2017 Sub 3 Marathons...and beyond! (Read 403 times)

Great job Flash!  About a 4 minute PR for you?  Pretty big chunk of time to cut when you are that fast.

Flash: That's a hell of a run! Congrats, can't wait to read some more about it.

Flash huge congrats. That is just a superbly run race.

That's just because I have full confidence in you

 

Check back after 12/9.  I haven't done the race yet.

Flash - awesome job, that pace is just mind-boggling.

Me - pretty solid week despite taking Mon and Tues off running. It was worth it as the legs felt a lot fresher the rest of the week. Got another fun track workout in on Saturday and a good long run on Sunday.  The HM up at Omaha will likely have warm temperatures next Sunday morning (~17-18C) so a longer run on Sunday in similar temps was good practice.

M: rest

T: weights, spin bike

W: 14.1km with 3x8 min moderate effort

Th: 12km easy

F: weights, 5.5km easy

S: 10.2km track workout incl. 800's and 400's

S: 23.3km long run

Total: 65.2km

Weekly

M     01 00 40      7.2 w/ 6x hills
T      01 01 55      7.84
        00 31 31     3.51
W    01 10 21      9.2 tm w/ 3wu + 6x800@2:40 + 2cd, 0.5%, rec: 120s@6mph
Th    -- -- -- URD lazy
F      -- -- -- URD hip sore.. from laziness, Murphy's law!
S     01 05 50     8.23
S     01 12 45     8.23
                          ====
                          44.21

Nothing of interest to report of the last few weeks with 47 and 44 miles respectively. I took a couple of off days this week as my hip got sore after some 800s on Wednesday or perhaps due to whatever I got up to on a lazy assed Thursday. Great to see lots of running going on. I'll get back to catching up over the next few days.

Philly HM RR

Training went well and I fully expected to be able to challenge 1:18. My last couple of weeks went well and I felt good going into race weekend. I got into town the day before and did a little touristy stuff before hitting the expo. So nothing stressful there. I had a 3 mile checkout run and felt great. I got up early and got the early morning subway in just to be there early and not have to deal with security queuing etc. It was around 32F, so perfect race weather and I was pumped. Now being that cold, I probably should have just walked around a bunch to stay a little warm but instead I retreated to a tent with a barely functioning heater and got pretty cold. I changed 30mins before the start and did a warm up, which quickly got me feeling nice and toasty but while my legs were nice and loose, I should have been alarmed by the fact that my calf sleeves would not stay up. This never happens in training. Guess my legs were a lot colder than I realized.

Got to the start corral a few rows back and off we went. I quickly settled into 6min pace with the aim of staying here for a few miles before gradually picking it up and then really going for it after the main uphill portion at mile 8ish. I felt great for the first 2miles, got chatting to another guy aiming for sub 1:18 and there was a nice little group just ahead, perfect. Now, my calf sleeves had dropped down a couple of mins in and I just ignored them as I felt ok. Around mile 3, I started getting a stomach cramp out of nowhere, but I could still hold 6min pace, so I just hung here and assumed it would pass. Nope... stayed with me and kept feeling worse and worse, with more and more of me feeling off. Let out a reasonably big belch at around mile 6 and by then I knew my day was done. Things steadily went downhill and by the last mile my legs felt like I was at mile 25 of a marathon not a half. Truly humbling having people storm past, gasping for air at their limit and I couldn't even attempt to push... I finished in 1:22:32, which is actually a mild PR 

So, pretty shite return for a decent HM cycle even though I could certainly have put more distance work in. I'm primarily putting down my bodily malfunction to the cold and my body not at all appreciating pushing hard without being warmed up properly. I had stomach cramps at the twin cities marathon a couple of years back and that started on a cold morning too. Also... just being one of those days cannot be ruled out. A good learning experience I guess 

I saw calbears was running CIM today, tracking has been severely delayed. It was 44°F (7°C), Humidity: 80% at the start, and I'm seeing  some nice PRs for the elites, so appears to be a good day to run.

 

My all time favourite Russian is running marathons again??!!  How did he get on?

Flash - Very speedy marathon and congrats!!

Marky - You need to sign up for a 2018 marathon,

Kram - Thanks for the RR. I think if you have a mini taper during your next marathon cycle then you’ll go 1:18. Maybe run a 10k and better that soft 38min PR? 

Me - I’ve turned into a jogger and haven’t run anything faster than 8min/miles since Amsterdam...but I’ve been hitting the gym regularly and feeling fit and haven’t put on an ounce of fat. Looking forward to starting my next marathon cycle in 4 weeks time and going to start building up mileage this month.

I was thinking that it would be really cool if we had a female Sub 3 OP take charge next year for a change?  I would like to nominate Cinnamongirl (my 1st choice) or Strugglr (my 2nd choice)