Let the good times roll!
Only a few thoughts on todays swim:
(1) I started out slower, which continued to help with smoothing out the pseudo-temporary higher-intensity-feeling zone that develops between 300-450 yds before settling into a more comfortable rhythm at about 600 yds.
(2) It takes until about 1000 yds before I feel warmed up.
(3) Neither of the above really show themselves in significant time differences between laps
(4) Right around the 1500-1700 range I consistently lose about one second per lap. This coincided with the feeling that my form was falling apart slightly. My right arm was high in the catch, my breathing from the left wasn't as smooth as it has ever been, two beat kick and hand entry timing was somewhat sloppy - all of which increase drag. If I paid close attention, I could sort it out - but it tells me that I still have some efficiencies that have not been fully committed to muscle memory yet.
(5) Due to #4, I conceded that I'd likely be a bit slower today than the past couple sessions - especially because the handful of times I counted the # of strokes for a 25 yd lap, I was at nearly 19 when I'm usually closer to 18.
(6) I ended up shocked to see that not only was I not slower, but was slightly faster today than last session - by about 20 seconds total.
2700 yds (54 laps) - 45:39
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
2700 yd swim - 10/27
Whats better than a great workout where you feel like you made some progress? Following it up with an equally as satisfying workout!
Bouyed by my last swim performance, where a couple minor mechanical changes resulted in the first sub 30 min/mile pace, I wanted to attempt a repeat, but I also wanted to try to extend the distance to 1.5 miles. The big unknown was whether the form would hold for the extra distance.
This time I also really tried to start slow, barely even trying for the first 50-100 yds, in an attempt to more gradually warm up, hoping to avoid the condition where I'm 5-6 laps in and somewhat gasping for breath. I did a little better, but I still found myself reaching a point where it was slightly uncomfortable to breathe.
That always happens, but it always settles down. However, just a few laps before it eventually did, I remembered that I had done the P90X Legs & Back routine the night before, which involves pull-ups - which I was now feeling in the way of slightly fatigued lat muscles. Hmm.. that might present a problem. So I tried minimizing the amount of actual muscle pull, and instead using hip rotation to generate power. I don't know if it worked or not, but it wasn't more than a few laps before I completely forgot about the muscle fatigue. So it either did work, or that feeling of fatigue was fleeting.
Once again, though - when I got into the high 20's in lap count, I started actually feeling re-energized and hitting a rhythm. From there, it was just a matter of waiting until the lap counter reached the number 54.
Total Time: 45:58
Laps: 54
Bouyed by my last swim performance, where a couple minor mechanical changes resulted in the first sub 30 min/mile pace, I wanted to attempt a repeat, but I also wanted to try to extend the distance to 1.5 miles. The big unknown was whether the form would hold for the extra distance.
This time I also really tried to start slow, barely even trying for the first 50-100 yds, in an attempt to more gradually warm up, hoping to avoid the condition where I'm 5-6 laps in and somewhat gasping for breath. I did a little better, but I still found myself reaching a point where it was slightly uncomfortable to breathe.
That always happens, but it always settles down. However, just a few laps before it eventually did, I remembered that I had done the P90X Legs & Back routine the night before, which involves pull-ups - which I was now feeling in the way of slightly fatigued lat muscles. Hmm.. that might present a problem. So I tried minimizing the amount of actual muscle pull, and instead using hip rotation to generate power. I don't know if it worked or not, but it wasn't more than a few laps before I completely forgot about the muscle fatigue. So it either did work, or that feeling of fatigue was fleeting.
Once again, though - when I got into the high 20's in lap count, I started actually feeling re-energized and hitting a rhythm. From there, it was just a matter of waiting until the lap counter reached the number 54.
Total Time: 45:58
Laps: 54
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
P90X Legs & Back w/Ab Ripper -10/26
I've been lazy with the P90X over the past couple weeks - I was avoiding the legs & back routine because it always makes my legs stiff and sore for a few days, and I prioritized the runs during the marathon taper over the strength routine. And then for whatever reason, I ended up not doing any other P90x routines either during that time.
But with my right big toe still recovering (I'd say its about 85% there today) and my moratorium on running until at least this weekend, I figured it'd be a good time to start up again on the strength training to start getting into a rhythm for the winter.
There's not usually a whole lot to say about a strength training routine ("I lift things up, I put them down.") - but the major reason why I'm bothering to post this time is that I am fearful of what my legs are going to feel like tomorrow and Friday. Normally, I get stiff 48 hours after a workout, but it starts the next day. So I knew that I'd start feeling this workout tomorrow before I even started, and that Friday would be the roughest day. And then because it's been a few weeks, it'd be even worse on Friday.
Unfortunately, I can feel soreness already - less than an hour after finishing. This does not bode well for me over the next 72 hours or so. Of course, I'm not seriously concerned - I'll heal, and it'll certainly help keep me from overextending myself by running before my right toe is really ready for it - so there is that positive. But I know that on Friday I'm going to be in rough shape when I get up to walk after sitting for an extended period of time (work, commute, etc).
Same with the ab ripper - I had never gotten to a point where I didn't have to take breaks, but this time, with a solid 3-4 week layoff, I can tell my abs are going to be sore as well for a few days.
So I guess the majority of any cardio I do between now and probably Sunday will be swimming.
Fitness hurts.
But with my right big toe still recovering (I'd say its about 85% there today) and my moratorium on running until at least this weekend, I figured it'd be a good time to start up again on the strength training to start getting into a rhythm for the winter.
There's not usually a whole lot to say about a strength training routine ("I lift things up, I put them down.") - but the major reason why I'm bothering to post this time is that I am fearful of what my legs are going to feel like tomorrow and Friday. Normally, I get stiff 48 hours after a workout, but it starts the next day. So I knew that I'd start feeling this workout tomorrow before I even started, and that Friday would be the roughest day. And then because it's been a few weeks, it'd be even worse on Friday.
Unfortunately, I can feel soreness already - less than an hour after finishing. This does not bode well for me over the next 72 hours or so. Of course, I'm not seriously concerned - I'll heal, and it'll certainly help keep me from overextending myself by running before my right toe is really ready for it - so there is that positive. But I know that on Friday I'm going to be in rough shape when I get up to walk after sitting for an extended period of time (work, commute, etc).
Same with the ab ripper - I had never gotten to a point where I didn't have to take breaks, but this time, with a solid 3-4 week layoff, I can tell my abs are going to be sore as well for a few days.
So I guess the majority of any cardio I do between now and probably Sunday will be swimming.
Fitness hurts.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
2250 yd swim - 10/23
It's not often you look at your stop watch and have to do a doubletake on the time and laps to make sure it really read what you thought it read.
A few swimming sessions ago, I remarked how I came across a small mechanical difference that I felt made me more smooth in the water - but the problem was that the feedback loop was rather long and would take a few sessions to determine whether that change translates to an actual advantage.
In my previous session, I got off to a crap start, and it took until over half way through the workout before I finally felt myself slipping into a good mechanical rhythm. With the contrast of the bad form vs good form fresh in my mind, I went to the pool today determined to nail it right from the start with a solid sense of how the form needed to feel. I was looking to keep my head down (I tend to face forward slightly), rotate the shoulders just a tad more, higher angle of attack on the arm during the entry (aided by the greater rotation), and lower hand position during the catch (especially on the right-hand side, because I was tending to push down with my right hand to lift my head out of the water when breathing from the left).
As usual, I the first handful of laps were a combination of nice and easy (from being rested) and stress inducing (from having a very fixed breathing rhythm instead of an ad-hoc one). Even though I always feel pokey on the first lap, it always tends to be a good 6-7 seconds faster than my eventual average. So I know I still start off way too fast, which doesn't help when combined with not being able to breathe whenever I damn well please.
But after a few hundred yards, I started to settle down - the breathing became more regulated, I became more relaxed, etc. At that point, I just started cruising along. I noticed after a while - somewhere around the laps in the late 20's and early 30's that I actually started feeling like I was catching my breath more as time went on. That was very strange - I don't know that I've ever felt like I was regaining energy while swimming before.
The 45 total laps went by pretty quickly again. I think a big part might be the novelty and excited feeling of sensing an improvement in stroke efficiency - when it feels right, I just want to keep doing it, shouting a 'YEAH!' to myself every time.
By the end of the workout, I stopped my counter and checked the time - 37:59. Are you flipping kidding me?! My previous swim of this length was clocked at 39:44 - almost two minutes slower! I don't think I've seen a time drop like that in my swimming since I switched to Total Immersion. Sure, I gained 30 seconds here, a minute there, as I went from the 37-38 minute range for a mile down to about 31 minutes, but those were major mechanical changes that were the swimming equivalent of low hanging fruit. Having already gotten to the 31 minute range for a mile, even improving by ten seconds consistently is a worthwhile improvement - nevermind well over a minute.
I'm hoping that novelty doesn't wear off soon - but just in case it does, I'm thinking maybe I should now start extending to 54 laps - a full 1.5 miles.
2250 yards
37:59
A few swimming sessions ago, I remarked how I came across a small mechanical difference that I felt made me more smooth in the water - but the problem was that the feedback loop was rather long and would take a few sessions to determine whether that change translates to an actual advantage.
In my previous session, I got off to a crap start, and it took until over half way through the workout before I finally felt myself slipping into a good mechanical rhythm. With the contrast of the bad form vs good form fresh in my mind, I went to the pool today determined to nail it right from the start with a solid sense of how the form needed to feel. I was looking to keep my head down (I tend to face forward slightly), rotate the shoulders just a tad more, higher angle of attack on the arm during the entry (aided by the greater rotation), and lower hand position during the catch (especially on the right-hand side, because I was tending to push down with my right hand to lift my head out of the water when breathing from the left).
As usual, I the first handful of laps were a combination of nice and easy (from being rested) and stress inducing (from having a very fixed breathing rhythm instead of an ad-hoc one). Even though I always feel pokey on the first lap, it always tends to be a good 6-7 seconds faster than my eventual average. So I know I still start off way too fast, which doesn't help when combined with not being able to breathe whenever I damn well please.
But after a few hundred yards, I started to settle down - the breathing became more regulated, I became more relaxed, etc. At that point, I just started cruising along. I noticed after a while - somewhere around the laps in the late 20's and early 30's that I actually started feeling like I was catching my breath more as time went on. That was very strange - I don't know that I've ever felt like I was regaining energy while swimming before.
The 45 total laps went by pretty quickly again. I think a big part might be the novelty and excited feeling of sensing an improvement in stroke efficiency - when it feels right, I just want to keep doing it, shouting a 'YEAH!' to myself every time.
By the end of the workout, I stopped my counter and checked the time - 37:59. Are you flipping kidding me?! My previous swim of this length was clocked at 39:44 - almost two minutes slower! I don't think I've seen a time drop like that in my swimming since I switched to Total Immersion. Sure, I gained 30 seconds here, a minute there, as I went from the 37-38 minute range for a mile down to about 31 minutes, but those were major mechanical changes that were the swimming equivalent of low hanging fruit. Having already gotten to the 31 minute range for a mile, even improving by ten seconds consistently is a worthwhile improvement - nevermind well over a minute.
I'm hoping that novelty doesn't wear off soon - but just in case it does, I'm thinking maybe I should now start extending to 54 laps - a full 1.5 miles.
2250 yards
37:59
9 mile run - 10/23
After the marathon last week, I was emailing with a friend of mine who lives in the town next door, and we decided that this weekend would be a good time for us to do a run together. We've met up once before a couple years ago, but in between we just always had other factors contributing to our not being able to sync up (whether it was birth of a kid for him, or IT band recovery for me which placed me well behind him in terms of speed and mileage, or whatever). He's done a handful of marathons, and with my debating what my next step will be (should I do another full before the Ironman in July?), it seemed a good time to talk training approach and for me to absorb some extra wisdom.
We met up at 6:45, and were initially going to do seven miles, but decided to turn it into nine. This was his long run, so I was ok with doing whatever he felt comfortable with. In the end, nine was probably a good amount, because that ache in my right big toe hasn't completely gone away - it abates after a few days of not running, but Thursdays run brought it back, and todays run brought it back as well. At this point, it is either something that will slowly go away if I just run through it by running 2x per week and treat it with ice/NSAID in between, or it would probably go away more quickly if I just didn't run for a couple weeks. I think what I'll end up doing is not running this week, and see how things feel towards the weekend and take it from there. Maybe if I ice it frequently over the course of the next several days, that'll help.
Anyway, it ended up being a more unstructured run that can't really be considered part of training because chatting during running brought the heartrate up - so the data is skewed. But the nice thing about the timing of it is that it doesn't really matter - it'll be a while before I really start thinking of training runs again. At least until this stupid right big toe thing goes away.
We met up at 6:45, and were initially going to do seven miles, but decided to turn it into nine. This was his long run, so I was ok with doing whatever he felt comfortable with. In the end, nine was probably a good amount, because that ache in my right big toe hasn't completely gone away - it abates after a few days of not running, but Thursdays run brought it back, and todays run brought it back as well. At this point, it is either something that will slowly go away if I just run through it by running 2x per week and treat it with ice/NSAID in between, or it would probably go away more quickly if I just didn't run for a couple weeks. I think what I'll end up doing is not running this week, and see how things feel towards the weekend and take it from there. Maybe if I ice it frequently over the course of the next several days, that'll help.
Anyway, it ended up being a more unstructured run that can't really be considered part of training because chatting during running brought the heartrate up - so the data is skewed. But the nice thing about the timing of it is that it doesn't really matter - it'll be a while before I really start thinking of training runs again. At least until this stupid right big toe thing goes away.
Friday, October 21, 2011
2300 yd swim - 10/20
After the recovery run, I had some time left and decided to go hit the pool for a swim session. On the way over, I debated on what I should do - extend the distance again (to 1.5 miles?), do something like 1 or 1.25 miles but break it up into 100 yd sprints with rest in between, or just do the same distance I did before?
I decided that my whole outlook on swimming is prioritizing form over any sort of speed work or fast splits - and since I recently found a mechanical alteration that may be beneficial, I should probably attempt to sink that into muscle memory first, before trying to do faster splits which would only lead to fatigue and compromised form. So, I'd do the same 2250 yd workout I did the last time. With a little luck, I'd recapture some of how I felt last time, which was sleek and fast in the water.
Unfortunately, I wasn't as lucky today. To start off with, I got water in my goggles in the first 50 yds (I think the pair I have is slightly too large, because it happens often enough to be annoying). Not a huge problem, but it'd mean I have to stop and pause to fix it - and I'm still getting used to the SportCount timer thing and in the past when I've tried to pause it, I ended up recording multiple extra super-short laps. I managed to pause the thing this time, fixed my goggles, and started off again, but then found after a couple more laps that the SportCount was only on lap 3. WTF? Something got missed - either it didn't capture my first couple laps, or it started over when I paused it. Neither option was sounding quite right. Oh well, I'd continue on with the count it was giving me.
Then the problem became that I was somewhat flustered, and if there is one thing that screws up swimming, it is when you are not relaxed. I am finding that when I am more relaxed, I move through the water more quickly and easily, but when I am not relaxed, I get short of breath, which leads to further tension, and it becomes a cycle that I have to consciously break out of. So, needless to say, this swim was not starting out very well. I was thrown off my game, flustered, and trying to play catch up by the time I hit 500 yds.
I eventually did sort most of it out by the time I reached 20-something laps. Most of it. It took until the mid-high 30's before I started really feeling like I was in a zen state again with the water, and by that time the session was just about over.
So in the end, not my best swim performance - but then again, when it comes to form, sometimes having to suffer through those trying times are what provides your brain and muscles with the contrast necessary that allows you to achieve a higher standard of mechanical motion next time.
Oh - at the end, I looked through the laps and realized what happened - I never quite hit the button between lap 2 and 3 - so they got combined into one lap. End result was that I did an extra 50 yds. I like the SportCount, but it is frustrating that I still have yet to use it when something doesn't go wrong - either accidentally clearing out all data, accidentally having an extra lap at the end, or somehow missing the button and two laps get counted as one.
2300 yds - 41:14
I decided that my whole outlook on swimming is prioritizing form over any sort of speed work or fast splits - and since I recently found a mechanical alteration that may be beneficial, I should probably attempt to sink that into muscle memory first, before trying to do faster splits which would only lead to fatigue and compromised form. So, I'd do the same 2250 yd workout I did the last time. With a little luck, I'd recapture some of how I felt last time, which was sleek and fast in the water.
Unfortunately, I wasn't as lucky today. To start off with, I got water in my goggles in the first 50 yds (I think the pair I have is slightly too large, because it happens often enough to be annoying). Not a huge problem, but it'd mean I have to stop and pause to fix it - and I'm still getting used to the SportCount timer thing and in the past when I've tried to pause it, I ended up recording multiple extra super-short laps. I managed to pause the thing this time, fixed my goggles, and started off again, but then found after a couple more laps that the SportCount was only on lap 3. WTF? Something got missed - either it didn't capture my first couple laps, or it started over when I paused it. Neither option was sounding quite right. Oh well, I'd continue on with the count it was giving me.
Then the problem became that I was somewhat flustered, and if there is one thing that screws up swimming, it is when you are not relaxed. I am finding that when I am more relaxed, I move through the water more quickly and easily, but when I am not relaxed, I get short of breath, which leads to further tension, and it becomes a cycle that I have to consciously break out of. So, needless to say, this swim was not starting out very well. I was thrown off my game, flustered, and trying to play catch up by the time I hit 500 yds.
I eventually did sort most of it out by the time I reached 20-something laps. Most of it. It took until the mid-high 30's before I started really feeling like I was in a zen state again with the water, and by that time the session was just about over.
So in the end, not my best swim performance - but then again, when it comes to form, sometimes having to suffer through those trying times are what provides your brain and muscles with the contrast necessary that allows you to achieve a higher standard of mechanical motion next time.
Oh - at the end, I looked through the laps and realized what happened - I never quite hit the button between lap 2 and 3 - so they got combined into one lap. End result was that I did an extra 50 yds. I like the SportCount, but it is frustrating that I still have yet to use it when something doesn't go wrong - either accidentally clearing out all data, accidentally having an extra lap at the end, or somehow missing the button and two laps get counted as one.
2300 yds - 41:14
Thursday, October 20, 2011
5 miles easy - 10/20
After the marathon on Sunday, followed by the sports massage on Monday evening, I was feeling probably 60% recovered on Tuesday. No major soreness, just muscle fatigue. This recovery got to probably 80% by Wednesday, and by Thursday I felt pretty much ready to go. The only lingering issue was my right big toe was still sore - I can't tell whether its connective tissue, or inflammation near the joint. But it was getting better - just more slowly.
The timing worked out in such a way that I was able to squeeze in a quick 5 miler before the sun went too far down and it got too dark. The intent on this run was to take it easy and keep the HR low - definitely below 150. I knew there'd be a spot or two where it'd get above that briefly, but I wanted to mostly just get a handful of miles in before too much time had passed.
It seems as though I'm pretty much recovered from the marathon. One thing I've learned over time is how to use HR to monitor status, in terms of stress and recovery progression - so the fact I was able to average a pace faster than my marathon pace, with an average HR of 141, tells me that my body has replenished its stores of energy, repaired the vast majority of any cell damage incurred from the marathon, and was ready to go. Unfortunately, the only problem is that damn big right toe - it's still sore.
The timing worked out in such a way that I was able to squeeze in a quick 5 miler before the sun went too far down and it got too dark. The intent on this run was to take it easy and keep the HR low - definitely below 150. I knew there'd be a spot or two where it'd get above that briefly, but I wanted to mostly just get a handful of miles in before too much time had passed.
It seems as though I'm pretty much recovered from the marathon. One thing I've learned over time is how to use HR to monitor status, in terms of stress and recovery progression - so the fact I was able to average a pace faster than my marathon pace, with an average HR of 141, tells me that my body has replenished its stores of energy, repaired the vast majority of any cell damage incurred from the marathon, and was ready to go. Unfortunately, the only problem is that damn big right toe - it's still sore.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Baystate Marathon - 10/16/11
For a day that has been one of my bucket-list days since high school, I sure have been pretty relaxed about it in the lead up. You'd think that on the eve of an event I've wanted to accomplish for close to.... 20 years now? I'd be a wreck. Nope, I went to bed around 11, had a decent nights sleep, and got up with not too much of an issue. I was more nervous the night before my first triathlon a few years ago.
Today was the Baystate marathon, my first ever full 26.2. I ran a half marathon (the Lowell Sun - partially the same course as the Baystate) in '08, and wanted to do the full the following year. However, my IT band had different ideas. So even though I signed up on the first day of eligibility in January '09, by August that year it was clear that a full was going to be out of the cards, because at the time I wasn't able to run two miles without my IT band hurting. PT in the off season between '09 and '10, followed by a minor recurrance of IT band issues during the season in '10 - I knew last year that a full 26.2 miles was out that fall as well. So, I concentrated on finding out more precisely what the root cause of my IT band issues were (thats a whole other story in itself). Come spring this past year, I was ready to go, and with a couple 20 mile runs in August followed by a 23 mile run in mid-late September, I was 99.9% certain that this would be the year - barring any sort of catastrophic injury or accident.
So, how was I expecting to do? According to Jack Daniels VDOT system, which I've been sorta loosely correlating some of my times and performances against, my VDOT is a paltry 39 or 40 - depending on which run you are basing it off of. A VDOT of 40 projects my marathon time at 3:49:45, while a VDOT of 39 projects my marathon time at 3:54:34. Of course, that assumes that the appropriate training has been done - you can't just run a 5k, get a VDOT, and then go out and run the marathon and expect certain results. The question was whether I had been doing the appropriate training or not. I suppose if you ask Daniels, the answer would be 'no'. But a discussion on his running training program is not part of this post, so we'll just leave it that there was some degree of unknown - what I did know was that my 23 mile run in September was done at an 8:46 pace, which included the last mile being a 12 min/mile cooldown. So I had reason to believe I'd be in that range, equating to a 3:49 marathon - and that race-day performance with a taper might be worth a few minutes. So about 3:45 was about what I was expecting.
In this post I offer two versions of how things went. For those not interested in the details, I pictoralized how things went - a comparison of my mental and physical state during the event. It sums it up with reasonably accuracy:
For those who want to know the more detailed version:
Miles 1-3 - This was effectively the warm up. The field of participants seemed larger this year - in the past I remember half the road being closed off, but this time the entire road was closed off during this portion. Plus, there were still same-day registration slots open, whereas it has sold out the past few years. So, due to the large number of people, it was difficult to get a good start, unless you line up at the front (which I knew I am not good enough to justify without pissing people off). I was half-expecting 10 min/mil and higher times for the first mile, but was pleasantly surprised that we were moving right along at what I'd consider ideal pace for my warm up:
Oh, one other thing I should mention - every long training run I've done was using walk breaks, and I intended to do them here as well. I was very tempted to skip the first one - afterall, we had only just started and I'd have to be 'that guy' who was walking already when there was still 25.2 miles to go. But I sucked it up, and walked anyway. I lost count of the hundreds of people who passed in that 0.05 mile walk.
I did feel someone better and justified on the second walk break when a spectator saw me walking and said 'Jeff Galloway - good for you, nice going'. It took me a second to connect the dots, but I managed to say 'yup, every mile on the mile!' At least someone there knew I had a game plan and wasn't dogging it already.
Miles 4-14 - This part of the run was smooth sailing. Every mile, walk 0.05 miles, and run at a sustainable pace, trying to keep the HR managable. It took me until around mile four to even remember to consider what my marathon intensity would be - I had figured previously it'd be 150-155, but I was consistently doing about 8:30 min/miles at 150 or lower, so I opted to keep the HR down. Early on, my plan became to keep running along easily, and then unleash the fury at about mile 16 and blow by people during that last 10 miles. So far, everything was going surprisingly well - my legs felt fresh with a quick turnover, fleet-of-foot, and my HR was kept low.
Unfortunately, this is where the cracks in the ediface started to appear. It wasn't something that I felt at all, but right at mile 13, I noticed by HR notching up just a tad. At first, I was thinking it was the slight incline of going over a bridge, but the HR never settled back down, I knew that the fun times were coming to an end. True, mile 13 was one of the faster miles I ran, but so was mile 9 - and unlike mile 10 where the HR stayed low, mile 14 continued with the elevated HR.
Also, somewhere in here I saw the Galloway lady again (this time on the other side of the river). She caught me in the middle of a walk break again.
Miles 14-23 - The slow drain
Even with the increased HR, I still generally felt strong. Around mile 16, I started to notice fatigue building in my legs. Every mile accumulated a tad more, but I was still feeling 80% or better. At mile 18, I started noticing some the dropping of the flies - as it were. More people were taking breaks, pace seemed to be slowing down a bit. I was not passing people nearly as often as I was up until this point - so either I caught up with those who rocketed out of the gate and were running out of gas, or I was slowing down. However, when I looked at my mile times, I was still maintaining faster than 8:40 min/miles. I was paying for it though, as evidenced by the still increasing HR, which was now pushing close to 160. At the time, I wasn't too concerned in terms of it affecting my ability to finish - I knew from experience that I'd be able to maintain the remaining 8 miles at that HR, so that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the distance itself was causing the higher HR, instead of a faster pace. The idea of turning on the afterburners was starting to fade away.
In an attempt to avoid this for the rest of the run:
(DISCLAIMER - credit for the overall idea of using a picture like this goes to The Running Jackalope - his review of the SF marathon had a similar image, which made me laugh).
I decided to slow up a bit for mile 19, to try and get my HR down. At this point, I didn't want to take an extended walk break, because I was concerned I'd tighten up too much. I was happy to see that I was able to get my HR down a bit, but it was very touchy, because it went right back up as soon as I sped up again.
At this point, I was at the dreaded wall of 20 miles. However, I didn't feel like I was suffering too greatly, to be honest. I felt like I was in better shape than many of the people around me. Sure, I was fatigued, and my body was obviously under stress, but I was definitely not being pushed beyond what I've pushed myself before - I was simply trying to manage things appropriately so I could still have a sprint-like finish for the last few miles. The problem I was having, though, was that miles 22 and 23 felt dog slow. I had accepted the higher HR, knew I could maintain it, but truth be told, I was starting to get bored, and kept looking at my watch hoping to see the mile lap almost over, only to see that I ran a few hundred feet. At this point, the run switched from a physical battle to a mental one.
Miles 24-26.2 - The real marathon
Some people say the hardest part of a marathon is the last 0.2 miles. For me, on this day, the hardest part was miles 23-25, hands down. Although 25-26.2 comes in second place, for sure.
At this point, I'm getting more and more physically beat with every step, which only amplifies the mental struggle. Really, there are two positive thoughts in my head at this point: (1) I'm going to die and therefore my suffering will end soon, and (2) I can count the kilometers I have left on one hand. Unfortunately, that thought of death only lasts for about a mile, when you realize that no - there is no easy escape.
To add insult to injury - I ran out of gatorade (I had 48 oz with me), so I was now dependant on the water stations, which were not spaced with my normal mile by mile walk breaks. So this meant that during these miles, I snuck in extra walk break every mile. This had a double-edged sword effect - stopping for a break felt soo good - but I paid for it whenever I started up again. My cadence was also sluggish by this time. I tried to pick it up, but it just wasn't happening - the muscles used to maintain it were fatigued, and it was easier with a slightly slower cadence because other muscles got engaged - muscles that weren't nearly as fatigued.
Somewhere around mile 25, I realized that as worn out as my muscles were, a lot of my discomfort overall was actually my feet themselves - all the pounding and flexing to absorb impact was taking its toll on them.
Somewhere around mile 25.75 and 26, as I was getting closer to the finish line, I started thinking about food. The idea of a burrito from Chipotle (my typical post long-workout food) was sounding really, really good. Then, I smelled burgers from over yonder, and they smelled really good. Then I saw a sign for Sal's pizza, and contemplated devouring a whole 19" pizza pie by myself. I was really looking forward to the post-race food.
When I got home and loaded the data from my Garmin into SportTracks, I found this graph to be pretty revealing:
There is a distinct difference between mile 13 and 14 in terms of HR. Up to that point, its fairly steady - and while a bump of only 5 bpm (a measly 3% of the base HR of 150) may not seem like much - anyone who has done HR training will tell you that it is certainly significant. For me, 150 bpm is LSD run intensity - a 10% increase to 165 quickly becomes tempo pace, sustainable only for mileage in the single digits.
So the immediate jump at mile 13 tells me a few things:
(1) It is an indication that most of my runs have been 13 miles or less (true - a couple halfs, and only four runs > 13 miles this year)
(2) Keeping a comfortable HR during that time is indication that the threshold runs of ~10 miles are effective for that distance, but that doesn't translate to distances much longer.
(3) If I want to make miles 23-26.2 easier, I have to do more long runs. I have to condition my feet to the impact and I have to condition my hip muscles to maintain fast turnover for that amount of time.
(4) If I want to avoid boredom, I have to run faster.
Oh yeah - Garmin results.
Today was the Baystate marathon, my first ever full 26.2. I ran a half marathon (the Lowell Sun - partially the same course as the Baystate) in '08, and wanted to do the full the following year. However, my IT band had different ideas. So even though I signed up on the first day of eligibility in January '09, by August that year it was clear that a full was going to be out of the cards, because at the time I wasn't able to run two miles without my IT band hurting. PT in the off season between '09 and '10, followed by a minor recurrance of IT band issues during the season in '10 - I knew last year that a full 26.2 miles was out that fall as well. So, I concentrated on finding out more precisely what the root cause of my IT band issues were (thats a whole other story in itself). Come spring this past year, I was ready to go, and with a couple 20 mile runs in August followed by a 23 mile run in mid-late September, I was 99.9% certain that this would be the year - barring any sort of catastrophic injury or accident.
So, how was I expecting to do? According to Jack Daniels VDOT system, which I've been sorta loosely correlating some of my times and performances against, my VDOT is a paltry 39 or 40 - depending on which run you are basing it off of. A VDOT of 40 projects my marathon time at 3:49:45, while a VDOT of 39 projects my marathon time at 3:54:34. Of course, that assumes that the appropriate training has been done - you can't just run a 5k, get a VDOT, and then go out and run the marathon and expect certain results. The question was whether I had been doing the appropriate training or not. I suppose if you ask Daniels, the answer would be 'no'. But a discussion on his running training program is not part of this post, so we'll just leave it that there was some degree of unknown - what I did know was that my 23 mile run in September was done at an 8:46 pace, which included the last mile being a 12 min/mile cooldown. So I had reason to believe I'd be in that range, equating to a 3:49 marathon - and that race-day performance with a taper might be worth a few minutes. So about 3:45 was about what I was expecting.
In this post I offer two versions of how things went. For those not interested in the details, I pictoralized how things went - a comparison of my mental and physical state during the event. It sums it up with reasonably accuracy:
For those who want to know the more detailed version:
Miles 1-3 - This was effectively the warm up. The field of participants seemed larger this year - in the past I remember half the road being closed off, but this time the entire road was closed off during this portion. Plus, there were still same-day registration slots open, whereas it has sold out the past few years. So, due to the large number of people, it was difficult to get a good start, unless you line up at the front (which I knew I am not good enough to justify without pissing people off). I was half-expecting 10 min/mil and higher times for the first mile, but was pleasantly surprised that we were moving right along at what I'd consider ideal pace for my warm up:
Oh, one other thing I should mention - every long training run I've done was using walk breaks, and I intended to do them here as well. I was very tempted to skip the first one - afterall, we had only just started and I'd have to be 'that guy' who was walking already when there was still 25.2 miles to go. But I sucked it up, and walked anyway. I lost count of the hundreds of people who passed in that 0.05 mile walk.
I did feel someone better and justified on the second walk break when a spectator saw me walking and said 'Jeff Galloway - good for you, nice going'. It took me a second to connect the dots, but I managed to say 'yup, every mile on the mile!' At least someone there knew I had a game plan and wasn't dogging it already.
Miles 4-14 - This part of the run was smooth sailing. Every mile, walk 0.05 miles, and run at a sustainable pace, trying to keep the HR managable. It took me until around mile four to even remember to consider what my marathon intensity would be - I had figured previously it'd be 150-155, but I was consistently doing about 8:30 min/miles at 150 or lower, so I opted to keep the HR down. Early on, my plan became to keep running along easily, and then unleash the fury at about mile 16 and blow by people during that last 10 miles. So far, everything was going surprisingly well - my legs felt fresh with a quick turnover, fleet-of-foot, and my HR was kept low.
Unfortunately, this is where the cracks in the ediface started to appear. It wasn't something that I felt at all, but right at mile 13, I noticed by HR notching up just a tad. At first, I was thinking it was the slight incline of going over a bridge, but the HR never settled back down, I knew that the fun times were coming to an end. True, mile 13 was one of the faster miles I ran, but so was mile 9 - and unlike mile 10 where the HR stayed low, mile 14 continued with the elevated HR.
Also, somewhere in here I saw the Galloway lady again (this time on the other side of the river). She caught me in the middle of a walk break again.
Miles 14-23 - The slow drain
Even with the increased HR, I still generally felt strong. Around mile 16, I started to notice fatigue building in my legs. Every mile accumulated a tad more, but I was still feeling 80% or better. At mile 18, I started noticing some the dropping of the flies - as it were. More people were taking breaks, pace seemed to be slowing down a bit. I was not passing people nearly as often as I was up until this point - so either I caught up with those who rocketed out of the gate and were running out of gas, or I was slowing down. However, when I looked at my mile times, I was still maintaining faster than 8:40 min/miles. I was paying for it though, as evidenced by the still increasing HR, which was now pushing close to 160. At the time, I wasn't too concerned in terms of it affecting my ability to finish - I knew from experience that I'd be able to maintain the remaining 8 miles at that HR, so that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the distance itself was causing the higher HR, instead of a faster pace. The idea of turning on the afterburners was starting to fade away.
I decided to slow up a bit for mile 19, to try and get my HR down. At this point, I didn't want to take an extended walk break, because I was concerned I'd tighten up too much. I was happy to see that I was able to get my HR down a bit, but it was very touchy, because it went right back up as soon as I sped up again.
At this point, I was at the dreaded wall of 20 miles. However, I didn't feel like I was suffering too greatly, to be honest. I felt like I was in better shape than many of the people around me. Sure, I was fatigued, and my body was obviously under stress, but I was definitely not being pushed beyond what I've pushed myself before - I was simply trying to manage things appropriately so I could still have a sprint-like finish for the last few miles. The problem I was having, though, was that miles 22 and 23 felt dog slow. I had accepted the higher HR, knew I could maintain it, but truth be told, I was starting to get bored, and kept looking at my watch hoping to see the mile lap almost over, only to see that I ran a few hundred feet. At this point, the run switched from a physical battle to a mental one.
Miles 24-26.2 - The real marathon
Some people say the hardest part of a marathon is the last 0.2 miles. For me, on this day, the hardest part was miles 23-25, hands down. Although 25-26.2 comes in second place, for sure.
At this point, I'm getting more and more physically beat with every step, which only amplifies the mental struggle. Really, there are two positive thoughts in my head at this point: (1) I'm going to die and therefore my suffering will end soon, and (2) I can count the kilometers I have left on one hand. Unfortunately, that thought of death only lasts for about a mile, when you realize that no - there is no easy escape.
To add insult to injury - I ran out of gatorade (I had 48 oz with me), so I was now dependant on the water stations, which were not spaced with my normal mile by mile walk breaks. So this meant that during these miles, I snuck in extra walk break every mile. This had a double-edged sword effect - stopping for a break felt soo good - but I paid for it whenever I started up again. My cadence was also sluggish by this time. I tried to pick it up, but it just wasn't happening - the muscles used to maintain it were fatigued, and it was easier with a slightly slower cadence because other muscles got engaged - muscles that weren't nearly as fatigued.
Somewhere around mile 25, I realized that as worn out as my muscles were, a lot of my discomfort overall was actually my feet themselves - all the pounding and flexing to absorb impact was taking its toll on them.
Somewhere around mile 25.75 and 26, as I was getting closer to the finish line, I started thinking about food. The idea of a burrito from Chipotle (my typical post long-workout food) was sounding really, really good. Then, I smelled burgers from over yonder, and they smelled really good. Then I saw a sign for Sal's pizza, and contemplated devouring a whole 19" pizza pie by myself. I was really looking forward to the post-race food.
When I got home and loaded the data from my Garmin into SportTracks, I found this graph to be pretty revealing:
There is a distinct difference between mile 13 and 14 in terms of HR. Up to that point, its fairly steady - and while a bump of only 5 bpm (a measly 3% of the base HR of 150) may not seem like much - anyone who has done HR training will tell you that it is certainly significant. For me, 150 bpm is LSD run intensity - a 10% increase to 165 quickly becomes tempo pace, sustainable only for mileage in the single digits.
So the immediate jump at mile 13 tells me a few things:
(1) It is an indication that most of my runs have been 13 miles or less (true - a couple halfs, and only four runs > 13 miles this year)
(2) Keeping a comfortable HR during that time is indication that the threshold runs of ~10 miles are effective for that distance, but that doesn't translate to distances much longer.
(3) If I want to make miles 23-26.2 easier, I have to do more long runs. I have to condition my feet to the impact and I have to condition my hip muscles to maintain fast turnover for that amount of time.
(4) If I want to avoid boredom, I have to run faster.
Oh yeah - Garmin results.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
2250 yd swim - 10/13/11
WOW!
It's swim workouts like this that are dangerous. They get me thinking I'll have no problem with working up to 2.4 miles. They make me think I could swim all day long and barely lose pace over time. They make me think I've got this swim form thing licked! It's like when you get a hole-in-one in golf and think 'What the hell did I do different this time that made it so easy? Nothing! So I should be able to do it again!' Then you hit a five on a par three.
I decided to start extending my swim distance today from the typical 36 laps (about 1 mile) that I normally do. I decided to start with an extra 1/4 mile, for a total of 45 laps. I figured I'd be feeling like my form would get sloppy around the 20's (as it usually does), and that I'd just suck it up and tack on another nine laps. In anticipation, I started out a little slower than normal - I usually try to keep from starting out too fast, but usually after a few laps that somehow always seems to go by the wayside. Not that I go all out - I stay around six or seven out of 10 on the effort scale (as opposed to the two or three for the first few laps) - but the effort jump is still significant.
But to my surprise, I had knocked out nine laps before I even really knew it. I felt like I was still warming up. That nine turned into 17, then 25, then 31. For whatever reason, I was cruising right along. I briefly considered adding yet another nine laps to make it a full 1.5 miles, but decided against it, for good or bad. If my plan was to do 1.25 miles, that was what I was going to do.
So I don't know what it was - maybe it was the burrito I had at lunch (more fuel), maybe it was the chia seeds and cacao nibs I had this morning on my way to work, maybe it was the few sips of mountain dew I had on the way to the pool, maybe it was the rest from the taper, maybe it was the almost 10 days since my last swim, maybe it was the slight mechanical adjustment of keeping my elbow high and spearing my arm forward (as I discovered in my last swim post). I have no idea what it was, but whatever it was - I want more. I may not have been any faster than a typical swim, but it was certainly easier - and when talking about the prospect of doing a 2.4 mile swim - I'll definitely take it.
2250 yds
39:44
It's swim workouts like this that are dangerous. They get me thinking I'll have no problem with working up to 2.4 miles. They make me think I could swim all day long and barely lose pace over time. They make me think I've got this swim form thing licked! It's like when you get a hole-in-one in golf and think 'What the hell did I do different this time that made it so easy? Nothing! So I should be able to do it again!' Then you hit a five on a par three.
I decided to start extending my swim distance today from the typical 36 laps (about 1 mile) that I normally do. I decided to start with an extra 1/4 mile, for a total of 45 laps. I figured I'd be feeling like my form would get sloppy around the 20's (as it usually does), and that I'd just suck it up and tack on another nine laps. In anticipation, I started out a little slower than normal - I usually try to keep from starting out too fast, but usually after a few laps that somehow always seems to go by the wayside. Not that I go all out - I stay around six or seven out of 10 on the effort scale (as opposed to the two or three for the first few laps) - but the effort jump is still significant.
But to my surprise, I had knocked out nine laps before I even really knew it. I felt like I was still warming up. That nine turned into 17, then 25, then 31. For whatever reason, I was cruising right along. I briefly considered adding yet another nine laps to make it a full 1.5 miles, but decided against it, for good or bad. If my plan was to do 1.25 miles, that was what I was going to do.
So I don't know what it was - maybe it was the burrito I had at lunch (more fuel), maybe it was the chia seeds and cacao nibs I had this morning on my way to work, maybe it was the few sips of mountain dew I had on the way to the pool, maybe it was the rest from the taper, maybe it was the almost 10 days since my last swim, maybe it was the slight mechanical adjustment of keeping my elbow high and spearing my arm forward (as I discovered in my last swim post). I have no idea what it was, but whatever it was - I want more. I may not have been any faster than a typical swim, but it was certainly easier - and when talking about the prospect of doing a 2.4 mile swim - I'll definitely take it.
2250 yds
39:44
6 miles tempo - 10/12
I feel like I've been slacking a bit recently in my workouts - partially because I'm in the middle of a taper for the marathon on Sunday, and partially because this past weekend I was in the DC area from Thursday night until Monday night for a wedding. In retrospect, I probably should have brought my running gear with me to get in at least something, but on the other hand, two full days of walking around, combined with a hotel bed that was as soft as plywood with a sheet, left me in an overall somewhat exhausted state.
I finally got around to getting a run in on Wednesday morning. I didn't want to do anything too awful long in an effort to keep the stress of mileage at a minimum, so I decided to do a loop near work that I figured would be somewhere around 7 miles. However, I wanted to keep the intensity up a bit. Unfortunately, I got to work before I realized that I left my HR strap at home. I originally thought about scrapping the run and heading home early to get it in, but it wasn't long before my afternoon started filling up and I realized that that plan wasn't going to work either. More important than anything that day was getting to yoga for the 7:30 class, so I had a hard stop. In the end, I decided to go on the run anyway, without the HR strap, figuring that I should have a decent idea of what intensity I'd be able to keep for the run based on feel. Sometimes that is a dangerous proposition, but in my experience, the times I've gotten in trouble the most when following that strategy is when I start out too fast. So, I'd just have to make sure to not do that.
The run ended up being just about 6.3 miles. I knew the initial part would be uphill, but I didn't realize it'd be a full 2.5 miles of uphill. I could tell I hadn't run in a while because I was laboring through it harder than I would have expected. I did a reasonable job at keeping the first mile slower, at just over 9 min - but I probably still overexerted on the 2nd mile, and been at more like 8:40 or so instead of 8:11. The next couple miles have consistently been fast miles when I've done this loop thanks to the gradual downhill, and 7:07 for mile 4 and 7:27 for mile 5 may be the fastest single mile and back-to-back miles I've done in a long time. That was kind of spur of the moment during the run - I knew some uphill was coming that I'd have to slow down for, but I decided to add in that little extra something for those two miles.
I guess we'll see on Sunday whether this run results in any carryover - I'm thinking that on Saturday I'll do a slow 3-5 miles as kind of a burn-in run, since going from Wednesday to Sunday with no running would probably result in a performance hit (albeit slight) during the full on Sunday.
I finally got around to getting a run in on Wednesday morning. I didn't want to do anything too awful long in an effort to keep the stress of mileage at a minimum, so I decided to do a loop near work that I figured would be somewhere around 7 miles. However, I wanted to keep the intensity up a bit. Unfortunately, I got to work before I realized that I left my HR strap at home. I originally thought about scrapping the run and heading home early to get it in, but it wasn't long before my afternoon started filling up and I realized that that plan wasn't going to work either. More important than anything that day was getting to yoga for the 7:30 class, so I had a hard stop. In the end, I decided to go on the run anyway, without the HR strap, figuring that I should have a decent idea of what intensity I'd be able to keep for the run based on feel. Sometimes that is a dangerous proposition, but in my experience, the times I've gotten in trouble the most when following that strategy is when I start out too fast. So, I'd just have to make sure to not do that.
The run ended up being just about 6.3 miles. I knew the initial part would be uphill, but I didn't realize it'd be a full 2.5 miles of uphill. I could tell I hadn't run in a while because I was laboring through it harder than I would have expected. I did a reasonable job at keeping the first mile slower, at just over 9 min - but I probably still overexerted on the 2nd mile, and been at more like 8:40 or so instead of 8:11. The next couple miles have consistently been fast miles when I've done this loop thanks to the gradual downhill, and 7:07 for mile 4 and 7:27 for mile 5 may be the fastest single mile and back-to-back miles I've done in a long time. That was kind of spur of the moment during the run - I knew some uphill was coming that I'd have to slow down for, but I decided to add in that little extra something for those two miles.
I guess we'll see on Sunday whether this run results in any carryover - I'm thinking that on Saturday I'll do a slow 3-5 miles as kind of a burn-in run, since going from Wednesday to Sunday with no running would probably result in a performance hit (albeit slight) during the full on Sunday.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
15 miles @ planned marathon intensity/pace - 10/5
As I mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to get a 15 mile run in, at planned marathon intensity, with no walk breaks. There were a couple reasons for this: (1) I wanted to see how my body would react, in terms of stiffness and tightening up, for a distance this long (my longest non-interrupted run ever), (2) I wanted to see if I could find a correlation with an intensity (HR) and pace - based on Daniels running formula and my VDOT value of 40 (picking 23:50 for the Nassaney 5k) or 41 (1:21 for 10 mile run), my marathon pace should be between 8:35 and 8:46 - so I wanted to see how my anticipated marathon intesity HR of 150-155 would correlate with those paces. Of course, those VDOT's weren't obtained using the ideal method (flat course in race conditions) - so there's a chance that my VDOT is actually a notch higher - but those are the latest numbers I have, so beign conservative I figured I'd plan on a 8:40 min/mile marathon pace. Lastly, I was curious as to whether it would be worth thinking about doing the full without any breaks - or if I'd take fewer breaks.
The complication with getting this run in was, first, being sick over this past weekend. With the days getting shorter, finding a time where I can get 2 hrs of running in is more and mroe difficult. This coming weekend is out for two reasons: (1) one week before the marathon - seems like a 15 miler is a bit much during a taper period, and (2) I'll be out of town on a vacation of sorts. Last week my mid-week run was done after work, but even with starting at 5:20 or so, by the time I finished around 6:45, it was getting dark. For a 15 mile run, I'd be out closer to 2 hours - so running after work was out. I could get up real early and go for a run, but the sun doesn't light things up until around 6am - so that'd mean I'd finish around 8-8:15am, have to shower and get ready for work and then commute 45 minutes - it'd be a late start to the day. Plus, getting up and going for a run right away sucks - I'm a slow waker. In the end I decided to get up early (5:30am), drive to work, start my run from there at about 6:30-6:45, and then shower in the building afterwards. At least this way I'd be much closer to being on time.
The first half was similar to the first half I did last week on my threshold run. I was originally intending to do that loop twice, but ended up deciding to go a different route - one that was flatter and therefore easier. One of the goals of this run was to try and correlate HR with pace, and going up and down hills would throw that correlation off.
I felt fine through the first few miles, but I did have a sense around mile 3 that perhaps I am still not fully recovered, energy-wise, from feeling under the weather. My legs just felt a tad more fatigued than I thought they should for only a few miles in. But pushing through wasn't too difficult, so I kept moving. Around mile 8 or so, I started noticing fatigue setting in - so the question then became when would I be maintaining the same HR, but have a slowing pace. In an attempt to fight that, I started drinking more fluids and making an effort to keep cadence up. This also seemed like it would have been a good time to do some quick stretching, but I didn't (I find simply doing a squat and staying down in that position for 4-5 seconds works pretty well). I ended up figuring that during the marathon, I'd be doing that multiple times during walk breaks - so I wasn't going to worry about it much here.
By the time I got to around mile 11 or 12, I could tell that this run was providing a good workout. My HR stayed within reason (about 150) - which was actually lower than I was anticipating, and my overall pace wasn't dropping significantly, as I was still holding around 8:45 min/mile average. However I could tell that the uninterrupted shock of running for this distance was causing just that little bit of extra stress in the legs to make you aware it is there. It occured to me that there might be two ways to push back ones' lactate threshold - do threshold runs, where your HR is at a higher intensity; or simply run for longer periods of time to wear yourself out. The benefit of the former is time efficiency (shorter runs), but the benefit of the latter is that you can get a threshold workout without the intensity of the former - something that could be beneficial in a taper period. Thats my theory, anyway.
As usual for long runs, I took the last mile as recovery, slowing down a bit to let the HR come down closer to 145. By the time I finished, it was just about exactly 15 miles to the corner convenience store, which was perfect - because it allowed me to pick up my recovery drink (chocolate milk), and then head back to the office to go about my day.
In the end, this is what I've learned:
- The projected avg HR of just about 150 is pretty much dead on with the predicted pace of 8:40 min/mile. That is what I was hoping would happen, because it makes projection for the real thing much easier if I know that 150 bpm, which is a sustainable HR, lines up nicely with 8:40 min/miles, which is just about exactly as Daniels VDOT calculator indicates.
- Definitely still taking walk breaks during the marathon. I dont know that I'd have another 11 miles in my legs without stressing them more than I'd like to. Not worth the risk.
- Will also make sure to stretch out briefly a few times during the marathon. It doesn't have to be much, but it seems to make a difference.
The complication with getting this run in was, first, being sick over this past weekend. With the days getting shorter, finding a time where I can get 2 hrs of running in is more and mroe difficult. This coming weekend is out for two reasons: (1) one week before the marathon - seems like a 15 miler is a bit much during a taper period, and (2) I'll be out of town on a vacation of sorts. Last week my mid-week run was done after work, but even with starting at 5:20 or so, by the time I finished around 6:45, it was getting dark. For a 15 mile run, I'd be out closer to 2 hours - so running after work was out. I could get up real early and go for a run, but the sun doesn't light things up until around 6am - so that'd mean I'd finish around 8-8:15am, have to shower and get ready for work and then commute 45 minutes - it'd be a late start to the day. Plus, getting up and going for a run right away sucks - I'm a slow waker. In the end I decided to get up early (5:30am), drive to work, start my run from there at about 6:30-6:45, and then shower in the building afterwards. At least this way I'd be much closer to being on time.
The first half was similar to the first half I did last week on my threshold run. I was originally intending to do that loop twice, but ended up deciding to go a different route - one that was flatter and therefore easier. One of the goals of this run was to try and correlate HR with pace, and going up and down hills would throw that correlation off.
I felt fine through the first few miles, but I did have a sense around mile 3 that perhaps I am still not fully recovered, energy-wise, from feeling under the weather. My legs just felt a tad more fatigued than I thought they should for only a few miles in. But pushing through wasn't too difficult, so I kept moving. Around mile 8 or so, I started noticing fatigue setting in - so the question then became when would I be maintaining the same HR, but have a slowing pace. In an attempt to fight that, I started drinking more fluids and making an effort to keep cadence up. This also seemed like it would have been a good time to do some quick stretching, but I didn't (I find simply doing a squat and staying down in that position for 4-5 seconds works pretty well). I ended up figuring that during the marathon, I'd be doing that multiple times during walk breaks - so I wasn't going to worry about it much here.
By the time I got to around mile 11 or 12, I could tell that this run was providing a good workout. My HR stayed within reason (about 150) - which was actually lower than I was anticipating, and my overall pace wasn't dropping significantly, as I was still holding around 8:45 min/mile average. However I could tell that the uninterrupted shock of running for this distance was causing just that little bit of extra stress in the legs to make you aware it is there. It occured to me that there might be two ways to push back ones' lactate threshold - do threshold runs, where your HR is at a higher intensity; or simply run for longer periods of time to wear yourself out. The benefit of the former is time efficiency (shorter runs), but the benefit of the latter is that you can get a threshold workout without the intensity of the former - something that could be beneficial in a taper period. Thats my theory, anyway.
As usual for long runs, I took the last mile as recovery, slowing down a bit to let the HR come down closer to 145. By the time I finished, it was just about exactly 15 miles to the corner convenience store, which was perfect - because it allowed me to pick up my recovery drink (chocolate milk), and then head back to the office to go about my day.
In the end, this is what I've learned:
- The projected avg HR of just about 150 is pretty much dead on with the predicted pace of 8:40 min/mile. That is what I was hoping would happen, because it makes projection for the real thing much easier if I know that 150 bpm, which is a sustainable HR, lines up nicely with 8:40 min/miles, which is just about exactly as Daniels VDOT calculator indicates.
- Definitely still taking walk breaks during the marathon. I dont know that I'd have another 11 miles in my legs without stressing them more than I'd like to. Not worth the risk.
- Will also make sure to stretch out briefly a few times during the marathon. It doesn't have to be much, but it seems to make a difference.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
1800 yd swim - 10/4
I woke up last Friday morning with a sore throat. I initially thought I maybe caught whatever the wife had (she was sick last week), but then it occured to me that I did run in the rain the night before, maybe that had something to do with it. While I never got sick to the depths that my wife did (sinus infection, well timed to occur on the weekend of a wedding that she was in), it was enough to knock me off my planned schedule of running 15 miles over the weekend at planned marathon intensity to see how 15 miles with no walk breaks would feel. Most of what ailed me was above my neck (some minor congestion, sore throat) - and so by some people thats not enough to warrant skipping out on a run, but I didn't want to take the chance that a long run would make things worse. So I did nothing for a few days.
Now that I think of it, it seems like if something will happen, it'll happen a few weeks before a race. A couple years ago I sprained my back 4 weeks before a sprint tri, earlier this year I came down with a hell of a sickness 3-4 weeks before the half iron in June, and here I am two weeks before my first full marathon and I'm fighting sniffles away. Fortunately, the timing always seems to also be working out in such a way that it forces me to take some rest/recovery time, which is an imperative part of any training schedule. Except that I don't really ever seem to actually schedule it - instead letting work travelling or sickness take care of that part.
After a couple nights of decent sleep back in the comfort of my own bed, I'm feeling quite a bit better. Not 100%, but then again it seems that last 10% always takes a good week to really go away. So now that I've declared myself un-sick, time to get going again!
This is what I said to being sick:
I decided to go to the pool tonight, because it'd be the last swim I'd be able to do until next week, as we are going to be out of town for a few days on account of another wedding. I can bring my running shoes with me - finding a place to swim while travelling is more difficult.
An odd thing happened today while I was swimming. After a couple hundred yards of warming up, I started thinking back to what I was concentrating on last swim session, specifically trying to minimize the drag induced by my hand when breathing to the left. Somehow, in thinking about that, I ended up with this fleeting feeling of being smoother in the water. Before too long, I realized that I was seemingly bringing my elbow up higher prior to entering the water, and entering the water at a steeper angle. Once I was conscious of this mechanic, I toyed around with it a bit, and found that it may actually help drive my hips more forcefully during the propulsion phase of the swim stroke. The big question would be its sustainability - many times I've found things that seemed to make for a smoother stroke - but it is always difficult to tell because if it engages new muscles, they tire out before I have a real good chance to tell whether it is worth building them up or not. But with this, it was just a matter of consciously thinking to raise my elbow up a bit and enter the water more steeply. Lap after lap, I was able to sustain that. So now the question is whether it is actually faster - which I'd be able to tell by todays result, but ultimately it'll take 3-4 sessions to get an idea of whether it actually makes a difference or not.
1800 yds (36 laps) - 30:53
Now that I think of it, it seems like if something will happen, it'll happen a few weeks before a race. A couple years ago I sprained my back 4 weeks before a sprint tri, earlier this year I came down with a hell of a sickness 3-4 weeks before the half iron in June, and here I am two weeks before my first full marathon and I'm fighting sniffles away. Fortunately, the timing always seems to also be working out in such a way that it forces me to take some rest/recovery time, which is an imperative part of any training schedule. Except that I don't really ever seem to actually schedule it - instead letting work travelling or sickness take care of that part.
After a couple nights of decent sleep back in the comfort of my own bed, I'm feeling quite a bit better. Not 100%, but then again it seems that last 10% always takes a good week to really go away. So now that I've declared myself un-sick, time to get going again!
This is what I said to being sick:
I decided to go to the pool tonight, because it'd be the last swim I'd be able to do until next week, as we are going to be out of town for a few days on account of another wedding. I can bring my running shoes with me - finding a place to swim while travelling is more difficult.
An odd thing happened today while I was swimming. After a couple hundred yards of warming up, I started thinking back to what I was concentrating on last swim session, specifically trying to minimize the drag induced by my hand when breathing to the left. Somehow, in thinking about that, I ended up with this fleeting feeling of being smoother in the water. Before too long, I realized that I was seemingly bringing my elbow up higher prior to entering the water, and entering the water at a steeper angle. Once I was conscious of this mechanic, I toyed around with it a bit, and found that it may actually help drive my hips more forcefully during the propulsion phase of the swim stroke. The big question would be its sustainability - many times I've found things that seemed to make for a smoother stroke - but it is always difficult to tell because if it engages new muscles, they tire out before I have a real good chance to tell whether it is worth building them up or not. But with this, it was just a matter of consciously thinking to raise my elbow up a bit and enter the water more steeply. Lap after lap, I was able to sustain that. So now the question is whether it is actually faster - which I'd be able to tell by todays result, but ultimately it'll take 3-4 sessions to get an idea of whether it actually makes a difference or not.
1800 yds (36 laps) - 30:53
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