2024 The Waltons: Racing & Training Thread (Read 188 times)

All the records.  And times under 17 apparently?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/08/parkrun-records-dropped-from-website

Apparently this was caused by some transgender controversy.

I highly doubt anyone is put off doing their first Park Run because of records on the website.  At least all previous weeks are still there.

Yeah, it looks to be transgender related.

I don't know why they needed to give the weird explanation that first timers would be put off by the records.

Anyhow, unofficial 20:25 this morning, so happy with that.

I volunteered at Hobsonville Point Parkrun this morning as timekeeper. It was good fun and nice to be able to support events and encourage other runners.  When I started out running I was just another runner giving it a go and I've never forgotten that.  Will definitely volunteer more frequently at both that and Northern Pathway which is pretty close by too.

I don't know why they'd remove the course records. It's not something 98% of runners would even consider.  The other 2% might be the ones thinking they might have a go at it.  If they think people are getting discouraged by the times they should probably remove the average finish time as well which still shows on the event page.

Watson - nice effort out there!

Piwi, oops. That would get your neighbors talking.

 

I've never done a Parkrun, but I am really curious how this works in the US. Usually you need permits for events or even large groups at parks. Form the 5k my work puts on, it sounds like permitting has gotten tougher over the years.

That's a huge challenge here.  The ParkRun I do had a hard time persuading the county parks commission that they had no revenue, that the event was free, and that they could therefore not pay for a permit.   It's going to take changing some mindsets to convince government agencies that the greater good (i.e. getting people out and exercising) is worth forgoing a permit fee.

Super Saturday 10 Miler, 2/10/24

Prior to this year, I'd only run two 10-mile races: one on a day so warm that runners were given rags soaked in ice water after finishing and the other early in my running career, before I'd really learned how to run hills.  As such, when I signed up for this race late last year, I considered my 10-mile PR (1:30:20) to be low-hanging fruit.  That was before my training was held back by a series of minor injuries and then by the grief I felt over my mother's death.  Add to that, today's race was on a course with some challenges, and the fruit wasn't hanging so low anymore.

The Watchung Mountains are an outlying range of the Appalachian Mountains, themselves a very old formation, worn and eroded with time such that in many places they'd be considered nothing more than foothills. Long Hill is a ridge at the outer edge of the Watchungs, it's south face leading to one more ridge and then the coastal plain of NJ.  To the north, Long Hill forms the southern & eastern edge of a flat, shallow area.  At one time, there were plans to drain and pave over the area to build an international airport serving NY, but the region was spared that fate and is now the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (and headwaters of the Passaic River).

The race started about halfway up the south face of Long Hill with the first ½ mile climbing up to the top of the ridge and another ½ mile running along the ridge to a higher point, about 100' (30m) above the start/finish.  I knew what we'd be facing and took it easy.  Temps were in the low 40's (6-9C) and there wasn't much wind, though the sun was out early on.  My hope for the race was to complete it in less than 90 minutes (or a 9:00 pace).  Mile one finished in 9:15, but I wasn't worried at all.  The next half mile was spent running down the north face to the flat plain 50' (15m) lower than the start and 150' (45m) below the crest, and I let the hill take me, briefly hitting a 7:30 pace.  As we flattened out, I saw the first of the 5k runners coming back; their fate was to run up the hill, down the far side, briefly run flat, then turn around and run up and over again.  Yuck.

Fortunately, my fate was to spend the next 4½ miles running the flat ground at the boundaries of the swamp.  Most of the time I was able to run 8:30 - 8:40 with occasional faster and slower times.  The only thing of note that happened was seeing the leader coming back from the turnaround.  I noted my distance on my watch and when I got to the turnaround I calculated that when I was at 3.25 miles the leader was already at 5.15 miles.  Ouch.  (The eventual winner would run a 56:36.)  Around the 5¾ mile point, we came around a curve and saw a long, straight, steep road dead ahead.  A runner near me said "Good thing we don't have to run up that."  I let him know we would, indeed be running up that, albeit with a switchback thrown in to help.  The fun was over.

Just before the foot of the steep hill, we turned right and started a more gradual climb.  Coming to the end of that portion, we turned left and faced a steep climb.  At mile 6 I'd done the math and new I could hit my goal if I could keep my pace under 9:43 the rest of the way, so when faced with this climb (50'/15m in 0.2 miles), I shifted to a walk, then back to running when we did another left, running across the face of the ridge again, along which I reached mile 7 and my cushion was down to a 9:32 pace the rest of the way.  Then a right and up the steep hill (70'/20m in 0.25 miles), which I also walked.  Another traverse and then the final climb (and walk) as we hit the crest 120' (36m) above the plain we'd been running on.

The downhill which followed was not a relief as it was so steep I was spending effort holding back.  We dropped 70' (21m) in a tenth of a mile before the slope eased off.  In the process we hit the mile 8 mark and I now needed to run the last two miles in 9:20 or less, as I'd used up a lot of my margin on the hill climb.  The 9th mile had some unwelcome rolling hills as we ran across the south face of Long Hill.  I was able to keep my average pace under 9:20 and finished the penultimate mile needing to run a 9:25 for the last mile.  Easy right?  Nope.  The last mile started at an elevation 50' (15m) below the finish line and we'd actually have to climb 80' (24m) in the process, though fortunately this was gradual and not in big, steep chunks.  I got to the high point of mile 10 and only then did I know I'd be able to hit my goal.  I had ¼ to go and it was all downhill.

The race clock was still under 1:30 when I started.  (The field was rather small at 319, but full of fast people as at least three running clubs were vying against each other there.)  My chip time and my watch time were only 0.46 seconds apart, with the official time coming in at 1:29:33.27.  I was glad to have attained my goal and was quite exhausted.  I can't say I was overly happy - maybe I'm not ready for that emotion yet - at least I was able to keep pushing myself the whole way without giving up.  I hung around long enough to find a fellow I'd spoken with at the start.  He'd met his target of running a 9:10 pace and we congratulated each other on reaching our goals.  So...a new 10-mile PR, but still a low hanging fruit.  On a friendlier course with better training, I think I can do better.

(I found a really cool site where I can get a much more precise elevation reading than any running/mapping tool.  https://en-us.topographic-map.com/map-spq5b3/Long-Hill-Township/?zoom=16&center=40.67554%2C-74.51363&popup=40.67597%2C-74.51849 That's why I'm confident in the elevation figures I've quoted above.)

Coatesville Half Marathon 2024, race recap

"Run to the Hills!" used to be the (entirely appropriate) slogan for Coatesville HM, one of the hiller HM courses around New Zealand, with around 300m (1000ft) of elevation gain.  I listened to it in the car on the way there.  Thankfully Saturday's humidity dissipated overnight and was replaced with a cooler southerly shift (albeit this did make largely for a headwind on the way out / tailwind back).  For the most part race temps were around the 16-18C mark (60s F) which is pretty good for this time of year, although the sun did warm things up quickly.

I noticed during the warm up that my HR was a little high, similar to Friday's final run before the race.  I didn't feel totally 100%... not bad, just a bit "meh".  Anyways I don't read anything into it as I have magically come right on the start line more than once (including at this very race).  Caught up with a few runners I hadn't seen in a while before the start too.  I have two goals for the race:

1. Run a course PB (my time from 2018 was 1:17:42... crazy to think it was a PB at the time and on this of all courses!).

2. Eat into my rival Ben's lead in the half marathon series (his lead of ~1:20 was down to 1:19 or so after Omaha, so a bit of work to do).

My strategy was pretty much just to try and keep the effort steady.  Work the downhills and just keep it nice and steady on the uphills.  Most of the climbs in this race are the long, steady type where you can dial in the rhythm and grind it out.  I've run a lot of hills since the last race in early December so I'm feeling fairly well prepared.  Pacing is important, and difficult, here - the last 2km are all downhill but there's a lot of climbing between halfway and the 19km mark - you actually want to empty the tank a little earlier than you normally would for a half, but overdo it too early and you'll pay on one of the climbs.  There's not a lot of margin for error.

At the start, there is one younger guy with me.  I don't see any of the series runners just yet, quite a contrast to Omaha where the top 4 series runners were in a pack for two-thirds of the race.  I briefly chat to him and then he dropped me at the first hill around 2km in.  This is a steeper climb which then levels off towards the top where you turn a corner and the hill keeps going for longer than you expect.  After that there's undulations along the ridge.  Another younger guy passes me just after the corner, and then passes the first guy.  He ended up going close to the course record too.

I haven't seen my series rival, Ben, yet and was half wondering if he wasn't even here.  However, he caught up to me along the ridge around 4km in.  At this point, I noticed myself feeling a bit off, and I was in one of those "how the hell am I gonna hold this effort for another 17km" holes.  Seriously, I did not really feel great at any point during this race, like I had to battle harder than I'd have liked from very early on.  But I told myself to suck it up and stick to the plan, and then dropped him shortly after on a downhill.  I've noticed he's not great at those and I'd figured if I was running with him the whole way I could drop him on the big downhill at the end.

There's around 5km along the ridge which is undulating, and has great views out across a couple of my favourite running areas - Whenuapai to the south east, and Riverhead Forest to the west.  I was spending far too much time muttering to myself in my head to properly enjoy them though.  Then, a relatively long downhill, which is fun but slightly depressing because there's a turnaround at the bottom and you have to climb the whole way back up.  At the turnaround point, I notice I have probably 20-30 seconds over Ben and a couple of other runners.  First and second are well ahead by now.  I try to never look backwards in races to clock the next runner because I find it massively encouraging when someone does that to me as it suggests they're tiring.  Also there's 3 u-turns in this race where you can check out the competition without encouraging them.

Coming up the hill, I know it's roughly 2km uphill, 2km flat/down, then 3km uphill before a rolling section and the big downhill.  But it's that first hill where people tend to get found out.  I settled into a nice rhythm coming up this one, and the cheers from other runners coming down the hill really helped too.  I survived that one fine, and as far as I can tell, no-one is gaining on me.  Just gotta keep it consistent over the next section before the next climb, and I remember how I've always enjoyed this section with nice tall trees on either side of the road (and an aid station).

Around the 13.5km mark, there's a random side-road diversion which goes downhill into a u-turn, before the longer climb starts.  At the turnaround, I notice the chasing group has split and Ben is slightly ahead of them, but doesn't seem to be gaining at all on me.  Time to go to work again... if I can survive the next 5km, I know I can cash in on the downhill to eat into his series lead.  And I'm also motivated by gunning for 3rd place.  I got 2nd here a couple times, but I'm getting older now and every podium is special.  This is very different to the last race where there was a lot of tactical pack running... this time it's me, by myself, just trying to execute my plan.

Then I saw Will, who yelled at me to stop screwing around and run faster.  He's a good guy and I appreciated that.  At this point, in hindsight, the early race feeling of being a "bit off" had actually been replaced by "my legs are getting a bit tired".  And it was just about putting the work in. So I did.  Just tried to keep the legs turning over up the hills, and not back off too much during the occasional reprieve on the flat.  The left turn onto Glenmore Road at the 17km mark basically signals the end of the big climbs with only a few more undulations between me and the downhill.

The last of the random u-turns is off a diversion down Donaldson Drive (this one in particular always seems to remind me of the course certification).  Ben's definitely not gaining, and I just have to hang in there for another km.  So I did.

A few more rollers, then we're at the top and there's those views of Riverhead Forest that signal the final downhill.  This one starts steeper and flattens out towards the bottom, so you have to work the quads harder at the top.  The legs are definitely battling to try and keep the cadence up but I hung in there.  Every second might count towards the series results if I'm gonna have any chance of catching first place.  And it looks like I might be on for a course PB after all too.  The last 500m are on a limestone trail through the pony club, so this is a little tougher, especially as there's a bunch of turns just before the finish line.  Put in a little extra effort towards the line and it is a course PB! (1:17:24 official).

Awesome to see the family at the finish and my daughter even got to give me the finisher medal which was cool!  Better yet, Ben doesn't show up for another 43 seconds so I've taken a big chunk out of that series lead.  Still some work to do at Maraetai and Waterfront, but after the last couple of races I'm feeling like that's achievable.  And then my daughter ran a PB in her 2km kids race as well, so a good day all around.

Watson kindly commented on Strava that he thought this was my best race for some time.  I think he might be right, at least for the last couple of years.  While not my fastest race in that time, this is a tough course, and I had to battle for much longer than I would ordinarily expect in a half as I didn't feel totally on my game.  It was almost exactly same pace as Omaha in December, which is almost dead flat and had probably better weather (albeit there is a real mix of terrain there).  When I thought about it, this might actually be the best I have raced since March 2022, and I'm optimistic for the last two series races.

Fred - well done on sub 90.  You clearly had a realistic aim, and paced well.

Mark - very nice race.  That's must be the hilliest non-trail half in NZ?  FWIW, for my important races I often take the day off before, and I think it helps with freshness, at least for me.

Steve - very nice week, and very nice long run.

My week was good.  Two strength sessions, plus below.  As mentioned I ran ParkRun Saturday 9s quicker than last years best.

Weekly for period: From: 05/02/2024 To 11/02/2024

Totals: Time: 06:26:59 - 🦅Imperial: 43.31 mi - Metric: 69.68 km