Forums >Racing>2023 The Waltons: Racing & Training Thread
Pretty decent race this morning, ended up running a course PB by over 2 minutes for 1:18:05, and 2nd place. I was in a tussle for third around the halfway mark (which I won), and then ran down 2nd around the 14km mark, so overall pretty happy with the effort and I guess I judged the course (and its 8 hills, 2 of which are grass) better than most. I thought about having a go at first but one of the toughest hills is around 3-4km from the end and he had a minute on me at that point so I didn't think it was worth the risk.
If anything I was possibly a little too conservative on the pace on the flat... legs still felt strong at the end despite the hills and I could easily have carried on for another km or two, so I suspect I should have just pushed the pace a little more earlier in the race and maybe tried to stick on the first place runner (not a guy I knew at all so wasn't sure about it at the time!). At no point did I really hit any dark spots so I'm gonna conclude I wasn't working hard enough haha. Probably just a habit I got into from the trail series where the trails will humble you if you go out too hard... average HR was about 5bpm lower than it would normally be during a road race so that says something.
Legs were a little heavy during race week so I'm wondering if I slightly overdid the workouts last week, albeit I don't think it affected much on the day.
Miss 6 ran a PB by over a minute in the kids 2K race as well which was an awesome effort. We were aiming for under 15 minutes and she ran under 14, so that was a highlight.
Next up Omaha HM in 9 weeks. One of my all time favourite HMs! It'll be hot, and it's one of the slower flat courses around, but it's great fun.
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"
Waltons ThreadLord
Hi all. Sorry about the lack of acknowledgements - my father has been in the hospital with a gall bladder issue and I've been spending most of my free time there (hoping he'll be home by Tuesday). I have enjoyed reading the race reports and training summaries. Some great work going on among the folks here.
I had a good week (and a good month - 237.4 miles in September is a personal best). 62.7 miles / 100.9km / 10:44:58.
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
JamesD
watson - hope you heal quickly.
darkwave - glad it looks like you’ll get to fly on Friday. Good luck in Chicago.
Mark - congrats on the race.
Fred - hope your dad is better.
Race Report, Mogadishu Mile 5K, September 30, 2023
This is my third consecutive year and fourth overall running this race, which commemorates a run under fire in Somalia in 1993 by Army Rangers (who trained at the army base that borders Columbus) that was featured in the movie Black Hawk Down. The base commander and Ranger leader spoke at the start, as did one of the veterans of the Somalia run. It attracts a different crowd from other local races; most of the participants are Army members and wives/gfs.
This has become my goal 5K each year; the 1,000+ runners give me people to chase, the warm temperatures keep me loose, the 6pm start is the time of day when I run fastest, and the course doesn't have too many turns or hills. This year, the start and finish of the loop course were moved to a different point on the loop next to a grass field. That made the start four blocks from home rather than three. I wanted to do strides 10-20 minutes before the start, so I skipped a helicopter landing in the field that had been advertised as taking place during the half hour before the race. When I got to the starting line, I realized the helicopters weren’t there. After speeches, Rangers shouting the Ranger Creed, the national anthem, etc., the organizers told us the helicopters would be coming from behind us to land in the field.
About six flew in ominously with armed Rangers hanging out of the sides. Their rotors kicked up lots of dust and grass clippings, and 20 or so Rangers jumped out and ran in formation in front of the start. The horn sounded, and they paced the leaders for the first 100 meters or so until we turned left.
I always line up in the first or second row at this race, because Rangers wearing 25 pounds each of body armor line up near the front, and the extra weight prevents them from accelerating off the start. I was surprised by how few people were ahead of or near me after the start (DW said there was a bottleneck behind the first several runners). It felt odd to run the course’s streets in a different order from usual, but this did away with one of the few things I didn’t like about the traditional route. That route ends with a long gradual hill with some momentum-sapping turns and then a few more blocks to run after your momentum is gone. The new route started halfway up the hill, so we ran that part while fresh and then finished with just half of the hill and no long flat afterwards. Because there were relatively few of us near the front, there wasn’t much passing or being passed. After about a mile, everyone ahead of me was more than a block away. A little later, one runner wearing the shirt of the half I ran last year passed me, and I chased him most of the rest of the way before passing him near the end. Later found out he had run that half 2+ minutes slower than me, so I hope he got faster rather than me getting slower. I also gradually gained on a 15-year-old but couldn’t catch him at the end. Luckily, there were no signs of the 30 alligators that had been seen near the racecourse recently.
I wound up with 19:41, 7th/1086, 1st M 60+. Pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve finished in the top 1% of a race, but it’s not really fair to include the 350 Rangers who wore body armor or the 100 people (many Rangers) who pushed kids in strollers, or the 30+ people who ran with dogs. The frustrating thing was that I can’t compare the time to last year’s time, which was my age-graded best. This course is definitely longer - the traditional one is about a block short of closing the loop, while this one was slightly more than a full loop. Mapmyrun shows 3.12 and 3.19 miles for the old & new courses, but the start & finish weren’t exactly where mapmyrun said either. I walked the start & finish areas today to estimate the difference between the 3.19 and what we actually ran. It looks like my time was equivalent to around 19:20 on the old course, which would’ve been right around last year’s time and a new age-graded best. I’m trying to see if any of the few other runners I know & saw yesterday have gps watches to get another estimate, but no luck so far..
Sun - 5.2 miles in park PM @ ~8:40-something
Mon - off
Tues - 4.2 miles PM in park including strides, 4x200 not fast
Weds - 3 miles very slow PM treadmill (36:10) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Thurs - 3.2 miles including strides
Fri - off
Sat - 6.7 miles including Mogadishu Mile 5K (approx.) in 19:41, temp 87/31, TDP 143
Total - 22.3 miles
YTD Average - 36.5 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
Regardless of how it compares to last year, this is a pretty badass 5k James. Congrats on the performance.
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
My week:
Monday 20 minute spin + core
Tuesday am 7 easy on the treadmill pm strength
Wednesday am 4.6 with strides pm strength
Thursday rest day
Friday am 7 treadmill with 4 x 4 minutes fasters/hill pm strength
Saturday 3.8 easy
Sunday 6 with 2x200 + 6x400 + 2x200
Ugly weather for much of last week and it was just easier to run on the treadmill thana deal with rain & dark.
Mark, congrats on the course PR & 2nd OA and to DD for her race. I agree, hills on trails are a whole different beast.
Fred, nice week! Hopefully your dad is recovering well.
JamesD, that sounds like a memorable race. Congrats on the AG win! I was really curous reading your report to see if there were alligator sighting and what people did. On that note, what are you supposed to do if there is an alligator on or near the path? Stay still? Turn around? Make a lot of noise?
No idea. If I'm running hard in the middle of a 5K I might not notice an alligator until I'm too close to stop and turn around, so maybe try to hurdle it? That's what I did with a big snake when I was running in the botanical garden (really a botanical forest) in Brasilia when we lived there. I had assumed that in such a big race any alligators would have been seen and responded to by volunteers or runners ahead of me before I got there, but I was in 8th place at the point where so many had been seen, so maybe that wasn't a safe assumption.
The Sheriff's Office message I quoted was a surprise. The bike path has a sign several miles south warning of alligators, but nobody I know has ever seen one, and whitewater guides have told me that they're almost never seen in the river anywhere north of Eufala, Alabama 40 miles downriver. I assume the whitewater outfitter paid attention to the message, since the whitewater course ends a mile north of where the alligators were seen...
P.S. The age group win isn't a big deal, as there are only three or four 60+ guys around here who run at all seriously. There are five o so in Atlanta who are faster than me, but they almost never come here, and Atlanta is too hilly for me. It might be fun to run Peachtree one year and see how I stack up against them, but I would want to qualify for the fastest non-elite corral, and the only realistic way to do that would be to go to Macon the previous Labor Day for a downhill 5K, and that conflicts with the midnight run I enjoy.
Fred - best wishes with your dad.
Mark - congrats on 2nd. Maybe if you had started quicker you would have done better, but maybe you wouldn't.
A bit of biking only during the week. Right glute niggle is getting better, I'm hoping to run again next week.
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
My father is back home - got released last night. Thanks to all who posted good wishes for him. At least the gall bladder thing is supposed to be a one-and-done kind of problem.
Mother of Cats
Excellent news!
I'll also belatedly drop off my week, and then try to catch up on comments tomorrow (since I'm now on vacation, because there wasn't a shutdown).
54 miles running, 1500 yards of swimming and 70 minutes of pool-runningM: 6 miles very easy (9:12) and upper body weights/coreT: 11.5 miles, including a track workout of 2x800, 2x1600, 2x800, 4x200 in 3:37, 3:33, 7:00, 6:50, 3:19, 3:20, 47, 47, 47, and 47. Recoveries of 2:2x-2:4x after the 800s and 5:4x after the 1600s; full recovery for the 200s. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.W: 8 miles very easy (9:30) including some grass running and drills/strides and streaming yoga.Th: 70 minutes of pool-running and upper body weights/core.F: 8.5 miles, including a 5K track tempo in 21:43 (7:00/6:58/6:55/0:50). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.Sa: 8 miles trail-running (10:07) and upper body weights/core.Su: 12 miles progressive, split as the first 3 miles averaging 9:36, the next 5.5 miles averaging 8:03, and then the next 3.5 miles averaging 7:43. Followed with 500 yards recovery swimming.
I had a bad workout on Tuesday - I felt fine, but I simply couldn't see for much of the workout (before sunrise on an unlit track, with light drizzle fogging up my glasses). That's how one ends up running 800s at slower than tempo pace.
Friday's tempo went a lot better. Since it was so short, I made a point of pretty much hitting pace right away instead of easing into it. Which reminded me of how much I hate doing that - it essentially results in an anaerobic first mile, since my heart rate is fairly slow to adjust to effort. But it was a slight shock to the system, which is what I felt like I needed in order to start peaking.
Taper does seem to be kicking in this week. I did a few 800s on Tuesday and the last two clocked in at 3:12 and 3:11 which is on the faster side of things for me these days, and they didn't feel very hard. So I'm hopeful for Sunday.
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.
Fred glad your dad was able to leave the hospital and hope he recovers fully!
darkwave: good luck with the race! Hope all goes to plan. You sure did put in a lot of hard work - now its just down to execution! I look forward to your blog entry!
me: gosh my legs are still in sleep mode - can’t activate those guys. Anyways off to Southern France next and the a bit of travelling all over the globe. So taking a bit of a break from running serious miles
Fred - great news your dad is out of hospital. I hope he's feeling better now.
James - the helicopters must've been quite the intro to the race!!
Watson - hope that niggle is improving.
Anyways my week was kind of chunky for a post-race week. Legs a bit sluggish but we'll see what this week holds. Been a bit quiet posting on here lately with family stuff and work but hopefully I'll be on a bit more the next while.
<caption>Weekly Grid</caption>
Belated shoutouts:
JAmes - very nice 5K performance, with an interesting story behind it.
Half-Crazy - nice week last week with some good balance to it.
Watson - hoping things were improved this week.
Mick Jogger - thanks for the good wishes!
Good luck, darkwave!
Did a few more miles than usual for the week after a 5K in the hope that I would recover faster because of racing in the plated shoes (Endorphin Speeds). Monday’s and Friday’s runs felt quite slow, but that may be because I have some sort of sinus/throat issue; my heart rate was a little high on the treadmill as well. Six weeks until my half, so I need to do some actual long runs and some longer tempos.
Sun - off
Mon - 5.2 miles in park midday @ 8:55
Tues - 6 miles very slow treadmill (45:20 AM/27 PM) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Weds - 7 miles in park PM @ 8:35
Thurs - ~33 minutes swimming
Fri - 10.1 miles in park midday @ 8:56
Sat - 7.5 miles very slow treadmill midday (60:25 AM/30 PM) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Total - 35.8 miles
Good luck Darkwave!
Hot Weather Complainer
Great stuff darkwave!
Quick drop of the weekly, very busy as my partner has surgery and I'm primary carer for 4-6 weeks of the recovery period, so along with study I'll be pretty quiet. On the selfish side, the surgery is well timed with my race calendar.
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