5x300 100 easy stroll between, down to 50.8, 5x200- quickest was a 30.50, 2x110m right around 15.4. Decent. By end of this week , I should have an average of 18 miles a week for first 7 weeks of the year. I know I need to add about 50% - 24 mi. a week to be stronger for 800m. I'll get there, but I only want to run 5 days a week.
Most interesting part of the past week for me is that left Achilles seems to be improving dramatically with two days on treadmill followed by one run outside. Keep this pattern for two more weeks, the a race. M: treadmill- 7M
T: treadmill - 5M
W: 8.7M w/five long fartlek sections of .85, .55, .50, .85, .65
Th: treadmill - 5M
F: treadmill - 5M
Sat: 12M @ 10:30 pace w/heavy rain in humidity and tulle fog. Bizarre. Enjoy the week
I think you might be inaccurate on the second answer. I don't regularly follow this thread, but it seemed to me there was a period when Iggy posted, that he was getting downvoted, and there seemed to be a beef between him and a "best to most" guy.
I think you might be inaccurate on the second answer. I don't regularly follow this thread, but it seemed to me there was a period when Iggy posted, that he was getting downvoted, and there seemed to be a beef between him and a "best to most" guy.
And then Iggy attracted some other trolls (guy could have multiple handles?) harassing him, I think.
MrMr -- Running 5 days a week seems smart for a mature 800 meter specialist. Rest after fast running and all that.
Dave, congrats on an excellent race over hills!
As for me, two weeks back I only ran 20.5 miles, over 4 days. I woke up mid-week with vertigo/ear ache. Fairly unpleasant ride, that!
This week
Mon 16 miles, pickup over last 7 for a big negative split / 9:22 pace TU 2.5 miles / 9:11 pace Wed 5.84 miles @ 9:04 TH 4.07 miles @ 9:11 Fri 2 miles @ untimed Sat 7.8 miles (w/u, and 10k race in 47:24) Sun 6 miles @ 9:10 WEEK 44.8 miles
No results printed yet on yesterdays 10k race. Three weeks until Marathon race day. I'll be interested to see age group results for yesterdays run, as well as upcoming marathon. I'll celebrate 67 later this winter.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
I think you might be inaccurate on the second answer. I don't regularly follow this thread, but it seemed to me there was a period when Iggy posted, that he was getting downvoted, and there seemed to be a beef between him and a "best to most" guy.
I’m open to being corrected. Please provide your evidence.
I do keep a bit of an eye on the thread, I was one of the originals.
A quick recap of my recent history.
August 2022 to January 2023 prostate issue and catheterised pretty much throughout. Bad dose of urosepsis and a run of UTIs. No real running or cycling, I did do some very slow shuffles but that usually ended badly. Surgery in January 2023. Back running and cycling in Feb. A run of knee issues until about July last year. Very, very slow rebuild from then. I managed to complete (non competitively) my favourite event a 4 day mountain race in Nov. but have taken a long time to get that I'm a runner feeling back.
I feel I have turned the corner now (finally!). Still not flying but now running feels natural again.
My week. A hot week temps all in 30s C. No longer run as we had 15 metres of quarry dust to spread and level for our soon to arrive 110,000 litre water tank. I try to get a longer one in on Monday normally but knew I 'd be pretty knackered from shovelling and raking in the sun all day.
Mon. 10.6 km mountain bike ride 30.30 then 5 km trail run 29.00 and easy weights session.
Tue. 10.3 km mountain bike ride 30.20. and 5 km trail run 29.45. Easy weights.
Wed. Loddon River canoe trail bridge to Weir return 80 mins.
Thu. Trails N Ales group run ( do you have these in the US?). 9.5 km 52 min moving time but we stop to regroup as we go so out for nearly the hour. As usual I was out the back early but up the front last couple of km. Easy weights.
Fri. 21.5 km mountain bike ride 64 mins.
Sat. Long drive home from visiting my twin granddaughters. Out for 11.6 km mountain bike ride 34 mins then 5 km trail run 29.20.
Sun. 11.8 km mountain bike ride 34 min. "time trialled" a rolling 2 km gravel road strava segment in 4.55. Happy to sneak ahead of the young (woman) exercise phys. from work on the segment. Pity I'm a bloke as there is only one woman ahead of me, she's an international. It was nice to feel that competitive hunger kick in, I emptied the tank the last 200. I did do a light 3 km shuffle afterwards but legs were feeling a bit cooked.
Thu. Trails N Ales group run ( do you have these in the US?). 9.5 km 52 min moving time but we stop to regroup as we go so out for nearly the hour.
Congrats on a very impressive recovery! As to "trails N Ales group run", if I'm understanding it correctly, then yes we have that in USA. My club for example organizes "pub runs" a couple nights a week in various locations around the area--group run starting and ending at a bar or brewery, culminating in drinks, and depending on venue maybe dinner for those stay longer.
...Good week for me including exploring a few trails entirely new to me or at least not seen in a long while. I find I like being a little lost temporarily as long as I have a rough sense of how to get back. Big snow predicted for Friday night ended up at about 0.2 inches that melted almost immediately, so no issues of bad footing
Highlights were hill repeats Weds. and 3:00 long run Friday.
Fed up with snow here, but it keeps falling. 25+ inches for a flat area only 120 m above sea level (and no mountains some 800 miles around) is too much.
Kept (XC) skiing and doing other cross-training at a gym.
Mon – arc trainer, 1:19, “emulation” of a 6x5 min easy interval session (LT by effort). Tue – AM: 1:03 skiing, PM: 0:57 elliptical. Wed – arc, elliptical, and treadmill, 1:16 Thu – off Fri - arc, 1:25, “emulation” of a 31-min tempo, LT effort by feel Sat – arc, elliptical, and treadmill, 1:18 Sun – AM (xc) - ski 1:09 (LT effort, worked as a trailblazer after a snowfall), PM - arc, elliptical 0:48
Rather than calling this week 10 of long-Covid symptoms, I'm finally calling it week 1 of my 2024 training plan. The first half of this year I'm trying to work on increasing run volume and strength work, and, mainly, letting run intensity mostly increase organically as I feel fitter. 50 miles for the week _
Mon- 7mi of 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 11:42/mi and HR 135
Tue- 5mi of walk 200/run 400. Ave 12:49/mi and HR 139
Wed- 11mi of AM 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 11:28/mi and HR 143. PM 4mi walk
Thu- 7mi of 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 10:51/mi and HR 118
Fri- 7mi of 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 10:46/mi and HR 117
Sat- 7mi of 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 11:36/mi and HR 116
Focused PT is working for me. Balance is better. Heel whip still there but improving. Hip strength better. M: treadmill - 7M @ 10:30 pace, last 3M @ 9:40 pace
T: work
W: 8.4M outside. 10:40 pace. Coulda been better, but not bad. Th: treadmill - an hour @ 11:19 pace. easy
F: a full on hour of PT; followed by an Outdoor run of 6.3M @ 11:13 pace. very tired legs from PT.
Sat: 12M in sub-freezing early morning temperature; wind chill just below 9 degrees. A bit of ice and a whole bunch of wind. Held together at 10:04 pace overall. three days running outside on the Achilles is a bit greedy. I knew better. Enjoy the week.
Threee weeks of training have passed since I last posted. We seem to have had rain, rain and more rain.
The first week we were visiting our daughter and family and I managed a flatter, faster parkrun than usual - 21:55. The second week I ran XC for my club to make up a team. I really shouldn't be scoring, even for the B team, but we were short of runners.
This last week has been more consistent, although I missed a couple of days to aid recovery and avoid the rain.
Mon 12 - 35min easy
Tues 13 - no running - tired and wet
Wed 14 - am - 40min easy - pm - 50min with some harder parts
Thur 15 - no running - still tired (and wet)
Fri 16 - 40min easy
Sat 17 - 35 min track session including 4x1000m at average 4:07/km
Sun 18 - 40 min easy
Total for the week - 50km/31miles. I'm hoping for a little more this coming week.
I have not been posting for a long time as I have been struggling with a very annoying injury (sciatic nerve inflammation triggered by a hamstring strain).. After almost exactly 1 year, I finally feel fine and I am gradually resuming structured training. During the past year, I could not do any speedwork, so I just piled up slow miles (I averaged 35 miles/week, including the months were I did not run, and had several months at 50+ miles average with a few weeks at 65). I am not sure if all this easy running helped or just delayed full recovery. The past few weeks I decreased mileage to 30-40 mph and introduced hills, some track repeats and threshold runs. I did some tests to assess my current fitness: aerobically, I am fine, but my threshold speed is ~30s slower than it was before the injury. Basically, my VO2max went down the drain. I am mildly optimistic that I can get back to where I was (in three weeks my 400m repeats time dropped by ~10 seconds) but I will need to train smart. Easy runs are not going to cut it. I am open to suggestions, in particular from people that successfully managed to get back at our age.
Mon. 13 km trail run 300m elevation gain 90 min. I was trying to join 2 trail loops but got a bit misplaced in the process. Good fun but the hot weather took it's toll (37-38°C) and I did a bit of hiking on some steep single track.
From 8 pm to 10 pm my SIL, myself, my wife and my daughter worked feverishly to get our tank pad levelled to specs ( within10mm). Oh yeah forgot to mention the great assistance of our nearly 4yo grandson haha. Knackered when I went to bed.
Tue. Tank builders arrived nice and early, took just 2 hours for them to get it up. After huge rains in late Dec early Jan now we have the huge tank we probably won't get rain for months.
By the time that was done it was already 39°C and a stiff 30 to 40 kph NW blowing. I headed out on the mtb for a planned hourish ride in the afternoon. Those winds picked up to 50 plus kph and a mass of storm clouds started rolling in. I detoured home as flashes of lightning filled the sky. Got home just as the storm hit, briefly winds of 70 to 80 kph. Most of it SW of us. We were soon blacked out as were half a million others. No major damage for us but plenty elsewhere. Ride ended up being just 13 kms in 40 mins.
Wed The now regular kayak session on the Loddon River canoe trail 39 mins down, 42 mins back.
Thu. Babysitting duties most of the day. A good strong 15.5 km mountain bike ride in 45 min. I planned a 5 km run afterwards but once I cooled down my breathing felt a bit rough. Possibly all that inhaled crusher dust who knows. I walked a couple of k then felt better but still NQR. I rolled through 3 kms in 16 mins. Plenty of post run coughing.
Fri. Another day of babysitting, evening 22 km mountain bike ride in 66 mins, breathing was fine.
Sat. A bit of a crappy evening run. Legs weren't moving well so stuck to rugged trails to slow myself down. 5.7 km in 36 mins.
Sun. A couple of kms in the kayak then a steady 5 km trail run in 29 mins.
60 miles running with a little bit of speed last week. I've been pushing up the miles to try to build a good base for a couple of marathons I'm signed up for, so I have not been doing much speed work. But my miles for the week and month are not too much less than my highest ever. I hardly ran at all the first half of last year because of heart issues. My first marathon back will be just over a year after open heart surgery, so happy to be doing as well as I am.
That kind of surgery usually takes massive rehab...but most Americans are sedentary and you obviously aren't and got there faster. Well done! Good luck in your marathon.
This is one of the reasons many of us here run, to stay in shape. It didn't keep me from a heart attack or aortic aneurysm, but it helped me make it through it. Before my open heart surgery my doctor said because I was in good shape I should come through it just fine. My surgery was on a Monday, and Thursday they asked if I wanted to go home, because they really were not doing much for me. My first marathon back went well. One of my slowest, but I've never been this old before, and my heart doctor told me it was ok to run, but don't worry about my time. The whole race I was right on the pace and heart rate I was aiming for. 29th state with a BQ.
The Arctic has stopped "breathing on my area" and the weather is perfect for skiing. Made one more good week in terms of “aerobic development”, but it is still 2-3 weeks before it will be possible to run on roads without “winter risks” (slippery, etc).
Mon – (xc) skiing, 1:07 Tue – elliptical and arc trainers, 1:28. “Emulation” of a 6x5 min easy interval session (LT by effort). Wed – skiing, 1:29 Thu – skiing, 0:46, then 0:50 arc trainer. Fri – AM: skiing, 1:04 including a 21-min tempo at LT+ by effort (not by HR, it was considerably less than running LT HR). PM: elliptical, 0:36 easy. Sat – AM: skiing, 1:20 including a 33-min tempo at LT+ by effort. PM: arc, 0:40 easy. Sun – AM: skiing, 1:15 including a 38-min tempo at LT+ by effort.
So, 10+ hours this week, an extremely high number for me.
Week 2 on my training plan. I got a little enthusiastic on my effort level on Thur and Fri, and my heart rate was way up on Sat. 51 miles for the week -
Mon- 7.4mi of 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 10:54/mi and HR 116 Tue- 7.4mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 10:38/mi and HR 123 Wed- 11mi of AM 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 10:35/mi and HR 122. PM 4mi walk Thu- 7mi of 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 11:43/mi and HR 125 Fri- 7mi of 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 11:11/mi and HR 123 Sat- 4mi of walk/run. Ave 12:20/mi and HR 140 Sun- 7.4 mi of 2mi of walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run, 2mi walk 200/run 400, 1.5mi run. Ave 10:49/mi and HR 120.
This week, ran a bit over 30 miles. Prior week, 36 + miles. Tapering for a marathon in one week. Most of this build has been in the 40 + mpw range, focusing on long runs and decent recovery.
I'm very keen to avoid plantar and Achilles problems these days! I literally lost 2.5 years of running since 2020 and I don't want to go back there.
Did not do a true "long run" this pastweek, instead ran 10 miles out/back (easy out, slammed a big negative split coming back.)
My modest marathon goal next week, break 4 hours. This is only my 4th marathon. The first two, I was able to kick over the last several miles.
The 3rd one, I cratered hard over the last few miles, due to stupid pacing mistakes, and not having one last gel when I really needed it.
So, I'm back to keeping it real for the first 20 miles, then I'll look for something in the tank to finish.