Mark I watched that podcast. He is suffering the consequences now and with  having a twin who is an elite runner too, he has unfortunately cast a shadow on him even if completely removed from this.

I hate to see someone feeling suicidal though and hope he can get some support.

 

I actually think their excuse is valid. Our borders were almost completely shut from March 2020 until mid-2022 and most NZ elites train offshore in the US or Europe (or Kenya in Zane’s case lol). So they wouldn’t have had access to athletes outside NZ for the most part. I dunno how they couldn’t just get someone in the US to test them but maybe there’s specific process requirements.

They do get overseas testers involved.  Otherwise you could just  base yourself in a different country and never get caught.

I'm wondering what he meant by:

I was constantly getting injured in the race shoes I was trying to develop

Was he saying that he was trying to get new race shoes developed, or is he just talking about his sponsors race shoes, which was ASICS.  He seemed to have been sponsored by them for a while, and most people highly rate the Metaspeed Sky (and Sky+) so I don't whether that statement has any validity.

Yeah I remember the COVID shut down you guys had. But like Watson said testing probably happens in collaboration with similar orgs in other countries. Anyways, the point I was trying to make was that, even very developed countries with much more resources for testing could still come short of what is expected of them for one reason or another.

 

I actually think their excuse is valid. Our borders were almost completely shut from March 2020 until mid-2022 and most NZ elites train offshore in the US or Europe (or Kenya in Zane’s case lol). So they wouldn’t have had access to athletes outside NZ for the most part. I dunno how they couldn’t just get someone in the US to test them but maybe there’s specific process requirements.

I haven’t heard of a single pro athlete in his/her prime who moved to Kenia for its ugali. But I also don’t know too many personally so I agree, I might be wrong  There is massive pressure on East African countries to increase testing and I assume this is actually starting to work. I take the zero hypothesis back!

 

On to another controversy: there is a 49 year old Italian Trans-lady who is crushing the 200m championships. She has won the Italian title 8 times in a row. The last one was really crushing for the second place female as she would have set a new Italian record. 

Valentina fka Fabrizio will however be banned from competing in womens competitions as of end of this month on. Which is unfortunate in a way because I am not aware of any Transgendered competitions. Maybe the World Athletics can create regular competitions on an international level.

There is open mens though right?  Or masters.

Yeah I remember the COVID shut down you guys had. But like Watson said testing probably happens in collaboration with similar orgs in other countries. Anyways, the point I was trying to make was that, even very developed countries with much more resources for testing could still come short of what is expected of them for one reason or another.

You're dead right.  Although, I wouldn't describe NZ as particularly well resourced... we probably are relative to many countries but athletics has pretty limited resources and relatively limited government funding compared to some sports.  Rugby sucks the oxygen (and $$$) out of everything, followed by cycling, rowing, cricket, league, soccer, netball and probably athletics sits alongside the likes of field hockey somewhere on the third tier.  But still, no real excuses outside of Covid border closures (and probably fewer in-competition tests because there were a lot fewer competitions for a while) for us not testing enough, those numbers had better get back up.

MJ - I hear you on not loving the warm temps!  Nice week though.

Me - woke up feeling very average and a bit congested this morning, and half expected to pull the pin on my run after 10 minutes or so. Once I got going, I felt surprisingly good, so stuck at it for the planned 75 minutes.  IDK maybe it was just a bit of tiredness after a lot of workouts this week, hopefully it'll disappear in a day or two.  Waterfront HM coming up next Sunday so this'll make race week interesting, along with the question of whether or not my VF3's will arrive in time for race day, and whether we get crappy humid weather (current forecast) or nice cool autumn weather.

Weekly for period: From: 20/03/2023 To 26/03/2023

Total distance: 80.59km (50.1 imperial brass walnuts)

Mick - some good work there.    It seems like you are OK with the idea of postponing the marathon and might prefer that?

Marky_mark - your title on 23/3 is gold.

James - good to see you back after the missed week.  And I'm relieved that the cramp was just a cramp.

***

My week:

53 miles running, 1000 yards swimming and 3 hours pool-running.

M: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core
T: 10 miles, including a track workout of 2x(1600, 800)+2x200 with splits of 7:00, 3:19, 6:46, 3:16, 48, and 48. 6 minute recoveries after the 1600s, 3:14 recovery after the first 800, and full recoveries for the 200s. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
W: Streaming yoga and 10 miles very easy (9:24) plus drills and 4 hill sprints
Th: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
F: 10.5 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 27:57 (7:12/6:57/7:00/6:48). Followed with two hill sprints, leg strengthwork, and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Sa: 10 miles very easy (9:39) and streaming yoga.
Su: 12.5 miles, including 3.2 miles at marathon effort (23:58 - 7:30 pace), followed by injury prevention work.

Things are continuing to improve and I'm getting more stable on my feet. We added another medication starting last Sunday that basically improves the effectiveness and duration of the stuff that I'm already on, and it seems to be helping.

It's not obvious from the training log, but my ability to handle running in complex situations (crowds, etc) improved dramatically this week. On Tuesday I was able to actually lead a group of runners for the second 1600 and 800 - previously my gait has just gone to hell when I've tried to do that. (yes, I know that sounds crazy, but that's how things have been.)

On Sunday, I ran a 5K (that ended up being 3.2 miles) at marathon effort to get a bit more practice running with crowds. This broke my rule about always racing when running a race, but the 5K was for a cause that's very important to a friend of mine (fighting colon cancer), and I didn't want to race this weekend for multiple reasons, including a late night out last night and my plans to race the Cherry Blossom 10 miler next Sunday. [how is that for a long sentence] So using the race as a chance to practice running at marathon pace in a crowded situation seemed like a way to show up and support her and also do something productive for myself.

[I don't like doing tempos during races because I worry that it builds bad habits - a tendency to conflate tempo effort with race effort. However, marathon effort is far enough from 5K effort that I wasn't worried in this case - especially if I don't make a habit of it.]

Once again, I handled the crowds and some uneven pavement very well - pretty much like a normal person. So that was really encouraging and makes me hopeful for Cherry Blossom next Sunday.

Also, since this is both the Waltons thread and the weather-whining thread (and since Mick opened the door), I'll note that Tuesday's track workout was done in 28 degrees F (-2 C) and Friday's track workout was done in 61 degrees F (16 C).  So yep, that's a lot of change.