re: Official Running Log/Marathon Training Thread

11 easy miles today. HR 142 and pace 11:20. Finally found the zero drops that I like to run in: Xero HFS. I like the Vivos, but love these.

Mercedes in a week. Not sure what my pace will be, but looking to have fun and run hard. 750’ of gain for you flatlanders.

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Xero HFS

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Never heard of these, just googled. Pretty minimal. Are these types of shoes potentially for anyone, or do you need to be pretty light/small? I like cushion and response these days, but maybe I'm missing something. Closest I've come are probably Saucony Freedom 1, and before that an Adidas 4mm drop racing flat that I don't remember the name of. I barely got 6 months into each before heel pain started. I am sure my form sucks.

Finally getting back to some consistent running after 2 years of injuries and rehab. Easy 6 miles today at 9:27 pace and 138 heart rate. Saucony Shift 3s have been a gamechanger for my achilles.

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Are these types of shoes potentially for anyone, or do you need to be pretty light/small?

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I’m pretty light so I’m not sure. They don’t have any cushioning in them at all. I can roll the whole shoe into a ball. What it forces you to do is run the right way. You can’t land hard in these. You can’t heel strike in them either.

I use them on my easy days to reinforce form and strengthen my feet. Race days or interval days I’m in Sauconys.

Anyone running Austin marathon/half next week?

Well….. my first ever half marathon is in the books.

I woke up at 4AM after not sleeping at all. I was too excited to sleep. Of course it was cold and raining when I got up, but at least no snow. Got dressed and caffeinated and hit the road at 530AM. Parking wasn’t an issue. I only got to run a single warm up mile.

Since I was born and raised in Bham, I saw a million people I knew. It was great. People from high school, college, and everyone in between. Blast off was a little before 7AM. Rain stopped, but the wind was awful. Regardless of the conditions, I’m gonna have to stop wearing a shirt. I always seem to take it off about mile three.

I had a plan: ramp HR up to about 180 and keep it there and adjust accordingly. This was perfect for me and made the race so much easier. The hills were the only thing that impacted my pace. Mile 2 was 8:17. Mile 13 was 8:10. My overall time was 1:47ish. Not sure what the overall finish and ranking is. I felt comfortable that a sub 2:00 was doable. I felt 1:45 was reasonable and 1:30 was possible. I left some time on the table, but was very pleased for almost 50 yrs old.

This was the last year of this race. Happy to be a part of it and sorry to have just now gotten into running.

ETA: 500’ of climb and 10-20 mph wind gusts.
EETA: Results finally posted. Top 20% of my age group and top 15% overall. 8:18 pace. Need to be in the 8 flat pace.

I know we discussed cadence lock here and I think I experienced it for the first time (that I've noticed at least) on my first 20 miler of this training cycle. It happened around mile 8 as I was chugging along at sub 150 HR, then all of a sudden I look down and it's like 160 for no reason, no change in effort. Looks like it bounces back in line with RPE at around mile 15. This shite bothers me and just pisses me off during my run; think I'll wear my chest strap from now on on longer efforts.

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My overall time was 1:47ish

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Beat Lyda, all that matters

**his time last year, he only did the Half this year

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So yesterday was cadence / speed work... I hate speed work, I can go out and run at a 9:00 pace for 13+ miles but the second I start running sub-8:00 my body just wants me to quit instantly. Gotta keep working on it, ended up with a PR on 1 Mile & 5K yesterday afternoon.

That means all of my PRs are from 2023 (400m, 1k, 1 mile, 2 mile, 5k, 10k, & Half Marathon; still haven't done a Marathon, that will be in late April) - not bad for having an 8 month old that had to have Open Heart Surgery at 5 Months (and a 4 year old...)

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Any recommendations on which c25k plan to start off with?

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Any of the C25K plans should be fine. That's how I got started. What I'd also recommend is some sort of resistance or weighted training program to coincide with the running. I struggled through nagging injuries until I added that component. If I had added it from the start, I wouldn't have missed as much time as I did. I'd recommend Knees Over Toes, but there are a bunch that you could choose from.

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I wouldn't wait until the actual race day to try it for the first time.

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I did forget to mention that almost all of my Saturday "trail runs" are with the group that does the Run / Walk method, so I get experience on those days.