Competitive Jerks Racing and Training - 2023 (Read 498 times)

Flavio - it's definitely not allergies.  It's developed into a full blown cold now.  The only positive is no sore throat so far.  But lots of fatigue and hard to breathe.  I'm taking today off work but it's moving week starting tomorrow and I have no choice but to be pretty active, there's no moving the date now.  I am very very grumpy.  20 days until race day.

Heh, I've got 6 days to go. Bit sluggish yesterday and some congestion, but not too bad. Wonder whose gonna be out of this first?

 

To be fair, you've got more reason to be grumpy than me.  There's a chance I'm 100% by race day but if yours is still developing, 6 days is a short timeline to be right.  I guess you have Southern Lakes in your back pocket though?  Last night I was looking at back up races as I felt worse and worse.  There is Selwyn Marathon on King's Birthday weekend but it's pretty boring on long country roads and would be a solo time trial based on last years results (2 finished 2:50 - 3:00, then third was 3:30)

Yeah I always had both this and Southern Lakes as goal races.  I started feeling average on Saturday night, so I'm counting from then lol.

I can't recommend something like Selwyn Marathon based on my experience at Wairarapa.  May as well run a solo time trial if there's that few people involved.

Add me to the grumpy list! I mentioned last week that I started feeling shin pain after my LR. Not immediately after, but later that day. I ran Sunday and Monday anyway, and it still hurt throughout the runs. I could keep running through it if I had to, but it doesn’t feel like I should. So I shut it down the rest of the week, and skipped the half I planned yesterday. Next weekend I was supposed to pace; I just sent a message to the team leader asking him to try to find a replacement. Maybe I’ll be better by then, but I just don’t know. 

I have 5 weeks till marathon day. So, sort of plenty of time, but sort of not. I haven’t seen a doctor, but I am usually hesitant because most of them kind of suck at dealing with running-related injuries. Plus with our US healthcare system, everything costs a fortune. And more often than not, things just get better on their own anyway.

 

You've got to log in to have access.

 

She has no public log on RA.

Dave - That sucks, probably worse than a cold.  I'm using you and Mark to get some perspective on how grumpy I should be.  I hope it improves soon.

I also can't see DK's log.

My week:

53 miles running, 1000 yards swimming and 3 hours pool-running.

M: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core
T: 10 miles, including a track workout of 2x(1600, 800)+2x200 with splits of 7:00, 3:19, 6:46, 3:16, 48, and 48. 6 minute recoveries after the 1600s, 3:14 recovery after the first 800, and full recoveries for the 200s. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
W: Streaming yoga and 10 miles very easy (9:24) plus drills and 4 hill sprints
Th: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
F: 10.5 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 27:57 (7:12/6:57/7:00/6:48). Followed with two hill sprints, leg strengthwork, and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Sa: 10 miles very easy (9:39) and streaming yoga.
Su: 12.5 miles, including 3.2 miles at marathon effort (23:58 - 7:30 pace), followed by injury prevention work.

Things are continuing to improve and I'm getting more stable on my feet. We added another medication starting last Sunday that basically improves the effectiveness and duration of the stuff that I'm already on, and it seems to be helping.

It's not obvious from the training log, but my ability to handle running in complex situations (crowds, etc) improved dramatically this week. On Tuesday I was able to actually lead a group of runners for the second 1600 and 800 - previously my gait has just gone to hell when I've tried to do that. (yes, I know that sounds crazy, but that's how things have been.)

On Sunday, I ran a 5K (that ended up being 3.2 miles) at marathon effort to get a bit more practice running with crowds. This broke my rule about always racing when running a race, but the 5K was for a cause that's very important to a friend of mine (fighting colon cancer), and I didn't want to race this weekend for multiple reasons, including a late night out last night and my plans to race the Cherry Blossom 10 miler next Sunday. [how is that for a long sentence] So using the race as a chance to practice running at marathon pace in a crowded situation seemed like a way to show up and support her and also do something productive for myself.

[I don't like doing tempos during races because I worry that it builds bad habits - a tendency to conflate tempo effort with race effort. However, marathon effort is far enough from 5K effort that I wasn't worried in this case - especially if I don't make a habit of it.]

Once again, I handled the crowds and some uneven pavement very well - pretty much like a normal person. So that was really encouraging and makes me hopeful for Cherry Blossom next Sunday.

darkwave - a lot of good news packed into that weekly!