Training for March 18 to 26, 2017 and a summary of my base phase

I didn't run this week.  I had scheduled a week off because I have had a very long base phase.  I spent last fall from a bit before labor day until just before Thanksgiving building up VERY slowly.  I was banged up, out of balance and really struggling so even though the volume of work was very low I was working fairly hard to do it.  Finally I got myself together over the course of November and started doing what I would call training and have been at it steadily ever since.  I would not normally schedule a single phase to be this long, 17 weeks not including another 12 or so weeks of build up, but I was just so out of shape after a 4 month layoff and another two plus months of very light running that I really needed to put in a lot of work just to get into some sort of general fitness.

  As such I took this week off. All I did was go to yoga on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and I got a massage on Friday. I did my normal stretching, basic exercises and mobility stuff but nothing that you would call real exercise.

  Looking back to the fall I was far out of shape.  I did run a 15:22 at the very fast Great Bay 5k, but the 16:11 I ran at the only moderately difficult Great Island 5k was more telling as to just how far off of decent shape I was.

  My first week resembling real training was November 20 to the 26th where I ran 72 miles the following week I was up to 84.  On December 10th I ran 32:10 on the very fair USATF Club Nationals course.  I would guess based on the winning time that it was within a minute of what you would expect to do on the track in ideal conditions.   So I was pretty out of shape.  At this point I was only doing half Mona fartleks and only covering about 1.8 miles while doing them, 5:30 mile pace or so.

  By the end of the month I had done a full Mona and covered 3.7 miles, about 5:24 pace, so I was coming along but I was still a long way from what I would consider 'normal fitness' which is covering around 3.9 miles for a mona.   I was getting in at least two decent efforts every week and running between 70 and 100 miles a week.  Nothing flashy but consistent.

  For the month I had 8 workouts, two races and a long run of 14 miles.  Certainly nothing to write home about but I was fitter at the end of the month then at the start of the month and I was healthy.

  In January I had 10 workouts, two races and a long run of 17 miles.  The first race was a 15:25 5k in much tougher conditions then what I ran 15:22 at back at Great Bay and the second was a very nice step forward with a 9:15 track 2 mile.  Not a great race but for where I was at it was good.  The thing I was starting to notice both in workouts and in that two mile was that I wasn't feeling the same resistance at speed that I had been struggling with the last couple years.  You can even see it in video of me racing. (fast forward to 4:10)



 I felt like I was running in sand when I try to get down much under 4:50 per mile pace and looked like I was almost dragging something.  In the 2 mile I felt like I had very little aerobic fitness and like I was running quicker than I had trained to but mechanically I felt smooth and easy.  This really got me, and still has me, very excited about the potential for running well this year as I get my aerobic fitness back and start to do some more race specific workouts.

If for comparison you look at how I'm moving now the improvement is pretty noticeable.



  In February I got in 8 workouts and two more races, my long run was 22 miles and additionally I got in three 16 milers.   I also had a 100 mile week, admittedly during vacation week.  The races were a 24:50 5 mile, which is back into what I would consider my normal competitive range.  Yes the out of shape side of the normal competitive range but after running a couple of 32 something 10k's and a 16:11 5k in the fall I admit I was worried about ever getting back into real shape again.  I am after all not getting any younger.  My 5 mile split at USATF had been a 25:40 and I feel like the courses were fairly even so to see a ~50 second improvement, 10 seconds per mile, over a 2 month period was very gratifying.  My second race was a 14:41 track 5k which much like the two mile really has me excited.  First mechanically I felt smooth and I didn't feel like it was hard to run that pace.  Second I was running off of fartleks and road work, no specific track workouts.  The fastest 5k I have ever run without specific work is 14:20.  So I'm not that far off.

 Generally I expect to drop 20 to 25 seconds on my 5k with a 6 to 10 week specific cycle which would have me in the 14:10 to 14:15 range this spring.  After how far I had fallen last fall I will be over the moon happy if I can run in that range this spring.  Lastly I improved my mona fartlek to 3.83 miles, an improvement of 9 seconds per mile to 5:13.3 pace.

  March was actually another good month.  I was getting tired and New Bedford was an unmitigated disaster but the general trajectory was still good.   I got in two solid weeks to start the month both in terms of mileage and workouts and with this rest I feel ready to go.  I would really like the snow to melt so I can get on the track for some specific workouts but I keep trying to remind myself I don't have control over that and that I no longer have the time to either shovel a track or to drive into the city to get on an indoor track so I must do the best I can with the resources I have.

  Moving forward I want to race two or three times in April, right now I'm planning on a Fresh Pond 5 mile on April 9th as a bit of throw back fun with Ruben.  A sort of "make fresh pond fast again" day.  Then I will likely do the James Joyce Ramble 10k.  I know some people hate this race but I like it.  I don't like the hill up to the finish but other wise I like the course.  It is generally competitive and they pay good prize money.

  In May I'd like to get serious about racing well and hopefully with some rust buster races and some specific track work in April I'll be ready to do so.  I plan on keeping at it up to the USATF-NE 5 mile champs in mid June at which point I'll take a week or two rest before changing speeds.

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.