CJ Albertson workout: 27 miles "cruising" at 5:09 pace

I would love to see someone like this come out and contend at the trials.

But I'm actually surprised, given these training runs, that he doesn't have a faster marathon PR. Maybe he's still getting significantly faster each cycle. Or maybe he's the kind of runner who gets better with the distance and could do some serious damage in 50k/50mile races.

Did he really never stop on this run? Seems like an exceptionally hard effort even if he did take a few stops to go to the bathroom or refuel. Props to him though for getting after it. I think he's had a lot of injury issues in the past right?

I predict top 5 at the trials with an outside shot at making the team.

Sounds like a Walmsley workout! ?

Looking at the HR data, I'd guess he only took one brief pause, at around mile 21.6. His time through 26.2 was 2:15:29. Keep in mind, though, that a real-life marathon would add around .3 miles with turns and other miscellaneous extra distance (2:16:56, for the curious). It's still a huge workout. Maybe he left his OT race in Woodward Park. Or who knows, maybe it will be just what he needs.

my 2c wrote:

Looking at the HR data, I'd guess he only took one brief pause, at around mile 21.6. His time through 26.2 was 2:15:29. Keep in mind, though, that a real-life marathon would add around .3 miles with turns and other miscellaneous extra distance (2:16:56, for the curious). It's still a huge workout. Maybe he left his OT race in Woodward Park. Or who knows, maybe it will be just what he needs.

This is a good point.

These Strava mega runs do not translate directly to races because they measure the watch distance, not the course distance.

my 2c wrote:

Looking at the HR data, I'd guess he only took one brief pause, at around mile 21.6. His time through 26.2 was 2:15:29. Keep in mind, though, that a real-life marathon would add around .3 miles with turns and other miscellaneous extra distance (2:16:56, for the curious). It's still a huge workout. Maybe he left his OT race in Woodward Park. Or who knows, maybe it will be just what he needs.

I've also thought he should be faster given his workouts. He ran a 30 miler at 5:15 pace and a 2:14 tune up marathon before CIM in December and then only ran 2:13 at his goal race on a fairly fast course. It seems like he's leaving his best races in training by going a bit too hard.

hey if he set the indoor marathon wr who's to say he can't set the outdoor marathon wr

ftw wrote:

hey if he set the indoor marathon wr who's to say he can't set the outdoor marathon wr

Only crazy people run indoor marathons!

Sea level version of what walmsley did 2 weeks ago. Only actual 5:15s this close to the race are bound to be more destructive to muscles.

Will be interested to see how this app plays out. Love seeing dudes really testing the boundaries with these long fast runs.

Or he’s riding a bike for portions of the workout

Malemute wrote:

my 2c wrote:

Looking at the HR data, I'd guess he only took one brief pause, at around mile 21.6. His time through 26.2 was 2:15:29. Keep in mind, though, that a real-life marathon would add around .3 miles with turns and other miscellaneous extra distance (2:16:56, for the curious). It's still a huge workout. Maybe he left his OT race in Woodward Park. Or who knows, maybe it will be just what he needs.

I've also thought he should be faster given his workouts. He ran a 30 miler at 5:15 pace and a 2:14 tune up marathon before CIM in December and then only ran 2:13 at his goal race on a fairly fast course. It seems like he's leaving his best races in training by going a bit too hard.

This dude is flying way under the radar. I predict top 3

He did 30 at 5:15 pace in November. Ran 2:13 at CIM. These workouts are extremely impressive, but impressive workouts don't really mean anything.

kbofa wrote:

https://www.strava.com/activities/2872402055

He did 30 at 5:15 pace in November. Ran 2:13 at CIM. These workouts are extremely impressive, but impressive workouts don't really mean anything.

This is the workout I was referring to earlier in the thread. I have the same conclusion.

everybody is writing him off because he only ran 2:13 at CIM, but he only lost that race by a few seconds over a 2:09 guy. It was a tactical race and they ran a pretty quick last 5k, though not insanely fast.

He's only been doing marathons for a year or two, I believe he debuted in the Modesto marathon with a 2:16/2:17 after taking some time off of competitive running. He's run a bunch of 2:15-2:18s at random marathons recently including setting the indoor world record.

Seems like his biggest talent is quick recovery from hard efforts. I saw him the morning after he got 2nd at CIM in 2:13 at 8am in the hotel lobby, and he was going for a shakeout. He told me that it makes him feel better after a couple really slow miles of jogging. Well, I checked his strava later and saw that he ran about a 7:15 first mile and then was running like 5:30 pace by the end of his 7mi run and averaged about 6:05s. Somebody can go double check that if they want, but I'm not exaggerating.

He runs these types of workouts because it is how he likes to train. He acknowledges it is atypical.

https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-97-with-cj-albertson/

https://anchor.fm/roadtotheolympictrials/episodes/Ep--34---C-J--Albertson-e9hrud

Seems to be doing workouts similar to Walmsley without the hype.

This is one of the dumbest workouts I've ever seen and the worst misuse of the word "cruising". He just ran beyond marathon distance at close to his marathon pace. It doesn't matter if CIM was tactical. This is not even a 2:09 runner but let's entertain that. Even if he was in 2:09 shape that's a difference of only ten seconds a mile. If you had a coach that told you to run marathon pace plus 10 seconds a mile for 27 miles you would instantly fire that coach. His heart rate was through the roof for this training run. What a waste. Also this is not a Walmsley type workout. Jim Walmsley is not this stupid. He will not make the team.

The previous year Brogan Austin closed his last 4 miles and change much faster than Albertson did and ran a whole minute faster overall. Schwartz said he thought Austin was in 2:10:30 shape at the time. This guy is running himself ragged.

It does seem like a really dumb workout. Too hard.

But whatever—it does look impressive as hell. It bet he could do really well.