Monday AM 2.1 mile warm up then some strides and drills. 14 mile fundamental tempo run around the Phillips fields 1:19:36, 5:41 mile pace. Legs were wiped out the last couple of miles even though breathing was still comfortable. It was humid but not really that bad. Basically I think I just need some long runs. I have done very few long runs over the last few years because of the coordination issues but I'll just have to make them work one way or another.
PM 5 miles in 35:02
Tuesday AM road 4 miles with Melissa and Uta, 33:42
PM road 10, 1:05:28
Wednesday PM road 10k with Uta in 43:13, then half mile jogging with strides mixed then 6x quarter mile hill repeats with jog down recovery. 1:31, 1:34, 1:34, 1:35, 1:34, 1:33. mile cool down
Thursday AM road 4 miles with Uta in 31:05
PM road 10, 1:05:37
Friday AM road 4 miles with Melissa and Uta, 32:19
PM road 10, 1:05:26
Saturday AM 5k warm up on GBTC XC course with DJ Raboin, 23:22, drills, strides, 30 second hard effort, more strides. Race GBTC XC festival 5k, 1st place, 15:40. took the lead between 400 and 600 meters in and ran alone pretty much from that point on. A couple years ago I ran 15:39 here but in a very competitive losing effort so this probably shows better fitness. Not a great effort for the race but about what can be expected based on how little racing I have done and running from the front. 5k on the course for a cool down with DJ, 23:22.
PM 8.2 miles on road solo, 57:55
Sunday AM road 20.6, 2:31:22, first 10 miles in 81mins with Melissa and Uta, pleasantly surprised that with the slow start the coordination held the whole way.
PM road 10k, 42:45
Summary ~119 miles, two middle of the road workouts and a middle of the road race. All in all a solid week. I have cow harbor this weekend and I really would love to get back in the top 10. The last time I ran there I was 12th in 31:12 and I tuned up for that with a 15:39 in the same race I ran this week but as I mentioned with much more competition so I'm very hopeful that I'm coming around and I can produce a sub 31 at Cow Harbor which is usually enough to slip into the top 10. The race effort this week left something to be desired but I have a feeling having some competition will take care of that. I would love to have a few more weeks and a few more races to tune up for Cow Harbor but at least I'm in a place where if I run well I won't embarrass myself too badly.
Hope your week went well.
Showing posts with label fundamental tempo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fundamental tempo. Show all posts
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Weekly Training Blog August 14 to 20, 2017
I had a lot going on this week with the end of summer and the start of the school year approaching. This included driving to Cincinnati, OH on Friday to help my Father in Law who works down there and splits his time between Mass and Ohio, move into a house he bought. I drove back on Monday, yesterday, which is why this blog is late.
Monday AM 2.5 mile warm up with some drills and light strides, 14 mile fundamental tempo run around Phillips fields drifting from around 5:50 pace at the start down to 5:24 for the last mile, felt real good. It helped that temps were down around 80 and the humidity was under 50%. Ran 1:19:17 for the 14 miles, about 5:40 pace.
Early PM drills, lifting and a circuit with Anna, then a bit of massage. The massage hurt a lot more than the circuit.
PM 4 miles with Uta and Melissa around Phillips fields in 32:31.
Tuesday early PM road 10 solo in 1:06:31
later in PM 4.5 miles around Phillips fields with Melissa and Uta in 36:25
Wednesday AM road 5 with Uta in 35:07, bit hot for her
PM road 10 in 1:07:31, trying to take it easy
Thursday no run in the AM but I did a few miles of walking with Uta, then loaded a Uhaul with furniture for the Father in Law, then cut down a dying tree in my yard that was dangerously close to the power lines. This got a bit squirrely but a neighbor had a wedge with saved my butt- I owe him an edible arrangement or something!
PM 3.5 easy warm up with fellow UML alum Jason Dedonato, aka Dedo, we missed a turn. Then some strides and a 30 second hard effort, few drills mixed in. Race Saunders at Rye harbor 10k, goal was to run the first half at 5:10 pace and then open up. Course is pretty flat, sorta false flat uphill for two miles after a flat opener, then false flat down hill for two miles before a flat last 2k. I was in second until a water stop at about 2k then steadily pulled away. Hit 3 miles in 15:29 but didn't feel nearly as good as I had hoped. I ran 5:07 then 5:03 and then had to fight like hell for a 5:15 and a long slow finish in 32:07, meaning that 6 mark may have been a bit short. Not very happy with this but tried to remind myself that during the base you need to judge yourself based on your workouts not your races but I felt like I should be able to almost tempo a 32 at this point and really expected to be more in the 31:20 to 31:40 range at this point based on the 5k a couple weeks ago. 3+ cool down with Dedo.
Friday 5AM 8 miles easy in 58 minutes then about 15 hours in a Uhaul. Importantly I learned that Arby's makes a mean chocolate shake...
Saturday AM road 12 pretty hilly, 1:21:14, felt ok at best spent rest of day mostly moving furniture and eating junk food.
Sunday AM 3 mile warm up, light drills, 4x very steep .27 mile hill repeats with slow jog down- so steep I didn't have much choice about this. ran 2:10, 2:11, 2:11, 2:07. According to strava the grade on this bad larry was 19% and I believe it. Very much like Mount Washington in terms of steapness. I was very happy that my calves and glutes were burning and hurting on this as well as my quads. That is not normal for me, in fact it is the first time my glutes have really burned on hills in my life and I'm hoping that is sign of better form. 2.5 mile cool down
Summary low 90's for mileage, three good efforts. I was really feeling like shit most of the week and it could be the heat and the travel but as I was warming up on Sunday I sort of recognized that I felt like my iron was getting a bit low. After it got too high a long while back I stopped taking iron supplements and recently I have not been eating nearly as much red meat. Also in the summer is when I generally had trouble with this. I am taking some dietary steps to address this and may get blood work, though it is unlikely I'll have time this week, if I do I'll post it. However if this is the case I expect that an increased intake of iron and some cooler weather will make a world of difference. I was super anemic in the summer of 2008 and after running a couple of 32 minute plus 10k type efforts in late June/early August and some abysmal workouts I got after the red meat and a few other things and the weather cooled off and I ran two of my best 10k's ever at The Classic 10k in Atlanta, 30:33 for a savagely hilly course getting some great scalps I finished one place ahead of a 2:08 guy and once place behind a guy who had run mid 28's at Peachtree that year. Then a 29:44 at Cow Harbor which is still my best time on that course and the only time I beat Jason Lehmkuhle. It would be really nice if this is the case again this year as I really want to be sub 31 at cow harbor this year and just a little sharpening work alone isn't likely to pull me from 32:07 to that in 5 weeks.
Hope you are running well and looking forward to cross country!
Monday AM 2.5 mile warm up with some drills and light strides, 14 mile fundamental tempo run around Phillips fields drifting from around 5:50 pace at the start down to 5:24 for the last mile, felt real good. It helped that temps were down around 80 and the humidity was under 50%. Ran 1:19:17 for the 14 miles, about 5:40 pace.
Early PM drills, lifting and a circuit with Anna, then a bit of massage. The massage hurt a lot more than the circuit.
PM 4 miles with Uta and Melissa around Phillips fields in 32:31.
Tuesday early PM road 10 solo in 1:06:31
later in PM 4.5 miles around Phillips fields with Melissa and Uta in 36:25
Wednesday AM road 5 with Uta in 35:07, bit hot for her
PM road 10 in 1:07:31, trying to take it easy
Thursday no run in the AM but I did a few miles of walking with Uta, then loaded a Uhaul with furniture for the Father in Law, then cut down a dying tree in my yard that was dangerously close to the power lines. This got a bit squirrely but a neighbor had a wedge with saved my butt- I owe him an edible arrangement or something!
PM 3.5 easy warm up with fellow UML alum Jason Dedonato, aka Dedo, we missed a turn. Then some strides and a 30 second hard effort, few drills mixed in. Race Saunders at Rye harbor 10k, goal was to run the first half at 5:10 pace and then open up. Course is pretty flat, sorta false flat uphill for two miles after a flat opener, then false flat down hill for two miles before a flat last 2k. I was in second until a water stop at about 2k then steadily pulled away. Hit 3 miles in 15:29 but didn't feel nearly as good as I had hoped. I ran 5:07 then 5:03 and then had to fight like hell for a 5:15 and a long slow finish in 32:07, meaning that 6 mark may have been a bit short. Not very happy with this but tried to remind myself that during the base you need to judge yourself based on your workouts not your races but I felt like I should be able to almost tempo a 32 at this point and really expected to be more in the 31:20 to 31:40 range at this point based on the 5k a couple weeks ago. 3+ cool down with Dedo.
Friday 5AM 8 miles easy in 58 minutes then about 15 hours in a Uhaul. Importantly I learned that Arby's makes a mean chocolate shake...
Saturday AM road 12 pretty hilly, 1:21:14, felt ok at best spent rest of day mostly moving furniture and eating junk food.
Sunday AM 3 mile warm up, light drills, 4x very steep .27 mile hill repeats with slow jog down- so steep I didn't have much choice about this. ran 2:10, 2:11, 2:11, 2:07. According to strava the grade on this bad larry was 19% and I believe it. Very much like Mount Washington in terms of steapness. I was very happy that my calves and glutes were burning and hurting on this as well as my quads. That is not normal for me, in fact it is the first time my glutes have really burned on hills in my life and I'm hoping that is sign of better form. 2.5 mile cool down
Summary low 90's for mileage, three good efforts. I was really feeling like shit most of the week and it could be the heat and the travel but as I was warming up on Sunday I sort of recognized that I felt like my iron was getting a bit low. After it got too high a long while back I stopped taking iron supplements and recently I have not been eating nearly as much red meat. Also in the summer is when I generally had trouble with this. I am taking some dietary steps to address this and may get blood work, though it is unlikely I'll have time this week, if I do I'll post it. However if this is the case I expect that an increased intake of iron and some cooler weather will make a world of difference. I was super anemic in the summer of 2008 and after running a couple of 32 minute plus 10k type efforts in late June/early August and some abysmal workouts I got after the red meat and a few other things and the weather cooled off and I ran two of my best 10k's ever at The Classic 10k in Atlanta, 30:33 for a savagely hilly course getting some great scalps I finished one place ahead of a 2:08 guy and once place behind a guy who had run mid 28's at Peachtree that year. Then a 29:44 at Cow Harbor which is still my best time on that course and the only time I beat Jason Lehmkuhle. It would be really nice if this is the case again this year as I really want to be sub 31 at cow harbor this year and just a little sharpening work alone isn't likely to pull me from 32:07 to that in 5 weeks.
Hope you are running well and looking forward to cross country!
Monday, July 24, 2017
Training Blog July 17 to 23, 2017
Monday AM road 5 with Uta, 35:41
PM road 10, solo, 1:03:32
Tuesday AM road 5 with Melissa and Uta, 39:26
PM 3.8 warm up, drills, 30x100m all but one in the 15s, slipped up on 5th or 6th one and ran a 16.1, 3.8 cool down
Wednesday AM 13.3 miles, 1:33:59, first 2 miles and last two miles with Melissa and Anna on Chelmsford rail trail.
PM 4 miles on road, first 2 with Uta, 30:15
Thursday AM 5 mile 37:19, with Uta
PM road 10, 1:05:05
Friday AM on Phillips Academy fields, 2 warm up, 20k fundamental pace tempo, 1:12:55
noon drills, some lifting and massage with Anna
Saturday AM rail trail 5.2 with Melissa
PM road 10, 1:06:27
Sunday AM 3 mile warm up, drills, strides, 200m in 31, jogging, Aussie Quarters goal was to run 50 for the recovery 200's and 68 for the on four hundreds. I went 46/68/51/67/51/68/50/68/50/68/50/68/50/68/49/67 for 15:49 for the full 3 miles. A long way off sub 15 and where I want to be but a small step in the right direction. 3.5 cool down
PM road 10 with Melissa, 1:18:14
Summary 115 miles, three good workouts. All and all a decent week. Some nice training. Getting back to some lifting. I need to get into yoga again in the next couple weeks. Other than that really just trying to string some more weeks together and keep making the baby steps towards some good fitness.
Hope you are well.
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PM road 10, solo, 1:03:32
Tuesday AM road 5 with Melissa and Uta, 39:26
PM 3.8 warm up, drills, 30x100m all but one in the 15s, slipped up on 5th or 6th one and ran a 16.1, 3.8 cool down
Wednesday AM 13.3 miles, 1:33:59, first 2 miles and last two miles with Melissa and Anna on Chelmsford rail trail.
PM 4 miles on road, first 2 with Uta, 30:15
Thursday AM 5 mile 37:19, with Uta
PM road 10, 1:05:05
Friday AM on Phillips Academy fields, 2 warm up, 20k fundamental pace tempo, 1:12:55
noon drills, some lifting and massage with Anna
Saturday AM rail trail 5.2 with Melissa
PM road 10, 1:06:27
Sunday AM 3 mile warm up, drills, strides, 200m in 31, jogging, Aussie Quarters goal was to run 50 for the recovery 200's and 68 for the on four hundreds. I went 46/68/51/67/51/68/50/68/50/68/50/68/50/68/49/67 for 15:49 for the full 3 miles. A long way off sub 15 and where I want to be but a small step in the right direction. 3.5 cool down
PM road 10 with Melissa, 1:18:14
Summary 115 miles, three good workouts. All and all a decent week. Some nice training. Getting back to some lifting. I need to get into yoga again in the next couple weeks. Other than that really just trying to string some more weeks together and keep making the baby steps towards some good fitness.
Hope you are well.
If you want 10% off some rabbit gear click the link below..
http://rabbit.refr.cc/nathanielj
Monday, July 10, 2017
Weekly Training Blog July 3 to 9, 2017
Monday AM 6 miles on roads and trails in Saratoga, NY, 46:10, first couple of miles with Melissa and Uta.
PM 4.3 miles on roads and trails in Saratoga, 29:54, solo.
Tuesday AM about 3 miles warm up, some with Melissa, some drills, some strides. Race Firecracker 4 mile, 6th place 20:08, basically just turned myself inside out trying to stay with Scott Mindel. Both of us were hoping to slip under 20:00 but just couldn't quite hold it up the last hill before the finish. Splits 4:52(got sucked out by all the fast starting youngsters. At 400m I was in about 40th place with 2 or 3 high school girls in front of me), 9:53(5:01), starting to hurt pretty good, 14:55(5:02), I was basically all out at this point. last mile was 5:12. I was really struggling. Good run for where I'm at but I would have been thrilled to slide under 20 at this point. 2 mile cool down some with Melissa and Uta
PM 4 miles on roads back home solo, 28:46
Wednesday AM ~9 miles, I don't have an exact time. Running with melissa, about 5 or 6 miles in Melissa tripped and really bashed her knee. I ran home to get the car and go pick her up but had shut my watch off for part of that return trip and it wasn't my normal route, I took the most direct way back, so I don't know the exact distance or time. Melissa got X-rays and nothing broken but the knee was the size of a softball for a couple days.
PM 5.1 miles on road with Uta, in 36:03
Thursday AM 3.8 warm up to track, some drills, 16x200 meters for speed with full 400m jog breaks in about 2mins. The idea is to be fresh for each 200 as to run with good form and work on the muscular side of things. averaged just over 31 for the 200's. 3.8 cool down.
Friday AM road and trail 10 solo, 1:09:01
PM road 5 with Uta, 33:07
Saturday Noon 1.5 warm up, very slow with Melissa and Uta as Melissa tested out the knee. Then 10 mile fundamental tempo around Phillips fields, very humid!, 58:00. Really dehydrated by the end.
Sunday AM road and trail 12, 1:25:20
Summary about 90 miles for the week, three quality sessions, one of which was the race which was a very nice step in the right direction. Looking back at this week I would say that I'm actually training now which is nice to see. I should start to progress fairly quickly now.
This week Melissa and I are going to Bemidji, Mn to stay at Dick Beardsley's bed and breakfast, see the headwaters of the Mississippi and do some exploring. I'm really excited about the trip. I love travel, I love got places I've never been. Melissa has agreed to go fishing with Dick and I which is awesome and the place looks really good for running. As with any travel week however it means my training plans are quite flexible and we'll just see how things turn out.
Last fun thing for the week is resting HR. I don't use heart rate much for training but I have long used my resting HR when I wake up as a gauge of how my body was doing. I have a pretty low HR after all these years though it does go up when I have a lay off. Anyway one of the things I love about the garmin watch I have is that it tracks hr and gives you an average resting HR as well as your low for the last 4 hours. It is just more accurate than checking your pulse as you are getting up. Generally speaking my average resting is just about 40 bpm. Give or take 3 or 4 beats. When I haven't run in a month or more that comes up to the high 40s or even low 50s. However for whatever reason on Thursday this week it was much lower,
It isn't the best pic but if you look to you can see my HR at the moment on the left was 47 bpm but my average resting HR to the right was 30. This is very low for me. I know when I had surgery on my back the nurse said I stayed pretty steady around 26 bpm, but I sorta figured that was artificially low because of the anesthesia. Over the years I have often had it down around 30 when I checked it in the morning but this is the first time since I got the watch that I have had an average this low. Occasionally it has dipped into the 20's for a minute or two but not had that as a resting average. Anyway I just find it neat. Hope you are well.
PM 4.3 miles on roads and trails in Saratoga, 29:54, solo.
Tuesday AM about 3 miles warm up, some with Melissa, some drills, some strides. Race Firecracker 4 mile, 6th place 20:08, basically just turned myself inside out trying to stay with Scott Mindel. Both of us were hoping to slip under 20:00 but just couldn't quite hold it up the last hill before the finish. Splits 4:52(got sucked out by all the fast starting youngsters. At 400m I was in about 40th place with 2 or 3 high school girls in front of me), 9:53(5:01), starting to hurt pretty good, 14:55(5:02), I was basically all out at this point. last mile was 5:12. I was really struggling. Good run for where I'm at but I would have been thrilled to slide under 20 at this point. 2 mile cool down some with Melissa and Uta
PM 4 miles on roads back home solo, 28:46
Wednesday AM ~9 miles, I don't have an exact time. Running with melissa, about 5 or 6 miles in Melissa tripped and really bashed her knee. I ran home to get the car and go pick her up but had shut my watch off for part of that return trip and it wasn't my normal route, I took the most direct way back, so I don't know the exact distance or time. Melissa got X-rays and nothing broken but the knee was the size of a softball for a couple days.
PM 5.1 miles on road with Uta, in 36:03
Thursday AM 3.8 warm up to track, some drills, 16x200 meters for speed with full 400m jog breaks in about 2mins. The idea is to be fresh for each 200 as to run with good form and work on the muscular side of things. averaged just over 31 for the 200's. 3.8 cool down.
Friday AM road and trail 10 solo, 1:09:01
PM road 5 with Uta, 33:07
Saturday Noon 1.5 warm up, very slow with Melissa and Uta as Melissa tested out the knee. Then 10 mile fundamental tempo around Phillips fields, very humid!, 58:00. Really dehydrated by the end.
Sunday AM road and trail 12, 1:25:20
Summary about 90 miles for the week, three quality sessions, one of which was the race which was a very nice step in the right direction. Looking back at this week I would say that I'm actually training now which is nice to see. I should start to progress fairly quickly now.
This week Melissa and I are going to Bemidji, Mn to stay at Dick Beardsley's bed and breakfast, see the headwaters of the Mississippi and do some exploring. I'm really excited about the trip. I love travel, I love got places I've never been. Melissa has agreed to go fishing with Dick and I which is awesome and the place looks really good for running. As with any travel week however it means my training plans are quite flexible and we'll just see how things turn out.
Last fun thing for the week is resting HR. I don't use heart rate much for training but I have long used my resting HR when I wake up as a gauge of how my body was doing. I have a pretty low HR after all these years though it does go up when I have a lay off. Anyway one of the things I love about the garmin watch I have is that it tracks hr and gives you an average resting HR as well as your low for the last 4 hours. It is just more accurate than checking your pulse as you are getting up. Generally speaking my average resting is just about 40 bpm. Give or take 3 or 4 beats. When I haven't run in a month or more that comes up to the high 40s or even low 50s. However for whatever reason on Thursday this week it was much lower,
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Training Blog May 29 to June 4
Monday AM 9.1 miles with Uta around Phillips in 54:19, sort of an unplanned fundamental tempo
Tuesday PM 5 miles at Phillips with Uta and Melissa, 41:37
Wednesday PM 3+ warm up 15 strides with jog back recoveries, 3+ cool down. Calf a bit tired/sore after this
Thursday PM 4 miles with Uta, 27:28
Friday PM 9 miles around Phillips, 1:06:34, first 5 with Melissa and Uta
Saturday AM 6 miles road with Uta, 40:33
Sunday PM road 10 solo, 1:04:50
Summary 52 miles for the week. Two moderate efforts. I did a bunch of feldenkrais stuff but didn't make any breakthroughs or anything. Some of it is very neat/weird. Tough to describe but you really have this moments when you feel like you are reprogramming your mind/body connection.
My calf is a bit tired but I haven't had a day off in 16 days so I'll take one tomorrow. Next couple of weeks are pretty busy but then summer comes and the living is easy.
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Tuesday PM 5 miles at Phillips with Uta and Melissa, 41:37
Wednesday PM 3+ warm up 15 strides with jog back recoveries, 3+ cool down. Calf a bit tired/sore after this
Thursday PM 4 miles with Uta, 27:28
Friday PM 9 miles around Phillips, 1:06:34, first 5 with Melissa and Uta
Saturday AM 6 miles road with Uta, 40:33
Sunday PM road 10 solo, 1:04:50
This is a pic of me eating pickles, you know because they are delicious and we needed to go grocery shopping. That is why I'm eating the pickles I'm posting the pic because I feel like the blog needs more photos.
Summary 52 miles for the week. Two moderate efforts. I did a bunch of feldenkrais stuff but didn't make any breakthroughs or anything. Some of it is very neat/weird. Tough to describe but you really have this moments when you feel like you are reprogramming your mind/body connection.
My calf is a bit tired but I haven't had a day off in 16 days so I'll take one tomorrow. Next couple of weeks are pretty busy but then summer comes and the living is easy.
Oh and least I forget if you want to try some Rabbit gear use this link and you get 10% off
http://rabbit.refr.cc/nathanielj
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Sunday, February 26, 2017
Training February 20 to 26, 2017
Before getting into this weeks training rather then repeat myself constantly through each day gushing about the weather let me just say if I had this weather during my April vacation I would be thrilled. The long term implications of winters like this are obviously bad but short term every run this week was a pleasure. Heck today's run would normally be some of the best February weather I would get and it was some of the worst I saw all week. Awesome for the motivation, bad for our future.
9AM 10.1 solo, 1:04:20 on roads.
2PM road 4 solo, 26:25
3:45PM drills, strides and massage with Anna
Tuesday 8AM 3 warm up with Uta, half mile more solo, drills, stides, 3 mile rolling tempo run 15:17 (5:02, 5:05, 5:10), 2mins recovery with drills- 10x30 second hills focus on form and power. 3+ cool down after run 6x10 weighted lunges starting at 45lbs up to 95lbs.
5PM road 4 solo, 28:25
Wednesday 7AM bikram yoga-90mins
9AM road 16.1 solo, stopped for drills because of coordination at about 13 miles, 1:43:15
Thursday 8AM 3.1 warm up, drills- about 12mins worth, strides, 6x mile on road. Lightly rolling point to point stretch, more up on even reps, 3mins recovery with 3 to 4 drills in each recovery. 4:59, 5:04, 4:54, 5:02, 4:54, 5:03, 2.3 cool down, 16:00, after run 6x6 deadlifts starting at 135lbs up to 185lbs.
Friday 7AM bikram yoga-90mins
9AM road 10.1 mile with Uta, 1:07:13
5PM road 4 solo, 28:25
Saturday 9AM road 4 with Uta, who was tired from yesterday and watching over her Mom and I all week, 29:51
11AM massage and treatment with Brad
3PM at North Andover Track, 3 warm up, full drill set about 15mins, 30x100m focus on relaxation, felt great- average 15.3 but felt controlled and easy, jog back recoveries then a 200 in 30.7 just to hold the pace a bit longer, again felt smooth and great. 200 jog then a mile cool down- short on time.
Sunday 8AM 2.7 warm up,20:23, drills about 15mins worth, 19.1 mile fundamental tempo run, 1:49:34 about 5:44 pace, felt great but had to stop for drills because of coordination just after 8 miles and just after 15miles. ran 6:10 for the 9th mile with drills but really rolling in the closing miles and ran 5:47 for the 16th mile with the drills.
Summary 109 miles for week, first 100 plus mile week of 2017. Two good hard sessions and two good moderate sessions. I'm thrilled with the progression of the form in terms of how I feel at speed. I have maybe never felt as good running 15 second hundreds as I did Saturday. Keep in mind my all time 400m PB is 58.8 (14.7 per 100m). I continued to feel just amazingly easy on the fundamental tempo today. But and it is really a BUT!!! As easy as it felt I started to come apart form wise after 5 or 6 miles and I started to feel the coordination going so I did the 3 hop exchange. The nice thing is that is like starting over in 20 seconds and I then get right back in the game without letting the heart rate drop and so I can do workouts like this. Actually if I find I go about the same distance at marathon pace 7 to 9 miles without loosing coordination I might even consider doing a marathon and just excepting that I'll be giving away a minute or two doing drills three times during the race. Not ideal but if your in 2:15 shape a minute or two back isn't really all that different. Still my hope is that with the continued drill work, all told I did over an hour of drills this week, and strength work I will get stronger and be able to hold the form for longer and longer and perhaps finally put the coordination problems to bed.
Me at USATF-NE last weekend, that is my college coach and former boss, also one of my groomsmen Gary Gardner on the infield. Also notice the dude behind me barefoot! I like me some barefoot running but not on a mondo track surface that will peal some skin right off. Photo by Leslie Whiting Poitras
Monday 7AM bikram yoga-90mins9AM 10.1 solo, 1:04:20 on roads.
2PM road 4 solo, 26:25
3:45PM drills, strides and massage with Anna
Tuesday 8AM 3 warm up with Uta, half mile more solo, drills, stides, 3 mile rolling tempo run 15:17 (5:02, 5:05, 5:10), 2mins recovery with drills- 10x30 second hills focus on form and power. 3+ cool down after run 6x10 weighted lunges starting at 45lbs up to 95lbs.
5PM road 4 solo, 28:25
Wednesday 7AM bikram yoga-90mins
9AM road 16.1 solo, stopped for drills because of coordination at about 13 miles, 1:43:15
Thursday 8AM 3.1 warm up, drills- about 12mins worth, strides, 6x mile on road. Lightly rolling point to point stretch, more up on even reps, 3mins recovery with 3 to 4 drills in each recovery. 4:59, 5:04, 4:54, 5:02, 4:54, 5:03, 2.3 cool down, 16:00, after run 6x6 deadlifts starting at 135lbs up to 185lbs.
Friday 7AM bikram yoga-90mins
9AM road 10.1 mile with Uta, 1:07:13
5PM road 4 solo, 28:25
Saturday 9AM road 4 with Uta, who was tired from yesterday and watching over her Mom and I all week, 29:51
11AM massage and treatment with Brad
3PM at North Andover Track, 3 warm up, full drill set about 15mins, 30x100m focus on relaxation, felt great- average 15.3 but felt controlled and easy, jog back recoveries then a 200 in 30.7 just to hold the pace a bit longer, again felt smooth and great. 200 jog then a mile cool down- short on time.
Sunday 8AM 2.7 warm up,20:23, drills about 15mins worth, 19.1 mile fundamental tempo run, 1:49:34 about 5:44 pace, felt great but had to stop for drills because of coordination just after 8 miles and just after 15miles. ran 6:10 for the 9th mile with drills but really rolling in the closing miles and ran 5:47 for the 16th mile with the drills.
Summary 109 miles for week, first 100 plus mile week of 2017. Two good hard sessions and two good moderate sessions. I'm thrilled with the progression of the form in terms of how I feel at speed. I have maybe never felt as good running 15 second hundreds as I did Saturday. Keep in mind my all time 400m PB is 58.8 (14.7 per 100m). I continued to feel just amazingly easy on the fundamental tempo today. But and it is really a BUT!!! As easy as it felt I started to come apart form wise after 5 or 6 miles and I started to feel the coordination going so I did the 3 hop exchange. The nice thing is that is like starting over in 20 seconds and I then get right back in the game without letting the heart rate drop and so I can do workouts like this. Actually if I find I go about the same distance at marathon pace 7 to 9 miles without loosing coordination I might even consider doing a marathon and just excepting that I'll be giving away a minute or two doing drills three times during the race. Not ideal but if your in 2:15 shape a minute or two back isn't really all that different. Still my hope is that with the continued drill work, all told I did over an hour of drills this week, and strength work I will get stronger and be able to hold the form for longer and longer and perhaps finally put the coordination problems to bed.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Training January 23 to 29, 2017
Monday AM road 4.25, 34:03, first 3 miles with Uta and Melissa.
PM Raleigh tavern 10 mile, 1:06:58, felt good. 6x6 dead lifts after starting at 125 up to 175lbs.
Tuesday PM road 4 with Uta and Melissa, 32:03. Felt really run down today and it was a cold rain. I should have gone to the gym but it seemed like it was down raining. I decided to scrap the workout and take a hot shower.
Wednesday PM 13.3 on roads solo, 1:26:27.
Thursday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:36
PM 3.1 warm up, drills and strides 6x mile point to point on dale st. with 3mins recovery during which I would do 3 or 4 drills, odds were wind at my back, evens were into a pretty solid wind, I didn't check pace on the watch much, or at all on some reps, just ran what felt like 10k to half marathon pace range. the point to point is not track flat at all but no serious hills either. Basically lightly rolling the whole way. 4:59, 5:06, 5:00, 5:06, 4:57, 5:09. 10 seconds recovery then 2.7 cool down, interestingly total distance was actually a tenth longer then the medium long run last night, with the drills included. I was not really feeling doing a workout tonight so I was happy to get this done.
Friday AM road 4 with Uta, 29:37
PM Raleigh tavern 10 mile, 1:07:17, 6x6 squats after starting at 95lbs up to 145lbs.
Saturday AM road 4 with Uta, 27:06 tot. 4
PM Raleigh tavern 10 mile, 1:06:58, felt good. 6x6 dead lifts after starting at 125 up to 175lbs.
Tuesday PM road 4 with Uta and Melissa, 32:03. Felt really run down today and it was a cold rain. I should have gone to the gym but it seemed like it was down raining. I decided to scrap the workout and take a hot shower.
Run this one from last weekend again because I'm too lazy to take up to date photos.
Thursday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:36
PM 3.1 warm up, drills and strides 6x mile point to point on dale st. with 3mins recovery during which I would do 3 or 4 drills, odds were wind at my back, evens were into a pretty solid wind, I didn't check pace on the watch much, or at all on some reps, just ran what felt like 10k to half marathon pace range. the point to point is not track flat at all but no serious hills either. Basically lightly rolling the whole way. 4:59, 5:06, 5:00, 5:06, 4:57, 5:09. 10 seconds recovery then 2.7 cool down, interestingly total distance was actually a tenth longer then the medium long run last night, with the drills included. I was not really feeling doing a workout tonight so I was happy to get this done.
Friday AM road 4 with Uta, 29:37
PM Raleigh tavern 10 mile, 1:07:17, 6x6 squats after starting at 95lbs up to 145lbs.
Saturday AM road 4 with Uta, 27:06 tot. 4
Puppy sitting round two
PM at North Andover track, 3 mile warm up, extensive drill set, 30x100 with jog back recovery. Averaged 15.7 with a fast rep of 15.4 and a slow rep of 16.1, it was windy but it was from the side. 3 mile cool down.
Sunday AM 2.1 warm up with Uta, drop her off at house, jog 3/10ths to my start area. Some drills- a skip, b skip, c skip, fast exchange, both side drills both ways, karaoke, 3 hop fast exchange, hopping, 1 stride, 15 mile fundamental tempo on figure 8 loop. stopped for 3 hop fast exchange just after 8 mile split- a mile earlier then 2 weeks ago, to avoid losing coordination. Felt very tired the last mile, 5:49 average pace. Fastest mile 5:40 (1st, 7th, and 13th), slowest mile 6:12- 9th with drills mixed in, for an all running mile my 2nd mile was 5:59, 45 feet elevation gain from start to finish. 3/10ths cool down back to house. total a bit over 18 miles.
Summary 96 miles for the week, three good sessions, though the 100's certainly are not a hard session more of a moderate, like a quality training run in terms of what they take out of you but mentally your not on auto pilot nearly as much. The fundamental tempo is also a fairly moderate effort, my HR never exceeded 155 and generally stays in the 140's, came up as I struggled at the end today. I think my max is around 200 to 205.
Missing the workout Tuesday was stupid. I planned on going to the gym but the rain seemed to have stopped so I changed up and did my exercises and headed out the door. Perhaps a half hour had passed and it was back to a soaking cold rain. I was chilled to the bone after a 4 mile warm up so I called it. Very avoidable. Ended up with a good week overall so not a huge deal but a bit frustrating. I'm not a kid anymore so I don't like making dumb mistakes.
A bit on the fundamental tempo. As you may have noticed I'm measuring my runs with a garmin since Christmas. Thank you Melissa!! I really love it. For the most part it turns out I have been running a bit more than I thought. That said it seems when I run faster the garmin says I'm not going as far. I mentioned the Mona loop last week. With the fundamental tempo loop it is similar. So according to the garmin I ran 15 miles at 5:49 pace. According to gmap pedometer it was 15.55 miles at 5:36 pace. Honestly it doesn't matter much to me which is right or if it was somewhere in between. That said it is important for me to recognize that when gauging fitness I have measured loops using gmaps for years so it is an apple and orange comparison to say "oh today I could only run 5:49 pace and back in the day I did 5:22 pace I suck." So regardless of which measure is correct what is important in comparison is realizing I'm 14 seconds per mile behind my better efforts not 27 seconds per mile.
Next this week I stopped a mile earlier for the drills then when I did this session two weeks ago. I actually think this might be good news. I have for a while believed that my shoulder mobility and weakness issues. This week I added new shoulder exercises. Basically reverse pull ups. That said I'm sore as hell in my lats and shoulders and that I struggled to hold coordination in that state makes me think I'll do a much better job of holding coordination when I make progress in improving this area. In the mean time I was very excited that doing the 3 hop fast exchange again seems like a complete reset. I think I would have made it to at least 16 miles in control which is awesome.
Hope you had a good week of training.
Summary 96 miles for the week, three good sessions, though the 100's certainly are not a hard session more of a moderate, like a quality training run in terms of what they take out of you but mentally your not on auto pilot nearly as much. The fundamental tempo is also a fairly moderate effort, my HR never exceeded 155 and generally stays in the 140's, came up as I struggled at the end today. I think my max is around 200 to 205.
Missing the workout Tuesday was stupid. I planned on going to the gym but the rain seemed to have stopped so I changed up and did my exercises and headed out the door. Perhaps a half hour had passed and it was back to a soaking cold rain. I was chilled to the bone after a 4 mile warm up so I called it. Very avoidable. Ended up with a good week overall so not a huge deal but a bit frustrating. I'm not a kid anymore so I don't like making dumb mistakes.
A bit on the fundamental tempo. As you may have noticed I'm measuring my runs with a garmin since Christmas. Thank you Melissa!! I really love it. For the most part it turns out I have been running a bit more than I thought. That said it seems when I run faster the garmin says I'm not going as far. I mentioned the Mona loop last week. With the fundamental tempo loop it is similar. So according to the garmin I ran 15 miles at 5:49 pace. According to gmap pedometer it was 15.55 miles at 5:36 pace. Honestly it doesn't matter much to me which is right or if it was somewhere in between. That said it is important for me to recognize that when gauging fitness I have measured loops using gmaps for years so it is an apple and orange comparison to say "oh today I could only run 5:49 pace and back in the day I did 5:22 pace I suck." So regardless of which measure is correct what is important in comparison is realizing I'm 14 seconds per mile behind my better efforts not 27 seconds per mile.
Next this week I stopped a mile earlier for the drills then when I did this session two weeks ago. I actually think this might be good news. I have for a while believed that my shoulder mobility and weakness issues. This week I added new shoulder exercises. Basically reverse pull ups. That said I'm sore as hell in my lats and shoulders and that I struggled to hold coordination in that state makes me think I'll do a much better job of holding coordination when I make progress in improving this area. In the mean time I was very excited that doing the 3 hop fast exchange again seems like a complete reset. I think I would have made it to at least 16 miles in control which is awesome.
Hope you had a good week of training.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Training Week January 9 to 15, 2017
Monday AM road 4 with Uta, 5 degrees, 30:23 tot. 4
PM raliegh tavern 10, roads snowy/icy, 1:11:07, dead lifts after 7x6 starting a 115lbs up to 175lbs
Tuesday PM 3 warm up with Uta, drop her off, jog to start of loop, drills, strides, 3 mile tempo on winter street dumbell, 15:33, felt good, 10x 30 second hills focus on form, putting weight in ass/driving knees about 90% effort, 3 mile cool down.
Wednesday PM raliegh tavern 12.1 solo, legs tired after yesterday, 1:21:54
Thursday AM road 4 solo, 30:24
PM so warm I got to wear shorts, raliegh tavern 10 solo, first 3 easy, middle 4 I mixed in 20 short sprints, last 3 easy, 1:07:33, 6x6 squats after start at 95lbs up to 135lbs
Friday PM boxford 10 mile, we did a potluck lunch at school and I ate way too much and it made this run pretty unpleasant, 1:11:16
PM raliegh tavern 10, roads snowy/icy, 1:11:07, dead lifts after 7x6 starting a 115lbs up to 175lbs
Tuesday PM 3 warm up with Uta, drop her off, jog to start of loop, drills, strides, 3 mile tempo on winter street dumbell, 15:33, felt good, 10x 30 second hills focus on form, putting weight in ass/driving knees about 90% effort, 3 mile cool down.
Wednesday PM raliegh tavern 12.1 solo, legs tired after yesterday, 1:21:54
Thursday AM road 4 solo, 30:24
PM so warm I got to wear shorts, raliegh tavern 10 solo, first 3 easy, middle 4 I mixed in 20 short sprints, last 3 easy, 1:07:33, 6x6 squats after start at 95lbs up to 135lbs
Friday PM boxford 10 mile, we did a potluck lunch at school and I ate way too much and it made this run pretty unpleasant, 1:11:16
Friday night we puppy sat Anna's new puppy Luca. As you can see this was very rough on Uta.
Saturday AM road 4 mile with Uta, 25:58
PM 3 plus warm up, full drills, couple light strides, 16x200m average 32.0 with slow 200 jog recovery, average 1:15. 3+ cool down, legs bit flat but kept it pretty easy. Would have liked to be a bit quicker but more important to keep this relaxed and muscular only.
Sunday AM 3 warm up with Uta, drop her off, jog bit under a half mile out to start, a skip, b skip, a+c skip, fast exchange, side skips (2 types), fast exchange with 3 hops, hopping. 13 mile fundamental tempo, 1:15:31 on rolling course, felt pretty easy. Coordination started to act up at about 9 miles so I did 3 hop fast exchange for 40 meters or so and felt great from then on. I actually felt like I could just keep going.
Summary 95 miles for week, 1 fairly hard workout and 3 nice moderate sessions. I'm very happy with this week. I really enjoyed the fundamental tempo and was very happy with how the leg felt after the 3 hop fast exchange. Time will tell if this helps to get me to stop losing coordination all together so I can race long but in terms of doing a workout like this I'm fine with doing 40 meters of drills every 8 to 10 miles. Anything to do this quicker long runs. I absolutely love running easy at a good clip for longer distances.
Only downside this week was missing a few morning runs. I was feeling like I was on the edge of a cold all week and slept in to 5:50am a couple of days to try and stay not sick.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
My Current Training Plan
This is an outline of my training schedule for the near future. Basically until I get really fit or come up with a goal race. This is a base phase or general fitness schedule. This is not targeting racing well. It is targeting improving my overall fitness. It isn't too different from good half marathon specific training but I'm not doing it with a specific half marathon race in mind though I will likely run the New Bedford Half Marathon in March as well as the Jones 10 mile in February and a 15k in early April.
This schedule is designed around four main goals. In no order to return general aerobic fitness, to improve lactic threshold, to improve muscular power and efficiency, and to touch on every major training speed and effort in each two week cycle. The workouts I selected were selected based on two main criteria. First did they accomplish the training goal and second they had to work with the training resources and limitations I have currently. Ie, I need to be able to do them without a track, in a New England winter, and in the dark as 11 out of 13 of my runs each week from early November until March are generally run in the dark.
I like repeating a similar or even identical micro cycle a few times through a phase of training. Partially because I can gauge how my body is progressing but also I'm just a very habital person who if I didn't give a damn about performance would probably do the same double every day over the same routes at the same effort. I like what I'm doing to be a bit mindless so I can focus entirely on doing it well. Or at least that is the excuse I give myself.
Without further B.S. here is the schedule
For both week one and two I do an easy morning run, almost always 4 miles because of time constraints, Monday through Saturday. On Saturday the run maybe done as the afternoon session and it maybe longer.
Week 1
Monday in the afternoon I'll do 10 miles at a steady effort- generally between 6:00 and 7:00 per mile, depending on conditions and how I'm feeling. This is a fairly hilly run as there are a lot of hills around here. After the run I'll do either Squats, dead lifts or box jumps. The run is for recovery and general aerobic fitness, the exercises are for range of motion in my hips, power in my ankles and glutes and to increase strength as a means of increasing efficiency.
Tuesday in the afternoon I'll do a Mona Fartlek (http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html) This is most importantly a bounce threshold or alternation session. I would actually prefer to do Aussie quarters, (http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2014/12/workout-wednesday-australian-quarters.html) right now to be able to focus on specific paces but with no indoor track option that isn't happening. The secondary focus of this session is to touch on a bunch of quicker paces 5k down to perhaps mile. After this session I'll do either squats, deadlifts, or box jumps.
Wednesday in the afternoon I'll do a medium long run. Right now that is only 12 miles I'll build it up to 16, I should go up to 18 but frankly 18 miles after work in the dark is a tall order particularly when sandwiched between two workout days. Physiologically this workout is for basic aerobic fitness and there is a time on the feet efficiency training effect for the leg muscles but for me it is much more plainly about building up my ability to run longer without coordination problems. Finally you guessed it I plan on doing either squats, deadlifts or box jumps after the run.
Thursday in the afternoon, short hill sprints- max effort very short, 10 seconds give or take. I'd prefer to keep with the 100's and the like but without a track that isn't an option and I don't have much for flat areas with good footing so short hills it is. To be honest as a general rule I like short hills better anyway but right now I want to focus on my form on the flat so I'm sorry to lose that. These are obviously a muscular exercise though they do also help increase the stroke volume of the heart. I will start the winter only doing about 10 of these but I'll increase that by 2 or 3 sprints each time. In the past I have done 30 or more sprints though I doubt I'll get to that many. It will be key for me to keep good form on these which is a struggle for me on hills but I have been improving so hopefully it will be good practice. squats, deadlifts or box jumps after
Friday 10 miles, same as Monday.
Saturday 4x2 miles at Half marathon pace. with 3min recoveries with drills. This is for lactate threshold and muscular endurance at speed. The drills help with the latter and with improving form.
Sunday Long run- I'm around 13/14 miles now will try to push out to 20 to 22. Long run is for basic aerobic fitness, efficiency and muscular endurance. I may do squats, deadlifts or box jumps after this.
Week 2
Monday same as last week
Tuesday 3 mile tempo, half marathon to marathon pace, 10x30 second hill repeats at a good effort, but not max, focus on form putting weight of stride on glutes and quads. Try not to hunch at shoulders. This is for lactate threshold and muscular power and efficiency.
Wednesday same as last week
Thursday 6 x mile at 10k pace with 2 to 3 mins recovery with drills- bit of threshold, lot of muscular efficiency and muscular endurance.
Friday same as last week
Saturday 20 to 30 x 20 second sprints fartlek style, meaning I'll just put them in on a run where the footing looks good. Full recovery. This is for muscular efficiency and endurance. Though it is also good for stroke volume but not as good as the hills.
Sunday fundamental tempo run in the 5:25 to 5:50 per mile range over rolling hills. Hopefully as the coordination improves I'll be able to increase the volume on these. This is my single favorite type of workout. I have since beginning the form work I have been able to to up to 22 miles like this but only on soft surfaces. So on the road I've been stuck in the 12 to 15 mile range on a good day. I'm going to start in the 9 mile range and try to build up. I may play with stopping for drills and continuing on in an attempt to 'teach' the body to hold the form that doesn't lead to coordination issues. This is for aerobic fitness. Sessions like this can lead to huge jumps in general aerobic fitness as well as your threshold. I actually don't know exactly why perhaps it is simply that it is an under trained area or it is that threshold is impacted well by not going over it but by testing it from below. I can tell you that these workouts changed my life as such for me I simply believe in them as an article of faith. Also as I mentioned I love doing them. Running for a long time at a quick pace is to me the single most enjoyable training experience.
This schedule is designed around four main goals. In no order to return general aerobic fitness, to improve lactic threshold, to improve muscular power and efficiency, and to touch on every major training speed and effort in each two week cycle. The workouts I selected were selected based on two main criteria. First did they accomplish the training goal and second they had to work with the training resources and limitations I have currently. Ie, I need to be able to do them without a track, in a New England winter, and in the dark as 11 out of 13 of my runs each week from early November until March are generally run in the dark.
I like repeating a similar or even identical micro cycle a few times through a phase of training. Partially because I can gauge how my body is progressing but also I'm just a very habital person who if I didn't give a damn about performance would probably do the same double every day over the same routes at the same effort. I like what I'm doing to be a bit mindless so I can focus entirely on doing it well. Or at least that is the excuse I give myself.
Without further B.S. here is the schedule
For both week one and two I do an easy morning run, almost always 4 miles because of time constraints, Monday through Saturday. On Saturday the run maybe done as the afternoon session and it maybe longer.
Week 1
Monday in the afternoon I'll do 10 miles at a steady effort- generally between 6:00 and 7:00 per mile, depending on conditions and how I'm feeling. This is a fairly hilly run as there are a lot of hills around here. After the run I'll do either Squats, dead lifts or box jumps. The run is for recovery and general aerobic fitness, the exercises are for range of motion in my hips, power in my ankles and glutes and to increase strength as a means of increasing efficiency.
Tuesday in the afternoon I'll do a Mona Fartlek (http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html) This is most importantly a bounce threshold or alternation session. I would actually prefer to do Aussie quarters, (http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2014/12/workout-wednesday-australian-quarters.html) right now to be able to focus on specific paces but with no indoor track option that isn't happening. The secondary focus of this session is to touch on a bunch of quicker paces 5k down to perhaps mile. After this session I'll do either squats, deadlifts, or box jumps.
Wednesday in the afternoon I'll do a medium long run. Right now that is only 12 miles I'll build it up to 16, I should go up to 18 but frankly 18 miles after work in the dark is a tall order particularly when sandwiched between two workout days. Physiologically this workout is for basic aerobic fitness and there is a time on the feet efficiency training effect for the leg muscles but for me it is much more plainly about building up my ability to run longer without coordination problems. Finally you guessed it I plan on doing either squats, deadlifts or box jumps after the run.
Thursday in the afternoon, short hill sprints- max effort very short, 10 seconds give or take. I'd prefer to keep with the 100's and the like but without a track that isn't an option and I don't have much for flat areas with good footing so short hills it is. To be honest as a general rule I like short hills better anyway but right now I want to focus on my form on the flat so I'm sorry to lose that. These are obviously a muscular exercise though they do also help increase the stroke volume of the heart. I will start the winter only doing about 10 of these but I'll increase that by 2 or 3 sprints each time. In the past I have done 30 or more sprints though I doubt I'll get to that many. It will be key for me to keep good form on these which is a struggle for me on hills but I have been improving so hopefully it will be good practice. squats, deadlifts or box jumps after
Friday 10 miles, same as Monday.
Saturday 4x2 miles at Half marathon pace. with 3min recoveries with drills. This is for lactate threshold and muscular endurance at speed. The drills help with the latter and with improving form.
Sunday Long run- I'm around 13/14 miles now will try to push out to 20 to 22. Long run is for basic aerobic fitness, efficiency and muscular endurance. I may do squats, deadlifts or box jumps after this.
Week 2
Monday same as last week
Tuesday 3 mile tempo, half marathon to marathon pace, 10x30 second hill repeats at a good effort, but not max, focus on form putting weight of stride on glutes and quads. Try not to hunch at shoulders. This is for lactate threshold and muscular power and efficiency.
Wednesday same as last week
Thursday 6 x mile at 10k pace with 2 to 3 mins recovery with drills- bit of threshold, lot of muscular efficiency and muscular endurance.
Friday same as last week
Saturday 20 to 30 x 20 second sprints fartlek style, meaning I'll just put them in on a run where the footing looks good. Full recovery. This is for muscular efficiency and endurance. Though it is also good for stroke volume but not as good as the hills.
Sunday fundamental tempo run in the 5:25 to 5:50 per mile range over rolling hills. Hopefully as the coordination improves I'll be able to increase the volume on these. This is my single favorite type of workout. I have since beginning the form work I have been able to to up to 22 miles like this but only on soft surfaces. So on the road I've been stuck in the 12 to 15 mile range on a good day. I'm going to start in the 9 mile range and try to build up. I may play with stopping for drills and continuing on in an attempt to 'teach' the body to hold the form that doesn't lead to coordination issues. This is for aerobic fitness. Sessions like this can lead to huge jumps in general aerobic fitness as well as your threshold. I actually don't know exactly why perhaps it is simply that it is an under trained area or it is that threshold is impacted well by not going over it but by testing it from below. I can tell you that these workouts changed my life as such for me I simply believe in them as an article of faith. Also as I mentioned I love doing them. Running for a long time at a quick pace is to me the single most enjoyable training experience.
Odds and Ends
In weeks that I race I'll just drop the hard effort from the weekend. If I race on a Sunday I'll skip the long run as well. I'm planning a few races over the winter. A 5k on the 1st. A 5 mile, a 10 mile and a track 5k in February and a half marathon in March. Hopefully by that point the winter is coming to an end and I'm getting fit and I'll be able to move onto a new training program with more specific goals.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
My Current Spin on Complex Training
I had been meaning to do a blog on this but Rich gave me a push and so here it is…
I am a huge believer that the devil of racing fast is that you need a training system and not to just be running a lot and tossing in some random workouts.
It is like cooking. Making a meal we can all pretty much figure out the ingredients and you can do pretty well as long as you put in good quality ingredients. But the key to really making a great dish is to balance the ingredients properly and to mix them in at the right times.
There are a number of great training programs out there and it is no secret that I had my greatest success using Renato Canova's program. Although I actually set my 10k best off Joe Vigil's system and honestly if I had the time on weeknights I would love to use that again. However time is a serious issue for me particularly on weekdays.
My next issue is that I like simple repetitive training. I am a creature of habit and I like to keep to a routine. With all that in mind I settled on the idea of using Australian complex training. This system was started by Pat Clohessy who coached 2:07:50 man Rob de Castella as well as 2:11 and sub 28' 10k man Chris Wardlaw. Wardlaw in turn would use the system to coach Steve Moneghetti who would run 1:00:07 and 2:08:10. A number of other of great runners came out of this system.
The basic system is workouts on Tuesday and Thursday tempo or race on Saturday a medium long run on Wednesday and a long run on Sunday. The key is in the details of this system. The track and fartlek work is almost all alternation or 'bounce' threshold style- which means the recoveries are fast enough that you get a huge improvement in your threshold when using them. The long run involves either hard climbs or a fast finish and should be run at the quicker end of your training pace. Also some form of sprinting and hills would be mixed in.
The way you adjust this program from season to season or event to event is to make twists in the sessions themselves. So when getting ready for a marathon you would do a set of Aussie quarters with slower reps but faster rest then you would when getting ready for a 5k.
Anyway I used this as my jumping off point. I love that the standard weekday workouts tend to work multiple systems and don't take too long so I can get them done and still get to bed in time to be ok to get up for the morning run the next day.
My two week cycle
Week 1
Monday- AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles
Tuesday AM 6 PM Mona Fartlek http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html
Wednesday PM medium long run 15 to 18 miles
Thursday AM 6 PM 3 miles of sprint float sprint
Friday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles
Saturday - Fundamental paced tempo(5:50 down to 5:20 pace depending on conditions and fitness) run of 15 to 25 miles
Sunday 6 and 6 double
Week 2
Monday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles
Tuesday AM 6 PM Mona Fartlek
Wednesday PM medium long run 15 to 18 miles
Thursday AM 6 PM 3 mile tempo 4x400 hills- After the winter is over I'll do Aussie Quarters http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2014/12/workout-wednesday-australian-quarters.html
Friday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles
Saturday AM Tempo run or race PM 6
Sunday AM 22 miles with last two miles fast- goal 5:00 pace.
So obviously the fundamental paced run is a Canova session. It is a session I love to do and I have finally got my coordination to the point where I can do them again. Also it is a session I get huge fitness from.
Also if I start to do marathon training I'll do marathon workouts for the long runs. I have always felt that the Aussie system was good for the marathon but not perfect. For example if you look at Steve Moneghetti's PR's he slows at just about 5 seconds per K as the distance doubles from 3k to the half marathon. If he continued this to the marathon he would have a best of 2:04:11. I think with specific work he could have run the marathon in that range off his fitness. To be clear I don't think he could have actually run that time in the early to mid 90's when he was racing at his best. He would have needed pace setters and competitors willing to chase that sort of time and that didn't exist at that time but he certainly could have been closer to it. I could and should write a whole blog on the basic idea but the short story is look at the top times in the 5k, 10k, half marathon from the 1990's and early 2000's and the times in the marathon. Look at the times today. The change in the marathon is stunning. The other events are close to the same, actually on the track a they are weaker with the drop in epo use and decrease of money in those events. Road race times are roughly the same. What happened? The kenyans and Ethiopians embraced the Italian style marathon program and began to run within 3 to 5% of their half marathon performance in the marathon.
That is my basic cycle. I can do it cover all my bases and stay healthy and almost get enough sleep to keep myself together.
I am a huge believer that the devil of racing fast is that you need a training system and not to just be running a lot and tossing in some random workouts.
It is like cooking. Making a meal we can all pretty much figure out the ingredients and you can do pretty well as long as you put in good quality ingredients. But the key to really making a great dish is to balance the ingredients properly and to mix them in at the right times.
There are a number of great training programs out there and it is no secret that I had my greatest success using Renato Canova's program. Although I actually set my 10k best off Joe Vigil's system and honestly if I had the time on weeknights I would love to use that again. However time is a serious issue for me particularly on weekdays.
My next issue is that I like simple repetitive training. I am a creature of habit and I like to keep to a routine. With all that in mind I settled on the idea of using Australian complex training. This system was started by Pat Clohessy who coached 2:07:50 man Rob de Castella as well as 2:11 and sub 28' 10k man Chris Wardlaw. Wardlaw in turn would use the system to coach Steve Moneghetti who would run 1:00:07 and 2:08:10. A number of other of great runners came out of this system.
The basic system is workouts on Tuesday and Thursday tempo or race on Saturday a medium long run on Wednesday and a long run on Sunday. The key is in the details of this system. The track and fartlek work is almost all alternation or 'bounce' threshold style- which means the recoveries are fast enough that you get a huge improvement in your threshold when using them. The long run involves either hard climbs or a fast finish and should be run at the quicker end of your training pace. Also some form of sprinting and hills would be mixed in.
The way you adjust this program from season to season or event to event is to make twists in the sessions themselves. So when getting ready for a marathon you would do a set of Aussie quarters with slower reps but faster rest then you would when getting ready for a 5k.
Anyway I used this as my jumping off point. I love that the standard weekday workouts tend to work multiple systems and don't take too long so I can get them done and still get to bed in time to be ok to get up for the morning run the next day.
My two week cycle
Week 1
Monday- AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles
Tuesday AM 6 PM Mona Fartlek http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html
Wednesday PM medium long run 15 to 18 miles
Thursday AM 6 PM 3 miles of sprint float sprint
Friday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles
Saturday - Fundamental paced tempo(5:50 down to 5:20 pace depending on conditions and fitness) run of 15 to 25 miles
Sunday 6 and 6 double
Week 2
Monday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles
Tuesday AM 6 PM Mona Fartlek
Wednesday PM medium long run 15 to 18 miles
Thursday AM 6 PM 3 mile tempo 4x400 hills- After the winter is over I'll do Aussie Quarters http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2014/12/workout-wednesday-australian-quarters.html
Friday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles
Saturday AM Tempo run or race PM 6
Sunday AM 22 miles with last two miles fast- goal 5:00 pace.
So obviously the fundamental paced run is a Canova session. It is a session I love to do and I have finally got my coordination to the point where I can do them again. Also it is a session I get huge fitness from.
Also if I start to do marathon training I'll do marathon workouts for the long runs. I have always felt that the Aussie system was good for the marathon but not perfect. For example if you look at Steve Moneghetti's PR's he slows at just about 5 seconds per K as the distance doubles from 3k to the half marathon. If he continued this to the marathon he would have a best of 2:04:11. I think with specific work he could have run the marathon in that range off his fitness. To be clear I don't think he could have actually run that time in the early to mid 90's when he was racing at his best. He would have needed pace setters and competitors willing to chase that sort of time and that didn't exist at that time but he certainly could have been closer to it. I could and should write a whole blog on the basic idea but the short story is look at the top times in the 5k, 10k, half marathon from the 1990's and early 2000's and the times in the marathon. Look at the times today. The change in the marathon is stunning. The other events are close to the same, actually on the track a they are weaker with the drop in epo use and decrease of money in those events. Road race times are roughly the same. What happened? The kenyans and Ethiopians embraced the Italian style marathon program and began to run within 3 to 5% of their half marathon performance in the marathon.
That is my basic cycle. I can do it cover all my bases and stay healthy and almost get enough sleep to keep myself together.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Fundamental Tempo Runs for 5000 meters
The fundamental tempo run is a longer tempo run done mostly in the base phase of training. It is tweaked slightly for each event. Here I will discuss how to focus on how to use it for 5000m training.
The 5000 is a particularly savage event. There are events where you hurt more, the 800, and events where you hurt longer, the marathon, but for the cruel combination of leg and lung searing pain for an extended period of time it is hard to find an event more savage than the 5000m. Yet for all the wallowing in latic acid hell you do over the last 2k of the event it is at its heart an aerobic test. The fundamental phase tempo is a workout that done in the early in your training has the ability to force a huge jump in your aerobic fitness so that you can begin to compete on a new plain in your next 5000m season. It is not singularly going to get you ready for 5000m racing but it will build the aerobic foundation needed for great 5000m running.
When I was going into college I remember the realization that 15:00 was the sort of 2nd tier gold standard for male distance college runners. Comparable to what 10:00 for 2 miles was in high school. You wouldn't be a star if you broke it but you would be 'respectable'. I had killed myself for years to finally slip under 10mins in my last year of high school and I was very proud of that accomplishment. Now not only was I going to have to drop my pace down to 4:48 a mile but I was going to have to add an extra mile and a 200. It was a cruel kick in the pants for sure. I had worked out very hard and very often in high school and I just didn't see how I would ever be able to force my under even that mark of basic respectability never mind the crazy heights beyond it. Then my first college Coach George Davis taught me a very important lesson.
It was impossible to run any harder. So I needed to make fast running easier. The secret to that was aerobic conditioning.
Now back then we were doing this mostly the slow old fashion way with miles bloody miles. Which still have there place but think of the fundamental tempo as a way to speed up the process and take it even further.
Almost everyone these days who is training for a 5k is doing some form of tempo running. Most often I see a lot of 3 to 6 mile tempos. Generally speaking these are run at an effort and for a distance that I would consider a latic threshold tempo. These are a great tool and should not be dropped, to the contrary I would probably suggest you do them more often and for more parts of your training year than you already do, but what I am also suggesting in this post is something a little different. Fundamental tempos are a tempo that you will use in your base phase and then largely drop. Though for the high school or college runner racing 9 months out of the year I would suggest doing them at least once a month pretty much year round and picking one of the 3 competitive seasons to included them weekly or pretty darn close to it. For all runners it should be done once or twice a week during the base phase.
The fundamental tempo even for 5000m running is a relatively long effort.You want to start at about 45 minutes and build up 70 minutes. The pace should be 15% to 25% slower than your goal 5k pace. To find your pace take your goal pace in seconds and multiply it by 1.15 for the fast end and 1.25 for the slow end of the range.
For example I'll walk through the paces for a 5k runners with goals of 15:00 and 18:00. For a runner targeting 15:00 for 5k that is 3:00 per kilometer pace 3x60 = 180 seconds 180x1.25 = 225 seconds which is 3:45 per K which is just a shade over 6:00 per mile- Basically a quick training run for a 15:00 runner. For the fast end 180x1.15 = 207 or 3:27 per K which is around 5:30 mile pace which is certainly quicker than someone targeting 15:00 for 5k would be normally running on a training run.
For the 18min runner lets do the math with per mile paces. 18:00 for 5k is roughly 5:45 per mile pace which is 345 seconds. 345 x 1.25= 431.25 seconds, 7:11 per mile down to 345 x 1.15 = 396.75 seconds, 6:36 per mile.
As you can see that is a fairly large range. For most athletes running 45mins at the slow end of the pace range is really just a good day of regular running in terms of effort. That is exactly the idea. This is an area of pace that we often don't train at all and you can reap huge fitness gains but targeting this no mans land between regular training pace and threshold pace.
The key to these sessions is to start very easy right at the start of the base phase. Head out and do 45mins at 1.25 times your goal pace. This should be a nice light session. A week or so later go 50 to 60mins at the same pace. Again this should be fairly easy. Once you go 1:10 or so at this pace, week 3 or 4 you should drop down to 45mins again but pick up the pace. Ideal if you have the time to cycle through 3 times you can do 1.2 times pace for the second time through and after you build up to 1:10 at that pace you can drop down to 45mins at 1.15 times goal pace. If you don't have to do this if you don't have the time you can just jump down to 1.15 for the second cycle but you will find that to be a pretty decent jump in effort.
These runs in the base phase can really, as Bill Squires used to say, put the tiger in the cat. Once you are through the base phase it is a great idea to mix these in when you have a spot for a moderate effort during your specific training phase.
To summarize:
what is the goal of this session- big aerobic improvement, learn to run quickly relaxed.
What is the effort- all about control. You want to learn to run quickly for an extended time without working very hard. Tired after but smooth during.
When to do this session- mostly in the base phase though it can be mixed in to varying degrees at other times of the year depending on your exact needs and schedule.
When I was going into college I remember the realization that 15:00 was the sort of 2nd tier gold standard for male distance college runners. Comparable to what 10:00 for 2 miles was in high school. You wouldn't be a star if you broke it but you would be 'respectable'. I had killed myself for years to finally slip under 10mins in my last year of high school and I was very proud of that accomplishment. Now not only was I going to have to drop my pace down to 4:48 a mile but I was going to have to add an extra mile and a 200. It was a cruel kick in the pants for sure. I had worked out very hard and very often in high school and I just didn't see how I would ever be able to force my under even that mark of basic respectability never mind the crazy heights beyond it. Then my first college Coach George Davis taught me a very important lesson.
It was impossible to run any harder. So I needed to make fast running easier. The secret to that was aerobic conditioning.
Now back then we were doing this mostly the slow old fashion way with miles bloody miles. Which still have there place but think of the fundamental tempo as a way to speed up the process and take it even further.
Almost everyone these days who is training for a 5k is doing some form of tempo running. Most often I see a lot of 3 to 6 mile tempos. Generally speaking these are run at an effort and for a distance that I would consider a latic threshold tempo. These are a great tool and should not be dropped, to the contrary I would probably suggest you do them more often and for more parts of your training year than you already do, but what I am also suggesting in this post is something a little different. Fundamental tempos are a tempo that you will use in your base phase and then largely drop. Though for the high school or college runner racing 9 months out of the year I would suggest doing them at least once a month pretty much year round and picking one of the 3 competitive seasons to included them weekly or pretty darn close to it. For all runners it should be done once or twice a week during the base phase.
The fundamental tempo even for 5000m running is a relatively long effort.You want to start at about 45 minutes and build up 70 minutes. The pace should be 15% to 25% slower than your goal 5k pace. To find your pace take your goal pace in seconds and multiply it by 1.15 for the fast end and 1.25 for the slow end of the range.
For example I'll walk through the paces for a 5k runners with goals of 15:00 and 18:00. For a runner targeting 15:00 for 5k that is 3:00 per kilometer pace 3x60 = 180 seconds 180x1.25 = 225 seconds which is 3:45 per K which is just a shade over 6:00 per mile- Basically a quick training run for a 15:00 runner. For the fast end 180x1.15 = 207 or 3:27 per K which is around 5:30 mile pace which is certainly quicker than someone targeting 15:00 for 5k would be normally running on a training run.
For the 18min runner lets do the math with per mile paces. 18:00 for 5k is roughly 5:45 per mile pace which is 345 seconds. 345 x 1.25= 431.25 seconds, 7:11 per mile down to 345 x 1.15 = 396.75 seconds, 6:36 per mile.
As you can see that is a fairly large range. For most athletes running 45mins at the slow end of the pace range is really just a good day of regular running in terms of effort. That is exactly the idea. This is an area of pace that we often don't train at all and you can reap huge fitness gains but targeting this no mans land between regular training pace and threshold pace.
The key to these sessions is to start very easy right at the start of the base phase. Head out and do 45mins at 1.25 times your goal pace. This should be a nice light session. A week or so later go 50 to 60mins at the same pace. Again this should be fairly easy. Once you go 1:10 or so at this pace, week 3 or 4 you should drop down to 45mins again but pick up the pace. Ideal if you have the time to cycle through 3 times you can do 1.2 times pace for the second time through and after you build up to 1:10 at that pace you can drop down to 45mins at 1.15 times goal pace. If you don't have to do this if you don't have the time you can just jump down to 1.15 for the second cycle but you will find that to be a pretty decent jump in effort.
These runs in the base phase can really, as Bill Squires used to say, put the tiger in the cat. Once you are through the base phase it is a great idea to mix these in when you have a spot for a moderate effort during your specific training phase.
To summarize:
what is the goal of this session- big aerobic improvement, learn to run quickly relaxed.
What is the effort- all about control. You want to learn to run quickly for an extended time without working very hard. Tired after but smooth during.
When to do this session- mostly in the base phase though it can be mixed in to varying degrees at other times of the year depending on your exact needs and schedule.
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