Competitive Jerks Racing and Training - 2023 (Read 574 times)

Dave - Great stuff, definitely have to treasure that.  Especially impressive winning after running a few hundred metres extra.

Mikkey - You aced that.

Flavio - I've got a feeling you might recover fully just in time and smash this race.

me - Pretty solid week post-race with a lot of aerobic stuff.  I blew the workout yesterday a bit, the first km at the start of the third rep was 4:03.  I adjusted quickly but my HR was a bit high for the rest of the workout.

Weekly for period: From: 28/08/2023 To 03/09/2023

Totals: Time: 08:12:33 - 🦅Imperial: 60.27 mi - Metric: 96.98 km

Dave - congrats!! I always say you can only race the people that show up... a win's a win!

Quick dump of the weekly for me, I'll catch up with everyone else's a bit later on.  Last Xterra race was today, out at Riverhead Forest, where I sometimes do long runs, but on a lot of trails there I don't normally run (given the chance of an altercation with mountain bikes off the main roads!).  Came 2nd, so that was pretty good.  It was a very muddy course and that was AFTER a very dry week too, some tough hills as well, but a few longer / easier stretches on the major forestry roads to break it up.  The family were at the finish line too to cheer me on so that was a highlight for Fathers Day, they've missed the other races given dragging a baby along to a remote location is kinda hard work especially in the middle of winter lol.

That was the last race of the Xterra series and I have to say it's one of the best things I've done as a runner.  Totally different style of running... tough, unforgiving, hard to find a rhythm, and I felt like dying after the first one.  I wouldn't say they necessarily got easier but I did get the hang of it a bit more and it was great fun running in a bunch of really cool locations that I'd never have been to otherwise.  Miss 6 is super excited after hearing about the mud so next year I'll probably do the short course instead with her.

Weekly for period: From: 28/08/2023 To 03/09/2023

Totals: Time: 05:11:10 - 🦅Imperial: 44.91 mi - Metric: 72.25 km

Flavio in your signature it says up next base building till August. Man we are in September, can’t you update those things on time??? 😅

We come to a running forum for tennis puns and spa treatments?

 

In running related news: I actually won my 10k today! Only 30 people bothered to run it, most opted for the 5k. Which makes sense because it was 70F and sunny. To make matters worse—I made a wrong turn, had to backtrack, and ended up running an extra 0.2 miles. I felt I was in shape for <41, and worst case I thought still a PR of <41:30. If I’d run the right distance, the first one wasn’t going to happen under today’s conditions, although I would have been very close to PR. I checked my watch at 6.2 and it was 41:30-something. My 5k split (correct distance to that point) was 20:39, but I wilted a little in the second half. Final time 43:10 for 6.44 miles. 

Anyway, my first (and probably last) ever win, so I’ll take it. You can only race against those who show up!

Congrats! That’s still a great time considering your mileage and no taper.

On the one hand you had the negative of running the race solo…but on the positive you think bloody hell I’m in the lead here and mustn’t let anyone overtake me! 

Steve I noticed you distinguish between aerobic threshold and lactate threshold. What is the distinction? The way I've been training, there is nothing between VO2 max and lactate threshold AKA "tempo". And after that nothing between tempo and easy. By tempo I mean "one hour race pace" as defined by Jack Daniels.

 

One week out. This week in VA is going to be very hot. As of now, race morning in Erie looks like 60 F at the start, rising to 68 by the time I should finish. I might try to force some heat adaptation this week. I'm split between "this is just another marathon, we know the drill, we are in shape, should be a good one. And, "holy shit this is terrifying, why are we doing this again? Most of the time it ends in disaster."

My coach uses 6 zones.  Aerobic threshold is zone 4, between the dead zone and lactate threshold.  It's essentially tempo for me, with the top end of zone 4 being slightly faster than half marathon pace.  Zone 5 is lactate threshold which ranges from just slower than 5km pace to just slower than 10km pace.  Zone 6 is Vo2 Max which is basically my current predicted 5km pace and faster.  My coach hasn't had me do any sessions in Zone 6 yet (except a 5km race which was essentially a time trial to establish the zones), probably because my goal races have been full and half marathons.   It's actually set up using HR and converted to pace - most of my workouts are based on HR, not pace zones.

60 at the start is higher than I would like but at least it isn't shooting up too far during the race.  I wouldn't do too much work in the heat this week, it's a bit late to adapt and you may use up energy you need on race day.  Make sure you're drinking plenty on those hot days and include some electrolytes.

Catching up a bit from week before last and then this past one : 

Dave, (re: 3 x 2s from week before last) I will sometimes switch from longer reps to shorter reps and more of them. The ability to do the opposite seems a pretty good sign. This week also looking solid. I missed it, but which race are you doing in a few weeks? 

Cognrats on your 10k win! It is a pretty cool feeling, no matter the race :-) 

Flavio, the first run back heading east always feels like crap. It helps a lot with the jet lag, though! I'm impressed that you pulled off that long run straight from the runway. 

Sorry you both got covid again. Hope your wife is ding better, and your infection thing disappears quickly. 

I was going to ask why you thought the PR wouldn’t be possible in Köln, but then you shared that Strava comparison, which paints a picture. Still, is that realistic or pessimistic? Couldn’t other factors play a role? 

Steve, the fact that the 10k was certified is good news. I wouldn’t bother with what Strava says at that point. And yeah, my question was about both secondary and post-secondary schools. Mostly secondary, because I imagine the meets would have to be during the school week and after school, which, in Florida in August and September, really sucked because of the humidity. Though I don’t envy having championships in 35C heat either, no matter how dry. Florida sports organizers I guess at least planned those better in November and more in the north of the state (which has a different climate zone). 

Nice week this week. I wouldn’t worry too much about the workout. It looks to be around 4 x 3000m? That’s tough to get a pace feel for. 

Re: PB attempt at Hagley, I personally would use it as a hard workout, but not all out. My mental game would be messed up for the half if I thought I had any excuse not to run my absolute best in the half. But obviously, I'd defer to my coach. Aren't you aiming for the PB at Melbourne? 

Darkwave, thanks. It's cool to be back. That 8k tempo from Friday before last looked really good! And yeah, I’m with CK in that I’m excited to see what you do in Chicago. 

Mark, ah, I see. I like those kind of workouts! I imagine the 5 min increases invited a higher notch than the 15-10min ones. 

And congrats on second at Xterra! It does sound like this trail thing could be something you do more often. I personally also like the experience of getting to see beautiful, new-to-me natural areas through these races. 

Keen, with five 100+-milers, it seems like you’re definitely in excellent shape!! I was going to ask if the sausage (Wurst) race has a marathon option you could switch to, then I realized it would interfere with your hundo.  

Also re: winter races, well, even if most of them in Florida are in winter, that’s not really something to celebrate. 

I am working with the same coach I was for the Ft. Lauderdale/Hungryland build-up. I liked the workouts, and I really like having someone figure out the workouts around my schedule. Right now I’m just running 5 days (conserving my energy W + F for teaching)  but I’ll probably start 6 next week. Tuesday intervals, Thursday tempo, and Saturday long run. Standard I guess. 

Speaking of, this was this week (no tempos yet) : 

Totals: Time: 06:40:40 - 🦅Imperial: 44.1 mi - Metric: 70.97 km

I’m quite happy with the track workout. I definitely feel more fit than I did this time last year. It’s feeling a lot like 2019, which was a good running year for me. This also means I’m ready to put my goal on the board for Philadelphia: 3:25:something.

Cal and re:cold showers, my great-aunt, who just turned 100, has been taking cold showers every day for most of her life. I don’t know if there’s a correlation, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. 

Mmerkle, one week out! You must be antsy. Are you still doing the 50 miler? Or is that later? Either way, it’s probably okay that the temps are changing during your taper… you just have to be extra vigilant about the temp change, since your immune system will already be a bit confused. And 60F seems okay for a start. Not ideal, but if it’s dry, then it’s not too bad. Also ditto Steve on hydrating and electrolytes. 

Dave - congrats! We have monthly races ran by a local Running Club - you can chose either 5, 10 or 15K - I think I won couple of times those races, like 15K or 10K - when number of participants were like 20-30 people (less in 15K race), but sure - win is a win Good mileage week!

flavio - I don't even know how you ran that kind of mileage with all the problems you had. I wonder what kind of life do you have - do you have a regular job? Doesn't seem like it Are you a heir of some Brazialian oligarch?

Steve - nice miles!

Marky - interesting... For a speedy guy you kind of run a lot of trail races - surprising - I never saw speedy guys loving trails so much

mmerkle - looking forward to your race! You seem to be ready!

Dorothea - nice miles... Cold showers - too bad for me, I started them this January, now I am taking them twice a day - getting kind of addicted - they certainly make me think more decisively. But first time I took cold shower in January - that was really cold shower - I think like 50oF - it was my first time - two minutes - the shock was so huge, I could not remember many things from my memory for 2 or 3 hours - that was kind of scary - I guess that was real shock. Next time and all the other days never happened anything like that - just the first day...

Finally... I can report something I am not ashamed of - two weeks - good trajectory - 50+ and 65 miles - just need to keep it up...

Weekly for period: From: 08/21/2023 To 08/27/2023

Totals: Time: 07:27:11 - 🦅Imperial: 52.64 mi - Metric: 84.70 km

Weekly for period: From: 08/28/2023 To 09/03/2023

Date	Name	mi	km	Duration	Avg/mi	Avg/km
08/29	2 x 2 miles 800 jog (6:09, 6:19)	7.23	11.64	00:53:50	07:27	04:37
08/31	Lunch Run	13.33	21.45	01:57:52	08:51	05:30
09/01	Lunch Run	13.43	21.61	02:02:19	09:06	05:40
09/02	time to get serious	17.61	28.33	02:20:16	07:58	04:57
09/03	Afternoon Run	13.43	21.62	02:05:31	09:21	05:48

Totals: Time: 09:19:48 - 🦅Imperial: 65.04 mi - Metric: 104.64 km

Race report, Xterra Riverhead, 3 Sept 2023

This was the last race of the Xterra series.  For the most part, I wasn't really "racing" these... this was just going to be something to keep me focused and add a bit of variety over winter.  Except for Waiuku, when I moved into first place about halfway through the race, I definitely started racing that one.  But what the hey, why not do a RR.  This has been a super-fun series after all.

Anyway, every race so far has had its own unique features for a good chunk of the race...

Waitawa - clay ice-skating (no really)

Hunua - super-technical (i.e. good luck actually running it)

Shakespear - rocky coastline (good luck actually running on that too)

Totara Park - steps.  Also cows that sometimes get a bit chasey.

Waiuku - sand.

This one was in Riverhead forest, where I do go running from time to time.  The trails there fall into two categories - the main forestry roads which are gravel and well-maintained, and then there's the trails which are generally used by mountain bikers and range from well-maintained to practically overgrown.

The race was a mix of all of the above, 17.5km all up.  Also mud, a lot of mud.  Splashy mud, squelchy mud, dark mud, light mud, surprise mud.  All kinds of mud.  I lost count of the number of times I thought to myself "my 6 year old daughter would love this".

Anyway the race starts on the western edge of the forest and there's a brief stretch on Barlow Road (one of the main roads) before turning onto a secondary road which is still pretty decent quality trail.  The long course (which I'm running) and super long course start at the same time and run together until the first course split so you don't really know who you're up against.  I start pretty conservatively because if you don't, the trail monsters will eat you alive.  The first big hill, and the first nasty race director trick is 2km in.  Having looked at the map, I figured this hill was Murder Hill.  OK, Jones Road, but it's more fun calling it Murder Hill.  Actually it is the muddy mountain bike trail that runs parallel to Jones Road.  It didn't seem as bad as I thought at the time but it did catch up with me at one point later.

There is some technical-ish stuff going down the other side (also quite muddy) and luckily there's a runner about 20m ahead of me which is perfect for trying to spot the most efficient / least muddy path.  Couple of entertaining collisions down here - one with a small dead tree which I barely noticed at the time but discovered later had left a decent scratch, the second with another runner who decided to try and pass me on a narrow section without saying anything to let me know he was there.  This is basically the trail running equivalent of walking in lane one so I let rip at him ("FFS it's "on your right" dude!) but no (actual) harm done, luckily.  He has a man bun so you know it was all his fault (not my words, my wife said that after the race, probably true though).

Anyway over a stream crossing and the next hill was entertaining because there was a guy who had clearly mastered the very slow jog up the long, steep hill, whereas I tend to run / walk the tougher hills, particularly when its muddy or soft underfoot, and we played a funny yo-yo game for five minutes or so.  After that we're on Longbush Road which is one of the main forest roads and there's a nice long easy downhill stretch to rest the legs.  The first aid station is around 5km in and I notice a guy stopped there who I had a good chat to during the first race, hopefully that's not the end of his day.

Next up is another technical trail section, actually a mountain bike trail called "Not For You", so of course I had Pearl Jam stuck in my head for the next ten minutes ("Restless soooooooul... enjoy your youth"), then the first course split has the super long course runners going one way and me going the other.  I figure I am probably in second behind the guy that has smashed everyone in every race all series except the last one where I somehow beat him, but that's a total guess.  There's a nice easy stretch on gravel road through here on to Whakatahi Road, at which point we've crossed over to the eastern edge of the forest (where I normally start my runs throguh here).

Quite a long climb up here back to Longbush, normally I'd run the whole thing but my legs are a bit munted after the alternate route up Murder Hill, so I walked for a minute or so to recharge through the middle.  After the second aid station (I think 10km?) it's into some more technical trails, which after a tricky downhill section leads to probably my favourite part of the whole race.  The track widens out a bit, some gentle contours but nothing too tough aside from the odd large mud puddle, and yet its very much in the heart of the forest.  Its blissfully quiet apart from bird noise and feels totally off the grid.  2 or 3km of just... fun.  I think that's the best thing about trail racing.  You get moments like this where you're just out in nature enjoying the ride.  Not thinking about pace, or anything, just enjoying the ride.  I looked at a map later and discovered the trails through here were MRGA and Blackwoods so I'll maybe have to venture back sometime.

We've drifted NW at this point so I'm starting to wonder what's in store.  The northern part of the forest is very different to the south where there is active commercial logging in places.  It's like they planted the forest and then just decided never to do any of the maintenance you generally do in commercial forests and basically just left it.  The top end of ANZAC Road is actually really fun but I've no doubt there are some really rough trails here too and I recall from the course map that there's one really tough hill to go.

There's a short stretch on Campbell Road which I recognise from the main loop I normally run and then yep, sure enough, they've saved something special for the last few km of the last race of the series.  The hill is "only" 1km long but its around a 10% grade and very muddy in places.  Well played, race director.

It was actually almost worth it for the descent which was a really neat forest trail.  Lots of turns and a little steep in places so you couldn't really go fast but it was good fun and quite forgiving underfoot.  You did have to stay alert as there were a few obstacles and the trail markings here weren't always super obvious.  But it made for a bit of the other great thing about trail racing which is adventure and exploration, but not quite so much that you are in fear for your wellbeing.

It levelled out just before the last turn with a sign that indicated 1.5km to go.  Around this point I got passed by the lead super-long runner (he did say "on your right" even though the trail was quite wide here too so man-bun was definitely in the wrong).  He is flying along so good on him.  There are some enormous mud puddles through here, most of which I don't make much effort to avoid because it's not far to go and a straight line is the fastest route.  Also I think my wife and daughters are coming to watch the finish and Miss 6 will be disappointed if I do not demonstrate a suitable level of muddiness (Miss 0.25 will have no clue what is going on).  This series has been one big, crazy adventure and its a little nostalgic, almost sad, that the last finish line is soon approaching.

Soon enough I can hear the PA and its a short (but slightly tired) climb up to the finish line.  I hear my wife before I see her (pretty much as usual) and it's a great buzz to know they are there at the finish, as this is the first race they've been able to make it along to in quite a while.  Plus I got second, and even bigger plus I get the series medal which is one of the harder-earned medals going around (finish all 6 series races, no exceptions) and one of the sweeter pieces of race bling I've seen.  Also then the family gets to share another great thing about this series... free hot chips and drinks at the finish (and free beer if you're that way inclined)!