2014 Week #12 RUN THREAD
Hi again!
3 more weeks to go, and you should be understanding why we say to pace yourself at the start of the OS....that cumulative fatigue catches up with pretty much every over-achiever by now! Hopefully you've picked a half-marathon or 10K to put all of this run work to the test. If not, start looking for one that works for you!
Have a great week!
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After a kind of down week (certainly fatigued) last week (and bailing on the speed in my Saturday long run), I had a great comeback run tonight. Total of 10 mi.
Main set = 3 x 2 mi with about 800 m recovery.
Set 1 = 6:05 pace
Set 2 = 6:10 pace
Set 3 = ”6:13 pace (grrr....had to run through crowds).
Could have done them all the same, but I knew they were faster than threshhold and decided to run them at the same RPE, rather than exactly the same pace. I'm actually perfectly happy with this, although they slowed down a bit. Good confidence builder!
Edit: here's the Garmin file. I think the calibration fell off a bit...so the 2 miles plus 15-20 sec is what I think is most accurate for the two mile times. That's what I quote above. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/467444804
@ Kate - it was mid 60s and breezy tonight. I have grown soft in Tampa. My big challenge will be to swim tomorrow (outdoors year round). It will be windy and in the 40s. Ugh.
Bruce - it'll be interesting to see how this works out for you. Assuming the goal is the fastest possible IM marathon time, @ 60 y/o vs 40 y/o, I don't know what the "right" approach is: volume vs frequency, intensity vs volume, etc. I see advice every which way for us OFs: "Only run every other day" "Run every day, but shorter distances" "Emphasize intensity at the expense of volume", etc. What seems to work for me is 3-4 runs a week, max 35 miles/week, average 22-24 miles/week over the course of a year (which means most weeks are in the 20s), and make sure I do some hard track or treadmill intervals at least once a week; 15 minutes @ IP to 30 minutes @ TP is the range I work within. And don't be afraid to do a decent amount of Z3/4 time during my long runs (25-35% of the total distance.)
@ Paul - how was your swim?
Today's run intervals were just brutal. A combination of overall fatigue, carryover fatigue from last evening's run (less than 12 hours to recover even though it was an easy effort), darkness, cold, wind, plus I'm no speedster to begin with … I did 4 intervals well, but wasn't hitting my targets on the next 2, so I pulled the plug after a total of 6 in hopes of saving my legs for tomorrow
. Feel kinda bad about it, but given that I was barely able to stand upright in the shower afterwards from exhaustion, I think I made th right call 
.
Spring is supposedly coming
8.44 miles in 1:00:01, avg 7:07/mi. Avg HR 169 / max 186. Avg cadence 177, vertical oscillation 9.5cm, ground contact 235ms, stride length 1.28m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/468282817
W/U 11' @ 7:27
4x7'(4') @ 6:49, 6:39, 6:33, 6:31
Remainder time 5' @ 7:18 (some GPS issue because lap pace was 7:04 until the last 30 seconds)
Bruce-can't wait to hear if the long term marathon pays off at AZIM!
Al, you have me more confused than i was before what is the best way for us OFs to improve the marathon!
And Paul-winter definitely over here. at 6 am it was sunny and already almost 70
Got todays run done early but had an hour later start at work, so an hour more sleep-such a luxury for me to get to do the workout after 7 hours sleep. And, as Ive given up trying to get the bric run in on tuesday's with my schedule, my legs were fresh.
8x400 all between 7:16-7:32 which is well below my z5 pace of 7:57
@ Betsy - That was my point. I have seen, from supposed experts, coaches, and successful older racers, a very wide range of suggestions about how older folks should train. Some say shorter distances more frequently, others emphasize getting sufficient time to recover between workouts, still others identify short, hard intervals as the key.
What I was describing what I personally do, noting that it has been working for me, both in terms of remaining injury free, and being able to stay near the top of my AG in races.
Volume, frequency, intensity. It reminds me of a sign I saw in a diner once: "Fast service, good food, low price: pick any two." I've picked volume and intensity, Bruce is currently doing volume and frequency. I'd bet anyone over 55 needs to dial back one of those three. As to which combination gets the best results… I don't know the answer to that.
When you add cycling, to say nothing of swimming, into the mix, it's hard for me to see how workout frequency - like 5-6 runs a week - can fit into an effective triathlon training regimen.
Wed AM - 2700 yards swim
Wed PM - 84 mins drainer but only Z2 followed by 2.5 mile run.
Thu AM - sleep in
Thu PM - 5K race at 6:30 pm prior to a parade in St Pete...leaving in 10 mins. I did not taper for this one but I will give it my best shot. This replaces yesterday's 3 x 1 mile work out.
Today, my Thursday run didn't feel quite as bad. Well, duh, maybe because I hadn't knocked myself quite so hard the day before. 8 mi total (but indoors), the last two about 6:45-6:50 pace...so I got the same total amount of tempo work over the two days as I have been. I forgot that the lower padded track has some interference, so my garmin data are flawed...but I did feel like using the padded track today, so I just lived with that. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/468554434
FINALLY, it stopped raining long enough to get a track workout in. For the last three days, its been ceaseless showers, meaning raid hard for 30 minutes, drizzles for a couple of hours, sunny for 15 minutes, cloudy for 20, then starts all over again.
Anyway, I managed to avoid the treadmill by waiting until 5:30 PM. Did 2 sets of 4 x 800 (1') with a 4' jog in between, @ 7:13, 7:05, 6:56, 6:49; 7:00, 6:49, 6:38, 6:36. I was supposed to be doing TP, which is 7:17 for me, but I always overachieve, pace-wise, on these types of intervals. My HR and RPE were both right at the TP numbers. RPE for me @ TP is breathing every fourth step, HR is 147-154.
Wednesday found me doing the 400's on the tm closest to the window at the gym to "fake" running outdoors in warm weather. I've been fighting a cold and didn't know how it would go, but I managed to do fine and get a little faster on the second half of the 400's.
Today, I did just a short run before lunch with my tri girlfriends instead of bricking. Biked after the lunch before the dinner out with the neighbors!
This weekend I'm excited to run (not race) my longest run this year. I'll do my TH repeats then try and grab as many miles at z2 as I feel good with practicing nutrition along the way to a 13.1 medal. I finally broke my old half time here last year and I will try not to be hard on myself for not being in the same run shape this year!
Added Brick run to tonight's Bike...
45min on TM paces don't jibe....but did a stair step pace build the first TM mile.....then started bumping grade 4...then 6% then CD at 2% ...oh an one 6% surge to 7:30 pace for 1/2 mile.
felt like that waz enough for tonight! gota get up in 5 hrs from now....
This morning I swam 2800 yards then went for a slow 4 mile jog. No striders.
Late with my posts (trying to be more dilligent to be part of the community).
Wednesday / Thursday switched for me and I ran the 8 x 400 on Thursday morning. I wanted to run with friends at the track, but could not make their 1-off time change work and still make my commute to work. So I ran programmed the Garmin and went out in the neighborhood for a hilly "track" run on my normal 3-mile loop. Candidly i was surprised and pleased by the times (more accurately the pace). Granted the Garmin is not a precision tool, but its close enough. RPE felt comparable to the track.
http://tpks.ws/3SjE
Taking a nice/easy day off today (read...going stir crazy). Did an hour yoga this morning to stay flexible.
The rest of this week will be a bust due to a work conference
I wasn’t sure what to expect out of myself for this race as I’ve been doing all of my running on the TM in the OS. My last test scored me a 59 VDOT which predicts a 55:06 15K but TM speeds do not translate to outdoors for me. Two other factors I had to consider were hills on the course and the fact that the last time I ran outside was once back in January. So, I set my goal at finishing under 1 hour.
I woke up this morning and the legs felt good and I felt fine through 4+ miles of the race. By mile 5 I started to feel the hills though. The last 3 miles were my slowest, a combination of imperfect pacing, not running outside, not running hills, and the course itself. But, I was able to finish in 58:19 (officially). This is a 58 second PR and a 4 minute course PR for me. This puts my outside VDOT at 55. I also was able to take home a little hardware, 2nd place in my age group! (The first place guy was 4 minutes ahead of me, out of reach today.)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/469499465
That is damn fast but I have to say any dude who beats that time by 4 minutes is really serious...
Doug, great job. The cool thing about your race is, your per mile pace should equal your EN "TP" for outdoor training purposes, as it is basically a one hour time trial.
@ Doug...Congrats on the PR. Well done.
@ Al, Betsy, and Matt..good comments by each of you on my frequency plan. I've now run 5 days in a row this week and have 14 miler planned for tomorrow with friends training for Boston (they're doing 20 but I'm stopping at 14). So far so good. When I started this plan I doubted if I could handle the frequency of 5 days/week of running, much less 6 days/week or 28 straight days. But I've done 12 straight weeks of 5 days/week and have handled it ok. I just have to be very careful to listen to the legs. I've been following the EN plan of higher intensity/low frequency for 3+ years now, so it is time to shake things up a little. After 3 weeks of 6 runs/week, I'm going back to 5/week thru IMMT.
I did my last long run yesterday. I intentionally chose a course with a 1.5 mile gentle slope (one way) to try to get some Boston course practice. My kids were reffing soccer and I ran 4 "laps" of what turned out to be 5.5 mi course, so I went a little longer (22 mi) than I had intended (20 mi). Pace was very boring...just getting the miles. About 7:45. Now I have 3 weeks for full recovery/taper/sharpening to race!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/470199589
@Al, I could feel oncoming cramps in my hamstrings and calfs right at the end of the race so I agree and think it's about as close to determining TP as I can get outside of a fancy lab.
A couple notes...there must have been a timing issue with one of the runners because looking at the results last night I got bumped down to 3rd in my AG. The 2nd place guy beat me by a minute or so. And then, looking at my garmin data it says 9.2 miles. The course was 9.3 miles confirmed by a friend that ran the race and review of my previous races on this course. When I uploaded the data I had a bunch of updates for my watch. That's what happens when you don't use it for over 2 months. One of the updates said GPS chip or something and that would probably explain why the map was way off when I reviewed it and the elevation profile didn't match the course for the last mile or so of the race.