@ ;Jane - kickin' it up for the last 4 in a hilly 16 miler is great. Shows excellent stamina and endurance. Way to bring it. I'm up for a 20 miler this weekend too.
@ ;Carrie - I reserve the right to whine as I see fit, =:-O like when I have no legit excuse for doing dumb things... Hey - nice 'Cougar' run with a 'stud-muffin'...... just sayin.... LOL
@ ;Tim - thanks. Isn't it a great motivator knowing others are going to post painful details of how they gutted it out.....and finished? Those thoughts flash thru my head everytime I start to waiver.... it really helps boost the mojo. Mooseman weekend will be a blast .... as long as I don't blow up on the killer hills I keep hearing about.
@ ;B - Way to go girl! Plus 2 on the vDot is no small thing.... I'm with Justin - I think we will see a pair of 4's from you real soon.
Go Brenda!!! 2 Vdot point increase is HUGE!!! 1 minute off a 5 K.... Incredible!
YASSO 800's on the track today. 10 x 800 @ Fast with 400 easy equal duration to interval. Theory per Bart Yasso is take avg of the 10 and this is your predicted marathon finish time. I averaged 3:05!!!!!!! GET OUT!!!!
All that done with quads that are still barking from Sundays hilly 19 miler. I JUST want my legs to stop hurting. But today's track was SO worth it!
@Brenda, I think you owe me some green tea money at Sbux....NICE!!!
@Carrie, you are a stud on the interval work. I am getting the long run stuff in but not that motivated to drill the interval stuff anymore. Maybe tomorrow will be another day! Thanks for the inspiration!
Carrie - I love doing Yasso 800's - my favoite track workout... but due to snow here in ME it has been a while.... I should check the the UMO track, see if it's snow free yet.
Went for my mid week 10 miler tonight. Was supposed to be a tempo progression but my legs are still feeling mushy from the half mary on sunday. Still a good run, just not as snappy as planned.
10 miles @ 8:24; 1:24:04 overall. Dispite the fatigue, still managed a negative split. First 5 @ 8:51, second 5 @ 7:56.
Complete implosion on the run today. Plan was to run 12 miles with 6 at marathon tempo( around goal pace). Began the marathon tempo part at mile 4, ran 2 in 7:04 and 7:06 then fell apart, next 2 were 7:25, then the walking started. 2 Friends walk jogged me back slowly where we met Steve who had run back to find me. He was shocked to see me walking. I gave him the car key and he ran ahead to get the car. I ended up with 10 miles in sub 8 avg but it was UGLY! My quads are still sore from Sunday and my body is exausted. THE ENERGIZER BUNNY RAN OUT OF STEAM!!!
It is amazing how my quads got cooked from Sundays run. Then the track just prolonged the suffering I guess. Hard rest now for 2 days until Sundays last 20 miler. If quads still sore will skip it all together.
Carrie, my dear Carrie, sorry to hear about the implosion BUT you sound like you have a plan and it looks like a good one. It sounds like you are listening to the bod.
I find crappy workouts really play with my head, especially when I have an important race coming up. I am still working on getting the ouch experience I had from my Boston qualifying marathon out of my head and that was two years ago. I am getting freaked out about Boston and my 30km ATB this Sunday. I hate that my previous times are all up on sportstats, because I know that my friends and anyone who knows me will be looking to see how I did. Anyway, I have a plan that I am going to try to implement and we will see how the day goes.
Now this post was not suppose to be about me, and look what happened. Sorry Carrie. I hope you feel revived and back to the energizer bunny soon.
I went to a race today. It was called Passion For Life. How could I resist running something with that title. It was for a great cause, Children's Hospital. It was a 5 miler. I used it as a tempo run. I ran 2 miles warm up 5@ tempo and 1 mile cool down. I have a 20 miler with friends tomorrow. I hope I can keep up with them. I still won my age group. I won a gift certificate at a restaurant and that is where we went after! Nap time now.
Carrie I hope your legs feel better today. You have been training very hard. Hopefully some rest/nutrition will remedy the situation. I have confidence that you will listen to your body and follow your plan. Good luck tomorow!
Brenda Good luck to you tomorrow! Follow your plan! Can't wait to hear about it. I wish I had registered for that race. maybe next year.
Thanks for the support. I took yesterday off. Today I rode easy inside for 1 1/2 hours. Feeling great. Will see how my body responds tomorrow for 20 miles. I was planning to run alone but 3 male friends asked to join me. We are all comparable paces and do ALL our training together. Should be great no matter how I feel.
Will report back tomorrow.
Congrats Jane on your race! Have a great long run tomorrow!
Brenda- enjoy your race. Remember it is your race and your plan. Don't worry about what others are thinking or if they have expectations. They are your friends and they should just want you to feel good and strong. The time is not important!
@ ;Jane - Congrats on AG! That is awesome for sure!
@ Carrie - bummer on the implosion.. .but in reality, 3 weeks out is a good time to hit a fatigue wall. Plenty of time to put the bunnie batteries on the charger..... I have no doubt you are going to crush your competition at Boston.
@ ;B - Races are celebrations for YOU, not your non-running friends. Don't be at all concerned about your stats or what others think. Running may occur in a social environment but is most definitely is a "just me" event. You alone in your head and in your shoes.... nobody else can take credit for a single step - it's all you. You've done the work, you will do great.
As for performance anxiety, dismiss all your expectations and those others may have for you. Goals? Certainly - we all need goals. Goals are good. Expectations can be crippling. The best approach is to train the best you can with the time you have. Then on race day, as you put your toes to the line, recognize that you must run within the fitness you bring "That day" to have a good race. Go too big (expectations again) you're likely to suffer. Go to easy (giving up) and you will forever wonder "If I had only...."
These past few months you have been very diligent about hitting all your workouts. Hit them hard. Posted regular improvements. You are there, you just need to let yourself see that. I am ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that every person in this forum and within EN will be there for you and encourage you - no matter what.
Writing this lead me to something I posted several years ago leading up to the Big Sur Marathon. There was a discussion board of runners to share their thoughts, views and training. I got all philosophical...... someone was questioning their reasons for running.... below is an excerpt:
...You know, this is a great thread. I think it allows us all to focus on the compelling needs within all of us to seek out those things that define ‘living’. I know some are here for competitive reasons and others are fulfilling lists, but there to, it’s a compulsion to run. One step at a time, again and again, over and over until we cross that finish line. That simple act of toeing a start, leading to the final step as we reach the finish – changes us in ways we never could have imagined had we not tried.
Like climbing a mountain, running a river or sailing solo, we alter our perspective on life. We see things from a different point of view that stays with us after we return to daily living. We yearn to go out and immerse ourselves in the sensations of the journey one more time. Good races provide a sense of euphoria, hard races teach us pain, bad races remind us of what it takes to endure. We never fail, not really, but sometimes we take longer than we would like or have to return another time to reach the finish....
FYI - Coach P posted a "Last Long Run" thread to the discussion board (for those that log in with laser lock, as I do). And now ... we taper.
The most important fact about the taper period (that we all must accept) is that nothing can get better, but a lot can get worse. Sorry for the pessimistic evaluation, but it's the hard truth. There is nothing you can do over the next three weeks that will make your race appreciably faster - but taper incorrectly and it will certainly be slower. Coach P has some great insight on how to properly approach the taper, so use it.
The only piece of advice I will inject is to focus on staying sharp. If you have a scheduled run, and your legs are raw from other activities, skip it. If you're feeling speedy, log some tempo miles but keep it short and recover properly. If Z3 feels like work, stick with Z2. Our season is long, and there is plenty of time to "suck it up" and train through the wall. This is NOT that time. Run as you must - run as you can. Follow this protocol, and you'll arrive in Hopkinton as a well-oiled machine.
@ Jane - congrats on your race and winning your age group. @ Steve - you are sweet. Thank you for your kind words, but I did not see them until today at 9:27pm when I got back home for the race.
So, onto how it went. Short answer - very good. Did a PB and that was at a very comfortable pace
Long story - tweaked my left leg in my 5km test this week and it was been sore all week. Went for a physio appointment on Friday which made it much better, but it was still noticeable when walking, so I was not sure how it was going to go. I had decided that I was going to use the 30km Around the Bay race as a training run and that is what I did. The first 5km of the run I could feel my left leg dropping, but it did not stop me from running and I told myself to stay positive and just see if it would work itself out, which it did. Kept on my fueling plan (every 3km I would ingest 4oz of fluid and every 10km I would take in a gel). I was not bothered by any of the hills and compared to the last time that I did this race it felt easy. I am not a fast runner like all you guys, but I did have over a 1 min (almost 2 min PB by cutting 8seconds off per km in this race compared to the last time I did it).
Thank you for all your support. You do not know how much I appreciate it.
Last 20 done BUT it ended horribly. Had been struggling with tired quads and power outage since Thurs. Felt great this morning. No issues just woke up hungry which is new for me. I did not leave myself enough time to eat breakfast ( I never eat before these long runs, just gels and cyto while running). So I felt bonky early and fought it by taking my gels earlier than scheduled. By 14 miles I was on the fumes and my left foot felt crampy under the big toe/arch area, and to be honest my quads still did not feel normal. By 16 I started to walk as I felt this was smart. I wanted to call for a ride but instead walked a bit with one of the guys because he was struggling too. We eventually started to jog and jogged it in. TOTAL bummer. My foot feels weird and it seems to be my great toe flexor tendon? Flexor Hallicus Longus.
My avg pace including all the jogging is not far off my "good" runs but it felt HORRIBLE!
Sucks to finish off the training that way. It is what it is.
My taper will include lots of swimming, pool running and easy bikes. Planning to rest my body really well. 3 weeks to charge my batteries.
Prayers please for my foot to be normal very soon.
Carrie - you are being very smart. Sounds like your body does need a rest, but you have a plan so good for you. My husband is feeling the same way. He walked in the race yesterday and he has never ever walked in a race before, so he is shutting things down as well and getting in the pool and doing easy bikes to taper for the marathon. I am happy with my performance yesterday, but nervous about coming in at a decent time in Boston, but all the work is done so all I have to do is hope that if I am tapered for the race I will have a good one. Going to do some VASA today and an easy 45min ride to loosen the legs up for tomorrows interval run (as assigned on the marathon hack).
Brenda - Congrats on your PB. That is good news to hear that you felt great! You are going to rock Boston if those hills felt easy! It sounds like things are comming together for you.
Carrie - Sorry to hear about your foot. Rest a bit and that foot will be better. You have had so many good quality runs that this last one is nothing to worry about. Rest and re-charge!
@ ;Brenda - congrats on the PR! See, no worries.... You do the work, it pays you back. You are going to do awesome at Boston. Bummer about your Steve. Sounds like he may have bumped up against the fatigue wall Carrie hit. Three weeks of taper should fix that.
@ Carrie....... battery charger time.... just sayin..... =:-]
@ ;Justin - sound advise on intensity vs. volume..
Today was likely my last hill workout. I have a local loop that is 0.9 miles, climbs and drops 100' @ ;6%. Did 7 miles including 8 hill repeats in 1:00:07. The second hill reminded me to watch my form, I was getting forward and my achillies didn't like it. The rest were shoulders back, head high and knees up - no more 'hot' tendons. The last 2 repeats were by far the best. Smooth and consistant with good form.
*** Got my race packet in the mail yesterday.... Yippee! ****
Got my race packet in the mail today!!! K, getting a little excited. Going to do my 21km run in the hills of Manotik on Sunday me thinks as assigned in the hack and just keep everything else nice and easy.
Thanks everyone for your support before and now after Around the Bay. Looking forward to meeting you all in Boston.
Now, onto the trainer for an easy 30-45min ride. Tomorrow is 4 x 1 mile repeats at Z4 pace.
10 mile tempo run tonight. 34* going out, light and variable breeze mostly from the west. Run as a progression, nearly perfect mile by mile negative splits. First half @ 8:31, return trip @ 7:34 rusulting in an overall pace of 8:02.
Total time 1:20:25, rTSS 108; total ascent 614'
Next up, 5 to 6 mile easy run Saturday then my last half marathon Sunday.
I ended up running my half marathon hard. I didn't taper so I knew it would not be my best time. My goal was to run sub 8 minute miles. I forgot my garmin and had to use my timex watch. I caught most of the mile markers and was in my goal range. Some mile markers were missing. When I got to the finish my watch read 1:46:50. I thought how could that be. I was expecting to be under 1:45. Well it turns out that the course was long. Everyone with a garmin got 13.5 for the distance. I guess they misplaced the turn around point on the course! Oh well we got more for our money! It was a nice day to run. I was a bit sore after and I did a bike trainer ride today but no 2:30's! LOL I did a zone 2 and 3 ride instead.
Did my 21km run in the hills of Manotick and it was okay. Left leg took about 10km to work itself out, but once that happended the run was more enjoyable. Will do an easy bike tomorrow and then my OS bike test that I could do at the end as I was without a power tap computer. I am hoping I am not making a mistake by doing this bike rest so close to Boston, but I think its easier to recover from the bike than a hard run. I will stick to the marathon hack after than and keep the bikes Z2-3. Wish me luck.
Congrats to Jane on a smoking 13.5 miles HM( gotta love the accuracy of courses, uugghh!).
Brenda- 21K run DONE!! Sorry it took 10K for your leg to work itself out. But the goos news is it did! Phew! Pain sucks. Good luck on your FT test.
SW- nice PR
JB- Nice freaking HM time!!
Recover well everyone.
My little update- fatigue is all gone. My foot is painfree and has been for a number of days. But I am scared of it. Don't want it to return or amount to anything. As soon as it appeared last week I shut it down and started rehabbing it. So Sat ran mini brick- no pain, just felt tentative. Yesterday ran 5 miles. No pain but again it feels different than the other and I am tentative. My peers ran 15 miles. I instead went with Steve to his 5 K race and warmed up with him and then ran the 5th mile trying to see him on the course. Smart move as so peer pressure to go the distance with my friends.
Foot feels great today. No muscle soreness. But I am still mentally fearful. All this training and disciplined work may be circling the drain because I was stooopid and ran last week when fatigued. Lots of praying, rest and trying to make good decisions on how to build/ taper to Boston.
@ Jane – Sorry I missed your post about how to approach your half marathon. Had I seen it, I would have suggested you run it hard – like you did. I look at pre-marathon halfs as ‘catered’ tempo runs. My approach is to Go Big or Go Home, just don’t go home injured. Sounds like you really hit it well, just too bad about the distance being off.
@ Brenda – How is the leg today? Any lingering issues? Hope not….. It’s time to be healthy. Back off a bit and absorb some of that good fitness you’ve been building. Good luck on the FTP test. I think if you have a full rest day before AND after the FTP test, you will be fine. Only 13 days to go! I can hardly wait!
@ Carrie – good to hear the foot is better and you’ve turned the corner on the deep fatigue funk….. Justin has a point, your fitness base is huge so no need to be in a rush. Do it right and you’ll be well rested and at 100% come race day. Your foot will be there for you by Boston, trust in your training, fitness and your faith.
Great Bay Half Marathon RR. – Newmarket NH
I’ve run this 3 times before so I knew the course fairly well. No big hills, but a few of the hills that are there are steep. Miles 3 to 6 are on a dirt road, and with the 8” of snow Friday, I was concerned about muddy splash holes. Turned out much better than expected. No snow, no mud and only a few wet areas. Gun time temp about 41*, clear sky and NW wind at 10 to 15 mph. I was wearing sunglasses, shorts, EN tri vest, arm warmers and gloves at the start. The arm warmer lasted 3 miles, the gloves were on for first 4 and last 3.
Initially I thought lingering fatigue from Sunday’s 22 miles plus Wednesday’s 10 mile tempo would take the sharpness from my legs and I would be smart to hold back a bit… Na, it is a race, I had to go big. For the start, I lined up just behind the 7:30 Pacer – my EN HM pace. The plan was to hang on to the pace group thru to the end. That would give me my PR with a minute or 2 to spare. Not quite EN style pacing but…. as long as I could see the pacer, manage my HR and not overachieve early I believed I could pull it off. Heck, it’s only a half….. and a training run at that.
My HR was down for the early miles even though I jumped straight into 7:30 pace with a pace group. During the first few miles there were 20 or more runners in the pack. That diminished to only 6 or so by mile 8. By mile 9 I lost a few yards from the pacer and never could bridge back up. I ended up running 20 yards back the rest of the race, not gaining, and not loosing ground to the pacer. After mile 2, HR was stable between 168 and 172 for all but about 4 minutes on hills. Pace was fairly even other than 1 mile at 7:08 (gradual downhill at mile 11) all other miles were between 7:17 and 7:37. Finished strong with 4 of the original pace group.
Carried 20 oz water and 3 Gu. Took Gu at miles 4 and 9, augmented my water at 2 aid stations, and finished with less than 3 oz in my bottle. Perfect nutrition, hydration and run kit. Weather was impeccable. Overall outstanding race.
Chip time 1:38:46 @ 7:32; rTSS 159.3 (NGP @ 7:22) - 4th consecutive ½ marathon PR, this time by a 2:07 margin. 104/1174 overall; 91/524 Men; 8/67 age group
Week 20 OS bike test done (had to wait for my power meter computer to come back). Raise FTP. Started at 162 and ended at 184. Now I am just working on keeping my left get in order and tapering for the marathon.
Nice bump Brenda! Power feedback is a great tool, but given our chosen mode of training we do become slaves to it. My batteries were on the fritz a couple of weeks back, and it drove me up the wall. Now that you're tapering, you can bask in the glow of your new, improved FTP without actually having to suffer through it!
As most of you are aware, the weather in the northeastern US is finally showing signs of turning around (well, at least in terms of temperature). The downside to this is that I suffer from horrible cabin fever, so the instant the roads are clear and the weather is complicit, I'm out the door. Looking at this weekend's forecast, and the outlook for next week, it's abundantly clear that my taper will consist of a bit less running and a lot more cycling. I will most decidedly toe the line in Hopkinton with my name on the "untapered" list.
Is anyone else joining the "untapered" ranks, or will I be the only fool!?
Comments
Great job Brenda! Time to set your sights on the next big 4 - that being 44.
@ ;Jane - kickin' it up for the last 4 in a hilly 16 miler is great. Shows excellent stamina and endurance. Way to bring it. I'm up for a 20 miler this weekend too.
@ ;Carrie - I reserve the right to whine as I see fit, =:-O like when I have no legit excuse for doing dumb things... Hey - nice 'Cougar' run with a 'stud-muffin'...... just sayin.... LOL
@ ;Tim - thanks. Isn't it a great motivator knowing others are going to post painful details of how they gutted it out.....and finished? Those thoughts flash thru my head everytime I start to waiver.... it really helps boost the mojo. Mooseman weekend will be a blast .... as long as I don't blow up on the killer hills I keep hearing about.
@ ;B - Way to go girl! Plus 2 on the vDot is no small thing.... I'm with Justin - I think we will see a pair of 4's from you real soon.
YASSO 800's on the track today. 10 x 800 @ Fast with 400 easy equal duration to interval. Theory per Bart Yasso is take avg of the 10 and this is your predicted marathon finish time. I averaged 3:05!!!!!!! GET OUT!!!!
All that done with quads that are still barking from Sundays hilly 19 miler. I JUST want my legs to stop hurting
CC
@Carrie, you are a stud on the interval work. I am getting the long run stuff in but not that motivated to drill the interval stuff anymore. Maybe tomorrow will be another day! Thanks for the inspiration!
Went for my mid week 10 miler tonight. Was supposed to be a tempo progression but my legs are still feeling mushy from the half mary on sunday. Still a good run, just not as snappy as planned.
10 miles @ 8:24; 1:24:04 overall. Dispite the fatigue, still managed a negative split. First 5 @ 8:51, second 5 @ 7:56.
Only 24 more days!
It is amazing how my quads got cooked from Sundays run. Then the track just prolonged the suffering I guess. Hard rest now for 2 days until Sundays last 20 miler. If quads still sore will skip it all together.
CC
I find crappy workouts really play with my head, especially when I have an important race coming up. I am still working on getting the ouch experience I had from my Boston qualifying marathon out of my head and that was two years ago. I am getting freaked out about Boston and my 30km ATB this Sunday. I hate that my previous times are all up on sportstats, because I know that my friends and anyone who knows me will be looking to see how I did. Anyway, I have a plan that I am going to try to implement and we will see how the day goes.
Now this post was not suppose to be about me, and look what happened. Sorry Carrie. I hope you feel revived and back to the energizer bunny soon.
How is everyone else doing these days?
I went to a race today. It was called Passion For Life. How could I resist running something with that title. It was for a great cause, Children's Hospital. It was a 5 miler. I used it as a tempo run. I ran 2 miles warm up 5@ tempo and 1 mile cool down. I have a 20 miler with friends tomorrow. I hope I can keep up with them. I still won my age group. I won a gift certificate at a restaurant and that is where we went after! Nap time now.
Brenda Good luck to you tomorrow! Follow your plan! Can't wait to hear about it. I wish I had registered for that race. maybe next year.
Will report back tomorrow.
Congrats Jane on your race! Have a great long run tomorrow!
Brenda- enjoy your race. Remember it is your race and your plan. Don't worry about what others are thinking or if they have expectations. They are your friends and they should just want you to feel good and strong. The time is not important!
CC
@ ;Jane - Congrats on AG! That is awesome for sure!
@ Carrie - bummer on the implosion.. .but in reality, 3 weeks out is a good time to hit a fatigue wall. Plenty of time to put the bunnie batteries on the charger..... I have no doubt you are going to crush your competition at Boston.
@ ;B - Races are celebrations for YOU, not your non-running friends. Don't be at all concerned about your stats or what others think. Running may occur in a social environment but is most definitely is a "just me" event. You alone in your head and in your shoes.... nobody else can take credit for a single step - it's all you. You've done the work, you will do great.
As for performance anxiety, dismiss all your expectations and those others may have for you. Goals? Certainly - we all need goals. Goals are good. Expectations can be crippling. The best approach is to train the best you can with the time you have. Then on race day, as you put your toes to the line, recognize that you must run within the fitness you bring "That day" to have a good race. Go too big (expectations again) you're likely to suffer. Go to easy (giving up) and you will forever wonder "If I had only...."
These past few months you have been very diligent about hitting all your workouts. Hit them hard. Posted regular improvements. You are there, you just need to let yourself see that. I am ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that every person in this forum and within EN will be there for you and encourage you - no matter what.
Writing this lead me to something I posted several years ago leading up to the Big Sur Marathon. There was a discussion board of runners to share their thoughts, views and training. I got all philosophical...... someone was questioning their reasons for running.... below is an excerpt:
Run Strong
FYI - Coach P posted a "Last Long Run" thread to the discussion board (for those that log in with laser lock, as I do). And now ... we taper.
The most important fact about the taper period (that we all must accept) is that nothing can get better, but a lot can get worse. Sorry for the pessimistic evaluation, but it's the hard truth. There is nothing you can do over the next three weeks that will make your race appreciably faster - but taper incorrectly and it will certainly be slower. Coach P has some great insight on how to properly approach the taper, so use it.
The only piece of advice I will inject is to focus on staying sharp. If you have a scheduled run, and your legs are raw from other activities, skip it. If you're feeling speedy, log some tempo miles but keep it short and recover properly. If Z3 feels like work, stick with Z2. Our season is long, and there is plenty of time to "suck it up" and train through the wall. This is NOT that time. Run as you must - run as you can. Follow this protocol, and you'll arrive in Hopkinton as a well-oiled machine.
Safe training everyone!
@ Steve - you are sweet. Thank you for your kind words, but I did not see them until today at 9:27pm when I got back home for the race.
So, onto how it went. Short answer - very good. Did a PB and that was at a very comfortable pace
Long story - tweaked my left leg in my 5km test this week and it was been sore all week. Went for a physio appointment on Friday which made it much better, but it was still noticeable when walking, so I was not sure how it was going to go. I had decided that I was going to use the 30km Around the Bay race as a training run and that is what I did. The first 5km of the run I could feel my left leg dropping, but it did not stop me from running and I told myself to stay positive and just see if it would work itself out, which it did.
Kept on my fueling plan (every 3km I would ingest 4oz of fluid and every 10km I would take in a gel). I was not bothered by any of the hills and compared to the last time that I did this race it felt easy. I am not a fast runner like all you guys, but I did have over a 1 min (almost 2 min PB by cutting 8seconds off per km in this race compared to the last time I did it).
Thank you for all your support. You do not know how much I appreciate it.
Last 20 done BUT it ended horribly. Had been struggling with tired quads and power outage since Thurs. Felt great this morning. No issues just woke up hungry which is new for me. I did not leave myself enough time to eat breakfast ( I never eat before these long runs, just gels and cyto while running). So I felt bonky early and fought it by taking my gels earlier than scheduled. By 14 miles I was on the fumes and my left foot felt crampy under the big toe/arch area, and to be honest my quads still did not feel normal. By 16 I started to walk as I felt this was smart. I wanted to call for a ride but instead walked a bit with one of the guys because he was struggling too. We eventually started to jog and jogged it in. TOTAL bummer. My foot feels weird and it seems to be my great toe flexor tendon? Flexor Hallicus Longus.
My avg pace including all the jogging is not far off my "good" runs but it felt HORRIBLE!
Sucks to finish off the training that way. It is what it is.
My taper will include lots of swimming, pool running and easy bikes. Planning to rest my body really well. 3 weeks to charge my batteries.
Prayers please for my foot to be normal very soon.
Thanks, Carrie
Peace out everyone.
Carrie - Sorry to hear about your foot. Rest a bit and that foot will be better. You have had so many good quality runs that this last one is nothing to worry about. Rest and re-charge!
@ ;Brenda - congrats on the PR! See, no worries.... You do the work, it pays you back. You are going to do awesome at Boston. Bummer about your Steve. Sounds like he may have bumped up against the fatigue wall Carrie hit. Three weeks of taper should fix that.
@ Carrie....... battery charger time.... just sayin..... =:-]
@ ;Justin - sound advise on intensity vs. volume..
Today was likely my last hill workout. I have a local loop that is 0.9 miles, climbs and drops 100' @ ;6%. Did 7 miles including 8 hill repeats in 1:00:07. The second hill reminded me to watch my form, I was getting forward and my achillies didn't like it. The rest were shoulders back, head high and knees up - no more 'hot' tendons. The last 2 repeats were by far the best. Smooth and consistant with good form.
*** Got my race packet in the mail yesterday.... Yippee! ****
Thanks everyone for your support before and now after Around the Bay. Looking forward to meeting you all in Boston.
Now, onto the trainer for an easy 30-45min ride. Tomorrow is 4 x 1 mile repeats at Z4 pace.
Total time 1:20:25, rTSS 108; total ascent 614'
Next up, 5 to 6 mile easy run Saturday then my last half marathon Sunday.
Did my 21km run in the hills of Manotick and it was okay. Left leg took about 10km to work itself out, but once that happended the run was more enjoyable. Will do an easy bike tomorrow and then my OS bike test that I could do at the end as I was without a power tap computer. I am hoping I am not making a mistake by doing this bike rest so close to Boston, but I think its easier to recover from the bike than a hard run. I will stick to the marathon hack after than and keep the bikes Z2-3. Wish me luck.
Congrats to Jane on a smoking 13.5 miles HM( gotta love the accuracy of courses, uugghh!).
Brenda- 21K run DONE!! Sorry it took 10K for your leg to work itself out. But the goos news is it did! Phew! Pain sucks. Good luck on your FT test.
SW- nice PR
JB- Nice freaking HM time!!
Recover well everyone.
My little update- fatigue is all gone. My foot is painfree and has been for a number of days. But I am scared of it. Don't want it to return or amount to anything. As soon as it appeared last week I shut it down and started rehabbing it. So Sat ran mini brick- no pain, just felt tentative. Yesterday ran 5 miles. No pain but again it feels different than the other and I am tentative. My peers ran 15 miles. I instead went with Steve to his 5 K race and warmed up with him and then ran the 5th mile trying to see him on the course. Smart move as so peer pressure to go the distance with my friends.
Foot feels great today. No muscle soreness. But I am still mentally fearful. All this training and disciplined work may be circling the drain because I was stooopid and ran last week when fatigued. Lots of praying, rest and trying to make good decisions on how to build/ taper to Boston.
Thanks for listening
CC
@ Brenda – How is the leg today? Any lingering issues? Hope not….. It’s time to be healthy. Back off a bit and absorb some of that good fitness you’ve been building. Good luck on the FTP test. I think if you have a full rest day before AND after the FTP test, you will be fine. Only 13 days to go! I can hardly wait!
@ Carrie – good to hear the foot is better and you’ve turned the corner on the deep fatigue funk….. Justin has a point, your fitness base is huge so no need to be in a rush. Do it right and you’ll be well rested and at 100% come race day. Your foot will be there for you by Boston, trust in your training, fitness and your faith.
Great Bay Half Marathon RR. – Newmarket NH
I’ve run this 3 times before so I knew the course fairly well. No big hills, but a few of the hills that are there are steep. Miles 3 to 6 are on a dirt road, and with the 8” of snow Friday, I was concerned about muddy splash holes. Turned out much better than expected. No snow, no mud and only a few wet areas. Gun time temp about 41*, clear sky and NW wind at 10 to 15 mph. I was wearing sunglasses, shorts, EN tri vest, arm warmers and gloves at the start. The arm warmer lasted 3 miles, the gloves were on for first 4 and last 3.
Initially I thought lingering fatigue from Sunday’s 22 miles plus Wednesday’s 10 mile tempo would take the sharpness from my legs and I would be smart to hold back a bit… Na, it is a race, I had to go big. For the start, I lined up just behind the 7:30 Pacer – my EN HM pace. The plan was to hang on to the pace group thru to the end. That would give me my PR with a minute or 2 to spare. Not quite EN style pacing but…. as long as I could see the pacer, manage my HR and not overachieve early I believed I could pull it off. Heck, it’s only a half….. and a training run at that.
My HR was down for the early miles even though I jumped straight into 7:30 pace with a pace group. During the first few miles there were 20 or more runners in the pack. That diminished to only 6 or so by mile 8. By mile 9 I lost a few yards from the pacer and never could bridge back up. I ended up running 20 yards back the rest of the race, not gaining, and not loosing ground to the pacer. After mile 2, HR was stable between 168 and 172 for all but about 4 minutes on hills. Pace was fairly even other than 1 mile at 7:08 (gradual downhill at mile 11) all other miles were between 7:17 and 7:37. Finished strong with 4 of the original pace group.
Carried 20 oz water and 3 Gu. Took Gu at miles 4 and 9, augmented my water at 2 aid stations, and finished with less than 3 oz in my bottle. Perfect nutrition, hydration and run kit. Weather was impeccable. Overall outstanding race.
Chip time 1:38:46 @ 7:32; rTSS 159.3 (NGP @ 7:22) - 4th consecutive ½ marathon PR, this time by a 2:07 margin.
104/1174 overall; 91/524 Men; 8/67 age group
Nice bump Brenda! Power feedback is a great tool, but given our chosen mode of training we do become slaves to it. My batteries were on the fritz a couple of weeks back, and it drove me up the wall. Now that you're tapering, you can bask in the glow of your new, improved FTP without actually having to suffer through it!
As most of you are aware, the weather in the northeastern US is finally showing signs of turning around (well, at least in terms of temperature). The downside to this is that I suffer from horrible cabin fever, so the instant the roads are clear and the weather is complicit, I'm out the door. Looking at this weekend's forecast, and the outlook for next week, it's abundantly clear that my taper will consist of a bit less running and a lot more cycling. I will most decidedly toe the line in Hopkinton with my name on the "untapered" list.
Is anyone else joining the "untapered" ranks, or will I be the only fool!?