Shades Marathon Training

SHADES

Ian - we have to take advantage of those good training spells.    Although we train all year round those purple patches don't come around that often. 

Big G - I hope the podiatrist has some options that could finally sort your PF. 

I've never heard of that Californian marathon but would be good to have a special trip to celebrate your 50th birthday. 


Leg/glutes session in the gym.  Put another 20kg on the leg press, I may regret that in the morning. 

Big_G

Shades, CIM is a big race in the States. A lot of fast runners tried to use it for olympic trials qualification in the US. I think in December 23, 41 runners went under the times needed for the trials at CIM alone, where the trials were held two months later. 

Ian5

Big G-CIM is meant to be fast,bit undulating but usually has a tailwind and as you say lots of fast runners to drag you along.
Shades-I know what you meant about training,the big challenge will be holding it together for a few months.Need to plan my summer calendar out as I have nothing planned between April and September.
Pro direct say my shoes are being shipped so looks like I may have a pair.

SHADES

Ian - it's only too easy to come off the boil if you have too long a spell in-between races.   Maybe some shorter races even. 

Well done bagging the shoes. 

Cal Jones

I am envious of all you folks who can go for a nice long run at the moment. I'm still struggling. My hip was OK the Sunday after parkrun - I didn't do much as I was volunteering at my club's annual 20 mile race (I had the rather nice job of giving out medals at the finish, which was better than the marshalling I've done on previous occasions as I had access to the cake stall). 
Yesterday I decided to go out for a gentle 4 miles and it wasn't good - hip started to get a little tight after 15 minutes so I then put a walk break in every 5 minutes but instead of helping, I just felt like I was tired and wanted to stop. No real reason for it that I could fathom.
Today was the gym and did some squats which hip did not like at all. It seems to really hate any attempt at serious lower body exercise. Mucking about with bands is all well and good but at coming up to 57, I need to do the heavy stuff if I want to preserve muscle mass. Ugh.

SHADES

Cal - helping out at your club race is the next best thing to running but no substitute really.  Enjoyable but no endorphins. 

I can't run further than 6 miles at the moment, in the last mile my sciatica starts to kick in and then aches when I've finished.   But it is improving, the post run ache is shortening time wise.
Can't do any weighted squats in the gym and no deadlifts at all.

I can only do 5 exercises in the gym for legs/glutes, 5 sets of 15  and I do each one to almost failure on the last set.  I'm increasing the weights when I can. 

What about pilates, could you manage that.   Or a stretch type class.   The stretch class I go to is all over body stretches but primarily the hips and that is helping me. 

SHADES

Very challenging weather conditions this morning, wet and windy, back to my serious jacket again.   Not gusty wind but a relentless headwind on the way out, my legs are wrecked from the gym and battling against the wind was exhausting.   Remembered my HRM today but it wasn't needed as my legs were so tired my HR stayed nice and low.   I could only manage 4 miles today.

Gym later, 30 mins upper body,

Big_G

A thing popped up on my phone. 2 years ago today we were in Wales and it was lovely weather. Not like that today!

SHADES

I don't think Tigg will like the weather today.

SHADES

As far as I know our Ian is only runner with an April Marathon, unless Big G has something lined up.    I have entered Newport but I'm pretty sure a DNS for me.

Cal Jones

Well I tried a bit of an experiment today - it was a lovely day aside from the wind (I agree, it's exhausting running into it) so I did a big loop that included a bit of the Wandle Trail as I've been missing that, and I did 10 miles with 4:30 run/:30 walk intervals. I missed one walk interval altogether due to daydreaming; did another 30 seconds late because I was busy crossing roads and then brought one of the last ones a minute early because I was going uphill and just wanted a break. The hip was mostly just achy but it did get a little more so during the last 20 minutes or so. It hasn't gone that far for a while. I'm waiting to see what it's like for the rest of the day (I did have an Epsom Salts bath on returning).
Most concerning thing was my HR got quite high (170s). This was watch - I've not used the strap for a bit. The watch doesn't deal with intervals particularly well as it's a bit slow to react but I don't think it can have been too far out because I did feel a bit puffed at times. I think it's mostly down to a catastrophic loss of aerobic fitness due to the injury combined with being over caffeinated and under hydrated (didn't take water but perhaps I should as it's getting a bit warmer now). I remember my HR being high on a run when I was coming back from the hamstring injury in 2021 so I think it's just that. I need to find a way to get fitter when I can't run as often, but the machines in the gym bore me to tears if I'm on them for more than 20 minutes.

SHADES

Cal - well that's a jump up in mileage but sounds like you enjoyed yourself out there.    That wind is fierce in places and bitterly cold wind too, at least it is here.

Don't worry about your heart rate.   I think when coming back from injury, as well as some loss of aerobic fitness, there's a mental angst at the same time with the alertness to potential pain and that puts the heart rate up.
I has the same thing when I started running again after the period when I couldn't run at all with the sciatica. 

I agree re the cardio machines in the gym, I wouldn't last 5 minutes on them never mind 20.   I never touch them, I do 2 minutes on the Concept skier when doing upper body.   For lower body I walk there, PT said that's adequate warm up 

Hope the aftereffects of today's run aren't too bad.

Ian5

Shades-Guess you had a tailwind though on the way back 😁 
Cal-Good luck on trying to get back,its so tough when you've been out for a while.
Shoes are being delivered tomorrow so looks like I was successful. 
Club tonight.

SHADES

Ian - I deliberately ran out into the headwind so I could have the wind behind me on the way home.  When I turned at 2 miles, mile 3 was 90 seconds faster than mile 2.

Have a good speed session. 

Ian5

Maybe we're just going to have a 5 mile easy run 🤣

SHADES

Ian - ha,ha, I doubt it.  Club runs easily become very competitive 

Ian5

Shades-Definately not an easy run,we did 9x1k with 90s recovery.
Idea was start at MP and work down to 5k,started a little fast again so need to fix that,I got it down to 10k ok,but the last 2 at 5k were tough.

Big_G

Ian, that sounds like a virtually impossible session to me!  Did anyone actually execute that how it was set out?  Sounds totally brutal. 

SHADES

Ian - 😰 not an easy five miler then 🤣.   That does sound a very tough session.   Legs OK today?

Big G - I expect you'd fancy a go at that session.

5 miles this morning, very cold, 'feels like' 0 degrees and a little unexpected black ice on the bridges, bit cold for my back, legs are almost back to normal.   No gym today so I could have gone out later when it warms up a bit but we have 40-50mph winds for most of the day and I had enough of that on yesterday's run.  

Met 2 lovely Labradors, the owner momentarily distracted when using the poo bin, the dogs took advantage and galloped up to me for a fuss.  One black and one chocolate.

On my way back I warned another runner about the slippery surface on the bridge and she stopped and we ended up having a 10 minute natter, never met her before.

Big_G

I just had an other look through the Tokyo event pics and saw this. If you know what to look for, you can just about make me out, but this is what I was faced with whilst tying to cross the finish line. Never seen it that bad before.  

SHADES

Never seen that before at a finish line, what was the hold up, getting medals?

I can see you 

Big_G

The medals, goody bag and bag collection, were all well away from the finish area. I really think it was mainly caused by people pretty much stopping dead, to take pics, selfies etc. Most were walking through, but the numbers talking selfies etc were causing blocks. I’ve never seen it that bad before. 

SHADES

Wow, why would anyone want to take selfies on a finish line.   Sad reflection of our times that they can't enjoy a moment in real life without having to take a selfie.   Surely better to get medal etc and then take a photo.

Ian5

Big G-Yeah a few of them did,all depends how you get the first fee I suppose,if you get them right it makes the others easier, but I was at HMP after the 2nd so made the last harder.
Tokyo didn't feel that bad when I did it,but I guess there were less runners at my end

Big_G

Ian, yes, that is true. I haven’t checked the results but probably I was pretty much middle of the pack, at around the busiest period for finishers. But I’ve finished large events at around the same time and not had it before. The amount of phones out was very noticeable though. 

Ian5

Zoomed in on that pic and it's a crazy amount of people there,don't think I've been in 1 that bad.
Shades-Legs are fine today,always a little wary in the morning incase something hurts but no issues at all.
New shoes arrived today,they feel great,different feel to the other super shoes but in a good way,can't wait to race in them.

SHADES

Ian - good news on the legs post that tough speedwork session. 

And the new shoes,will you test them at Southampton then do Manchester in them? 

Ian5

Yes that's the plan,hopefully get a decent time at Southampton and go from there.

SHADES

6.5 miles today, undulating.  Could feel my quads and glutes on the undulations, so still not fully recovered from the gym on Tuesday and it's legs/glutes again today at the gym     Chilly morning but warmed up a bit when the sun came out, lovely and quiet on the roads on a bank holiday morning.

Big_G

We had quite a lot of plans this weekend, which I’ve mainly had to cancel as still quite unwell.  Tour of Flanders on Sunday though - it’s one of the 5 monuments and it was looking like it’d be a good one, but WvA crashed on Wednesday (broken ribs, sternum and collarbone). That could have repercussions for the whole season as he was down to do Giro and not TdF this year, but will he recover for Giro?