Competitive Jerks Racing and Training - 2023 (Read 575 times)

Mark - Brilliant result, can't wait to hear the story of the race, especially the finish.

JMac - So gutted to hear this.  I have no advice because I'm sure you've investigated everything.  Just running seems like as good an option as any.

Flavio is 9 minutes away from starting.  I'm tracking on the app but don't rely on me for updates as I'll likely be in bed soon...but I'll still be watching my phone very closely.  Hopefully those in the USA wake up in time to see the finish.  Josh and Mikkey might be in the best time zones to track the whole race?

me - First week of "Base phase 1" which has hill repeats as the key workout.  The hills are a long drive for me but I'll be there for the next few Saturday's.  Unfortunately the hill that is most convenient is very steep to start with and levels off a bit towards the top so my last rep is the fastest.  Also slowly adding doubles on Thursday and a short run on Tuesday starting this week, although he's given me Friday off so the ramp up isn't too fast.

Weekly for period: From: 27/11/2023 To 03/12/2023

Totals: Time: 08:00:46 - 🦅Imperial: 57.68 mi - Metric: 92.81 km

Through 5km in 21:18, nice solid conservative start

15km in 1:03:40, setting up nicely for the business end. That’s all from me, look forward to seeing the result tomorrow

3:13:54

Good luck Cal and RP. 👍

3:13:54

 

Good luck Cal and RP. 👍

Well fought.  Marathons are cruel.

Jmac - Ugh, sorry to hear that. What puzzles me the most is that the PT has been probably unable to figure out the root cause.
It seems like there's some other unsolved issue that is causing this pain.
So yeah, there might be some hardware issue, like permanent damage or something.
Either way, once again best of luck on your recovery.

MickJogger - The weather was perfect, maybe 8 to 13c. I guess it got to 18c later around 2pm but it didn't feel that warm to be honest.

Mark - Well done in your race. A sprint finish victory is supremely satisfying!

MT - LOL at that meme, no, I slept like a baby!

Steve - Hills pay the bills!

Thanks Mikkey and Steve for tracking!

Valencia Marathon versus CIM for US east coasters - I think only the thing about traveling west makes it easier to handle the timezones is what CIM has as an advantage. I think Valencia is probably the better choice in every other way you can think of.

Weather will be perfect, organization is top notch (platinum label or something) and Valencia is probably a way more interesting place to visit.

me - I ran the Valencia Marathon today. It didn't go my way, but I still came out with a precious lesson. Race report below after the weekly.

Weekly for period: From: 11/27/2023 To 12/03/2023

Totals: Time: 05:48:58 - 🦅Imperial: 45.45 mi - Metric: 73.12 km

Valencia Marathon

2023-12-03

Final time: 3:13:54

Had cramps? No.

Race Organization: Perfect!

Weather: Perfect. About 8C at the start, to maybe 13c at the end. It felt perfect throughout. Not a lot of wind to speak of, some head wind in some short sections, mostly in the first half.

Race Course: Perfect, super flat, an extremely subtle false flat up from km 22 to km 33, and then an also very subtle false flat down from km 33 to the finish line.

Preparation for the race went as well as it could be. Average maybe 65 miles/110km the last 3 or 4 months before the race.

The tune up 5k in early August was a DNS due to a very strong respiratory infection (probably covid judging from the symptoms), that left me in bed for 3 days.

The tune up half marathon in 2023-10-01 in Köln went ok, technically it's a half PR with a time of 1:22:12 or something, as it's faster per K than when I ran my previous fastest time of 1:21:59 in a time trial.

Immediately after I got covid, though I managed to run throughout the infection, and I was really only bad for a day or 2, I wonder if it left lingering damage.

To put it short, I don't think the runner who ran 1h22 for a half in early October was the same runner who lined up for the race today.

The last few weeks went alright, though I have to mention that I failed miserably at the 2x6 miles@MP workout during a long run.

I had a persistent cough for the past few weeks, but thought maybe it could be allergic/reflux related.

The thing is that MP runs should not feel that hard for me. You see, my half pace from the race in October was 3:54/km and a sub 3 pace is 4:14, about 20 seconds per K. Usually the calculators will give you HMP + 10s per K for the better marathoners.

One thing that I really dropped the ball was that I kept my strength training sessions strong until 11 days before the race. In hindsight I should have switched to a maintenance mode in the last 5 or 6 weeks.

One thing that went really well was that I slept excellently every day leading to the race, including the night before.

We booked a hotel right in front of the starting corrals and that was possibly the best decision, race-wise, that I ever took.

I was able to check how things were going on outside from the warmth of my room. No need for a locker, or portapotties either. Also it's impossible to catch a cab on race day due to all the road closures, and good luck trying to ride the metro.

I drank half a liter of the Maurten 320 drink mix about 2 hours before the race as planned.

I felt good to go, no negative thoughts of any kind. They played Enter Sandman, from Metallica, and that got me excited to run the race.

I tried to position myself towards the back of the group as this was the 2h50 to 3h starting block. I didn't want to start out too fast, I figured only going out too hard would mess things for me, I felt confident.

This time they got 2m tall barriers (think Dutch giant tall barriers) so that people had to respect their starting blocks. 

We started and it was very easy to navigate, I didn't have to weave at all (thanks starting blocks). Running MP also felt very easy as it should at the very beginning.

I did notice the pace was a bit slow and the first KM came out at 4:19. OOPS.

Alright, that's not a problem.

Km 5 - 0:21:18

That's perfect. So far things are alright. There's people to run with.

Km 10 - 0:42:25 (0:21:07) - Yeah, things are looking good. I'm feeling the pace a bit, but this might be one of those mid race bad patches that people talk about.

Km 15 - 1:03:40 (0:21:15) - Ok, things are starting to feel harder than they should this early in the race. Around 10k I tried to eat a gel, it didn't go down well at all. 

Km 20 - 1:24:59 (0:21:19)

Half marathon - 1:29:42 - 

Around Km 16 I see that I won't be able to down any more gels, so I took off the waist belt and tossed it in a dumpster.

The pace is still feeling harder than it should be. I crossed the halfway mark exactly where I wanted it to be.

But I'm feeling the pace. I figure I should start feeling the pace much later, not before the halfway mark.

The splits start coming in slower in the 4:20 range. I thought to myself, well this is the false flat going up, I'm sure I can pick it up on the last 9 which are false flat going down.

A few kms later I see I won't be able to make the time back, so I made a judgement call to instead go for a PR. I thought if I keep the pace around 4:30 or even 4:40 I might be able to sneak a PR (sub 3h05).

Easing the pace feels better and I'm now back at what I feel the effort should be.

Km 25 - 1:46:40 (0:21:41)

Km 30 - 2:09:12 (0:22:52)

Ok, this is a bit slower than I wanted, but maybe I can still go for a PR. I have about 51 minutes to run 12.2km, it's doable, remember from 33K forward it's gonna get easier.

Km 35 - 2:35:28 (0:26:16)

Ok, so I was slowing down Km by Km until right about the Km 34 which was right by a water station. I was breathing really hard, like in the last 400 in a 5k hard.

I thought well, let's walk through this aid station while I drink my bottle of water.

It is at this point that I realize that a PR WILL NOT HAPPEN EITHER.

So I thought to myself: I'm not going to run a sub 3, I'm not going to run a PR. Why bother at all?

This is where I considered dropping out. But I thought to myself, remember that time you DNF'd a race and later you felt like you couldn't have finished it if you just walked?

I also at this point just really wanted to finish this so I could get back to the hotel and I figured actually finishing the race was the faster way of doing it (As opposed to dropping out and trying to find a metro station).

So I thought to myself, I just need to put my ego aside and forget about the time.

I'm gonna walk 100m and run 900m until the finish line. I can do that, probably.

Also, I noticed I didn't yet have cramps, but I was definitely very close to them.

So slowing down I might be able to avoid cramps.

You know what really sucks if you run a time that's none of your goals? If I ran that same time and ALSO had cramps.

And that was the first time I ever got something right in this race.

Km 40 - 3:02:26 (0:26:58)

My strategy is finally working.

I was like holy crap, it looks like I'm gonna avoid the cramps this time.

I couldn't believe it.

I was mind blown. My god, I'm going to avoid cramps. I'm going to avoid all the post race suckage. I'm going to be able to sleep without using muscle relaxers. I'm going to be able to walk, and go up and down stairs. 

One funny thing happened around Km 38. I was really wanting to find an aid station to drink some water, and then I saw some dude with a coat similar to the race volunteers had 2 bottles of water out. I'm now 100% sure he was probably wanting to give ot some runners he knew, but I grabbed one of the bottles as I passed by hahaha, how dumb I am, I immediately noticed it's not the race bottle as it's half a liter. I then think should I really drink this, well the bottle is sealed so I'm gonna take a sip.

2 minutes later I noticed the aid station was just ahead, so I tossed the bottle and grabbed a fresh new one from the race volunteers. 

I'm still laughing about this now a few hours after the race.

Finish - 3:13:54 - (0:11:28) last 2.2km.

Ok, from around 39km I thought maybe I'm going to run the last 3km, but that was not to be. I still needed to take my walk breaks.

But then from about 1500m out I thought ok, now I can do it, from now on I'm going to run to the end.

The race has signs from 1km out at every 100m, so 900m to go, 800m to go etc.

I see those signs and all I can think of is yeah, can I cross that finish line soon please?

Oh, by the way, there were a lot of bands and music on the course, and a huge amount of people who came out to cheer.

Although that does not do much to me after I've hit the wall, I think it's still pretty cool.

I crossed the finish line and I didn't even see what time it was. Then jogged around the zombie walkers cause they were moving too slow (but they beat me to the finish line, so yeah).

I've got a bottle of water, then my warm poncho. Oh man, that is really nice, I immediately felt better and warmer.

You then get an empty post race bag and go through a corridor where there are volunteers handing out different types of stuff, so you pick what you want and can ignore what you don't want. 

I've got it all, 2 electrolyte bottles, banana, protein bar, a pack of dried apricots and a 3-pack of persimmons. Yumm!

I then asked directions to 3 different people about how to get to my hotel (it was the same street as the start of the race, so easy to ask).

And then made my way to my hotel. 

Now the leg muscles weren't too happy probably because I had walked a bit and got colder.

I arrived at the hotel, and then realized I had a blood blister on my right toe.

That's interesting as I had not noticed it during the race.

Other than that, my left quadriceps is a bit tight, but I'm overall just fine, only a bit more run down than if I had finished a long run.

My wife was watching near the finish line and she eventually found her way back to the hotel (it was tricky as the shortest path was blocked).

She arrived and immediately told me I shouldn't be so pissed off. 

But then I told her I'm really not pissed off. 

It's not like I had a chance and barely missed it due to some silly mistake or some external factor. The reality is I had absolutely zero chance of a sub 3 today and I truly think I made the right choice in slowing down the pace a lot to avoid the cramps.

Was I perhaps too conservative in that slow down? Possibly, but now I can say that I have finished a marathon and didn't cramp. I consider today the day I have mastered the marathon. No it was not even split, but I've finally learned to put my ego aside and run by effort when I realized the effort wasn't right.

So this means my now 13.5 year war against the marathon will continue. 

It's like I've now fought the marathon 5x in a boxing match, I had been knocked out in the previous 4 times, but today I managed to lose a unanimous decision.

Either way, I'm not making any decisions and I'll try my best to avoid exaggerated remarks.

I lost the battle but the war rages on.

What I do know is that I now have a persistent cough, and a severely sore throat (which I didn't have this morning, this is probably from breathing very hard at some parts of the race).

So now I'm gonna do my best to avoid getting sick.

Through the half in 1:29. Go Cal!

ETA - through 30K, still on sub 3 pace.

JMac - Thanks for the updates.  I don't find it unbelievable with Cal I just expect it now.  The man is a machine.

Flavio - Thanks for the race report.  This illness sounds like it had an impact over the last few weeks.  Your MP is conservative based on your half, which is wise because I think you're like me in that you're better at the shorter distances.  So your goal is realistic, you trained the house down, yet by halfway you felt MP slipping away.  Something must be off, further confirmed by feeling worse post-race.  That really is terrible luck, and I'm convinced you have a sub 3 in your future.  Having said all that, huge congratulations for getting the best result possible on the day.  You had to go for your goal until halfway but from there your brain got you home in the best time possible.

I hope the guy whose drink you stole didn't blow up late in the race...