DOS Run Week 5 - Back to business

Scott Giljum

Happy New Year all! Now that we have survived and enjoyed the holidays, it's time to get back to the work of making ourselves stronger athletes for the tri season to come. By this point, fatigue will likely start to show up, whether directly in your run workouts or as a carryover into bike or other work. Hopefully you were able to get lots of rest these past couple of weeks. If you were, be sure to pay attention to your personal warning signs of doing too much as you dive back into everything full go. For me, feeling tired, getting cranky with those who are near me, and a general feeling of "go away" are all signs that I need to make some adjustments. Keep up the frequency work as we start to add a bit more time, the theme of the OS from the run side.

 

Also, take advantage of the resources we have in the OS by posting to the threads and ask your questions.  KMF and Al alone have enough wisdom to make your monthly fee worth it.  They can't share any of it with you though if you don't ask.  Have a great week all!

Mark Maurer

Happy New Year and thanks Scott for keeping this rolling. I was really hit and miss last week with my workouts but I did get a long run in at the beach including 2 miles on sand at the beginning of the run. Today I went to the gym and did 63 floors on the stair stepper, then a 1.1 mile run around the indoor track, followed by another set of 63 floors on the stair stepper all with a pack with water and other essentials that I'll have to carry at the Alaskaman. The last 7 miles of the race consists of a 2ish mile run with 2000+ feet of elevation gain, a run down the mountain on a service road, and then climb back up for 2 miles and another 2000+ feet gain and I'll have to carry a backpack with extra clothes and other essentials. So I'm structuring my run training a little differently from the plan. All in all the workout today went better than I thought it might, of course I didn't have a 2.6 mile swim and 112 mile bike and 20 miles of running in my legs. 

Rafe Armstrong

Did a 5k race this past weekend while visiting my parents in Destin Florida for New Years. Was able to drop my time by 32 seconds over test 4 weeks ago so happy with that. Strong run on Sunday and then good 5 miles today after hard threshold intervals on the bike.

Scott Giljum

Good morning all, what a difference a day makes. Yesterday I would have run in shorts, today I was as layered up as I could be and was still freezing. I did get in the 70-ish minutes of TRP work, which turned into 9 and change miles. I can tell my diet and hydration have not been up to snuff as my breathing during the run was a bit more haggard than I am used to. Something else to work on at the start of the year! All in all, it was a good run, esp given the conditions. I may get in the pool later today for some recovery swim work, but we will see. Keep up the great work!

Shaughn Simmons

Strong running Scott/Rafe/Mark!

I was away last week as well trying to survive myself on the slopes in CO.....got in a couple of 5K runs, one in Taos on the way back home at 8K feet

Did a progressive 5 mile brick run Monday ending in Z3:

https://www.strava.com/activities/819254622

Trying to get back on the horse this week.

SS

 

jimmy augustine

Saw my PT yesterday and my achillies is improving nicely. zero discomfort in day to day walking.
So I was green lighted to do the following this morning:
Roll out and calf drops to warm up
then
4 rounds of 3.5min easy walk, 1.5 min easy jog.

Boom baby! that is 6 min of jogging in the books for me today!

I'd say that getting old is rough but this is an injury that I have dealt with on and off since I was in my 20's...

Mark Maurer

@ Jimmy, it takes longer for injuries to heal when you're older, that's the real kicker.

Got my run in during lunch today while the sun was out. It was clear, windy, and relatively cold. 8.2 miles in 72 minutes. The cold air meant that my heart rate was higher than normal.

https://www.strava.com/activities/821416503/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-US&v=1483568173

Alicia Chase

Got the run in after work, 1:01, a little short. 20 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. I drove 30 min to town where I had buildings to block the wind, and street lamps to run in the dark. The run is going to be a challenge until we get more daylight.

Shaughn Simmons

@MM - very nice work out there!

@Alicia  - can you give yourself a break and get on the TM with a foot pod at some point?  Nice job?

@Jimmy - healing like a veteran!

I got in some run interval work on the TM yesterday myself: https://www.strava.com/activities/821139612

Recovery bike for me this morning.......

Keep working all!

SS

Rafe Armstrong

Felt strong on yesterdays run despite really depleting the legs on Tuesday. Got in 9 miles and logged quite a bit of Z2 and some Z3 time

Alicia Chase

Shaughn, my gym has a 30 min limit on treadmills. If it's not busy, I can do 30 more by "treadmill hopping" ?? but 60 would be my absolute limit anyway, for those longer run days. May have to bite the bullet and start using it for the shorter runs, though. January and February in upstate NY is generally pretty cold and snowy.

Rafe Armstrong

Good steady 5 miles after work yesterday. This morning felt great on the treadmill logging about 20min of uphill time broken into 2-3min blocks alternated with short segments of much faster flat running. Another 5.5 miles.

Scott Giljum

Happy Friday all! Even on a short week it still feels very welcome to be here. I got up early this morning and did a hilly TRP run for about 4.5 miles which was a bit short of the 40 minute target. Given that the temps were in the single digits with wind chills below 0, and I was freezing from start to finish, I bailed on the few extra minutes this time. I also snuck in a swim over lunch today, so I am ready for the weekend!

Mark Maurer

I pushed my Sunday run up a day since tomorrow is supposed to be in the 30's and raining, not fun. Today was cold, in the upper 20's when I went out, but it was dry. I wore a backpack with Skratch since I'm going to have to be self supporting on the Alaskaman and I want to start getting used to the weight and all. It felt like the old days when I used to run with a camelback for my long runs. When I started out I was running between Z1 and TRP but my RPE and my breathing was much more like I was running in Z2 or above. I think this was more from the cold than the pack because I noticed the same thing when I ran on Wednesday in the cold. In past years I've had some exercise induced asthma when it's cold and I tried to do interval work, so I kept to the Z1, TRP pace throughout the run and didn't push it to the Z4 today. My wife went for a run about the same time and she remarked about the air quality. Since it's been cold and still around here for a couple of days and people use wood stoves around here, that probably had something to do with it as well. 

Scott Giljum

Happy Sunday all. I woke up this morning and did a bit more than 80 minutes, largely at TRP. I debated dialing it up for the two miles at z4, but the road conditions were still a bit snowy so I decided to just stick with TRP. It felt ok, but my legs are certainly carrying some fatigue. Also my hips are acting up a bit so I will likely be seeing my ART guy before too long to help "break" them loose. Nothing serious, things just get a bit tight. I hope you all had a good run!

Alicia Chase

Got almost all of the running in under very tough conditions. Hard for me to get in a run after the bike during the week, between work and short days. I'm taking just one day off, running on the other day off, and extending all of my runs by a few minutes. I was off for a week over the holidays and got all the running in that week. Last week, I came up less than 3 miles short, but considering I did three runs in single digits temps and/or wind chill, I'm ok with it. Hopefully, I'll get it all in this week. The weather looks a little warmer.

Scott Giljum

@Alicia, great job getting in your runs. If you are not, I would focus on the time instead of the miles. In talking with P about the idea of the mileage goals, that is there more as a cap than a target I need to hit or exceed. Again, frequency and time on your feet is what we are after and what will help you build the durability to add the mileage later in the season. Great work, let me know if you have questions.

Shaughn Simmons

https://www.strava.com/activities/825766267

Some fatigue in those legs yesterday for the Sunday run.  3 X 1.25 then 1 X .75 - about 30 secs/mile slower given I burnt too many matches on Saturday.

~34 miles for the week with a total of 8 miles for the week at Z4 pacing......

Great week for running in this group as I watched all of you knocking down those wkos on top of your bike training loads!

SS

Alicia Chase

Thanks for the response, Scott. Time-wise I was about 28 min short. If I had run the time, it would've put me over the mileage target (albeit, not by much). So, for those weeks I can manage the time, can I cut the time short if I'm going to exceed the mileage target?

Shaughn Simmons

@Alicia, good question!  How do you feel?  Are you hitting/nailing the bike wkos?  If yes and you feel strong, you could consider exceeding the run mileage slightly, if no, if just hanging on, stick with the mileage cap and give your body time to adjust a bit.

Monday, Z1 durability run for me: https://www.strava.com/activities/826611377

Have a great week all!!

SS

Scott Giljum

Alicia, SS beat me to the punch and said it better than I could. Exactly what he said.

Alicia Chase

Thanks, Shaughn and Scott, for answering. I've had to move workouts around because I'm traveling a lot the next couple of weeks. I did today's bike yesterday and that was the first time I saw the gorilla (I've always called it wrestling the bear--same concept!!) I did the 3x10 z4 workout and I bonked on the last set--not enough carbs. Now that the workouts are getting harder, I need to be more vigilant about fueling. I'll try to hit whichever gets me more on the run this week--time or distance--and see how I feel. Thanks for the advice.