Forums >Racing>3:20 Marathoners ... New and Improved for (the rest of) 2017
Good Luck to NACN and E78
Rovatti ~ Thanks. Sounds tough. How cool do you need to be to get a workout named for you? And, yes. NACN & E78 ~Good luck!
Rovatti ~ Thanks. Sounds tough. How cool do you need to be to get a workout named for you? And, yes.
NACN & E78 ~Good luck!
Apparently not cool at all. My answer is about the same as Rovatti's, except since I have access to an incline trainer, my recoveries were at -3% (and actually a little slower). I could never get to doing six of them, and at the beginning I think I barely made it through three.
FYI, for the trail half I ran about a month ago, I went through a series of what I called "medium hills," although you'll notice I started way too fast. I thought they prepared me pretty well in lieu of having actual hills nearby. Anyhow, that looked as follows, and the HR peaked somewhere around HMP effort.
Hey all...lurking, lurking, lurking...
Cobra Commander Keen
Jim & DWave - I somehow didn't think of the pretty frigid conditions this year; ~30* at the start vs maybe 50* last year. I don't mean to overthink things, it was just interesting to see the similarities and differences between the two races.
OMR - Those are "medium" hills??
I just got back from a "wellness check" that's used to get discounts for insurance at work; basically monitoring fasting glucose, height/weight/body fat, blood pressure, etc. The standards to get the discounts aren't difficult (basically anything less than obese, hypertensive, & diabetic qualifies). It's nice to see that my numbers have either stayed the same or improved year-over-year. If their scales and handheld body-fat measuring device are accurate (highly doubtful!) I've managed to lean out pretty well over the past year. W007!
ETA: When both the guy checking my BP / HR and the woman who recapped the measurements saw my numbers they both looked up and said "You're a runner, aren't you?"
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
OMR is alive. Go MAN sport teams.
Lurking
Mother of Cats
Ditto that. E78 - I like the negative split strategy, of course.
As for your question about when I'm next racing - I'm doing the Richmond 8K. No idea how it will go - on the one hand, I'm running it right off of a three week break. OTOH, my 8K PR is fairly weak (broke it during a tempo workout this cycle), so I don't really need to be in peak fitness to PR. And Richmond is a very fast course. We shall see.
Funny story about work wellness. I have asthma and acid reflux - two conditions associated with obesity. At some point a few years back I got flagged for weight loss assistance counseling. I kept getting calls from this very nice lady who wouldn't accept that I really didn't need to lose weight. It was pretty clear that she had been (badly) coached on how to deal with people in denial about their weight issues, and was trying to deploy that training on me.
I'm glad I'm no longer on my employer's healthcare.
6 very easy to yoga (9:11), yoga, and then 6 easy home (8:49).
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.
Keen: I was admittedly probably using the term "medium" differently - more about body stress/recovery for me rather than the difficulty of the effort, which was probably more like medium hard --> hard, but not 5K effort. I just rounded it all down to medium.
Problem Child
Katia I'm glad I wasn't drinking coffee when I read that comment. I just read "What to expect when your wife is expanding" and a section about labor had what not to say. Good book for some base information. It attempts to be funny which gets annoying to me. The "Things not to say" during the 3 phases of labor had a list that I thought of for your comment. "Once I broke my wrist and that sure hurt."
Keen I am all about Craigslist. Yeah you get burned buying used things sometimes but I haven't had that happen too much. I usually get a feeling about how stuff is taken care of when I check it out. If the person look like they're a runner they probably cared for their things. If their house is pretty clean and their personality seems right I feel fine. It's when I show up and the house looks horrible, nothing is clean, everything smells and they are in a rush to get rid of whatever they're selling or don't remember anything about it I start to rethink my options. As for your heart rate. All I see is this year it fluctuated more. Last year looks smoother. Maybe fitness related just because the difference in paces. I wouldn't expect someone with a 6:50 pace to have the same heart rate at 7:40 pace for the same distance. Were you running more miles then or doing more speed work?
dark I have a similar story. Work use to offer discounts on insurance if you had a biometric screen. Score enough points and you could get $50 off insurance. I had my biometric done a few days before or after a 1:40 HM in SF. I was over weight and I laughed and said "yeah that's funny. How many overweight people can run a 1:40 half?" and the lady was shocked.
OMR's Sounds like 4-6x800 @5K with 800m rest. I think Hanson's does something similar but probably limited it to 4. Add in 2 miles warm up and cool down and you have 7 miles for the day. Sounds about right. Also sounds like something I want to avoid like the plague but need to start doing if I'm going for a BQ at Chicago.
Job found another job I might apply for. Exact same field but county instead of state. Commute would be about the same but the only thing I can think of changing is losing my sick/vacation time which I planned to use for all 12 weeks of FMLA. Wife pointed out I do this often. I get bored of a place and move on. This time is because there is no opportunity for advancement where I'm at. I also want to ask lots of very pointed questions about how things are processed which puts you on people's bad side. Being blunt (okay maybe painfully blunt) isn't something people look for. "It's time to make a change" comes to mind. Maybe I should start running more.
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
Duke Of Bad Judgment
Wow, all the new babies that are about to appear - good luck to all of you. I hope it goes smoothly for everyone.
And good luck to the racers. (NACN, Elizabeth, any others?)
Nice to have OMR and GP sightings.
I'll have to read back and figure out why McBen thinks I think he's a booger.
This is one of those times where everything lands all at once, good and bad. I have a long-planned trip back east next Fri to see my dad and sister (and to run a couple races, mostly to distract me from my dad probably not recognizing me - I might be repeating myself though). DW's dad died a couple days ago (very peaceful in the end, and DW and her mom are both doing well - they had 3 years to get to acceptance and are mostly there already), so DS1 and I will drive down on Sunday for the memorial service and get back somehow Tues or Wed. Then there's all the stuff I said I'd do after Moab. And a new job-ish thing to take care of. Oh, and the race report - you'll be glad to hear I have a decent draft done, coming soon.
Resident Millennial
I've been the worst running internet friend in the past couple weeks. Sorry A light catchup attempt...
some good weeks and nice racing! congrats on XC, Dad, PJ for your speedy 5k, mcB for getting back into mileage, ckeen for an awesome half (love your observation about last year's big hills looking very reasonable this year ), and good luck to eliz!! will be tracking! your training has been so so solid and you are ready for an incredible race. bring the pain! do you and DH tend to run the same marathons? I might be quizzing you post-race about pacing and such as I have very similar goals for CIM.and good luck to all you people who are about to become parents! good luck for the next 18+ years, i suppose... brew, ace ...
brew- someone probably already said this, but for chicago, use the official race result page. and i agree with ckeen re. "chewed up and spit out runners". i might advocate for heat training, based on my single data point race experience there.
pesto- always traveling! i recently did 3x3k@T (assuming T is the same as LT?) as well. i really liked that workout, other than the fact that it was a million laps around the track at the same pace. i enjoy getting into the metronome-y workouts - makes me feel like i really am doing marathon prep. and it didn't get too hard until the last 800m or so, for me. what did you think of it?
rovatti- ugh, big hugs. what a sad and horrific thing. followed up by a shooting the next morning 2 miles away at my alma mater. between those events of this week and the marathon coming up, i just want to give new york a big hug.
ckeen- this made me laugh: "The standards to get the discounts aren't difficult (basically anything less than obese, hypertensive, & diabetic qualifies)". ugh, 'murica.
hi GP! and hi KK!
and hi jim! sounds like your rib is better and you are crushing mileage, as per usual.
dwave- ha! similarly, our health insurance (thru work) changed a few years ago and HSA became available. employer would throw a few hundred bucks into it if you watched a 2 minute video and then did a 5min health consultation phone call, so i did it. she asked lots of questions about nutrition and gave me reminders for how to stay active and asked me if i wanted reading material on how to maintain a healthy weight and active lifestyle. no, thanks.
max- big hugs to you and J. if there's anyone who is adept and dealing with painful (emotionally, physically) things, it is you. i think the new gig (saw that on facebook! awesome!) will help inject some new sources of happiness into life for you.
http://www.irunfar.com/2017/09/a-hoop-and-a-holler.html a good read. This line speaks to my mindset lately: "{art of me wonders if it’s just some sort of self-fabricated pity party."
more later...
_________________________________________________mile, 5:26 /5k, 19:34 /10k, 41:00 /13.1, 1:31:49 /26.2, 3:12:58
SMax - I hate to do internetz HUGZ. But...not much else I can offer than good thoughts and internetz HUGZ.
RLK - welcome back. Interesting post. I know that for myself, post-race blues are very much a pity-party. I really don't suffer from them in the same way if I am happy with the race, or if there was some other enoyable aspect of the race (CIM) or if I'm really angry about the race (both Phillies) or if it's a shorter race and I can jump back into training soon after. Of course, there may be a chemical aspect to them too - one that can be counteracted to some extent by anger or running.
8 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core today. Hitting the track tomorrow to do something - I don't know what yet. Probably 3200, 1600 or 2x3200. I'll show up and do what my coach tells me to do. Hopefully not mile repeats.
mark: Sorry to hear...my bobblehead is "bobbleheading" in your direction. By the way, that Moab thing...I'm not sure what to make of that. Looking forward to the RR, whenever you manage to get that finalized.
Gpops: Good to see you are alive as well. What's with the Vikings? Are they setting us up for an epic fail once again?Brew: Yeah, probably similar to those 800s.
NACN & E78: Good luck!
Good luck NACN and e78!
CK - Our official due date is Jan 6, probably within a couple of weeks of yours, like you say. I'd prefer DD does not come too early, everything shuts down during Christmas in Vienna, not to mention the psychological issues for a kid getting only one present for both christmas and birthday from most family members. Also, if any of you has read Outliers (by Malcolm Gladwell), you would understand the advantages for a kid born in January (vs December) in the northern hemisphere :P
rlk - welcome back! No more traveling for us for a while, we wanted to get some quality trips in before the new arrival
Yes, T is the same as LT I believe. Glad to hear you enjoyed the workout. For me, I can normally handle the first two reps fairly well, but at the end of the second I start thinking about dropping out. But then I start the last rep to find I can handle it without major problems. During training, JD had a few 4 x 2 miles T (3.2 km instead of 3 km). At the beginning of the program, I had a hard time completing them, so I was intimidated every time I had to do them. By the end of the program, however, I could handle them quite well.
And I agree completely, it really feels like you're training for a marathon, keeping that hard pace for 10-15 mins repeatedly. To me it feels more like marathon training than M pace. I do them on the road, so it's not as repetitive/boring as it could be on the track I guess.
max - good to hear from you, but sorry to hear about FIL and your dad. Hope you guys are as well as one can be. And looking forward to the moab RR.
rovatti - ugh, it's really terrible what happened there. It hit my home country more than usual since it seems that 5 of the victims that lost their lives were Argentineans. They were friends from high school in their 50s who were (biking) in NY on a HS anniversary trip. Quite sad.
Hi OMR and GP! And OMR, thanks for the info on hills, it's very useful. I may use it this winter during marathon training.
5K - 18:03 (5.18) | 10K - 37:58 (2.18) | HM - 1:20:45 (9.18) | FM: 2:57:59 (10.18)
Brew - I've done the craigslist thing once before (refrigerator). I keep browsing it from time to time looking for deals on treadmills, road bikes, or bike trainers. I haven't found anything worth jumping on so far. Last year's cycle before the race was a little lower mileage compared to this years, but I did have that hip thing and the 3 weeks off from that lowered mileage and fitness. I'm already looking forward to running that race next year. Best of luck in getting that new gig. I'm a fan of asking those types of questions as well.
Max - You really did/do have a lot hitting at once. My condolences for your FIL, and here's hoping the recognition is there when you go back east. I am looking forward to that RR.
RLK - Nice to see you back around here. The standards to get the discount are actually worse than I mentioned. Technically, even if someone is a combination of obese/hypertensive/diabetic they are assigned an over-the-phone coach and if they "show improvement" toward managing or reversing those conditions they get the discount. Rather infuriating that I pay the same for insurance that these people do. Reading that article when I have the opportunity.
Pesto - #3 for me is due on Dec. 22, but we have c-section scheduled for the 21st. DD's 1 & 2 were both early (~3 wks and 2 wks, respectively), so who knows if it won't be earlier than planned or not.
Yeah. I think of the 8 that lost their lives, only two were US citizens/residents. The other 6 were visitors from abroad. It would be tragic regardless of who passed, but the fact that it was primarily visitors gives it an especial horror.
CK - you wrote "Technically, even if someone is a combination of obese/hypertensive/diabetic they are assigned an over-the-phone coach and if they "show improvement" toward managing or reversing those conditions they get the discount."
I was told that was in part due to the ADA. They're trying to reward people for healthy practices. But at the same point you're not supposed to discriminate against people in the workplace based on their health (unless their health interferes with their ability to perform their job and cannot be reasonably accommodated).
(I'll also note that obesity/hyertension/diabetes is not always the result of behaviors - not everyone has the genetics to be skinny runner types like us).
11 miles for me, including 3200, 1600 in 12:44 (6:25/6:19) and then 5:55 for the 1600. 5:30 recovery between the two. Also injury prevention work and recovery swimming. I'm in better shape than I expected. Though obviously not in the same shape I was a month ago. That 3200 was a shock to the system, though.
Edited to add good luck wishes to E78 and NACN in Indianapolis, and Flyrunner in NYC (I think I already wished good luck, but no reason not to do it again).
dwave- pessimistic of me, but i was even thinking about mid/end-of-race blues... or at least that is the most recent racing experience i have had, haha. post race blues are for real, though. one of my CIM training buddies just said to me today that she's sad we only have a few more weeks until taper!
pesto- oh man! new arrival for you too! hmm, 9 months ago was valentine's day......
ooh, dwave reminds me to add fly to my nycm app. woo!
rovatti- are you going to watch the 5k on saturday? send a cheer for my teammate, she'll have McWalters on her bib.