Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 1/19/20

Tyler - Thanks very much!

More good news...to ease my mind in regard to a possible fracture, my PT took a tuning fork to my spine this morning, testing the key areas of L5 down to S1, and there was NADA. She said I would have jumped off the table if a fracture were present.

Also...got my first taste of the new NB 1080 in this morning’s run—what a great trainer. Not light like a Beacon or a Rincon, but man was that shoe chushy yet responsive—and not heavy feeling. An awesome ride...like a Beacon on cushion steroids...one I think you will enjoy for your longer training runs, JQ.

Awesome news OR! 5:44 is flyin and that PT session sounds very uplifting!

Thanks for the rec, many shoes to look out for now! Just need to churn through my 3 pairs of Beacons sitting around from last year's sale ha.

Should have said “L1 down to S1.”

Thanks, JQ. Yes, I got up a good head of steam in the last 1.5. And I felt I eased up a tad in the last .5 and still was at 5:42 pace. I think I just relaxed. It has been a while since I have had the feeling of that pace.

not sunday so no official update yet but I will tease that I did go under 16:00 for 5K this morning!!

Blazin fast moke! Looking forward to the report tomorrow!

Question for the masses...

Currently in Week 4 of my training for the Boston Marathon.

Debating what to do for my long run tomorrow morning.

I know I want to get in 20 total, but unsure of how I want to exactly go about it.

Right now I have a 16 mile progression followed by 4 @ MP to close it out.

I'm racing a half in two weeks and then hitting 5 x 2 @ MP the following week.

Do you think the long run I have planned is sufficient or should I add more work?

Tyler_Runs_Lifts wrote:

Question for the masses...

Currently in Week 4 of my training for the Boston Marathon.

Debating what to do for my long run tomorrow morning.

I know I want to get in 20 total, but unsure of how I want to exactly go about it.

Right now I have a 16 mile progression followed by 4 @ MP to close it out.

I'm racing a half in two weeks and then hitting 5 x 2 @ MP the following week.

Do you think the long run I have planned is sufficient or should I add more work?

Correction: That 5 x 2 @ MP would come two weeks after the half.

I like your idea for 16 miles of progression and then 4 MP, but I would do something similar and progresses it the whole way—i.e. a long flyer. And if you can do it in the hills, all the better. Look for the green light either early on or at about the mile 10 mark (that is how it usually unfolds for me) and the if the green light is there, then go for it; otherwise save it for another day. With the green, proceed with zeal accordingly and then wind it up for a controlled blast in the last 4-5. Have not done something like this in a while, and thus you have me dreaming and drooling. Hopefully, I will be inhabiting the hills again sometime in the coming weeks, aiming for those massive highs.

moke: Nice work in the 5k. Going to have to add an "s" at the beginning of that handle.

OR: Good to hear positive signs. Stay patient and it will come around.

Tyler: Nothing at all wrong with an MP-finish long run, but if you're looking for options, here are a couple of other thoughts:

10 miles followed by 5 x 1 mile at MP/1 mile backing off a bit

10 miles followed by some work on your bridge loop followed by some work at MP

The first might be a nice step toward the 5 x 2 you have coming up, and there's a school of thought that there's a lot of value in modulating effort around MP. The second might be a useful Boston simulator - I believe Squires commonly had his guys do long runs incorporating hills and surges, and no one knew better how to prepare for that course.

Obviously both of those ideas could be tweaked in a number of directions. And of course, you know yourself a lot better than I do, so you should definitely go with what makes the most sense to you. But those are a couple of ideas.

I was in the same spot this morning. Knew I was going to run 20 but wasn’t sure how I was going to break it up even after I got started. Ended up running 8 progression then 7 marathon pace (bit of a progression from 2-3% slower to 2-3% faster then a nice long 5 mile cool down.

@outsiderunner - There is just *something* about a progression run that leaves you feeling great about it afterward, if you nail it. My training group has one that we do about three weeks about from a goal marathon - 9 mi conversational, 3 @ MP+40, 2 @ MP+20, 2 @ MP, 1 @ MP-10, 1 @ MP-20. It’s pretty dang tough.

@going faster - The good news is that I’m driving the hour north to get to the real hills, so this run will be done up there. I have always seen people I follow on Strava do those alternating mile workouts during long runs and they intrigue me. That has me envisioning 10 @ 6:50 or so (Basically what I paced that group in last weekend at the marathon) and then ratcheting it down to MP (5:40ish) & alternating between that & an aerobic effort (6:00ish) the rest of the way – or something of that nature. The world is my oyster.