2018 3:20 (and beyond) (Read 582 times)

Ace: Sorry to hear about the sick kids! I hated when my kids were sick as babies -- it's such a helpless feeling. I hope they all get healthy soon.  And you and your wife get some sleep.

RLK:  That's unfortunate about the workout -- so frustrating. I used to occasionally do track workouts with a group here but I gave it up because I swear they raced the warmup. I didn't see the point of running 6:45 "warm up" miles before 4 miles of track work. Warm ups and cool downs are meant to be slogs, right??  But it sounds like at least you will get the benefit of the workout since you did what you were supposed to do.

Darkwave: glad your recovery is coming along.

Brewing: I'd be pretty mad if the course wasn't certified, esp if I was trying to BQ.

FB: enjoy your trip to NYC and your visit with your DD!

I ran 6 miles at lunch today. Very slow, because weirdly, it's almost 80 degrees here today.  My foot is getting better though. Sensible shoes for the win! I've been a fashion don't all week because of the shoes, but whatever.  Seems like it's working.

rlk Is this the same "coach" that has the same "canned" plans for each event your team participates in? I know dw mentioned some coaches get to know people over time but if you recognize the group I assumed he would. He might not have cared that night, he might have been talking to other people when he should have talked to the group going too fast/slow, or he might have assumed they would figure out they're doing it wrong and corrected themselves. As for getting people to do workouts like they're supposed to...Ask coach out loud in front of them if we're supposed to jog the second 200 or run hard maybe. You could also be like me and let them blow up training so they blow up the race, beat them and let them figure out they're doing a workout wrong. I kind of don't like telling other people how to run ALL the time but I also had a RB trying to keep up with me and another doing 6:00/mi paced 1,000m runs. Same guy would use "total time" on his Fenix 5 and ask us to wait for HIS watch to read at the start of a minute for our intervals. Multiple times I suggested he make a training face. I gave up after the third time.

race course I'd HATE to run this race and find out it won't work for a BQ. I guess I'll find out in 2020 if people from the race get into Bops (going with this because I almost typed it out) town with it. I assumed BAA checks certification and courses for changes so yeah, I'd be asking for a refund if 5 months from now I can't register. The course IS better for spectators (2 loops) now and probably better for running faster. It is much flatter from 6-20.

keen/Ace: My favorite part of sick kids is the poop changes color when they are young apparently. Ace I hope the kiddo gets better. NeRP had a few sick days but he's still smiling, eating and fattening up for some training runs. He's actually getting close to rolling back to front but his stomach is kind of preventing him going stomach to back. It's kind of funny. DW has let me sleep when he's waking up because her logic is there is no need to have two tired parents. I have a feeling her logic will change if we go for round 2.

Being sick sucks but at least I get out of making dinner.

brew- that's not entirely accurate, but it is canned plans per training focus (marathon, track, xc, etc) based around our team-specific races. it's not fully individualized training plans (unfortunately) and we know that.
but yeah, he is not good at stepping in and, well, coaching us...

haha - totally agree w philosophy of let them blow up their training and then their race (even though these are my close friends) but they're not really blowing up their races too much, so it's a tough lesson to be taught! ha. also, even when races do go south, i feel like with running there are so many "excuses"/forms of justification we can devise. who really knows what the cause is.

I question why he would assign 200 in/outs as this is a tough workout to execute properly and not sure what his intent was looking at the workout.  He should explain what the purpose of the workout is why it is important to adhere to specific pacing.  Regardless, this is a tough one to do correctly and you evidenced that.

RLK - That workout makes me want to puke. Regarding advice to teammates: Only when they ask for it. And when they complain about their poor results, pretend to listen.

Brew - Never got to say thanks for your snowglobe-shipping advice, so ... thanks. I'm planning stops at Mother Road, Sun Up and Arizona Wilderness (and possibly more) when I visit AZ next month for my R2R2R bad idea. I wouldn't run that marathon if there's anything riding on it.

Mattw - If you come to the Jersey shore, you can see the trifecta of billboard trucks, billboard boats and banner planes. I'd be lying if I said the beer advertisements haven't prompted me to take a break from the beach and head to the bar across the street.

NJ Marathon starts in <72 hours.

An illness is going around my household.

Good times.

McBen I have been known to advise people to order boxes online, mail them to their sister's house, pay for shipping through fedex, email the shipping label to the same sister, and have beer sent home without ever needing to visit the state. You could PROBABLY do the same thing with your AZ trip and have your supplies waiting at the hotel for you. Oh and I once tagged Jim Walmsley in a Strava post looking for places to run and drink beer. He was cool enough to reply.

Rlk I too was thinking about you today like Matt. I was driving my oversized diesel burning truck solo (still feeling sick, didn't want to pass it on) down the highway. I saw an electric car yesterday and thought about our conversation of how they're pretty much a waste of space. I was also thinking of how much I contribute to society by driving my truck (16 mpg) to make up for the lack of contribution of others (Tesla). As for the friends and excuses....yeah there are plenty. I think I'm one of the few who will use the excuse "I wasn't prepared or trained for this" instead of whatever other reasons there are for blowing up.

matt I THINK I've seen a mobile tv billboard once but up here we're just simple folks. We have trailers with huge signs we tow around. It's for one of Dennis Hoff's establishments previously shown on HBO. It must be the most low budget form of advertising I've seen.

This stupid cough is annoying and I wish it would go away. A friend is running the local marathon (also sick, adjusting goals) and I'd LIKE to run with him Sunday but depending on what's going on I might not have time. DW and NeRP are heading out of town Friday night so I kind of made tenitive plans to get the back lawn established (yard work is hard) so we can have more than just dirt, dirt with hops, and dirt with vegetables in it. At one point I considered just turning it all into a garden but that's a lot MORE work but at least it's cheap food. Can you grow steaks by planting one in the ground?

rlk No. I was actually laughing at the thought process of "I burn more fuel so I pay more road tax so I should drive an even LESS efficient vehicle so I can pay for MORE roads and contributions than cars capable of getting 50+mpg. Mostly because you'd tell me to bike the 24 miles a day (each way) as cross training.

 

dkgg- the intent was aerobic work. the upshot here is similar to a tempo or LT run, but honestly more interesting and also touches some faster paces to wake up muscles we'll use in a 5k race this weekend. i agree with the intent. sure, tough to execute, but as coach says "the hard part is the 'off' interval"

 

RLK,  I am fully aware of what systems the workout touches on as this is just the classic Oregon 30/40 workout.  My question on intent is that if this workout is done correctly, it is just way too intense for a non-elite/sub-elite level athlete.  There are much better workouts to get the benefits of what is intended.  A better workout would have been multiple 10k pace intervals with 4 x 200m at the conclusion at 1 mile pace to get the fast running in.  Or do a classic 20 minute tempo or cruise intervals with some strides afterwards.  This is much less stressful and would give you the same if not better effect.  The trick is on whatever anearobic/aerobic system that you are working on is to find the method that is the easiest and satisfies the intended effect.

Back in High School a few times over the years we did a 2 mile relay with 2 people running the 200's really fast and jogging across the track for recovery.  It was one of the hardest workouts that comes to my mind.  Even the Oregon 30/40, most of the athletes could only complete 12/13 laps even if that.  This is a very stressful workout by the assigned paces that the your coach assigned.

Sorry for the rant, but train, don't strain.

The team has sub elites, if I recall?  I was going to ask if the coach gives more attention to the front group, or if their overall style is more laid back.  And if the focus is on those folks, you're getting their workouts with a time modification and that's fairly logical.

This is one of the drawbacks to training with a team - you usually get the workout that works best for the majority of runners, which means that it may not be the best workout for all.  And not all workouts scale well.  That 25x400 workout that we do (400m at 10K pace with 100m float in 30 seconds) strikes me as one that works very well for 2:30 ish marathoners or faster.  I think it's actually borderline too much for runners at my level, and definitely too much for runners slower than 3:20, even if you slow the recoveries.

instead of just venting, i guess if anyone has a productive (and not annoying or preachy) way of trying to convince one's friends to do workouts a bit more methodically, please let me know haha.

Honestly, I've never seen that type of discussion accomplish its intended goal.    People are very rarely receptive to unsolicited coaching advice, and are never open to it if there is already someone else designated as "coach."  Plus, I've seen some people get very very good results from doing their workouts and easy runs "wrong" - by which I mean different from how I do them.  And some people have suggested to me that I do my workouts and easy runs "wrong."  (I disagree, because it works for me.) We are all different.

I wouldn't touch this one at all.  Just stick to your guns and do the workout the way that you think is right, letting the others do it how they want.  It's good practice for running your own race.

(side bar - I sub in for my coach sometimes when he's gone, which has put me in the position of dispensing coaching advice.  I have a baseball cap with our team's logo that I wear when I'm subbing in for him.  I've told my teammates that when I'm wearing that hat, I'm subbing for him, and will be giving advice and reporting back to him on what I observe and what they tell me.  When that hat comes off,  I am a teammate, and will not offer any advice unless asked, and anything I see or hear remains confidential.)

Took yesterday off.  Went up to NYC for the day, and was tempted to run in Central Park on a gorgeous day.  But it would have been an effort to squeeze the run in, and I decided it was better to take the day off.

Today it rained.  A good chance to test out my new rain coat, and also to work on keeping HR under control.

Did 4 to yoga not-easy-because-I-didn't-hit-the-bathroom-before-I-left-because-it-was-only-four-miles-and-then-I-realized-two-miles-in-that-was-a-grave-mistake-and-begged-my-way-into-a-CVS-where-they-don't-let-you-use-the-bathroom-but-I-was-obviously-in-distress-and-doubled-over-because-it-would-all-come-out-if-I-stood-up-straight-so-she-took-pity-on-me-and-walking-very-slowly-let-me-into-the-back-area-where-I-had-a-tremendously-satisfying-poop-and-my-heart-rate-was-much-lower-after-that (9:28).  Then yoga, followed by 6 easy (9:31) plus drills and two strides.