Anaerobic capacity training: progress vs. last year

Wrapping up anaerobic capacity training, it’s time to compare this year’s two-week block with 2008:

2009 (9/22 – 10/4): 5 workouts, 48 repetitions totaling 51:23 + 1 5K run on 9/28
2008 (9/16 – 9/25): 3½ workouts, 34 repetitions totaling 32:51 + 1 5K run on 9/27

Thus, a significant increase (56.4%) was achieved in the total volume of anaerobic training; these workouts are the most difficult I do, and last year, I quit halfway through the fourth one, so the recent “results” are encouraging.

A couple of changes from last year seemed to help: 1) I allowed myself a 5 minute break halfway through each workout (recovery intervals were otherwise 3 minutes), and 2) I used lane 8, which added ~6.5 seconds to each rep.

Oh, I suppose I should make some mention of the workout structure, though if I seem rather nonchalant, it’s because I think the late Arthur Lydiard was right to maintain that it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference in this instance: you just run nearly as hard as possible for an interval of 30-120 seconds, recover adequately, and repeat as many times as you can. Pace is of no consequence, as both speed should actually deteriorate slightly as each interval progresses, but try to stay as smooth and relaxed as possible, especially towards the end.

The recovery interval is adequate if you can complete the planned number of reps without a big (say, +10% from the third rep) time drop-off. The underlying physiological rationale is to build up both anaerobic capacity and a tolerance (buffering capacity) for its byproduct, namely lactic acid, which inhibits aerobic energy production. The former is of increasing importance in events under 30 minutes, so if I were preparing for a 10K, 10 mile, or half-marathon, there would be less need for such training, if it were included at all. The latter effect helps you recover from surges during a race, but since I always end up racing pretty much alone and hold an even pace throughout each race, this is of lesser importance.

In this case, I planned on (and did) 10 reps on 2 straightaways and 1 curve in lane 8 (essentially a big “U”), or 323.5 meters each rep. This distance was chosen since it comes as close as possible to 1 minute, which is the duration I used as a cyclist; the range of times was 62-66 seconds, with an average time per rep of 64.2. These data cannot be directly compared to respective values of 56-60 and 58.0 from last year’s workouts, when a distance of 300 meters (lane 1) was used, but they are certainly no worse, and perhaps a bit faster.

Finally, to place things the context of overall training structure as laid out in the Lydiard method, anaerobic capacity training should take place in a concentrated fashion (3X/week for 3 weeks, with 48 hours in between each workout), and only after aerobic development has proceeded as far as possible. One long, easy run is included each week to maintain aerobic fitness, and several weeks of transitional hill resistance training precede the anaerobic period.

Sign of the Apocalypse

During post-race “entertainment” at yesterday's North Coast Challenge, the deejay led children in singing “Eat Chick-Fill-A” to the tune of the Village People’s 1978 hit “YMCA.”

Bad music used to promote bad eating habits: a deadly threat to both good taste and good health.

When you come to a fork in the road…

take it!

So urged the redoubtable Mr. Berra in one of his immortal “Yogisms,” and it comes to mind now as a dilemma presents itself: has aerobic fitness progressed far enough to start hill/anaerobic capacity training in preparation for a period of 5K races in October/November – or should it continue to be rebuilt, perhaps for a late-season half marathon?

In the sense that more miles had been accumulated in the prior 14 weeks, the endurance ‘base’ was undoubtedly deeper (or wider, if you prefer) in June when injury struck, but judging by the pace of recent training runs as well as performance in today’s North Coast Challenge (30 seconds faster than last year), aerobic fitness is as good as ever, so it’s time to transition first to an abbreviated period of hill repetition training (planned a bit more carefully this time!), followed by a couple weeks of track intervals to build anaerobic capacity, then begin racing and slowly taper to a peak in late October/early November.

It’s not ‘just running’

I have a number of leftover biker trash friends from my cycling years, and Ric Stern is among the best of them. In no particular order, he’s a terrific cycling coach (with an excellent group of assistant coaches to boot), a doting father, an irrepressibly cheerful personality – in short, the salt of the earth. His frequent refrain of ‘no worries’ has become my own.

Knowing my history (as a cyclist) of multiple car attacks that converted me to running, every now and then he asks, “Still just running?” It feels like he’s tweaking me a bit, perhaps subtly pointing out the lesser time commitment of running as compared with cycling: whereas an elite runner can typically get by on as little as 8-12 hours of training per week, an elite cyclist needs more like 20, the pros nearly 30. Yeah, runners are slackers. :-)

Now, I see running as a somewhat more complicated activity, where injuries can appear out of nowhere; indeed, their prevention, management, and rehabilitation would seem more important than the precise structure of training itself. After all, even a sub-optimal training program, consistently followed, will produce more improvement than no training at all.

The challenge of avoiding and working around (as well as through) setbacks actually makes running more interesting, even though it has necessitated a multi-pronged approach that adds complexity to workouts:

1. Gone are the days when I paid no heed of running surface, starting each run out the back door; I now avoid pavement like the plague, putting in at least 98% of all miles on softer dirt trails, with most of the other 2% on a local track with a nice, even, rubberized asphalt surface (I abandoned grass surfaces last year, since they didn’t seem to do any better than the trail in reducing impact forces, but have a more irregular surface). This adds ~30 minutes of back-and-forth travel to each run.

2. In early 2007, I visited Dr. Tom Zak, a chiropractor in Westlake trained in Active Release Technique (ART), seeking relief from recurring groin pain. His manipulations provided some immediate relief, but of more lasting importance have been stretches he prescribed, based on a simple visual inspection of my running technique. I do them religiously before every run, and the problem has not returned. Another 10 minutes or so added to each run.

3. With targeted weight training a few times a week, I’ve strengthened the muscle groups that stabilize the hip and knee joints.

4. As described in the preceding post, aquarunning is both an effective means of rehabilitation once an injury does occur, and of maintaining fitness throughout the rehab period. It is also very effective as supplemental training, even when no injury is present.

5. Finally, while I’ve always been careful to apply increases in training load in an incremental, progressive manner, the hip flexor injury provided a reminder of the importance of this training principle.

Factors 1-3 contributed to a complete lack of injury throughout the entire 2008 season, while 4 & 5 helped me cope with what arose this year.

Aquarunning to the rescue!

After nearly complete rest (just a few short pool runs) from 6/28 – 7/22, then aquarunning with greater frequency and duration during the last week, today’s land run was without pain. Though the distance was just 3.5 miles, the pace was surprisingly close to what was typical just before the injury appeared, yet it felt comfortable.

Aquarunning seems to have worked wonders both in maintaining fitness and (in combination with whirlpool therapy) promoting healing; about the only drawback is that it has bleached my swim trunks.

Now it’s just a matter of rebuilding lost fitness, hopefully in time to at least come close to the goal-predictions stated previously. As an astute reader reminds me, it’s important to ease back into land running, gradually phasing out the pool runs while increasing road mileage, since the legs have not experienced any impact forces in six weeks.

Watch for a detailed discussion of aquarunning in a future post.

“To know your limits…

...it is sometimes necessary to exceed them.”

So runs an old and fundamentally true bromide, and it seems to have been borne out yet again.

After a week’s hiatus from 6/7-14, what began as a mild twinge/pain in the right medial/mid thigh on 6/18 blossomed into limiting pain in the hip flexor area by 6/21.

Walking was pain-free after four days rest and a 20 minute pool run on 6/25, but it was all I could do to get through a two-miler on 6/27, let alone walk normally afterward. This pattern has repeated itself several times over and it is apparent that extended rest is necessary.

The cause was probably a too-intensive hill workout (8 x ~25m vertical gain) on 6/16; the descents likely did the damage, despite the fact that I was careful to control my stride. I’d done 5 reps on 5/31, but there was too much of a gap in between even for a modest increase, let alone to 8; 3 or 4 would have been enough.

Update(s) to follow, as developments warrant – where have you read that before?

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.