Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 19)

John congrats on a great effort today and hoped you enjoy the beers and the playoff hockey.

Jo congrats on completing your first 20 miler and glad to hear you came out of it well and good idea to take advantage of the massage. I'm sure that helped.

20 miles is a huge accomplishment Joanne!  There aren't many people that will commit to the kind of training you are putting your body through.  This being your first 20 miler you have to know that they will get easier.

What is the rest of your plan before the race?  You have about 3 weeks to go and you shouldn't really begin to taper just yet.  A 3 week taper will likely leave you stale and in a sort of funk on race day.

Thats a solid race time John.  Congrats on a successfully executed race.  I think many of us are surprised with what we can handle when we put everything into a race.  The trouble with putting everything into a race is that it scares us much of the time.  We become to fearful that we will blow up and DNF.  Most of us really don't know the difference between the "red line" and the yellow line."   This is one reason why I wanted to run a 5k at a pace that I think I will blow up at.  Until I actually blow up during a race I'll never know the difference between the fine line of "red" and "yellow." 

Wind???  Welcome to my world!  This time of year the wind is always blowing and it seems to be inescapable.  Most of the time I will try to ride into the wind for the front half of my ride and then let the tailwind grab hold of me on the back half.  Sometimes it doesn't matter which way I ride because the wind whips in every direction.

Anyway, good job on the ride today.  Getting out on the road can make a huge difference and getting out there when we don't feel like it is more of a reward knowing we completed something we really didn't want to do.  The benefit is in the long road..........the journey.

Well my weekend so far has been pretty much blown for any training so far.  Yesterday I spent the whole day working a little side job or shopping for the new wheels.  The side job is the reason I came into the money for the new bike.  I have the opportunity to replace light bulbs on poles at a little league baseball park.  I am hoping to get about $80-$100 per pole that needs to be climbed.

But that was yesterday.  Today I tried to get a window from the rain that was in the forecast to get a ride on the new bike.  I waited long enough and missed the opportunity for a swim to get the bike out.  I got a 25 mile ride in, came home, made a couple of adjustments and wanted to ride another 10 miles with the changes but it started to rain and I got her off the road.  Once I have the bike fit done I'll allow her to get wet.  I just wanted to wait until the fit was complete.

Also on today's agenda............car shopping for my youngest daughter.  I hate car shopping!!  It was fairly uneventful for shopping though.  We have a couple of ideas but none that we can do any real follow up on until later next week.

Tomorrow I'll get a fresh start on training with another tempo run (7/4) in the morning and hopefully my second ride on "Sheila" of another 25 miles.

Way to go!!

Speaking of red line/yellow line, does anyone here watch the Biggest Loser??  I watch that show religiously so I would love to be able to talk about it here.  I really cannot BELIEVE all the amazing things the contestants get to do!!  They meet amazing people (most recently Michelle Obama with a visit to the White House) and go to amazing places (last year New Zealand, this year Hawaii)... I would love to work on the set of BL! 

Well I am happy with myself today!  Got in all my planned sbr!  I knew I wouldn't feel like getting anything in Wed, Thurs, Fri so I basically made those planned rest days, trying to plan my workouts for the week around that.  I wasn't sure if the weather would cooperate today so I was a little worried, but it pretty much stayed dry for the afternoon/evening so I was able to get my run and bike in.  (and be motivated enough to do so!)

And man, I just checked the weather for tomorrow, and the forecast here calls for high of 80!!  What insane weather this is for Michigan.  It also says scattered showers, so I'm hoping at least it'll stay dry long enough so I can get some more running and biking in tomorrow too.

Dirk - sweet Felt - will be a great ride.

Allison - great post - run calculator is great site.

everyone's runs are getting longer - can tell its close to race season - WAY TO GO!

Samantha, Feel free to talk about whatever you like here.  Nut I'll probably to be much of a listener about biggest loser because I think I have seen about an hour of the show since it started airing.

Paul,  Good luck today at the race.  It looks like everything should hold out for the weather.  I just checked the radar and it looks like you'll have clear skies and warm temperatures but a lot of wind.  WIND SUCKS!

Joanne, I thought the plan might be calling for a long 3 week taper and that is why I asked and commented a little already.  Simply put, with my experience limited to 3 marathons, and having done tapers of 3 weeks, 2 weeks and 1 week, I feel pretty confident that 3 weeks is too long.  I'll be running Boston in 2013 (if they accept me with the new registration guidelines) and I will be taking about a 1.5-2 week taper.  I will cease to do any type of speedwork/VO2 work 3 weeks out and drop to all easy running of very close to peak MPW.

I would suggest you do no more than  2 week taper.  I would keep the mileage the same as last week for the upcoming week and then fall into the taper.  You'll need to take today away from running, but you really didn't need me to tell you that because it's likely you're already walking a little stiff, but pick some running back up tomorrow.  I think you are at a critical time in your training.  Slow down to soon and your legs will go stale, run too long and you will be fatigued making the race harder on you. 

Running another 20 miler will give you more confidence in your ability because the last 6 miles of a marathon is really the second half of the race.  This is where your metal is earned because the mentality of the race starts here.  Once you get through this week of non-taper training I would start your taper with the 2nd week mileage 4,8,5 and 12.  Then race week would look like the plan is suggesting (3,4 and 2) and then maybe a couple of very easy miles the day before the race to loosen your nerves a little.

I checked your logs and here is my suggestion for the upcoming week:

Monday - 12 miles

Tuesday -5 miles

Thursday - 10 miles

Saturday - 20 miles.........yes! Again.

Below is a copy of my final 3 weeks of training before my next to last marathon (Oct 16 2011).  My 3rd marathon was 3 weeks from that on Nov 5 2011.  Feel free to check the rest of my logs for more aid but I wanted you to be able to see how I ran my training right up to about 1.5 to 2 weeks from race day.  Also pay attention to race week mileage.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Week Tot.
25 Weight: 159 R: 10.01 Mi 1h 09m 27s B: 19.54 Mi 1h 06m 49s	26 Weight: 159 R: 7.11 Mi 55m 51s	27 Weight: 159 B: 21.30 Mi 1h 11m 22s	28 Weight: 159 R: 0.01 Mi R: 13.01 Mi 1h 43m 29s	29 Weight: 159 R: 4.01 Mi 30m 51s	30 Weight: 159 R: 10.25 Mi 1h 15m 45s R: 10.01 Mi 1h 17m 15s	1 Weight: 159 R: 4.01 Mi 30m 14s	B:  40.84 Mi 2h 18m 11s R:   58.42 Mi 7h 22m 52s
2 Weight: 159 R: 5.01 Mi 38m 06s	3	4 Weight: 159 R: 9.51 Mi 1h 13m 03s	5 Weight: 159 R: 10.51 Mi 1h 22m 43s	6	7 Weight: 159 R: 15.01 Mi 1h 52m 48s	8	R:   40.04 Mi 5h 06m 40s
9 Weight: 159 R: 5.01 Mi 36m 31s	10	11 Weight: 159 R: 7.26 Mi 54m 51s	12	13	14 Weight: 159 R: 6.11 Mi 45m 48s	15 Weight: 159 R: 2.01 Mi 14m 56s	R:   20.39 Mi 2h 32m 06s

John - 39:26 for 5 miles is awesome!  That's a serious pace.  Great effort.

Dirk - I'm glad Jonathan posted - did you really post a non-drive side pic of your bike?!?!?!?!?  Even so, I'm seriously jealous as I'll be riding my beginner roadie for the foreseeable future.

Jo - 20 miles is an incredible run.  Listen to Dirk in regards to the taper.  I'm convinced I've always over-tapered and it's hurt me.

I love the running calculators too, but be careful.  The McMillan one is great for giving you some training paces, but it almost always overestimates (makes your times faster) paces for longer races.  The VDOT attack one I posted is closer, but still usually off.  There's another table of IAAF equivalent points which is kinda complicated but usually very accurate.  You have to be fast to use it though as it only goes up to 1:55 for a half and 23:40 for 5k.

By the way, if you use McMillans's tables, plug in your 5k or 10k time (or any race time) and see what pace he suggests you run your long/recovery runs.

Speaking of red line/yellow line, does anyone here watch the Biggest Loser??  I watch that show religiously so I would love to be able to talk about it here.  I really cannot BELIEVE all the amazing things the contestants get to do!!  They meet amazing people (most recently Michelle Obama with a visit to the White House) and go to amazing places (last year New Zealand, this year Hawaii)... I would love to work on the set of BL! 

Alright Junkies, I am reaching out to you for some more help.  I really thought my knee pain was a result of my new shoes since it started the day that I wore the new pair for the first time.  Perhaps that just set it off though.  I am in a different pair of new shoes and it has persisted.  I took almost the entire week off of running, with only a slow 2 mile run on the treadmill yesterday.  I've iced, taken anti-inflammatories, etc, but I can't seem to shake it.  I should have mentioned in my first post that when I was about 12 years old, I was a cross country runner and after dealing with a lot of knee pain was diagnosed with iliotibial band syndrome.  I went through PT and all of that and ended up just giving up on running.  I picked it up again around age 22 and haven't had any issues since then.  I thought perhaps I was misdiagnosed as a kid and that it was just a result of being in the wrong shoes (I wasn't properly fit back then- just picked out any old pair at the sporting goods store).  In reading up on ITBS, I think it is quite possible that this is what I have (again?).

Has anyone had this or know much about it?   

Allison I had this problem when I first started running. I think I was trying to do too much too soon when I started. I had tightness on the outside part on both knees. I think my right knee was worse as I could not run more then a few miles with out my knee getting tight and sore. I did the same and started researching this as well as it was killing me not to be able to run without having that pain in my knees. I found that rest and running less helped. I also found some streching exercises that I thought helped as well. Again my situation may have been a little different as I was getting started and hadn't run before so my body was not really accustomed to running. I would definitely defer to the others in the group who have been running longer and may have experienced this.

That's an awesome calculator!  Thanks!  It is strangely accurate for my 5K time, too.  Wow!

I managed a 2 hour ride on the Spin bike yesterday.  I kept it easy for the first hour and then did a pyramid ride alternating hard and easy for the second hour.  (Hard is a relative term since my HR did not appear to be in "hard" mode.)  It went pretty good.  Today, I'm going to try and tackle a 12 mile run.  I'll be doing a few loops just in case I have to bail out at some point.  I'm still coughing pretty bad but my attitude is improving.

I'll catch up with everything else when I get back .  Cheers!

Allison,

Just throwing in my two cents... Once upon a time (2006), a few weeks after finishing my first half marathon, I was going down the stairs and suddenly felt this odd twinge on my outer right knee.  From then on, for awhile it was just never the same.  I read up online and and all that, and I self-diagnosed myself with ITBS thinking all the symptoms fit.  Well, much later I was told it was actually an issue with my hamstring(s). (hamstring tendonitis?) I can't remember what part of your knee you said was the problem, so this might not even fit, but just thought I'd put it out there!

Also incidentally, all the problems/injuries I have seem to always be on the right side... that may not be a coincidence... Perhaps somewhere down the line I permanently misaligned my right leg... heh.

Looks nice, jealous!!  I might have missed it- what's this bike called? (model)