Operation Run Tweakification 2010 - 1:1 coaching
I've been thinking of seating a 2-month run focus block in my training year. The approach I'd take would be self-coaching and following a Daniels-type program, but include an element of 1:1 work with a coach towards refinements and hitting any 'blind spots' I might have in my running.
Goal is simple: a bigger VDOT number.
I've had initial interviews and a few positive referrals to a coach, and her initial thoughts - to "bring my running to another level" - is a fairly intensive period, looking at form, strength training, run program design for this 2-month period, and all the bells and whistles a 1:1 coach would normally do. At a corresponding cost. Call this 'option 1.'
Instead, I'd like to scale it back a bit. So over 8 weeks, I might propose 'option 2' :
1. a few form sessions on a track. So, she watches me run. Maybe an intial assessment with recommendations, a formative session a few weeks later after drilling whatever changes in, and then a final summative session to make sure the improvements have taken hold.
2. strength work refinements. I imagine we're going after functional strength, core work and addressing any imbalances, so initial sym session, and maybe a formative and/or summative session later.
3. overall run block advice session, providing feedback on my Daniel's based plan for the block.
Should I be asking for anything else? Or, if you were in my shoes, would you go with the full deal, 1:1 program (knowing that it would be pretty pricey?)
Edit: Or, could I accomplish all of this, to the same extent, in the EN house, as Option 3?
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Comments
Have you done the easy stuff first?
Body Weight. You look pretty fit in your picture, but if you have a few extra pounds on, losing them will certainly help with speed.
Frequency. How often are you running? Running 5, 6 or even 7 days will make a difference. Consistency trumps a lot
Fast. You gotta run fast to run fast. Are you running with fast friends? Join a track group or a weekend run group. Race more 5Ks
Stick to the plan. Are you following a plan, EN, Daniels or other or are you jumping back and forth between various ideas.
If you have major gate imbalances or really bad running form, it's hard to fix reading a book. I think a coach would really help. I'd have them make a video so it's easy to see afterwards.
Tom,
Thanks for the input. To your 'easy stuff' questions, mostly yep. I've been on the EN/CF pain train for four (five? I should check) seasons, including OSs, with great consistency. I've been at a VDOT 52 plateau for a few years, though, and want to break through that.
The coaching thing is part of a broader strategy this season where I tried to hit on exactly the points you raised: group running, keeping lean year round, frequency, etc etc.
The 8 week thing is really a run focus, dropped in a larger EN year plan.
Good thought on a video. Might also make one solo to crowdsource form inprovements.
Wise man once said "don't take running advice from man who runs slower than you." But in spite of that, here are some random thoughts.
Here's stuff I've figured out this year that you may like: I can tell you I just finished IMWI and nothing hurts that shouldn't and none of the pics I've seen of my running form make me look like I belong on the short bus. Neither of these things would have been true last year.
Core work. One of the best things I did this season was work hard on building a stronger core -- but I haven't been doing anything outrageous or hard. I've learned to love the BOSU ball, plank (on the BOSU ball, on a medicine ball, etc.), supermans, and brush my teeth while standing on one leg.
Technique-wise, I got the best piece of advice from my chiropractor -- which was to tuck my chin back while running. There's nothing liking an x-ray of your spine, to tell you where your body should actually be.
So, yes, to core work, but find stuff that you like to do and will put in your routine. Technique -- find somebody you trust and who knows your body. It is possible one tweak may be all you need.
@ Dave - I know precisely NOTHING about run training. But that never stops me from offering comments!
Six years ago, I followed this little plan Dan Empfield wrote up on his site to a 10K PR at age 55. A key quote (which is the same thing our coaches say, over and over: if you want to run faster, you have to train faster):
"What do I mean when I write about your training, “You must run fast.”? I mean :30 to 1:30 per mile faster than you can hold for, say, a 10k. ... Running fast is entirely different, qualitatively, from certain other hard efforts.... If you want to run fast, you’ve got to run your fast runs—tempo runs, fartlek, intervals—on flat surfaces, with good footing. ... there’s nowhere to rest, nowhere to hide. These are the runs of truth, so you must practice running fast on this sort of terrain."
Then he lays out a specific training progression which is harder than it sounds. I suggest picking a 10 K time that reflects the VDOT you want to achieve AND YOU KNOW YOU COULD DO FOR 8 WEEKS IN TRAINING, and then programming that pace into some interval progression as Empfield has stolen in his article. Your form will follow your fitness.
FWIW. I'm behind you 100% in knocking :20-30/mile of your IM marathon time. You can do it.
I have started to really believe the central governor is slowing me down. I am say doing a Vdot test and after a mile of killing it I look down at the watch and notice I am going really fast and the next thing I know I now going 20-30 seconds/mile slower. Could some of that be that I went too hard, sure, but the other day on a 14 mile run I had to 3 1.5 mile repeats at TP. Killed the one because I refused to look at the watch. So going forward I am going to avoid looking at my watch while testing. If I test great then guess what, I can run that fast so no need to get nervous about it. Not sure you are having the same issues but possibly having your watch on a different screen, or don't show pace and just run as hard as possible and check it when done.
Another idea would be to do some track work with some faster people. It's always preached here to ride with faster people to get faster on bike so why not chase some rabbits around a track. It certainly helped me during my high school track days.
Technique and drills should help as well. And what about squats and plyometrics? Increased leg strength should certainly help.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Oh and as for technique, I thought patrick did some video analysis for some people in the Haus. Maybe check with them to see how it went?
Weight. I weighed between 130 and 135 vs my current 160-165.
Consistency. I ran 7 days a week for 4+years. Never missed a day.
High mileage. 85 miles per week most of the time, with bursts into the 100 mile range
Same basic recipe week in, week out. One 20 mile day, one 5 mile day run as fast as I could possibly go and 5 days @ 12 miles. This was well before Garmin and Polar so I don't remember pacing exactly, but I would equate it with the ABP bike mentality. No slow days, but only one really, really fast day per week.
I'm nowhere near this speed 25 years later and not really sure I'd want to put in all the work required to get to that level again, but it's not rocket science, just hard work.
* Video, with feedback on strength areas to focus on, etc.
* Check ins at 4 and 8 weeks with comparisons.
* Make sure you'll get video comparisons, some can't do it.
Internally (you + EN):
* Body comp focus.
* Core strength routine.
* Flexibility routine.
* "Hacked" running plan.
Keep us posted!
P
Dave, I can't say I know all that much about run training, but I can share what has worked for me and hopefully it will help you out as well.
For me it comes down to identifying you weekness and focusing on it. What is YOUR limiter?
There are a ton of different things you can do to improve your run, but which one will benefit you most?
Three years ago, I was new to running and I needed volume and technique like most people do. I added volume by FREQUENCY, not longer runs, and I focused on forum by mainly tracking my cadence. This got me a ton of endurace and the ability to run a lot without my body breaking done. I also now run with a cadence of 95 most of the time.
After that I was slow to see gains and I noticed that my VDOT based on a Half Marathon is always higher then a 5k. I also noticed in training I can sit at MP for a LONG time, but IP and TP work is hard for me. Once I discovered this I tried to boast my top end myself and made little progress. I joined a COMPETATIVE local running club and ran with current and ex-college runners. I could actually hang with them for most mile and longer work, but anything under a mile they leave me in the dust. Running with them for 3 months got me a 2 vdot point incrase based on a Half Marathon... that is HUGE for me.
I think of it as kind of like the power clinic. If your attic is too small, you need to raise the roof. If you have a huge attic, time to raise the ceiling. Both of these require different types of training. If you a perfectly balanced, I'm not sure what to say.
FWIW, I'm the same on the bike, nearly Cat 2 at FTP, Cat 4 at 5' power, and a untrained cyclyst at 1' and less.
I had a jump this OS from about 53 to about 57, and I attribute most of it to doing all of my running on the treadmill. I never would have convinced myself to hold the paces I held on the treadmill if I had to self pace. It made a big difference, probably for the same reason Matt limes the competitive running group. Of course, I promptly pissed all of that away by doing virtually no running during my IM build, but that's a different story for a different time.
If it were me, I'd first get to the point where internally, I was confident that I'd exhausted all the options above to the best of my ability, then go with the 1:1 option. Good luck!
Man - O - Man, this is good stuff.
The body of advice brings a lot of the earlier comments y'all offered in my original call into focus. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your thoughts and advice. With the new grandularity, I think I'll inlcude the run coach as a one- or two-visit resource, and forgo the 1:1 stuff. She's now part of the self-coached toolbox.
As a bonus, the thread and advice has been helpful to to get my mind into the game and refine exactly what it is I'll be asking coach Nicole-fast-runner. At the begnning of the process, I was thinking of just pointing at my legs and saying 'Me Want Speed." This helps, a lot.
Thanks, all.
Dave,
I am no expert, but am in a identical boat as you. My triathlon performance is held back by stagnation of my VDOT at about 51, or 19:30 5k time. I lack speed at threshold as well as VO2max or real fast running ability.
My 2010 tri season is about to end this Sunday. Again like you, I will take a couple of weeks easy and pick up Daniels 5-15k program, tweaked down to my level, limit the mileage to 35/week, long run to10, select a 5k mid December and set a goal of 18:30. 3 quality runs a week. 2 on the track, one R-pace, one I-pace, 10mi runs will include work at T-pace. The other 2-3 runs a week will be very easy 30-45min runs. Bike goes to maintenance mode as well as little other stroke swimming, just to keep wet. I pick up the outseason in Jan 2011 and will than balance out with slight lean over on the bike.
I will entirely follow Daniels guidelines for R-pace, I-pace running, 5% R and 8% I weekly. I believe that I can accomplish the goal by Dec, after which I think I can further build with outseason plan on top of that.
I think that my problem is that I have not been lifting "the roof" enough to stimulate speed at threshold. That is the reason I will keep the mileage low but turn up the speed.
Just an idea for you.
Aleksander's comment reminded me of something I forgot to mention so in the interests of continued brainstorming, I'll throw it out there. I don't know what your capacity for really fast stuff is, but if you can stand a small block of one-day a week R pace stuff, consider checking out Veronique Billat. She is one evil lady. Our local unofficial coach introduced us to the concept (he experimented with tweaking Daniels by replacing his R and I workouts with these instead) - I think Skiba is big on these too - and a few of us had decent success with them. Of course this was as part of a marathon training block, so take with a grain of salt.