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Calling all PCF runners (1 Viewer)

Mr Winberg said:
Winter is by far my favorite season for long runs! Tonight a 20k run under falling snow, tried to capture it in pics:

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Love it! Unfortunately, we don’t get many runs like that further down south. Stockholm right now is the poster child for why Sweden is to be visited May through September only.
 
I’ve bounced back after my stupid injury which set me back with little to no running during July, August and half of September. Back now to the regular 50k weeks where I’ve been able to incorporate two threshold sessions. Will continue to build base and not include race/race+ pace training until February. Also been sticking with 1-2 runner’s specific strength training sessions per week.

Current shape is the best I’ve been in for a very long time and I’m feeling very optimistic about race season (first one is in April) and hopefully finally catching that elusive sub40 10k goal. What could possibly go wrong?
 
Winter has finally released its ugly grip and I did the first work on the tracks for the year today, and in shorts to boot. Feels like I’m steadily improving, as even the always unpleasable Garmin vo2-max predictor indicates:

IMG_5178.webp


For today’s session I did threshold intervals of 5 times 6 minutes and managed to comfortably stay in zone 4 doing 4:15 down to 4:11/km pace throughout the intervals. Quite the confidence boost! Quality work also includes race specific sessions now such as 3x2 km at race pace, which is on schedule for later this week. First race and first sub40 attempt is 1 month away - LFG!!
 
Eriks said:
Winter has finally released its ugly grip and I did the first work on the tracks for the year today, and in shorts to boot. Feels like I’m steadily improving, as even the always unpleasable Garmin vo2-max predictor indicates:

View attachment 1652747

For today’s session I did threshold intervals of 5 times 6 minutes and managed to comfortably stay in zone 4 doing 4:15 down to 4:11/km pace throughout the intervals. Quite the confidence boost! Quality work also includes race specific sessions now such as 3x2 km at race pace, which is on schedule for later this week. First race and first sub40 attempt is 1 month away - LFG!!
Click to expand...
You should switch hobbies and take up gardening. Nothing to run away from and you get to eat your results!!
 
Eriks said:
Winter has finally released its ugly grip and I did the first work on the tracks for the year today, and in shorts to boot. Feels like I’m steadily improving, as even the always unpleasable Garmin vo2-max predictor indicates:

View attachment 1652747

For today’s session I did threshold intervals of 5 times 6 minutes and managed to comfortably stay in zone 4 doing 4:15 down to 4:11/km pace throughout the intervals. Quite the confidence boost! Quality work also includes race specific sessions now such as 3x2 km at race pace, which is on schedule for later this week. First race and first sub40 attempt is 1 month away - LFG!!
Click to expand...
Lol my graph mirrors yours! :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

1000016864.webp
 
Mr Winberg said:
I don't want to jinx it, but this is very promising for a sub 40 min attempt!
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That’s what coach GPT tells me as well but it feels better coming from you. During this session was the first time I felt ”shit, I might actually make it”.

I do think I’m lacking some time in actual race pace, just to get comfortable and relaxed and not having it feel very fast. I’ve mostly done treshold combined with shorter intervals faster than race pace. But there is still time to get a few race pace sessions in as well.
 
Eriks said:
Oh my, injury?
Click to expand...
First dip is just a normal off-season dip. And it staying there is just normal for winter when you run on snow with 17 layers of clothes. But the second dip is 3 weeks of the flu followed by 2 weeks of ski vacation 😎 so not all bad!
 
Another good session at the tracks today, this time at race pace. Did 3 x 2km (1,24 miles) intervals with 2,5 min of rest inbetween.

First @ 4:01 pace (6:28/mile)
Second @ 3:59 pace (6:25/mile)
Third @ 3:55 pace (6:18/mile)

Felt comfortable during the first interval, comfortably hard during the second and fairly hard during the third, especially the second half of it. Pulse didn’t drift too far (max pulse is 190) but it did feel worse than the top at 183 would indicate during the final two laps.

Coach GPT says it’s fine, ”it’s just because I’m not used to running long stretches at that speed”. I hope s/he is right. I was able to run pretty relaxed and the pace doesn’t feel that fast anymore, which obviously has got to be a good sign.

IMG_5191.webp

IMG_5189.webp
 
Eriks said:
Another good session at the tracks today, this time at race pace. Did 3 x 2km (1,24 miles) intervals with 2,5 min of rest inbetween.

First @ 4:01 pace (6:28/mile)
Second @ 3:59 pace (6:25/mile)
Third @ 3:55 pace (6:18/mile)

Felt comfortable during the first interval, comfortably hard during the second and fairly hard during the third, especially the second half of it. Pulse didn’t drift too far (max pulse is 190) but it did feel worse than the top at 183 would indicate during the final two laps.

Coach GPT says it’s fine, ”it’s just because I’m not used to running long stretches at that speed”. I hope s/he is right. I was able to run pretty relaxed and the pace doesn’t feel that fast anymore, which obviously has got to be a good sign.

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Well done! Looks promising!

One way I like to test my 10k pace is to combine it with threshold, for example:

3×(7 min threshold + 3 min 10k-pace + 3 min easy)

That way you test/practice the pace under fatigue, but you get fatigued in a sustainable way (i.e. 7 min of threshold).

I'm not saying 3×2km of 10k pace is bad, especially not as one off, but I personally would not do it continuously. The rest of the week would need to be easy :-) whereas the example above would allow me to do a second interval session the same week.

Another approach is to have the 10k intevals directly after a somewhat shorter threshold session, e.g. 3×5 threshold (or whatever is considered "short" for you) followed by, say, 4×1min 10k-pace. But don't fall in the trap of having a normal threshold session followed by 10k pace. I did this last summer and after 3 weeks I got a minor injury. Us runners are stupid and always find new ways to overtrain and sustain injuries!
 
Mr Winberg said:
Us runners are stupid
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Just checked. The last run before the injury was 3×9min threshold + 4×90s 10k pace, with warm-up and cooldown of course. 14.5km in total. Felt great! Next run my VMO started screaming after 1km! I was out for 3 weeks. Overstrain injuries are sneaky...
 
Mr Winberg said:
Just checked. The last run before the injury was 3×9min threshold + 4×90s 10k pace, with warm-up and cooldown of course. 14.5km in total. Felt great! Next run my VMO started screaming after 1km! I was out for 3 weeks. Overstrain injuries are sneaky..
Click to expand...

Don’t I know it. It’s happened to me numerous times as well, yet it seems impossible to learn: ”this time I’m so much stronger with base building and strength training”, is the usual justification.

Mr Winberg said:
Another approach is to have the 10k intevals directly after a somewhat shorter threshold session, e.g. 3×5 threshold (or whatever is considered "short" for you) followed by, say, 4×1min 10k-pace. But don't fall in the trap of having a normal threshold session followed by 10k pace. I did this last summer and after 3 weeks I got a minor injury. Us runners are stupid and always find new ways to overtrain and sustain injuries!
Click to expand...

This is basically what coach GPT told me as well when I asked it to fine tune training these last weeks before the race. I guess I should listen :wtf:

I think I’m alright confidence wise now though. I really needed a nice long session at race pace to make me believe. Will keep race pace in smaller doses after this.
 
Interesting that 3:XX runners have micro spikes at what I assume is 3:10, 3:20 etc, but 4:XX runners aren't bothered by those, only 4:30 has a spike.
 
Mr Winberg said:
Interesting that 3:XX runners have micro spikes at what I assume is 3:10, 3:20 etc, but 4:XX runners aren't bothered by those, only 4:30 has a spike.
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Before one is able to set a 4:30 goal it’s probably mostly about simply finishing
 
My Garmin came in its pants after a session with (sadly) incorrect pulse measuring but has since made a stabilizing adjustment towards mediocrity, where I belong.

IMG_5406.webp


Racing this Saturday coming off of a small bullshit cold. Still going for sub40 in this one but it’s nice to have something external to blame if things don’t work out.
 
Well no triumphant victory photo to offer. I did not have the day and it became painfully clear sub40 was completely unreachable by kilometer 6 and final result is a neon red DNF.

Back to the drawing board…
 
Eriks said:
Well no triumphant victory photo to offer. I did not have the day and it became painfully clear sub40 was completely unreachable by kilometer 6 and final result is a neon red DNF.

Back to the drawing board…
Click to expand...
Just a bad day or did the cold affect you more than you thought?

Either way good luck in the next one!
 
ballefrans said:
Just a bad day or did the cold affect you more than you thought?

Either way good luck in the next one!
Click to expand...
Thanks!

It was still a factor unfortunately, felt ok but not great at warm up. Pulse was shooting a bit too high. Still, the race started out fine and relaxed.

Km 1-3 felt controlled.
Km 4 is where I felt uh-oh
km 5 was shit. Decided to keep trying past the fairly long uphill at the 5k mark, since km 5,5-8 was gonna be a lot easier with lots of flat/downhill, to see if I would be able to pick it up. But I struggled hard to maintain not to mention increase speed and realized I had lost. Saw no reason to prolong the suffering when sub40 was off the table and stepped off at about 6,5 km. Live to fight another day.
 
@Eriks

It's tricky to analyze a race with such a profile, where the first half is a climb. You ran a negative split, but how does one know if it was negative enough for the incline? Maybe you worked too hard at the start? Or maybe the pace was perfect but the lingering cold was the culprit? The only way of knowing is through experience, and for the next race you'll have this experience to help you. Every setback is an opportunity to learn!

It's not meant to be easy, keep at it! But not tonight! Tonight you drink! And when you're drunk enough, you look back at your sessions this spring in Garmin. Look at the paces vs heart rates on your threshold runs! Look at the paces on your easy runs! Compare them to last spring, and maybe a smile will start to materialize as you pour another well deserved cold one :-)
 

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