I waited until today for my midweek run because my legs (mostly inner thights) were still sore from the P90x legs workout on Monday. Why is it that every other muscle group is sore for like a day maybe, yet that workout always makes me sore for three or four days? Kind of a pain in the butt (sometimes literally). Fortunately, though - the soreness appears to be avoiding the quads and other heavily used running muscles, so that is good.
The other challenge has been how to get a run in without either leaving work rediculously early (bad option), getting up rediculously early (worse option) or running at night (another worse option). I ended up deciding to give a shot to changing while at work, going for a run there, and then coming home. With only a few weeks before the marathon, at which point I'll likely do most of my running on weekends until the sidewalks get cruddy, the number of instances where its a challenge to squeeze in these mid-week runs are few and far between.
Anyhow, the only other unknown was going to be the sidewalk and narrow road situation - pretty much every road I mapped out I had been on before in my car, but I never took much notice at the time as to the sidewalk situation. There was one particular stretch I knew that I'd have no sidewalk, so I went along that section first while there was still plenty of light. The other question was the terrain - normally the route I take on these mid-week threshold runs is fairly flat - but there were going to be some additional inclines on this one.
My plan was to start out with the typical mile or so warm up, followed by about eight miles at a HR of 160, with the last mile at a HR of 150 for cooldown. Everything was going pretty well until about mile 4, when I started noticing it raining. Rain was in the forecast, but it wasn't raining when I started, so I was hopeful that maybe it wouldn't rain at all. It's not that running in the rain is a problem in itself (I actually like it - very cooling), but it creates puddles. On the other hand, if things are going to get wet, I'd just as soon have them be drenching. It seems like maybe someone was reading my mind, because within about 15 minutes, it started pouring. At first I avoided puddles, but it was raining heavy enough that my socked got waterlogged and shoes filled up with water anyway. At that point, avoiding a puddle isn't worth the energy.
Something strange happens to me when a cool rain comes.. On a humid, sunny day I can be running at a HR of 150 and feel labored. But put me in a cool rain, and I can feel just fine with a HR of 170 - which is typically getting into the range where my endurance starts to drop off. To me, its an example of how much energy and effort the body puts into cooling itself - when it is raining and you get that cooling effect for free, so much more energy can go into a faster pace. So today when it was raining, I noticed that my HR was close to 170, but my pace was also around 7 min/mile or faster. I had to make an effort to slow down a bit to try and keep it under 165, because I still had a few miles to go.
By the time I finished up, it was getting dark. The last mile or so I probably should have had a light with me - or at least something other than my dark blue shirt. I got to thinking that maybe one option for the future would be to get up early, drive to work and go for a run at that point. That'd give me a little over an hour of time to 'wake up' - as a person who doesn't drink coffee, I'm often a slow riser and take my time to get moving in the morning. Then it occured to me that perhaps next spring, I might look to do some bricks where I ride my bike into work (about an hour), followed by a run of anywhere from 5-10 miles. It all sounds good until the morning-of when the alarm clock goes off, though.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
1850 yds - 9/28
This is a perfect example of why I like triathlons. If I were to do only one thing for exercise, I'd become incredibly bored. But with a sport that has three disciplines, I get to break up the monotony and take a break from one activity while concentrating on another. It seems to suit my propensity to be uber-dedicated to something, to the point where I need to take a break from it after a time.
So earlier this year, when it was prime running and biking season, swimming took a seat on the back burner. True, I had intended to swim more in open water, but week after week, for one reason or another, it just never worked out. I didn't worry about it too much, because I knew that running and biking would be taking a back seat during the winter, and that would be prime season to returning to swimming.
Now that a few stars have aligned for swimming again (essentially finished with the long bike & run workouts, and having something to track laps with), I'm motivated again to be hitting the pool.
Tonight I started where I left off, swimming basically a miles worth (36 laps). Last winter I did a mile 2-3x per week, in an effort to get to the point where it was a relatively easy workout, because once the weather warmed up in the spring, I wanted to be able to concentrate on cycling and running in prep for the half iron. This winter, however, will be a little different, in that now I have to work up to 2.4 miles. To add another variable to the mix, I'll be in a wetsuit for the full iron, and swimming in a wetsuit is considerably easier than without one. Due to that, I'm figuring that having to swim 2.4 miles in a pool - 86 laps - will be unnecessary. Which is fortunate. Truthfully, swimming is boring enough. Swimming in a pool for 86 laps is almost as bad as running or biking indoors. I say 'almost' because at least with swimming you are still moving - as opposed to rollers, a stationary bike, or a treadmill.
Anyhow, as I was driving to the pool, there were two things I wanted to make sure I put attention to - not over-reaching (which tends to result in me hooking to one side when in open water), and to experiment with slightly higher arm turnover. Ever since I started incorporating the two-beat kick in June, I've been paying more attention to the mechanics as opposed to pace - and as a result the glide portion has been a tad extended in order to give myself that extra bit of time for self analysis after every power-generating portion of the stroke. But now, I figured, I might be at the point where I can try to increase arm turnover a bit in an effort to see if that would help increase pace.
Unfortunately, that goal came and went. In fact, I had to sit here for a minute to remember what the second goal was that I thought of on the way to the pool. I did do a better job of remembering to not over-reach though. In the end, there were a couple other mechanical aspects I toyed around with as I noticed what I perceived to be aspects of my form that were inducing drag. The first was quickening the motion of breathing from my left (vanilla) side. Since I'm more comfortable breathing from the right-hand side, I believe that when I turn my head to the left, drag increases. There are two possible reasons - either my mechanics are not as streamlined from that side, or I am slower to take a breath because I am not as sure of myself with regards to grabbing air instead of a mouthful of water.
Another aspect I experimented with was placement of the right hand during breathing from the left side. Again, since I'm not as comfortable with the left side, I unconsciously push down with my right hand a bit in order to prop up my head. Instead of putting energy to move forward, I'm putting energy into moving upward - which is a no-no. So all in all, it comes down to getting more comfortable with breathing from the left side - but just looking at two particular aspects of it that need work.
Which leads me to a particular gripe I have with swimming - at some point you get to where miniscule differences in form start becoming more significant in terms of things that slow you down. The problem with that is that it can be very difficult to tell whether a small change results in any improvement - who is to say that the last lap of 50 yds done at 51.3 with the form experiment in place is faster (due to the change) than the previous lap done at 51.6 without the experiment? Three tenths of a second isn't much for a 50 yd lap - but taken cumulatively over the course of 2.4 miles, it adds up - not to mention energy savings. So anyway, thats a long winded way of saying that although I experimented with those things, I have no idea at the moment whether they are an improvement or not.
In the end, I ended up doing an extra 50 yds, because for some reason around lap 19 the button apparently did not get pushed, and the lap time for that one was like 1:45.
Total Distance: 1850 yds
Total Time: 32:06
So earlier this year, when it was prime running and biking season, swimming took a seat on the back burner. True, I had intended to swim more in open water, but week after week, for one reason or another, it just never worked out. I didn't worry about it too much, because I knew that running and biking would be taking a back seat during the winter, and that would be prime season to returning to swimming.
Now that a few stars have aligned for swimming again (essentially finished with the long bike & run workouts, and having something to track laps with), I'm motivated again to be hitting the pool.
Tonight I started where I left off, swimming basically a miles worth (36 laps). Last winter I did a mile 2-3x per week, in an effort to get to the point where it was a relatively easy workout, because once the weather warmed up in the spring, I wanted to be able to concentrate on cycling and running in prep for the half iron. This winter, however, will be a little different, in that now I have to work up to 2.4 miles. To add another variable to the mix, I'll be in a wetsuit for the full iron, and swimming in a wetsuit is considerably easier than without one. Due to that, I'm figuring that having to swim 2.4 miles in a pool - 86 laps - will be unnecessary. Which is fortunate. Truthfully, swimming is boring enough. Swimming in a pool for 86 laps is almost as bad as running or biking indoors. I say 'almost' because at least with swimming you are still moving - as opposed to rollers, a stationary bike, or a treadmill.
Anyhow, as I was driving to the pool, there were two things I wanted to make sure I put attention to - not over-reaching (which tends to result in me hooking to one side when in open water), and to experiment with slightly higher arm turnover. Ever since I started incorporating the two-beat kick in June, I've been paying more attention to the mechanics as opposed to pace - and as a result the glide portion has been a tad extended in order to give myself that extra bit of time for self analysis after every power-generating portion of the stroke. But now, I figured, I might be at the point where I can try to increase arm turnover a bit in an effort to see if that would help increase pace.
Unfortunately, that goal came and went. In fact, I had to sit here for a minute to remember what the second goal was that I thought of on the way to the pool. I did do a better job of remembering to not over-reach though. In the end, there were a couple other mechanical aspects I toyed around with as I noticed what I perceived to be aspects of my form that were inducing drag. The first was quickening the motion of breathing from my left (vanilla) side. Since I'm more comfortable breathing from the right-hand side, I believe that when I turn my head to the left, drag increases. There are two possible reasons - either my mechanics are not as streamlined from that side, or I am slower to take a breath because I am not as sure of myself with regards to grabbing air instead of a mouthful of water.
Another aspect I experimented with was placement of the right hand during breathing from the left side. Again, since I'm not as comfortable with the left side, I unconsciously push down with my right hand a bit in order to prop up my head. Instead of putting energy to move forward, I'm putting energy into moving upward - which is a no-no. So all in all, it comes down to getting more comfortable with breathing from the left side - but just looking at two particular aspects of it that need work.
Which leads me to a particular gripe I have with swimming - at some point you get to where miniscule differences in form start becoming more significant in terms of things that slow you down. The problem with that is that it can be very difficult to tell whether a small change results in any improvement - who is to say that the last lap of 50 yds done at 51.3 with the form experiment in place is faster (due to the change) than the previous lap done at 51.6 without the experiment? Three tenths of a second isn't much for a 50 yd lap - but taken cumulatively over the course of 2.4 miles, it adds up - not to mention energy savings. So anyway, thats a long winded way of saying that although I experimented with those things, I have no idea at the moment whether they are an improvement or not.
In the end, I ended up doing an extra 50 yds, because for some reason around lap 19 the button apparently did not get pushed, and the lap time for that one was like 1:45.
Total Distance: 1850 yds
Total Time: 32:06
Monday, September 26, 2011
P90x Legs & Back plus 1 mile pool - 9/26
Normally Monday is my Yoga day, but for some reason, I wasn't really feeling up to it. During the day, I started thinking what I could do instead, and the idea of doing the P90x Legs & Back came to mind. I've been skipping it recently because it makes my quads tight for a few days, and with long runs I didn't want to have my quads be tight and then put nearly 20 miles on them. But if I was going to be skipping Yoga, and probably doing that on Tuesday instead, it gave me an opportunity to get the legs strength routine in this week in plenty of time for recovery for a Thursday mid-week run. Actually, if things went really well, since yoga is a good recovery activity - it's possible that I would be up for a mid week run on Wednesday. But either way, by doing the legs routine tonight and yoga tomorrow, it gave me some additional options.
Then when I got home, I found I had this waiting for me. I ordered it on Saturday (9/24) at noon, with an estimated delivery date range of Sept 29 - Oct 4. It arrived the next business day. WTF. It's almost like USPS is working double time to justify being kept around, what with all the talk of removing post offices around the country.
So, obviously with my new toy, I was anxious to give it a spin. So instead of the full legs & back routine, I did the first half (which still is enough of a workout to induce soreness) and then headed to the pool. The only thing of note with the P90x routine for today is that I'm able to do 4 pull/chin ups consecutively. Then after a 10 second break I was able to knock out a few more. Considering that when I started I couldn't do any, I'm happy with that.
The Sportcount took a little getting used to, but it was definitely nice having something to count laps with again! I had to stop twice, once to adjust my goggles, and again to tighten the finger strap on the counter - but apparently I messed up invoking the units 'pause' function, because when I was reviewing the data after 36 laps, I saw two lap times were way off - instead of about 53-55 seconds, they were more like 1:40.
Either way, total time was about 32 minutes for the 36 laps. I'd have a more precise count, but in my attempt to shut the thing off, I ended up resetting it and lost the exact stopwatch time. I do remember it being about 33 minutes and change, but considering there was a solid minute to a minute and a half that was accidentally added due to messing up the pause function, 32 minutes is a pretty darm close estimate. The good news is that I didn't lose much swimming performance over the past couple months. The bad news is that I went 5-6 laps before I remembered to breathe bilaterally...
Then when I got home, I found I had this waiting for me. I ordered it on Saturday (9/24) at noon, with an estimated delivery date range of Sept 29 - Oct 4. It arrived the next business day. WTF. It's almost like USPS is working double time to justify being kept around, what with all the talk of removing post offices around the country.
So, obviously with my new toy, I was anxious to give it a spin. So instead of the full legs & back routine, I did the first half (which still is enough of a workout to induce soreness) and then headed to the pool. The only thing of note with the P90x routine for today is that I'm able to do 4 pull/chin ups consecutively. Then after a 10 second break I was able to knock out a few more. Considering that when I started I couldn't do any, I'm happy with that.
The Sportcount took a little getting used to, but it was definitely nice having something to count laps with again! I had to stop twice, once to adjust my goggles, and again to tighten the finger strap on the counter - but apparently I messed up invoking the units 'pause' function, because when I was reviewing the data after 36 laps, I saw two lap times were way off - instead of about 53-55 seconds, they were more like 1:40.
Either way, total time was about 32 minutes for the 36 laps. I'd have a more precise count, but in my attempt to shut the thing off, I ended up resetting it and lost the exact stopwatch time. I do remember it being about 33 minutes and change, but considering there was a solid minute to a minute and a half that was accidentally added due to messing up the pause function, 32 minutes is a pretty darm close estimate. The good news is that I didn't lose much swimming performance over the past couple months. The bad news is that I went 5-6 laps before I remembered to breathe bilaterally...
92 mike bike, 6 mile run brick - 9/25
Late last week, I formulated my plan for this weekends workout. I was going to do the Wachusett mountain loop twice, which would be several thousand feet of climbing and about 110 miles, followed by a 10 mile run. I'd get up at 5am Sunday morning, as it was supposed to be rainy on Saturday, and this would be the last real long workout of the season, because I'd have to start the October marathon taper.
Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out that way. We went to a barbeque Saturday afternoon, and in trying to make sure I had a nice solid nights sleep, I avoided alcohol because I didn't want to wake up dehydrated. So I had soda instead. Unfortunately, between the soda and the desserts, I set myself for a restless night. I initially fell asleep around 10pm, figuring I was good - but then at 11pm I woke up to go to the bathroom (damn soda!) and couldn't go back to sleep (damn caffeine and sugar!). Try as I might, I tossed and turned, unable to catch any sleep. Once it got to after 1am, I thought 'well there goes that plan... SHIT!' and turned off my alarm clock. Now not only was I still jazzed on caffeine and sugar, I was pissed that I'd be missing the intended workout. I went into the living room to watch some TV (second such action in an attempt to distract myself and get tired), figuring that my workout would instead maybe be a couple P90x workouts, or do a shorter ride, or get an open water swim in - something. I was so upset with myself that I just really wanted to kick my own ass because of my stupidity with the damn soda and desserts. Finally around 2:30 I was suddenly hit with sleepy.
I woke up around 8:30 and fortunately felt fairly well rested. I started thinking that I could still probably salvage a good workout. I had already done most of all the weekend chores already, so I really had nothing to do all day anyhow. I decided I'd end up doing a Wachusett reservoir trip, but with looping around the reservoir a few times for the extra miles, and then do a 10 miler when I got home. I'd still get close to 100 miles, albeit a much flatter course, and get a nice brick workout in. Oh, and the other thing is that I'd be able to test my idea of using raisins, peanuts and M&M's as solid fuel for a long bike ride. Previous near-centuries I had only a protein bar in addition to gatorade and started thinking maybe it wasn't enough. And lastly I'd try upping the strength of one bottle of gatorade, and having another bottle be just water. I had been finding on these long rides that after a while of just having gatorade, it gets really boring, which doesn't help with fluid consumption.
I also tried a slower warmup period on the bike ride as well - trying to keep a relatively low level of exertion because I didn't want to burn out too quickly. I ended up doing three loops around the reservoir, at about 21-22 miles per loop. The first loop I felt good, but a little bored because I knew I was < 30 miles in and still had a long while to go. The second loop (< 50 miles) was better mentally and I still felt pretty good physically - I was finding that if I kept my HR at about 140, I felt like I was at a steady state of exertion and could go all day. The third loop (around 65 miles), my legs started to tighten up a bit and I was glad this was the final loop and then I'd be heading home. However, even the trip home was another 20 miles. All the while, I made sure to have some of my homemade trail mix fairly regularly, washing it down with regular water, and having gatorade in between. The variety of tastes, such as they were, were a nice departure from a long bike ride subsisting solely on gatorade - so that aspect was a success.
By the time I got home, I was glad to be off the bike. It was a total of 92 miles, but I definitely felt better than I did around the same point on my previous century rides - so that appears to have been another positive of having solid foods.
However, I knew that 10 miles for a run was probably out - I wasn't feeling that good. But I also knew that things can change - so I decided that I'd make the decision around mile three - at a point where I would turn one direction for six miles, and another for the 10 mile loop. If I felt really good, I'd go for 10 - but otherwise having done 92 on the bike, I'd actually be happy with anything more than three. As is normal for a brick run, the first couple miles were slow an odd feeling, but I was surprised I was able to keep nearly a 9 min/mile pace. My goal was to keep my HR around 150 (that turned out to not happen0, and as I do with long runs, I took a walk break every mile. Somewhere around miles two and three, I decided that six would be the distance, however I had to promise myself not to take a shortcut that would have resulted in about 5.25 miles. In return for not taking the shortcut, and also as an experiment, I'd allow myself to walk up the hills on my six mile loop, which occur from mile 3.5-4, and again from 5.5 to 6. I was mostly curious whether it would allow me to feel stronger on the flatter portions by not 'striking a match' just to get up the hill. In the end, the jury is still out on that one - I'm conflicted because walking that much allows for lack of mental toughness. On the other hand, I have no basis for comparison for how I felt at the end - without those breaks maybe I'd be absolutely shot after 6 miles instead of just fatigued and happy to be done.
Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out that way. We went to a barbeque Saturday afternoon, and in trying to make sure I had a nice solid nights sleep, I avoided alcohol because I didn't want to wake up dehydrated. So I had soda instead. Unfortunately, between the soda and the desserts, I set myself for a restless night. I initially fell asleep around 10pm, figuring I was good - but then at 11pm I woke up to go to the bathroom (damn soda!) and couldn't go back to sleep (damn caffeine and sugar!). Try as I might, I tossed and turned, unable to catch any sleep. Once it got to after 1am, I thought 'well there goes that plan... SHIT!' and turned off my alarm clock. Now not only was I still jazzed on caffeine and sugar, I was pissed that I'd be missing the intended workout. I went into the living room to watch some TV (second such action in an attempt to distract myself and get tired), figuring that my workout would instead maybe be a couple P90x workouts, or do a shorter ride, or get an open water swim in - something. I was so upset with myself that I just really wanted to kick my own ass because of my stupidity with the damn soda and desserts. Finally around 2:30 I was suddenly hit with sleepy.
I woke up around 8:30 and fortunately felt fairly well rested. I started thinking that I could still probably salvage a good workout. I had already done most of all the weekend chores already, so I really had nothing to do all day anyhow. I decided I'd end up doing a Wachusett reservoir trip, but with looping around the reservoir a few times for the extra miles, and then do a 10 miler when I got home. I'd still get close to 100 miles, albeit a much flatter course, and get a nice brick workout in. Oh, and the other thing is that I'd be able to test my idea of using raisins, peanuts and M&M's as solid fuel for a long bike ride. Previous near-centuries I had only a protein bar in addition to gatorade and started thinking maybe it wasn't enough. And lastly I'd try upping the strength of one bottle of gatorade, and having another bottle be just water. I had been finding on these long rides that after a while of just having gatorade, it gets really boring, which doesn't help with fluid consumption.
I also tried a slower warmup period on the bike ride as well - trying to keep a relatively low level of exertion because I didn't want to burn out too quickly. I ended up doing three loops around the reservoir, at about 21-22 miles per loop. The first loop I felt good, but a little bored because I knew I was < 30 miles in and still had a long while to go. The second loop (< 50 miles) was better mentally and I still felt pretty good physically - I was finding that if I kept my HR at about 140, I felt like I was at a steady state of exertion and could go all day. The third loop (around 65 miles), my legs started to tighten up a bit and I was glad this was the final loop and then I'd be heading home. However, even the trip home was another 20 miles. All the while, I made sure to have some of my homemade trail mix fairly regularly, washing it down with regular water, and having gatorade in between. The variety of tastes, such as they were, were a nice departure from a long bike ride subsisting solely on gatorade - so that aspect was a success.
By the time I got home, I was glad to be off the bike. It was a total of 92 miles, but I definitely felt better than I did around the same point on my previous century rides - so that appears to have been another positive of having solid foods.
However, I knew that 10 miles for a run was probably out - I wasn't feeling that good. But I also knew that things can change - so I decided that I'd make the decision around mile three - at a point where I would turn one direction for six miles, and another for the 10 mile loop. If I felt really good, I'd go for 10 - but otherwise having done 92 on the bike, I'd actually be happy with anything more than three. As is normal for a brick run, the first couple miles were slow an odd feeling, but I was surprised I was able to keep nearly a 9 min/mile pace. My goal was to keep my HR around 150 (that turned out to not happen0, and as I do with long runs, I took a walk break every mile. Somewhere around miles two and three, I decided that six would be the distance, however I had to promise myself not to take a shortcut that would have resulted in about 5.25 miles. In return for not taking the shortcut, and also as an experiment, I'd allow myself to walk up the hills on my six mile loop, which occur from mile 3.5-4, and again from 5.5 to 6. I was mostly curious whether it would allow me to feel stronger on the flatter portions by not 'striking a match' just to get up the hill. In the end, the jury is still out on that one - I'm conflicted because walking that much allows for lack of mental toughness. On the other hand, I have no basis for comparison for how I felt at the end - without those breaks maybe I'd be absolutely shot after 6 miles instead of just fatigued and happy to be done.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Back to the pool - 9/23/11
Waaaay back in... late June? I had an issue where my old HR monitor, that I had been using for the pool (bacause it had lap memory and was more water resistant than my Forerunner 305), had a dead battery. Upon replacement, I must have been sloppy about putting it back together, because it got water in it - which ruined the display. Since it was almost summer, I figured I wouldn't worry about swimming in the pool, and take advantage of the opportunity to do more open water swims. This would give me time to go out and get another waterproof lap watch I could use for the pool when the time came.
Well, that never quite worked out. I only swam a handful of times over the summer, and decided yesterday that I needed to get back into the pool at some point. So I spent last night after work scouring the local stores trying to find a cheap, simple wrist watch. I thought it'd be real easy, I was only looking for the following features:
- stopwatch with lap memory
- waterproof to at least 10ft
THATS IT! Yet, I couldn't find one. I hit (in order) Target, Best Buy, Sports Authority, Dicks Sporting Goods and BJ's. Any place that had anything had HR monitors for $70 or more. Dicks had watches, but they were all fancy Timex ones for like $50 (for the 50 lap model) or $65 (for the 100 lap model). What the hell!? Finally I went to Walgreens, figuring they'd have cheap-ass watches. Well, they did - for $5 - but they had no lap function.
/sigh
I was really hoping to solve my problem with an investment of less than $15 - but I suppose HR monitors have gotten so cheap that the cheap-ass watches that were ubiquitous when I was a kid have been phased out.
So, it looked like I'd have to deal with a pool session with no way of keeping track of laps, or timing. The lack of timing doesn't bother me - but I lose track of laps so quickly and easily that a counter is absolutely imperative. If I concentrated on repeating a number in my head during the whole lap, then I'd not be concentrating on form - and I absolutely want to concentrate on form.
Anyway - I got my butt to the pool at about 7am this morning without any real plan or idea of what I was going to do. It had been damn near a month since I last swam at all, so my only intention today was just to reacquaint myself with swimming. Any hope that I had of improvement via various strength training I have been doing went out the window pretty quick, because I only got about 300 yards in before I stopped to take a breather. Hell, I got halfway through my first lap before I remembered to breath bilaterally. Obviously, I have some ground to catch up on.
In the end, I did 5 or 6 sessions of between probably 200-300 yards each - so total distance was anywhere from 1000 to 1800 yards. After about 30-35 minutes, I called it a day and decided that I really need to make sure to hit the pool a good amount over the winter, and I also need to find a damn stopwatch!
Well, that never quite worked out. I only swam a handful of times over the summer, and decided yesterday that I needed to get back into the pool at some point. So I spent last night after work scouring the local stores trying to find a cheap, simple wrist watch. I thought it'd be real easy, I was only looking for the following features:
- stopwatch with lap memory
- waterproof to at least 10ft
THATS IT! Yet, I couldn't find one. I hit (in order) Target, Best Buy, Sports Authority, Dicks Sporting Goods and BJ's. Any place that had anything had HR monitors for $70 or more. Dicks had watches, but they were all fancy Timex ones for like $50 (for the 50 lap model) or $65 (for the 100 lap model). What the hell!? Finally I went to Walgreens, figuring they'd have cheap-ass watches. Well, they did - for $5 - but they had no lap function.
/sigh
I was really hoping to solve my problem with an investment of less than $15 - but I suppose HR monitors have gotten so cheap that the cheap-ass watches that were ubiquitous when I was a kid have been phased out.
So, it looked like I'd have to deal with a pool session with no way of keeping track of laps, or timing. The lack of timing doesn't bother me - but I lose track of laps so quickly and easily that a counter is absolutely imperative. If I concentrated on repeating a number in my head during the whole lap, then I'd not be concentrating on form - and I absolutely want to concentrate on form.
Anyway - I got my butt to the pool at about 7am this morning without any real plan or idea of what I was going to do. It had been damn near a month since I last swam at all, so my only intention today was just to reacquaint myself with swimming. Any hope that I had of improvement via various strength training I have been doing went out the window pretty quick, because I only got about 300 yards in before I stopped to take a breather. Hell, I got halfway through my first lap before I remembered to breath bilaterally. Obviously, I have some ground to catch up on.
In the end, I did 5 or 6 sessions of between probably 200-300 yards each - so total distance was anywhere from 1000 to 1800 yards. After about 30-35 minutes, I called it a day and decided that I really need to make sure to hit the pool a good amount over the winter, and I also need to find a damn stopwatch!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
10 miles threshold - 9/21/11
I wasn't sure whether I was going to go for a run today. After having done 23 miles on Saturday, I still wasn't 100% recovered - probably more like 90%. Also, with the sun setting at 6:45pm or so, the amount of daylight after getting hom from work is starting to make mid-week runs of more than just a few miles more difficult. Due to a myriad of other factors, one of which being that I wanted to have more time after a mid-week run before this weekends plans for a long ride - I decided to suck it up and get the run in. However I think that for the next couple week, I'm going to have to plan better and get up early on Wednesday's for these mid-week runs.
I wanted to retry the 10 mile loop I had done the other week to compare todays performance with the previous one, but increasing the intensity. Last time I shot for a HR of 155-160 and felt good throughout the entire distance, so this time I wanted to shoot for about 160 to see what things would feel like. I figured there was only a slim chance I'd match or beat the pace of the other week, because as I mentioned there was still some recovery that could happen. Plus, last time it was raining, and although that means high humidity, it also means free cooling. Today it was humid, but not raining.
I followed the same basic formula - about a mile warm up, then running at desired intensity, followed by some lower intensity to keep blood flowing to help recovery. The first couple miles felt pretty good, but I could tell by about mile four that this run was definitely a notch more difficult. Although I felt like I could maintain intensity for most of the run, my HR was consistently closer to the 165 range than 160. Less concerning, but still notable, was that my pace was actually about 10-15 seconds slower than it was for the previous run. In other words, I was working about 10 bpm harder to maintain a pace 10-15 seconds slower than before. Prime example of how big an effect weather and degree of recovery can have on performance.
By the time I got to mile 6, my HR had consistently been closer to 170 for a couple miles, and I started to rethink my plan for the rest of the run. I decided that doing this distance, at this intensity, was already quite a solid jump, and that if I wanted to get a good long ride in this weekend, I should probably not go for broke on this run. Besides, my pace had slowed to 8 min/miles - and while I generally have been more concerned with intesity (ie, HR) - seeing my pace drop was an indication that I had probably reached some limit and should start backing off. So I planned on reaching mile 8, then slowing down to a HR of 160 for one mile, followed by the last mile being at my typical recovery HR of 150. I figured the two miles of reduced intensity should help in keeping me from getting stiff and sore over the next day or so.
So in the end it was slower than my previous run of the same loop - but on the positive side, the intensity level was higher, and I feel like I learned that a HR of 165 probably right around the proper threshold intesity for me. It just seemed that it was a level at which I could sustain for about an hour, which, according to the Daniels running formula, is the proper threshold training level. Looking back on the Nassaney race, I'd estimate that that HR (169) is just about right for tempo workouts - those that I can sustain for about 20-25 minutes.
I wanted to retry the 10 mile loop I had done the other week to compare todays performance with the previous one, but increasing the intensity. Last time I shot for a HR of 155-160 and felt good throughout the entire distance, so this time I wanted to shoot for about 160 to see what things would feel like. I figured there was only a slim chance I'd match or beat the pace of the other week, because as I mentioned there was still some recovery that could happen. Plus, last time it was raining, and although that means high humidity, it also means free cooling. Today it was humid, but not raining.
I followed the same basic formula - about a mile warm up, then running at desired intensity, followed by some lower intensity to keep blood flowing to help recovery. The first couple miles felt pretty good, but I could tell by about mile four that this run was definitely a notch more difficult. Although I felt like I could maintain intensity for most of the run, my HR was consistently closer to the 165 range than 160. Less concerning, but still notable, was that my pace was actually about 10-15 seconds slower than it was for the previous run. In other words, I was working about 10 bpm harder to maintain a pace 10-15 seconds slower than before. Prime example of how big an effect weather and degree of recovery can have on performance.
By the time I got to mile 6, my HR had consistently been closer to 170 for a couple miles, and I started to rethink my plan for the rest of the run. I decided that doing this distance, at this intensity, was already quite a solid jump, and that if I wanted to get a good long ride in this weekend, I should probably not go for broke on this run. Besides, my pace had slowed to 8 min/miles - and while I generally have been more concerned with intesity (ie, HR) - seeing my pace drop was an indication that I had probably reached some limit and should start backing off. So I planned on reaching mile 8, then slowing down to a HR of 160 for one mile, followed by the last mile being at my typical recovery HR of 150. I figured the two miles of reduced intensity should help in keeping me from getting stiff and sore over the next day or so.
So in the end it was slower than my previous run of the same loop - but on the positive side, the intensity level was higher, and I feel like I learned that a HR of 165 probably right around the proper threshold intesity for me. It just seemed that it was a level at which I could sustain for about an hour, which, according to the Daniels running formula, is the proper threshold training level. Looking back on the Nassaney race, I'd estimate that that HR (169) is just about right for tempo workouts - those that I can sustain for about 20-25 minutes.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
23 miles - 9/17
Going back a couple months, my plan was to do 20 miles 3x in August, followed by spending September building up to 26, with the last long run being late in the month, and then starting the taper. After not being able to do the 3rd 20 miler in August, I started a little bit of speedwork with tempo and threshold runs, on the idea that if I'm not extending the distance, I can get quality runs in by trying to improve performance.
However, as time as passed, the idea of jumping from 20 to 26 miles, with no long runs in September, started to bug me a bit. So after last Wednesdays somewhat failed 6 miles, I decided that this weekend would be the perfect time for a long run of 23 miles. I had a good long time since my last real long run, mid-September was just about perfect timing wise, and I saw very little activity the week prior due to travelling for work. The timing also gives me a chance for one last century bike ride over the next week or two, which would be real nice to get in. The other major reason I wanted to log this run was because I wanted to see what hydration and fuel consumption would be like in new england fall weather. With the other runs having been in August, I was sure I was going through more water during those runs than I would in a marathon in mid-October - but I wanted to get an idea of whether my fuel belt with 48 oz of fluids would be enough, a little short, or a lot short.
Previously, all my my long runs were done at a target HR of 150, but after doing some speedwork and getting a better idea of what I could sustain for distance, I started to wonder whether I should continue with 150 for this run, or maybe bump up a little bit. The other week when I shot for 155-160 and maintained for 8 miles I felt really strong. Not strong enough to tack on an additional 15 miles worth, but stronger than I thought I'd be. In the end I decided to shoot for 150-155 on this run - basically allowing myself a few more bpm than I was before. So not only was I going to be at a higher intensity, but I'd be tacking on a few miles. That would be enough added workload for this run.
I did my typical long run first loop around the reservoir, and found I was nearly 4 miles in before I thought about having anything to drink. So immediately the good news was that water consumption would be markedly less, but I was slightly concerned that maybe I was starting off behind the eight ball - if I was at mile 4 and the idea of having water came to me, perhaps I was already dehydrated - and playing catchup with hydration on the run is very difficult. So I downed a bit more than I normally would, and make sure during the next walk break (I'm still doing walk breaks every mile) I'd finish the 8 oz bottle. Hopefully that'd get me back on track.
Oddly enough, it took a few miles for my HR to feel like it settled in a bit. It might have just taken that long to warm up (it was about 46F when I started out, afterall) - but my HR was bouncing around quite a bit, which made finding a pace a little difficult, especially because the first couple miles have some mild uphills.
But once I got settled in, the rest of the first half or so went pretty smoothly. By this time, I was consuming about 2 oz per mile, or about 2 oz per 8-9 minutes. Probably a little less than I should be and am able to absorb, but I felt like it was sufficient enough. And that rate allowed me to keep running without stopping at home to refill.
Things continued to progress pretty smoothly, but by about mile 16-17, my hips did start to tighten up a bit. It was mostly my upper quad flexors whenever I'd extend my foot forward, but it was very mild, so I didn't worry about it. As I got to about the same point, I had to start thinking of how to modify my route back to add an additional three miles. I knew that if I got to my normal stopping point and was short, the temptation to just call it a day might be too great. So I had to find a way to add just about the right number of miles before reaching the finish line.
Around mile 18, I decided that instead of taking walk breaks for miles 19, 20 and 21, I'd just run straight through them. I wanted to see how much left I'd have in the tank without the walk breaks, and considering that I was already fatigued, I thought maybe it'd be a little bit of a threshold workout as well. Once I hit mile 21, I took a walk break before the next mile. By this time I knew mile 23 was going to be a slow, recovery pace mile - as I was stiffening up enough to know that if I didn't do any sort of recovery pace, I'd be real stiff and sore for a few days.
In the end, it was a workout that took a bit more out of me than I thought. Even as I write this the next day, I'm still a little sore, and this is the first workout that has warranted two ice baths - one immediately after the workout (as always) and one today. It is clearly going to be a few days before I feel recovered enough to run again - at this point I'm not sure whether my mid-week run will be Wednesday or Thursday.
However, as time as passed, the idea of jumping from 20 to 26 miles, with no long runs in September, started to bug me a bit. So after last Wednesdays somewhat failed 6 miles, I decided that this weekend would be the perfect time for a long run of 23 miles. I had a good long time since my last real long run, mid-September was just about perfect timing wise, and I saw very little activity the week prior due to travelling for work. The timing also gives me a chance for one last century bike ride over the next week or two, which would be real nice to get in. The other major reason I wanted to log this run was because I wanted to see what hydration and fuel consumption would be like in new england fall weather. With the other runs having been in August, I was sure I was going through more water during those runs than I would in a marathon in mid-October - but I wanted to get an idea of whether my fuel belt with 48 oz of fluids would be enough, a little short, or a lot short.
Previously, all my my long runs were done at a target HR of 150, but after doing some speedwork and getting a better idea of what I could sustain for distance, I started to wonder whether I should continue with 150 for this run, or maybe bump up a little bit. The other week when I shot for 155-160 and maintained for 8 miles I felt really strong. Not strong enough to tack on an additional 15 miles worth, but stronger than I thought I'd be. In the end I decided to shoot for 150-155 on this run - basically allowing myself a few more bpm than I was before. So not only was I going to be at a higher intensity, but I'd be tacking on a few miles. That would be enough added workload for this run.
I did my typical long run first loop around the reservoir, and found I was nearly 4 miles in before I thought about having anything to drink. So immediately the good news was that water consumption would be markedly less, but I was slightly concerned that maybe I was starting off behind the eight ball - if I was at mile 4 and the idea of having water came to me, perhaps I was already dehydrated - and playing catchup with hydration on the run is very difficult. So I downed a bit more than I normally would, and make sure during the next walk break (I'm still doing walk breaks every mile) I'd finish the 8 oz bottle. Hopefully that'd get me back on track.
Oddly enough, it took a few miles for my HR to feel like it settled in a bit. It might have just taken that long to warm up (it was about 46F when I started out, afterall) - but my HR was bouncing around quite a bit, which made finding a pace a little difficult, especially because the first couple miles have some mild uphills.
But once I got settled in, the rest of the first half or so went pretty smoothly. By this time, I was consuming about 2 oz per mile, or about 2 oz per 8-9 minutes. Probably a little less than I should be and am able to absorb, but I felt like it was sufficient enough. And that rate allowed me to keep running without stopping at home to refill.
Things continued to progress pretty smoothly, but by about mile 16-17, my hips did start to tighten up a bit. It was mostly my upper quad flexors whenever I'd extend my foot forward, but it was very mild, so I didn't worry about it. As I got to about the same point, I had to start thinking of how to modify my route back to add an additional three miles. I knew that if I got to my normal stopping point and was short, the temptation to just call it a day might be too great. So I had to find a way to add just about the right number of miles before reaching the finish line.
Around mile 18, I decided that instead of taking walk breaks for miles 19, 20 and 21, I'd just run straight through them. I wanted to see how much left I'd have in the tank without the walk breaks, and considering that I was already fatigued, I thought maybe it'd be a little bit of a threshold workout as well. Once I hit mile 21, I took a walk break before the next mile. By this time I knew mile 23 was going to be a slow, recovery pace mile - as I was stiffening up enough to know that if I didn't do any sort of recovery pace, I'd be real stiff and sore for a few days.
In the end, it was a workout that took a bit more out of me than I thought. Even as I write this the next day, I'm still a little sore, and this is the first workout that has warranted two ice baths - one immediately after the workout (as always) and one today. It is clearly going to be a few days before I feel recovered enough to run again - at this point I'm not sure whether my mid-week run will be Wednesday or Thursday.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
6 miles - 9/14/11
Some days you just don't have it.
This week I was travelling for work, and knew my schedule would be whacky because the project was a DR test, which involves late nights, shifts, troubleshooting and all kinds of other stuff that make a regular schedule impossible.
It wasn't until Wednesday that I had some downtime where I could do anything other than rest up. So when that afternoon came and I was presented with a few hours of time to kill, I went for a run because I wanted to get a midweek run in.
I knew pretty much right off it was going to probably be a bit tougher than usual. First, I wasn't as properly hydrated as I normally am. Second, it was 3 in the afternoon and it was hot and rather sticky out (for someone from the NE US, anyway). Third, I had just eaten lunch. Fourth, I didn't have any water bottles to bring with me. Lastly, this was new terrain as I was not home.
Mostly due to the heat and lack of water issue, I decided to shoot for about only 6 miles, as opposed to my typical 9-10 I do during the week. Things started out ok, but by the end of the first mile I could tell it was probably going to be a rough trip as my HR was elevated for the pace I was doing. I decided this wasn't going to be a tempo or threshold run - just an LSD pace run for several miles. By mile 4, I was constantly looking at my watch to see how far I had come along, and to try and determine how much farther I had to go, because I just wasn't feeling the run this time around. Some runs I go out and I'm feeling good and motivated with a springy step - this was a run that was certainly more of a chore than enjoyable. But these things happen.
When I got back to the hotel and was loading my tracking data, I looked at the weather and it was 88 with a heat index in high 90's. That could certainly explain it.
This week I was travelling for work, and knew my schedule would be whacky because the project was a DR test, which involves late nights, shifts, troubleshooting and all kinds of other stuff that make a regular schedule impossible.
It wasn't until Wednesday that I had some downtime where I could do anything other than rest up. So when that afternoon came and I was presented with a few hours of time to kill, I went for a run because I wanted to get a midweek run in.
I knew pretty much right off it was going to probably be a bit tougher than usual. First, I wasn't as properly hydrated as I normally am. Second, it was 3 in the afternoon and it was hot and rather sticky out (for someone from the NE US, anyway). Third, I had just eaten lunch. Fourth, I didn't have any water bottles to bring with me. Lastly, this was new terrain as I was not home.
Mostly due to the heat and lack of water issue, I decided to shoot for about only 6 miles, as opposed to my typical 9-10 I do during the week. Things started out ok, but by the end of the first mile I could tell it was probably going to be a rough trip as my HR was elevated for the pace I was doing. I decided this wasn't going to be a tempo or threshold run - just an LSD pace run for several miles. By mile 4, I was constantly looking at my watch to see how far I had come along, and to try and determine how much farther I had to go, because I just wasn't feeling the run this time around. Some runs I go out and I'm feeling good and motivated with a springy step - this was a run that was certainly more of a chore than enjoyable. But these things happen.
When I got back to the hotel and was loading my tracking data, I looked at the weather and it was 88 with a heat index in high 90's. That could certainly explain it.
3.1 Miles Nassaney race - 9/10/11
This year I have done very few actual races - just the Worcester half marathon and the Patriot Half Iron. Most of the time when a potential race came up, the timing wasn't good for me to either do the distance required, or push the intensity required. But this time ended up being different - after having done some speed work the past few weeks, and this race being a 9/11 memorial 5k that a couple other friends were doing, I decided to join in.
In thinking about my approach to this race, I decided that I'd shoot for an average HR of about 165 for the entire thing. My thinking was that I had done a few sessions of tempo runs @ 160 for 20-25 minutes, and I had just done eight miles at 155-160. Based on my recent paces, I figured that would have me doing a 7:30 min/mile pace or less, and very possibly closer to 7:15.
We got to the location a bit early and decided to walk along part of the course. It was at this point that I realized my plan probably wasn't going to work out all too well. The course was somewhat hilly - and having done no hill work, I knew my HR would be all over the place. So only way to try and keep it regulated would be to adjust speed based on terrain. I also did something I rarely do - warmed up for a bit before the run. Normally the distances of the races I'm running is long enough that I figure I can warm up during the run, and it won't cost me much time overall. However, with only 5k of distance, by the time I got warmed up, I'd be a mile in and it'd be hard to make up the time lost in the remaining two miles.
The first mile was pretty quick, but I could tell it was mostly flat with a slight downhill. To the eye, it looks pretty flat, but after a while I've been able to tell when there is a slight downhill because my HR and pace don't match up quite where they should. The second mile was pretty much all trail running, and consisted of rolling hills, which made keeping a constant HR nearly impossible. Then the third mile had the big uphill - afterall, in a race where the stop and start are right next to one another, every downhill you enjoy early on is met with an uphill later on.
It was about halfway through the 2nd mile that I decided to forego the idea of maintaining 165 throughout - my HR was bouncing around between the low 160's and the mid 170's during that second mile. So the average might have been close to 165, but that wasn't what I was looking for. Ultimately I ended up deciding that even with my HR reaching into the 170's - I'd be able to maintain for the full 3.1 miles, so even though I was higher than planned, I wasn't concerned.
So even though the best laid plans went to waste, there was something positive to take away from this - I am able to maintain about 170 for 20 minutes, so I have a much better idea of my tempo run intensity level that I can attain.
In thinking about my approach to this race, I decided that I'd shoot for an average HR of about 165 for the entire thing. My thinking was that I had done a few sessions of tempo runs @ 160 for 20-25 minutes, and I had just done eight miles at 155-160. Based on my recent paces, I figured that would have me doing a 7:30 min/mile pace or less, and very possibly closer to 7:15.
We got to the location a bit early and decided to walk along part of the course. It was at this point that I realized my plan probably wasn't going to work out all too well. The course was somewhat hilly - and having done no hill work, I knew my HR would be all over the place. So only way to try and keep it regulated would be to adjust speed based on terrain. I also did something I rarely do - warmed up for a bit before the run. Normally the distances of the races I'm running is long enough that I figure I can warm up during the run, and it won't cost me much time overall. However, with only 5k of distance, by the time I got warmed up, I'd be a mile in and it'd be hard to make up the time lost in the remaining two miles.
The first mile was pretty quick, but I could tell it was mostly flat with a slight downhill. To the eye, it looks pretty flat, but after a while I've been able to tell when there is a slight downhill because my HR and pace don't match up quite where they should. The second mile was pretty much all trail running, and consisted of rolling hills, which made keeping a constant HR nearly impossible. Then the third mile had the big uphill - afterall, in a race where the stop and start are right next to one another, every downhill you enjoy early on is met with an uphill later on.
It was about halfway through the 2nd mile that I decided to forego the idea of maintaining 165 throughout - my HR was bouncing around between the low 160's and the mid 170's during that second mile. So the average might have been close to 165, but that wasn't what I was looking for. Ultimately I ended up deciding that even with my HR reaching into the 170's - I'd be able to maintain for the full 3.1 miles, so even though I was higher than planned, I wasn't concerned.
So even though the best laid plans went to waste, there was something positive to take away from this - I am able to maintain about 170 for 20 minutes, so I have a much better idea of my tempo run intensity level that I can attain.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
10 miles threshold run - 9/7/11
I finally got around to being able to run this week - the shortened leg workout from Sunday still resulted in a couple days of soreness, and I did not want to run before I was adequately recovered.
I debated what type of run to do today - after a few days of not doing much (just the legs/back workout on Sunday, and yoga on Tuesday), I wanted to do something reasonably substantial in terms of time and distance, but I also wanted to do something like a tempo run. The only problem is that the tempo run, at 20 minutes of tempo pace, was less than what I was looking to do.
So I ended up deciding to do about 10 miles, but at a slightly higher intensity than before. Previously, I had done the 10 mile loop with one mile warm up, 8 miles at a target HR of 155, and one mile cool down. Today I decided to aim for a HR more like 155-160 during that 8 mile stretch, and see where that would take me, being conscious of how I was feeling to make sure I wasn't going to overdo it.
After I felt warmed up, I started increasing the pace to try and get my HR to that 155-160 zone. However I noticed something strange - the pace dropped as one would expect, but it kept dropping farther than I thought it would. I got to my target zone and found that I was well below 8 min/miles! The last time I did this run, last week - I was hovering right around 8 min/mile. So I told myself 'well, lets see what happens - if I start to feel like I'm flaming out after a few miles, so be it'. But - that didn't happen. My HR slowly increased during the course of the run, started to hover closer to 160 vs 155 towards the last half - but my pace wasn't dropping by a substantial amount. I distinctly remember being past mile 8 and the timer showing an hour and three minutes - I was averaging less than 8 min/miles, and that included the warm up mile!
As the miles ticked by, I was amazed at how strong I felt - sure, I was getting fatigued, but only mildly. Once I hit mile 9, I immediately slowed up to give myself a full mile in my recovery HR zone of < 150. By the time I finished, I had run the longest stretch of < 8 min/miles I've ever done in my life. Sure, in high school I ran about 6:30 min/miles, but that was only for 3 miles. Back then my longest run was probably 7 miles or so. So doing 8 miles in the 7:30 - 7:40 min/mile pace is quite the performance improvement.
While I'm super-excited about the results, I have to keep a level head - it was drizzly/rainy, and that means there was little effort my body had to put into cooling itself off. But it was still quite the pleasing result.
I debated what type of run to do today - after a few days of not doing much (just the legs/back workout on Sunday, and yoga on Tuesday), I wanted to do something reasonably substantial in terms of time and distance, but I also wanted to do something like a tempo run. The only problem is that the tempo run, at 20 minutes of tempo pace, was less than what I was looking to do.
So I ended up deciding to do about 10 miles, but at a slightly higher intensity than before. Previously, I had done the 10 mile loop with one mile warm up, 8 miles at a target HR of 155, and one mile cool down. Today I decided to aim for a HR more like 155-160 during that 8 mile stretch, and see where that would take me, being conscious of how I was feeling to make sure I wasn't going to overdo it.
After I felt warmed up, I started increasing the pace to try and get my HR to that 155-160 zone. However I noticed something strange - the pace dropped as one would expect, but it kept dropping farther than I thought it would. I got to my target zone and found that I was well below 8 min/miles! The last time I did this run, last week - I was hovering right around 8 min/mile. So I told myself 'well, lets see what happens - if I start to feel like I'm flaming out after a few miles, so be it'. But - that didn't happen. My HR slowly increased during the course of the run, started to hover closer to 160 vs 155 towards the last half - but my pace wasn't dropping by a substantial amount. I distinctly remember being past mile 8 and the timer showing an hour and three minutes - I was averaging less than 8 min/miles, and that included the warm up mile!
As the miles ticked by, I was amazed at how strong I felt - sure, I was getting fatigued, but only mildly. Once I hit mile 9, I immediately slowed up to give myself a full mile in my recovery HR zone of < 150. By the time I finished, I had run the longest stretch of < 8 min/miles I've ever done in my life. Sure, in high school I ran about 6:30 min/miles, but that was only for 3 miles. Back then my longest run was probably 7 miles or so. So doing 8 miles in the 7:30 - 7:40 min/mile pace is quite the performance improvement.
While I'm super-excited about the results, I have to keep a level head - it was drizzly/rainy, and that means there was little effort my body had to put into cooling itself off. But it was still quite the pleasing result.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
P90X - Half of Legs & Back, and Ab Ripper - 9/4
My intention earlier this week was to do the legs and back workout after the brick on Saturday, but after I got home from the run, I really really did not want to do anything more. It was a case of being over anxious before the days exercise - so on future bricks I think I'll be best served by considering a day over and done with after the run.
The problem was that kinda threw off my planning for when to do the legs and back routine - one that I'm experimenting with shifting from Tuesday due to residual soreness for a couple days after the workout. Part of the reason for doing it on Saturday was that it'd give me Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday to recover prior to Tuesdays' tempo run. So by not doing the legs workout on Saturday, I had to come up with a new plan - I could either skip it entirely (which I didn't want to do at this point), or maybe go for a partial workout. I decided to go for the latter - instead of the full hour long workout, I'd just go through half of it. As it turns out, the first half has the majority of what I'd consider the most beneficial exercises anyway - balance lunges, super skaters, wall squats, single leg squats, single leg wall squats, step-back lunges, etc. The hope was that by doing half the workout, the soreness and tightness incurred would not last as long, and I could be recovered for Tuesday's run.
So we'll see how that goes.
The problem was that kinda threw off my planning for when to do the legs and back routine - one that I'm experimenting with shifting from Tuesday due to residual soreness for a couple days after the workout. Part of the reason for doing it on Saturday was that it'd give me Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday to recover prior to Tuesdays' tempo run. So by not doing the legs workout on Saturday, I had to come up with a new plan - I could either skip it entirely (which I didn't want to do at this point), or maybe go for a partial workout. I decided to go for the latter - instead of the full hour long workout, I'd just go through half of it. As it turns out, the first half has the majority of what I'd consider the most beneficial exercises anyway - balance lunges, super skaters, wall squats, single leg squats, single leg wall squats, step-back lunges, etc. The hope was that by doing half the workout, the soreness and tightness incurred would not last as long, and I could be recovered for Tuesday's run.
So we'll see how that goes.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Return of the bricks - 46 mile bike, 6 mile run - 9/3
A few weeks ago I posted some thoughts on my continued approach to training. I've decided that I would spend the rest of the season focusing more on quality miles and time, as opposed to simply logging bulk amounts. One main reason is that less time running very long runs means less stress and reduced chance of injury. However to make up for the conditioning loss that would occur, I've been running more often throughout the week. So instead of one big long run that takes days to recover from, now I can do a workout every couple days, and in those extra workouts focus on things like tempo, threshold pace, etc. And since the only event I have this year left is a full marathon and nothing involving cycling, the reasons for doing more centuries on the bike begin to dwindle - especially since they are a huge energy drain that takes days to recovery from, which would impact the run training.
So now with somewhat shortened workouts, I can also return to doing bricks. I'm intrigued by this approach because it allows some continued cycling and the aerobic benefits of that, plus it also places fatigue on my legs for a few hours prior to running, without the impact stress of running. I'm hoping that, in a sense, this will help with conditioning because it might be a simulation of the latter portions of the full marathon. It also allows me to toy with the concept of doing a harder cycling workout as a way to keep in shape for longer rides, as the article in that previous post indicate.
Since it was my first brick in a while, I wanted to be somewhat selective about how I'd approach it and not be too aggressive. I decided to do the 46 mile Wachusett loop for the bike, but kicking the intensity up a notch, and if I felt ok afterwards, I could try the 11 mile Sudbury Reservoir loop for the run.
One of the things I've noticed on my bike rides is that my HR is very hard to pin down. Part of it is due to having to stop at lights, for traffic, etc - but part of it is also that because you can coast and there is momentum, it just seems a lot harder for me to pick and stick to a HR or intensity as easily. So all I could really do, unless I wanted to be constantly looking at my HR monitor instead of the road, was put a tad more effort into everything than I normally would. For the most part, that meant staying in one higher gear during climbs, but making sure to keep a fast cadence. It also meant fewer coasting breaks, and a little bit more pushing on straight and level sections.
I did take a few lower intensity breaks - the first being after about an hour, and I used this break to munch down on some food I brought with me. I knew I had a run coming up, so even though I wasn't hungry, it was more of a situation where I wanted to get some calories down for later on.
Once I got to the far side of the reservoir, I cruised right up a hill that I usually bog down on somewhat. Normally I go in first or second gear, trudging along at 8-9 mph, but this time I kept it in third, kept a high cadence, and kept around 12.5-13 mph. It felt like the perfect amount of effort - measured enough that I was able to maintain it to the top, but not so much that I had got to a point where I had to slow it down.
On the way back, there were a couple instances where I passed other cyclists going in the same direction. That marked the first time I have passed someone else on a bicycle with a helmet and clipless pedals. So that was good (and encouraging!)
At some point during the bike, I decided that the 11 mile loop I intended to do for the run probably wasn't going to work out. First, I wasn't too sure I should be doing that loop where the ability to cut it short and get straight home was limited. Second, I just felt like I was already pushing things enough.
Instead, I opted to do my typical 6 mile loop. I'd still get the benefit of the brick transition. I started out what felt like a nice easy pace, but it still turned out to be the fastest mile of the set. I decided to try and keep my HR around 150 or so (my LSD intensity), but having already done close to 50 miles on the bike, that was easier said than done. I found that anytime I went through a slight incline, my HR would shoot up and would take a while to settle down. So I ended up deciding that 150-155 would be an easier target range, instead of specifically 150, and if I hit 160, I'd stop, if necessary, to bring it down. So there ended up being a few times during miles 4, 5 and 6 where I did stop to walk briefly. It wasn't that I was out of gas, I just wanted to keep the HR under control. Thats the reason for some of the pace drops.
So now with somewhat shortened workouts, I can also return to doing bricks. I'm intrigued by this approach because it allows some continued cycling and the aerobic benefits of that, plus it also places fatigue on my legs for a few hours prior to running, without the impact stress of running. I'm hoping that, in a sense, this will help with conditioning because it might be a simulation of the latter portions of the full marathon. It also allows me to toy with the concept of doing a harder cycling workout as a way to keep in shape for longer rides, as the article in that previous post indicate.
Since it was my first brick in a while, I wanted to be somewhat selective about how I'd approach it and not be too aggressive. I decided to do the 46 mile Wachusett loop for the bike, but kicking the intensity up a notch, and if I felt ok afterwards, I could try the 11 mile Sudbury Reservoir loop for the run.
One of the things I've noticed on my bike rides is that my HR is very hard to pin down. Part of it is due to having to stop at lights, for traffic, etc - but part of it is also that because you can coast and there is momentum, it just seems a lot harder for me to pick and stick to a HR or intensity as easily. So all I could really do, unless I wanted to be constantly looking at my HR monitor instead of the road, was put a tad more effort into everything than I normally would. For the most part, that meant staying in one higher gear during climbs, but making sure to keep a fast cadence. It also meant fewer coasting breaks, and a little bit more pushing on straight and level sections.
I did take a few lower intensity breaks - the first being after about an hour, and I used this break to munch down on some food I brought with me. I knew I had a run coming up, so even though I wasn't hungry, it was more of a situation where I wanted to get some calories down for later on.
Once I got to the far side of the reservoir, I cruised right up a hill that I usually bog down on somewhat. Normally I go in first or second gear, trudging along at 8-9 mph, but this time I kept it in third, kept a high cadence, and kept around 12.5-13 mph. It felt like the perfect amount of effort - measured enough that I was able to maintain it to the top, but not so much that I had got to a point where I had to slow it down.
On the way back, there were a couple instances where I passed other cyclists going in the same direction. That marked the first time I have passed someone else on a bicycle with a helmet and clipless pedals. So that was good (and encouraging!)
At some point during the bike, I decided that the 11 mile loop I intended to do for the run probably wasn't going to work out. First, I wasn't too sure I should be doing that loop where the ability to cut it short and get straight home was limited. Second, I just felt like I was already pushing things enough.
Instead, I opted to do my typical 6 mile loop. I'd still get the benefit of the brick transition. I started out what felt like a nice easy pace, but it still turned out to be the fastest mile of the set. I decided to try and keep my HR around 150 or so (my LSD intensity), but having already done close to 50 miles on the bike, that was easier said than done. I found that anytime I went through a slight incline, my HR would shoot up and would take a while to settle down. So I ended up deciding that 150-155 would be an easier target range, instead of specifically 150, and if I hit 160, I'd stop, if necessary, to bring it down. So there ended up being a few times during miles 4, 5 and 6 where I did stop to walk briefly. It wasn't that I was out of gas, I just wanted to keep the HR under control. Thats the reason for some of the pace drops.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
10 miles - finding threshold intensity - 9/1
In addition to trying to figure out my tempo pace (starting off with aiming for a HR of 160 for around 20 minutes the other day), I also want to determine my threshold pace. Daniels defines this pace as that which is a little faster than marathon (ie, can hold for two hours or more) pace, but a little slower than what could be maintained for 30 minutes. With my long distance runs occuring at a HR of about 150, and the tempo runs having been at 160, I figured I'd shoot for about 155-160 and see how things went. I'm paying attention to HR as opposed to pace for a couple reasons - one is that my instantaneous pace as displayed by my HR monitor is way too erratic to follow directly, and the other is that I'm interested in running at a level that will properly apply stress based on intensity of effort as opposed to simply speed.
I have normally been shooting for about 90 minutes during this mid-week runs, and I knew that I am capable of maintaining my target HR of 155 for this amount of time, as I had an average HR of 163 for just about 2 hours during the Worcester half. In fact, if anything, I'm targeting a pace a little lower than what I'm capable of. However, I'm only just starting to try and hone in on these various intensities - and I'd rather undershoot at first than overshoot.
I chose a route that is about 10 miles, knowing that I'd probably end up finishing before the 90 minute timer. But this would give me an opportunity to run a first mile as a warm up, then eight miles at the target intensity, and then a full mile as a cooldown as a recovery HR.
Overall, things went pretty well. It was a little challenging to stick to the 155-160 range - it seemed like any little elevation change made it drop to 153 to shoot up to 162, but like last run, I just adjusted pace accordingly to maintain intensity. Of course that means that during some steeper inclines, the pace dropped to 10 min/miles or slower, but the payoff is that it allowed a faster pace overall while still being comfortable. I felt strong throughout the entire run, but did notice my pace dropping a bit during the last couple miles. Refocusing on cadence seemed to have helped a bit - as I tired my target cadence of 180 slacked a bit. I think the full mile of recovery HR intensity was useful - I'm writing this post the morning after, and even though I took an ice bath after the workout, I do feel some slight soreness/tightness which surely would have been worse without the full mile cooldown.
I have normally been shooting for about 90 minutes during this mid-week runs, and I knew that I am capable of maintaining my target HR of 155 for this amount of time, as I had an average HR of 163 for just about 2 hours during the Worcester half. In fact, if anything, I'm targeting a pace a little lower than what I'm capable of. However, I'm only just starting to try and hone in on these various intensities - and I'd rather undershoot at first than overshoot.
I chose a route that is about 10 miles, knowing that I'd probably end up finishing before the 90 minute timer. But this would give me an opportunity to run a first mile as a warm up, then eight miles at the target intensity, and then a full mile as a cooldown as a recovery HR.
Overall, things went pretty well. It was a little challenging to stick to the 155-160 range - it seemed like any little elevation change made it drop to 153 to shoot up to 162, but like last run, I just adjusted pace accordingly to maintain intensity. Of course that means that during some steeper inclines, the pace dropped to 10 min/miles or slower, but the payoff is that it allowed a faster pace overall while still being comfortable. I felt strong throughout the entire run, but did notice my pace dropping a bit during the last couple miles. Refocusing on cadence seemed to have helped a bit - as I tired my target cadence of 180 slacked a bit. I think the full mile of recovery HR intensity was useful - I'm writing this post the morning after, and even though I took an ice bath after the workout, I do feel some slight soreness/tightness which surely would have been worse without the full mile cooldown.
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