Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 2/23

@TheProcess - Welcome to the thread. That's a SOLID week.

Yes, welcome. Nice 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 - 10 miles (8:56)

T - 9 miles (9:15)

W - 8.1 miles (8:50)

Th - 5.8 miles (8:32). Including 2.3 x 1 mile at 7:30 pace off .25 mile recovery jogs. Leg flared up and had to slow jog it home.

F - Rest

Sa - 5 miles (9:30)

Su - 8.1 miles (8:40)

Weekly Total: 46 miles

YTD Total: 338 miles

Mrs. Stone has been still battling through some chronic flare ups of leg and back issues. But between PT work and chiropractic visits, she finally seems to be turning a corner. We are crossing fingers that we can get in some quality toward the end of this coming week and a long run next weekend. I keep reminding her that there is still plenty of time before Boston.

HHW - Marathons are dodgy. A lot can go wrong, but some experience helps. I think any race takes a few attempts to really get a feel for, and it’s not like you can do a marathon every week.

Stone - Hitting big miles for all the right reasons (i.e. for the thread). Very solid mile repeats.

Moke - Good luck in the half. FWIW, I think doing a lot of 10k-LT pace work is more important for the half than doing really big workouts.

JQ - You might be breaking my personal best streak of 100+ weeks. Did 7 in a row last summer. Might done more back in the day, but don’t know. Expect big things.

GT - The 5x18 is essential.

Pappy - Great week. It’s a wonderful feeling to do something you haven’t done in decades. The uphill finish sounds brutal, so hope you enjoy that hard-won hat.

OR - Looks like a solid OR week. Some good insight on other masters runners’ schedules at the end of last week’s thread.

GB - meow that’s a lot of miles.

Npurdy - Welcome back. I used to post on some antediluvian version of this thread, then came back about 2 years ago.

GFMAH - Looks like a good week. Always enjoy the descriptive writing. Icy trails are never easy.

Stat - solid quarters. Racing next weekend?

Pewow - Blazing, even with a tail wind.

RS - Did a 4 miler last year with a similar down start/up finish, but net zero. Looks like a tough race.

SI - Been ages since I’ve watched Rocky and Bullwinkle, but it might be liberating going into Boston without the pressure. C&O is great for tempos.

RGMW - Considered hobby jogging a 26.2 last weekend if not for the ankle. A little skittish about that distance being anything but the end of a cycle. Congrats on a sober-decade-so-far.

BHViking - Good week. I like the proper recovery runs.

drcrusher - It’s always a huge leap to get from those 10 miles of M pace to the full thing. It never seems possible, even when it is.

TL - Nothing wrong with easing up when you’re fighting off a cold.

RRR - Looking forward to seeing those sales skills at the Cherry Blossom expo.

Tyler - You mean you didn’t want to do your long run as a steeplechase over carnival detritus? Personally I’d just run the half with the first 10 at GMP, then finish fast if you feel good. That’s plenty.

Smoove - Those little goals can still be meaningful.

TheProcess - Welcome on board. It’s tough continuing to run fast track races after college.

@The Stone Cutter - I just looked at the calendar and noticed tomorrow is eight weeks until Marathon Monday. It reminded me that there is still a lot of time to get work done! I hope Mrs. Stone shakes those niggles and turns the corner for some strong weeks ahead!

@Sub 6:00 - Carnival can go away for all I care. Haha. Ever since last year when I was training for Boston I got out of the mood for it. My teammates did their annual parade long run this morning where they stop at every tailgate that cat calls them & offers them a beer. Word is there were many beers consumed this morning.

Stone: nice week! And very pretty. Making up for the lost time while you were sick?

HHW: it happens, man. You were definitely ready and did everything right. As a wiser man than me once said, some days you the pigeon, and some days you the statue...

JQ: Nice and consistent and good quality, as usual. Your training always seems like a slightly superior version of mine. :p

GT: Don't second guess the pullback weeks! Even without the fear of injury thing, I think they can be absolutely essential to getting through a build without too much fatigue.

Pappy: congrats on the mileage! And a well-earned eating break, of course.

OR: solid as always. Still amazed by how consistently quick you are.

Guy: nice mileage, and - more importantly - really consistent throughout this build. Enjoy getting back to the track work, too.

npurdy: nice week and a really solid 4 x 2 mile. That is probably my all time favorite workout; looks like you absolutely nailed it.

stat: I have no idea how those 400's qualify as just "decent," but nice week regardless of how you phrase it.

Sub 6:00: looks like a nice and reasonably week without anything dumb - good to still get some decent miles in despite the injury. Wishing you the best r.e. the foot/ankle.

pewow: sorry about the tailbone - that's no fun - but well done racing after that. Mile repeats into the wind suck! (see below)

Still improving: nice week, really good quality on Saturday. Remind me what the goal is for Boston...

Tyler: that's a really impressive amount of quality miles. You are definitely going to be in a super good place for Boston.

BHV: Very much approve of those paces on easy runs:

My week:

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: Knoxville half 3/29/2020

-Monday:

PM: 12 miles @ 8:41

-Tuesday:

AM: 6 miles @ 9:19

PM: 9 miles @ 8:56

-Wednesday:

PM: 2 mile warm up, 5 x 1600 (400 rest), 2 x 400 (200 rest). 5 mile cool down. 14 total.

Not even going to bother posting the splits, as this was supposed to be 9 x 1600 and 5 x 400, but 30 mph wind with 50 mph gusts quickly put an end to that. Suffice it to say that I can't remember ever working so hard to break 6 minutes for 1600 meters.

-Thursday:

AM: 8 miles @ 8:52

PM: 10 miles @ 8:40

-Friday:

AM: 5 miles @ 9:06

PM: 8 miles @ 9:17

-Saturday:

AM: 11 miles @ 8:49

Sunday:

AM: 24 miles @ 7:09

107 total.

Started the week off feeling crappy and tired, what with travel over the long weekend and a very late flight on Monday night. Wednesday's workout didn't help, but things got better from there. The long run today felt absolutely awesome and is the longest training run I've done, so that's a nice feeling, too. Really looking forward to a pullback week of 70-something miles this upcoming week.

M40, 6-6, 187

London

What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials.

John L. Parker Jr., Once a Runner

M 8 / 5

T 12 w 3x3200T (5:41, 5:40 / 5:37, 5:38 / 5:39, 5:42 / bailed on 4th rep after 400m, out of gas)

W 8 / 5 treadmill

Th 10 treadmill w 6 progression / 4

F 8 / 7

S 21 w 10E+10M (5:56 avg, splits 6:14, 6:03, 5:59, 5:59, 5:48, 5:58, 5:56, 5:54, 5:55, 5:42)

S 14 trails / 8

Total - 110 miles

9 weeks until go time. Full speed ahead.

Man page 3 on Sunday night?! It's a hot day for the thread...

M/36/145/6'

PRs - 5k 16:49 (2019)

Goals - 10 miles under 58:00

M: 6.2 miles @ 7:20

Tu: 8.2 miles - 2 up, 3 Tempo (6:05, 5:56, 6:02), 3 down

W: 7.1 @ 7:16

Th: 5 @ 7:00

F: 2 up - 3x1600 (200 jog) - 5:36, 5:34, 5:32 - 2 down

Sa - AM 4 @7:27, PM 8 @7:07

Su - 15 @ 7:01 (last 4 - 6:43, 6:29, 6:29, 6:22)

Total: 61 miles

Was traveling from Tu - Th for work this week, so just tried to get something in those days. All of those were early AM runs, including the workout, which really was not ideal. Felt gassed. Probably the beers the night before.

Bumped into stat and another guy from my club as I was starting to crank up the pace at the end of my long(ish) run today, so I put the hammer down and dropped him. (Just kidding, I was pushing, he was jogging).

All in all really happy that I was able to put some efforts in, travel half the week, and still hit 60 miles total. Adding up some good weeks. Gotta stay consistent.

Male, 51 yo, 5’7”, 129 lbs

Goals: 4/11 10k

Hey, y’all. Yeah, been away for a while for a few reasons.

First, I was kinda depressed about the January marathon, and I needed a bit of a break from thinking and reading about running. I’m sure you all get that. Then, I was pretty injured. The knee got back to normal in about 4 days, but I really strained my right groin when the knee went out on race day. I didn’t really notice it until I started to get back out there, but it was really painful. Laying flat, it was hard to even raise my right leg. So that was depressing too.

After more rest, I started coming back just doing easy stuff. When I tried anything like T pace, or downhill (where I had to open up my stride) I really paid for it in the following days. So I have really just been running easy and occasionally testing how the groin is progressing.

At this point, the painless range of motion is really getting pretty good. I did some hill sprints today and found I could almost go all out, but not quite yet.

Last week, just under 100km of mostly easy-medium. I really miss doing Q work, but this is the way it has got to be until I get back to 100%

PowSloke wrote:

JQ: Nice and consistent and good quality, as usual. Your training always seems like a slightly superior version of mine. :p

I think we all feel that way about JQ’s training...

M35, 6’-1, 155

PB / 2020:

Mile 4:06 / NT

5k 14:32 / NT

10k 31:30 / NT

Half 1:08:31 / NT

Full 2:32:50 / NT

Upcoming Races:

3/1: 10k

3/15: Half

3/27: 5k (track)

4/5: 10k

M: easy, 9M

T: strength, 8x800 @10k->5k pace (2:32->2:28) with 200 jog, 9M

W: easy, 9M

T: easy, 9M

F: strength, 4M tempo speed @LT pace (5:10 pace), 8M

S: off, —

S: long run, 18M

2/23 Total 62 (6d)

2/16 Total 67 (6d), LR=17

2/9 Total 62 (6d), LR=15

2/2 Total 34 (4d) *sick

1/26 Total 55 (6d), LR=16

1/19 Total 52 (6d), LR=13

1/12 Total 60 (6d), LR=16

1/5 Total 62 (6d), LR=14

2019 Totals: 2,811 miles in 296 days

this is the first week i have consistently logged my days. normally i would have a set back like saturday and be discouraged so i would stop keeping track of my running. I am happy and proud that I can finally post here and this will be the start of me posting here each week.

all runs were done at an easy pace. I am also incorporating a healthier diet so thats why im tracking my weight as well.

DATE DISTANCE WEIGHT

17-Feb-20 7 miles 173.6lbs

18-Feb-20 6.1 miles 172.6lbs

19-Feb-20 5.4 miles 172.2lbs

20-Feb-20 6 miles 170.5lbs

21-Feb-20 3 miles 171.8lbs

22-Feb-20 0 miles 173.6lbs

23-Feb-20 6 miles 171.4lbs

total mileage 33.5 miles

Dropping off my week a day late:

Female, 45, 5'4", 104

PRs 5:25/18:51/38:56/1:02:28/1:24:08/2:57:42

Goal races: One City Marathon, Boston Marathon (maybe)

Goal times: 18:30 for 5K, 1:23:xx for half, sub-2:55 for full

Next races: One City Marathon (March 1).

50 miles, 18 "miles" of pool-running, and 2000 yards of swimming

M: DIY yoga at home and 9 "miles" pool-running.

T: 12 miles, including a track workout of 4x1200 in 4:31, 4:28, 4:28, 4:24. Recovery between 2:37 and 2:43. Followed with leg strengthwork and 800 yards recovery swimming.

W: DIY yoga, 9 miles very easy (9:00), plus drills and four strides.

Th: Upperbody weights, core, and 9 "miles" pool-running.

F: 10 miles, including a 5K track tempo in 19:51 (6:26/6:21/7:02 for last 1800). Followed with leg injury prevention work and 750 yards recovery swimming.

Sa: DIY yoga and 8 miles very easy (8:51), followed by drills/strides, upper body weights and core.

Su: DIY yoga and 12 miles split as first 4 averaging 8:17, last 8 averaging 7:47. Followed with 450 yards recovery swimming.

One week to go until One City. I have to admit that I didn't feel great at the end of this week. Which is disconcerting, because normally 7 days out is when I start feeling really good. But my Ulcerative Colitis flared slightly this week, making me a bit uncomfortable and resulting in some associated SI/ hip pain. Did a brief course of meds to clear that up, but the meds left me feeling dull and fatigued. The bellies of both hamstrings were tight and sore both Saturday and Sunday (which is less worrisome than one being tight and sore).

I'm thinking that a lot of this is due to the UC flare (now under control) and the resulting meds, plus a healthy dose of taperitis. So....I'm going to stick with the plan for this week, with the exception of moving my planned relaxed 800s from Tuesday to Wednesday to give myself a little extra time to get the hammies mobile this week.

Male, 30, 6’01”, 179.0 lbs

PRs: 18:13 (2020 - February) 1:33:40 (2019 - spring)

Goal race: Carlsbad 5000 (3/22/20)

M - 4 miles

T - 9.7 miles

W - 9.4 miles

Workout:

2x3200m @ 12:34 with 2 min standing rest (12:17, 12:30)

1600m @ 6:07 - 7:17 with 1 min rest (6:07)

300m @ 51 (49)

Th - 8.2 miles (am) 3.3 miles (pm)

F - 7.7 miles

8x900m @ 3:13 with 1:45 standing rest (3:11, 3:11, 3:14, 3:12, 3:11, 3:15, 3:16, 3:17)

This felt like the hardest workout I had ever done, ha. It was the first full vo2 max session of this block. I also normally have 2 days between workouts, but had to move some stuff around this weekend. Those last 3 reps definitely felt like I was redlining.

Sa - 7.1 miles (am), 3.5 miles (pm)

Su - 13.1 miles

Weekly Total: 66.3 miles

Pre-Race:

I woke up on Sunday morning around 5:30 and ate a quick breakfast of oatmeal, banana, peanut butter and yogurt along with some coffee along with 20 oz of. Gatorade. At around 7:15 I met met dad downstairs at the hotel and sat with him while he ate breakfast before heading back to the room, organizing my stuff and sitting around until about 9:00. At 9:00 I headed down to the expo and sat around for another 30 minutes before lacing up my vaporflys and heading out for a short jog. My wife and son came in on Sunday morning so they were there when I got back. I gave my little guy a big hug and my wife one of those hugs you give an extremely pregnant woman where you have to sort of tilt your hips back and lean forward. I quickly ran back to my room. To use the bathroom before heading to the start line. I lined up 2-3 rows back and talked to a few other marathoners that were looking to run under 3 hours, Bill Rodgers said a few words and the gun went off.

Mile 1-5:

The first mile felt insanely easy. It was a pretty large crew of half marathoners but no so many that there was any real weaving going on. I was checking my watch a ton and saw the current pace roll up to 6:20 before cooling it and crossing the mile mark in 6:36. The next few miles were pretty uneventful. I just kind of turned my brain off and tried not to get too carried away. That said, I did run a few miles faster than was advisable. Overall the first block was 6:36/6:33/6:29/6:39/6:38. At mile 5 I took a quick status check. Aerobically I felt great (HR was 166), legs felt fresh and I had been able grab 2 gatorades. I took non-caffeinated gel and settled for the next 5 miles.

Miles 6-10:

Miles 6-10 were also pretty uneventful. I fell in with an older gentleman who told me he was planning on pacing his friend to a 3:10 but they had gotten separated so he was just kind of going with it. Later on in the conversation he mentioned that he ran 2:55 at Chicago the previous fall which made a bit more sense. I continued to grab water whenever I could. There were a lot of rolling hills on this section of the course but nothing too exciting. Overall I still felt awesome at 10 miles. I did another diagnostic check and aerobically I felt great still (HR was 164) and legs still felt pretty darn fresh. Splits were 6:34/6:32/6:38/6:32/6:27. My watch was showing me a projected finish time of 2:52 at this point and I was feeling confident. I took a caffeinated gel and focused on getting to the half.

Miles 10-15:

At around mile 12 I started to feel like I was working a bit. Nothing too crazy but it definitely wasn’t effortless. I focused on getting to the half and then focusing my efforts on getting to 18 miles. I finished the first loop in 1:26:05 ad saw my family. The gave me a big cheer and told my dad gave me some words of encouragement about being dead on pace. I hit a bit of a rough spot at 15 miles but thought I got over it quickly and continued loping along through 15 miles. I had separated from folks by this point and was mostly alone. I managed to get 3 more gatorades down during this section so was feeling pretty good about hydration. Splits were 6:34/6:31/6:33/6:32/6:42. I took another caffeinated gel at 15. My heart rate was up a bit to 170 or so and my legs were starting to feel a bit heavy but nothing I hadn’t felt before in training.

Miles 16-26.2:

Somewhere in mile 16 things started to go wrong. I began to feel my hamstring catching a bit on my left leg. This is not something I had really felt over this entire cycle. I adjusted my stride a bit to try and stretch it out a bit. This didn’t seem to do much I hit mile 16 in 6:47 and right at the outset of mile 17 my left hammy had a total meltdown. It Charlie horsed hard and I had to stop for a second. I could feel it spasming as I tried to massage it. I walked for about 20 second and tried to start jogging again. I made it about 200 meters and then it hit again. I continued to repeat this hoping it would loosen up no cigar. I realized my day was pretty much done but there was no real way to get home so I resigned myself to walk jogging it in the last 9 miles. I was able to put together .5-.75 miles before my hammy (and eventually elements of my groin) would flair up again. Folks were passing me and it was embarrassing. I started taking down multiples gatorades at each rest stop and eventually got a bottle of water at 24 miles which seemed to help a ton. Last section was 6:49/8:09/8:47/8:20/8:45/8:59/8:46/9:19/8:23/8:51/7:37/7:18 pace for the last bit. I crossed the line at 3:14:08.

Post-race thoughts:

I think I got badly de-hydrated. That is the only think I can really attribute this to. I was 183ish when I left for Hyannis and was down to 174 when I got home Sunday afternoon. This is after eating a Big Mac and fries and drinking probably 80 oz’s of gatorade. Maybe sweaty beasts just aren’t meant to cover 26.2 miles. I am mainly frustrated because I don’t feel like I ran the distance and gave it my all. I never felt like I was really pushing the line. I would have been OK with a true bonk but am not even sure how to respond to this one. I barely slept Sunday night thinking about where to go from here. I decided overnight that I am going to put in some time trying to work on my 5k and 10k speed and see if I can crack 16 and 34 minutes. I ordered a pfitz 5k-HM book and will try some different training. I also have a HM I will run on 4/5 where I may try to get a PR but won’t try anything too crazy.

Sometimes you need to keep things in perspective. Here is a before/after picture of me 8 months ago vs. yesterday (240+ vs. 170ish at the finish line?).

https://imgur.com/gallery/nN0UNQj

Other stats:

Total cholesterol last year/this year: 320/180

Resting HR last year vs. this year: 60/39

Mile time trail first day of running (6/20ish/2019): 6:37

Sometimes you have to keep things in perspective I suppose.

The Stone Cutter wrote:

PowSloke wrote:

JQ: Nice and consistent and good quality, as usual. Your training always seems like a slightly superior version of mine. :p

I think we all feel that way about JQ’s training...

You fellas are got the wrong idea! I'm sitting here often envious of everyone elses' strong weeks. I'm just slogging miles these days and shying away from the tough work.

Beastly workouts in here every week!

HHW - were you just drinking Gatorade and taking gels? No water? Gels are supposed to be taken with plain water. I can't help but wonder if that was a contributor.

I'm sorry you had a rough time - marathons are cruel.

Thanks Darkwave. They were Maurtens and there was a cup or two of water mixed in there.

HHW - The marathon is very, very hard. Even when it feels easy, it's not. You just never know when something weird will happen because there is no way to actually emulate running 26.2 miles at race pace (obviously). I've run 8 marathons now and only two of them didn't end up with me catastrophically slowing down. The first 3 were bonks due to going out too hard and the rest were either severe cramping or severe blisters (think I got both figured out thanks to you guys!)

Honestly, after reading your race report, I don't think you ran too hard. As I was reading the early part of your report, I thought you were actually going slower than your capability and being overly cautious but that is a very hard thing to judge.

The good news is that we learn from these races probably more than the ones that went well.