Awesome post, Tortoise! I don't beseech often, but when I do, it's powerful.
Congratulations on the birth of your child!
Your training was very Mark Allenish with a nice patience/healing phase, followed by harder training and some nice PR's. Looks like you managed your training load well through the race season, as your aerobic speed improved. I think your plan moving forward seems solid. A mini-beseech to keep in touch with your aerobic speed during the strength-training and baby mode. I've heard that new baby mode can be stressful, which adds to training load. I hope it all goes smoothly and isn't overly so.
Yay on the weight loss!
I was in NYC a few months ago and had the best pizza over in Little Italy. After almost 5 years of faux-pizza in Atlanta it was.......
--Jimmy
Dropping in for my semi-annual report. First off, congrats to cmon2 for your awesome marathon time! I ran one and only marathon 16 years ago. At the 3:38 mark, I still had 8 more miles to go! Last time I posted in ~May, jimmyb beseeched me to heal my first ever hamstring injury rather than try to run through it. Here’s what happened: May: ran PB 21:49 5K which is when I injured my right hamstring June: cold turkey – no running at all per doctor jimmy. July: strictly MAF running, got back to my previous fitness level which was about 9:45 MAF (average pace for a one-hour run). August: began intense 5K training program, 3 very hard workouts a week, zero easy running/long runs. Finished August with a 21:18 5K. End of September: ran a 20:47 5K. Did one MAF run, just for kicks: averaged 8:45 over one hour. What??!? Last week: 20:16 5K. Very happy to make such great progress, slightly disappointed that I didn’t hit reach-out goal of sub-20. Plan going forward: have baby (not me - my wife), start running again sometime next spring/summer. Notes: In early October, my left hamstring started bothering me halfway through a workout. It was disconcerting enough that my instincts were to stop running again. But with my target (and final) race of the year coming up, I really didn’t want to take any more time off. I remembered reading that taking shorter strides is a good way to take pressure off of the hamstrings, so I continued the workout with what felt like ¾ length strides, but with a faster turnover rate. I was able to complete the workout at full effort without feeling like I was doing further damage, and after a few days of running that way, I felt no soreness at all. The really unexpected thing was that I was able to maintain my target pace (basically very close to race pace) with less perceived effort. Perhaps because I am tall and lanky, shorter strides are more efficient, or maybe the muscle groups being called upon were more fresh, or maybe my form is just so bad that any change is a good change. So that was interesting. Almost felt like I was cheating somehow, like when you find the secret shortcut moves in a video game that noone else knows about… I previously considered my max heart rate to be 189. Well, it’s at least 192 and it wasn’t the easiest thing I have ever done finding that out! There’s no way I could have completed let alone progressed on this 5K training program without the solid aerobic endurance base from 2+ years of MAF training. I also (deliberately) lost a fair amount of weight from June through the present. I was probably mid-180’s in the spring and was at 170 for my 20:16 race. The bad news is that now I have set expectations in my wife for my physical appearance that will be at odds with my strong inclination to address the pizza/beer deficit I have built up over that period. Mmmm, pizza and beer! I’m going to try to maintain/build leg strength doing in-home exercises (squats/lunges/stair climbs etc.) while we’re in new baby mode over the coming months, then do 3-4 or more months of exclusively MAF running starting in ~May, in preparation for another late summer/fall 5K training cycle and see if I can break 20 minutes. Next post ought to be around 6/14! Cheers, tortoise88
Dropping in for my semi-annual report. First off, congrats to cmon2 for your awesome marathon time! I ran one and only marathon 16 years ago. At the 3:38 mark, I still had 8 more miles to go!
Last time I posted in ~May, jimmyb beseeched me to heal my first ever hamstring injury rather than try to run through it. Here’s what happened:
May: ran PB 21:49 5K which is when I injured my right hamstring
June: cold turkey – no running at all per doctor jimmy.
July: strictly MAF running, got back to my previous fitness level which was about 9:45 MAF (average pace for a one-hour run).
August: began intense 5K training program, 3 very hard workouts a week, zero easy running/long runs. Finished August with a 21:18 5K.
End of September: ran a 20:47 5K. Did one MAF run, just for kicks: averaged 8:45 over one hour. What??!?
Last week: 20:16 5K. Very happy to make such great progress, slightly disappointed that I didn’t hit reach-out goal of sub-20.
Plan going forward: have baby (not me - my wife), start running again sometime next spring/summer.
Notes:
I’m going to try to maintain/build leg strength doing in-home exercises (squats/lunges/stair climbs etc.) while we’re in new baby mode over the coming months, then do 3-4 or more months of exclusively MAF running starting in ~May, in preparation for another late summer/fall 5K training cycle and see if I can break 20 minutes. Next post ought to be around 6/14!
Cheers,
tortoise88
Here's my Turkey Trot 2 mile race report.
I was able to hit my goal this morning on my Turkey Trot race. Ended up hitting my goal exactly with an official time of 13:30 on the dot. That was good for the course record in the Clydesdale division for a race that has been going since 1993 so I'm very happy with that. Ended up 12th overall out of 400+ runners (and walkers).
Weather was really about as good as you could expect for November 28th, 36 degrees, sunny and a 6 mph breeze. Got a nice warmup in, just under 2 miles and finished the warmup about 10 minutes before the race. The 12K started first then we got in line for the 2 mile. I was pretty confident that I would be able to break the course record of 13:56, but as we were lining up for the start I noticed another Clydesdale runner that is only 23 and who ran a 13:23 at the last race so I now knew that not only did I need to beat the 13:56 time to get the record, I needed to beat him as well. For the current results the Clydesdale results are age graded so I was confident that I could still win the race from that perspective, but for the course records they are not age graded, just the raw time counts regardless of the age of the runner.
I got up on the 2nd row wanting to get a decent start and before you know it the horn went off and we were running. The first 100 yards or so was downhill and had several twists and turns and as usual, the trick was to keep from tripping over some young kids sprinting out at the start. With the downhill and being at the front at the start at the 1 minute mark my phone announced to me that my pace was way fast, 5:XX something! I tried to settle in to a good pace, but at the same time I didn't want to let the younger Clydesdale runner pull away from me so I just got on his shoulder and hung there. We were going faster than I really wanted to, but it wasn't terrible so I just hung in there. Things pretty much settled in and we were to the turn around in no time. I was working hard, but not dying yet. First mile split was 6:33, about 12 seconds faster than I intended, but the downhill at the start was going to be an uphill at the finish and I was thinking I was going to need every second before it was all said and done.
I could tell that the younger Clydesdale runner was starting to struggle a little and I picked him off right after the turn around. Now I just had to hold on for another mile! It was work, but I was feeling okay and started working on putting the younger Clydesdale runner behind me for good. I picked off a young girl next and then was just focusing on hanging on. I wasn't really in pain and feeling terrible, but I wasn't just having a nice relaxing run by any means. I was focused on running tangents and the slower runners were actually doing a pretty good job of at least staying to one side of the road so even if I couldn't cut the tangent perfect, I wasn't having to dodge in and out of them running back through. With about 1/2 mile to go or so I was back through most of the slower runners and walkers and able to start hitting the tangents again. I passed the top female runner in there and went back and forth with another runner but he ended up getting back ahead of me. 1/4 mile to go and then up the hill to the finish. It didn't seem this steep going down it at the start, but I was giving it everything I had and not sure I was speeding up or slowing down. I was feeling pretty good about both getting the record by this time and that I was going to beat the younger Clydesdale runner so I might not have pushed quite as hard as I could have, but I was still pushing it pretty hard.
Up the hill, through the twists to the finish and the clock was ticking down toward 13:30 as I went across. I thought it ticked to 13:31, but I was pretty happy with that. I was spent when I crossed the line, I took a few steps and then had my hands on my knees and just tried to catch my breath. I didn't get my GPS turned off for about 15 seconds after I crossed the line. Some walking around and I was actually feeling pretty good in no time. I didn't get my GPS stopped so I kind of have to back into it to get my 2nd mile split of 6:57 which is a pretty big positive split, but the downhill at the start and the uphill at the finish had something to do with that, but I do think I fell off a bit after the first mile. Official time turned out to be 13:30, the new Clydesdale course record on the 21st annual race.
Thinking through everything, I think if the younger Clydesdale had made a little more of a race out of it I could have maybe shaved a few seconds off, but not sure I could have done much better. Maybe 3 or 4 seconds tops. That uphill at the finish was tougher than I expected too. I ended up being the 1st place masters runner and beat all the female runners which is possibly a first for me on both of those. The age of the guys that beat me were 16, 14, 20, 21, 15, 18, 16, 32, 20, 18, 21 and then I came at the ripe old age of 45.
With all of that said, in our running club the shorter distance races tend to be the slower races and often the winners of the longer races actually run them at a faster pace than the winners of the shorter races. I have no shot at the course records on pretty much any of the longer distance races. The course record on the 12K race for the Clydesdale division is a 49:26 for a 6:33 avg pace so that's a faster average pace than I just ran for the 2 mile course record.
It's still pretty cool to have the course record though!
Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)
Current PR's: Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)
waow congrats!!
what does "clydesdale runner" mean?
but hey it's annoyin' you beat all the females
anyway, seriously, it looks like you've had a great race. it must feel great holding the course PR!
waow congrats!! what does "clydesdale runner" mean? but hey it's annoyin' you beat all the females anyway, seriously, it looks like you've had a great race. it must feel great holding the course PR!
For our running club "Clydesdale" is a special division for anyone over 190 lbs. Some other place it is 200+. I would qualify under either minimum right now.
Great run, Nathan. Excellent PR and win!
Enjoyed the report.
--JImmy
Consistently Slow
Nathan congrats on the course record. Winning requires having a good strategy and knowing which battles to pick. The 2 miler was a great choice.
Run until the trail runs out.
SCHEDULE 2016--
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
http://bkclay.blogspot.com/
What no racing since December in here.
Ok - I'll start. Ran a BQ -5 last weekend at my home town marathon. Was on track for a 3:15 but GI issues helped to add 4+ minutes to my time. Should have taken that imodium before the race.
I trained a bit differently for this one. I had two MAF runs per week for recovery and the rest were solid hard and harder efforts. Seemed to work. I raced on my longest run being 17 miles. That's twice now and includes both BQs and my marathon PR. I'm very close to debunking the 20 mile rule (at least for me).
Good luck MAF racers. Let's see some results in here.
"He conquers who endures" - Persius "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel
http://ncstake.blogspot.com/
Congrats!
The only time I've ran 20 miles is in my marathon. I used the Hansons Plan for mine and stretched the long run out to 18 miles instead of 16, but I'm sure I would have been fine with 16. Cumulative fatigue and solid weekly miles seem to be the key based on my whopping experience in marathon training!
Congrats, great post , Norm.
What no racing since December in here. Ok - I'll start. Ran a BQ -5 last weekend at my home town marathon. Was on track for a 3:15 but GI issues helped to add 4+ minutes to my time. Should have taken that imodium before the race. I trained a bit differently for this one. I had two MAF runs per week for recovery and the rest were solid hard and harder efforts. Seemed to work. I raced on my longest run being 17 miles. That's twice now and includes both BQs and my marathon PR. I'm very close to debunking the 20 mile rule (at least for me). Good luck MAF racers. Let's see some results in here.
congrats!
I dont think the 20 mile rule is absolute. as npaden already explained
I'll post a race result too
1:32:03 HM race end of March.
still not my ideal race but pretty good. overall HR avg a bit low because of all this starting slow stuff. I was holding back for most of the race because it was a sunny warm-ish weather, I was starting to feel the heat despite splashing water on me at every aid station (twice per loop, there could've been more of them!). 4 loops to make the exact HM distance btw. I decided to hold back more in the last loop because of that. in retrospect I wish I had just tried to go all-out anyway. I could've got rid of the 4 seconds and go sub-1:32 that way but I had no idea it was going to be that time lol. In colder weather I will be definitely going all out.
I was in shape for 1:30: xx if everything had been ideal.
loops: time @AHR (pace)
23:14 @179 (7:05 pace)23:00 @188 (7:01 pace)22:48 @192 (6:56 pace)23:01 @193 (7:01 pace)
1:32:03 @188 (7:01 pace)
Congrats cmon2, that's a great time!!!
I've raced also this month in a couple of trail running races, 26 km and +1800m positive and 27 kms and +1300 metres , in the last one I improved my time 8 min compared with the last year despite the temperature was +15ºC higher!! I averaged 184 bpm during 03:20 hours and finished fresh, last year I would bonked after 2 hour at that hr .
I think the MAF training is working for me, in both races I felt full of energy and finished with strong running and not like a walking dead
1:32 is awesome, C. Nice race!
I'll post a race result too 1:32:03 HM race end of March. still not my ideal race but pretty good. overall HR avg a bit low because of all this starting slow stuff. I was holding back for most of the race because it was a sunny warm-ish weather, I was starting to feel the heat despite splashing water on me at every aid station (twice per loop, there could've been more of them!). 4 loops to make the exact HM distance btw. I decided to hold back more in the last loop because of that. in retrospect I wish I had just tried to go all-out anyway. I could've got rid of the 4 seconds and go sub-1:32 that way but I had no idea it was going to be that time lol. In colder weather I will be definitely going all out. I was in shape for 1:30: xx if everything had been ideal. loops: time @AHR (pace) 23:14 @179 (7:05 pace)23:00 @188 (7:01 pace)22:48 @192 (6:56 pace)23:01 @193 (7:01 pace) 1:32:03 @188 (7:01 pace)
thanks
Taranos, congrats! glad the training is working for you.
Well done cmon.
Yeah that 20 mile thing is mostly for people to get confidence they can actually finish. I read it recently in a study but can't recall what or where. Old age setting in for me I guess.
High intensity will be my next trial. 16 or so max with 80% at race pace. Coupled with one other good workout per week, two solid MAF runs and three intermediate runs, I expect some decent training and possible race results (all things being equal)