My original intent was to do a 6 mile lunch run on Friday, but my legs were quite sore from the legs session on Wednesday night, and I don't like to do much running on sore legs like that - sore legs means tight muscles, and tight muscles means extra tension on an IT band that has historically been prone to inflammation. So I limited myself to a trainerroad workout. Next up on the docket, Monitor.
This workout was 6 x 6 minute intervals at about 90% FTP. I've been noticing that these base building workouts are gradually increasing the amount of time spent at this particular training level. I also notice that towards the end, my HR tends to get to around 150. One thing I'm not positive of, though, is how intense these workouts are supposed to be. According to trainer road, the Baxter workout from a few sessions ago is an intensity factor (IF) of 0.66 - about 2/3 as intense as an hour long FTP workout. The next workout, Ericsson, was an IF of 0.79, and Monitor is 0.81. So it would appear that in the grand scheme of things, they are building up the workouts gradually. Until I have more experience, I'm not entirely sure whether I'm actually putting out 80% effort - but I do have to admit that I think it is probably a rather good estimate. I definitely have more in the tank, but the end of the intervals are a welcome break.
Anyway, for this workout, I did take the opportunity to do some ILT's during the recovery periods, so that is why the power output for those sections are off the target - I'm still not yet at the point where a single leg can match the intended target power. Also, at the end of the workout, during the cooldown, I did a couple high cadence one minute long spins. I think I'm finding I like this pattern - it's a way to get some quick high cadence work in (currently working on stabilizing cadence in the 130's range), as well as a good way to drive the HR for blood flush to improve recovery without the muscle strain that would normally be associated with the HR that is achieved.
The next workout (Saturday) was called Eclipse. Being a workout slated for a weekend, it was 90 minutes, as opposed to most of the other workouts that are 60 minutes. This one included 3 x 20 minute 90% FTP intervals, which were definitely more challenging than the previous six and eight minute intervals. During the second and third intervals, there was significant time that the HR was right around 150. Also, the IF for this workout was 0.84, so that has notched up a bit again. The recovery periods were longer than other workouts - five minutes - and I was once again able to get some ILT training in by doing one leg solely during each of the first two breaks. Once again, during the cooldown, there were a couple high cadence blood flushing spins.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Travelling workouts - 2/16/12
A few workouts to update on -
Since I was travelling again this week, my workout load was once again reduced. As I may have mentioned before, though - I was in need of a break after several weeks of upping the workout volume. Monday was a rest day after Saturday's half marathon pace test and Sundays cycling trainer workout. While I didn't do yoga in the hotel room again, I did do some general stretching.
On Tuesday I hit the treadmill in the hotel. You'd think that with all the land Ohio has, it wouldn't have been a problem finding some place to run outside. However, I happened to be staying at a hotel that was near the crossroads of an interstate and a state road, so there was no option I could see for getting to a good running area without risking life and limb in getting out of the congestion. I even drove around for a while after work looking for a place, and considered running along the paths of a local cemetary - but even that would have been difficult to get to with the lack of shoulders. Plus, it was cold and rainy out - so I decided to give up on the outdoor idea and just hit the treadmill. I ended up doing 45 minutes, but I'm not sure of the distance. The treadmill registered about 4.6 miles, and claimed a pace of almost 10 minute miles - but I've always found treadmills to be off. Regardless, the idea was to get my HR into the easy pace zone (140's) for about 45-50 minutes. At the 45 minute mark, I decided that was enough. Treadmills bore me to death.
On Wednesday I did the P90x legs & back routine (minus the back) in the hotel room. I didn't have a chance to do my circuit training during the weekend, and I want to be really good about hitting the legs on a regular basis not only to increase the power/weight ratio, but also to balance the muscle development to keep everything... balanced. Since many running and cycling injuries come about due to an imbalance, where something gets pulled in one direction or the other due to overdeveloped muscles in one area - it seems like a lot of running injury PT is based on addressing that imbalance. Over the summer I had been working on the legs on a regular basis, and it never seemed to hinder me, and I stayed uninjured - so I don't want to mess with success. The nice thing about the P90X legs stuff is that there is no equipment needed - just all variations on lunges and squats.
Due to getting home early today (Thursday), I was able to squeeze a couple workouts in, which was a nice surprise. The next bike trainer workout was called Ericsson, and was basically another interval-type workout. After some spin-up for warm up, it goes through 4 x 8 minute intervals at a tad below FTP. So in this case, it was about 200W (or, at least what registered as 200W based on the published power curve for my trainer). The description for the workout also mentioned six minutes of ILT (isolated leg training), but there were no instructions as to where that was. After the workout was over, I realized there was six minutes of downtime between each interval - so that would have been a good time to do one minute of ILT for each leg. Oops - next time, I suppose. Although the TR link above doesn't show it, the cadence varied quite a bit because the power targets changed ever so slightly, so it was easier to adjust cadence to match as opposed to fidgeting with finding another gear ratio. Actually, the garmin link shows the cadence a bit better.
Since I had most all afternoon, I also decided to throw a brick run in after the bike session. I initially wanted to do around six miles, but I brought the dogs with me to get them some exercise, and they started lagging behind at about two miles. I made them go one more round for a total of about three and a quarter miles. Although it wasn't as long as I initially wanted, I still got the benefit of doing a brick run (always good in itself), and I was thinking at the time that it left open the possibility of a six miler tomorrow during the day. However, my legs are starting to feel pretty sore from the legs workout yesterday - so depending on how things go, a run tomorrow might be out. We'll see.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Half marathon pace test and TR Baxter workout - 2/12/2012
Quick update due to limited time.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Saturday was set up nicely for a half marathon pace test run. My half marathon PR is 1:40:26 set last November. Prior to that, my half marathons (Lowell Sun in October '08 and '10, Worcester half in June '11) all clocked in around 1:53. So going down to 1:40, taking 13 minutes (a full minute/mile) was pretty significant. Since November, I haven't done much for speed work - just a couple threshold runs towards the end of the 2011 year, but nothing since then.
While this test run wasn't a full 13.1 miles, it still gave me a pretty good idea of what kind of performance I could expect next week. With an avg HR of 164, a pace of 7:15 min/miles, it certainly blows the doors off the 169 avg HR from November, where I did 7:39 min/miles. However, that course was relatively hilly - so I'm sure a large portion of the increased HR and apparent speed increases since then is difference in terrain.
The most notable thing I took away from this run was how I felt after about eight miles. I felt like I was starting to bonk a bit - the legs felt sluggish and the HR started to creep up. So like the other week's 20 miler where I sped up rather than slowed down - I did the same thing this time. Throughout the remaining three miles, I started to notice a trend - when I'd take a swig of gatorade, some of that sluggish feeling in my legs would go away. The remarkable thing was how quickly it happened. It wasn't instantaneous - but I feel like there were 2-3 times where I'd down a gulp, and certainly within 30 seconds I'd feel more energized again. That feeling would last for a few minutes, then I'd feel sluggish again. Whether it was actually that quickly that the sugars from the gatorade took effect, or whether it was just my mind playing tricks on me, I don't know. It is something I want to look into in the future and experiment around with a bit.
So then, the following day (Sunday), I did the trainerroad Baxter workout. This was the last repeat workout ever since switching over to basing workouts on power. The main idea with this workout is to find a single gear ratio, and stick with it throughout the whole workout. I'm not sure whether it was designed to be this way, but in order to have a decent cadence on the lower power portions, I was at a lower gear than I'd have expected. As a result, the HR was relatively low. On the other hand, the cadence did get up to my max comfort cadence of just a bit higher than 110. So while this was not necessarily a taxing aerobic workout, I looked at it as a way to get comfortable with different cadence rates, and trying to figure out how to relax and minimize any bouncing at the higher cadences.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Saturday was set up nicely for a half marathon pace test run. My half marathon PR is 1:40:26 set last November. Prior to that, my half marathons (Lowell Sun in October '08 and '10, Worcester half in June '11) all clocked in around 1:53. So going down to 1:40, taking 13 minutes (a full minute/mile) was pretty significant. Since November, I haven't done much for speed work - just a couple threshold runs towards the end of the 2011 year, but nothing since then.
While this test run wasn't a full 13.1 miles, it still gave me a pretty good idea of what kind of performance I could expect next week. With an avg HR of 164, a pace of 7:15 min/miles, it certainly blows the doors off the 169 avg HR from November, where I did 7:39 min/miles. However, that course was relatively hilly - so I'm sure a large portion of the increased HR and apparent speed increases since then is difference in terrain.
The most notable thing I took away from this run was how I felt after about eight miles. I felt like I was starting to bonk a bit - the legs felt sluggish and the HR started to creep up. So like the other week's 20 miler where I sped up rather than slowed down - I did the same thing this time. Throughout the remaining three miles, I started to notice a trend - when I'd take a swig of gatorade, some of that sluggish feeling in my legs would go away. The remarkable thing was how quickly it happened. It wasn't instantaneous - but I feel like there were 2-3 times where I'd down a gulp, and certainly within 30 seconds I'd feel more energized again. That feeling would last for a few minutes, then I'd feel sluggish again. Whether it was actually that quickly that the sugars from the gatorade took effect, or whether it was just my mind playing tricks on me, I don't know. It is something I want to look into in the future and experiment around with a bit.
So then, the following day (Sunday), I did the trainerroad Baxter workout. This was the last repeat workout ever since switching over to basing workouts on power. The main idea with this workout is to find a single gear ratio, and stick with it throughout the whole workout. I'm not sure whether it was designed to be this way, but in order to have a decent cadence on the lower power portions, I was at a lower gear than I'd have expected. As a result, the HR was relatively low. On the other hand, the cadence did get up to my max comfort cadence of just a bit higher than 110. So while this was not necessarily a taxing aerobic workout, I looked at it as a way to get comfortable with different cadence rates, and trying to figure out how to relax and minimize any bouncing at the higher cadences.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
TR Gayley workout - 2/9/12
This workout ended up being a bonus and expected workout.
I was travelling this week from Monday evening and due to return Friday morning at 12:30am - however I managed to get a flight out of Atlanta four hours earlier than planned, so I was able get home for 10pm and squeeze in a quick bike workout. This actually set me up nicely for my workouts the entire weekend - due to the limited amount of time I had, I was having a hard time choosing what combination of workouts to go with: a potential mid-day Friday 6 mile run, a weekend half marathon pace run of 10-11 miles, my strength training workout, yoga, and cycling workouts. By being able to get the cycling workout in on Thursday evening, I was then able to go to Yoga on Friday evening (which is something I was feeling I sorely needed), I could do the half marathon pace run on Saturday, and then on Sunday I could do the strength training and possibly also the next cycling workout. The mid-day Friday run was low priority as I had already run twice this past week, and I felt like the HM pace run was more important with the upcoming half marathon race next weekend.
So the trainerroad Gayley workout is a simple warmup followed by 4 x 8 minute intervals at FTP (since I've decided to throw my trust into the benefits of power-based cycling workouts). Based on the 8-minute test workout from last weekend, this FTP value ended up being about 220W with my setup. The initial spinning and warmup seemed too easy, but I stayed with the suggested power output. Given that I was generally feeling rather tight throughout the whole week (and thus the real need for yoga), I was just as happy to do some low intensity spinning to make sure I was warming up gently enough. The first interval seemed trivially easy initially, but about six minutes into it with the HR getting into the high 130's and still climbing, I knew that subsequent intervals would be perfectly adequate for base building.
For the most part, the intervals ended with my HR in the mid-high 140's for a couple minutes. The biggest complaint I have with the workout is that it ends rather suddenly, with only a minute of cooldown after the last interval. Instead of ending there, I just did a couple 1 minute long high cadence (~130) low gear spins - I find that this brings the HR up to the 140's nicely for a blood flush, but because it is at minimal resistance, there is no significant additional muscle fatigue. It occured to me that this might be a possible strategy to help with transition from bike to run in the future - during the last mile or so of the bike leg in a triathlon, I could spin at high cadence a bit to help refresh the legs. At some point I'll have to give it a test.
I was travelling this week from Monday evening and due to return Friday morning at 12:30am - however I managed to get a flight out of Atlanta four hours earlier than planned, so I was able get home for 10pm and squeeze in a quick bike workout. This actually set me up nicely for my workouts the entire weekend - due to the limited amount of time I had, I was having a hard time choosing what combination of workouts to go with: a potential mid-day Friday 6 mile run, a weekend half marathon pace run of 10-11 miles, my strength training workout, yoga, and cycling workouts. By being able to get the cycling workout in on Thursday evening, I was then able to go to Yoga on Friday evening (which is something I was feeling I sorely needed), I could do the half marathon pace run on Saturday, and then on Sunday I could do the strength training and possibly also the next cycling workout. The mid-day Friday run was low priority as I had already run twice this past week, and I felt like the HM pace run was more important with the upcoming half marathon race next weekend.
So the trainerroad Gayley workout is a simple warmup followed by 4 x 8 minute intervals at FTP (since I've decided to throw my trust into the benefits of power-based cycling workouts). Based on the 8-minute test workout from last weekend, this FTP value ended up being about 220W with my setup. The initial spinning and warmup seemed too easy, but I stayed with the suggested power output. Given that I was generally feeling rather tight throughout the whole week (and thus the real need for yoga), I was just as happy to do some low intensity spinning to make sure I was warming up gently enough. The first interval seemed trivially easy initially, but about six minutes into it with the HR getting into the high 130's and still climbing, I knew that subsequent intervals would be perfectly adequate for base building.
For the most part, the intervals ended with my HR in the mid-high 140's for a couple minutes. The biggest complaint I have with the workout is that it ends rather suddenly, with only a minute of cooldown after the last interval. Instead of ending there, I just did a couple 1 minute long high cadence (~130) low gear spins - I find that this brings the HR up to the 140's nicely for a blood flush, but because it is at minimal resistance, there is no significant additional muscle fatigue. It occured to me that this might be a possible strategy to help with transition from bike to run in the future - during the last mile or so of the bike leg in a triathlon, I could spin at high cadence a bit to help refresh the legs. At some point I'll have to give it a test.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Six mile mid-week LSD run's - 2/8/2012
Monday afternoon saw another six mile mid-day lunch run. This one ended up being a tad slower than previous runs, which I was OK with because of the 20 miler on Saturday, and the TrainerRoad power test on Sunday night. Not a whole lot exciting or different to say about this run., except that I did it on Monday instead of Tuesday because I was flying out Monday afternoon/evening for work - and the remaining weekly schedule meant that my best bet to get the miles in that I wanted would be to run on Monday. I figured that if I ended up at a place where running wasn't going to be easy (ie, urban setting or not-so-great area) while travelling, I should probably take the safe option and run Monday before leaving, even though I'd normally rather have taken it as a rest day. Oh! The thing I did do, though, was wear the compression pants afterwards. Since this run was coming on the heels of 20 miles and a bike workout, I figured I mine as well do everything I could do maximize recovery. Not sure what effect it may have had.
Tuesday evening, though, I had to do at least something to make up for skipping Monday's yoga class. So, after I got back to the hotel, I cranked the heat as high as it would go (which was only 85F), let the shower run for a while to get the humidity up, filled the tub with hot water and soaked in it for about 10 minutes to artificially warm the muscles, and then did my own Bikram Yoga routine in the hotel room. It was nowhere near as good a workout as I get in a heated studio, but it was better than nothing.
Today (Wednesday) after work, I was able to get another six miler in. This one was wierd. First - the entire first half was all gentle downhill, so my pace was relatively quick for my HR. Usually I see in the 8:30-9 min/miles for the high 140's - this was a good 45 seconds faster than that. My concern was that on the way back, my HR would be relatively high unless I slowed down. To my surprise, I didn't have to slow down all that much to keep my HR in check. I suspect that not having done any bike workouts, which I've been doing a lot in the past couple weeks in addition to running, meant I wasn't as fatigued.
To be honest, though - I really needed this as a rest week. I've gone from averaging ~2 hrs/wk from mid-October through mid-December, and ramped up from 5 hrs/wk to 10 hrs/wk from the beginning of the year through last week. I was originally going to take last week as a rest week, but my work travel plans changed, making this week (and actually next week) instead. It actually sets up nicely for a taper leading into the Hampton half on the 19th. For a while I wasn't sure how I was going to approach that race - whether to treat it as a training run or try to PR. Since I seem to have a taper built in to my schedule, I'm thinking I'll try to PR it - especially since I will be avoiding a long run this weekend due to having done 17 miles the other week followed by 20 this past weekend. Need to lay off the long runs for a couple weeks - but I may see what kind of pace I can maintain with a threshold run this weekend. That could give me a decent idea as to whether a PR is in the cards or not.
Tuesday evening, though, I had to do at least something to make up for skipping Monday's yoga class. So, after I got back to the hotel, I cranked the heat as high as it would go (which was only 85F), let the shower run for a while to get the humidity up, filled the tub with hot water and soaked in it for about 10 minutes to artificially warm the muscles, and then did my own Bikram Yoga routine in the hotel room. It was nowhere near as good a workout as I get in a heated studio, but it was better than nothing.
Today (Wednesday) after work, I was able to get another six miler in. This one was wierd. First - the entire first half was all gentle downhill, so my pace was relatively quick for my HR. Usually I see in the 8:30-9 min/miles for the high 140's - this was a good 45 seconds faster than that. My concern was that on the way back, my HR would be relatively high unless I slowed down. To my surprise, I didn't have to slow down all that much to keep my HR in check. I suspect that not having done any bike workouts, which I've been doing a lot in the past couple weeks in addition to running, meant I wasn't as fatigued.
To be honest, though - I really needed this as a rest week. I've gone from averaging ~2 hrs/wk from mid-October through mid-December, and ramped up from 5 hrs/wk to 10 hrs/wk from the beginning of the year through last week. I was originally going to take last week as a rest week, but my work travel plans changed, making this week (and actually next week) instead. It actually sets up nicely for a taper leading into the Hampton half on the 19th. For a while I wasn't sure how I was going to approach that race - whether to treat it as a training run or try to PR. Since I seem to have a taper built in to my schedule, I'm thinking I'll try to PR it - especially since I will be avoiding a long run this weekend due to having done 17 miles the other week followed by 20 this past weekend. Need to lay off the long runs for a couple weeks - but I may see what kind of pace I can maintain with a threshold run this weekend. That could give me a decent idea as to whether a PR is in the cards or not.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
TR - 8 minute test - 2/5/2012
So far, my workouts with trainerroad had been based on HR. My thinking was that since I'm doing a base building program, I should keep the HR under a certain level to build aerobic capacity - and that thinking was brought over from the running world. However, it appears that cyclists prefer to use power, and train based on that. So to try and reconcile the difference in approach I was using to the one generally preferred by cyclists, I asked the guys over @ trainerroad what their take was on situations where I'm not necessarily trying to build power for a time trial, but instead a longer distance triathlon. That thread can be found here.
I gave it some thought, and decided that I mine as well give it a shot. If they have a base building program, and they've gotten input from cycling trainers, and that base building program calls for prioritizing power over HR - then I had a choice: I could constantly try to figure out the optimal HR ranges for every workout on trainerroad from here on out, or I could give in and go with power. I ended up deciding on the latter - partially because I am not starting out totally from scratch, and partially because I'm going to be working on aerobic base in running, so there should be at least some carryover. Lastly - the base building program calls for three workouts a week, so there'd be time available in the schedule for the long, more traditional base and aerobic building workouts.
So, since I'd be going to using power, I figured I mine as well start over in the program, which meant going back to the 8 minute test. My default profile had an FTP of 200 W, so the targets throughout the workout were based on that - however I remembered from the first time doing this workout that it provides you with an updated FTP at the end - so rather than stick with the target, I wasn't afraid to exceed where I could, as long as I could hold in. In the end, both 8 minute efforts were showing a power of about 250W. The 8 minute efforts seemed to go through four phases for me - the first two minutes was building power to a degree that felt just a little harder than comfortable. The next two minutes was a constant but noticable drain, progressing to comfortably hard. The 3rd set of two minutes got into wind sucking mode where it was easiest to put my head down, close my eyes and pretend it wasn't me putting that effort in. The final two minutes was holding on for dear life, knowing I was going to put out all effort for the last 30 seconds, which made dealing with seconds 31-120 a tad more bearable.
In the end, it gave me an updated FTP number of 220W, which sounds reasonable to me for the setup I have. However, I wouldn't be surprised if its accuracy is artificially high, as I've read various things about the accuracy of the Fluid2 power curve. But based on the work I've done on the trainer so far, I figured my FTP would end up showing somewhere between 200W and 250W. My HR got up into the high 160's, which is about as high as it's gotten on the bike, so I figure it was pretty damn close to a max effort for 8 minutes. Regardless of the accuracy, though - at least now I feel like I have a good metric to use as a baseline for workouts.
I gave it some thought, and decided that I mine as well give it a shot. If they have a base building program, and they've gotten input from cycling trainers, and that base building program calls for prioritizing power over HR - then I had a choice: I could constantly try to figure out the optimal HR ranges for every workout on trainerroad from here on out, or I could give in and go with power. I ended up deciding on the latter - partially because I am not starting out totally from scratch, and partially because I'm going to be working on aerobic base in running, so there should be at least some carryover. Lastly - the base building program calls for three workouts a week, so there'd be time available in the schedule for the long, more traditional base and aerobic building workouts.
So, since I'd be going to using power, I figured I mine as well start over in the program, which meant going back to the 8 minute test. My default profile had an FTP of 200 W, so the targets throughout the workout were based on that - however I remembered from the first time doing this workout that it provides you with an updated FTP at the end - so rather than stick with the target, I wasn't afraid to exceed where I could, as long as I could hold in. In the end, both 8 minute efforts were showing a power of about 250W. The 8 minute efforts seemed to go through four phases for me - the first two minutes was building power to a degree that felt just a little harder than comfortable. The next two minutes was a constant but noticable drain, progressing to comfortably hard. The 3rd set of two minutes got into wind sucking mode where it was easiest to put my head down, close my eyes and pretend it wasn't me putting that effort in. The final two minutes was holding on for dear life, knowing I was going to put out all effort for the last 30 seconds, which made dealing with seconds 31-120 a tad more bearable.
In the end, it gave me an updated FTP number of 220W, which sounds reasonable to me for the setup I have. However, I wouldn't be surprised if its accuracy is artificially high, as I've read various things about the accuracy of the Fluid2 power curve. But based on the work I've done on the trainer so far, I figured my FTP would end up showing somewhere between 200W and 250W. My HR got up into the high 160's, which is about as high as it's gotten on the bike, so I figure it was pretty damn close to a max effort for 8 minutes. Regardless of the accuracy, though - at least now I feel like I have a good metric to use as a baseline for workouts.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
6 mile lunch run and 20 mile LSD - 2/4/2012
Friday's run was another six mile lunch run, as I've recently determined that I'm going to need at least two runs of this distance during the week in order to meet my weekly mileage running goal. Even then, three total runs per week might be a bit light, but it may be all I can really handle at this point in time due to having to balance cycling time as well as injury prevention (ie, yoga and strength training).
There are a few things I've thought of that are nice with this set up. First off, I can get two workouts in on a single day - the lunch run, and some trainer time in the evening. As long as only one, max, is a real effort workout, that should work out nicely most of the time. Another nice thing is that the hour long lunch break is a good amount of time for threshold training, or tempo runs. So that means when the time comes, I have the flexibility to do a speedwork session during the day, when I'll have several hours of at least being awake and active (to improve recovery) as opposed to doing the speed workout and then going to bed. The latter would result in a lot of residual soreness the next day. Tacked on to that is that I can wear compression pants to help with recovery - they may not be as immediately beneficial as an ice bath, but they are better than nothing. Of course, all this is predicated on the assumption that I'm not travelling that week. However, even when that happens, the forced week of relative rest is usually welcome.
For this weekend, I had been debating what to do for running. On one hand, one of Jack Daniels' rules is to limit long runs to 2.5 hours - and since last weeks 17 miler came in at 2:38, part of me wondered whether I should limit long runs to 17 miles until I picked up some speed. On the other hand, Jack Daniels also tries to squeeze training philosophies for distances from 800m to the full marathon into his book, and obviously there are going to be some things that apply for one distance and not for the other. If a slow marathoner were to limit long runs to 2.5 hours, that'd be a lot of extra stress come race day, when that same person would likely be out for more than four hours. Also, there are a couple places in his book where he lays out a guideline (such as the importance of threshold runs), but then admits to agreeing with marathoners who have a different take on the usefulness of such things. On top of that, he is only speaking to running - with a full marathon being the longest event. In my case, I have to consider starting a marathon after 9 or 10 hours of prior efforts. So, long story short - I've had it in my head that I'd like to run something in the 20-25 mile range quite often - possible twice per month - in order to build up as much stamina as possible. My primary concern, obviously, would be injury. However, I feel I stand a good chance of success due to a few factors: yoga, running 3x per week and not 5x (so there is extra rest), and my still-forming plan to alternate bike heavy and run heavy weeks where that long run might signify the end of a run-heavy week.
So, back to this weekend - I ended up doing a 20 miler. Normally I wouldn't think to do such a thing on the heels of a 17 miler the previous weekend, nevermind having just done six yesterday (when I rarely run multiple days in a row), but I decided to give it a shot since this coming week, do to work travels, would end up being a low running mileage week anyway, and I'd have a lot of chance to stretch and pamper the legs a bit if it turned out to be too much. Also, I decided to wear the compression pants as well. Previously, I'd only worn them during the Monson half and the Thanksgiving day five miler, and as I was putting the pants on, that fact and the fact that they were both PR's dawned on me. The reason I wanted to wear them today was because I was already pushing the limits a bit, so if the compression pants help with maintaining form and keeping muscles from getting as inflammed/sore/tight - I'd want every advantage I could get. Plus, having a sense of what the 17 miler last week felt like, I felt like this would be about as decent a comparison run as I could get.
Overall, the run went real well. In fact, at about mile 13, I even thought about picking up the pace for the rest of the run. I started to (for about a mile), but then became a bit afraid of crashing a few miles down the road, so I opted to slow back down again. Around mile 17, though, things started to slow down and start grinding, and the HR started to climb out of the aerobic zone. It was getting similar to what happened at around mile 22-23 during the marathon. At that point on that day, I slowed down to try and keep the HR under control - but I had a hard time doing so. So, knowing that tendency, I actually decided to speed up today. If my HR was going to be at the threshold or higher, I mine as well get some of the benefit of speed. So for mile 17, until the scheduled walk break at 18, I gradually picked up the pace until the last 1/4 mile or so was at about 7 min/mile. I took the walk break at 18, did a quick squat stretch of the quads, and started off again. The HR stayed down for about 3/4 of a mile when it started creeping back up again - so once I hit mile 19, I picked up the pace again until the end.
So, the fact that I was able to extend distance by three miles and feel good enough to kick up the speed towards the end tells me that either my conditioning is coming back (and as one would expect, much more quickly than it did the first time around), or that the compression pants help quite a bit. Probably a mix of both, as most things are. In the interest of recovery, I've been wearing the compression pants, and plan to continue wearing them until tomorrow.
There are a few things I've thought of that are nice with this set up. First off, I can get two workouts in on a single day - the lunch run, and some trainer time in the evening. As long as only one, max, is a real effort workout, that should work out nicely most of the time. Another nice thing is that the hour long lunch break is a good amount of time for threshold training, or tempo runs. So that means when the time comes, I have the flexibility to do a speedwork session during the day, when I'll have several hours of at least being awake and active (to improve recovery) as opposed to doing the speed workout and then going to bed. The latter would result in a lot of residual soreness the next day. Tacked on to that is that I can wear compression pants to help with recovery - they may not be as immediately beneficial as an ice bath, but they are better than nothing. Of course, all this is predicated on the assumption that I'm not travelling that week. However, even when that happens, the forced week of relative rest is usually welcome.
For this weekend, I had been debating what to do for running. On one hand, one of Jack Daniels' rules is to limit long runs to 2.5 hours - and since last weeks 17 miler came in at 2:38, part of me wondered whether I should limit long runs to 17 miles until I picked up some speed. On the other hand, Jack Daniels also tries to squeeze training philosophies for distances from 800m to the full marathon into his book, and obviously there are going to be some things that apply for one distance and not for the other. If a slow marathoner were to limit long runs to 2.5 hours, that'd be a lot of extra stress come race day, when that same person would likely be out for more than four hours. Also, there are a couple places in his book where he lays out a guideline (such as the importance of threshold runs), but then admits to agreeing with marathoners who have a different take on the usefulness of such things. On top of that, he is only speaking to running - with a full marathon being the longest event. In my case, I have to consider starting a marathon after 9 or 10 hours of prior efforts. So, long story short - I've had it in my head that I'd like to run something in the 20-25 mile range quite often - possible twice per month - in order to build up as much stamina as possible. My primary concern, obviously, would be injury. However, I feel I stand a good chance of success due to a few factors: yoga, running 3x per week and not 5x (so there is extra rest), and my still-forming plan to alternate bike heavy and run heavy weeks where that long run might signify the end of a run-heavy week.
So, back to this weekend - I ended up doing a 20 miler. Normally I wouldn't think to do such a thing on the heels of a 17 miler the previous weekend, nevermind having just done six yesterday (when I rarely run multiple days in a row), but I decided to give it a shot since this coming week, do to work travels, would end up being a low running mileage week anyway, and I'd have a lot of chance to stretch and pamper the legs a bit if it turned out to be too much. Also, I decided to wear the compression pants as well. Previously, I'd only worn them during the Monson half and the Thanksgiving day five miler, and as I was putting the pants on, that fact and the fact that they were both PR's dawned on me. The reason I wanted to wear them today was because I was already pushing the limits a bit, so if the compression pants help with maintaining form and keeping muscles from getting as inflammed/sore/tight - I'd want every advantage I could get. Plus, having a sense of what the 17 miler last week felt like, I felt like this would be about as decent a comparison run as I could get.
Overall, the run went real well. In fact, at about mile 13, I even thought about picking up the pace for the rest of the run. I started to (for about a mile), but then became a bit afraid of crashing a few miles down the road, so I opted to slow back down again. Around mile 17, though, things started to slow down and start grinding, and the HR started to climb out of the aerobic zone. It was getting similar to what happened at around mile 22-23 during the marathon. At that point on that day, I slowed down to try and keep the HR under control - but I had a hard time doing so. So, knowing that tendency, I actually decided to speed up today. If my HR was going to be at the threshold or higher, I mine as well get some of the benefit of speed. So for mile 17, until the scheduled walk break at 18, I gradually picked up the pace until the last 1/4 mile or so was at about 7 min/mile. I took the walk break at 18, did a quick squat stretch of the quads, and started off again. The HR stayed down for about 3/4 of a mile when it started creeping back up again - so once I hit mile 19, I picked up the pace again until the end.
So, the fact that I was able to extend distance by three miles and feel good enough to kick up the speed towards the end tells me that either my conditioning is coming back (and as one would expect, much more quickly than it did the first time around), or that the compression pants help quite a bit. Probably a mix of both, as most things are. In the interest of recovery, I've been wearing the compression pants, and plan to continue wearing them until tomorrow.
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