Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 1/12/20

Male, 41, 5’11”, 170 lbs

PRs: 16:43 (2019) 1:17:24 (2019), 2:47:00 (2018)

Goal race: TBD

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle

M - 10 mile progression (7:56). 9:12–>6:49/mile.

T - 13.2 miles (7:52). Including 5 mile continuous alternating tempo as 5 x (.5 mile at 6:58/mile / .5 mile at 5:54/mile). 6:26/average overall for the 5 miles.

W - 6.7 miles (8:40)

Th - 14.1 miles (8:56). First 9.1 miles pacing Mrs. Stone’s workout, then 5 miles pacing a beginning runner’s workout.

F - 5.8 mile fartlek (6:55). 10:00 easy, 10 x (1:00 fast / 1:00 steady), 10:00 easy. 6:13/average overall for the middle twenty minutes.

Sa - 13 miles (9:00)

Su - 13 miles (8:25). Pacing Mrs. Stone’s workout.

Weekly Total: 75.8 miles

Year to Date: 110 miles

I have been pacing a lot of my beginning runners lately, both to guide/benefit them, but also to give me accountability to get out the door each day, haha. I have been throwing in my own running here and there which, thus far, has been working out well. May jump in a 5k next weekend just for the hell of it. We’ll see.

Hope everyone had a great week.

Mrs. Stone’s week:

Female, 44, 5’6”

PRs: 21:20 (2016, 2019), 1:36:43 (2019), 3:28:24 (2019)

Goal race: Boston Marathon (4/20)

Goal time: sub 3:25:00 (7:49 pace)

M - Rest

T - 9.1 miles (9:11)

W - 6.1 miles (9:05)

Th - 9.1 miles total (8:21). 2 mile warmup, 5 mile continuous alternating tempo as 5 x (.5 mile at 7:18/avg, .5 mile at 7:56/avg), 2.1 mile cooldown. 7:37/average overall for the 5 miles.

F - 8 miles (9:40)

Sa - 7 miles (9:00)

Su - 13 miles total (8:25). 3 mile warmup, 3 miles (7:48) / 2 miles (7:37) / 1 mile (7:28) with 1 mile moderate recoveries (8:30), 2 mile cooldown.

Weekly Total: 52.3 miles

Year to Date: 94 miles

Thursday’s tempo was a relative walk in the park for her, which is a great starting point for the cycle. Her right glute/piriformis is still giving her on again / off again trouble, so she’ll probably head back to the PT after she returns from traveling this upcoming week. 7 days in Arizona / California with her mom and sister...so marathon training discipline will be put to the test this upcoming week. :)

Great weeks Stone and Mrs!

M25, 128lbs, 5'7"

PRs: 2:36 M, 1:14 HM, 16:10 5K, 4:38 mile

=== 01/06/20 - 01/12/20: 100.3 miles ===

> Mon

[6:45 AM] 7.03 miles @8:11, Post red-eye flight

[4:45 PM] 4.19 miles @8:29

> Tue

[5:45 AM] 10.68 miles @8:19, w/ 4x strides

[10:30 AM] 6.5 miles @8:11

> Wed

[6:00 AM] 12 miles @7:25, 4x(6' on, 2' jog) + 4x(75" on, 90" jog)

5:41, 5:02 avg

5:44, 5:42, 5:40, 5:37

5:08, 5:03, 5:01, 4:58

Felt ok, wanted to do 6x6' which I probably could have but maybe fatigued from recent overnight travel and cold.

[11:15 AM] 5.73 miles @8:23

> Thu

[6:00 AM] 10.88 miles @7:52, w/ 4x strides

[12:15 PM] 5 miles @7:58

> Fri

[6:00 AM] 10.57 miles @7:30, w/ 4x strides

[11:15 AM] 4.5 miles @7:50

> Sat

[6:45 AM] 20.2 miles @7:06, 5x(1mi on, 1mi off) in miles 11-20

5:37 avg, first two struggling in a stiff headwind

5:43, 5:53, 5:36, 5:33, 5:23

> Sun

[7:45 AM] 3 miles @8:22

> Weekly Notes

A lot of battling fatigue and a cold this week starting with the red-eye flight into Monday morning. The long run was a morale booster where I felt pretty strong on the fast segments. It's probably the first time since NYC since I've really felt like I've had a good rhythm in the legs during sustained efforts. Left toe has been a bit sore this week, but only when pushing down on it -- something to monitor.

I feel like the bold highlighting is not functioning properly with the new website change... last week none of the bolds went through and this time only one of the selections. Guess I should try to email the LRC web guy.

Managed to squeeze out 60+ this week, but the pain is still there, mostly in the glute. This is getting old. Will see about Fred Lebow. The weather is looking awful...sustained wind of 18 mph. Right now, I just want the pain in the butt gone. It is like having a toothache or headache right where you sit.

M: 9.25 at 6:39 overall...sore but solid running...7:21, 7:07, 6:55, 6:41, 6:29, 6:30, 6;31, 6:26, 6:03, 1:26

T: 8.25 at 7:02 overall...heavy-legged running is slushy snow

W: 10.5 at 6:59 overall...tired legs...6:40, 6:23, 3:09 to finish

T: 9.25 at 6:43 overall...cold morning...6:30, 6:32, 6:23, 6:12, 1:33 to finish

F: 12.5 at 6:53 overall...fed up and just kept going...6:45, 6:35, 6:27, 3:10 to finish

Sat.: 13.25 at 7:17 overall...fed up and just kept going, even if at a slow pace...windy conditions...7:11, 7:10, 7:08, 6:50, 1:49 to finish

Sun.: off/rest

63 miles

Have a great week, boys and girls.

Stone and JQ: Really steady weeks. Nice work.

Started to get back into it this week.

Monday 1/6:

AM: 1 hour elliptical @ 141 BPM

PM: 30 on the elliptical @ 135 BPM

Tuesday 1/7:

AM: 10 up + 1/2/3/4/5/6/5/4/3/2/1 hard with 2 easy + 5 down on the elliptical. 75 min total. Avg. BPM 161.

PM: Core

Wednesday 1/8:

AM: 5E @ 7:55 + calf stretches + pushups

PM: 50 min elliptical @ 138 BPM + planks + calf raises with kettlebell

Thursday 1/9:

AM: 6E @ 7:26 + stretching and pushups.

PM: 45 on the elliptical @ 142 BPM and core.

Friday 1/10:

AM: 8E @ 7:11 pace. Threw in pickups the last 3 and ended up at 6:59/6:48/6:25.

PM: Core + pushups + calf raises with kettlebell

Saturday 1/11:

AM: 7E+5M+4E. Avg. 7:02. 7/8/9 were 6:50/6:38/6:36, 9/10 were 6:18/6:15. Most other miles were steady low to mid 7s. Felt good but feet started hurting late and felt calf a bit.

Sunday 1/12:

AM: 8E Avg. 7:27. Calf was sore to start but worked through it and felt OK by the end.

PM: May hit the elliptical and do some core + calf raises with kettlebell.

Total: 43 miles and 4 hour 20 min on the elliptical.

Feeling moderately optimistic over here. Plan is to do a lot of easy miles and try to build up to 60 miles of easy running this week with a mid-week long run. I am traveling to Denver anyway so this will work better with my schedule. If all goes well will do a real Q workout next Sunday. Thinking about doing the first 2Q workout I did... 3E+6M+1E+6M+1E as a way of easing back into harder work.

M/36/145/6’0”

M - 8 miles at 6:49 pace after a cross country flight, 2 beers, and a ton of fried chicken. Felt... horrible. Think I ran faster just to get it over with

Tu - off. Full workday 630am-9pm. Just didn’t have it in me.

Wed - am 10 miles at 649 on San Fran shoreline. Pm - Pulled a JQ and took a red eye back to east coast

Th - off - works and life and tired.

F - 11.5 miles at 653 - nice run

Sa - 2 up, 20 min tempo (545 pace), 2.5 down. 8 total

Su - 13 miles at 717 pace

Total 50.6 miles.

With two days off, pretty happy with this week. A bit of quality and a long run. Just trying to maintain all the fitness I’ve built.

OR: Is it possible that you're dealing with sciatica issues, not the hamstring? Or both? Sounding kind of like sciatica to me.

M, 44, 5'8, 140s

Just getting back in shape

M 2 x park loop easy. Light snow, a little slippery here and there but not too bad. Felt pretty good.

T Park loop easy. Still feeling some ITB soreness/tightness during the day but fine during the run.

W Park loop easy. ITB feeling a little better and felt good during the run.

Th Off

F 2 x park loop easy. Felt pretty good. ITB irritation seems to have died down.

Sat Park loop. Much warmer than it's been, felt kind of tired. By the end of the day it became clear that I was catching my daughter's cold.

Sun Planned day off. Will try to rest up and fight off the cold.

Happy with the way this one went, apart from catching the cold (ugh). Stepped up from four days to five, and added a second 2 x park loop day. Hip issues seem to be improving, and just generally feeling a little better from week to week.

Have a great week, everybody!

"puttin' one foot in front of the other one is all I know/before you know it you'll be fallin' on down the road"

The Unseen Guest

M, 31, 6'1" 158

Upcoming:

5k prediction run 2/8

15k 3/15

10k 4/5

half on 4/26, Goal Race

S. 5.4

M. 8.2

T. 8.1 and weights/core

W. 5.5

Th. 9.1

F. 3.2

S. 10.7 w/ 2 hard, 2 easy, 2 hard, avg. 6:25 on hard

Total 50.2

Starting back up after about a week and a half off. Easy miles, soft surfaces. Most of this at around 9:00. Just running. Looking to ramp up to high 60s/low 70s by the end of the month.

I really want to prioritize the long run this time around. Last winter leading up to the same late April half, I only had a 13 mile run in early February and two at 11 at the end of March. Planning to hit 13 for easy long in the next few weeks.

The Satuday run this week got a little out of hand for easy miles. All-time high temperatures and not too much mud had me itching to cruise on the trails. Pleasantly wiped at the end.

gfmah - Thanks for the feedback. I agree. I think the sciatic is involved, too. It runs close to the ischial tuberosity. The pain, though, does not continue onward down the length of the leg.

outsiderunner wrote:

gfmah - Thanks for the feedback. I agree. I think the sciatic is involved, too. It runs close to the ischial tuberosity. The pain, though, does not continue onward down the length of the leg.

Does sciatica pain always continue down the length of the leg? I don't remember that being my experience. What I do remember is pain in the upper hamstring/glute area, but with a different feeling from normal muscle pain, going back and forth between a deep, dull ache and a weird, kind of electrical, buzzy/burning pain. It did not respond well to treating it as a hamstring problem, but it did respond well to treating it as sciatica.

I would not want you to mess yourself up doing something that I suggested, because I definitely do some dumb things, but in my case the thing that seemed to help the most were prone single-leg leg lifts. I think I did something like 3 x 10, a couple of times a day.

Hope it eases up on you in any case.

Thanks again. The pain is as you describe, a weird dull, deep, electrical type of ache. I hate it. Will try the single-leg leg lifts. Face down and lying flat (on the belly), right?

"Plenty of time. PLENTY of time." -Manny Gite (also, my rational brain talking to my irrational brain, who's doing a white rabbit impression mostly.)

M - 10.3 mi

T - 8 mi including 3x1mi with 75s rest.

5:58,5:56,5;52. Not fast compared to 2 months ago, but better than I expected for an intro to working out.

W - 8.2 mi

T - 3.5mi AM, jogged to the track but it was snowy.

8.5mi PM including 3x1k with 1.5-2min rest, then about 7min easy, then 3x3.5min with 2min rest.

Planned 6-8x1k at around 3:27-3:30. Ran the first one in 3:22 and I am not in shape to sustain that right now. Brutal headwind on the home stretches got in my head by the time I faded to 3:32 for the 3rd one, so I left the track in favor of a long straight road with mini rollers and a cross wind to finish getting some semblance of the desired work in.

2x5 hexbar deadlifts (probably first deadlifts in a year)

F - 10 mi

S - 5 mi AM, 50s, calm, damp but dry.

8 mi PM, 35°, wind, rough rains...my penance for missing my planned AM long run by sleeping through my alarm, and a forecasted overnight ice storm compounding the threat to my volume. Feeling the deadlifts.

S - 6mi AM zig-zagging in a 0.03 square mile grass field, because icy grass is more stable than icy pavement.

Thought about doubling today but I think it's too late now that I've posted my week.

Total - 67.5mi

Healthy and 3 miles shy of matching my volume for the entire month of December is good, but gotta start building up a real long run. Also I'm realizing I've never tried to run more than 40-50mpw in the winter here before, so this could get interesting.

outsiderunner wrote:

Thanks again. The pain is as you describe, a weird dull, deep, electrical type of ache. I hate it. Will try the single-leg leg lifts. Face down and lying flat (on the belly), right?

Yeah, that sounds like what I had. The other thing I remember is that uphills seemed to make it particularly unhappy.

And right, I did the leg lifts face down, lying flat, keeping the motion nice and controlled, trying to focus on engaging the glute. As I remember, I saw improvement pretty quickly, so my guess is that it was more a matter of activation and alignment than strengthening per se.

If the leg lifts cause significant this-feels-wrong discomfort, then obviously don't push it.

Just did 3x12 of the leg lifts and it felt good—eased the awful ache some. I was doing exactly as you say, engaging the glute. Yes, uphills make this thing particularly angry.

Thanks again, my friend.

M - 60+, best of 2019 17:28 5K, 28:19 8K, 1:17 HM; worst of 2019 ended year injured (SI joint)

Goals - just get healthy and running

Update - Started some running in December and built to 20 mpw, but glute pain came back after a 55 minute run on Christmas Day, so I had to back down. Slowly adding some short runs into cross training (mix of XC skiing and elliptical), but only 12-20 minutes at a time, but pain free. Avg. about 6 hours a week of training for the past 2 mo.

And speaking of activating glutes as OR is working on, went to PT the other day and that's what I need to do as well. I've been doing a little bit anyway, but they are guiding me to a more focused routine.

M: 1hr yoga

T: 6 mi w/ hill sprints AM. 45 min nordic skiing with 5k race PM. Thought race was going to be cancelled hence AM run.

W: 8 w/ unintended progression finish

Th: strength

F: 8 w/ mid run pick up because I was behind schedule to meet friends. Made it.

S: 90 min yoga class on arm balances. Also skied 30min. Would have gone longer but 1. tired, 2. cold, 3. snow storm started early and wanted to drive home safely. Glad I skipped icy 5k. Friend who will run 2:3X at Houston next week didn't break 18.

S: 9, wanted to go longer but was stupid icy. Took things real slow, made some new friends, not actually 9 miles #badgermiles

Might go skiing this afternoon, will have to check trail conditions.

OR: Please take some time off! There is zero need to be running 60 mile weeks with your hammy problem.

Belated happy birthday to OR, congrats to AJ on the mile.

Solid week for me, though I need to add another workout in soon:

M-OFF

T- 6.9M Moderate ~ Central Park outer loop (moved back workout due to potential for rain, but it ended out being light)

WE - 6.3 M Total — 3xmile with 90 sec rest, 5:53, 5:46, 5:56 on Reservoir in the Park. It was bitterly cold and windy and I wore just shorts. Happy I toughed it out. I think last rep had the most wind.

TH- 6.8M Easy on Treadmill

FR- 6.M Easy

SAT- 6.7M Easy... a little broken up as I ran/paced fiancée for a tempo

SUN- 12 Long run about to do.

Will be a dash under 45 Miles. Solid. Bit bummed to find out that I hadn’t noticed but I have a friend’s Bach party on weekend of Super Bowl/Gridiron 4 Miler. Wasn’t planning to really do anything major in prep, but gonna have to figure out the gameplan.

M35, 5’10”, 163 lbs (need to lose 6-8 by April)

2019 bests:

5k - 16:01 (flat)

5k - 15:27 (+68’ / -270’)

Boston - 2:30:21

Chicago - 2:25:14

Upcoming:

1/26 - Half

3/28 - Half?

4/5 - Cherry Blossom

“All the world’s indeed a stage and we are merely players.” -Neil Peart

Mo: 10 @ 7:59

Tu: AM - 6400m in 22:01, 10 total*; PM - 5 @ 7:10 (wet snow!)

We: AM - 10 @ 7:44 (very icy); PM - 5 @ 6:32

Th: AM - 8 @ 6:55; PM - 6 @ 6:52

Fr: AM - 5 @ 7:37; PM - 6 @ 7:17

Sa: 12 x 400 @ 76.1 w 200 (1’) jog, 10 total**

Su: 18 @ 6:50***

Total: 93 miles

*Splits 5:34, 5:33, 5:30, 5:24. Low 30s, still wind, dry track, out of shape!

** Reps in 77.6, 76.5, 77.4, 73.7, 76.1, 75.8, 76.9, 74.7, 75.8, 74.2, 76.5, 76.5. Mid 50s, breezy, one small puddle. Tweaked an adductor in my left thigh a little on reps 7 and 12. It was giving me guff on Tuesday as well. Some muscles haven’t been used in a while.

*** Mid 60s and sunny. Did a loop I hadn’t run in years, got a bit lost, and ran a 7:51 for mile 9. Legs felt awful the last 6 miles or so. Saw some of the Gtown track guys running on the Mall.