2023 The Waltons: Racing & Training Thread (Read 301 times)

JamesD


JamesD

    Anyone have suggestions for dealing with Achilles soreness?  I had some chronic trouble maybe 5-7 years ago that eventually went away after I switched to higher-drop (8-10mm) shoes and away from Brooks Pure Flows (maybe 5-6mm?).  Also wore Strassburg socks to sleep.  Have been sleeping in the socks for the last couple of weeks, but my soreness isn't getting better & may be getting a little worse.  On today's run the soreness came and went with no particular pattern, though it probably was worst soon after I started.  Also feel occasional soreness when not running.  I may just switch to newer shoes in my current models a little earlier than I had planned, as all three pairs I'm using now have between 450 and 750 miles on them.

    Post-1987 PRs:  Half 1:30:14 (2019); 10K 39:35 (2019); 5K 19:12 (2017); Mile 5:37.3 (2020)

    '24 Goals: consistency, age-graded PRs, half < 1:32

    Fredford66


    Waltons ThreadLord

       Fred, I raced a HM about 3-4 days after having a stomach bug.  I was feeling pretty good until about two-thirds of the way through and then just completely ran out of steam.  2 days after would've been miserable.

       

      I had the advantage of knowing that two hours after the race I'd be meeting the family at a restaurant with large portions of delicious food, family style.

       

      Good luck with the prizes.

      5k 23:48.45 (3/22); 4M 31:26 (2/22); 5M 38:55 (11/23); 10k 49:24 (10/22); 
      10M 1:29:33 (2/24); Half 1:48:32 (10/22); Marathon 4:29:58 (11/23)

      Upcoming races: RunAPalooza (Asbury Park) HM, 4/6; Clinton Country Run 15k, 4/27

       

      need2tri


        Anyone have suggestions for dealing with Achilles soreness?  I had some chronic trouble maybe 5-7 years ago that eventually went away after I switched to higher-drop (8-10mm) shoes and away from Brooks Pure Flows (maybe 5-6mm?).  Also wore Strassburg socks to sleep.  Have been sleeping in the socks for the last couple of weeks, but my soreness isn't getting better & may be getting a little worse.  On today's run the soreness came and went with no particular pattern, though it probably was worst soon after I started.  Also feel occasional soreness when not running.  I may just switch to newer shoes in my current models a little earlier than I had planned, as all three pairs I'm using now have between 450 and 750 miles on them.

        Hi James here is what worked well for me and got significant difference within a week. Good luck.

         

        1. Single leg eccentric heel drops ( both with straight and bend knees to target both the gasctoc and soleus)

         

        2. Very weird massage you can do from your desk .

         

        https://youtu.be/qqAlt1k_-gs

         

        If you don't want to click on the above link google " achilles tendonitis absolute best self treatment" it is a YouTube video of two guys.

        zebano


          I completely agree with Need2Tri look up Alfredson protocol if you want a specific plan but it boils down to tons of single leg eccentric calf raises both straight leg and bent leg.

          1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

          zebano


            ugg. Just a round of weather whining. It's currently -1 here and the high tomorrow is 40(!!!!). Therefor I decided to race a parkrun, however at race time it's only supposed to be 22 with a "realfeel" of 11F. It looks like there's usually a few people between 18:30 and 21 so I think the competition will help but I also have major trouble with turnover in cold weather. I can't decide if it's better to race or to time trial latter in the day. I'm leaning toward racing though.

            1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

              Weekly for period: From: 30/01/2023 To 05/02/2023
              Weekly Grid
              Date Name mi km Duration Avg/mi Avg/km Elevation Gain
              in m
              30. Jan Morning Run 7.74 12.45 01:19:40 10:18 06:24 28
              31. Jan Morning Run 6.32 10.16 01:05:09 10:19 06:25 15
              01. Feb Lunch Run 10.68 17.19 01:46:15 09:57 06:11 142
              02. Feb Lunch Run 10.2 16.41 01:41:46 09:59 06:12 100
              03. Feb Lunch Run 8.95 14.4 01:22:15 09:11 05:43 79

              Total distance: 70.61km

               

              This week is in the bag. 10 weeks of work, 1 week of taper to go.

               

              I have changed to Hours per Week rather than MPW. So I ran ±7 hours this week. Starting to feel better at those longer distances. I can only imagine what 60mpw folks feel like totally invincible probably. I have also swapped morning for lunch time running. I know its not ideal but I hate running early in the morning. I just hate it. Just as much as I hate having my airpods drain in the middle of a run.....

               

              I only did one quality session this week, as the back of my knee was giving me a bit of a hard time. But that is now mostly in check.

              Next week will see me up the long run to 13 miles, and then another one at 11 miles. I hope it will be as nice as this week.

               

              Hope everyone had a good time and wish all racers a very good time, literally!

              HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)

               

              2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!

              zebano


                Mick, great work. Averaging an hour of running a day is great.

                1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

                zebano


                  also looks like you're following Nils Van Der Pol's 5-2 schedule so you should be just about ready to win a gold medal in speedskating!

                   

                  https://www.howtoskate.se/

                  1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

                  Half Crazy K 2.0


                    James, probably not much help, but I found that a lot of achilles, foot and other leg soreness I had went away went I looked at what shoes I was wearing when NOT running. I quit wearing any sort of heels to work, now since we went completely casual, I just wear clean, old running shoes.

                     

                    Mick, my theory is the best training and training time is what works for you.

                     

                    Weather whining. I've been listening to the wind all day and watching the trees outside my window blow around like crazy. I need to go pick my car up from getting a tire repaired and am running up there. Pretty sure when I ran home this morning, the wind was at my back most of the way. I don't think it's going to be at my back....

                    darkwave


                    Mother of Cats

                       

                       

                      Weather whining. I've been listening to the wind all day and watching the trees outside my window blow around like crazy. I need to go pick my car up from getting a tire repaired and am running up there. Pretty sure when I ran home this morning, the wind was at my back most of the way. I don't think it's going to be at my back....

                       

                      I did a tempo on the track this morning.  I wear a Stryd footpod that measures wind resistance.  Here's the power chart from this morning (the yellow line is the total power I was generating, and the white shading indicates how much of that was spent overcoming wind resistance.

                       

                       

                      [that part around 10:00 in is where I almost fell down from a gust.]

                      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.

                      Half Crazy K 2.0


                        Darkwave, off, Wind on the track is rough. It goes from feeling ok to hit a wall, repeat.

                         

                        It wasn't too terrible going up to get my car. I pciked the route that was least headwind, mostly just getting out of my neighborhood. After that, I think the houses and businesses along the main road blocked the worst of the wind. I had considered doing a little extra, but the loop I would have done would have been right into the headwind at the end of my run and I wasn't in the mood for that.

                        Fredford66


                        Waltons ThreadLord

                          Mick - Nice week.  7 hours is a good block of work.

                           

                          James - Sorry, I have nothing for the Achilles.

                           

                          Darkwave - I've experienced similar days at the track but never seen it graphed out before; cool.

                           

                          HCK - I can understand not wanting to run the last loop into the wind.

                           

                          I had a really good run at the trail race today.  Although I was not as rested as two weeks ago, I felt strong and didn't have as big a positive split as last time.  The course was fast today, with the cold freezing the ground solid so there were no soft/muddy portions to slow me down.  I ran a 56:45 (unofficial), compared to 58:57 two weeks ago and 59:61 four weeks ago.  My splits from the three races on the course are below along with the time difference for the last 3 miles vs. the first 3 (yes, it's 6.3 miles, but I don't have an exact halfway/finish split).

                           

                          Mile   1/7   1/21   2/4
                          1   9:50   9:19   9:15
                          2   9:15   9:11   8:56
                          3   9:10   8:49   8:30
                          4 10:13   9:54   9:31
                          5 10:02   9:46   9:26
                          6   9:21   9:17   8:36
                            +1:21 +1:38 +0:51
                          5k 23:48.45 (3/22); 4M 31:26 (2/22); 5M 38:55 (11/23); 10k 49:24 (10/22); 
                          10M 1:29:33 (2/24); Half 1:48:32 (10/22); Marathon 4:29:58 (11/23)

                          Upcoming races: RunAPalooza (Asbury Park) HM, 4/6; Clinton Country Run 15k, 4/27

                           

                          Marky_Mark_17


                            Mick - good call. Time on feet is what matters more than anything, really.

                             

                            Darkwave - that is some serious wind!! As much as the track means you don't have to deal with the wind for too long, it also means you have to deal with it with monotonous regularity.

                             

                            Fred - congrats on the race.  I would've loved some frozen bits out there this morning!

                             

                            Me - Pretty happy with the race effort (1:17:50 official).  Also I remembered why I stopped racing HMs in summer!  Race report below (double-posting on both threads as I know some here aren't interested in the other thread).

                            Weekly for period: From: 30/01/2023 To 05/02/2023

                            <caption>Weekly Grid</caption>
                            Date Name mi km Duration Avg/mi Avg/km Elevation Gain
                            in m
                            31/01 That run where Okahu Bay does not smell good 6.65 10.70 00:44:40 06:43 04:10 59
                            01/02 That run where we interrupt this rain to bring you some more rain 6.24 10.04 00:41:45 06:41 04:10 128
                            02/02 That run where it’s only Feb and I’m already finishing runs before sunrise 😂 5.04 8.11 00:34:52 06:55 04:18 42
                            04/02 That run where it’s insufferably humid but expect the same tomorrow 🙄 3.92 6.31 00:25:50 06:35 04:06 29
                            05/02 Warm up 1.00 1.61 00:07:16 07:16 04:31 9
                            05/02 Clevedon Half Marathon 🥇 13.08 21.04 01:17:51 05:57 03:42 151
                            05/02 Warm down with Jasmine and Chris 1.25 2.01 00:11:43 09:22 05:50 9

                            Total distance: 59.82km (37.18 imperial bearded llamas)

                            3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)  

                            10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)

                            * Net downhill course

                            Last race: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                            Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                            "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

                            Marky_Mark_17


                              Race report: Clevedon Country Half Marathon, 5 Feb 2023

                               

                              It's nice to see a new race on the calendar.  Even if I hate summer HMs, a new race in my old neighbourhood in the Clevedon countryside (with road closures!) is too much to pass up.  Been a tough few years for races around here, and it's brave for someone to take the punt on a new event rather than just trying to build their existing events back up.

                               

                              Even with an early 7am start, the temp was around 20C (68F), 95% humidity, and heated up as the race went on - although the humidity would've dropped off a little at the same time as the race was shortly after sunrise.  Given the heat, my tendency to wilt in said heat, and my relative lack of training (only really started to feel I was properly in the training groove the last 3-4 weeks after having probable Covid in Dec), I aimed to go out pretty conservatively (3:40-3:45/km) and just go from there.

                               

                              You never know who will show up but I end up in the lead group with 3 others.  I towed them around the course for the first 11k or so, including Dan Coates (very good marathoner who I run with occasionally), Chris Trent (quick and a rival from way back) and Lisa Cross (current NZ Womens Marathon champ and XC Champ... off to Bathurst in 2 weeks for World XC Champs).  That wasn't intentional... I was just doing my thing and found a good groove.  Not much sign of last week's floods apart from some debris around the Tourist Road bridge which floods periodically in winter anyways - and a VERY soft grass start / finish chute which I have no doubt will be mud by the time we finish.  The course was definitely more rolling than expected and didn't really resemble the elevation graph on the website (the total elevation gain of 150m / 500 ft from my watch is in line with Auckland HM which is regarded as being relatively hilly), but there were some nice long flat stretches to hit a rhythm too.  I wasn't too worried about what the others were doing as I was in a good rhythm after beating off a slight stitch around the 6k mark.  They fell off the pace a little after the halfway mark.

                               

                              A few km later we hit a gravel section I didn't expect but sometimes race directors are horrible liars.  I figured the "12% on fine gravel" was the start and finish of the race which totals roughly 2.5km in the showgrounds (i.e. 12%).  However apparently "88% on sealed roads" included a further 2.5km on unsealed road with very coarse gravel.  If the elevation graph was misleading, this was an outright lie! I backed off the pace because it was shady, my sunglasses had fogged up a bit and high stack shoes on chunky gravel seemed like a recipe for an ankle injury.  I could hear someone come powering up behind me and it was Dan, who passed me at that point.  I upped the effort level just a touch and he slowed down a little and I caught him again just as we got off the gravel and back on the road (glad that's over!).  I figured we had 20-30 secs on Lisa and Chris from the u-turn at the bottom of the gravel section.

                               

                              Fortunately at this point I know there are no more hidden tricks as it's back the way we came to the finish line.  It sounds like Dan has dropped off the pace a bit, but as we turn on to Tourist Road (HEY THERE'S MY OLD HOUSE!), we hit the 10km runners on their way out.  They are generous with their cheers, I get some and I can tell someone not too far behind me gets some too.  They aren't close enough for me to glimpse their shadow in the morning sun (how to look behind you a bit without looking behind you!)... but they're not that far behind, maybe 20-30 seconds.  I dare not look back to see who it is, I figure Dan has fired his bullets already but Lisa is as tough as they come and Chris always had a good turn of pace.

                               

                              It is getting VERY hot too but I figure it's gonna be hard work all the way home.  I really wanted to back off around the 17-18k mark but I know there's just one more hill and someone is trying to chase me down.  Under my breath, I variously curse the mystery runner behind me, my own competitive streak, and the lying race director, and dig it in anyway. Back over the Tourist Road bridge and up the final hill... very tough going to keep the rhythm up that one, I felt pretty dodgy and a touch lightheaded at the top but it's flat all the way home now.  I'm pushing the pace but I really hope I don't have to find another gear because I'm just about cooked.

                               

                              Turning back into the showgrounds I know there's around 400m to go and a sneak a look over my shoulder through the twists in the trees... I can't see anyone so I must have at least 10-15 seconds, maybe more.  A finish line sprint would be an absolute liability here with all the mud (also I do not like my chances of winning that against a national champ XC runner!).  I really wanted to enjoy running down the finish chute but I was more worried about not losing my footing with all the mud - although it's still a great feeling to cross the line in first place.  Never take those days for granted.

                               

                              Turns out the second place runner was Lisa Cross who was only 10 seconds behind me so it was pretty damn close too!  She has about 20 seconds on Chris, with Dan a further 20 seconds back.  One of the closest finishes in the lead group I've seen in quite a long time.

                               

                              Hilariously the MC asks me if it helped knowing the local roads out here, I had to 'fess up and say that back when I lived out here, I was much more likely to be getting home in fairly average shape after a big night out at this time on a Sunday morning.

                               

                              Official time was 1:17:50, so I hit my goal.  Not especially quick but I kept the pace consistent despite the course being tougher than expected, and the race director being a liar.  The last 3km was the quickest 3km stretch of the race for me, given the hot conditions I'm particularly happy with how I paced it.  Tentative goal for Waterfront HM in 2 months (which is dead flat, and hopefully a lot cooler) is 1:13:59.

                               

                              Side-note, I saw a very young looking kid out there, turns out he was 16 years old and ran 1:19 (which apparently included a stop to throw up).  I'm sure he'll be kicking my butt soon enough.

                              3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)  

                              10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)

                              * Net downhill course

                              Last race: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                              Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                              "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

                              watsonc123


                                Mark, Mick and Fred - nice weeks.

                                 

                                Mark - nice RR.  And congrats on the win, and most importantly not getting chicked!

                                 

                                My week was pretty good.  Ending up being a bit less than planned due to life slightly getting in the way.  Today's run was the same as two weeks ago, but substantially better which in part will be due to not doing ParkRun the day before, and hopefully a little to do  with progress.  It's been really humid here (like Auckland summer), luckily today the humidity and temperature had dropped a bit (70% relative and 22C as opposed to it having been more like 90% and 25 the day before) plus there was some wind so it was pretty good.

                                Two strength sessions (you'll see the short runs to/from the gym) plus running of:

                                Weekly for period: From: 30/01/2023 To 05/02/2023

                                <caption>Weekly Grid</caption>
                                Date Name mi km Duration Avg/mi Avg/km Elevation Gain
                                in m
                                30/01 Evening Run 1.50 2.41 00:13:24 08:56 05:34 17
                                30/01 Night Run 1.49 2.40 00:13:37 09:08 05:40 8
                                31/01 Evening Run 3.23 5.20 00:28:34 08:51 05:30 18
                                01/02 Afternoon Run 1.50 2.41 00:13:10 08:47 05:28 17
                                01/02 Evening Run 1.50 2.41 00:13:26 08:57 05:34 8
                                03/02 Afternoon Run - Riverstone * 2 11.18 18.00 01:36:29 08:38 05:22 330
                                05/02 Afternoon Run - Club Rooms then Mangaroa 15.21 24.48 02:01:23 07:59 04:58 193

                                Total distance: 57.30km

                                PRs: 5km 18:43 (Dec 2015), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:26:16 (Sep 2016), full 3:09:28 (Jun 2015)

                                 

                                40+ PRs: 5km 19:31 (Oct 2020), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:29:39 (Jun 2018), full 3:13:55 (Sep 2022)

                                 

                                2023 PRs (hope to beat in 2024): 5km 20:34, 10km 41:37, half 1:32:32, full 3:21:05

                                 

                                2024 PRs: 5km 20:25