Forums >Racing>2024 Advanced Training and Racing Thread (still competitive jerks)
Hot Weather Complainer
Sorry to hear mmerkle but still a cracking time for a bad day.
Live tracking for Mark is here:
https://results.runningevents.co.nz/Live/Leaderboard/waterfront/2024/21KM
Through 7km in 7th place right on track for 1:14.xx. This is traditionally a pretty deep race by NZ standards so 7th is very impressive. The top 50 are on track for sub 1:20 at the moment.
Looks like Mark is in a pack of 14 runners which will be a big help while it stays together.
5km: 18:34 11/23 │ 10km: 39:10 8/23 │ HM: 1:26:48 9/23 │ M: 3:34:49 6/23
2024 Races:
Motorway Half Marathon February 25, 2024 1:29:55
Christchurch Half-Marathon April 21, 2024 1:27:34
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
Pack still together at 11km. Not sure what's happened to Greg Darbyshire, he was a minute clear of the pack in second but now has dropped a minute in 1km to be swallowed by the pack.
Edit - something strange going on with the top 5, new names randomly popping in there.
Mark on sub 1:14 pace now. Greg Darbyshire is goneburger, either a big crash happening or fighting off an injury (I mention him as he's an old sparring partner of Mark's).
Leaderboard seems to have sorted itself out now. Mark through 15km with estimated finish of 1:14:35 which has dropped 40 seconds in 2 km - but so have everyone else's. I wonder if one of the km timing mats is slightly off.
Now through 16km with estimated finish of 1:14:40 - it may be quite a tough 5km ahead.
2km to go with estimated finish of 1:15:30. Come on Mark finish strong! He's obviously hurting but has held it together pretty well.
Mark finishes in 1:15:49 for 13th place.
Splits are here:
https://results.runningevents.co.nz/live/athlete/waterfront/2024/0028
Looks like the last 6km got very tough, but just a slight fade.
Yep the easterly was a lot stronger than expected. By km14 the group had broken up and that upwind stretch of 5km or so was tough going. Happy with the effort even though I didn’t beat 2019 Mark. Was warm-ish and windy and didn’t leave anything out there. Can’t do more than that. 2019 Mark had perfect weather conditions.
3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)
10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)
* Net downhill course
Last race: Runway5 / National 5k Champs, 16:22, National Masters AG Champ!
Up next: Still working on that...
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Mark - Really good effort especially with that wind. Knowing that course as I do, an easterly would be awful at that stage of the race (14-19km). At least you get to turn away from it at 19km. Be interested to hear what happened to Darbyshire, he was showing in second place then dropped way back with 3 bad kilometres then held on to finish 20 seconds behind you with a good finish.
My week - I'd call it a pretty solid half-marathon training week even though I've been feeling negative for a while. Yesterday and today are the first time I've felt pretty good although it now feels like I'm fighting off another cold. I might just give up if I get sick for a third time in 6 weeks.
Well spotted, Darbs paced Dylan Logan for the first half of the race then cruised most of the rest of it. He is gunning for CHC Half in a couple weeks and was using this as a fairly long tempo practice.
mmerkle - it happens man. Sorry it didn't pan out for you.
I'm gonna try something different the next while training wise. With the next race being a 5km, I've got plenty of mileage in the legs already, so I'm gonna go back to the way that I used to do it pre-2023 and have two non-running days a week (one rest / one gym) and probably drop the mileage back slightly. With the 5k, it'll also be a case of probably adding more speedwork in there.
Intl. correspondent
Steve - you do seem to be getting sick very often. Is it maybe the higher mileage that's getting you?
Mark - awesome result, is this possibly your faster half result in the last 2 years ?
MMerkle - it's a long and winding uphill road as I've felt it myself.
Even if it was not the result you wanted, I'd reckon it's a good result in that direction.
Me - not a good day at the office.
It turns out that I'm a shity downhill trail runner.
In part due to poor shoe choice, the altra lonepeaks would have helped a bit in some muddy sections. But Ive chosen the Escalante 3s .
But the downhills were very steep, no way I'd have gone faster. I'm always bad when the downhill is above 30 degrees or so.
Other people had no issues sprinting downhill like they don't care. Good for them, guess they didn't take a fall 3 days ago heh.
Everybody and their mother was passing me.
Tons of mud and slippery ground.
It turned out alright though because I wanted to finish and not fall, and accomplished both.
2h08 for a 16km run, average 8 minutes per km, maybe 13 minutes per mile.
My wife unfortunately sprained her ankle at the 10k mark and could not finish. An ambulance took us to the hospital where we are waiting now for about 3h for an x-ray.
The vending machine wasn't working so we ordered McDonalds via Uber Eats. They delivered in 10 minutes, though to be fair its only 400m away, still impressive!
Thanks technology I guess.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: some 800m race (or time trials) / Also place in the top 20% in a trail race
Tool to generate Strava weekly
mmerkle, mark, flavio - good efforts all!
I've been busy and lurking but not posting. Also not much running to post.
Ran the 5k race 2 weeks ago. Left for vacation in the Georgia mountains the nest day, Sunday, like 12 hours of travel with stops. Ran late that night to get my running game mileage finished. Ran Mon-Wed, and then late Friday night after the 12 hour return day. The combo of driving all day a couple days, long hikes in the mountains and runs at night finally took my foot out that Friday night after driving back the 12 hours and running really late. It was a 8.5 mile out and back, and the last 7 miles were rough. Usually warms up and then it's ok, but not this time, so I shut things down.
I did run a race last night, with my son, a pirate themed 2 miler. He ran a PR, by a few seconds over the previous 2 miler. Could have been 30 seconds faster, but we had to stop to adjust his costume mid-race. His cape was misbehaving.
So it's been 9 days off and no real improvement in the foot. I agree with that video you posted, Flavio, that narrow shoes cause me a lot of pain. The higher heels in modern shoes could also be contributing. I'm trying to go barefoot a lot and wear flat sandals when outside. I'm doing some foot strength drills and stretches. They don't seem to do anything other than irritate the foot.
I will probably start some kind of cross training this week, but it might be annoying from a convenience stand point. I've used the time off to start a more structured strength program. Starting to focus on nutrition now. I see 5 problem areas in my diet, I'm correcting 3 of them now.
Right now my goals are get my foot healthy, cross train for cardio and try some V02 cross training as well, continue to clean up the diet, get my weight down to 165 (Was 172 morning of last 5k race) by June for my next 5k, add more muscle everywhere. Still want to break 19 for my next 5k. Then I'll set a new 5k goal and start to plan for a Fall or Spring marathon.
All in all, life is great and I'm in a good place. I am still dealing with a bit of external stress, but I'm hoping that it will resolve in the coming months. I'll be reading along, but I won't be posting much of my own stuff until it gets back to running.
Flavio - some people seem to fly down those steep downhill like mountain goats. It's a skill I suspect takes a lot of practice and a low instinct for self-preservation.
mt79 - cape adjustment and still ran a PR? Impressive!
I've come up with a few principles for training over the next while, having looked at what seems to have worked in the past. One thing that stood out is that a lot of my best races were off slightly lower mileage than what I've been targeting lately. And yes, that was 3-5 years ago so age is a factor but I do suspect I've fallen into the mileage trap a bit (not for the first time either). The last couple of races, I've noticed the legs have been the limiting factor rather than the lungs, which does lead me to think I need to build a little more rest into the program. In my best races, it tends to be the other way around. What tends to happen is that I kick the mileage / frequency up for a short period approaching a target race, then subsequently adopt that as the norm in future when I probably need to be a bit more structured about it.
I'm going to go back to running 5 days a week, with the occasional 6, so typically 80-90 km/week peaking at around 100km. I'll also include 2 weights / resistance sessions per week, probably one strength and one plyometric. The overall mileage is actually not dissimilar to what I was doing last winter, when I remember feeling really good. I also need to make sure I'm doing 2-3 build weeks followed by a lighter week as well.
Mark - nice work, super speedy as always.
Mike - sorry you didn’t get what you hoped. Sounds like a marathon happened. Looking forward to the RR.
mt79 - I manage to keep things reasonably healthy. My volume intake is rather high, although I do run a lot of miles. Like you I have a weakness in the post-dinner timeframe—I just want to keep snacking till bedtime. One tip that was given to me: have a cup of herbal tea, it may fill you up a little at least slightly distract you from food.
My week: I’ve definitely been feeling marathon training fatigue; every run that isn’t a workout ends up a super-slow recovery slog. They just keep getting slower. Which I guess is OK. However my 4x1200 track workout this week went pretty well; I was prepared for the worst but satisfied with the results. So I was hopeful for my 10k on Saturday.
On the race—my Strava looks happy, but I was kind of disappointed with my performance. I was shooting for 41:00 (6:35/mi avg) which would’ve been a PR—I ran 41:09 in December. It became pretty clear from early on I wasn’t going to be able to hold that pace, so I started thinking 6:40ish would be OK. First 4 were 6:37-6:43. The course was not too bad, but there were a couple hills I definitely felt, including one at mile 5. And it wasn’t super windy, but again just enough to feel it when you’re pushing the pace. I started to run out of gas and struggled to keep it under 6:50s—next two both came in at 6:48. Nothing left for any kind of late kick, and finished at 42:13. My watch had 6.30 miles so Strava had the 10k at 41:40—a little better. The good news is that no fast old guys showed up, so I won my AG. I suppose I was overly optimistic that I’d be able to really hammer a 10k at peak marathon training fatigue. So all in all, I’ll take it.
Then I went for a 15 miler on Sunday because I felt I should still have something longish for the week. That was about as fun as you’d imagine. Eugene in 3 weeks.
Dave
Dave - I'm going to sound like a broken record and say I really think you'll benefit from a rest day (or 2). It sounds like you're running yourself into the ground. Hopefully the taper takes cares of it though.
Mark - This sounds like a solid approach. You talk about aging etc but that performance suggests to me that with your refined approach and a sustained period of targeting the half and shorter, you still have more PBs to come.
mt79 - Good luck with the foot. I too love food and not always the most healthy option. If you even make some of those changes it will make a big difference.
Flavio - I've definitely started getting sick more often since I started training for marathons, although I didn't get sick for the first one (that got cancelled) and I trained through autumn and early winter which seems to be the danger time. Every other marathon I've trained for is after my first bout of covid and the vaccine though, either of which could have hit my immune system. So far I'm fighting this one off though.
Running fast downhill on uneven ground is so tough, I'm in awe at how trail runners do it.