Training Thread - Marathoners

PacerChris · Aug 7, 2007

How's everyone doing in the heat this week? I had a good, unscheduled 20 miler this past Sun with some strong miles at the end...much better than I expected 1 week after San Francisco. My official NYC Training starts on Monday but I'm planning to do a tempo run on Thurs and a 5k race on Sat to see where I'm at speed-wise. I'd be happy with something under 17:50-18:00 for the 5k...it's got a decent hill in it in the last mile that is a bit of a grinder and takes the wind out of your sails. We'll see how it goes.

toe jam on crusty feet · Aug 7, 2007

Gawd! I would kill to be able to do a 5K in 18:00....... Training is going great! We did Yasso 800's this morning and it was very promising but I am still standing by my original statement that this will be a BQ if I train perfect, eat perfect, sleep perfect, wake up positive on race day, and the stars line up in my favor..... chances are good ! <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

phillytom · Aug 7, 2007

Week in review. Cutback week for me before I start the fast stuff. Now 6 weeks out from goal HM (9/16). 
M: Planed 0 
Tu: 7 w/ 3.5 @ 5:48 
W: Ez 5 
Th: 9 m @ 7m/m 
Fri: Ez 5 
Sat: Ez 6.5 
Sun: 13 progression, out in low 7's back in low 6's 
For a total of 45 ish. The tempo pace has been getting more and more comfortable, so I'm optimistic about that for an HM pace. 
The heat has had me out the door earlier and earlier in the am. Monday I got lucky and it started humid and then just poured, which was actually more pleasant. Not looking forward to hitting the track tonight though. PC - that was a kickass long run a week out from SF. 
I will be racing in the next week or 2 for a speed checkin. I've got a 6K this weekend and 5K next weekend to pick from. 
I'll be interested to see how I will do in the 5k. I haven't run anything faster than tempo since July 4th, but I have been putting in high miles for me. It will be interesting to see if that has a benefit, or if I've lost the VO2 work I did and run slower. 
It's a pretty flat course, so I plan to go out at PR pace and see what happens. Unfortunately it's a small race, so I might not have too many people to run with.

coacht · Aug 7, 2007

Week three of the Daniels Elite marathon plan are in the book. It was an easy week mileage-wise, but had a few difficult workouts thrown in there: 
Su: 5.5 miles @ 8:00 
M: 6 miles @ 8:00 
T: 5 miles @ 7:59 
W: 18 miles @ 8:08 
R: off 
F: 6.5 miles @ 8:00 
Sa: 15.12 miles – 2 miles @ 8:00, 4 miles @ 6:38, .5 miles @ 8:00, 3 miles @ 6:38, .37 miles @ 8:00, 2 miles @ 6:38, .25 miles @ 8:00, 1 mile @ 6:38, 2 miles @ 8:00 – average pace - average pace = 7:06 
Total – 56.12 miles 
The heat wasn’t all that bad - mostly because I only ran outside on Monday and Friday - although the last 2 miles of Friday's run were awful as I was really beginning to feel the effects of heat. Both Wednesday and Saturday were done on the treadmill – they were exercises in patience more than anything. This week was much easier than I had anticipated. Let’s hope it stays that way. 
This week I have 72 miles planned, but might run a few more for VRAA purposes. <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"> 
How did the Yassos go TJOCF? Right around 3:40 I’m assuming? 
Good luck with your races PTom and PC. Man, I wish I still had some 5k speed. 
Trevor

kruss · Aug 7, 2007

This past week was a planned cutback week (my last) since I was on vacation. I managed to do what I planned so I was happy. The next two weeks are going to be hard for me. I have 3:30 run this weekend and a 3:00 long run the following. This week looks like: 
Mon: 7.5 mile run (done) 
Tues: 60 min stairmaster (done) 
Wed: 28wpu/wdn 8x800 
Thurs: 6-7 mile run 
Fri: 60 min spin 
Sat 3:30 run 
Sun recovery run 
I really really need to do well Sat from a pyschological standpoint. I am starting to get really nervous and if this run blows up...well I don't want to think like that. I just feel really tired (from vacation/time zone changes) and hoping to feel better by Sat. Any suggestions? Race day Sept 9<img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

PacerChris · Aug 7, 2007

Kruss Treat your long run like a race...don't kill yourself spinning on Fri and eat right and hydrate. 3:30 is a LONG tie to be running - it won't feel good the whole time so be prepared for that. Start easy - far better to run easy early and finish strong than run strong and fast early and die at the end - even if you only die a little the last mile or two. If you FINISH STRONG, no matter what your pace was early in the run, it's a massive confidence boost. Some of my best marathons weren't my fastest times because I finished them off really strong. Trevor I'm beginning to think you're like Rain Man while running on the treadmill. "Definitely 6:38 pace. Must run 6:38 pace, not 6:40. I'm an excellent runner. Uh-oh - fart." I've done a few long runs on treadmills in the past and it can be excruciatingly boring - I hope you have something good to look at while you're on that thing!

toe jam on crusty feet · Aug 7, 2007

Coach--- We did good on them. We modified a bit like this: 
2x800 @ 4:07 
2x800 @ 4:00 
2x800 @ 3:50 
1x800 @ 3:40 
I think you are supposed to do the goal pace for like 4x800 the first time and then build to 5x800, then 6x800 like that. But we needed more mileage and knew we couldn't hit 7x800 @ 3:40 quite yet. So we slowed it down in order to get the volume. 
We do it again in two weeks I think and we will try for probably 3-4x800 @ 3:40 + some slower ones...... it is going to be close, but I am mentally prepared for if I do not BQ, as well. I mean hell, my last marathon was a 4:45. I will be taking an hour and 5 minutes off.....in ten months. 
Good luck with all your miles this week!! Holy cow!

Timr1 · Aug 8, 2007

Toe Jam - are you doing Marine Corps? 
OK, there's some serious game in this thread. I've been following it since Pacer started it. 
Here's my schedule and background. 
Ran my first marathon back at the end of April @ Country Music Marathon in Nashville. Immediately decided that I wanted to do another one and that I wanted to step up my training with a better plan and more miles. The stretch goal is to knock some serious time off of the 3:52 that I ran in my debut. 
After some discussion with other family people, myself and both of my brothers signed up to run the Marine Corps Marathon. One of my brothers is a Captain in the Air Force and the other is a Captain in the Marine Corp. AF brother is big time into Ironman distance tris. USMC brother will be doing good to complete the marathon in 4:30. 
Anyway, I selected Pfitz 18/55 as my plan. I toyed with the 18/70 plan that EQ is doing, but decided that the 18/55 would be better for me because it was less of a jump in mileage just to get started. Also, I thought that I could better run this plan as opposed just trying to complete the 70 mile plan. 
I have had two set backs. The first one was a dent in my base just before training started. I had some complications from snip snip surgery and ended up spending the night in the hospital. That caused an 11 day hiatus from running and then after that I was on a beta blocker that further inhibited my running. Once cleared to get off that med, I started building back the base quickly. 
So, I followed the 1st three weeks of a plan to a T. Then, I had to go on a 2 week biz trip to India and could do no outside running. I did run almost everyday on the treadmill, but I can't do the long distances on the treadmill. 
Now I'm attempting to get back on the schedule. Today's run called for 10 with [email protected] I ended up cutting that short due to an 8:00am conf call that I forgot about. Ugh! And, frankly the quality of the run was teh suck! 
My brothers and I will all be running the USAF marathon as well, in some capacity. USAF brother is on the defending Open Class relay team. USMC brother is running the half. And, I plan to do the full distance marathon at a training pace. 
I will post this weeks runs to see how I can stick to the plan. 
Tim

toe jam on crusty feet · Aug 8, 2007

Tim--- 
Yes to the Marine Corp question and also be cautious to jump too fast if you have been missing miles and you are fairly new to running...an injury will be a worse setback of all! 
Becca

Timr1 · Aug 8, 2007

Cool! I'm sure that I'll be able to pick you out of the 29,999 other runners at the race. <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"> 
No worries on the mileage. I'm not all that new to running. I started back on the 7th grade track team and have done a fair amount of base miles going back to 1998. So far, I haven't had trouble with 50+ mile weeks. I just had 28 miles last week and 25 miles the week before. Effectively, I missed last Sunday's (a week ago) long run.

toe jam on crusty feet · Aug 8, 2007

oh, ok....i guess I misunderstood wha you were saying above! Are you running Marine Corps? There are two others as well...

Timr1 · Aug 8, 2007

Yeah, did I not put that down as the goal race? Oh sorry, seems like I left that out. No wait, I did put that down in the 3rd paragraph or something like that. So, yes, i'll be at MCM. There's 26 members of the Birmingham Track Club making the trip up to DC for this race. Should be a good time.

joplus · Aug 8, 2007

sorry, I've been slack posting. 
The past week was sort of a cutback week, mainly due to an atypical work situation, but I needed the rest, I think. I still got some quality in, and I feel better than I did this time last week. 
M: AM 7mi (8:46), PM 3mi (9:23) just dead, ugh 
T: 9mi (9:17) 
W: 9mi incl 5x800 on the road w/short recoveries, not stellar (avg 3:07) 
R: AM 7mi (9:08 ) in hard rain, PM 4mi (8:46) 
F: AM 12mi (8:19) progression, PM 3mi (8:46) 
Sa: 11mi (7:41) with friends 
Su: 7mi (8:34) after overnight shift 
total: 72 miles

kruss · Aug 8, 2007

Thanks for the great advice-I know I tend to psych myself out so the confidence boost of finishing strong this weekend would be very beneficial for me. Managed my 8x800s on the TM this morning b/c of a tornado watch (yikes!) had to cut my wup/wdn a little short because of time constraints but wed. workout-done<img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

PacerChris · Aug 8, 2007

Timr I'm doing Air Force as well...it'll be a dress rehearsal of sorts for NYC. My current PR is 2:53 but I think I was in ~2:50 shape for Boston this year (I backed off that attempt due to the weather - ran 2:55 and felt fantastic). I had hoped to make sub 3 at San Francisco but cramped out at 24, so Air Force will be my confidence booster. It's a big jump from 2:53 to 2:45 so I'm hoping to run negative splits and PR, somewhere around 2:50-2:51. It's a good race - you and your bros will enjoy it (check out the AF Museum afterwards - shower on base at the rec center, get some lunch somewhere and then walk through the Museum, it's good recovery for your legs). 
I got in my Wed workout as well since it's supposed to be ~100 degrees here today - yikes! It was hot enough at 6am this morning, I can't imagine what it will feel like @ noon!

baggio16 · Aug 8, 2007

Yeah, well last week was the last easy week of training for me. Now it's time to get serious. 
Su - Recovered from Jimmy Buffett concert 
Mo - 12 w/3 @ tempo 
Tu - 8 
We - 8 
Tr - 6 
Fr - 6 
Sa - 13.1 race...Not a good race. Developed some serious cramps around mile 11.5. Was on a 6:35/mile pace. I must hydrate better in humid conditions. 
53 total miles. Wow, that's low. I'm hoping to be around 90 this week. I took Sunday off to see Pearl Jam in Chicago.

Timr1 · Aug 8, 2007

Pacer - I'll see you at AirForce. My plan for the race as a training run is to run a negative split, but still do it at my training pace, not goal marathon pace. 
I've been to the museum before, but it'll be cool to check out with my bros and maybe my parents if they make the drive up. My dad flew F-111s in the AF and they have one in the museum. 
I have 5 recovery miles on tap for today. I'm doing a group run from our local running store. That's a 5:30. Temps today are expected to hit 100 as they did yesterday so it'll be super steamy. We're seeing heat indexes here @ 110. Should stay this way through the weekend.

Liam3494 · Aug 8, 2007

As I am far away from teh mileage you guys are doing, I'm a little reluctant to step in and get smashed, but I am on Week 6 of 20 for Philly, and building up gradually ready to peak for the big day (with a training run at the Dublin Marathon three weeks earlier to boot!). 
Presently only running 25 miles per week, and no long runs under the belt, and before you give out to me, I do have a fair bit of experience at this, so I think I know what I'm doing. Time will tell. 
Check my blog to see the experience, but I'm aiming at sub4 in Philly, and as we get nearer the day, I'll adjust my time goal - Ultimate is 3:35:59 and BQ, but not quoting that yet.... 
Liam

Alex · Aug 8, 2007

Just to let you know Liam...I may have more mileage but you'd kick my arse in a marathon any day. 
Who all are you visiting at Philly, lots of other Kickers?

Liam3494 · Aug 9, 2007

Doubt I could catch your arse to get a kick in Alex <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"> 
As for Philly, there will be a fine turn out of Kickrunners for the weekend, with a thread over in The Race showing who will be in town. We get there on the Friday, and look forward to meeting up with as many as possible - with dinner on Saturday evening and a Post Race Party all being arranged. 
Actually staying on in the Philly area after the race for Thanksgiving, as my SO has a sister and her family who live about 70 miles out of town, so a nice vacation as well as the marathon. 
As for running, I have an 8K race this Saturday, and a 10 Mile Race the following weekend. This weekend will be interesting, as I ran a 5 mile race on July 14th, taking things easy and running a slow 43 minutes. I will be looking to be well inside 40 this week, and the improvement will be a decisive factor in how I am progressing. We shall see..... 
Liam

Training Thread - Marathoners

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