Half marathon this Sunday
Hey P,
Hope your still on the mends with your shoulder. I'm on week 17 of 24 in the MN Int training plan. Today calls for a VDot retest and the rest of the week general training with the longest run, 18 miles Saturday, on Sunday I have a race in Ocean City NJ a HM.
I need an adjustment this weekend as of course I'm not running long Saturday to race Sunday. I still want the physiological pounding I need for the marathon. My thoughts are do 6 Saturday, race or give it my best shot Sunday?
Do the 6 on Friday, race Sunday?
Race Sunday the HM then Monday do the 6 which may put me behind the 8 ball in the week ahead?
What is your awesome recommendations?
Thx, D
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So I decided to do my long runs at my minus 2.5 % Vdot reduction and nailed my paces for the 20 mile run, or 3 hr run, as the plan suggests. It was 5 @ Z1 , 12 @ MP , 3 @ HMP, well I got 18.70 in 3 hours and got off my feet hitting my paces.
What are your thoughts on that?
Is that what you really wanted us to train at or had I missed something in the MN plan?
Thx D
By all calculations of training and fueling I could have would have should have been a ball park 4hr 15.
My best guess to the suffer fest is that it was 61 degrees with 70-80 humidity unseasonably warm. I knew this going into race week as a warm front was coming. I was not wearing a HR strap the last month as it was 40ish but with the warm front coming in I raced wearing one.
The race to my surprise was a trail race run mostly on the side of a canal that horses used to pull barges on around the Delaware river. So the footing was unsteady too, crushed red clay and rail road grade grey rocks worn into the ground poking sharp edges up, not street as I was use to.
My marathon HR needs to be 145 tops according to my 5K Vdot test with a LTHR of 162.
45 min into the run at my reduced 15 sec per mile pace I was sub 150 HR, the next 2 hours 45 min my HR was 160 + and I was running my 20 sec reduction during this time.
I figure I could handle top end HR, don't know why, however during that 2hr 45 min listed above my pace was gradually slowing down until my legs starting cramping. I was covered in white salt stains. I did not have salt tabs the gels, shot blocks or Gatorade were not cutting it.
Finally the last 1hr 15min I was reduced to a walk. I pushed for a walk/run of 3 min on 1 min off but 15 min of that the cramping and knots in my legs revolted and I just walked. I thought my feet were going to curl up on me. I was not the only one, an ultra girl was walking too her Sherpa husband rode his bike to the finish to get salt from the food folks. They didn't have salt either as I later found out while eating post race food. Others were asking for the salt for people still racing and cramping up.
As I spent the year working on my run doing only duathlons in the summer hitting core work building myself strong with durability and losing 13 lbs I thought to hit a PR. I can't remember the last time I was so beat up during a race. Today I'm sore but not busted up, I took the day off anyway.
Your thoughts?
I will post this for the team as lesson learned and input from them.
Once the weather goes south like that or when your HR shoots up like that....OR....in your case, when BOTH happen, you are done. More specifically racing to your goal is done. No amount of planning, guts, courage or salt will help you overcome the reality of race day.
Some days you show up and it's a day to compete for place vs time.
I am impressed with what you did and happy that nothing bad happened to your body. In the future, a run walk strategy early on, or slower pacing might have delayed the inevitable. But you only have "so many" heartbeats on race day...you just can't make that work at that level of stress that is so beyond what you are used to in training.
The next question, of course, is what do you do now. Are you moving on or are you looking for some winter revenge??? Let me know!
I have been enjoying the journey and that is more important than the race albeit an apples to apples race PR is certainly motivating. Last year Philly was an awesome PR for me however 30,000 people in a race is just to many new best friends for me for the day, so I " thought this race " was doable for apples to apples for a PR .
During my build up for my marathon I was looking at , believe it or not trail running here in North Jersey http://www.njtrailseries.com/ January 4 to start with as a 1/2 Marathon to begin with. I'm doing the Jan OS with a concentration on keeping my weight down and my run durability up. The Cape May to Sea Isle City marathon is in late March as I was thinking about some payback, I haven't wrapped my head around anything yet. I know the Hell of Hunterdon is coming up and I'm already committed to American Zoff the Chris G favorite. I want to finish that awesome duathlon and keep my eye on JW as he is going LONG.
Hey I'm fiddy 7 , i.e. 57, and happy to be playing.
Been one heck of a winter here but I'm not telling you anything you don't know as you live in the east too.
February 2014 I was trying too keep up with my run, as it snowed every weekend going outside just wasn't an option.
I went to the gym at the university where I train and the tread mills were being used my the students. I decided to run on the indoor track. It is covered with rubber and both ends of the tract are beveled/slanted.
I ran 5 miles which was about my training day. A week later I went to the park to do an outside run, the snow finally cleared. I started running and with in 1 mile my left leg gave out like a flat tire.
I later found out NOBODY runs the tract who is a runner and that incline destroyed my fibula into a stress fracture.
It must have been a nice fracture because I'm still dealing with it. I'm guess some arthritis is in the area around my ankle. Nevertheless I'm up to 3 miles to 3.5 miles per running training day which is 2 a week.
This is a great time to build a strong fast run, well as fast as I can run that is. So what is your plan for me?
You know I got experience running so how would you recommend I slowly build a great fast base with a goal of killing a strong 10K, 10 miler or 1/2 Mary this fall.
I'm taking it slowly and time is on my side.
BTW I did have a PR in my OS on the bike with a FTP of 225.
First things first will be to rebuild your aerobic engine. Can use the bike as a tool to get this started? If so I'd like to see you getting in aerobic work six times a week with only 2 to 3 of those being runs.
In terms of running, right now it's all about making sure you're hundred percent recovered. Quality over quantity. Frequency before volume.
I'd like to see you running 2 to 3 times a week right now for about 3 miles ... assuming you have confirmation that the stress fracture is healed and it's a go for training. Can you give me that?
My leg is good to go.
My training right now is
Monday bike,
Tues run and I'm up to 3 miles, I'm finishing with obstacle training pushups pull-ups overhead ladder crossing lite jogging,
Wed Bike,
Thurs same as Tues,
Friday off,
Saturday longer bike about 25-30 miles and lastly Sunday off.
So yep 2 days of running so far for about a month now.
Would you like to change or rearrange the above?
I was registered for the Hell of Hunterdon and missed that this year as well as the Chris G memorial super duper duathlon.... I want some pay back in 2015