Marathon Trainers

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March 2013 (Read 17 times)

evanflein


    Good Grief, it's the 6th (barely, here....) and no thread yet?

     

    Hey Paul, what is your race? Good luck to you, and it sounds like you have a good plan. Enjoy the time out there and don't worry about the results.

     

    Not Too Swift, what's your race next week? How are you doing?

     

    I know Lou is off skiing, so I hope that is going well.

     

    I'm happy to report a 42+ mile week last week, and a "long run" of 10+ miles last Sunday! Woohoo! Longest run for me in weeks (as in, late December when I ran 12....). How pathetic is that? Oh well, it's a start on the road back to more consistent running. The temps are more mild (for now), the days are longer (yay!) and I've been getting in some good runs lately. Still not marathon on the schedule other than the default Equinox in September, but I hope I can fit something in before then. Other than that, our local races start next month with a symphony fund-raiser 5k that I might do (or might not...), then the first series race is a 5k on May 4. For now, that's my target so besides increasing mileage I'll be trying to fit in some speedwork (gasp!) here and there.

     

    Good running, everyone! March is here so spring can't be far behind!!

      Hi evanflein! Glad you had a good week, 42+ is looking good. Last fall I was logging some weeks with mileage like that and not any real long runs. My marathon is on 3/17, it is the Publix Georgia Marathon. I'm just really starting to get the taper madness now. Hard to believe it is just a week and a half away. Not shooting for a PR because of the hilly course, but I am hoping to beat my BQ time of 3:55. Planning on running with the pace group at least at first, to make sure I don't go out too fast again. I've been able to do some training runs with the pacer, put on by the nearby store, and it seems like he'll be a good one and not try to "bank time" or anything crazy.

       

      yapper: Hope you enjoy your race on Saturday.

       

      I ran a 10K on Sunday, but my time was not that impressive since I'd run 14+ with 11 @ MP the day before. Surprisingly, I managed to win my AG (fairly small race).

       

      Happy running, everyone!

      PRs: 5K: 21:25, 10K: 44:05, HM: 1:38:23* (downhill), M: 3:32:09

      theyapper


      On the road again...

        Thanks everyone.  My head is in a good place for this marathon.  I was pretty bummed when I realized how quickly I lost PR fitness, but once I accepted the fact that I can simply do it and not worry about the results, my outlook changed pretty quickly.  I've taken it pretty easy the last 2 weeks and today ran a fast (for me) mile just to shake out any cobwebs and it felt pretty good.  Not that I can hold that pace long, but it still felt good to open it up a little.

         

        Oh, and the race is in Columbia, SC.  My wife grew up there and so her father has been bragging to all his buddies that I was running the marathon.  That was another big factor in deciding to go ahead and run it.

         

        Hope everyone's doing well!

        I write. I read. I run. One time, I ran a lot on my 50th birthday.

        Paul

        evanflein


          Hey, nothing like a little FIL talk to put the pressure on! Go do it and have fun! The PRs can happen another day, right?

           

          NTS, good luck to you next week on St. Paddy's day in GA! You should be in full swing taper mode now.

           

          We're having really warm weather! It's currently something like 43° which is very mild for us this time of year. The roads are sloppy but the bike path was plowed last night so I'm heading out in a bit after work to run a few. If this keeps up, I'll have another good week of running. Smile

            We got back from skiing last night -- Killington was great, but the snow really hit as we were heading out Sad .  But the slow part only lasted an hour or so -- for a while there were were going 10 mph behind a logging truck.

             

            No snow here in Maryland, though -- really beautiful day, hit 60° easily, and tomorrow more of the same.

             

            We did get about 18 miles or so in, 4 to 5 each day before skiing, and this morning another 4 with the running club's "breakfast run".  Those are always fun -- someone hosts and people bring stuff, run and then we eat breakfast and chat.

             

            Back to normal tomorrow, planned long run of 17.  You'd think our legs would be well rested, but the skiing takes some out of you, so it'll be some work.

             

            Go racers!

            Lou, (aka Mr. predawnrunner), MD, USA | Lou's Brews | lking@pobox.com

            theyapper


            On the road again...

              Sorry to wait until Thursday to tell you guys that the race went fine.  I knew at the halfway mark that I should have just downgraded to the half, but I just took my time in the second half.  Ran slow, walked when I wanted to, and enjoyed the race.  Met me family near the finish line and got to run across the line with my 3 children.  We threw our arms up in the air and hammed it up for the camera.  Had lots of people tell me how fresh I looked in all the post race pictures and I'd just laugh.  It was nice to get through a marathon and still feel like walking.

               

              Finished in 5:07ish, smiling and injury-free.

              I write. I read. I run. One time, I ran a lot on my 50th birthday.

              Paul

              evanflein


                Good for you, Paul! That's the way to do it. Glad you had a good time with the kids, that's just precious!

                 

                Cold and windy here! Well, I shouldn't say cold because for us it's not "too" bad. Got up to upper teens, maybe 20 today, but we've got 10-15 mph winds with gusts up to 30 mph (so says the weather site, I didn't feel that much gusts) so the windchill is pretty bad. Was down to -40 in spots yesterday. I left work a little early (ha, considering I'd at first put in for the whole day off...) and got out for a hilly icy run here by the house. At the highest spot it's pretty exposed and oh boy was it chilly and windy! Wow... Glad that's done. It was a nice sunny day though with lots of birds making all sorts of noise. 8.2 hilly miles and very chilled by the end.

                  Good way to finish, Paul -- smiling and injury free.

                  Lou, (aka Mr. predawnrunner), MD, USA | Lou's Brews | lking@pobox.com

                  Kimmie


                    Hi Everyone!

                     

                    I was hoping you'd post results Paul.... that's cool that you were able to cross with your kiddos.... I'm sure my girls would love that.

                     

                    I'm hanging in there, slowly getting my mileage back up and feeling the stamina return a bit.    Ran 8 last weekend and 6 this past weekend, so for me, those were longish ( I know, don't laugh)

                     

                    Today, 3 on the mill and felt good.    I bought a bib for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in a few weeks.... hope I can do what Paul did and just walk if needed.   I love that race, though, and really wanted to see the blossoms that way.

                     

                    Lou, will you and Harriet run that race?

                     

                    Take care everyone!

                      Hi, Kim.  Keep getting better -- it'll come back.

                       

                      We ran the Rock and Roll USA Half Marathon on Saturday (1:39:44 for me, 2 and a half minutes or so slower than my PR Sad , 1:52:XX for Harriet, a new PR), and will be running Boston in 4 weeks.  We haven't been able to run the cherry blossom for a while, but that is a fun race.

                       

                      The RnR USA had some logistics issues, which was a surprise because it was great last year, better than before RnR picked it up on their series.  But the new course caused them to make some changes, especially in bag handling, which didn't work out too well.  I heard some people had to wait and hour or hour and a half to get their bags.  Harriet's bus didn't have any volunteers at first, and runners were just getting on the bus to take their bags.  Luckily Harriet was one of the first served after the volunteers finally arrived.

                      Lou, (aka Mr. predawnrunner), MD, USA | Lou's Brews | lking@pobox.com

                      AmoresPerros


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                        I was wondering if you (Lou & Harriet) were running National this year. Congratulations to Harriet on the PR! I'm sorry you didn't PR, Lou, but hope you have a good training cycle for Boston. Plus certainly us non-beginners don't get to PR all that often anymore.

                         

                        My recent marathon:

                         

                        Summary: I got tired and it hurt and I slowed down, and afterward wished I'd run faster.

                         

                        I ran the one down here as my goal marathon just over a week ago. I was hoping to break 3, but missed that. Came in about 3:03, with a 3min PR, so I can't complain. I was SO very relieved afterward to no longer have it hanging over me; apparently I had gotten myself feeling fairly stressed with the pressure I felt to PR -- good training, great weather, fast course --  I felt that I had no decent excuse, so I was stressed.

                         

                        Execution summary: Plan was to run with the lead woman (a local). We started out together, and a local guy who knew me joined us, and he was really personable, so we had a great three person team. But then at mile 6, I dropped some gu packs, and foolishly turned around to get them.

                         

                        This was doubly foolish as the course is all out-and-backs. In fact, I retrieved one fallen one, and left the other, and picked it up returning from that out-and-back in a mile. But that silly turning around cost me about 10sec and the experience of running alongside the other two people.

                         

                        I spent the next 10mi chasing along behind them. They were going slightly faster than pace, so I didn't want to pick it up to catch up.

                         

                        Eventually one fell off, and we exchanged greetings as I passed him, and the other pulled away.

                         

                        I did catch a different local guy (debuting) at the last turnaround, and ran side-by-side with him for several miles, but then his hamstring acted up and he had to drop off.

                         

                        I ran the last 4mi alone. It is a gradual descent, so a fantastic place to pick up the pace to make up for the 6mi of rolling hills that just ended, but I lacked the gumption (or willpower). My watch died going into that last section, so it wasn't til a few days later, when I did some arithmetic, that I discovered I hadn't really fallen off in the hills - but I fell off by 30sec/mile in those last four miles, so that was most of my time goal failure right there.

                         

                        I think next year I want to practice that section -- practice running through those hills and then picking up the pace coming down that last section.

                        It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.

                        AmoresPerros


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                          PS: I've never done Cherry Blossom because I always run Cherry Pit instead, and this year will be no exception.

                          It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.

                            Wow, Perry - great race, even if you didn't get to break 3.  I know the pressure to perform, even though I'm 1/2 hour slower than you are (last race was 14 seconds shy of breaking 3:30), and don't really like racing because of it.  I was nauseous going into the RnR USA race, e.g., and expect nothing less for Boston.

                            Lou, (aka Mr. predawnrunner), MD, USA | Lou's Brews | lking@pobox.com

                            theyapper


                            On the road again...

                              This question may not make any sense, but I'm gonna give it a try.  Two of my goals as a marathoner are 1) break 4 hours and 2) eventually BQ.  These seem stupid in light of my times, but I'm pretty focused on giving them my best shot.  I know that to accomplish them it will take good training cycles and then an actual plan to race - not just run - a marathon.  Making sense to this point?

                               

                              Now, I've never done that.  I have raced a half, but never a full.  They've just been more like really long runs that I did the best I could at, and even running them like that they become uncomfortable.  Legs get tired, muscles ache, etc.  I don't have the experience to know if the pain I feel during the late stages of a marathon are normal and I need to figure out how to block it out and run anyway or if I'm just not in good enough shape and it'll be different when I'm racing them.  I keep thinking it's gonna hurt a lot, and so I'm curious from the more experienced marathoners what you experience and how you handle it.

                               

                              If none of this makes any sense, feel free to move along and wait for a better thread topic.

                              I write. I read. I run. One time, I ran a lot on my 50th birthday.

                              Paul

                                yapper: I just took a look at your log and PRs, and given that you have run a sub-1:50 half, you should be able to run sub-4 for the marathon with a good training cycle and decent race conditions. I'm not fast, but I've run 3 sub-4 marathons (most recently on Sunday). I've also failed to go sub-4 several times (most recently last May). Here is what I would say in response to your question, and I'll be interested to read how others respond.

                                 

                                Yes, to me pain in the later stages of a marathon is normal, but the stage at which it starts and the intensity of it depend on how well trained you are, and on what pace you start out at relative to what your fitness level is. By being as well trained as possible and choosing the correct pace relative to your fitness, you can push the onset of that pain farther out, so that it might not get really bad until mile 23-24, instead of at mile 20. For me there is an extent to which one does have to "block it out and run anyway", but the better my training and pacing is, the better I feel in the later stages.

                                 

                                Now I'm one who has yet to pace a marathon correctly. Sunday, I ran too fast in the first half (closer to 3:50 pace, which my fitness did not support on that tough course), and I really began to struggle when I hit the hills late in the race. Ended up missing my goal of sub-3:55 by 75 seconds, because my legs just could not hold the pace. But I was still able to keep it together well enough to stay under 4 (finished in 3:56:14). Last year in Buffalo, I overpaced even more, relative to my fitness, and blew up much earlier and much worse, and only managed 4:10.

                                 

                                If you want to know how evenly paced marathons or negative-split marathons feel, I can't help with that. I think it is an interesting question though, so I hope others will respond also. Smile

                                PRs: 5K: 21:25, 10K: 44:05, HM: 1:38:23* (downhill), M: 3:32:09

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