Manatee Mentors 2014 v.2 thread2 CLOSED (Poptart/pet pic bribes?) (Page 92)

Yeah, having an understanding can go a long ways towards feeling better about a situation, even if it's not quite the one you had wanted at first.

Not having a plan yet may be a bit disconcerting, but I think you're still fine since it's so far out. There isn't necessarily going to be something *that* special in the early goings anyway. For now, just keep developing a sense about running. That is how to put more in, how to work at various types of workouts, and how these things affect you. To me, the most important parts for you would be to learn how to run consistently first and then to work in various types of faster and/or longer runs.

For something to start with, I think you  have two types of "faster" workouts going on? The one is 4 x whatever the hill is, something like a minute? Right here would be a good place to work in the "lap" button if your watch has it. And use it for when you start and stop the hard part. I see this one on strava, but can't quite see enough detail with multiple hill reps in the single lap. The general idea would be to run up strong and be consistent across all 4 of them to just slightly faster on the last one. As you gain some more experience through some other workouts and races you'll get a better idea of just how hard that should be based off a few marker workouts, but for now seeing that it's above your easy pace on a grade I'm guessing at is good. And the mile home should not be a struggle either. You'll get some benefits from this of running hard and from running faster. Keep everything smooth with much of your body relaxed even though it wants to tense up. You're learning to run well, not trying to beat the tar out of yourself. Then one last bit on this is to make sure the downhill is truly easy. Both because it's a recovery and it's going downhill. Only goal of this is to be loose & ready for the next interval.

For the tempo, *I* would actually limit it to something like 1-2 miles of the 4 miles run, and maybe break it in half as well. That's almost 10-20' of faster running at your speed which is a fair amount of faster work for how much you're doing in total right now. The pacing of it can vary, but again, so long as it's at least a little faster than easy pace. Might hear anything from marathon pacing up to threshold pacing for this. Threshold pacing is close to your best, most optimal 1 hr race. Or for you, about a 10k you go all in on. I think it tends to be better to figure out how to work up to running this faster as opposed to doing longer. It does help to have a solid test run or a recent 5k result to be able to dial in the harder pacing. If you're not sure about being able to handle this run, then just go for the easy run and consider putting in some strides instead (do you know what these are?), going with the consistent running idea.

Do these help? Certainly not everything to know as there are entire books on this, but hoping to give a little to start with.

I signed up late last night to do a 10km Turkey Trot on Monday with my SIL.  It's Canadian Thanksgiving.

Big Bro has been in hospital all week.  Some of you may remember he had a colostomy in January.  He had the reversal in September.  He was recovering well until last Saturday when he had flu-like symptoms.  Was in bed all day, got up in the evening and passed out.  Off to the ER and long story short he has a Dieulafoy Lesion in his intestine.  Basically a ruptured blood vessel; they have repaired it endoscopically twice, but his hemoglobin keeps dropping despite blood (I think we are up to 6 units as of today...).  It has nothing to do with any of his surgeries, just a genetic thing that has chosen now to make its presence known.  No pain, feels fine, just frustrated!  I am really feeling for my SIL, as she is worried and has to hold it together for the kids.  So, any prayers and good thoughts would be gratefully received.

Good luck to all you other racey racers and DL'ers you have my prayers and good thoughts!

Wow!  Great timing!!

Really well thought out advice. I was thinking along these lines this morning. One of the things that many people don't think about is to learn how to train to run. It is probably underrated, but volume/base is for my money, first on that list. I am finally starting to tnk abouton different types of runs and what the value is of each. It takes a bit of thought to truly improve to near our potential. I am hopeful that I can see some improvements from this sort of program/plan and I hope that you do the same. 

Thanks, Ben and Chris.  I really appreciate your input.  From what you're saying, I think I'm on the right track.  I'm getting a sense now of what my "easy" pace is.  Today I ran 5 mi. at said pace and was comfortably breathing 2 steps inhale/3 steps exhale the whole way.  I really didn't feel tired at all until I was done.  

So far, other than those times when I blew up because of the heat this summer, I've felt pretty comfortable since I started running more frequently.  I'm mostly just getting used to running 4 days a week and not pushing it too much, even on the hill reps.  I had thought I'd do some biking and swimming on 2 of the rest days but I've decided that I'm going to leave those as optional for now and skipping them if my back or hip are saying no.  I can definitely tell that I've increased my mileage and frequency because my hip has been a little grouchy, as have my Achilles.  Using my foam roller 1-2x/day and lots of ankle circles seem to be keeping those under control.  I'm also planning to make my 10k on 11/15 a test run because my fastest 5k to date was in my last tri and that's not exactly a good measure.  The 10k is the same route as the 5k I did at the end of June, just 2x around the course, so it'll also be a good gauge of where I'm at now versus the end of June.

I'll keep posting on Strava with more detail in my log here and welcome any feedback.

And just checking in ...

Germany is truly the trip of a lifetime, and Mutti's done far, far, vastly better than any of us could have imagined. It's amazing. North Germany (we were prepared for the usual winterpocalypse October onset) is having the warmest autumn on record. We're wearing less clothing here than we sometimes do in Indonesia! Tina and I have also enjoyed ourselves and more or less behaved far far vastly better than any of us could have expected

That said, I don't care how much you love your mother (immensely) or how awesome your sister is (the best). If you spend 24/7 in the same room (or same small car) with them, mostly in the company of all your crazy relatives (how do you think I got this way?!) ... it's also gone far far vastly better than any of us could have thought simply because nobody's been shot and dumped in the Baltic Sea. Yet.

One or two of us may have had one or two thoughts about it, though.

Thank you, all, for prayers and good thoughts for my MIL.  She is supposed to go in for surgery today to possibly have a stent put in and to check if she needs a valve replaced.  Her surgery keeps getting put on hold, according to E, and he doesn't know why.  She lives in WV, so we aren't close to help, but two of E's brothers live there (one in the same house as MIL/FIL), so they have a good support network.  Unfortunately, E's uncle passed away today, I don't know the cause of death but he has been unwell for quite some time.  Not a good day for E.  He wasn't really close to the uncle, per se, but I think it's bothering him more because of his mother's situation.

Thank you, all, for prayers and good thoughts for my MIL.  She is supposed to go in for surgery today to possibly have a stent put in and to check if she needs a valve replaced.  Her surgery keeps getting put on hold, according to E, and he doesn't know why.  She lives in WV, so we aren't close to help, but two of E's brothers live there (one in the same house as MIL/FIL), so they have a good support network.  Unfortunately, E's uncle passed away today, I don't know the cause of death but he has been unwell for quite some time.  Not a good day for E.  He wasn't really close to the uncle, per se, but I think it's bothering him more because of his mother's situation.

My bro went home from the hospital yesterday.  Blood values were stable, although still low, for 24 hours, so they sprung him free.  Hopefully this is the end of his health issues.

SIL and I did the Turkey Trot this morning.  She is a bad a$$.  Stressed and little sleep all week, barfed 200 m from the finish line, then sprinted in.  Beat her previous time by 40 seconds.  Love it.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

My bro went home from the hospital yesterday.  Blood values were stable, although still low, for 24 hours, so they sprung him free.  Hopefully this is the end of his health issues.

SIL and I did the Turkey Trot this morning.  She is a bad a$$.  Stressed and little sleep all week, barfed 200 m from the finish line, then sprinted in.  Beat her previous time by 40 seconds.  Love it.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Congratulations!

That is terrible news, but at least they got the guy and seem like they are throwing the book at him, so to speak.