Well, it's done. Unfortunately, my fears of not enough rest and fatigue building up proved to be true, and I didn't have the test I thought I could have. I did end up beating my former time by 35 seconds and bumping my vdot from 38.2 to 39, but based on my training these fast few weeks, I thought I should be able to get to 40, but it just wasn't meant to be. I'm a bit disappointed, because I feel like I really worked so hard on the run intervals in the last few weeks, and to see so little 'reward' is a bit of a downer. Then again, I've come a long way since the beginning of the OS, and I really do believe that after a transition week, I'll be ready to jump into my HIM training.
I see Roy fired up a final thoughts thread, and I'll post mine there, but let me just say a resounding THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for being a part of my first OS. Your posts, comments, support, jokes and encouragement have been truly mojo-lifting and made this a truly great experience for me. While I'm somewhat glad to put this part of my training behind me and start focsing on race prep, I can honeslty say that I'm already looking forward to the NEXT OS!!!
Good luck today and for the rest of your season, everybody, I look forward to meeting some of you in person down the road!
Oh, and special good luck to Russ and Naomi and they extend the OS for another week!!!
Final run here also, and weather did not cooperate to get an outside vdot test in this week as everything has been covered under a thick blanket of snow here. Since my previous tests have been done outside I'm just gonna wait and see if I can get a vdot test done next weekend, and if not, the half marathon I'll be running in california the week after will serve as my test.
Since I do have this half marathon coming up I thought the best thing would be to get a long run in, at whatever pace felt good after yesterday's FTP test but preferably somewhere in the middle between z1 and z2. Allowed myself to gradually get into a rhythm the first 10 minutes and ultimately I had a good training run, doing 11.4 miles avg 8'19"/mile, perfectly on target, while singing along with Swedish House Maffia, Taylor Swift, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg and everyone else on MTV :-D.
Thanks again to everyone in the NOS for sharing experiences, thoughts, good or bad, it makes such a big difference to be doing this together as a group. Much more fun to keep going and to get a workout done when you know it's gonna be tough but there are others doing it also. Really cool! Keep posting because I really want to see how you all achieve the this season!
So Mother Nature conspired against my grand plan to use the 9 mile run I registered for to be my end of OS run by changing the snow flurries we were supposed to get into 3 inches of snow. More of the course than I expected was trail, which meant more of it was just thick snow, which meant I was just slogging along. Also it was run where the Missouri and Missississippi River come together. Very pretty under normal circumstances. Also very windy, something I did not (but certainly should have) think about. All in all, it basically means the numbers from that run mean very little other than wasn't that a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. I do plan on moving into a bike focus session so it might not matter too much and I will just stick with my run numbers as they feel pretty tough still anyway. A shame, I was hoping to push that VDOT up a bit. If I catch a wild hair I might try a test next week.
Well first off, Scott and Ben - sorry to hear the weather conditions prevented a final test outdoors that you could really hammer. I can certainly empathize since I lived for a couple of years in Steve West's neck of the woods in Maine.
So, having said that - today's conditions were perfect for a PR here in South Texas. Temp was 49 degrees and the wind was at 5mph. I launched on my 8mi run to see how all this OS translates to speed at a distance greater than anything we trained for in the OS, just like I did for the final tests in the '11 and '12 OS. I beat both final tests and earned a PR at this distance on this course! I did a 1:03:54 for a 7:59/mi pace at a LTHR of 168 and hit a MHR of 184! I have effectively turned the clock back almost 7 years to what I was running on another course where I lived in Charlotte, NC. Thought I would never see a time like this again!
I think the major reason I got the PR is that the day before, I did not do the bike wko like I did the past two years. I did the same warm up (15' on bike just like I do for a regular bike workout) today and can't attribute it to anything else.
So - this wraps up my testing. I tested smarter than I have before and set a bike and a run PR although I am probably am not any fitter than the past two OSs. So - I guess this is what RnP calls "dialing in the execution". I'm going to leave up my EN Flag all day and reflect back on all those "o'dark thirty" weekday workouts! For all of our NOV OS Peeps still out there testing, best wishes!
got my run test in outdoors despite a few inches of snow last night. could not bear the thought of testing on a treadmill, so threw on the trail running shoes for added traction and headed for the track.
legs felt very springy in spite of the built-up fatigue (noticed a difference in how i felt from my previous vdot test). had a nice easy w/u of ~18' and took a few laps on the track to assess the footing, which was solid even with some snow on the track
so far, so good, howeva...as soon as I started my test, my quads got very angry at me -- funny 'cause I couldn't feel any fatigue at all during the w/u
was really focused on pacing well during the test and did better than any previous test/race i can recall
1k: 6:00 min / mile pace (really, had to dial it back on this to avoid going out too hard) 2k: 5:55 min / mile pace (ramped up the speed, but thought i'd have more) 3k: 6:00 min / mile pace (was tough to see the pace slower than 2k, as I was really pushing for speed during this km) 4k: 5:58 min / mile pace (just hold on until the last km) 5k: 5:50 min / mile pace (left everything -- except my steak & eggs breakfast -- on the track)
one change from previous tests was to set my garmin to track km's (vs miles) giving me more certainty on when the test was over!
ended up shaving just 7 seconds of my 5k time for an 18:29, but I know I'm likely a tad faster than that (no real taper, snow-covered track, etc.) and I'll never complain about a PR. good luck to all those that still have their tests, and big thumbs up to all who've completed the OS!
Wrapped week 13 with what I consider to be my capstone run. Based on all YOUR experiences, I am doing this week differently. Sun was scheduled rest - nope - not today... here is the plan:
Sun: 2x800, 2x1600 @ target 5k pace, the rematch Mon: rest rest rest Tue: z1 with a handful of strides up to 5k pace Wed: 6:45 PM, Wakefield Lake Q 5k Th: more rest Fri: z3 or sweet-spot bike for an hour Sat: Bike test Sun - early start to t week... I should probably go to the pool and do a few easy 100's and 200's - like a warm-up and start of a small build up to a 1k test.
Note: more rest and no hard work - the focus is the tests.
Today, however, was hard. Sun: 2x800, 2x1600 @ target 5k pace, the rematch Last Wed I did great through the first mile then bailed after 400 yd of that last 1m. Today my goal was to negative split the whole thing. I did not, but I did do better, and I do own the set: 3:22, 3:27, 6:54, 6:57 So - I'm going to start the 5k on Wed at a 7mm pace and gradually step it up and we'll see what I can do.
There's a lot of great stuff to respond to in all your posts - but no time right now - will get to it later or tomorrow.
So, did I ever tell ya? No? Well, I've done the studies and I'm here to say: RUNNING SUCKS. Now now... I know what you're going to say but I'm a scientist and I know what I'm saying here. Running sucks.
Last NOS item on the list was my run test and today was the day regardless of the conditions. I ran a 10K test on the levelest stretch of road in the area. It consisted of 2 laps of a 2.5 Km stretch of Wyoming Ave (out and back twice) with long gradual hills so I had the challenges and benefits of going up and down them. I guess I'm never going to break 45 minutes for a 10K. I came in with a 45:12 and actually regressed in my vDOT down to a 45. Slightly different conditions and a longer course but I no longer can claim a 47 vDOT.
So, did I ever tell ya? No? Well, I've done the studies and I'm here to say: RUNNING SUCKS. Now now... I know what you're going to say but I'm a scientist and I know what I'm saying here. Running sucks.
Last NOS item on the list was my run test and today was the day regardless of the conditions. I ran a 10K test on the levelest stretch of road in the area. It consisted of 2 laps of a 2.5 Km stretch of Wyoming Ave (out and back twice) with long gradual hills so I had the challenges and benefits of going up and down them. I guess I'm never going to break 45 minutes for a 10K. I came in with a 45:12 and actually regressed in my vDOT down to a 45. Slightly different conditions and a longer course but I no longer can claim a 47 vDOT.
Disappointed. I don't wanna talk about it.
Understand. Been there and yes, sometimes I think I should just aquabike and be done with it. I'm with ya'!
Relatively nice weather here in Maine. Was 26* with a 5-10 mph NNE breeze so wind chills were tolerable in the upper teens and the sun was shining. No snow on the ground meant I could get to the track and have a go at my final 5K test.
I was clinging on to the notion that my run fitness was still as good as it had been several weeks ago..... before the wheels came off the bus. In reality I've been barely holding on. This week in trying to recover I did nothing for 4 days, slept 34 hours over the weekend, managed 1 60' EP run and the final bike test, and a 30' easy swim. That's it until today.
Knowing it was unlikely to hit my goal of 21:00 I went to the track to attempt just that. And as expected I couldn't make the pace and my VDOT went down a point since last test. I am confident that on a different day with different circumstances I could have gotten close. But the result is what it is and I could not have done better today.
Good weather, good mental focus, and a willingness to suffer. My ultimate goal was 21:00 for a VDOT of 47.
My target paces were based on 400 splits (1:41; 3:22; 5:03, 6:44). The only field on my 310xt was Current Lap. Warmup was 1.5 mile run to the track.
Final time 22:04 for VDOT @ 44.38 So my VDOT went down nearly a full point from last test. Based on the details of the test, it is were I am so, it is what it is till next test.
10/31 - 22:14 @ 43.99
12/20 - 21:42 @ 45.27
2/3 - 22:04 @ 44.38
Looking deeper into the details I see my HR spiked early and never recovered. Only took 1:34 from the start (less than 400) to reach zone 5 (>= 179). In all my HR was in mid to upper zone 5 for a total of 19:10. Cadence was good for all splits so I was able to keep most of my form on but pace suffered tremendously from running in an anaerobic state. My HR zones are: Z4 = 172, Z5 = 179, MaxHR = 192. Typical MP cadence @ 85, IP cadence @ 90.
The table below lists seconds above my target pace of 1:41 per 400 meters, and shows how my pace slowed as average HR climbed.
400 800 1200 1600
0" +4" +5" +3" AHR @ 176; 90 rpm
+3" +6" +6" +5" AHR @ 186; 90 rpm
+7" +7" +6" +7" AHR @ 186; 89 rpm
+3" AHR @ 187; 90 rpm (final 200)
So, in the end my own foolish wants to jump into the advanced plan and attempt to train to a unsustainable FTP caused a crash and burn the last 4 weeks, culminating in a sub par performance on the track today. I am OK with the result and will continue to follow the pacing guidelines until I test again.
Next up, Run Focus and my own marathon hack as I refocus on Boston.
I ran my 5k test last week, on time. I'm just getting to logging it now because I've been over-the-top busy...
My 5k race last Wed indicated that I haven't progressed at all. http://www.coolrunning.com/results/...set1.shtml I'm leaving my training paces at VDOT = 45 because that's where I've been training.
I was reasonably well rested for the race. There may be some secondary factors at work - hard to know. Racing isn't a controlled experiment - every day is different, every race is different.
I definitely came out a little too hot - not crazy hot, but more than 15s/m over my eventual average pace. It's harder to stay level when you have something to prove.
Not at all discouraged, and definitely looking for the road forward. I suspect more volume might be where I find the growth I'm looking for. I tended to miss a lot of the "run 2nd" because I really needed the recovery time from the very intense run and bike sessions. I suspect I need those HMP runs to have the aerobic base for the longer runs.
The good news is that I'm in the run-focus plan now, and I bet I can earn some gains in next six weeks. I plan to put the bike in maintenance mode and focus on building the run volume. Next race is probably the New Bedford Half Marathon; I may also try to fit in another Lake-Q 5k in a month.
On that note - it's a sunny day here on Boston's North Shore; my running shoes are in the car ...
Best to you all in your training and racing - it's been a great OS.
Well, there were good things and bad today! The good, despite a hard bike ride yesterday i felt great, legs were solid from the start, lungs were great and heart rate was very low. Felt really good and comfortable for the first 4 miles, on track for a half mary PR. But after 4 miles hamstrings started to cramp, and ultimately i had to stop about 10 times to stretch them out. The constant tightness in my legs was the key limiter in overall performance today.
Many contributing factors - excessive travel, lack of sleep, wasn't using nutrition I'm used to, hard bike ride yesterday on a borrowed bike, etc. My sense is I was REALLY close to a PR if my conditions would have been better, so I'm definitely positive about my fitness (which is really the key thing here, this race was my lowest priority in my race schedule). Just a bit bummed about the end result, 1h 39' with a PR of 1h 34' on the same course.
Comments
Well, it's done. Unfortunately, my fears of not enough rest and fatigue building up proved to be true, and I didn't have the test I thought I could have. I did end up beating my former time by 35 seconds and bumping my vdot from 38.2 to 39, but based on my training these fast few weeks, I thought I should be able to get to 40, but it just wasn't meant to be. I'm a bit disappointed, because I feel like I really worked so hard on the run intervals in the last few weeks, and to see so little 'reward' is a bit of a downer. Then again, I've come a long way since the beginning of the OS, and I really do believe that after a transition week, I'll be ready to jump into my HIM training.
I see Roy fired up a final thoughts thread, and I'll post mine there, but let me just say a resounding THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for being a part of my first OS. Your posts, comments, support, jokes and encouragement have been truly mojo-lifting and made this a truly great experience for me. While I'm somewhat glad to put this part of my training behind me and start focsing on race prep, I can honeslty say that I'm already looking forward to the NEXT OS!!!
Good luck today and for the rest of your season, everybody, I look forward to meeting some of you in person down the road!
Oh, and special good luck to Russ and Naomi and they extend the OS for another week!!!
Since I do have this half marathon coming up I thought the best thing would be to get a long run in, at whatever pace felt good after yesterday's FTP test but preferably somewhere in the middle between z1 and z2. Allowed myself to gradually get into a rhythm the first 10 minutes and ultimately I had a good training run, doing 11.4 miles avg 8'19"/mile, perfectly on target, while singing along with Swedish House Maffia, Taylor Swift, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg and everyone else on MTV :-D.
Thanks again to everyone in the NOS for sharing experiences, thoughts, good or bad, it makes such a big difference to be doing this together as a group. Much more fun to keep going and to get a workout done when you know it's gonna be tough but there are others doing it also. Really cool! Keep posting because I really want to see how you all achieve the this season!
Well first off, Scott and Ben - sorry to hear the weather conditions prevented a final test outdoors that you could really hammer. I can certainly empathize since I lived for a couple of years in Steve West's neck of the woods in Maine.
So, having said that - today's conditions were perfect for a PR here in South Texas. Temp was 49 degrees and the wind was at 5mph. I launched on my 8mi run to see how all this OS translates to speed at a distance greater than anything we trained for in the OS, just like I did for the final tests in the '11 and '12 OS. I beat both final tests and earned a PR at this distance on this course! I did a 1:03:54 for a 7:59/mi pace at a LTHR of 168 and hit a MHR of 184! I have effectively turned the clock back almost 7 years to what I was running on another course where I lived in Charlotte, NC. Thought I would never see a time like this again!
I think the major reason I got the PR is that the day before, I did not do the bike wko like I did the past two years. I did the same warm up (15' on bike just like I do for a regular bike workout) today and can't attribute it to anything else.
So - this wraps up my testing. I tested smarter than I have before and set a bike and a run PR although I am probably am not any fitter than the past two OSs. So - I guess this is what RnP calls "dialing in the execution". I'm going to leave up my EN Flag all day and reflect back on all those "o'dark thirty" weekday workouts! For all of our NOV OS Peeps still out there testing, best wishes!
legs felt very springy in spite of the built-up fatigue (noticed a difference in how i felt from my previous vdot test). had a nice easy w/u of ~18' and took a few laps on the track to assess the footing, which was solid even with some snow on the track
so far, so good, howeva...as soon as I started my test, my quads got very angry at me -- funny 'cause I couldn't feel any fatigue at all during the w/u
was really focused on pacing well during the test and did better than any previous test/race i can recall
1k: 6:00 min / mile pace (really, had to dial it back on this to avoid going out too hard)
2k: 5:55 min / mile pace (ramped up the speed, but thought i'd have more)
3k: 6:00 min / mile pace (was tough to see the pace slower than 2k, as I was really pushing for speed during this km)
4k: 5:58 min / mile pace (just hold on until the last km)
5k: 5:50 min / mile pace (left everything -- except my steak & eggs breakfast -- on the track)
one change from previous tests was to set my garmin to track km's (vs miles) giving me more certainty on when the test was over!
ended up shaving just 7 seconds of my 5k time for an 18:29, but I know I'm likely a tad faster than that (no real taper, snow-covered track, etc.) and I'll never complain about a PR. good luck to all those that still have their tests, and big thumbs up to all who've completed the OS!
Sun: 2x800, 2x1600 @ target 5k pace, the rematch
Mon: rest rest rest
Tue: z1 with a handful of strides up to 5k pace
Wed: 6:45 PM, Wakefield Lake Q 5k
Th: more rest
Fri: z3 or sweet-spot bike for an hour
Sat: Bike test
Sun - early start to t week... I should probably go to the pool and do a few easy 100's and 200's - like a warm-up and start of a small build up to a 1k test.
Note: more rest and no hard work - the focus is the tests.
Today, however, was hard.
Sun: 2x800, 2x1600 @ target 5k pace, the rematch
Last Wed I did great through the first mile then bailed after 400 yd of that last 1m.
Today my goal was to negative split the whole thing.
I did not, but I did do better, and I do own the set:
3:22, 3:27, 6:54, 6:57
So - I'm going to start the 5k on Wed at a 7mm pace and gradually step it up and we'll see what I can do.
There's a lot of great stuff to respond to in all your posts - but no time right now - will get to it later or tomorrow.
Best!
Last NOS item on the list was my run test and today was the day regardless of the conditions. I ran a 10K test on the levelest stretch of road in the area. It consisted of 2 laps of a 2.5 Km stretch of Wyoming Ave (out and back twice) with long gradual hills so I had the challenges and benefits of going up and down them. I guess I'm never going to break 45 minutes for a 10K. I came in with a 45:12 and actually regressed in my vDOT down to a 45. Slightly different conditions and a longer course but I no longer can claim a 47 vDOT.
Disappointed. I don't wanna talk about it.
Understand. Been there and yes, sometimes I think I should just aquabike and be done with it. I'm with ya'!
Relatively nice weather here in Maine. Was 26* with a 5-10 mph NNE breeze so wind chills were tolerable in the upper teens and the sun was shining. No snow on the ground meant I could get to the track and have a go at my final 5K test.
I was clinging on to the notion that my run fitness was still as good as it had been several weeks ago..... before the wheels came off the bus. In reality I've been barely holding on. This week in trying to recover I did nothing for 4 days, slept 34 hours over the weekend, managed 1 60' EP run and the final bike test, and a 30' easy swim. That's it until today.
Knowing it was unlikely to hit my goal of 21:00 I went to the track to attempt just that. And as expected I couldn't make the pace and my VDOT went down a point since last test. I am confident that on a different day with different circumstances I could have gotten close. But the result is what it is and I could not have done better today.
Good weather, good mental focus, and a willingness to suffer. My ultimate goal was 21:00 for a VDOT of 47.
My target paces were based on 400 splits (1:41; 3:22; 5:03, 6:44). The only field on my 310xt was Current Lap. Warmup was 1.5 mile run to the track.
Final time 22:04 for VDOT @ 44.38 So my VDOT went down nearly a full point from last test. Based on the details of the test, it is were I am so, it is what it is till next test.
10/31 - 22:14 @ 43.99
12/20 - 21:42 @ 45.27
2/3 - 22:04 @ 44.38
Looking deeper into the details I see my HR spiked early and never recovered. Only took 1:34 from the start (less than 400) to reach zone 5 (>= 179). In all my HR was in mid to upper zone 5 for a total of 19:10. Cadence was good for all splits so I was able to keep most of my form on but pace suffered tremendously from running in an anaerobic state. My HR zones are: Z4 = 172, Z5 = 179, MaxHR = 192. Typical MP cadence @ 85, IP cadence @ 90.
The table below lists seconds above my target pace of 1:41 per 400 meters, and shows how my pace slowed as average HR climbed.
400 800 1200 1600
0" +4" +5" +3" AHR @ 176; 90 rpm
+3" +6" +6" +5" AHR @ 186; 90 rpm
+7" +7" +6" +7" AHR @ 186; 89 rpm
+3" AHR @ 187; 90 rpm (final 200)
So, in the end my own foolish wants to jump into the advanced plan and attempt to train to a unsustainable FTP caused a crash and burn the last 4 weeks, culminating in a sub par performance on the track today. I am OK with the result and will continue to follow the pacing guidelines until I test again.
Next up, Run Focus and my own marathon hack as I refocus on Boston.
I ran my 5k test last week, on time.
I'm just getting to logging it now because I've been over-the-top busy...
My 5k race last Wed indicated that I haven't progressed at all.
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/...set1.shtml
I'm leaving my training paces at VDOT = 45 because that's where I've been training.
I was reasonably well rested for the race.
There may be some secondary factors at work - hard to know.
Racing isn't a controlled experiment - every day is different, every race is different.
I definitely came out a little too hot - not crazy hot, but more than 15s/m over my eventual average pace.
It's harder to stay level when you have something to prove.
Not at all discouraged, and definitely looking for the road forward.
I suspect more volume might be where I find the growth I'm looking for.
I tended to miss a lot of the "run 2nd" because I really needed the recovery time from the very intense run and bike sessions.
I suspect I need those HMP runs to have the aerobic base for the longer runs.
The good news is that I'm in the run-focus plan now, and I bet I can earn some gains in next six weeks.
I plan to put the bike in maintenance mode and focus on building the run volume.
Next race is probably the New Bedford Half Marathon; I may also try to fit in another Lake-Q 5k in a month.
On that note - it's a sunny day here on Boston's North Shore; my running shoes are in the car ...
Best to you all in your training and racing - it's been a great OS.
BOOM it, Ben!
Many contributing factors - excessive travel, lack of sleep, wasn't using nutrition I'm used to, hard bike ride yesterday on a borrowed bike, etc. My sense is I was REALLY close to a PR if my conditions would have been better, so I'm definitely positive about my fitness (which is really the key thing here, this race was my lowest priority in my race schedule). Just a bit bummed about the end result, 1h 39' with a PR of 1h 34' on the same course.