Marathon Weekend 2016

[IamTrike]

I ran the city of oaks half marathon yesterday. I signed up for it last minute and about 7pm before the race decided to run it in costume. I was Buddy and my friend was Santa. That is a syrup jug in my hand

 

[Keels]

I ran the city of oaks half marathon yesterday. I signed up for it last minute and about 7pm before the race decided to run it in costume. I was Buddy and my friend was Santa. That is a syrup jug in my handView attachment 132501

Did you spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear?!?!?!

Love the costumes!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

I hope you meet and exceed your goals! Your results are most impressive.

I'm all for eliminating variables but you will have a tough time changing my mind that all things being equal, some days are just better than others.

Not to mention weather, crowding, hills, etc. And don't even get me started on race ruining porta-pot stops (I missed my BQ by less than 2 minutes ).

Throw in the mental aspect that being able to run at your max potential is HARD, HARD, HARD, and I'm less predictable than a texting teenager driving a carload of cats!

I agree. It's those pesky random effect variables (like carloads of cats, LOL!) that no matter what you do they can throw a curve ball into your plan.

 

[IamTrike]

Did you spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear?!?!?!

Love the costumes!!

I tried to do what I could. I would periodically pick Men that were dressed up out of the crowd and run up to them yelling "DAD". I asked for Syrup at every water stop. Santa kept trying to get milk and cookies at them. I also spent a lot of time cheering for the crowd and volunteers (You are very good at holding that sign, ringing that bell waving that flag etc). It was a lot of fun. It was also interesting because you could tell people's age based on whether they yelled "hey look it's Santa and his elf" or "it's Buddy the elf and Santa"

 

[Ariel484]

@IamTrike that is amazing. **applause**

 

[Keels]

I tried to do what I could. I would periodically pick Men that were dressed up out of the crowd and run up to them yelling "DAD". I asked for Syrup at every water stop. Santa kept trying to get milk and cookies at them. I also spent a lot of time cheering for the crowd and volunteers (You are very good at holding that sign, ringing that bell waving that flag etc). It was a lot of fun. It was also interesting because you could tell people's age based on whether they yelled "hey look it's Santa and his elf" or "it's Buddy the elf and Santa"

SO AWESOME.

I can just picture you chasing after "Santa" yelling "HEY! IT'S SANTA! I KNOW HIM!"

 

[CamColt]

Sorry a few more questions...

-If you treated your W&D like a race then I would expect something similar to what you've done (2:03-2:10), whereas if it's a training run more like (2:16, 10:29 min/mile pace). If you treat it like a race, then you'd need slightly more recovery time, whereas if you treat it like a training run you would need less adjustments....

Maybe this is my issue. I don't pay attention to any of at. I guess I should though. How I have "trained" for my previous halves is just by going out and doing longer and longer runs. I just run and see what I do. I will walk when I feel I need to and then pick it up again when I can. It's worked for me so far, but I know this full is a whole new level of craziness.

-So I gather you are more worried about going the distance than accomplishing a pace close to your fitness level.

EXACTLY!
I'm planning to just do longer runs each weekend to see how I do and try to get up there by January, so I guess what I was originally asking is how many miles each weekend would be a good rate to progress at.

 

[IamTrike]

SO AWESOME.

I can just picture you chasing after "Santa" yelling "HEY! IT'S SANTA! I KNOW HIM!"

I alternated between that and "You're a fake, You site on a throne of lies" "You don't smell like santa, you smell like Gu and sweat..."

 

[Keels]

I alternated between that and "You're a fake, You site on a throne of lies" "You don't smell like santa, you smell like Gu and sweat..."

YES!!! You win.

 

[roxymama]

Just your friendly reminder to purchase your park tickets soon (unless you already have or you are an AP which I am jealous of) because FP+ windows are opening soon. I arrive on the Wed before marathon weekend and my FP day is 11/7...eeeeeek!

Also looking at @IamTrike pictures makes me want to hunt down one of those pink girl Elf costumes because that would be SO FUN to run in. I'd have to fight off all the Buddy the Elfs though...or make my husband dress as Buddy

 

[SarahDisney]

I feel really left out because I don't watch Will Ferrell movies.
It was still an awesome costume (and I do know that Buddy is the Will Ferrell elf), but I totally don't get the rest of the conversation... so I hope I'm not missing anything too important.

 

[roxymama]

I feel really left out because I don't watch Will Ferrell movies.
It was still an awesome costume (and I do know that Buddy is the Will Ferrell elf), but I totally don't get the rest of the conversation... so I hope I'm not missing anything too important.

Here's all you need to know.
Buddy is a human that was raised by Elfs. And he thinks he's an Elf even though he is gigantic. And he LOVES SANTA and syrup and candy canes and sugar and anything Christmas. I won't ruin the ending but it involves caroling and hugs.

 

[IamTrike]

Just your friendly reminder to purchase your park tickets soon (unless you already have or you are an AP which I am jealous of) because FP+ windows are opening soon. I arrive on the Wed before marathon weekend and my FP day is 11/7...eeeeeek!

Also looking at @IamTrike pictures makes me want to hunt down one of those pink girl Elf costumes because that would be SO FUN to run in. I'd have to fight off all the Buddy the Elfs though...or make my husband dress as Buddy

That's a good reminder. My AP expires in Dec. We'll have kids on different school calendars next year so we are trying to figure out if AP's will make sense.

I was hoping there would be other elf's there so I could appreciate their affinity for elf culture.

I won't ruin the ending but it involves caroling and hugs.

Just like Tuesday mornings on the Disboards.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Maybe this is my issue. I don't pay attention to any of at. I guess I should though. How I have "trained" for my previous halves is just by going out and doing longer and longer runs. I just run and see what I do. I will walk when I feel I need to and then pick it up again when I can. It's worked for me so far, but I know this full is a whole new level of craziness.

EXACTLY!
I'm planning to just do longer runs each weekend to see how I do and try to get up there by January, so I guess what I was originally asking is how many miles each weekend would be a good rate to progress at.

Understood, I'd say based on your current paces I would recommend the following weekend workouts. Caveat is, I am a proponent not to take workouts beyond 3 hours because of the physical damage that it incurs.

Date - Mileage @ Pace (Time to complete workout in hours:min)
11/8/15 - W&D
11/15/15 - 10 miles @ 10:29 (1:45)
11/22/15 - 15 miles @ 10:29 (2:37)
11/29/15 - 10 miles @ 10:29 (1:45)
12/6/15 - 16 miles @ 10:29 min/mile (2:47)
12/13/15 - 12 miles @ 10:29 min/mile (2:06)
12/20/15 - 17 miles @ 10:29 min/mile (2:58)
12/27/15 - 10 miles @ 10:29 min/mile (1:45)
1/3/15 - 8 miles @ 10:52 min/mile (1:27)
1/10/15 - DISNEY MARATHON!!!!!!

It's hard for me to make better suggestions without setting up an entire global plan because what you do on every other day effects what you should do on the weekend. This is a very rough picture and may not be the ideal plan for you. If you find your paces dropping off on the weekends at the end of the runs try dropping to 11:05 paces instead for the entire run but adjust the mileage accordingly.

Whatever carb strategy you plan on using for the marathon start practicing it on these runs.

If you add a 4th day of running, run it at a 10:52 min/mile pace to get more endurance training. The more running in the 10:29-11:38 zone for you will increase your ability to go the distance rather than finishing with a certain time (http://runnersconnect.net/running-training-articles/aerobic-training-run-faster-by-running-easy/). I would suggest the Tuesday and Thursday runs be around a 9:44 marathon pace, but include warm-ups and cool-downs in the 12:22 pace area.

Let me know if this helps!

 

[FFigawi]

Random Thought of the Day: I'm watching the NYC Marathon replay and I was thinking that isn't it stupid, and I mean super stupid, to have camera crews and police traveling along side (or even worse, in front) of runners on motorcycles belching fumes in their faces!!! I see this in the Tour de France (cycling), and other similar races and it always strikes me as super stupid. Especially for runner, why can't you use electric bikes or something - I bet you if they did then these runners would break the 2:00 hr mark.

Considering the treadmill world record for the half marathon is slower than the world record outdoors, I don't think it's the air quality that's keeping them from going under 2. There are physiological reasons that make it extremely hard to get more than small incremental improvements in marathon times at that pace. Runner's World had a great story last year on what it would take to go sub-2. It can happen, and probably will, but not for a while and only under ideal conditions & circumstances.

 

[LSUlakes]

Training check! How did everyone's October go? Can you believe we are only 2 months away?!?!

October:
Mileage - 150 miles
Time - 23 hours 15 minutes
Avg Pace - 9:20 min/mile

Nice work!

October Totals
124.67 miles
16.39 miles on the bike

Not anywhere near where I should be. Life happens and hopefully this month will be better.

 

[CamColt]

Thanks so much DopeyBadger! That is great info to go on and it certainly looks doable.

 

[Kathymford]

I will not post my paltry mileage, but let's just suffice it to say that I only ran 6 times in October. I'm not even sure that's possible. But it does explain the reason I had such a hard time when I tried to run 6 miles this weekend. Officially worried about Avengers in less than 2 weeks, but at least I have some time to get back on track for the half in January. Thankfully, I'm only doing the half.

 

[Z-Knight]

Obviously it didn't bother the lead pack too much over the length of the course since most of them dropped into the low 4:00/mile for the last four miles of the race.

Also, they do the same thing at the Olympics in countries with worse emissions standard than the US and I've never heard an athlete (cycling or running) complain about those conditions.

Well, no, it is not very "obvious" to me. Just because they ran with it doesn't mean it didn't affect them. They are peak athletes that utilize oxygen very well and I'm only speculating that any drop on the purity could affect them and was also speculating that if they didnt have this pollution them they could do even better. Many times the motorcycles were very close to them so you cant say that this obviously didnt affect them simply because they didn't complain about it.

I'm just concerned because those motorcylces are not the cleanest things out there and how close they are to the runners. I would not want to be breathing on that crap...

 

[IamTrike]

Well, no, it is not very "obvious" to me. Just because they ran with it doesn't mean it didn't affect them. They are peak athletes that utilize oxygen very well and I'm only speculating that any drop on the purity could affect them and was also speculating that if they didnt have this pollution them they could do even better. Many times the motorcycles were very close to them so you cant say that this obviously didnt affect them simply because they didn't complain about it.

I'm just concerned because those motorcylces are not the cleanest things out there and how close they are to the runners. I would not want to be breathing on that crap...

I wasn't able to google it, but it seems like you could figure out the impact by looking at the performance of elite athletes in races where there aren't motorcycles ahead of the lead runners.