April 2016 Running Challenge

@shanaber can I ask how often you did these and how long it took to correct?

I was anxious to get out between meetings, wear my new running shorts from SkirtSports and run in the cool weather. I grabbed my prescription sunglasses instead of my running ones and realized it when I started feeling queasy. I ended up just putting them up on my hat. It was fine because it was cloudy but I ended up with gnats in my eyes! Then when I got to the gate where I would turn off to go home, the construction workers had closed it and I had to go all the way back around! I was almost late to my meeting and it was my PA review with my boss!

Date..........Miles.........Total
04/01.......5.44..........5.44
04/02.......8.33........13.77
04/03.......0.00........13.77
04/04.......5.25........19.02 - + Agility
04/05.......5.21........24.23 - + Strength Training (one armed )
04/06.......0.00........24.23
04/07.......5.86........30.09 - + Strength Training (one armed )



Upcoming Races - Let me know if you will be running too!
06/25/16 - SHEPower Virtual Half Marathon
07/31/16 - San Francisco 2nd Half Marathon
09/xx/16 - Beat the Blerch Half Marathon, Seattle
11/19/16 - USA Invitational Half Marathon (Yay, I qualified again!)
xx/xx/xx - Nike Women's Half Marathon, Los Angeles
12/18/16 - San Diego Holiday Half Marathon

Another amazingly difficult run. Last week was so great I thought I'd be able to put surgery off indefinitely. This week is a complete 180. And I can't wait for my next appointment, the 14th.


1---rest
2---6.79
3---7.38
4,5---tired
6---5.20
7---7.28

26.65/130 miles

"Don't let fear decide your future" Shalane Flanagan. Olympic Bronze Medalist


Upcoming races:

04/24/16 OKC Memorial Half
10/16/16 THAT dam half, Lewisville TX
11/05/16 Jenks Half Jenks OK
Run the year 2016  533.94/ 2016

@ariceroni Good luck on your race! I wish it was going to be cold at mine! Haha. Switch weather?

Stoshew71 wrote: »

5BeautifulDays wrote: »

Stoshew71 wrote: »

It could have been a tempo or at least a pace that Greg McMillan calls steady state.
Tempo usually means a race pace that you can sustain for 40-60 minutes. About 30 seconds slower than that is what is known as steady state.

Tempo is comfortably hard. You are breathing heavy but not hyper ventalating. You would be able to get out one or 2 words answers while running. If you slowed down to a steady state pace, you would be able to slowly feel yourself recover (just barely).

Oooh...this is helpful. I've been very confused by what all of you fancy-talking runners mean by tempo and such!

So, for me (and if you want slow, @MNLittleFinn , I'm S...l...o...w like a sloth), my steady state would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.8-5.0 mph--a pace I could probably comfortably run for 4-6 hours if my life depended on it (I don't know if my joints would hold out that long, but I think my muscles would, and I know my lungs would). My tempo would be somewhere like 5.2-5.5 mph (depending on incline, probably)? When I know I'm only going to run 3 miles or less, I usually run at 5.5-5.8 mph. I can run 6.0 mph, but not more than a few miles, and probably not without stopping for a breather or a water break. Am I understanding the terms correctly, then, @Stoshew71 ?

I am not sure. LOL I forgot what mph is since it's been the longest time since I ran on a TM. So all I go by these days is mins/mile paces.

The other thing is, what speed or pace is a tempo verses easy verses... whatever is very individual.

So looking at speed to pace conversions:
4.8-5.0 mph is 12:30-12:00 pace. You are saying that is your easy pace.
5.2-5.5 mph is 11:32- 10:54 pace. Is what you are saying is your tempo?

You can run 3 miles (or less) at 5.5 - 5.8 mph or 10:54 -10:21 pace.

All of these are all training times. So it's hard to say what you can really do in a race situation. But if you ran a 3 mile race at a 10:21 pace- You would run it in 31:03.
Question would be, could you sustain that pace for 1or 2 more miles if it was a race?

Your tempo (or more accurate term lacate threshold) pace would be a pace that an experienced runner can race at for about an hour. A beginner can probably sustain their LT pace in a race for at least 40 minutes. What would happen is that you have no problems pushing this particular pace for 40-60 minutes. But then after that, no matter how hard you push, you will no longer be able to sustain it. You would feel so much of a burning in your muscles and your breathing would be so heavy that you would just have to stop. That would happen because of all the hydrogen ions that get's build up in the lactate process that the pH level in your muscles become so acidic that you just have to stop.

I would actually suggest that you sign up for an 8K (5 miles) and see if you can run the whole race at a pace of 10:54. It would take you 54:30 to race those 5 miles. If you succeed and had nothing left in your tank, then 10:54 would be your LT (or tempo) pace. Depending how far away from the finish line that you had to stop and walk (or how much further you could sustain that pace) you can still estimate how close your true LT pace should have been.

Does that make sense?

OK...that's a lot of info, lol.

I'm happy to convert to paces; that's how I record my runs. I'm just used to seeing the mph on the treadmill (which--only about half my runs are on one, less in warm weather).

I've only run a handful of races:
3 5Ks--34:47, 33:39, 32:56
1 8K--58:57 (this is actually a little more than 8K, and it was 15 degrees with sub-zero windchills)
2 10Ks--1:20:15 with a trail portion and 1:09:45
1 Half--2:49:33

and I can't really say that I've left it all on the course in any of them, although I'd say the one that took the most out of me was the second 10K because I was trying to place my corral for the half. I don't like that feeling you're describing, and I slow down when I experience it! My fear is that I dislike it so much that I'm actively avoiding it and not really running as fast as I can in a race. I'm signed up for another 10K in two weeks, so that will give me an opportunity to see just how long I can keep up that sub-11:00 pace. Unfortunately it's mostly a trail run, although it's a gravel trail and not a technical one, which tends to slow me down some.

4/1: Rest day!
4/2: 5 miles
4/3: 13.1 Caesar Rodney HM!
4/4: 3 miles with Joe to Go crew
4/5: Rest day
4/6: 10 miles (am), 6 miles (pm)
4/7: 7 miles tempo (am), 6 miles with Thursday crew (pm)

Guys...... I have done my last week of Wed-Thurs doubles. Next week I run just once on Wednesday and twice Thursday, and then the last 2 weeks before my marathon just once on Wed and once and Thurs. I AM SO HAPPY. I did double-doubles 8 or 9 times this training cycle, and I survived! The first two weeks of double-doubles were so exhausting, and now I barely bat an eye. That said... I am so ready to start cutting miles as the taper begins next week!



Upcoming Races:
3/12: Run O' The Mill 5K: New PR! 21:55
4/3: Caesar Rodney HM: New PR! 1:40:13
4/16: River Horse 6K (Ewing, NJ)
5/1: New Jersey Marathon (Lots of towns, NJ)
11/20: Philadelphia Marathon (Philly, PA)

4/1: Rest
4/2: Rest
4/3: 5.0km (Intervals)
4/4: Rest
4/5: 5.2km (Intervals)
4/6: Rest
4/7: 4.9km (Intervals)



Upcoming Races:
5/28: Seven Bridges 5K Run - Orangeville, ON (My first EVER!)
6/12: Guelph Lake 5K - Guelph, ON
7/9: Summer's Night Classical 5k - Guelph, ON

April Running Totals (miles)
4/1 – scheduled rest day
4/2 – 13.31 easy
4/3 – 7.83 easy
4/4 – 4.59 easy 30 minutes + 4 strides
4/5 – 14.14 warm up + speed work
4/6 – 5.18 easy
4/7 – 11.45 – short warmup, long speed work

April total to date – 56.50

Nominal Challenge Goal – 200 miles
Real Goals: Taper well. Arrive at Hopkinton healthy. Run Boston well. Recover well.

Today's notes – The weekly target this week is down to 50 miles. I had initially thought I wouldn't run that many, but it turned out I forgot to include the pre-workout warmups and I underestimated how far I would run for Tuesday's time-defined workout. Going into today, it looked like I'd be more than a mile over the weekly target.

Being over the weekly target is not a good thing for the taper, so I cut the warmup today from the customary 2 miles to 1 mile. Then I stood around longer than usual waiting for the club meeting to start, and watching other members run by on their warmups. My assignment today was 30 minutes at E, 20 minutes at MP, 30 minutes at E. I had estimated this would be about 10.5 miles; it came in at 10.44. Throw in an estimate of 7 miles for Saturday's assignment, and I'll be very close to the 50 target, probably a fraction of a mile over.

Next week's mileage target is down to 45 miles, but there are specified workouts each day and it looks like I should be below that. But that's okay; I keep telling myself that in taper, less is more. You do the taper because it's good for you, and it works. You come out the other side on race day like a coiled spring, ready to run. But between now and then, there are the mental games.

I remember in training for my first half marathon, the final taper week had 4 days with an easy 3 miles each. I was almost offended by this. 3 miles? That isn't even 30 minutes! It's hardly running.

Next week, in an admittedly aggressive marathon training plan, there are 3 days where the assignment is 30 minutes at E. I caught myself thinking, 30 easy minutes? That's hardly worth getting dressed for! It isn't even 4 miles! But I'll do it, because I want to be that coiled spring a week from next Monday. Just like the other 29,999 coiled springs I'll be running with.

2016 races:
January 1, 2016 Resolution Run 7.5 mile (Mendon, NY) finished in 53:58
January 9, 2016 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) finished in 1:30:59
March 12, 2016 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY) finished in 32:32
March 26, 2016 Spring Forward Distance Run 15K (Mendon, NY) finished in 1:05:24
April 18, 2016 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)
April 24, 2016 Flower City Challenge Half Marathon (Rochester, NY)
May 15, 2016 Highland Hospital Lilac Run 10K (Rochester, NY)
June 19, 2016 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY)
July 16, 2016 Shoreline Half Marathon (Hilton, NY)
September 18, 2016 Rochester Marathon (Rochester, NY)

kristinegift wrote: »

Stoshew71 wrote: »

kristinegift wrote: »

@greenolivetree Honestly the best way to tell if you're running to hard is to literally talk out loud to yourself. I do this all the time and look like a crazy person, but there's usually not anyone actually around to hear it (though I was singing along to Hamilton yesterday and turned a corner and someone was outside watering some plants... oops). If 8:30 would be a 5k race pace for you right now, then 9:30-10:30 sounds about right for an easy pace as long as it's conversational.

If you could sing Christina Aguilera's Fighter out loud in perfect rythem (singing in tune is optional) while running; then you are running a good easy pace. If not, slow down your pace until you can.

This is a tellingly specific example, @Stoshew71
I figure if I can rap "My Shot" from Hamilton while also moving my body forward, I am A-OK.
"I'mma get a scholarship to King's College. I prolly shouldn't brag, but dag, I amaze and astonish. The problem is I got a lot a brains but no polish, I gotta holler just to heard, with every word I drop knowledge..." I didn't think I had this song memorized until I was running my shake-out last week and made it through half the rap without music (I'd been running with a friend and didn't have my ipod). Now I'm a pro!

kudos for hamilton lover!!!!

@SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage Hope you feel better soon. And I ran Hot Chocolate LV too!