2024 Advanced Training and Racing Thread (still competitive jerks) (Read 212 times)

 

I just sent my boss my two week notice.

Good luck, hope everything works out!

This looks like a lot of writing, but most of it is just my run logs.

I kept meaning to properly post (workouts and catch-up) and just never got around to it (apparently, part of my job description now includes grading AI-generated content curated by students). But for the past three weeks, I’ve been pretty happy with training and even got the obligatory shit-workout out of the way to remind myself that things are still very real and I haven’t entered some alternate fairy tale universe--which is something I was considering since my training was going surprisingly well. I got two 17-milers and a 20-miler and now just have one more long run, fast finish before two weeks of taper (I guess the taper kind of already started this week). Anyway, my weeks are below. Pretty happy to say my my last day on the elliptical was March 20, my last run/walk was March 25, and since then I’ve run mostly pain-free except for some creeping PF and a strange pain on the outside of my foot this past week, below my ankle, which could have been peroneal tendonitis and the (psychologically surprisingly difficult to take, by the way) early rest day took care of that. The rehab did wonders for my knee (who knew?) and continuing strength training hopefully means that I never have that stabbing pain in my knee again. 

The return of the heel pain (which my doctor said was connected to my Achilles issue and not necessarily PF) is why the video at this time is actually quite interesting, Flavio—well, mostly your notes from it. Still haven’t gotten around to watching it. I am trying to wean myself off the inserts, I spend all my time at home barefoot (though this has been true my entire life--I just spend less time at home now), and I do all kinds of foot strengthening exercises. I also, personally, have no issue with narrow shoes. I was also occasionally using the night boot, but I thought it may have caused the tenodonitis, so I haven’t worn it anymore this week. 

Weekly for period: From: 03/18/2024 To 03/24/2024

Weekly for period: From: 03/25/2024 To 03/31/2024 -CUT-BACK WEEK

Weekly for period: From: 04/01/2024 To 04/07/2024 - PEAK WEEK

This week was a smaller mileage week (I’ll end up with about 45 miles) and 2 workouts. 

Weekly for period: From: 04/08/2024 To 04/14/2024

Anyway, you’re right, Dave, that the assaults were where Goucher got the majority of the credit for whistle-blowing, but I honestly didn’t know about that until I read it in the book. So it was shocking to me. I had heard of what Mary Cain went through but didn’t hear of this. 

ccoakley, I agree that Fleshman’s book should be a required read—especially for coaches. And I can imagine it was frustrating for you at the time coaching those girls, wcrunner, and I think it’s great to see that we’re making improvements when it comes to thinking about women’s running. My coaches in high school were kinda clueless, but they were equally so for the girls and boys, so I think I was kind of lucky there. (this is not to say that I’m not immensely grateful for what they gave me my four years of cross country)

And I agree, RP. I honestly didn’t like Kara as much as the others (beside some, honestly, not great writing) because while she was incredibly honest, she’s just not my type of person. It’s easier to look back and say “I wish I had said and done those things” than it is to do them in the moment. I think of her teammates when I say that. “it is obvious in the book how she turned a blind eye because the allure of success/being the best was more important.” 

Nice job catching the Leprechaun all those weeks ago, RP. Nice breaking 20. I’m sure your trail running with all that incline is going to pay some dividends both in an ultra and in a 5K. 

Apparently, the St. George Marathon won the “findmymarathon.com tournament” 

And apparently, you just made a move at work. I hope things pan out well for you!

MT, thanks for that great picture of the donkey running. And great 5K in tough conditions (wind and bridges! When I did the Backpool Marathon, which is notoriously windy, I made that mistake with the wind, thinking I was feeling really good despite running into a wind that was not as bad as people said it would be…and then came the turn-around, ha ha. I had to backtrack a bit to this, but you said you’ll do 200m in 25 to 27 seconds? Dang!! I appreciated the metaphor of bundling your injuries. I guess that kind of works, though good luck with your insurance accepting it. When I went to see the doctor with a toe pain, Achilles pain, and PF pain, she was like: I can only treat one of yours today, which will it be? Also then you have to get several recipes (prescriptions?) for PT and they don’t like that either. Re: diet, if you were eating out a lot, I’m not surprised it was hard to lose weight. It’s difficult to find reasonable portions and/or healthy options on the go. Even with good intentions, I find myself reaching for less healthy stuff when I’m out because I’m paying for it and I feel like I need to treat myself. So it’s great you’ve identified your weaknesses and are tackling them. Also, have you tried replacing the coke with Zevia? It’s more expensive, I know, but less negative effects on the body. 

For a hot minute, I thought I owed $1800 for 5 PT sessions (I should have gone 7 more times, but when I saw that, I quit). It ended up being $305. Still, how they come up with these numbers is wild to me. 

Btw, backtracking way back, re: illness versus injury, I wasn’t taking into account chronic illness, which trumps all as being the most difficult to deal with re: running

Sorry to read about the NYC rejections. 

Flavio, you wrote a while ago that marathon training feels like a job. My god, you’re right. And it’s one I’m ready to quit on April 28. Re weight training and soreness… I’m surprised you get that sore … would it make sense to take something like an ibuprofen to help with the sleep? I can’t imagine interrupted sleep is good for recovery.  

Also lol Dav who lost his id. 

Hope you’ve fully recovered from your fall and that your scabs are nicely healing! Nice job on surviving the trail run. I was going to make a joke and say that RP and I are good at downhill running because we’re both mountain goats (Aries), but I do think it’s a mix of sure footing that comes with strength and reflexes, some experience with one’s body that one does have some control, trust in gravity, and just a little bit of recklessness. Sorry to read about your wife, though. Scary! Glad it wasn’t worse, and glad the PT caught it! Geez, doctors in the ER are probably overwhelmed, but you’d think they’d have caught it. Then again, last time I was in urgent care with a broken toe, they couldn’t set it… I had to go to an orthopedist, and by the time I made it there, they had to rebreak the healing bone to set it properly. 

Andy, sorry to read of your layoff. I hope the job search has been going well/been successful. I like your plan of using the extra time to build mileage/endurance. I totally would, too. 

Steve, fair call re Christchurch and Selwyn. It will be fun to see where you’re at in Christchurch… are you planning on running a PR effort? 

darkwave, I feel like I’ve slept on your Boston training, but it’s been looking strong. And I agree about the benefits of marathon-pace training runs. My plan has been incorporating them more regularly this time around, and since I’m really bad at consistent pacing, it’s been hopefully good practice. 

The sparsely attended 10K run sounds interesting and somewhat productive. I’ve done one of those 5K/10K runs before were only 20 people did the 10K and we spent a lot of time wading through 5K people… it’s definitely not a race-effort event. 

Safe travels and all the best at your race on Monday!! 

mmerkle, glad to see you’re over that virus. Also, re- old training question: I don’t know what’s normal or not, but my plan has VO2 max workouts all the way through the last week… funny you should mention McMillan though, Dave, since I’m doing one of their plans and they have those 1 min on/off workouts that are called VO2 max helpers? Are they wrong? Am I wrong? I am open to the latter; maybe I misunderstood something

Dave, nice, surprising 20 mile MP workout the weekend after your impromptu marathon. 

Sorry to read about the 10K not being quite what you’d hoped, but admittedly, you’re probably deep in marathon-training fatigue and I don’t think those are meant for 10K PRs. 

At the same time, I kinda agree with the peanut gallery that backing off a bit now is more reasonable than powering through. I’ve arrived at a few races overtrained, and it’s never pretty. It would be good to see whether your RHR and sleep are normal for you… elevated RHR and poor sleep are both indicators… 

I was burned from doing that long 6-hour 7 weeks out from my goal race last fall. I personally would never do anything again that jeopardizes my workouts, even if I also once ran a 3 minute PR once running a near-PR marathon 7 weeks prior, so one never knows, I guess. 

CK, sorry to read you may have come down with something. And I agree, sleeping in is really wonderful. We should all be doing a lot more of it… too bad there’s always too much to do. There was a note in my training plan today actually that said: the moment you can go to sleep, go to sleep. It made me think. 

Mark, sorry I missed wishing you good luck for your race, and also following Steve’s live tracking (thanks, Steve!). That sounds like an incredible, though also incredibly hard race! 

Also, I personally have been liking the 5-day training a lot. I do still cross train on my off days, but my mind and body seem to respond better to the more rest, even if I work harder on the run days. 

marby, I’ve never paced (I can barely pace myself, ha ha) but it’s cool to see your preparation for it. I didn’t realize there’s actually a course one can take. I’d be interested to do it more once I’ve achieved my personal marathon goals. I’d love to run some of the cool races around Florida without caring about an all-out effort. 

krash, I liked this: “My friends tell people to listen to what I say when it comes to trail running, but then take it down a notch.” That sounds about right!

DK - Glad you are mostly recovered.  Only 16 days to go and it looks like you are in a good spot.  That's a nice 20 mile long run!  I'm still amazed that people regularly run that long.  I've only run 20 miles without stopping 2 times in my life (last 2 marathons, stopped at 22 miles on one to eat candy ) I've run more than 20 miles 2 other times with some walk breaks (first marathon made it to about 19 and one time I got lost running in the mountains).  I'm definitely a low mileage runner.  On my last marathon in Oct 2015, a 3:09, I only ran 63 miles in Sep and 50 in October, not counting the marathon race miles.  The rest was cross training.  Everything has diminishing returns, so I don't get too fixated on how many miles I run (until I'm injured and looking back ).  Re: 200s in 25-27, that was a looooooooong time ago, not sure mmerkle was born yet.

RP - Good luck on your job search.  I hope you find a happier landing spot!

DW - Good luck on Monday!  Look forward to reading your report.

Flavio - Improving my nutrition and fitness has been a methodical process.  I just keep chipping away at my worst habits.  Last Summer I cut back on portions generally.  Last Fall I mostly quit eating really heavy dinners like a large steak and potatoes.  After Christmas I gave up sugary products like 99%.  I will still eat a celebratory item or something my kids bake to make them happy, but otherwise I don't eat any deserts, pastries, candy, etc.  In March, I gave up unhealthy breakfasts, so (1) on the list is already accomplished.  Now I'm on to (2) unhealthy side items.  I've mostly stopped buying chips, unless I'm planning to host a picnic type meal and have family over.  I'm also avoiding eating lunches that come with things like fries.  I'd say I've cut back 75%.  (3) Late night snacks - no progress yet.  (4) Ordering food, I keep doing less of it, but I also order small things like a single slice of pizza instead of splitting a whole pizza.  (5) diet coke - I will probably just go back to water and skip the alternatives.  I'm hoping to lose ~1/6 of my total body weight from late last Summer to late this Summer.  I think I'm on pace. I'm also getting more muscular, especially right now with no running.  So if I hit my target, I will have lost >1/6 of my body weight in fat.  That seems like enough for year 1.  If I can run some faster 5ks and get to a marathon, that's just a bonus.  I'm not fixating too much on my smoothie composition or type of pizza ingredients.  I just keep making common sense adjustments that are healthier.  My other biggest issues are stress and lack of sleep.  I only get 4-6 hours a night.  I feel extra miserable when I'm running like 50 miles a week and not sleeping.

This week has been nice.  I did mostly body weight work like pullups and pushups.  Also doing squats/lunges with a 25lb kettle bell.  Going for high reps at the moment.  I am doing calf strength and foot strength between pullup and pushup sets.  I found an interesting guy on youtube that was trumpeting the benefits of long hold stretches.  I'm giving those a try.  I'm already more flexible than I was 2 weeks ago, so I guess it is working.  If anyone wants to check out one of his videos, his channel is YOGABODY.  He has a few videos that are running specific.  Like with most things I just take the parts I like and ignore the rest.  I think my biggest benefit has been the hips/shoulders, I'm not always great about stretching those, and the positive change was almost immediate.     

Today is day 14 of resting the foot and no running.  It's definitely improving day by day.  Still hurts on impact in the morning and on some stretches, but I'm happy it is healing.  With the heal pain way down, my ankle pain is more apparent.  All the running I did with my foot twisted and toes curled to blunt the pain on landing did some kind of damage to my ankle, and that's not getting better yet.  I plan to start cross training next week.  I identified a gym that looks good for me.  Plan to join some time this week.

To any lurkers racing Boston, good luck!

Apologies for being absent. My semester has been pretty overwhelming and this week was a catch up week. I'm working on the race report but hope ot have it up soon.

dw/fishy/hashiritai Best wishes for you all in Boston. The weather looks decent, maybe a pinch warm but I hope you all have fun.

RP To brighter days! Also, I agree that thinking about your foot in the shoe helps with downhill running. I'm still bad at it. I wonder if Mark is good at it because he has a high cadence. Mine tends to be 172-180 for most paces. Maybe I should.... practice down hill. But it always makes me nervous. I never thought about what I do on uphills. What you said sounds like it makes sense. I'll pay attention next time.

Mark That half was very impressive. I think my mouth dropped open when I first saw it. I aspire to be like that some day. Probably won't happen but I like the idea of shooting for it. By the way, what sort of training plan/structure do you follow? I noticed it's pretty consistent and has lots of tempo.

Krash If you're around I might wanna pick your brain a bit on endurance challenges. Mostly the training aspect. I'm probably doing at least one this year. Possibly an 8 hour in August actually. Funny, it looks like a LOT of us on here suddenly got into trail running.

dktrotter The only thing that would be abnormal in my opinion is a VO2 workout within 7 days of the race, since it won't benefit you that race. But if you have more races coming up after that one then it would make sense if you make sure you recover in time. My understanding is the idea with 1min on / 1min off is you can achieve VO2 max by doing short intervals with short rest, but you have to do a few reps before you even get to VO2 max. The trade off is since the rest is short, you don't come down much and you get back to VO2 very quickly when you start the next fast rep.

And officially classified, so I have a bib number now - P156.  Starting at 9:50.

Cool! I’m really upset that I have a super busy day at work Monday, so won’t be able to properly stalk everyone. But I’ll make an effort. What’s your goal?

Hi All- Just checking in.  Thanks for the well wishes.  I'm as ready as possible.  Sub 3 is the goal...I thought about trying for a PR but the weather and the last few weeks have taken away those silly thoughts 

Life stresses have caught up to me lately ...running has been my sanity check as always but my heart hasn't really been in full marathon training mode.

RP- Congratulations.   If my recent months have taught me anything it is that we MUST remove the negative and toxic infuences from our lives.  Life is too short...Run Fast and enjoy life

Bib # 5652 wave 1 coral 6

Good luck Fishy, Hash and darkwave!

Very busy with uni so a quick drop of my week.  Definitely a turnaround week with pop back in my legs and some decent workouts that were hard but not off the charts.  Hopefully I'm ready for a good race next week - I'll run it at PR effort but I think I'm looking at 1:28-29 if I execute well.  I'll be conservative though because it could go the other way if things get tough.

Weekly for period: From: 08/04/2024 To 14/04/2024

Totals: Time: 07:47:53 - 🦅Imperial: 57.26 mi - Metric: 92.13 km