Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki run (comments welcome)

[avondale]

Almost all of my running is on the greenbelt trails in my suburb of Dallas. https://www.cityofcarrollton.com/home/showpublisheddocument/35100/638085054458970000

Its paved, and fairly flat, but it's also fairly nature-y, and feels like you're out of the city even though it's only a few hundred feet away. More importantly: no stoplights!

A lot of it runs alongside a creek or past large ponds (I see lots of ducks, geese, turtles, and some nutria), and cuts through some wooded areas where the trees meet overhead (lots of rabbits, the occasional coyotes or bobcat, once in a while a skunk or other small woodland creature.

Nothing like the gorgeous trails that you post pictures of, but I'm very grateful to have it just a few hundred feet from my house!

Ah, I see. I was wondering because you talked about the deep puddles and creek crossing, which seemed unusual for a paved path... but perhaps not with enough rain!

My area has some really nice similar paved trails along a few different creeks. I started out there before moving to unpaved sorts of trails.

 

[Cabius]

2024-03-14 Mid-Week Update
So far this week, I've run 12 of 16 planned miles.


I woke up Wednesday feeling really sore, mostly in my neck and shoulders. I ended up skipping my 4-mile Easy Run to make sure I was rested for today's 2x2mile workout. I can always make up a bit more mileage later, right?

This morning's workout was 2x2mile @ 10k pace. I nailed the paces, and my HR was below my trendline (especially when adjusting for T&D).

BUT, I felt a great deal of tightness, verging on pain, in my right hip/groin at faster paces. It was still a bit noticeable, but much less severe, at easier paces. Even just walking around today, it's definitely tender. Uh oh.

I'm probably going to skip another run or two in order to rest up, along with some gentle stretching, massage gun work, etc. Best-case: I miss a day or two and pick back up on Sunday. But I don't want to risk an injury that will set me back significantly with just over 5 weeks left before my HM!

 

[Cabius]

2024-03-18 End-of-Week
Last week I completed 33.1 miles across 5 runs, against a plan of 41.0 miles and 7 runs.


I struggled with tightness/pain in my hip and groin this week, resulting in skipping two easy run days to focus in rest and stretching/massage gun. I did a 3-mile test run in Saturday -- in the POURING rain -- to make sure I was feeling fully recovered, then did my planned long-run on Sunday after church. (I added a mile to the long run to make up for the fact that my run the day before was a mile shorter than usual due to time constraints.)

This was supposed to be a cut-back week, but obviously I cut back quite a bit more than planned! This week will be my peak week for HM training -- 49 miles, but I'm sure I'll push it to 50.



Overall I feel really really good!

====

On the weight loss front, I'm coming off of three very frustrating weeks. Even though I maintained a consistent calorie deficit, and my weight should have been dropping (purple line), in reality my weight was flat or up slightly consistently (blue line).



This corresponded with a dietary shift from a high-carb diet (40%-50%) to a REALLY high-carb diet (55%-65%). I had been eating Huel (meal replacement shakes) for 1-2 meals a day, but I went down to 0-1 meals a day and added a lot more cereal, breads, fresh fruit, etc.

Over the past week, I have shifted back toward my old diet, and have started to see my weight come back down.

It's entirely possible that this was all water retention / carb storage, and that this experiment had zero impact on actual fat loss.

But I'm a simple man, with simple pleasures. Blue line go down. Me happy.

 

[GollyGadget]

Absolutely not a weight loss expert or a nutritionist but thought it might be useful to share my own experience. My body will quickly adjust to a calorie deficit and start retaining. I have to throw in days where I consume my caloric needs for my weight loss to reboot itself. Currently attempting to shed some pounds myself and it can be simultaneously frustrating & rewarding.

 

[Cabius]

2024-03-21 Mid-Week Update
So far this week, I've run 27.4 of 49 planned miles.


This is the peak week in my plan! After this I have three more full weeks, then race week. That includes a few more weeks in the mid-40 mile range, so I'm not tapering immediately after this, but it sort of stair-steps down. I think that's something that came from the Hanson's Advanced plan (which I'm following about 90%-95%), not my own modification.



Not much to report on my Mon/Tue/Wed runs. They all did what they were supposed to do, and all fell within expected HR ranges (that HM Tempo run was right on my trendline). This morning was more interesting!

--- In which I am a bit naughty and set several unofficial PRs ---

Today was my longest speed workout, with 2x3 miles at 10k pace, plus four total miles of WU/CD and Recovery.

That 10k pace should have been about 9:44/mile, based on a HM target pace of 10:10 (2:13:17 finish). But I've been toying with whether I can push to a 9:40-9:45 HM pace, and nab a sub-2:08 PR (and likely Corral B placement).

So I decided to do today's workout at a 9:15/mile pace, which would correspond with that more aggressive target.

I recognize that may have been a foolish idea, but I can be a foolish person. It went pretty dang well! I ran the 6 speed miles with an average pace of 9:01/mile (actually 9:15/mile, see below) and an average HR of 169.5



I'm not actually sure if these numbers are 100% accurate, and I think my actual pace was closer to 9:10-9:15/mile.

As I was running, I was careful to make sure that my Split pace for each workout mile was between 9:10 and 9:20. When I imported the workout, the paces were much lower (some as slow as 9:50!) and the total distance was only 9.85, when I know I ran about 10.02.

I used Strava's "Correct Distance" feature, which gave me the above paces and a total distance of 10.13. That's a bit longer than I actually ran, and the paces are faster than I saw mid-run, but I think the truth is about halfway between the two, right around the 9:15 target I was tracking against during the run.

That said, even with the Recovery and WU/CD mileage, this workout set several new unofficial Strava PRs.



Even with corrected pacing, these would still all be PRs -- though I think my 10k number would've come in around 1:01. Still, not bad since there was a recovery mile in the middle of it!

My HR was a few bpm higher than I would have preferred for this run, but I'm fairly confident I could have sustained that pace for a full 10k without a recovery mile if I needed to.

Overall, it was a very gratifying accomplishment! 12 weeks ago, I was running 10:40 @ 179 bpm, so to be running 9:15 @ 170bpm is a huge improvement. I'm looking forward to my HM in a few weeks!

Also, it was a very pretty morning! Low-60s and humid, with a T&D just a hair over 100, but that gorgeous time of spring where the foliage is lush and green, and the wildlife is out and active every morning. Big fan of this day.

 

[avondale]

Great job! Should be a confidence boost for your race!

 

[Cabius]

2024-03-25 End-of-week Summary
Last week I ran a total of 50 miles against a plan of 49 miles across 7 runs.


I already covered most of the week in my last post, though I did tack on a bit of extra mileage across my Easy runs to hit 50 for the week. The only other major thing of note was my weekend long run.

My legs were a bit tired coming into the workout, as this was my peak week and I've been pushing pace targets the last few workouts. That was a factor in pushing my LR from Saturday to Sunday, as well as the fact that I've been fighting a cold that has been making my kiddos all feverish (thankfully I've had nothing worse than a sore throat so far).

Temp + Dew was 108 -- not bad for Texas, and about what I expect on race day next month. All told, not ideal conditions, but definitely workable.

My LR pace is usually 11:35/mile, but corresponding to my speed work earlier this week, I aimed for a faster pace of 11:00/mile to see how I might do pushing the pace on race day.

I ran 14 miles with an average pace of 10:59/mile and an average HR of 151 bpm! At 2:23:51, my HM split was my second-fasted HM ever! (My official PR is 2:23:46, so really close.)

2:24 was actually my race goal when I designed my initial training plan in December/January, before adjusting my pace targets to be more aggressive. I'm glad I decided to push harder!

I really didn't flag at all, and kept pretty consistent pace throughout with minimal cardiac drift. The chart below shows pace (blue) and hr (red) with relatively little fluctuation in each.



That HR is solidly in Z2 according to Strava, but on the upper edge of Z2 based on my own HRR calculations. After the first few miles, most of the race was more like 153-156 bpm, which Strava thinks is Z2 and I think is the very bottom of Z3.

A good, solid workout, capping a good, solid week. It's all downhill from here for the final 4 weeks!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Sounds like you're in a great place going into your half!

 

[Cabius]

2024-03-31 End-of-Week Summary
I completed 32.5 of 44.5 planned miles across 4 of 7 planned runs.


This was a rough week! We've been sleeping really terribly, with the two youngest kiddos (2yr and 3mo) waking up throughout the night and/or early in the morning. That's forced me to shift to more afternoon/evening runs, as well as hurting my ability to get a good night's sleep. It's all started catching up to me.

• Monday, I skipped because I was still very sore from Sunday's long run, figuring I could tack on 2 miles to a couple of easy runs and make it up. That's a defensible decision, but it sort of scrambled the rest of my schedule.
  
  
• Tuesday I did Monday's 4-mile easy run, plus a couple of extra miles, thinking I could catch up.
  
  
• Wednesday I did a HM Tempo run that was tough. I did the run and hit the pace, but it kicked my butt. We'll call it a draw. It was an afternoon run, so while the T+D was only 110, I was sweating profusely. I stuck to my pace goals, despite repeatedly telling myself "just finish this mile and you can quit and walk home", but it took a lot of mental focus and really wiped me out that evening and the next day.
  
  
• Thursday I rested. I slept poorly and woke up too early (see above re: kiddos) and just didn't have the energy to go out at night.
  
  
• Friday I did a 10-mile long run late at night (like 8:30-10:30 PM). It was fine, but I wasn't able to fall asleep until about 1AM, then my son woke us up at 5:30. Ugh....
  
  
• Saturday I couldn't run in the morning (I had to get up with my son at 5:30 since my wife was up all night with the baby), and ended up doing shopping and cooking until almost midnight, so no running.
  
  Sunday I got in a final 7 easy miles. Warm and humid, but I needed to put some calories in the bank before Easter lunch.

Overall, I just felt tired and sore most of the week. Crappy sleep === poor recovery === lousy running. Boo.

This does look to be a pattern for me, whereby my cutback weeks are just cut too far back. If you look at the chart below, I'm basically hitting all of my peak weeks, and then coming up short in my cut-back / recovery weeks.



That could be coincidence, but it's probably a signal that I've ratcheted up a bit too aggressively, given my poor conditioning coming into this. The gains are real, but the accumulated fatigue sure has accumulated.

I have just under 3 weeks left in my plan, then I'll probably be in maintenance mode (20-30 miles/week, including 1-2 speed workouts) through the spring and summer. If I need to cut back/taper a bit more aggressively than my initial plan, so I head into my HM well-rested, then so be it!

 

[Cabius]

And, ahead of MW registration next week --

I've been planning to run the full marathon in Jan '25, with the goal of running a sub-4 before I turn 40. That's pretty aggressive -- a 9-min M pace vs a current 9:40 (I hope!) HM pace -- but I'll have the whole spring and summer to focus on building speed, and I'll hopefully be about 20-30 pounds lighter. I'll do some speed tests in late summer to see if those paces are realistic, and if not, I'll (sadly) adjust plans accordingly.

Where I'm second-guessing myself is: do I really want to race all-out for time at Disney? It's often a pretty warm/humid race, and to some extent I'd be missing out on the opportunities to enjoy what's unique Disney about it all.

As an alternative: the BMW Marathon in Dallas is December 15th. I could do the full marathon there for speed, and then do the Disney weekend more for fun.

The biggest downside of the BMW Marathon is that I couldn't really start my training plan earlier due to travel, so I would end up with a 15- or 16-week plan instead of an 18-week plan. It also might feel more special to achieve a big goal at Walt Disney World.

So I guess I've got a few options.

BMW Marathon + Disney Half-Marathon
Run the Dallas race for speed, and do the HM for fun.

This probably gives me the best Disney experience, as I won't be too tired from the HM. This is a 10-day trip with my family of 6, so that's not nothing.

We'll also have friends staying with us at the Poly on Saturday night, so this would allow us to all enjoy the light crowds at MK on Sunday morning. (One of the best-kept secrets at WDW is that the traffic delays on HM/M days means the folks on the monorail loop get to enjoy really light crowds at MK for a few hours!)

BMW Marathon + Disney Marathon
Same as above, but run the Disney Marathon for speed rather than the HM.

I wouldn't be able to join our friends for the light crowds at MK on Sunday, but my wife and kids would have a great time with them while I finished running.

The major pro here is that it would give me a second bite at the apple -- if I just miss my goals in December, I would have 3 weeks to recover and then race at Disney.

Disney Marathon
My original plan. This gives me longer to train, and the magic of racing through WDW, but could leave me pretty exhausted for a trip where I have co-corral 4 kids around WDW for the subsequent week.

At a minimum, I'll need to decide by next week whether to sign up for the HM or M!

 

[avondale]

I definitely think you should NOT run the Disney marathon for speed if you want to really experience and enjoy it. I don't have a vote on your various options except for that.

 

[DopeyBadger]

What's the five year historical temperature and dew point for the Dallas marathon on that date in that location during the hours you'd be running the race? I use weather underground for this information. Here's WDW's:



It's a near 20% chance of all five possible outcomes for Disney (Ideal to Bad). Although an early January race date has better odds at ideal than does a later race date. With MW occurring late this coming year (1/12/25), the odds are much higher for OK-Bad weather.

When you say you can't start training for Dallas until 15-16 weeks in advance of the race, what kind of time commitments do you have in the proceeding 3-4 weeks? Will you still be able to run some, or not at all?

While Dallas and then Disney consecutively for PR purposes (option 2) is possible, it's not advisable and does put you at a higher risk for injury. A full fledged PR level marathon effort takes 21-42 days to fully recover from. So it's really risky. Now if you raced Dallas, and then fun-run'd Disney, that's more doable, but usually something I still advise against given the short time frame between them. But plenty of people have accomplished it before.

 

[Cabius]

What's the five year historical temperature and dew point for the Dallas marathon on that date in that location during the hours you'd be running the race? I use weather underground for this information. Here's WDW's:

Generally pretty cool -- temps are usually in the 40s-60s without too much humidity. Really only one bad year in the last decade, and more than half of them have been great. (I find that I am more susceptible to heat than the normal conversion charts suggest, so my idea run is low-40s shorts weather.)

When you say you can't start training for Dallas until 15-16 weeks in advance of the race, what kind of time commitments do you have in the proceeding 3-4 weeks? Will you still be able to run some, or not at all?

I'll be in Florida, spending part of the time at WDW and part of the time visiting friends/family elsewhere in the State.

My expectation is that I will keep up a 20-30 mile/week schedule from May to August. The trip (7/31 to 8/21) will probably on the low end, but I'm sure I can do at least 15-20 miles/week during that stretch. I definitely wouldn't be starting from scratch.

While Dallas and then Disney consecutively for PR purposes (option 2) is possible, it's not advisable and does put you at a higher risk for injury. A full fledged PR level marathon effort takes 21-42 days to fully recover from. So it's really risky. Now if you raced Dallas, and then fun-run'd Disney, that's more doable, but usually something I still advise against given the short time frame between them. But plenty of people have accomplished it before.

This is really helpful input!

I don't think I would race both Dallas and Disney for time. It would be more like: if Dallas is unseasonably warm, or whatever, I'd run it slowly (or even skip it!) and then I'd have the Disney race as a backup.

But my dilemma is: if I do race in Dallas, then I'd want to fun run the HM at Disney, not the full marathon, because even slowly and with lots of character stops, 26.2 miles is a lot of distance on tired legs.

I'm leaning towards that plan - race Dallas, then turn in a 3+ hour HM at Disney. That would give me a reasonably good PR shot, and a reasonably good chance of a fun RunDisney event.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

While Dallas and then Disney consecutively for PR purposes (option 2) is possible, it's not advisable and does put you at a higher risk for injury. A full fledged PR level marathon effort takes 21-42 days to fully recover from. So it's really risky. Now if you raced Dallas, and then fun-run'd Disney, that's more doable, but usually something I still advise against given the short time frame between them. But plenty of people have accomplished it before.

^ This. I raced a marathon Thanksgiving weekend, and then I was actually kind of happy when the WDW half got cut because I was a little concerned about my ability to actually run it, even 6 weeks after my marathon. Doing the marathon at Disney would have been an s***show. I know some people can do back-to-back marathons, but I cannot fathom how

 

[Cabius]

One other consideration for racing Dallas + WDW HM fun run:

While corral placement doesn't matter much for a "fun run" HM, I'd still prefer the highest placement possible, if only for vanity.

My existing 4:53 WDW marathon from 2023 should get me into Corral C in either the M or HM.



But if I wanted to get into Corral B for the Marathon, I would need to run a sub-2:08 HM in a few weeks (~9:40/mile pace). That might be doable based on my training paces if the weather cooperates (I did a 7 miles HM Tempo run at this pace last week, and while it was hard, I was also hot and under-fueled.) But it's fairly aggressive, not a certainty.

But I'd only need to run a sub-2:15 HM to get into the HM Corral B? That's about a 10:10/mile pace, and I'm very confident I can do that in all-but-terrible weather.

My plan for the HM had been to run a few miles at a more aggressive pace and decide to either stick with it or slow down based on HR/feel, but if I'm just aiming for the HM, I can be more conservative from the outset and decrease the odds of burning out. Better a solid 2:12 finish than a 2:06 attempt that turns into a 2:18 flame-out!

 

[Cabius]

2024-04-08 End-of-Week Summary
Last week I completed 39.1 miles across 6 runs, against a plan of 47.0 miles and 7 runs.


Due to busy weekend plans, I ended up skipping a 4-mile easy run, and shortening my 14-mile LR to 10 miles.

I really don't feel bad about this! I knew from the outset that I had written a very aggressive training plan, coming as I was from basically zero-level fitness. I've seen rapid gains, but with that aggressive training plan (and multiple babies who aren't sleeping through the night!) I've been getting more and more tired, sleeping through alarms, not recovering quickly after workouts. Those are all signs that I need to prioritize rest and recovery a bit more. With less than two weeks until my HM, I'm about to start my full taper anyway.

And, since I've settled on doing the HM at Disney, I'm aiming for a sub-2:15 for POT instead of a sub-2:08. I'm highly confident in being able to do that, given good weather, so from here on I just want to maintain and stay healthy, not push for more last-minute improvement.

My weekly mileage chart tells the story pretty well -- I stuck exactly to my seven-day-a-week training plan for 6 or 7 weeks, and from then on have sort of see-sawed between too-aggressive pushes and then sharp cut-back weeks, and now I'm entering my taper phase.


I've run the vast majority of cumulative planned mileage, though, and will end the training cycle with more than 500 miles in less than 4 months.


And I've seen major gains in strength and conditioning, comparing my fitness from November-January (red) to April (black).


So now I'm entering the home stretch in these last two weeks! Fairly consistent running, but after tomorrow's workout, all easy mileage until race day.

 

[Cabius]

I'm officially in for the half-marathon next January!

 

[Cabius]

2024-04-15 End-of-Week Summary
Last week I completed 30.5 miles across 5 runs, against a plan of 31.5 miles and 5 runs.


Definitely in the short-taper home stretch here! I had one final 6.5-mile tempo run at 10 minutes/mile, and other than that it was all easy mileage. Since I'm in the home stretch, I'm a bit more flexible and opportunistic about when and for how long I run, but hit the overall weekly mileage, more or less.

I've been feeling a bit mopey/cranky, which I suspect is at least partially tied to cut-back in mileage. I had one (10-mile) run in four days, at the end of which my wife basically demanded I get my grouchy butt out of the house and chase some endorphins.

I'm feeling pretty good about that 10 minute/mile pace target. All other things being equal, I should be about 155 bpm (plus some amount of cardiac drift), which is really very conservative for me. In past HM/M efforts, I've averaged about 170 bpm, so there is a LOT of buffer in terms of cardio conditioning.


Weigh Loss
On the weight loss front, I've slowed down a little bit in the past month, as I've given myself more break-even days in an attempt to reset my metabolism. The good news is that while it has slowed down a bit, I've continued my overall downward trend.

I originally aimed to hit 190lb by the end of March; I have had one weigh-in at 189.9 this week, with a recent rolling average more like 191. Basically 2-3 weeks behind; not too bad!




Race Weekend!
The Half-Marathon is on Saturday! They've modified the course due to rains, so we'll basically be looping half the course twice. No biggie to me; it actually eliminated a couple of hills, so I'll take it.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Saturday has gone from low-50s to mid-60s with chance of rain. I'm glad my pace target is conservative, because I can hopefully still have buffer to hit those targets without burning out. Obviously I'll keep an eye on the forecast and hope for it to drop back down!

I've been running in the afternoon/evening this week, when it was 75-80 degrees out, so those temps won't be a shock. They're already reflected in my pace/HR chart above. That also brings me comfort.

I'm planning to carb load on Friday, mostly with Maurten 320. I've done this for HM and M distances in the past, and other than needing to pee way too much, it's worked well. I'm taking the week off of my overall diet ahead of the race as well -- still tracking calories, but aiming to break even, with 50%-60% carbs.

On-course, I'll bring gu and e-gels, water (backback), and salt stick chews. I may also bring a bottle with LMNT or Mortal Hydration. I'm a pretty salty sweater -- my skin ends up caked with salt crystals, my sweat stings my eyes very sharply, etc. Looking back, where I've really struggled on hot runs it's been more about salt depletion rather than fueling, so I've been experimenting with different gels and fluids over the past several weeks, and it's really helped.

Since this week is all easy mileage, I may or may not post one more mid-week update before Saturday's race. But I'll let y'all know how it goes!!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Good luck on Saturday!

 

[avondale]

Good luck for your race Saturday! Fingers crossed for an improved weather forecast.