Triathlon/Marathon/Endurance Sports Thread

[mtwarden]

Heading out tomorrow for the annual Bob Marshall Wilderness Open. This year it's being held close to a month earlier (has always been Memorial Day weekend).

https://bedrockandparadox.com/bob-marshall-wilderness-open/

While snowpack is lower than normal, we did a little scouting and snowshoes won't be optional—we have three to four passes that will definitely require shoes.

Weather looks promising, but we had a BIG wind event and the blowdown is substantially worse than normal (and it's always bad in May before the trail crews get out).

 

[mtnbound]

Heading out tomorrow for the annual Bob Marshall Wilderness Open. This year it's being held close to a month earlier (has always been Memorial Day weekend).

https://bedrockandparadox.com/bob-marshall-wilderness-open/

While snowpack is lower than normal, we did a little scouting and snowshoes won't be optional—we have three to four passes that will definitely require shoes.

Weather looks promising, but we had a BIG wind event and the blowdown is substantially worse than normal (and it's always bad in May before the trail crews get out).

Good luck and be safe. I missed that this was going to be early than normal. Is there a specific site you use to stay up on this event?

 

[mtwarden]

Thanks!

Not really, pretty low key event. I’ll usually post up a trip report when I’m done. Other guys usually do as well, over on backpackinglight.com

 

[pattimusprime22]

Only 8 weeks to go until my marathon! Training has been a roller coaster for sure. I have almost always ran/jogged for fitness sometimes taking it more seriously than other times but really haven't built miles and went on long runs since I trained for my last marathon 14 years ago.

Learning that has occurred so far;I thought that with a baseline of running sometime 5-10 miles a week and sometimes not I would adapt pretty quickly to running a marathon training program, even at 43, that wasn't true. Shoes and their construction and design are SUPER important. I kept having odd calf pain on the medial anterior of my right calf. Couldn't figure it out. Didn't seem to be associated with stride. Put on my old beat up shoes and issue IMMEDIATELY resolved. Cost me a bunch of training miles that I converted to elliptical time. Turned out issue was drop. My new running shoes are zero drop my old ones are 6mm. I still want to transition to zero drop eventually but gonna stick with medium drop shoes until after this marathon.

It was SUPER discouraging to battle through pain and wonder if I could do this. Already booked lodging and told everyone I was gonna run a marathon, then not be able to complete a short 3 mile run without calf pain and go get on a elliptical for days at a time sucked beyond belief mentally. Last saturday ran 9 miles pain free, been cruising through 4 and 5 mile days this week and off today before 13 tomorrow. Cautiously optimistic.

The good news is that on shorter runs 10 min/mile used to feel easy zone two/three now 9 minutes per mile does. Did my first 8 miler at 12 min mile and did 9 miler last weekend at 10 still staying in upper zone 2 to middle of zone 3 by the end. Goal time for marathon is 4 hours (8:58/mile target 3:55 with 5 min buffer) so hoping to work those times down still but gonna concentrate on taking it easy and not injuring myself on long saturday runs and pushing the tempo a bit more on the weekday runs. I've got 8 weeks left hopefully I make a bunch of progress!

Glad you've been able to get back to training. It's important to know when you're hurt and you need to switch to crosstraining rather than keep beating yourself up with more running. With only 8 weeks to go, you def don't want to hurt yourself, so perhaps the best thing to do on those long runs is keep them easy and maybe throw some race pace in towards the middle and end to see how it feels on tired legs.

Also, try not to get hung up on a somewhat arbitrary goal of sub 4. It would not be a fun marathon to start at 9min/mile and then find out at mile 13 that you can't hold it. For me it leads to a more fun race to start at a pace that is definitely sustainable, and speed up as I go and feel good. Going faster by seconds/mile early can cost you minutes/mile later in long races if it's not something you can hold.

 

[CMF]

I’m in Alabama so not crazy elevation, Garmin watch said I finished with 6,676 feet of elevation gain.

Nice! What race is it?
Not many options down south for elevation gains.
Homochitto hammer does one some years in MS, but it's a 10- or 20-miler with 800/1600 el.

 

[Wiregrass Wilderness]

Was this a trail run? 6,676 sounds VERY hilly to me. Especially for Alabama. I am guessing the northern part.

It was, had a couple miles of dirt roads and then the rest of it was single track trails. It was at Lake Martin so kind of central Alabama.

Garmin could’ve been off some but it definitely had more elevation change than I expected. I just know some of the big out west trail races have a ton of elevation gain.

The website says it’s “3,000+ elevation gain per lap.” The 50k does 1.5 laps due to the layout. However, the half lap that you repeat is the most up and down of the race. Not sure how accurate the Garmin Fenix 6 is, but I would say it was definitely 5,500+ of elevation gain.

 

[Wiregrass Wilderness]

Nice! What race is it?
Not many options down south for elevation gains.
Homochitto hammer does one some years in MS, but it's a 10- or 20-miler with 800/1600 el.

It was the Lake Martin 50/50. It’s a 50k and 50 miler. I was very impressed with the race and layout. The trails were in great shape and the people putting it on did a great job. I plan to do it again next year. Maybe I’ll get a wild hair and try the 50 miler next year.

 

[BuckSmasher]

Glad you've been able to get back to training. It's important to know when you're hurt and you need to switch to crosstraining rather than keep beating yourself up with more running. With only 8 weeks to go, you def don't want to hurt yourself, so perhaps the best thing to do on those long runs is keep them easy and maybe throw some race pace in towards the middle and end to see how it feels on tired legs.

Also, try not to get hung up on a somewhat arbitrary goal of sub 4. It would not be a fun marathon to start at 9min/mile and then find out at mile 13 that you can't hold it. For me it leads to a more fun race to start at a pace that is definitely sustainable, and speed up as I go and feel good. Going faster by seconds/mile early can cost you minutes/mile later in long races if it's not something you can hold.

Did well on Sat. Finished with 13.1 so I could say I did the half! Definitely was feeling it last 4 or 5 miles. Turning around and running another 13.1 is gonna be tough. Finished in 10:45 pace. So way off goal of 9:00.

Did a 4 miler yesterday and 8 miler yesterday. Actually feeling less sore now. Another set of 4 and 8 and a rest day then 17 on saturday! Stepping back 5 miles next week. Then another mileage increase.

 

[pattimusprime22]

Did well on Sat. Finished with 13.1 so I could say I did the half! Definitely was feeling it last 4 or 5 miles. Turning around and running another 13.1 is gonna be tough. Finished in 10:45 pace. So way off goal of 9:00.

Did a 4 miler yesterday and 8 miler yesterday. Actually feeling less sore now. Another set of 4 and 8 and a rest day then 17 on saturday! Stepping back 5 miles next week. Then another mileage increase.

Ya, if running a half in training slower than goal race pace is tough, I'd say your goal race pace is too optimistic. Just trying to be realistic and help you avoid burying yourself on race day.

I know you're fairly close to the race, but often quoted rule of thumb is to not increase mileage more than 10% week to week. I think this is most applicable to the long run, so a jump from 13 to 17 might be a bit big. Perhaps see how you're feeling after 15 and if your feeling beat, then call it good for the day. Your body will definitely notice the stimulus from 15 miles, and the extra 2 might just be more injury risk.

 

[BuckSmasher]

Ya, if running a half in training slower than goal race pace is tough, I'd say your goal race pace is too optimistic. Just trying to be realistic and help you avoid burying yourself on race day.

I know you're fairly close to the race, but often quoted rule of thumb is to not increase mileage more than 10% week to week. I think this is most applicable to the long run, so a jump from 13 to 17 might be a bit big. Perhaps see how you're feeling after 15 and if your feeling beat, then call it good for the day. Your body will definitely notice the stimulus from 15 miles, and the extra 2 might just be more injury risk.

I have been preparing myself for that mentally. If that happens oh well.

I am following Hal Higdon's marathon training. People swear by it. We will see.