First off awesome racing this week on the thread. And Stone is pacing the Stronette’s BQ attempt as I type this.. so fantastic Mojo.
RRR. 35. M. 6ft. 159.
Dec 1 OUC Orlando Half as tune up for main event. Jan 20 H-Town Thrown Down.
Sun - 6E + Strides (5k Recovery)
Mon - 10 including 10k 36:52 for 3rd and 100$
Tue - 8 @ 730 pace
Wed - AM 8.5 medium in hills finished last 3.5 (425foot gain last 3 miles) 6:58-7:00-6:58-2:50
PM 4 E
Thu - 6E + Strides
Fri 5.5 E + Strides
Sat 9 including 5k 17:44
Total 57 miles - 50 Bike -Zero (0) Beers
Good training week for me. Didn’t bring down mileage much from last week and got 9.3 miles of sub threshold work via racing that will pay dividends in the future.
Weather is cooling. RRR is 100% healthy. Coach Pap is gonna bring the work and R3 is gonna get up every morning. Pack his lunch pail. And go to freaking work.. day in and day out until Jan. Am even more motivated than usual to hit the pavement and work work work.
Small town 5k back home Sept 29. Local Hilly HM (600ish feet gain) Second week of October. And lots of other races this fall.
Let’s go to work.
Hi everyone!
Mine was hell. Lots of Uni work, lots of running and lots of social events...But if I managed to get through this week then all the rest will be easy.
Monday: 8k regenerative at 5:30 min/km
Tuesday: 12k at 5:05 min/km
Wednesday: WU + 12x(1'on/1'off) + CD. 11k for the session and the paces were something like 3:35/3:40 for the ons and 5:30/5:40 for the offs.
Thursday: 8k at 5:00 min/km
Friday: WU + 4x(3'on/3'off) + CD. 11,5km for the session. The offs were the same as the ones on wednesday, but the ons were at between 5k pace and VO2 max (more VO2ish) at 3:50/3:45. This session was hell...
Saturday: LR - 18kms at 4:50. Progressing from 5:15 on the first km to 4:45 on the last ones. Felt so tired and sluggish, but tried some new nutrition from Sys and it was nice! Long steady runs on tired legs are killers...
On a side note: I'm trying to keep my off paces from the fartleks high enough so that the HR doesn't drop too much. This seems to be a good approach to fartleks but actually makes this much harder.
Question to everyone: How many workouts do you do at goal HM pace when training to a HM?
Happy week to everyone!
Looking forward to hearing how our marathoners (and Mrs. Stone) fair today.
Good week for me. although I went heavy on the elliptical because my heel hurts a crap ton and I am trying to preserve my legs and electrolytes some.
M - Easy 6 miles after 30:00 on elliptical
Tu - Easy 4 miles on treadmill after 52:00 on elliptical
W - Easy 7 miles
Th - 15:00 up; 12:00/18:00/18:00 elliptical tempo simulation with 2:00/3:00 rest; cool down to 71:00
F - Easy 6 miles after 30:00 on elliptical
Sa - 2 up; 1.25/1.25/1/1 @ 5:30 w/:74; 8:00; 1.25/1 @ 5:30 w/:75; 6 easy (cramps)
TBD - Likely 45:00 on elliptical or 6 easy
Total: 39/45 miles, 70 TAUs
Effort was really good on Thursday on the elliptical, although it was hard to get my heart rate as high as I wanted - it spent more time on the low end of my threshold range.
Saturday sucked in that my heart rate was through the roof early in the workout because I don't think I gave myself enough time to recover after Thursday (I thought I would recover quickly since it was an elliptical effort; I was wrong), but the time at the right heart rate (and above) was there and I still managed 6.75 miles at 5:30 pace as part of the workout.
Bad news is my calves gave out on my on the 6 mile portion of the run after the tempo work.
Still, I am content with where I am with 4 weeks until race day. My total TAU volume for the last 10 weeks is almost exactly what it was during my Boston 2017 cycle (.25 mpw higher if you include elliptical time, 6 mpw less if you give me 0 credit for elliptical). I have 6 runs of 20 or more miles, with one more planned; I had 7 such runs in that Boston cycle.
I am not nearly as sharp as I was coming into the aborted Boston 2018 or even Boston 2017, but I think I am in position to have a good performance come 10/7. 2:30 is going to be a stretch, if we are being honest, but if I get the weather to do it, I will go for it. If bad weather is in store, I will focus on targeting a top 3 age group finish.
Cortisone shot scheduled for a week from this Thursday. Hopefully that will take care of the worst of the PF issue for the stretch run. Either way, race day magic and my marshmallow shoes (Vaporflys) will make it manageable on race day.
The key for me from here on in is getting my calves in the best possible position.
I would be remiss if I didn't thank Allen for inspiring me to change my approach and add more rest days this cycle, and Stone for encouraging me to not worry about trying to get the huge weeks in that I have shot for in the past - lots of 70-75 TAU weeks instead of a few 60-70s and a few 90s. My PT also encouraged me to cross train more this cycle, so that was a bit of an adjustment for this cycle as well. Lots of changes, but overall I feel like I am fairly well prepared.
Just a handful of workouts left - maybe 3 x 3 miles at M pace midweek; a race this Saturday; 20 this Sunday; 13 at M pace next Saturday in a half marathon race setting. Anything beyond that is going to be gravy.
Puto, since I do so much work at threshold pace, and my threshold pace is typically in the range of my 15k to half marathon pace, as a practical matter, I do an absolute ton of work near HM race pace, even if it is not specifically designed to be HM Race pace. But for those paces coinciding so well, I would probably only do it 2 or 3 times in the month before the race.
M38
Chicago, sub 2:40 or bust
#stopsmoove
M 12 easy
T 12 easy
W 8 x 1600 w 1 min rest. Goal = 5:50ish. Result:
5:49, 5:48, 5:50, 5:48, 5:46, 5:50, 5:51, 5:41 = 12 total
Th 12 easy
F 12 easy
S TLT: 5E, 3T (5:56 or 5:48 depending on whose watch you believe, 5:49, 5:35), 5E, 3T (5:59, 5:51, 5:55), 6E = 22 total
S AM 12 easy PM 6 easy (planned)
Total = 100 miles
My third and last week at 100 miles. My body seems to have adjusted to the pounding as my quality paces were back where they should be given the lingering summer conditions. T minus 28 days and counting until blast off. All systems are a GO for launch.
Leaderboard
Bird502 92.88% (HM...1:03:41)
Smoove 91.9% (15K...49:17)
statfanatic 91.64% (1 mi...4:03)
krishna 85.27% (3K...8:38)
Bdubs 85.21% (8K...25:45)
Jewbacca 84.2% (HM...1:10:19)
slow-twitch 83.64% (HM...1:11:36)
Andy Dufresne 83.56% (HM..1:10:54)
outsiderunner 83.55% (10K...36:27)
pewow 82.14% (1 mi...4:31)
Allen 81.50% (5K...19:17)
angryjohnny 80.69% (5K...16:40)
HHH 80.04% (5K...15:53)
Sub 6:00 79.4% (10 miles...55:31)
Stone Cutter 79.12% (5K...17:11)
Still Improving 78.67% (HM...1:25:01)
hantph96 78.56% (5K...16:33)
Tall dark roast 76.21% (5K...17:10)
RunnerSam 76.01% (5K...17:04)
Runrincerepeat 74.9% (5K...17:12)
Coach Jeff 74.48% (5K...19:48)
Gordon Tremeshko 70.9% (5K...18:17)
Runningforfun 68.93% (HM...1:25:57)
RunGuy Midwest 67.82% (10K...39:54)
JamesTheAmateur 61.62% (1500m...5:34)
*If you want to be included on this list, submit your age and best performance at any distance within the last year. The bold items are either runners that just joined our leaderboard or a shakeup in the standings that occurred within the last week.
It’s been 11 days since I pulled the plug on things. In that time I’ve taken 7 days completely off. The other runs were:
- 8 miles at a moderate pace
- 3 miles very easy with wife
- 3 miles very easy with wife
- 17 min off / 17 min on
I came down with fever and an upper respiratory infection this week which is probably from the kiddos at work.
I certainly have the desire to jump back into training and my legs are no longer dead but isn’t it too soon?
The Miami Half is on January 27th. If I start training on October 8th, that will give me 16 weeks to prepare. That also gives me a month between now and then to cross train, run a variety of distances and paces, and rest when needed.
Thank you for all your encouragement and advice. I’m itching to be part of the good thread mojo heading into the fall racing season!
Nice work, guys.
A hot, humid week until yesterday. Some cooler air and rain are here. Yay. With everyone wimping out on the group run (rain), I ended up going solo and hog wild.
M49, 5’6” 125
goal = pound away ...Richmond is a-comin’
M: 11.13 at 6:46 overall...felt surprisingly decent
T: 10.13 at 6:44 overall...hilly...6:32, 6:28, 6:21, 6:06, 0:49 to finish
W: 10.13 at 6:55 overall...tough run
T: 10.13 at 6:47 overall...hilly...6:33, 6:28, 6:13, 0:50 to finish
F: 11.13 at 6:54 overall...hilly
Sat.: 18.13 at 6:36.6 overall (1:59:51)...hilly...cooler/rain/windy...felt great...7:32, 6:45, 6::34, 6:35, 6:40, 6:38, 6:42, 6:32, 6:27, 6:26, 6:28, 6:40, 6:41, 6:29, 6:24, 6:27, 6:31, 6:32, 0:49
Have a great week, everyone! For those on the east coast, be well with this hurricane apporaching.
Before I forget...opening day for Boston is tomorrow. Still on the fence about it. I just hate the travel involved. NYC is much easier for me. In any case, what ya think?
Forgot to note...
70 miles for the week
RRR - Nice 10k and some money!
Puto - I have become a huge fan of intervals with increasing pace on the recoveries. I'm blown away at how quickly you can continue to speed up the recovery.
Smoove - I like the adjustments you've made this period. Hoping the cramping and the PF subsides and doesn't cause any issue moving into Chicago.
AJ - ballin week! I'm jealous of the big miles.
OR - nice week. I say you sign up for Boston. Even though I probably couldn't make it in '19 with other travels and a move it's still strange not being able to submit the registration.
M - Off. Travel day back from a weekend of camping/hiking/running in the San Juan mountains between Ouray and Telluride.
T - 8 easy plus strides
W - am 3 easy, pm 12 as 1 warm up, 16k alternating 1k @5:50, 1K at 7:10 (6:30 overall avg), 1.5 CD
T - 4 easy
F - 3 easy
S - am 8 moderate, pm 5 easy
S - 20ish planned for later which will be 2 hours fundamental @ 90% MP (may do half treadmill and last half outside)
total 62 miles
First things first, decent enough week even though low again on volume. Not much I could do about Monday as I was driving 9 hours coming back from Ouray, not to mention I was just wrecked from hiking around at elevation with a 35lbs pack. Took it easy on Tuesday to allow a little more recovery. Wednesday was a really good session. Last ran this session 2 weeks ago so another good measuring block. Last time I was 5:50 for the ons and 7:20 for the offs, plus it was 4k shorter. Friday I had planned to run some quality in the evening but honestly just canned it because I wasn't in the mood. Mental fail on that one but it's illustrative of how this summer has affected me between the ears.
Think I'm going to pivot again as I just can't talk myself into getting in front of this summer and really putting in the needed work. I'm not changing anything just yet but if the temps don't chill out soon (it's still forecast 108 degree days this week) then I may just push the next race back to RnR AZ January 20 which would provide 7 more weeks and give me a decent chunk of time in cooler weather to bring the volume up and not hate running. The more I think about it the more it makes sense to keep it local, avoid the travel logistics/expense, be able to dedicate more time to chasing this goal.
Good luck to Stone and the pacing duties today!
RRR - More money than I've ever won doing anything!
AJ - Solid, next week is 90 right?
Smoove - Sound like mentally you're incredibly healthy, which alongside how talented you are is a very good place to be!
M - 8.5km easy
T - 6.2m easy
W - 7 x 800m off 200 jog - 2:32-2:33
Th - Off
F - 16.5 inc 4 x 3k off 3min easy (10:24, :30, :28, :39)
Sa - 30 min easy
Su - 15m easy planned (waiting for sunset)
I started the week feeling awful after the aborted 10000m on Sunday, so took a little longer to get into the swing of things. But happy with the week, Fridays workout was designed to be run in 10:39 a rep, so pleased with the result. Last track race of the year on Thursday evening, so fingers crossed.
3:36:36.
1:48:00/1:48:36 splits.
BQ by 8:24. She was the 4th master overall. One year after being put in a boot for multiple stress fractures and thinking she would never run again.
So proud of her. More to come later in the week...
Hope everyone else had a great week.
SC - Great to hear this. Nice, comfortable BQ time. Congrats! How did the pacing feel?
Hey everybody!
Me:
M, 43, 5'8 130s
Old PRs: 16:30s, 34:20s, 2:44
Current goals: get fit, have fun, get back into racing. Back in the spring, I was thinking about doing a marathon this fall. That's not going to happen, but the idea did get me back into somewhat more serious training, so I guess it served its purpose. At this point, though, I'm looking at trying to find some shorter races and just generally building up my fitness. I've been having difficulty finding races that I can fit into my somewhat wonky schedule, so I'm thinking about setting up a series of time trials as a way of getting back into things.
My week:
M 1:25 Fitzgerald Lake trails easy. Warm, kept it pretty mellow
T 1:05 with 4 x park loop “steady” in 33:42 plus 4 x strides. Hot enough that I was stopping at a water fountain to cool down after pretty much every loop. Felt pretty cooked coming home and was debating whether to do strides or just jog it in. Right about the point where I would normally start my strides, I crossed paths with an older gentleman riding one of those power scooters. He was a double amputee above the knee, wearing a Navy cap, guessing he might have been from the VA hospital in town. I stopped to let him go by, he said sorry to slow you down, and I said, no, happy to get a little rest. He said, no, you’ve got to push yourself, and we both laughed. Chatted a little longer and then he rolled on and I did my strides.
W 27 shuffle plus HR workout for my new job – 5 x 18 paperwork.
Th 1:44 Sawmill Hills trails easy. Went from warm to hot though shade helped somewhat in the woods – ran past the coach road junction for the first time in a while, and felt pretty solid doing it.
F 21 shuffle.
Sat 54 with 3 x park loop in 23:27 plus 4 x strides. Shorter and harder than what I was planning, but a little short on time and wanted to blow off some steam, so that’s what I did. Cooler weather was nice, but still feeling the allergies (and dodging youth soccer traffic).
Sun 1:12 with 5 x park loop in 43:56 plus 4 x strides and hill sprints. Nice and cool, kept things fairly mellow and got into a decent groove. Felt good enough to pick it up toward the end, so I’ll look to maybe go a little longer next time.
7:08 for the week, I think. Not bad, everything considered. The new job is not that big of a deal, really - I'm just teaching part time at a local community college. But the first few days of the term always take it out of me - it's like doing standup with the worst material in the world. Beyond that, it's just going to be a matter of figuring out how the new schedule is going to fit together and working around my primary responsibility of being a more-or-less full-time personal assistant to a six-year-old. (Fortunately, she's starting school, too, so that helps.)
Congratulations to bird, stat, RunnerSam and RRR on the strong racing last week, and hope Mrs. Stone Cutter gets her BQ.
For TDR: Good to hear the legs are feeling a little more lively. As a suggestion for starting the comeback, I might start by taking every other day super easy (like the easy 3 you mention you've been doing), and then doing whatever you feel like doing on the alternate day. And by whatever you feel like doing, I mean really, whatever you feel like doing, even if that's not running at all. If you do that for a couple of weeks, it could give you a little time to bounce back physically and mentally while still maintaining a certain amount of consistency (since you wouldn't totally stop running, even if you ended up doing nothing at all on your ad lib days). After a couple of weeks, you should have a decent read on where you're at and whether you're ready to start building things up again.
Smoove: I feel you about the heel. Been dealing with a little PF flare-up myself - right PF and left ITB are my usual problem spots. Don't know if this will be useful to you, but here are a couple things I've noticed. First, the PF seems to respond much better to running on trails than it does to running on the road. (After my two longer trail runs this week, it actually felt better than it did going in.) Second, whether it gets better or worse seems to have a lot to do with the little things I do during the day: how I sit, how I stand, how I walk, what kind of shoes I wear, etc. For example, the PF actually seems to do better if I make a point of putting weight on the affected heel when I stand, rather than favoring it (as I will subconsciously tend to do). I suspect that tightness in the calf is part of the problem for me (and to venture a guess, may be for you, too?)
Have a great week everybody!
The Stone Cutter wrote:
3:36:36.
1:48:00/1:48:36 splits.
BQ by 8:24. She was the 4th master overall. One year after being put in a boot for multiple stress fractures and thinking she would never run again.
So proud of her. More to come later in the week...
Hope everyone else had a great week.
Yessss! Post of the day! Congrats to both of you!
Stone, it is great to see the real life product look almost exactly what you though it would look like in theory - sings of good goal setting and great execution. And I am very impressed with Mrs. Stone-to-be's fortitude - it cannot be easy to decide to run a marathon after those kinds of injuries.
Finished out with 6 easy a few minutes ago. I actually felt good and considered going 10 for a minute, but then I heard Pappy's voice saying not to tax my body any more with long singles than necessary and that sometimes you need a coach (in this case, to tell you when not to push).
Forgot to name drop Coach Jeff in appreciation for being the inspiration behind me using heart rate as the main guide on my cruise interval session on the track this cycle. I've never used heart rate before, and I think it was a good thing for me - it kept me from pushing things too hard on some days.
going faster miles an hour wrote:
But the first few days of the term always take it out of me - it's like doing standup with the worst material in the world. !
Teachers everywhere can relate.
Thanks for the kind words, that’s exactly how I’m approaching things. If it’s not fun or something I don’t feel like doing...I stop or do something else.
Stone and the Stonette - just ballin! I would expect nothing less that perfect prescision from you.
Smoove - I think Pappy used to being the brakes so to speak after dealing w me and my desire to push the mileage up as quick as I can. But very smart to do less.. wish you could come train the rest of the build in this beautiful Ozarks weather that arrived.
I know it's a drag that the topic of this thread is weather all of the time, but I can't think of a worse stretch during my 8 years in Dallas than Wednesday-Friday this week. I ended up canceling my mid-week workout and moving the long run to Sunday just to work around it, but thankfully I was rewarded with a cold front this morning. Just as a point of reference, my heart rate at mile 13 on Wednesday was 163 bpm @ 6:42 pace. Today at mile 20 it was 162bpm @ 5:30 pace. One felt much better than the other as well.
M33, 145 lbs (down 5, 2 to go)
Goals: sub-2:30, maybe sub-2:28 @ Chicago, TBD in Dallas (12/9)
PRs: 2:28:5x (2016), 1:10:5x (2018)
M: 16.3 (~7:15) - ran 3 alone, then drove 30 minutes to run 13 with friends for the holiday.
T: 11.2 (6:50) + 8.6 treadmill (7:33)
W: 13.1 (6:51) + 8.2 treadmill (7:56)
H: 13.1 (7:00) + 8.6 treadmill (7:36)
F: 10.3 (7:02)
Sa: 11 treadmill (7:22)
Su: 21.2 workout (6:03). Fantastic weather; Cloudy and starting at 67/64 ending 70/65. HR progression:
4 @ 6:36 (131bpm)
4 @ 6:14 (137 bpm)
4 @ 5:56 (141 bpm)
4 @ 5:48 (146 bpm)
5:36 road, 5:31 track, 5:30 track, 5:31 road (158-162 bpm)
1.2 c/d @ 6:32
Breaks were at 10 (bathroom) and 14 (12oz Gatorade) but otherwise run continuous
Total: 121.7, but I might get in another 3 before the Cowboys play this afternoon