Runner's Forum: The Official: Training Summary Start Up Thread

Beautiful spring day Grand Final day for the Australian Football - 25c and no wind. There wer plenty of bikes and runners out this morning. I was planning to run my first long run in 5 weeks since my original calf injury.

I ran for 2 hours, and athough my legs felt a bit heavy - I ahd some hard work on the bike yesterday - I felt really good. Pleasingly my speed has not suffered that much. I managed 26km in1.59 and the calf felt fine. My technique has suffered a bit, so I hope to get some running this week primarily to fine tune.

Confidence is back!!!

14 miler for me today in 1:48:31 (7:43 pace). Stopped to eat some nice blackberries growing along the roadside and forgot to stop the watch. Doubt it was any longer than a minute though. It's so hard to run past all of 'em, especially given how tastey they look.

Signed up for the Connemarathon Ultramarathon next March. It's 39.3 miles, so short in terms of an Ultra...but it's long enough for me.

Hae a good weekend running everybody...

hey everyone, long time, no posts for me...

7 miles today, and earlier this week, 6 miles, and 12 miles. I'll be doing a long run of 15 tomorrow..wish me luck LOL

Tranquil - yep, you broke one of the biggest rules in racing.  Never tear out too fast.  It's better to start out cautiously and speed up, if you have extra fuel in the tank.  Your race pace should be faster than your training pace, but if your race went downhill after the 1st mile, you tore out too fast.  Congratulations anyway on your effort!!

Welcome back, Junkie!  We missed you, man!  Tear up those 15 miles tomorrow.

Happy Running to all!

I had a 5k race today, and still the sting of last month's race was pretty much in mind. So I really concentrated on not going out too fast (sorry Tranquil, sometimes that's how you learn). I kept checking my pace with my watch, but basically I ended up finding someone I could follow from a distance. He was pretty steady. Ended up quite strong, and actually I probably could have pushed it a bit more. I wasn't sure at the time so I kept holding back. Ended up with a time of 22:54, which is right around the PR I set back on July 4. I ran the fastest from my company (we had about 48 runners & walkers in this event, out of about 200 total). But I didn't place in my age group this time. It worked the last two times, but not today. Oh well! It was a really good race. Next time I'll have to try to push it just a bit more.

 Hopefully I can find the motivation to keep training in the weeks to come. No more big races coming up until next year. Unless I try to find a New Year's Day race. But that would require that I "behave" on New Year's Eve. Hmmm ... have to get back to you all on that one!

just wanted to say...KDOGG...i love reading your posts.....they are great...

Ericj...congrats......18 miles with a bad knee!!  I feel like 18 miles on a good knee is soooooo far away for me!   but I'll get there!

 Steve...good luck at Garrett Mountain tommorroow......I'm seriously thinking im going to have to come up there and run a practice one day just for old times sake.....however, the last time i was there was the last time I sprained my ankle...(off the course..don't worry!)  

I'm going for an easy 5 mile run tommorrow...even though i can't seem to kick this cough....but...we'lll see how it goes.  My legs are feeling incredibly heavy though...since the race yesterday.  is that just due to needing to stretch???

Kdogg - you're an animal!  2nd is pretty damn good and the time (although not your fastest) was awesome.

I'm still not back to my normal stride as I had to  fly to Providence RI on Tues (after getting back from 3 weeks in Europe on Sat evening).  So my training log was 

4 miles at pace on Monday (managed to hold 7min miles for the first 3, had to let up a little for the last one); 6 miles on Wed - on the treadmill in Providence -was in the Westin, the treadmill was lined up with the road to the capital bldg so at least the view was nice.  Got home at 1AM on Thurs so Thurs and Fri didn't get a run in.  Sat was mostly yard work and some wine tasting.  Went  out for a 5 miler in the evening but the wine from mid afternoon was too much so I only did a quick 1.7 miles .  Today was better as I got up and did a 10 mile run in just a tad over 90 mins.  Hopefully, I can get things together this week and get back on track. 

 I'm running the Leavenworth marathon relay next Saturday - it's a 6 person team so my leg is only about 4 miles.  I'm shooting for a 7:30 pace or better.  After that, I'm working on training for a 1/2 marathon (the Seattle marathon) the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  I'm shooting for 1:45 but I need to get a better base in over the next month to make sure that's possible.

haha, thanks guys. The dude who beat me has ran 23:35 for 8k and 1:05:30 for a half, so turns out he's pretty legit.

I'm so freaking sore, I hate hills

btw, dang junkie, that course has the potential to be pretty fast if your quads don't commit suicide on ya. good luck with the taper

On Saturday morning, I set out for my 20 mile training run.  I have covered that distance before, but not for at least three years, so I was suprisingly nervous to try it again. 

I planned out a really good route that was comparable to the route for the Marine Corps Marathon.  My knees were screaming at the halfway point, but then I had a few miles of gravel trail which were much appreciated.  My girlfriend came and met me for the last 7 miles, which was also much appreciated.  I was a little dissapointed at my overall time (3:20), until I mapped the run and realized that I actually ran closer to 21 miles! 

My legs felt really good after that, mostly because I ate well and watched football the rest of the day on Saturday. 

Steve - good luck with your race today.  I could never race faster than the low 19's, but I do miss my days in cross country. 

Well I just got home from compelting my very first marathon in Berlin. Sorry about the long post. I just have to debreif with some fellow runners. So here is my report.  

All in all I am pretty bloody pleasd to have completed. Ran it in a few minutes under 4hours, which was about the same pace as I do my long slow runs...hmm, he he oh well, with an 9minute postive split for the half.

I tell you it was tough, really tough. But soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo worth all that training to have completed!

They say it all comes down to how you feel on the day... yesterday just wasn't a good running day for me. It just really felt like a slog the entire way around...(I my heart rate was at 80 plus % the entire way around) but that was kind of nice I some ways because it makes it all the sweeter to just keep going no matter what. I was kind of shocked to see people stop and start walking at the 40km mark.....!?!?!? you would need to have knee capped me to stop my running at that stage.......

Thankfully there was no wall to hit at 30km...just found myself running 6min kms instead of 5minute kms after about 32kms.....

...eveybody talks about "running through the Brandenburg gate at "the end", so seeing this gate, and some electronic mats on the ground I thought...you beauty...and I summoned just about every ounce of energy I had left, and did a sprint for the end....feeling a sharpish twig in my left hamstring..."oh well, I thought....It's not like I have to run any further"....but wait...people are still running.....eh???....and there I saw waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance (like about 200m) was the "actual" finishing line......argh.....so that last 200ms or so was running on pure willpower.....

10mins after finsish I was thinking never again..

This morning I was thinking "what would I have done if I should run another marathon ....

tonight I am thinking about "Dublin marathon next year...." 3:30 can be done....

I am really looking forward to hearing how you guys go in the Melbourne marathon. Great to hear you're back onthe track gfinkelde.

fricster ...looking forward to your report too..not long now...

awesome simmoT!    glad you had a good race,.hope i do as well with mine..12 days left

junkie99,.my last couple weeks training has been a big snafu too..family obligations at inoppurtune times,.oh well just gotta run it with a lotta heart, and hav faith in the training up till now i guess.

congrats erijacque and kdogg         ..kdogg when u r ready new world record marathon is now 2 hr 3 min 59 sec,..i think you can givem a run for their money

8.5 miler today 8:31 pace,.just easy taper runs now,.only 7-8 runs left then show time..

5.2 miles this evening, recovering from the long run yesterday...recovering from the long runs gets easier and easier.

kdogg, yeah, should be a fast first half of the marathon. I've run down a few hills here, trying to get the 'feel' for running down hill. I think I'll have to be careful not to burn myself out. From what I've read, I expect about 30 sec per mile faster, without too much burn out...leaving enough for the second half at pace. (and yeah....huge quad killer. I've done some weight training and stair master to hopefully take care of that)

so awesome to read all about your marathon SimmoT!  congrats for finishing   :)

Steve...that last hill is AWFUL  but the rest of the course is so relaxing and easy...its hard to remember that its coming.  Plus...when you are in sight of the crowd...its still too early to pick it up...but you get excited with the cheers..then tire out too soon...its rough....but....congrats anyways!

So...sillie question......but...What happens after one runs a marathon????  

Ha ha. Thanks KDogg. I just couldn't quite catch him on the day.... I was standing in a crowd at the start line when they introduced him. Everyone went nuts! So he got a good send-off. My wife was amazed when she saw how fast the lead pack was running by.

Must be fantastic to go out and have a chance of winning a race. It's one thing to race against yourself, but the thrill of "being in it to win it" must just add that little extra.

This week I am relaxing. THen I think I am going to focus on a running a decent half marathon for next spring. Maybe Paris or London.

I've got a picture of one of the kids testing if my marathon medal is real. She looks a bit like me....so that's my new profile picture......

Hi All - a nice 6kms today after work. Taper madness is setting in - because I shouldn't run hard and long I really want to now - what is wrong with mE!!!!!!

Ex- Kiwi - how cool to see an online person in the flesh at the end of the run - I expect to be past the finsih line sometime around 11.30 - and my number is 1241!! It would be great to meet you!

Terrible 7 mile tempo run this morning. I wasnt feeling too bad the first mile or two but i fell of after that. It wasnt that i was tired or sore or anything like that, its just that the pace seemed really hard even though it was pretty darn slow. Low 5:20's for the first 2 then dropped to 5:35's for the next 5. This doesnt have me feeling very confident going into my race this weekend, but i guess i'll just have to forget about it and move on.

About this weekends race, we are going to the Oklahoma State Jamboree. There will be some of the top teams in the country there and i HAVE to have a good race, mainly for my own self confidence more than anything. The pace is gonna go out fast, if i'm not at 4:50 the first mile i'll be in the back of the pack. It's a medium difficulty course and right now the plan is to run it as if it were a 4 mile race then just try and hang on that last mile.

 Nothing like speed work the day after a race!  Felt absolutely horrible, worst speedwork ive done all year.  The last 5 were so painful it was ridiculous.  Well now i get to look forward to 2 easy days in a row and a meet friday at garrett again, but this time its an invitational so hopefully ill medal, i think its top 25 and were a group 1 school so it shouldnt be to bad.  Check last years results and the number 25 runner ran 19:10, but im still gonna go for a p.r of course.

20 200m sprints, 4 sets of 5.

1st set 1min breaks, 2nd set 45 sec breaks 3rd set 30 sec breaks, 4th set 15 sec breaks.  (3 min breaks btwn. each set)

Average 31-34 for the first 12
Aveerag 33-36 for last 8

 5 mile 8:02 pace tonite,.trying to be good and keep the mileage low for taper,.now i think i am starting to understand what they mean by "taper madness".. i just start to loosen up and it seems like it is time to quit,..i am startimg to really miss my long runs..all these cut down runs are driving me nuts..

good luck in your race chiggy_   i am sure you'll be able to torch the course..

Great Job on your race KDogg!!!!  Keep catching up to those Kenyans!  LoL!

I have been consistent with running, bad with reporting on here.  I've been working to keep a balanced everyday routine of 20 miles a week.  I have been looking back at my logs and I'm pretty haphazard with my running.  Preparing for the training for the marathon in May, I really want to work on that first.  Since I'm still working up from my shoulder injury, I am starting at 20 mile weeks.  Nov 1st, I want to be at 25-30 mile weeks consistently and Dec 1st, I want to be at 30-35 mile weeks.  The official training will start right after Christmas.  I just want to be as solid as possible before starting training. 

Right now, I'm doing a 5 day week of 4's.  Pretty easy for me, but again, just concentrating on running consistently.  Nov 1st(ish), I should be in a routine and will add a long run and take one of the other days down to a short run.  Then, by Dec 1st, I will probably add in a medium in the middle of the week.  Then I start my training right after Christmas, and should be pretty well prepared.