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

gfinkelde,  fricster , stay well rested you two. This will be a big weekend. I think I have gone pretty soft living in scandinavia. 28C does sound pretty bloody hot to run a marathon. But I think you guys will be fine. Just make sure you eat something salty day before....

ex-k1w1  sounds like you are hitting some form....that's about 4.00min/kms... if I have estimated correctly...so I think you are running pretty quick for an old b'stard...:)  Any ideas on what you want to run your half in?

 pappypage, GraemeC1983 you blokes sound like you are in top form! I think you should both be pretty confident!

 

thanks simmoT,..can't wait to follow your lead and try and finish strong.

gfinkelde, fricster,  my weather forecast for race is 50*f for start and 74*f for daytime high,.i am not sure how that compares to your expected temps,. but i think it sounds like i am gonna get lucky with ideal morning temps if forecast holds.  i know it will be a little chilly for kdogg, but i love the cooler temps.

nice easy 7 miler 8:32 pace today,.1 more final 8 tommorrow, then i will run a "reflection time" 3 miler on sat to loosen the legs and try and mentally prepare myself for sundays challenge.   my son will run sat with me   (he challenged me to run this  marathon a year ago with him,. but an inury has prevented him from adequate training)..being that he is  a 20 yr old full time colledge student,.our time for "father and son" activites are very limted,.so i am looking forward to sat for us to reflect upon the last year and all the accomplishments,  sacrifices, and struggles which it has taken to reach the eve of the race. 

It has been a Great experience,.and to all on this forum who hav given me advice and support....Thank-You...

Boyjame - I'm interested in following your progress.  My plan is to run my first half marathon in Nov, my next in Feb and my first full in June. You're about 6-7 months in front of me so I can:

1) Live vicariously through you and 

2) Learn from what you go through.  So keep up the posting....!

 

I've not run for 3 days since my race on Sat.  My hip is still a bit sore and I think it's best if I rest it. Also, I had to come out from Seattle to DC yesterday and that limited my opportunity to run yesterday.  Today we had a crazy get on the bus at 7AM schedule and meet until evening followed by dinner.  No time to run unless I want to run around unfamiliar territory in DC in the dark.  I got back to the hote l room at 11:15 tonight.  Clearly the meeting organizers do not exercise or they would have scheduled things differently.  I'll get up at 5:30 tomorrow so I can go out for a 5:45/6AM run before my 7:15AM bus ride to the meeting (NIH organized) tomorrow.  

 

My hipe still hurts from my Sat. run.  I'm not thinking it's a pull of the outer adductor muscle on the upper thigh or a pull of the gluteous medius. I'm spending some time on stretching over the past few days and new few days and think I need to focus more on flexibility in the future.  Unfortunately, I've been so focused on putting in miles and losing weight that I've given short shrift to stretching and flexibility.  Now I'm paying for it.

Hi All, the second last run before the big day was a t lunch today - with my personal traininer, who is also completing his marathon with us on Sunday. It was a great run - 7kms easy conversational pace about 5.3min/kms.

Man this is getting exciting now!!! (read actually really scared but being brave and trying to change my perspective!)

LexB - i just read your post and can really relate tot your comments re stress and nerves. Don't underestimate the impact of the stress on your level of energy. Listen to your body this next few days- be good to yourself. You will do well in your 1/2 because of everything you have already done to prepare. rest and relax. Feel better!

Harro, good luck! Must be nice to be picking up speed...

 9 miles yesterday at 8:50 pace...I'm slowing down . One long hill during the run than I know slowed me down, and finished strong-last mile around 8:00.

All the race excitement is contagious - looking forward to the reports and wish everyone well while you wait for your big days.  I'm in a terrible running slump.

Cheers SimmoT - I know the feeling when you finish and think NEVER again in a million years am I running another one of those...but it's totally worth it when you cross the line. I know when I crossed the line in Belfast, I felt like I'd won the darn thing...even though the winner could have been half way back to Kenya by the time I fell over the finish line.

 Happy belated birthday KDogg. Hope you had a good one:)

I've done no running since last Friday. Meant to get out a few times but life just kinda got in the way. So today I was off work I ventured out for a long (21.24 mile) run. Boy it was hard. I couldn't find my pace and the whole run was just generally uncomfortable. Came home in 2hrs 50mins (8:01 pace) - I really don't know where I went wrong but I'm just gonna put it down to a bad run. Dust it off and get back on.

Keep your head up Chiggy_ - Think about how much worse you'd feel if you'd quit. Playing through the pain takes a lot of mental endurance. Fair play for fighting through it.

Keep it up everyone!!!!!!

SimmoT - I wondered how you'd come by your 4:00/km estimate for my runs, then realised you must've been looking at my 800s.  If only I could keep that pace for more than a coupla km...  Then I looked at Steve921's post from yesterday, saw his splits for the exact same workout and just had to laugh!  I'm still hopeful I'll break 90 minutes for the half.  I used to do that fairly regularly but it's been a good ten years since the last time.  Fingers crossed.

Harro - I've gotten race numbers from gfinkelde and fricster and though I'm not running on Sun, I'll be near the finish to see if I can get pictures and maybe a quick hi.  The very best of luck to you all, and to you too pappypage.  As anyone who has ever run a marathon knows, the hardest part is not the race itself, it's the commitment to put in all the training beforehand.  (Not that the race is easy, far from it!)

My training is still on track.  Just under 41 mins for 8k yesterday.  Today was a tempo run covering 16k, with 25 mins warmup and warmdown and 3 sets of 8mins @ tempo with 2min recoveries.

ROLL ON SUNDAY!

I did it...i ran 6.25 miles today-finally...and I did it in under an hour!  (57:40)  I felt guilty not running for 3 days...but I'm sure glad I didn't!  I felt as though my feet were like two little puppies screaming.."c'mon, c'mon we wanna go out and run!!"  and so they carried me the whole way! Now that I know I can do this distance...I'm a little more excited about next weeks race!  :)

 

 

Fricster - What is it about the ice baths that is so effective; I nearly froze but I never felt better after a run.

Tranquil - You will be fine on your 10K.  Go for it!

This has been a bad week for me (head cold).  I hope to be back out tomorrow.  This forum really helps as I hate coming on here admitting I haven't run.  Thanks, ladies and gents, for the motivation.

Good Luck to this weekend's Racers!!

Happy Running!

A very slow hour run for me today, I skipped my 2nd run yesterday and probably will again tomorrow. It will hurt my mileage for the week but i need the extra recovery right now.

Excellent job Tranquil21!

Cant wait to hear about all the races, good luck!

Hi All,

Gilly - I figure that when it gets so cold, it reduces the swelling/bruising of all the little tiny tears of our muscles that we do when we push further or harder. Or else - when its numb you don't feel the pain!

Thanks all for the well wishes, truly nervous now, eating lots of food, and having a whole lot of imaginary pains and aches. Took a stroll/jog over the sydney harbour bridge this morning, it was lovely - but everything hurt! Its all in my head I am sure,

 

PappyPage, Harro, Gfinkelde, steve, Dan.keeler, and Graeme - best of luck to you all - I look forward to see how we all go

cheers

Sue

7 Mile Tempo run for me last night.  Felt great to be back out there.  Was set to do an 11-mile run this morning, but it was raining cats and dogs.  Now the temp is approaching 80 degrees...Yikes!!!   That'w what you get in Florida...82 degree days in Mid-October.  Oh well.....

15-mile long run tomorrow!

SimmoT - You still need to mix in some easy runs; overdoing speedwork is a formula for injury.

Fricster -  Thanks for the explanation.  Sounds good to me.  Do you still do many ice baths after long runs?

Again, best wishes to those of you racing this weekend.

Hard 10 miler this afternoon on a hilly course and man was it hot. I ended up finishing in 59:00 which isnt terrible but nothing to write home about either.

Looking foreward to a nice day of football and tailgating tomorrow, after the morning workout of course ;)

Easy 8k yesterday.  Long run day today. (Tomorrow for a big bunch of y'all! He he.  Good luck!)  Schedule called for 2hrs 40mins so I was hoping to get close to 30k.  Fell just short at 29.3 but there's a coupla good hills in there so I'm pretty happy.  Legs are getting stronger but I now realise I still need another 6 solid months before I tackle a full marathon.

SimmoT - gotta echo Gilly32 here.  Speedwork should cover no more than 2 sessions a week and you must include sufficient recovery in between or you'll set yourself up for injury.  I heartily recommend reading a good exercise physiology book to explain why this is so.  There's nothing like having an expert tell you what happens to you when you do the different types of training to hammer the point home.  In fact, I'm going hunting for just such a book to update my own knowledge base.  I used to subscribe to "Runners World", both the American and Australian versions, and they were an excellent source of information.

Well, everyone, tomorrow's the big day! Last week, the weather in Chicago was forecasted to  be between 50 and 65 degrees, cloudy, and a chance of drizzles (yippee!!) during the race. Now they are saying CLEAR and 60-80 DEGREES!!! At least it won't be super humid. I was really looking forward to running in the nice cool air. Oh well. Wish me luck all, I'll let everyone know how I did afterwards. 

 By the way, I joined the CPD Memorial Charity Team. That means a really big party right afterward!! How good is gin for re-hydrating? What if you addtonic water?!?!

Did a very hilly 56 mile bike ride today. considerably slower than what I've been riding lately, but it was very hilly.

 Hope everyone did well in their races today.

5 miles today....im trying to "taper" for the 10k next sunday.  What was great about today's run is...in the first two miles...all i was thinking was..."Damn..I am running so slow today...." cause i felt a bit heavy...and when i got to the finish...and clocked in....turns out I took 2 full mins off my last 5 miles...and 2 seconds off my pace!  and i wasn't even trying!!  Stuff like this makes me so much more excited and confident about next weeks race.

I also can't wait to hear about everyone else's races!

A SLOW 10 miler today.  I rested my hip for 7 days after pulling something last week in Saturday's race.  Yesterday I was sick and in bed most of the day but after 7 days off, I felt I had to get a run in.  What normally takes about 1:35 was covered in today in 1:53 or so.  It was slow but not so painful and I was happy just to get out again.

Chicago was, in a word, HOT!!! Not has hot as last year, and much better organized, but still very hot (up to 89 degrees and clear). I struggled through it and managed to finish, which was my goal. I came in at 5:22:23, which I am VERY happy with, especially considering the heat. It was a ton of fun, but I'll have to wait a few days to decide if I will do another one. I saw a bunch of very unique spectators, and saw more of the city than I would have otherwise.

 I also have to give a lot of kudos to the Chicago PD Memorial Run Team. They were incredibly supportive, and a lot of fun. If anyone is ever in Chicago for the marathon, consider signing up  with this team! Well, here's to a quick recovery.

Congrats gfinkelde and Dan! It was a hot one today in Chicago and the times were a bit lower for everyone.  What I find amazing is that the winner (Evans Cheruiyot) was still only 45 sec or so over the course record and finished in 2:06:25! He's a man to watch as this was only his second major marathon and his time in Chicago was 3 minutes faster than he ran in MIlan in Dec.  If he gets a nice cool day on a fast course, who knows how fast he could be?

Hi all,

Well that was also my first marathon and didnt Melbourne serve up a hot windy day! Here we have been training all winter in sub 20C conditions and yesterday we got 30.6C and northerly gusts!

I started really well and was under 3.30 pace until I got a sensational like a pin going through my calf. So I stopped and stretched quickly and went on. I felt i had to really pull back and run in shorter steps to protect my calf from pinging me. I hit the half way mark at 1.48 which I though I was still in sight of 3.30.

As with everyone else it all turned ugly into the wind and I hit the 30km mark feeling like I did when I had done 36km in training - not a good sign! From there is was a battle. I had the 3.45 pace runner go past me and that hurt me! I was clinging just trying to hold on. The stretch from Stkilda to the Flinder st bridge felt like it went forever. I have to say though I never walked although many others were. I kept moving and in the last km managed to find something in the tank and passed an extra 20 or so people into the G.

That feeling of coming over the line at 3.55 was mixed. I felt I had failed with my time, but also had made such a grand acheivement by finishing and doing so sub 4hrs. I didnt know what to feel. All I knew was I was (and still am) in a whole lot of physical pain!

Thanks to all those people lining the streets cheering and clapping - it makes such a difference!! Thanks to my family and especially my wife who has supported this life changing experience I have made. I am 20kgs lighter than when I started in February - I couldnt run 500 metres without stopping.

I just ran 42km without really stopping! Wow!

Next is Ox fam 100km team event!

PS. Even the Ethiopian who won wasnt happy with his time, 4 mins outside his best he said due the wind! Maybe it wasnt just me!

Wow – what a weekend for the folks on this thread!  gfinkelde, fricster, Harro08 Just running a marathon in that weather (that hot, that windy) is an amazing achievement. You should all be proud…facing a strong head wind on the way back, ouch…that would really hurt. Sensational effort to just keep going! 

Fricster, Harro08….so that’s marathon number 1 under the belt. Enjoy some time doing something else on a Sunday morning – or at least having the option not to run if you don’t feel like it…

Harro08 - dropping 20kgs is sensational. What was it that made you think “right …time to get in shape”…? What a transformation…. 

Fricster…..must have been great to be feeling good at 35kms…. How big were the crowds at the MCG? What’s next you ask? …. Easy!!! You have unfinished business. You need to run you goal time….but that’s for another day. Now is the time to put your feet up and feel good about a fantastic effort! I bet your kids are proud.  

Gfinkelde – how you feel, and the conditions on the day are just pot luck.  But think how bad you would feel had you pulled out? Struggling from 12kms but keeping at it takes a lot of mental fortitude in my book. And your finishing time is not too shabby by my standards!  

dan.keeler – I reckon you will run another one for sure! Great effort!  

Well my speed work consists (at the moment) of setting a few PBs around different runs for me to break in the coming months. They are not real PBs, because I have never really timed myself pre-marathon slow –running days. But they make a good starting point.  So Sunday’s effort was a 4.22min/km effort on an 8.2km hilly course.  Gilly32, Ex-Kiwi – I hear what you are saying. I’ll be sure not to overdo it. I might have to find a “speed work” program to follow, so I have something to base it all on.

congrats to all the marathoners from yesterday!!!

I too finished my 1st marathon,.it was an unbelievable experience. heres my splits , then i will explain my unforseen tradgey:

mile 1--8:44     mile 6 --8:17     mile 11--17:05     mile 16--9:30     mile 21--10:15     mile 2--8:00     mile 7 --8:30     mile 12--8:57      mile 17--10:13    mile 22--12:50    mile 3--8:02     mile 8 --8:57     mile 13--8:52      mile 18--10:11    mile 23--12:57     mile 4--8:00     mile 9 --8:19     mile 14--8:56      mile 19--12:11    mile 24--12:11     mile 5--8:06     mile 10 --8:17   mile 15--9:11      mile 20--9:41      mile 25--11:31  

MILE 26.2----8:11    

as you can see my first 10 miles were pretty good, ( little faster then i wanted though),.but at water station at end of 10,. a young girl decided to bolt across the road in front of me with no notice,. i had sprinted to far side of road to avoid runners stopping for water and was treated to a choice of "leveling" the little girl,. or side stepping awkwardly to miss here,.i chose the latter,. and immediately felt an excrutiating pain rip threw my left calf and ham string..i went to the side of road and tried stretching them out quickly and then started back up slowly hoping to work them loose..but soon after resuming i had to admitt to myself my sub 3;45 chances were over,.but i was still determined to finish.  afterall, this was my "first marathon".  i spent the next 5 miles dropping my pace to try and compensate ,but around mile 22 i felt like i was coming apart. i spent  the rest of the race in agony,.i would be lying if i said i enjoyed it,. but at mile 25 i dug down deep and was determined to finish strong,.flashbacks of all the training came back and i knew i had fullfilled my dream and overcome my "personnel" challenges in the race,. i sprinted the last 1/4 mile to the finish and heard the time keeper and race fans cheering for me..i hav never before in my life felt such euphoria and overwhelming emotion.I accomplished what i set out to do a year ago.      Loose 75 lb and   RUN and FINISH a MARATHON.   .due to circumstances beyound our control,.none of my family was able to be there to see me realize my goals,.but afterall,.the marathon is an experience that only another marathon runner can understand..less then 1 % of the population ever attempt a marathon,.we are now part of that elite crazy group,.so to simmoT, Gfinkelde, fricster,Harro8,and dan.keeler   congratulations!!!!!!!!!  in accomplishing your goal.

Some runners say they will never run another marathon,.after the race while i was hobling to my car,.i was already thinking on how i will train to run my next marathon,.and how to not make the same mistakes i made yeaterday,. i now know i am capable of qualifying for boston,. next year I WILL.

Thanx again to my fellow runners for all your support,.may the wind always be at your back and the sun shine wwarmly on your faces..

 

 

 

Took off yesterday and did some easy speedwork today.  We have a league meet wed. so it wasnt so bad.  6X400 (69,71,72,73,74,70)  Coach didnt want us to go all out so it was a pretty easy workout.

Btw, great jobs by the weekend marathoners, awesome times.