2011 Big D 26.2 Race Report

Before I get too wrapped up, I would like to throw this out there.  My running team - Dallas Running Project has a saying they use all the time before races.  I used to hear them saying it and I would think - "nice title for a motivational poster."  I can now say I not only understand it, I feel I have earned the right to use it...

ALL IN - FOR THE WIN!

Now to the report...
I am not sure where to start here.  I guess I will start at the beginning.

I decided to run this one as a last ditch effort to BQ before the qualifying times drop 5 minutes.  I figured it would still be cool enough as it was still early April.  Big D is a bit notorious for being a slower, tough course.  It is really hilly and wind on the lake can be challenging.  The upside is it is a week before Boston and I was able to sync up training with all my Boston training buddies.

A month before the race, Nick Polito told me he would pace me.  This is a big deal because there are no pace groups in this marathon.

For those that don't know Nick, this organism is not human.  He consistently runs 80-90 miles a week and recently ran a 3 hour at a hot Houston Marathon.  Nick has been a huge mentor and friend for me.  Also, as race week approached, I was thrilled to find out that most of my running friends and family planned to cheer me on around the course.  I estimate over 20 people were cheering for me.  AMAZING!!!!


I feel like I had a great two week taper and was well fueled and completely injury free and fresh at the start.

PHASE I - Mile 1-10
The start was a nice change up from the big mega-marathons where you have waves and corrals.  Basically we just lined up and started.  I was across the start in 8 seconds.

The first few miles ticked off nicely.  I had a new ipod thumpin and ran into a guy I know that was running the 1/2 so we chatted a bit.  There were two big hills on the way to the lake and I was thinking I needed to slow down, but was just feeling really good.  By the 3rd mile, my splits were 7:20 and I was starting to sweat.

I saw My dad and Grant and Jayce working the water stop at Garland Road at mile 4.  That was cool to see Jayce passing out water.  My ipod totally died from sweat shorting it out here so I had to go on "thump free."

Mile 4-6 was super easy at 7:20s with the wind at my back headed north up the east side of White Rock.  I connected with Nick at mile 6 and was glad because I knew I was running too fast and had almost no pace control.  Nick and I chatted a bit and we settled into a 7:30 pace.

At mile 8 I saw Sheri, Mom, my sister Rebecca, and most of my DRP friends.  I think I took my third GU here.  Edgar jumped in and ran a couple miles with us.  Edgar has amazing form and he talked me through the 1/3 mile climb from the lake up to Peavy.

From when I saw Nick to Mile 10, Nick was reeling me in with "Take it easy cowboy" encouragement.

At the end of mile 10 we were still at a 7:20 avg pace and I had 3 minutes in the bank.


I mentally see this point as phase 1 complete.


PHASE 2 - Mile 10-16
Phase 2 is through the hilly neighborhoods to the east of White Rock.

We headed down Peavy which is downhill and really picked up the pace.  I think this was a 7:10.  The next five miles are a long series of gradual ups and downs.  1.5 mile climb up Creekmere.  1 mile down Sinclare.  1 mile up Lippit.  1 mile down Fernald.  Then one last nasty climb up Country Club.  These hills are taxing and we probably went too fast through them.   Nick says we passed about 10 people in this second phase.

We were taking it easy on the uphills and picking it up downhill.  We actually had a 7:00 mile somewhere in there.

It was cool seeing Steve P and Steve H all over the place back in these neighborhoods.

I was feeling great coming down Van Dyke and getting back to the lake at Peavy/Mockingbird.  It seemed like everyone was there cheering.  There is a steep downhill on Buckner and it is nice to clear the legs out a bit at mile 16.

At this point, It had all been fun and games.  I was still feeling strong, but starting to get a little tired.

PHASE 3 - Mile 17-Finish
I knew the wind was going to be a factor when we headed south on the west side of White Rock.  That was a huge understatement.  It was blowing "stink" out there.  My guess is 25+ mph.  It felt harder than hill climbs.  Nick was so cool trying to let me draft him, but I am twice his width and it was only marginally effective.  This went on forever.  Fortunately, we were able to hold 7:40s through here and I remember telling Nick " I have never been happy to get off White Rock before" as we turned onto Tokalon.

This part was easier than I expected.  Going up Tokalon is much more gradual than Lakewood.  It is still hilly but not bad.  Cliff Welch was biking and taking pics.  I got a chuckle because it seemed like he kept catching us at the end of an uphill when we were slowest.

As we crossed Abrams and headed over to Swiss I saw all the DRP guys again.  It seemed like they were everywhere.  Shaheen and Steve gave me bottles and I just dumped them on my head to cool off.

At this point, I was starting to get hot and really tired.  My calves were threatening cramping a bit, so I slowed it down.  Our pace dropped to 7:50s and 8s on Swiss and Haskell, but I still had 3ish minutes in the bank and felt confident that I had the BQ sewn up.  As we approached Fair Park, I saw the gang again and was starting to get a little hazy, but this was mile 24 and you are supposed to be hurting at this point.  I remember my breathing coming up a bit and I was grunting a little.

The finish is tough because you have to run all the way around to the back side of the park.  I was really slipping from mile 25-26.  According to Nick's splits, that mile was an 8:30.  I was starting to get really light headed and just remember locking on to Nick and don't remember anything on the periphery.

Then we turned the last corner and I heard a woman's voice right on my side tell me I had a 1/4 mile to go.  It sounded like Dalton and I thought it was her until she cracked and inside joke about me popping her on the tush and I realized it was Tami Darlington.


PHASE 4 - Last 200 Meters
Then all of a sudden everything stopped.  I mean EVERYTHING.  I don't remember anything from here to the finish.  The anecdotes I have gathered go like this:
1.  I collapsed at 200 out.
2.  Nick and Tami help me up.
3.  I start moving again with a wobbly shuffle and almost fall again.
4.  Nick and Tami support me to the finish line at a walking pace.
5.  I cross the finish and puke on my sister.

PHASE 5 - Recovery

Within a minute, I was rushed to the EMT tent and they went into serious action.  I don't remember the details, but I know I threw up more and my calves totally cramped and they gave me salt (which is the last thing you want  when you are that thirsty).

I think I got the first IV while still in the tent and next thing I know, I am in the Ambulance, in the Baylor ER and getting a lot of attention.  Every Vital was out of whack.  Temp was 102, BP was 70/33, HR was 150+ and I was still sweating like crazy.

After 14 bags of IV fluid, I felt normal again.  The doctor decided to admit me for the night to make sure my kidneys restarted OK. 

This whole incident really freaked Sheri out and she has been by my side the whole time.  Poor thing had to sleep on one of those crappy hospital bed/chairs.

I am typing this on Monday after the race and I am feeling fine.  Nothing is hurting and I am not really that sore.  In fact I got up and stretched for 30 minutes this morning.

RESULTS
I was really surprised to learn that I got 13th overall and 3rd in my age group even after completely falling apart.  Also, I got a PR at 3:23:30.  The bad news is I missed BQ again.

The crazy thing is my GPS says I was at 3:18 at 26.2mi.  It looks like the finish was at 26.47mi at 23:30.  So it took me 5:30 to go .27 miles.  CRAZY!


As it turns out, it was just a really hot day and everyone was slower.  Over 1/2 the field of 700 ran in over
5 hours.  I cannot imagine running in those conditions for 5 hours.




LESSONS LEARNED
I learned that on hot days you cannot set audacious goals.  You have to have a plan B and be willing to back off and live to fight another day.  Nick has been trying to tell me this, but I did not want to hear it.  This race was not just hot (over 80 degrees at finish) but hilly, windy and humid.

I am definitely wiser now.  It is hard to think about running another 26.2 right now, but that always wears off with time.


Cross Post to Martina's Post on The Race



SPECIAL THANKS
 I want to thank so many people for cheering me on yesterday and especially Nick the "Pace Master".
-Sheri
-Blake
-Grant
-Jayce
-Mom
-Dad
-Rebecca
-Dalton
-Shaheen
-Steve P
-Steve H
-Elizabeth & Todd
-Tami
-Rick
-Edgar
-Reed
-Matt T
-Martina
-Jen
-Dan


Special thanks to Cliff Welch for the amazing pictures at the finish.  I will look back at those before every future race to do a sanity check.

Plus all the well wishers at work and FB and email.

Rock n Roll 1/2 Race Report

I went into this one with 2 goals:

• PR - Accomplished
• Sub 1:30 - Accomplished

I had an important third goal.  I started the race injury free and needed to stay that way for the marathon BQ attempt in 2 weeks.

I can pretty  much say that this was the best race of my life.  Not only do I feel like I crushed it, I felt absolutely fantastic the whole way and was giddy after about mile 8 when I hit the downhill run to the finish because I knew then that I "had it in the bag."

Here is me at Mile 11 having a ball:

The weather was absolutely perfect.  50 degrees and overcast.  Tech shirt was perfect.  Very cold at finish though.

We did a 1.5 mile warm-up with strides before the race.

I started with Dalton and we sent out pretty strong.  The first real hills start about mile 2.5 and I felt great and decided to keep the sub 7 pace until I got cardio constrained or some kind of muscle issue cropped up.  Neither happened.  I made it to Mockingbird at around a 6:55 avg pace and was not breathing hard.

Nick, Sunny, Josh and Shaheen's sister were cheering everyone on and I saw them 4 times.  I also saw Jen, Dan Tracy, Sheri and Blake and Matt and Ken.  All the cheering makes a huge difference in attitude.

The last 6 miles were a breeze in the 6:30s.  I barely felt winded and my form stayed clean.

I really picked it up rolling into fair park and was seriously in the 5s for the last 800-900 meters.

Dalton and I ran 1.5 miles after the race to loosen back up.  I felt loose and energetic all afternoon.

This was a nutrition test for the marathon - Oatmeal before and GU during.  Perfect.  I only did 1/2 cup oatmeal and one GU though.  Also, I hauled ass through the water stops using the squeeze technique.

I was pumped to see Scott Rosa run a beautiful 2:07 first 1/2 and just be ecstatic about his future in running.

Although the splits look even, the energy expenditure was much higher in the first half due to the uphill.  I really like this course, because when you hit that downhill, you know it is easy sailing to the finish...

I finished 12th in age group, 116 overall out of about 11,000 runners and 99th out of the men.

1	6:59
2	6:46
3	6:52
4	6:44
5	6:57
6	6:53
7	6:49
8	6:54
9	6:44
10	6:32
11	6:42
12	6:32
13	6:35
14	1:37

Close Call?

I went out for our weekly Wednesday hill run last week.  We have started doing a 12 mile double loop which adds more hills and basically eliminates the warm up and cood down.  On the second loop, I really put the hammer down and was having a big time surging up the ascents with Steve Phiffner (one of the fastest guys I know).  On the last surge up Flagpole Hill, I was really going for it and at the top of the hill, my calf tweaked.  I stopped immediately and did not try to run any further. 

I have not felt this calf pain since last year.  I lived with it most of the year last year and I hate it because although I can run through it, it puts a governer on my speed and I generally cannot go faster than a 7 min pace.

This sucks because I have been healthy since the new year and I was trying hard to keep it that way.  I took Thursday off and ran a really slow 9 mile loop on Friday.  It did not hurt too bad on Friday, but I took Saturday off as well and did Chest and Back.

Today I took it out for a real test drive.  I started at 5AM and went almost 22 miles.  About 10 of those were sub 8s and 6 were sub 7:30s.  My calf was sore (read dull pain), but not tweaky.  I was listening really closely and never let it get close.

Chris Strait gave me a pair of compression socks and I have been wearing them all day and I can tell a huge difference in recovery.

When something like this happens, you have three choices:
1.  Be stupid and keep running too hard and get really injured.  I did that last year.
2.  Stop running and let it rest, but risk loosing some fitness.  This is a bad idea 4 weeks out from the Marathon.
3.  Keep running, but stretch like crazy (yoga), eat lots of protien, and listen very closely and keep the speed well within the safety zone.

I am trying #3 and so far so good.  We will see how things play out with hills, and a little more speed work this week.

Big D Marathon - Next BQ Attempt due to Qualifier Rule Changes

The new Boston Qualification rules totally messed up my marathon plans this year.  I signed up for Chicago for my next BQ attempt.  But now, with the new rules, that race will fall into the 2013 qualification cycle and I will need to run a 3:15 to qualify there.  If I run a marathon before september, I need a 3:20 to qualify.

SO....  I needed a new race.  Anything past early April was probably going to be too late to to higher temperatures.  Also, I am watching my fitness expenses and connot afford to fly to two marathons this year.

The decision came down to either Oklahoma city on May 1 or Dig D on April 10.  If I did OKC, I would not be able to do Centennial 1/2 and it will probably be hot.

SO...  Big D it is. 

The Pros:

1. The race is close enough that I can really focus on it
2. RnR 1/2 will be a great sharpening race two weeks before
3. I know the area and the course well
4. I do not have to travel
5. It is a smaller race so I will not be fighting crowds too much

The Cons:

1. I have been working on middle distance and speed lately and have only a few weeks to dial in longer distance
2. The weather could still be hot
3. The course is hilly and I will still have to battle the "Dolly Partons" at the end

 Regardless, I am now committed and here is my plan for the next 6 weeks:

NEXT 3 WEEKS:

• Sundays run 20ish
• Recovery loop on Tuesdays instead of track. 
  
• Slower on hills on Wed (8:15 pace). 
• Hard on Tempo on Thursday. 
• Target weekly mileage at 50 miles.

RnR

• Three Day Taper (take off Tempo)
• Race RnR 1/2 hard on the 27th.

Train med-hard week after RnR - Target 35 Miles

Taper week of 4th - Target 13 Miles (not including Marathon)

The only thing I need to overcome (other than staying injury free) is this light headedness I get at mile 19-20.  It hit me hard yesterday.  I know I underfueled yesterday.  I want to do some experimenting next week.  I am going to try oatmeal and raisins before the run and then alternate between GU and bananas every 3 miles. 

Hardening

A few of my running buddies talk about hardening every now and then.  Usually it is in the context of trying to get folks to show up for sub 20degree or rainy runs.  For a long time, I have to admit that I did not really understand this whole thing and chalked it up to machismo.  Shoot, just going out and running in good conditions felt pretty tough to me. 

Lately, deliberately developing mental hardness is starting to make sense. 

This winter, we have had a long series of really cold runs.  Until today, I don't think I have run in above freezing temps in several weeks and some of those runs have been in the teens.  Also, on longer runs, I am not taking water breaks like I used to.  In fact, the last two 13 + mile runs have been waterless.  Not a drop.  If you told me I would run a 1/2 marathon without water a year ago, I would have told you that was just stupid.

The last hardening factor is sustained speed on long runs.  The last three or four DRP long runs have been some of the strongest of my life.  On Sunday DRP long runs, I get that race feeling - 1/2 dread - 1/2 excitement.  I know I am going to push myself and hurt a little, but will also grab another gear.  Doing this repetitively for many weeks has made a huge physical difference, but more importantly, I feel like it is giving me a mental edge.

So, where is all this going?  I hypothesize that this mental toughness will pay off in a big way in races.  Last year, I think I would mentally sych myself out way too easily and back off if I was fatigued, thirsty, cold or discouraged.

Right now, I feel like I have a new mental fortitude that I really want to test in a race.  At the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon, I am going to really go for it and try to run a sub 1:30.  That is just a number, but to get there is going to take some real mental focus and will require me to push through the "hurdles" that held me back last year.  I am really looking forward to mile 11 and being on pace target and getting a chance to throw down two last 6:45s and just crush my goal.

If it happens, it will not be about the physical shape I am in, it will be all about mental hardness.

Chris M is as great a presenter as writer...

I almost forgot about Insanity

Sheri and I did Insanity Max Cardio Circuit today.  It kicked both of our butts.  I think it is good to sub this out for a run because it works some of the lateral muscles and stabilizers that pure running doesn't.

Chicago Marathon

Just registered for the 2011 Chicago Marathon!  October 9, 2011 is going to be a day to remember.  1500ish miles from now I hope to be prepared for a solid Boston Qualification.

Slow Carb Diet

I hit 200 lbs about a year ago and have not been able to get any leaner.  I would like to get in the 8% BF range and hold it for running efficiency and because it looks really good.  They say every pound you take off is a minute off your marathon.  I figure I have about 10 lbs I can drop and that should get me near 3:10.  So.  I am back on a lean, protien centric diet.  I have been looking for something simple that I could experiment with and last week I tripped on the new "Four Hour Body" book.  Tim has developed a very simple "slow carb" diet that is basically just protiens, veggies and beans six days a week and then a full on Bacchus level cheat day.

Sheri is doing it too.  I will check in in two weeks and see if it has unlocked my frustrating plateau.

Day: 26, Calories: 1620, P90X Shoulders & Arms

Log Entry

Daily Note: Kinda taking a week off running. Seeing vessels in arms again. Must be back around 10%

Nutrition

1620 Calories 2 X 6 egg whites | 200 cals 2 X 2 slices turkey bacon | 200 cals Pizza 700 1 X 8 oz. non fat plain yogurt | 120 cals 1 X 1 medium apple | 100 cals 1 X 1 oz. nuts | 200 cals 1 X 1 medium apple | 100 cals

Workout

P90X Shoulders & Arms Status: Completed Worked out with Skip. He puked. Oh yea!!!!

Workout

P90X Ab Ripper Status: Completed

The Dare

I want to throw down a little smack tonight. I am going to dare you to do some things. If you just take on two to three of these as a challenge your life will be better for it.

I Dare You To:
1. Go to bed without watching TV and try to be asleep by 10 pm.
2. Get up by 5 am and finish your workout by 6:30
3. Make breakfast the biggest meal of your day
4. Ruthlessly seek out protien and treat white carbs like poison
5. Try a new workout variant every week - yoga variant, focused resistance, running model (speed, distance, hills), core, skiing, p90X, Crossfit, whatever
6. Challenge a buddy - make a bet on weight loss or race time or some other common goal and hold them accountable.
7. Find a running group and make them your pre dawn family a couple times a week.
8. Enter a race and plan to run a PR at least two times this year.
9. Test conventional wisdom. Will running make you skinny? Is fat bad? is it all about calories?
10. Force yourself to take a rest day once a week.
11. Pig out once a week ( not on the rest day ).
12. Write down everything you eat ( except on pig out day ).
13. Start a fitness blog and tell everyone about it.
14. Don't let bad days derail you for more than 5 minutes - ever
15. Figure out the big thing that is driving your fitness plans and write it somewhere you will see every day.
16. Make it a habit to spend your first waking minute in bed convincing your self that this will likely be the best day of your life. Assume that nothing will get in your way to having a phenomenal day.
17. Stop hanging out with negative people. Find positive people and use and feed them.
18. Say something encouraging and nice to someone every day (even if you do not like them)
19. Make it your mission to learn something meaningful every day. Ask dumb questions. Read. Read more.
20. Figure out your SO's love language and talk to her in that language at least once a day. The 5 love languages are - touch, quality time, gifts, service and encouraging words
21. Stop watching TV. There's nothing but little people making chocolate and hoarding 19 kids at Sarah Palin's Alaska anyhow.
22. Cook something. Try to make it yummy.
23. Patiently Learn a new hard skill like guitar, programming, woodworking, sailing, public speaking, knitting, painting, etc...


That's a good starting list. I will add more as I think of them.

Lactate Threshold Analysis from Craig Walker - A Lot To Digest

Here is my run data from this morning:


Here is Craig's Analysis:

Mike,

To calculate LT, we use the pace from the entire 30 minutes and your average HR for the last 20 minutes. The reason for this is it sometimes takes a few minutes for your HR to climb up to the threshold, so we allow a 10 min buffer where your HR may be lower. We want the higher (generally) number that you get from the final 20 minutes. I say that's generally higher because there are times where the first 10 min will have a higher HR than the next 20. I'm a good example of that. When I did this test, my 10 min HR was 180, but the 20 min rate was 179. That's close, but still lower. Interestingly, my 20 min pace was 15 seconds faster than the 10 min pace, even though my HR was lower.

Anyway, for you, let's use an LT HR of 165 and pace of 6:42. Because you were so consistent today, we have pretty good number for pace. HR might really be 164, but we'll do 165 for now. It's close enough that it won't make too much of a difference.

When you look at the spreadsheet, sometimes you have to adjust the math a little where the zones overlap. I've done that for you here. You'll sometimes get the same number for the high of one zone and low of another. Or sometimes there are two beats between zones. I just round up the high and make the low of the next zone one more beat than the previous zone's high. Here's what we have for you.

Zones – LT HR 165

	LOW	HIGH
ZONE 1	100	140
ZONE 2	141	148
ZONE 3	149	156
ZONE 4	157	164
ZONE 5a	165	169
ZONE 5b	170	175
ZONE 5c	176

Paces — LT Pace 6:42

	SLOWEST	FASTEST
ZONE 1		08:38.6
ZONE 2	07:38.3	08:34.6
ZONE 3	07:06.1	07:34.3
ZONE 4	06:38.0	07:02.1
ZONE 5a	06:29.9	06:42.0
ZONE 5b	06:01.8	06:25.9
ZONE 5c	06:01.8

So what's this mean?

It means when you are doing zone training, you want to keep your HR average for each mile within the range for the targeted zone. At the start of a training season (like right now), you spend about 6-8 weeks doing base building. 90% of all your runs during this time should be done in zone 1. So for you, you'll want to keep your HR at 140 or below mile after mile. The "pace" chart is a little more nebulous. It's really a guideline, rather than a rule. What the pace chart mean is, in general, when you are in zone 1, you'll be running 8:38 or slower. Zone 2, you'll run between 7:38-8:34. As you know, there are A LOT of variables that determine your pace for a particular day. With perfect weather and being well rested, you may find you are running 8:15 or faster and still have your HR below 140. That's perfectly OK. HR is the driver; pace is just a predicted range. Always run your HR, regardless what pace that works out to be. Many times it will be faster than what the chart predicts. If you are tired, sick, hot, etc, you may find yourself struggling to hold a 9:00 pace while keeping your HR at 140. That's OK too. Just run HR; it NEVER lies.

So why do you care?

You've probably read and heard a lot about VO2max. This is maximum volume of oxygen the body can deliver to working muscles per minute. It's a great measure of how "efficient" your body is working. Many people mistake VO2max as the holy grail measure of how fit you are. But although VO2max IS a clear measure of fitness, it's a poor measure of performance. By itself, knowing your VO2max will do little to help you in your training. If you line up a bunch of elite athletes and only have their VO2max number as a data point, it would be impossible to predict the winner.

This is where the LT comes into the picture. Lactate threshold is defined as the intensity of exercise at which lactate begins to accumulate in the blood at a faster rate than it can be removed. This is problematic because as a result, unbuffered acid is added to the blood, a condition that makes you feel like you have to vomit and stop right away. With knowledge of your LT, you can fairly accurately predict your finish time for any given race because you know exactly what your body is capable of sustaining before your heart and brain shut you down. With the information you gave me today, I can predict if you were to run Too Cold this weekend, the perfect race for you would be to target 156 HR putting you at about a 7:05 pace. You'd finish in 1:06. Of course, there are factors that could skew that a little, but it would really close.

That's all well and good, but our goal is more than understanding where we are; we want to get faster. Well you know one key piece to that puzzle. MILES ARE KING! If you run more miles, you WILL get faster. But here's the thing… When you start running 50, 60… 80 miles a week, you are putting A LOT of stress on your body. And in order to get the most benefit from your next workout, you need to be fully recovered from the last. Your HR is your barometer. If you are not fully recovered, your HR will be elevated. Slow down and stay in your zones so you don't do more damage. Once you start training in an unrecovered state, a snowball effect takes over and you are essentially logging junk miles.

GAINS ARE MADE DURING RECOVERY NOT TRAINING!

That last sentence is something people rarely understand. People think if they kill it on a training run they'll get stronger. But the truth is training runs make you weaker by destroying muscle fibers. Your strength comes from these fibers rebuilding themselves shorter and stronger than they were before. If this process is not complete when you go out and do another hard run, you just wasted the benefit of the earlier session. Much like with children where growth occurs at night when they are asleep, runners get stronger and faster when resting and recovering.

Build a better engine.

So we know we want to run more miles, and we know we want to be recovered between sessions. What else can we do to get faster? Well, just like your internet connection will be faster if you increase your bandwidth pipe, you will run faster, if you can increase the blood flow to your muscles. There are three ways to do this. The first is obvious. Run faster. When you do, your HR increases and blood is pumped faster. The problem with this is we want our HR lower, not faster, because the faster your HR is, the quicker you are to tire. So how can we deliver more blood to our muscles without increasing our HR. The answer is we increase the size of our heart and increase the stroke volume of blood pumped through it. These two items combined are what give that elite athlete the ability to go on an "easy" 7:00 run with you and keep their HR down in zone 1 (for them), while you are struggling to keep up because you are in zone 4.

The irony here is the only way to increase the size of your heart so you can run faster is to run slower. Weird, huh? But it's true. When you run in zone 2 or above, your heart is working in a capacity to keep up with demand. When you run in zone 1, though, your heart has some extra time on its hands. If you could hear your heart thinking, it might sound like "Huh, this guy keeps running and asking me to deliver more blood. I'm really built for walking, and I think he might do this running thing again. I think I'll do some upgrades." So your heart starts expanding and increasing its capacity to deliver blood more efficiently. This is also one of the reasons your resting HR plummets as you get more fit. As stroke volume increases, you simply don't need as many pumps to get what you need. That's all really good stuff, but the only way to do it is to run in zone 1.

So… Use your zones. Every run should have a purpose. The bulk of your early season miles should be base building, heart expanding, stroke volume increasing zone 1 miles. Each week, you might sprinkle in one tempo zone 2 (or really low zone 3) workout, but everything else should be zone 1. Then when you are about eight weeks from your race, you start running a little more in zones 2 and 3. Marathon pace is in zone 3 for most people. If you look at the chart, you'll see the predicted paces for your zone 3. You goal marathon pace is at the slower end of zone 3. That's great! It means you are more likely to actually achieve your goal. When you start that tuning phase eight weeks out, you will add longer stretches of zone 2 and 3 to your long run. You still have that tempo each week, and everything else… Still zone 1. Finally, about four or five weeks out, you start sharpening (speed work). This is when you get serious on the track and push into zones 4 and 5. These workouts are short in duration because you are really tearing up your body and still have that requirement of being fully recovered before the next workout. Luckily, if you back off your zone 1 max 5-10 bpm, you can benefit from Active Recovery, meaning you are running and recovering at the same time. You get the best of both worlds if you are disciplined enough to slow down and do it.

I know all of this is a lot to digest. It's hard to slow down. And it's counter-intuitive to think you can get faster while running slower. Elite athletes will tell you, though, that 99% of people run their easy runs to fast and their fast runs to slow. There is a time for running fast; it's in the sharpening phase. But you CAN NOT build capacity/endurance and speed at the same time. Speed is easy to get. That's why the phase is so short and close to your goal race. The rest of your training should be focused on upgrading that engine so when the time comes to ask it to work at full capacity, you are have more to work with. 

When people say they just don't get it, my challenge is to just try it for one season. You're only investing one marathon season, 16-20 weeks. I've never heard anyone who gave it an honest shot report they didn't have the best season of their career. For most, once you start training this way, you think it's ridiculous to train any other way. Especially as we get older, our heart is an ideal governor of effort. We're getting too old to simply muscle through. At some point, injury or worse (eg: heart attack) will happen. Your heart will not lie to you or steer you wrong. Listen to it, and I promise you'll be rewarded. Good Luck! I'm happy to answer any questions.

Craig

ps: I'm currently reading a pretty good book on all of this. As with most books, I don't subscribe to 100% of what the author says, but for the most part, it's inline with what I've learned elsewhere. The author is a well know triathlete coach who's been doing sport science for 40 years. It's an easy read and does a good job of explaining when, why and how to use each zone.

Total Heart Rate Training: Customize and Maximize Your Workout Using a Heart Rate Monitor

Joe Friel

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569755620/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1F1P3TE1603Z73ZHFEM4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Guys perform better with an audience...

Heavy Legs on the wall at the airport...

The agent thought I was nuts.

2011 BQ strategy

The science of running has come a long way, but it has an even longer way to go before it replaces the art of running.

Great Article on listening to your body before the Heart Rate monitor.

I have a lot to learn here.

Hill Work

I did 10.6 miles of hills this morning. The start was a balmy 22deg F. The first hill is at mile 2.5 and then they keep coming every 1/2 mile or so. I really hammered the first one and felt great so I kept pushing thinking I would have to back off and didn't. I have not been able to do that since well before the marathon. About 5 miles in, I was toasty warm and breathing hard. 

Here is the Garmin data:



Everything I am reading including "Advanced Marathoning", "Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon", "Barefoot Running" all say run hills.  There is a lot of debate about speed, tempo, LSD, weights, yoga, stretching, rolling, etc.  What I have found no debate on is hills.  Everyone says run hills.  The benefits include:

- Building strength in legs and core
- Building cardio endurance and upping the lactate threshold
- Burning tons of calories
- Solidifies mental confidence in handling hills in races

The most important benefit of consistently running hills is injury prevention.  Runners that only run on flat and do not do strength training or hill runs are much more susceptible to injury.  Matt Fitzgerald ("Run Faster...") coaches many elite runners and says the key to helping most of these runners grab the next gear was hills.

I can't say that I understand all of the science, but I know it is helping and if it can prevent injury then I am a fan!

On Speed

One of my goals this spring is to get faster. I was surprised at the Jingle Bell 5K that I was not faster than 20 min. I know I was still in marathon recovery, but I felt like I should have been 20-30 seconds faster.

Over the last four weeks, I have been doing track work on Tuesdays. 600, 800, and 1000 M repeats. At first this was tough, but it is become one of my favorite workouts. Today we did 800s and I felt strong. I think was under 6 min pace and although I was breathing hard, I felt more controlled than before. Also, I have been very careful not to pull anything by doing good warm ups and cool downs.

I have not had a chance to test myself in a race yet and really want to try out a 10K to see where I am now. I will target one in the next couple weeks.

I guess it is time to get the book...

Health Tips from PX90 Creator: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Eating Experiment Failed - Back to writing it down.

For a month now, I have not been writing down what I eat and just trying to maintain eating discipline.  Even while running 30-40 mile weeks and doing some cross training, I have gained weight.  I am back up to 205ish.  That is not a lot, but is enough to show that I cannot slip.  If I continued at that rate, I would be back to 270 by end of 2011.  No thanks.

So...  I guess I will just have to keep writing down what I am eating.  I am not going to blog it, but will just track it on my iPhone app.  I should be back under 200 in 2-3 weeks and then I will just have to keep logging.  I guess that is a small price to pay for staying fit. 

On a brighter note, my three 2011 runs so far have been high quality and pain free.  This has really upped my confidence in grabbing a new gear in the next couple months.