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.

Training update – pain free!

After 4 weeks of no activity (“complete rest” sounds better) beginning with the last post, the left knee pain subsided almost completely, and I had my first ‘aquarun’ on 2/13. It was just 15 minutes long, and turned out to be one of only four such workouts over the next month.

The pain returned with the resumption of running on 2/15 but has been manageable; the symptoms have slowly subsided in response to a regimen of cryotherapy (via Cramer Flex-i-Cold packs) after each run, plus occasional heat prior, and weight training (leg extensions and curls). Today’s workout was the first since January without any pain at all.

In preparation for the local 5K run coming up on Sunday, weekly interval workouts of 5 x 1200 meters were begun on 4/15, to help raise the upper limit of aerobic fitness I’ve built so far. Today was the third such session, and the work interval average of 4:52 (3 minutes rest in between) compares quite well with the benchmark of 4:47 set in an identical workout last 11/5. Based on this performance, I estimate I should be able to do ~21:45.

Volume totals from 2/15 through today are 286.1 miles in 38.75 hours.

Already a setback

Barely a week into the season, and I am sidelined with in left knee pain bad enough that I don’t expect to be running anytime soon. It came on suddenly, and I suspect it may be due to a combination of the cold plus tights that don’t insulate quite enough, with some irregular, snowy running surfaces a contributing factor.

My plan is to rest until the pain goes away, and perhaps finally start something that’s been on my mind for a long time: deep-water pool running, plus some weight training.

As always, the fear is that this will develop into a permanent condition with long-term, limiting effects, even though numerous other injuries serious enough to require time off have all healed without lasting effect.

Update(s) to follow, as developments warrant.

The plan for 2009

“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” —Winston Churchill

The previous year is likely to have the most potent bearing on performance development, followed by the season before that, and so on; each is built on the one immediately prior, and 2008 was a good campaign in which training went smoothly through the winter months, but was disrupted by a 3-week fight with a severe infection in May that left me weakened and 5.5 kg lighter (from 71.5 to 66 kg, a 7.7% loss). Training resumed on June 1 and proceeded consistently for the rest of the annual cycle (i.e., through Thanksgiving), leading to a reduction in 5K PR from 22:40 to 21:18, an improvement of 6%. The illness turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the weight loss became permanent, and translated into an almost equivalent increase in performance velocity, therefore there was likely no significant improvement in absolute aerobic power. Volume totals for the year were 162 hours/1180 miles, in 262 workouts.

2007 was the first full year of dedicated running, but with a long break from January 29 – May 14 due to an adductor strain. Volume came to 93.8 hours/685 miles in 170 workouts.

In 2006, training was more or less continuous from July 5 through December 3, with a 2-week break due to sharp lower left leg pain at the end of September, which left as mysteriously as it had appeared. The totals were 50.45 hours/371.2 miles in 92 workouts.

Performance benchmarks for these years were

2006
5K – 22:40 (11/23)
5M – n/a
13.1 miles – n/a

2007
5, 000m (track) – 21:56 (11/19)
5M – 39:11 (9/1)
13.1 miles – n/a

2008
5K – 21:18 (10/26, 11/27)
5M – 36:15 (8/30)
13.1 miles – n/a

For 2009, I plan on essentially repeating the 2008 program (a watered-down version of the Lydiard method), but without any sickness, the aerobic conditioning (base) phase could be finished by June. Then will come ~3 weeks of hill training, followed by 2-3 weeks of anaerobic capacity training (interval training on the track, e.g. 10 x 400 meters). This will lead to a peak for some of the local 5K and 5-mile runs in September. After that, perhaps a half-marathon in November.

Two changes from 2009 are planned:

1. For the base phase, a new pattern of 4 days on/1 day off. 6 days straight with 1 day of rest tend to leave me somewhat fatigued, while 5 on/2 off (with the rest days either consecutive or interspersed among the 5 “on” days – which is the same as 3 on/1 off, 2 on/1 off) seems too easy. 4 on/1 off represents a middle ground, an average of 5.6 runs per week.

2. Add some variety in week 3 of the anaerobic capacity training period – after 2 weeks of 10 x 300m workouts (each 48 hrs. apart), either move straight to ‘sharpeners’ (100m on/100m off windsprints), or else some longer intervals (e,g, 6 x 800m). Last year, the same-old same-old became a bit too much by the third week.

The goal-predictions for 2009 are

5K – 20:40
5M – 34:30
13.1 miles – 1:37-1:39

Goals→predictions

“The journey is more important than the destination.” —Source unknown

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” —Arthur Ashe

“Accomplishment will prove to be a journey, not a destination.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower

All of the above are applicable to athletic endeavors as cautionary maxims, yet goals are necessary to give direction to and validate the journey; without them, it’s not even a journey, it’s just aimless wandering that goes nowhere. How would it have been if Moses had hauled up short of the Promised Land and said, “This is as far as we go, folks, it’s been a great character building/learning experience”? No, that wouldn’t seem to do at all. And would the Israelites’ journey have been anywhere as meaningful had it been for something other than their freedom…say, maybe, because the beaches were better in Palestine? Hardly.

Goals must be clearly defined and measurable, challenging yet within reach, and can range from immediate workout objectives (e.g., negative split each tempo run, don’t let long runs be too hard, etc.); to seasonal aims which could include both performance and training goals (e.g., reach a new level of training volume); and finally to long range, developmental plans, or what you ultimately want to achieve.

Even so, goal-setting should be approached with a measure of wariness, since things can go wrong, plans can change as “life” intervenes, etc. Even when injury and illness are avoided and training goes well, a plateau is sometimes encountered, especially by more fully developed runners. All of this can lead to disappointment if you’ve invested too heavily in the goals you have chosen, and judge the season only by whether you reach them.

That’s where the foregoing observations come into play. Just do your best each day, training in a consistent, progressive, and intelligent manner, keeping things fresh and fun while dealing with any setbacks that arise, and the rest will usually take care of itself.

So rather than calling them goals, I decided to make something more like predictions for the 2009 season, if things go well. They’ll be discussed in the next entry.

Just what the world needs...another blob

U.S. unemployment is climbing, and may end up past 10%. We’re piling up debt madly, and haven’t even begun spending for things we really need. Warming of the planet is the “biggest global health threat of the 21st century”. The list goes on...

Yet here I sit, starting off the new year by adding to a blogosphere already bloated with ego-driven monuments to self-absorption, replete with endless, mundane details (so often personal in nature) and the insipid chatter of petty drama. Oh, don’t get me wrong; some manage to relate their personal and competitive lives in a way that is truly worthwhile and engaging. TriSaraTops, Brian Miner, and Tim Budic are a few who come immediately to mind.

So while the point of departure for many entries here may be personal experience, the purpose will be to relate it and other running-related information in a way that will be broadly useful. Although there may be temporary excursions into the realm of the inspirational, perhaps a runner profile now and then, the focus will most often be technical (but hopefully not too abstruse), the execution at times in-depth (but not overlong), and the frequency of entries irregular, only as there seems to be something worth discussing (often a novel concept in the blogosphere). More attention will likely be paid to the purpose and timing of workouts, along with reference to the underlying physiology, than precise workout details.

This, then, is my blob, er, I mean blog. No wait, that’s perfect – blob – like a worthless dollop of nothing, or the glop that terrified moviegoers of the late 1950s:


“Steven” McQueen saved the world from the first Blob that engulfed sivilization – who will do it this time around?

Heaven help me, I suppose it won’t be long until I’m Tweetering my every move to Farcebook.