Forums >Racing>2022 Advanced Racing Thread
Mother of Cats
Ian - Congrats on getting into Tokyo - that's good news indeed. Nice MP workout!
MMerkle - good racing and good decisions. FWIW, I don't think it's an awful thing to be low on mileage between marathon cycles, especially when focusing on speed during that point.
Flavio - those temps are jaw dropping. Wow. As for the watch programming - I do that for time based workouts but not for distance based ones. For me it's not a memory thing (most of my workouts are pretty simple), it's just that I hate having to look at my watch repeatedly when I run. So if it's a time based workout, I'll just warm-up and lap it once and then just follow the beeps. But for distance based workouts, I just go plain manual laps.
Marky_Mark - some great workouts there - I like those alternating on/off workouts like the 1K/3k, but they do require a lot of focus. Enjoy the recovery week - based on your training, you've definitely earned it!
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.
Intl. correspondent
Ian - Congrats on the Tokyo selection.
The weather is currently absolutely brutal.
It's literally like when you open the oven to check the roast.
It's that same hot wind in your face, burning your nostrils.
Thankfully the worst should have passed by tomorrow end of day and the max will be only 37c on Tuesday.
Also thankfully the apartment we got has air conditioning.
I believe this weather is very unhealthy, it's no wonder the city is a ghost town.
DW - it makes sense as you do many of your workouts in a track.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: some 800m race (or time trials) / Also place in the top 20% in a trail race
Tool to generate Strava weekly
My week:
52 miles running, 4.5 hours pool-running, and 1500 yards swimming.
M: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/coreT: 11.5 miles, including 6x800, 2x200 in 3:25, 3:21, 3:21, 3:18, 3:16, 3:12, 46, and 46. Recoveries were 2:2x to 2:58 for the 800s. Full recovery for the 200s. Followed with leg strengthwork, and 500 yards recovery swimming.W: Streaming yoga, 10.5 miles easy (9:44) and drills/strides.Th: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.F: 12 miles, including a mixed workout of 3x10 seconds hard on a 6% hill, then 2x2K on the track with ~3:00 jog (splits 8:54 and 8:49), jogged back to hill for six 30 second hill repeats, with two sets of easy effort, moderate effort, hard effort, before returning to track for 2K, 2x1K in 8:45, 4:21 and 4:18 (~3 minute jog between each). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 meters recovery swimming.Sa: 18 miles (9:20), mostly easy but with a fartlek of eight times 1 minute uptempo, 8 minutes easy in the middle. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.Su: 90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.
Week 2 of my "maybe I'm running Chicago" marathon cycle. In past cycles, on the even weeks I've done intervals on Tuesday, a tempo workout on Friday and then a progressive long run on Sunday (on the odd week I do a Wednesday workout and then a marathon pace workout on Saturday). But I'm mixing it up this cycle to try something different - instead of the tempo and progressive long run with 48 hours separation, I'm doing a longer track/hills workout on Friday morning and then an easy long run Saturday morning (with some strides in the second hour to keep it interesting). A friend of mine had really good results with this type of training earlier this year, and I think I need to change my training up a bit, so it's worth trying.I feel like things are really starting to improve. Of course, it's also the height of summer now, and that slows me down some, so it's hard to know exactly where I am. But my gait feels better and my friends have commented that my running looks a lot better, so that's something.
Waltons ThreadLord
had an email off Tokyo saying I've been accepted for a charity place,
Congratulations!
5k 23:48.45 (3/22); 4M 31:26 (2/22); 5M 38:55 (11/23); 10k 49:24 (10/22); 10M 1:29:33 (2/24); Half 1:48:32 (10/22); Marathon 4:29:58 (11/23)Upcoming races: Clinton Country Run 15k, 4/27; Running is Back 10k, 5/12
Well I already reported on my workout and my race; thanks everyone for your comments on that. Anytime I race, I always second-guess some things that could have been improved. In this case, it was mainly “why didn’t I pick a flatter race?” LOL.
Despite some hard work yesterday, I still had to get a long one in today, with the marathon in mind—11 weeks to Chicago. Brings me back to my long-ago days following the Pfitz plan; he builds in a few weekends with a Saturday race and Sunday long run. But I certainly wasn’t looking forward to it. Aside from any aftereffects from the race, I was going to have to do it solo—ordinarily it would be with my Saturday morning running group. I used to do all my runs solo till I found this group a couple years ago. Long runs with a group are SO much nicer; it’s gotten me spoiled, so when I have to run one alone it’s SUCH drudgery. Anyway, the result was good. Solid, steady pace, felt strong, and able to crank it up a bit on the last mile.
Dave
As for the watch programming - I do that for time based workouts but not for distance based ones.
Flavio: this is pretty much the same for me. Any workout that has only distance (if on the track in some multiple of 200m), I’ll just do manual lap because it’s easy enough. I rarely do anything like 400s where you’d have to keep count of 12-16, or anything ridiculously complicated. Also there are days when I start my warmup not being 100% sure what I’m going to do, so I keep my options open. If it has any timed portions, I program it.
darkwave: I support the switching-things-up approach to your training. I’m not smart enough to tell you one whether one structure is better than the other, but I think a periodic shakeup is always a good thing. I tend to get set in my ways and repeat the same training plan for several cycles, but whenever I’ve made a change there’s been a good result. And glad to hear things are feeling better—just at the right time!
Hot Weather Complainer
Dave - Great result! Sounded like it wasn't the "perfect" race but it had a perfect outcome. Nice way to back it up with the long run too.
darkwave - Good to hear things continue to improve. Chicago only 11 weeks away sounds like a pretty ambitious goal, although I imagine you'll have sensible thoughts on a target time.
Flavio - yuck. That sounds like Melbourne in January and February, but at least there you usually get a "cool" change, which can sometimes mean a 30C degree day in the middle of a run of 40-45 degree days. On those days I always stuck to the treadmill when I lived there. I'm not sure what I'd do these days now that I haven't run on a treadmill for years and the thought does not excite me. I tried programming my watch for a complicated workout but discovered when I tried to download it that my watch model doesn't support it. I've had my watch since 2017.
I got lost in Portland, Maine on a run in 2016. It was mid-October so not the worst possible weather but still fricken freezing for me. Not fun.
Ian - Nice week and very nice long run - almost a carbon copy of mine! Which now sounds like I'm patting myself on the back...
mmerkle - I wouldn't worry too much about mileage at this stage. You've obviously got real speed and plenty of time.
JMac - That weather and obviously having higher priorities are serious de-motivators. Hopefully when things calm down a bit we can see you more often, and it's clear that time apart from you seriously impacts Mikkey's happiness.
Mark - Some seriously impressive weeks (and months) behind you now. Very excited to see how your spring races go.
me - As I said earlier, I woke up on Wednesday with a sore throat, and spent half the night unable to sleep with the throat and a headache. I was pretty grumpy about it, knowing that Covid in March prevented a full week of training but, more importantly, took me 4 weeks to get back to where I had been. This time it's stayed reasonably mild and feels different from Covid (much more blocked up, and less fatigue). On Wednesday night it was blowing a gale and the rain was coming in sideways so I considered not running but I only had a minor sore throat...so I decided to go for it and if it brought it on quicker then so be it. I actually had a really good workout in the end and as the week went on I got worse, but not too much. On Saturday I went out for my 20 miler with 3 x 4km @ race pace with no expectations. I knew early on that if I was to complete the mileage, it had to stay easy and in the end I got there reasonably comfortably. Yesterday was the worst I've felt so I'm hoping it's on the way out now. I'll likely tell the coach to keep Wednesday easy. It's annoying because I have an easy week in 2-3 weeks when I go on holiday and without that I'd happily have a down week (yes, yes, I'm far better off having 2 down weeks than blowing it). Anyway, I'm still in the game after worrying this could mean I don't make it to the start line.
Footnote: Is it fair to be annoyed at my cousin who came down last weekend and brought her sick son to breakfast who proceeded to cough in my direction non-stop? Grrr.
5km: 18:34 11/23 │ 10km: 39:10 8/23 │ HM: 1:26:48 9/23 │ M: 3:34:49 6/23
2024 Races:
Motorway Half Marathon February 25, 2024 1:29:55
Christchurch Half-Marathon April 21, 2024
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
Yeah, I'm not sure this will happen. I'm confident in my ability to finish a marathon, and I know there's no way I'll be in shape to PR this fall, but for multiple reasons I don't want to run Chicago unless I think I can run at least in the 3:10 range or so. Which is looking like a really big leap right now. OTOH, it's fairly humid in my area right now (dew points in the mid-70s, or about 23 Celsius when I run) and that throws training times way off. I think I'll give it another 2 weeks and then decide. It's supposed to be a bit less humid this coming weekend, so I'll attempt a marathon effort workout and see how that goes.
I would be really annoyed at your cousin. Covid or not, nobody wants to be sick. If you know you or someone that you are responsible for is sick, hold them away from group events for a few days. Even if it's just a head cold.
Dave - good job on the long run. I'll confess that I sometimes really enjoy a solo long run, but I get how it can be a shift if you're used to running with others.
Flavio - I've never bothered programming workouts on my watch because it's way faster to just write it on my hand lol. Plus depending how I'm feeling sometimes I will adjust them a bit too - add an extra repeat or shorten/lengthen recoveries.
Ian - congrats on the Tokyo entry!
mmerkle - the mileage will come soon enough, I'm sure.
Darkwave - ahh the track / hill combo workout. I still haven't quite mustered up the courage to try that one. Partly because I have to squish my Saturday track workouts in early before my daughter's football game so I just try and get them done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Dave - hear you on the long runs. Sometimes I'm fine, sometimes they get a bit boring. I find music tends to help a lot for me but group long runs definitely make the time pass a lot quicker.
Steve - I agree with Darkwave. If you're sick or have a sick kid... no need to share the germs around! Anyways it sounds like you've just got some sort of garden variety bug so hopefully it passes quickly enough.
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"
Hah interesting it seems I am the only one programming most of the workouts so I don't have to think about laps or keep looking at the watch near the end of laps.
But I also don't have access to a track so...
DW - I've done a variation of that track / hill workout this past week and it was fun.
It was essentially 12x400 with the middle 4 reps uphill.
Steve - it sounds like Melbourne is the oven of Australia 🥵🥵🥵.
Hopefully you can get around this bug quickly.
I also had some weird symptoms late last week/early this week but thankfully they're gone.
I'm now suspecting the headaches are due to my astigmatism and the fact I have not bought my glasses yet.
Jmac - I saw your weather Screenshot on Strava. That's cooking weather, though IIRC you deserve it for going running in the evenings 😈
Mikkey - we ❤️ you too
RIP Milkman
At some point, shouldn't you just run a marathon regardless of what shape you're in? I say this as someone with often a similar mindset (why bother running if I'm not going to run the time I want), but there's something to be said for you just running one given what's gone on over the last 2 years. Not in a pat you on the back way, but as a rust busting way. I thought I was fine with all the half marathons I've run over the past couple of years, but definitely learned some new things in my last marathon given I hadn't run one since December 19.
Also 11 weeks left seems totally reasonable given your training load recently. 12-15 weeks is all you really need.
Flavio - somehow it took me this long to discover that running shirtless helps a lot with cooling. I was okay yesterday in my run: took in 40 oz of water over those 15 miles, and kept it fairly slow. Heart felt fine at the end of that one.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Hah interesting it seems I am the only one programming most of the workouts so I don't have to think about laps or keep looking at the watch near the end of laps. But I also don't have access to a track so...
I get around having to program my workouts by doing simple workouts that don't stress my memory capacity.
Agree generally but...
I am in the American Development Corral at Chicago - the Masters standard for that corral was sub 3:05 for women. If I know I'm going to run a 3:20 or 3:30 marathon at best, I should NOT be in that corral, and should yield my slot to someone else who will make good use of it. And I'm honestly not sure whether Chicago will let me swap to a different corral, since I didn't get in through the standard entry process. It's different from being assigned to corral A and moving back to corral B.
Respect.
Cobra Commander Keen
RP - If I don't make it a course (I haven't even tried running on it yet) one of the local kids definitely will. Currently there are a few dozen head of cattle in that pasture, so I'll not disturb them.
Caitlin - It's great that your desire to run is back, that counts for a lot. Hopefully you make a full recovery soon.
JTR - Keen-osabi. That's a good one! Clearly I understood that reference.
Flavio - I know it sounds odd and a bit "out there" but I think the breathing issues were due to some food-related contaminants (something in some dairy items, specifically). Issues steadily improved while I was on that work trip (and away from those particular contaminants), but on the way home from the airport I stopped with the kids to get some frozen custard. Within minutes I could feel the issues coming back again, but once that episode passed I've been fine. Also, I absolutely program all of my workouts into my watch and put them on my training schedule so it will be "offered" to me on that day. I just did this for my Wednesday workout, actually.
Merkle - Pretty awesome race result, congrats.
Jmac - Those issues sound no bueno. I certainly imagine not being acclimated to the heat is an issue, but how's your electrolyte status as well?
Dave - Stellar, congratulations! Blazing last mile to get under 20, too.
Ian - Awesome that you're in for Tokyo.
Mikkey - On edge that the Waltons may have staged a very non-hostile takeover?
A pretty low intensity, slightly low volume, low forum participation week from me owing to a work trip that put me in Austin, TX for a few days. Thankfully I shouldn't have any of those again for at least a couple months. During some downtime I was able to visit a LRS and got a screamin' deal ($80USD) on a pair of Endorphin Speed 2s, so the work trip wasn't a complete waste!
My breathing problems seem to have resolved themselves, which is awesome.It looks like we might actually get a break for our rather prodigious streak of temps at/above 100F/37.8C later in the week.
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
OKC Memorial 5k - April 27
Bun Run 5k - May 4