordinated at running on smooth surfaces, but have always lacked the specific coordination for trails and cross country and thus would get wrecked on those surfaces by guys who were less aerobically fit than I was.

Just registered for the mile race. Uncharted waters for me. Will have to get into blast mode.

Yay, a steeple reference.

Sub 6:00, can you remind me what marathon you're running in October? Is it a late October race?

Another week! This one was kind of bad, but oh well.

Monday: 45' at 5:15 min/km. Felt a pain in my left quad from the ladder workout of Sunday and did some foam rolling and stretching after this.

Tuesday: Scheduled an appointment with my PT and he said I pushed too hard on Sunday... Had my quad with a small pain and had a forced rest for treatment

Wednesday: 20' WU + Drills + 4x100m strides + 6x200m (Resting 1') + 10' CD. Planned 10x200 but at the sixth rep I felt something in the quad so I pulled the plug. Still 6 quality reps (The shorter reps seem to take a toll on me!)

Thursday: 40' at 5:00 min/km

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 40' at 4:45 min/km

Sunday: Planned a 5k TT race but didn't do it due to the fact that I was afraid of injuring myself again. So I did a long run. 14km at 5:05 min/km. Felt good and the quad didn't complain.

Well just one more week until the 10k race. I don't feel I have a sub40 in me, but I will go all in!

And I wanna thank everyone for the nice discussion this week over different ideologies! Maybe next year I will try and build a plan for myself and I will remember of everything that was written there!

outsiderunner wrote:

Just registered for the mile race. Uncharted waters for me. Will have to get into blast mode.

When is the race and what is your goal?

M30

PRs: 17:45 (2018), 1:27:00 (2017), 2:57:07 (2018)

Next race: ?

Goal race: half in September, Boston 2019

M - 6 easy

T - 3x1600 @6:06, total 7 miles

W - 6 easy

T - off

F - 3 easy

Sat - HM race 1:27:52, 2nd place

Su - off

Total: 38 miles

Very tough HM race on Saturday, basically in my backyard. Hot and humid, 75-85F, sunny. The course, out and back, has 3 big climbs (each ~150ft over 1km), plus rollers, total about 700ft gross elevation gain. Based on previous years' results, I thought I should compete for the win. First 2 miles flat, one guy took off at sub 6 min pace, I tucked in behind two other guys running 6:10 pace (about flat HMP for me). Felt good. We reeled in the leader during the first climb. I opened up a gap on the first downhill, but on the next climb one of them caught me again. It was just the two of us for the rest of the race. I noticed soon he's in better shape, as on the uphills I was struggling mightily to hang on while he seemed to be cruising. Still, held on until the last long climb at mile 10. Decided to back off at the start of that climb. Crawled up the steep hill at 8min pace in the sun, dead man walking from then on. Finished in no man's land, 2min behind winner and 5(!) min in front of 3rd place. Think I've have never seen a race as slow as this one, 10th place out of 150 finishers came in 1:45 or so. The combination of hills and heat was a bit much probably. So, not disappointed with my performance given the circumstances, hard to make sense of the time, course also seemed a bit short (20.7km on my GPS watch). I will probably have to wait till fall to PR in the half and do some shorter races over the summer. Happy training and racing!

angryjohnny wrote:

outsiderunner wrote:

Just registered for the mile race. Uncharted waters for me. Will have to get into blast mode.

When is the race and what is your goal?

I would hate to run a mile race. I’m dreading a tad the two miler in a couple weeks.

On a side note hopefully my Celtics win tonight and get me a good sweat in the finals. Took them at 35-1 at start of playoffs to win the whole shebang.

juggling wrote:

With jewbaca’s approval, would you mind sharing his, too?

It's in the thread from this older RRTT week:

Lots of other good stuff in there, too.

The race is tomorrow morning. It is a big, competitive race, attracting runners from all over the region. It is the RRCA Virginia State Championship race. So, perhaps the things I worry about most are getting cutoff, tripped, pushed, elbowed, caught in traffic, or boxed in. Have never run a mile race, and so I have no idea what I can do and have no real goal...but I do want to run fast.

Didn't post the last two weeks as I have been on vacation in Portugal with the family. Before that I ran the mile and 1000m in a track meet

mile: 4:53 I was the only participant

1000m: 2:54

During my time in Portugal I did not run a single step for 10 days. Needed the mental break.

Two days after we came back I ran a 5000m on the track.

5000m: 16:33 pretty happy about it. Fastest time in 7 years.

Last week:

M - travel

T - 10k w/ drills, strides and 2x400@5k

W - 5k race in 16:33

Th - 14k very easy

F - 17k

S - 16k w: 4x5' @15k pace + 4x1' hills

S - off

T - 69k

After a few weeks of reduced volume I am ready to bump it up again to 100-110k.