Welcome to the first installment of workout wednesday. I will focus mostly on interval workouts in these posts. Today I want to talk about one of my favorite sessions. I call them Australian quarters. Some call them Deek's quarters session after their most famous practitioner. Robert DeCastella, aka Deek.
They are an invention of Deek's coach Pat Clohessy, himself a world class runner in his day, and were a staple for most of Pat's runners traditionally done every thursday. Done throughout the training cycle and across events with subtle adjustments to meet the time of the season and the event being focused on.
First a few facts about Deek, a four time Olympian who was overall the finest marathoner of the 1980's. He had a lifetime marathon best of 2:07:51 set winning the Boston Marathon, but he produced a half dozen sub 2:09's and a bunch of 2:10 and 2:11 efforts over the years. He won the world championships marathon in 1983 and finished in the top 10 in three Olympics. Additionally he ran world class performances in cross country, on the roads and was a sub 28 sub 13:30 man on the track. All of this despite being a rather stocky man with very limited speed.
The workout is very basic. You run 8x400m with a 200m QUICK jog before EVERY repetition including the first one. This means that you will cover 3 miles during the workout when the rest is included. The trick is that the 200's must be run at a solid pace. Somewhere around what you run on your fastest regular training runs or even a bit faster. This session is sneaky tough but by forcing the pace of the recoveries it leads to enormous gains in latic threshold and race specific speed.
I have an friend who early in indoor track his senior year in high school had a PB in the mid 4:30's for the mile. On a recruiting visit he joined some red shirt athletes in a workout, behind the coaches back obviously, and they happened to be doing Aussie Quarters. The plan was to do the 400s in 70 and the rests in 45. My friend was surprised it was so slow he often did 400 repeats faster than 70 and 200 rest seem like quite. Still he knew these red shirts had all run miles under 4:20, much much faster than he had ever approached. He said the first rep felt easy as expected and the second seem pretty much the same. He said as they started the third he had this feeling like he hadn't recovered at all and he barely survived the rep. The fourth rep was his last by 200m he was off the back and as he crawled in to a mid 70's finish he knew his day was over.
He went home very humbled. But this young man was not one to take a defeat as a negative. He examined the workout and decided that he should be able to do it. 45second rests were 6min mile pace which he routinely ran on training runs and 70's were pretty relaxed for 400 reps. He talked to his coach and they decided to attempt this session once a week until he could master it. The results?
Over the first month or more he struggled but finally he found a way to approach the workout that lead to him finishing the workout and getting closer and closer to his goal. During the outdoor season he master the workout and as the weeks went by his times plummeted and by the end of the season he ran 4:15 mile.
The part that my friend missed when he first heard about this session was just how fast that rest makes it. 70 plus 45 is 600m in 1:55. That means running this workout involves running 3 miles in 15:20! Which was about as fast as he had ever run in cross country. This workout forces you to learn to truly relax at both your rep speed and your recovery speed. There is no faking it or lying to yourself. Believe me I have tried and it has without exception lead to me not finishing the workout.
How fast? Well in his training book Deek says if you run under 14:30 for the whole workout it is time to find a race as you are super fit, under 15:00 is bread and butter you are doing well. Over 15:30 and it was time for him to get blood work done as something must be wrong. However Deek was a 2:07 marathoner! Personally my goal is to break 15:00 and my fastest ever session was around 14:30 and I have qualified for the world championships.
So what should you do? Well generally speaking your reps should be at 3k to 5k race pace, as slow as 10k pace if you are getting ready for a marathon. Your rest pace should be as slow as a quick training run. This is a great place to start or to even keep the pace if you are training for 3k to 5k racing. If you are looking to a longer race than you should drop your rest pace down towards 95% of marathon pace or even in the final weeks before a marathon very close to marathon pace.
When should you do this workout? This is one of those rare workouts that can with a little adjustment be done pretty much year round, as long as you have access to a track. It can be adjusted to be a fairly easy session in the base and early season and you can really crank it down to be a monster late in the season. The biggest advantage of this over traditional intervals is the faster reps make it a very very aerobic battle. In HS I routinely ran 8x400m in 65 seconds or faster, often with very short standing rests but I never came close to averaging 70 seconds per 400m for a 2 mile, 9:20. Why? I was teaching my body to get very good at fast reps but that isn't the test it was taking. It was trying to run very fast for 2 to 3 miles continuously. This workout teaches your body to do that. I have no doubt that if I had replaced my faster 400 reps with aussie quarters at 70 and worked on getting the rest 200 down towards 45 I would have easily run 9:20 or better.
What system does it work? Really it would be easier to answer what system it doesn't work. This type of session is obviously anaerobic. It is most directly tied to latic threshold. But the recoveries make you super efficient at marathon pace and a bit slower which is aerobic training to a t. Athletes who do a lot of workouts like this traditionally move to the marathon with far greater ease than normal.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Fundamental Pace Tempo Runs for Marathoners
Welcome to the first installment of 'tempo tuesday'! Tempo runs are a huge part of a successful training program and yet what they are is often debated and disagreed on. Many people put them in a very specific corner, a tempo run is a 4 mile run at 10k to half marathon pace for example. From my perspective this is a little silly. It is like saying intervals are only 12x400m at 5k pace with 100m jog rest. It is my perspective that tempo runs are one of what I call the four major workout types, interval, long run, tempo run, hill workout, and are as varied or more varied than all the other groups. So each week I plan on trying to highlight one specific type of tempo run and how you can use it to improve your running.
This week we start with a fundamental pace tempo run for marathoners. Fundamental paced tempos are the least strenuous of the tempo paced workouts I will highlight. All runners should be using them, and most do whether they know it or not. They are most used and best used in the early stages of a training cycle though they can be sprinkled in throughout training for various reasons. Depending on what event you are focused on the exact type of fundamental tempo you should be doing varies. Today we I will be talking about fundamental tempos specifically for marathon training. This is not to say that non marathoners or those focused on a different event this season shouldn't use these at all but only points to the fact that the fitness benefits of this workout most directly impact your ability to do better marathon specific workouts later in the training cycle.
The fundamental tempo for marathon runners should be run at 80% to 90% of marathon goal pace. Put another way at 1.1 to 1.2 times marathon pace. This is not a particularly fast effort. For a national class marathoner targeting a mid 2:13 marathon- 3:10 per Kilometer/ 5:06 per mile- your fundamental pace would be only 3:29 per k, 5:36 per mile to 3:48 per K, 6:07 per mile. For a runner with a realistic expectation of running a 2:13 marathon 6:07 per mile would be considered in most instances a normal training pace, not a tempo but that is the low end of the fundamental tempo. A pace which would normally be viewed as just a good training run pace.
Now how to find your fundamental tempo pace. There are a number of ways to do this and I will attempt to pick just one despite the math teacher in me wanting to show you 9 different ways and wax lyrical about the symmetry of math… The easiest way is to take your goal marathon pace in minutes per mile or per kilometer and convert it to seconds.
So a runner looking for a 3 hour marathon has a goal pace of 6:52 per mile which is 412 seconds ((60x6) + 52). Now you multiply that number by 1.1 to get the fast end of the pace range, yes calculators are allowed, 1.1 x 412 = 453.2 Now convert back to minutes and seconds by dividing by 60, calculators are discouraged because you want a remainder, as this will be the seconds, not a decimal answer 453/60 = 7:33 per mile. Now to find the slow end of your pace you multiply your goal marathon pace by 1.2. 412 x 1.2 = 494.4 again divide by 60 to get the time in minutes and seconds 494/60 = 8:14 per mile. So for the runner with a goal of a 3 hour marathon your fundamental tempo goal pace is 7:33 to 8:14 per mile.
Now that you know your pace the next part of the equation is how long to run for. Traditionally the marathon focused fundamental tempo is pretty long. Actually it borders on being what many would refer to as a long run or at least a medium long run. Basically you want to it to be from 1 hour and 20 minutes to 3 hours in length. I am very specifically using time here not distance as I would not advice running at a high effort for much over 3 hours even if your marathon goal time is 5 or 6 hours.
Now you have the basics of the workout set. The devil however with this and with every workout is in the details. The single most important detail of this workout and every workout is not how to do it once but how to IMPROVE it so that at the end of a given training cycle you are doing it better than you were capable of doing it at the beginning of the cycle. In other words you have improved or gained fitness which is the goal of all training.
I had a conversation early in my running career with a coach I would characterize as not very good and he was going on about how coaching was easy and success was based entirely on the talent that came to you, luck of the draw. His basic premise was logical. There are only a handful of training methods and we all know what they are.
My question at the time was 'why are some coaches consistently more successful than others?' His response was that they were either better recruiters, had more numbers of people to work with or were simply more lucky. No doubt all these things can impact success but still again and again you have certain coaches who's athletes outperform their piers with similar backgrounds. If this success was just luck than the Joe Vigil, Don Larson, Bill Bowermann etc… would have been far better off spending their lives in the local package store scratching lottery tickets as they would certainly have made more money that way.
My point is the key to training is not just WHAT you do but HOW you do it. For improving with fundamental tempos and really all tempos there are a couple of possibilities. The most obvious is to try and run faster each time out. Unfortunately often this just means we run too hard and we do not see great improvement in this way. The next most obvious is to keep the effort the same and increase the distance. Logically you would expect this to lead to the same problem as just going faster BUT the physiology of how our body improves under the stress of aerobic activity defies logic in this case. As you increase the distance you will notice as you pass shorter marker that were once challenging that your effort at that stage is far less than it was in prior attempts.
So what you must do is start with a shorter tempo, in this case 80 to 90 mins preferably in the slower end of the tempo range though if you are a very strong aerobic runner you may be able even at the early stages of a training cycle to run on the fast end of the pace window and if you can do so than it is perfectly right for you to do so. Now after your first session you should return to this workout every week or two but each time out try to increase the distance of the run by 10 to 20 minutes. When you reach a length of time similar to your goal marathon time or 3 hours you should drop the time back down to the 90minute range but also increase the pace by 10 to 20 seconds per mile. You will be shocked by how easy your body finds the new faster pace. If there is still time in your base phase you should again build the time/distance of your tempos up at the new faster pace targeting your goal marathon time.
It would be expected that in preparing for a marathon a person would spend 1 to 3 weeks tapering for the race, 6 to 8 weeks in specific prep for the race and 6 to 10 weeks prior to doing base work for that specific prep. The fundamental tempo belongs here in that base. During the Specific phase you may want to touch on this fitness as a secondary workout but in that case it should be a fairly light session not be more than 90mins in duration and it should not be the focus workout of the week.
In the base phase of 6 to 10 weeks you should be doing this tempo 6 to 10 times. Basically every week. You are building your basic aerobic endurance as well as improving your bodies ability to burn fat at slightly quicker speeds which is the key to avoiding the wall in the marathon. If you burn more fat at a given speed than you inherently burn less glycogen, which is a much more finite resource. If you can reduce your glycogen burn enough you will not run out of it in 26.2 miles which means you can hold your pace and finish strong in the marathon with your aerobic abilities being your limiting factor rather than your muscles glycogen stores.
This session alone will not solve the glycogen problem but it builds towards the sessions in the specific phase, specific intervals, specific fartlek, specific long tempo, specific progression, specific alternations, that all together will teach your body to burn a fat rich mix at marathon pace so you can be racing in the last 10k instead of battling for survival.
A sample progression for marathon fundamental tempo runs in a marathon base phase would be
week 1- 1:30 at 1.2x marathon pace
week 2- 1:50 at 1.2x marathon pace
week 3- 2:10 at 1.2x marathon pace
week 4- 2:30 at 1.2x marathon pace
week 5- 1:30 at 1.1x marathon pace
week 6- AM 80mins at 1.1x marathon pace PM 80mins at 1.1x marathon pace
week 7- 2:10 at 1.1x marathon pace
week 8- 2:20 to 2:30 at 1.1x marathon pace
Now you are ready for some specific marathon work!!
Finally the down and dirty summary for the marathon focused fundamental tempo.
What it is- A 90minute to 3 hour tempo run at 80% to 90% of your goal marathon pace.
How it is progressed- Like all tempo runs you should increase the duration not the speed on a week to week basis.
Why it is done- The goal of this workout is to increase general aerobic endurance. Improve muscular endurance so that the body is ready for long hard marathon specific workouts. This is the first step towards getting your body ready muscularly, aerobically and in terms of fuel consumption for the very specific demands of running 26.2 miles at a startlingly quick pace.
This week we start with a fundamental pace tempo run for marathoners. Fundamental paced tempos are the least strenuous of the tempo paced workouts I will highlight. All runners should be using them, and most do whether they know it or not. They are most used and best used in the early stages of a training cycle though they can be sprinkled in throughout training for various reasons. Depending on what event you are focused on the exact type of fundamental tempo you should be doing varies. Today we I will be talking about fundamental tempos specifically for marathon training. This is not to say that non marathoners or those focused on a different event this season shouldn't use these at all but only points to the fact that the fitness benefits of this workout most directly impact your ability to do better marathon specific workouts later in the training cycle.
The fundamental tempo for marathon runners should be run at 80% to 90% of marathon goal pace. Put another way at 1.1 to 1.2 times marathon pace. This is not a particularly fast effort. For a national class marathoner targeting a mid 2:13 marathon- 3:10 per Kilometer/ 5:06 per mile- your fundamental pace would be only 3:29 per k, 5:36 per mile to 3:48 per K, 6:07 per mile. For a runner with a realistic expectation of running a 2:13 marathon 6:07 per mile would be considered in most instances a normal training pace, not a tempo but that is the low end of the fundamental tempo. A pace which would normally be viewed as just a good training run pace.
Now how to find your fundamental tempo pace. There are a number of ways to do this and I will attempt to pick just one despite the math teacher in me wanting to show you 9 different ways and wax lyrical about the symmetry of math… The easiest way is to take your goal marathon pace in minutes per mile or per kilometer and convert it to seconds.
So a runner looking for a 3 hour marathon has a goal pace of 6:52 per mile which is 412 seconds ((60x6) + 52). Now you multiply that number by 1.1 to get the fast end of the pace range, yes calculators are allowed, 1.1 x 412 = 453.2 Now convert back to minutes and seconds by dividing by 60, calculators are discouraged because you want a remainder, as this will be the seconds, not a decimal answer 453/60 = 7:33 per mile. Now to find the slow end of your pace you multiply your goal marathon pace by 1.2. 412 x 1.2 = 494.4 again divide by 60 to get the time in minutes and seconds 494/60 = 8:14 per mile. So for the runner with a goal of a 3 hour marathon your fundamental tempo goal pace is 7:33 to 8:14 per mile.
Now that you know your pace the next part of the equation is how long to run for. Traditionally the marathon focused fundamental tempo is pretty long. Actually it borders on being what many would refer to as a long run or at least a medium long run. Basically you want to it to be from 1 hour and 20 minutes to 3 hours in length. I am very specifically using time here not distance as I would not advice running at a high effort for much over 3 hours even if your marathon goal time is 5 or 6 hours.
Now you have the basics of the workout set. The devil however with this and with every workout is in the details. The single most important detail of this workout and every workout is not how to do it once but how to IMPROVE it so that at the end of a given training cycle you are doing it better than you were capable of doing it at the beginning of the cycle. In other words you have improved or gained fitness which is the goal of all training.
I had a conversation early in my running career with a coach I would characterize as not very good and he was going on about how coaching was easy and success was based entirely on the talent that came to you, luck of the draw. His basic premise was logical. There are only a handful of training methods and we all know what they are.
My question at the time was 'why are some coaches consistently more successful than others?' His response was that they were either better recruiters, had more numbers of people to work with or were simply more lucky. No doubt all these things can impact success but still again and again you have certain coaches who's athletes outperform their piers with similar backgrounds. If this success was just luck than the Joe Vigil, Don Larson, Bill Bowermann etc… would have been far better off spending their lives in the local package store scratching lottery tickets as they would certainly have made more money that way.
My point is the key to training is not just WHAT you do but HOW you do it. For improving with fundamental tempos and really all tempos there are a couple of possibilities. The most obvious is to try and run faster each time out. Unfortunately often this just means we run too hard and we do not see great improvement in this way. The next most obvious is to keep the effort the same and increase the distance. Logically you would expect this to lead to the same problem as just going faster BUT the physiology of how our body improves under the stress of aerobic activity defies logic in this case. As you increase the distance you will notice as you pass shorter marker that were once challenging that your effort at that stage is far less than it was in prior attempts.
So what you must do is start with a shorter tempo, in this case 80 to 90 mins preferably in the slower end of the tempo range though if you are a very strong aerobic runner you may be able even at the early stages of a training cycle to run on the fast end of the pace window and if you can do so than it is perfectly right for you to do so. Now after your first session you should return to this workout every week or two but each time out try to increase the distance of the run by 10 to 20 minutes. When you reach a length of time similar to your goal marathon time or 3 hours you should drop the time back down to the 90minute range but also increase the pace by 10 to 20 seconds per mile. You will be shocked by how easy your body finds the new faster pace. If there is still time in your base phase you should again build the time/distance of your tempos up at the new faster pace targeting your goal marathon time.
It would be expected that in preparing for a marathon a person would spend 1 to 3 weeks tapering for the race, 6 to 8 weeks in specific prep for the race and 6 to 10 weeks prior to doing base work for that specific prep. The fundamental tempo belongs here in that base. During the Specific phase you may want to touch on this fitness as a secondary workout but in that case it should be a fairly light session not be more than 90mins in duration and it should not be the focus workout of the week.
In the base phase of 6 to 10 weeks you should be doing this tempo 6 to 10 times. Basically every week. You are building your basic aerobic endurance as well as improving your bodies ability to burn fat at slightly quicker speeds which is the key to avoiding the wall in the marathon. If you burn more fat at a given speed than you inherently burn less glycogen, which is a much more finite resource. If you can reduce your glycogen burn enough you will not run out of it in 26.2 miles which means you can hold your pace and finish strong in the marathon with your aerobic abilities being your limiting factor rather than your muscles glycogen stores.
This session alone will not solve the glycogen problem but it builds towards the sessions in the specific phase, specific intervals, specific fartlek, specific long tempo, specific progression, specific alternations, that all together will teach your body to burn a fat rich mix at marathon pace so you can be racing in the last 10k instead of battling for survival.
A sample progression for marathon fundamental tempo runs in a marathon base phase would be
week 1- 1:30 at 1.2x marathon pace
week 2- 1:50 at 1.2x marathon pace
week 3- 2:10 at 1.2x marathon pace
week 4- 2:30 at 1.2x marathon pace
week 5- 1:30 at 1.1x marathon pace
week 6- AM 80mins at 1.1x marathon pace PM 80mins at 1.1x marathon pace
week 7- 2:10 at 1.1x marathon pace
week 8- 2:20 to 2:30 at 1.1x marathon pace
Now you are ready for some specific marathon work!!
Finally the down and dirty summary for the marathon focused fundamental tempo.
What it is- A 90minute to 3 hour tempo run at 80% to 90% of your goal marathon pace.
How it is progressed- Like all tempo runs you should increase the duration not the speed on a week to week basis.
Why it is done- The goal of this workout is to increase general aerobic endurance. Improve muscular endurance so that the body is ready for long hard marathon specific workouts. This is the first step towards getting your body ready muscularly, aerobically and in terms of fuel consumption for the very specific demands of running 26.2 miles at a startlingly quick pace.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Training December 22 to 28, 2014. Picking up Steam
Monday
AM 3 mile walk with Uta, my dog.
NOON 30mins on Curve treadmill-4.85 miles- than 4 strides with jog breaks top speed 15.4mph total 5.5 miles
4PM Dale 5 with Uta in cold rain, 34:57 tot. 5
XT pull ups on assisted machine, YTI, wharton thorasic
Tuesday
AM 20min warm up on curve with 4 strides mixed in. 2.65 miles. Monaghetti fartlek on curve, 3.25 miles in 20mins, this was a full effort. Gives some idea of how much tougher the curve is than regular running. I have never covered less than 3.7 miles on a Monaghetti on the road. I averaged only 6:09 pace which is about a minute per mile slower than I would have expected on the roads today.
PM 4 mile walk with Uta
XT pull ups on assisted machine, YTI, wharton
Wednesday
AM trail 4 with Uta in light cold rain 27:55 tot. 4
PM regular 10 in driving cold rain 1:02:39, should have done strides here but had to go to the bathroom and after sitting a few minutes in cold wet gear I was fairly well locked up and not heading back out to tear something trying to force the strides tot. 10+
XT YTI, wharton
Thursday
Merry Christmas!!
AM 4 miles with Uta and Melissa on the roads, 28:36 tot. 4
XT ankle drills, YTI, wharton, drinking of egg nog, eating of fudge etc..
Friday
NOON 2 mile warm up, 14:20, skipping warm up, light drills, regular 10 loop run as moderate progression run- 56:17, half way in 29:06, last mile 5:12. no loss of coordination, did not wear shoulder back harness. This is not a hard session aerobically but I was very happy it was not hard for the coordination either. tot. 12+
4PM on curve treadmill 20mins warm up, 2.78 miles, 10x30second hard efforts with 1min jog recoveries. This is to replace 30second hill repeats. I hunch forward even more on hills where as the curve forces me to hold perfect body position so this is much better for my form while getting similar benefits in most other regards. tot. 5+
XT pull ups on assisted machine, YTI, wharton
Saturday
AM 45mins on curve including 4 strides in the last 5 minutes. 6.65 miles, this is my longest run on the curve yet and my shoulders felt it! tot. 7ish
PM Trail 47:35 with Uta, tot. 7+
XT pull ups on assisted machine, YTI, wharton
Sunday
Fundamental Block
AM 2+ mile warm up with Uta, 14:00, dropped her off, skipping warm up and light drills. 20k at fundamental pace around my regular 20k loop, 1:11:38. That is 5:45/3:34 pace. tot. 14.5ish
PM 2+ mile warm up with Uta, 14:17, dropped her off, skipping warm up and light drills, 20k at fundamental pace on my regular 20k loop, 1:12:55. That is 5:52/3:38 pace. tot. 14.5
XT YTI, ton of wharton, 2xskipping warm up, 2xlight drills
Summary
95 miles for the week with three workouts. Missed strides on a couple of days but that is going to happen in the winter be it for ice or cold rain stiffening you up. Not much running on Christmas and only the one workout run on Tuesday but given how sick I was at the end of last week I will take it for sure.
The best session of the week was certainly the fundamental block. This is not as tough as a special or specific block but it was a HUGE test for the coordination and I didn't even wear the shoulders back harness and I was able to hold coordination without any issue. That said my shoulders were screaming by the last few miles of the second session. This is my first block session of any type in years and it has also been years since I have run 29 miles in a day so I was pretty wrecked after.
To steal from a song. 'I ain't as good as I once was…' In years past no matter how tired I was I could pretty much guarantee that the second session would be faster than the first but also back than stuff like this was my bread and butter. I expect with consistent endurance training that will again become the case. I also expect a very big jump in fitness from being able to do these long tempos and other workouts I have been away from for a long time that always had the largest impact on my fitness. I find that potential very exciting because I was actually pretty fit coming into this cycle- raced ok last fall - consistently around 30:30 10k effort on the roads- and did some very solid sessions- i.e. covering over 4 miles in Monaghetti fartleks and the like.
I am going to try and start posting a few times a week. My idea is to post about the hows and whys of different workouts- tempo tuesdays, workout wednesdays that sort of thing and perhaps to do a throw back thursday thing where I talk about workouts, races or other running centered experiences from my past. If there is any workout or whatever that you are particularly interested in please let me know.
Monday, December 22, 2014
Training December 15 to 21… Sick...
Monday Still sick so no AM run. PM 10 miles, 63:51 then strides, did first 5 with Uta, my dog, in 32:31 tot. 10.5
XT YTI, rubber bands, whartons- see last week's blog for descriptions.
Tuesday still sick so no AM run PM 10 miles, 63:46, first 5 with Uta, 32:38, strides after tot. 10.5
XT YTI, rubberband, whartons
Wednesday still sick so no AM run PM 10 miles 64:58, first 5 with Uta, 33:46, strides after tot. 10.5
XT YTI, rubberband, whartons
Thursday- much sicker, no running did all cross training as normal.
Friday- Even sicker barely got through the day at work- I do everything in my power not to skip work. I've missed one day in 2 and a half years I had a flight canceled and was stuck in LA. Though I have scheduled my first ever personal day to go to Boulder in late January to speak at a marathon clinic. Point is I figure as a teacher I get plenty of scheduled days off no need to be taking extra's unless I REALLY have to. Also I teach in a school where it can be hard to get people to sub.
XT YTI, rubber band, whartons, mile or two walk with dog.
Saturday Even sicker, did a 4 mile walk with dog and was wiped out for rest of day. did all cross training but was a hurting unit.
Sunday Feeling a lot better. Just a lot of sinus pain/pressure and feeling tired.
PM did 30mins on Curve, 4.82 miles, then 4 strides on curve with jog rest top speed 15.4 mph, 58 second 400m speed, not that is top speed not average but I feel the curve is a bit tougher/slower than flat running. That speed represents my max speed on the given day. To compare I have run in the very high 27's for 200m and very very high 13's for 100m on my very best days. In general strides should not go up to max speed but where my max is so slow I always build up to top speed during my strides. I mean my full sprint on a given day is 100m in 14 seconds and change. My goal 3k pace when I am fully fit is 16.0 seconds per 100m. 3k pace is way to slow for strides so I just go full steam.
XT did all normal stuff plus 10 pull ups on assisted machine- I am so far from doing a real pull up it is crazy. When I was a kid I couldn't do pull ups. Over the years I have done a lot of cross training and built myself into a MUCH better athlete than I have was. I have become very accustom to my current reality of being able to do pretty much any exercise with little or no effort very shortly after first attempting it. It is crazy to find this one are to be so weak and untrained. Really amazing and it really gives me great confidence that with work I can make enormous improvements. It also makes it very easy to believe that this is in fact the source of the coordination problems and that I at long long last am finally going to get to return to the marathon this year.
Summary- that sucked. I have been sick for about 16 days now. Hopefully Saturday was the worst. I have a couple weeks off from school so hopefully I can get healthy and get the training rolling forward. I fell pretty decent today and will try a short double along with a bit of walking and cross training and hopefully I'll get a workout or two in by the end of the week.
XT YTI, rubber bands, whartons- see last week's blog for descriptions.
Tuesday still sick so no AM run PM 10 miles, 63:46, first 5 with Uta, 32:38, strides after tot. 10.5
XT YTI, rubberband, whartons
Wednesday still sick so no AM run PM 10 miles 64:58, first 5 with Uta, 33:46, strides after tot. 10.5
XT YTI, rubberband, whartons
Thursday- much sicker, no running did all cross training as normal.
Friday- Even sicker barely got through the day at work- I do everything in my power not to skip work. I've missed one day in 2 and a half years I had a flight canceled and was stuck in LA. Though I have scheduled my first ever personal day to go to Boulder in late January to speak at a marathon clinic. Point is I figure as a teacher I get plenty of scheduled days off no need to be taking extra's unless I REALLY have to. Also I teach in a school where it can be hard to get people to sub.
XT YTI, rubber band, whartons, mile or two walk with dog.
Saturday Even sicker, did a 4 mile walk with dog and was wiped out for rest of day. did all cross training but was a hurting unit.
Sunday Feeling a lot better. Just a lot of sinus pain/pressure and feeling tired.
PM did 30mins on Curve, 4.82 miles, then 4 strides on curve with jog rest top speed 15.4 mph, 58 second 400m speed, not that is top speed not average but I feel the curve is a bit tougher/slower than flat running. That speed represents my max speed on the given day. To compare I have run in the very high 27's for 200m and very very high 13's for 100m on my very best days. In general strides should not go up to max speed but where my max is so slow I always build up to top speed during my strides. I mean my full sprint on a given day is 100m in 14 seconds and change. My goal 3k pace when I am fully fit is 16.0 seconds per 100m. 3k pace is way to slow for strides so I just go full steam.
XT did all normal stuff plus 10 pull ups on assisted machine- I am so far from doing a real pull up it is crazy. When I was a kid I couldn't do pull ups. Over the years I have done a lot of cross training and built myself into a MUCH better athlete than I have was. I have become very accustom to my current reality of being able to do pretty much any exercise with little or no effort very shortly after first attempting it. It is crazy to find this one are to be so weak and untrained. Really amazing and it really gives me great confidence that with work I can make enormous improvements. It also makes it very easy to believe that this is in fact the source of the coordination problems and that I at long long last am finally going to get to return to the marathon this year.
Summary- that sucked. I have been sick for about 16 days now. Hopefully Saturday was the worst. I have a couple weeks off from school so hopefully I can get healthy and get the training rolling forward. I fell pretty decent today and will try a short double along with a bit of walking and cross training and hopefully I'll get a workout or two in by the end of the week.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Training December 8 to 14 2014
Monday PM still quite sick, did 5 miles with Uta in 32:34, strides tot. 5.5 or so
XT wharton thorasic spine exercise http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-prevention-recovery/thoracic-spine-stability-technique, YTI
Tuesday off did cross training for shoulders but that was it. SICK
this is Uta by the way
Wednesday PM road 10, 66:21, first 5 with Uta in 34:19. strides after. still sick also shaky/weak
tot.10.5
XT wharton, YTI, rubber band
Thursday PM road 10, 65:35, first 5 with Uta in 34:10. strides after. still sick but not weak. tot. 10.5
XT wharton, YTI
Friday PM feeling tons better still coughing and blowing my nose but just felt really good by the time
the afternoon rolled around that I decided to try to do a 10k at 95 to 100% mp. I did about
5k warm up with Uta. After I dropped her off I did strides and got started. As soon as I saw
the mile split I knew this was a bad idea, 5:28. It is uphill but still the effort was there and I
was not moving quickly. I muscled through but felt sick. 33:02 10k. The positive side was
I had no coordination issues and this was a tougher loop than what I used a few weeks ago
for the same session so this was probably a bit quicker effort in comparison and no
coordination issues where as a few weeks ago I was barely holding it together at the finish
tonight if I hadn't been sick I would have continued on. tot. 10
XT wharton, YTI
Saturday AM 3 miles with Uta and Melissa, 22mins. tot. 3
PM marzuka 20k, 1:20:27 this is actually a bit longer than 20k and very hilly tot. 12.5
XT wharton, YTI
Sunday 1pm 30mins on woodway curve, 4.5 miles, then 4 strides with jog breaks still on curve.
Noticeable how this forces me to control my form and engage my core differently. Also
theshape of the treadmill seems to increase the effort at pace. So at 9mph I felt like I would
expect to at around 10mph tot. just over 5 miles
I had planned a second run later but my stomach made it a no go. I am still on the anti biotic
and I don't handle them well. Really hoping to start to get some momentum going in the
right direction next week.
XT wharton, YTI
Summary Still sick but getting better. Hopefully will come the rest of the way around soon. The workout was obviously a bit pathetic but I'm sick so it is what it is. The nice thing was it was still a good step forward in terms of the coordination. Each run I am feeling more and more control over my shoulders and upper back but I still only feel comfortable for a mile or two before it becomes hard to hold them back and I really have to fight to hold form from that point on. That said a week ago I was struggling from the start so really this is a pretty big improvement. I am still very weak but at least I'm starting to get stronger.
XT wharton thorasic spine exercise http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-prevention-recovery/thoracic-spine-stability-technique, YTI
Tuesday off did cross training for shoulders but that was it. SICK
this is Uta by the way
Wednesday PM road 10, 66:21, first 5 with Uta in 34:19. strides after. still sick also shaky/weak
tot.10.5
XT wharton, YTI, rubber band
Thursday PM road 10, 65:35, first 5 with Uta in 34:10. strides after. still sick but not weak. tot. 10.5
XT wharton, YTI
Friday PM feeling tons better still coughing and blowing my nose but just felt really good by the time
the afternoon rolled around that I decided to try to do a 10k at 95 to 100% mp. I did about
5k warm up with Uta. After I dropped her off I did strides and got started. As soon as I saw
the mile split I knew this was a bad idea, 5:28. It is uphill but still the effort was there and I
was not moving quickly. I muscled through but felt sick. 33:02 10k. The positive side was
I had no coordination issues and this was a tougher loop than what I used a few weeks ago
for the same session so this was probably a bit quicker effort in comparison and no
coordination issues where as a few weeks ago I was barely holding it together at the finish
tonight if I hadn't been sick I would have continued on. tot. 10
XT wharton, YTI
Saturday AM 3 miles with Uta and Melissa, 22mins. tot. 3
PM marzuka 20k, 1:20:27 this is actually a bit longer than 20k and very hilly tot. 12.5
XT wharton, YTI
Sunday 1pm 30mins on woodway curve, 4.5 miles, then 4 strides with jog breaks still on curve.
Noticeable how this forces me to control my form and engage my core differently. Also
theshape of the treadmill seems to increase the effort at pace. So at 9mph I felt like I would
expect to at around 10mph tot. just over 5 miles
I had planned a second run later but my stomach made it a no go. I am still on the anti biotic
and I don't handle them well. Really hoping to start to get some momentum going in the
right direction next week.
XT wharton, YTI
Summary Still sick but getting better. Hopefully will come the rest of the way around soon. The workout was obviously a bit pathetic but I'm sick so it is what it is. The nice thing was it was still a good step forward in terms of the coordination. Each run I am feeling more and more control over my shoulders and upper back but I still only feel comfortable for a mile or two before it becomes hard to hold them back and I really have to fight to hold form from that point on. That said a week ago I was struggling from the start so really this is a pretty big improvement. I am still very weak but at least I'm starting to get stronger.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
First 3 Weeks of Training; a bumpy road
Week 1 November 17 to 23
Monday PM- road 8,54mins, in cold rain, than 4 strides tot. 9
XT- rubber band exercises for shoulders
Tuesday AM Bear Hill 4+ loop with Melissa and Uta-31:20 tot.4+
PM 3+ warm up,21mins, skipping warm up, light drills and strides 10k tempo around Phillips Academy neighbor hood- lightly rolling at
95 to 100%mp, got caught in the dark on this one with no light and no vest, almost got run over in the first 500m- screeching
tires and a pretty decent ninja jump to avoid disaster. ran 32:50 focus on holding shoulders back was a struggle coordination was
going by the end. No cool down. tot. 10
XT rubber band exercises, drills referenced above and ankle drills
Wednesday PM same 8.2 mile loop as monday, 51:57, strides, wore shoulders back harness on a run for first time have been wearing it for
stretches during the day. tot. tot. 9
XT rubber band exercises for shoulders/back
Thursday AM 3 miles with dog, she revolted against running in the dark in the morning without Melissa and we had to head back early so only 3
miles tot. 3
PM 3+ warm up,21:40, drills, strides, two mile tempo on road- 9:57, bathroom break in a briar patch. Seriously it was dark it looked
like a likely spot I was at one point so ensnared I couldn't move I got all scrapped up. It was very not fun. But when nature
calls.. 3x55s hill repeats just under 3 mile cool down tot. 11ish
XT rubber band exercises for shoulders/back, ankle drills
Friday- scheduled off day did all cross training per usual.
Saturday AM Bear hill 4+ with Melissa and Uta, 28:44 tot. 4+
PM 2 warm up, 13:25, light drills, strides, regular 20k loop as fundamental pace tempo, wore shoulders back harness and focused on
keeping shoulders back and down, VERY HARD to hold. coordination on the edge of 'going' for much of second half but each time I
got shoulders where they belonged it would get better, 1:11:36 for 20k tot. 15+
XT ankle drills, rubber band stuff, added YTI's on bosu ball.
Sunday AM green 6 loop with Melissa and Uta, 42mins, my hamstring on the right is shredded.
PM bikram yoga, for those who don't know this is a 90min hot yoga designed for healing. I like it because it keeps me healthy and they
do the same things in the same order every time. I am a complete creature of habit.
XT yoga, rubberband, yti
Week 2 November 24 to 30
Monday PM regular 10, 65mins, strides hammy pretty much good to go.
XT rubberbands, yti
Tuesday scheduled off day did all cross training per usual.
Wednesday PM- half day of school so this was in the light! road 10, first 5 with Uta, 33mins- with a break for strides on a field at 3 miles,
2nd 5 in 31mins solo tot. 10.5
XT rubberbands and yti had wanted to go to yoga but too much prep work in the kitchen for hosting Thanksgiving.
Thursday AM 3 warmup, skipping warm up, light drills, strides, race Maudslay Turkey Trot, 5k cross country in 4 to 5 inches of fresh snow,
1st place 17:48. 20min cool down tot. around 10 miles
XT rubberbands, drills and yti
Friday AM 10.5 first 5.5 with Melissa and Uta then 5 solo in 31mins then strides, 74mins total, tot. 11 miles
PM bikram yoga
XT yoga, yti
Saturday AM 2 warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, strides 24km fundamental paced tempo(1:24:53), started on regular 10k loop-1:10:24.
Really a war to keep shoulders in good position the last 10k or so but coordination held and was noticeably better than on 20k
last weekend. tot. ~18 miles
XT yti ankle drills, drills mentioned above.
Sunday AM regular 10, 63mins, hamstring tight but 100 times better than it was last sunday after the first fundamental tempo. strides
tot.10.5 miles
PM bikram yoga
XT yti,yoga
Week 3 December 1 to 7
Monday AM bear hill 4+ with Melissa and Uta, 31:29, tot. 4+
PM regular 20k, 1:19:20, strides tot. 13ish
XT ankle drills, yti
Tuesday 2:30PM out early because I was observing at a school that has an earlier schedule than mine, 21min warm up with Uta, dropped her off,
drills, skipping warm up, strides. Monaghetti fartlek on pretty darn flat loop. Monaghetti is 2x90seconds, 4x60s, 4x30s, 4x15s
with equal rest after each rep so 20mins total. You focus on the rests being pretty quick. I covered 6540 meters, just over
4 miles for an average pace of 4:55.2 per mile. This is my fastest mona session though this loop is flatter than my normal
loop. I can't use this one at night and when it gets icier because of one busy road and a few very tough turns. 3++ cool down
tot. around 11 miles
PM ~3.5 with Melissa until you sprained her ankle and all with Uta- we ran back to the house to get the car and go get Melissa.
tot.3.5 miles or so
XT ankle drills, drills mentioned above, yti
Wednesday opted for no AM run because I wanted to be awake for parent conferences after school.
PM Ran 12 miles, 1:15:46, in cold rain from my school between when we let out and when conferences started. Not enough time to get
home and run, really just a break so we can eat, I skipped eating to run instead, strides after the run tot. 12.5
XT rubber band and yti
Thursday AM again opted for no run because we had conferences again and I wanted to be awake.
PM schedule a bit different today so we had conferences pretty much right after school when I came home I was just completely zonked
and I did 5 miles with uta in 33mins and called it a day. tot. 5
XT rubber band and yti
Friday AM- just wiped out skipped run for sleep.
PM- 5 miles with Uta, 35mins when I stopped in to drop her before heading out for more off Melissa pointed out we were already late
for the UMass Lowell kick off banquet we were going to and I had forgotten so that was it for the night. tot. 5
XT yti
Got a sore throat before bed
Saturday woke up very congested with sore throat.
AM- test drove a woodway curve treadmill Melissa and I are considering buying. Very awesome but very expensive. She is all about
it. I am cheap and not sure anything is worth that much money. It does help my shoulder position and awareness and a treadmill
you can do strides on is pretty amazing. I only ran about a half mile on it but I did get down to 4:20 mile pace and it didn't
stress the machine in the tiniest way.
PM 3 warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, strides, race Frozen Frolic 3.4 mile in Wakefield, MA- first year race. Really nice.
Fun after party awards in a deli/restaurant. Light rain and cold. I had been invited and signed up but was feeling pretty much
like total crap but if I say I'll be there I do everything I can to live up to that. I ran hard but even on the perfectly flat
course I was not fast- 16:48 for 1st place. 2 mile cool down tot. 10ish with some extra jogging around mixed in.
XT yti
Sunday woke up super sick ear infection and possible sinus infection. This happened last winter and I went with the my body can fight it off
plan, against Melissa's advice, and was sick for 6 weeks with no workouts and only some running. I decided to do as Melissa said this
time and get on an antibiotic. Very frustrating.
Summary not the start I was hoping for in many ways. I think I am close to being quite fit. I ran fairly well this fall and did some pretty
decent workouts. My general plan is to progress my two or three marker base phase marathon workouts while still doing other general
fitness workouts. I have an outline but not a set in stone plan. I will do these until I can manage about 40k at fundamental pace
and around 20k at around 95% marathon pace. At that point I would feel ready to start marathon specific workouts. So my race plans
are dependent on the rate of improvement in the coordination. This past fall I went to Fernado Braz's tuesday night track workouts. I
don't like giving up control but the set time and place to meet a group made sure I got a workout done early in the week and helped
keep the rest of my week on track so I will likely do the same for the winter season when they start meeting up again in january.
Hopefully on the anti b I will back feeling improved tomorrow and running full steam in a couple days. It is a 10 day course and I
don't tend to handle them well, part of why I have only been on them now 3 times since 2003, but hopefully with some extra hydration
and probiotics I'll be good enough to keep building up.
Monday PM- road 8,54mins, in cold rain, than 4 strides tot. 9
XT- rubber band exercises for shoulders
Tuesday AM Bear Hill 4+ loop with Melissa and Uta-31:20 tot.4+
PM 3+ warm up,21mins, skipping warm up, light drills and strides 10k tempo around Phillips Academy neighbor hood- lightly rolling at
95 to 100%mp, got caught in the dark on this one with no light and no vest, almost got run over in the first 500m- screeching
tires and a pretty decent ninja jump to avoid disaster. ran 32:50 focus on holding shoulders back was a struggle coordination was
going by the end. No cool down. tot. 10
XT rubber band exercises, drills referenced above and ankle drills
Wednesday PM same 8.2 mile loop as monday, 51:57, strides, wore shoulders back harness on a run for first time have been wearing it for
stretches during the day. tot. tot. 9
XT rubber band exercises for shoulders/back
Thursday AM 3 miles with dog, she revolted against running in the dark in the morning without Melissa and we had to head back early so only 3
miles tot. 3
PM 3+ warm up,21:40, drills, strides, two mile tempo on road- 9:57, bathroom break in a briar patch. Seriously it was dark it looked
like a likely spot I was at one point so ensnared I couldn't move I got all scrapped up. It was very not fun. But when nature
calls.. 3x55s hill repeats just under 3 mile cool down tot. 11ish
XT rubber band exercises for shoulders/back, ankle drills
Friday- scheduled off day did all cross training per usual.
Saturday AM Bear hill 4+ with Melissa and Uta, 28:44 tot. 4+
PM 2 warm up, 13:25, light drills, strides, regular 20k loop as fundamental pace tempo, wore shoulders back harness and focused on
keeping shoulders back and down, VERY HARD to hold. coordination on the edge of 'going' for much of second half but each time I
got shoulders where they belonged it would get better, 1:11:36 for 20k tot. 15+
XT ankle drills, rubber band stuff, added YTI's on bosu ball.
Sunday AM green 6 loop with Melissa and Uta, 42mins, my hamstring on the right is shredded.
PM bikram yoga, for those who don't know this is a 90min hot yoga designed for healing. I like it because it keeps me healthy and they
do the same things in the same order every time. I am a complete creature of habit.
XT yoga, rubberband, yti
Week 2 November 24 to 30
Monday PM regular 10, 65mins, strides hammy pretty much good to go.
XT rubberbands, yti
Tuesday scheduled off day did all cross training per usual.
Wednesday PM- half day of school so this was in the light! road 10, first 5 with Uta, 33mins- with a break for strides on a field at 3 miles,
2nd 5 in 31mins solo tot. 10.5
XT rubberbands and yti had wanted to go to yoga but too much prep work in the kitchen for hosting Thanksgiving.
Thursday AM 3 warmup, skipping warm up, light drills, strides, race Maudslay Turkey Trot, 5k cross country in 4 to 5 inches of fresh snow,
1st place 17:48. 20min cool down tot. around 10 miles
XT rubberbands, drills and yti
Friday AM 10.5 first 5.5 with Melissa and Uta then 5 solo in 31mins then strides, 74mins total, tot. 11 miles
PM bikram yoga
XT yoga, yti
Saturday AM 2 warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, strides 24km fundamental paced tempo(1:24:53), started on regular 10k loop-1:10:24.
Really a war to keep shoulders in good position the last 10k or so but coordination held and was noticeably better than on 20k
last weekend. tot. ~18 miles
XT yti ankle drills, drills mentioned above.
Sunday AM regular 10, 63mins, hamstring tight but 100 times better than it was last sunday after the first fundamental tempo. strides
tot.10.5 miles
PM bikram yoga
XT yti,yoga
Week 3 December 1 to 7
Monday AM bear hill 4+ with Melissa and Uta, 31:29, tot. 4+
PM regular 20k, 1:19:20, strides tot. 13ish
XT ankle drills, yti
Tuesday 2:30PM out early because I was observing at a school that has an earlier schedule than mine, 21min warm up with Uta, dropped her off,
drills, skipping warm up, strides. Monaghetti fartlek on pretty darn flat loop. Monaghetti is 2x90seconds, 4x60s, 4x30s, 4x15s
with equal rest after each rep so 20mins total. You focus on the rests being pretty quick. I covered 6540 meters, just over
4 miles for an average pace of 4:55.2 per mile. This is my fastest mona session though this loop is flatter than my normal
loop. I can't use this one at night and when it gets icier because of one busy road and a few very tough turns. 3++ cool down
tot. around 11 miles
PM ~3.5 with Melissa until you sprained her ankle and all with Uta- we ran back to the house to get the car and go get Melissa.
tot.3.5 miles or so
XT ankle drills, drills mentioned above, yti
Wednesday opted for no AM run because I wanted to be awake for parent conferences after school.
PM Ran 12 miles, 1:15:46, in cold rain from my school between when we let out and when conferences started. Not enough time to get
home and run, really just a break so we can eat, I skipped eating to run instead, strides after the run tot. 12.5
XT rubber band and yti
Thursday AM again opted for no run because we had conferences again and I wanted to be awake.
PM schedule a bit different today so we had conferences pretty much right after school when I came home I was just completely zonked
and I did 5 miles with uta in 33mins and called it a day. tot. 5
XT rubber band and yti
Friday AM- just wiped out skipped run for sleep.
PM- 5 miles with Uta, 35mins when I stopped in to drop her before heading out for more off Melissa pointed out we were already late
for the UMass Lowell kick off banquet we were going to and I had forgotten so that was it for the night. tot. 5
XT yti
Got a sore throat before bed
Saturday woke up very congested with sore throat.
AM- test drove a woodway curve treadmill Melissa and I are considering buying. Very awesome but very expensive. She is all about
it. I am cheap and not sure anything is worth that much money. It does help my shoulder position and awareness and a treadmill
you can do strides on is pretty amazing. I only ran about a half mile on it but I did get down to 4:20 mile pace and it didn't
stress the machine in the tiniest way.
PM 3 warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, strides, race Frozen Frolic 3.4 mile in Wakefield, MA- first year race. Really nice.
Fun after party awards in a deli/restaurant. Light rain and cold. I had been invited and signed up but was feeling pretty much
like total crap but if I say I'll be there I do everything I can to live up to that. I ran hard but even on the perfectly flat
course I was not fast- 16:48 for 1st place. 2 mile cool down tot. 10ish with some extra jogging around mixed in.
XT yti
Sunday woke up super sick ear infection and possible sinus infection. This happened last winter and I went with the my body can fight it off
plan, against Melissa's advice, and was sick for 6 weeks with no workouts and only some running. I decided to do as Melissa said this
time and get on an antibiotic. Very frustrating.
Summary not the start I was hoping for in many ways. I think I am close to being quite fit. I ran fairly well this fall and did some pretty
decent workouts. My general plan is to progress my two or three marker base phase marathon workouts while still doing other general
fitness workouts. I have an outline but not a set in stone plan. I will do these until I can manage about 40k at fundamental pace
and around 20k at around 95% marathon pace. At that point I would feel ready to start marathon specific workouts. So my race plans
are dependent on the rate of improvement in the coordination. This past fall I went to Fernado Braz's tuesday night track workouts. I
don't like giving up control but the set time and place to meet a group made sure I got a workout done early in the week and helped
keep the rest of my week on track so I will likely do the same for the winter season when they start meeting up again in january.
Hopefully on the anti b I will back feeling improved tomorrow and running full steam in a couple days. It is a 10 day course and I
don't tend to handle them well, part of why I have only been on them now 3 times since 2003, but hopefully with some extra hydration
and probiotics I'll be good enough to keep building up.
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