Forums >Racing>The Waltons aka Advanced Half Marathon Training Thread - 2022 edition
Steve nice week. You are living in a flat area like me but don't have to go too far to find typical steep NZ terrain.
Mark good down week with some crazy weather. Somehow we dodged the rain this morning.
James we use km/hr but I'm conscious of the US forum users so sometimes convert even if I mix it up a bit.
Walking is not likely stressing my aerobic system with all the running I do but there's some different muscles been used that give me a strength benefit as running is so one dimensional. Also blood flow through the legs with not much impact stress.
I'm making this up but I'm sure the walking is beneficial.
55+ PBs 5k 18:36 June 3rd TT
" If you don't use it you lose it, but if you use it, it wears out.
Somewhere in between is about right "
Intl. correspondent
Added all the races.
Piwi - I agree with your points, walking is very beneficial, also any time you're not glued to a screen is a good time.
Zeb - how’s the beer mile wild man?
Caitlin - I saw a couple of short runs, I hope the worst is in the past?
me - First taper week in the books. That workout from Monday was very intense:
1000 @ 1500 pace w 2'30 rest
5x100 sprints
1000 @ 1500 pace
I suppose it's meant to teach you to run on very, very tired legs.
Slightly less volume on Wednesday's workout and today, trying to build that muscle memory of race pace.
I'm not very confident that a PR is possible, but I suppose I can run at least to 800 at PR pace and then fight the orcs and see what happens.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: some 800m race (or time trials) / Also place in the top 20% in a trail race
Tool to generate Strava weekly
Waltons ThreadLord
A few drops of precipitation, not even enough to justify use of the word "rain" and today's 5k had more no-shows than runners. I ran a 24:12, which I'm pretty happy with given the warm, humid conditions. In a small field, that time was good enough for 6th overall out of 22, both 1st and last in my age group, and 2nd overall on an age graded basis. I was able to watch my son be in the lead for the first half of the race before falling back to tie for third (he and the other runner agreed to finish together).
I'll be back later.
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: Clinton Country Run 15k, 4/27; Running is Back 10k, 5/12
Mother of Cats
Piwi - there is a masters female runner in my area who does a lot of walking as part of her training - it works well for her.
As for the KPH to MPH conversion - you are a better person than I - I tried to do that, but got lazy.
Marky_Mark- I detest running on wet tracks. The bit of slickness drives me nuts. Good job getting that one done.
James- I'm sorry about the continuing issues. Did you accept the discount?
Steve - solid week for you. I like the 15K workout on Wednesday.
Flavio - that is an INSANE workout. I can't imagine running 1K at 1500 pace even once, let alone three times in one session. Perhaps your actual 1500m pace is faster than that?
Fred - congrats on the race. We had similar weather - rain forecast, but didn't show. No complaints on my part - it meant that the trail had less bikes.
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.
My week:
53 miles running, 3 hours pool-running, and ~1500 yards swimming.
M: 90 minutes pool-running and yoga.T: 10 miles, including 8 Iwo Jima hill repeats (between 2:00 and 2:30 uphill, 90 second jog, 45-50 second downhill stride, and 60 second jog). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.W: 6.5 miles (10:04), upper body weights/core, and 3.5 miles (9:33).Th: 90 minutes pool-running and yogaF: 10 miles, with 2x2K in 9:02 and 8:52 (2:44 recovery between the two), and then six 30 second hard hill repeats with full recovery. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.Sa: 8.5 miles (10:10), drills/strides, and upper body weights/core.Su: 14.5 miles, including a relaxed fartlek of 9x4 minutes moderate, 3 minutes jog. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Things are starting to improve - by the end of the week, my heart rate had dropped into the 140s when jogging at easy effort. As compared to two weeks ago, when my heart rate was in the 160s for that same pace. (To give context, 160s is generally my marathon pace heart rate).
And I just feel better. My ankles are less stiff, my muscles less achy. My hips have been stiff and achy, but I suspect that's because I've been adding hex bar deadlifts back into my routine (using the low holds). Everything I've read indicates that as you get older, the strength training becomes even more essential. I'll happily squat, but I hate deadlifts, so I'm trying to get better about doing them consistently.
Fred great job by you and your boy in that race. I like how often you race. I haven't raced this year. It's a fear of failure. I need a change of attitude and to just go race even if it's not 100 % all out or my fitness isn't at a peak.
Dw that's great progress. I agree with you on Flavios workout, that pace scares me yet he killed it.
Flavio - wow, 1000's at 1500 pace is very tough. Very impressive.
Piwi - yes incredibly I dodged the rain yesterday morning. Some really heavy stuff overnight and later in the morning but not while I was out there. I don't really mind rain but copping it at the start of a long run isn't exactly great fun.
Fred - good job on the race.
Darkwave - good reminder on the strength training. I have been a bit lazy on that lately but made sure I did it after my recovery run this morning. Definitely prefer the track when its dry but this one isn't too bad when wet (there's a couple of spots where water pools but most of it holds up pretty well unless it's really heavy). Good to hear you are feeling better.
Steve - that's some elevation gain on that long run. I actually find the downhills smash my quads more if I'm leaning back trying to slow my pace rather than leaning into them a little.
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: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr, 1:15:48
Up next: Runway5, 4 May
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
JamesD
Yes, but I didn't know at the time what the age limit was. I was with DW and our son, who is almost 19 but looks a little younger. When I paid for our tickets, I paid the total and then noticed that two were for $12.99 and one was for $8.99. I asked the teenaged ticket seller, who hadn't asked our ages or checked IDs, if the cheap ticket was because I was old or because our son was young.* He was embarrassed & said, "Uh...you." There wasn't any indication what the age threshold was, so I just said, "Oh. OK." and went in. Looked it up afterwards and found out the threshold was 60. At least it wasn't 65.
* I've been married long enough that I didn't even think about asking if he thought it was DW who was old.
Glad you're feeling better. I'm sure that's a relief.
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
Recovery week done! Time to start marathon training, guess I better post in the other thread.
M-W OFF (light xtraining)
Th: 4.5 mi
F: 7 mi w/ 6x:10 hill sprints on full recovery
S: 4.7 mi AM, 1 mile PM warmup + BEER MILE
Sun: 75 minutes moving with 8x1'on/off
So I'll eat some crow after dishing it to Steve, the humidity and heat hit hard today and I let myself walk with my buddy for about 10 minutes of our "long" run.
The story of the week is the singlespeed beer mile. It's wheel measured and officially official. You have to do the chug and tip the can over your head to prove it's empty and all that jazz. Regardless after the morning's run, my legs felt bad on the warmup. I had sushi for lunch along with some clementines and a brownie my son baked.... Stomach was decidedly not empty at go time and that had me worried. The beer ... was gross. Not sure what they did but I did not enjoy the flavor. First beer went down relatively smoothly (I cannot really chug so this was like 15 seconds and I was well behind the leaders). I belched a few times as I took off on my first loop around the brewery. The watch gave me a :69 split as I rolled back to the transition area for my second beer. Nice. As I start putting away beer #2 I see my clubmate try to belch and out comes a bunch of liquid. He was the first but he wasn't the last, I don't think this beer went down easy for anyone and I saw at least 9 people earning themselves a penalty lap over the course of the race. Anyway beers 2-4 were all a minute to consume followed by reasonably quick laps (well short by gps full race 0,.85 mi by watch) 69, 71, 75. Beer mile PR went from 8:42 -> 7:43!! Mrs Z and I celebrated by having another couple beers and some delicious soft pretzels (which we would have done either way).
I missed awards and lost my hat but it looks like there was one guy 40-49 faster than me (so I did not get a free 6 pack), 6 people overall faster than me (plus 7 relay teams).
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
Zeb when you said single speed beer mile I thought you meant on bikes with only one gear but you ran this right ?
They do one in my city on the track. I like beer but not great at " sculling " as it's known here.
I did a yard glass when I was 20 which is 1.4 litres but I had to stop to spew. It's a shit load of beer though.
Fred - I’ll be the first to confess that I’d never agree to cross a finish line together.
DW - Theoretically my 1500 pace is faster than what I can run that workout, it was last time I tried anyway.
But I almost always run faster in races than in workouts so there’s that.
Also, isn’t stiff and achy hips just normal in your 40s 😎
I very much enjoy the dead lifts more than squats, though I never do 2 legged squat with a barbell so who knows.
Mark - you’re the strength training flag bearer, don’t let us down 😁
James - Added your sentence to the front page. You’re killing this year
Zeb - way to out do us all. I’d die after the first beer as anything with bubbles will make me belch a lot if I try to drink it fast.
Hash - I wonder why you need to have the warm up as a separate run from the main block. What I do most of the time is configure the warm up to end at a “lap press” on the Garmin workout, so I can start the workout at a safe location (not in the middle of a street crossing for instance). Watson/Hashi - Added your race to the front page.
Hash - I wonder why you need to have the warm up as a separate run from the main block.
What I do most of the time is configure the warm up to end at a “lap press” on the Garmin workout, so I can start the workout at a safe location (not in the middle of a street crossing for instance).
Watson/Hashi - Added your race to the front page.
Flavio – TBH, sometimes I just don’t like to have the warm up/down included in the actual workout. There are also times when I use different shoes for my warm up/downs and my workouts. Surely I can’t be the only one that does this?? 😊
And thanks for adding that info to the front page.
Zeb – Great work with that beer mile. I’ve only done it once (can’t skull a beer to save my life), but it’s something that I’ve wanted to do again – just as a social event. We do have a local Meat Pie/Beer/Hills run that someone organises towards the end of each year. That’s pretty brutal - it’s over 370m elevation up a 3.4km hill climb (1230ft over 2.1miles)
Everyone – Sorry, kinda lost track of all the comments. It’s been a hectic last 7-8 days, which included sick kids, and an internal water pipe bursting and flooding our garage. But I have enjoyed what I've been reading!
XC Race Result – June 11th Dorne Cup (annual interclub race)
Watson is a wise man. He said the course was about 15sec/km slower than last year, and that’s pretty much what it turned out to be. My 3.55 goal pace became 4.08, but was still pretty happy with that time.
Not much to report, race wise. The most eventful part of the day was being delayed by closed roads due to a crash and only getting to the course 10mins before the start time. I caught up with Watson at the end of the race for a brief chat, both of us feeling the effects of a hard run on a muddy course. Didn't face plant into mud or the water hazards though, so that was the biggest win!
Weekly mileage was a bit light, due to the race on Saturday and the heavy rain that we've been having recently.
50+ age-group PBs: Half Perish 1:24:24 (June '23 Road Race) - 10km 37:52 (2022 Local Road Champs) - Track 5km 18:49 (Aug '22) - Perish Run 3:17:42
2024 Goals: Boston Perish Run Sub 3:15 - Road/Track 10km Sub 37:30 - 5km Sub 18:20
Flavio – TBH, sometimes I just don’t like to have the warm up/down included in the actual workout. There are also times when I use different shoes for my warm up/downs and my workouts. Surely I can’t be the only one that does this?? 😊 And thanks for adding that info to the front page.
Thank you and by the way I didn't mean to imply what you do is wrong or anything. I was just genuinely curious as Garmin stores the laps, but it won't show as a separate activity.
It was more of a "People do that?" moment, you know, like there's this debate of whether you fold or crush the toilet paper before wiping.
I'm a fold the toilet paper kind of person. Now I hope you're not a crush the toilet paper kind of person, for that I take exception to.
Hahaha. Fold! Always the fold!
Hash - Don't worry, I fall behind on the comments too. Light weeks happen, especially with races. Good job staying upright.
Flavio - I think the finishing together was a friendly gesture from a 40-year old to a youngster who had held the lead but was fading. Nice workouts last week. I think you'll do well.
Zebano - According to Flavio you should not be posting on that other thread, even if you're moving to marathon training.
James - Very wise, indeed, not to even suggest it may have been your wife who got the discount.
Mark - Thanks. Nice week of running. Might as well accept the wind since there's nothing to be done about it. Glad your neighbors weren't hurt in the fire.
Piwi - Nice totals for last week. I've been racing a bit more than usual this year to get my guaranteed entry to next year's NY marathon. That said, it is kind of fun. I suppose since I'm in no danger of winning a race, I feel less pressure and no fear of failing.
DW - Thanks; there is something nice about smaller races. It's good to hear you're feeling better. Hopefully all the body chemistry issues are working themselves out.
Steve - Nice week of running. I need to get back to running on some more hills. I should probably pick a day of the week for it since when I do it just when I feel like it, hill runs happen less often.
After taking three days off earlier in the week, I got back to it on Thursday, logging 21.4 miles for the four days at the end of the week, including the race on Sunday.