bago - do you notice your weight staying up with the electrolyte pills (water retention)? or is more for cramp prevention ? I use it for cramp prevention too but am debating limiting it during the actual race - maybe just take 1 at mile 16 or 20?

I never took them regularly enough to notice.  I'd take them at most every other week when I did a long run (say, 18+ miles) in really hot & humid weather (pushing 90F at the end w/ high humidity).  Basically, on a run like that if I took a fuel belt full of sports drink, I'd run out at some point and would have to fill the bottles back up with water from a fountain along the way.  The water lacks the electrolytes.  And that would cause me GI problems.  Once I ran out of sports drink, I'd start taking capsules every 1/2 hour or so.  On those days, I'm going to lose a lot of weight no matter what I do.

 I hear you!  DH and I are going plan out the rest of our race calendar when he returns from CO this weekend.  I'm seriously interested in this as it's the closest thing we have to a flat race around here.  It would definitely only be the half for me though.

I was seriously conflicted about this one.  I have the Chicago Marathon on the 13th, the FastPace 10k on the 19th and the Silver Comet on the 26th.  I couldn't make up my mind whether to do the half or full.

My PR is from the Silver Comet half and I'm sure I could set another half PR.  There just aren't any other flat halfs around here anywhere.  I can't even do the Georgia one in March because I do the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach. I would like an updated half PR though.  I need to validate my half marathon pace for all this Hanson training.

On the other hand I can probably get an age group win in the full.  Looking at last years finishers I could conceivably even place in the Master ranking.  (Probably can't do that this year though because I expect there will be many more people running it.)

Anyway, I kind of felt that a full trumps a half just like a 10k trumps a 5k.  Since I do all my long runs on the Silver Comet anyway at worst I can just treat it as a glorified long run if I don't feel that I have my legs back after those other two races.  I've never been out past Powder Springs though, since that is where the turnaround is for a 20 mile run when starting at the trail head in Mableton.

Let me know what you guys decide to do.

Quick fly by for me...

 

7 w/5@GMP.  Still running them a bit too fast.  I keep speeding up as the run goes along.  8:37, 8:34, 8:25, 8:23, and 8:29.  I'm assuming time and mileage will take care of it for me...i.e...I'll get tired legs as the mileage increases.

 

onemile:  How do those paces look to you for a 3:45 marathon?  Were they similar to what you ran?

 

Spot on, Mdawg.  Looks pretty similar to what I was doing. Cbus will rag on you for the 8:25 and 8:23 though

I always find the first mile or two to be hardest and then I get into a groove so that makes sense.

Nice job!

Morning Donuts!  Still just plugging along with Insanity...had Pure Cardio and Abs last night, which was a tough one due to dead/tired legs and screaming children, but got it done.  Today, however, I somehow overslept and missed Cardio Recovery.  I will just take today as a rest and do Recovery on Sunday I guess.  Still hoping to run a couple times next week.

Docket:  Sorry to hear about the asthma...I hope your 5 and weights go well tonight.

Roll:  I agree you are on the right track for Hanson, especially if you continue to slowly build the miles over the summer.  However, as Onemile said, it is fairly inflexible because you have 3 easy runs and 3 SOS runs in the week and it's hard to change those around.  He does say in the book that if you need to change things, try to at least keep each week consistent.  For example, if you know you can't do Tempo runs on Thursdays, do them on Fridays, but do that every week if you can.  I also agree with Sprinkles that Higdon is too easy.  I have read the PFitz book, but haven't done the plan...it seems complicated to me, but that's probably just my perception.  It does seem to be a bit more flexible just because you only run 5 days/week.

Flinders:  Nice to see you!  Sorry to hear about the PF flare, though.  Hope it is short lived.

MDawg:  Nice 7....seems like you are exactly where you need to be!

Sprinkles:  Nice 10...especially with the high humidity.

Indy:  I love Honey Stinger waffles!  HS are also the gel I most prefer.

CBus:  I agree with the others...socks with the Pure Flows!

I went back three pages or so of discussion...

akalei:  I have read places that a bike to run conversion is roughly 3:1.  Don't know how accurate that is, but using indy's distances and time from his last couple of posts, it seems to be a decent rough justice conversion.  As for a bike plan, have you poked around tri training sites?  They might have something geared towards beginning triathletes that could get you started on the bike ramp up.

Roll:  I agree with onemile.  I think if you keep building your base so that you work your way up to high 30s/low 40s, and keep that up through the build-up weeks of the Hansons Beginner, you should be fine.  If you can, perhaps throw in fartleks or something, just to suggest to your legs that you might be asking them to go faster in the near future.  I agree with Sprinkles and Ami that Higdon would be too easy. The Higdon plans are designed to get you to the start line uninjured, and are built around the assumption that weekends are when most people will have the most time available to run (hence the weekend loading in his plans).  I liked the HH plans (I did Int 1 for my first full) when I was starting out because they fit my schedule and are quite forgiving.  But I think your running is too advanced for them.  Now, in about four weeks when I'm dying from Hansons Advanced, you can ask me to reassess my opinion.

Cbus:  Are you abandoning Mizuno??  (I have a pair of Connects; I think they need socks.  The seams are a bit rough.  Now, I haven't run in them in six months, but still...).

Nachos: Hi!  Missed your popping in.  Hope everything gets straightened out soon!

Indy: nice bike miles!

Ami: Hi!  Thanks!  I always feel badly when I drop out of sight for a while.

Docket/RV/Simon/onemile: Hi!

Re: clothes and permastink.  I think there was a zombie thread in the gears and wears section of the main forums here about it that popped back up within the last month or two.  I have used the vinegar brine and that seems to work.  I usually wash on warm with everything else and let them air dry.  Some of my oldest shorts are starting to get a bit funky, but they are close to three years old, so they might be beyond help at this point (or simply relegated to running before dawn).

Hi to everyone else I missed!

Hey all,

Got in 8.25 w/ 5 @ GMP. Weather was awesome: overcast, high humidity, but low temps--loved it! My legs didn't feel fresh, but I still felt ready for today's run--that SRD on W is key, for me. As a result, I was on the faster end of my GMP: 8:55. Overall, happy with today's workout, but now I'm dreading Sunday's LR...

Roll, +1 to a lot of what Onemile said. Hansons, I feel, asks for a lot of commitment to the plan as written. It's almost like they assume you are a runner who happens to have a life, rather than someone who has a life and runs. Also, I would recommend you continue to increase your easy miles from now until Septs, when MRT begins. And I increased my mileage (slightly), and started doing GMP stuff once MRT began, even though the first four weeks are just easy miles--not saying you need to do that too, but just giving you an idea of how I am treating the first four weeks of the Beginners plan.

Mdawg, nice run. But as Onemile warned you, I'm gonna harp on those "feeling good" fast miles. Remember the purpose of the Tempo runs: memorize your GMP with every fiber of your Being. Don't wait until the overall mileage slows you down. You need to learn what that pace feels like under every condition, so that on race day, your body just runs that pace automatically.

Onemile, you know me too well . Oh yeah, and you never answered my question about your thoughts on the Hansons taper.

Flinders, leave Mizuno? Not all. Especially since I absolutely love the Sayonara. But I read someone compare the Sayonara with the Pure line, so I was curious. If I had a shoe just like the Sayonara with a touch more cushion, that would be my ideal everyday trainer. For someone reason, I had it in my mind that the Pure Flows were like that--but maybe not. What I do know is that I'm gonna pick up another pair of Sayonaras when they come out in July to be my marathon shoe.

Happy running all!

Good to know.

 

Oh I meant to answer that but it got lost in all the other posts here.  I was sorta worried about the taper because I was feeling pretty worn down and ready to take a break and even though Hansons calls it a '10 day taper', the mileage does not change from it's usual pattern until a week before the race.  So I was sort of wondering if my legs would be recovered enough and if it would be enough of a taper.

 

But while the taper is short, it's really steep.  The mileage drops off quite dramatically so by about 2 days before race day my legs were feeling good and I was accidentally catching myself running MP a couple times and had to force myself to keep those runs easy.   And then on race day, MP just felt so much easier than in training. So I would say trust the taper. It works.

 

My other thought is that the short taper was nice because it kept me from really stressing out a lot too far in advance.  Because once the "work" is done, that's when I tend to start fretting about the race.  So keeping it short was nice.

 

I have no desire to do a longer taper this next time around and I plan on following it exactly as written (again).

 

Oh, one more thing to add.  I did shorten the wu/cd on that last MP run because I was ready to be done, but I did do the full 10 @ MP.   I'm not sure that made a difference or not.