2022 Advanced Racing Thread (Read 497 times)

Running Problem


Problem Child

    Zeb I probably built myself for longer events by focusing on the marathon. "Jack of all trades, master of none" entered my head at some point, and racing every month wasn't something I looked into.

     

    Flavio Looking at Ultrasignup they gave my 50 miler either a 73% or  82% rank. I can't figure out which one I'm supposed to use to determine how good I am.  Also, any interest in running your own 5k time trial? I conveniently have a 5k-ish loop about 1.5 miles from the house. It makes for a good opportunity to run one.

     

    CC I might not want to move where marathons are run because I'd pick an ultra marathon or some horrible location to live 7 months a year. Oh wait...I live a really great distance from a flat path I've used for LOTS of marathon training. So much so I've wondered how I'd actually recover from moving away from it. "where do I run if I can't run my 5-7 mile loop?" I'm sure I'd end up running more trails if I lived closer to them just out of convenience and not desire to run trails.

     

    I think people here are biased against the marathon. I mean....I didn't even break 1:30 in the half marathon until the day I went sub-3 in the marathon.  I should probably do more speed work.

    Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.

    VDOT 53.37 

    5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22

       

      FWIW Wheezer's best two songs are "Hero" and "Beverly hills". I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them with Green Day, FalloutBoy and the Interrupters last year.

       

       

       

      I would go with "Buddy Holly" and "Pork and Beans." I remember seeing the promos for the show with those four acts, that's a great lineup. Green Day is one of my favorites, and IDK why the Interrupters are not more famous, they're awesome.

      Dave

      SteveChCh


      Hot Weather Complainer

        Stunned that Say it ain't so hasn't gotten a mention!  I like Weezer but haven't seen them live.  I like quite a wide range of music from the heavier stuff to what some might call the equivalent of a popsicle.  I saw a live version of Africa on youtube from the 80s recently that changed my opinion of the song, it was very good.  Green Day are great, as long as they minimise the commentary in between songs.

         

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgUhp0vyz-Q

         

        Cinnamon - Echoing what the others say about what a great result that half is, both on AG and by itself on a hilly course.

         

        caitlin - Love that story!

         

        Rarotonga...is not where I am right now.  Instead I'm in Christchurch where it is currently -6C (21F) and I'm most definitely not in a pool with a swim up bar.

         

        Flew to Auckland to catch the Rarotonga flight yesterday, arriving in Auckland at 10am for a 2:50pm flight.  Check in opened at 11:50am so I decided to do my recovery run from the airport rather than get up at 5am on day 1 of the holiday.  After I'd done that and had a shower, it was 12:15pm so I thought I'd timed things well.  Unfortunately, Jetstar have stopped online check in for international flights and we were about to find out why.  The queue was huge and we were near the back.  It moved extremely slowly and we were 8 from the front after 1.5 hours.  During that time we'd taken turns going to have a coffee/lunch.  Suddenly it was clear something was wrong at the front of the queue.  The pilot had called the front desk and said to stop checking in passengers.  We waited another hour, before being told we were definitely not getting on this flight.  They wrote everyone's details on the back of a boarding pass (apparently their systems couldn't look at the flight manifest and retrieve the list of names of people who hadn't checked in) and gave us some vouchers and said they would call.  Best case scenario was putting us on an Air New Zealand flight this morning - I went and looked at the Air New Zealand website and there were less than 5 seats left on that flight.  We had some food, and my partner had a vodka (which is when I discovered the vouchers didn't cover alcohol, grrr).  No phone call so we went back to the desk.  They spent 40 minutes rebooking one couple for the Saturday flight so I called the 0800 number while waiting.  The customer service rep had no idea what had happened to our flight and said the best she could do is refund the remaining flights, but not the Christchurch - Auckland flight since we'd boarded, and we'd have to find our own way back to Christchurch...obviously this led to me losing my sh!t.

         

        Jetstar never sent any extra staff down to help.  Finally we were told we could fly on Saturday, stay in a hotel in Auckland for 2 nights, and they could extend our return flight out a few days.  The problem there is Rarotonga was sold out months ago so just decided to cut our losses and go home.  So we spent 10 hours at Auckland airport and ended up back at home and missing a much needed holiday.

         

        It turns out the reason was they needed to carry extra fuel because of recent storms in the Pacific, so they need enough in case they need to divert.  It also turns out that they do this ON EVERY FLIGHT from Auckland to Rarotonga, so if the flight is full, around 30 need to be bumped every time.  I don't understand why they don't just reduce capacity - it costs way more to rebook people and put them in hotels.  The last people who got on the flight had been bumped on Tuesday.  The people who were front of the queue when they stopped taking passengers were travelling for a wedding today.  While we were in the 3 hour queue, the non-refundable cut off for our accommodation kicked in - just found out that it seems they will only charge us for one night instead of five when they were within their rights to charge the full amount.  Assuming the Jetstar refund comes through in full (haha - I highly suspect they will charge us for ChCh - Auckland), we're actually not out of pocket too much.  I know there are worse things in the world but still extremely frustrating.  Also nowhere near as bad as what JMac went through for his race.

         

        I booked on Jetstar to fly to Melbourne 4 nights before my race because of the flight time (9pm is much better than 6am for me) so I'm a little nervous now.  Surely surely I can get there.  I'll be making sure we're there the second check in opens.  I did acknowledge that if I hadn't gone for a run, we could have been at the front of the queue but my partner isn't holding it against me, to her credit.

        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

        Running Problem


        Problem Child

          This is why I like driving places and not living in a big city. I think the hardest part about my most recent race was the equivalent of being a 5k runner at the half marathon/10k/5k race and showing up 20 minutes before race start thinking I'm early and I'll get to park near the finish line.

          Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.

          VDOT 53.37 

          5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22

          Marky_Mark_17


            Steve - DOH!  I gotta say from my recent experience the airports and airlines are not coping well due to shortage of staff - probably a function of laying off people during lockdowns, not being able to get them back now they need them, and sickness taking a bunch of people out.  I waited almost an hour for my bag in Sydney on Sun night even though we were the only international flight that landed.  Spent an hour in Sydney customs and security on the way out.  Flight home was half an hour late departing because they didn't have enough people to load the bags.  Spent another 30 mins or so in long queues in Auckland Airport customs.  Massive contrast to pre-COVID times for sure.

             

            Jetstar are probably coping worse than Air NZ due to having likely scaled back a lot more during the downturn.  Qantas in Australia are apologising to the public on almost a daily basis at the moment (for the others: Jetstar is Qantas' low-cost subsidiary).

             

            Anyway that is a real bummer about the holiday.  Did you have any sort of insurance?  I have never been a big fan, but a bit to be said for it at the moment.  There has been some stuff lately around your rights under the Civil Aviation Act when flights get cancelled by the airlines too.  Apparently Jetstar is particularly notorious for providing remuneration that is less than what you are entitled to under the CAA (but will give you the lot if you kick them hard 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: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

            Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

            "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

               

              JMac - I think you know I agree with you on the whole travel and run marathon concept! I have no reason to repeat a marathon course. I totally enjoy running as a way to see the world.

               

               

               

              I'm sort of mixed. I do like to run different marathons - I've run 16 so far and haven't repeated one yet. But I pick races that I want to do - because they're renowned for some reason, or they're fast - rather than cities I want to visit. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes not. So far I've only flown for races twice; that will increase since I'm running out of interesting races within driving distance. (October will be #3, which reminds me I need to book my damn flights.) Incidentally, for those trips requiring overnight stay - DW has come with me on all the driving races, none of the flying ones.

              Dave

              SteveChCh


              Hot Weather Complainer

                Mark - I usually get travel insurance automatically when I pay for flights with my credit card - in this case I decided not to because of the ridiculous credit card charge per flight per passenger, then forgot I didn't have insurance until I was in the queue...we actually won't lose too much cash.  It's more the time and missed holiday.  I am going to make a noise about it, within reason, but won't spend too much time on it.  It's just not worth the time for a few hundred bucks.  Maybe that's what they count on.

                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

                Marky_Mark_17


                  The Running Events team have been doing video's of some of their courses... if anyone wants a look this is the video of Omaha HM which I ran back in March (deferred from Dec 2021).  It made Runners World's list of top 10 bucket-list half marathons.  Stunner of a course (surprisingly tough for a flat one given the mix of terrain though).  Just watching it has made me want to run it again.

                  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: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                  Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                  "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

                  ccoakley


                    Jmac, I don't want to rehash old arguments but I view it as a reframing of different challenges.

                     

                    CinnamonGirl, Weezer is awesome.  (The world has turned and left me here) But if you didn't know the backstory of the internet basically forcing Weezer to cover Toto it would be impossible to understand the significance.

                     

                    RP, I think you will always argue the FM is easier regardless of what the question is.  It seems to be a distance that clicks with you and that's awesome.

                     

                    Steve, uggghhhh!!!!  I don't know that I would ever be able to describe that situation in such calm and understanding tones as you have.  Really sucks you lost out on a much deserved vacation.  What happens with your time off from work?  Staycation or back to work to use leave another day?

                     

                    DavePNW, first does your Strava profile have a non Dave name?  There's someone in Seattle I have several mutual friends with but doesn't appear to be you.  Second, vacation marathoning with a non running significant other does depend a lot on their travel styles.  Ie are you walking the whole city regardless or is the marathon your only chance to see all the highlights?

                     

                    I volunteered to put out the campfire tonight and I'm struck by how this 1 seemingly insignificant decision is going to end up possibly negatively impacting my potential marathon 3 months away.  (Will I really run the 10 mi i had planned tomorrow?)It's such a demanding endeavor that really requires all of oneself for such a huge amount of one's life and is it worth it?

                    5k 24:53 (2020) |10k 52:24 (2021) |HM 1:57:14 (2019) |FM 4:24 (2007) |50k 5:57 (2022)

                     

                     

                    nick john


                      spammer
                      flavio80


                      Intl. correspondent

                        Zeb - Ugh, I hope you can get better soon. I suppose you can use the downtime to do even more strength training and swimming?

                         

                        Caitlin - ha, that’s an interesting one. I’ve only been to Rockville, MD and DC, I found it all very beautiful, stark contrast to New York.

                        Re: fun stuff that might impact training, it’s always a tricky choice, but life carries on while training for the marathon. One can never ever have a perfect training block. 

                        One the one hand if you keep letting life get in the way your training will be horrible and you will do very bad at the race.

                        On the other hand if you always prioritise training then your mental state might suffer, cause you're missing a lot of the fun.

                         

                        RP - I’d hope I don’t have to run a time trial cause I’m much faster in races, especially considering the 5k is my prime target for the rest of the year.

                         

                        Steve - Damn, I’d be spitting fire after that one. Traveling is something that triggers me quite a bit because I feel like people are so slow to move. On the other hand I know I should not be thinking that since Im traveling, I should be relaxing and thinking about rainbows and stuff.

                         

                        Mark - That is indeed a very scenic course.

                        PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

                        Up next: no idea

                        Tool to generate Strava weekly

                           

                          DavePNW, first does your Strava profile have a non Dave name? 

                           

                          Nope.

                          Dave

                          SteveChCh


                          Hot Weather Complainer

                            Mark - I can definitely see the appeal of running that course.  I used to be all or nothing, fast flat courses only please, but Queenstown in particular has turned me round a bit.  I know you have blacklisted that one (did you do it in the first year in torrential rain?), but I really enjoy the atmosphere and the finish through the town.  This year I need to not go out at PR pace for the first half like I did in 2020, which made what should be the fun part very miserable.

                             

                            Caitlin - I took Friday off but cancelled my leave for Monday - Wednesday.  I was exhausted yesterday - who would have thought a 14 hour round trip comprised mostly of standing in queues and sitting in departure lounges could be so exhausting?  I really struggled on a short easy run.  Thankfully my coach is sticking with my reduced "Easy long in the heat ice with no workout" today.  My knee also pulled up sore from the travel day from doing nothing so I need to watch that too.

                             

                            Flavio - Couldn't agree more.  I love "travelling", although in reality I hate the travelling part and love the arriving part.  Life is a destination when airports and planes are involved!

                            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

                            SteveChCh


                            Hot Weather Complainer

                              A pretty tough week of running for me this week.  Monday was a real grind with no energy, to the point where I decided strides at the end was too much.  Same for Friday and Saturday again I had to work hard to get home, even at a very easy pace.  I do think my travel debacle on Thursday took a lot of energy and also led to a very sore knee, which is improving with some taping.

                               

                              My planned down week of Thursday - Wednesday when I was supposed to be in Rarotonga is still locked in so hopefully that helps me get some wind back in my sails.  I have one big block of 3-4 weeks left then finally it's time to taper.  If I'm still feeling like this towards the end of the week I'll tell the coach who will definitely be keen to extend the down week out to the weekend.  I've got plenty in the bank now so I need to be careful not to run myself into the ground.

                               

                              Up until this week I was almost thinking marathon training wasn't as hard as I thought - I was doing big mileage and recovering and backing up quite comfortably.  The cumulative fatigue got me this week though.  7 weeks to go!

                               

                              Weekly for period: From: 08/08/2022 To 14/08/2022

                              Date Name mi km Duration Avg/mi Avg/km Elevation Gain
                              in m
                              08/08 Warm up 0.34 0.55 00:03:15 09:34 05:55 0
                              08/08 Easy pace 9.41 15.15 01:16:49 08:10 05:04 26
                              10/08 Warm up 0.35 0.57 00:03:19 09:29 05:49 0
                              10/08 Med-Long incl. 7 x (1km @ MP, 1km easy) 13.85 22.28 01:48:50 07:51 04:53 17
                              11/08 Auckland Airport Recovery 6.67 10.72 00:59:30 08:55 05:33 91
                              12/08 Warm up 0.33 0.54 00:03:11 09:39 05:54 0
                              12/08 Easy pace 6.28 10.10 00:51:23 08:11 05:05 10
                              13/08 Warm up 0.34 0.55 00:03:14 09:31 05:53 0
                              13/08 Easy long 16.27 26.17 02:14:55 08:18 05:09 25
                              14/08 Recovery 5.01 8.07 00:47:03 09:23 05:50 10

                              Total distance: 94.70km (58.86 mi)

                              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

                              Marky_Mark_17


                                Steve - yeah that can happen.  That travel debacle wouldn't have helped.  Enjoy an easier week this week.

                                 

                                Me - last week of work for a bit... Auckland 10k champs next weekend and Nationals 2 weeks after that.  Enjoyed running in Sydney, the waterfront there and Centennial Park were both great spots.  Centennial Park in particular was just brilliant for a workout, nice long 3km loop on roads closed to traffic, a few undulations to keep it honest.

                                 

                                I don't have any major objectives for next Sunday's race other than as a bit of a rust buster.  The course is flat but not especially quick due to some annoying turns, and the area it's in is more or less a giant wind tunnel so that often plays a part.  The course at Nationals 2 weeks later should be a lot quicker.

                                 

                                Workouts:

                                Tues: 4 x 1k

                                Thurs: 50 min steady

                                Sat: 3 x 3 x 800 / 400 jog (increasing pace each set)

                                 

                                 

                                Weekly for period: From: 08/08/2022 To 14/08/2022

                                Date Name mi km Duration Avg/mi Avg/km Elevation Gain
                                in m
                                08/08 That run with the first overseas trip in ages 8.33 13.41 00:56:46 06:49 04:14 26
                                09/08 That run where Centennial Park is the bomb 💣 even in the dark and the rain 8.44 13.59 00:53:31 06:20 03:56 90
                                10/08 That run with a guided tour of Sydney’s waterfront 7.56 12.17 00:53:10 07:02 04:22 54
                                11/08 That run with a ferris wheel, a pirate ship and a bunch of giant LEGO figurines 8.09 13.02 00:52:25 06:29 04:02 40
                                13/08 That run where it’s back to splashing around the +64 8.80 14.16 00:52:20 05:57 03:42 66
                                14/08 That run where I had a craving for waffles 12.44 20.01 01:27:46 07:03 04:23 209

                                Total distance: 86.35km (53.7 imperial bread crusts)

                                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: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                                Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                                "CONSISTENCY IS KING"