The Waltons aka Advanced Half Marathon Training Thread - 2022 edition (Read 444 times)

ccoakley Hang in there you got this!

Corey - That's a nice month of running! Regarding swimming, if you stick with it you will improve quickly. But I will tell you the same thing I'm about to tell Z and DW, 20-30 minute swims once a week will only make you better for a little while (similar to runs). Although I have yet to try it myself, I think (and have heard) that good swim workouts can be a great supplement to running (and then I'm thinking about 60-90 minute workouts). Takes a little while before you work up to those and don't feel completely dead afterwards though . But once you are there you can do leg recovery and get a great aerobic workout at the same time.

Kiwis - I watched the Millrose games and it's always pretty cool. Willis made it in under 4 and Beamish won the 3000.

Piwi - You're like a pool shark on your intervals!

James - Do I remember correctly your hamstring issue is a muscle thing? That should get better faster than tendons at least.

Fred - Solid month!

Nerd - 37 miles and a knee that is getting better sounds like a win to me.

RP - Nice casual 60-mile week. No wonder you ran sub-3 (And that was a great race report btw)

Keen - Still the mileage king in a cutback week I see 

Z- Work took a toll on me as you can see below. Got nothing done early in the week workout wise. Stick with the swimming and maybe it can help you out going forward (I hope it will for me!)

DW - Great news about the back. Sometimes a treatment like that is what's needed for things to calm down and get better. Even if it only works for 2-3 weeks you might be better afterwards. And same with the swimming for you too 

Flavio - A crown is a crown, nice work! Hope Portugal is treating you well.

Watson - Yard and house work has taken a lot of time for me the last couple of months too. I hope any activity is good for something.

Steve and Mark - Great weeks!

Turns out I forgot to run last week . But swimming is going well with some serious foundation work starting. And then I did 100-yd and 1000-yd time trials this weekend. Knocked 6 seconds off the 1000 at 15:54, was within a few tenths of the 100 at 1:17.9. At the last turn on the 100 I was thinking I had too much left in the tank so I wasn't surprised by that. It was also encouraging since the last 2-3 months have been focused on technical work and have not done much for building aerobic capacity (and late December/early January was really bad for me workout wise). Also had a nice bike ride on Saturday with temperatures in the low 602 (16-17C). Did a short run again today (Not captured below) to make sure I keep going on that.

Weekly for period: From: 01/24/2022 To 01/30/2022

 

cc0 - As close as you are to your 12hr race I would just count last week as a head start on a good taper.  See how you feel with a bit more rest.  I bet you are still good to go.

 

keen - You and I share the same forecast and I too expect a run on the supermarket.  People here go nuts over a little snow.

 

 

My knee ache is all but gone now.  My week was 37 miles with my first intervals in years.  I got in 3x1K @ 5K pace.  That felt like an honest workout.

These!!  Taper and the forecast! ugg, I have enjoyed 35F (shorts!) the past two days but I have to do my workout in chillier weather.

Glad the knee is feeling better Nerd. 5k pace always feels brutal in practice and somehow we can maintain it on race day.

James I'm impressed you're still hanging in there, you've possibly had the roughest 2 years I've seen on this forum.

DW prescription cat food is something I've never heard of before. poor kitties.

Piwi yeah the 200m tracks are slower. I don't care if he's last, 20 years of sub 4 is something else.

Cfarr lol my bad. I should have clicked the link. Good work and take Rune with a grain of salt, we're here to run . Nah I think swimming is great but I intentionally keep it lower effort / volume so as not to interfere with my running but I do find a minimum of 3 times per week is necessary to really feel comfortable in the water. Flavio want to add a pace per 100yd / 100m column for swims to your import tool ???

 

Absolutely, the ~10 minutes (not 20-30 minutes) that I do 2-3 times a week does nothing to improve my swimming.  But that's not my goal.  I use swimming as a recovery tool, similar to foam rolling or stretching.   After each hard running workout, if I can get into the pool and do about 10 minutes of swimming, I recover far better from the workout.  It's something about the motion and the mechanics of the swimming (I blend freestyle swimming and kicking with a board) and the pressure and cooling effect of the water that rejuvenate my muscles.

 

I am actually trying to improve my swimming but I just wanted to add that I get a lot of random lower & upper back tightness after hard runs and swimming totally relieves that! I'm not actually sure of recovery but just the relaxed feeling I finish with makes swimming a few times a week totally worthwhile for me.

Keen, very solid ‘cutback’ week.  Feb/Mar has really become the winter/spring whiplash season at least here in the mid-Atlantic.

RP, that is a big increase in elevation.  Are you injury-prone or really lucky?

Arunnerd, glad the knee is better, nice interval workout!

Fred,Cfarr congrats on high mileage Januarys

JamesD, sorry about the bad reaction, hope things improve

Mark, the water fountain issue on your runs is crazy!  I have a running vest with 2 flasks which is great cause I can put water in one and Gatorade in the other, highly recommend it! Around here in Spring 2020 they locked all the port a potties at the trail heads.  I have to imagine that did not help like they thought it would.

Rune, swimming exhausts me like nothing else, I can imagine it would have a huge positive impact on running

DW, so glad the shot helped for the pain and that you get another clue to get to the bottom of this issue.

 

How are you feeling now?  Have a few down days helped?

 

Thanks for asking and for the words of encouragement from everyone.  I am feeling much better and I’ve had some more time to clarify my thoughts.  Basically, I think the risk/reward calculation of trying to run 50 mi has completely changed for me.  The risk has gone up as I expect the next recovery would take at least twice as long and given how injury prone I am at high mileage I’d be tempting fate.  And the reward has gone down.  I felt a huge sense of accomplishment at going 50k and now that I can call myself an ultramarathoner will 50 mi really be that much better than 50k?  Even among runners I think most people just hear ‘more than a marathon’.  I’m 42 and my years of seeing gains from speedwork are limited so I think I want to switch my focus to getting faster for my Apr 10k and Nov marathon and pause my ultra pursuits for now.  I do think I’ll come back just not in 2022.  But there’s also no immediate need to make a decision, if I wake up Feb 19^th and want to go for it I can.

I STILL remember waiting outside of a grocery store with my wife and child when it was 30 degrees...in the sun. Paper towels were ration. Literally limited 1 per purchase and couples were trying to say "we're not together" to get another one. People speed walking to get to the line of 16 packs of paper towels. Amazingly, the 425 sheet toilet paper packs are now down to 380 for the same price. I know this because I had a 425 pack or two finally run out and purchased them again. It was great grocery shopping with 25% capacities and nothing on the shelves "due to covid 19" and now it's "due to supply chain/weather/preppers" again.

rune the sub 3 is still a thing of wonder to me. I think I'm one of two people who didn't expect me to run sub 3. The other one is my wife and I'm not sure she knows much about running, or how well I can doubt myself.

cc comeon girl! don't quit now. The lows are so low because the highs are so high. Without the lows you can't have the highs. You just live in the middle. Oh and I think I'm just really lucky, or gifted just enough to push the envelope and do good things while still falling short of being amazing. Like...I probably wouldn't ever have made a college team, but I can do some stuff that's impressive to a lot of people who can't do it.

yes 50 miles is better than 50k. absolutely yes. don't sell yourself short.

It sounds stupid, but the 50 miler could help with speed. The endurance you gain from this run could help mentally with speed work. It's a different game though. The 5k/10k speed work sounds so much more appealing because of the amount of time required for training. I was there during marathon training. Know what happened? After I finished my marathon cycle the 7-8 mile runs seemed like cake, and dropping to 5 miles didn't even feel like it was worth it. I'm also signed up for my first 50 miler. I've done a 50k and a 55k. I'm going for the larger distance because to me it's similar to the jump from half marathon to marathon, or 5k to 10k. A 5k is 3 miles and isn't short. Plenty of people stop there. You're not one of them. Oh and don't be worried about going to a 100 miler. I'm sure your family will stop you. I'll encourage you, but your family will stop you. 

fred I kind of remind myself often my weekly mileage was once my peak for a marathon, or half marathon training. Heck, my long runs are more than some people's weekly total. It's something I've had to accept, as well as downplay. When people ask about my runs I'll sometimes explain I'm kind of too far into this "hobby" to settle for 30 minute runs anymore because I kind of go off the deep end with almost all my hobbies. Too bad I can't do it with my work. time. place. motivation. something something.

EDIT:2 Running Ahead says 214 miles for January. Garmin tends to agree. 58 day running streak.

Fred - honestly even prize money is pretty rare these days, at least here in NZ.  It's generally limited to the really big races (Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington Marathons plus I think Hawkes Bay and Queenstown too), or a handful of smaller races that are still run by clubs or individuals and not event businesses.

Caitlin - I think the main thing is just listen to your body.  You'll know whether or not you're up for it.  Both 50km and 50 miles are fairly mind-boggling for me as I found both my marathons bad enough.  But I think you make a good point that focusing on 10k/HM is a good idea while your body is still up for that.  There's plenty of time left to run ultras!

Flavio - we live in a no-exit street, which is not great in terms of zombie apocalypse scenarios.  My parents have a great place out in the country on an elevated, fully-fenced site with a second level on their house that would be ideal for scouting or sniping, so that would be the first choice.

Weather complaining - it's really SUCKED here the last few days.  Even at 6am it's been hot, humid and windy, and not the good cooling wind, it's been a humid NE which for us is more like having a fan heater blowing in your face.  Worst 2 days of summer so far.  Looks like it's only getting slightly better over the next few days as well.  Ugh.