Forums >Racing>2023 The Waltons: Racing & Training Thread
Waltons ThreadLord
As you can see from below, it was hot all week for me. (23C - 26C, for those who like a less finely measured temperature scale ). Probably worse, it was very humid as well, with the dew point at 70º (21C) or higher all week. I purposely dialed back my opening effort in the ParkRun on Saturday and as a result passed four people after the turnaround when they faded and I was able to keep my pace. 37.0 miles / 59.5km / 6:21:28 for the week. With luck, this will be the last week for a few months where my mileage total starts with a 3.
Cranford Firecracker
D&R ParkRun
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: Running is Back 10k, 5/12; Greta's Run 5k, 5/19
On Shoes - I like the Speed 2's as well (haven't tried the 3's). They're good long-run shoes as well as decent on the track.
Thanks Fred, I feel less guilty now And nice first marathon training week.
On the shoe topic: I own the Speed 1 & 3 plus the Speed Pro (3?). Can confirm the Speeds are a bit unstable when walking, but absolutely fine when running. I don't feel much of a pop anymore, after roughly 250km on them - and the outersole is starting to fall apart, as very thin. But I run on all terrains with them. I think the next shoe will be the Kinvara Pro, sounds like a great shoe too.
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Hash calling his 50km week abysmal reminds me of all of my college mates who always claimed to be totally underprepared on exam day followed by fantastic grades. Making me want to have an abysmal day myself. I think we call it sandbagging here in the forum 😂 What are those fast morning runs of 3km though? Commute to work, or just going out for 15 minutes to wake up - or really part of your training schedule? I know Watson runs to the gym and back and I am just a curious person!
MJ et al- I guess the abysmal part of my week was that I only made it to 30.99 Grand Canyon units and 49.90 Bottom-of-the-world units. Totally abysmal for a guy that likes to round his numbers!
MJ - I think the morning runs you are talking about was my commute to the local park run that I was doing. Left the house a bit late, so my 3km commute/warm up was a bit quicker than I had planned! Although now that you mention it, I do like the idea of a 15-min wake up jog in the morning. I might put that in my schedule!
Fred - You are getting some heat there! I always find anything over 20C
DW - You have reminded me with your Iwo Jima workouts that I need to more hill work. Might do some local Iwo Jimas on Friday (which is a public holiday here in NZ)
HCK - Sickest I've ever been was the first month of working in an early childhood centre. Those kids sure know how to spread germs around!
Hope that's the extent of your run-ins with weird naked dumpster men...
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
JamesD
My left knee was sore and a bit swollen for most of the week, I assume because of last Friday’s short track workout in my new Endorphin Speeds. I cut some of the runs short, and it felt better by the end of the week. I did a short tempo run in the Speeds this morning, and my legs feel better than they had after the track workout. Have to see how they feel over the next few days, but I expect they’ll adjust by my late-August 5K.
Sun - 8.3 miles in park PM @ 8:45, temp 90/32, TDP 160
Mon - didn’t swim b/c left knee sore
Tues - 8.3 miles in park AM @ 8:45, temp 82/28, TDP 152
Weds - 5 miles very slow (60:25) PM on treadmill w/40-second walk breaks/6:00
Thurs - 7.8 miles in park PM @ 8:32, temp 83/28, TDP 158
Fri - 45 minutes swimming
Sat - 6.8 miles in park AM including 2 @ ~6:48, temp 84/29, TDP 158
Total - 36.2 miles
YTD Average - 37.5 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
James - I hope your knee recovers, good week.
My week was good. I had the week off work which was really needed.
Monday was a double. Our club has an indoor training centre, which we're in the green room which is 70 * 50 metres indoor. I put my watch on indoor track mode and it did a suprisingly good estimate of what pace & distance I was running.
Wednesday was my longest run this year. I had to slightly modify this run due to some road works, but the distance ended up what I wanted at just over 32km (for the imperial people, sorry for being 0.01 short of 20).
Saturday was ParkRun, I thought I'd be better but was definitely still fatigued from Wednesday. Also one strength session, plus some stretching sessions.
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
Hash - happy (belated) birthday!
Watson - that indoor training centre sounds cool. I've never run on an indoor track.
James - glad the knee improved. I do find my legs recover quicker after running workouts in super shoes, vs. normal shoes.
I got a decent week in the bag. Tuesday's workout was a bit tough as the remnants of that cold were definitely messing with my breathing a bit. But the rest of the week was solid and Thursday's progression went surprisingly well, even coming into the headwind on the way back. Another trail event coming up next Sunday but most likely I'll just keep the training week pretty normal and sacrifice the Sunday long run for it. This one is on probably the most benign terrain of the series, mostly gravel trail, so maybe I'll try and push the pace a bit harder.
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: Runway5 / National 5k Champs, 16:22, National Masters AG Champ!
Up next: Still working on that...
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Mark - to clarify, there's NO indoor track, it's just a big indoor room. I put my watch on indoor track mode, which did a surprisingly good estimate on pace and distance (using my perceived pace etc.).
I got a break in the weather for my first track session of marathon training, but had the worst day of the year so for running today, when it was not only 79º at 6am, but the dew point was 76º (26C/24C). For my ParkRun yesterday, I just tried not to fade as much in the heat as others and see how many people I could pass in the second half. On Saturday, I was 16th at the turnaround and 13th at the finish. 41.3 miles / 66.5km / 7:14:02 for the week. With luck, those numbers will be on an upward trajectory for a while.
Hot Weather Complainer
Fred - Nice week. And kudos for even entering a Park Run in that weather. When you get to Autumn you'll be primed to go fast.
watson - +1 to being jealous that you have an indoor facility. Really impressive long run.
My week - A bit of a build week, with an endurance run on Wednesday which was Zone 3 for 45 mins and turned out to be 10km in 4:29s feeling really comfortable. Saturday was actually quite a big half marathon workout by my old standards and only got hard in the last repeat, when it was supposed to, and the workout prescribed lifting effort across each repeat. Started out about 4:12/km pace in the first one and ended up 4:03/km.
Got hit from behind at 80km/h on the motorway this morning after having to slow down for cars in front quite quickly. My neck and back feel a bit sore so I'll keep an eye on it tonight. Amazingly my towbar absorbed all the impact, it was a very solid hit, and appears to be no damage to my car. Can't say the same for the other guy, young guy who was quite upset. An hour later, my hands have stopped shaking!
5km: 18:34 11/23 │ 10km: 39:10 8/23 │ HM: 1:26:48 9/23 │ M: 3:34:49 6/23
2024 Races:
Motorway Half Marathon February 25, 2024 1:29:55
Christchurch Half-Marathon April 21, 2024 1:27:34
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
Steve - For a brief moment I thought you got hit while running; then I noticed the 80 kph bit. I'm glad you're all right at initial check and I can understand why your hands would be shaking an hour later. Thanks on the ParkRun and I hope you're right that all this warm-weather running will pay off later(I'm kind of counting on it). Nice week and quite a workout Saturday.
Mother of Cats
63 miles running,1000 yards swimming, and 3 hours pool-running.M: 90 minutes pool-runningT: 11 miles, including a track workout of 2000, 5x800 in 8:35, 3:18, 3:16, 3:14, 3:10, 3:07 (5:42 recovery after the 2K and 3:0x-3:2x recovery after the 800s - way too long due to a very busy track). Followed with leg strengthwork.W: 11.5 miles very easy (9:59) with some grass running, drills and hill sprints, and streaming yoga.Th: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.F: 11 miles, including 7 Iwo Jima hills (alternate route - this was about 2:30 up, then 60 second jog; 30 second stride, and 60 seconds to bottom of hill.) Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.Sa: 11.5 miles very easy (10:20) with a few miles trail running at the end of the run, followed by upper body weights/core.Su: 17 miles, split as first 13 miles averaging 9:29 pace and next 4 averaging 8:03 pace. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Just building strength at this point. As part of my work to improve my ankle strength and proprioception, I'm adding some running on grass and on trails - anywhere from a few minutes to a few miles on the different surface. It is definitely challenging and uncomfortable.
In shoe news, I've been considering the Hoka Rocket X2 as a marathon shoe. I wore it for today's run (which was very humid, with lots of damp pavement) and I discovered that this shoe has absolutely awful traction on wet pavement. So yeah, maybe a marathon shoe for dry weather; definitely not a marathon shoe for damp weather.
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.
Hash - happy belated birthday.
Watson - crazy long run. Do you have a goal race in mind?
Fred - that is quite some consistency now, despite the temperatures. I felt like 7 hours of running per week is a good base - now you just need to up your long runs? When is the marathon again?
Mark - great week - very impressive!
James - I have the same shoes, it might take some time to break them in, but that should be a quick process.
Steve - go and get checked up, both the car as well as the neck. Those damages are sometimes not visible and your neck might need some PT work as its usually sore the next day? In any case glad you got out without major damages!!!
Darkwave - interesting that your runs aren't less than 11 miles long, which is a bit contrary to some who say: run your non-workout runs at an easy pace and duration of 60-75minutes? Obviously works for you, but just curious whether there is something here that I can learn?
My week - abysmal to put it mildly only manages to run 4 times, need to up my long runs and one Quality session...
Fred - that is quite some consistency now, despite the temperatures. I felt like 7 hours of running per week is a good base - now you just need to up your long runs? When is the marathon again? My week - abysmal to put it mildly only manages to run 4 times, need to up my long runs and one Quality session...
Mick - Don't beat yourself up over a bad week. They happen. (And 35 miles really isn't bad.) Regarding my training, yes my long runs will get longer, but so will some of my weekday runs. Starting this week, I'll be doing a run that includes some miles at marathon pace. My race is on November 5.
Haha - I see what you did there!
2023 Birthday - Alas no running related stuff this birthday (unless I count the trip to the Boston Marathon as a birthday gift to myself) but I did get four (!) cricket books lol. One I bought myself that my wife wrapped up and gave back to me, and three old second-hand books that she had scavenged from various op shops.
Summer is really here. Ugh. I cannot make myself get early on weekends, so those runs are miserable.
Monday upper body strength
Tuesday am 7 with 4 x 800 + 6 x 200 pm 15 min warm up treadmill + lower body strength
Wednesday am 3.8 miles easy
Thursday rest day
Friday am 6.5 with 4x200-ish, 4x400-ish, 4x200ish pm lower body strength
Saturday 3.8 easy followed by upper body stregnth
Sunday 4.7 with 3 x 6 min tempo
Hash, I've heard the first year in our school can be really tough for illnesses. Happy belated birthday!
JamesD, I would think slowly building up to the Speeds seem like a wise move. I bought myself another pairs of the 2s to try outside since I designate a pair of shoes as treadmill only.
Watson, always nice to have a week off. Do you need to have a measurement for the indoor track? DH plays raquetball and the facility has routes measured out inside, I've considered going if I need a change of scenery from the treadmill.
Mark, glad your feeling better. Is the gravel trail flat? Or just a little more tame than the others you've done?
Fred, this past week seemed like summer really hit. Good job with the Park Run, just not much you can do in those conditions.
Steve, wow, that sounds really scary. Glad you are ok. I'd echo getting yourself & the car checked. Ihad to have my entire bumper replaced from a slow speed rear ender. There was only a slight crack visible that I really had to look for.
darkwave, nicec week. It's never fun finding ut shoes suck in wet conditions.
MJ, that seems like a fairly solid week for 4 runs.