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

M26, 5'9", 145lbs

Past 2 weeks, since I didn't post last week

M- 7mi easy

T- w/u, 5x1.5mi @ 5:20, 75s rest, w/d

W- 7mi easy

T- am 5.6mi steady (6:23/mi) pm 5mi easy

F- off (didn't feel too good)

S- w/u + 3mi @ 5:45/mi + 60s rest + 17x1min @ 4:45/mi w/ 45s rest + w/d (yesterday's workout)

S- rest

M- 12mi @ 6:12/mi (yesterday's long run a bit shortened as I had track the next day)

T- w/u + 2x2000m w/ 80s rest (5:13/mi pace) + 4x700m w/ 60s rest (5:10/mi pace) + 5x200m in 33s w/ 35s rest + w/d

W- am 5mi easy pm 1.5mi easy (was supposed to be 6mi pm but was feeling absolutely horrible after a massage)

T- off (canceled a workout due to not feeling well)

F- off

S- 8mi steady (6:13/mi)

S- 16mi steady (6:18/mi)

I'm not being as consistent as I hoped. OTOH, the quality sessions are going quite well.

F43, 5'6"

upcoming races:

Half-marathon 2/9

Half-marathon 3/22

Cherry Blossom 4/5

Boston 4/20

An all-right week. Getting in good early-January work.

M: off

Tu: 8.5 mi E, legs all recovered from the tiredness of the previous few days. Ran very easy, it was very comfortable, even felt a little sorry I had to be done. Beautiful sunrise.

We: 8.5 mi E, carbon copy of Tuesday, down to the sunrise.

Th: PM workout, 25 min E + 3x2 T + 1 E. Cold -- maybe just at freezing. Glad to do a tempo workout outside and not on the treadmill but the cold does tend to start seeping in. I was a little slow to wind up into pace on the first mile, but the rest went all right and reasonably comfortably. Splits 7:18, 7:10, 7:11, 7:10, 7:17, 7:13. Total 10.6 mi. Kind of interesting to see the sun set vs. rise. Looked much the same, just on the other side of the sky.

Fr: PM again to take advantage of 1) 24 hr recovery and 2) the much nicer temps in the 50s. Legs tired but not as bad as last week. 8 mi easy running.

Sa: 12 mi long slow easy hills. Very nice temp (upper 50s to 60 by the end). Hesitant to let myself enjoy them too much because it is only January after all!

Su: 16.5 mi total, 2 mi E + 6 mi M + 8.5 mi E. Not the workout I wanted to do -- I had another shorter block of M scheduled -- but the wind was ridiculous. It was a struggle to run M effort, let alone pace, into the wind and it seemed like the time it was at my back was too short to make up for much. M splits were between 7:40 - 7:53 so not too bad if looked at strictly by number but very unevenly run so very tiring. After the first M block I ran a couple easy, and even easy in that wind was exhausting, so I just bailed on the rest of the hard work and slogged through the last miles slow. I wanted to get 18 yesterday but even the last 2 or 3 of what I did was pretty junky, but I had to get back to my car and once there I just stopped.

Total 64 mi.

Getting close to my last OTQ attempt at Houston

Sunday- 12 cruising

Monday- 6 miles

Tuesday- lunch run-4

Pm- 8.5 miles a/ 5X1 mile with 90 rest av.5:25. Felt good!

Wednesday- rest

Thursday- 6 easy

Friday-6 easy

Saturday- am-5k 16:55 (5:19,5:24,5:23) I felt really smooth

Pm- 5 miles a/ 8x200 hill sprints.

Looking good out there everybody, especially you high mileage animals. Don't know how you stay upright, as I am once concerned with weight loss at 50 mpw. Anybody know if running in the cold significantly increases your calorie burn?

Happy birthday to Smoove and OR.

Welcome to moke, Tyler, and I feel like there was somebody else in the last week or so?

HHW: Nice week, hope the calf comes along. A week of easy miles worked for me back in the fall. I was doing low 50s with workouts, something in the calf got weird so I did a week at 57, all flat and slow, slow enough that nothing hurt. Cleared right up and didn't feel like it cost me any fitness, although it wasn't for a marathon. Good luck and good job with the x-training.

Lanc: Way to get it in around all that travel.

AJ: Great mile! A stumble like that could really wreck the whole thing even with out a fall. Impressive to get back in the rhythm and finish up well. I knew a thrower who ran an indoor mile once, he said it felt like he was breathing sand by the end.

Runn3rgirl: Best of luck, go get that OTQ. Thats wild to even think about.

Guy Broman wrote:

I am once concerned with weight loss at

...once again, that is. Same thing happened last year. Easy winter miles causing me to drop a few pounds after comprable fall totals did not. Odd.

JQ: Pending the appearance of this post, it looks like bold will show up if applied right before posting. If I format something bold and then type more, it un-bolds.

Question for the group here:

Training for the HM in late May. Aiming for a sub-1:21 clocking

From my marathon buildup last year, I am comfortable and confident doing a workout like 3-4 x mile, 6-7 x 1000, 7 x 800 with limited rest et al. Also I can do a pretty swift long run when necessary. Yesterday I did 7:10ish average on Central Park's rolling terrain (and it was hot). I think I could go down to MP(6:45) for a good chunk if I went on the West Side highway (flat) as I improve my fitness.

From everyone's feedback here and just anecdotally, I know I should add another day of quality to my routine, which right now is a workout, a long run, 1-2 recovery runs and 2-4 easy runs.

What would be the best workout here to add in? I'm thinking a tempo effort. Wondering whats the best length (20 mins? 30 mins) and style (all continuous? broken up?) and goal type of pace (or should this be feel?). If there's a workout that accomplishes similar things or some speed (400s, 600s) could be a good add, let me know too.

Yep, that checks out.

Guy Broman wrote:

Guy Broman wrote:

I am once concerned with weight loss at

...once again, that is. Same thing happened last year. Easy winter miles causing me to drop a few pounds after comprable fall totals did not. Odd.

JQ: Pending the appearance of this post, it looks like bold will show up if applied right before posting. If I format something bold and then type more, it un-bolds.

Huh I guess that's the case... great find!

Runn3rgirl123 wrote:

Getting close to my last OTQ attempt at Houston

Pm- 8.5 miles a/ 5X1 mile with 90 rest av.5:25. Felt good!

Holy hell, that's an amazing workout. If that feels good, I can't imagine how easy target MP will feel.

TL - I’m assume the workouts you listed (800s up to mile) are at 5k pace given the distance and total volume. If that’s right up I would consider throwing in a continuous tempo as your third Q day. Maybe start around 20 min and gradually increase the distance if you feel good. I also like doing fartlek as my third workout (less stressful, no splits, just run).

At around 2 months out I drop most of the 5k reps and do longer tempos (1-3 miles) with more volume and shorter rest. So like 8x mile w 60 seconds rest, 4x2 mile with 2 min rest, and 3x3 mile with 3 min rest. Classic Daniels stuff. With those workouts I don’t need (and couldn’t handle) a third quality day but will slip some quality into the long run and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

Runn3rgirl123 wrote:

Getting close to my last OTQ attempt at Houston

Sunday- 12 cruising

Monday- 6 miles

Tuesday- lunch run-4

Pm- 8.5 miles a/ 5X1 mile with 90 rest av.5:25. Felt good!

Wednesday- rest

Thursday- 6 easy

Friday-6 easy

Saturday- am-5k 16:55 (5:19,5:24,5:23) I felt really smooth

Pm- 5 miles a/ 8x200 hill sprints.

I really can’t imagine you not getting the OTQ unless something goes really really wrong

Been following this thread for a bit so may as well jump in:

Male, 30, 5'10'', 125 lbs

PBs: 16:49 (2020), 1:14:28 (2019), 2:36:50 (2019)

Goal race: Fargo marathon 5/9/2020.

Goal time: 2:32:xx

Upcoming: 5 mile 2/2/2020, Knoxville half 3/29/2020

-Monday:

AM: 7 miles @ 8:35

PM: 7 miles @ 8:38

-Tuesday:

PM: 11 miles @ 8:34

-Wednesday:

PM: 2 mile warm up, 15k tempo @ 6:05, 1.68 cool down (13 total)

-Thursday:

AM: 7 miles @ 9:06

PM: 9 miles @ 8:48

-Friday:

AM: 6 miles @ 9:09

PM: 6 miles @ 8:50

-Saturday:

AM: 3 mile warm up, 5k "race" @ 5:25 (16:49), 3.9 mile cool down (10 total)

Sunday:

AM: 20 miles @ 6:51

96 total.

Ran the 5k on a stupid whim during the first week of really building back into full-on marathon training, but never having broken 17 mins was bothering me. Time was still way slow compared to my other PBs but that's to be expected what with lack of footspeed/5k training. Happy to just get the 5k monkey off my back for now. 105 and 115ish planned for the next two weeks before bringing it down to 100-105 for the rest of this cycle... we'll see how it goes!

smoove congrats on the new gig! Are you moving firms or trying a new type of job entirely?

moke I didn’t have quite as bad of a dropdown on my 16:00 attempt last week, but it was similar and I felt similar about it. On to the next one I guess.

coach Jeff Godspeed!

Runn3rgirl killer mile repeats! That is the pace I was running mile repeats when I ran 2:29….

thoughtsleader agree with AJ, you want to move up to 2mile, 3 mile repeats as your bread and butter HM workouts. What I would do is have 3 quality days, 1 day of speed/fartlek, one day of tempo (mile repeats, 2 mile repeats, or maybe progression 5-7 miler), and a long run. As you get closer to peak I would ramp down the speed day (starting with standard track workouts but ramping down to a simple fartlek or extended strides) so you can do longer and harder on tempo day (move from say 2X2mile up to 4X2mile or 3X3mile).

stats: M/36/5’10”

Races: Berkeley Half Marathon (1:13:22), CIM (12/8 2:37), Xmas Relays (4.5M in ~5:12), San Diego 5K (16:02), SF Half (2/3/2020), Tokyo (3/1/2020, goal TBD)

Training Plan: Daniel's 2Q 120 (7 weeks to go)

Week 8: 106 miles, 143.5’, 10.2% BF

Q1: [22.5M] 6E, 13.1M (1:14:36, ~5:41 pace), 3.5E

Q2: Rest (hip flexor)

I had a pretty ‘meh’ week, feeling overcooked and tired most days. Was still able to do hit my Q1 where I wanted to run a sub 1:15 HM on a flat but challenging course (some dirt and windy segments) surprised myself by running 1:14 mid without too much trouble, hopefully it means I could do much better on a good day. Was on track for 126 miles this week but then on Saturday my hip flexor flared up and also felt tugging in my calf so I gave up on Q2 and just took a rest day. I’ve been putting in lots of mileage so I think I just pushed my legs and body past their breaking point and now it’s time to scale back a bit until my niggles have gone away and I”m mentally ready to ramp up again. Taking this week easy until I’m feeling fresh.

Great weeks everyone!

Any folks have thoughts on the Modesto marathon?

I'm thinking about the possibility of running that as my Spring marathon as opposed to NJ. A close family member happens to be running it as well so that's one extra incentive. It does seem advertised as flat a fast. Depending on how the next few months go, I figure I'll be aiming for anything around 2:30-2:35.

mikemike - yeah, I cross referenced other people's race results I know from that race and another race that day and on average people were about 40-45s slower than normal, so I think I shouldn't be concerned yet.

Question for anyone here who has followed Daniels 5K/10K plan (as that's what I'm doing right now) - if you did any of the "H pace" workouts, how did they feel? In 3rd Edition it's stated as 10-12min race pace and to me 7x3min w/4min jogging rest H pace sounds way more daunting than 7x1K. I substituted 8x3min H w/2min jogging rest a couple weeks ago with 4x1600 and felt good doing that just because H pace seemed ridiculously quick (2mile race pace /a bit quicker for me, unless I'm misunderstanding something?). Thanks!

^ supposed to be me, didn't realize i wasn't logged in

HHH Runner wrote:

It's been a while.

New Year, new me? Not quite sure about that but considering last week was my first week of proper training for quite some time it seemed like a good time to start posting again.

Long story short, I ran my last session on November 12th. Between then and now I've had an injury, an illness, the holidays and a ski trip. Managed to run maybe 40mpw, a couple of Parkruns in the regular 16:45-55 range and a couple long runs. Hopefully I can get fit for Big Half here in London on March 1st. So basically 8 weeks to whip up some shape.

HHH, I’ll be at the big half too, maybe we’ll finally get to meet :)

I switched clubs and am training with serpentine now, w/ David Chalfen as my coach, idk if you’ve heard of him, and training’s been going so great in general. Serpentine is a bit more road/marathon focused than Highgate, so I thought it was a better fit for me, and David coaches a bunch of their 2:20/2:30 type guys. Also am doing quality session which a good group at the parliament hill track on Tuesday, which has been great.

What are you looking to run for the big half?

Haven't posted on here in a few years, but why not start up again? Took some time off training after college and started back up again in the summer of 2018. Was able to hit PRs in just about everything last year. Just picking up my mileage again after my November 9th 10k. Also working on a run streak. 13 days in so far started on 12/31/19.

Male, 29, 5'11", 190lbs

PRs: 5k-17:54(2013)/(18:54 in 2019), 10k-38:45(November 2019), Half - 1:30:10 (April 2019), Marathon - 3:02:26 (July 2019)

2020 Races planned so far: 4/5 Half (shooting for sub-1:28), 5/3 Marathon(shooting for sub-3), 2020 Chicago Marathon

M: 4 easy on Zero Runner 7:57 pace

T: 4.4 easy 8:22 pace

W:10 total- 4 easy, 6x1k@3:48,3:47,3:42,3:43,3:43,3:40, with 3 min rest between, 2 easy 1:14:24 total time (7:26avg pace)

R:4.6 easy 8:21 pace

F: 1.85 easy 8:28 pace (done late at night in 15 degree temps, just wanted to keep my daily streak going)

Sa: 1.1 easy, 5k Race - 19:05, 2.3 cool down

Su: 14 - 4 easy, 3 Threshold(6:45 pace), 3 easy, 2 Threshold(6:46 pace), 2 easy - 1:47:25 total time (7:40avg pace)

Total: 45.5miles

Working on building up my miles this spring to ~60/week eventually.

Nice job everyone. I'll leave some comments once I find some more time!

I tried using that zero runner but I think I’m just not coordinated enough. Do you find it useful? Better than the elliptical?