Spring Race Training: Week 10

Posted on March 31, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-10Last week was a recovery week and then some.

Coming off of two 100 milers, I needed a break. Unfortunately, I got more of a break than I wanted due to our iffy spring weather here on the east coast. More on that in a moment.

The week featured the usual suspects, sprinkled amongst a lot of recover running:

Tuesday’s tempo run actually went better than expected considering how tired my legs still were after Sunday’s “run ‘n’ race” sandwich in Central Park. What was interesting about this run is that while I was running the faster miles at the very end, my legs felt exactly like they do around mile 18-20 of a marathon that isn’t going particularly well (or, I suppose, mile 25 of one that is).

That sensation certainly brought back some unpleasant memories. It also served as a reminder to never, ever, ever run a marathon too fast again. If I’m not ready for a 3:05 in a couple of months, I’ve got to accept that and run within my capabilities.

My legs felt relatively fresh on Thursday and the speed session went as well as it could with a steady wind slowing me for half of each lap around the track. The speedwork not being perfect has begun to bother me less and less. I know that running 800m fast is not my goal, but a stepping stone to the real goal (which is to run around 7:00 for many miles). I’m sweating the races and MPace efforts a lot more than I am the shorter stuff.

On Friday my legs felt like two-by-fours with blocks of concrete for feet: stiff, heavy, dead. The recovery run didn’t help. I skipped the strides since, well, they were out of the question.

Then I ran a little recovery run on Saturday to rest up for…

…the race that didn’t happen on Sunday.

This was very upsetting, as I’d done a modified taper all week, carbo-loaded like crazy, and mentally prepared myself to race a 30K. Not only that, but this was to be the first race that didn’t feature ridiculous hills all season — a totally flat course.

The forecast was bad all week, but I held out hope that the weather would clear. No such luck. We drove to CT in a driving rain, got out and did a 1 mile warmup in pouring rain and steady wind, and gave up. I would have been able to run maybe, at best, a 7:20-7:30 pace in that weather and it would have been miserable. So we turned around and drove home. But not before dropping by the Scarsdale 15K start to see if we could race that instead. By the time we got there (5 minutes before start), we’d debated the merits of racing this one, which were few. It was no substitute for the 30K we’d just bagged.

So we came home and Jonathan took the day off. I got on the treadmill and did a modified MPace run, with three sets of Mpace x 2 miles, with a 1 mile “rest” at 10-20% slower than Mpace. I’m glad I did something on Sunday, since I was ready to run fast, but it was still a huge let down. It’s virtually impossible to find a long and flat race now (too close to marathon season, probably).

Sunday’s events may have been for the best. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. I could have used a solid recovery week and after my treadmill effort I needed a two hour nap, which was unusual.

I’ll try again this Sunday (which is also my birthday), with another sandwich run/race: a 10 mile tuneup race on Long Island (for those running the LI Marathon), which I’ll tack a few miles onto either end of.

Week 11 features 90 miles with more midlength+tempo running, some longer intervals and another footlong sandwich run out on Long Island.

Filed under: central park, racing, recovery, training, westchester | 13 Comments »

Crocuses, daffodils and snowdrops

Posted on March 26, 2009 by threlkeld

Just an aimless little post to check in and highlight some things…

Spring flowers are springing up, appropriately. It’s still quite chilly, which I don’t mind all that much, because at least it’s been dry and above freezing most days. We’ll be in the dog days of summer soon enough.

This is a recovery week — a very easy one, in an attempt to rest up for my 30K race on Sunday. Aside from a few bouts of unexplained insomnia, I’ve felt great this week. My legs have felt really good, and the two hard workouts (a tempo-y mid-length run on Tuesday and a set of 800m intervals on the track this morning) have gone well. I’m also dropping fat, after a few weeks of disciplined eating; pants are loose and I feel lighter on my feet.

With some hesitation (due, perhaps needless to say, to our crap economy and the fact of our self-employment), I’m booking no less than three major trips this year, all of which have a running component. First, there’s a major trip out to Oregon in the late spring, kicked off by the Newport Marathon. Next up, a trip to visit Jonathan’s family in South Africa in the early fall, where we’ll race a half marathon in Hermanus (lovely area near Cape Town). And finally, we’ve committed to running the California International Marathon in Sacramento early December, after which we’ll spend an early Christmas with my family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Links to all these races are on the Races page.

This is more traveling in one year than we’ve done in several years put together. The Oregon trip is one I’ve wanted to do, but have put off for nearly five years. And we haven’t been to South Africa in several years, so it was our turn to make the trip to reconnect. And I try to get out to California at least every 1-2 years, so it made sense to combine it with the second marathon of the year.

My resolve to take these trips was further tested today as a new wave of layoffs decimated the employee rank and file at the massive global corporation for which I contract. Well, not quite decimated: about 4% of the North American employee workforce got the axe. At least two five of my favorite colleagues got pink-slipped yesterday and I’m sure I’ll learn of others this morning. As a contractor, I’ve thus far been immune to these “head count reductions” (since I’m not officially a “head” — just a relatively buried budget line item). But I still worry. Hmm. Maybe the insomnia this week isn’t such a mystery after all.

Someone I worked with many years ago told me the story of when both he and his partner lost their jobs in the same week. Their reaction was to go on vacation to a tropical paradise for a week, then deal with it. He said it was the best thing they could have done, as they made a pact to enjoy themselves and not think about work, money, the future, etc. until they got home again. They got new jobs. Life went on. And they had a good memory to share.

So fuck it. I’m living high this year regardless of whether or not everything implodes around me. Those spring flowers have no olfactory effect, but I’m going to stop and smell them anyway.

Total change of subject: Fellow blogger Joe Garland of RunWestchester has attained 15 minutes (maybe longer!) of fame on episode 21 of Runners Round Table. I’ve become addicted to this podcast, often whiling away the hour of a recovery run with it as a background.

The next couple of days are very easy, so I probably won’t post again until after the 30K race. Until then…

Filed under: eating, everyday life, racing, recovery, training | 13 Comments »

Spring Race Training: Week 8

Posted on March 15, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-081
A hundred and one miles of fun!

Check it out: I ran just over 101 miles this past week, my biggest mileage week since July when I ran a mere 100.1. Piling on that last mile wasn’t the disaster that Mr. Creosote experienced at the hands of a maître d’ and his wafer-thin mint. I did not, in fact, explode.

In the end, it’s just a number. But it’s a big number for me.

Considering that I raced a very tough 25K a week ago, this week went very well. In fact, I’m thinking it’s probably my most successful training week so far. Here’s why:

  • Well, for one thing, I ran 101 miles with no ill effects. Sorry to state the obvious.
  • My resting heart stayed cooperatively low, up after tough days, but back down to 44 after a day or two of recovery. This surprised me.
  • Two of my big quality workouts, both done on the track, were marred by steady winds of anywhere from 5-14mph. That affected my time, and for once I accepted that and felt the sessions went well once that was taken into consideration.
  • Today’s 20 miler was a real confidence booster. I had lots of energy and ended up doing a big negative split.

Onto the details.

On Monday and Tuesday I experienced varying levels of tiredness, varying from barely any at all to near-stupefying exhaustion. Sunday’s hilly 25K race was a huge effort, so this was expected. Still, it was interesting to note how delayed the fatigue was and how, in some ways, it seems recovery running almost seemed to stave it off (I was most tired Tuesday evening).

Wednesday’s speed session on the track went as well as it could. It was very windy, so I focused on effort and decided to not let the effect of the wind on my pace get to me too much.

Thursday was the day when I suspect there was a tremendous amount of training consolidation going on. I had a terrible ache in my thighs and calves overnight, along with “I’ll eat anything” hunger. I also lost about two pounds overnight, a loss that I’ve sustained in the days since, despite drinking a lot of water and eating quite a bit.

Friday was the low point of the week, as I had a workout I’d come to dread: a 15 miler with the last five at a tempo pace on the track. Despite doing everything I could to prepare, I was again disappointed with the results. Once again, my legs felt heavy for the 10 mile aerobic portion, with the added delight of a slightly upset stomach. Once I got to the track and felt the steady wind, I began to rapidly lower my expectations of what I could sustain over 20 laps. Still, I gave it my best effort, managing five miles at 7:05 pace (instead of the planned 6:51 pace). And I only had one bout of stopping/berating/pep talking at the halfway mark.

I actually ran a little better after stopping halfway through, although whether that was for mental reasons or merely because the wind may have died down a little, I’ll never know. Of note is that my stomach was completely screwed up about an hour afterwards, which I chalk up to a physical manifestation of several days cumulative stress from the race plus heavy training (despite the recovery days, which still featured mileage in the teens).

I felt very good on Saturday and ran the two recovery runs faster than I’d expected to.

This morning I woke up feeling good again, owing to nine hours of deep sleep and Saturday night tea-totaling (okay, I admit I had one beer). In fact, I was actually excited to go do the 20 miler. I had no plan for the run, which may have explained why it went so well. Going in with no preconceptions or pressure allowed me to truly run by feel, which was a refreshing break after the two earlier, pace-focused workouts in the week.

I ran the first three miles as a very easy warmup, then decided I felt good enough to try to keep things in the 76% max. heart rate range. I stopped and took a little breather at the turnaround point and then decided to just run and keep my eye off the watch for the next few miles. With five miles left to go, I made the commitment to step up the effort. While this wasn’t to be a fast finish long run (as that wasn’t assigned), I wanted to run the last few miles “comfortably hard” (as opposed to “hardly comfortable”).

Imagine my surprise when I got home and discovered that I’d averaged well below 8:00 pace for the last few miles, all at a reasonable MHR of 76-77%, with a final blowout mile of 7:33 at 83%. I needed to have a good run combined with a relatively windless day to remind me that I am making progress.

Week 9 is another 100 miler, although there’s no tempo work and the speed session is short at 2400m total. This cutting back is (I suspect) to reserve some energy for the big workout on Sunday: the NYRR Colon Cancer Challenge 15K race sandwiched inbetween two full 6.2 mile loops of Central Park.

Filed under: central park, eating, racing, recovery, training | 8 Comments »

“Insane hunger”

Posted on March 12, 2009 by threlkeld

That’s what part of my training diary entry read this morning. At 3AM, I awoke with two urgent needs: first, do something about the ache in my thighs and calves, the dreaded DOMS*; second, eat something right now.

Random waves of ravenous hunger appear to be one side effect of combining high mileage with high intensity. And the hunger is of a particularly urgent, single-minded sort. It’s not, “Oh, I’m ready for dinner” hunger. It’s “I’m so hungry I’m going to eat that smashed Twinkie in the middle of the road” hunger. I was aware of this kind of “I’ll eat anything as long as it resembles food” hunger from reading about people in ultrarunning races. I had yet to experience it for myself until pretty recently.

But here it’s hitting me at odd times — typically either in the dead of night, or (more strangely) an hour or so after I’ve already eaten something substantial. There also is a delayed aspect to the hunger. Recently, I had two back-to-back days of extreme hunger in the early days of a recovery week. It started after a speed session and continued well into the next day, which featured a mere 7 miles of recovery running. The point being, I’d expect this sort of thing in a high mileage week itself, not in the days following one. I can only speculate that as my body consolidates the previous week’s training-induced stress and recovers from it, it’s demanding help in that consolidation and recovery from food.

I’m building muscle like it’s going out of style, and losing fat. So I’m guessing the demand for food (and craving for protein in some cases) is also to support that repair and expansion work at the muscular level. I have no idea what I’m talking about, by the way — this is pure conjecture.

In any event, I go with the hunger, getting up in the dead of night to shovel whatever appeals into my face, illuminated only by the 40 watt refrigerator bulb and with an audience of one bleary-eyed cat, confused by my sudden presence, yet hopeful that I’ll feed her too. Last night it was roasted sweet potatoes (carbs), spelt (more carbs) and prosciutto (protein, fat and salt). I wonder what I’ll need next.

*A problem easily solved with my favorite regularly smuggled controlled substance from overseas, the wonder drug from the UK, Solpadeine. It’s chock full of codeine goodness, and the effervescent variety works in about five minutes.

Filed under: eating, recovery, training | 4 Comments »

Spring Race Training: Week 3

Posted on February 9, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-03Week three was marked by two things: a continuation of my nagging right groin issue and a really good 20K race/training run on Sunday. I also unexpectedly reached, after five long weeks, my treadmill tolerance saturation point in dramatic fashion, stopping a 14 mile aerobic run at 13.3 miles, simply unable to take another minute in that room, on that contraption.

I hesitate to even call this a high mileage week since in just a matter of weeks my recovery week mileage will resemble what I ran and I’ll be hitting triple digit weeks again for the first time since the summer. But last week I ran a lot of miles, with all except the race run inside on the treadmill again.

Since my leg was still bothering me, I did almost all of my recovery runs at a ridiculously leisurely pace, skipping the strides as usual. I also skipped the 400m intervals in favor of giving my leg further opportunity to heal. I did feel quite good on Thursday, something that’s reflected in the pace at which I did my easy run.

I’m guessing that the extra helping of R&R offered by skipping the speedwork contributed to my good effort on Sunday, which I would characterize as something falling in between a training and a race effort. I raced about 75% of the course.

The good news is that we’re finally getting a spell of warmer weather. I can see our lawn for the first time since December. I’ve got a set of 1200m intervals scheduled for Friday and, unless we get colder temps plus precip again, it’s looking like I may actually be able to run them outside, on a snow- and ice-free track.

The next Mpace training run is in three weeks — the Boston Buildup 25K. I ran that one last year and, unlike the roller coaster course for the 20K, the 25K course is easy to get your head around, if not run: go uphill for sevenish miles, then go downhill for eightish miles. Total climb: +2,456; total descent: -2,600.

Week 4 is a recovery week, with just a little tempo running on Tuesday, one doubles session on Thursday, the aforementioned intervals on Friday and a fast finish 17 miler on Sunday.

Filed under: injury, racing, recovery, training | 7 Comments »

Spring Race Training: Week 1

Posted on January 27, 2009 by threlkeld

09spr-training-011

At last, actual training for my late May race in Newport, OR has commenced. I’ll be training for 19 weeks (including taper weeks), although I’ve only got a schedule for the next three months at the moment, but that’s more than enough to handle for now.

Here are the differences between “training” and “basebuilding,” at least as far as what Kevin has provided:

  • I’m still on a three week cycle, with two high mileage/high intensity weeks followed by one lower mileage/high intensity week; but now there are no days off.
  • Instead of doing faster running by effort, I now have assigned paces that I need to hit. I prefer this, as it’s a truer measuring stick of progress.
  • Recovery weeks are now in the 70-80 mile range rather than the 60 mile weeks during basebuilding.
  • I’m running doubles 2-4 days per week now.
  • The Sunday long runs are getting longer, and three longer races (15-21M) feature Mpace running for a significant chunk of the total distance.
  • I’ve got a speed session every week with lots of variance in the workouts from week to week: from 200m to 2K repeats. And I’m still doing tempo efforts tacked on to longer general aerobic runs every week.
  • I’ve got strides every week on one recovery run, but only eight.

The first week of training was, frankly, outstanding. My training diary notes that Tuesday’s tempo run and Friday’s 2 x 1 mile intervals felt way too easy. I have trouble accepting what seems like a jump in fitness at face value, tending more toward blaming the notoriously inaccurate technology I rely on when running inside (uncalibrated treadmill plus sort of calibrated footpod).

I took things outside on Sunday, though, for a half marathon in Central Park. And I was delighted to discover that I could run fast under rotten conditions and less than ideal logistics. So now I’m thinking that I am fitter and faster after all.

Week 2 includes a nice, long tempo session on Wednesday followed by 5 x 1K repeats on Friday and a 20 miler on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it.

Filed under: basebuilding, central park, coaching, racing, recovery, training | 13 Comments »

Winter Basebuilding: Week 1

Posted on November 23, 2008 by threlkeld

09spr-base-01

A few days ago I posted about having hired Kevin Beck as my coach. His first order of business was to come up with a plan to help me rebuild my base. This past week marked my initial foray into this new venture.

I plan and track every day of running in Excel. This enables me to not only see what I’m doing at a glance, but I can do other nifty things, like calculate number of sessions, total mileage, miles at recovery pace, etc. I also keep diary-like notes below each week so I can easily see what was going on over the course of a season.

I’ll just post each week’s sessions (sans the diary entries) here. If anyone would like a copy of this Excel workbook, just let me know and I’d be happy to email it (virus free!) to you. It’s offered “as is,” meaning you’re on your own to figure out how to fill it in or make other changes to it (or fix it if you gum up the formulas). If I wanted to work in software support, I’d move to Bangalore.

Some comments about this week:

As compared to my last basebuilding round in the summer, there are marked differences. Most notably, no doubles! Note also that the recovery runs on a few days are very short. That will change as my mileage builds back up from 60 to 85 over the coming month. The inclusion of longer recovery runs runs counter to advice I’ve read in various places (including Pfitzinger), the “common wisdom” being that you shouldn’t do recovery runs that last more than an hour. Such rules were made to be broken, or at least questioned, it seems.

Also note that, unlike traditional, old school basebuilding approaches (think Lydiard), it’s not all “easy” (or, here, “recovery”) running, meaning below 70% maximum heart rate. I have some real workouts in here, and it’s only week 1. On the blue days, I’m running most of the miles around the quicker bits (ex: 8K effort segments) at a reasonably hard effort, meaning “easy” pace (between 75-82% mhr). These are challenging workouts, as evidenced by my need for a half our nap after Thursday’s effort.

I also am doing strides on one of the recovery days, something I never did in the past.

Despite all the fast running, I felt very fresh and ready for yesterday’s race. I also feel fine after a 16 miler this morning. True, I’m coming off of many weeks of recovery, and the mileage was low this week. But I’m pleased with how I feel and my ability to run faster paces without late-week exhaustion resulting.

Just to fill in all the blanks, here’s a rundown of what I did during my five weeks of post-marathon recovery:

Oct 13-19: 5 miles recovery pace
Oct 20-26: 39 miles, 75% recovery / 25% easy
Oct 27-Nov 2: 42 miles, 50% recovery / 50% easy
Nov 3-9: 48 miles, 40% recovery / 60% easy
Nov 10-16: 35 miles, 40% recovery / 60% easy, and a bonus cold!

Coming up in Basebuilding Week 2: Ten more miles, longer recovery runs, and still more running at 8K and 10K effort. Plus some delicious lamb on Thanksgiving.

Filed under: basebuilding, coaching, recovery, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

I must be almost recovered because…

Posted on October 31, 2008 by threlkeld

…not being able to run more is beginning to really bug me.

Before my fall training kicked into highest gear (and I was exhausted most of the time), I got to really liking running twice a day. The morning run woke me up and got me both energized and relaxed for the rest of the day. The evening run was the day’s reward, during which I cleared out all the detritus that had accumulated in my mind over the preceding 10 or so hours.

Now I’m limited to one measly 6 mile run most days. I do it in the morning so it gets done. It’s also starting to get very dark, very early — a condition that will get worse after Sunday when we turn the clocks back an hour — so I guess it’s time to break out the headlamp for those evening runs.

At first I enjoyed having those aimless hours in the evening; I was still too tired to run more than a few miles anyway, so lying on a couch and reading a book was about the limit of what I could do anyway. Now I resent not being able to go run after work. The extra four pounds I’m carrying around (and the need to watch what I’m eating because I can’t run more miles) is only adding to the frustration. In fact, I’ve stopped drinking completely, since I can’t afford the calories. This is always guaranteed to make me very irritated, especially on the weekend. And, worst of all, my “longest” run on the weekend is laughably short: 10 miles? That’s all? That’s less than 1.5 hours. What will I do with the rest of the morning?

Just a few more weeks of this and then I can go back to running doubles most days and doing nice, long runs on Sundays and Wednesdays again.

I do sound like an addict, don’t I?

Filed under: recovery, training | 4 Comments »

Easing back into running

Posted on October 26, 2008 by threlkeld

I ran every day this week except for Tuesday. I just couldn’t help myself. The weather is wonderfully cool (or even cold) in the morning and the leaves were so colorful this year; they burst into color over the last weekend and now they’re all falling, which is very dramatic on windy days.

I did a wonderful 10 miler this morning. The weather was gorgeous and perfect: sunny with temps around 52 and windy. I ran an average 8:40 pace at 78% heart rate and enjoyed myself immensely. I was truly sorry when the run was over. But it tired me out enough to nap for two hours on the couch after getting through the first few essays in the newish David Sedaris book When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

When I looked at my mileage this week, I could hardly believe it: I ran 39 miles. I hadn’t expected to get back up so quickly, but my legs have felt great and I wasn’t really paying attention to the cumulative mileage as the week wore on. I’ll probably keep it under 55 for the next couple of weeks, then start gradually working the mileage base back up into the 100+mpw range in preparation for starting up training again sometime around mid-January.

It’s nice to have such a long spell between races. The next one isn’t until very late May (that’s assuming we go through with our plans to run Newport, OR next year). I’m not going to do so much hard running during the base period again. Probably just one or two moderate-pace runs a week and the rest very easy. And I’ll probably do some racing for fun and training too, as there are some good ones coming up in the next few months: the Nyack Hospital 10K, the Hot Chocolate 15K, the Manhattan Half Marathon and the Boston Buildup series in CT.

Speaking of running 100+ miles a week, former champion Ingrid Kristiansen and 2008 gold medalist Constantina Tomescu-Dita had some training advice for Paula Radcliffe, who will be 38 when the 2012 Olympics roll around. Paula does not agree. I do, though, at least for myself. I’ll be cutting down on the mileage to average around 75 per week during training. I won’t, however, be having a baby.

Anyway, as for the next week, I have no plan. I will probably run almost every day again, once per day, with quicker running days determined by how I feel.

Filed under: basebuilding, elites, humor, olympics, racing, reading, recovery, training | 2 Comments »

Recovering nicely

Posted on October 22, 2008 by threlkeld

I’m taking a very casual approach to post-marathon recovery this time around. Although I’m loosely following a recovery schedule from Advanced Marathoning, I didn’t run at all for six days post-race, then did five on Sunday and Monday, and seven yesterday, plus a little time on the stationary bike. I ran too many miles too soon and too fast in April; I won’t make that mistake again.

It’s been difficult to run slow, since my legs feel really good and — coupled with the cool weather — it’s a lot of fun to be out running again. But I’ve kept things at avg 70% max heart rate so far. I will do a 10 mile easy run (75-82%) on Sunday, which I’m so looking forward to.

I have gained weight from eating and drinking too much of the wrong things. No surprise there, but it is a little distressing. Hence, the time on the bike. I’ll do a longer ride this evening.

Now that it’s cold, I’ve rediscovered the pleasures of eating oatmeal. I started buying McCann’s Irish Oatmeal from Trader Joe’s. This stuff rocks.

I’ll be planning out my spring training this weekend. I’m pretty much sold on the idea of returning to the plan I used from Advanced Marathoning (the 18 weeks at 70+ mpw plan), with the same modifications I made the first time around. The biggest difference this time around will be that I’ll start out with a much bigger mileage base (100+ mpw vs. 80 mpw last year) and I may shorten the plan to 14 or 16 weeks.

Lots to look forward to.

Filed under: eating, recovery, training | 1 Comment »

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