Viktor Rothlin was the top non-african at the 2008 Olympic Marathon where he placed 5th. A very interesting athlete who had his first success in the marathon and never had much success in the shorter distances but who steadily improved over the 2000's and eventually won the Tokyo Marathon in a then course record of 2:07:23 and won a bronze Medal at the 2007 World Championships. A look at his PR's also high lights why he appealed to a guy like me who lacks speed. Viktor's bests 3000m-8:00, 5000m 13:40, 10000m 28:22, half marathon 1:02:15. All good times for sure but none that would have come close to ranked in the top 10 in the USA last year. In fact the 3k and 5k times would generally not rate in the top 30 or 40 in the USA. Yet he pretty routinely ran under 2:09 in the marathon and medaled at a world championship.
Vicktor was also one of the early athletes to be pretty active in posting some of his training and information online and it was striking even early on before he was a world class player to see how it was different from what the people I had read about before or knew personally or by connection were doing. Like Canova's stuff it was more involved. There were tons of specific workouts and longer workouts. It seemed in comparison the athletes I was aware of were just running a lot and hopping it worked out. Rothlin and the athletes coached by Canova seemed to me to be TRAINING not just running.
This particular workout is one that appeared very regularly in Rothlin's training. It is usable in the base or specific phase of marathon prep and is also a great workout for anyone who is looking to get very strong for 5k to half marathon. I generally use it as base phase marathon workout.
What it is. This is a long run in two parts. First you run 20 to 25 miles. Rothlin generally did 40 kilometers, which is just shy of 25 miles. You run this part at about 80% of marathon pace, for non-marathoners that is about 60% of 5k pace. To find this pace you find percent increase on pace. For example if your marathon pace is 6:00 per mile you find out how many seconds that is (6x60=360) and multiply that number by 1.2 to find a pace 20% slower than marathon pace (360x1.2=432) Then convert back to minutes and seconds by dividing by 60, no calculators on this last step because you want the remainder that is the number of seconds a decimal answer will just be confusing as shit. (432/60= 7:12 per mile). A person using their 5k time would go through the same system just using 1.4 in place of 1.2 and 5k pace in place of marathon pace.
You will find this pace is not very hard. It is basically on the quick end of what your normal training pace is if you run high mileage and middle range for low mileage runners.
The second part of this session is where you get tough. You do either 10x1k repeats with 2mins rest. Or 5x2k with 3 mins rest. The rest is nice and long but honestly it isn't your breathing you'll have trouble with at this point, it is your exhausted legs and the kind of rest you need for them involves a good nights sleep. You run these repeats at half marathon to marathon goal pace so they are not very fast but it is 10k of volume after you have already run in excess of 20 miles so you will end up with over 30 miles for the session and you will be doing some very fast running at the end.
What is does. This session will teach your body that you want and expect it to produce fast running after it is very exhausted and after it has expended a huge amount of glycogen. It is likely your body will learn to burn less glycogen at your rep speed as it will be in a bit of a crisis state after the long run part and will be naturally trying to conserve as much as possible. It also builds great aerobic strength. When you are as tired as you are after a 20 to 25 mile run at a decent pace you are basically not able to push your body to a super anaerobic state so you end up having to run these reps with aerobic power. This is GREAT because you can't 'force through a session that is too fast by leaving the target range of effort and getting super anaerobic.
Can you do this with a shorter run before the reps or with less reps. Say 5x1k or 3x2k? Yes to both. Particularly as a half marathon workout or a tough long run for college runners targeting a cross country 10k. Running 10 to 15 miles and then doing the reps can be great. Is the session going to help you for the marathon in that form? Not directly but certainly it could be done like that early in a phase to build to a full session and other marathon specific sessions.
Obviously this workout isn't for everybody, it is pretty rough, but it is a great session and a nice build up to the Kenny Moore long run that I'll write a post on in the future. So if you are fit enough to do this and would like to be fitter be bold and give this one a go.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Fartlek Friday 1/1 fartlek or 'Kenyan Standard'
This weeks fartlek friday is one of my favorite general fitness and/or half marathon workouts. I call it the 'Kenyan Standard' because it seems every time I read a training log from a Kenyan or someone who has been training in Kenya or read an article about someones training in kenyan they invariable at some point do this fartlek or something very close.
This fartlek is the definition of simple but don't mistake that for easy. When you get to where you can knock this one out and just keep your training rolling like it was just another normal workout you are getting into mean shape.
What it is 1 hour, give or take of 1min hard, 1 min steady, which I would say is on the quick end of your normal training pace or a bit quicker. This means you are going to do 30 mins of hard running and with full one minute recoveries a strong runner will often end up running 5k pace or even faster for those one minute reps, particularly if you do a session like this regularly. This builds enormous muscular endurance. If your not sure why you need that or what its impact on your racing is I want you to think of high level 10k or half marathon you have scene or read about where the big guns drop some crazy fast last mile. I'm not talking about the flying last lap, though that is part of it too, but I'm talking about someone dropping a 4:20 for the 13th mile of a half marathon. To have that pop when you are TIRED is to have max muscular endurance.
Because the rests are run relatively quickly you also are going to have a pretty quick pace and by extension get in a moderate long tempo as well. Based on how I have run 52 to 54 mins for 10 miles like this on flat course I can imagine that some of the top guys could cover close to 20k in a session like this, which would be a 4:50 mile average.
Now you don't need to be that fast to take advantage of this session but you had best be used to long hard workouts. If your normal workout is 12x400 and you go out and jump into a session like this and you will wish your mama never met your father the next morning!
This session is for the endurance minded athlete it works great as a half marathon workout as an endurance bent 10k workout or as a workout to maintain general fitness during marathon training.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
This fartlek is the definition of simple but don't mistake that for easy. When you get to where you can knock this one out and just keep your training rolling like it was just another normal workout you are getting into mean shape.
What it is 1 hour, give or take of 1min hard, 1 min steady, which I would say is on the quick end of your normal training pace or a bit quicker. This means you are going to do 30 mins of hard running and with full one minute recoveries a strong runner will often end up running 5k pace or even faster for those one minute reps, particularly if you do a session like this regularly. This builds enormous muscular endurance. If your not sure why you need that or what its impact on your racing is I want you to think of high level 10k or half marathon you have scene or read about where the big guns drop some crazy fast last mile. I'm not talking about the flying last lap, though that is part of it too, but I'm talking about someone dropping a 4:20 for the 13th mile of a half marathon. To have that pop when you are TIRED is to have max muscular endurance.
Because the rests are run relatively quickly you also are going to have a pretty quick pace and by extension get in a moderate long tempo as well. Based on how I have run 52 to 54 mins for 10 miles like this on flat course I can imagine that some of the top guys could cover close to 20k in a session like this, which would be a 4:50 mile average.
Now you don't need to be that fast to take advantage of this session but you had best be used to long hard workouts. If your normal workout is 12x400 and you go out and jump into a session like this and you will wish your mama never met your father the next morning!
This session is for the endurance minded athlete it works great as a half marathon workout as an endurance bent 10k workout or as a workout to maintain general fitness during marathon training.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Throwback Thursday My 2nd First 5000m
In college I spent much of my time injured. As such my development was slowed, both in terms of my fitness and in my learning about running and racing. So it was that on the Umass Lowell spring break track trip my Junior year to San Diego I was set to run only my 3rd track 5000m.
This trip was a great time and as any New Englander will tell you the chance to get away to warm sunny weather in the late winter feels like a new birth just when you are ready to give up. It was a wonderful week but as I approached the 5000m I was racing that weekend I was even more focused and concerned than usual.
I had been healthy for my longest stretch in a few years and I was feeling fit. I had super high goals for the spring season we were about to start. These out of touch goals had run into a road bump as George Davis, the long time Umass Lowell coach, had laid down the law. I was going to run this 5000m smart and by his rules. If not I was going to get kicked off the team. Now George kicked guys off the team pretty regularly and he would usually let you back the next season but as a guy who was rarely healthy I couldn't afford to lose a season just now that I was getting healthy.
Now before you get thinking good old George was out of line you need to understand I am not the most coachable guy and back in my youth I lacked the self control to keep my objections to myself and think about something for a bit. I was a know it all and ready to tell everyone. George also felt, pretty much correctly, that my stubbornness was the reason for my injuries. I think he saw this race as a chance to take control of my training and get me to start listening to him.
Whatever the reasons the rules had been set. I had a 15:40 track 5k best and I was going to try and break that but I wasn't going to go out and try to run the 14:35 I wanted to go after. It was made very clear the first two miles would be no faster than 5:00. When I pushed for some flexibility the response was "if you got through the mile in 4:59 you best enjoy the rest of your race because it will be your last one in college."
Now I have one heck of a good sense of pace but I played it safe and hit the mile in 5:02. I was pissed. Conditions were perfect and two guys had blasted out in 4:40, the pace I wanted to be running! Here I was stuck jogging 5min pace. Every race I had ever run to that point was a test of will from the gun. In my real first 5k I had hit 800 in 2:17 and the mile in 4:38 en route to a 15:40 you can imagine how bad some of those final laps were!
I still felt strong and easy, I was breathing heavier sure but this was no acid bath of pain, as I hit 2 miles in 10:02. I took off like I was shot from a gun desperate to get as much 'lost time back as I possibly could. Soon the familiar acid was coursing through my veins but there was something new… A strength, a feeling of power and speed. Instead of fighting to stay on my feet I was driving to the finish. It was exhilarating.
Still I was not running nearly as fast as I thought I would. I ran a bit under 4:50 for the third mile and set a large PB of 15:22 but I had not run close to the 4:40 pace I had thought I could hold the whole way even off the much slower 5:00 per mile start.
Instantly, even before my vision had come back following those last acid soaked laps, I knew what George had been saying was true. When you go out too fast in a race and you fail all you really learn is that you aren't ready to go that fast. You don't know what speed you could go. However if you go out a bit too slowly you can look at your speed in the late stages of the race and see very clearly about what you could run in a perfectly paced race. You also tend to finish much closer to your best possible time then if you crash and burn.
I also had learned a lesson that was for my future development much more important. George was smarter than me. I should listen to him. Was he infallible? No of course not but was he a great coach who could teach me if only I let him? Absolutely. It was time to stop being a thick skulled ass and to open my mind.
This later lesson would be invaluable over my running career. Not just in how it pertained to George. But how it pertained to running in general. I learned to look to all those who had ideas. To TRY new things and see if they have merit. There is no need to do everything you are told but you should give everything some play. You should never discount an idea out of hand particularly if it comes from a source that has had some success.
This was not the first thing I learnt from George. It wouldn't be the last thing but this lesson may have been the most important that I received from him.
This trip was a great time and as any New Englander will tell you the chance to get away to warm sunny weather in the late winter feels like a new birth just when you are ready to give up. It was a wonderful week but as I approached the 5000m I was racing that weekend I was even more focused and concerned than usual.
I had been healthy for my longest stretch in a few years and I was feeling fit. I had super high goals for the spring season we were about to start. These out of touch goals had run into a road bump as George Davis, the long time Umass Lowell coach, had laid down the law. I was going to run this 5000m smart and by his rules. If not I was going to get kicked off the team. Now George kicked guys off the team pretty regularly and he would usually let you back the next season but as a guy who was rarely healthy I couldn't afford to lose a season just now that I was getting healthy.
Now before you get thinking good old George was out of line you need to understand I am not the most coachable guy and back in my youth I lacked the self control to keep my objections to myself and think about something for a bit. I was a know it all and ready to tell everyone. George also felt, pretty much correctly, that my stubbornness was the reason for my injuries. I think he saw this race as a chance to take control of my training and get me to start listening to him.
Whatever the reasons the rules had been set. I had a 15:40 track 5k best and I was going to try and break that but I wasn't going to go out and try to run the 14:35 I wanted to go after. It was made very clear the first two miles would be no faster than 5:00. When I pushed for some flexibility the response was "if you got through the mile in 4:59 you best enjoy the rest of your race because it will be your last one in college."
Now I have one heck of a good sense of pace but I played it safe and hit the mile in 5:02. I was pissed. Conditions were perfect and two guys had blasted out in 4:40, the pace I wanted to be running! Here I was stuck jogging 5min pace. Every race I had ever run to that point was a test of will from the gun. In my real first 5k I had hit 800 in 2:17 and the mile in 4:38 en route to a 15:40 you can imagine how bad some of those final laps were!
I still felt strong and easy, I was breathing heavier sure but this was no acid bath of pain, as I hit 2 miles in 10:02. I took off like I was shot from a gun desperate to get as much 'lost time back as I possibly could. Soon the familiar acid was coursing through my veins but there was something new… A strength, a feeling of power and speed. Instead of fighting to stay on my feet I was driving to the finish. It was exhilarating.
Still I was not running nearly as fast as I thought I would. I ran a bit under 4:50 for the third mile and set a large PB of 15:22 but I had not run close to the 4:40 pace I had thought I could hold the whole way even off the much slower 5:00 per mile start.
Instantly, even before my vision had come back following those last acid soaked laps, I knew what George had been saying was true. When you go out too fast in a race and you fail all you really learn is that you aren't ready to go that fast. You don't know what speed you could go. However if you go out a bit too slowly you can look at your speed in the late stages of the race and see very clearly about what you could run in a perfectly paced race. You also tend to finish much closer to your best possible time then if you crash and burn.
I also had learned a lesson that was for my future development much more important. George was smarter than me. I should listen to him. Was he infallible? No of course not but was he a great coach who could teach me if only I let him? Absolutely. It was time to stop being a thick skulled ass and to open my mind.
This later lesson would be invaluable over my running career. Not just in how it pertained to George. But how it pertained to running in general. I learned to look to all those who had ideas. To TRY new things and see if they have merit. There is no need to do everything you are told but you should give everything some play. You should never discount an idea out of hand particularly if it comes from a source that has had some success.
This was not the first thing I learnt from George. It wouldn't be the last thing but this lesson may have been the most important that I received from him.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Workout Wednesday 400/400 Alternations
I have talked on here about a few types of alternations. If it isn't clear yet they are my favorite type of workout by far. They are the best of both world option that takes the best bits of tempo runs and intervals and meld them into a one amazing session. Perhaps more importantly though is you learn to recover at a fast pace. I don't know why but recovering at a quick pace is the one thing I have found that leads to the biggest improvements in fitness.
This specific workout is a great introduction to alternations. It is simple. It is adaptable and it is hugely effective. It can be done off the track but I would say it is easiest to complete it on the track. Like alterations sessions it is a continuous run. The main measure of the session is how fast your average pace is.
The how.. Run 400m at a faster interval pace. How fast can vary and we'll get to that. Then run 400m at a slightly slower pace. Keep this up until you can't go no more. Focus on two things. First on relaxing while running the fast rep. If you work to hard on the interval your day will be over very quickly. Next focus on being as smooth and relaxed as possible on your recovery 400m while still hitting your pace. Work too hard on the rest and again your day will be over very quickly.
The distance. Well in short as far as you can go. Now how far you try to go should depend on your goal race. If you are trying to get ready for a 5k you should only be doing 1 to 2 miles of these, rest included. Aiming for a 10k then only 3 to 4 miles of these. Half marathon 6 to 8 miles. Marathon 10 to 13 miles. Each time you aim to average around your goal race pace.
Now how much faster and slower than pace should your effort and recover be respectively. This depends on what kind of runner you are. If you are the kind of runner who can really fly on intervals easily you should start with faster reps and slower rests. You could have a range of 15 to 20 seconds. So let us say you were planning on a goal race pace of 6:00 per mile, 90 seconds per 400m. Then you could do reps as fast as 80 seconds and recover at 1:40. For runners with less basic speed you should try to have about 10 seconds between your fast and slow reps. I often refer to this session as 70/80. This is because I like to run my fast laps in 70 seconds and recoveries in 80 seconds. The tight range really forces you to recover at a very quick pace and this will enable you to recover and salvage races where you go out to fast but more importantly it will enable you to stay in control at a quick pace well into a race putting you in a position to make a long killing drive to the finish.
If you haven't tried this type of workout it is high time you did and this one is a great entry point because it isn't a mentally challenging as some of the other type of alterations.. If you have been doing them for a time then you should try this one in a few different varieties. You will love it!
This specific workout is a great introduction to alternations. It is simple. It is adaptable and it is hugely effective. It can be done off the track but I would say it is easiest to complete it on the track. Like alterations sessions it is a continuous run. The main measure of the session is how fast your average pace is.
The how.. Run 400m at a faster interval pace. How fast can vary and we'll get to that. Then run 400m at a slightly slower pace. Keep this up until you can't go no more. Focus on two things. First on relaxing while running the fast rep. If you work to hard on the interval your day will be over very quickly. Next focus on being as smooth and relaxed as possible on your recovery 400m while still hitting your pace. Work too hard on the rest and again your day will be over very quickly.
The distance. Well in short as far as you can go. Now how far you try to go should depend on your goal race. If you are trying to get ready for a 5k you should only be doing 1 to 2 miles of these, rest included. Aiming for a 10k then only 3 to 4 miles of these. Half marathon 6 to 8 miles. Marathon 10 to 13 miles. Each time you aim to average around your goal race pace.
Now how much faster and slower than pace should your effort and recover be respectively. This depends on what kind of runner you are. If you are the kind of runner who can really fly on intervals easily you should start with faster reps and slower rests. You could have a range of 15 to 20 seconds. So let us say you were planning on a goal race pace of 6:00 per mile, 90 seconds per 400m. Then you could do reps as fast as 80 seconds and recover at 1:40. For runners with less basic speed you should try to have about 10 seconds between your fast and slow reps. I often refer to this session as 70/80. This is because I like to run my fast laps in 70 seconds and recoveries in 80 seconds. The tight range really forces you to recover at a very quick pace and this will enable you to recover and salvage races where you go out to fast but more importantly it will enable you to stay in control at a quick pace well into a race putting you in a position to make a long killing drive to the finish.
If you haven't tried this type of workout it is high time you did and this one is a great entry point because it isn't a mentally challenging as some of the other type of alterations.. If you have been doing them for a time then you should try this one in a few different varieties. You will love it!
Monday, January 19, 2015
Official Return to the Marathon Announcement
Drum roll please. I finally bought into my own recovery whole hog and begged my way into an elite marathon field. It has been nearly a decade since my last solid marathon, November 2007, so there was no guarantee anyone would let me in their race and there is also no need for me to coordinate this announcement with the race or any one else. In short it is just me having fun pretending to be a pro.
I will be racing the 2015 BAA Boston marathon on April 20th.
I have never raced Boston though I have run the course a ton of times and actually lived just past the 21 mile mark for about 6 months. The timing of the race couldn't be better and given that I haven't run a marathon since 2009 I was super grateful that they let me into the field. Also my regular training partner of late Ruben Sanca is returning to Boston this year so we can prep on the course together and hopefully work together in the race. That said it is not a race without concerns for me. Boston with a tail wind is as fast as Berlin or Rotterdam but a tailwind and cool weather combine only about once every 10 years on average so the likely hood of that is slim. In normal conditions the course is fair but not fast by world class standards and you can expect it to be a drag of 1 to 3 minutes in comparison to a very fast course, again i.e. Berlin, Rotterdam etc.. Also conditions can be very very challenging. Very high temps or strong headwinds can make the course very slow. This means my goals for the race will have to be not solely time based. I really want to run fast so I am hoping for good to great conditions but I feel more robust conditions improve my chances of finishing higher up in the field.
What are my goals for the race? At this point I'm not 100% sure. I am currently viewing 3:10 to 3:12 per kilometer in perfect conditions at my goal marathon pace. That is 2:13:37 to 2:15:00. For comparison going into the olympic trials I would have targeted 3:06 to 3:07 per k as perfect flat course goal pace. I lost about a minute to a minute 30 over the last 7 miles of that race to limping with my coordination issue but had that not happened I would have run a time for that rolling course that I would consider equivalent to running 3:06/07 pace on a very fast course. In short I would argue the trials course was about 2mins slower than a real screamer of a course and most of the top runners comparable performance bear that out.
On the upside from that goal I have not done any of the long work I'm currently doing over the last oh 5 or 6 years and I'm seeing very significant and very quick jumps in my fitness so I could see adjusting that goal pace down as I get to the specific phase. If I make this jump it could work out incredibly well as with Fernando Cabada, Nick Arciniaga and Jeffery Eggleston in the field this could create a very rare chance to get in a good group running 2:10 to 2:11 pace if I'm fit enough to go for that sort of time.
On the downside the conditions may be such that my goal pace needs to be much slower on race day regardless of fitness. Also I'm not sure what kind of group I'll have to run with in that sort of no mans land. Many of the 2:12 to 2:18 set will likely run LA as it is the USATF championship this year and with the Americans currently in the field likely to be out at 2:09 to 2:11 pace and the lead either running tactically at the same pace or running something much faster it is possible a pack behind that pace is going to be slim pickings. Now there is a great group of young locals who have run in the 2:17 range some of whom may be running Boston and depth in the US is really coming back so it is quite possible these type of guys many of whom have already achieved B standards either in a marathon or half marathon may be going out more aggressively in search of an A standard 2:15 or better and that could create a nice group but at this moment I don't know.
My final concern is that my mileage now is much lower than when I was previously training for marathons. Given my lifetime base I do not fear this will hurt my conditioning but I do have concerns that I may not be as tired doing workouts as I was when I was doing them off 140 plus miles a week now that I'm running more like the low 100's. This could mean that workouts that off 140 indicated fitness to run say 2:15 only indicate fitness to run 2:17 now. More objectively I actually think I'm more tired now because of a full time job and family commitments but that doesn't stop me from considering this as a possible complicating factor.
So on this day, Monday January 19, 13 weeks out from the Boston Marathon I feel that if I can run either 2:15 or better OR finish in the top 15 runners I should be thrilled at this stage of my comeback, while working full time and not being a spring chicken anymore. Those goals may change a good bit in the coming months but right now that is where my head is at.
Now there will be some family pressure to do better. Melissa's grandfather Tony Sapienza finished 4th in the 1958 Boston Marathon and was also working as a teacher at the time. I have tried to explain the sport has gone professional since then but basically Melissa qualifies that as whining and not having a positive outlook. She says she will settle for me winning enough money to buy a woodway curve, which would take one hell of a run. Uta thinks I should win because she always wins and I should follow her example. So we'll have to see how things go and if I wilt under the pressure.
I will be racing the 2015 BAA Boston marathon on April 20th.
I have never raced Boston though I have run the course a ton of times and actually lived just past the 21 mile mark for about 6 months. The timing of the race couldn't be better and given that I haven't run a marathon since 2009 I was super grateful that they let me into the field. Also my regular training partner of late Ruben Sanca is returning to Boston this year so we can prep on the course together and hopefully work together in the race. That said it is not a race without concerns for me. Boston with a tail wind is as fast as Berlin or Rotterdam but a tailwind and cool weather combine only about once every 10 years on average so the likely hood of that is slim. In normal conditions the course is fair but not fast by world class standards and you can expect it to be a drag of 1 to 3 minutes in comparison to a very fast course, again i.e. Berlin, Rotterdam etc.. Also conditions can be very very challenging. Very high temps or strong headwinds can make the course very slow. This means my goals for the race will have to be not solely time based. I really want to run fast so I am hoping for good to great conditions but I feel more robust conditions improve my chances of finishing higher up in the field.
What are my goals for the race? At this point I'm not 100% sure. I am currently viewing 3:10 to 3:12 per kilometer in perfect conditions at my goal marathon pace. That is 2:13:37 to 2:15:00. For comparison going into the olympic trials I would have targeted 3:06 to 3:07 per k as perfect flat course goal pace. I lost about a minute to a minute 30 over the last 7 miles of that race to limping with my coordination issue but had that not happened I would have run a time for that rolling course that I would consider equivalent to running 3:06/07 pace on a very fast course. In short I would argue the trials course was about 2mins slower than a real screamer of a course and most of the top runners comparable performance bear that out.
On the upside from that goal I have not done any of the long work I'm currently doing over the last oh 5 or 6 years and I'm seeing very significant and very quick jumps in my fitness so I could see adjusting that goal pace down as I get to the specific phase. If I make this jump it could work out incredibly well as with Fernando Cabada, Nick Arciniaga and Jeffery Eggleston in the field this could create a very rare chance to get in a good group running 2:10 to 2:11 pace if I'm fit enough to go for that sort of time.
On the downside the conditions may be such that my goal pace needs to be much slower on race day regardless of fitness. Also I'm not sure what kind of group I'll have to run with in that sort of no mans land. Many of the 2:12 to 2:18 set will likely run LA as it is the USATF championship this year and with the Americans currently in the field likely to be out at 2:09 to 2:11 pace and the lead either running tactically at the same pace or running something much faster it is possible a pack behind that pace is going to be slim pickings. Now there is a great group of young locals who have run in the 2:17 range some of whom may be running Boston and depth in the US is really coming back so it is quite possible these type of guys many of whom have already achieved B standards either in a marathon or half marathon may be going out more aggressively in search of an A standard 2:15 or better and that could create a nice group but at this moment I don't know.
My final concern is that my mileage now is much lower than when I was previously training for marathons. Given my lifetime base I do not fear this will hurt my conditioning but I do have concerns that I may not be as tired doing workouts as I was when I was doing them off 140 plus miles a week now that I'm running more like the low 100's. This could mean that workouts that off 140 indicated fitness to run say 2:15 only indicate fitness to run 2:17 now. More objectively I actually think I'm more tired now because of a full time job and family commitments but that doesn't stop me from considering this as a possible complicating factor.
So on this day, Monday January 19, 13 weeks out from the Boston Marathon I feel that if I can run either 2:15 or better OR finish in the top 15 runners I should be thrilled at this stage of my comeback, while working full time and not being a spring chicken anymore. Those goals may change a good bit in the coming months but right now that is where my head is at.
Now there will be some family pressure to do better. Melissa's grandfather Tony Sapienza finished 4th in the 1958 Boston Marathon and was also working as a teacher at the time. I have tried to explain the sport has gone professional since then but basically Melissa qualifies that as whining and not having a positive outlook. She says she will settle for me winning enough money to buy a woodway curve, which would take one hell of a run. Uta thinks I should win because she always wins and I should follow her example. So we'll have to see how things go and if I wilt under the pressure.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Training for January 12 to 18, 2015
Monday
PM 2.5 miles warm up with Uta, the dog, strides, started what was supposed to be 90mins at 5:50 to 6:00 pace but as I was coming up on 30mins the temp dropped and the roads went from wet to ice. I have been on icy roads many times but I have never had them ice under my feet like that. I could still run, I have good balance, but I couldn't run 6:00 pace, I said I have good balance not that I was a freaking ice hockey star or ballerina! I decided to run straight home as some of the cars were sliding and round and getting hit by an out of control mercedes is not high on my to do list. so after 5 miles in 29:30 I ran the next 4 miles at about 7 min pace. Total 12 miles
XT ankle drills, whartons, YTI
This is Uta back in the summer
Tuesday
AM solo 4 miles 29:10, very cold a little too cold for Uta, total 4
PM road 9, first 4 with Uta in 28:30, rest solo, 1:00:33, followed by strides tot. 10
XT whartons, YTI
Wednesday
PM on treadmills with Ruben, don't judge it was cold and dark and I'm pretty sure Wolves are repopulating the greater Merrimack valley. 25mins steady on 'mill 4 1/4 miles, bathroom trip and some whartons, back on 'mill for 3/4 a mile at 6min pace and then did 6x1.5 miles at marathon pace(5:07) with half mile recoveries at 5:56, covered 11.5 miles in 60:40 (5:16) pace 2 mile cool down easy. (as an aside I always put the mill at 1%) total 19.5 miles
XT whartons, YTI
Thursday
AM dale 4 solo, 29:57, tot. 4
PM road and trial 55mins with Uta, light snow, footing in woods was ok, Uta gets really charged up for this so I was just doing my best to keep up and not fall on my face, tot. 8++
XT whartons, Ankle drills, YTI
Friday
PM 4.5 miles with Uta on trails, lets say this was more than a little faster than I generally warm up. dropped her off, bathroom, 1.5 more miles solo, strides. Then started what was supposed to be a Moneghetti fartlek(2x90s, 4x60s, 4x30s, 4x15s with equal rest run quickly) at 11:47 I forced to make an unplanned jump in the woods, 2mins in there to the second- I didn't stop the watch, then going again I accidentally added an extra minute rep when I got into the 30second reps I realized what I had done and made up for it by dropping two 30 second reps. When I was running I averaged about 5:08 pace. I wasn't hurting that bad I just couldn't make myself go, not surprising two days after Wednesdays session. 2 mile cool down tot. 12+
XT YTI, whartons
Saturday
AM on curve treadmill (manual) 45mins steady, 6.76 miles, then 4 strides with 1min after each for 5 more minutes running. total 7.55 miles
PM 48mins on trails with Uta, getting a bit icy but that did not slow Uta one bit. I had one run in with a tree but other than that it was good. We covered a bit under 8 miles but the effort was certainly better than 6:00 pace. That dog loves her trails! tot. 7.5+
XT ankle drills, whartons, YTI, pull ups on assisted machine- I know weak sauce but I still can't do pull ups. It is embarrassing but what can you do I'm still a work in progress.
Sunday
AM early with Ruben. Out and back on roads from my place in North Andover out to Haverhill, not much for flat running but able to keep it to rolling hills much easier than last weekends course. Plan was first hour at 80%mp (6:00 to 6:10) then 30mins faster then 30mins faster than that. We just ran by feel and it was a great run. We talked the whole way but both admitted the legs were getting tired at about 17 miles. We stopped at 20 miles in 1:55:02
splits
6:23
5:54
5:51
5:49
5:46
5:51
5:40
5:53
5:53
5:49
5:51
5:41
5:48
5:41
5:38
5:34
5:38
5:28
5:29
5:19
As you can see much faster than last weeks long run but it actually was a much easier effort. Weather was much warmer and the hills were much more rolling versus ass kicking last weekend. In terms of coordination I was fighting to hold the shoulders back in the last couple miles but not before than which is a huge improvement over two weeks ago when I was really working hard on holding my shit together from 8 or 9 miles on. total 20 miles
Summary
104 miles for week. Three good sessions and one aborted one thanks to New England weather. Very happy with this week. The two sessions that really mattered, the mp session which was supposed to be 6x7mins at mp with 3mins at 6:00 fartlek but because of ice and cold and dark we changed to a treadmill session and the long run went really well. It is very early but the strength is improving a ton week to week and my coordination continues to march forward. Not that I don't have moments of struggle and my shoulders and thoracic area are still weak as you can see with the pull ups but I'm really feeling myself getting in the groove. What makes me excited about this is that I still have time on my side before I am actually racing a marathon.
Speaking of which I finally pulled the trigger and I will be announcing my marathon tomorrow. This will be a very ghetto fabulous announcement as it has been the better part of a decade since I ran a decent marathon so the only person making or caring about said announcement is me but I like pretending I'm still a pro so tomorrow will be marathon announcement day!
Hope you had a good week!
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Long Run Basics
The long run is one of the standards of almost any running program and like intervals there are an infinite number of ways you can adapt it for your current needs. I am in no way trying to cover all the possible long runs here but instead I want to put some basic info on how you can use them, how long they should be, how often you should use them, what you can expect to improve by doing them.
The long run is a very subjective thing. For me my normal recovery run is 20 kilometers, about twelve and a half miles. For my wife a 12 mile run is certainly a very long run and she treats it as such in her training cycle. It is important to remember that all training is relative. Heck even miles don't mean the same thing to different people. Frank Shorter famously did a weekly long run of 20 miles or two hours, whichever came first which was almost always the 20 miles. Most runners I have coached couldn't imagine running 20 miles in 2 hours. You just can't convince me that running 20 miles in 2 hours is the same as running 20 miles in 4 or 5 hours. Frank Shorter did not wake up Monday morning nearly as beat up after his 1:58 20 miler the day before as John or Jane Jogger is going to after a 4 hour 20 mile run. Just the extra time on the feet has a huge impact on the difficulty of the task and the amount of time you can expect it to take to recover from it.
So what is a long run? For me I consider the long run to be the longest run you do in a micro cycle, for most people a week. This means I put no preconceived notion that a long run must be at least 5 or 10 or 20 miles. A long run is a run that is longer than your normal training distance. So for me today that is say more than 18 miles or so. For me at age 16 that was 7 miles or more. It all depends on where you are now.
So how long should your long run be? That depends most directly on two factors what event you are training for and what your current weekly mileage is. If your goal event is not a marathon than you should keep your normal long run to around 20% of your weekly mileage. These means unless you are running around 100 miles a week you shouldn't be knocking out the famous weekly 20 mile long run. Remember the same folks who made that famous ran 13 times a week and well over 100 miles a week. It is folly not to adapt 1 part of a training program but adapt all the others. If you run half as often, 6 to 7 times a week and half as much, 50 to 60 miles a week it makes sense your long run would be half as long.
For the high school student and weekend road warrior focused on 5k and 10k races who is running 40 miles a week you are looking at a long run of only about 8 miles. Does this mean that you can never run further than 8 miles? No it just means you are probably putting too much emphasis on your long run as part of the training cycle if you are knocking off a 12 to 15 mile run every weekend and that it is likely taking away from your training. One of my least favorite quotes in running is "long slow miles makes long slow runners" but like all oversimplifications it has a grain of truth to it. If you put too much effort into running long and slow when you goal is to run a quick 5k you are not going to be happy with the results.
Now if you are focused on the marathon you can push the long run out to about 25% of your weekly miles. So for the adult looking to run a marathon on about 40 miles a week you can get out and do 10 miles for your regular long run each week. Again this does not mean you should never go longer but outside of the marathon specific phase, which I'll cover in a marathon specific long run blog, you shouldn't be regularly exceeding that distance by very much.
How often? I mean if you plan your training weekly you inherently are going to have a long run every week. One run has to be your longest. That said I don't think you need to make a place to do a run of 20 to 25% your total volume every week of the year if you are getting ready for 5k to 10k races. Too often it is seen as a fall back and a standard of training. "I need my weekly long run" To which I reply why? If you reply I need it because so and so does it or that is what runners do. Well than no. If you reply I need it because I'm in my base phase and/or I'm trying to greatly improve my aerobic endurance right now than yes right you are get off your butt and grind that sucker out!
Remember you should always have a reason for your training. I spent years unable to run more than 15 or so miles at a time, less than 15% of my weekly mileage, because of a nerve issue in one of my legs and I ran most of my pr's from 800m to 10k in this period without any long runs. Could I have run faster with long runs? Yes. Would it have made me massively faster over 5k or 10k? No. There are in fact other workouts I would have much rather been able to do than a weekly 22 mile at moderate effort.
Now that said at that point in my running career I had years and years of high mileage and long runs under my belt and I do think that those workouts done years before my best racing had an impact getting me to that level. If I had been unable to long runs from the start of my running career do I think I would have run as fast as I have at this point for 800m to 10k? Absolutely not and that ignores the events that it would help the most the longer races. Which brings us to…
Why do long runs? When we talk about long run workouts, i.e. long progressions, long tempos, specific marathon workouts, semi specific long marathon tempos etc… they are workouts with very specific fitness gains but when we talk about the just go out and run for 2 to 3 hours at a moderate effort what you are doing is building basic endurance. This can be a finite area to improve in but it is an area that almost all runners could use to improve. Long runs can be replaced with generally high mileage but I honestly feel when you are in the stage of your running where you are trying to build up your basic endurance, I'm talking to you high school and college runners as well as post grads who haven't run say 25,000 miles in your lifetime yet, a good long run can in one day do as much to improve your general endurance as a full week of mileage without a long run.
Now if you are past that level and have a well built endurance base the moderate long runs need only be done here or there when you aren't doing long workouts to maintain aerobic fitness and muscular endurance but it really shouldn't be a focus. If however you are still a developing runner who hasn't banged out years of big miles regular long runs can be a key tool to quickening your aerobic development towards its full potential. Since real success in running is most directly tied to your aerobic ability that makes it a pretty powerful tool.
The long run is a very subjective thing. For me my normal recovery run is 20 kilometers, about twelve and a half miles. For my wife a 12 mile run is certainly a very long run and she treats it as such in her training cycle. It is important to remember that all training is relative. Heck even miles don't mean the same thing to different people. Frank Shorter famously did a weekly long run of 20 miles or two hours, whichever came first which was almost always the 20 miles. Most runners I have coached couldn't imagine running 20 miles in 2 hours. You just can't convince me that running 20 miles in 2 hours is the same as running 20 miles in 4 or 5 hours. Frank Shorter did not wake up Monday morning nearly as beat up after his 1:58 20 miler the day before as John or Jane Jogger is going to after a 4 hour 20 mile run. Just the extra time on the feet has a huge impact on the difficulty of the task and the amount of time you can expect it to take to recover from it.
So what is a long run? For me I consider the long run to be the longest run you do in a micro cycle, for most people a week. This means I put no preconceived notion that a long run must be at least 5 or 10 or 20 miles. A long run is a run that is longer than your normal training distance. So for me today that is say more than 18 miles or so. For me at age 16 that was 7 miles or more. It all depends on where you are now.
So how long should your long run be? That depends most directly on two factors what event you are training for and what your current weekly mileage is. If your goal event is not a marathon than you should keep your normal long run to around 20% of your weekly mileage. These means unless you are running around 100 miles a week you shouldn't be knocking out the famous weekly 20 mile long run. Remember the same folks who made that famous ran 13 times a week and well over 100 miles a week. It is folly not to adapt 1 part of a training program but adapt all the others. If you run half as often, 6 to 7 times a week and half as much, 50 to 60 miles a week it makes sense your long run would be half as long.
For the high school student and weekend road warrior focused on 5k and 10k races who is running 40 miles a week you are looking at a long run of only about 8 miles. Does this mean that you can never run further than 8 miles? No it just means you are probably putting too much emphasis on your long run as part of the training cycle if you are knocking off a 12 to 15 mile run every weekend and that it is likely taking away from your training. One of my least favorite quotes in running is "long slow miles makes long slow runners" but like all oversimplifications it has a grain of truth to it. If you put too much effort into running long and slow when you goal is to run a quick 5k you are not going to be happy with the results.
Now if you are focused on the marathon you can push the long run out to about 25% of your weekly miles. So for the adult looking to run a marathon on about 40 miles a week you can get out and do 10 miles for your regular long run each week. Again this does not mean you should never go longer but outside of the marathon specific phase, which I'll cover in a marathon specific long run blog, you shouldn't be regularly exceeding that distance by very much.
How often? I mean if you plan your training weekly you inherently are going to have a long run every week. One run has to be your longest. That said I don't think you need to make a place to do a run of 20 to 25% your total volume every week of the year if you are getting ready for 5k to 10k races. Too often it is seen as a fall back and a standard of training. "I need my weekly long run" To which I reply why? If you reply I need it because so and so does it or that is what runners do. Well than no. If you reply I need it because I'm in my base phase and/or I'm trying to greatly improve my aerobic endurance right now than yes right you are get off your butt and grind that sucker out!
Remember you should always have a reason for your training. I spent years unable to run more than 15 or so miles at a time, less than 15% of my weekly mileage, because of a nerve issue in one of my legs and I ran most of my pr's from 800m to 10k in this period without any long runs. Could I have run faster with long runs? Yes. Would it have made me massively faster over 5k or 10k? No. There are in fact other workouts I would have much rather been able to do than a weekly 22 mile at moderate effort.
Now that said at that point in my running career I had years and years of high mileage and long runs under my belt and I do think that those workouts done years before my best racing had an impact getting me to that level. If I had been unable to long runs from the start of my running career do I think I would have run as fast as I have at this point for 800m to 10k? Absolutely not and that ignores the events that it would help the most the longer races. Which brings us to…
Why do long runs? When we talk about long run workouts, i.e. long progressions, long tempos, specific marathon workouts, semi specific long marathon tempos etc… they are workouts with very specific fitness gains but when we talk about the just go out and run for 2 to 3 hours at a moderate effort what you are doing is building basic endurance. This can be a finite area to improve in but it is an area that almost all runners could use to improve. Long runs can be replaced with generally high mileage but I honestly feel when you are in the stage of your running where you are trying to build up your basic endurance, I'm talking to you high school and college runners as well as post grads who haven't run say 25,000 miles in your lifetime yet, a good long run can in one day do as much to improve your general endurance as a full week of mileage without a long run.
Now if you are past that level and have a well built endurance base the moderate long runs need only be done here or there when you aren't doing long workouts to maintain aerobic fitness and muscular endurance but it really shouldn't be a focus. If however you are still a developing runner who hasn't banged out years of big miles regular long runs can be a key tool to quickening your aerobic development towards its full potential. Since real success in running is most directly tied to your aerobic ability that makes it a pretty powerful tool.
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