Mick - Yeah officially in lockdown again. This sucks, we came to Europe to travel. Traveling is a very high priority for us and we're missing "prime time" for traveling.

Ask and you shall receive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VP-G3aessg

I've got this one for my family, it's the run I did around the wall of Bologna. Bologna like any other medieval city was completely walled off and the wall is super high at certain points. There are many towers along the way as well.

The camera was pointing up too much though, I've got to remember to adjust it a bit so it shows more ground and less sky.

This time I couldn't run downtown because I'm a law abiding citizen and they've asked runners to avoid that area ( I might still do it though some other day, but gotta go super early like 6:30am).

Are you guys following Zebano on Strava? He's going after that challenge 4 miles every 4 hours for 48hours. CRAZY!!!!

 

Darkwave - what is Yoga Streaming? Are you the instructor, or the participant? How long, what style etc.

 

Participant. My yoga studio moved completely online - the instructors teach the class live via Zoom, and many of the participants turn their cameras on so the instructors can watch and give advice and corrections. So streaming yoga is me, two blocks and a yoga mat in our exercise room, and a tablet streaming the class.

***

Just like I did in the other thread I'm quickly dumping off my week; will come back later (likely Tuesday) for shoutouts.

62 miles, 1500 yards swimming, and 2 hours of pool-running
M: 50 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
T: 12 miles including 2x1600m, 2x800m in 6:24, 6:14, 3:02, 3:00; 5 minutes jogging recoveries after the 1600s; 2:30 jogging recovery between 800s. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming
W: 10.5 miles very easy on treadmill (9:11), drills, and streaming yoga. .
Th: 3 miles very easy on treadmill (9:33), 50 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
F: 12 miles, including a tempo workout of 4 miles in 25:42 (6:25/6:32/6:22/6:23). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Sa: 11 miles very easy (8:46), 6 steep hill sprints, and upper body weights/core.
Su: 14 miles progressive, split as the first 5 miles averaging 8:44 pace, next 5 miles averaging 7:44 pace, next 4 miles averaging 7:18 pace, and then a .5 mile cooldown (notable tailwind for first half; notable headwind for second half). Followed with leg injury prevention work, 500 yards recovery swimming and 20 minutes pool-running.

Keen - well done on the race!! I agree with Piwi and Steve, that is an awfully long looking course.  The most I've ever hit for a measured half was 21.4km and that was in an area with some notable GPS drift.

Flavio - countdown time now!  I've never run in hail, but I umpired a hockey match during a hailstorm once.  Not ideal.

Mick - nice job and having fewer, but longer, runs will set you up well for when you want to add another day of running to your schedule.

Piwi - yeah that workout was a big confidence builder.  I'd been starting to wonder if my goal for Southern Lakes was just totally absurd... but after that workout I reckon it might just be possible, particularly as I was able to hold pace coming back home into the wind.

Darkwave - nice week especially that progressive long run.  I can see yoga would be one of the better group fitness classes to run virtually.

Steve - good week and if maps is correct then that is a tough grade for hill sprints.  Most of the hills I hit for hill repeats are normally around a 4%-5% grade i.e. 40-50m elevation over 1km.

Maraetai Half Marathon near me went down to a sprint finish yesterday with Gene Rand taking it out by 0.15 seconds.  It's not the fastest course and has some rollers over the last couple of km so they would've been hurting by the end.  Stoked for him though as he is one of those guys who works really hard and just doesn't have the raw speed to hit the podium that often.

quick drop in. 
I ran a ‘race’ in that a group of 40-50 people happened to be at a park and there were some cones out and some chalk markings and people ran really hard but also socially distanced. Turns out I’m in sub 20 shape and I accept THIS time more than my ‘time trial’ 5k. It was 3 seconds slower and based on how I felt after there was more in me. Possibly a 19:30 if I knew what I was capable of, and not afraid to let it all loose.  19:47 for a GPS 3.12 mile long 5k.

Sub 1:10 would be amazing regardless of the course.  You still need to turn your legs over.  Wanaka would be a great place for a post-race celebration too

Flavio: sorry to hear that. I am amazed of how bad this 3rd wave could be. People are Covid-tired, many people don't adhere anymore. It's a bit sad. But hey, I totally get it. It's tough to socially distance for so long. I like that video, was that with the head mount again? Bologna doesn't really strike me as very runnable city, with its low hanging trees, and narrow sidewalks. I am impressed by the many very quick runs of yours.

Steve: great week! Quick question: does your watch not allow you to use the lap functionality in order to create one entry only, including warm-up?

Darkwave: Sounds really interesting! That is definitely something that might stay with us - possibility to participate in virtual classes without the need to have the teacher near by.

Zebano: Report!!! I saw this way too late, but that sounds like a great challenge - i.e. 4x4 in 48. Where is this idea from and why did you do that?

RP: great effort, great shot glass & muffin! One of your strava buddies said it right: off to sub 19 next!

Ahh yeah sorry I've been off in my own world lately, mostly because work went crazy while my boss was away.

4x4x48 for those who don't know is a David Goggins thing though he got soft and did his the week before DST this year. It's pretty straightforward and you run 4 miles at the top of the hour ever four hours for 48* hours. I personally did this as both a training thing and proof that my current training is sufficient to see me through my planned and self-supported ultra in August. I had three goals going into this:

1. Finish

2. Don't walk

3. No double digit miles (i.e. 10min or more)

* those who math carefully will see this is really a ~44.5 hour challenge.

Anyways it started off rather mundanely at 4PM on Friday because 4 miles just isn't that much for people who run as much as we do. The next three runs weren't particularly fun but only because they happened in the dark. I don't know what it is but I personally just cannot summon the same effort/pace in the dark that I do in the light. With regards to this challenge, that's probably not a bad thing. I think I managed 5 hours of sleep that first night in between runs so I actually felt really good when 8AM rolled around. The sunlight was awesome, but by this point I could tell the first 10 minutes of every run was going to soon be a jarring experience as the gears metaphorically re-greased themselves and my hips remembered how to move. Regardless I got through the daylight runs with no problems at all, but the 4pm one did scare me a little because I could tell I'd overcooked things at noon by dropping an 8:00/mi pace on my run. Anyways the pattern basically followed after that: Run with the first 10 minutes being a shuffle and discombobulated, get home, drink, shower, eat, drink and if it was dark hop immediately into bed.

A few clubmates were doing this with me and a couple dropped out, one due to vomiting, one due to sleeping through his alarms but most of us finished quite strongly with one stud objected to this being a 44.5 hour challenge and did a final run at 4PM on Sunday to make it a 48.5 hour challenge.

Anyways, after 3 runs in the dark and about 6 hours of sleep, I was super happy to have light at 8AM on Sunday and had headed down to the local fishery which has both a 1.6 mi trail and a connection to some soft dirt trail which I was really hoping to run on (it was closed). This was my first run with a friend and holy moly did it feel fast (subjectively). Being able to chat made that go by in a flash. I immediately went to a gas station, realized I'd forgotten a mask so I put on my buff and pigged out on breakfast pizza before driving south to my Club's home turf.  (backstory); A year ago a friend's 4y.o. child had Lukemia, we did a charity run and raised a bunch of money, he had a bone marrow transplant and is doing well. He asked us to come run with him a year latter to celebrate, so I did. The amazing part was that this group varied in ability and we were just there to celebrate and chat and I kept drifting to the front and pushing the pace a tiny bit. We added a few extra steps at the end to get to 12.56 or 3.14x4 miles as it was Pi day. I celebrated with an Apple Pie cider before spending the rest of the playing board games with my family.

The great part about ultras is how much you get to eat!!! Things that were consumed (my kids helped a lot):

1 package Oreos, 2 gallons chocolate milk, 1 litre lemonade, 2 gallons orange juice, 2 package of licorice ropes, 1 Jersey Mike's Giant size Original Italian (nom nom, would eat again), 2 paninis, 1 slice sausage breakfast pizza, 2 Venom Mango caffeine drinks, 2 bratwurst, 2 slices white toast with butter.

Anyways, I'm going to catch up on how you all are doing. I saw on Strava that Keen dropped a Half Marathon at the pace I want to run a 5k at!!! Blazing fast!

Rest of my week was pretty low key. I started out feeling kinda rough and failed a tempo on Tuesday, so I took Wed and Thur really easy. I got rid of all crosstraining. Total distance 71.5 miles

Flavio So has anything changed about your race with the lockdown? Does your camera have an app you can use to control it? My GoPro does that so I can see what the camera sees and adjust accordingly. I'll check out the video later. Do Italian traffic signals flash yellow BEFORE they turn green? I think Germany does that. My family went there and a driver said "yeah it is so we know when to get ready to go." In America a red light turns to green as an indication to go.

Mick that sub 19 Strava friend happens to be from this forum. He's also really fast which is probably why I continue coming here. I find hanging out with the faster runners has helped me get faster and sometimes get back to being motivated. I'd probably have quit running 50 miles a week in January if not for this forum making me take it seriously.

Now that you mention it, I haven't even realized Rune wasn't posting on Strava. I never saw anything about an Injury.

I'll be vaccinated next. 16-64 with some kind of underlying medical condition is up now. Funny thing is a friend was vaccinated under "substitute teacher" and said he just had to check a box. No proof he was actually a teacher. A coworker said he was public safety and got vaccinated. He is 100% work from home.

For the 5k I had people to chase kind of. For the first mile/1.6km I had two people run with me who were keeping pace perfectly. One dropped back a little and one pulled ahead. I wanted to run a sub 20 and when the one runner pulled ahead I told myself "don't run his race. Run yours." at the start of the second lap. Second lap was just about hanging on and getting back to the starting line which was about 1.2km from the finish. I started to see runners starting their second lap and used them as bait to keep going. I knew they were going about 7 minute mile pace (4:12/km) because of their goal. I used that for the last part of the race and then gave it what I had for the finish.

The runners I think were most helpful for me were the two I ran with to dial in pace, and the last few. The last few started about 6 minutes after me so I was able to reel them in like a race. The purpose of the 6 minute head start was the actual 5k that would have taken place does that. Runners and walkers start, and when the last person crosses the start line a really fast 5k runner takes off. I think she can break 16 minutes and typically you want to be 21:30 or faster to get a cup. This was doing the same thing, but a lot less focused on the exclusivity of the award at the end. More "mid to back of the pack" friendly I'd say.

James That's a good week. For some reason I can't make myself do 10 mile runs unless it's a workout. I'm not sure why other than 90 minutes is a long run and doing it every day puts me at 70, and 70 is A LOT of miles for a week.

Marky_Mark  My 5k was "cheap VF" assisted. I never forked out the dough for the fanciest Vaporflys so I have the zoom fly flyknits leftover from CIM. the difference is some foam, carbon fiber vs plastic, and my wallet is heavier with the money I saved. It is probably the reason I ran 19:47 and can say "I think I had more to give" just based on how I felt shortly after. Either that or recovering from a 5k takes about a half hour and I'm so accustomed to marathon recovery being a few days when I PR.

Oh yeah, for the trail Races/Ultra Marathons I've done I haven't trained either. I've run enough trail to trust myself running on them and to know I need to pick up my feet and avoid rocks, if not go around them.

zeb CONGRATULATIONS! I don't know if I could do a 4x4x48 solo. It IS amazing how much the sun coming up brings you back to life. I think you made a smart choice starting at 4pm. I think most people start at 4am. Embracing the dark sooner seems like it would help get through it. Just be done with the first night early, and have it behind you when you're fresh instead of when you've done 3 or 4 runs. Maybe starting/ending at midnight would work. I don't know because I'll never do it.

Keen you seriously need a marathon to go you way soon. Maybe do one without telling the family and you won't get sick, then you can apply for 2021 boston with me.