Mark - I believe this is the study you refer to:

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=kinesiology

A few comments on it:

- There were no Adidas shoes.

- Treadmill running using oxygen consumption is a proxy for road running and race times.  So that's an initial approximation.

- Sample size is very small at 12.  But given the difficulties with the sheer cost of having to buy shoes for everyone, it's not really possible to cover the costs of more runners and more shoe models.

- In an ideal world there'd be hundreds of runners running real races, over a significant period of time to get real result.  But that is never going to happen.

- Top three (by average in order) were the Alphafly, Next % 2 and the Asic Metaspeed Sky.

- Individual differences do exist.  The graph on page 11 is a little hard to read as it would be nice to have used different colours per runner, but there's definitely individual differences.  There's one runner who does vastly better in the Alphafly, whereas some do better in the Next % 2 or Metaspeed Sky.  As per the author's statement Asics MS (2.5%, range 0.9-4.9%), Nike VF2 (2.7%, range 0.8-3.8%), Nike AF (3%, range 0-
5.3%) so the Alphafly improved one runner by 0% yet another by 5.3%!

- As per the above, some runners had a minor improvement for the shoes, whereas others had massive improvements.

Fred - nice experience with the son.

Ccoakley - nice long run.  Keep getting them in, and you'll be good for the ultra.

Mark - nice week.

Piwi - nice week, ramping up mileage.

My week was good.  Tuesday was hard, was getting pretty warm at the end.  Friday was the longest run in time and elevation for a while, ran with the wife so was a little slower than what it would be by myself (also a few stops done where watch was stopped).

Weekly for period: From: 03/01/2022 To 09/01/2022

Total distance: 70.47km

Fred - Ugh, that’s really cold, I guess the worst part is that you need to put on a big jacket like seconds after crossing the finish line 🥶

 

Me - I bought a standing desk converter which should arrive next Friday. I have hopes this will help me with my constant lower back pain.

Not much of a week to report, but it seems I have not lost much aerobic fitness, but I lost a ton of strength. It’s like my strength baseline is still at sedentary level 🤭

There's a hidden bonus to running these races with my son.  Not only do I get to share the experience with him, but because her "baby" is racing, my wife comes along, which means she can hold our coats so we don't have to wait on the bag check line to stay warm.

I don't know where you are in life, Flavio, but at my age strength goes away fairly quickly and takes a long time to get back while general fitness isn't as bad.  Don't despair, though, you'll get there.

Watson - I don't have to do my full KM->miles conversion to know that's a good week.  Thanks.

James - Thanks, and nice week for you too.

Mark - Yeah, we can get into cold spells that last a while.  On the other hand, I've run a January half in NYC that was 43º.  Nice metric week for you too.

ccoakley - Sounds like you have a good plan in place.  Good luck.

piwikiwi - Thank you, it was fun.  Good week for you too.  I'm seeing more kilometers on this forum than I'm accustomed to seeing elsewhere.  My son likes to keep his GPS watch set to kilometers because they go by more quickly than miles.  Hey, whatever helps, right?

I ran a virtual 5k today with a goal of seeing whether I could move up a corral in the NYRR starting scheme.  Assuming virtual times count, my 24:19/7:44 pace should get me from corral F to corral E.  It was also nice to see I can still go sub 24:00 when conditions are right (I hit 3.11 miles on my watch at 23:58, but I ran 3.15 for the virtual race because the NYRR system is picky and it's always better to run long).

Fred - I don't post here as much since I'm focusing more on the marathon this year, but figured I'd pop in given you ran the 10K yesterday. I was thinking of signing up but I just was not ready physically to race. Good job for your son running it: it's a difficult course and it was very cold yesterday morning. I may have missed it but how old is he?

 

Regarding corral placement, virtual is a good question, I don't know how they handle. Moving up corrals though is big: I can't imagine how crowded it must be in the E and F corral. I think probably C is the first time you feel a lot of relief.

 

I don't plan on running much NYRR races until April is my guess, but let me know if you sign up for another one.

My son is 15.  He's been setting all sorts of PRs at shorter distances over the past year.  Who needs training when you have puberty-fueled growth and hormone surges?

They actually staggered the start yesterday with corral F held up for about 60 seconds to clear some space ahead.  Given I started in "I" several years ago, even F is an improvement - fewer walkers in the way.  I'm likely going to run (not race) the Fred Lebow half later this month and try to race the Gridiron 4 miler in February.  This is only my second time doing the 9+1 but I like to get it done early.  If they don't accept the virtual race for corral seeding, I think I have a shot in the 4-miler.

WATSON nice week. Great that your wife runs too. My wife got a Fitbit last year which has motivated her back into alot of walking. I go with her after dinner but ride one of the kids bikes 

Fred nice job on the sub 24. Yes sorry we are metric. I try to put up the mile figures too when I can.  My youngest is 16 so I hear you on the puberty thing. He's small at 5'4 but has a deep voice. I can't get him running but managed to get him addicted to the gym and surfing. He's off the Playstation so win win.

Jmac hi 👋

Flavio how are the lungs feeling ?

I'm pretty experienced at lower back soreness too 

Flavio 2 weeks isn't bad I'm sure you will bounce back quickly. I hurt my lower back just before Xmas while army crawling through an attic. It's good again now. Took about 3 weeks though. I'm still slow to stand up straight after sitting on the couch.

Fred - great job for both you and your son in awful conditions.  Very interesting that NYRR will allow virtual races to base your corral on.  In my experience in the past, they would not accept any non-NYRR races for corrals, so interesting to see the shift.

BTW, I may do the Gridiron 4 miler.  I did it 2 years ago and enjoyed it.  I'm entered, but the big hitch is that I usually come up that morning (catch the 3 am train from DC).  But Amtrak has done away with the 3 am train, so now I'd need to come up the day before and grab a hotel room.

Marky_mark - what are the targets for the on/off segments of that Wednesday workout?  (bonus points if you explain it in relation to race pace rather than absolute pace - i.e. the on is at 10K pace and off at marathon pace, or something like that).  I am intrigued and might try that one at some point.

James - I'm sorry to read about the achilles woes.

Watson, Piwi- solid weeks for you.

Steve - I'm glad the shingles has eased.

CCoakley - great job.  I would find it very hard to go inside and out again, honestly.

++++

My week:

65 miles running, 90 minutes pool-running, and 500 yards swimming.

M: 4 miles very easy on treadmill (10:05) and streaming yoga.
T: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 8 repeats of 2 minutes strong at a 3.0 incline, 90 second jog, 30 second stride, and 60 second jog. Followed with leg strengthwork.
W: 8 miles very easy on treadmill (9:58), streaming yoga, and 4 miles very easy on treadmill (9:43).
Th: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core. ART appointment in afternoon.
F: 11 miles on treadmilll, with 4x7:30 at tempo effort with 90 second jog between. Tempo effort was at paces of 7:26, 7:23, 7:23, and 7:19. Followed with leg strengthwork.
Sa: 7 miles easy on treadmill (9:55), streaming yoga, and then 5 miles very easy outside (9:45) plus drills and four strides.
Su: 15 miles progressive, split as the first 5 miles averaging 9:31 pace, the next 5 miles averaging 8:21 pace, and the next 5 miles averaging 7:30 pace, plus a mile cooldown. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.

I spent a lot of time on the treadmill this week, due to snow and ice, but was able to get out for Sunday's run. A small bit of sleet during that run, but the cold rain held off until I was done.

Thursday I saw an ART specialist. His theory is that I've got knotted psoas muscles that are impinging on my femoral nerve (front of the leg) and also pulling on the vertebrae and irritating the nerves that extend from there. This makes a lot of sense to me - especially since my symptoms seem to get better the longer I run, which is consistent with things being stretched out as I run.

He did about 45 minutes of work on me, and I certainly felt more improvement on Friday than I have from anything else I've tried. So I'm going to see him regularly for the next few weeks and see how that works for me.