Forums >Racing>2024 The Waltons: Racing & Training Thread
Mother of Cats
Darkwave - nice race. For you, in your current condition, do you think the Vaporfly 3's are better than your other race shoes? Or would likely you'd have done about the same time in your other race shoes? And it's just a really good sign that your footstrike is now stable enough for the Vaporfly 3's?
Better in terms of faster? Not really sure. I think I probably would have been about the same in other shoes, because the limiting factor in my racing was still my coordination, not my fitness. (though my fitness has decreased a lot - in part because of age, and in part because my coordination has limited my ability to do true VO2Max work or repetitions - I simply can't move my legs fast enough to get to that level of effort)
But it is a really really good sign that I can now wear them, and frankly am getting more comfortable in them. I wore them for my marathon pace workout on Saturday, and really liked them. I think I will wear them for 1-2 more workouts, plus some marathon work on hills (to see how I like them downhill at marathon effort), and then save them for races.
Fred - great photo.
Half-Crazy - I guess you weren't here when I was going all crazy about the cyclical cicadas, and trying to explain just how many of them there were.
Watson- nice race. I laughed at your comment about the long course
Piwi - I will be very curious to see how you like the Puma Velocities. I think Puma has been doing some really cool stuff with shoes the last 5 years.
Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.
And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.
53 miles of running and 3 hours pool-running.M: 90 minutes pool-running.T: 8.5 miles very easy (9:27) on treadmill in the morning; streaming yoga in evening.W: 11 miles on the track, including a 4 mile (6400m) tempo in 28:35 (7:19/7:13/7:02/7:00) followed by 2x400m in 1:41 and 1:39. Followed with leg strengthwork.Th: 7 miles very easy on trails (10:20); streaming yoga in evening.F: 8 miles very easy (9:23) to the gym, upper body weights/core, and then 2 miles very easy (9:42) home plus two strides.Sa: 16.5 miles, including a marathon pace workout of 4/3/2/1 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float. Split it as 4 miles in 29:59 (7:30 pace), 3 miles in 22:24 (7:28 pace), 2 miles in 14:53 (7:27 pace), and 1 mile in 7:24. Floats in 8:09, 8:22, and 8:35. Followed with leg strengthwork.Su: 90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.
This week was mixed up, due to the weather. Tuesday's team interval workout was pushed back to Wednesday because of a forecast of freezing rain on Tuesday morning. I can't do an interval workout on Wednesday and a tempo on Friday - they are just too close together - so I skipped the interval workout and moved my tempo workout up to Wednesday so that I could do a big long run on Saturday and then have two days to recover before the next interval workout.
I thought for a while that the Saturday long run wasn't going to happen (I didn't want to do this one on the treadmill) and then the forecast snow storm didn't happen, and I got to do it. It was hilariously windy and so my individual splits were all over the place, but I was still pretty happy with it.
I figured out a really cool hack that is helping me run faster and better. Specifically - my legs and feet do whatever my arms and hands do. Which means that when my legs and feet go rigid and stiffen up on me, I don't focus on relaxing my legs and feet while still trying to run fast (which is really hard).
Instead, I think about keeping my elbows bent and my hands relaxed while trying to run fast. When I do that, then my knees and feet start mimicking my elbows and hands and start working much better, and I run significantly faster. So that's pretty cool. And that also explains why I was able to race a 5K in perfect conditions at 7:05 pace and then average 7:28 pace over 10 miles of marathon pace intervals in substantially worse weather a week later (same route and same shoes for both the race and the workout - only difference was whether I was focusing on my legs or my arms).
Darkwave, i wasn;t on here for that. There's the regular yearly ciccado noise and there there was the brood X noise, which was so loud. And there were so many of them. I took this picture on one of my runs, all the various forms of the screamg bugs.
My week:
Monday rest
Tuesday am 4 with 3x hill sprints & strides pm strength training
Wednesday am 5.8 with 5x 3min + 3x2 min (kept these on the easier side of intervals)
Thursday rest
Friday 7.5 with a fast finish followed by lower body strength
Saturday 3 easy followed by upper body stregth
Sunday 9 easy
Watson, is the 5.5k a measuring issue or the advertised distance? Locally there is a 5.7k, it's for an ALS foundation and the football player involved (who has ALS) was #57.
Steve, hope you get better, the lost of smell & taste is tough.
Piwi, surfing in the sumemr sounds better than running. And probably cooler.
Mark, we have annual cicadas, but there is a 17 year cycle where they are everywhere.
mmerkle, the cold wind seems to make any sort of effort feel even harder.
Darkwave, this was the week of the snow that never really happened. Whatever fell here on Tuesday was 100% gone by lunchtime and there was not much on the roads Saturday morning. DIdn't stop the county from plowing/scrapinng up the street at 5am.
Fred, did you have on yak traxs for your 5k?
JamesD
Steve - Wouldn’t this be a good time to tell your partner you would be glad to eat whatever dish she cooks that you usually complain about?
Between bad weather and lack of time, four of my runs were shorter than planned, but I was pleased to at least get in something decent every day. Most of last Sunday’s run was in a rain that varied from steady to hard, but when it became a torrential downpour with waves of rain blown sideways by the wind and I couldn’t see where my feet were landing, I cut it a couple of miles short. This also meant I got back in time for the start of the Super Bowl, so that was a silver lining. No cicadas yet; we had infestations a couple of times when I was growing up, but I haven't noticed any in recent years.
Sun - 7 miles in park PM in hard rain @ 9:03
Mon - 8 miles slow TM (60:25 AM/36 PM) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Tues - 7.8 miles in park PM @ 8:35
Weds - 80 minutes pool running
Thurs - 4.2 miles in park midday including 1 @ 6:38
Fri - 8 miles very slow TM (32:25 AM/64 PM) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Sat - 8 miles very slow TM (96:25 PM) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Total - 43 miles
YTD - 41.8 mpw
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
James I watched quite alot of the Superbowl as it was on free TV here . I kinda know the rules etc but it's still quite foreign compared to our rugby.
Halfcrazy thats a cool photo. Unfortunately I have cicadas all the time with my tinnitus
DW that's an excellent hack to keep your body coordinated.
I've only had 2 runs in the Pumas so far. They feel so comfortable. Soft enough to absorb the ground forces and a barely noticeable feel to the shoe overall.
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 "
Waltons ThreadLord
Upcoming Races
02/25 Steve Motorway Half Marathon
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: Scotch Plains 5k, 6/12; Firecracker 4-miler, 7/4
James, MM and Half - nice weeks.
Steve - nice week. Good luck for Sunday. Long term forecast looks fairly good for Sunday. Saturday not so much, so hopefully it's not out by a day.
Darkwave - yes, I meant in terms of faster. Nice week, and well done with the arm-leg hack.
My week, two strength sessions plus below. Quite light with the taper and race.
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
Watched a video last night where the organisers have done a 'course tour' of the Maraetai HM which is coming up in 3 weeks. I haven't run this one for 5 years so it was kinda nice to refresh the memory, although it's pretty much as I remember - flattish aside from one pretty big hill: https://youtu.be/nmJLxjXAihw?si=lxVCNwQdux8cqRkC
Worth fast forwarding to around 7:30 if you can't be bothered watching the whole thing as the views across the Hauraki Gulf are pretty spectacular.
It was absolutely stinking hot and humid last time I ran it so hopefully not as rough this time. But IDK a clear day does get nice views so maybe that'll help.
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: Runway5 / National 5k Champs, 16:22, National Masters AG Champ!
Up next: Still working on that...
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Hot Weather Complainer
Mark - That looks awesome, although I can't remember ever enjoying the scenery during a race! Maybe at times during Southern Lakes.
James - Ha, funny you should say that. I said, screw it, I'm going to eat broccoli while I can last night. And discovered I have enough taste to still not be able to. I'm pretty sure it's slowly coming back now which is a good sign.
watson - Thanks - it looks okay but will probably be warm with a 9am start, maybe around 20-22C. Hopefully the northeasterlies aren't too strong because it's very exposed straight into that wind for the second half of the race. But it is a workout for me, so a bit of adversity isn't the worst thing. My coach has set it up as a 30-31km workout with 4 progressive steps of 7km, 1 before the race starts at easy pace, then a slight increase of pace throughout the race. If there is a strong headwind in the back half, that may end up being more progressive effort than pace.
Having said that, we will decide tomorrow if I'm going to race after an easy-ish Fartlek. I'm not feeling 100% but I'm close.
piwi - They've been talking about that young Aussie guy on Inside Running for a year or so. He's running so fast at that age, potentially a big future.
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 1:27:34
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024 DNF
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
Piwi, our usual summer cicadas have a very distinct noise pattern that rises & falls. It's only the 17 years bugs that are just ear ringing. They got called screaming sex bugs on social media, which seems like as good a dedscription as any.
JamesD, ooooh, I never thought about making stuff DH usually doesn't eat when he had covid. I have some spaghetti squash in the freezer that I can only make if he's not around.
Steve - I remember admiring the scenery the first time I ran Southern Lakes... was a perfect May morning and it was stunning down there. I'm generally not that tuned into it during road races though, with a few exceptions. Some of the scenery and views in the Xterra trail series last winter were awesome. Good luck for Sunday even if you're not going full noise.
Darkwave - wind is possibly my least favourite of all adverse weather conditions. Real toss up between that and humidity.
Thanks Mark - I'll be pushing as hard as I can towards the end but there's a bigger prize in 8 weeks so I don't imagine I'll be anywhere near a PB. With the cold I've had I'll be a bit conservative too, I want a good workout but I don't want to blow up and suffer. The forecast has improved and looks like there's a window of light winds for the race and it will only be about 18C at the start which is as good as it could be in February.
Yup - they were SO loud. No escaping the sound. I know people who had difficulty sleeping due to the noise.Video that shows just how many of them there were - Cicada Swarm Give Worker a Tough Time || ViralHog (youtube.com)
Marky_Mark- I dislike humidity and wind, but I think cold heavy rain is my least favorite running weather.
BTW, watched the video of the course - it was fun to see what your courses look like. Some pretty steep inclines there (when you can see the incline on the video, you know it's steep).
There is only one hill of note on that course, but as you can see, it's a big one. The first stretch is around 1k at a 5% grade, then you get a brief reprieve before a second stretch of about 500m, but at a 7.5% grade. The first time they ran this event they marketed it (quite tongue in cheek) as "99.5% flat". That joke is still going strong.