Forums >Racing>2023 The Waltons: Racing & Training Thread
Hi All - Mark & Watson: great to see you both running good weeks. Mark in particular, amazing that you get to go out with a newborn baby at home. Your wife deserves all the kudos.
I had a decent week, with two good workouts, but felt some tenderness in the calves and had to back off a bit. Am religiously foam roalling and recovery running. 6.30h of running this week. I didn't manage a real long run, but hope to be back at >20km long runs the week after next.
Have a great start everyone!!!
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Watson - enjoy the half at Wellington. It's NZ Half Champs this year, so should be a reasonable field at the pointy end.
MJ - yeah my wife is doing most of the night shift due to my inability to breastfeed. She is a legend. Hope the BBQ was good!
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: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr, 1:15:48
Up next: Runway5, 4 May
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Mark - lame excuse. You should watch how de Niro does it in Meet the Fockers.
Watson - go for it. 1:29 is no small feat - but you had some really strong workouts / training runs ! Believe in it!
Mother of Cats
Hi all - just checking in belatedly with my week:
37 miles running and 2:10 hours pool-running.M: 70 minutes pool-running.T: 10 miles, including a track workout of 4x800m in 3:27, 3:25, 3:22, 3:17, with lots of recovery (trying different pairs of shoes) Followed with leg strengthwork..W: 7 miles very easy (9:38) and upper body weights/core.Th: OffF: 6 miles very easy (9:32) + drills and stridesSa: 1.5 mile warm-up and then half-marathon in 1:35:30Su: 60 minutes pool-running.
My half-marathon didn't go as well as I had hoped (race report). For those of you who don't want to click through to the race report; I just had an off day. Weather was great for the half (less so for the full), so it wasn't that. My chest did feel tight and I know several other people who felt their breathing was off during the race, so I suspect that the issue was likely lingering smoke from the Canadian wildfires (AQ was yellow, so not awful).
Oh well - time for a break.
I'll circle back later for comments.
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.
My week:
Monday 20 minute yoga
Tuesday am 6 with 3 x (2x200+ 1x 400) pm strength training
Wednesday 4.5
Thursday rests
Friday am 7 with 6 x400 + 2 x 200 pm strength training
Saturday 4 easy
Sunday 3 easy + strength training (fn fact, groundhogs can climb trees, was looking eye to eye with one leaving the neighborhood)
Fred, from last week, I figure turn & go the other direction if I see a bear. I think the ones we have around here are looking for either food or a mate.
JamesD, I got a pair of Nike Invincibles and they are really bouncy. Oddly, they feel bouncier walking than running.
Mark, nice week. It seems like a lot of shoes reviews start "I got these for free, but this is my opiniion". Usually it is a glowing review of the shoe.
Watson, good luck at your HM this week.
MJ, do you do any stretching for the calves? Do you think De Niro is doing that for his new baby?
Darkwave, I can see smoke being an issue and if it's not obvious (like gray skies), it's probably harder to know when running.
Mick, Darkwave & Half - nice weeks.
Darkwave - how did the Hoka's go? I was a bit surprised you chose them over the Asics Edge+ to race in. I haven't heard great things about Hoka's race shoes, mainly that they're not so super when compared to other brands super shoes (e.g. Nike, Adidas, Asics), although maybe the latest versions are better? Not that I've used either, but from everything I've seen, if given the choice of the two, I'd choose the Asics Edge+ in a heartbeat.
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
Half - great diverse week - you are really consistent in your run/exercise regiment with strength and yoga part of it. I wish I was more dilligent on that front as well! The second part is a very loaded question and I would clearly say: yes, I do believe that this is one of the reasons of why Robert is still so very vital and fit at almost 80 as it reduces significantly the risk of ovarian & breast cancer as well as postpartum depression. If you were to classify him in an age group for having children at an advanced age he would likely be in the 95%+ bracket, close to world record levels.
And on the calf stretches - I do them, but have a lot more benefit from foam rolling. I have been doing that every evening for 20 minutes or so, while watching the news and it has helped quite a bit with the recovery.
Waltons ThreadLord
HCK - Good plan for the bear as I'm sure you're not interested in being food or mate. Nice set of mixed runs for the week.
DarkWave - Sorry the half didn't go as well as you'd hoped. Off days do happen and sometimes on race days. I think we'll be dealing with the wildfire smoke, on and off, for a while.
Mick - Sorry to hear you're having calf issues. If it's both legs could that mean it's something in your workouts or maybe your shoes? 40+ miles is still pretty good especially without a long run.
Watson - Thank you. I wish you the best in going sub-1:30 on Sunday.
Mark - Thanks. Yeah, recovering from those trail races can take some time. Nice job getting the miles in with everything else going on.
James - Thank you. Funny how you only noticed the incline when you came back to the course. Once, early in my running, I was on a street that I felt was a slight uphill and then I looked down to see the water from the melting snow was moving in the same direction as I was (i.e. downhill). Interesting about how the shoes wouldn't let you run the slower pace.
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: Clinton Country Run 15k, 4/27; Spring Distance Classic 5k, 4/28
I had a rather eventful week, running a 5k race on Wednesday evening and a 5k ParkRun on Saturday. Both went well for me (see the race report earlier is this thread for the Wednesday race). The ParkRun was less dramatic with me spending 2 miles following a runner who passed me ½ mile in and then passing her when she started wilting in the heat and thus placing 8th of 67. 35.2 miles / 56.6 km / 5:59:12 for the week.
Scotch Plains Run to Summer 5k
D&R ParkRun
Hey, everyone!
Been trying to keep up with all of your progress, but haven't managed the time to post much.
My wife and I booked our tickets to Boston for next April. Taking her and our two young kids along killed our savings, but April is her birthday and this is the only way she is letting me travel across the world to run
(for the Kiwis - we even splashed out on Air NZ's Skycouch - fingers crossed the kids sleep all the way!)
Our flight gets in to Boston around midnight - so that's going to be a lot of fun getting to our hotel at that time of night!
A gentle week for me, as we lead into Race week (same race as Watson):
50+ age-group PBs: Half Perish 1:24:24 (June '23 Road Race) - 10km 37:52 (2022 Local Road Champs) - Track 5km 18:49 (Aug '22) - Perish Run 3:17:42
2024 Goals: Boston Perish Run Sub 3:15 - Road/Track 10km Sub 37:30 - 5km Sub 18:20
Hash - the Skycouch is great. My wife shared it with our (then) 3 year old when we last went overseas. Good luck for the weekend!
Watson - good luck also!
Wellington is the biggest half in the country that I haven't run. Maybe next year.
Looking at the 2023 Wellington Round the Bays results, and the 2022 Wellington marathon results - Wellington Round the Bays Half had more finishers than Wellington Half. So Wellington Half is the second biggest half in the country that you haven't run.
That surprises me, but fair point. Another one to add to the list!
JamesD
Good luck, Watson and Hash!
darkwave - Too bad about the half, but you do seem to be in a much better place than you were at the start of the year. I’m amused that you think an 8,000-person race isn’t very big. Except for one 12,000-person half in Madrid that I dropped out of with an injury at 5K, I’ve never run a race with more than about 2,000, and many of mine have 100-200. DW ran a 27,000-person San Silvestre 10K in Madrid a couple of times, and finding her in the darkness afterwards was tough. I occasionally think I should try Peachtree one year just to see what it’s like to run with 60,000 people, but that much body heat in July in Atlanta with no shade & morning humidity seems like a recipe for mass heatstroke. If I want to try to get in the seeded corral, I probably would also need to drive 100 miles to Macon the Labor Day before to run a net downhill race that some of the old Atlanta guys who are a little faster than me run, I assume to qualify for Peachtree seeding.
On Monday I tried a little faster running — strides and half a mile at a bit faster than tempo effort – for the first time in six weeks, as I’ve been trying to get in a decent base. As expected, I felt uncoordinated and didn’t have a fast gear. Things went better when I did the same thing Friday.
Sun - 7.5 miles very slow (54:25AM, 36:00PM) on treadmill with 40-second walk breaks/6:00
Mon - 7.3 miles in park PM incl. strides, 0.5 @ 7:04, temp 76/24, TDP 149
Tues - ~52 minutes swimming with break
Weds - 10.9 miles in park PM @ 8:57, temp 71/22, TDP 140 (yes, it was humid)
Thurs - 7.5 miles very slow (90:25) on treadmill with 40-second walk breaks/6:00
Fri - 7.3 miles in park PM incl. strides, 0.5 @ 6:26, temp 89/32, TDP 149
Sat - 39 minutes swimming
Total - 40.5 miles
YTD Average - 37 mpw
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
Looking forward to hearing how it went for Watson and Hashiritai. Looked like pretty ideal conditions.
Darkwave - echoing James' comments... only a handful of races in NZ would hit 8,000 entrants so that seems pretty big to me. Sorry it didn't go how you hoped (and sorry for my slow response... I'm a bit behind on the threads at the moment).
James - nothing like running fast to help you run fast!
My week was reasonable. Legs FINALLY seem to have recovered from that trail adventure a couple weeks ago, and had a decent track session on Sat morning despite windy and very wet conditions. Ended up being my biggest week in a couple months so I guess things are tracking in the right direction. Still mostly running from home so getting a lot more hills than normal, I'm sure that'll pay off at some point.