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

I have missed a week or two. I finished the year with about 2,200 running miles and 6,200 biking miles (mostly commutes).

A couple of weeks ago I had some tightness in my right calf. That mostly subsided, but then my left achilles started acting up. After a 20 mile run Sunday a week ago (Christmas Eve), it was swollen and very tender to the touch. I did some stretching, rolling, a little bit of icing, and took a couple of extra days off. This made for a low mileage week last week, but it definitely got better with the time off.

This past weekend was supposed to be a 21 mile long run, but my running buddy had 17 as he tapers for the Phoenix full. I decided that was plenty as I was still nursing the achilles.

Some folks from my running group are attempting a streak for 2018. Easy to get into now as I'm in training mode, but I'm not gonna be die-hard about it. It did mean that I ran yesterday even though I normally don't run on Mondays.

Weekly Summary
Monday, Dec 25, 2017 thru Sunday, Dec 31, 2017

Swim: Back at it and will be crushing it before you know it. Fitness will return quickly. Your 2017 was brutal. I'm here for you buddy. And I'm looking forward to racing you, especially in the 5k.

Cinnamon: Nice 5k and 10 mile PRs. I agree we should certainly post our 2018 goals to the new thread as soon as Mikkey starts it.

Weatherboy: Great job getting the miles in for 2017 and PRing across the board. Let's not talk about Boston heat. We will get a good one eventually. That LR looks pretty sick.

JTReeves: Congrats on your first Boston. Sorry to hear about your dad. And nice job getting over 3000 miles.

tn_weather: Looking strong on Strava. Really happy for you to finally be healthy again. Now you can show us all how it's done in 2018.

Andres: PRing the FM on your lowest annual mileage in 3 years is impressive. I agree on the weights but it's really hard to get back into it once your cycle starts since it wil make you so sore for days and weeks. That's my experience. I got back into in December to avoid that pain with the Spring cycle. I have never broken 3000 miles. 29xx in 2015 and 28xx in 2016. One of these years...2018?

Mikkey: I am also waiting for my Strava follow request from you.

mattw4jc: That's a lot of miles with the biking and running combined. Be careful starting a cycle with an achilles issue. It won't go away running on it unless you are some kind of mutant. Trust me, I tried.

StillaDCV: When is the Tri? Your FTP imporvements are awesome!

Strugglr - tri? Ha. If I only knew how to swim. However, the newer local running group I've hooked up with is basically a fork of a local tri-group. Today's ride on Zwift was a hard one. Overreached on the group I was supposed to ride with (3.0-3.3 W/kg), so they took off after 5 minutes (because they started at 3.5 W/kg, and I road alone for 3 of the 4 laps, then quit. Plus, too much riding is not so friendly on the ass if you know what I mean

My TM seems to not like to go faster than 7.5mph, since it promptly shuts down right after that. That why all my TM runs have been 15-20 minutes.

I am shooting for a sub 3 prior to the end of 2018.  I am starting with fitness that is a long way out to that goal.

I live in Neenah, WI

-  I started running fall of 2013.

- 1st sub 3 was 2004 Twin Cities Age 35 - weighing in at 232#

-  PR was 2:45:58 in 2006 Fix Cities Age 37 - Weight 205#

-  Last sub 2:50 = 2:48:12 at 2009 Green Bay Age 40 - Weight 205#

-  Last sub 3 was Carmel (IN) in April 2012

I stopped caring about the marathon distance in 2010 and got caught up in ultra-running.   March 2nd 2013 I injured my hip and back downhill skiing and then stopped caring about running.

I am currently @ 260#.  I can run / walk forever ... But Running 20 miles straight has been a struggle.  I am pretty confident I could finish a marathon in @ 3:59 Currently.

My race calendar

* 2/10 - Steve Cullen Healthy Hearts 8K (Wauwatosa, WI)

* 3/2 - Point Bock 5 Miler (Stevens Point, WI)

* 4/7 - NK50k (Northern Kettle Ice Age Trail ... Greenbush, WI)

* 5/12 - Ice Age 50 Miler

From now to the end of May is for running consistently - losing weight and slowly building up speed.  Then I will start sub 3 marathon training.

I will follow a basic training program until June

* 1 leg speed workout ~ 10x1 minute fast with 2 minutes easy between (think striders - Leg efficiency, open hips etc)

* 1 LAT workout ~ 20 minutes @ T  or 3-5 x 1 mile

* 1 mid-week long run (14+ miles)

* 1 weekend long run (16+ miles)

Once my angry knee feels better I will also do a minimum of 2,500 vertical feet per week.  I do most my winter running on a treadmill.

I supliment running with weights (2-3 times a week), Volleyball / Walleyball / Racquetball / Tennis (1-2 times a week), cross country skiing when we have snow and sometimes snowshoeing

Weatherboy: 4 x 2 mi at 5:46 ?!?! 

TN: I had ran 20 mi (7:11) on the Eastern Trail on Wednesday - visiting my son in Saco - and hadn't even decided on BAA Half until Friday. The next Master was a young 40yo (ha!) who finished over 8 min behind me and my finishing time was one of my PWs so obviously no fast people showed up. But I accepted the $300 anyways  It was a fairly challenging course and day though.

Dopplebock: is this the first time you've posted here? Let's see if someone will start the 2018 thread and so you can maybe repost your history with details. I don't understand how you started running in 2013 if you ran a sub-3 April 2012.

Matt: +1 to what Strugglr said. I wouldn't care about maintaining any sort of streak if my achilles was swollen.

Swim: London 2020? I like it.

Strugglr: why not you?

Last week:

M: 9 mi (8:17)

T: 5 mi (8:23)

W: 8 mi (8:23)
T: 70 min easy TM
F: AM: 9 mi w/8 x 2:15 min 5.4% hills / PM: 35 min TM
S: 6.75 mi easy TM
S: 8 mi (8:17)

The achilles has been doing better. It was swollen and painful on Christmas Day, but after a couple of days off and easing back into it, it seems mostly better now.

It's been below 20F every morning this week which is rare around here (N. Carolina), but so far I'm still getting outside to run. The treadmill at the gym is tempting, but not sure I want to go make a sweaty mess of it.

A running buddy runs mostly outside, but does his repeats and tempo miles on the treadmill partly because he doesn't like his outside options for speedwork and partly because he considers it a bit of heat training. I've thought it may be a good idea, but have yet to try it. Are there any other advantages to the treadmill? Consistent pace?

 

What year is it?? And who the heck is this Mikkey? Any running streak doesn't count *unless* it can be tracked or verified on Strava.

 

 

I registered with Strava a few months ago...but only just started logging this week (after 2 years of mostly watchless running) so it’s a bit of a novelty again and I’m liking my new Garmin 230 which means no hassle...although I have to log my treadmill runs manually so I hope they count for the streak! I transferred some of my old races from Garmin Connect but the finish times don’t match up for whatever reason.

Swim - Good point made by Flyrunnr so maybe make it London 2019 instead!

Mikkey can you post a link to your strava and I will follow you  If you see an Andrew from New Zealand following feel free to follow back.