Hey all how are things. Taking the week off from doing a formal post for the weekly workout series. If your still eager and really want a workout here's a nice one I've done many times, it's a ladder style workout so it is aimed at speed development.
The Workout:
Warmup+Drills
3-5 sets (depending on abilities) of 600, 400, 300, 200 all at around 5k pace
So you run the 600m then 1:15 rest, 400m then 1 min rest, 300 then 45 second rest, then 200m and 1 min rest before starting the next set with the 600. This workout is a very high intensity one because as the speed increases the rest between intervals decreases and the 1 min between the 200m and the subsequent 600 is very difficult. Anticipate that your heart rate will be very high and you'll be breathing hard throughout the workout. Like I said it's ladder or pyramid type workout in this a broken 1500 since the 600+400+300+200 all add up to 1500m, and feel free to go after it anywhere from 3-5 times. If your still relatively new to workouts do three of them so 4.5k total of hard running, if you love pounding big long sets 5 of them will leave you winded and more than satisfied afterwards. Any questions regarding the workout feel free to comment below.
Now onto the main purpose of this post. A couple weekends ago I traveled to Wilson, New York to compete in my first ever triathlon. This time however, since my hip has continued to give me problems and after the Canada Day 5k I had to take about a week and bit off due to persistent pain in the hip, back and tibia my mileage and speed work was not up to snuff to give the full olympic distance a go. So I decided to compete in the aqua bike event which is the exact same as the olympic triathlon for distance on the swim and bike just no run afterwards. So just the first two legs of the triathlon but still a formal event which many people willingly choose to do because they dislike running, but it also worked great for an injured runner like myself. So the task at hand was a 1500m open water swim in Lake Ontario, then a 40k bike. When I arrived at the race I could see immediately that the swim leg of the race was going to be brutal. The water had big waves about a 1m high (I think the race director said 3.5 feet) and after doing a tiny warmup swim I was actually scared to go back into the water. This wasn't really the usual pre-race jitters, this was more being downright scared that I was going to choke on water from the huge waves coming towards us on the way out and drown. Heck this was only my second ever open water swim so I was already unexperienced swimming in the open water let alone in such choppy conditions. Suffice to say I was starting to miss the pool lines at the bottom of the clear blue lanes in Thornhill. But I hadn't come all this way to give up. In addition since the water was so dangerous the race director who had already doubled the on-water firefighter staff who would travel alongside the swimmers in a boat in case anyone needed rescue or wanted to quit, and called the coast guard to check if the water was safe-ish for swimming, decided to cut the swim from two laps of the 750m course (1500m total) to one lap. This helped to ease a little bit of the anxiety at least. Soon the gun sounded and we were off. I started off just trying to focus and stay as relaxed as possible. I knew if I started panicking about the choppy conditions I would be in trouble, so I just tried to focus on one thing and one thing only: the orange bouy way out there marking the turn to the right (it was a square loop). I was really unable to find any rhythm whatsoever since the waves kept breaking up my stroke. I would basically reach my arm out to catch for my next pull and would have my hand either meet the water earlier than I anticipated due to a wave, or delayed longer than I anticipated from being at the depression in the water from an oncoming wave. But just kept focusing on the bouy ahead and it did seem like I was moving decently. Made the turn and swimming perpendicular to the waves now I could feel my stroke amping up and was starting to now focus on pulling my hand through the water harder and harder. I started take 4-5 strokes between breaths and was starting to pass bunches of swimmers. Eventually made the turn back to shore and despite having my rhythm throw off again due to the waves, heard the race director as as exited the water say that I was first place out the water. I was pretty stunned and found later that I held 1:28/100m for the 750m swim which I probably could just barely do in a pool let alone choppy open water, so I was stoked.
Ran up the stairs out of transition and did an okay job getting through transition. I was pretty happy how quickly I was able to get my wetsuit off, but was a little slow wasting time grabbing a sip of gatorade. Was through transition and next up was a 40km bike ride. My game plan was to hold my FTP (functional threshold power) which based off an all out 20 minute effort about 3 weeks before the race was 266 watts, but if multiplied by 0.95 is 252 watts for an hour long effort, which is roughly what I was aiming for. First 5k flew by and I could feel like I was in a really good rhythm. Was about 50m back from the only person ahead of me at this point(the guy had passed me in transition from the water to the bike). I was trying to just hold my wattage not by mashing on my pedals but rather by maintaining a very high cadence at about 106 rpm. As we made the turn back south there was the slightest grade uphill probably 1.5-2% only, and I gathered myself to make a decisive pass. Held about 350 watts for 30 seconds or so then burst passed at 550 watts. From this point on just kept flying at 106 rpm, and one 5k split I had averaged 114 rpm. In the end my average power was exactly 251 watts, but normalized power was 257 watts. I finished first place completing the 40 km bike course in 59:05 which is an average speed of 40.5 km/hr. I was more than happy with this result. It was also a great learning experience to understand what it was like swimming in open water, going through transition, and experiencing the feeling that my legs would go through during a bike race. It was a very different kind of fatigue/hurt than I would experience during road races of various distances. This feeling was more like constantly going back and fourth over the "red line" crossing into anaerobic fuel sources and a kind of burning sensation in the legs throughout the bike portion of the race.
A couple weeks and tempo runs later, I felt I was ready to give the full olympic triathlon a go. The race I chose to compete in was the Peasantman Steel Intermediate (Olympic) Triathlon in Penn Yan, New York - the Finger Lakes region. The Steel race distance prides itself on being just that much more difficult then the ironman distance, in that the leg distances are just slightly longer. So instead of the typical Olympic distance which is 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run, the Steel Olympic Distance is a 1 mile swim (1609 m), 47.5 km bike, and a 10.5 km run. Arrived in Penn Yan the day before the race to scout out the course and try my own first wetsuit, the Nineteen Frequency. The water was beautiful but quite warm with the wetsuit on, and was unsure if there would allow wetsuits or not based on the temperature - luckily enough the temperature was just barely wetsuit legal by the USAT standards so I was excited. I had run that morning, and then biked the 47.5 km course to scout it out. What I learned was that the swim was the only flat part of the race course. There was hill after hill out on the course, including one 7 mile long hill (that's 11.2 km). So ya I was kind of now nervous because my bike and its gear ratio was set up to pound a flat course. Also in the back of my mind was the fact that the Tuesday before the race going up a big hill near Hwy 9, my chain had actually snapped into pieces. I must have made a poor gear change and not realized that I had done so and then the added tension now on a misaligned chain/chainring must have been enough to snap it into pieces. So even though it was probably my own fault, and now I had a high end dura-ace chain on the bike, it was still in the back of my mind. My Dad took notes for me at the athlete's meeting which was going on while I was on the bike, gave me the run down in the car on the way back to the hotel and we were set for Sunday.
Woke up Sunday had the usual breakfast, and went off to the race site. We arrived in great time checked my bike into transition got my body paint, timing chip and was ready to go. Just as I was about to start body gliding my entire body for the wetsuit about 50 minutes before the race I looked at another competitor who was in the half steel distance getting ready to start his race (it started at 7:30 mine was at 8). I saw him strapping on his goggles, and just then realized that I left my super expensive Speedo Fastskin Elite goggles in the hotel room. Now for legal purposes I won't devulge how far the hotel room was from the race site but my Dad all out sprinted to the car and somehow got back to the hotel and then back to the race site to hand me the goggles with ten minutes to spare before the race. I guess it was good traffic cops were manning the turns on the bike course and not on Pre-Emption Rd back to Geneva. I managed to get my wetsuit on by myself, and other than the minor heart attack when realizing I forgot the goggles, I felt pretty good. Hopped in the water warmed up a little and before you knew it we were off. I started out very fast, and quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to do any bilateral breathing for this race since the sun to the east was just so low still in the sky and too bright to look that way. I started regretting not having more shaded triathlon specific goggles (mine are competitive swimmer goggles) but soon would take advantage of the huge benefit these goggles offer. I started off to the left and when I breathed to the right I could see a few swimmers ahead and to my right. I worked hard to veer that direction and eventually got within a few meters of the two of them. I was breathing hard already at this point but my stroke felt awesome. I felt in control and powerful. Oddly enough although on the bike I prefer to sit in a slightly lower gear and maintain a very high cadence, in the water I prefer a slower stroke per minute rate but pulling hard on each stroke. as we approached the turn the two of them were really pushing hard and I was needed to work very hard to stay up with them. Witnessed some awesome technique by one of them to turn around the bouy, whereby they flipped onto to their back and rotated around the bouy using a couple backstroke pulls. Seemed to help them take the turn really quick and not lose any speed. This will definitely be a strategy that I will use next time. On our way back I started hammering, swimming at 1:07/100m for a bit as the leader seemed to really kick in into high gear on the way back to shore. That's faster than I've ever swam in my life. Then my goggles came into good use. When I caught up with the leader the peripheral vision that my goggles give me due to their design allowed my to see my opponent to the left of me while under water pulling. He was sighting often to swim in a straight line back to shore, so what I did was essentially let him sight for me and swam in his line since my goggles allowed me to keep an eye constantly on him. Eventually I worked my way onto his feet and just sat there until the end of the swim averaging anywhere from 1:12/100m to 1:24/100m which again I normally would not be able to even swim that in a pool. When I arose out of the water I was once again thrilled with my swim and was 2nd out of the water. Only problem was that I got passed in the transition run over to the bike area thanks in large part to some significant orthostatic hypotension when I got up out of the water (lightheadedness due to a drop in blood pressure (BP) that you may feel when getting up off the couch to quickly for example). I was not completely shocked by this since the Friday heading into the race had my BP and resting heart rate taken and it was 82/66 and 45 beats per minute respectively. Apparently this is quite a common feeling for triathletes after the swim since you're going from a supine position to upright position and running in a matter of seconds.
So onto the bike. Transition was pretty smooth this time much better than the last race. My game plan for the race in terms on nutrition was to have a 768 mL bottle of water + 1 Skratch labs hydration mixed into it, and a gel about 15 minutes into the bike then at about the 30km mark. I also planned to have a gel about 2 miles into the run. So I started the bike in third position. The first 5 km or so I felt pretty sluggish. We were heading into the wind and up a constant grade at this point which didn't help, plus I had gone pretty hard on the swim. By about midway through the 5-10km split I started to feel alive again, and my cadence rose from 96 to 102 and speed from 33km average to 38.7. On a slight downhill portion I cruised at 50 km/hr and reached 60.5 km/hr. By this point I had already passed both my competitors. I could just feel on every hill from about 15-40km that I was distancing myself from the rest of the field. I saw so many competitors ahead of me (who were in the steel man and half steel man distance which started before me) using what I think is poor technique for the hills. They were either doing one of two things: either staying in their aerobars for too long on the uphill, or using way too big of a gear. If you stay in your aerobars you are already putting your body at a mechanical disadvantage. In an upright position your glutes can be recruited to a greater degree, and if you own a power meter you can clearly see that in the aerobars for a climb its impossible to achieve the same power output as you can upright. Second, as the DurianRider says (great, informative and funny youtube channel) winners spin. If you've ever watched the tour de france and seen chris froome, you'll see his legs spinning like crazy up a climb. Try it yourself put the bike in a very easy gear and spin up a hill. You'll see the power output soar through the roof and probably pass a lot of other riders. After purchasing my power meter, I feel my climbing has now become one of my biggest strengths despite my tri bike not really being built for climbing. Since I've employed this strategy of spinning up climbs at a super high cadence I can pass so many people. Even just on my Saturday and Sunday rides where there are big groups out riding up north in oak ridges, I pass so many on climbs thanks to this strategy. With power, it has become so much easier to judge my effort level and has helped me from going over my threshold too early in a climb. I can simply say to myself maintain 320 watts on a climb for example and look at nothing at except that number on the garmin and I'm up the hill before you know it.
So back to the race, a cool part of the race was all the Amish folks out and about with horse and buggy, and we were told in the athletes meeting just to pass on the left. It was pretty cool. With about 10k to go on the bike I had a little conversation with myself in my head. I started thinking about the run, and thinking maybe I should ease up a bit to save something for that leg of the race. But I thought the bike at this point was my biggest weapon, so I was going to try to gap my competitors as much as possible heading into the run. So I continued to hammer the last 10 k and for an entire 5 minutes my speed did not dip below 42 km/hr. It rose constantly from 42 km/hr up to 60 km/hr then back down to 50 km/hr. It was one heck of 5 minute span where I felt I may have just locked up a victory knowing I had the run left to go, which despite not being at the same level it was last year after Park City or two years ago before Scotiabank, still is kind of my thing. As I entered the park however, and was mentally gearing up for the run something bizarre, but probably inevitable in hindsight, happened. My hamstrings, calves, quads, hip flexors, pretty much my whole body suddenly started cramping up. I carefully dismounted the bike because I didn't want to make any sudden movement at this point. I had no idea how far ahead I was of 2nd place, but knew this was going take sheer willpower to get through this run. I said inevitably because I vastly underestimated how much I would sweat on the bike since Sunday was just sweltering hot, and also I didn't really think about the fact that I probably came out of the water already about 2% dehydrated since if you've ever been in a wetsuit you'll know it can be steamy hot in there since your essentially wearing a think piece of rubber (neoprene). Also the water remember was just borderline wetsuit legal so I had sweat a lot on the swim leg, and then even more so on the bike thanks to the heat. As my Dad said after the race he could see even from where he was that as I quickly put my shoes on for the run that sweat was pouring off my face and body. So I took the other gel right then instead on waiting and started taking in as much water as I could. I started the run and passed 1k in 3:30. I was actually pretty surprised by that but by the 1 mile marker I was praying to just make it through the run in one piece. Its rare for me but I was actually taking as much water as I could at the aid stations, taking 1 or 2 cups, one to drink the other just to pour over my head since the dehydration mixed with the high heat on the day was really starting to make me overheat. Still though I was running at around 3:30/km pace and the hip and tibia actually felt okay. Really though I wasn't thinking too much about them specifically because I was pretty much running in fear the whole time of my body seizing up on me and having to stop. I got to the turnaround glanced at my watch to mark the time, and then when I saw 2nd place looked at my watch again and calculated that I was 5 minutes and 40 seconds ahead. Now even though I calculated with about 5km to go that it would take a miracle for 2nd place to catch me I still didn't feel that this one was in the bag by any means since I knew my body could just seize up and cramp at any point. In fact, at one point I had actually turned my body to take a quick check behind and felt my opposite hip twinge a little, so I knew with the dehydration still in effect I needed to be careful, run smart, and just stay as smooth as possible until the finish. Finally, I got to the finish and heard my name announced as the Peasantman Steel Distance Triathlon Champion, and I was thrilled. Thrilled but actually too tired to raise up my arms to celebrate my victory. Post race I drank three full gatorades, another bottle of scratch, and three bottles of water all before I had even got to the car to go back to the hotel. So since this is a crazy long post I'm going to wrap it up here. Basically, it was an amazing experience, and I learned so much. In addition I felt I pushed myself to a new limit, and can't wait to race another and push even harder.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Summer Workout Series #4
How ya'll doing? Hope you enjoyed last week's workout and feeling faster by the week. The reason I didn't post earlier in the week is because this week's workout is a little different. Instead of talking about a true speed workout, this week I'm talking about the importance of the long run.
What is it: the concept of having a long run inserted in runners' weekly schedule is not novel. In fact pretty much every single program you will ever look up includes a weekly long run whether you are training track and field all the way to marathons and ultra marathons. The long run is quite simply exactly what it sounds like, it's a longer run (crazy eh). Now there is quite a bit of variance in the distance of the long run, but basically it should be a minimum of 90 minutes to actually get any effect, but its distance should not account for more than 25-30% of your weekly mileage. So if your a 80 mile (130 km) a week runner your long run should't be more than 20 miles (32 km); if only a 40 mile/week runner (65 km) no more than 10 miles (16 km). In terms of scheduling long runs or progressing them it really all depends on your goal race that your training for. For instance if your a 5 km runner the long run's purpose is basically to increase your cardiovascular efficiency as well as to condition and strengthen muscles and tendons to be able to withstand the pounding your body takes during gruelling workouts on the track. In contrast, if your a marathon runner the long run is meant more to prepare your body physically and mentally to be able to withstand the distance of the race. So it will help increase your muscle and liver glycogen storage to be able to last longer in race essentially before bonking, and also to prepare you mentally to be able to stay focused for a sustained period of time. In that sense, since a long run for a track runner or shorter distance runner, 5-10k races, is really only meant to improve your ability to withstand your training on the track or fast road workouts it really doesn't have to be progressed. You may simply insert a 90-120 minute run into your weekly schedule every week. In comparison, a half marathon/marathon runner will work to progress their long run gradually working your way closer and closer to the total distance of the race. Now for progression, this really depends on your level of experience and abilities. For some odd reason runners have this thought ingrained in their minds that for a marathon the goal is to get the long run up to 20 miles (or 32 km) about a month out from their race, although I believe this is nonsense. The long run can be however long you want it to be, 20 miles is not like this magical number where if you make it to there your set to go for 26.2. In fact, I think this is totally inaccurate since based on my own experience in marathons, and other marathoners that I've talked to it's at about 37-38 km where my legs start to shake and my sense of time and place starts to get distorted. Usually at 32 k I kind of feel decently fresh (of course I'm getting tired but still I can still feel my legs, and I feel in control). So why not take it a little further. Really it's up to you, if your experienced give a bit longer of a run a go in the range of 35-36. When gearing up for 2013 Scotiabank I did the following progression a 32k, 32k, 34, 37, 38, 38, 40, 40, 41, 43 (the 43 was done in 2:45 btw), 36, 32, and then smoked a 2:34 42.2 marathon and actually felt pretty decent start to finish which I attribute 100% to being used to doing the long long distance long runs, and being used to being out for that long.
How Fast: Okay well you thought the distance of the long run had a lot of variety, well the pace and structure has even more. Basically, long runs used to be only though of as these LSD runs (long slow distance runs) where you trotted along at a conversational pace. But the long run can be so much more. You can do progression type long runs starting out nice and easy pace and getting faster and faster throughout eventually finishing at or just under marathon pace which helps prepare you to be able to run at that goal speed on tired legs and will simulate the race more closely. I did one long run in 2014 where I started at one pace for the first kilometre and then played a game for the next 35k of the run trying to just beat the previous kilometre's time. It actually made it pretty fun/strategic because I wouldn't want to beat the previous kilometre by too much so say 4:15 to 4:01, because that would mean the next would need to be faster than 4:01 and so on, which would basically start getting too fast too quick. On the other side I wouldn't want to be too too close to the last kilometre time because I gave myself a penalty kilometre if the previous kilometre's time was not beaten having to run the next kilometre under marathon pace. Aww those were fun times.
After progression long runs, there are "workout long runs" where you basically embed interval workouts into the long run and this could really be any workout from fartleks to tempo runs. For example one long run I did last year, I ran the first 30 minutes easy, then for the next 30 minutes alternated running 1 min hard at half marathon pace, 1 min easy (so 15 total hard minutes), then ran easy again for 30 minutes then another set of 1 min hard/1 min easy for 30 minutes, then finished with 30 minutes easy. I've also found throwing a tempo run into the long run is great practice, for instance training for 2013 Scotiabank one of the 38 k ones in there I did a 5 mile (8k) tempo run to the finish which again helps learning the feeling of running hard on tired legs.
In Summary the long run is an essential part of any runners program whether running 3000m to the marathon. And for me for example, it is always my favourite part of any build. I look forward to it every week. My biggest word of advice I can give you for your long run is do not think of one particular long run like the so called golden 32 km mark as the difference maker between a good race and bad. A good race comes from a collection of long runs mixed in with great speed workouts to make a great race. So with that the long run shouldn't take away from your weekly speed workout, if so your either going to far on it, or going to hard. Long runs as I've explained are incredibly flexible on how fast and how far, so you don't have to think I need to do exactly "X" distance or whatever. Again your performance on race day is the culmination of months and months of training. Until next time keep piling on the training.
What is it: the concept of having a long run inserted in runners' weekly schedule is not novel. In fact pretty much every single program you will ever look up includes a weekly long run whether you are training track and field all the way to marathons and ultra marathons. The long run is quite simply exactly what it sounds like, it's a longer run (crazy eh). Now there is quite a bit of variance in the distance of the long run, but basically it should be a minimum of 90 minutes to actually get any effect, but its distance should not account for more than 25-30% of your weekly mileage. So if your a 80 mile (130 km) a week runner your long run should't be more than 20 miles (32 km); if only a 40 mile/week runner (65 km) no more than 10 miles (16 km). In terms of scheduling long runs or progressing them it really all depends on your goal race that your training for. For instance if your a 5 km runner the long run's purpose is basically to increase your cardiovascular efficiency as well as to condition and strengthen muscles and tendons to be able to withstand the pounding your body takes during gruelling workouts on the track. In contrast, if your a marathon runner the long run is meant more to prepare your body physically and mentally to be able to withstand the distance of the race. So it will help increase your muscle and liver glycogen storage to be able to last longer in race essentially before bonking, and also to prepare you mentally to be able to stay focused for a sustained period of time. In that sense, since a long run for a track runner or shorter distance runner, 5-10k races, is really only meant to improve your ability to withstand your training on the track or fast road workouts it really doesn't have to be progressed. You may simply insert a 90-120 minute run into your weekly schedule every week. In comparison, a half marathon/marathon runner will work to progress their long run gradually working your way closer and closer to the total distance of the race. Now for progression, this really depends on your level of experience and abilities. For some odd reason runners have this thought ingrained in their minds that for a marathon the goal is to get the long run up to 20 miles (or 32 km) about a month out from their race, although I believe this is nonsense. The long run can be however long you want it to be, 20 miles is not like this magical number where if you make it to there your set to go for 26.2. In fact, I think this is totally inaccurate since based on my own experience in marathons, and other marathoners that I've talked to it's at about 37-38 km where my legs start to shake and my sense of time and place starts to get distorted. Usually at 32 k I kind of feel decently fresh (of course I'm getting tired but still I can still feel my legs, and I feel in control). So why not take it a little further. Really it's up to you, if your experienced give a bit longer of a run a go in the range of 35-36. When gearing up for 2013 Scotiabank I did the following progression a 32k, 32k, 34, 37, 38, 38, 40, 40, 41, 43 (the 43 was done in 2:45 btw), 36, 32, and then smoked a 2:34 42.2 marathon and actually felt pretty decent start to finish which I attribute 100% to being used to doing the long long distance long runs, and being used to being out for that long.
How Fast: Okay well you thought the distance of the long run had a lot of variety, well the pace and structure has even more. Basically, long runs used to be only though of as these LSD runs (long slow distance runs) where you trotted along at a conversational pace. But the long run can be so much more. You can do progression type long runs starting out nice and easy pace and getting faster and faster throughout eventually finishing at or just under marathon pace which helps prepare you to be able to run at that goal speed on tired legs and will simulate the race more closely. I did one long run in 2014 where I started at one pace for the first kilometre and then played a game for the next 35k of the run trying to just beat the previous kilometre's time. It actually made it pretty fun/strategic because I wouldn't want to beat the previous kilometre by too much so say 4:15 to 4:01, because that would mean the next would need to be faster than 4:01 and so on, which would basically start getting too fast too quick. On the other side I wouldn't want to be too too close to the last kilometre time because I gave myself a penalty kilometre if the previous kilometre's time was not beaten having to run the next kilometre under marathon pace. Aww those were fun times.
After progression long runs, there are "workout long runs" where you basically embed interval workouts into the long run and this could really be any workout from fartleks to tempo runs. For example one long run I did last year, I ran the first 30 minutes easy, then for the next 30 minutes alternated running 1 min hard at half marathon pace, 1 min easy (so 15 total hard minutes), then ran easy again for 30 minutes then another set of 1 min hard/1 min easy for 30 minutes, then finished with 30 minutes easy. I've also found throwing a tempo run into the long run is great practice, for instance training for 2013 Scotiabank one of the 38 k ones in there I did a 5 mile (8k) tempo run to the finish which again helps learning the feeling of running hard on tired legs.
In Summary the long run is an essential part of any runners program whether running 3000m to the marathon. And for me for example, it is always my favourite part of any build. I look forward to it every week. My biggest word of advice I can give you for your long run is do not think of one particular long run like the so called golden 32 km mark as the difference maker between a good race and bad. A good race comes from a collection of long runs mixed in with great speed workouts to make a great race. So with that the long run shouldn't take away from your weekly speed workout, if so your either going to far on it, or going to hard. Long runs as I've explained are incredibly flexible on how fast and how far, so you don't have to think I need to do exactly "X" distance or whatever. Again your performance on race day is the culmination of months and months of training. Until next time keep piling on the training.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Summer Workout Series #3
Warmup +Drills +Strides
12-20 X 400m @ 5k pace w/ 60 sec jog recovery (every 4th repeat hammer interval)
Cooldown
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Summer Workout Series #2
Apologies for the length of the video to get to the workout you could skip to about 8 minutes or so.
1) Warmup +Drills +Strides
2) 2X2 miles w/ 3min between repetitions (First 1/3 @ HM Pace, Mid 1/3 @ 10k pace, Final 1/3 @ 5k pace) take 4-5 minute jog after this set going into the following
3) 8X200m @ 1 mile-5k pace w/ 100m recovery then 4-5 jog before
4) 2X2 miles w/ 3min between repetitions (First 1/3 @ HM Pace, Mid 1/3 @ 10k pace, Final 1/3 @ 5k pace)
5) Cooldown
Forgot to mention both 2X2 miles can be on road by track and 200s on the track.
Enjoy
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Summer Workout Series #1
This is the first instalment of a new series of blog posts helping runners out there achieve PRs across all distances especially those in the 5k-marathon range. I will describe in detail workouts for you to complete and challenge yourself with to become a faster stronger runner. All the workouts will have a slightly different focus, and challenge you in a different way. Throughout the series, if there are any personal questions you have about what you should do, or could do to improve comment below the post I will respond to your comment within 24 hours. This is a free coaching service essentially that I am setting up, so whether you have a question about the week's workout or advice on supplemental training such as strengthening, nutrition, or gear such as footwear feel free to comment below. Hopefully these help not only to become a better runner but throughout the series I will also include information about why I'm choosing the selected workout parameters, so that in the future you know how to design a good fluid and effective workout for yourself.
Week 1
Most of these workouts are designed to be done on Wednesday since that will give you a good amount of time to recover and be at full capacity for your weekly long run on the weekend. If it cannot be completed on the Wednesday due to other life commitments Tuesday or Thursday would work as well - just don't want to go Monday right after long run or Friday or Saturday before the long run depending what day of the weekend you choose to complete the long run.
Our first workout for the series is a speed based workout with a mixture of some aerobic strength. First off you want to start with your warmup. Your warmup should be about 20 minutes of easy running. Following the warmup, perform a set a running drills. Everyone has a slightly different routine of drills but a great starter routine can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhzzpZVMtl4. After the drills you want to perform about 3-5 stride repetitions. Strides are about 60m worth of accelerating up to about 85% of your top speed. So almost like a short sprint (but not quite as fast as a sprint and not long enough to get any fatiguing effect). The purpose of strides is two-fold. One, it helps just further activate our bodies physiologically, and two psychologically it helps to prime our bodies to run fast (it also helps to get any pre-race or pre-workout nerves out). After that your warmup is complete. I know right roughly 35-40 minutes of just warming up, but trust me watch any diamond league track meet, or major road race and you'll see all the elites performing similar type warmups. Pretty much the only time when I wouldn't perform such as extensive warmup is before a full marathon. With a half marathon it really depends on your level of mileage, overall ability and experience. For example before a half marathon I will perform this exact same warmup running about 5k pre-race usually out on the course to familiarize myself with my surroundings just a bit then starting the drills and strides. However for a first time half-marathoner I probably wouldn't perform such a long warmup. On to the workout.
Should have mentioned before, perform your warmup run from your house to a track nearby.
Part 1: 15-20 minute Tempo Run: A Tempo run is also called a threshold run. This is because this is run at just below your lactate threshold which for most corresponds to your 1 hour race pace. So the pace you would be able to sustain for 1 hour in a race. This pace for speedy runners is approximately half marathon pace but for others may be about 10k pace - if your a 60 minute 10k runner. The best way I've found to describe a tempo run is a pace that is comfortably hard. Your breathing is definitely accelerated but your in control and in rhythm. For me I do my tempo runs at about 3:20-3:24/km. The best source I can suggest to find your tempo run pace would be https://www.mcmillanrunning.com. Simply enter a recent race time and future goal race time and it will calculate all your training paces from easy runs, to tempo runs, cruise intervals, to speed work paces to sprint paces. The purpose of this tempo run is two-fold. One it will help boost your pace that you can sustain at lactate threshold (increase lactate threshold), and two it helps you mentally to get used to running at speed for a sustained period which is what racing obviously entails. Do this tempo run on the road nearby the track. Tracks are great for speed stuff but tempo runs are really meant to simulate racing, which unless your a track runner is done on the road.
Part 2: Ya that's right I said part 2. I never said in the introduction these workouts were meant to be easy. They are definitely made for runners with a decent base of mileage under their belts. When I refer to base, I mean at least 2-3 months of consistently running decent mileage without injury. So take about a 5 minute or so jog break in between the tempo run and part two. For part two perform 3 set of the following: 800m at 5k pace, then 200m jog active recovery, the 400m at 5k pace with 3 minutes in-between sets. So in summary form 3X(800m, 200m jog, 400m) 3 minutes between sets. This is mostly a difficult workout because the 200m rest in between the 800 and 400. By far the most important parameter of any workout is the rest between intervals. A great example is if your doing a 5k race and prior to the race you perform a workout of 5X1km at your goal 5k pace. If you say I did 5X1km at pace it doesn't really equate very much to the race if you took 5 minutes in between each interval. Because well during a race it is 5 of those intervals straight and no rest in-between. Ideally then during any workout you want the rest to be short as possible because then it will better mimic the conditions felt during the race. There are some exceptions to this but I will explain in future posts. So going back to what I was saying 200m is not a lot of time between intervals so that 400 will definitely be a challenge since your heart rate will still be quite elevated. This workout is also challenging yet extremely effective because you are working on keeping a high leg turnover and running fast, despite running on some decently fatigued legs due to the tempo run. This will help build some aerobic strength and mental toughness, and also will help your legs understand and learn how to run fast when tired which will help in the later stages of races. The 400s and 800s will also be above lactate threshold so they will help train your body with lactate clearance. One thing, which I will probably say bunches of times over the next few posts is that a very important thing to having a good workout is to really try to focus on the interval at hand. So when your flying through your 800 don't be thinking, O god I have a 400 coming up right after this. If you do that, you will subconsciously of maybe consciously slow yourself down and the workout's quality will go down with it.
So to sum things up:
1 - Warmup: 20 minute jog to track
2 - Drills
3 - 3-5 Strides
4 - 15-20 minute tempo run
5 - 5 minute jog
6 - 3X(800m @ 5k pace, 200m jog, 400 m @ 5k pace) 3 minutes between sets on on all track
7 - Cooldown 10-15 minutes
I hope you understand everything, if not comment below. Enjoy the workout, it's a tough one, but I hope your willing to take on the challenge. If completed feel free to comment below to share your feelings on the workout.
Week 1
Most of these workouts are designed to be done on Wednesday since that will give you a good amount of time to recover and be at full capacity for your weekly long run on the weekend. If it cannot be completed on the Wednesday due to other life commitments Tuesday or Thursday would work as well - just don't want to go Monday right after long run or Friday or Saturday before the long run depending what day of the weekend you choose to complete the long run.
Our first workout for the series is a speed based workout with a mixture of some aerobic strength. First off you want to start with your warmup. Your warmup should be about 20 minutes of easy running. Following the warmup, perform a set a running drills. Everyone has a slightly different routine of drills but a great starter routine can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhzzpZVMtl4. After the drills you want to perform about 3-5 stride repetitions. Strides are about 60m worth of accelerating up to about 85% of your top speed. So almost like a short sprint (but not quite as fast as a sprint and not long enough to get any fatiguing effect). The purpose of strides is two-fold. One, it helps just further activate our bodies physiologically, and two psychologically it helps to prime our bodies to run fast (it also helps to get any pre-race or pre-workout nerves out). After that your warmup is complete. I know right roughly 35-40 minutes of just warming up, but trust me watch any diamond league track meet, or major road race and you'll see all the elites performing similar type warmups. Pretty much the only time when I wouldn't perform such as extensive warmup is before a full marathon. With a half marathon it really depends on your level of mileage, overall ability and experience. For example before a half marathon I will perform this exact same warmup running about 5k pre-race usually out on the course to familiarize myself with my surroundings just a bit then starting the drills and strides. However for a first time half-marathoner I probably wouldn't perform such a long warmup. On to the workout.
Should have mentioned before, perform your warmup run from your house to a track nearby.
Part 1: 15-20 minute Tempo Run: A Tempo run is also called a threshold run. This is because this is run at just below your lactate threshold which for most corresponds to your 1 hour race pace. So the pace you would be able to sustain for 1 hour in a race. This pace for speedy runners is approximately half marathon pace but for others may be about 10k pace - if your a 60 minute 10k runner. The best way I've found to describe a tempo run is a pace that is comfortably hard. Your breathing is definitely accelerated but your in control and in rhythm. For me I do my tempo runs at about 3:20-3:24/km. The best source I can suggest to find your tempo run pace would be https://www.mcmillanrunning.com. Simply enter a recent race time and future goal race time and it will calculate all your training paces from easy runs, to tempo runs, cruise intervals, to speed work paces to sprint paces. The purpose of this tempo run is two-fold. One it will help boost your pace that you can sustain at lactate threshold (increase lactate threshold), and two it helps you mentally to get used to running at speed for a sustained period which is what racing obviously entails. Do this tempo run on the road nearby the track. Tracks are great for speed stuff but tempo runs are really meant to simulate racing, which unless your a track runner is done on the road.
Part 2: Ya that's right I said part 2. I never said in the introduction these workouts were meant to be easy. They are definitely made for runners with a decent base of mileage under their belts. When I refer to base, I mean at least 2-3 months of consistently running decent mileage without injury. So take about a 5 minute or so jog break in between the tempo run and part two. For part two perform 3 set of the following: 800m at 5k pace, then 200m jog active recovery, the 400m at 5k pace with 3 minutes in-between sets. So in summary form 3X(800m, 200m jog, 400m) 3 minutes between sets. This is mostly a difficult workout because the 200m rest in between the 800 and 400. By far the most important parameter of any workout is the rest between intervals. A great example is if your doing a 5k race and prior to the race you perform a workout of 5X1km at your goal 5k pace. If you say I did 5X1km at pace it doesn't really equate very much to the race if you took 5 minutes in between each interval. Because well during a race it is 5 of those intervals straight and no rest in-between. Ideally then during any workout you want the rest to be short as possible because then it will better mimic the conditions felt during the race. There are some exceptions to this but I will explain in future posts. So going back to what I was saying 200m is not a lot of time between intervals so that 400 will definitely be a challenge since your heart rate will still be quite elevated. This workout is also challenging yet extremely effective because you are working on keeping a high leg turnover and running fast, despite running on some decently fatigued legs due to the tempo run. This will help build some aerobic strength and mental toughness, and also will help your legs understand and learn how to run fast when tired which will help in the later stages of races. The 400s and 800s will also be above lactate threshold so they will help train your body with lactate clearance. One thing, which I will probably say bunches of times over the next few posts is that a very important thing to having a good workout is to really try to focus on the interval at hand. So when your flying through your 800 don't be thinking, O god I have a 400 coming up right after this. If you do that, you will subconsciously of maybe consciously slow yourself down and the workout's quality will go down with it.
So to sum things up:
1 - Warmup: 20 minute jog to track
2 - Drills
3 - 3-5 Strides
4 - 15-20 minute tempo run
5 - 5 minute jog
6 - 3X(800m @ 5k pace, 200m jog, 400 m @ 5k pace) 3 minutes between sets on on all track
7 - Cooldown 10-15 minutes
I hope you understand everything, if not comment below. Enjoy the workout, it's a tough one, but I hope your willing to take on the challenge. If completed feel free to comment below to share your feelings on the workout.
Friday, June 19, 2015
Post Race and What's Next
I didn't update you all on the race in Barrie from June 7th since I was waiting for the race photos to be posted.
The Recap
Gear: Skechers GoMed Speed 3 Shoes Boston Marathon Edition, Skechers Race Singlet and Skechers 2inch Racing Split Shorts
Pre Race: Arrived to the race in good time with a lot of uncertainty and nervousness. I knew that I would give it my best, but I had not yet tested the hip on any sort of hill at race pace (the Barrie course is very hilly for the first half), let alone for 21.1 km. I had an overwhelming feeling of under-preparedness due to a lack of race specific run workouts leading into the race. Looking back on my May 2014 training logs and into June until my PB 1:11:03 at Barrie last year, as you remember I was having the time of my life running consistently 200 km a week at 7000-10000 ft above sea level in Park City. During that time I logged 15 hard run workouts ranging from three 12 k tempo runs, a 1-2-3-2-1km X2 fartlek style run, 5X broken 1500, 4X3.2k, 8X1km, 25X400m, and some others that I won't divulge because they are my secret mix of interval workouts that I came up with myself to put a major hurt on the physiological systems that I don't won't any competitors who may be reading to know about (I actually really enjoy developing workouts and literally spend hours going over how to design a set of intervals try to force a certain adaptation. It's the reason why I would absolutely love to coach a cross country team one day.) But anyways back to the race. In contrast to last year, where I felt like I could run the legs off anyone in the province, this year I had done all of two workouts. Now you might say o so you did do some workouts heading into the race, I thought you didn't do any. Well let me say, those weren't really what I would consider: a) half marathon specific type workouts, and b) the resulting pace and feel of those two was less than inspiring. I had done one 6X1mile workout - my first workout back from injury the Monday before the race and then a 30 minute tempo run on Wednesday just 4 days before the race. Despite those both being a bit slower
than half marathon pace, it felt like I was sprinting, and during the mile repeats my heart rate was holding at 182-185, which most likely is not sustainable for 21.1k. So overall I was quite nervous. I went for 20 minute jog before the race, did my drills for 15, then tried to get some idea of where in the heck this course route was heading, then lined up, and was off. (You can click on photos to see full-size with full-resolution).
Race: Felt decent to start, first kilometre I always consider a freebie and really wasn't worried about the hip at this point since there's usually so much adrenaline pumping that it would take a heck of a lot to put a person down. Went through 1k in 3:10, and got into my rhythm at about 3k. For 1st and 2nd km my stride length was 1.60 meters and 1.55m, with cadence of 198 steps per minute and 194 per minute respectively. At 3k, from my garmin data you can see what I mean by getting into rhythm since my cadence dropped 193 spm and 1.51m stride and stayed that way for the next 6k with the stride length changing by no more than 1 cm and stride rate changing by no more than 1 step per minute plus or minus. Just kept repeating two mantras in my head the whole way, "Smoothly cruising," and "What else would you rather be doing," (which I've started to repeat through most of my training runs and bikes when I'm struggling to stay focused or hurting). Rolled through 5k mark in 16:48. In that first 5k keeping with the Barrie half marathon tradition, took a wrong turn and had take a u-turn to get back on course. According to my garmin data (which is incredibly accurate to the point it can see if I'm running in the shoulder or on the sidewalk), this fiasco cost me 28 seconds. But got back on course and angrily pushed the pace for a minute or so to try to get back onto pace. Now when I say on pace, really for this race I had no burning desire to force myself to run a specific pace, just wanted to keep it smooth and cruise at whatever pace I felt was comfortably hard.
At 9k mark I got a wind of energy, and figured this was the time to try to capitalize so I made a pact with myself to push the pace a bit until about 13k mark. Just figured in my head that would mean roughly a 13 minute or so effort, and that 13 minutes of hard hard running would be doable with the current hip situation - since I had managed to get up the hills with not too too much of an issue, and it could pay dividends in the end. So reeled off a 3:18, 3:19, 3:20, 3:22 km, and on 13 going into 14 k while I was pleased with how that went, entering now the back half of the race which is on a loose gravel path I was starting to hurt, not in my hip but overall fatigue was seeping in, probably due a combo of a lack of mileage at race pace heading into the race and now being back into the wind. Pace went from 3:25 to 3:31 all the way to marathon pace for a split at 3:40. That pissed me right off so tried to re-focus, re-group and get back down to business. The race was in the bag at this point, up by about a mile from second place, and even though my soul intention of this race was to just win for the third straight year, I'm not the type of person to settle for just the win. I wanted to prove to myself that despite no big mileage or workouts heading into the race, I was still in great shape aerobically speaking from all my cycling and swimming and strength work, and therefore could still run a decent time. So I buckled down and really tried to start churning the legs. Went from 1.44m stride at 189 spm to 1.53m stride at 191. Hit the 20k mark in 1:09 and gave it everything that was left (there wasn't much at this point - especially with not taking an ounce of water or gel throughout the race - been a year since my last half so just didn't really think about it), put down a 3:05 km and finished 1:12:05 (without the 28 second wrong turn would be 1:11:37) winning by 6 minutes over 2nd place, and completing the three-peat. I think it is pretty darn good to be only 34 seconds slower than last year, despite the huge discrepancy in run-specifc training between the two years. And hey, 4 races this year 3 wins, let's keep it rolling until the Canadian XC Championships in November.
Post-Race
First of all, thankyou Skechers Performance Division for giving me all the gear I need to be successful this season. The Go Meb's are pretty awesome. They are super comfortable for a racing flat, and fit my feet quite well. Light and fast, plus they just look cool when looking down at my feet.
The day after the race I was in quite a bit of pain all around, especially in my back. And the back issue has now lasted 2 weeks - it's the same issue in my left lower back that I had in February. But it's not going to stop me. Wednesday night headed over after my final exams to Stratford for a 10k race. I was intending on this being a tempo run to see how the back was doing and was going to just run at half-marathon pace and keep it smooth. But found out just prior to the race that despite a very short stretch at the beginning and end of the race being on road about 7k was on an incredibly hilly, and some parts muddy trail with twists and turns, roots, etc. So nice easy tempo where I was intending on running about 34 minutes (again just a cruise effort just to test if my back could handle another race this coming weekend), became a hard hard effort. Talking to the course designer before the race, it was funny how proud he was of how difficult he had made it, I chuckled through gritted teeth. But anyways, ran 34:00 just as I was intending, but a solid 34 minutes of effort for a new course record, and 4 minute win. Eye-opening in some respect to see that wow cross country running is dang tough - I wish I wore my heart rate monitor because after cresting one of the biggest hills (which was also high grass covered) my heart rate must have been over 200. I literally felt my heart thumping against the wall of chest and was just gasping for air when I got to the top. But with that, although my back was in some serious pain during my cool down, it wasn't unbearable today so most likely heading to Burlington on the weekend for a 10 miler. It's not 100% at this point but the main race that I'm 99% intending on doing and everything for the next month will be building towards in the Humana Chicago Half Marathon on July 19 where I will look to run under 1:10 and maybe finish top 12 - Kenyans and some of the big guns come out to this one. So until next time, remember the line as your grinding away the miles, "What else would you rather be doing."
The Recap
Gear: Skechers GoMed Speed 3 Shoes Boston Marathon Edition, Skechers Race Singlet and Skechers 2inch Racing Split Shorts
Pre Race: Arrived to the race in good time with a lot of uncertainty and nervousness. I knew that I would give it my best, but I had not yet tested the hip on any sort of hill at race pace (the Barrie course is very hilly for the first half), let alone for 21.1 km. I had an overwhelming feeling of under-preparedness due to a lack of race specific run workouts leading into the race. Looking back on my May 2014 training logs and into June until my PB 1:11:03 at Barrie last year, as you remember I was having the time of my life running consistently 200 km a week at 7000-10000 ft above sea level in Park City. During that time I logged 15 hard run workouts ranging from three 12 k tempo runs, a 1-2-3-2-1km X2 fartlek style run, 5X broken 1500, 4X3.2k, 8X1km, 25X400m, and some others that I won't divulge because they are my secret mix of interval workouts that I came up with myself to put a major hurt on the physiological systems that I don't won't any competitors who may be reading to know about (I actually really enjoy developing workouts and literally spend hours going over how to design a set of intervals try to force a certain adaptation. It's the reason why I would absolutely love to coach a cross country team one day.) But anyways back to the race. In contrast to last year, where I felt like I could run the legs off anyone in the province, this year I had done all of two workouts. Now you might say o so you did do some workouts heading into the race, I thought you didn't do any. Well let me say, those weren't really what I would consider: a) half marathon specific type workouts, and b) the resulting pace and feel of those two was less than inspiring. I had done one 6X1mile workout - my first workout back from injury the Monday before the race and then a 30 minute tempo run on Wednesday just 4 days before the race. Despite those both being a bit slower
Race: Felt decent to start, first kilometre I always consider a freebie and really wasn't worried about the hip at this point since there's usually so much adrenaline pumping that it would take a heck of a lot to put a person down. Went through 1k in 3:10, and got into my rhythm at about 3k. For 1st and 2nd km my stride length was 1.60 meters and 1.55m, with cadence of 198 steps per minute and 194 per minute respectively. At 3k, from my garmin data you can see what I mean by getting into rhythm since my cadence dropped 193 spm and 1.51m stride and stayed that way for the next 6k with the stride length changing by no more than 1 cm and stride rate changing by no more than 1 step per minute plus or minus. Just kept repeating two mantras in my head the whole way, "Smoothly cruising," and "What else would you rather be doing," (which I've started to repeat through most of my training runs and bikes when I'm struggling to stay focused or hurting). Rolled through 5k mark in 16:48. In that first 5k keeping with the Barrie half marathon tradition, took a wrong turn and had take a u-turn to get back on course. According to my garmin data (which is incredibly accurate to the point it can see if I'm running in the shoulder or on the sidewalk), this fiasco cost me 28 seconds. But got back on course and angrily pushed the pace for a minute or so to try to get back onto pace. Now when I say on pace, really for this race I had no burning desire to force myself to run a specific pace, just wanted to keep it smooth and cruise at whatever pace I felt was comfortably hard.
At 9k mark I got a wind of energy, and figured this was the time to try to capitalize so I made a pact with myself to push the pace a bit until about 13k mark. Just figured in my head that would mean roughly a 13 minute or so effort, and that 13 minutes of hard hard running would be doable with the current hip situation - since I had managed to get up the hills with not too too much of an issue, and it could pay dividends in the end. So reeled off a 3:18, 3:19, 3:20, 3:22 km, and on 13 going into 14 k while I was pleased with how that went, entering now the back half of the race which is on a loose gravel path I was starting to hurt, not in my hip but overall fatigue was seeping in, probably due a combo of a lack of mileage at race pace heading into the race and now being back into the wind. Pace went from 3:25 to 3:31 all the way to marathon pace for a split at 3:40. That pissed me right off so tried to re-focus, re-group and get back down to business. The race was in the bag at this point, up by about a mile from second place, and even though my soul intention of this race was to just win for the third straight year, I'm not the type of person to settle for just the win. I wanted to prove to myself that despite no big mileage or workouts heading into the race, I was still in great shape aerobically speaking from all my cycling and swimming and strength work, and therefore could still run a decent time. So I buckled down and really tried to start churning the legs. Went from 1.44m stride at 189 spm to 1.53m stride at 191. Hit the 20k mark in 1:09 and gave it everything that was left (there wasn't much at this point - especially with not taking an ounce of water or gel throughout the race - been a year since my last half so just didn't really think about it), put down a 3:05 km and finished 1:12:05 (without the 28 second wrong turn would be 1:11:37) winning by 6 minutes over 2nd place, and completing the three-peat. I think it is pretty darn good to be only 34 seconds slower than last year, despite the huge discrepancy in run-specifc training between the two years. And hey, 4 races this year 3 wins, let's keep it rolling until the Canadian XC Championships in November.
Post-Race
First of all, thankyou Skechers Performance Division for giving me all the gear I need to be successful this season. The Go Meb's are pretty awesome. They are super comfortable for a racing flat, and fit my feet quite well. Light and fast, plus they just look cool when looking down at my feet.
The day after the race I was in quite a bit of pain all around, especially in my back. And the back issue has now lasted 2 weeks - it's the same issue in my left lower back that I had in February. But it's not going to stop me. Wednesday night headed over after my final exams to Stratford for a 10k race. I was intending on this being a tempo run to see how the back was doing and was going to just run at half-marathon pace and keep it smooth. But found out just prior to the race that despite a very short stretch at the beginning and end of the race being on road about 7k was on an incredibly hilly, and some parts muddy trail with twists and turns, roots, etc. So nice easy tempo where I was intending on running about 34 minutes (again just a cruise effort just to test if my back could handle another race this coming weekend), became a hard hard effort. Talking to the course designer before the race, it was funny how proud he was of how difficult he had made it, I chuckled through gritted teeth. But anyways, ran 34:00 just as I was intending, but a solid 34 minutes of effort for a new course record, and 4 minute win. Eye-opening in some respect to see that wow cross country running is dang tough - I wish I wore my heart rate monitor because after cresting one of the biggest hills (which was also high grass covered) my heart rate must have been over 200. I literally felt my heart thumping against the wall of chest and was just gasping for air when I got to the top. But with that, although my back was in some serious pain during my cool down, it wasn't unbearable today so most likely heading to Burlington on the weekend for a 10 miler. It's not 100% at this point but the main race that I'm 99% intending on doing and everything for the next month will be building towards in the Humana Chicago Half Marathon on July 19 where I will look to run under 1:10 and maybe finish top 12 - Kenyans and some of the big guns come out to this one. So until next time, remember the line as your grinding away the miles, "What else would you rather be doing."
Friday, June 5, 2015
Barrie Half Marathon
No no the blog isn't dead, there have just been so many things going on lately that I haven't had a minute to sit and update you all on the current state of affairs. Let me start by just giving a quick recap on what I've been up to the last couple months, and where I plan to go from here. If you don't remember after Around the Bay, for the second year in a row, I got injured. What's new right. This one though really came out of the blue. With previous injuries, I've usually been able to see them coming for a while, or really just ran through injuries until the point where I can't physically make a stride then take time off. This one was had a real quick progression from feeling something a little weird, a tight kind of feeling in my right hip after the race, then two days later could barely walk. Was forced to take an entire 28 days completely off running to rehab the injury, which was most likely according to both my own judgement and my clinical instructor (a top physiotherapist in Ontario) that I had a tear in a couple muscles in my hip. One of those muscles (tensor fascia latae) is a critical stabilizer to the whole hip, and proper functioning of the knee hinges on it, the other was most likely pectinues (a hip flexor, internal rotator of the hip, adductor, as well as critical for pelvic stability). Don't ask me how I managed this, cause I have no clue. But anyways, by no means did this mean I couldn't still train. Biking didn't seem to hurt the leg, and I captured my love of cycling once again. I bike over 300k per week for the first 3 weeks, then just under 500k (488km) the fourth week. Also swam a shade under 30k per week during that time period. Starting to love training like a triathlete so much I got inspired and bought a true time trial bike. Her name is Elektra. This Cervelo P2 is a lightning fast spitfire on the tarmac, waiting patiently to be unleashed on the triathlon scene.
But before then there are other matters that must be settled. In May, I made my comeback. It was a really slow start but the hip started to progress one run at a time. In the month I ran 425k, biked 1600k, and swam 80k, plus did 20 hours of strength training. One solid month. For the majority of the month, I thought that the Barrie Half Marathon was June 20, and figured I would be able to get ready in time to put fourth a decent effort to try to win for the third straight year. However, I found out not too long ago that the race was actually June 7, and this put a lot of pressure on me to rush the hip pretty substantially, and had to do a couple workouts to see where I was at. Last Monday (May 25) did my first workout in over 2 months, tried and true mile repeats. Starting with 4 of them trying to just feel it out and let the pace come to me. I went about as good as it could have. The pace wasn't staggering, but it was decent, only problem was that it was just at half marathon pace, and it felt real fast, almost like I was sprinting. That Thursday, I tried a tempo run and same thing, the hip wasn't too bad, just felt a lot harder than the pace would indicate. I've probably pushed way too hard to get back, since about 4 weeks ago I started feeling a couple bumps in the hip just medial and inferior to the ASIS (the bone you can palpate at the front of your hip). Well they went from being able to feel a couple slight bumps and thinking that it was just inflammation in the area that collected in the lymph nodes (a big network of them at that part of the hip), to being able to feel 4 distinct perfectly round and freely moveable nodules. Just like last fall this is probably a good indication that I got more calcific tendinitis due to poor repairing of the muscle tear. But I can run, it hurts like the dickens for about the first 15-20 minutes of every run, then feels progressively better. However, it definitely has affected my stride on that side. During the weight bearing portion on the right leg it hurts the most, and I'm thinking its just those little calcium buggers basically getting squished and impinged on the muscle. To compensate, and this was especially evident early in my comeback based on both the wear patterns on my shoes and the auditory feedback I was getting on ground-contact, my left foot is striking the ground much harder than my right and the last 2 weeks I've been getting some oo too familiar pain on the medial border of that "someday will be graphite" tibia. Well you might say, this really sounds like a pretty bad cycle that I'm getting into now, but Monday did 7X1 miles and it actually was solid. Not solid given my status, but solid in that if I did that last year I would have been somewhat content with the effort. Then Wednesday did a 9k tempo at projected half marathon pace, and again it went pretty well. I mean still not 100% but its run-able and decided to give it a go for this Sunday. Why you ask. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if me the two-time back-to-back champion didn't at least try to defend my title. If at 6k, where there is a steep hill which is giving me some nightmares right now and making me real nervous, there is a good amount of pain in the hip, I'm calling it there, and I'll know that I tried. I say that now, but this time I'm going to try my best to stick to the plan. For me, I know even if I feel some real pain in the hip, I'm not the type of person to pull off and sulk on the side of the road. Normally, I will push myself to keep going until I can't physically lift my foot off the ground, but I will try to constantly remind myself during the race that the future in more important, and while this race seems like the be all and end all right now it's not. However, based on this weeks two workouts, I can give it a decent effort. This race will definitely be about aerobic strength and nothing else because really with only 2 real workouts under my belt going into the race, I'm relying about 100% of my aerobic fitness that I have build up not only the last few months, but for last 5 years in change of training. The tempo run was a good start knowing at least that I could go 9k at race effort, but let me tell you thinking that there is 12k to go after that is scaring the hell out of me. I was pretty tuckered out after that, and going into the race with less mileage and less workout time that ever is intimidating. What I do have going for me is knowing that if I can push myself for 5 hours straight on every Sat and Sun for the last 6 weeks or so, pushing till I've bonked completely numerous times, or a few Sunday's ago yacking right on the lawn after, I can push myself for 70 something minutes. It will not be a PB, and whether I win or not I will be proud of myself for trying my best. So wish me luck that the hip holds up, and allows me to be able to grind through 13.1 miles and finish.
But before then there are other matters that must be settled. In May, I made my comeback. It was a really slow start but the hip started to progress one run at a time. In the month I ran 425k, biked 1600k, and swam 80k, plus did 20 hours of strength training. One solid month. For the majority of the month, I thought that the Barrie Half Marathon was June 20, and figured I would be able to get ready in time to put fourth a decent effort to try to win for the third straight year. However, I found out not too long ago that the race was actually June 7, and this put a lot of pressure on me to rush the hip pretty substantially, and had to do a couple workouts to see where I was at. Last Monday (May 25) did my first workout in over 2 months, tried and true mile repeats. Starting with 4 of them trying to just feel it out and let the pace come to me. I went about as good as it could have. The pace wasn't staggering, but it was decent, only problem was that it was just at half marathon pace, and it felt real fast, almost like I was sprinting. That Thursday, I tried a tempo run and same thing, the hip wasn't too bad, just felt a lot harder than the pace would indicate. I've probably pushed way too hard to get back, since about 4 weeks ago I started feeling a couple bumps in the hip just medial and inferior to the ASIS (the bone you can palpate at the front of your hip). Well they went from being able to feel a couple slight bumps and thinking that it was just inflammation in the area that collected in the lymph nodes (a big network of them at that part of the hip), to being able to feel 4 distinct perfectly round and freely moveable nodules. Just like last fall this is probably a good indication that I got more calcific tendinitis due to poor repairing of the muscle tear. But I can run, it hurts like the dickens for about the first 15-20 minutes of every run, then feels progressively better. However, it definitely has affected my stride on that side. During the weight bearing portion on the right leg it hurts the most, and I'm thinking its just those little calcium buggers basically getting squished and impinged on the muscle. To compensate, and this was especially evident early in my comeback based on both the wear patterns on my shoes and the auditory feedback I was getting on ground-contact, my left foot is striking the ground much harder than my right and the last 2 weeks I've been getting some oo too familiar pain on the medial border of that "someday will be graphite" tibia. Well you might say, this really sounds like a pretty bad cycle that I'm getting into now, but Monday did 7X1 miles and it actually was solid. Not solid given my status, but solid in that if I did that last year I would have been somewhat content with the effort. Then Wednesday did a 9k tempo at projected half marathon pace, and again it went pretty well. I mean still not 100% but its run-able and decided to give it a go for this Sunday. Why you ask. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if me the two-time back-to-back champion didn't at least try to defend my title. If at 6k, where there is a steep hill which is giving me some nightmares right now and making me real nervous, there is a good amount of pain in the hip, I'm calling it there, and I'll know that I tried. I say that now, but this time I'm going to try my best to stick to the plan. For me, I know even if I feel some real pain in the hip, I'm not the type of person to pull off and sulk on the side of the road. Normally, I will push myself to keep going until I can't physically lift my foot off the ground, but I will try to constantly remind myself during the race that the future in more important, and while this race seems like the be all and end all right now it's not. However, based on this weeks two workouts, I can give it a decent effort. This race will definitely be about aerobic strength and nothing else because really with only 2 real workouts under my belt going into the race, I'm relying about 100% of my aerobic fitness that I have build up not only the last few months, but for last 5 years in change of training. The tempo run was a good start knowing at least that I could go 9k at race effort, but let me tell you thinking that there is 12k to go after that is scaring the hell out of me. I was pretty tuckered out after that, and going into the race with less mileage and less workout time that ever is intimidating. What I do have going for me is knowing that if I can push myself for 5 hours straight on every Sat and Sun for the last 6 weeks or so, pushing till I've bonked completely numerous times, or a few Sunday's ago yacking right on the lawn after, I can push myself for 70 something minutes. It will not be a PB, and whether I win or not I will be proud of myself for trying my best. So wish me luck that the hip holds up, and allows me to be able to grind through 13.1 miles and finish.
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