2022 Advanced Racing Thread (Read 497 times)

JoshWolf


Part of TLC

     

    Mark - Excellent, then I fully expect you to ignore whatever Mikkey or Jmac write that you find offending and focus on the good things.

     

    You wanna turn this into the Waltons' thread?

     

    Fury - From lurker to lurker: Thank you!

    Don't hurry - next AG will start 2026


    You big Dosser

       

      Mikkey - funny enough, CJ Albertson holds the world record in a track marathon, I believe it was a 2h18.
      In fact, he holds the world marathon record on an indoor track as well, which is 211 laps (https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/04/cj-albertson-runs-21759-4-as-indoor-marathon-world-record-fall-for-4th-straight-year-at-armory/).

      Also, hilarious cameo for your doggo 😁🐶

       

       

      My Dad likes you. ❤️

      JMac11


      RIP Milkman

         

        My Dad likes you. ❤️

         

        A+. Merry Christmas!

        5K: 16:37 (11/20)  |  10K: 34:49 (10/19)  |  HM: 1:14:57 (5/22)  |  FM: 2:36:31 (12/19) 

         

         

        JMac11


        RIP Milkman

          Flavio - i wanted to comment on your Reddit post and social media in general. One sub I joined recently was NYCs sub. At first, I found it so helpful because I was picking up news I wasn’t seeing elsewhere. Eventually though, I realized it was just a place for people to complain all day long, and I found that I was getting upset in my day to day life about the dumbest shit because now I knew about it from that Reddit subreddit. I view it the same as the Citizen app or Nextdoor or any of these other sites. It makes you think crime is EVERYWHERE because every little thing is posted on there. I saw a recent one where some guy was parking for too long in a spot and you would have thought a murder had taken place given the outrage on there.

           

          These apps, social media, etc are the equivalent of the old people on HOA boards: some people really enjoy being upset all day long and complaining about it. It’s very toxic and once I stopped reading these sites I was a lot happier. I still admit I peruse from time to time, but so many subreddits are echo chambers where they come to one conclusion as a group and any dissenting opinions are immediately suppressed by moderators. The most hilarious subreddit of all is ‘politics’ because it’s not actually about politics: it’s basically a liberal posting board where any stories that look bad for the left in the US is immediately squashed. I feel bad for teenagers who think they’re getting unbiased news in a place like ‘politics’. Its almost impossible in the US these days (and probably around the world) to read one single story and get an unbiased view: I subscribe to things across the political spectrum because it’s the only way to know what’s actually going on in the world.

          5K: 16:37 (11/20)  |  10K: 34:49 (10/19)  |  HM: 1:14:57 (5/22)  |  FM: 2:36:31 (12/19) 

           

           

          Marky_Mark_17


            Mark - Excellent, then I fully expect you to ignore whatever Mikkey or Jmac write that you find offending and focus on the good things.


            Sure, if you’re gonna hold everyone to the same standards.

            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"


            You big Dosser


              Sure, if you’re gonna hold everyone to the same standards.

               

              I want to join the other thread. I’m very speedy and don’t want to run a marathon.

               

              I am also a very well behaved doggy.

              SteveChCh


              Hot Weather Complainer

                I definitely see the merit in not engaging with social media/internet content that can impact your general mood for no good reason.

                 

                I'm sure everyone is enjoying Christmas rather than being here but I'll drop my weekly anyway.  This was my first week of workouts designed by the new coach - no major changes, except more of a focus on speed and strength until I start the marathon cycle.  Reduced weekend "long" runs too.  My heart rate data has highlighted that even my slower easy pace since the marathon can slow down more.  I've definitely enjoyed the first week - week 2 will be lighter with a focus on the 5km on Saturday.

                 

                Weekly for period: From: 19/12/2022 To 25/12/2022

                <caption>Weekly Grid</caption>
                Date Name mi km Duration Avg/mi Avg/km Elevation Gain
                in m
                19/12 Warm up 0.34 0.54 00:03:30 10:18 06:29 0
                19/12 Easy med long 9.05 14.55 01:17:11 08:32 05:18 20
                21/12 Warm up 0.34 0.55 00:03:34 10:29 06:29 0
                21/12 2 x (8T, 2E) + 1 x (8LT, 2E) 9.63 15.49 01:15:18 07:49 04:52 9
                22/12 Recovery 5.53 8.90 00:53:34 09:41 06:01 11
                23/12 Warm up 0.33 0.54 00:03:23 10:15 06:16 0
                23/12 Easy shakeout with 6 x 100m strides 6.46 10.40 00:55:36 08:36 05:21 10
                24/12 Warm up 0.33 0.54 00:03:22 10:12 06:14 0
                24/12 Progression Run - 35:25:15 11.37 18.29 01:30:07 07:56 04:56 24
                25/12 Warm up 0.33 0.53 00:03:24 10:18 06:25 0
                25/12 Xmas Morning Cruise 7.84 12.62 01:10:49 09:02 05:37 17

                Total distance: 82.96km (51.56mi)

                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

                ch17


                It's Tuesday every day

                  Happy holidays, everybody! Using a quiet hour to catch up on some year-end reports and drop in my 18-24 Dec weekly:

                   

                  JMac: “I was able to snag my one and only PR this year at my half marathon tune-up, and just barely: 3 seconds. This kept my streak alive of PRs at the 4 major distances for 9 straight years!”

                   

                  That is incredible. Enjoy!!! Also, congrats on the mileage PR.

                   

                   

                  Marky_Mark: congrats on the two HM wins, especially the Omaha one :-D

                   

                  SteveChCh: congrats on rescuing an iffy year with a mileage record.

                   

                  Mmerkle: Holy crap, I don’t have enough exclamation points for your year. WTG!

                   

                  [And then I read RP’s report…] Geez, man, mail me a bottle of what you’re having. I’ve never done a 365-day streak, and now I want to. I also like the truck part, especially because I'd been planning to include a couple of home improvement projects in mine.

                   

                  Dktrotter: congrats on the 5/10k PRs after 17 years of running! If that were me I’d be super-excited. Pretty awesome that it happened in a year with such a crappy-ass start.

                   

                  Krash: what to say? [Note: I'd typed that in as a placeholder because every bullet was so heavyweight, but now I'm going to just going to leave that as my final answer.]

                   

                  Dave PNW: “But then reached the pinnacle at the Chicago Marathon, running 3:17:48 for a 4.5 min PR with a 2 min negative split…It was so supremely gratifying to take off that size chunk of time, after 10 years of marathoning and 17 races, and after only cutting 1.5 min off my PR in the previous 5 years.”

                   

                  Way to keep the faith, brother. CONGRATS!

                   

                  Me (18-24 Dec 2022): 44.1 mi @ 9:41 min/mi including a 17-mi LR Sunday at 9:31 min/mi pace. Finished up my 3000 mi for the year on Wed Dec 21 and then have been goofing off ever since (0 mi Thu, 1.5 mi Fri, 3.33 today). As mentioned last week, the "rule" is I don't have to run another step until 1 Jan.

                   

                  Time for Christmas dinner. Have a great week! --Christine

                  darkwave


                  Mother of Cats

                    Flavio - glute engagement is a+.  And thanks for the book suggestions - I will add to the list.  Congrats on avoiding your wife's bug as well.

                     

                    Steve - big thumbs up on the adjustments to your easy runs.  You obviously don't need my approval, but FWIW I really like the changes your coach is making.

                     

                    CH17 - congrats on hitting the 3K milestone.  I'm guessing next week will be a "whatever" week and not a full week off?

                     

                    ***

                     

                    60 miles running, 3.5 hours pool-running, and 1000 yards swimming.
                    M: 90 minutes pool-running
                    T: 12 miles, with a track workout of 2x800, 1600, 2x800, 2x200 in 3:38, 3:35, 7:02, 3:23, 3:22, 48 and 48. 2:50 recoveries between the 800s and 5:30 recovery after the 1600; full recovery for the 200s. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
                    W: Streaming yoga and 12 miles very easy (9:21) plus drills and hill sprints.
                    Th: 2 hours pool-running and upper body weights/core.
                    F: 12 miles with 8 Iwo Jima hill repeats (2:00 up a 2% slope, 90-100 second jog, 40 second downhill stride, 60 second jog). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
                    Sa: 12 miles very easy on treadmill (9:31) plus upper body weights/core.
                    Su: 12 miles on treadmill, including a tempo workout of 7x5 minutes at tempo effort (between 8.5 and 8.8 mph) with 1 minute jog. Full recovery, and then 6x30 second strides (between 9.5 and 10 mph) with 90 second jog. Followed with leg strengthwork.

                    I'm 3 weeks out from the Houston marathon. Between the weather (single digits fahrenheit) and the holiday it didn't work to do a long run this weekend, and I don't think I need one anyway. Instead, I shifted my focus back to speed and power. I don't normally do hill workouts this late in a marathon cycle (especially when targeting a flat marathon), but I really felt like my gait could benefit from the Iwo Jima workout - especially the downhill stride part - so I added one in on Friday when my team's track workout was cancelled.

                    I am still struggling with running in the dark (see the first reps of Tuesday's workout) but I'm seeing continued improvement in all my other running. My easy runs are getting substantially faster for the same effort (not that you can conclude that much from easy run pace) and my gait feels smoother both outside and on the treadmill, so that's encouraging.

                    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.

                       

                      I am still struggling with running in the dark (see the first reps of Tuesday's workout) but I'm seeing continued improvement in all my other running. My easy runs are getting substantially faster for the same effort (not that you can conclude that much from easy run pace) and my gait feels smoother both outside and on the treadmill, so that's encouraging.

                       

                      I was wondering if the start at Houston will be in the dark. Looks like you’ll have about 15 min before sunrise, but hopefully it will be light enough to avoid any issues. Good to hear that things are feeling better overall.

                      Dave

                      Running Problem


                      Problem Child

                        Flavio typically I would.  When I ran to zip code I made a self imposed rule. I had to follow the roads as if I was a car. No cutting through cul de sacs to shorten the run. No using running paths to jump from area to area. It makes things much harder.

                         

                        jmac Reddit is absolutely a liberal echo chamber doing its best to silence the Republican right wing. It’s hilarious for me when I look at people complaining about being suppressed and underrepresented now being the majority and doing what they set out to stop. I was banned on Reddit. I had -99 karma.  People thought I was a fake account. Waste of time. Internet time is less kid time and kid time is more important to me.

                         

                        dwave ideally you’ll start getting more sunlight before houston for training purposes. I don’t think I’d be able to train through what you have, but maybe I’d just get really angry at everything and run MORE. like an 18 miler on a Wednesday...

                        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

                        flavio80


                        Intl. correspondent

                          Jmac/RP - Yup, gotta pick and choose some small parts that can be useful and ignore the rest.
                          At reddit all the default subs are far left (worldnews/politics, even the Brazilian sub reddit is far left).
                          However reddit is still very useful if you ignore those subreddits.
                          All of the technical subreddits are good (think software dev stuff), geopolitics is relatively balanced, and Reddit is also a very nice place to find recommendations for stuff, from hiking gear to gps watches to routers, etc.
                          All that said, I've been working to slowly detox from internet stuff, I've set my phone to a max of 3h30 of screen time per day a few weeks back.
                          Now I'm down to 2h50, and I hope to progress it down to under 2h per day on average.

                           

                          RP - I believe you would feel very at home at 9gag.com, and it's probably something you can do together with your kiddo. Nothing beats watching cats misbehaving, cats with OCD, goats hammering someone's butt, elephants playing with a reporter 😁

                           

                          DW - Before you go and buy those books, I suppose take this into consideration:


                          Older yet faster - The whole book can be condensed to this:
                          Remove shoes and socks
                          Bounce in place on both feet, but not one your forefoot, rather land with your whole foot on the ground.
                          See how that feels like and then adjust pressure on your legs until you can do it without landing hard. If your legs are too stiff you will land hard.
                          This should hopefully bring you some realisations.
                          Then evolve from bouncing on 2 feet to alternating feet, following the same principles.
                          Then when you want to run, simply lead with your hips and let your feet follow.

                          That's it, that's what the whole book is about. I found the feet strengthening exercises to be quite disappointing.
                          So when I started bouncing I immediately realised just how stiff my legs were and started adjusting.
                          Now I won't claim that it completely revamped my run, it's more that it provided an interesting thought provoking process.

                           

                          As for the other book, "The cool impossible", once you get around all the story telling mumbo jumbo, I found his chapter on strength training super interesting. Eric advocates a focus on strengthening the feet via balancing exercises. Specifically balancing on one leg with your heels slightly elevated.
                          He also provides a nice Swiss ball routine to strengthen the core.

                           

                          Last but not least, I wanted to ask if you believe your vision has anything to do with your lack of balance when it's dark.
                          That thought occurred because while I was trying to balance on one foot, when I closed my eyes it was suddenly way harder to balance myself.
                          Though you probably checked this first a couple of years ago, I thought it was worth mentioning that vision problems could be a part of your issues.

                          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

                          Marky_Mark_17


                            Last but not least, I wanted to ask if you believe your vision has anything to do with your lack of balance when it's dark.
                            That thought occurred because while I was trying to balance on one foot, when I closed my eyes it was suddenly way harder to balance myself.
                            Though you probably checked this first a couple of years ago, I thought it was worth mentioning that vision problems could be a part of your issues.

                             

                            Actually that's a great point Flavio.  Your body does use sight to supplement proprioception, which is why it's harder to balance with your eyes closed.  I guess that could also explain why balance is more of an issue in the dark.

                            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"

                            dktrotter


                            Dorothea

                              Merry Christmas, everyone. It's 2nd Christmas Day for my family and we're having goose for dinner, so I'm still in holiday mode. I was debating the pros and cons of a fat-deposit for speed work, and whether I should have done my speed session today instead. My new coach (also starting the new year with a new coach, Steve) thinks it's not too early to start speed work with slower paces.

                               

                              Trying to catch up a bit with the yearlies and weeklies:

                               

                              Mark, the sprint finish at the Omaha race sounds really cool, and it's not surprise that it made the list of highlights for the year.

                               

                              Steve, the first week with the new coach looks great. I agree with darkwave. The slower paces for easy runs will help push harder in the workouts. Good luck at your PB attempt later this week!

                               

                              Mmerkle,  congrats on the double PRs in the marathons and the wins in the other races. Hope you can break that 3-hour barrier as that's your goal for 2023.

                               

                              RP, I missed this, but running your zip code is really cool! Something I was wondering about (same question for Krash) is whether you drove a few times to cover the area a bit further from your place.

                               

                              Also, thanks for reminding me about the goal thing, and I'll be slowly trying to figure out these next few weeks what the actual goal is. As for pulling back mid-race and having it mess with my head... I'm not really worried about that (though I know what you mean), since I'm going into it with a supported training run in mind. If I didn't have that backup plan and then decided to pull off from the PR, that would mess with me more, I think.

                               

                              Finally, a marathon on a Wednesday because of a bad day at work is still better than half a liter of whiskey for that reason. If it doesn't mess with your training, why not?

                               

                              Krash, it looks like you still had a heck of a year. You are the most ultra person on here, I take it? Hope 2023 also ends up without too many crashes.

                               

                              Flavio, hope you stay healthy and enjoy your island time! Also, thanks for the summary of those books. That was really helpful and I'm going to be trying that sometime soon.

                               

                              JMac, not running related, but still something I wanted to comment on: "I subscribe to things across the political spectrum because it’s the only way to know what’s actually going on in the world." Exactly. There's no single unbiased news source. Part of my job is teaching internet literacy, and students are always surprised about what counts as credible, accurate, and unbiased.

                               

                              Christine, congrats on the mileage goal! 3000 is something I am afraid to attempt any time soon.

                               

                              Darkwave, I understand better now what you meant about the progression run a few weeks ago. To echo Flavio and Mark, the body does rely on sight as a part of perceiving speed. I forget where I read it, but I was curious too when I did speed work once on dark streets and found my speeds to be slower than what my senses were telling me. Part of it is being more careful, of course, but the gauging of how fast things are going by you is different in less light, of course. Maybe you can find routes with more light? Also, what's a Jima workout? I need more hill workouts in my life, even though the only hills here are high way overpasses and garbage hills.

                               

                              My two cents re: Parkruns (they don't have them here in south Florida, but I did run the local one when I was living in Cambridge) is that they are just as much a race as a high school cross country race is. For some it's a participation thing, for some it's a competition thing, for all it's a measured-course-timed-running-against others thing. That's what I'd call a race (so basically I'm dittoing Dave here).

                               

                              I tried the weeklies thing and it feels like there's too many small things going on, but it added up to 31 miles of running and 21 miles of cycling. Given that it's just the second week after the marathon and the holidays, I am content.

                               

                              Looking forward, I am starting my first week of training with the new coach. She has me running speed tomorrow (albeit at 5k pace) and 15k Wednesday, so I hope I'm not trying to do too much, too soon. I also don't know how I'm going to fit it all in, as it's another week on break and I have a hard time finding the time to train while hanging out with family and without my regular routines.

                               

                              Date Name mi km Duration Avg/mi Avg/km Elevation Gain
                              in ft
                              12/19 And then there was a flat tire 0.38 0.62 00:03:01 07:56 04:52 0
                              12/19 Morning Run 🌻 4.25 6.84 00:36:12 08:31 05:18 59
                              12/20 Afternoon Run 🌻 4.77 7.67 00:48:56 10:16 06:23 36
                              12/21 Solstice Ride w/ Mama 7.13 11.47 00:35:24 04:58 03:05 30
                              12/21 Afternoon Swim 0.37 0.59 00:15:00 40:32 25:25 0
                              12/21 Afternoon Run 🌻 1.03 1.65 00:09:47 09:30 05:56 23
                              12/22 Lunch Run 🌻 7.67 12.35 01:09:26 09:03 05:37 138
                              12/22 Afternoon Ride 2.00 3.22 00:10:00 05:00 03:06 0
                              12/23 Morning Ride 5.40 8.69 00:26:45 04:57 03:05 13
                              12/23 Morning Run 🌻 1.02 1.64 00:07:47 07:38 04:45 13
                              12/24 Starting off the Christmas Weekend with WBRRC 🌻 11.27 18.13 01:41:19 08:59 05:35 141
                              12/24 Christmas Eve Ride w/ Mama and Papa 🎄 4.32 6.95 00:24:30 05:40 03:32 36
                              12/25 Afternoon Ride 2.64 4.25 00:14:00 05:18 03:18 0
                              12/25 It's a chilly, merry Christmas 1.03 1.66 00:08:12 07:58 04:56 0

                              Qualifications: I like to run. In Florida. In the summer. At noon.  

                              Last race: Community 5K, March 2nd. Speed test run with 2 walk breaks. Went pretty well.  

                              darkwave


                              Mother of Cats

                                Regarding lighting/visibility:

                                 

                                1) yup, Houston will be dark for the first mile or two - it was both times I ran the half.  I'll just have to deal with it.  The beauty of a marathon is that I'll have plenty of miles to make up for a superslow mile or two.

                                 

                                2) yes, vision is tied to balance for many people - basically we balance using multiple different inputs, with vision being one of them.  If your vision is poor, then you have to rely more on the other systems (vestibular, neurologic feedback through feet, etc).

                                 

                                But my issues are a bit more complicated than just balance.  One good way to explain it is that my running "software" tends to slow down or freeze if running gets too complicated.  Running by myself slowly on a flat surface is relatively simple.  But start adding complexity - i.e. downhills, speed, uneven surfaces, other people, poor visibility, and at some point my running software starts to crash and my legs start locking up.

                                 

                                It's believed that this is due to a lack of certain neurotransmitters, and that's why I'm taking meds that will hopefully replace those neurotransmitters.  That's also why I'm still running, because I need to maintain my ability to use the neurotransmitters that I do have.

                                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.