2024 The Waltons: Racing & Training Thread (Read 145 times)

 

Mark - Be honest...you've been seduced by the Whippets hot-pink running singlet! Aside from the cool singlet, is there more to them than just a club that are taking all the best runners from other clubs? (as is the general current perception).

 

8+ years is a decent chunk of time - I say get those funds into the mortgage!

 

On a side note, they've been saying for the past two years now that rates will come down, but they haven't really. All they've done is stop going up. The 6-mth and 1-yr rates are currently the most popular, as the industry is still expecting a downward trend in rates, just not as fast as they had previously predicted (or as fast as those of us with mortgages had hoped for!!).

 

TBH it's actually black with pink!

I'll be honest, I was a little skeptical to start, and they've definitely copped it for taking both Auckland and Christchurch runners and putting them in one team for relays.  The guy who founded them, Dan Donegan, is a bit of an anti-establishment type but in some ways that's EXACTLY what the club environment needs to give Athletics NZ and Athletics Auckland a bit of a rark-up.  A couple of former Takapuna clubmates joined last year and only have good things to say.  Good opportunity for group runs on Sun etc. too. 

Whippets 100% seem to have their sh!t together which is more than can be said for most Auckland clubs.  Joined yesterday, within 15 minutes had emails about singlet, upcoming group runs, etc.  I'm sure some of the Wellington clubs like Scottish are probably just as well organised but most of the Auckland ones aren't!!

Rates aren't gonna come down appreciably for at least 6 months I don't think.

Whippets definitely get a lot of criticism for not belonging to a province but the concept is pretty good.  The other clubs could maybe just get better to avoid losing athletes...

I can't speak for Christchurch but in Auckland that was 90% of the problem.  A lot of the clubs are pretty disorganised, and the ones that are vaguely organised all have a bit of a niche and limited appeal / numbers outside that (e.g. you can't run for Bays if you have less than 500 followers on Instagram).

RunAPalooza Half Marathon, Asbury Park, NJ - 4/6/24

My third running of this race.  Two years ago, I set a PR there with a 1:50:47.  Last year, with a strong wind and occasional heavy rain, I ran 1:58:06.  Earlier this week, I thought I might be able to run in the neighborhood of 1:55.

I got to the site with plenty of time to spare, which I like.  About a half hour before start time I went for a warmup run.  It was 39º with the wind coming in from about 45º off the main axis of the route (i.e. sometimes a side wind and sometimes a headwind/tailwind) that gusted to the level of uncomfortably cold.  Still, I decided after the warmup to run in shorts & t-shirt, with sleeves on my arms, a buff around my neck, a headband over my ears, and gloves.

I lined up with the 2:00 pacers, one of whom, Adam, I knew from previous races.  My plan was to run with them as I warmed up and stick with them during the northward run into the wind, then pull away once we turned around.  Our first four miles went smoothly, though with almost 2,000 runners, the traffic was heavy for the first three miles.  9:02, 9:04, 9:03, 9:08.  I had taken off the buff and headband along the way.

As we turned around, running around the block rather than 180º around a cone, I made my move to pull away from the two hour group.  Even though this stretch started with a mile-long steady incline (I wouldn't call it a hill), I was feeling good and moving well.  Through mile 8 things were going smoothly. 8:53, 8:44, 8:42, 8:42.  When I picked up the pace, I rolled my sleeves down to my wrists.

Halfway through mile 9, things started to go badly for me.  We moved onto the boardwalk and for a while the wind was swirling and shifted to be a headwind.  I wasn't ready for this, mentally, and I suffered a collapse of will power.  Miles 10 and 11 were still southbound, meaning more tailwind than headwind, and in parts were sheltered, but my morale had broken.  I was hurting and didn't have the determination to push myself.  It probably didn't help that there was nobody running my pace, so I was somewhat alone (I was passing some people but mostly being passed).  9:12, 9:40, 9:49.  With my slowing pace, the clouds having rolled in to block the sun, and the wind swirling, I was getting cold and I rolled my sleeves back up my arms.

Shortly after the 11 mile mark, we turned around and went back up onto the boardwalk.  We now had a serious headwind and all I could do was fight off the desire to walk.  I knew the 2:00 group was catching up to me as I could hear them behind me.  I was ready to let them go past when Adam said the exact right thing to me as he came up from behind.  "Frederick!  Check your form!  Shoulders up, breathe deep."  I did just what he said and as he and the other pacer passed, I sped up from a 10:00 pace to keep up with them.  Somehow, somewhere, I rallied and found the determination to hold on for two more miles, and even pulled out ahead of the pace group a bit.  Though they were into a strong wind, miles 12 & 13 were faster than the two downwind miles before.  9:11, 8:51.

The finish line came in sight and I knew I could go sub-2 if I just kept pushing.  It was hard and I was tired and the wind was blowing.  In the distance, we could see bands of rain falling from the dark clouds over the ocean.  There was occasional light rain blowing into my face, but just some small drops blown in from offshore.  I crossed the finish with a time of 1:59:30.8. I waited to thank Adam for pulling me through and then headed for my car as the rain started to fall again.

Thoughts of my mother, whose ashes we'd scattered on Thursday, crossed my mind and I felt really sad for a bit, but managed to avoid breaking down.  My calves almost cramped up a couple times as I sat in the backseat of my car changing my pants and shoes, but I was able to check the cramps by pulling my toes up.  I drank some water, ate some food, and headed home.  Thus ends my spring half marathon season.  I have more, shorter races coming up, but won't run another half until late September.  I want to spend some time getting back to running some repeats and intervals to see if I can recapture some of the speed and strength I've lost.  I don't know if I'll run another 1:50 (or 1:48) half, but I'd certainly like to get back to 1:55 at least.

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.

Good job, Mark!  Looks like you were with a pack for much of the way, which seems like it would be fun. 

Another pretty good week for me despite some time constraints.  My left knee is improving but not quite 100% yet.  Hope it gets warm/hot soon so I can get acclimated to the heat before my May races.  I’d like to run in the afternoons this month to get used to the heat and then switch to the mornings to get used to running at race time.  I’ve read that it takes 10 runs at heat to get acclimated to the heat, but I don’t know how many runs in the morning it takes to get ready to race in the morning.  Probably overthinking it.

Sun - 8.6 miles in park PM @ 8:40

Mon - off

Tues - 13.2 miles in park midday @ 8:26

Weds - 5 miles slow TM (60:25) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 min

Thurs - 7 miles in park PM @ 8:06

Fri -  75 minutes pool running

Sat - 10.1 miles in park midday @ 8:30

Total - 43.9 miles

YTD - 37.7 mpw

Fred - that sounds like a tough day, for a variety of reasons.  Wind is the worst.  Well, equal worst, with humidity.

Steve- IDK that's a pretty solid week regardless!

Me - Steve kindly posted the results.  I guess, I was disappointed a little with the time (I needed to be just over a minute quicker to beat 2019 Mark), but I was happy with the effort.  It was warmer than forecast (17C / 63F) at race start, and clearly more windy than expected as well.

I went out with a large pack, and did the work for the first 5km or so to the first turnaround, then probably another 1-2km back into the wind to the halfway mark.  The pack included 2-3 of my new clubmates and the sense of working together with them was good fun (we also had a LOT of support on the course).  I didn't realise the pack had 10 or so runners, I thought there were only 4-5, or I would've sat back a bit more!  There were only really 2-3 of us doing the work.  Was averaging around 3:28/km at halfway, but I knew it would likely get tough in the second half as the worst of the wind was yet to come.  However a massive high 5 from my 7 year old daughter just after halfway boosted the spirits immensely.  I started to fade a little before the 14km turnaround, and the group was splitting up.  Sure enough, the most exposed section of the course (kms 17-19) was tough going into a wind that was WAY stronger than the forecast 11kph (6.5mph) breezes, having run along there a lot I would say it was 2-3x that strength - at this point I was out alone.  It was actually the legs that started to get tired, breathing was still OK, and in hindsight I probably overcooked my training last week a bit - the high risk strategy didn't quite pay off.  It was better going after the last turnaround at 19km but didn't have a heap left after fighting the wind.  Final result 1:15:49, so I didn't beat 2019 Mark, but I did beat 2018 Mark.  Like I say, I was happy with the effort, less so with the time.  Conditions were definitely tougher than expected but I feel like I have a quicker race in me than what the results are showing.

Posted this part on the other thread, but I'm gonna change up my training a bit.

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.

My weeek:

Monday: strength training (upper body)

Tuesday am 5.5 with 8x3min 10k effort, pm strength (lower body)

Wednesday am 3.5 easy

Thursday strength (upper body)

Friday 7.8 with 1 hour at a harder than easy effort

Saturday 3.2 easy

Sunday 10, Hudson style long run with varying paces

Felt like it was never going to stop raining. Rain of varying intensities on every run during the work week. I think my shoes from Tuesday didn't dry for a few days, I was totally drenched. Luckily I had planned ahead and had a towel next to the front door so I didn't drip all over the house.

Fred, nice job toughing it out. I like the flatness anything at the beach has, but it always comes with the risk of awful winds.

Mark, nicejob on the HM. Didn't you just have covid recently? So that probably puts you closer to 2019 Mark in a perfect world. I feel like there is a pretty big difference between 5 days and 6 days of running. With 5, it's usually like 3, rest, 2, rest, vs only having the 1 rest day after 6 runs.

JamesD, do you have the option of overdressing to try to get some heat acclimation if it hasn't warmed up? I agree, I think there is a benefit to running at race time. I had sworn off racecs that started earlier than 8am. Once the pandemic hit and I started workinig from home, it was easier to run on the morning and those 7 or 7:30 starts didn't seem so bad.

Steve, fingers crossed you aren't getting another cold.