2024 Advanced Training and Racing Thread (still competitive jerks) (Read 282 times)

The 48 hour is in Boise ID. About 5 hours north of me. I don't plan to sleep at all. Mt Dew all the way. The interesting thing about this race or helper, the race starts at 6 PM. That means the last 12 hours will be in the light instead in the dark.

I did some race pace training yesterday. 24 miles on a flat dirt road in this bird refuge by the Great Salt Lake. The goal was to run 2 miles at a 10-11 pace and then walk for 2 min. I ended up running at a 9:15-9:30 pace and walking for 2 min. Felt easy. I will try and slow it down next time. The idea with the pacing is to keep the pace really easy and keep it for a long time. My goal pace for the first 24 hours is 12:36 per mile. You always lose time somewhere. The walk breaks rest my running muscles.  Maybe I should make my walk breaks 3 min. It feels odd walking for 2 min when there is no hill.

 

You might want to be careful what you say. I self-identify as Californian; however, I'd like to state for the record I'm in agreement Californians are ruining this place.

 

Also, I'm not sure I want to be part of any group having me as a member.

 

The 48 hour run should be interesting. Is it in Utah or somewhere else? Any plans to sleep or for mental fortitude like "when I start to hallucinate I'll have a Mountain Dew Baja Blast so I know I'm really out of my element."?

 

 

Krash - Pacing for ultras seems complex.  I don’t think I could plan for a 48 hour race.  At least with something like a 100 miler, I could guess at a pace that is sustainable.  I’m doing the running game for the first time.  There is not a lot of chatter, but I’m not sure what is normal.  Our forum is mostly folks letting us know why they won’t hit their mileage.  I do think a more interesting format would be smaller teams with similar mileages among team members, like teams of 4 and you count best 3 each week.  I think it’s harder to have a team feel when you have 1 runner at 60 miles and another at 11.

Yes it can be complex. Knowing what pace you can run for a long time is helpful. I know over time you will slow down. There is few that can run the same pace for a 100 miles or more. Over 24 hours I will slow down 1.5-2 min a mile. For 24 hours? Hell! I don't know. The mental part is the key. If you said I had to run a 100 miles, that is the goal. But if when I finish you told me go run another 100, I don't think I could do it. I would try but my mind checks out soon after the race. If the goal is 48 hours, then the mind set is different. I can't give up till I hit 48 hours.

Krash - Pacing for ultras seems complex.  I don’t think I could plan for a 48 hour race.  At least with something like a 100 miler, I could guess at a pace that is sustainable.  I’m doing the running game for the first time.  There is not a lot of chatter, but I’m not sure what is normal.  Our forum is mostly folks letting us know why they won’t hit their mileage.  I do think a more interesting format would be smaller teams with similar mileages among team members, like teams of 4 and you count best 3 each week.  I think it’s harder to have a team feel when you have 1 runner at 60 miles and another at 11.

After a couple lighter weeks due to The Goat and recovery last week, the plan was a big speed week this week.  And it ended up being pretty much an all action week with four workouts, plus one run on Thursday that kinda turned out quicker than I expected (maybe that was the Saucony Kinvara Pro's fault).  Coatesville HM coming up next Sunday, which will be hot, hilly, and not fast, but it's still fun because it's quite a tactical race where you can pretty much chuck the usual HM pacing strategy out the window.  The last 2km are all downhill but there's some long hills through the middle so getting the balance right between pushing hard - but not too hard - makes a big difference.  Ideally you want to be running on fumes by the time you hit that final downhill around the 19km mark, but not much earlier than that.

Weekly for period: From: 29/01/2024 To 04/02/2024

Totals: Time: 06:15:53 - 🦅Imperial: 56.54 mi - Metric: 90.97 km

Thanks all for the Achilles horror stories and warnings. All noted and it's put things in perspective. I realize if I had taken 6 weeks off running when it happened in Dec., I'd probably be healed by now. Somehow, we always think we're going to be the exception, I think. I'm not sure how I feel about it being an  injury, andI can't promise that I've learned my lesson (one of the few areas where I fit the definition of stupidity--doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results), but I certainly tried to do it right this past week. PT appointments targeting both the knee and calf, with the knee feeling 200% better! Almost back to 95% capacity. And cycling seemed like a good idea until it wasn't (felt a spot of pain at the non insertional part of the Achilles yesterday during a longer ride and it was a bit sore through this morning). I see the doc for the follow-up for the Achilles tomorrow, and I need to ask her and the PT when running again seems like a good idea. Maybe I copy darkwave, again, and alternate pool running and road running days-- apropos... having a pool running buddy sounds like fun! Especially if you can do workouts in a lane pool. Right now I am stuck with community/private pools with small pockets of deep end, and I go in circles.  But I also have waterproof bluetooth headphones and have been listening to audio books, so it's not totally awful (and don't get me wrong, I know to have access to a pool at all is a privilege).

Side note: but is it normal to not be told how much the PT is going to cost? I'm co-insured, meaning I pay 20%, the insurance pays 80, and neither  the office nor the billing department are telling me how much they're charging each session, so I have two wild card costs coming my way... and another one tomorrow unless I find out in the meantime. I hate taking a service when I don't know how much it's going to cost me.  But the PT is helping, so I do want to continue... but it's not like I don't have other PT options...

I hope to catch up more properly again soon.

HalfCrazy, oh, I do understand that there's not one cost to quote for all the sessions--and there's a difference between the eval session and each PT session. But I do kind of expect them to be able to give me ballpark figures of about how much (they just said it could be anywhere from $300 to $800, which is not helpful), and after a session, shouldn't they be able to tell me within a week how much that session cost... at least how much they billed the insurance for? Or a better ballpark figure for that? But I guess that takes time, too. Also, please don't tell me they charge for the icing?! That's something I can do at home!!

Yeah, I realized after posting that all the things they do with me are things I could do at home... once they show me the exercise. And there's some equipment I'd have to acquire myself, but I could find them at the gym too....

mmerkle - Thanks, that's good to know.  Hopefully it arrives in time to test out on my long run on Saturday.  I've really been noticing how much I sweat lately, it's crazy.

Nice week with a couple of good sessions and the long run.  You're in great shape.

Dorothea - Hope it comes right soon.  And um, no more races until it does!

Flavio - That's a great week with that session and long run.  Any closer to picking a race?

Mark - That's a very fast week which will serve you well on Sunday.  Any clues on potential opponents?

Marby - I found the 1990 and 1994 commonwealth games marathons on youtube.  Mona had quite strange running style but it clearly worked, especially how easy he won it in 1994.

me - A slow build into the week.  I didn't recover from the big run last Saturday in terms of soreness until Friday and energy until about Wednesday.  We removed the strides from Tuesday and changed Wednesday from a lactate threshold session to an easy day.  Saturday was the first cool day for a while and I really enjoyed it.  My progression run was great fun, with my HR staying mid range for the zone 3 block, and only started touching the top of the zone 4 range in the last couple of minutes of that block.  If the weather had been hot I would have had to really roll back the pace to manage that, and even then, my HR can go off piste in the hot conditions regardless.

Weekly for period: From: 29/01/2024 To 04/02/2024

Totals: Time: 10:13:42 - 🦅Imperial: 64.83 mi - Metric: 104.31 km