Forums >Racing>2023 The Waltons: Racing & Training Thread
Fred - hope your wife is feeling better soon.
Me - Felt a bit average Fri / Sat with some weird bug but was OK-ish again Sunday. Starting to drop the volume a bit now with Omaha HM approaching, which is one of my favourite races for sure, even if it is one of the slowest flat courses around. Wednesday's progression workout was actually pretty good prep as it was humid and warm and into a headwind coming back.
<caption>Weekly Grid</caption>
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 - nice week. Is Omaha slow due to the terrain, or is it due to it normally being warm.
My week below, plus one mobility session, and three strength sessions. I'm planning on a Sun-Sat weekly, so it's really two strength sessions for my 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
JamesD
Steve - Congrats on the pacing. Sounds like fun, & I’m sure your pacees (?) appreciated your help.
This was a recovery week after last Saturday’s half. I usually do 10-13 miles the week after a half, but my legs didn’t feel as beat up as usual this time, perhaps because of the plated shoes, so I thought I’d try to do more. I got close to 20, but I wasn’t as fresh as I had thought I might be, and each day I did a mile or so less than I had hoped.
This morning, when the poorly organized half that was postponed on short notice had been scheduled to take place, the temperature was 58/14 with no rain or wind - perfect for me. Oh, well. Glad I had the option to race a week earlier, even if it was rainy.
Sun - off
Mon - off
Tues- 3 miles very slow treadmill (36:10) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Weds - 4.5 miles very slow treadmill (54:15) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Thurs - 5.2 miles in park AM @ 9:04
Fri - off
Sat - 6.2 miles in park AM @ 8:58
Total - 18.9 miles
YTD Average - 36.0 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
Both! Almost half the course is grass, gravel or beach.
Hot Weather Complainer
James - How frustrating! What was the reason?
Rune - Well done on your race too, great to see you back out racing.
me - Solid week, although Wednesday was a bust. I was a bit concerned when I saw the workout, pretty big for my return to speed, and I was right to be concerned. I was sensible during the AeT part, but the prescribed pace for the LT was 3:30-3:50/km. I knew I wasn't getting near 3:30 pace and snuck in under 3:50 pace for the first interval, then it got worse from there, dropping to almost half marathon pace by the last interval.
We decided to change the 6x1km @ 5km pace on Saturday because my legs were still very flat for Friday strides. The 5km this Saturday will be interesting, hopefully it isn't quite as miserable...
A guy in our training group decided to do 30 laps of South Hagley Park for his 30th birthday, and to raise money for Men's mental health. I jumped in for a couple of laps after my workout. It was about the halfway point for him (112km total) and he finished about 10pm Saturday night.
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
Waltons ThreadLord
Mark - Glad to hear it was just a couple of down days and not a bug. I had the same question as Watson, but you've answered it. Grass can be a really slow surface, depending on the underlying ground.
Watson - When you have 3 morning rides, such as on the 19th, are they 3 separate workouts, or effectively one workout that gets logged in pieces?
James - Thems the breaks, as my father would say. The weather is always our wildcard.
Steve - Sorry to hear the AeT workout didn't quite go as planned. Sounds like you made a good adjustment later.
Another recovery week for me. (And for my wife, who woke up feeling much better today and is hopeful of getting a negative on her covid test later today.)
Tue - 3.5 easy
Thu - 6.3 repeats*
Fri - 6.0 easy
Sat - 5.0 easy
Sun - 3.1 moderate with my son
23.9 miles / 38.5km / 4:11:29. I don't seem to be running more than 5-6 miles at a time, which I begin to suspect is a mental reluctance to run that long after the marathon and start to relive the less pleasant parts of the race.
*My RP wanted to do 6 x 800m 10 seconds faster than we did when marathon training (even though back then the times were based on my 5k pace). I told him to go ahead and we'd run the recoveries together as I was nowhere near ready for that. While he did run faster than me, I'm pretty sure he didn't hit that ambitious goal either. Also, I didn't run the 6th one after the 5th one was around HM pace. I kind of knew I wasn't ready, but he was eager to do a track workout so I went along with him.
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
James - How frustrating! What was the reason? ... A guy in our training group decided to do 30 laps of South Hagley Park for his 30th birthday, and to raise money for Men's mental health. I jumped in for a couple of laps after my workout. It was about the halfway point for him (112km total) and he finished about 10pm Saturday night.
...
No reason given. The race's Facebook page never did say anything about the postponement (only the signup website did), so about two weeks ago I posted a comment noting that the half I wound up running was an alternative, though it didn't help those who had trained for a marathon. The (out-of-town) organizers are really sloppy, and it's a shame that their combination of course & time of year (i.e., likely weather) & # of runners around my pace is the best for me of the local options. Late March of next year is likely to have good weather, but I'm looking at out-of-town options because my confidence level in these folks is pretty low.
Tell Logan he has to do 31 laps next year.
Fred - bike rides were to/from gym. Sunday had a small detour to buy a washer.
My week:
Monday 2 easy (treadmill) + upper body stregth
Tuesday 5 with strides
Wednesday 6 with 5x3 min + 3x2 min
Thursday rest
Friday am 6 pm lower body strength
Saturday 4 easy
Sunday 8
Meh week. Was dragging all week, haven't seemed to adjust to the time change, so my sleep is more messed up than normal. Wednesday's lousy workout had me nervous because I was in close contact with at least 1 person with covid on Monday at work. Luckily, stayed healthy.
James, i cannot imagine running a HM in a wet turkey onesie. I did a 10k on year with someone in a similar turkey onesie--it probably was nice since there was a brutal cold wind.
Mark, curious about the run title, was someone mowing grass at 6am in the rain? We have someone breaking out the leaf blower before 7am on weekdays at the assisted living at the end of my street.
Watson, nice week
Steve, wow, that;s quite a run your firend did for his 30th birthday. Way more than the 1 mile per year I've seen some folks do.
Fred, hopefully your wife got the negative test. This seems early to do speed work post marathon.
Not yet and yes, way too soon, but I figured I'd keep my RP company at the track.
Rune is back and don't know how but he managed to run a half marathon in sub 2 hours, off of very little training.
Cfarr is in one hell of a shape I think he is running a marathon soon.
Mark good luck with your upcoming race in Omaha. Hope the weather holds.
Dorothea ran a great marathon in Philly. Steve hope your better half is recovering as planned , and I ran a km for each year of life this year (43.5km in Berlin for not running the tangents) so that was my contribution to this one
Fred good call on a) going out with your buddy to the track and b) letting him fail while keeping it rather easy.
James - Mocambique & finger watch - thanks for the color on those topics. Amazing runner in the turkey costume that placed 3rd that is one hell of a time too.
Very mild week for me last week. A bit similar to this week. Very few running sessions, but when I run, its quality. Two Tennis sessions (although I only recorded one) and a bike session. Also did some gardening, just wanted to mention that here Not sure why it didn't upload.
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Steve, Mick, thanks for not forgetting about me!
Yeah, I ran a half marathon this weekend, the Yokosuka Seaside Half Marathon in Japan. Not a goal race by any means, but met a bunch of old friends to hang out and run an event, mostly for fun.
Leading up to this I did a Half Ironman in September. Just as I felt like I was getting into shape I got a calf strain of some sort (just remember I was wondering why my calf was hurting halfway into a 6-mile easy run). This was three and a half weeks before the race and I basically stopped running until the race. This calf strain came back after about 4.5 miles of the run part of the race, and it was in pretty bad shape when I crossed the goal line at a 2:14 run time (quads had started cramping halfway into the bike leg too). Total time was 5:46 after a 34 minute swim and 2:48 bike leg.
So I had to recover to be ready for the Yokosuka Seaside Half Marathon at all. After three weeks of nothing, three weeks of swimming, biking, and some strength training, I had 4 weeks of limited running before the race. From a HR perspective and the limited training I did I thought 8:15-8:30 should be doable for the race (the biking and swimming still get me into some sort of shape) if my legs could keep up.
With jetlag and all, 8:30 seemed to be the right pace for the race once I got started, but as I feared, the legs couldn't keep up. Breathing was never labored, but about 10 miles in my calves started cramping. This slowed me down a bit since I had to stop and stretch them out here and there, but I made it in at 1:55 and change.
Now I finally feel like I can hang out here again, and I will try to keep up on the running training and competing going forward. I just have to try really hard to ramp up efforts slowly to avoid more injuries.
5k: 20:32 (1/17) | HM: 1:34:37 (2/18) | FM: 3:31:37 (3/18)
Getting back into it
Rune - hooray! Great to see you back.
At every point in the year, there comes a time when you're like "ugh. Summer's here". This was that week. A cold shift came in at the end of the week but as expected it'll almost certainly be warm and humid for next Sunday's race. So it was probably good I got some practice in those conditions anyways. I ticked over 4000km for the year mid-week so it'll be interesting to see where the year's mileage ends up.
Rune - Welcome back!
Gradually building back from my half two weeks ago. I’ve found 13 reasonably flat halves within 5 hours drive on 10 weekends between January 6 & April 27. Average raceday temperatures for pretty much all of them are too cold for me, but I imagine one or two weekends will be warmer than average. I guess I’ll try to train in a way that I can decide on a race 10 days beforehand as the forecasts get more reliable.
Sun - 6 miles very slow treadmill (72:20) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Mon - 8.3 miles in park AM @ 8:50
Tues- ~26 minutes swimming
Weds - 9.3 miles in park AM @ 8:52
Thurs - 6.5 miles very slow treadmill (78:25) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Fri - 10.1 miles in park PM @ 8:32
Sat - off
Total - 40.2 miles
YTD Average - 36.1 mpw
Rune - welcome back.
James and Mark - nice weeks.
My week was pretty good. One mobility session, one strength session, some stretching plus below.