Yeah I agree. Its easy to see by strava results if most are reading short.

I think there's very few runners who take it as seriously as us lot. I mentioned to a few chatting after and they really didn't care.

Unfortunately I wasn't up for 3.35/km pace even though I had a good last 5 x 1000s at 3.31/km.

That likely my last 5k this year.

I've run 18.29, 18.25, and short on what was probably going to be 18.20.

Baby steps of progress 

I think this is true and the REALLY sad part is the folks who want the most accurate race don’t seem to volunteer or organize races often enough to set a new standard. I do agree a respectable race organization should have a measured 5k and this year my town was set to have a new RD put on three races. They’re runners so I was looking forwards to the GPS measured half marathon.

Not much to say about my week.  Took Mon and Tues off with a cold.  Went for a run Wed and felt terrible.  Took Thurs off and went to the doctor.  Got antibiotics for sinus infection.  Slowly improving Sat and Sunday.  I think my body was telling me it still wasn't over the marathon and I just needed to back off some more.  The weird niggles now seem to have mostly disappeared as well.

Should be back to normal this week I think - got 3 weeks to punch out some decent training so this half at the end of the month isn't a total bust - although I think with that extended marathon platform there should still be a bit to work with.

It's another reminder that there'll be no more marathons for me.  Running is too important to me!  Many of my runs over the last month have been tough and joyless and that's not why I do this.

Weekly for period: From: 02/11/2020 To 08/11/2020

Total distance: 50.34km

Keen - have you tried the Escalante racer? Those are wide just fine.

Piwi - awesome at the park run, now just take some time to let the well fill up again.

You’ve been very consistent and a sub 18 is down the line so long as you keep that. You might have spent some of the well on that 5x1000 workout, dunno.

Steve - Jack’s line about only needing to be stronger than the child is first page worthy, just saying haha.

James - get well!

DW - that dig by Des is hilarious. People should be able to laugh at jokes despite their political preferences. I saw a meme floating around about how presidents age with before/after pictures that was so funny.

me - my week below. Lots of easy runs for recovery. I've chosen to run a lot of these at the part next to my place, which has some rolling terrain, good for gaining strength. I intended on doing that again today, but after half an hour of dodging tons of dogs of the leash, I just said "fuck it" and got out of there. 4 hours of running, 3 sessions of strength training 30 to 45 minutes each.

Weekly for period: From: 02/11/2020 To 08/11/2020

Total distance: 47.30km

Last run in Christchurch this morning perfect running conditions.

I looked at my 5k strava track map

https://www.strava.com/activities/4298513907

on satellite view and my GPS does cut corners badly in areas. I noticed one apple watches users track which measured long went way out of Hagley Park and onto the road 

Marky_Mark - that's always been my biggest dislike of marathons - they have so much cost in terms of both training investment and recovery.

Piwi - I laughed at the 4.95K reference.  And yes, Strava maps will drive you mad.

Steve - good job on Saturday, and good judgment.  And good that you and Piwi got together.

****

56 miles, 1000 yards swimming and 3 hours of pool-running
M: 50 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
T: 12.5 miles easy (8:53), plus drills and four hill strides, plus streaming yoga.
W: 14 miles, including a 4 mile tempo in 26:25 (6:42/6:38/6:35/6:30); followed by 10x30 hard, 60 easy. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Th: 50 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
F: 12.5 miles very easy (8:57) plus drills and four strides, followed by streaming yoga and 30 minutes pool-running
Sa: 17 miles, including a workout of 4 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile at marathon effort with 1 mile float. Splits were:
4 miles in 27:34 (7:01/6:53/6:53/6:47 - 6:54 pace); 7:42 float;
3 miles in 20:15 (6:47/6:47/6:41 - 6:45 pace); 7:45 float;
2 miles in 13:27 (6:44/6:43 - 6:44 pace); 7:51 float;
1 mile in 6:36 (a bit harder than marathon effort)
Followed with streaming yoga, leg strengthwork, and 500 yards recovery swimming
Su: Streaming yoga and 50 minutes of pool-running.

I was happy with this week - more progress.  I found Saturday's splits surprising, as I do not think I am in that type of fitness.  Perhaps the footpod is not as accurate as I think?

And Flavio - yes, I am considering another watch.  This watch (a 735) was a replacement for my 935, which died a few months ago.  The 935 was great - GPS was reliable when given a fair shot (i.e. straight line running without tall buildings).  However, it had a few bells an whistles that I didn't think I needed and the 735 was considerably cheaper.  I love how the 735 feels on my wrist, but between the GPS/ANT+ issues and battery life that's a bit shorter than I would like, I think I need another watch (I'll relegate the 735 to be my emergency back-up).    I'm just waiting until the "Black Friday" sales in late November in the US, when I may get a solid deal on a new watch.

piwi - Great to see you again - hope you enjoyed your weekend despite Christchurch turning on the worst weekend of weather all year.

I've updated the front page and given you a PR.  I think we can all agree that even if it was short it counts?  If we add 50 metres it makes the time about 18:17.

Nice one, Piwi the pacifier

Piwi - I've been thinking a lot lately about peaking and arriving fresh at race day.

I've noticed that I was primed for a good race for my 5k back in September 6th. A month later I was again primed for fast running on my 10k race October 11th.

When I got to the 5k time trial I was not feeling the same. I'm not sure if I had spent all my good chips on those 2 races or if 3 weeks was just too short of a recovery between races.

It seems to me that you gain fitness with proper training, but as you taper down you actually lose a bit of fitness, which is a very small price to pay to arrive fresh to race day. However, there's the recovery weeks and those also should impact your fitness a bit due to the lack of workouts. With 3 weeks in between races, I've used one week in recovery, one week of actual training and one week in taper again.

There's also the fact that we can't keep improving our fitness by just going up and up and never resting. Eventually the well will dry up.

That's exactly what I felt during this latest time trial, that the well was not filled up anymore, I was not as bouncy as I was before the other races.

All of this to say that maybe you had a slightly off day or maybe you spent the well during that workout, or maybe you now need to use a 6x1000 workout to gauge your fitness.

Steve - you've been well behaved lately for a hot weather complainer 

 

Piwi - I've been thinking a lot lately about peaking and arriving fresh at race day.

Letsrun had a story about the 400m runner Karsten Warholm. Apparently he and his coach have three goals for each race:  be fit, be fresh, don't eff it up.

That's a beautiful way to describe peaking...