Also in a lesson of why Chicago is a total crapshoot, it's going to be 76 degrees this Sunday. I have no desire to run that race for that reason. I think it may even be worse than Boston in terms of volatility in weather, although I understand the heat training of the summer offsets that a little bit.

Running a race, and racing a race are different things.

Sorry, I've been on vacation in Spain and missed quite a few pages. I ran a large 10k in Barcelona this morning; the warm temps and humidity were not good conditions for me, but I got through it. 

Mikkey's recollection is right, discussions on the old Marathon Race Training forum on RWOL were very useful (and quite hardnosed at times). Some really knowledgeable people on there (including tinman, IIRC). Jeffruns was another I enjoyed. As a relatively new runner then (1st marathon in 1998), the back and forth really shaped my thoughts on how a marathon cycle could be approached. I met quite a few of the forumites at Boston and elsewhere. The "My coach says..." threads occasionally trashed the coach, but more often the o.p. got told "Listen to your coach!"

Re Jim2, hillrunner anticipated that Jim2's illness would not end well, and when it went south, he contacted Jim2 to get access to the site, then transported it across to the link on his site to preserve it. And its good advice has lasted longer than RWOL. Hillrunner was also very to me when I got drafted to be the XC coach at the local HS in Montana where I had a business venture. Others on RWOL also helped. Many say that running cross-country in HS changes the runner's life. In my case, it became a labor of love, and changed my life dramatically as well. I'd become disillusioned with my marathon experiences, and didn't run one for about 6 years. XC and track coaching led me back into it -- and into coaching for the marathon as well.

 

Re Jim2, hillrunner anticipated that Jim2's illness would not end well, and when it went south, he contacted Jim2 to get access to the site, then transported it across to the link on his site to preserve it. And its good advice has lasted longer than RWOL.

I wondered about that.  I am grateful to both hillrunner and Jim2 for having the foresight to preserve that stuff.  So much timeless wisdom there.

re: Boston.  I've only done it once - my impression was that it wasn't actually that hard a course, as long as you could be very patient in your execution.  But, like DavePNW, my perception may have been skewed by the year I ran it.  I ran it in 2018, when the weather sucked so much that pretty much any course would have seemed like a non-factor, compared to the weather.

A friend and I were discussing yesterday - he thought that Marine Corps was a significantly faster marathon than Boston.  Personally, I disagree (I've never officially run MCM, but I've run pretty much every part of the course at one time or another). Marine Corps is technically flat for much of the course, but there are also hills that hit at exactly the wrong time, and tight turns that also hit at exactly the wrong time.  I'd rather do Boston if I was prioritizing a time.

My week:

47 miles running, 2 hours pool-running, and 500 yards swimming.

M: Streaming yoga
T: 9 miles (10:20) plus drills and hill sprints, and upper body weights/core.
W: 9 miles, including 6 Stafford Street hills (2:00 up a 5% incline, then 3:00 jog down), followed with leg strengthwork
Th: 2 hours pool-running and streaming yoga
F: 7 miles (9:58)
Sa: 10 miles, including 8 Iwo Jima Hills (2:00 up a 2% incline, 90 second jog, 40 second downhill stride, 1:00 jog). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Su: 12 miles aerobic/gray zone (8:28), upper body weights/core.

Started introducing hills this week.    Legs felt better the more I did.

Steve - as Fishy pointed out, I'm the other big sweater on here. I know the whole salt line thing, and I've definitely gotten it on my shoes before! It's most prevalent in weather around 65 degrees and low humidity: warm enough that you sweat a lot, but the humidity means it dries very quickly. Have had exactly 1 cramp in my entire life though and don't take in that many electrolytes, so I can't really help you. Having said that, I do really like Saltstick capsules. Keen put me onto some electrolyte drinks that ultimately I found too salty and made me feel more thirsty, but these capsules don't do that since they're just that: capsules. Plus, you can just take them on any run and it turns normal water fountains into great rehydration.

Flavio - one thing my new PT has said which I think is true is that right now, there is an overdiagnosing of "weak glutes" for every injury in running. Although the theme is generally true, and we should continue to focus on strengthening them, she doesn't think they casue as many issues as people prescribe them to. I find that happens with a lot of things: we all try to find the "one thing" that is causing our problems. In the 90s, it was saturated fats, now it's sugars. For the running world, it used to be stretching solves everything, now it's strengthening your glutes solves everything.

mmerkle - every week you mention how your long run went, but never on how your workouts went. I think that goes to show something I've pointed out that you may be over focusing on it. So I'll directly ask: how have all the workouts been?

RP - I would never fly to Chicago to casually run that race. I guess if I was doing some world marathon major thing, but Chicago for me is specifically built to run PRs if you get the right weather. It's just like CIM in that way. I wouldn't recommend someone go run CIM who just casually runs marathons unless they live in the area.

longboat - as always, thank you. I can't believe tinman actually posted there!!

Boston - I also ran in 2019 like Dave and hated it for that reason: I was feeling so good until the sun came out and completely cooked me. I'll run it again one day I'm sure. Time heals all wounds.

My week was all over the place. Felt really good early in the week, but my attempt at a big run on Wednesday led to another hamstring issue: this time, in a tendon that connects the hamstring to the knee, along with some adductor issues. After each rest period, starting up, it felt like my knee/leg was just going to completely give out. Very frustrating, especially since I did 22 miles working down to around MP+15 seconds and had no issues a few days prior. My PT wasn't really surprised though, she thinks my hamstring is a complete mess.

Given that, I was very worried about my MP run this weekend and that perhaps I was going to have to just give up on running any halfway decent time at NYC. Luckily, my hamstring completely held up. I really don't understand it though: I ran some 5:5X miles in there with no real problems, but just 2 miles at around 5:40 or so on Wednesday led to these issues. Might have been a warm up issue, going straight into 5:40 after a bunch of 7:15 miles. Either way, I'm not going to do my planned 3x2T this Wednesday, just makes no sense.

For the half @ MP, overall I'm pretty happy. It was definitely hard, and at points it felt like I was racing instead of doing MP. But when I finished I knew it was okay because I wasn't breathing too hard, just my legs were exhausted, which is what it's supposed to be. But the uphill on the bridges was way harder than it should have been.

I still have no idea given this injury what a good NYC time is. I ran a 1:19:40 in the half, so that says that 2:39 is reasonable, but this was not on a course as difficult as NYC and we all know 13.1 at MP doesn't guarantee you can run it for the full. However, in the spirit of no sandbagging, 2:39:59 is the goal. That probably means locking into 2:37 pace on the flat sections (6:00 flat), and then seeing where the hills come out at.

Weekly for period: From: 10/17/2022 To 10/23/2022

Total distance: 80.29mi

JMac - I kinda agree with Fishy regarding you not being completely healed yet, but M is SO very much easier than T work that if you aren't having issues with that then I don't think you have to cut out all speedwork.
Given that even the faster miles in that half went by just fine, it does sound likely that more warmup helps.

Mark - Good week, and I'm jealous of your weather recently.

Steve - Nice job building back. Everything else holding together just fine other than that niggle?

Flavio - Nothing wrong with boring.

Merkle - Good week. Did you eat anything before the LR, or was the whole thing completely fasted?

Fishy - Nice volume there, especially with only one double and a day completely off.

DWave - It's oddly comforting to see your Iwo Jima hill repeats on Strava. Something that almost says "all is right with the world".

Continuing to stack miles like cordwood. My biggest week ever by ~1k. Less than ideal LR on the treadmill Saturday (home with DDs 2 & 3 while DW and DD1 were out of town for a soccer tournament). I would have preferred to have been outside just on general principle, but on the other hand winds were 20+mph. Super bonus: I came in from the run to DD2 making me scrambled eggs!

I should hit 100 this week (and maybe next week) before dropping miles a bit. I have one of my least favorite types of workouts coming up this week (10k effort pickup sandwiched between a couple HMe segments) but things have been going quite well this cycle so I don't know that I should worry much, especially since the weather should be absolutely primo for it (calm winds, Kiwi Point 80).

Weekly for period: From: 10/17/2022 To 10/23/2022

Total distance: 102.74mi

Mikkey - I for one welcome the zoom call noobs 😎 I’ve been having video calls since before 2010

Your experience is just like mine at every lecture ever. You know when you're in that state where you're just half awake?

Sometimes when you will tilt your head forward a bit as you nearly fall asleep then catch yourself half way and pop back up. We used to call that "fishing" 😂

On a side note, me and my wife are planning a trip to London, there’s this great Airbnb at no 10 Downing Street, do you think it’s a good neighbourhood?

Mmerk - Spicy tempo, remind me again what’s your half PR? It must be close to 1h20

LongBoat - you should change your title from “On the roads again…” to “Resident historian” 😀

Thanks again for the story about the old times.

JMAC - except that it’s true in my case. Squats are hard, I sit 14 hours a day for the past 30 years, I’ve always had lower back problems, my piriformis is always tense and I cheat with my hip flexors when doing squats. Also my quads scream at me at the end of 10ks and especially half marathons.

Keen - Exactly, boring is my aim. I want my weeklies as boring as possible.

I think this is an important bit of news to share: