First track session in over 2 months!
Granted it was not a speed session perse, but still feel good to go to the track and run a bit faster than usual…
1ks at 6.30ish to 6.40ish (min per mile). With 200E
Hamstring feeling good.
Didn’t feel i was going hard. It felt actually great…
Encouraged about this…
Once you are used to running on a treadmill it is easier on the muscles than running on terra firma because on the tred you are doing more lifting of the legs and less pushing off.
Keswick Mountain festival ‘race’ report
To think this time last year I couldn’t run a couple of miles without the knees swelling up…so five years without running my adventure continues…my training is going well, my ‘A’ event is the Snowdon Mini Ultra in July, so just did the 25km Keswick course on Saturday to dial in my kit etc. I’m trying to now average 50km a week, Strava has me down averaging 45km over last 4 weeks, 8 half marathons alone in that month, so happy there. So far this year I’ve done 600km/70hours with 13.5k meters.
Took part with the other half to complete a 25km loop of Derwent water in the Lake District UK. It was our Christmas present to each other! Weather was good, first half was up and down, second half mainly flat along the lake, as you can see in her arm transfer graphic above!
I did my own thing for first half of run as I try not to stop when ascending and waited at the 13km check point for Kat so we could run the mainly flat part back together. She’s not done that type of distance before so wanted to be their for support for those last few kms, we don’t do it for times, we both do the runs for the enjoyment.
She had a tumble at 17km, knees took the brunt of that and then another at 19km with arms out. Second one was painful, she was then unable to run with out bad pain so we walked to the next checkpoint which was at 20km. Medic accessed her and said he suspected a fractured arm and where best medical facilities would be. As she had little pain walking we decided to finish the event coming in at around 4 hours and hour longer than we expected.
We then grabbed some food, I packed up tent and gear and we headed off. We were both looking forward to festival music later that evening and a few beers but decided against staying, get her arm sorted at Kendal on route, then head home for home comforts, a four hour drive.
Shout out to the excellent NHS facilities at Kendal injury centre, we were in and out in 40 minutes, nurse/doctor/xray/sling, with a confirmed fracture of radial bone, upper end before ball/socket part so thankfully it should heal in 4 to 6 weeks. She’ll follow up at local Hospital here.
We’ll be back at the festival next year, we can’t recommend it enough. So much going on in an excellent location.
Yesterday, as I still had energy to burn, I continued the training. Did laps of the local park in my Vibram five fingers, keeping that foot strength up and even surprisingly setting myself a new half marathon PR, must be getting fitter… Got five more weeks until Snowdons 50km, it has a lot more elevation so think I’ll have to get more height in with the distance now. Am looking forward to that ‘race’, a win for me will be completing it.
Hi all,y focus for 2nd half of the year is my first ever marathon at the end of October. I’d really like a sub 3hr if possible (flat course). Currently doing 5k in 18:30 and did half end of last year in 1:24 without pushing too hard all whilst training for sprint duathlon age group world champs. Never really focussed solely on running (even in duathlon I considered myself cyclist who ran a bit).
Now want to focus on running the marathon for a bit…but not quit cycling totally and had a few questions:
Anyone ever used the ‘Run less, Run faster’ plan - 3 hard workouts a week is basically my running time now (but my weekly long run is usually 13-16 miles) so would fit, plus allow 2 cycles a week (thinking just do Train Now and mix it up based on how feel).
If mixing in couple of rides a week, what rides should I do?
If just did running (say) 5 times a week instead and quit cycling until November, likely impact on bike fitness?
I currently do 3 runs and 3 rides a week…thinking going to 3 runs (Run less/Run fast plan), 2 bikes, one day totally off and one day weights plus easy 30 min run.
I’ve completely dropped cycling s couple different times to focus on running (once for almost 2 years). Not riding will affect your fitness on the bike. But when you come back you just have to put some focus on the bike and you’ll be able to make quick gains. My N=1, every time I’ve come back to riding I’ve been able to come back up on the same level (if not greater) than I was at before
I have not used that plan. I think one option would be to choose a low volume bike plan. The biggest thing is to not let your biking get in the way of recovering from running.
I find I improve best on the run if I’m running at least 4x per week but see even more improvement when I’m doing 5-6. Of course, running that often you do have to make sure a lot of your runs are easy and you are not increasing mileage too quickly so they you limit chances that you are NS up overtrained or injured.
Yes. It’s not popular so its hard to find anyone who has actually followed the protocol, and easy to find lots of people with no experience telling you it’s a bad idea.
I used it to prep for a marathon in 2020 but covid cancelled the race. I was surprised that I could handle the tempo and interval runs, but the faster than usual long runs were always a struggle. I think I became a better runner, but I can’t say how successful it might’ve been on race day.
Easy rides.
I tried it combined with a TR plan and it’s just too much intensity. Download the book on Kindle and read it, it’s pretty clear on what you should and shouldn’t do.
Definitely don’t run 5 times a week on RLRF. But if you mean just running, then I lost 20W off my FTP from last October with only running, but it comes back quickly.
Good luck on sub 3, I will caveat my comments that I am a much weaker runner than you - if that’s relevant.
Many thanks and lots to think about. If run 5-6 times a week then will follow different plan, but RLRF is tempting as I currently do 3 fairly hard runs a week plus low volume bike plans (so 3 hard intense rides) with one day off a week…the RLRF with 1 day weights, 1 day off and light bike riding will actually be less work…but hopefully mean less fatigue to go properly hard on RLRF run days. At moment feel tired most of the time!
I’m about to start week six of my low volume running strategy. I’ve been ramping up to a total of 6 miles per week, which is where I’m at now. This is typically 3 short runs per week with varying degrees of pace. I’m thinking I’d like to keep the 6 mile range consistent for a little while, but change up pace and volume per day. For instance, on the day I’m feeling the freshest I’d like to try a 3 mile run, then plug in a full on 1 mile recovery run, then another 2 mile run later in the week. I feel like I’d like to start trying longer and longer runs with an ultimate goal of a non-competitive 10k, with that said, is my strategy a good one? For those that don’t know I had to full stop my first attempt this year due to some tendonitis on my right heel, I’m defaulting to a very modest/conservative plan and am happy with balancing the newness of running with the random riding that I’m still doing.
If I do a “train now” TR workout indoors I’m going to default to Z2 or tempo workouts, and I’m doing the random mountain and road riding still. all that to say is that running is getting the most attention and structure, but I don’t want to stop riding. I’ve also been a little more focused on some body weight strength training and started a new 3X week core routine. I have some body composition goals that I think running will help with. I also just want to be a more well rounded athlete. I could see doing the random 5-10K trail running race down the line…
There’s all sorts of strategies and plans for running, all of them use structured progression of some sort. So if you’re trying to evaluate your strategy, write down your plan, look at the progression, is it around the 10% weekly increase (time, distance or pace) most plans aim for?
Too slow or too little and you won’t make progress at all.
Sounds good to me, can see where you are coming from after your previous set backs with injury. If you have the time I can’t see the harm in slow progression, listening to your body and enjoying your runs.
You’ll.know when its right to ramp it up, even if it’s just an extra mile a week for another month and if required reduce again.
Myself I’d love to do more. I have to balance my efforts with my achilles aches and abductor tear and know I’ll have to keep it where I am for now. Maybe I’ll just add a little extra climbing in my weekly distances and try and do a couple of trainnows a week for fitness. Also if I need a break I’ll happily drop a week of almost nothing.
You know your body, listen to it and your head and I hope you enjoy those 5km/10km events in the future,
Marathon Race Report
This was kind of an unplanned race. I had the idea of doing a marathon this year but timing wise figured I wouldn’t be ready until late summer early fall. However I had a couple weeks ago I had a good training run and since this race was local to me I knew the course super well. Then on Friday when I saw the weather was looking perfect (minimal wind and tempts in the high 40’s and low 50’s) I decided to pull the trigger. I didn’t set any real lofty expectations, mostly was curious as to where my fitness was at.
Primary Goals
Secondary Goals
(though I only missed this by 20 seconds)Buildup
As mentioned above, I wasn’t planning on doing a marathon this early in the year so I wasn’t coming in with too much of a base. I took a couple months off of running last year post IM and didn’t start back up until November. I was following a BarryP-like plan and was pretty cautious about increasing my mileage (usually 5-8% a week with a rest week every 4th or 5th week). I only had 4 weeks above 50 mpw and my longest run was 17.5 miles (and 4 other runs in the 15-17 range). The large majority of my running (95%?) is been in Zone 2. The aforementioned long run was 2 weeks out from the race and I did the middle 15 miles at a 6:48 pace. This was what had me thinking a BQ (and maybe sub-3) could be possible. As fate would have it I got a bad cold and lost my voice 9 days out from the race so I cut things back a ton and took several days days in a row off to let my body rest. While this kind of sucked it was actually probably better as it forced me to rest and for the most part I had just a few lingering issues form the cold this morning.
The course
Takes place in northern Idaho. Two out and backs. The first is ~16 miles and the second is ~10 miles. The first out and back had one big hill that you go over the top of in both directions (0.5 miles/4% on one side and 0.8 miles/4% on the other) as well as another which you turn around on the top (0.4 miles/5%). The second out and back has a hill going into the turnaround but it’s pretty shallow (1.5 miles @ a little less than 2%). Total elevation gain is 760 feet.
Raceday
Prerace breakfast:
A small bowl oatmeal with a some grape nuts ~10g of whey protein powder, half a Cliff bar, and a few chocolate covered coffee beans (basically just found what I could try and get down as I wasn’t feeling hungry)
Race time:
I decided I needed one last stop at the porta potty which led to me not getting to the start line until 90 seconds after the gun went off. Normally this would suck, but since my plan was to just run my own race TT style I think this was a blessing in disguise as it meant I wouldn’t be tempted to jump on with any runners or groups going faster than my planned pace (though it did mean I had to get through 250 or so runners).
The plan was to to not run any faster than 6:55 for the first 21 miles and then if I felt good, drop the pace and take a shot at getting under 3 (the last 5 miles were slightly net downhill). I did end up with thee miles in the first have being a couple seconds each under 6:50, but they were on the downhill sections. Otherwise I was able to hold back and stay on pace. Overall pace stayed consistent at all my mental checkpoints - mile 8 (6:58), 16 (6:57) and 21 (6:56). I did some quick math at mile 21 figured if I dropped my pace to 6:40 for the for 5 miles I would have an outside shot at ‘sprinting’ to a sub-3 in the last 0.2. However after 2 miles of this strategy my hip flexers were begging for mercy and I started to get concerned that I’d blow up and lose out on a BQ so I backed it off to a 7-7:30 pace for the last three.
3:02:16 clock time which was a 5.5 minute PR (though this was only my 2nd standalone marathon and the other one was 8 years ago). I just missed negative splitting (20 seconds slower on the 2nd half). Hoping this is far enough under the BQ time to get in the 2023 race.
Lessons Learned
Awesome write-up!!
Thanks. I always enjoy other reading other peoples bike and run race write up so I figure I’d should finally do one of my own
Not gonna lie, I initially read that as 32 miles one way and 20 miles the other. 
Brilliant work. I find that the best feeling in a race comes when you put together a plan and execute it to perfection on the day. However, the second best feeling is when you absolutely boss something, and frankly a 5 and half minute PR is bossing it in my books, in a race where you had 0 expectations.
Great write up too, nice one, well done!
Checking back in re: wearing carbon-soled shoes for daily running.
DON’T do it. After about 4 months I started to develop what I thought was achilles tendonitis with posterior plantar fasciitis. Mild but bothersome - I’ve learned over the years to not let running injuries get out of hand. I tapered down my intensity and volume, but kept wearing the Hoka Carbon X 2’s around the house and casually for a couple of weeks. Tendonitis didn’t get better, it actually got worse. Started to look into it more, figured out it was “insertional” achilles tendonitis. Then started looking into common causes, described as a result of increased volume, intensity, and shoes with stiff midsoles. Evidently the stiff midsole removes the foot’s contribution to the stride and basically places all of the load on the Achilles.
I stopped wearing them and went back to my Adidas Ultraboost with Birkenstocks casually. Also started doing reverse calf raises focusing on eccentric loading. In 1 week I’m back to normal and slowly adding back volume.
I’m sure they’re great for some people and for racing, but for me they were a recipe for an injury.
Happy training!
You should lead with that. Starting with all caps DON’T do it is missing the point that this your n=1 experience. Some, myself included, are perfectly fine doing a lot of miles in all kinds of carbon shoes.
Not all carbon shoes are build the same, and not all carbon shoes work for everyone. I have know people who have issues with them, specially if you are heel striker or if you over pronate. Achilles issues happens usually when you are prancing or pushing from the ball of your feet. This is something that could hurt you if you are not used to it. Carbon shoes will force you into this position.
But if they don’t work, they don’t work. I know i really love mine
Sorry, I’ll assume people don’t read the whole post next time
Because it’s all about the foam, not the carbon.
