Red Mosquito

Tough weekend. 15 miles on a trail with a friend on Saturday. We always turn it into a race with 3 or 4 miles to go and he smoked me. I was down to a shuffle by the end and he beat me by a good 8 minutes. Ran my half marathon route on Sunday with really sore legs and sketchy stomach.

After last weekend I wasn't exactly looking forward to my long run Saturday but that faded as my week runs went smoothly and the weather finally broke a bit. I had noticed that basically all of my runs were trending faster until I fell off the rails, figured I need to plug in a pace and just try to stick to it. Hell even Higdon says to run slower than race pace.

Got a friend to leave water on his doorstep for my pass by and dropped water and gatorade at two other locations, was still out the door by 6:30. New route through three towns and a relatively solid seventeen miles considering. I did place a big ass hill at the half-marathon marker which definitely dropped my pace but work is work.

That being said, I have an extra week in my schedule before Philly so I'm thinking of adding a 21 mile long run between weeks 15 and 16 and then the two week taper. Thoughts t2b?

oasisfan35 wrote:After last weekend I wasn't exactly looking forward to my long run Saturday but that faded as my week runs went smoothly and the weather finally broke a bit. I had noticed that basically all of my runs were trending faster until I fell off the rails, figured I need to plug in a pace and just try to stick to it. Hell even Higdon says to run slower than race pace.

Got a friend to leave water on his doorstep for my pass by and dropped water and gatorade at two other locations, was still out the door by 6:30. New route through three towns and a relatively solid seventeen miles considering. I did place a big ass hill at the half-marathon marker which definitely dropped my pace but work is work.

That being said, I have an extra week in my schedule before Philly so I'm thinking of adding a 21 mile long run between weeks 15 and 16 and then the two week taper. Thoughts t2b?

I'd go for it. Two weeks is plenty for a taper and the extra long run will be a confidence booster.

turned2black wrote:

Monkey_Driven wrote:I want to get back into running but the prospect of running long distances in the cold once I get my stamina built back up is not very enticing. I should have started in the early spring.

My friends in Flagstaff all swear by a thermal/compression base with a light-weight jacket and shorts. They routinely run in sub-freezing weather. 2XU's stuff is expensive, but probably worth the investment.

Tights: http://www.amazon.com/2XU-Thermal-Compr ... ing+tights

Shirt: http://www.amazon.com/2XU-Thermal-Compr ... sion+shirt

Thanks for the links. Before I invest in anything I suppose I need to run when the weather is beautiful.

turned2black wrote:

oasisfan35 wrote:After last weekend I wasn't exactly looking forward to my long run Saturday but that faded as my week runs went smoothly and the weather finally broke a bit. I had noticed that basically all of my runs were trending faster until I fell off the rails, figured I need to plug in a pace and just try to stick to it. Hell even Higdon says to run slower than race pace.

Got a friend to leave water on his doorstep for my pass by and dropped water and gatorade at two other locations, was still out the door by 6:30. New route through three towns and a relatively solid seventeen miles considering. I did place a big ass hill at the half-marathon marker which definitely dropped my pace but work is work.

That being said, I have an extra week in my schedule before Philly so I'm thinking of adding a 21 mile long run between weeks 15 and 16 and then the two week taper. Thoughts t2b?

I'd go for it. Two weeks is plenty for a taper and the extra long run will be a confidence booster.

Certainly what I'll be looking for, still haven't gotten my head in to not training the last six miles.

Tuesdays and Thursdays have been treadmill days, both with increasing the speed a tenth of a mph every two songs. I think I'm going to continue that for Tuesdays but will be moving Thursdays outside since I have a solid five mile loop and the weather is pretty damn nice at 4:30. Wednesdays are fairly interesting now s a few stretches of my eight mile loop are in total darkness at that time.

Solid eighteen miles yesterday, definitely felt better than last week's long run. I did drop bloks along with my water at mile twelve, which was a bit odd to slow and chew cold electrolyte things but I figure replicating stations is a fair idea; next week I'll just drop a GU. Front loading the run with a big hill as opposed to ending it definitely left my legs feeling better upon completion. Also a new PR on 13.1

Another twenty miles logged on the bike today, legs initially felt a bit tired but once they warmed up it was a great ride. Looking forward to a shorter long run Saturday and planning a longer ride for Sunday, cycling is definitely becoming really enjoyable as my road confidence improves.

10 miles in 68 minutes on Saturday. Cranked up the effort a bit, but got out a little too late (back up to triple digits here) and suffered at the end. 33 out. 35 back.

15 miles out at South Mountain yesterday in 1:52. One of my better efforts on a trail in recent memory. Felt really dialed in on the downs and strong on the ups.

turned2black wrote:10 miles in 68 minutes on Saturday. Cranked up the effort a bit, but got out a little too late (back up to triple digits here) and suffered at the end. 33 out. 35 back.

15 miles out at South Mountain yesterday in 1:52. One of my better efforts on a trail in recent memory. Felt really dialed in on the downs and strong on the ups.

I got hit with jumping cholla once at Papago park. I never went back.

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

turned2black wrote:10 miles in 68 minutes on Saturday. Cranked up the effort a bit, but got out a little too late (back up to triple digits here) and suffered at the end. 33 out. 35 back.

15 miles out at South Mountain yesterday in 1:52. One of my better efforts on a trail in recent memory. Felt really dialed in on the downs and strong on the ups.

I got hit with jumping cholla once at Papago park. I never went back.

I'm pretty sure I know what you were doing at Papago.

Apparently the Higdon plan has the mid-week longer run drop back for longer weekend mileage. Didn't notice this until after, I've also moved all my runs outside and my MP3 player died. I've had some solid runs and hearing the surf instead of music is pretty nice.

Yesterday was supposed to be a long run of nineteen but a horrible night's sleep, feeling sick and cleaning the dogs/house after the goddamn skunking had me move it to today. Built a 19.1 route in Strava but nineteen just felt odd, so I ended pretty well with twenty. Have to look over the next six weeks for tweaking.

Good week last week, but this weekend was sketchy. Nice, fast 10 miler (68 minutes) on Saturday, but the wife and I ended up having a fairly wild night and we Ubered home at 3 in the morning. I had a crazy hangover and didn't run yesterday. I rarely get drunk enough to affect my running and always feel guilty when it does.

Another sketchy week last week. Tweaked my back and only ran twice. Took the weekend off. It's still not much better, but I have a stupid-ass group run at South Mountain on Wednesday that I committed to two months ago.

turned2black wrote:Another sketchy week last week. Tweaked my back and only ran twice. Took the weekend off. It's still not much better, but I have a stupid-ass group run at South Mountain on Wednesday that I committed to two months ago.

Ugh, is this as annoying as it sounds? Like, as annoying as those group road bike rides appear to be?

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

turned2black wrote:Another sketchy week last week. Tweaked my back and only ran twice. Took the weekend off. It's still not much better, but I have a stupid-ass group run at South Mountain on Wednesday that I committed to two months ago.

Ugh, is this as annoying as it sounds? Like, as annoying as those group road bike rides appear to be?

Yes. I'll fucking hate it. But it's done to remember a friend of mine who was hit by a drunken driver while on her morning run.

turned2black wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

turned2black wrote:Another sketchy week last week. Tweaked my back and only ran twice. Took the weekend off. It's still not much better, but I have a stupid-ass group run at South Mountain on Wednesday that I committed to two months ago.

Ugh, is this as annoying as it sounds? Like, as annoying as those group road bike rides appear to be?

Yes. I'll fucking hate it. But it's done to remember a friend of mine who was hit by a drunken driver while on her morning run.

Well now I feel bad for saying anything.

fwiw, I always get annoyed when there is a paddle-out circle to commemorate a local surfer and 9/10 of the surfers in it didn't even know the person.

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

turned2black wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

turned2black wrote:Another sketchy week last week. Tweaked my back and only ran twice. Took the weekend off. It's still not much better, but I have a stupid-ass group run at South Mountain on Wednesday that I committed to two months ago.

Ugh, is this as annoying as it sounds? Like, as annoying as those group road bike rides appear to be?

Yes. I'll fucking hate it. But it's done to remember a friend of mine who was hit by a drunken driver while on her morning run.

Well now I feel bad for saying anything.

Don't be. Your assessment of group runs and bikes being annoying is accurate. I run to run. I don't want to talk to people and hear about their shitty jobs and children.

Looking at the Higdon sched it actually has a three week taper, that seems overkill to me, especially with my extra week. Saturday is supposed to be a twenty-one miler. So for the stretch I'm thinking:

10/24: 21
10/31: 13
11/7: 22
11/14: 8
11/22: 26.2

Visiting the lady this past weekend I got out for a solid twelve on a nice urban trail, totally missed turns for the route she had planned for me but it felt good to just get lost in the running. I was also hideously dehydrated and ran with water which turned out pretty well actually. I haven't gotten around to setting up my new MP3 player and I've also stopped looking at my Garmin with wearing long sleeves; my pace has settled and I feel fairly comfortable where I'm at. I suppose I should feel excited at some point but 26.2 still seems like some crazy distance.

My 14-mile group run at South Mountain was as terrible as I thought it was gonna be. The trail was not even all that hard, yet we trudged along (it took 3 hours!) at a snail's pace and I had to have conversations with complete strangers. There are a couple of sections along the edge of a steep ravine and I imagined shoving several people to their deaths. But in the end, I decided that wouldn't really be in the spirit of the run, which was to remember an ultrarunner friend who was killed by a scumbag drunken driver who's probably only gonna see 3 or 4 years in prison.

What a great post.