Forums >Racing>3:20 Marathoners ... New and Improved for (the rest of) 2017
Mother of Cats
CK - how are you?
RLK - I saw that story also. Ugh.
E78 - nice workout today. Did you do it on the track? (I'm assuming not, given your previous comment)? I ask because I'm wondering how you measured the paces for the shorter stuff.
You wrote: "How do you stay mentally strong on the track for 16 laps? "
It's a bit challenging sometimes, which I think is one of the benefits of tempoing on the track - I find tempoing on the road much easier, since 4 miles is less overwhelming than 16 laps. I've found that if I count laps, I go into a bad place mentally. So instead, I focus on time. My coach calls out the total time elapsed for us each lap (i.e. 1:40, 3:19, 4:55, 6:30, 8:12...) and so I usually just use the first few laps to ease into it, and then hold a rhythm until he calls a split that tells me I have 2 laps left (i.e. 22x or 23x if I'm doing a 4 mile tempo). Then I pick up the pace to finish strong.
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.
Catching up as usual.
People are churning out nice mileage and workouts! Nothing new there.
dwave: Houston Half goals?
Elizabeth: same question ^^^
Pesto; any thoughts on why the long run/workout felt tougher than expected?
Jim and RLK: sounds like a fun race with holiday attire and a beer tent! We need more races like that around here.
I'd love to do something like R2R2R one day. Maybe I should actually run some trails first. I feel like I should do a local version first, maybe the AT through the Smoky Mountains (75 miles-ish)
My cold took a turn for the worse, started running a fever, headache, body aches. Ended up going on antibiotics. I've been on them for 48 hours and woke up this morning feeling a good bit better. Breathing better and I no longer hurt all over. Going to start back tomorrow with an easy run. Curious to see if I've lost much fitness during this illness.
I'm 3+ weeks out from Charleston HM. Hopefully this hiatus doesn't damper my training too bad. Bummer is, I feel like I was just getting into some good workouts when this hit.
rlk: I'm a PA in family medicine, hence the 3 - 12 hour days. It's nice for now, but will likely go to shorter days when the kids start school and have after school sports/programs that I don't want to miss.
brew: I have enough trouble keeping up with the forum, not sure I could also keep up with another social media page. Hows NeRP? I agree he probably won't mind the 5 year old stroller. Wife doing okay?
Road Mile: 5:19 (2017), 5k: 17:09 (2021), 10k: 35:54 (2021), HM: 1:21:55 (2020), M: 2:53:18 (2021)
Recovery Phenom
I did the workout on roads. You can go to Garmin Connect online and build the workout. You choose if you want your intervals to be by time or by distance, and just plug all the steps into the workout. Then, transfer the workout to your watch. When running, the Garmin will beep at each interval to let you know when to start/stop. There are even a few "warning" beeps so you know it's time to start speeding up or slowing down. Afterwards, you can see that Garmin has recorded the distance, pace, and time for each lap. Like this.
Houston Half goals: I want to run a sub-7:00 pace, which would be about 1:31:30 -- a PR by two minutes.
Darkwave, great mental approach. Useful for next time I have a long track workout!
26.2 x 31 (3:15:34 PR)
13.1 x 35 (1:30:58 PR)
Author of the book Boston Bound
elizabeth: I've loaded a few workouts on my Garmin, but have yet to actually use on. I have trust issues. Do you like it? Have you had issues with them at all? What do you do if you have something come up during the run and need to adjust? Can you still "pause" the workout if need be or if you hit start/stop does it take you to the next step? Sorry, that's a lot of questions, but it's a feature I've wanted to use, but was worried it didn't work well. Thanks.
I couldn't do half of my workouts without this feature. I rely on it heavily. I love it and I've been using it for 5+ years. I've never once had an issue. After you transfer the workout to your device you can "preview" it on the device just to make sure that it's 100% correct. It always is, but checking it gives me the comfort that it's definitely programmed as intended.
If something comes up during the run, you can always hit the start/stop button to pause the workout. Doing this will pause the workout exactly where you are and will not advance you. Or you can hit the lap button to advance to the next lap. For hills, my coach recently prescribed a 60-second run up the hill, with the jog back down as recovery. So, I programmed in 8 x 60 seconds, and then "lap button press" so I can take as much time as I need getting down the hill, and just press the lap button when I am ready for the next 60 seconds to begin.
Here is what yesterday's workout looks like programmed in.
I've used this feature with the 405, the 220 and the 630. On the 630 the beeps aren't very loud, so you have to listen carefully, and the warning beeps are not as smooth as the 405 and 220. So I prefer to use my 220 when doing these workouts but the 630 is perfectly fine too.
Problem Child
rlk yeah. He's a fawking moron. Tresspassing on private land hunting after hours. I read discussions about it potentially not being an accident. Another a stupid hunter. Know what you're shooting before you pull the trigger. It's like signing up for a 5K and it actually being a 5 miler or a half marathon.
ace feel better. Wife seems to be doing fine and recovering well from surgery. NeRP is doing what he should. Eating, pooping, making grandparents want to hold him. Mom says she is doing tummy time with him too. As for workouts, I believe you can Start/Stop them if you need to. The intervals by GPS are okay and I say that just because the count down beeps using distance some times come up really quick...like..beep BEEPBEEPBEEP (interval over) instead of it being a 5 second countdown. I didn't hate them. I used them for speed intervals but if you have a track I'd use the "Press Lap Button" setting. I did repeats on the road and I kind of knew about where the interval ended so I could "run to a point" and be pretty confident my rest/jog interval was coming within a second or two. One thing I didn't like about it was the warm up/cool down. If memory serves me right it won't auto lap your mile splits for these. It will just track the average pace you've carried from start to finish which over 2-3 miles might change. I guess my best advice is to create one and try it out. Pick something simple like 4x400 with XXXm rest with a warm up and cool down.
One I'm looking at is
warm up (lap press button)
(run 1.5 mi at 7:25-7:35 pace, recover 0.5 mi) repeat 4 times
Cool down lap press button.
This must have been for CIM 2016. GMP - 10 seconds.
Another is 1.5 mi warm up (HR zone 2)
(0.38 mi @ 6:30-6:45, recover 400m) x 8
cool down 1.5 mi (HR zone 2)
98% sure I did both of these workouts using GPS and it wasn't far off from starting/stopping each interval in the same 10 feet. All this was using the 235.
keen where you at? News? Strava update or SOMETHING!!?!?!?!
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
Oh yeah, for those of you who didn't see.
I won this locally. Store had a "comment/like/share/post/tag" event. They said they'd announce the winner Sunday. I posted asking if they picked. They said they had. Monday I post again asking if they announced. They said later that day. I post Tuesday asking if they had announced a winner and I'd come by and pick up my prize this afternoon. I get a message from them asking if I saw the live posting (from 4 minutes ago) where they announced my name.
I'm through bags 1-3 of 12. I'm not sure I'm letting NeRP play with it. Maybe. MAYBE.EDIT: Phone call came in. No new job. Kind of upset but over it at the same time. It's a half day so I get to go to the dentist. I kind of enjoy the dentist.
rlk ~ I saw that too. Sad. Good priorities!
DkW ~ Your LR/progressions are always impressive. The spikes! was because I realized I haven't really sprinted -- as in all out -- in many years. I've done hill sprints (which are a necessary prep before any flat sprinting), but all-out on flat is really different.
E78 ~ Great tempo. I will be doing the second half soon.
RJ ~ While it's flat, I'm not sure the towpath surface is conducive to a PR. Maybe if it's cold/hardened. A focused HM plan will definitely make a difference. Anyway, congrats on a solid run.
JimE ~ Healthy running! And beer! (thumbs up)
PJ ~ Accidentally?
Pesto ~ Nice race! Fast. How old/young are you?
At the risk of touching political sensitivities (not my intent; written in a non-partisan manner), barred by previous TD, there's been a recount in several of VA's House of Delegates (lower chamber) past few days. One race was decided by one vote. That one race meant the House is now split 50-50 between parties. Consider that next time you hear (or think for yourself) someone say their vote doesn't matter!
Time for tempo and hills; I've been procrastinating!
brew, rlk - that's just awful about the shooting. I guess OMR is right, and everyone running in the woods should get the botswana jacket just in case there are any idiots hunting around.
ace - sheist! That sounds like quite a rough cold. Glad to hear you're doing better, and hopefully you haven't lost much fitness. From strava I see you ran on Fr and Sat, so it's only been 4-5 days off. That shouldn't have much of an effect, provided you're recovered from the flu.
RE the LR, it was the MP part that felt tougher than expected. I think it may have been partly due to a change in schedule I did: the plan said to do a workout on Thursday and an easy short run on Friday; instead, I did a 5k race on Thursday and the workout on Friday. I'm not too worried since it's early in the cycle, and it wasn't really THAT tough (I was able to complete it and felt good afterwards). I guess I was just expecting it to be easier. It's a good reminder of how hard MP can be.
dad - thanks! I'm 35 years old/young.
jones - missed your HM result! Very solid race. Agree with everyone that some HM specific training should put you below 1:30. FWIW, Daniels has a good HM training plan on his book. I used it at the beginning of the year for an 11 minute PR (albeit on my second HM).
8 miles with 4 at LT later today. Pfitzinger's LT runs seem hard, they get longer and longer, all the way up to 7 miles. With JD I never did more than 3 miles @T without rest.
5K - 18:03 (5.18) | 10K - 37:58 (2.18) | HM - 1:20:45 (9.18) | FM: 2:57:59 (10.18)
Cobra Commander Keen
Greetings, sub-3:20ers!
Just a quick drive by since lengthy replies suck via phone.
Baby girl #3 arrived Monday morning, 9 lbs, 3 oz, 21" long! Lots of dark hair. She's extremely mellow (takes after her daddy).
Baby and DW are doing quite well. Her older sisters are quite doting, and come running if they hear their little sister make so much as a peep.
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
keen Your wife grows them big. Congratulations (to DW) on number 3. Fancy schmancy nickname? 12/18/17. I got nothing with the date or math.
Congrats to the Keens!
hearty congrats Keen
Slowly starting back to pick up the running momentum. Feels like I have added a few pounds after my Nov 11 marathon. Time to shed that off and get ready for next training.
rlk: I had not heard that story, but read the link Brew posted. Ugh...
Elizabeth: Sounds like a good goal for Houston.
Brew: Wait what, you enjoy the dentist???
Dad: Oh, but now hasn't that one vote lead turned into a tie, so they're going to arm wrestle or play Monopoly or something to decide who won?! And that was an incredibly sensitive political comment, by the way. ;-)
Keen: Congrats!
Congrat to CDR (and Mrs.) K!
Pesto ~ You still have some improvement ahead.
OMR ~ Yeah, I saw that too. Crazy.