The new training pattern

The 4 days on/1 day off regime (previously discussed here) has worked beautifully, as I have been able to work up to and sustain a higher training load than ever before, yet with less fatigue. Alternating short and longer workouts while carefully adding no more than 10-15 minutes to each 5-day cycle – even when more was possible – I leveled off with a pattern of (in minutes) 45-67-45-67/day off, or an average of 5 hours 20 minutes a week. Had I attempted that much with a 6 on/1 off pattern, there would likely have been more fatigue, or else I would have had to settle for less volume.

Intensity for all runs has been right around ~90% of ‘functional threshold pace’ (FTP being defined as what can be sustained for a ~50 minute run), which corresponds to the ‘best aerobic pace’ that Lydiard used to advocate, leaving you ‘pleasantly tired’ and allowing enough (but not complete) recovery overnight for the next run, such that the training load can be sustained indefinitely with relative comfort, or at least without excess fatigue (i.e., enough to disrupt the training cycle and impose a period of extended rest).

“Train, don’t strain,” Lydiard used to say, or, put another way, “work, don’t suffer.” The intensity may be challenging at times, but manageable, while workouts may be somewhat difficult to complete, but not a struggle.

Even better news is the fact that the typical average pace has been faster than what I was doing on the same courses last October during a period of peak performance.

Thus, the PR-equaling time that happened today while out of town at the Chase for the Taste 5K in Des Plaines, Illinois, should not have been too great of a surprise. Mile splits were 6:42, 6:56, and 7:07, and they are probably valid, since this race is CARA- (Chicago Area Runners Association) and USATF-certified, so the course should be accurate. I don’t fault myself too much for the fast start and slow finish, since a fair part of the ‘out’ portion was downhill with a tailwind, and vice-versa coming back.

I say the PR “happened” because I have done none of the anaerobic capacity training (400m track intervals) necessary for peak form in a 5K; they seem bring another 40 seconds or so of improvement after as much aerobic fitness as possible has been built up, so a goal of 20:40 seems within reach, however, today’s performance was aided by the taper from several easy/off days due to travel in the days leading up to the race.

One-year fitness comparison

Just like it was in 2008, today’s Dara Hosta 5K in Olmsted Falls was my first race of the season, and as such allows comparison of current fitness to the same point one year ago.

This run starts and finishes at Harding Stadium, where I do my track workouts, and to aid with pacing, I marked off the first ¼ mile and ½ mile from the start (a GPS-enabled watch can help with this, but being something of a retro-grouch, I don’t have one yet). It’s been my experience that early feedback and adjustment of pace in relation to what you have planned can help greatly optimizing the overall energy output (assuming you have chosen reasonable pacing goals, of course!) By the second mile (and even the latter portion of the first, depending on the chosen pace), perceived exertion will have caught up with the pace, and can be reliably used to modulate effort in relation to the distance remaining to be run. On the other hand, if you go out too fast and wait until the first mile split to find out, it can have a significantly adverse effect on energy output, and on performance. As Jack Daniels has observed, “The biggest mistake you can make in a distance race is in the first minute.”

The plan worked well, as confirmed by mile splits of 7:03, 7:12, and 7:05 on the virtually dead-flat course; several runners were caught in the last mile, and at the finish I was just 3 seconds (one place) behind the winner of my age group . Unfortunately, I didn’t know it was he just in front of me, otherwise I might have been able to catch him – or not, but it would have been nice to know.

The course was unchanged and conditions were nearly identical to last year, all of which validate comparison to 2008’s time of 22:40, so it would seem there has been a 3.3% improvement in fitness, but given that there has also been a 6.9% reduction in body mass in the year since, it is possible I am a bit behind where I was a year ago. That’s not surprising, given the 6-week injury layoff in January/February.

I’m not one to fill up blogspace by recounting every last race detail, but one does stand out. With less than a mile to go, I passed Jack Urbanek, an old classmate who ran cross-country ‘back in the day.’ I’ve measured myself against him for a couple years, since his times were well ahead of mine, but seemed like they might come within reach someday. I figured if I could finish close to or ahead of him eventually, it would be an accomplishment, since he was a ‘real’ runner, good enough to run on the varsity. I actually mentioned this ambition to him, and before the Celebrate Westlake 5-miler a couple years back, he pointed to his knee brace and said ‘This is your day to beat me’ or something like that. Naturally, I didn’t, leading me to realize that Jack on one good leg was better than I am with two good ones.

In passing by, I gave him a thumbs-up and said something really original like ‘Hey Jack.’ He responded by surging hard and opening up a decent gap. Jack’s as laid-back as they come, but I thought he might have misunderstood the gesture or the words. In any case, I held steady and didn’t try to match the move (I never do in such instances), since I don’t have much to surge with, and had I tried to, I’d have blown up for sure. I always tell myself, ‘If they can keep or increase the gap, there’s nothing I can do about it, if not, I’ll see them again before the finish.’

So I just continued smoothly along, gradually ramping up the pace, and was able to go by decisively in the last half-mile. Jack has a tendency to vanish quickly after the race, so there was no chance to offer an explanation, if one was needed.