In Part 1 I described my race. Here I will describe the training I did.
A typical marathon training plan is pretty straightforward. A long run on the weekend that builds in length to a longest run three to four weeks before the race, then a gradual reduction in duration. There is a lot of debate about how long the longest run needs to be. Hal Higden insists that 20 miles is perfect. Others go for 25. A few take the position that running more than the goal race makes the race distance feel easy. During the week a beginner plan will have three days of easy runs, while advanced plans will include some speed work and a couple more foundation runs. Really advanced runners will do two-a-days. The key metric is weekly mileage.
The problem with this approach is getting to the start line healthy. Eighty percent of endurance runners report dealing with a run-related injury. Not being hit by a car, or bitten by a dog, or tripping over a crack in the road. The most common type of running injuries are repetitive stress injuries. Running all those miles, day in and day out. Too many miles, not enough recovery time. And, bad news for me, the older we get, the more recovery time we need.
Why do we run so much? I can think of three reasons. First, to build endurance. Second, to build muscular endurance. And third, to develop skill, to practice the movements of running in order to increase efficiency. What, I hear you ask, is the difference between endurance and muscular endurance? I use these terms the way Joe Friel does, which may or may not be common throughout sports science.
Endurance. The ability to persist or to resist fatigue for a relatively long duration.
Muscular endurance. The ability to produce the required force for the required duration in order to achieve the desired goal.
The quality of endurance is primarily about the cardiovascular system's ability to sustain activity. Doing some form of exercise for a prolonged period of time. Muscular endurance, as the name implies, is about the muscles, but also the nutritional delivery systems that impact how long a muscle can perform.
Endurance is developed by long duration, low intensity workouts. Muscular endurance is developed by moderately high intensity efforts for moderate duration. High intensity workouts often incorporate intervals to increase the total work period by dividing it into manageable sections with recovery in between. Runners often use a tempo run to achieve the same result, running at a pace well below threshold that they can hold for an hour -- their 10K pace -- without any recovery periods.
As we progress from developing endurance to muscular endurance to skill the nature of the work -- the way we move -- becomes increasingly specific to the goal activity. Riding a bike will not do much to improve your running skill. On the other hand, most of the endurance gained on a long, easy bike ride will be just as useful in the run as endurance gained by running. Does it matter? Yes, because long bike rides are much less likely to cause repetitive stress injuries.
I see myself first and foremost as a triathlete. Like many triathletes I also enjoy events in just one sport. I do not consider myself to be a good runner, yet for the last decade I have been just as determined to do run events as triathlons, and the only running event I really care about is the marathon. This year was my seventh. I missed 2013 due to a hernia, and I spent about two years preparing for my first in 2012.
For my early attempts I followed a traditional marathon training plan. Lots of running, little else. It was I think in 2017 that I first tried a blended approach after reading an article about it on TrainingPeaks. The idea was to move much of the long run work to the bike. My finishing times remained unspectacular, but I was in much better position to start training for triathlon after the race. The problem I had with this approach was a complete lack of detailed training advice, much less a plan. I made my own, as best I could, but never was satisfied.
After Honu this year I started thinking about how to train for this year's marathon when it hit me that athletes who do a full Ironman run a marathon. Instead of cooking up my own plan, why not start with a full Ironman plan? Besides, I was curious if I could survive training. I selected an introductory level plan by Matt Fitzgerald, one with a goal of just finishing. I used his 70.3 plan for Honu so I understood how they work. I followed the early base period as written, but after a bit the swims became longer than I could fit into my day, and since I did not need to swim I just did my own swim at the plan time.
Back when I was following traditional running plans I found myself out on the long run for hours and hours. So long that I was useless for most of the following week. It was from this experience I learned that coaches recommend a longest run time of around two and a half hours. They say, with studies to back them up, there is little benefit to going longer, and a much greater risk of injury.
Why did these training plans prescribe runs of four to six hours? They didn't. They are based on distance, not time, and assume the runner has some skills. Consider this: An 18 mile run at an 8:20 pace will take two and a half hours. That would be a 3:38 marathon. Those are the kind of numbers real runners can do. I run at around 18:00, so that 18 mile workout will take me about five and a half hours, and I'll be lucky to be ready to run again the following weekend.
The Fitzgerald Ironman plan I followed began with medium long runs on Saturday and long bikes on Sunday. During the build period both got too long to do back to back, so the long run moved to Thursday. Only that did not work for me because the night before was spin class and I did not want to run on tired legs, so I moved those to Tuesday morning. After the Saturday run reached two hours and moved to Tuesday morning the progression was 2:15, 2:30, rest, 2:40. At the same time the Sunday bike had reached 5:30 and progressed through 5:00, 5:30, 3:00, 6:00. You can see how endurance is being built on the bike, with as much running as possible and still be safe. I am happy to report I arrived at the start line without injury, strong and full of energy.
Throughout this same period the plan called for regular doses of muscular endurance workouts. As a rule this meant running cruise intervals or tempo runs on Tuesday morning and Dorian's spin class on Wednesday afternoon. When the long run moved to Tuesday the speed work was cut back, an example of how workouts become increasing race-like as the race day approaches.
Cycling and running require development of force, the aspect of muscular action that involves strength. To be efficient that strength must be combined with movement skills. These movement skills are best developed by practicing the specific activity. Cyclists need to ride a bike. Runners need to run. Even swimming requires some force development, particularly due to the weakness of the shoulder joint.
Carefully applied strength training in the gym offers a way to develop force specifically required by an activity while significantly reducing the likelihood of overuse injury. If strength sessions are monitored by a physical fitness expert they also provide an opportunity to correct movement flaws. Let me assure you, I have an abundance of flaws, starting with a left leg that wants to turn out like a duck and run without flexing, and a right shoulder that wants to cave in and do the work the back should do. Those are the top two in a long list. Fortunately I can work the the gym twice a week with Dorian Cuccia.
Every athlete will benefit from this type of strength training, but as we age it becomes increasingly important. Muscle development is supported by hormone levels, testosterone in particular. As we age our hormone levels decline. Doing the same workouts at fifty will not produce the same muscle response they did at twenty. Doing two strength sessions a week allows me to develop the strength I need to perform well and an opportunity to correct movement flaws, while avoiding the overuse injuries that are likely to result from struggling to develop strength through more running.
I used an 18 week training plan, which started the week of July 15. Here is my TrainingPeaks Performance Management Chart for that period plus a bit more. The sag in late September is when I had vertigo and had to cut back on my activity.
In a perfect world the conditions would not have been so brutal on race day and I would have a better assessment of how my approach worked. As it is, I cannot say how much of my inability to run was due to the heat and how much was a lack of preparation. At the time, passing outbound through Kahala, I genuinely feared there was something wrong with my heart, because I never felt that way in any of my training. My annual physical is coming up soon and I will discuss this with my doctor. I guess I should consider it a good thing that I made the adjustment, because if I had not, if my heart had not failed me I might have ended up with heat stroke. Nobody wants to end their race in the medical tent.
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