My two week case study blog
Everyone is different, and a case study isn't experimental science, but a case study can still be valuable. I've decided to open myself up to throw out a relatively hard "experiment" that I am trying to pull off.
Long story short: My A-race for the first half of the summer was the KS 70.3 which was June 9. Because my son qualified for Boston for next year, I decided to run a marathon to try to qualify as well, so (I hope) we can both go in the spring. I just think that would be very cool. It puts a lump in my summer plans for this year, but this is a game about having fun, and I think running Boston with my son would be FUN. After examining the calendar, and talking to my local Every-State-Marathon-Guy, I settled on Grandma's marathon in Duluth, MN June 22...one day short of two weeks after the HIM. So this blog/experiment is about seeing if one can have a good HIM and a good marathon.
I've been planning this for a while. I've consulted with Patrick and a few other folks I trust (notably Matt Aaronson), and I modified my HIM build up so that I was doing marathon-length runs on Thursdays. To "pay" for that and preserve my legs, my Saturday bike rides were exercises in VERY long segments at around 0.85 IF. I actually put up bikes with bigger TSS than I did in previous years in the same amount of time using the standard FTP/etc 3 hour rides...but I didn't do the FTP work those days. I resolved to live with the FTP that I had already and just work hard to stretch how well I could go in the 0.80-0.85 race specific zone.
I had a good HIM race. In fact, it was my best time by 10 min on the course in four tries. I won't reiterate here, but I will give the link to the race report below. Suffice it to say that I ran hard, but in the last 10 min of the race, instead of trying to squeeze out the last 10-20 sec that I might have been able to, I just kept running hard and steady. I didn't see anyone within a reasonable range to try to beat. This was a concession to not putting myself in quite as big a recovery hole.
http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/12194/Default.aspx
I have consulted again with Patrick about advice on what to do for the two weeks. I have to keep up some aerobic activity, but I have to recover my legs. (Can "recover" be a transitive verb like that?) He laid out a great looking plan. I can't execute it exactly due to limitations of when various facilities are available to me, but I'm trying to hold to its spirit. Below is the day by day description of how things are going. I will update this, rather than ad additional posts each day.
June 10, Monday
I'm sore and stiff. Duh. Stretched and self massaged, but took the day completely off. Found myself avoiding goign up and down stairs more than usual, but I'm not in terrible shape.
June 11, Tuesday
I really felt the need for some active recovery, and a swim was very convenient to pull off in the early morning at the local outdoor LCM pool. I swam easy, did some snorkel/buoy pulling, and just a little bit of "work" with some 50s at the end. My normal SCY workout pace averages around 95 sec/100, so the LCM should be in the neighborhood of 105 sec, i.e., 1:45/hundred. I was obviously slower than that, except for 300 with paddles and the 50s. I spent 45 min in the pool and 20 minutes stretching and massaging right after. I was still pretty sore all day, but felt a TON better after the swim than I had before it.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/327210640
June 12, Wednesday
I was less sore today, but still could feel it in certain key places. As per Patrick's suggestion, I did some water running in the late afternoon. This was the first time I had tried it and I felt like a dork wearing that big blue thing and going into the deep end of the pool. Obviously, the Garmin doesn't know what to make of this, so I don't have a reasonable link to post. I did a short swim warmup and then went over to try this new activity. I "ran" for about 35-40 min, total of about 55 min at the pool. (SCY indoor) This felt ok, and it felt good to get the "running breath", which is different than swimming.
When I got out of the pool, I felt a lot more tired in the legs than I expected, and in fact, just more tired than I expected. I hoped I had not made a mistake in doing this a day or two too soon.
Thursday, June 13.
In the morning, on arising, I felt really ok. I concluded that I am still tiring easily, but that the physical work of the water running was fine. My muscle soreness isn't completely gone, but it's very much attenuated. Afternoon water running or bike riding isn't going to fit into my day today because of family obligation, so I went for a workout at the LCM pool. Today I felt good enough to actually do a semi-workout, and not JUST swim to get the blood circulating. It was still low intensity, but I felt like I was actually swimming with a little purpose.
I did a 300 warmup and then a set of 10 x 100 as 50 fairly hard/50 easy. Those were coming in at around 1:40 pace, which was pretty surprising! Followed that up with 500 easy snorkel swimming. The snorkel swimming is not something I am especially good at, but it does let me work the whole body more. That was pretty slow, in part because I am very bad about when water gets into the snorkel and I have to stop or blow it out. I'm just not good at it. The last thing I did was a set of 50s in mixed strokes...sort of an alternating IM order, though I finished up with a pretty ugly 50 fly. It was a good way to end though. Let me feel like I had worked without being really physically exhausted in the long run.
Getting out of the pool, just like the day before, I though to myself that I was more tired than I should be for just swimming 2600 M, but I felt fine otherwise. No worries about it having been too much from a muscular standpoint. By the time I got to work, I was feeling pretty normal.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/327210664
In the evening, I took the kids out to their first Time Trial bike race. I brought my bike to ride easy with them to make sure they were ok during warmup. Rode maybe 20 min. No problem, but it was clear I wasn't 100%
June 14, Friday
Legs are still tired, but not sore any more. I can still feel it going up and down stairs, but I'm fully functional. :-)
I went water running again today, this time for an hour, including a 5 min swim warmup. I still mostly used the buoy, but did about 20 minutes in spurts without it. I was (unsurprisingly) stronger, and the legs didn't feel so wiped when I got out. Still kind of wondering how they will react to the 2-2.5 easy ride Patrick has on tap for tomorrow.
Saturday, June 15
I haven't been so nervous to take a crazy easy bike ride in a long time. Fortunately, it turned out just fine. I felt very good, and kept the power very modest. I went out for 42 miles...just turning around at a convenient place. IF 0.62, TSS 85. Interestingly, there WAS a warmup effect. The power in the second half was in general higher than the first half (though I coasted all I wanted to).
The ride left my legs more tired than it normally would, but nothing crazy. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/328302547
Sunday, June 16
I took the day off entirely and played Sherpa to my twins who did a local sprint race. Great fun. I REALLY wanted to be getting onto the bike when they were, but I managed. :-)
Monday, June 17
It's time to start planning race week. Ya think?
The race is Saturday, not Sunday, so that moves things around just a bit. I'll take the last two days off the feet, so here's the plan. I'm trying to take care not to taper so hard down to nothing that I lose too much aerobic fitness, since I obviously tapered for the HIM.
- Monday short swim and short run with some short fast intervals. Classic "taper" run, but also just waking the legs up again.
- Tuesday: hour swim and steady easy run as I feel, 45-60 min.
- Wednesday: short swim and ~5 mi run with some strides
- Thursday: swim
- Friday off
- Saturday race.
The Monday morning swim was short (1800 LCM), but went very well. I got across the pool routinely in 26-27 (right) strokes, and 25 when going harder or thinking about it. Last year, it was more like 30-31 and 28 when focusing. The swim club uses some of the lanes during the time that I do my LCM swimming (which is why I go then...kids). The coach walked over to me after I was done and told me I looked good today and he really noticed the difference from last week. That was nice. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/329256829
The Monday evening run was made especially short by life. I hate feeling rushed, but it is what it is. I also accidentally turned my Garmin off instead of on just as I took off, so the distance is short by maybe 0.3-0.4 mile. But that's trivia. Basically, I ran about 3.5 miles with 4 intervals that were in the range of 0.2-0.35 miles. The run did not feel elegant, but all the parts were working. Average pace was ~7:20, and the pickups were a little faster than my formal threshold pace of around 6:30. (I didn't bother with hitting the lap button. Shoot me.) The good news was that the second half felt better than the first; it was hot, but that actually felt pretty good...got that good run sweat up in a shorter period. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/329889320
Tuesday, June 18
For today, the plan was to put in some more yards in the pool and a bit longer run - separated by the day - to try to help stave off the aerobic fitness fall-off for the last time. Obviously, all the run work I can do to get faster or stronger was done a couple weeks ago. The swim was pretty routine, and almost entirely just moderate effort at the outdoor LCM pool. 300 warmup, 10 x 50 as half-fast-half easy, 500 pull, 500 pull with paddles, 500 swim with snorkel, and then a few hundreds to finish off with doing whatever I felt like. :-) What possessed me to swim 50 fly is unclear. Let me correct that...what possessed me to swim about 40 fly and then flail for 10 m is unclear. :-) Anyway, the swim felt good and I didn't get out of the pool feeling exhausted. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/329889332
Tuesday evening's run was a real mixed bag. On one hand, the run felt like better form than Monday's. On the other, the legs were clearly not ready to race at all. They just felt pretty leaden. To be honest, this was a little worrying. The run was just an easy 6 miles. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/330174890
Wednesday, June 19
I decided, given the "leaden" bit from Wednesday to keep things very short. Just a little stimulus, but trying to keep the "wear" very minimal. Swam 1500 LCM first thing in the morning. This felt great. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/330174896
In order to maximize recovery time, I did the run as a short follow up to the swim, immediately after. I took an unfamiliar walking/running path through a park and ended up climbing a bunch of stairs, but whatever. The run did not feel that great, even though it was only 3+ miles and very easy. This was not a high point in the last 10 days; that's for sure. I spent a good 20 minutes stretching and self-massaging. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/330174902
No more running between today and Saturday. I will be doing lots of stretching/massaging/etc.
Will do a short swim on Thursday, and then we are good to go.
Thursday, June 20.
Morning swim at the LCM pool. Just about 1600 as a 500 warmup and around 9 x 100 pretty hard but not killing myself with plenty of rest in between. Some pull, some swim. Then one as 50 free and 50 fly cuz the guy next to me was a friend who was doing a bunch of fly with fins. 100 just to bring the heart rate down from the fly. :-) Again, I took an extended stretch and leg rubbing before leaving the pool. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/330578821
Odd...this day actually felt like taper. I know I've said the previous days swims felt good, but this one felt good, and felt short. Yes, it was short, but it's different that it felt that way... like I was actually holding back. I took that as a reassuring feeling. Still, the rest of the day, every time I walk up the stairs, I'm testing to see if I feel fatigue in the quads.
Friday, June 21.
Completely off. I slept in, getting about 9.5 hours sleep. I'm at work as I write this, and I'm already getting the usual pre-race jitters. I'm still not sure about the legs, but I think they felt just that much better going up and down the stairs at home. Recovery or adrenaline is hard to distinguish.
Saturday, June 22 (race day!)
I will post a race report shortly, but here is the quick and dirty version, and the important part as it refers to this post..
- I chose an appropriate marathon time target that was slower than I would have been able to train for if I had been doing just marathon training, but all my runs made it feel appropriate. I was able to race and make that time.
- I have run enough marathons to know how/when my legs should start really hurting. My legs started hurting early: early signs at mile 8-9, and definite at 13. I expect that I may have a long recovery because of this exercise.
- Despite the pain, I was able to maintain pace. In fact, I negative-splitted the race. It was hard and it hurt, but I didn't break down like I had done in a couple earlier marathons when that kind of pain started. In previous "bad" marathons, where the early pain came from undertraining and/or too aggressive a pace, I fell off.
My conclusion is I suppose obvious: this is a doable exercise, but requires care. I think the keys include (a) getting in some marathon-appropriate runs during the HIM build; (b) executing a good HIM; (c) selecting an appropriate target marathon time that might be a few minutes slower than what you could do without the HIM...but I don't think it has to be more than a few if the other things are done right.
Comments
Congrats on the presumed BQ success. I hope to see you there (in 3 weeks, I'm hoping to hit 26.2 @20 minutes under my AG standard, @ week 10/20 in IM plan.
My big thought is ... You will probably be more sore in your quads, for longer, than any after any other race you've done I'm reminded of Nov 2009, when I ran my IM race&run leg PR @ AZ. Then, an old friend shows up in Seattle two days later to visit his son & runthe Seattle 13.1, a week after that IM. He wanted me to guide him thru the course and pace him to sub-2:00 (I was doing 1:35s then). I figured, piece of cake. I ran 11 miles with him, he went on to 1:55, and I hobbled the rest of the way. The next 7-10 days were the stiffest and sorest my thighs have ever been.
Quads are definitely the thing that hurt the most during the race. As of this evening, I've got that and some sort of groin-related muscle that are pretty sore. I hope that I am not sore for grossly longer than usual for an open marathon, but I am quite sure that it will be worse than it would have been without the HIM.
I think you nailed it with the statement, "selecting an appropriate target marathon time that might be a few minutes slower." A perfect case of "Should" versus "Could".
It's Wednesday after the race. Interestingly, I'm feeling similar as to after the HIM right now. I'm tired, but not very sore. Still feeling it on the stairs, but I'm not in as much of a pain hole as I thought I'd be. We'll see how quickly the fatigue comes around. I've done a couple easy swims, but nothing on my feet obviously.
I have stayed off my legs all week. I've been swimming pretty much every day for 45-50 min from Monday through Saturday. Sunday, I played race Sherpa with my kids again. By the time of this writing, I have to admit I am surprised. My legs feel like a taper again, itching to do something. I'm sure if I ran on them I'd feel differently, but they are making me itchy to use them. I won't run this week, but I will probably do a couple easy bike rides instead of swimming every single day. By Thursday all the muscle pain was gone, but some discomfort lingered around my ankles...maybe a little bit of tendonitis or something? Whatever it was wasn't a big deal, but I could feel it on pushoffs and when I first pointed my toes coming off the wall
I've felt the deep fatigue slowly ebbing via what I feel like doing at the pool. I haven't gone in with structured workouts...just done some things that felt right and some drills... and taken generous rests between sets. I don't think I've swum longer than 2700 m.
I'm still trying to decide what to do with the rest of the year, but I want to do something. :-)
My second seven days were pretty unremarkable. Despite temptation, I still stayed off my legs, but swam 5-6 times. By the end of the week, I was ready to do some more hard(er) swimming. Wed had some alternating fly/free/sprint/easy 100s (SCY pool), Thursday off; Friday had some hard 100s (LCM), and Saturday was moderate again, but 4K LCM.
My first leg test was a Sunday bike ride, which I had planned for 2 hours. I had no particular agenda, but I hoped it would be kind of an 80+% ABP type ride. It was pretty hot, but not ridiculous. (about 85) The ride was kind of disappointing; I quickly learned I wasn't ready yet for hard riding, and it boiled down to a two hour Zone 1 ride, after which I was as tired as I would be from a 2-3 hour ABP ride normally.
I always tell other people that open marathon recovery is a 3 week deal; not sure [other than the quick recovery from pain] I would have thought that wouldn't be true for me this time, but hope springs eternal..
Of course, with a bit of rest and race day adrenaline, the first 10 miles of a marathon feel like you're barely running anyway....so do keep an eye on the real pace as well as the RPE.
Tuesday of week 3 (17 days out) was a day that logistically worked for running better than anything else, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to go for an easy run by then. However, even running as late as 8 pm, the absolute temp was over 90 and heat index over 100. I ran 6 miles at about 8:20 ave pace, and it felt ok, but like a fair amount more work than it should. Obviously a lot of this was the heat, but it wasn't completely the heat. I felt some residual leg fatigue for a day or two.
I stayed off the legs for the remainder of the week, and went for a ride on Monday of week 4. As of that ride, I am still not up to full speed, but it was a lot better than the one about 8 days previous. Although the average power was only around 180 W and the heart rate was elevated, it was a lot easier to pump up to higher wattage for short bursts. Tuesday again was logistically a run day and again screaming hot and humid! The improvement was similar...not a whole lot faster pace for the ~7 miles, but given the heat and intentional ease of the run, that was fine. As of this writing (Tuesday of week 4), I am still not fully recovered, but I am comfortable going out for an easy ride or run with some moderate work in it. However, with nothing on my table for now, I am going to take this 4th week also very easy. Swimming remains pretty normal.
Al seems to have been prescient about long recovery, with only the proviso that it is fatigue, rather than pain, that is taking a while to dissipate.
Thanks for this thread!
I am learning to my dismay that as much as I have to learn about triathlon and endurance sport in general, I have even further to go in the realm of rest and recovery.
Hopefully some of the wisdom evident in threads like these will eventually sink in if I read them enough times.