That is the same day I will be flying up to Albany, NY to do a meet and greet with JT Reeves and race a 10 miler.  So already booked.

Well if you need a back up race to your back up race I'll take all the help I can get.

Keen put me down for targeting a 19:17-19:25. I think I'll aim for a 6:12-6:15/mi pace with absolutely no reason other than it's in a spreadsheet and a book s being a 3:05ish marathon and entering a marathon training session I think I'd like to be just about there on paper to keep pushing myself. 3:05:25-26 is what I ran at Mt. Charleston in 2019 and that showed me a BQ was possible. The elevation is about 900 ft and I'm coming from 4,500 so even with humidity it should be hard enough to require pushing myself mentally and physically.

Ended my week a day early because my son is graduating from high school today & we have lots of events.  Tried a short swim on my off day Wednesday and was reminded how out of swimming shape I am.  14 minutes was enough, while I was up to an hour last October.  Also have had more groin soreness than usual since then, though I don’t know if there’s a connection.  Running was ok otherwise this week, and I went a half-mile longer on my short tempo.

Sun - 7.7 miles in park including 2.5 @ 6:53

Mon - 9.4 easy (1:39) on treadmill

Tues - 9.4 in park @ 8:41

Weds - swam 14 minutes really slowly

Thurs - 10.7 progression (1:39) on TM, groin a bit sore

Fri - 9.3 easy (1:39) on TM, groin sore

Sat - off

Total - 46.6 miles

YTD average - 48.6 mpw 

RP - all the best for the 5k.

James - congrats on your son's graduation!

Piwi - that's a pretty solid post-race week.  It took me about 7-10 days before I was fully over my half.  Slightly longer than normal but it was a helluva race!

Me - building the volume back up and threw a lot of hills in there this week, kind of a strength week I guess.  Sunday's long run was not quite at the epic elevation gain levels that Steve and Watson managed but still hillier than normal.  Not quite sure how I got 154m of elevation gain off a track workout but the rest is legit!  Given the next race is a little hillier and mainly trail, seems like it's a good time to get some elevation back in there.

On that note, I'm tossing up shoe choices for the race.  It's mainly gravel trail, with a few short sharp climbs, so VF's are a no-go, both because they won't be stable enough and they'll be destroyed.  There's a risk it's wet and an outside chance of snow as well.  I have the Saucony Switchback and really like that shoe albeit mine are a bit worn now, so tossing up between the Switchback 2 and the Nike Terra Kiger.  The Switchback 2 is a bit lighter but the Terra Kiger seems to get a pretty good rap.

Weekly for period: From: 17/05/2021 To 23/05/2021

Total distance: 90.65km

Piwi, Mark, James and Steve - nice weeks.

Hills often don't need to be out much to have significant elevation differences.  My cross country a few weeks ago had only 26 metres on my Strava, but 80+ on other people's Strava (I think 80 would be about right).

I had my biggest hill workout yesterday, I had 875m elevation (Strava), Garmin had 922m.  That was really hard.

Going off Strava, I had 999m elevation for the week, although on Flavio's app, the daily rounding has it 996m.

Weekly for period: From: 17/05/2021 To 23/05/2021

Total distance: 64.85km

Piwi - LOL gypsy blood is right. Ever since leaving my parents place at 14 I’ve never lived more than 3 years in the same house.

RP - good luck on your 5k! By the end of your second mile your face should be blue and there should be a pink Jesus pacing you to your right.

James - Congratulations to your son! I wonder if your groin issues have the root cause somewhere else.

Last year I’ve learned that a lot of the times I have back issues the hip rotator (pant’s pocket muscle) is involved.

Mark - that is indeed a lot of elevation!

Steve - Hills are speed in disguise. That’s a great way to force yourself to run slower and get some strength from it.

Watson - Monster of a long run!

me - decent week, good variety of work. Legs felt alright. I might have to reconsider using the Topos for fast long runs, they're not as stable in the faster paces. The Altra Paradigms aren't either, but they feel more stable and offer more cushion.

Pushing the boundaries a bit over 2h today, running 3 hours is a scary thought at the moment. I'm glad October 10th is still far away.

Weekly for period: From: 05/17/2021 To 05/23/2021

Total distance: 53.51mi / 86km

James - yeah, running fitness and swimming fitness barely overlap, in my experience.  You may have a good engine, but the chassis and tires are completely different.  Congratulations to your son on his graduation!

Piwi - good week - glad your legs are back!

MarkyMark - without a doubt the best shoes for a gravel trail race are slippers.  So you can sit in comfort while everyone else runs it.  (*rimshot*)  Agree that it takes me 7-10 days to recover from a half.

Steve - I think Strava has an elevation correction - have you tried that?  For a while, I was having the opposite issue.  My Garmin's altimeter was screwed up (known issue with that watch - swimming meant that the sensor got wrecked by chlorine) and every run would have ridiculous elevation gain that I would have to correct on Strava.

Watson - that's a lot of gain.  You kiwis don't mess around with your hills.

Flavio - interesting on the shoes.  I'll confess that I haven't run much in either.

***

My week:

83 miles (133.5K)  running, 1500 yards swimming, and 80 minutes pool-running

M: 8 miles (13K) very easy (9:02 mile pace/5:33 km pace), drills and four hill strides, and upper body weights/core.
T: 12.5 miles (20K), including a track workout of 2000, 1200, 2x800 in 7:49, 4:33, 3:01, 2:59. 4:53 recovery after the 2000, 2:54 recovery after the 1200, and 3:06 between the 800s (track traffic). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
W: 6.5 miles (10.5K) very easy on treadmill (9:36 mile pace/5:58 km pace), streaming yoga, and then 6 miles (10K) very easy outside (8:49 mile pace/5:27 km pace)) plus drills and two strides..
Th: 3.5 miles (5.5K) very easy on treadmill (9:39 mile pace/6:00 km pace), 1 hour pool-running, and upper body weights/core.
F: 12.5 miles (20K), including a 4 mile tempo in 25:52 (6:24/6:33/6:31/6:25) (so 6:28 mile pace/4:00 km pace). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Sa: 12.5 miles (20K)  very easy (9:14 mile pace/5:43 km pace)), plus drills and 4 hill sprints, and streaming yoga.
Su: 21.5 miles (35 km), split as first 7 miles averaging 9:14 mile pace (5:43 km pace), next 7 miles averaging 8:00 mile pace (4:58 km pace), next 7 miles averaging 7:10 mile pace (4:26 km pace), and then a half mile jog. Followed with 500 yards recovery swimming and 20 minutes pool-running.

And that's the conclusion of my marathon cycle.  I taper down for a 10 mile tune-up race this weekend, and then have the full marathon 3 weeks after that.

In other news, the cicadas are here!  For you non-US people (and some US people as well), in parts of the US we have "periodic cicadas."  Basically they are bugs that hatch from eggs and bury beneath the earth to develop for a lengthy period of time - multiple years - before emerging for a few weeks in the summer of a designated year.  They crawl out of the earth, shed their larval underground skin to emerge as big red-eyed winged bugs, and then fly around, have sex, lay eggs, and die.  And make a lot of noise while doing so.

The cicadas come in different broods - a brood is a group that all emerge at the same.  The cicadas are big, dumb, ugly, defenseless, and apparently quite tasty, so their only chance of survival is to all come out at the same time so that a few of them can survive to reproduce.

The biggest brood of cicacas is Brood X, which is based in the Mid-Atlantic US (including Washington DC).  Brood X comes out every 17 years - resulting in bugs EVERYWHERE for a few weeks.  I first saw Brood X when I was 13, and then when I was 30.  Now I'm 47, and hopefully I'll still be around at age 64 to see them again.

Some people love the cicadas, some hate them (there are a few people who are staying inside because of bugs, not covid).  I'm in the first camp - I think they're REALLY cool, though seeing them also leads to introspection and reflection on the past 17 years and the next 17.

I have some pictures and videos of the cicadas on my Instagram, but two of my friends have much better pictures and videos, so I'll link to them instead.  (check out how LOUD these things are)

My friend Nick's instagram post.

My friend Phil's instagram post.

watson - That is an epic hill run!  I guess you'll be doing some more of these brutal runs for your ultra.

darkwave - Nice week and thanks for the Cicada education.  They're one of the sounds of summer for me.  Running in Hagley Park in the summer just been there was one occasion when I was listening to music and the cicadas were so loud at one point that they drowned out the music.  As watson said, you've had a great cycle.  Excited to see how you go in the race.

It looks like Strava has already corrected the elevation on that run because there is no option to do it so perhaps that is the true number.

Mark - 5 weeks to go.  I'm actually a bit sore today, after saying I wasn't yesterday.  The hills seem to beat up my legs a bit, I assume it's the downhills.

I haven't hit the all encompassing marathon training mental and physical fatigue that I've heard others talk about but I suspect after the next 2 weeks I'll be happy to start the taper.  This week will be my biggest of the cycle.