Forums >Racing>The Waltons aka Advanced Half Marathon Training Thread - 2022 edition
Waltons ThreadLord
piwikiwi - Nice week. So many 10k runs with different elevations.
19º and windy for my 6-miler today. Likely colder tomorrow. Hoping tomorrow's run will get me over 40 miles for the week, for the first time since mid-December.
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: RunAPalooza (Asbury Park) HM, 4/6; Clinton Country Run 15k, 4/27
Piwi - nice week.
My week:
PRs: 5km 18:43 (Dec 2015), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:26:16 (Sep 2016), full 3:09:28 (Jun 2015)
40+ PRs: 5km 19:31 (Oct 2020), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:29:39 (Jun 2018), full 3:13:55 (Sep 2022)
2023 PRs (hope to beat in 2024): 5km 20:34, 10km 41:37, half 1:32:32, full 3:21:05
2024 PRs: 5km 20:25
Hot Weather Complainer
Mark - Nice race and congratulations on the first place. Very solid hit out given the warmth and rust.
watson and piwi nice weeks, looks like the mileage is starting to ramp up.
Fred - Looks like you're building up nicely too. My goodness that is cold running conditions, especially if there's a wind chill.
me - Another solid week of slowly increasing the mileage. Wednesday's workout was really comfortable, and the hill run yesterday mostly went really well. I tried to slow it down significantly both because last time up there was too fast given the climbing (4:59/km) and going too hard on the downhills resulted in being too sore to do my Wednesday workout 4 days later (and is not the point of the run). I achieved those goals pretty well, but did get a sharp cramp on my inner left thigh with 2km to go. I stopped and stretched for a minute and was able to finish - I had no choice but to stop though because it was very painful and I couldn't move. I had one Endura dose after about 10km but clearly I need to increase what I'm taking on as the long runs get longer in warmer weather than my marathon block last year.
5km: 18:34 11/23 │ 10km: 39:10 8/23 │ HM: 1:26:48 9/23 │ M: 3:34:49 6/23
2024 Races:
Motorway Half Marathon February 25, 2024 1:29:55
Christchurch Half-Marathon April 21, 2024
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
JamesD
Congratulations, Mark. Looking forward to the RR.
No surfing, Piwi. Hope you haven't had much trouble. The Tonga videos are scary.
More trouble for me this week. On both Thursday’s easy treadmill run and Saturday’s longish run, when I was about 75% done and feeling fine, my right middle hamstring suddenly started hurting. This was different from the left (and sometimes right) upper hamstring/glute problem I’ve been having, as the latter comes on gradually and slowly gets worse but is manageable for 10-30 minutes, while this went from one moment fine to the next not fine on both Thursday and Saturday. I read somewhere last week (maybe Let’s Run or PodiumRunner) that hamstring issues sometimes don’t show up until fatigue sets in because the unaffected parts of the muscle take all the load and only when those parts get tired is there any stress on the injured part. That seems like it might be what happened.
Nothing hurts now, so I’m not sure what to do except apply heat, stop the bodyweight exercises that are supposed to be strengthening the hamstrings but may be counterproductive, and run easy as long as there’s no soreness. A spring half is looking less likely, as I can’t even seem to get up to enough distance now, let alone start strides or tempos. At least my other niggles are doing better; the Strassburg sock seems to be helping my left Achilles, and my right foot isn’t getting any worse even though I’ve almost entirely stopped taking the NSAID. My podiatrist, who is a runner, didn’t think my other problems were related to the NSAID, but he prescribed some CBD cream, so maybe the topical application will help the foot without affecting the rest of me.
Sun - off
Mon - 9.3 miles in park @ 8:21
Tues - 8.3 miles very slow treadmill (72 minutes) +0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Weds - 8.1 in park @ 8:27
Thurs - 6.7 very slow treadmill (78 mins) +breaks, stopped early b/c R hamstring sore
Fri - 29 minutes swimming
Sat - 8.8 in park @ 8:34, planned 11, stopped early w/sudden R hamstring soreness
Total - 41.3 miles
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
Piwi - pretty good mileage there... second week back posting and you beat me. Nice one.
Steve - those downhills can really wreck your quads. Very solid week there. The heat sucks but you will notice the difference once temperatures improve, big time.
Watson - solid week.
James - hey, at least they're different niggles, right? Good job getting it done.
Me - slightly lighter week due to the race. As far as RR's go, not a lot to report, really. It was hot, and windy as predicted. I recognised a couple runners who I figured to be just a little slower than me but no-one else. Pushed it a little for the first 2km to see if anyone wanted to hang with me (they didn't) then backed off through the middle, especially the hill at km 3 (I still managed to pass the lead bike going up the hill though!). Definitely not a fan of the hot conditions, I was starting to feel it about the 5 km mark and knew the back half was going to be harder. Km's 7-9 had a lot of little twists and turns with small rollers and a bit of wind in the less sheltered spots, it was hard to hit a rhythm so I really had to dig it in through there. I knew I had a big lead and considered backing off but that ain't racing! I did have enough in the tank to push the last 600-700m and finish strongly, so I guess that was mission accomplished. Put in a good finish line sprint, and enjoyed breaking the tape which is always a great feeling. The last few months with lockdowns have taught me that you never know when the next race might be so you may as well make the most of it.
Official time was 34:38, I would've liked to be a bit quicker but on a slow-ish course and less than ideal conditions, I'll take it. I know from recent workouts that I'm in pretty decent shape, but I won't know exactly how decent until I get a quicker course on a better day (and as much as I love this series, the courses are generally not that fast!). Great to catch up with a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while either and I had a lot of fun with Miss 4 on the kids 2km later on as well (she needs to put in a bit more training though tbh).
To be honest, the conditions were also a reminder that I'm glad I'm sticking to 10km's over summer! I'll save the longer stuff for when it cools down it a bit.
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: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF
Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Mark great start to your racing year. That's a really good time on a hot windy day. I see the course came up Kiwi certified at 9.95kms
James bugger,
that must be so frustrating 😤
Steve I saw your epic run on strava. I'd be keen for a run on that port hills route. That cramp must have been nasty.
Fred all my daily runs are flat as a pancake but you were probably been sarcastic
Watson good job on that week.
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 "
Not at all. It just caught my eye that the distances were the same but the elevations different. I was so focused on the differences that I failed to note the magnitude. Sometimes I get buried in the weeds. Sorry if I came across otherwise.
Well done for spotting that before Auditor JMac haha. I looked at the GPS track and it really struggled on the south side of the course, especially km's 6-9, where there's a lot of twists and turns underneath tree cover - you can actually see in a few places where the GPS cut the corners (in one place it looks like I ran straight through someone's house haha). So not really any way of knowing for sure!
Mark - Sounds like a pretty good experience with a first place and catching up with people, so I wouldn't worry about being slightly slower than you wanted especially in the conditions.
Piwi - It's glorious up there, but not really undulating. The climbs are usually 1-2km at a time which gets a bit tough. And the best place to start at the Sign of the Kiwi is in a saddle so whichever way you go means a steady climb for about 1.5km. The first km had a 66m elevation gain - when you're puffing that early it's a bit disconcerting. But yes, you should try and get up there next time you're in town. The views back to Christchurch and over Banks Peninsula are amazing.
Intl. correspondent
Steve - Ugh, cramps are not fun! You’ve been very consistent around 80 to 90km, I suppose that will creep up in the low 100s pretty soon.
James - Sorry to hear about your troubles. You may try some different body weight exercise that does not hit the hamstrings as directly?
Mark - It sounds like you had fun out there which is the most important thing. And also first place, you have no idea how cool that is.
Piwi - What no surf? no wonder the week was bigger.
me - I'm kind of proud of this week. Yesterday's run was the first one where I felt close to normal. then of course today I woke up with tons of niggles, but managed to take down a Strava segment crown. I figured I should be able to run 2km in under 8 minutes and I had quite a bit to spare for that. It will still require quite a bit of work before I can safely beat the Gaga challenge, but baby steps in the right direction.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: no idea
Tool to generate Strava weekly
Wow some good weeks and I haven't even done my Sunday run yet!
Piwi is back running big mileage and prbably about to race another 80% AG.
Steve is super consistent and needs his race moved up so it actually happens.
Watson put together a solid week
Fred, I thought that was sarcasm too and am a bit sad it wasn't, that be a solid friendly burn.
Flavio welcome back! If you still have the speed to take strava crowns that's super impressive.
James sorry about the hamstring. That comment jives with my experience. I'd either get issues late in long runs or during speedwork, either of which stress the hamstring more than normal days.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
Mark - Congratulations on the win!
Flavio - Nice progress on the comeback.
Zebano - I guess I haven't been in the group long enough to feel comfortable handing out burns.
James - I hope the new treatment works.
SteveChCh - Yep, I'm trying to get my miles back into the 40/week range. It is cold here; unusually so. Nice week for you too.
Watson - Also a good week.
I ran 43.2 miles for the week, but also 10 miles in 7º this morning. It helped that there was no wind.
Problem Child
The metric version of that club - when it's -14C you stay inside and drink enough beer to match 14 km worth of caloric burn.
FUKIN A! NOW we’re talking my language.
Is this the same club who does ‘one beer per mile’ long runs?
Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.
VDOT 53.37
5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22
Fred no worries. Yes you can burn me as much as you like as I deserve it
This reminds me that I need to do some hills. Right now it's hot here unless you run early so I tend to runfrom home which is all flat.
Flavio sub 4 min kms after what you have been through is great. Surf is actually too big right now mixed in with tsunami surges so best to stay out of the water.
Zeb early days but I will try and be more consistent.
Piwi, nice week. I too noticed the difference in elevations but more as yet another math calculation to do in my head.
Watson, wow was that last run a trail run?
Steve, wow a cramp so bad you had to stop running is intense. Impressive trail run!
James, sorry about the hamstring issues. Very interesting that it's the catchall for other issues, makes a lot of sense.
Mark, congrats on the win! Seconding that that is beyond cool.
Flavio, wow a Strava crown and you're feeling better? Sounds like a good week to me
Fred, impressive running in that cold and renewing your membership
I slept in and missed my chance at dry pavement, now it's snowing so I guess a RD for me and my week is in the books. Mostly easy efforts with 2 shorter speed sessions. A RD is probably not a bad idea, I was feeling some niggles at the end of yesterday's run.
5k 24:53 (2020) |10k 52:24 (2021) |HM 1:57:14 (2019) |FM 4:24 (2007) |50k 5:57 (2022)