This weeks fartlek friday is a little something different. Instead of focusing on a hard session we will look at a session for recovery. Most of us just go out and slog around at a slow pace on our easy days. At best we may do some strides after an easy or moderate jog. However if you look at the programs of some of the most successful runners in the world you will see things like easy fartlek and 20 kilometers with short variations for speed. These sessions fall in places where a workout wouldn't be possible or advisable, the day before or after very hard sessions or races. So what do they know that you are missing?
Running well is a game of speed. It has long been known that in running speed kills all those who don't have it. Yet still so many of us, particularly those who fall into the weekend warrior or regionally competitive groups do very little fast running. In a normal week we do maybe two workouts, a race and a few strides and that is a great week. Many times we may go days or even weeks with all or nearly all our running at paces ranging from 1 to 3 minutes per mile slower than our race pace.
Then we watch with awe the best in the world and wonder what they have we don't. The answer is strength with speed. Most who chase the best possess one or the other or only some of each. Now some of the difference between you and the lads and lasses in the Golden league has to do with Momma and Poppa. Lets be honest not every guy has the genetics to run 13:00 and not every gal can be a 15:00 monster. Still much less of the gap between you and them is genetic, or illicit chemical use, than you think. The two biggest differences I see are one the huge efforts expended to build aerobic power through fast steady running, IE various types of tempo and progression runs, and two huge amounts of relaxed FAST running, SPEED.
So often we use fast and hard as interchangeable terms. The thing is they are not at all interchangeable. The biggest lesson I learned in my years is fast is not hard and hard is not fast. Sometimes they happen together but they should largely be trained separately. If you want to be a speed demon you need to be able to run very fast while you are relaxed. If you want that you need to PRACTICE running fast while you are RELAXED.
One of the ways of doing this is to run fast on your recovery days. Note fast not hard. A great way of doing this is to slow your recovery run pace down a little bit and mix in some short quick burst of speed. Not at a max sprint, not killer drives but pleasantly fast accelerations run only long enough to feel quick and not long enough to get tired. Between these flashes of speed you should have long breaks. More than recovery you should be really stretching it out. This is a run with some quick spurts not a workout with long rests.
This session should be as long as your normal recovery run and done on as pleasant a route as you can find. I imagine it in a cool forest on soft pine needle trails or running around rolling fields in the english country side. I actually run it in 15 degree weather on a heavily trafficked loop dodging cars and fearing for my life around every 12 foot snow bank covered corner. But not everything is ideal and in my mind I drift to that pine forest and I'm just killing it!
After a few times of doing this you will discover you can often recover better with a session like this than with a regular run and over the long haul this extra relaxed speed will go a long way to improving your muscular endurance and efficiency making you one who kills with speed rather than one who is killed by it. Ok full discloser this workout alone is not going to change your world but it can be one piece to the larger puzzle of finding the path to unlocking your full running potential.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Trials of Miles. Guest Blog by Melissa
Today's blog is by Nate's wife, Melissa Donais. She is a nurse practitioner and runner, who prefers 5ks to marathons.
"The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals." -Hal Higdon
He came stumbling through the door like Rocky Balboa at the end of a prizefight. I had expected something like this, but I still wasn’t prepared for it. “Melissa!” He yelled in a garbled, distraught, exhausted voice. I ran downstairs to him, concerned that something was wrong, beyond the expected exhaustion.
“Where’s Ruben?” I asked.
“You gotta go get him. He didn’t make it back. I can’t drive.” He collapsed onto the couch.
“What? Where is he Nate?”
“Up by the church.”
The church was about a half mile from our house. Ruben couldn’t make it back from the church? I grabbed some juice, anticipating that poor Ruben’s blood sugar was likely even lower than Nate’s right now, and hopped in the car. At the same time I dialed my mom’s cell phone.
My brother was up visiting from Saratoga this weekend and my parents, Nate, and I were planning on having dinner after Nate’s workout. I had called my mom earlier in the afternoon and warned her that Nate’s workout was unlike any workout our running family had ever heard of, but she didn’t seem to understand. “That’s okay, honey, we’ll pick you guys up so Nate won’t have to drive.” Now my parents and brother were on their way to our house. My mom answered the phone, and in a rushed voice I said “Ruben didn’t make it back. You gotta help me find him. Nate left him by the church.” My mom said they were right by there and would start looking.
Meanwhile, I circled the rotary by the church, scanning the sidewalks and peering over snowbanks looking for Ruben. I didn’t see a soul. I drove up the street a bit, still no Ruben. It was dark, and about 18 degrees out. I knew it wouldn’t take long before hypothermia set in for Ruben. I called the home phone.
“Is Ruben back yet? I can’t find him.”
“No. He’s not at the church?” Nate’s words were slurred from hypoglycemia and exhaustion.
“No, Nate, he’s not at the church. You let your friend die on the side of the road and just ran home yourself? Where the hell is he? You left him at the church?” I demanded in frustration, as I feared we might be making a trip to the hospital, all because these two geniuses decided to attempt a “special block” and run two insanely hard workouts, totaling 36 miles, in a twelve hour span. It was stupid. It was just stupid. And this stupidity could lead to some serious health consequences.
I drove down Great Pond Road, thinking maybe Ruben tried to make it back to our house but missed the final left turn onto our street. No Ruben. Then my cell phone rang. My mom, “We’ve got Ruben.” Thank God.
I arrived home to a shaky and cold Ruben. Nate wasn’t much better. They took showers, my brother and dad checking in periodically because we were afraid they would faint. Then they both collapsed on the couch, huddled under blankets. We ordered food and they slowly, over a couple of hours, improved mentally and physically.
Later my parents and brother would tell me they drove past the church, and my brother noticed something on the steps of the church. He jumped out of the car, ran up the steps, and sure enough, saw a man curled up on the steps.
“Ruben?” he asked.
No answer.
“Ruben? Ruben? Nate sent me. I’m taking you back to Nate. You must come with me.”
Ruben, mumbling, reluctantly got up off the steps. In his cold exhaustion he had somehow convinced himself that curling up on the church stairs would be warmer than waiting on the side of the road.
This is the life of marathoners striving for greatness, following the Canova system of training, where specificity is king. If you want to run a marathon in 2:11 (I mean, who doesn’t?) then you better run an ungodly amount of miles at 5 minute mile pace, and you better not take much recovery between those miles, because you’re going to have to string 26 of them together on race day. Sounds simple enough. It’s the doing that’s hard.
There’s a lot of glory that comes with greatness, and a lot of respect and admiration for the journey towards it, but what most people don’t understand is the day after day fatigue and pain experienced by the journeyman, and what no one even considers is the worry and frustration experienced by the caregivers. It’s very easy to say that you’ll support your spouse no matter what, and it’s an entirely different experience when you’re living with someone who is trying to run 140 miles a week around a full time job (you don’t want to see our house; it will be a mess until the end of April).
You never know what to expect. A run goes well and you breathe a sigh of relief. He will likely be cranky, hungry, and tired, but the run went well. Phew. The run goes bad and you get a call on your way to the gym, you’re turning your car around and finishing the dinner that’s in the middle of cooking on the stove while your spouse heads to a 90 minute Bikram yoga class because his foot feels tight.
Yoga ends as you’re ready to head to bed and your spouse finally arrives home. You haven’t seen him all day. But you can tell by the look on his face that things are not good. “Boston’s over. I’m not doing it. If I miss a workout now it’s all over.”
“What?”
All because his foot is tight. I sat him down, massaged his foot, used a guasha tool to break up fascial restrictions, and sent him to bed (he refused the “hell bucket” of ice treatment). In the morning I kinesio taped his foot before he left for work.
You end up walking on eggshells, praying for good runs, and doing your best to provide reassurance when the runs don’t go well. I mean really, I sought out every possible fix for his right leg/loss of coordination injury, do you think I’m going to let a tight plantar fascia prevent a successful Boston run? No way.
It’s been hard for me and I’m not putting in the miles. The cult classic novel, Once a Runner, referred to “trial of miles, miles of trials.” All runners think they understand what that means but I think few truly do. The trial of miles is a man, injured for seven years, who has undergone multiple extremely painful nerve tests, a (very risky) spine surgery, and countless hours of physical therapy to crawl his way back to a sport he loves above all else, to get just a chance to run his heart out and be healthy on the day. It’s a man who is dedicated to his full time job, and consistently running over 100 miles a week around it. A man who still finds some time to cuddle with the dog and kiss me goodnight, despite trying to make the impossible possible.
It is nothing short of amazing, and it is the culmination of years of work and hope. We have days when we feel we are losing the fight, but on the good days the dream lives. It’s so easy for others to look in and criticize, but only the few who have tried to live this life will understand the day to day drudgery and the tiny hope for glory.
I never comprehended what went into making a great marathoner. Now that I know and I have lived it I have so much awe and respect for my husband and for those great marathoners who came before him. They are part of an elite group of people who have more will and guts than most of us. No matter what happens in April, the dedication to his dream, the solving of his longtime injury puzzle, and the insane training (that he loves and missed during his injury) that he accomplished are real victories. I am so proud of Nate for fighting the good fight.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Tempo Tuesday: Making improvements and breakthroughs in all tempo training
Generally I talk about specific workouts in this space but today I'll talk about some more general tactics that you can use across all your tempo runs to make improvements in those workouts and by extension your general fitness and racing. For me I put all steady running faster than regular training and longer than a mile or two into the category of tempo training. This could be something as short and fast as 2 miles at 5k pace or as long and slow as 27 miles at 80% of your goal marathon pace. All are designed to improve your aerobic fitness, though in many different ways, and all can be improved using some of the same tactics.
To me the most important thing about a tempo run in training, really any workout in training, is not how you run it the first time but how you run it better each successive time. Good running is after all in its simplest state all about getting better.
I have done a ton of work over the years and one thing I have seen in my running and others again and again is if you take your tempo run and just try and run it faster each time out at first you are able to do so but in general you are not running it better you are just running it harder and soon enough you are running as hard as you can and your not going much faster. In short you stagnate.
The key is to instead increase distance at the SAME PACE. So you go out and do a 3 mile tempo run at 5:30 per mile. The next time out you should aim for 4 miles on the same course at the same pace. You will find that you are able to fairly quickly find yourself running twice the distance at the same pace and your effort when going by the original distance is much lower than when you started.
After you have increased the distance a good bit say 50% to 100% longer than the original distance than you go back to the original distance and run it faster. You will find the effort is not increased. In fact often it is less. Through cycles like this you can make very big gains and make them very consistently.
However sometimes you will still stagnate. In these cases there is one more trick to try. In this case you run a fast finish. So at one point I was trying to build up to an 8k to 10k tempo run on the track at 3:00 per K. Thing was I was stuck at 5k to 6k. I built up to that well. I was doing some other work but I was stuck. So what to do? I ran an 8k tempo run where I ran slower than I had been for the first 5k, in my case 16:00 so 3:12 per k. That is about 5 to 10% slower than goal pace and then I finished at or faster than my goal tempo pace, in this case I ran the last 3k in around 8:50. So 2% or 3% faster than pace. Even if it is dead on pace that is ok.
The results? Next time out I ran 8k in 23:56. It isn't a sure fire thing but sometimes the reason you are stuck is you really lack the endurance to run the later part of the run at that past and this can specifically target that weakness.
Finally sometimes the answer lies outside the specific workout. If these two tricks don't work and you are still stuck it is time to work on other types of workouts to build up your abilities around your tempo run. Most often either intervals at your tempo pace or 5% faster for the volume you wish to run for your tempo or as much as 50% more volume this can improve the muscular endurance and efficiency. Second is to run a longer tempo at a slower pace to build the aerobic endurance and efficiency.
Hopefully you can use this to get the most out of your tempo runs and reap the improvements you deserve for your hard work!
To me the most important thing about a tempo run in training, really any workout in training, is not how you run it the first time but how you run it better each successive time. Good running is after all in its simplest state all about getting better.
I have done a ton of work over the years and one thing I have seen in my running and others again and again is if you take your tempo run and just try and run it faster each time out at first you are able to do so but in general you are not running it better you are just running it harder and soon enough you are running as hard as you can and your not going much faster. In short you stagnate.
The key is to instead increase distance at the SAME PACE. So you go out and do a 3 mile tempo run at 5:30 per mile. The next time out you should aim for 4 miles on the same course at the same pace. You will find that you are able to fairly quickly find yourself running twice the distance at the same pace and your effort when going by the original distance is much lower than when you started.
After you have increased the distance a good bit say 50% to 100% longer than the original distance than you go back to the original distance and run it faster. You will find the effort is not increased. In fact often it is less. Through cycles like this you can make very big gains and make them very consistently.
However sometimes you will still stagnate. In these cases there is one more trick to try. In this case you run a fast finish. So at one point I was trying to build up to an 8k to 10k tempo run on the track at 3:00 per K. Thing was I was stuck at 5k to 6k. I built up to that well. I was doing some other work but I was stuck. So what to do? I ran an 8k tempo run where I ran slower than I had been for the first 5k, in my case 16:00 so 3:12 per k. That is about 5 to 10% slower than goal pace and then I finished at or faster than my goal tempo pace, in this case I ran the last 3k in around 8:50. So 2% or 3% faster than pace. Even if it is dead on pace that is ok.
The results? Next time out I ran 8k in 23:56. It isn't a sure fire thing but sometimes the reason you are stuck is you really lack the endurance to run the later part of the run at that past and this can specifically target that weakness.
Finally sometimes the answer lies outside the specific workout. If these two tricks don't work and you are still stuck it is time to work on other types of workouts to build up your abilities around your tempo run. Most often either intervals at your tempo pace or 5% faster for the volume you wish to run for your tempo or as much as 50% more volume this can improve the muscular endurance and efficiency. Second is to run a longer tempo at a slower pace to build the aerobic endurance and efficiency.
Hopefully you can use this to get the most out of your tempo runs and reap the improvements you deserve for your hard work!
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Weekly Training Blog February 16 to 22, 2015 Vacation!
I was on vacation this week which meant I had a lot more time which basically meant I slept a lot more which was wonderful! This week off also saved my first specific workout as we had a blizzard last Sunday when the workout was scheduled and I was able to move it to Monday because I didn't have to work. Now I also did some vacationy things like eating out and a few trips up to Maine. Melissa, my wife, has to schedule her time off from work about a year in advance and we have been going to Hawaii each winter during February vacation but I put a kibosh on that this year because the two long flights in a 9 day period tend to undo any recovery you could get during that time and I wanted to be able to get as many hard workouts in as possible during my time off. Given the winter we are having Melissa giving up a trip to Hawaii to escape from the 2nd coldest and soon to be snowiest winter in Massachusetts history is a pretty huge sacrifice, all because I basically was being very picky and specific about my training plans. She is super supportive so the least I could do was go along for a few day trips. The eating out is about my favorite thing so no sacrifice on my part there.
Monday
PM COLD! 16 degrees but windchill well under 0. With Ruben. 3 mile warm up to Merrimack College 5k loop. Loop was in real bad shape in terms of footing. Only the 4th K was pavement. The rest was a mix of packed ice, loose snow, ice and a bit of slush. There are 12 turns on each loop and they were all very challenging. The plan was 30k specific workout. 10k at 80 to 85% of mp, 5k of 1min fast 1 min moderate, 5k back at 80 to 85%mp, 5k at mp and 5k max effort. In the end we only did 25k as footing really beat up on the legs and it meant that though we were on pace in the first 10k our effort was greatly in excess of the proper effort which you can see by how fast the 4th K was on each loop. The full run was continuous but I'll break it down below by section
10k at 80 to 85% of mp- 35:56.5 (4th k was 3:20 and the 4th k on the second loop was 3:20 again) This means that we were probably running 33:20 effort or faster as really the 4th k felt easier than the other k's)
5k of 1min fast/1min moderate- 16:39.19 (4th k was a 3:05)
5k back at 80 to 85% mp- 18:09.51( 4th k was 3:23)
5k at mp- we just went about as hard as we could we knew with the footing there was no way we were going to get down around 16:00 we ran 16:45.34 (3:10 for the 4th K)
Total this was 1:27:30 for 25k, 5:37 per mile pace, though I have no trouble believing the footing alone cost us 60 to 80 seconds per 5k loop. So 5 to 7 minutes overall. Never mind the cold and all the extra cloths we were wearing. No cool down on this one as Melissa and Uta were nice enough to pick Ruben and I up at the finish. Total 18.5 miles
XT whartons, rubberbands
Tuesday
AM road 7, shitty footing, cold 10 degrees real feel 2. 47:26 total 7
PM road 7, same loop, same conditions except temp all the way up to 20 and real feel up to 8, balmy! total 7
XT whartons, rubberbands
Wednesday
AM 3 mile warm up, 19:45, skipping warm up, light drills, 4 strides, 20k of 1k/1k alternations on Merrimack College 5k loop. In bit better shape than Monday, 1st and 4th k were clear footing, 2nd and 5th were about the same and the 3rd was a bit better but the turns were still real bad. Temps were about the same as Monday. Which means wearing a LOT of cloths which adds to the effort. In an ideal world my goal would be the fast k's between 3:00 and 3:05 and the recovery K's around 3:20. This was not ideal.
1k-2:59.8
2k-3:33.8(6:33.6)
3k-3:07.5(9:41.2)
4k-3:21.0 (13:02.2)
5k-3:15.5- yes that was an 'on' k (16:17.7)
6k-3:26.7(19:44.5)
7k- 3:05.9(22:50.5)
8k-3:33.3(26:23.8)
9k-3:01.2(29:25.1)
10k-3:37.7(33:02)
11k-3:04.4(36:07.2)
12k-3:32.2(39:39.4)
13k-3:08.3(42:47.7)
14k-3:24.5(46:12.3)
15k-3:17.0(49:29.5)
16k-3:26.7(52:56.2)
17k-3:08.1(56:04.3)
18k-3:34.1(59:38.4)
19k-3:04.1(1:02:42)
20k-3:41.2(1:06:23)
Those splits look all over the place but really if you compare the same K's on each loop to each other they are much closer than you think. IE the 4th k hard reps were 3:01 and 3:04 and the recoveries on that K were 3:21 and 3:24. On the 5th k, the slowest you see the same relationship 3:15.5 and 3:17.0 for the fasts and 3:37.7 and 3:41.2 for the recoveries.
3 mile cool down total of 19+ miles
XT skipping warm up, light drills, whartons, rubber bands
Thursday
AM road 10k, first 4.2 with Uta, then 2 miles solo, objectively speaking this was one of the most beautiful runs I have ever been on. We were running just at Sunrise and the orange glow of that through the freshly coated snow on the trees and reflecting off the fresh few inches on the ground. However I'm pretty much finished with winter and it was very cold and I was slipping all over the place. On the plus side Uta was able to enjoy it for its beauty and seemed to have a great time. total 6.2 miles
PM road 7, 46:15, not as snowy but still a couple of icy snowy miles road out front of the house was clear enough for me to do some strides which was very nice total 7.5 miles
XT whartons, shoveling, rubber bands, YTI
Friday
AM Super cold wind chill 15 to 20 below zero, wind was very heavy and very steady. 2 mile warm up and strides then did a 10 mile moderate progression run on my regular 10 loop(rolling)
Footing in 5th and 7th and 8th miles was very bad. The last 2 and 1/4 miles were pretty much into the wind the whole way and it made them VERY hard. I had hoped to run them at 5:20 pace for 8 and 9 and about 5:00 for the last mile. I'm sure the effort was there but the pace was not!
1-5:49(into wind)
2-5:46(into wind)
3-5:32
4-5:29
5-5:35(footing and uphill)
6-5:34 (uphill)
7-5:27(Footing!)
8- 5:43(footing, hill, wind!)
9-5:42(wind)
10-5:23(wind)
After this run Melissa asked if I was alright. I basically threw a fit in response. This is not normal for me. In my defense it was REALLY cold and REALLY windy. Still Melissa had a pretty good laugh about my little fit later. total 12.5 miles
PM on curve treadmill- I had had enough of the outdoors for one day. 15 minute warm up, 10x20 seconds hard with 1minute jog breaks. Sort of simulating short hill reps giving how the curve works. total 4.5 miles
XT whartons, rubberband,
Saturday
AM regular 10, cold 12 degrees, -6 degrees windchill, footing a bit better than yesterday and sadly this was a good bit warmer than yesterday too. 66:47, did strides after total 10.5 miles
XT rubberbands, whartons
Sunday
AM 3 miles warm up on treadmill, with 4 strides at 12mph mixed in. I also jacked up the mill to 2% instead of 1% because it seemed a bit easy like perhaps the grade was off a bit or the floor not flat. 7 miles at 11.8mph- 35:35, losing coordination so I hoped off and did whartons, got back on 45 seconds later and did a half mile in 3:30 felt ok so I did 3 miles at 12mph, 15:00. I had the shoulders back on and Melissa was on the Mill next to me and said my shoulders looked good. I really have been struggling to hold coordination on the mill. I think it may have something to do with how I don't really use my glutes and hamstrings much on it. But I'm not 100% sure. total of about 14 miles
XT rubberbands, whartons, shoveling
Summary
107 miles for the week but the real story is that with the strides and workouts more than 100 kilometers of that was at a workout effort. Just a huge amount of quality work. Really a great week of work.
I was scheduled to race the USATF-NE 10 mile champs but really didn't want to deal with the snowy roads getting out there, though I have since heard they weren't that bad. Anyway I played it safe. If I had raced this next week would be much lighter but with just the moderate workout today I'll keep it rolling through next week.
Hope you are doing well and for those of you who are as sick of winter as me I hope the weather treats us a bit better in the coming weeks.
Sponsorship!! Team Skechers!
I am super excited to announce that I will be a Go Elite Ambassador for Skechers Performance Division. I have been training in Skechers since last April and I'm really happy to have their support in my return to the marathon this April.
Currently I'm training and racing primarily in the GoMeb Speed. These are actually my favorite shoe of all time. Light flexible and with a great fitting upper. They are not for everyone as they certainly are a light weight flexible shoe but for me they are perfect! http://www.skechersperformance.com/running/mens#/content/gorun-speed-mens
The other shoes I mix into my routine are the GoRun Ride 3 and the GoRun Ultra. I use the Ride 3 for most of my easy runs and as my second favorite behind the speeds and the Ultra work great for when the footing isn't very good which means over the last 6 weeks they have been getting a lot of work. So in the snow lately they have been getting a lot of miles. They are one of the most durable shoes I have ever run in.
http://www.skechersperformance.com/running/mens
http://www.skechersperformance.com/running/mens#/content/gorun-ultra-mens
If you are interested in more information about Skechers performance on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SkechersPerformance
or instagram = @SkechersPerformance or twitter @SkechersGO
Currently I'm training and racing primarily in the GoMeb Speed. These are actually my favorite shoe of all time. Light flexible and with a great fitting upper. They are not for everyone as they certainly are a light weight flexible shoe but for me they are perfect! http://www.skechersperformance.com/running/mens#/content/gorun-speed-mens
The other shoes I mix into my routine are the GoRun Ride 3 and the GoRun Ultra. I use the Ride 3 for most of my easy runs and as my second favorite behind the speeds and the Ultra work great for when the footing isn't very good which means over the last 6 weeks they have been getting a lot of work. So in the snow lately they have been getting a lot of miles. They are one of the most durable shoes I have ever run in.
http://www.skechersperformance.com/running/mens
http://www.skechersperformance.com/running/mens#/content/gorun-ultra-mens
If you are interested in more information about Skechers performance on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SkechersPerformance
or instagram = @SkechersPerformance or twitter @SkechersGO
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Throwback Thursday 8 years and 2 months
On December 22, 2006 I completed a 20k marathon targeted alternation session. It was, at the time, the best workout I had ever done. A few weeks later I would do a similar session, though slower because of a very tough wind, and in the final effort I would lose the coordination in my right leg. It was the beginning of the longest hardest injury battle of my life. Yesterday, February 18, 2015 I completed a 20k marathon targeted alternation session without losing coordination in my right leg. It was the first time I had successfully done so since this workout more than 8 years ago.
I thought as a celebration of sorts I would write a blog about that last workout, so to speak.
In December of 2006 I was training with a new fury after meeting Renato Canova and having him explain what I was doing wrong and how some simply changes to my base would lead to big breakthroughs in my marathon performance. So far it was going pretty well. On the 22 the weather was extremely nice for the time of year, temps in the 30's basically no wind and the track at Umass Lowell was clear so I decided to take my second attempt at a 20k alternation session. My first attempt had been a fail in my build up to my first marathon where I lasted only 7k and collapsed exhausted.
After a 3 mile warm up and some strides I set out to try and do 20k on the track alternating between 3:00 fast K's and 3:20 recovery K's.
Splits
1k- 3:00.5
2k- 3:19.8
3k- 3:00.0
4k- 3:21.8
5k- 3:01.3 (15:43.2)
6k- 3:20.9
7k- 3:00.4
8k- 3:20.7 (25:25.0)
9k- 2:58.6
10k- 3:20.3 (31:43.8)
11k- 2:59.6
12k- 3:21.2
13k- 3:00.1
14k- 3:21.0
15k- 2:58.2 (47:23.9)(15:40.1 last 5k)
16k- 3:21.4 (50:45.2)
17k- 2:58.8
18k- 3:20.7
19k- 2:58.2
20k- 3:20.2 (1:03:22)
That is 5:05.9 pace for 12.4 miles, 2:13:40 marathon pace. I was so pumped! I was scared to death of this session because it had killed me just two weeks before I had run a 2:15 marathon. In other words in the best shape of my life this workout had chopped me down like it was nothing. Now I had crushed this workout and I knew I was reaching a new plain of fitness. Looking at the training I was doing leading up to this I was obviously ready. I had done a very windy 6k tempo run at 3:00 per k, 16x400 in 65 seconds and a few 23 mile runs at 5:40 pace in the two weeks before this session. Still alternations are a different beast and to be able to jump into 5:20 recoveries was really quite something.
Two weeks later on January 5th I would do 20k on the track of 2k fast and 1k slow. The effort was the same and with the two weeks improvement I'm guessing without the wind I would have been able to average the same paces which would have made it a crazy fast 20k around 1:02:00 but with the wind I ran 1:04:42. In the final 2k effort I lost control of my right leg. I had no idea what it was. Frankly I was running as hard as I could and I didn't think that much of it. More of a just 'wow I'm going so hard I'm losing control of my legs.' I had no idea the trouble to come!
Yesterday I was on the road, we are not having a nice light winter, like back in late '06 early '07, this year so the track is buried under untold feet of snow. I also haven't done the speed work needed to be ready to really get the speed out of the fast k's. As such my overall time was much slower 1:06:23. I was thrilled. From the beginning I have had far and away the most trouble holding coordination in alternations. This is why they were not included as part of my build up to the Olympic Trials in late 2007.
In fact over the last few years I basically haven't been able to do more than 10k of alternations and really more than 8k has been very unusual. In my notes I wrote in planning back in the fall I put completely 20k of alternations without losing coordination as equal difficulty to completing a full marathon race without losing coordination.
So though the college students standing at the bus stop at the Merrimack college gym had no idea why the crazy guy who just came hammering around the corner was pumping his fist while gasping for air it was a well earned fist pump.
I thought as a celebration of sorts I would write a blog about that last workout, so to speak.
In December of 2006 I was training with a new fury after meeting Renato Canova and having him explain what I was doing wrong and how some simply changes to my base would lead to big breakthroughs in my marathon performance. So far it was going pretty well. On the 22 the weather was extremely nice for the time of year, temps in the 30's basically no wind and the track at Umass Lowell was clear so I decided to take my second attempt at a 20k alternation session. My first attempt had been a fail in my build up to my first marathon where I lasted only 7k and collapsed exhausted.
After a 3 mile warm up and some strides I set out to try and do 20k on the track alternating between 3:00 fast K's and 3:20 recovery K's.
Splits
1k- 3:00.5
2k- 3:19.8
3k- 3:00.0
4k- 3:21.8
5k- 3:01.3 (15:43.2)
6k- 3:20.9
7k- 3:00.4
8k- 3:20.7 (25:25.0)
9k- 2:58.6
10k- 3:20.3 (31:43.8)
11k- 2:59.6
12k- 3:21.2
13k- 3:00.1
14k- 3:21.0
15k- 2:58.2 (47:23.9)(15:40.1 last 5k)
16k- 3:21.4 (50:45.2)
17k- 2:58.8
18k- 3:20.7
19k- 2:58.2
20k- 3:20.2 (1:03:22)
That is 5:05.9 pace for 12.4 miles, 2:13:40 marathon pace. I was so pumped! I was scared to death of this session because it had killed me just two weeks before I had run a 2:15 marathon. In other words in the best shape of my life this workout had chopped me down like it was nothing. Now I had crushed this workout and I knew I was reaching a new plain of fitness. Looking at the training I was doing leading up to this I was obviously ready. I had done a very windy 6k tempo run at 3:00 per k, 16x400 in 65 seconds and a few 23 mile runs at 5:40 pace in the two weeks before this session. Still alternations are a different beast and to be able to jump into 5:20 recoveries was really quite something.
Two weeks later on January 5th I would do 20k on the track of 2k fast and 1k slow. The effort was the same and with the two weeks improvement I'm guessing without the wind I would have been able to average the same paces which would have made it a crazy fast 20k around 1:02:00 but with the wind I ran 1:04:42. In the final 2k effort I lost control of my right leg. I had no idea what it was. Frankly I was running as hard as I could and I didn't think that much of it. More of a just 'wow I'm going so hard I'm losing control of my legs.' I had no idea the trouble to come!
Yesterday I was on the road, we are not having a nice light winter, like back in late '06 early '07, this year so the track is buried under untold feet of snow. I also haven't done the speed work needed to be ready to really get the speed out of the fast k's. As such my overall time was much slower 1:06:23. I was thrilled. From the beginning I have had far and away the most trouble holding coordination in alternations. This is why they were not included as part of my build up to the Olympic Trials in late 2007.
In fact over the last few years I basically haven't been able to do more than 10k of alternations and really more than 8k has been very unusual. In my notes I wrote in planning back in the fall I put completely 20k of alternations without losing coordination as equal difficulty to completing a full marathon race without losing coordination.
So though the college students standing at the bus stop at the Merrimack college gym had no idea why the crazy guy who just came hammering around the corner was pumping his fist while gasping for air it was a well earned fist pump.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Tempo Tuesdays: The Hard Progression Run
I basically do two types of general fitness progression runs moderate and hard. Lately I have been doing a lot more moderate progressions but over the course of my running career my single favorite workout is the hard progression run. Like the names suggest the difference is in the effort level. To be honest the effort throughout most of the run is the same it is just that at the end of the hard progression run you keep accelerating until it gets very hard and you can't keep increasing the pace anymore.
The length of this workout is entirely at your discretion. I would suggest that for 5k runners you want a run of at least 20 to 30 minutes for the 10k you want 30mins to 1 hour. For the half marathon 45 to 90mins. For the marathon, if you are using these as a general fitness workout you should stick to the 1 hour to 90 minute range but if you do want to make it more specific you can extend them out over 2 hours.
The idea is simply enough start out running a bit faster then regular training pace and steadily increase the pace a little bit at a time until you are running just about as fast and as hard as you can. If you do these workouts enough you will find that your body reacts to getting tired by picking up the pace. You will find yourself coming apart in a tempo run and hitting faster and faster splits, which only quicken your demise but it is neat all the same.
I think most often people pick a normal training run route and pick up the pace each mile or kilometer. This is fine but I suggest a different plan. I would strongly advice you pick a loop, the length of which is not important it can range from 1/10th to 1/3rd the length of the progression you plan on doing. Personally I like to pick a loop that will have me taking about 5 to 8 loops for my whole workout. This loop does not need to be measured. The terrain should reflect your goal race terrain. Next make sure the loop is one that you will not have to stop. IE no intersection crossings- at least not ones with traffic- no train tracks etc… Ideally a trail loop with good footing is available but right now there is ninety something inches of snow on the ground here so if you experience similar situations then you to will have to find a road area.
The reasoning for this is simple. The idea of a progression run is to be constantly increasing the pace. It is hard to know if you are really doing this if the terrain is different. On a 10 mile loop comparing mile 1 to mile 5 is often apples to oranges. However if you do 7 loops of 1.35 miles or whatever each loop is they are each exactly the same so you know if you run each loop faster than the one before it you are correctly increasing the effort.
So you have your loop. You run the first loop at about or just a little quicker than your normal training pace. (I would do a warm up before this but I can't run much under 8 or 9 minute mile pace without a warm up but I have been running over a 100miles a week with some pretty darn good consistency since Bill Clinton was President and that doesn't come without a price). On each loop you increase the pace from the lap before. How much? As long as it is faster than the loop before you have done your job. Don't over complicate. Just don't increase too much or your workout will end up being a lot shorter than you planned.
Each lap you get faster until you reach the final lap where you should steadily accelerate over the whole lap trying to finish at a full kick sprint and around a maximum effort. If you find yourself at a point where you know you can't run the next lap faster then the lap you are currently running then the workout is over. You need to just hammer to the end of the loop you are running. DON'T slow down and try to salvage. The lesson of constant increase of pace is more important. So your planned 90minute progression run ends up only being 45mins. That is ok. It is still a good workout. It still taught your body what it needs and it has steadily increased the pressure on your heart and the amount of acid your body had to process out of the blood. Also you did your fastest running when your legs were at their most tired. Next time you will pace yourself better and do the volume you want for the workout and that too will be the successful learning of an important lesson on understanding and controlling your own body.
A few words of caution and guidance. Don't pick a loop that is too short. If you want to do a 1 hour profession run and you run around a loop that takes about 3 minutes to run you are setting yourself up for failure. It takes some crazy pace sense to only go 1 or 2 seconds a lap faster each lap. So what invariable happens is you drop 10 seconds or more on one lap and after you do that a couple times you are running crazy fast and you are done. Frankly if you are running the first loop at 3 minutes at a nice steady pace it is unlikely you are capable of running that loop all out under 2 minutes. Better to do a loop that is a little longer and give yourself a bit more time and distance to play with. I also pick a couple spots on the loop to use as pace checks, not too many though as you mostly want to be focused on feeling smooth and covering the ground quickly.
Next make sure the footing is good. This is not the time and place for technical trails or tight turns. You want a nice steady effort and fancy footing and breaking hard and re-acclerating are not conducive to that.
When to do this workout? This is a great base phase workout for all distances. It is a great anytime workout for half marathoner and marathoners. This is also a great workout for maintaining aerobic fitness in the specific phases for 5k and 10k runners. Also it can be used as an aerobic focused specific workout for the 10k and cross country. Anything 5k or shorter and something this aerobic is not going to be very specific. You would be better in that case doing a portuguese surge, http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/tempo-tuesday-portuguese-surge.html
This session will build the physical and mental ability to run relaxed at a quick pace and to make a long hard killing drive to the finish of a hard race. Doing it once is nice but done regularly this workout will reinvent you as a runner.
The length of this workout is entirely at your discretion. I would suggest that for 5k runners you want a run of at least 20 to 30 minutes for the 10k you want 30mins to 1 hour. For the half marathon 45 to 90mins. For the marathon, if you are using these as a general fitness workout you should stick to the 1 hour to 90 minute range but if you do want to make it more specific you can extend them out over 2 hours.
The idea is simply enough start out running a bit faster then regular training pace and steadily increase the pace a little bit at a time until you are running just about as fast and as hard as you can. If you do these workouts enough you will find that your body reacts to getting tired by picking up the pace. You will find yourself coming apart in a tempo run and hitting faster and faster splits, which only quicken your demise but it is neat all the same.
I think most often people pick a normal training run route and pick up the pace each mile or kilometer. This is fine but I suggest a different plan. I would strongly advice you pick a loop, the length of which is not important it can range from 1/10th to 1/3rd the length of the progression you plan on doing. Personally I like to pick a loop that will have me taking about 5 to 8 loops for my whole workout. This loop does not need to be measured. The terrain should reflect your goal race terrain. Next make sure the loop is one that you will not have to stop. IE no intersection crossings- at least not ones with traffic- no train tracks etc… Ideally a trail loop with good footing is available but right now there is ninety something inches of snow on the ground here so if you experience similar situations then you to will have to find a road area.
The reasoning for this is simple. The idea of a progression run is to be constantly increasing the pace. It is hard to know if you are really doing this if the terrain is different. On a 10 mile loop comparing mile 1 to mile 5 is often apples to oranges. However if you do 7 loops of 1.35 miles or whatever each loop is they are each exactly the same so you know if you run each loop faster than the one before it you are correctly increasing the effort.
So you have your loop. You run the first loop at about or just a little quicker than your normal training pace. (I would do a warm up before this but I can't run much under 8 or 9 minute mile pace without a warm up but I have been running over a 100miles a week with some pretty darn good consistency since Bill Clinton was President and that doesn't come without a price). On each loop you increase the pace from the lap before. How much? As long as it is faster than the loop before you have done your job. Don't over complicate. Just don't increase too much or your workout will end up being a lot shorter than you planned.
Each lap you get faster until you reach the final lap where you should steadily accelerate over the whole lap trying to finish at a full kick sprint and around a maximum effort. If you find yourself at a point where you know you can't run the next lap faster then the lap you are currently running then the workout is over. You need to just hammer to the end of the loop you are running. DON'T slow down and try to salvage. The lesson of constant increase of pace is more important. So your planned 90minute progression run ends up only being 45mins. That is ok. It is still a good workout. It still taught your body what it needs and it has steadily increased the pressure on your heart and the amount of acid your body had to process out of the blood. Also you did your fastest running when your legs were at their most tired. Next time you will pace yourself better and do the volume you want for the workout and that too will be the successful learning of an important lesson on understanding and controlling your own body.
A few words of caution and guidance. Don't pick a loop that is too short. If you want to do a 1 hour profession run and you run around a loop that takes about 3 minutes to run you are setting yourself up for failure. It takes some crazy pace sense to only go 1 or 2 seconds a lap faster each lap. So what invariable happens is you drop 10 seconds or more on one lap and after you do that a couple times you are running crazy fast and you are done. Frankly if you are running the first loop at 3 minutes at a nice steady pace it is unlikely you are capable of running that loop all out under 2 minutes. Better to do a loop that is a little longer and give yourself a bit more time and distance to play with. I also pick a couple spots on the loop to use as pace checks, not too many though as you mostly want to be focused on feeling smooth and covering the ground quickly.
Next make sure the footing is good. This is not the time and place for technical trails or tight turns. You want a nice steady effort and fancy footing and breaking hard and re-acclerating are not conducive to that.
When to do this workout? This is a great base phase workout for all distances. It is a great anytime workout for half marathoner and marathoners. This is also a great workout for maintaining aerobic fitness in the specific phases for 5k and 10k runners. Also it can be used as an aerobic focused specific workout for the 10k and cross country. Anything 5k or shorter and something this aerobic is not going to be very specific. You would be better in that case doing a portuguese surge, http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/tempo-tuesday-portuguese-surge.html
This session will build the physical and mental ability to run relaxed at a quick pace and to make a long hard killing drive to the finish of a hard race. Doing it once is nice but done regularly this workout will reinvent you as a runner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)