Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 2/10/19

OR how has your week been?

It has been a great week...another big one. An excellent workout (6 x 1 mile) on Wednesday (details on the OR thread). In any case, it was one of my best ever...averaged 5:38.5 for the six reps. All double-digit runs thus far, including a hilly 14.25-miler yesterday, and a 20-mile alternations workout scheduled for tomorrow. I should be in the upper 80s again in total miles for the week.

Feeling great right now...

All the best...

Sure am glad you decided to let Stone coach you. I think you're both doing a great job.

My week was even better. I didn't train much but my daughter is traveling with her team in college and my son went on his first real college visit. I couldn't be happier. It's so nice seeing hard work pay off.

That sounds great, Pappy. You are so right—there is nothing better than seeing hard work pay off.

outsiderunner wrote:

Hey Allen...What’s cooking at your place? We went out for Mexican...

It's 8:55 pm, I Just got home from work and am downing some leftovers and a glass of milk. Life ain't what it used to be, my friend.

I split out two pairs of jeans this week, after gaining 20 pounds. I don't really want to size up quite yet, though.

Being a nonrunner (or -- nod to pappy --

"former runner") does have some benefits, though. I had a twinge of pain in my achilles the other day, and had a brief moment of panic before remembering it doesn't matter anymore! O happy day!

You had another incredible week. The quality plus quantity is unfathomable to me. It's gonna be a heckuva year. I'm truly impressed with how well you've adapted to the new training regimen.

Very true.

And i think I like the work more than the payoff.

Yes, RRR, there is lots of joy in the work.

Allen - if you want a solution to eating about as much volume as you want while staying lean and heart healthy I have the prescription! It includes as much beer/wine as you can handle.

Ha! It's not so much a question of volume. It's the carbs. The sweets. I set my bike up on the trainer. I renewed my YMCA membership. Just need a dose or two of discipline.

I typically jog all of my recoveries around 7:00-8:00 pace during interval workouts.

Just an update on my hamstring injury over the past week:

I started with rest, ice, compression and elevation on Sunday (the day of the injury). I was already feeling better the day after so I did the stationary bike for 40 minutes on Monday. Since then, I have been doing short, easy jogs on a treadmill starting at 12:00 pace (on Tuesday) down to 7:30 pace (on Friday). I also have been doing hamstring strengthening exercises per a sports medicine doctor’s recommendations. I also got a body mechanics therapy session where the therapist applied painful, manual pressure to lengthen my rectus femoris muscle (one of the quadriceps muscles) which he said would lead to shortening of my hamstrings muscles and therefore less strain. I ran outside today at a slow 8:30 pace on a rolling hills course and plan to hit a track tomorrow to test how my hamstrings will tolerate running at moderate to GMP (planning some mile intervals in the middle of a 13 mile MLR).

GFMAH: Thank you for your encouragement and support. I am definitely focused on trying to recover to as close to 100% before the race. I just failed to complete my peak long run (I did get in 4 20-22 mile long runs in the cycle before this injury) and would have already been in taper already anyways.

Jot quill: That is an interesting question whether active or passive recovery is better to recover from an injury. I guess I went more with an active recovery although I did stop running for a day and then only jogged 3 miles slowly (10:30 avg pace) the 2nd day and also took a day off on my body mechanics therapy session(Thursday).

Pappy: Thanks for the information. I don’t know if I have access to such a machine but sounds like an interesting way to get some cardiovascular cross training in. Appreciate the encouragement about my injury.. It has gotten a lot better.

BHViking: Thanks I am feeling much better but I will see after the track session tomorrow how my hamstrings feel running a bit faster. I want to figure out my max HR so thanks for the ideas.

Slo-twitch: Thanks for the encouragement. If my hamstrings get back to full strength I will go for a PR/sub-2:40 at Tokyo (of course assuming good race day weather).

Darkwave: Thanks for the advice about pool running.. I am going to incorporate this in my cross training after the weather warms up (we have a backyard pool). I think I have taken the more active recovery route (although gradually getting back into it) which so far seems to be working out for me.

Sub-6:00: Thanks.. Fortunately I think this was a milder hamstring injury and I have been doing strengthening exercises and it does seem to help.