L_Master's Goals/Progress Thread - aka the quest for sub 5 and sub 17 (Read 4915 times)

DoppleBock


    L_Master - I have no training help - But I do want to say have a great race.  I think one of the keys is to stay loose ... As the great race strategists Metalica would say

     

    Ooh, on I burn,
    Fuel is pumping engines,
    Burning hard loose and clean

     

    I only broke 18 minutes once in a 5k ... you will do it!

    Long dead ... But my stench lingers !

     

     

      For the week of a 5k I've found that one early week workout is possible. But should be done at a notch or two below what is usual. Plus, a max of four miles the day before the race. And that short run should include some strides and maybe one 800-1000m hard. Plus, the easy runs throughout the week should be done slower than usual.

       

      L_Master, looking at your log, you do one interval workout and a long run per week. Is there any reason you dont do a second interval workout or tempo run?

      And we run because we like it
      Through the broad bright land


      Feeling the growl again

        For the week of a 5k I've found that one early week workout is possible.

         

        My 10K PR was run on a Friday night, I had done my fastest 4-mile tempo run ever on Tuesday afternoon.  YMMV, I recovered more quickly back then than I do now.  I will say I was already resting before the tempo run and did little of anything between the tempo and the race.

        "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

         

        I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

         

          Thats a good point. I guess I was thinking more of an interval workout. For me, I tend to get excited throughout race week. About 6 weeks ago I hammered a Tues. interval workout only to be feeling it later in the week and I'm sure a little bit for a Sunday 10 mile race. Every single mile of that race was difficult. The opposite happened a few weeks later when I skipped a Tues. workout. I think I peaked on Friday for a 5k Sunday race. Race week is tricky, and its all about the individual at that moment in time. The worst thing that happens is you race again in a few weeks.

          And we run because we like it
          Through the broad bright land

            For the week of a 5k I've found that one early week workout is possible. But should be done at a notch or two below what is usual. Plus, a max of four miles the day before the race. And that short run should include some strides and maybe one 800-1000m hard. Plus, the easy runs throughout the week should be done slower than usual.

             

            L_Master, looking at your log, you do one interval workout and a long run per week. Is there any reason you dont do a second interval workout or tempo run?

             

            Generally the plan has been for an interval and tempo workout each week, and I think other than last week that happened. I forget why but last week I ended up doing only an interval workout. I don't really think of my "long" runs as a workout since they are run at an easy pace and aren't that long to begin with (20% or less of weekly mileage). That big blue guy was a largely hiking of barr trail/pikes peak, but with running thrown in there at the top and then coming back down. 

             

            Thanks for the advice everyone! So far Iam leaning towards a light tempo today with maybe last 400m or so around race pace, then on Thursday what spaniel suggested for 6x600 and 6x200 accelerations. Race week will be some light 200's with the rest of the runs shorter and easier than normal (though with some strides thrown in).

             

            A brief question on the 600's though. Since I have been loosely following the JD style type training all the intervals have been essentially the same pace. So for me 400m, 800m, 1200m intervals would all be same pace. So for the 600m intervals what sort of pace would that be, faster than 5K I assume?

            They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."

              Well, didn't quite end up getting the sub 18. Got close to it though.

               

              As far as the race went I ran okay but just didn't really ever have it in me on race day. Legs felt a little sluggish and just couldn't really keep it going; probably didn't help I went out a little too fast (first 800 in 2:35). Also probably didn't help that I put on a little weight (3-5 pounds) since back in early October; probably as a result of coming of dieting for quite some time and being in the midst of hard training. 

              Splits 

              Mile 1 - 6:02 
              Mile 2 - 5:53 
              Mile 3 -6:05 
              Last .1 - :31 

               

              The only disappointing part was tonight's tempo, in which I ran a very comfortable, relaxed 4 mile tempo in 25:30, I was in the groove and running smooth and effortless. Too bad I didn't have that on race day, but it bodes well for the future. 

              While I didn't quite get sub 18 I can't say I am anything but pleased with how these past 6 months have gone. Knocked well over 2 and a half minutes off my previous 5K PR, ran decent mileage with no injury problems, and made some nice progress on my weight. Oh, and did I mention the training was pretty much always fun?

               

              That said, I'm very optimistic about my chances for sub 5 in the spring, especially considering I still probably have ten or so pounds to lose (150 and 5'8" is generally pretty big for competitive running), and assuming there is any degree of truth in the calculators claims of 18:19 being similar performance to 5:17.

               

              I think the general plan now is to take the next 2 weeks off and recharge. From there I'll probably do a month or so at modest mileage of like 40-50mpw as I am I find it a little easier to lose weight and not feel super tired all the time at this sort of mileage. Works well too because I plan on introducing some weights and some sprint work during that time as well. I haven't really ever done any training for sprints and want to experiment a bit with that during this winter season. Then starting about mid-December I'll ramp the mileage back up and be ready to roll for spring.

               

              Any thoughts on general winter base training in preparation for running the 1500/mile are certainly appreciated!

              They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."


              Feeling the growl again

                Good job, you'll get it next time around.  Without that 2:35 800 you would have been painfully close, likely.

                 

                Over the winter, nothing needs to be different for the mile.  Get in your miles, do strides/fartleks a little faster than mile pace to keep touch with your speed.  It's really when you get into speed training that there will be differences.

                "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                 

                I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                 

                  Back at it!

                   

                  Man, breaks are tough. 

                   

                  Current Goals:

                  Sub 5 Mile (spring)

                  Faster 100m/400m time

                  Weight to 140

                  Get Lukas Verzbicas to run with me (jk jk, but hopefully I'll bump into him at some point)

                   

                  Planning on 40-50 mpw until the weight is gone, then back into that 70 or mpw sweet spot I was at for last season. 

                  They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."

                    2000 Miles!!! Very happy with this especially since I didn't get the ball rolling till late April. 

                    They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."


                    an amazing likeness

                      he's gone 2000 miles

                      it's very far

                      the snow is falling down

                      gets colder by the day

                       

                      Nice distance goal. Congrats!

                      Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

                        Time for an update.

                         

                        Overall training is going quite well. I'm feeling quite a bit more snappy now at 70mpw than I was in summer/fall. Especially in the last few weeks I've been in a great groove in training, noticing a very sudden and fairly drastic change in how fast I was running my easy pace, and had a wonderful tempo a few days ago that was about 10-15 seconds faster than I ever have for a tempo and it felt VERY comfortable and relaxed. 

                         

                        I still need to do better with my eating as that mini-gut is still hanging around and my weight is low 150's.

                         

                        Biggest downside to the sub 5 goal is the (seeming) lack of 1500m/mile races. I'll probably just have to solo it in a time trial unless I get really lucky and find a race.

                         

                        I'm very much open to suggestions about types of workouts and workout progressions I can do for mile training as I have next to no experience in this area and have no idea what makes a solid, specific 1500m workout/workout progression.  I'd be looking to be sharpest in late April.

                        They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."


                        Feeling the growl again

                          Other than the standard fare bantered about here for longer races....which will get you up to your peaking phase for a mile race....I'd recommend some faster intervals with longer recoveries to get used to the speed.  I always found 600m intervals to be especially good (and painful), if you run them close to 800m pace it'll take you right up to that painful burn point, then you take a good 3-4min recovery and go at it again.

                           

                          I'm not a miler...have not trained like one in a long time...I found the description of the Michigan team's workouts in "Sub-4" by Chris Lear to be an interesting perspective on mid-distance training.  Also a decent read.

                          "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                           

                          I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                           

                            Been awhile since I posted much. Have been running, but didn't really have time/desire to write much with school/work/life going on. Thankfully, that's over for summer and now I can focus on running and having fun! Yay!

                             

                            Last few weeks wasn't feeling all that great, probably due to combination of mediocre diet and low amounts of sleep. Started feeling better the last few days and then had a pretty good workout today.

                             

                            7x800m in (2:58, 2:56, 2:55, 2:53, 2:51, 2:49, 2:46) w/1:45-1:50 jog recovery between them. First one was effortless, almost felt like tempoing. 5th one I started to work a little, and last one was definitely working but not dying. I started out pretty conservative since I didn't know exactly where my fitness would be but apparently it's there. 

                             

                            I think I might do able to do this in around 2:50 or so w/1:30-2:00 recovery and have it be challenging, but definitely balls to the wall. The last couple weren't easy, but they weren't particularly tough either. Caveat here is this was on the treadmill, but oddly enough I find the mill to be mentally easier for intervals, but mentally much more difficult for anything that isn't interval running. If I can repeat something like this on the track I will be feeling VERY good about where my fitness is at.

                             

                            Original plan was to run short stuff in the Spring but I ended up being too occupied to focus on that, plus a bunch of time trials just didn't sound that fun. New plan is to do some more intense training now and look at running my best in mid/late July. Tentative plan of races would be 10k the Monday after this (probably will, but entry fee is $57), Open Track Meet on the 8th of June (could be sweet as allegedly there is a sub 14 guy coming in that is going to race it low key) then probably a 5k sometime mid-June, then 4th of July 4 Miler, then Classic 10k will be my "goal" race on 21st July. Maybe I'll race one more time in July, but we'll see how that fits into the schedule.

                            They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."

                              All Comers Track Meet Yesterday, so that was super fun to do. Hadn't raced anything under 5k since HS back when we were forced to do the dreaded P.E. mile.

                               

                              100m was first event, still waiting too see what the time was but it was into like at least a -8m/s wind, quite possibly more. My start was laughably terrible, but after that it didn't seem like I lost much ground to the other people in my heat except for one guy that looked like an actual sprinter. Still waiting on the official time as they were slow to process this at the meet.

                               

                              1500m was next, only 8-10 minutes after the 100m. Legs felt a little heavy going in but I'm not sure how much that affected me as I felt pretty normal while running.  Iwent out just a little too slow, as I was just feeling too good at the 2 lap point. This hurt alot though because I didn't stay with the lead pack so I lost people to pace with AND didn't have any wind block to help with the absurd 20-30 mph winds/gusts. 
                                   Although it wasn't hard enough, I was really good in the last lap and really ran strong even when it did start to hurt, so I am pleased with the race in that sense. 
                                   I'm confident I can run at least 5-10 second faster just based on effort, as there was more in the tank; then maybe more depending on how much the wind came into play. I think it's reasonable to suspect I might be around 4:35-4:45 shape currently which bodes well for not having done much yet aside from mileage and tempos.

                               

                              After this race my throat REALLY hurt. It felt like a thin rod of soreness right in the middle of the throat, like a combination of gargling everclear or something back there and having just shouted my voice to oblivion. Was considering running the 3000, but because of this decided not to.

                               

                              Last race was about an hour later and was the 400m. Throat discomfort had subsided a little so I said what the hell, I'll run it. Pretty sure I just went out too hard, because I was rigging a little 120-150m left to go and badly down the home stretch. Finish was especially tough because it was again into that gusty, strong headwind. 

                               

                              Overall, I'm pleased with the meet as I got in some good hard efforts and it seems my fitness is in a good place, especially since I'm only just starting my race-pace/VO2/speed stuff. Pretty excited to see what I can do in the next 2 months!

                              They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."


                              #artbydmcbride

                                Smile  The progress you are making is so awesome!

                                 

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