Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 3/15/20

Just have to report this one, as I am sensing it was a breakthrough run. Even after running in the late afternoon yesterday, and running fast, I got up at 5:25 this morning and pulled off this...in a dark, frosty fog...

10.25 at 6:18 overall...7:03, 6:48, 6:30, 6:21, 6:16, 6:10, 6:01, 6:00, 6:05, 5:56, 1:27

The 6:05 was coming up a gradual incline the whole way. Have never run that fast up that incline. In full control the whole way. Body feels very strong. I gather I am peaking. Not sure what to do...

Happy running to all.

OR these are phenomenal runs. I'd like to see you doing a 10K/half TT.

Also NJ Marathon postponed to Nov. 14-15. Just hit my inbox. Another one bites the dust.

MrsStone - some quick mile repeats, maybe you(Stone) can pace her in a time trail soon before shutting down, even if its 5k/10k

imagebearer - sounds like a tough HM time trail, gj for keeping with it

AJ - nice job with that Michigan, I plan(ned?) to fit one in this spring as well

Sub 6 - a solid week of doubles! I ran my 100k in '16 '17 '18 ('20 planned) in Price William Forest, very nice place to run. averaged 10:02s on the quickest one

slo-twitch - I was about to comment 'Is slo-twitch update?' (and 'Is JeremyR update?) last week, glad you are back putting in the miles

jewbacca - doesnt like like fun, maybe the extra stress from 12hr days led to the crohns flair up?

BHViking - how are you feeling after all those reps? tired of the turns yet?(Assuming track)

Thoughtsleader - The park near me seemed more crowded than normal as well, not sure if it is the time change/nicer weather or people wanting to get outside while they can

high school failure - If your season is going to be cancelled, You should try running 4-5 miles a day, 5-6 days a week with one longer run (45-60min). add strides 2-3 times a week.

GT - quick 3x2mi and 10 mile steady workouts

LancRunner - Sub 57 at BS10 looks obtainable, might have to settle for a TT 5k PR

Stat - looks like a another solid week of training to me

Male, 30, 6’01”, 181.0 lbs

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

Goal: 5k TT on 3/28

M - 7.9miles

T - 12

W - 11.8

Workout:

8x400@78-79s with 400 jog rest (78, 80, 79, 78, 77, 78, 79, 79)

4x200 @34s with 1 min standing (34, 32, 33, 34)

Th - 9 miles

F - Rest

Sa - 8.4 miles (3.1 am), (6.5 pm)

Workout:

6x1400 @ 5:15 per (6:02 pace) with 75s standing rest (5:19, 5:16, 5:14, 5:15, 5:14, 5:16)

3x100 (17, 16, 14) No real goal times, just start easy and approach all out towards number 3

Su - 13 miles

Weekly Total: 62.1 miles

Up and down week for me.

Mon: 2.5ish miles recovery miles & plyometrics

Tues: 5 miles( 1; 3x1200m, 400m; 1). I got the splits needed for all three 1200m, but the legs felt really dead and heavy.

Wed: 4.23 miles. This was a slower run with the wife.

Thur: 6.36 miles. This was supposed to be 1 mile warm up, 3 miles @ HMP or better, and then 1 finishing mile. I felt pretty good at the end and turned the 1 mile finisher into 2 miles.

Fri: 4.28 miles at a pretty easy pace.

Saturday: 14.25 miles at 140 bpm

Sunday: 15 miles at 8:08/mi. The first 13.1 miles were at 7:25/mi pace. I was still feeling good at the end of the 13.1, but decided to go ahead and downshift through the remaining 1.9 to get home.

My race was cancelled (the Milwaukee HM). I was getting pretty excited about running it, and was hopeful that I could have turned in a solid time for my first HM ever. Oh well.

I think I'm going to finish this training block, and then take a couple weeks to recovery. Right now, I'm shooting to start a new training block on or around April 18th or 25th and ramp back up for the Chicago Rock 'n' Roll half-marathon on July 19th. Hopefully, covid-19 will be under control by then and that race will go forward.

Then I'm already signed up for the Mo Cow Bell in St. Charles, MO in October.

F43, 5'6"

No firm plans for the fall yet I guess

Well, after every spring race getting the axe, and my decision therefore to just take a break for a while, I had a pretty down week. I didn't mean to take as much of a break as I did, but ....

Mo: off as usual

Tu: 8.5 easy

We: 8.5 easy

Th: news of races being cancelled immediately zapped me. I had scheduled a tempo workout that I did not get up in the morning to do (dislike doing them in the dark if I don't have to ) and by the end of the day was mentally not feeling it at all. It wasn't a very nice day out after work either so I didn't even go out for easy miles.

Fr: pouring rain in the a.m,., very warm and windy in the p.m., still feeling kind of sulky about all the races, exhausted by the end of a very mentally exhausting week. I came home after work and sat on the couch.

Sa: tried to get myself back out there. Chilly and windy in the morning, I got three miles before I said "I hate this and I have no reason to MAKE me stay out here" and so I gave up and came home. Kind of dislike letting myself off the hook so easily, but it's been a trying week.

Su: had a 22-er on the schedule, no way I needed to do that, and actually I didn't go outside at all, letting myself just naturally work my way out of this low point.

So I ran only 20 miles last week. I was supposed to travel home Friday to spend the weekend in Iowa with my parents but I bailed on that because my dad is a walking example of almost every major risk factor for COVID-19 and I couldn't bear the idea of ANY chance of exposing him to it because I flew there. There are a lot of reasons not being able to go was an emotionally hard decision which also rolled into the "just forget it" feeling about running late in the week. Work has also been tense lately and this public health situation is not making that any better -- Friday we finally got a work from home order except those of us that are laboratory scientists, our teams have had to work out an every-other-day schedule to decrease the number of people who are on site on any given day. However my husband has an employee on his team who was in direct contact with the cluster of cases at the U of Delaware (and she got sick last week, got tested, results aren't in yet) and thus through him I may have been exposed so I am not going to go to work AT ALL until I hear that employee has tested negative or until 2 weeks have gone by. I feel fine, but that doesn't mean anything about whether or not I could be part of the virus spread because of this.

As with most of you, it's been kind of a rough week. However I think I am past the race-related running blues and am looking forward to going out for some easy miles this afternoon and just rolling back into running for the sake of enjoying running for a while as I decide what to do this fall. I am not sure I want to do Boston in September. The 14th is kind of in between two other non-running related things I've already got on the schedule which makes it less than convenient and also I have no faith it won't be too warm that day anyway, which is not good for me. Is there any suggestion they might allow a participant to defer to next spring instead? They said there would be further information but I haven't seen that.

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

OR these are phenomenal runs. I'd like to see you doing a 10K/half TT.

Also NJ Marathon postponed to Nov. 14-15. Just hit my inbox. Another one bites the dust.

TL - Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. I could not believe how easily the pace was coming this morning. It was like BOOM. And it was in the dark, in 30 degrees, with low visibility (fog), even with my headlight on.

A 10k or half would be great, but I am hoping that somehow Pittsburgh holds on.

I am guessing anyone signing up for a spring race is either .. torching money when it cancels, are paying for a virtual race, or getting pushed back to fall.

Pour one out for the Glass City Marathon.

Saw it coming from 26.2 miles away, but held a sliver of hope.

Yeah...I am sitting back, waiting to see what unfolds...

RunnerSam wrote:

jewbacca - doesnt like like fun, maybe the extra stress from 12hr days led to the crohns flair up?

Very likely. Honestly, I wasn't eating well either. I've been lulled into false security with a long stretch of remission, so it's a bit of a wake-up call that my last hospitalization wasn't just because I ate my weight in almonds that day.

jewbacca wrote:

RunnerSam wrote:

jewbacca - doesnt like like fun, maybe the extra stress from 12hr days led to the crohns flair up?

Very likely. Honestly, I wasn't eating well either. I've been lulled into false security with a long stretch of remission, so it's a bit of a wake-up call that my last hospitalization wasn't just because I ate my weight in almonds that day.

Yeah I know the struggle of false sense of security with my stomach. My boss has crohns and has to avoid a few different foods, I know too many nuts and cheeses do him in. A good friend of mine in college freshman year ended up switching to a school close to home so he could have home cooked meals rather than dining hall food. I guess you will just have to stay on top of it although I know that isnt fun. Did your job switch to 12hr shifts? I know there has been a movement for 24hr manufacturers switching to 12hr shifts.

To jewbacca: Did your job switch to 12hr shifts? I know there has been a movement for 24hr manufacturers switching to 12hr shifts.[/quote]

More specifically, how is the '12 shift experiment' going?

- Sam

I'm not super happy with the Milwaukee Marathon & HM organizers. They switched it to a virtual race. Whether or not you submit a virtual time, you get the medal and swag. You also get a 20% discount directed towards the 2021 race.

My understanding is that the organizer manages multiple races. If several of the races cancelled, they probably don't have enough money to cover refunds or purely roll the registrations over to 2021. But, it's still rather annoying how they handled it.

I was working extended hours due to turnaround activities at the refinery. The real kick in the pants is I have to work a minimum set of days to be compensated the extra time, which I didn't meet. So I worked ~30 hrs for free over the last week.

The biggest change is I'll be starting Humira treatments. I've tried hard to avoid the big boy autoimmune drugs, but the writing is on the wall.

WHY? they all look like they are having a blast in life!

Male, 29, 5’11”, 185 lbs

PRs: 17:54 (2013), 38:45 (2019) 1:30:10 (2019), 3:02:26 (2019)

Next Race: Colorado Marathon - May 3 (pending cancellation)

M - Rest

T - 6 miles

W - 14 miles, 3 miles@6:47s, 3min rest, 2miles@6:40s, 2min rest, 2miles@6:32s. felt really good on this one. started at my Threshold pace from last year and felt very comfortable and picked it up to my 2020 T pace for the last 2 miles.

Th - 10.15 miles

F - 8.5 miles

Sa - 8.34 miles

Su - 20 miles 3x5 miles at Marathon PR pace(6:58s,6:57s,6:55s). 1 mile recovery jog. Felt strong through all of it. Just another showing of much better fitness than last year.

Weekly Total: 67 miles

Year to Date: 436 miles

Had a really good week with my workouts. Feel way better than last week after bumping my miles up to 70 easy miles. Just hope my marathon doesn't get cancelled. If it does, I guess I'm still in pretty good shape.

IB - Good work grinding out a half in less than ideal conditions.

GFMAH - There's social interaction in New England? News to me!

TL - Solid week. Repeat 1ks are always fun.

AJ - Heck of a week. That's a really well executed Michigan workout.

Sub 6:00 - Cranking that volume back up! Looking good, man.

Slo - Keep grinding. You'll be pretty fit before you know it.

Tyler - Solid work. You're still there aerobically, just need to hit a few workouts to get your legs back under you.

SI - Any chance you can defer Boston and just focus on Chicago?

OR - A buddy of mine ran his OTQ at Pittsburgh. It's not lightning fast but it's not as slow as everyone says it is either. I wouldn't count on it happening though. I don't think we'll be seeing much until June or July.

GNR1 - Nice structure to that Tuesday workout haha. Good week overall.

GT - Good stuff. Just think how fit you're gonna be for Boston now.

Lanc - Still crushing weeks. That's a really strong long run.

Comments on posts on Page 3...

@outsiderunner - Let's Gooo! (Note the lack of o's for a midweek update)

@mdubs - It looks like you're going to be ready for that 5K time trial. Are you going to do it on the road or track?

@ajhahn - Strong week! I've heard A LOT of good things about the Mo Cow Bell!

@drcrusher - It looked like you did what you had to do to get your mind off the races being canceled. Can't wait to see you back out there crushing that training!

@RunnerFC - You are really coming into form right now. Strong week of training, especially that Sunday long run!