Fred D Mentor Group Part III (Page 37)

Yes, congratulations! You both did a fantastic job. I hope you are enjoying your recovery.

I've got the marathon itch.  It hits me every few years.  I've told myself I will never do another fall marathon though while living in Arizona.  So, in searching I've come up with the Sedona marathon, but it is Feb 2nd.  The smart part of me says there is no way to safely ramp up mileage to have a good race by then, especially given how hard the course will be.  Altitude and hills are not going to be an issue though as I live at 5000ft and I really only see flat on my back deck.  Thoughts?  I am thinking that you might all agree that the marathon is a bad idea and I should go do the half instead.  

There is also a marathon in Cottonwood on April 20th and I am thinking that might be a reasonable length of time, although just on the edge still.  But, I might actually be living in Cottonwood by then.

Just looking for a sanity check I guess

What was your base mileage at the end of the summer?  Now?

3 months to ramp back up is not too bad if you're already partway there.

My miles were pretty low over the summer.  I ran the whole summer but pretty much took Aug off for injury.  Last few weeks I have been holding steady at 15ish per week with 6 days per week running, so long run is just under 5 miles. 

TSimone - 2012-10-21 12:01 PM Last race of the year in the books. PR'd the marathon by 10 minutes. REALLY wanted sub 4:30 but missed it by 86 seconds. I paced it poorly early and suffered late. Live and learn.

ouch 86 seconds is a rough miss.   But a 10 minute PR is pretty cool.

What type of mileage have you trained up to in previous marathons?  3 months isn't a lot of time, especially if you're coming off injury.

35 was my peak week for my last marathon.  Lots of weeks in the 30's though, at least two solid months.  I went into that one with a way better base, having a few HM's before starting the marathon training.  Yeah, in writing that I can see I just can't safely get that mileage up, as I wouldn't do it unless I can get back into that range again.  Half it is and I'll shoot for the late April marathon if things go well in training.  I have a feeling the Cottonwood one will not sell out.  That one has a lot of single track and graded dirt roads.  Should be interesting

TSimone - 2012-10-21 4:01 PM Last race of the year in the books. PR'd the marathon by 10 minutes. REALLY wanted sub 4:30 but missed it by 86 seconds. I paced it poorly early and suffered late. Live and learn.

Congrats on the PR!!

I got 2000 meters in the pool this morning and then this afternoon was a 13.6k run.  The first 10k was on a beautiful trail - the leaves have all turned color and the weather was beautiful - so relaxing!  We took the dogs back there for a walk later in the day.  So nice.

I have no marathon experience but it sounds like a pretty short build.  I would say the April marathon would be a better target.

Wow! Congrats to the racers! Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Our kid's triathlon was a big success. We had 171 kids age 4-13 start the race and only one DNF (mechanical). My kids raced and did great on minimal training. My oldest won overall which is cool because this is the last year he can race it (he's 13).

I am completely exhausted, dehydrated and sun burned. My day started at 5am and we finished clean up at 2pm. Just got done finalizing and posting race results. Kudos to the RDs out there! It's a ton of work- but worth it! We also donated $1000 to a local charity.

Back to work for me tomorrow after Fall break

Sounds like a very successful day

Wow, that's great!  You get more kids for your race than we usually get adults for local races.  

This is awesome...so glad to see stuff like this. I'm with Arend - we get between 50 and 100 adult participants for our local races - so this level of interest is great to see. Good work!

I had a bit of an epiphany while running on Sunday (spectacular fall day - the leaves are all changing, it's a touch crisp...the exact perfect weather for running for me). I have had challenging runs after pretty decent bikes on my last two races and have been trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. I am excruciatingly familiar with the adage, "there is no such thing as a good bike followed by a bad run," but I felt like the bikes I had put in weren't that far off what I did in training. Looking back on it - I had a gel 45 minutes into the ride, and then a gel every hour or so. I was drinking Nuun for electrolytes and water for something non-sweet for a total of around 300 calories for the entire bike. I don't think it is enough for me. This is the nutrition level I took in during training and I never bonked/felt bad during or after the rides. During the race I felt good, no GI issues, but legs started cramping and I just couldn't keep up a steady run. Does this sound likely?

Also - I began to think that I need to do more longer bikes. I pretty much tapped out at 60 miles for the long bike (training for HIMs)....does it make sense to do many much longer bikes? If so - what do you recommend? Should that always be followed up with a run (even if it is just a quick 30 minutes)? What are your thoughts on longer brick sessions? Does it just break down your body too much to be worthwhile?

Thanks!

TSimone - 2012-10-21 3:01 PM Last race of the year in the books. PR'd the marathon by 10 minutes. REALLY wanted sub 4:30 but missed it by 86 seconds. I paced it poorly early and suffered late. Live and learn.

Close enough - nice job!  Rest up for a couple weeks...

Nice job guys! 

Last week of preparation before the really hard training starts next week.

Bike and run tests on the schedule - 5 minute and 20 minute bike test and then 5K run test later in the week.  Boy am I looking forward to that...pffft.

I am good with the bike test but have never done a 5K run test on my own..really not sure how that is going to go...I predict Pain!

Hey guys!...I am back and trying to catch up. Thank you for all of the well-wishes on my first official 70.3; I was certainly thinking of the group several times during the race (more on that later).

And a big congratulations to Andy for persevering! Truly inspiring.

Give me a few days, and as promised, I will follow-up with the good, bad and the ugly. There was plenty of each. For the group, so that we can all learn, laugh and (for me) improve, I will share as much as you guys like. I am going to go through the numbers and rankings as compared to my goals to try and quantify what I was experiencing on the course. I will get a race report posted soon, but will keep more of the personal details here for the group.

And again, thanks for all of the support! ...already thinking about picking the next race.

Also - I began to think that I need to do more longer bikes. I pretty much tapped out at 60 miles for the long bike (training for HIMs)....does it make sense to do many much longer bikes? If so - what do you recommend? Should that always be followed up with a run (even if it is just a quick 30 minutes)? What are your thoughts on longer brick sessions? Does it just break down your body too much to be worthwhile?

Thanks!

I've got the bike test on the schedule as well. 

I find myself wondering the same thing, largely because I am amazed that any amateur would do it.  It just doesn't compute for me.  I also hear people say how easy the stuff is to get ('stuff' -- I don't realyl even know what I'm talking about!).  I guess I don't run in those circles, because I wouldn't even know where to begin.

I had an interesting run yesterday -- I hopped out of the car after 6 hours of driving (and 6 hours the night before as well), feeling very stiff, but still managed a solid 14 mile run and feel more or less fine today.  That wasn't at all what I was predicting after sitting on my a$$ in a conference (or in a car) all weekend.

With all due respect for the docs in the crowd, I bet your primary care physician would write you a prescription for a testosterone supplement if you were lowish - which, if I understand correctly, happens to just about everyone.  I say this because, again if I understand correctly, it's not like folks are buying the stuff off street corners.