Runstreak day 25 - 6 miles easy - 3/31/12

This run puts me at just over 36 miles this week - second only to a 39 mile week in January for highest volume in a week. My plan a little over a week ago was to take next week (4/1 - 4/7) as a low mileage rest week, as I've been on my march to a new base of 40 mpw for about 5 weeks now and need a rest week. It was going to coincide nicely with a work trip, but now that trip got pushed out a week to April 9, so the past few days I had been thinking of hitting 40 next week, and then taking the rest week. However, this ankle tendon has gotten to a steady state condition the past few days where I think the combination of volume and daily running is keeping it from healing effectively.  It's not getting worse, but it's improvement has stalled.

So the new plan is to accept next week as a rest week, and keep the streak going with short runs 1 to 1.5 mile runs to work on form and drills. Who knows - maybe I'll get lucky and the hotel I'll be staying at the following week will be conducive to running outside after the workday, and I can get right back on the train to a 40 mile week.

In the meantime, though, I'm planning on hitting the bike pretty good this coming week.  That doesn't aggravate the ankle at all, and when I'm travelling I won't be able to do any bike workouts, so it seems an opportune time to get some short interval bursts in on the bike.

Runstreak day 24 - 6.3 miles easy - 3/30/12

Today was another solo run at lunch.  For the most part it was kept at an easy pace, except the times when hills drove the HR up.  There was also a half mile section during mile 4 where I picked up the pace a bit  - under 7 min/mile - because I wanted to get a glimpse of how easily I could stay relaxed at that speed.  Even if only for short bursts - it would give me something to start with when it comes time for some intervals.  I also wanted to see how other mechanical aspects, such as leg kick and cadence, were affected by the higher speed.

Overall, the hip rotation is coming along nicely, although today there were a couple times I had to pay attention to it.  One thing I did find on this run that has been occurring recently (as my shins and calfs get used to being relaxed) is that the front half of my foot seems like it's slapping down a bit more than I'd like.  I feel like my foot placement is improved over what it was previously, and with the attention paid to not flexing the calf, I think I'm heel striking even less (not that I was doing so much at all before) - so I'm not sure why it is a noisier foot plant than it should be.  It could be a fatigue thing (noticed it during the second half of the run), a running downhill thing (second half was all gradual downhill), a NB Minimus thing (when looking at the sole from the side, the mid-sole appears thicker than the toe or heel), or maybe even related to continued subtle compensation for the ankle (which, again, feels better than yesterday, but still not 100%). Once the ankle is 100%, it might be a good idea to head to a track - a nice, flat, even surface to try and iron that out and get a better sense of mechanically what it should feel like. I wonder if running on sidewalks and on streets and going up and down hills is interfering with my ability to determine precisely what micro-adjustments need to be made to alleviate that.

So, as it turned out, this was a week of trials for the Minimus shoes - and as a better point of comparison, I'll use the Frees next week to see how it goes.  I've mentioned before that I've felt there is extra material in the Minimus mid-sole, and this article corroborates that.  Apparently the trail version of the shoe does not have as much material - so in a way I wish I had researched a bit more and gotten them.

TrainerRoad - 8 minute power test - 3/29/12

I figured it would be a good time to redo the 8 minute power test to adjust my FTP value - it's been over six weeks since the last one, and at the beginning of each TrainerRoad program, it starts with a power test.  I suppose technically I should have done it on Tuesday instead of getting right into the workouts for the 2nd base building program, but I didn't feel like it at the time.

This was also the first full workout where I was able to use the glutes during the entire thing, since I was almost done with the last workout before I stumbled upon that little factor of power generation.  At this point, I don't feel like they add a whole lot of power, and I'm thinking it is largely because it's a matter of time to train the muscles exactly how to fire - especially when mixing in the coordination of muscle firing around the entire cycle (hamstrings to pull back, hip flexors to pull up, quads to kick forward).  So it might actually be a good time to revisit ILT's a bit to help with training that coordination - when I was doing them before, it was mostly quads generating power.

The first 8 minute session I went out too fast - I tried ratcheting down a bit, but it was still more than I'd be able to handle for 8 minutes, so I ended up settling around 250, with a bit of a burst towards the end.  The second 8 minute interval I did the opposite - I built up power and held 250 for a while, until enough time passed when I could increase power and know I could sustain it for the remainder of the interval.

By the end of it, the FTP showed an increase of 5W, from 220W to 225W.  Not stellar - but then again none of the workouts I did was really pushing things too awful much, as they were all base building and intervals between 85-90% FTP.

Runstreak day 23 - 6 miles - 3/29/12

Today's run was a different 6 mile loop around the office - just an attempt to keep the body from acclimating to a particular loop and routine all the time, although this loop still had uphill for the first half, and downhill for the second half.  It was another run with someone from work, so the HR was a bit higher than it'd be otherwise - but I'm ok with that - consider it mini-intervals or fartlek training.

I found that the hip rotation is becoming more second nature and feeling more and more natural.  Still not 100%, but noticeably better.  However, there's a difference between it feeling more natural, and it being second nature and being what my body does without thinking of it - so a couple times I had to readjust and get it moving again.

The ankle felt a lot better today than yesterday, so that is a good sign.  It's pretty dependent on terrain - it tends to act up more when the ground slopes downward from right to left.  The tendon that is inflamed gets activated to stabilize the ankle and keep it from collapsing inward, so during sections of uneven terrain, it gets cranky.  And since most roads are crowned in that same way when running against traffic...

Runstreak day 22 - moving meditation - 3/28/12

Easy solo run - avg HR 149 (~70% HRmax). The ankle is still a little bothersome, and this morning I considered bailing on this run until at least this evening (and possibly only doing 1-1.5 miles to keep the streak alive), but I had really been looking forward to a solid near-hour of running for self analysis of form.

Using hips to generate power is feeling a little more normal now, same with relaxing the lower legs. Upper body posture also felt pretty good - uplifting.

Second mile (which is largely uphill) was significantly stronger and easier than yesterday - lap time and HR for yesterday was 8:36 and 158, today it was 8:09 and 149. Probably largely due to not chatting, though.

On the third mile, I had a glimpse of things to come - was flying along comfortably at < 6:30 min/mile and lower legs felt pretty damn relaxed. It was one of those moments when everything feels so in tune with everything else - posture, power generation, hip rotation, leg recoil, foot positioning, etc. Of course the HR started getting close to 160 and I didn't want to push things too much - but I let myself move along like that for just a couple moments to help set in my head and body what it felt like. Always easier to get back to something once you've been there - so when the time comes to do intervals or threshold runs, I have an idea of what it should feel like.

By mile 5, the ankle was acting up a bit and just being annoying in general. Tried as much as I could to compartmentalize it and keep it from subconsciously making me tense up, so a few times I had to consciously re-relax everything. Was a little concerned that it'd really be inflammed and ouchy afterwards, but so far doesn't seem any worse for wear. Can't wait to repeat this kind of thing once the ankle is healed and not having it as a constant minor distraction every time my right foot hits the ground.

TrainerRoad - Lamarck - 3/27/12

The last TR workout I did was towards the end of the first base building phase - and with the weather getting better, and with my last trainer workout being something closer to FTP, I figured I'd skip the last 2-3 workouts and start on the next section that includes more workouts that are also closer to FTP.

This workout, called Lamarck, was definitely more intense than the previous base building workouts - instead of the target power being in the 193-206 range, it was four intervals at just below FTP for 10 minutes each, with 2 minutes rest in between.  Whereas most of the previous base workouts had the avg HR in the 120's, this reached near 140, with the intervals getting into the 160's towards the end.

However, more important than the workout itself was a revelation I had during the workout.  One of the primary concepts in Total Immersion (which I feel I've used to great success to improve my swim form to be very efficient) and ChiRunning (which I've become a recent convert to) is to use the bigger core muscles for power generation, and use the muscles in the extremities less.  If you look at an anatomy chart of the human muscle system - you'll notice that the larger muscles are in the core, and as you get farther along the extremities, the muscles get smaller.  So, it only makes sense to use the big muscles for power, and don't try to power yourself with the smaller muscles.  Sounds simple, but I'm learning that all too often, people overuse small muscles and underuse large muscles - myself included.  While that may be possible and you can get away with it to some degree - it seems like it often tends to lead to injury if allowed to go on too long.  In my case, that translates to having used my quads too much for running and cycling, which makes them tight, which results in extra pull on the IT band.

So anyway, I was spinning away, and had the thought - I'm using my quads to generate power on the downstroke - what can I do to relieve the quads of some effort, and transition some of that power generation to muscles that are closer to my core.  Then I realized - the glutes are attached to the femur - perhaps if I engage them, I can use them to pull the femur down to generate that pumping action, instead of using the quads to straighten the lower leg to progress through the downstroke.  So I toyed around with deactivating the quads a bit, and using the glutes a bit more.  It resulted in the glutes definitely feeling used - but I suspected that was because they have not been used to being used.  Plus, they are pretty big muscles, so they should be able to absorb that kind of abuse and recover relatively quickly.  Anyway, it seemed to me like I stumbled upon something, but I wasn't sure whether I was just making things up or not.

Then, when I was done, I did some quick googling of using glutes during cycling.  Immediately, a bunch of hits came up - and the very first one was an article stating that most people use glutes and quads to generate power, but those at the front of the pack when cycling use their glutes more instead of using primarily their quads.  I was amazed (and pretty damn elated) to have stumbled upon this - it is certainly something I'm excited to put into practice on future cycling workouts.

Runstreak day 21 - 6.3 miles - 3/27/12

I went into yoga last night with an ache on the inside of my right ankle, and once again, yoga delivered, as I left class feeling no pain.  However, as the evening went on during the next few hours, I started noticing it coming back - but at least it wasn't as bad as it had been prior.  It did get me to thinking - what was it about yoga that made it feel perfectly fine right after class, but not be permanent?  Then it occurred to me - I remember reading something several years ago that indicated that endorphins are power anti-inflammatories, and that they are actually much stronger than synthetics (NSAID's like aspirin or ibuprofin).  Perhaps that is why I've been finding yoga so helpful for injuries - if it causes a rush of endorphins, it may be attacking inflammation that would otherwise turn into injuries before it can really snowball out of control.  Who knows - but it's the best explanation I've come up with so far.  All I know is that yoga works for me, and while I don't necessarily care as much why, I still can't help but to try to figure it out.

Anyhow, today I was debating again whether to do the full 6 miles or not - but I opted to go ahead with it since my ankle had improved enough from the day before that I figured any setback would be relatively minor.  As luck would have it, a coworker also had his running stuff with him today, so we ran this together.  Although I was really looking forward to being able to concentrate on form and mechanics, I also recognize I spend a lot of time training in isolation, so it is really hard to me to pass up an opportunity to run/bike with someone else when the opportunity presents itself.

The run itself went pretty well.  There were a few times when the crankle acted up a bit - but there were also a few times when it felt perfectly fine.  So in the end, it seems to have been a relative wash.  During the afternoon, I was able to isolate the spot of inflammation on the tendon - it is very similar to when the top of my right foot had an ache after the marathon.

I did try to focus on a few key form things, though - primarily keeping my upper body posture aligned, keeping the pelvis aligned and core muscles engaged, and really trying to relax the lower leg muscles.  Keeping the shins relaxed started to feel a bit more natural, but I think there were a couple times when I slipped back into old habits.  Part of this was due to conversation and distraction by having someone running with me, but it provided a good opportunity to practice refocusing after realizing I fell out of focus - a skill I think would be valuable in the latter stages of a race when fatigue set in.  So, there's always a silver lining - at least, I always try to find one.

In the end, the avg HR of 152 was a bit higher than I'd like, and the pace of 8:20 min/mil was a bit faster than I'd typically like - but at this point I'm less concerned about following strict paces and more concerned about imprinting how the mechanics of running should feel within the body.  Besides, tomorrow I'll run the same loop and I'll likely run it alone.  Plenty of opportunity to practice.

Runstreak day 20 - 4 miles of form work - 3/26/12

My right shin and calf are still feeling it from Saturday's run - which wasn't necessarily long by normal long run standards, but it was done with the Minimus shoes, and it was the long run of a base/mileage building week.  I'm also still a little sore from some single leg squats I did on Friday and Saturday night.  I'm trying to get back into doing those kinds of things on a regular basis - and as I found out the week before the Hampton half, if I skip for too long a time and then just do the whole leg routine, I end up pretty sore for several days, and that impacts overall training.  So this time I'm taking a more gradual approach and worrying less about the ability to do all the lunges and squats, and more about the ability to maintain overall consistency.  So with that in mind, I opted for the 4 mile loop during lunch today instead of the 6 mile loop.  I wanted to give myself another relatively low stress day to work out some of the soreness.  Plus, I have yoga tonight, so that should help.

So during today's run I tried to focus on a few specific things form-related:

1) Tried to maintain upper body posture to lengthen upper spine and neck (http://www.chirunning.com/chi-library/article/a-new-take-on-posture/) and engage lower abs to keep pelvis aligned. Was only so-so effective at the upper body part - had many other things to think about so it tended to get lost in the mix.
2) Mostly paid attention to pelvis movement and rotation - letting the trailing half of the pelvis go back with the trailing leg to load up spring-tension in the psoas to recoil back. Was fairly effective at this - a sign that it is getting more and more imprinted in muscle memory. Still a long way to go, but its getting there. Actually found that by doing so, in order to maintain cadence I had to foot-plant sooner on the recovery, which helped with a more even full-foot plant, which leads me to the next item:
3) In my ChiRunning video, I saw how I tend to engage my shins a lot more than necessary, which was leading to a minor heel strike (even if not all my weight was bearing down on my heel). Regardless of whether I was actually putting weight on the heel or not, there's no benefit to engaging the shins (which pull the toes up) - so I really tried to keep the shins loose and unflexed. Ended up feeling somewhat floppy back there by comparison - but just something to get used to.
4) Ok, this was the wierd part. Yesterday I was looking at the ChiRunning book, and it mentioned an advanced part: using your obliques for generating power to go up a hill. Say what!? Well, ok. So I tried it (since this loop at work has some hills), trying to avoid using hamstring, quad, calf strength to power the legs, and let hip rotation take care of it - and believe it or not, by the time I got to the top of the hill, I could actually feel somewhat fatigued oblique muscles (outer lower back). The quads? They were all like 'What now? There was a hill? Huh - didn't notice'.
Very strange - instead of having power come from the legs, it all came from the hips and core muscles, and the legs became just a conduit through which power was transferred on its way to the ground.

TrainerRoad - 60 minute free workout - 3/25/12

While this was a trainerroad workout, it wasn't a prescribed one - I picked the two hour free workout, but in the end did only a full hour.  Initially I thought I'd do some 20 minute sessions at or above FTP (225W), but after a few minutes on the first one (at 230W) I decided to cut the interval length to 10 minutes.  I ended up doing three intervals of 10 minutes at 230W, with five minutes rest (160W) in between.  I justified it by reasoning I'd probably hit the bike a good amount this week (with it being chillier out than last week), and that it might not be a good idea to do an extended session of intervals above FTP at this point - I should probably work up to it, otherwise I risk inadequate recovery which can throw a whole bunch of things off track for a while.

ChiRunning session and Runstreak day 19 - 3/25

This morning I had a session with a ChiRunning instructor.  In my post from the Stu's 30k, I mentioned that I had made some minor mechanical adjustments to my form to alleviate the feeling of the IT band rubbing - but one thing I didn't know was how sustainable those adjustments would be long term.  It's one thing to find a quick fix - it's another to determine whether that quick fix can come at the expense of future injury later on.

Later that week, I had some some googling and came across a ChiRunning article about the IT band, and it almost perfectly described those mechanical adjustments I made to reduce strain on the IT band.  It was so spot on that I decided at that point that I should pursue ChiRunning as a form basis for my running.  Having stuff like Jack Daniels running formula is great and all for coming up with a training approach, but aside from high level things like 'keep cadence at 180' and 'land mid-foot instead of heel strike' - there's every little about actual running form that is ever mentioned.

Furthermore, I discovered a pattern from the Half of the Hamptons and the Stu's 30k - in races where I push myself, I tend to require a good couple weeks for the muscles to settle down and stop pulling on the IT band.  In that couple weeks, I tend to be able to feel it rubbing during my runs.  So, absent any other significant data, I figured there was something with my form or how I'm running that is causing that, and that it was about time I concentrate on it.  One reason is that I don't want to continue training for the next several months leading up to Lake Placid always on the edge of what my IT band can sustain (too much at stake to risk that), and another reason is that I found that with swimming, form concentration equates to many hours of hard effort training - so there stands a good chance that the same would hold true for running.

A couple weeks ago I contacted a local ChiRunning instructor and set up a session for a one hour analysis with video.  I also picked up the ChiRunning book to get a start on some of the concepts, and to start practicing them during my short runstreak days - running sessions where I'm not at all concerned about fitness, per se, and instead concentrate on specific form related items.  This morning I met up with the person, and we started off with him grabbing some video of some of my running while warming up.  He wanted to get a fresh 'before' picture to see what I looked like before any of the ChiRunning concepts we would talk about could alter my stride.  I did my best to run in the same fashion I've been running in for the past couple years - although I've been practicing some ChiRunning form focuses, they haven't been imprinted in muscle memory enough yet to have pushed out the old stuff.  Those 'before' pictures were taken both with the Nike Free Run's that I've used most, as well as the NB Minimus shoes I've had for several weeks (lower heel-toe drop).  Then we talked about a bunch of high level stuff that ChiRunning concentrates on - using lower abdominal muscles to stabilize the pelvis and rotate it forward slightly as well as minimize side to side shuffling (think runway model shifting her hips back and forth to get an idea of the shuffling I'm talking about), lengthening the spine all the way through the top of the head to prevent upper body slouch (which not only decreases lung capacity, but also sets up the body to 'feel' heavy), and relaxation of muscles so that running itself uses a minimal amount of effort.  During this time there were also various little drills or examples/demonstration of concepts (one was actually tossing a lightweight medicine ball at a trampoline while balancing on one leg - when you catch it, the momentum wants to cause your body to go back with it, but when you engage your core muscles properly, you can minimize that kickback).  We finished off with some video of my stride after all the discussion, and with applying the various principles.

Overall, it was a $75 well spent, I think.  Most of the adjustments are very subtle and would be inherently difficult to get on video - but even still the before and after video showed a pretty big difference in terms of heel strike.  I haven't felt like a heelstriker for a few years, but the video clearly shows my heel hitting first, even if the brunt of my body weight doesn't fully bear down on the foot until my center of mass is closer to over my feet.  However the after video definitely showed improvement in that regard - it was much closer to a full-foot plant more directly under my center of mass.  While many of the things were subtle, I came out of it knowing I have a good deal of work to do in refining form, but also bouyed a bit by the fact that pretty much everything I had been practicing form-wise is on the right track.

For the runstreak session, it was my typical 1.5 mile loop - but instead of just starting out and doing the whole loop all at once, I stopped and started a bunch of times.  I kept my feet going at the 180 cadence, but I'd lean forward to start moving forward, and then return to a more upright position and just let my body gradually slow down to a stop (or slow move forward if on a slight downhill).  So it became a session of practice using lean for propulsion and trying to minimize getting propulsion from leg muscles.

Runstreak day 18 - 11 miles - 3/24/12

Today's run was relatively short for a long run, capped at 11 miles to bring me to just over 33 miles for the week - opting to follow the 10% rule for increasing distance as opposed to extending distance over last weeks 13 mile long run.  I figure that even when I reach the 40 mpw base, most of my long runs will be in the 10-13 mile range to keep with the 30% rule for long runs.  Things like schedule, other activities and even other types of runs during the week will end up dictating how long the long runs are - I figure some times the focus of that weeks run will be a long run, in which case it might get to 20 miles or so with the remaining runs of the week being relatively short; but other times the focus might be 2 days of 6 miles @ threshold during the week, and in those cases the long run will be shorter.

The biggest news of the run, though, was that I put my shirt under running water for a few moments before leaving the house to see how it affected the erroneous HR readings I've been seeing during the first 15-20 minutes recently.  It seems to have worked - the HR was much more stable, although it did spike to > 160 a couple times early on after the shirt had dried but before I perspired enough to take over grounding of static electricity.  I'm just glad to have found the culprit - it has been driving me nuts recently, and when trying to train using HR as a primary metric, having it be so unpredictable was making it very frustrating.

Runstreak day 16 - 3/23/12

Today was one of those days where there was an obstacle at every turn.

I initially thought (yesterday) about riding my bike to work today, but opted not to because I didn't want to do the planned 10 or so miles on Saturday on tired legs.  Actually, more than that - I didn't want to go into my run form evaluation on Sunday on tired legs.  So then during the day I thought about doing a quick hour long ride after I got home before it got dark.  Then when I got home I decided to do a trainer workout instead - but then realized that I left my wireless mouse at the office (I need to use it to keep the screen from going blank on the laptop I use to watch netflix with) - so I went back to the idea of doing an outdoor ride.  However, by this time daylight was trickling away and I'd just barely be able to make it back home in time.  Then, when I went to get my bike, I saw the back tire was flat (I had put the repaired tire back on the other day) - so apparently the patch didn't hold.  I threw in a new tube, and got a few miles out before deciding that daylight was slipping a little too fast, and then decided to head back home.  In the end I think I just didn't pump up the tire the other day, because I couldn't locate a leak in the tube when submerged (if it is flat tomorrow, I'll just toss the damn thing and quit screwing with it)

So in the end, a whopping 4.something miles on the bike - barely enough to even write about.  But I at least got just under two miles in for the runstreak, and to bring my total to just over 22 miles for the week - so with the 10-11 miles planned for tomorrow, I'll hit my weekly mileage goal.

Runstreak day 16 - 5 miles

Yesterday, I was thinking I'd do about 4 today.  Then, when I got home from work, I was feeling good enough that I wanted to do 6.  However, I had replaced the battery in my HR monitor chest strap last night and the wrist unit was not picking up the signal anymore.  So I ended up mucking around with that for 20 minutes or so before getting it to work, and by that time the sun was already close to setting.  I headed out the door thinking I'd do 6, but after a mile or so decided to do my normal 5 mile loop instead because it has sidewalks the entire way.

However, once again I started out and the HR monitor was acting up again - bouncing all over the place from 140 to 180 (typically in the 160 zone, though), and I knew I wasn't pushing it that much.  Then it occurred to me - the last few runs, where it has acted up - I've been wearing the same tech shirt, which is different from the one I've been running in all winter.  All winter I've been using the long sleeve one from the Patriot half, and I recently switched to the short sleeve one I got from the Worcester Half last June.  When I was looking up troubleshooting the HR monitor, I came across a page that indicated that tech shirts are susceptible to static electricity and can mess with HR monitor readings until the static can dissipate (ie, enough sweat has gotten onto the shirt).  So I think that is the problem - and it makes sense because in the past three runs, I've found it has taken a solid  14-16 minutes for the HR to settle down in accordance with what I'd expect with the RPE I was estimating.

So this run leaves me with about 2 to do tomorrow, and then 10 on Saturday to complete a 33 mile week.

Runstreak day 15 - 6 miles

I was originally thinking I'd do 4 today - thinking 6 yesterday, 4 today, 6 tomorrow, 3 on Friday and then about 10 on Saturday to make for a 33 mile week, but for no real good reason at all, decided to do 6 today anyway.  I'll probably end up cutting tomorrows run by a couple miles to make up for it.

Anyhow, the legs felt a bit better today - they didn't start off that way, but after lunch they started to feel a tad more lively.  Certainly still not 100%, but better than yesterday.  So this has me thinking that I just did a real bad job of fueling during Sunday's ride and refueling afterwards.  The lighter lunches I've been having this week are probably not helping either (for energy levels - they are helping to restart some weight loss).  I think also the increased volume is a contributing factor as well.

This run went fairly well - except that my HR monitor seems to be a bit on the fritz lately.  During the first two miles, it was all over the place - reaching over 180 a couple times.  A similar thing happened yesterday.  I think that after a year, the battery in the chest strap is probably getting a bit weak and needs replacing.  I can accept my HR being a bit higher than normal due to all the contributing factors - but reaching nearly 100% HRmax in a warmup mile that is mostly gradually downhill?  Unlikely.

Runstreak day 13 & 14 - 3/20/12

Monday I continued the runstreak with a quick 1.5 miles (with dogs) before Yoga.  It was a bit of a plod - I was still fatigued from the weekend and the legs just didn't have a bunch of bounce in them.  The RPE was definitely higher than normal for the 9 min/mile pace.

Tuesday I did the 6 mile loop around the office at lunch.  While slightly better than the previous days run, the avg HR was 152 (~75% HRmax) - definitely on the higher side than typical for this run. I figure it's due to a mix of factors: residual fatigue from this weekend (13 mile run on Saturday, 46 mile bike ride on Sunday), lack of nutrition (no real dinner after yoga last night, and only my typical breakfast of a clif bar and chocolate milk this morning), and this HEAT!! I wilt quickly in hot weather! I was probably a little dehydrated as well.

Earlier in the day, I was toying around with the idea of doing a couple intervals, since I'm in Phase II of my original plan - but I decided to hold off on that kind of thing. So much for the plan, right? Since I'm trying to up my volume from ~25 mpw to ~40 mpw, I should probably just increase training intensity in one way only (volume), instead of two (volume & speed). Glad I did, because it was obvious in the first half mile that my body clearly wasn't ready to do intervals with maximum benefit and minimal risk.

If my runs continue to be this labored, I'll be pretty certain that it is a result of the increase in volume. And yes, labored is relative - we're only talking about the difference in HR of a handful of beats per minute.  I realize pace will slow with the heat, but the legs still feel heavier than typical.

46 mile bike ride and runstreak day 12 - 3/18/12

With the temperatures well above 60F, I took the training wheels off (ok, trainer tire), put on the road tire and headed out for the first outdoor bike ride of the season.  I've been anxious to see what sort of effect the winter training has done for me, specifically the isolated leg training which has been having me feel like my peddling efficiency has improved dramatically.

Coming off a 13 mile run yesterday, I didn't want to push things too much, so I ended up doing the bike loop around Wachusett Reservoir.  One of the things I learned over the winter is that it takes me about 20 minutes to warm up on the bike - so right out of the gate, I didn't let the relatively fast speed (since it's a gentle downhill for the first mile and a half) get me too excited.  Sometimes I am prone to getting that free speed, and boosting it with my own power, only to start feeling fatigued three miles into the ride.

I cruised along for the first several miles, and got to a relatively high elevation point about 8 miles in - and was all set and jazzed for a downhill burst of speed, when I started noticing that something was off with my back wheel.  Immediately I started thinking 'oh shit - whats going on.  Did I forget to tighten the quick release when I changed the tire?  No, I specifically remember tightening the cam level.. what the hell could it be that is getting rougher and rougher back there, killing my momentum and slowing me down!?'  So I looked back, and saw what it was.. a flat.  Fahrvergnügen!

So I pulled off, removed the back wheel, and started inspecting the outside for the offending piece of whatever it was that poked through and caused the leak.  Nothing.  Previous flats I've had were obvious pretty quickly - a staple, even a small piece of glass that wedged into the tire and got ground through to the point where it pierced the tube.  But this time, nothing.  So I removed the tire, and looked at the tire.  Nothing.  I couldn't find the damn hole.  Knowing I have two CO2 cartridges available - I didn't want to inflate it without finding evidence - tires don't just leak air like that spontaneously without a hole.  I probably spent a good 25 minutes inflating the tire by mouth (to whatever degree I could), squeezing the tube listening for hissing air, pulling the tube looking for a place where the hole might stretch - couldn't find anything.  A couple times I was able to hear air, but it was when the tube was bunched up, so I had no real good way to locate it.  I finally gave up and swapped the tire out with a spare I keep with me.  I was hesitant to do so initially because being only 7 miles in, I didn't want to end up with another unidentifiable flat later on, and have no tube.  However, I had little choice this time around, and knew that around mile 17 I'd be at the reservoir and could stop to submerge the tube and see where air was leaking from, and then patch it at that time - giving me a reserve tube again.

Unfortunately, that meant two stops before the 20 mile mark.  Not ideal, but that how the cards were falling today.  I took the opportunity to have a Gu pack at that time (I didn't have my homemade stuff with me - I've been trying to Gu's the past few occasions that warrant supplemental energy, so that I could compare).  I've decided I have to figure out a batch of chocolate homemade gel - because the chocolate Gu was really good (I think I can use a more dilute simple syrup compared to what I've been using, add in maltodextrin and chocolate syrup - and then tweak from there).  The only thing I brought with me was a few Gu packs and 48 oz of water, figuring that should be sufficient.

Most of the rest of the trip was rather uneventful.  It was just real nice to be out in nice weather on the road again.  Not that I've had a problem with training indoors - I have a setup that keeps me entertained and gets the job done.  However, I did end up stopping at about mile 39 at a gas station to get some gatorade.  I was feeling a little bonky, and couldn't justify the consumption of another Gu with only a handful of miles left.  While I was chugging the gatorade, I took a look at the electrolyte content of Gu - 40 mg of sodium and potassium.  Whoopsie!  I thought it contained more than that - like at least 150 mg of sodium.  So, mental note - when using Gu, supplement with additional electrolytes.  Truth be told, I probably should have had a second one around mile 30 or so - but I didn't think of it at the time.  Actually, though - I had been thinking of experimenting with electrolyte tabs anyway.  I really like carrying just water in my bottles because if they leak (and they do), it doesn't get everything all sticky.  Plus, then I don't have to carry around powder, and the water gives me a flavor break from the constant taste of gatorade - not to mention the dental havoc of always having sugar water on my teeth..  So if I have the gel in flasks in my food pouch on my bike, toss in electrolyte tabs into the water every so often - that ends up giving me all three primary nutrition components (except maybe solid food - we'll have to see about that) in a fashion that I can mix and match on demand.

Once I got home, I took off on a short run to keep the runstreak going, and as an opportunity for a brick run.  This one was quite different from the brick run last week fresh off the trainer - and by different, I mean a lot suckier.  The 1.5 miles was not quite enough to fully feel in the running groove, although it was getting there.  And it was s-l-o-w - starting at like 10-11 minute miles, it took probably 1/2 mile before I got into the 9-9:30 min/mile pace.  The ole' posterior chain just didn't really want to wake up from sitting on the bike so much.

So all in all, I have to admit to having mixed feelings performance wise.  In my mind, I was hoping (against all logic) that the improved cycling motion would net me a solid boost in overall speed - but I was about 15 minutes off my fastest time for this loop.  On the other hand, the fact that I was able to come out of the winter season and knock out a 46 mile ride, without having lost significant overall speed, is really encouraging.  Plus, virtually all my bike workouts indoors were only 60 to 90 minutes.  And who knows how much the stops I had to make affected things - yeah, the timer stops when speed falls below a certain threshold, and the stops are an opportunity for a quick muscle recharge - but anything more than 30-60 seconds still messes with the mojo.

Runstreak days 8,9 & 10 and 13 mile LSD - 3/17/12

I figured I'd combine a few workouts together, since the runstreak days 8, 9 and 10 were short 1-2 mile runs - nothing too exciting.

Today, however, I decided to do a 13 mile long run, which would put me to about 30 miles total for the week. One thing I'm finding is that this runstreak seems to be making it easier to reliably hit mileage goals.  Granted, a good portion of the miles could be considered 'junk', as there is only so much that can be accomplished in 1-2 mile jaunts, but that is why I try to focus on form aspects during those runs - so I can get maximum benefit from them.  They give me a chance to tweak little things here and there to see how it feels without doing so on a long run when those tweaks may not be advantageous.

The past couple days have been free of any real IT band rubbing, which is good.  I think I'm finding that following a race (Half of the Hamptons, Stu's 30k) - I really need about two weeks to recover enough so that the IT band isn't being pushed.  I've read about the rule of thumb to give yourself one day of rest per mile of race - and that seems to hold true.  That is not to say running isn't possible during that time, but that all miles should be easy, and in my case, maybe limit runs to 5-6 miles for a couple weeks afterwards.  So one of the things I wanted to check out for this run was whether the longer distance aggravated the IT band at all - which it did not.  Thinking back a couple years ago, I remember after coming out of PT for the IT band, I found that for some period of time after a race (I specifically recall the Webster Lake Tri), my IT band flared up briefly and at the time I didn't know enough to correlate it to anything.  All I had to go on was the outside observation of my friend who mentioned that there must be something going on during a race that causes it to flare up.  It was later that year that I found the first major clue - too much, too fast.  But when I compile everything together, I seem to be noticing a pattern that after a race, I just need some time for things to settle down before I can safely go for any significant distance.

The other reason I wanted to do a 13 mile run today was to get to 30 miles for the week.  Since the runstreak helps solidify a weekly mileage volume, I want to build up to 40 miles per week, so that the occasional 20 mile long run becomes a possibility, without it consuming the vast majority of my weekly mileage and resulting in a dramatic mileage drop the following week.  Since last week I was at 27.2 miles, 30 miles seemed a reasonable target number for this week.  If all holds up, I should be able to reach 40 miles per week by early April.  Right now my 'quality' runs are the longer ones - like todays LSD, or the runs earlier this week of 5 and 6 miles that were basically aerobic base building.  If I can safely get to 40 miles per week, that opens up the possibility of converting one or two of those runs to a more intense quality run, where I add in a mile or two of intervals or something.

So todays focus was primarily on maintaining form throughout the whole distance.  After a couple miles that it seemed to settle into a groove, I tried to make sure my cadence was right around 180 (sometimes it slipped a tad to probably 175 or so), that I wasn't reaching out to plant the foot, leaning forward slightly, and engaging lower abs.  A few times in the later miles I found myself slipping a bit, but righted it as soon as I noticed.  In the last couple miles, there was one instance where I did a body scan and everything seemed to be in good form - so that is encouraging that I at least had a moment where my mind wandered (as it typically does), but my body stayed in fairly good form.

Runstreak day 7 - 6 miles - 3/13/12

Last night I made sure to spend some solid time stretching out - Monday is my normal yoga day, and with travelling, that wasn't going to happen.  However I could at least make sure I hit the major spots - hips, quads, etc.

One thing that I'm finding about this runstreak - it's a double edged sword in terms of mileage.  On one hand, if I were running three days per week previously, if I wanted to do something like a longer run (15-20 miles), I could do so with only a small amount of planning - mostly, that I was recovered from any previous long run, and would have time to recover after said planned long run.  On the other hand, it did make consistent mileage week to week somewhat difficult.  So, with running every day, it is easier to hit consistent mileage week to week (even at like 2 miles on what'd normally be a non-quality day, that ends up being 8-10 miles by the end of the week), however long run planning requires more effort.  It may be that with daily running, the expectations of what constitutes a long run has to change as well, and that is where you get into various rules of the long run being no more than 30% weekly mileage, etc.  In other words - if running daily, it may necessitate backing off the long run distances of more than 13 miles for a bit until I hit something in the 40 mile/week range.

Regardless, I was planning on not really paying a lot of attention to long runs until the 2 months or so prior to July, when they'd be the only real quality run workout anyway.  So it doesn't really impact my progress of training.

Anyhow - that was all a prelude to say I was thinking about this weeks mileage totals.  With last week being 27.2 miles, I'd like to hit somewhere around 30 miles this week.  Since I'm travelling until Thursday, and I don't want to do a huge-long run on Saturday to make up lost time - it became apparent that I'd need to do a few medium distance runs.  If I did six today, that'd put me at about 13 total for the week, add another six between W, Th and F for a total of 19, and that puts me at needing around 11 or so on Saturday - which ends up being ~30%.  Perfect.

During todays six, I ended up dividing it into two parts - the first part I was trying to make sure to go as slow as my easy pace dictates (about 8:45 min/mile), something I've cheated on during the short runs recently.  I also tried to pay attention to left foot placement to see if I could discern any difference in subtle changes, in an effort to keep from feeling the IT band from rubbing.  On the way back, I paid attention primarily to cadence - making sure I was at 180.  And not just checking once, adjusting to hit 180, and then assuming it's good from there on out - I checked several times to help keep my ears (and the rhythm they were hearing) honest.  What I found was that my foot seemed to plant a tad earlier - so it may be that instead of paying attention to foot placement to find the proper spot directly, I should just let cadence take care of it.  I had noticed in the past that with a higher turnover, the stride shortens (obviously), but this time it was more like extra-fine tuning instead of coarse tuning that occurred previously.  I also noticed the IT band rubbing feeling going away a bit.  Could have just been my interpretation for all I know - but I do suspect that I tend to slow my cadence just slightly over the course of a longer run (probably down to something like 170) - so if I pay attention to cadence for a while, it can't hurt.

Runstreak day 6 - 2 miles - 3/12/12

Just a quick couple miles today.  Would like to have paid more attention to form, but as I'm travelling and the road I was running on had little/no shoulder and the side of the road was unpredictable, I ended up spending more time making sure I wouldn't get hit by a car.

Trainerroad Goddard + 5 mile brick run - 3/11/12

Still not fully recovered from being sick the past couple days - better, but not quite there.

The next Trainerroad workout was called Goddard, which ended up being a fairly low intensity workout.  Starting with a short warmup, some ILT's of differing powers followed, and then a series of sprint-type surges with some rest in between.  That was followed by a few more ILT drills, and then 2 x 6m spinups.  In the end, a noticably lower intensity workout, but I was ok with that since I'm still feeling under the weather.

I was debating what to do for a run today - just a short 1-2 mile or something more significant.  I ended up decided to head out on my 5 mile loop, and go from there - I could always turn back if I needed/wanted to.  My primary immediate concern was that the past couple days, I've had slight runners knee in my left knee, so I didn't want to make it worse.  I ended up deciding to give a shot to using it as a way to potentially improve form - if I could make a simple change (most likely in left foot placement or overall cadence) and keep it at bay, that might be a way to see in what way my form could be improved that would be otherwise hard to determine.

I did bother me slightly for the first mile and a half or so, but after that, it went away and seemed to stay away.  IT band also felt pretty good overall as well - just a couple moments where I felt it rubbing.  I ended up mostly trying to pay attention to left foot placement (to discern whether I normally plant it just slightly ahead of my column or not) and cadence.  Seemed to work decently well, but I am still searching for the 'groove' of having the proper lean and stride length to hit the pace I'm looking for - I wanted to do this run at an easy pace of 8:45 min/miles, but I found that I'd end up at closer to 8 min/mile when I wasn't paying attention to pace and paying more attention to form.  Of course, that would get the HR up higher than I wanted.  So there is still obviously a lot of work to be done, and it is very possible that any change I need to make is too subtle for me to know on my own, so I'm really looking forward to a video analysis to help point me in the right direction of exactly what needs to be changed - foot placement, cadence, lean, amount of bend @ the knee, etc.

I also started thinking the other day - perhaps I should run short runs in the sandals I have.  Although I've had pretty good fortune with the Nike Free Runs, if I'm looking for better biofeedback about my form, going to something with a thin sole with no toe drop may be beneficial (unlike the NB Minimus that has a lower heel to toe drop than the Free Run's, but a less flexible and more substantial sole overall).

Runstreak day 4 - 1.5 miles - 3/10/12

I would have done a longer run today, or a bike session, but I'm still feeling under the weather, so I just limited myself to my runstreak form-centric run.

Today's focus was primarily on the appropriate amount of lean for the pace (which turned out to be about 8:13). During this run, I think I maybe discovered that the correlation between my IT band flaring up soon after races is because I put more effort into running during races, but I don't adjust the amount of lean accordingly to maintain good form. In ChiRunning terms, I use gear 2 lean for gear 3 speed.  It occurred to me today that in the past, when I've wanted to increase speed, I put more effort into muscle activation to do so, with little regard for how the running form should be altered to accommodate.  One of the concepts in ChiRunning is to increase the amount of body lean in order to increase speed - because that body lean is what ends up lengthening the stride.  So when I want to train for faster speed, I need to train for the appropriate form and let speed just happen, as opposed to the other way around.

Runstreak day 3 - 1.5 miles - 3/9/12

Mostly worked mostly on cadence and engaging the lower abs for proper pelvic alignment. Also tried to sense muscle activation in the legs during support phase, to see if I could tell when they were being minimally used yet I still had full support from the skeletal system. Like with Total Immersion for swimming - I think these kinds of things are just something that takes time to be able to sense. It seems like you have to feel what a bunch of different variations are like before you can finally distill everything down and determine which of the variations feels the most advantageous. Then, the trick would be to try and replicate that all the time - rinse and repeat to refine form.

1.4 miles - Runstreak day 2 - 3/8/12

So, inspired by a fellow DailyMiler who just passed his 100th day of a run streak - I've decided to start one myself.  While this may sound strange coming from someone who has been adamant about rest and not running junk miles, my new enthusiasm for Chi Running and trying to improve my form has provided me with the perfect excuse to attempt such a thing - daily repetition and practice to enhance muscle memory.

Truthfully, most of the days of this streak I intend to be low mileage - just a mile or two probably 4-5x per week.  The idea is that this will not be enough to require any real recovery, but by concentrating on form for the 15 minutes or so every day, my hope is that the form improvements I'm looking to achieve will come faster.  Especially when compared to trying to improve form at the same time I'm doing a typical quality run, where I'm also trying to pay attention to HR, pace and maintaining form over a longer distance.  It'll also provide an interesting experiment to see how it impacts recovery.   I have a pretty good sense of the length and type of recovery I need currently for how I run - so if I run really low volume on a daily basis, and it impacts my recovery, I should be able to detect that.  Obviously my hope is that it impacts it for the better (many people claim it does).

Plus, on days where I do a bike workout, this should give me lots of opportunities for practicing the brick transition and getting the posterior chain (used for running, not so much for biking) active after hopping off the bike.

So, today was day 2, since I did the 4 miles yesterday - and today it was a whopping 1.4 miles.  All I wanted to concentrate on today was the very basics of Chi Running - lean forward slightly from the ankles, foot movement looking like a circle (as viewed from the side), and engaging the lower abs to slightly rotation the front of the pelvis up to be level.  What I found about halfway through was pretty interesting - if I stopped leaning forward so much, I'd slow down.  If I leaned forward a tad more, I'd speed up.  Yesterday I found this video showing how the four different gears of Chi Running impact speed - basically, the more lean, the more speed.  So it was pretty interesting that I found this to hold true.  Now, whether my form was acceptable or not at the higher speeds, I don't know.  But that is something I'm hoping to find out by video analysis via coaching session.

Trainerroad - Clark - 3/8/12

This workout was interesting.  Most of the trainerroad workouts so far have been pretty straight forward - spending time in the sweet spot, rest time, and then another sweet spot interval.  Maybe some varying cadence and what-not, but that was about it.  At least, as far as I could tell - but then again I missed the instructions on a couple workouts that had them.

Right away, the Clark workout looks quite different.  Each interval starts with a high power output surge before settling into the sweet spot.  The instructions specifically said to find the highest gear and mash during these sections, which were only about 12 seconds long.  A couple of them were called out to be done in the saddle, a couple were called out to be standing.

The effect of such a quick, high power effort on the rest of the interval was interesting.  First of all, it was a shot to the HR - it brought it right up.  So rather than spending the first minute of each interval with a slowly climbing HR, it came up to speed pretty much immediately.  Second, it really flooded the leg muscles, so after the interval was done - the quads were pretty heavy.  The instructions stated to find the normal 90 RPM cadence and peddle through the heaviness.

To help break up the intervals a bit, so that you weren't watching a clock wind down for 8 minutes - the instructions also walked through cycling and cadence drills.  So, for example, it would have you pick a slightly lower gear to spin faster to increase cardiopulmonary effect, or pick a slightly higher gear to increase muscle power.  It'd also guide through concentrating on varying portions of the peddle stroke - scraping the bottom of your boot off, pulling up with your knee, kicking your toe into the toebox, and mashing down with your knee.  Each section was only a couple minutes long before returning to a more normal feeling peddle stroke.

4 mile easy lunch run - 3/7/12

I started this run wanting to do my normal midweek six miles, but knowing that I have been in the range of 22 miles per week, and having already done 19 on Sunday - I also knew that I might end up being better off being flexible about expectations.  Turns out, that was probably a good move, because I started feeling the IT band rubbing a bit almost right away.  However, once again it was with no pain - just kind of like the feeling if something lightly rubs across your skin - you know its there, but it of little other immediate consequence.  But I still treat it as a precursor - so I'm cautious with it.  As a result, I ended up cutting the run short and limiting it to 4 miles

I employed the same mechanics trick I did during the 30k to try to minimize or eliminate that rubbing feeling.  It was somewhat helpful - it didn't completely go away for the entirety of the rest of the run, but it didn't get worse either.

Later that afternoon, I did some googling and stumbled across this on the Chi Running site, regarding the IT band (http://www.chirunning.com/chi-library/article/it-band-syndrome/):

"Here's what you can do about it:
The first thing you can do to help your IT band feel better is to focus on keeping your pelvis level, front-to-back and side-to-side. To get an idea of how this should feel, try walking a few steps "runway style," and really let those hips rock! Notice how your knees collapse inward when you walk this way (don’t do this for more than a few steps; we are just trying to exaggerate the hip rocking feeling so that you can sense when you are holding them stable in the next step!) Now establish your posture and level your pelvis by lifting up the front part (pubic bone) with your lower abdominals until it is level. Imagine your pelvis is a bowl of water and you want to keep it from spilling. Walk forward holding your pelvis stable and notice that your hips do not move laterally with each step, and that your knees do not collapse inward."

"Once you get the feel of holding your pelvis level … add in this second component: Allow your pelvis to rotate around a vertical axis running through its center. Here's an easy way to get this to happen: every time your leg swings to the rear, let it pull your hip to the rear along with it. Your entire lower body will then be swinging in the direction of your rear leg while your upper body remains facing forward. This will allow your stride to become longer and more fluid, without letting your hips move laterally."

This caught my eye immediately, because it was almost exactly the mechanics change I had to employ - especially the part about allowing the pelvis to rotate around a vertical axis.  I had done this exactly thing during the 30k, and while I didn't know whether it was proper or not, all I knew was that it seemed to be an improvement IT band wise over what I had been doing.

This had two immediate effects - the first being confirmation that while my running form may generally be pretty good, it still needs improvement.  And not just micro-adjustments to make it more efficient - it needs at least one pretty major adjustment so that this IT band issue can go away for good.  Second, the fact that what I found empirically matched what the article mentioned pretty much convinced me that if I was going to look into improving my form, Chi Running might be the best place to look.  Combine that with the facts that there is a Chi Running instructor in the area also named Ryan Miller, who placed 2nd overall in an indoor half marathon in January with a time of 1:19:03 (assuming it was the same Ryan Miller), and whose running motion was described by a friend who also ran the event was: "the thing that stood out to me when he was running was how effortless it looked for him...  his stride flowed like he was running on down a smooth grassy field... and it appeared (to me) like there wasn't an ounce of energy wasted... no motion that didn't benefit forward progression..." 

And it seemed to me like looking into Chi Running was something I should look into.  So, I looked at the Chi Running site, and sent Mr Miller an email asking about the possibility of a private coaching session.

I also decided to pick up the Chi Running book.  I feel as though I have a pretty good degree of physical self awareness, as I've been able to learn a large part of Total Immersion swimming via the book and the DVD.  So I'm also hoping to pick up a good amount of general information from the book as well - although it can never replace the benefit of having a 3rd party analysis.  

I did wonder briefly whether doing something like this was wise at this time, with July not too far off.  However, I ended up deciding that pushing the envelope on a week to week basis with the IT band was not a wise course of action either.  So, while spending a good chunk of time in the immediate future working on form rather than base building or quality workouts might be somewhat of a shame - I'd rather do what I can to improve my odds of showing up on race day uninjured, even if it ends up costing me some time overall.

Trainerroad - Tallac - 3/6/12

For schedule reasons, I decided to hop on the bike today instead of go for a run.  Plus, it gives me another day of rest after Sunday's race.

Todays workout was called Tallac.  Some of the Trainerroad workouts have instructions, and while I was able to see them on the screen for the first few, a couple workouts I've done since that have instructions were not displaying them.  After fiddling with some window settings, I managed to sort it out, and coincidentally todays workout had some.

It was basically saying that the intervals for this workout, which seems to be around the 90% FTP value, were 'sweet spot' intervals - designed to push you a bit and require concentration, but allow for recovery in a day or so.  The idea is that it maximizes aerobic benefit while minimizing recovery needs.  Although it does always seem to take me a good 20 minutes for the HR to get up - my HR during the intervals more or less confirms this.  If running at an easy pace elicits a HR of about 140-145, and if a bike typically sees about a 10 bpm drop - my HR in the 130's sounds like it's pretty much right on the money for the cycling equivalent of an easy run pace.  This workout also had some drills to smooth out the cycling motion - spend a minute concentrating on lifting the knees to develop the upstroke, a minute lightly kicking the foot forward on the top, scraping mud off the shoes towards the bottom, etc.

Trainerroad Carillon and Stu's 30k - 3/4/12

Trainerroad Workout:

On Saturday (3/3), the next trainerroad workout was called Carillon.  In short, it was two sets of 10 minute intervals at about 90% FTP, with one minute rest in between each interval and five minutes in between each set.  However, the workout was more nuanced then that - each 10 minute interval had slightly varying powers - so initially the interval would start at 193W, and then go to 202W and then down to 198W.  The description of the workout was:

- 2 sets of 2x10min SweetSpot CrissCross intervals where 1min surges are spend out-of-the-saddle. 1RBI/5RBS.

The problem that I had was that in looking at the profile of the workout, I wasn't sure exactly where those one minute surges were supposed to be.  While the profile does indeed show spikes, they also looked to be shorter than one minute in length, because the scale of their length didn't correspond with 1/10 the length of the interval.  And in fact, during the workout, those sections ended up being 30 seconds long anyway.  In the end, I decided that I'd just skip that portion and stay in the saddle.  The reason is that during Lake Placid - I can't expect to be out of the saddle during all hill climbs - if I did, I'd spend half the time out of the saddle, and that just isn't feasible.  Besides, I am planning dedicated hill workouts later on in the spring anyway.

The varying degree of power was a love/hate thing - on one hand, having to constantly adjust power was a hassle - 30 seconds at this power, 1 minute at that power, now two minutes at a power in between.  And with the power differences being so slight and subtle, nailing the power was really difficult.  On the other hand, doing such a workout really begins to emphasize smoothing out the peddle stroke to minimize power fluctuations.  

Stu's 30k:

On Sunday was the Stu's 30k race.  The 30k was a new distance to me - at about 18 miles, it falls between the more popular distances of a half marathon and full marathon.  My original plan was to do all 18 miles at my VDOT predicted marathon pace (7:40 min/mile).  However, in the past week, due to the IT band flareup, I had started to back off that plan, thinking that 18 miles at that intensity would do more harm than good.  So I came up with the idea of doing one mile easy, two miles @ marathon pace, and repeat that formula about six times.  If need be, I'd take some extra time in the beginning for warm up - so in the end I figured on between 10 and 12 miles at marathon pace.

At about 2.5 miles in, I realized that plan was out the window.  The course is decently hilly, and it was becoming obvious that with rolling hills, trying to hold to the plan would result in holding back on the downhills and race on the uphills in many circumstances.  So I decided at that point to let the terrain more or less be my guide - do the uphills at a comfortably hard pace, but on the downhills take advantage of the easy speed boost, but not too much - this way I'd get some time for recovery and let the HR come back down.  Around this time I was also seeing my HR bounce around between about 157-163 - which seemed pretty reasonable for a marathon pace intensity, based on the Karvonen HR training zones (158-172).  What I didn't know was how much the hills would impact things - that would have to be something I'd just have to throw caution to the wind on and see what happened.

Around mile 5-6 or so, I started feeling the left IT band a bit.  I let myself be a bit disappointed and frustrated for a bit, but ended up deciding that I would concentrate on form the rest of the way.  I started with the assumption that my form likely goes south after only a handful of miles.  In thinking about how I've approached swimming (concentrate on form, performance will follow) - I decided that if my IT band was going to bother me, I mine as well try and get something positive out of it, and establish muscle memory imprints for running form.  So, I paid attention and made sure to land mid-foot, lean forward slightly from the ankles (I sometimes thing that as I tire, in an effort to keep from slouching, I overcompensate and end up with my upper body upright or maybe even leaning back slightly), and try to generate power from the posterior muscle chain (glutes, hamstrings, etc) to alleviate stress on the quads.  This ended up making my hips feel a bit like a rubber band - as one leg would go back, it'd reach the range of motion limit on the front hip flexors, generating tension.  Then, after that leg has completed its pushoff, it's spring back forward ready for the next surge of power.  My thinking was that if I did this, perhaps I could transition some of the knee stability from the glutes and ass muscles instead of the IT band.

Oddly enough - it seemed to have worked.  I spent the rest of the race paying as much attention to form as possible (there were admittedly a few times when it slipped), and for the most part, the IT band stayed fairly quiet.  While it is certainly a relief - I'm really curious what the the next couple days will bring with respect to how it feels.

At that point, most of the race was just a slog up and down rolling hills.  The end of the race is pretty brutal, as there are a couple steep (but thankfully rather short) climbs.  It's not that the elevation change is a huge deal - it's that it comes after 17 miles of rolling hills.

In the end, my pace was about 7:50 min/miles - just a tad slower than marathon pace.  However, the marathon pace was based on the Half of the Hamptons, a real flat course - and this course was not.  I'm really surprised that I managed to maintain this pace, because it didn't seem as intense as I was originally thinking it would be.  Not only that, but that pace range was held throughout most of the course - so while I did slow down at mile 18 (which included those two hills at the end), the splits around that one were still hovering around the marathon pace.  However, the book on this race has yet to be completed, because recovery hasn't taken place yet - and as I said before, we'll see what the IT band does over the next couple days.

Oh, the other thing I wanted to mention - this was the first run I've used the homemade gu where it was really going to be discernible how well it worked.  Overall, I'd say it worked rather well.  It definitely didn't kick in as fast as gatorade (which was virtually instant) - but I felt it lasted a bit longer.  That is to be expected, I suppose - gatorade would probably be absorbed faster being primary glucose, and being diluted in water a bit more.  By comparison, the homemade stuff is half glucose, half fructose, and the fructose requires a stop by the liver before becoming available energy.  So the next batch I make, I definitely want to decrease the percentage of glucose a bit by adding maltodextrin (glucose) to reach a concentration more like the Powerade C2MAX formulation of 2:1 glucose-to-fructose.  But now that I have a point of comparison - I may try commercial gu next time and see how it compares.

6 miles easy - 3/2/2012

A few weeks ago, I was in the lunch room at work, and one of the operations people came in and said he heard that I run marathons.  I corrected him and told him I've run one marathon, but we got to talking and it turns out he recently signed up for a marathon in late May and had been training for it.  We ended up deciding that since he had been running with another guy from work over the previous couple weeks - that we should all run together a couple times per week.  'Perfect!', I thought - this way I can get some extra miles in.

Unfortunately, right around this time, he started feeling the effects of going from running ~15 miles per week (3 days a week for 5 miles) to more like 30-35 miles per week in the span of only two weeks.  And by 'feeling the effects', I mean he got himself injured, and had to lay off for a couple weeks, and then start to build back up.  The funniest part of the whole story was that he was telling me that his hip had been tender - but not on the surface - deep within the hip.  Within about 30 minutesr, I sent him a link that described the symptoms and rehab steps for the piriformis, and his reply was 'holy shit - thats what I have!'  So he started stretching based on the suggested stretches, and it started getting better.  Nothing like seat of the pants (no pun intended) non professional diagnosis of a running injury.

Anyway, today our schedules converged, and we actually had a whole group of four of us that headed out.  As it turned out, one of the guys had only been doing like three miles a couple times a week - and about two miles in, he opted to turn back because his knee was bothering him.  The rest of us forged on.  It was a different six mile loop - but effectively the same in terms of terrain - two miles of climbing, then some downhill.  The downhill on this one was more aggressive, but then it was fairly flat for the last 2.5 miles or so.

Right away, I knew we were going at a faster pace than I wanted.  Just about any time I looked at my watch, we were doing something in the low 8's, and often I saw my HR in the mid 150's or high - which I wasn't too happy about, but I guess the tiny little bit of macho I have in my head overruled the much larger mass of sanity I possess, and decided to suck it up.  So it was with pretty large surprise that when I looked at the data, my avg HR was only 147, and that while I did go over 160 a couple times, the HR came back down quickly - so I wasn't at that rate for very long.  Probably mostly related to when I might have been engaged in the talking side of conversation.

Trainerroad - Tioga - 3/1/12

Holy crap - the next bike workout was the weekend-intended 90 minute one already.  I debated whether to do it tonight or not, especially considering I'm figuring on another mid-day run tomorrow - but I figured I'd be better off getting this workout out of the way as opposed to doing it on Saturday or Sunday, in such close proximity to the 30k on Sunday.

This workout was called Tioga, and was the first workout that got to FTP intensity.  It was an interesting workout - the description and goals were listed as follows:

Description
- 5x9min intervals spent slightly above or slightly below FTP (2 minute unders, 1 minute overs); 6 minutes rest between intervals

Goals
-Develop the ability to handle changes in pace during hard, sustained
-Improve lactate shuttling/buffering capabilities during high effort

What made it interesting was the variation of intensity during the intervals - the 2 minute 'unders' were still more intense than any intervals thus far, and the 1 minute 'overs' were just slightly more intense (about 5%) - but when it came time to go back to the 'unders' they felt very similar to recovery.  Also, the variation really made me forget that each interval was 9 minutes in total - it broke it up into a handful of 1 and 2 minute segments.

For the rest intervals, I maintained a bit higher power than was called for - unless I'm doing ILT's, power of 88W is barely sustainable as there is hardly any resistance, so it's easy to over-spin.  So I ended up just settling into a comfortable cadence at an easy pace that still offered some resistance to keep from spinning out due to rotational momentum.

As far as the IT band goes, it felt pretty good.  Sometimes it can be hard to know whether I feel something like very slight tightness, or whether it is just my mind playing tricks on me because I'm so tuned in and paying attention - but so long as I don't feel anything definitive, I try not to worry about it.