Forums >Racing>2020 Marathon Training and relevant COVID 19 discussion echo chamber
I have the original Vaporfly 4% with about 60 miles on them and have no plans to upgrade this year. I don’t think it’s going to make much difference anyway with my current fitness....apparently (according to Marky) they don’t work properly unless you’re running at 6:30 pace or faster.
I remember the first time I tested them, felt like I was jogging on stilts until I sped up a bit and then the way the ride transitioned to super-smooth was pretty remarkable. I guess it's just physics - there has to be enough load going through the foam and the plate to get the energy return.
I've seen a few people jogging in them at like 9:00 pace or so... wish I could afford to do that.
Speaking of shoe sales, I'm also very excited the Saucony Kinvara 11 has just been released as it means I might be able to stock up on cheap Kinvara 10's haha.
3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)
10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)
* Net downhill course
Last race: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr, 1:15:48
Up next: Runway5, 4 May
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Ha-ha-ha - your comment was useful too Just bought couple of Kinvaras 10 for $60 at runningwarehouse
paces PRs - 5K - 5:48 / 10K - 6:05 / HM - 6:14 / FM - 6:26 per mile
I don't remember anyone "blocking" the favorites. I thought it was Ryan Hall and someone else saying they decided not to push the pace too much. Something like "if the leaders are going to catch Meb, they'll need to do it on their own, not with our help." If Meb was just an opportunist, he had a lot of lucky opportunities. Bronze in 2004. Won both NY and Boston. Second at the trials at like 39 or 40.
I don't remember anyone "blocking" the favorites. I thought it was Ryan Hall and someone else saying they decided not to push the pace too much. Something like "if the leaders are going to catch Meb, they'll need to do it on their own, not with our help."
If Meb was just an opportunist, he had a lot of lucky opportunities. Bronze in 2004. Won both NY and Boston. Second at the trials at like 39 or 40.
That's exactly how that went down for Meb. The favorites did not respect him enough to go with him when he made the break in Boston that year whereas they should have. I was there that day.
My favorite memory of Meb is when he got dumped by Nike and wore the USA singlet in New York and smoked everyone going up 1st Ave. They couldn't catch him that day when he broke the pack. It's not like they made an error there.
That's exactly how that went down for Meb. The favorites did not respect him enough to go with him when he made the break in Boston that year whereas they should have. I was there that day. My favorite memory of Meb is when he got dumped by Nike and wore the USA singlet in New York and smoked everyone going up 1st Ave. They couldn't catch him that day when he broke the pack. It's not like they made an error there.
Running to the Edge is a great book, focusing on Bob Larsen and with a good portion about his coaching of Meb. After reading that I have even more respect for Meb. Nike treated him and Larsen really poorly, but Meb got the last laugh winning Boston in Skechers.
2:52:16 (2018)
Kinvaras for $59.95!! Yes, please!
may have to check out Running to the Edge. Not that I know him personally, but Meb seems like an awesome guy. I remember him getting out there and running 5ks with his daughter. Not often you get to see an elite clocking a 27:00 5k.
Road Mile: 5:19 (2017), 5k: 17:09 (2021), 10k: 35:54 (2021), HM: 1:21:55 (2020), M: 2:53:18 (2021)
Mother of Cats
Adding to the Meb love - 26 Marathons is a great and useful read. He covers every marathon he's run and the lessons learned from that race.
Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.
And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.
Bit quiet from me but I was away snowboarding in BC. Managed 93km two weeks ago (front-loaded the week before going away), and 65km last week (lots of running up hills slowly in the snow).
Back home now... and back to work for upcoming races. Legs feeling pretty strong but a little sluggish after lower mileage and shorter, slower runs, so hopefully they'll sort themselves out this week.
M: 10.3km with strides
T: 11.3km easy
W: 10km easy
T: travel home
F: 7.6km easy
S: 19.5km with steady efforts
S: 24.2km with a few strides
Total: 82.8km
Mmmm Bop
If you’re a Meb fan and want a non complicated and easy to understand read, then I’d recommend his ‘Meb for Mortals’ book. 👍
https://www.amazon.com/Meb-Mortals-Think-Champion-Marathoner/dp/1623365473
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
. Speaking of shoe sales, I'm also very excited the Saucony Kinvara 11 has just been released as it means I might be able to stock up on cheap Kinvara 10's haha.
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Same here. Thanks for the heads up. Bought a couple of pairs of Kinvara 10s on sale. Apart from being annoyingly noisy, I really like them. Nice roomy toe box like that is not easy to find.
RIP Milkman
In 2017, I ran my 2nd NYC marathon, which was going to be Meb’s last.
The day before the race, we ran a 5K that NYRR always holds, where you finish at the NYCM finish line. It’s a pretty cool race, and I ran it with my wife and a bunch of friends. After the race, we decided to get brunch at Tavern on the Green, since it’s right at the finish line.
As we’re eating, we see there’s an event that NYRR is holding where they do a brunch the day before the race. It’s being held in a side ball room. Anyway, we continue eating, and I see Meb walking out of there. I’m the only one who recognizes him, as every other person with me was not a “serious” runner and didn’t follow the sport professionally at all. So I point him out and I say “oh that’s Meb!” to the group
He sees that this group of 10 people are looking at him, and without us saying anything, he comes over and says “do you guys want a picture with me?” I couldn’t believe it, as I’m not the type to ask for a photo and we didn’t even approach him or say anything to him at all! It was just us observing him. He was just so friendly, sat at our brunch table, chatted for about 30 seconds, and took a photo with all of us. I wished him good luck, and off he went.
Everyone knew who he was after that.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
81 miles for a satisfying week. I ran a little less than last week, but this week I nailed everything I did, and had a little head room at the end, which is good considering I still have 14 weeks to go and I want to pick up on the workouts in the following weeks.
Monday to Friday, run commuting. Pace not important.
Monday: 6 hill sprints on my commute back home
Tuesday: Got to the indoor track, had forgotten my Stryd . Decided to improvise. Did 25 laps completely by feel, and knowing the track is 190m long, I'd calculate my pace afterwards. Was pressing the "lap" button every 5 laps, and paces ended up being: 6:29, 6:29, 6:26, 6:25, 6:15, for 2.95 miles. Then I jogged 2 laps, and ran hard for 2 laps. Pace was 5:43 on the 2 laps. Those last 2 fast laps on this "square" track hurt my groin (I have a recurring weakness in the adductors and those little muscles in that area, and have to be careful).
Friday: Groin was feeling 90% good after 2 days easy, but fast running was out of the question. So I did a continuous 25 minutes split in 5 x (3 minutes @ MP / 2 minutes @ 10K). Paces were (6:49, 6:12, 6:42, 6:12, 6:38, 6:05, 6:42, 6:12, 6:42, 6:05).
Sunday: 18 miles with 4 x (2 km / 400m). 2 km is 1.24 miles, and 400m is pretty much .25 miles. Paces on the 2 Ks were (7:00, 7:15), (6:55, 7:00), (6:34, 6:38), (6:23, 6:15).Was following Denis, and did not press lap button myself. Didn't really know what the workout would be. Got the splits from his log. Then, for the rest of the run I was in the Easy-Moderate range as opposed to the Easy-Recovery range. Sidewalks weren't as nice as the garden, so paces are slower, but all good, really.
Managed to do all my running in "lost" time except for my LR.
3 months til Masters
MARK- Nice getting the miles in and getting psyched back up for the grind going forward. Way to get it in while you can and glad to see you thoroughly enjoyed the vacation.
CYBERIC-Solid week and those look like quality workouts despite the time tracking being a little less than ideal.
My week. All the tread as it has been cold and/or snowing all week.
The last of the 4x1.5 miles i began to feel it a bit, the tempo thursday was a breeze. The long run was on a rolling hills mode on the tread mill that just alternates slowly from 0 incline to 3.5 and back down every 1.5 miles or so going at each incremental increase for a few 1/10 of a mile.
19 weeks until my marathon!
83 miles on the week
2023 Goals
Marathon Sub 2:37 (CIM) 2:41:18
10k Sub 35:00 (Victory 10k 34:19)
5k Sub 16:00 (Hot Dash 5k in March (16:48), Brian Kraft in May (16:20), Twilight 5000 in July and August (16:20/16:25 Both heat index 102-103F)
Sub 1:16 Half Marathon City of Lakes Half Marathon 1:15:47)
Sub 56:30 in 10 mile (Twin Cities 10 mile, Canceled due to weather, 56:35 as a workout)
2024 Goals
Sub 2:37 Marathon
Sub 1:15 Half
Sub 34 10k
Sub 16 5k
And....three weeks until my marathon.
69 miles, 24 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimmingM: 6 miles very easy (9:03), upper body weights/core, 2 miles very easy (8:41), and 6 "miles" pool-running. T: 7 miles very easy (9:17), yoga, 5.5 miles very easy (8:41), plus drills and strides.W: 14.5 miles on the roads, including 2x3 miles in 19:24 (6:35/6:30/6:18) and 18:50 (6:21/6:25/6:04*) with 4 minute recovery between the two, followed by four "fast-but-fun" .25 mile reps in 88, 90, 91, 92 with full recovery. [*suspect Garmin error on the last mile - probably closer to 6:15 pace.]Followed with leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.Th: Upperbody weights, core, and 12 "miles" pool-running.F: 8 miles very easy (9:19), yoga, 4.5 miles very easy (9:27), plus drills and strides.Sa: 21 miles progressive, split as first 7 averaging 8:50, next 7 averaging 7:32, last 7 averaging 6:47 (followed by 1/2 mile cooldown jog). Followed with leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.Su: yoga and 6 "miles" pool-running.
Most of the final 7 miles of Saturday's long run were into a decent headwind, so I'm feeling pretty good about the pace that marathon effort gave me. Wednesday's run was in very windy conditions (hence the uneven splits, since I was doing the workout on a looped road). And Friday? Friday was comic in retrospect. About a mile in, the world went to hell as a front blew through (the weather icon on the Garmin report tells the story). Water rushing everywhere above my ankles, people getting blown into me.
I was about to take shelter and call it quits when things lightened up a bit, and I was no longer worried about my safety. At that point, I was soaked anyway, so I just finished my planned jog (to the metro station), took the train home, and took a nice long hot shower.
I'm feeling good about my fitness. I don't think I'm where I was right before Indy, but I'm in a good place, and I think I've got a good shot of PRing if I get reasonable weather.
I'm now starting my taper; next week will have the same mileage, but split over more running days with a shorter long run (just 16). I was considering jumping in a 5K next Saturday, but Valentine's day is Friday night, and I need to keep that clear.
***
Cyberic - that's a lot of quality. I hope the groin continues to hold up. What is "lost" time?
Markymark - welcome back! (which sounds strange, since you're now physically further from me than you were....)
DPS - oof! That is a LOT of treadmilling! I imagine the rolling hills made the long run on the treadmill a bit easier to tolerate.
DarkWave, "lost time" is time I would not be spending with the family or at work anyways. In my case I use work commuting time, lunch breaks and my daughter's soccer practices time to get my free running time
Cyberic - yes, it's a lot of miles with a lot of quality. If you can keep up like this for the rest of the cycle, you definitely going to be in awesome shape.
DPS - consistency is obviously a key, another high mileage week - just 19 weeks to go
DW - you are definitely in PR shape, hope marathon weather cooperates. Friday's rain, I wish we had something like this in California, it's so devastating we don't have rains for a month when it is the only time it's supposed to rain
My week was OK, it follows the same pattern for a while - first few days of the week I am recovering from my Mt Diablo trail LR, then do some workout or two and another Mt Diablo LR follows. I run trails in hope to be better prepared for May's 100K - never did trails so consistently before, but running uphills still is a huge battle for me - I am really slow running uphills, doesn't matter how many times I run trails. My legs feel beat up after yesterday's trail LR and I didn't take days off for a few weeks - so, I decided to take day off today and see if it allows me to recover faster for weekday's workouts.
Mon - 5 @9:03
Tue - 6 @9:15
Wed - 9.3 @9:22
Thu - 11.3 with 2x3 miles @LT (6:15, 6:25) 1 mile jog in between
Fri - 10.2 @9:27
Sat - 20,8 @10:16 Mt Diablo trails 4100 ft ascent
Sun - off
===
Total: 62.7 miles