Competitive Jerks Racing and Training - 2023 (Read 573 times)

Re: sunburns: Flavio, there’s a short story call “Vampires in the Lemon Grove.” That’s how I will imagine you from now on. It must be annoying to burn easily. But as long as you are taking care of yourself, don’t worry about being different :-) (also, I would never lie out in the sun without sunglasses. That would ruin any possibility for getting some quality shut-eye). Darkwave, I never thought about the pink versus golden undertones for people with light skin. I guess I also have golden? Unfortunately I’m also out between 10 and 4 much more than can be good for me… but hence a pretty diligent skin-care routine. Honestly though, I think it’s a bit of a crap-shoot and try not to worry about it too much. I do need to schedule a dermatologist check-up though. 

mmerkle, this is a day late and a dollar short, but awesome 10-miler! Smart to avoid the watch for those first miles to avoid misjudging effort and pace. What’s your new Garmin? I just got a new-to-me Forerunner 935. So far much better than the Vivoactive. The touchscreen messed me up so much. Must be great to be feeling “I have plenty left in me” at miles 7-8. You probably do, and as others have written, sounds like you’re in solid shape for Boston! Great to pass people like that, too. I appreciated your advice about “racing it.” Haven’t done that really since cross country, and I’ve been so wrapped up in the invisible pacer of my goal time, but yeah Andy, agree with the others. The effort/feel thing works better for me than trying to hit a particular time. It’s when that effort matches up with the goal time when magic happens, and the mental boost takes you through the rest. I’m also terrible at negative splitting, in any distance, but since I train with a kick, I can pull one off at the end of races, too. Mmerkle, looks like a nice recovery week for you; smart to take it easy on the 3rd after a lackluster day. 

Steve, I know that feeling re:  I know I’m faster and would love to prove it. One day you will get to show that Thursday guy. Sorry to read about the guy in your coaching team, though! That stinks to run well and have to DNF. Glad to see you’re feeling better! And that’s a positive sign for how you’re feeling 6 weeks out. 

Re shot bloks: I tried them during my “gardening” workout and they were pretty good. I also tried them on my Sat. long run and it took me a while to realize that one needs 3 for the effect of one gel. I liked the flavor I got though, and don’t mind the consistency, so I’m saving a sleeve for my race. 

Darkwave, I saw your half marathon results and was like “aw yeah, perfectly estimated.” Looks like you know exactly where you’re at in fitness, and hope the trend continues downward for you. Interesting advice from your PT about the toe box, but that makes a lot of sense! 

Mark, re flats, but I was wondering… were they old ones? Because I noticed in shoes like that in particular that they don’t have a high shelf life. You could not be running in them and they slowly lose form or whatever over time. A fresh pair may have felt differently! (And how’s that for rationalizing being more shoes? ;-) ) Btw, had to lol at your “super shoes on one foot and normal on the other and switch halfway through” comment. Yep, sounds perfect. Awesome  workout Saturday! The 10 x 100 sounded like fun until I read the 10 x 400 with half the rest. What was your warm-up, cool-down? 

Flavio, glad to see that your not feeling all that great before your race panned out to performing admirably! And like the others mentioned, extra kudos for pushing through the finish like that. Congrats again on the PR! Also to your wife! I think there’s something about sharing the results with others that make the accomplishment feel like more. But also, you know that scene from Chariots of Fire, where Harold has just won the 100 meters he fought for the entire movie and needs to be left alone in the locker room afterwards? That’s pretty much the best representation of that feeling I’ve seen in film. It’s hard to verbalize and hard to share. (Also, side note, but all the best to your wife in completing the last stages of her MA/MS!) Sounds like great weather and a great sight-seeing tour as well (though way too much walking for before a PR attempt!). And who says this is your last 5k PR? 

Also, re: couples thing. Damn, the WR is pretty fast! 

krash, ditto Mark, I was thinking about comparing it to running during a hurricane as well. Next time bring the snowboard goggles!

Dave, awesome workout on the 22nd! (I know this is late, but nailing those paces must have felt good). Also the long runs, fast finish are really great for pushing in those last miles in a marathon. My Dec. marathon wasn’t what I wanted, but I definitely was able to get more out of me those last miles than I usually do after a season of training with lr, ff. Great job on the pacing, too. Is that a certified course? Seems messed up that they didn’t have all the mile markers. Were the folks you were running with happy or annoyed? I’d have been grateful to get in earlier, but I also would have had a hard time, mentally, if that was a challenging pace for me. 

wcrunner, it always takes a while to get back to intervals! Great to see the 4 x 400 two weeks ago and the tempo last week. And also great to see you registered for a race, and thinking about other one 2 months before that (question: is that generally enough time to put between races? I’ve been playing with the idea for a third BQ attempt in May). Also since getting into the ultra scene, I’ve ceased being completely amazed at the lengths people will go to see how far they can go. It does seem to be an addiction, looking for the next big challenge. The conditions in the Dome sound amazing! I’d love the 55, feels like 35! 

Re: stretching, didn’t realize that was a controversy! I’m not talking about the pre-run stretching (unless it’s dynamic, it can get you into trouble), but about the post-run… I guess everyone is different, but perhaps injury has to do with it. I had a bad case of plantar fasciitis 2019-2020 and I learned a bunch of PT exercises that I worked into my post-run stretching routine. If I don’t do them, I can immediately tell the next day. So I do them, because I never want to be stuck with PF again. Glad to see it’s helping you, Andy! 

RP, your jeep looks pretty awesome. I learned how to work on a bike during college… I can kind of imagine the thrill of working with a machine like that. Way too expensive a hobby, though! Sounds like you have magic mittens… am glad to read it. Also kudos to you for just listening to your body and taking a week off. It’s a lot smarter than trying to train through and ending up dragging that sickness out into the pre-race week. Cool how much gear testing you’re getting to do. Just hope Boston doesn’t get another heat wave, ha ha (really, I hope not; that would suck). Also if you’re looking to PR your 5k, I agree with the rest. Give yourself a proper 5k taper. It definitely involves an almost normal tough workout Tuesday, but don’t push it too hard that Thursday. Also great job on the workout into the headwind. I like to plan the intervals just so that they’re all into the wind except for the last one, as a kind of treat. I don’t think I’m cheating myself either, because of all those efforts into the wind. Good luck at your race! I imagine a great time for you. 

As for me, (cross-posting a bit here, as Ultra group members will recognize) I know we all have our weather to deal with, but I often wonder if I'd rather be dealing with ice and snow rather than heat and humidity. It's been a warm, but thankfully dry winter these last weeks. I took advantage of it and my Spring Break starting this weekend to run a trail not far from the one I'll be running in 3 weeks. It was beautiful (dry) and felt amazing, especially considering I got 58 miles in 5 days of running this week. Remember when I was scared of an 11-mile mid-week run and 9 + 20 miles? Well this week I had a 14-mile mid-week run and a 15, then 14 over the weekend. I know for some of you a 12-mile a day average is nothing, but for me it was bit of a challenge… especially since it got into the 90s over the weekend. 

 It was my slowest week in a while, but I feel pretty good about where my fitness is at for Hungryland. This was my last hard week and now I’m about to start my third taper in almost just as many months. 

Mark, to answer your question, Hungryland is possibly a misnomer. It’s the actual name of the Natural Area, and it has a vibrant set of ecosystems and lots of food options, but the land may have been hard to live off as claimed by both native Seminole tribes during the Battle of Loxahatchee in the 1830’s and post-war citrus farmers in the 1950s. Palm Beach County even wanted to turn it into a housing development in the 1970s… with a grid system and street names and all, but the Florida wetlands were like f-no. Fun fact, but we don’t have cellars in South Florida because they’d all be filled with water within a year after being built. 

There are 3 aid stations on the 20 mile loop, though, and I’ve run a race with this RD before, so I imagine the food spread will leave nothing to be desired. 

Weekly for period: From: 02/27/2023 To 03/05/2023

Total distance: 58.7 miles running, 28 miles cycling

(edited to fix unnecessary auto-correct corrections)

Take a week off and suddenly you're 5+ pages behind!

A whopping 26.2 miles last week (vacation).

Trying to catch up and update the front page as needed.

Apologies to anyone I missed:

JMac - Sorry about the food poisoning, that's certainly no fun.

Dorothea - Run CIM!

Merkle - Impressive race!

Krash - Blizzard runs are awesome! Granted I've only run in one little Oklahoma-level blizzard, and I bet one in northern Utah can be considerably different.
If it looks like I'll be spending any more time (planned or otherwise) in SLC I'll certainly reach out to you.

DWave - What are the name and date of your HM?

Flavio - Congratulations on the new PR! Also, I got a kick out of the "there are no 5ks in my country, so I'll casually search for them in another country" bit.

Monday I picked up a slight piriformis tweak/spasm with the last 1.5 miles of my run. No wrong steps or anything, it just started cramping/hurting. No real issues after working that muscle out a bit. I take this as a sign that significant down weeks are no good and that I should continue piling on mileage whenever possible.

Notes from vacation in Mexico:
Zero sunburn, just a nice tan!
High tide is the worst time to try taking down a beach Strava segment.
Pharmacies in Mexico (whether on a street or even the airport) specifically advertise OTC testosterone, HGH, and other performance enhancers.
It's shocking to see the juxtaposition of multi-million dollar beachfront condos in gated communities and houses with tarps covering holes in thatched roofs just across the road.
I may be ruined on the standard Mexican (mostly Tex-Mex) foods. I've never seen ceviche or grilled octopus on the menu of even the most authentic restaurants I've been to, and that now seems like a great loss to me.

krash Is the 30 second walk just to practice starting back up to run pace after stopping in aid stations? It's not something I would think of adding to a workout or long run. Mostly because it isn't ever fun to start back up.

dk Well I wasn't actually "listening to the body' for the week. I was more "canceling running due to weather" because showing up injured, or not showing up BECAUSE I'm injured would suck. To finish fast first you must finish. also, I think everyone always wants different weather. People here are complaining about snow/winter. I'm waiting to tell them "yeah me too. I want to hurry up and get to AQI300+ weather" which means it's literally hazardous to breath. WEather sucks...so does marathon training.

I saw the workout today. 80 degrees plus 70 dew points....TDP 150+ EW! Check the table up front. I think you can slow down 10% or something. Sounds stomach aching painful.

As for the intervals, yeah doing them in the wind helps mentally. It's fair to just run them by effort in my opinon too. Not "well today I want a pace workout with a tailwind, and tomorrow I want an effort into a headwind." you'll never get better because the effort between the two is always going to be different, plus there is THE PURPOSE of the workout.

Amazing how those big runs seem to fit into the day, and when you were so afraid of doing them they aren't THAT bad...once your body is prepared. I think I use to have 6-8 mile long runs and now I'm doing 70 mile weeks. Some times I'd like to go back, but I realize a 70 mile week has hard workouts, but a back to back 13-15 mile weekend isn't as hard as a 20 mile long run for my first or second marathon. Hopefully you get some great weather for Hungryland. Same advice I gave to flavio of taking an empty plastic ziplock bag to carry food/snack items from the aid station. It's also easy to walk out of an aid station and keep eating. Remember it's about finishing not finishing first place.

flavio my favorite pair of Brooks running shorts have a phone pocket on the thigh. It's great. Holds the phone just fine. If you're taking a vest maybe shove it in there. Figure out where you'll store the cup. I HAAAAAAAAAATTEEEEDDD mine flopping around so I shoved it somewhere I could get when I needed it. My kids liked my "magic trick" where I'd squish it in my hands and make it disappear. Also, depending on how far the race is I had someone suggest bringing a ziplock bag to carry food items out of the aid station. Stash them for an hour later when you might want to eat. Also Tylenol/pain killers. Maybe a few tabs of methamphetamine if you need to stay awake or halluicante.

Today's workout, for the non-hanson crew, is 'cruise intervals" of about 10 minutes long. Since I could use the JD mentallity to accomplish them it would be a 2 minute jog recovery. Unsure if "light jog" or 'normal running pace jog' is the correct recovery between runs. 1.5 mile runs at a 6:40 pace makes math simply 9:60 per run. Four total runs. purpose is to be just below lactate threshold so the body is at maximum aerobic ability and processing as much lactic acid as possible while also trying to push that limit higher.

 

Today's workout, for the non-hanson crew, is 'cruise intervals" of about 10 minutes long. Since I could use the JD mentallity to accomplish them it would be a 2 minute jog recovery. Unsure if "light jog" or 'normal running pace jog' is the correct recovery between runs. 1.5 mile runs at a 6:40 pace makes math simply 9:60 per run. Four total runs. purpose is to be just below lactate threshold so the body is at maximum aerobic ability and processing as much lactic acid as possible while also trying to push that limit higher.

RP, I see. I guess sometimes it's nice when the weather makes those decisions about running that the brain can't. And you're right, it's important to keep the purpose of the workout in mind when making those decisions about how to accommodate the weather. As for my run today, I wanted a hard effort and got it, ha ha. Could/should I have slowed down? Yes. Probably yes. But only if I wanted to put in less effort.

Also, I think the correct recovery between runs is whatever allows you to start the next interval without sucking air. It often depends on how you're feeling. The trick is just not to start walking.

Thanks for the tips about the extra ziplock bag for food! That's smart. I think I don't have to go for more than 7 miles without aid, but given how long runs go, sometimes I'll want to throw up at and be fine 30 minutes later. It will be good to be able to have food on hand as long as I can eat it if I want to finish standing. Also, I know the goal is to finish, not finish first, and I'll keep that in mind, but my competitive jerk side says I might as well try.

 

I’ll have to say that anytime I’ve run a PR I’m over the moon and on a high for weeks!  But if I feel I’ve underperformed in a race (even if the finish time looks acceptable) I’m inconsolable for weeks!

 

Sadly I know this feeling only too well.  Sometimes it doesn't take me very long to move from relief to joy - I felt amazing after my 5km 2 months ago because I had no idea I could go that fast, I thought that sort of time was for fast people only.  So it's not always a meh feeling for me.

dk 7 miles in my ultras has been almost 2 hours, and it's longer if you're not having a good day. It also makes it easier to leave an aid station which helps avoid sitting down. "BEWARE THE CHAIR" is what I heard one time and after a great 50 miler last year I can abso-LOOT-lee understand why people don't want to sit down. It's hard to get back up.

I was pretty high after my marathon PR. After my 50 miler I was just tired.

 

I was the only one who believed you would go sub19! 

Bullshit.