Losing a summer and tossing out a fall.

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Not even type 2 fun... Straight into type 3 fun. Gonna be brutal next year since 3 people finished this year too.
I do think it's interesting having a race where not everyone finishes or there's only a handful of finishers is interesting.

I've considered doing the "Last Man Standing" type race where every hour on the hour you start a new lap typically 4 miles. So it's a management aspect of not going too hard every hour to do those 4 miles but leaving enough time to deal with fluids/nutrition/self-care. As the race goes on people drop out and the field gets smaller and smaller.
 

2Julianas

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I do think it's interesting having a race where not everyone finishes or there's only a handful of finishers is interesting.

I've considered doing the "Last Man Standing" type race where every hour on the hour you start a new lap typically 4 miles. So it's a management aspect of not going too hard every hour to do those 4 miles but leaving enough time to deal with fluids/nutrition/self-care. As the race goes on people drop out and the field gets smaller and smaller.
That just sounds like the Fat Bike thing I did with @Stef where we rode in circles until people just quit (like me)
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Slight update as I did the Richmond Half-Marathon today:

2022 was supposed to be Richmond Marathon try #2. But as mentioned previously with moving out of NJ I changed registration to 2023.

Running a fair amount this year, then moved into Marathon training with three issues:
1) Not following training plan and riding the mountain bike instead.
2) Summer heat.
3) Injuries/Fatigue, mostly post Grand Canyon Trip.

A week or so after GC trip I broke. I'm not sure if it was all the GC hiking/running, flying back and then into a hard week. Roughly 3 weeks ago I did a long run in Pisgah and decided while the run was OK, I wasn't in Marathon shape. So I changed my registration from Marathon to Half-Marathon. I wasn't fully committed to the Marathon and the risk of injury was too high and I have 0 interest in being injured.

Shortly after that each and every run leading up to this week has been worse than the prior run. Wednesday's group run I couldn't even hang on to the lead group and was in no-man's land on the run, not looking great leading up to the race. Thursday was a more painful run and Friday I just skipped the easy 3-mile shakeout run after arriving into Richmond late.

I had in my head a 1:45 Half-Marathon time would be an awesome moonshot but 1:55 would be a safe & realistic time for the fatigue I've felt and the hip/leg/knee/foot pain I've had on recent runs. I ran a 1:55 in a half-marathon years ago in meh shape so that was my only guide.

So in the starting corral like an idiot I just got right with the pacers for 1:45. There goes the whole "start slow and see how it feels" start to the race. Kept up with the pace group for 1:45 for a few miles and after the 2nd mile or so I started to warm up. After about 5 miles I got frustrated running elbow to elbow and the pacers yelling out so I ran around the group to catch up with the people who seemed to be pacing 1:45ish but running 30-50 feet in front of the pacers. Stupid, risky but I decided I'd rather push hard and risk blowing up then finishing too strong and aim for 1:45.

I had a Honey Stinger Gel around the 30 minute mark and a GU from an aid station just before the hour. I'm pretty sure both gave me stomach pains where I felt like I had a hernia but they passed after a mile. My ankle hurt at one point, my knee at another point but neither for more than an hour. Only took water at the aid station after the first GU hoping it would help my stomach.

I'd say 8 miles in I started to just slightly push a little harder. Nothing crazy but the 1:45 group kept falling further and further behind and the mix of runners I had with me kept changing as people were feeling good or falling apart. Kept my pace relatively consistent and pretty much nailed the push at the end to the finish. The last part of the race is a steep downhill which sounds great but at speed kills the legs.

Finished way quicker than I expected, no pain, and ended up walking 8 miles around Richmond to restaurants/coffee shops afterwards.

Makes no sense to me, and not exactly earth shattering quick but I did PR in pretty much every distance. 800m all the way to 13.1m. Even more surprised my fastest 5k was the last 5k. Apparently I need a 10 mile warmup for a 5k?

Not fast for a runner but end result of a race I didn't really give a shit about:

Gun time: 1:43:31
Chip Time: 1:42:58
Pace: 7:52
Garmin: 13.25mi 1:43:16 7:47/mi
Male 40-44: 67 of 337

Can't wait to ride my bike more.
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Solid effort Steve.

Question.
Should your first marathon ever be NYC Marathon 2024?
Asking for a friend.. for real....
Probably a great first marathon, my only concern would be logistics. If it were me I would 100% would want to be in a hotel or such near the start. Not drive in from NJ or anything that morning.

Most marathons would be fine for a first, just need to train. Anyone doing a marathon should be comfortable at the shorter distance and not jump up to it.

I would seriously say there's no comparison between a half and full. Doing a full is like the effort of doing 3 halves.
 

Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Probably a great first marathon, my only concern would be logistics. If it were me I would 100% would want to be in a hotel or such near the start. Not drive in from NJ or anything that morning.

Most marathons would be fine for a first, just need to train. Anyone doing a marathon should be comfortable at the shorter distance and not jump up to it.

I would seriously say there's no comparison between a half and full. Doing a full is like the effort of doing 3 halves.
She did 1 half marathon and couldn't walk for a week.
Lots of 5k and 10k.
She's got a year to figure it.

I guess it's not my problem.
I told she should at least do 1 practice 26.2 before the big one.
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
She did 1 half marathon and couldn't walk for a week.
Lots of 5k and 10k.
She's got a year to figure it.

I guess it's not my problem.
I told she should at least do 1 practice 26.2 before the big one.
Don't need to do a 26.2m practice run nor should she. Need to train, if she can do the longest run during training and be comfortable she will probably be fine. Longest run is usually 16-20 miles.

Best thing is consistency and not going to hard all the time.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Slight update as I did the Richmond Half-Marathon today:

2022 was supposed to be Richmond Marathon try #2. But as mentioned previously with moving out of NJ I changed registration to 2023.

Running a fair amount this year, then moved into Marathon training with three issues:
1) Not following training plan and riding the mountain bike instead.
2) Summer heat.
3) Injuries/Fatigue, mostly post Grand Canyon Trip.

A week or so after GC trip I broke. I'm not sure if it was all the GC hiking/running, flying back and then into a hard week. Roughly 3 weeks ago I did a long run in Pisgah and decided while the run was OK, I wasn't in Marathon shape. So I changed my registration from Marathon to Half-Marathon. I wasn't fully committed to the Marathon and the risk of injury was too high and I have 0 interest in being injured.

Shortly after that each and every run leading up to this week has been worse than the prior run. Wednesday's group run I couldn't even hang on to the lead group and was in no-man's land on the run, not looking great leading up to the race. Thursday was a more painful run and Friday I just skipped the easy 3-mile shakeout run after arriving into Richmond late.

I had in my head a 1:45 Half-Marathon time would be an awesome moonshot but 1:55 would be a safe & realistic time for the fatigue I've felt and the hip/leg/knee/foot pain I've had on recent runs. I ran a 1:55 in a half-marathon years ago in meh shape so that was my only guide.

So in the starting corral like an idiot I just got right with the pacers for 1:45. There goes the whole "start slow and see how it feels" start to the race. Kept up with the pace group for 1:45 for a few miles and after the 2nd mile or so I started to warm up. After about 5 miles I got frustrated running elbow to elbow and the pacers yelling out so I ran around the group to catch up with the people who seemed to be pacing 1:45ish but running 30-50 feet in front of the pacers. Stupid, risky but I decided I'd rather push hard and risk blowing up then finishing too strong and aim for 1:45.

I had a Honey Stinger Gel around the 30 minute mark and a GU from an aid station just before the hour. I'm pretty sure both gave me stomach pains where I felt like I had a hernia but they passed after a mile. My ankle hurt at one point, my knee at another point but neither for more than an hour. Only took water at the aid station after the first GU hoping it would help my stomach.

I'd say 8 miles in I started to just slightly push a little harder. Nothing crazy but the 1:45 group kept falling further and further behind and the mix of runners I had with me kept changing as people were feeling good or falling apart. Kept my pace relatively consistent and pretty much nailed the push at the end to the finish. The last part of the race is a steep downhill which sounds great but at speed kills the legs.

Finished way quicker than I expected, no pain, and ended up walking 8 miles around Richmond to restaurants/coffee shops afterwards.

Makes no sense to me, and not exactly earth shattering quick but I did PR in pretty much every distance. 800m all the way to 13.1m. Even more surprised my fastest 5k was the last 5k. Apparently I need a 10 mile warmup for a 5k?

Not fast for a runner but end result of a race I didn't really give a shit about:

Gun time: 1:43:31
Chip Time: 1:42:58
Pace: 7:52
Garmin: 13.25mi 1:43:16 7:47/mi
Male 40-44: 67 of 337

Can't wait to ride my bike more.
Great time and good decisions!

Chicago is flat, do that one!
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Great time and good decisions!

Chicago is flat, do that one!
I have very little interest in doing a road marathon again. I don't have the interest to put in the road miles and training. Would rather ride my bike. Training for a road race is a great way to dislike running. Also a Marathon is a horrible way to see a city as it entirely interferes with walking around and enjoying a city. And it's too hard to enjoy the scenery when racing.

My goal right now is to keep consistent with 3 runs a week. It's getting dark early and will soon get cold so running vs biking is more appealing over the next few months. But the training part sucks.

I'll probably mix in a few more road races in 2024. The two 5ks this year and the half-marathon were enjoyable and don't interfere with life much. While there's way more 5k options out there, they're way harder than a half-marathon and a lot more stress.

I may shoot for an early-year 5k and do a training block for that as it's not a huge commitment and I could use the speed training. And still considering the Antelope Canyon trail race in AZ as if I can do the 50 miles in just under the cutoff, I may enjoy the scenery.

Well, and I may do a 5k in town in Dec as it's so low-key there's no stress, good workout and is a charity race.
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Well, post race in Richmond I completely fell off the wagon. While I felt great during the race, I'm not sure if it was that race or other reasons but I was pretty much dead for the end of 2023. While I'm sure my fitness is better than the beginning of February in 2023 it's definitely dropped off since the fall. Garmin & Intervals.icu both agree I'm lazy and out of shape.

Been just trying to keep consistency with easy runs and biking when I can. Biking hasn't been easy as the weather has been rather crappy and the darkness at night kills weekday riding. Looking at the calendar I haven't cracked 20 miles of running in a week, except for the week off between Christmas and New Years I have been under 2-3 hours a week of riding.

Well, I guess some of that has two change because as of this morning I now have two races scheduled in April, and possibly one in March.

March 9 - Oskar Blues 4 miler. The brewery is basically behind my house but my interest in doing this race is pretty low and currently not interested in just running it unless I'm going to push for it. Likely volunteering as I'm friendly with the promoters and run with lots of people doing it. I'll probably volunteer and just do a different ride/run in the afternoon.

April 7th - Gamble Trail race. There's a trail running group out of Asheville that puts this on every year. Format is 1.5 mile loops passing by the start/finish/aid-station on each lap. 30 seconds before the start of the race they roll dice for the distance. I did this last year and while lots of fun, I was pretty much in the back the whole time after what ended up being about 11 miles. After 6 months of my life getting turned upside down with moving to another state, this race wasn't great physically.

April 13th - Ville to Ville. 73.5 relay race from Asheville, NC to Greenville, SC. Someone last week asked if I wanted to be their 6th person, at first I said no, then yesterday I got convinced. I have no idea what to expect with this one, totally new format for me. Probably a lot of fun and I don't think the people on my team are super serious so that helps.

This all sounds well and good, but I know once we have nice weather and the days get longer I'm going to want to do more mountain biking. March the group rides start back up and I actually got in a fair amount of 3 hour bike rides in Feb/Mar of last year when I look back.

Considering I'm doing a relay race, I may actually try to get in some two-a-days.
 
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