Way back in one of the first posts in this blog I said how important it was going to be to have a decent base and rest leading up to this last week. Well, I stayed on track and therefore my body handled the higher mileage and greater intensity pretty well this week. The long run was my hardest day - but, my legs actually felt decent on the run today. I'm headed to yoga tonight to push out all those toxins my body has been collecting all week. Next week I'll probably have my first track session - but, otherwise it will be pretty much a copy of last week.
Last week
Monday: 7 miles
Tuesday Morning: 10 miles- 3 mi easy 4 mi LT run (~5:35 pace) 3 mi easy
Tuesday Evening: 4 mi easy
Wednesday: 13 miles
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: 9.5 miles hills
Saturday: 18 miles
Sunday: 8 miles
Total: 73.5 miles
This week
Monday: 6 miles
Tuesday Morning: 10 miles- 6X1200 ~3:50
Tuesday Evening: 4 mi easy
Wednesday: 13 miles
Thursday: 8 miles
Friday: 10 miles hills
Saturday: 7 miles
Sunday: 19 miles
Total: 77 miles
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Hills
Hill workouts mean different things to different people. Pfitzinger writes about them in his section about resistence/weight training. He views hills as a way to strengthen the legs without using weights. Daniels agrees with this view to a point - but he also views hills as a rep workout in that it can greatly increase your heart rate over a shorter distance/slower speed than on a track.For most people who have been on XC/track teams hills mean pain. Usually the name of the street where your coach had you do hill workouts can bring a chill to the spine many years later. At my high school we had "5th street." Our coach marked out 400 meter and 800 meter "options". University of Michigan has Harvard Street - which is shorter, but steeper. At Loyola in Chicago we were forced to go to a sledding hill in Evanston that had once been a dump - it was too short - so we did a LOT of them.
The worst thing about hill workouts is the last 25 meters when it feels like you're standing still, and yet your legs are burning and you feel like you might hyperventilate. But, they make you stronger.
In preperation for Boston I'm going to do hills on most weeks when I have just one other "hard" workout. I may even do some downhill training as I've heard that the Boston downhills near the end are more challenging on dead legs than you might think.
This morning was my first hill workout in Druid Hill Park (pic above). I tried to take it a little easy on myself - but, I still got a good burn going.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
LT workout, first double, and six words you don't want to hear on a run alone, at night, in Baltimore
I'm not going to detail every hard workout between now and Boston - but, I'll probably write at least one post on every type of run - how the experts suggest approaching it and how it worked out for me.
As I wrote in a post last week - lactate threshold is somewhat of a misnomer, but I'm going to use it for these kinds of workouts because everybody else does. Regardless of what you call it the point of these runs is to increase the percent of V02 max, and more importantly the pace, at which bad stuff like acidosis and reduced muscle contraction takes place. To do this most experts suggest running at 15k-half-marathon pace for 20-40 minutes. You can also do LT repeats (usually 1-2 miles) with short rest.
Daniels has a more exact way of determining LT pace by what he calls your V-DOT score (I'll get into that in another post). Using Daniels method and what I thought I was capable of currently running for a half-marathon, I thought 5:35 pace would be about right. But, LT runs you want to do more on feel than anything - it should be "comfortably hard" and you shouldn't have much muscle soreness during or after. You're not looking to smash the wall with a sledge hammer, but rather use the Andy Dufrain principle of "pressure and time."
Luckily I was able to find some other members of TWSS who didn't mind running a difficult workout at 7am this morning. Arjun, Brennan, Zero, and Eileen showed up on time and ready to go - unfortunately, I didn't leave myself enough time - so I was late. They were about a quarter mile into the run when we passed each other. So, I ran it alone - which wasn't really all that bad.
There isn't a whole lot to say about the workout. I may have run a little too fast in sections and too slow in others - but I ended up at 22:30 (~5:37 pace). So, not so bad.
Today was also my first double in awhile. I try to limit doubles - but, when you get around 70 miles a week it's hard to avoid them. I prefer to run doubles on days when I have a hard run - it helps to warm up the muscles and gives you a chance to run less miles on recovery days. Although usually I run easy in the morning and hard in the evening -but, today we ran hard in the morning to get a little daylight. I'm not going to kid you - it was tough getting out the door tonight. But, after about 10 minutes I felt a little less of the aches & pains. I think that it will overall help me recover from this morning.
As I was trying to pry myself off the couch - I made a choice about which 4 mile route I'd take. My "usual" 4 mile route goes north-west through Mt. Vernon to Bolton Hill to Reservoir Hill(between North Ave and Druid Hill Park) and back - my other route is down to Riverside Park in Fed Hill and back. I had never run my usual route at night - and Reservoir Hill is a little sketchy - but, I had run in Fed Hill this morning. Plus I reasoned that I always run on Monument between Johns Hopkins Hospital and the JFX expressway at night, which has a bad reputation, and never have any problems. Well, the difference is that Monument is very well traveled, exposed, and you see cops pretty frequently.
About 2 blocks north of North Ave. on Park Ave. I passed some kids on who were on the other side of the street. There was some commotion and I didn't really pay attention until I heard a kid clearly say "shoot the dumbass in the back." Now, he could have been talking about some other dumbass - but, I was the only dumbass in their immediate vicinity. Going to college in Chicago I have some street smarts (although obviously not enough to stay out of this neighborhood at night) which told me I should just keep looking ahead and run at the same pace. Look back and they might think you're confronting them - run away fast and they might think you have a reason to run. The point is to communicate "I'm just a guy going about my business - I'm not going to cause any trouble." They most definitely could have been screwing with me. But, I'm guessing that they were doing something illegal, didn't want to get caught, and so one of the kids said something they thought would scare me off. It worked and next time I need to run 4 miles at night I'll be running down to the Inner Harbor and Fed Hill.
As I wrote in a post last week - lactate threshold is somewhat of a misnomer, but I'm going to use it for these kinds of workouts because everybody else does. Regardless of what you call it the point of these runs is to increase the percent of V02 max, and more importantly the pace, at which bad stuff like acidosis and reduced muscle contraction takes place. To do this most experts suggest running at 15k-half-marathon pace for 20-40 minutes. You can also do LT repeats (usually 1-2 miles) with short rest.
Daniels has a more exact way of determining LT pace by what he calls your V-DOT score (I'll get into that in another post). Using Daniels method and what I thought I was capable of currently running for a half-marathon, I thought 5:35 pace would be about right. But, LT runs you want to do more on feel than anything - it should be "comfortably hard" and you shouldn't have much muscle soreness during or after. You're not looking to smash the wall with a sledge hammer, but rather use the Andy Dufrain principle of "pressure and time."
Luckily I was able to find some other members of TWSS who didn't mind running a difficult workout at 7am this morning. Arjun, Brennan, Zero, and Eileen showed up on time and ready to go - unfortunately, I didn't leave myself enough time - so I was late. They were about a quarter mile into the run when we passed each other. So, I ran it alone - which wasn't really all that bad.
There isn't a whole lot to say about the workout. I may have run a little too fast in sections and too slow in others - but I ended up at 22:30 (~5:37 pace). So, not so bad.
Today was also my first double in awhile. I try to limit doubles - but, when you get around 70 miles a week it's hard to avoid them. I prefer to run doubles on days when I have a hard run - it helps to warm up the muscles and gives you a chance to run less miles on recovery days. Although usually I run easy in the morning and hard in the evening -but, today we ran hard in the morning to get a little daylight. I'm not going to kid you - it was tough getting out the door tonight. But, after about 10 minutes I felt a little less of the aches & pains. I think that it will overall help me recover from this morning.
As I was trying to pry myself off the couch - I made a choice about which 4 mile route I'd take. My "usual" 4 mile route goes north-west through Mt. Vernon to Bolton Hill to Reservoir Hill(between North Ave and Druid Hill Park) and back - my other route is down to Riverside Park in Fed Hill and back. I had never run my usual route at night - and Reservoir Hill is a little sketchy - but, I had run in Fed Hill this morning. Plus I reasoned that I always run on Monument between Johns Hopkins Hospital and the JFX expressway at night, which has a bad reputation, and never have any problems. Well, the difference is that Monument is very well traveled, exposed, and you see cops pretty frequently.
About 2 blocks north of North Ave. on Park Ave. I passed some kids on who were on the other side of the street. There was some commotion and I didn't really pay attention until I heard a kid clearly say "shoot the dumbass in the back." Now, he could have been talking about some other dumbass - but, I was the only dumbass in their immediate vicinity. Going to college in Chicago I have some street smarts (although obviously not enough to stay out of this neighborhood at night) which told me I should just keep looking ahead and run at the same pace. Look back and they might think you're confronting them - run away fast and they might think you have a reason to run. The point is to communicate "I'm just a guy going about my business - I'm not going to cause any trouble." They most definitely could have been screwing with me. But, I'm guessing that they were doing something illegal, didn't want to get caught, and so one of the kids said something they thought would scare me off. It worked and next time I need to run 4 miles at night I'll be running down to the Inner Harbor and Fed Hill.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Phase Two: week 1 of 5
Time to put some logs on the fire.The last five weeks I've averaged 54 miles per week - the next five weeks I'm planning to average 77.5 miles per week. Plus, I'll be adding a LT workout and a hills workout each week. So, it will be a relatively major change to what my body has been handling lately. The basic structure of the next 5 weeks will be 4 relatively difficult days (LT workout, 90+ min run, Hills, 2+ hour run) and three recovery days (6-8 miles). My next day off will be January 8th. The good news is that my legs feel pretty lively and other than the normal aches and pains I'm pretty healthy.
This is a good a time to look at the overall structure of my plan for the next 19 weeks leading up to Boston. The next 15 weeks will be split into three 5-week cycles - 4 weeks of building mileage and/or intensity and one week of "recovery." The next cycle, starting on January 12th, I plan on averaging 86.5 miles per week adding some marathon paced runs and higher intensity LT runs. The last intense cycle, starting on February 16th, I'll run 90 miles per week with a tune-up half marathon at the end of that cycle. The last four-week cycle will include LT, marathon pace training and strides - with a significant taper the last two weeks.
Last week
Monday: 9 miles
Tuesday: 7 miles 8X150m strides
Wednesday: 11 miles
Thursday: 0 miles
Friday: 6 miles
Saturday: 17 miles
Sunday: 6 miles
Total: 56 miles
This week
Monday: 6 miles
Tuesday Morning: 10 miles- 3 mi easy 4 mi LT run (~5:35 pace) 3 mi easy
Tuesday Evening: 4 mi easy
Wednesday: 13 miles
Thursday: 6 miles
Friday: 11 miles hills
Saturday: 7 miles
Sunday: 18 miles
Total: 75 miles
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Quote for the day #2
I feel a little bad for that other quote, and I started volunteering one-on-one at a literacy center today - which made me think of an inspriational quote that actually does mean a lot to me. It's from Pema Chodron - a Shambala Buddhist monk/nun who has written some great books on being fully awake and living a compassionate life. This is one of those quotes that you need to read several times - and try to think of how it applies to your own life before it rings true.
"We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves-the heavy-duty fearing that we're bad and hoping that we're good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds-never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake." Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are
First, I think there is a lot to the idea that we are all Dorothy, wearing red shoes that can always get us home. That doesn't mean that we don't need to take some long trips to discover that fact - but, we already have everything we need within us right now. Also, I like the idea that we don't only cling to good feelings about ourselves - but, that many times we cling even more fevorishly to negative feelings about ourselves - because it somehow feels "comfortable."
We grow used to putting ourselve down in someway - and it's easier to maintain that view than to look at ourselves in a more positive way. Addictions aren't just to drugs - but more often feelings. And finally that all this negativity that we surround ourselves with is imperminent. It is as permiable as clouds - only the light of the sun is permenant and we only have to let the clouds disappate to experience the light that we all have within ourselves.
What does this have to do with running? Everything and nothing.
"We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves-the heavy-duty fearing that we're bad and hoping that we're good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds-never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake." Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are
First, I think there is a lot to the idea that we are all Dorothy, wearing red shoes that can always get us home. That doesn't mean that we don't need to take some long trips to discover that fact - but, we already have everything we need within us right now. Also, I like the idea that we don't only cling to good feelings about ourselves - but, that many times we cling even more fevorishly to negative feelings about ourselves - because it somehow feels "comfortable."
We grow used to putting ourselve down in someway - and it's easier to maintain that view than to look at ourselves in a more positive way. Addictions aren't just to drugs - but more often feelings. And finally that all this negativity that we surround ourselves with is imperminent. It is as permiable as clouds - only the light of the sun is permenant and we only have to let the clouds disappate to experience the light that we all have within ourselves.
What does this have to do with running? Everything and nothing.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Lactate Threshold: What does it mean? Does it even exist?
Very early on in most runner's careers they hear how the build up of lactic acid causes them to run slower and feel sore. Well, it turns out that lactic acid isn't produced in exercise and that lactate, which is produced during exercise, doesn't cause any pain or soreness in our muscles (Noakes). In fact, lactate might be a good thing for us - we just don't know. That should show you how insanely complex our bodies are when you consider that in 2008 we don't entirely understand what happens when we propell ourselves forward.
However, both Daniels and Pfitzinger talk about lactate threshold as if it still means something. Why? Well, for one we seem to be able to predict race times most reliably based on the pace at which lactate starts accumilating more rapidly in the blood. Lactate accumilation is correlated with the build-up of hydrogen ions which lowers pH (acidosis). Hydrogen ions can also block the uptake of calcium - which restricts muscle contraction.
So, what does all this mean? Running around the "lactate threshold" (LT) point (usually 75-80% of V02 max or 15k-20k race pace) does seem to improve running ability. And runners with lactate thresholds at a higher percentage of V02 max race faster. The most popular LT workout is to run at LT pace for 20-40 minutes. Another LT workout is to run mile repeats at LT pace with 1-2 minutes rest.
So, a week from today when I run my first LT workout - I'll try to not confuse myself with the details and just run controlled and strong - because that's what I want to do on 4/20.
However, both Daniels and Pfitzinger talk about lactate threshold as if it still means something. Why? Well, for one we seem to be able to predict race times most reliably based on the pace at which lactate starts accumilating more rapidly in the blood. Lactate accumilation is correlated with the build-up of hydrogen ions which lowers pH (acidosis). Hydrogen ions can also block the uptake of calcium - which restricts muscle contraction.
So, what does all this mean? Running around the "lactate threshold" (LT) point (usually 75-80% of V02 max or 15k-20k race pace) does seem to improve running ability. And runners with lactate thresholds at a higher percentage of V02 max race faster. The most popular LT workout is to run at LT pace for 20-40 minutes. Another LT workout is to run mile repeats at LT pace with 1-2 minutes rest.
So, a week from today when I run my first LT workout - I'll try to not confuse myself with the details and just run controlled and strong - because that's what I want to do on 4/20.
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