Forums >Racing>Competitive Jerks Racing and Training - 2023
Hot Weather Complainer
Flavio - 9 hours a night is massive. I'm lucky to get 6. I'd say the travel effects are lingering. Are you sure you want to stick with that long run? It sounds like you need a reset and an easy weekend will probably give you more benefit than grinding yourself deeper into the hole.
mmerkle - It sounds like you're feeling exactly as you should in race week, all completely normal, although hopefully the outside distractions aren't too big. Go get it.
5km: 18:34 11/23 │ 10km: 39:10 8/23 │ HM: 1:26:48 9/23 │ M: 3:34:49 6/23
Upcoming Races:
Foster Park Run 5km November 25
Motorway Half Marathon February 25, 2024
Christchurch Marathon April 21, 2024
Mother of Cats
dw/Commander Now it looks like on and off rain is a possibility, and high humidity obviously. The good news is there will probably be cloud cover the whole time, and the wind doesn't look too bad. I'm actually contemplating the idea of running shirtless if I'm allowed to put my bib on my shorts. Has anyone tried this? I feel like a wet tank will just weigh me down if it's going to rain.
I race in a sports bra regularly - when I do so, I pin my bib to my shorts. Be aware that it is possible to pin your bib too tight, so that it pulls against your shorts when you run. If you do this, eventually one of the safety pins will pull through the paper of the bib and you'll be free. But better to pin the bib with a lot of give, so that you can extend your stride freely.
Also (as you noted), check the rules - somebody once told me that men were required to wear shirts in races, though I've never seen that rule (but I've never looked for it).
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.
Only Bud light for me. 👍
bud light tastes like piss and it's also a proven fact that one their employees was urinating into their beer tanks for 12 years
paces PRs - 5K - 5:48 / 10K - 6:05 / HM - 6:14 / FM - 6:26 per mile
Mmmm Bop
I was joking, I assumed that US folk knew that Bud Light employed some bloke called Dylan Mulvaney (who pretends to be a woman) to advertise the beer…and profits plunged.
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
Tyson Fury looking in tip top condition during the first press conference with Ngannou ahead of their fight in October. 🥊
Good luck mmerkle. 👍
Good luck Mike!
Intl. correspondent
Good guy Ngannou kept his shirt on so Fury wouldn't feel too embarrassed. I know Francis has pretty much zero chance on this bout, but I'd laugh maniacally if he somehow finds Tyson with one of his windmill punches. He usually sends people to orbit nearly every fight.
He also has a very interesting story fleeing Cameroon and trying several times to enter in Spain illegally via Morocco, then eventually made his way to France.
Tangential to that, I was watching World's the other day and this Japanese female javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi, you would never in a million years guess that she's as strong as she is. She looks and moves as unathletically as can be, yet she can throw a javelin over 67 meters away.
Steve - I pretty much have to sleep 9 hours. My sleep quality is trash so I try to compensate with quantity.
It helps these days that my peaks of energy are on mornings. It used to be evenings 15 years ago.
Dave - I'm massively jealous of your super power of training for marathons and not feel tired. Though if I remember correctly you said you took 9 tries to master the marathon, so maybe I just need to try 5 more times.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next:
2023-12-03 - 42.5km long run
Tool to generate Strava weekly
Are we there, yet?
I was watching World's the other day and this Japanese female javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi, you would never in a million years guess that she's as strong as she is. She looks and moves as unathletically as can be, yet she can throw a javelin over 67 meters away.
She seems to be making it a habit of waiting until her last throw for her best. She won again in Brussels yesterday with a new world lead on her last throw. I love her enthusiasm.
2024 Races:
Hoping to begin racing again in March.
Good guy Ngannou kept his shirt on so Fury wouldn't feel too embarrassed. I know Francis has pretty much zero chance on this bout, but I'd laugh maniacally if he somehow finds Tyson with one of his windmill punches. He usually sends people to orbit nearly every fight. He also has a very interesting story fleeing Cameroon and trying several times to enter in Spain illegally via Morocco, then eventually made his way to France. Tangential to that, I was watching World's the other day and this Japanese female javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi, you would never in a million years guess that she's as strong as she is. She looks and moves as unathletically as can be, yet she can throw a javelin over 67 meters away.
Even when Tyson is in peak fitness, he still looks like a dad who has let himself go.
Don’t forget that he beat Deontay Wilder 2.5 times and that guy has muscles!
In other news there is now a new covid variant called Pirola that is a cause for concern in UK, USA and France….and the bullshit continues. Jesus, if anyone takes MSM seriously then give your head a wobble.
Glute Force
Sorry for the kiwis. That was a bitter loss to the French. I hope Argentina beats England though #rugbyworldcup
Cobra Commander Keen
Crush it, Merkle!
Flavio - While I did have a couple "for fun" marathons, it was my 10th at CIM last year that I really got it right for the first (hopefully not last) time.
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Flavio - Yeah I'm the same - I'll use 9 hours to get about 6 hours of decent sleep.
mmerkle - Go get it!
My week - Pretty solid with 2 workouts. Felt a bit flat on Wednesday and couldn't really get the legs turning over. I wasn't close to the line or anything just couldn't get the pace up. Yesterday was much better, 6km of tempo into the wind around 4:15-20 then 6km with the wind around 4:07-10. My goal pace is 4:07-08 but I wasn't too worried about hitting that, especially into the wind. It will be much easier when I'm a bit fresher. My HR got a bit too high into the wind and stayed up there, but it felt pretty comfortable with the wind. I even put the brakes on a few times. Should be a slightly lighter week with a threshold workout on Wednesday and Park Run on Saturday which my coach has titled "Vo2 booster".
Ended up juggling my week a bit as I was expecting the weekend to be a sick kid scenario but thankfully things panned out better than expected. This was a lighter week anyways but the Wednesday and Friday workouts both came out quicker than expected.
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: Devonport HM, 1 Oct, course PB.
Up next: Omaha HM, 3 Dec, go harder.
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Steve - That's a strong weekend. Is it looking like a PR attempt next weekend at Hagley Park ?
Mikkey - On November 2nd last year I took one of the best decisions of my life. I stopped following the news. I also cut out of my life any social media that is remotely politically related. I actually had already been blocking people who posted political content for a while.
Both regular media and social media work by bringing irrelevant but controversial topics to the spotlight to cause a knee jerk reaction on everybody. The best way to counter that is to completely ignore them all and live a healthy, detoxed life focusing on your family and the people you care about.
me - This was a very good week, a little over 9 hours of work. I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be (near 75 miles per week), but as the say goes "The best training is the one that you do". The 2h40 long run today was a suffer fest towards the end as usual but not as bad as the previous ones. I think bringing the hydration vest and a couple of maurtens helped.
I realized something I had not noticed before. Towards the last 20 minutes or so of the long run, I'm breathing harder, but my heart rate is still low in the easy zone 🤔
mmerkle crushes it with a monster 2:56! Way to go!!
Dave