When I started to get seriously into swimming I was at a loss to interpret the jargon used by swim coaches to specify workouts. Things like this were as meaningful to me as a doctor's prescription.
300 smooth pull or swim:15 sec rest
200 2(50 fast heavy on legs,50 ez) :15 sec rest
100 change stroke ea. 25
4x25's fast heavy on legs or kick
4x50's add :10 sec #1 stay on pace
4x75 add :15 sec # 1 stay on pace
I have a bit more experience with running. Here is this morning's strides workout:
5 min 1Z
5 min 2Z
6 x (30 sec 4Z/1:30 1Z)
5 min 2Z
5 min 1Z
32 min
To put this into a really practical context, I start this workout on Kilauea Avenue close to the Aloha gas station, after getting a sip of water at the professional building next to the church preschool. I run on the east sidewalk headed south. The route is slightly downhill, which simplifies warming up. Five minutes gets me to a spot just past the elementary school where I can slip into Kahala Park, so the second half of the ten minute warmup period is spent running across the huge grass playing field. The plan says to bring HR up into zone 2, but I like to keep ramping up gradually so that I am at or close to zone 3 for the start of the interval set.
I do the six repeats running in a large oval or sometimes a meandering path on the grass. The outfield of the big baseball field is always good as it is well maintained; just don't step on the dirt. At my age, the recovery interval, ninety seconds in zone 1, is best done walking. The idea is to bring the HR down and give the legs a good rest before the next hard effort.
Wherever I end up on the field when the reps are done I head for the narrow entry point, out onto the sidewalk, and head back up towards the Aloha gas station. Somewhere along the way I get to the last line, five minutes in zone 1, and I continue running at a very easy pace even if my HR stays up a bit in zone 2. If there is time left I divide by two, turn around and run back towards the park, then turn around again until time runs out.
My point is that those five cryptic lines unpack into a while bunch of details that I could not have known the first few times I did it. I know I can vary the repeated section any way I want, because it all happens on the playing field and as long as I include ten minutes on either side I have plenty of time to get there and back. I have a similar arrangement for hill intervals, also on Kilauea but up at the mauka end past Wilson Elementary, where it kicks up between five and ten percent.
I used to have to write this stuff on my arm with a ball point pen until I learned how to program workouts like this into my Garmin FR610. I can do it directly on the watch, or I can do it at the Garmin Connect web site and download the workout to the watch. Here is a video on YouTube that describes the process. I just wish the text display were larger, as my tired old eyes have a hard time seeing some of the detail, especially in the dark like it was this morning.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
I once was a hippy
Those who know me well should not be surprised that at Kailua High School in 1967 I was one of the leaders of the counter-culture movement generally referred to as hippies. The summer before my senior year I let my hair grow long and I stopped shaving. Naturally at that age a summer growth of facial hair produced little more than peach fuzz, but at the time it was a radical statement.
It was a confusing time for me. As much as I liked Bob Dylan and Canned Heat and that crazy San Francisco scene, I also loved cars and hung out with greasers -- local slang for hot rodders. Then there was the classical music and the jazz and the Indian music. All very complicated.
Lately my life has gotten even more complicated. I have gone from hippies and hipsters to the pursuit of greater hip mobility. Not to be confused with upward mobility. Nothing philosophical or cultural about it. Just plain, simple body motion. Never in my wildest dreams did I see myself becoming athletic, yet here I am, enjoying myself just as much as I did playing in the Honolulu Symphony, or jazz with Dave and Ken Wild, or studying sitar with Nikhil Banerjee.
Last year I was working on increasing my running cadence. I had learned from a number of sources that a faster cadence (stride rate, SR) increases efficiency and reduces the risk of injury. A value of 90 or better foot strikes per minute is a reasonable goal. For musicians, a classic march tempo is 120 and each foot hits the ground on a beat, left-right-left-right ... so for runners that would be a cadence of 60BPM. I was getting up to around 85BPM last fall when my hernia derailed my marathon plans. Back then I noticed two limiting factors. First, my feet just did not want to go that fast. Second, my heart rate (HR) would go really high.
This past winter I followed Matt Fitzgerald's Intermediate Half-Marathon training plan. He specifies nearly all long runs to be done in zone 2, and I could never get above 80BPM without my HR going up into zone 3. I ended up doing some speed work on weekday mornings when a little high intensity is not going to cause problems, and tried my best to throttle back my Sunday morning runs along Kalanianaole to stay in zone 2. I was very happy with my result at the Hapalua Half Marathon in April. My average pace was 14:07, average HR was 136 (mid zone 3) and average cadence was 82BPM. Better still, my peak 60 minutes cadence was 84 and my peak 5 minutes was 86. (Training Peaks gives me all that sort of data.)
So I was getting faster, but that 90BPM goal still seemed out of reach. With this year's marathon training staring me in the face I decided to ask an expert. I posted this question to Bobby McGee's Facebook page:
I want to increase my cadence from around 83 to 86-90. When I run at the higher cadence my HR goes high. Will strides improve this? What else do you recommend and how often per week?
Yesterday I received an answer. From Bobby himself! How cool is that? It is very long and detailed and I am not going to repeat it here, only some excerpts:
Music to my ears when someone wants to improve their cadence! Remember running speed is SR (stride rate/cadence) times SL (stride length). Stride length is more variable than stride rate & is at the “mercy” of ROM (range of motion), leg length (especially relative to torso length) & elastic power. Stride rate (cadence) increases, (or should increase) with speed, but remain within a certain bandwidth so to speak. Runners with really low velocities, (slower than 11min per mile) can have stride rates just less than 80 steps per minute with 1 leg. Faster though & we are looking at 82/84 plus as being “healthy” lower limb-saving cadence.
Did you catch that part about really low velocities? He's talking slower than 11 and I am at 14. I'm a turtle! But he is correct, my cadence used to be around 78 and only got above 80 after a lot of hard work. Also, don't overlook his mention of ROM.
An increase in stride rate should not be pursued as a primary objective – i.e. cognitively trying to move up your stride rate is just about an exercise in futility – you’ll become inefficient, feel uncomfortable, get tired & may even injure yourself.
Putting yourself into a position where a higher stride rate is a response to correct posture, rhythm & movement is crucial. An increased stride rate must be a reaction, not an action to improved running dynamics.
I find this to be a fascinating challenge, because what he says is so mysterious. I know my posture and movement has been abysmal, and that I am improving thanks to a lot of helpful coaching.
Midfoot strikers can actually drive their foot down under themselves a little quicker, dabbing at the surface with a stiff ankle, knee & hip – this increases spring loading & rapid return of the knee to the front (if they have the range of motion to get that thigh far back enough).
Lastly the shorter the lever of the leg is when it is returned to the front after toe off, the quicker the cadence. So great runners actually get their heels either in contact with their butts or damn near it when at speed. The lever length thus of the leg until the heel passes under the pelvis is only as long as the femur. Even slow running requires that our shin be at least parallel as our heel comes under our pelvis. A prerequisite to achieve this is having the rhythm & hip mobility to do so. I spend a LOT of time working on hip mobility with my athletes.
One of my favorite running reads is Anatomy for Runners: Unlocking Your Athletic Potential for Health, Speed, and Injury Prevention, by Jay Dicharry. I think it is time to re-read this book, especially chapter 9, "Assessment and Development of the Athlete Within -- Redefining the Body You've Come to Know and Love." Jay lists three attributes a running must have; notice in particular what is #1:
He follows this with a set of mobility assessment tests and corrective actions. Test #3 is Hip extension, and that is where I expect to be spending a lot of time over the next two months.
It was a confusing time for me. As much as I liked Bob Dylan and Canned Heat and that crazy San Francisco scene, I also loved cars and hung out with greasers -- local slang for hot rodders. Then there was the classical music and the jazz and the Indian music. All very complicated.
Lately my life has gotten even more complicated. I have gone from hippies and hipsters to the pursuit of greater hip mobility. Not to be confused with upward mobility. Nothing philosophical or cultural about it. Just plain, simple body motion. Never in my wildest dreams did I see myself becoming athletic, yet here I am, enjoying myself just as much as I did playing in the Honolulu Symphony, or jazz with Dave and Ken Wild, or studying sitar with Nikhil Banerjee.
Last year I was working on increasing my running cadence. I had learned from a number of sources that a faster cadence (stride rate, SR) increases efficiency and reduces the risk of injury. A value of 90 or better foot strikes per minute is a reasonable goal. For musicians, a classic march tempo is 120 and each foot hits the ground on a beat, left-right-left-right ... so for runners that would be a cadence of 60BPM. I was getting up to around 85BPM last fall when my hernia derailed my marathon plans. Back then I noticed two limiting factors. First, my feet just did not want to go that fast. Second, my heart rate (HR) would go really high.
This past winter I followed Matt Fitzgerald's Intermediate Half-Marathon training plan. He specifies nearly all long runs to be done in zone 2, and I could never get above 80BPM without my HR going up into zone 3. I ended up doing some speed work on weekday mornings when a little high intensity is not going to cause problems, and tried my best to throttle back my Sunday morning runs along Kalanianaole to stay in zone 2. I was very happy with my result at the Hapalua Half Marathon in April. My average pace was 14:07, average HR was 136 (mid zone 3) and average cadence was 82BPM. Better still, my peak 60 minutes cadence was 84 and my peak 5 minutes was 86. (Training Peaks gives me all that sort of data.)
So I was getting faster, but that 90BPM goal still seemed out of reach. With this year's marathon training staring me in the face I decided to ask an expert. I posted this question to Bobby McGee's Facebook page:
I want to increase my cadence from around 83 to 86-90. When I run at the higher cadence my HR goes high. Will strides improve this? What else do you recommend and how often per week?
Yesterday I received an answer. From Bobby himself! How cool is that? It is very long and detailed and I am not going to repeat it here, only some excerpts:
Music to my ears when someone wants to improve their cadence! Remember running speed is SR (stride rate/cadence) times SL (stride length). Stride length is more variable than stride rate & is at the “mercy” of ROM (range of motion), leg length (especially relative to torso length) & elastic power. Stride rate (cadence) increases, (or should increase) with speed, but remain within a certain bandwidth so to speak. Runners with really low velocities, (slower than 11min per mile) can have stride rates just less than 80 steps per minute with 1 leg. Faster though & we are looking at 82/84 plus as being “healthy” lower limb-saving cadence.
Did you catch that part about really low velocities? He's talking slower than 11 and I am at 14. I'm a turtle! But he is correct, my cadence used to be around 78 and only got above 80 after a lot of hard work. Also, don't overlook his mention of ROM.
An increase in stride rate should not be pursued as a primary objective – i.e. cognitively trying to move up your stride rate is just about an exercise in futility – you’ll become inefficient, feel uncomfortable, get tired & may even injure yourself.
Putting yourself into a position where a higher stride rate is a response to correct posture, rhythm & movement is crucial. An increased stride rate must be a reaction, not an action to improved running dynamics.
I find this to be a fascinating challenge, because what he says is so mysterious. I know my posture and movement has been abysmal, and that I am improving thanks to a lot of helpful coaching.
Midfoot strikers can actually drive their foot down under themselves a little quicker, dabbing at the surface with a stiff ankle, knee & hip – this increases spring loading & rapid return of the knee to the front (if they have the range of motion to get that thigh far back enough).
Lastly the shorter the lever of the leg is when it is returned to the front after toe off, the quicker the cadence. So great runners actually get their heels either in contact with their butts or damn near it when at speed. The lever length thus of the leg until the heel passes under the pelvis is only as long as the femur. Even slow running requires that our shin be at least parallel as our heel comes under our pelvis. A prerequisite to achieve this is having the rhythm & hip mobility to do so. I spend a LOT of time working on hip mobility with my athletes.
One of my favorite running reads is Anatomy for Runners: Unlocking Your Athletic Potential for Health, Speed, and Injury Prevention, by Jay Dicharry. I think it is time to re-read this book, especially chapter 9, "Assessment and Development of the Athlete Within -- Redefining the Body You've Come to Know and Love." Jay lists three attributes a running must have; notice in particular what is #1:
- Enough mobility to get the leg behind you in stance.
- Stability of the core, hips, and foot to maintain posture and optimize transfer of energy.
- Strength and power from the glute to drive the body up and forward.
He follows this with a set of mobility assessment tests and corrective actions. Test #3 is Hip extension, and that is where I expect to be spending a lot of time over the next two months.
Monday, August 4, 2014
Random thoughts
They seriously have to make this blogging thing more idiot proof. Is there perhaps an old persons version? Kind of like that cell phone for old folks that have the really big buttons and call only certain numbers?
As I plogged along this morning, I realized that unlike many of the people I started training with for the Tinman triathlon some 10 years ago, I have not aspired to do a half ironman or even thought about an ironman. My only thought while I was in the midst of my first Tinman was that the next time I have a midlife crisis, I'm getting that red sports car. I was obviously not listening to my inner Maxine. I never got the red sports car but did get a titanium bicycle.
Until last year, I managed to cut my tri efforts to the Na Wahine swim and spin which made me soooo happy since I despise running. Then it, I was selected as a YMX ambassador. Looking at all the other athletic women selected, I figured I better up my game. I signed up for the full Na Wahine sprint. I started running.....or in my case plogging. A whole year has gone by, I'm still plogging grouchily along and signed up for the Na Wahine sprint. I will spend the next few weeks wondering what I was thinking.
Unlike Gary, I do not have training charts. I have guilt which tells me I should swim at Queen surf, I need to go up Montsarrat on my bike and worst of all I need to keep plogging. All things I dislike. I'm always sure I will be eaten by something while I swim and I consider queen surf open deep water. There are not enough gears to make it worth going uphill on a bicycle and I seriously walk faster then I plog. So why do I do it?
It has become a habit. The best way to conquer my fear of swimming at queen surf is just to put my head down and swim. The best way for me to go uphill on my bicycle is to go up nice and easy and not stress about all those hard bodies racing by me. I plog slow and sure and hope I make it to the finish before the guys come by to take the cones away. Best of all, if I can get through a Na Wahine so can any other woman. I don't worry about being last anymore. I finished and that is more then a lot of 60+ year old women can say.
As I plogged along this morning, I realized that unlike many of the people I started training with for the Tinman triathlon some 10 years ago, I have not aspired to do a half ironman or even thought about an ironman. My only thought while I was in the midst of my first Tinman was that the next time I have a midlife crisis, I'm getting that red sports car. I was obviously not listening to my inner Maxine. I never got the red sports car but did get a titanium bicycle.
Until last year, I managed to cut my tri efforts to the Na Wahine swim and spin which made me soooo happy since I despise running. Then it, I was selected as a YMX ambassador. Looking at all the other athletic women selected, I figured I better up my game. I signed up for the full Na Wahine sprint. I started running.....or in my case plogging. A whole year has gone by, I'm still plogging grouchily along and signed up for the Na Wahine sprint. I will spend the next few weeks wondering what I was thinking.
Unlike Gary, I do not have training charts. I have guilt which tells me I should swim at Queen surf, I need to go up Montsarrat on my bike and worst of all I need to keep plogging. All things I dislike. I'm always sure I will be eaten by something while I swim and I consider queen surf open deep water. There are not enough gears to make it worth going uphill on a bicycle and I seriously walk faster then I plog. So why do I do it?
It has become a habit. The best way to conquer my fear of swimming at queen surf is just to put my head down and swim. The best way for me to go uphill on my bicycle is to go up nice and easy and not stress about all those hard bodies racing by me. I plog slow and sure and hope I make it to the finish before the guys come by to take the cones away. Best of all, if I can get through a Na Wahine so can any other woman. I don't worry about being last anymore. I finished and that is more then a lot of 60+ year old women can say.
The path to Half-Ironman training load, from smooth to lumpy
Last May, Pattie and I traveled to Kona with the Try Fitness team in the role of sherpas for the Honu Half-Ironman Triathlon. After the race there was a fair bit of beer consumed, and in a state of compromised common sense I gave in to assurances that I could do this race. My brain was not entirely crippled; I agreed to do the race in 2016, giving myself two years to prepare. After I ran my first marathon in 2012 I thought doing a triathlon would be easy, as all I had to do was learn to swim. Having hugely underestimated how long it would take me to learn to swim properly -- I did my first triathlon one year after I thought I would -- I was not about to make the same mistake.
Some of the material I had studied while training for triathlon delved into longer distances, including Ironman and Half-Ironman events. I went back and reviewed those sections to see what amount of training I should expect to do. One source I especially liked was an article on Training Peaks by Nicole Drummer which stresses the need to cut back on the training load to avoid injury, and to shift endurance training from run to bike for the same reason. She offers these guidelines for Ironman and Half-Ironman longest day bike and run workouts:
Matt Fitzgerald recommends specifying short day runs by duration and long day runs by distance, as races are usually based on distances. To convert Drummer's recommendations into distances I would need to decide on a pace. At this point I am doing rough estimates, with an emphasis on slow-and-long, so I used conservative values that I have hit often in recent events, a 15:00 min/mile run pace and a 13 m.p.h. bike pace.
It was around this point that I realized I could start now on Half-Ironman training as the basis for my marathon training. I looked around to see if anyone else was doing this and could not find anything. If I do this it will be a voyage of exploration (cue Star Trek theme).
Many training sources advise increasing training load by no more than 5% per week. Since I do not currently train at Ironman levels I decided to treat them as goals and work backwards to see where I would need to start. I used twenty weeks as my timeline, the gap between the Tinman and the Honolulu Marathon. Here are the numbers for the Half-Ironman, reversed in time to simplify the spreadsheet formulas and using the midpoint of Drummer's ranges:
Those starting numbers -- 20 mile bike ride and 3 mile run -- fit easily into my current training load. Remember, these are not bricks. The long runs will be on Saturday, after a Friday rest day, and the long bike rides on Sunday. This lets me run on fresh legs, which reduces the risk of injury. With a reasonable starting point and a reasonable 5% per week rate of increase, I should get to Half-Ironman long day training volume in time for the marathon.
The Matt Fitzgerald marathon plan would have me running fifteen miles or more five times in the last ten weeks, including twenty miles in week fifteen and twenty-two miles in week seventeen. I know from experience such long runs will leave me worthless for the rest of the day. With my plan, most of the endurance strength and aerobic capacity gained on the bike will transfer to the run while keeping run distances manageable.
A twenty week training plan should not consist of a continuous increase in volume. The 5% rule is an overall guide. For best results the long climb in volume needs to be broken up by weeks of low volume, and there should be one or two peaks along the way. In the plan below I have added in volume reductions using the three week training cycle recommended for old guys like me. I also rounded off the values and arranged the columns in the correct order. Week 18 is a race simulator.
This is not the finished product. Actually a plan like this is never finished, it changes to accommodate life's unpredictability. But I can already tell you that I have made changes, based on roughing in the weekly activities. More on that later. Today is the first day of week two of this plan. I hope I can get the run and bike done without being preempted by the weather.
Some of the material I had studied while training for triathlon delved into longer distances, including Ironman and Half-Ironman events. I went back and reviewed those sections to see what amount of training I should expect to do. One source I especially liked was an article on Training Peaks by Nicole Drummer which stresses the need to cut back on the training load to avoid injury, and to shift endurance training from run to bike for the same reason. She offers these guidelines for Ironman and Half-Ironman longest day bike and run workouts:
| Bike | Run | |
| hrs | hrs | |
| Half-Ironman | 3.5-4.5 | 1.5-2.5 |
| Ironman | 5-7 | 2.5-3.5 |
Matt Fitzgerald recommends specifying short day runs by duration and long day runs by distance, as races are usually based on distances. To convert Drummer's recommendations into distances I would need to decide on a pace. At this point I am doing rough estimates, with an emphasis on slow-and-long, so I used conservative values that I have hit often in recent events, a 15:00 min/mile run pace and a 13 m.p.h. bike pace.
| Bike | Run | |
| miles | miles | |
| Half-Ironman | 45.5-58.5 | 6-10 |
| Ironman | 65-91 | 10-14 |
It was around this point that I realized I could start now on Half-Ironman training as the basis for my marathon training. I looked around to see if anyone else was doing this and could not find anything. If I do this it will be a voyage of exploration (cue Star Trek theme).
Many training sources advise increasing training load by no more than 5% per week. Since I do not currently train at Ironman levels I decided to treat them as goals and work backwards to see where I would need to start. I used twenty weeks as my timeline, the gap between the Tinman and the Honolulu Marathon. Here are the numbers for the Half-Ironman, reversed in time to simplify the spreadsheet formulas and using the midpoint of Drummer's ranges:
| Bike | Run | |||||
| Week | hrs | hh:mm:ss | miles | hrs | hh:mm:ss | miles |
| 20 | 4.00 | 4:00:00 | 52.00 | 2.00 | 2:00:00 | 8.00 |
| 19 | 3.80 | 3:48:00 | 49.40 | 1.90 | 1:54:00 | 7.60 |
| 18 | 3.61 | 3:36:36 | 46.93 | 1.81 | 1:48:18 | 7.22 |
| 17 | 3.43 | 3:25:46 | 44.58 | 1.71 | 1:42:53 | 6.86 |
| 16 | 3.26 | 3:15:29 | 42.35 | 1.63 | 1:37:44 | 6.52 |
| 15 | 3.10 | 3:05:42 | 40.24 | 1.55 | 1:32:51 | 6.19 |
| 14 | 2.94 | 2:56:25 | 38.22 | 1.47 | 1:28:13 | 5.88 |
| 13 | 2.79 | 2:47:36 | 36.31 | 1.40 | 1:23:48 | 5.59 |
| 12 | 2.65 | 2:39:13 | 34.50 | 1.33 | 1:19:37 | 5.31 |
| 11 | 2.52 | 2:31:16 | 32.77 | 1.26 | 1:15:38 | 5.04 |
| 10 | 2.39 | 2:23:42 | 31.13 | 1.20 | 1:11:51 | 4.79 |
| 9 | 2.28 | 2:16:31 | 29.58 | 1.14 | 1:08:15 | 4.55 |
| 8 | 2.16 | 2:09:41 | 28.10 | 1.08 | 1:04:51 | 4.32 |
| 7 | 2.05 | 2:03:12 | 26.69 | 1.03 | 1:01:36 | 4.11 |
| 6 | 1.95 | 1:57:03 | 25.36 | 0.98 | 0:58:31 | 3.90 |
| 5 | 1.85 | 1:51:11 | 24.09 | 0.93 | 0:55:36 | 3.71 |
| 4 | 1.76 | 1:45:38 | 22.89 | 0.88 | 0:52:49 | 3.52 |
| 3 | 1.67 | 1:40:21 | 21.74 | 0.84 | 0:50:10 | 3.34 |
| 2 | 1.59 | 1:35:20 | 20.66 | 0.79 | 0:47:40 | 3.18 |
| 1 | 1.51 | 1:30:34 | 19.62 | 0.75 | 0:45:17 | 3.02 |
Those starting numbers -- 20 mile bike ride and 3 mile run -- fit easily into my current training load. Remember, these are not bricks. The long runs will be on Saturday, after a Friday rest day, and the long bike rides on Sunday. This lets me run on fresh legs, which reduces the risk of injury. With a reasonable starting point and a reasonable 5% per week rate of increase, I should get to Half-Ironman long day training volume in time for the marathon.
The Matt Fitzgerald marathon plan would have me running fifteen miles or more five times in the last ten weeks, including twenty miles in week fifteen and twenty-two miles in week seventeen. I know from experience such long runs will leave me worthless for the rest of the day. With my plan, most of the endurance strength and aerobic capacity gained on the bike will transfer to the run while keeping run distances manageable.
A twenty week training plan should not consist of a continuous increase in volume. The 5% rule is an overall guide. For best results the long climb in volume needs to be broken up by weeks of low volume, and there should be one or two peaks along the way. In the plan below I have added in volume reductions using the three week training cycle recommended for old guys like me. I also rounded off the values and arranged the columns in the correct order. Week 18 is a race simulator.
| Sat Run | Sun Bike | ||||
| Week | Intensity | Miles | Hrs | Miles | Hrs |
| 0 | |||||
| 1 | Very Low | 0 | 0:00:00 | 0 | 0:00:00 |
| 2 | Recover | 3 | 0:45:00 | 25 | 1:33:45 |
| 3 | Hard | 5 | 1:15:00 | 30 | 1:52:30 |
| 4 | Hard | 6 | 1:30:00 | 35 | 2:11:15 |
| 5 | R | 4 | 1:00:00 | 25 | 1:33:45 |
| 6 | H | 5 | 1:15:00 | 35 | 2:11:15 |
| 7 | H | 7 | 1:45:00 | 50 | 3:07:30 |
| 8 | R | 4 | 1:00:00 | 25 | 1:33:45 |
| 9 | H | 8 | 2:00:00 | 45 | 2:48:45 |
| 10 | H | 9 | 2:15:00 | 45 | 2:48:45 |
| 11 | R | 4 | 1:00:00 | 25 | 1:33:45 |
| 12 | H | 7 | 1:45:00 | 40 | 2:30:00 |
| 13 | H | 8 | 2:00:00 | 40 | 2:30:00 |
| 14 | R | 4 | 1:00:00 | 25 | 1:33:45 |
| 15 | H | 9 | 2:15:00 | 40 | 2:30:00 |
| 16 | H | 10 | 2:30:00 | 40 | 2:30:00 |
| 17 | R | 4 | 1:00:00 | 25 | 1:33:45 |
| 18 | H | 17 | 4:15:00 | 0 | 0:00:00 |
| 19 | Taper | 5 | 1:15:00 | 25 | 1:33:45 |
| 20 | Taper/Race | 26.2 | 6:33:00 | 0 | 0 |
This is not the finished product. Actually a plan like this is never finished, it changes to accommodate life's unpredictability. But I can already tell you that I have made changes, based on roughing in the weekly activities. More on that later. Today is the first day of week two of this plan. I hope I can get the run and bike done without being preempted by the weather.
Friday, August 1, 2014
Hard weeks and not so hard weeks
For optimal results a workout plan should alternate between hard efforts and easy efforts. Exactly how this is done depends a lot on the individual. For a novice runner it can be as simple as running three days a week with at least one rest day between run days. As fitness builds, one of those runs can be longer, and it is common practice to put two rest days after the long run. For someone who does not want to run on Sunday this might be
Mon rest
Tue short run
Wed rest
Thu short run
Fri rest
Sat long run
Sun rest
Rest days are sacred!
As fitness increases the time will come when running everyday feels right. Even then, one day a week should be set aside as a rest day. This is to give the body plenty of time to adjust to the workload. But, not every day should be the same. There should be hard days and easy days. Ideally these will alternate, but real life is never that simple so the perfect plan may require a few little wrinkles here and there.
Just enough hours in a day.
Triathlon makes even more demands. It is hard enough to fit in workouts for a single discipline. A triathlete must somehow squeeze in three.One way to do this is to double up. On a three workouts a week schedule, pair them up, something like this:
Tue swim run
Thu swim bike
Sat run bike
This is fine if the goal is modest, or the athlete is already fit and skilled and just wants to maintain their level, but serious improvement requires more time. For average folks with a full time job and family obligations, finding the time is not easy.
What I have been doing is at least one workout per day and often two, one in the morning and one after work, creating the effect of alternating hard days with easy days by adjusting disciplines. Biking and running use similar muscle groups, basically the legs, but biking is much easier on the body than running. Swimming is so different that it almost counts as rest, when viewed from the aspect of legs. (Keep in mind that triathlon style swimming minimizes kicking.) In contrast, the transition from bike to run is so hard on the legs that it must be practiced as if it were an event all its own.
There are at least three more cycles longer than the weekly plan we have been considering. At the next higher level is the hard week easy week cycle. Young adults can easily manage three hard weeks followed by one easy week. As we age we need more time to recover, so a two hard one easy cycle is better. At the highest level (well, there is the year above that) is the training cycle level. I just finished a ten week Olympic triathlon training cycle, and am starting a twenty week marathon training cycle. A training cycle usually culminates in a race. In between the training cycle and the weekly cycle is one that rises and falls something like the tide. Rather than plan out a single long continuous volume increase over twenty weeks, a good plan will have one or two high points along the way. The overall trend is up, but the body gets some ups and downs along the way.
In future posts I will describe how I came up with my twenty week plan, which starts Monday.
Mon rest
Tue short run
Wed rest
Thu short run
Fri rest
Sat long run
Sun rest
Rest days are sacred!
As fitness increases the time will come when running everyday feels right. Even then, one day a week should be set aside as a rest day. This is to give the body plenty of time to adjust to the workload. But, not every day should be the same. There should be hard days and easy days. Ideally these will alternate, but real life is never that simple so the perfect plan may require a few little wrinkles here and there.
Just enough hours in a day.
Triathlon makes even more demands. It is hard enough to fit in workouts for a single discipline. A triathlete must somehow squeeze in three.One way to do this is to double up. On a three workouts a week schedule, pair them up, something like this:
Tue swim run
Thu swim bike
Sat run bike
This is fine if the goal is modest, or the athlete is already fit and skilled and just wants to maintain their level, but serious improvement requires more time. For average folks with a full time job and family obligations, finding the time is not easy.
What I have been doing is at least one workout per day and often two, one in the morning and one after work, creating the effect of alternating hard days with easy days by adjusting disciplines. Biking and running use similar muscle groups, basically the legs, but biking is much easier on the body than running. Swimming is so different that it almost counts as rest, when viewed from the aspect of legs. (Keep in mind that triathlon style swimming minimizes kicking.) In contrast, the transition from bike to run is so hard on the legs that it must be practiced as if it were an event all its own.
There are at least three more cycles longer than the weekly plan we have been considering. At the next higher level is the hard week easy week cycle. Young adults can easily manage three hard weeks followed by one easy week. As we age we need more time to recover, so a two hard one easy cycle is better. At the highest level (well, there is the year above that) is the training cycle level. I just finished a ten week Olympic triathlon training cycle, and am starting a twenty week marathon training cycle. A training cycle usually culminates in a race. In between the training cycle and the weekly cycle is one that rises and falls something like the tide. Rather than plan out a single long continuous volume increase over twenty weeks, a good plan will have one or two high points along the way. The overall trend is up, but the body gets some ups and downs along the way.
In future posts I will describe how I came up with my twenty week plan, which starts Monday.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
I'm blogging!
Soooo....I think my attempts to just get set up to be a co-author on this page sums up the difference between Gary and I. I am technologically challenged. In an era where everyone and everything is digitally connected, I am barely hanging on.
This also is the difference between how Gary and I train for triathlons. Gary has his Garmin programmed, connected to his lap top with charts and training programs. I have a garmin that Gary programmed for me and it takes me at least 5 minutes to figure out how to switch it to the right screen. Invariably something will not read right and the more I fiddle with it the worse it gets.
I did look at a training chart once but couldn't quite figure out how to follow it then forgot my password to get back in to the site. The whole thing is way too confusing so I have adopted the Pattie training method. I do the thing I hate the most everyday which is run(plog in my case). I swim the course just so I don't panic in the swim and ride the bike course so I don't embarrass myself by collapsing half way up a hill. I throw in abuse by my yoga teacher so I retain a smidgen of flexibility and the tyranny of my spin coach so I can actually ride a little more efficiency on the bike. Just so I spread the fun around Sonya kneads all those supposed muscles I've developed back into working order. Training plan done.
This also is the difference between how Gary and I train for triathlons. Gary has his Garmin programmed, connected to his lap top with charts and training programs. I have a garmin that Gary programmed for me and it takes me at least 5 minutes to figure out how to switch it to the right screen. Invariably something will not read right and the more I fiddle with it the worse it gets.
I did look at a training chart once but couldn't quite figure out how to follow it then forgot my password to get back in to the site. The whole thing is way too confusing so I have adopted the Pattie training method. I do the thing I hate the most everyday which is run(plog in my case). I swim the course just so I don't panic in the swim and ride the bike course so I don't embarrass myself by collapsing half way up a hill. I throw in abuse by my yoga teacher so I retain a smidgen of flexibility and the tyranny of my spin coach so I can actually ride a little more efficiency on the bike. Just so I spread the fun around Sonya kneads all those supposed muscles I've developed back into working order. Training plan done.
Marathon meets Ironman
I just did one of my A races last Sunday, the Honolulu Tinman. More on that later. My next A race is the Honolulu Marathon, Sunday, December 14. That gives me twenty weeks to prepare, which is just right for a marathon training plan.
About a year ago I read Matt Fitzgerald's book "The New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition: A Cutting-Edge Plan to Fuel Your Body Beyond the Wall." Besides being a contender for the title of world's longest book title, this book is a thorough presentation on how to eat for optimal endurance running results. Fitzgerald includes training plans for marathons and half-marathons, at three levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I followed his intermediate (Level 2) plan to prepare for the Hapalu Half Marathon this past spring and had good results, so I thought about using his twenty week marathon plan to prepare for the upcoming marathon.
The problem I encountered was the amount of running this plan required. While training for the half marathon I hardly had any time for other activities. Now that I have invested so much time into learning to swim, and considering how much I need to improve, giving up on biking and swimming from now through the end of the year was not a happy thought.
Training Peaks has a really cool feature called the Virtual Coach. It pretty much automates the pencil and paper training plan development process laid out in Joe Friel's book, "The Triathlete's Training Bible," Part IV. I played around with it a bit to get a feel for what it was going to suggest, and, same as Fitzgerald, it had me running and nothing else.
Somewhere along the way I read an article on Training Peaks about training loads for Ironman events, and how important it was to not run too much. The author recommended spending more time on the bike, because the bike builds endurance that transfers well to running while significantly reducing the risk of training related injuries. Since I am committed to continued triathlon training with the goal of doing the Honu Half Ironman in 2016 (gotta get better at the swim!!), I decided that this was a "What have you got to lose?" opportunity to try an experiment. Blend triathlon training with marathon training. Focus weekday workouts on running skills, do a long run on Saturday after a Friday rest day so the legs are fresh, then do a long bike on Sunday. The long runs should be much less than what a pure marathon training plan calls for, and the bike rides should be predominantly a comfortable zone 2 pace. Because I am nowhere near Ironman capacity the goal I set was to end at the recommended volume for half Ironman, with a roughly 5% per week increase over twenty weeks, but with the periodization recommended by Friel.
I will go into this plan in more detail in future posts. For now, I am in what Friel calls Transition, a week of light activity, preferably not directly related to triathlon. Monday I had a massage, Tuesday I did my weekly weight session, then for a change of pace I went to yoga after work with my wife and co-author Pattie. I ran this morning, but really slow and only for thirty minutes. Transition is weird in much the same way as taper, except in taper mode you fret a lot about the challenges that lay ahead, whereas in transition you can relax and appreciate a job well done.
About a year ago I read Matt Fitzgerald's book "The New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition: A Cutting-Edge Plan to Fuel Your Body Beyond the Wall." Besides being a contender for the title of world's longest book title, this book is a thorough presentation on how to eat for optimal endurance running results. Fitzgerald includes training plans for marathons and half-marathons, at three levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I followed his intermediate (Level 2) plan to prepare for the Hapalu Half Marathon this past spring and had good results, so I thought about using his twenty week marathon plan to prepare for the upcoming marathon.
The problem I encountered was the amount of running this plan required. While training for the half marathon I hardly had any time for other activities. Now that I have invested so much time into learning to swim, and considering how much I need to improve, giving up on biking and swimming from now through the end of the year was not a happy thought.
Training Peaks has a really cool feature called the Virtual Coach. It pretty much automates the pencil and paper training plan development process laid out in Joe Friel's book, "The Triathlete's Training Bible," Part IV. I played around with it a bit to get a feel for what it was going to suggest, and, same as Fitzgerald, it had me running and nothing else.
Somewhere along the way I read an article on Training Peaks about training loads for Ironman events, and how important it was to not run too much. The author recommended spending more time on the bike, because the bike builds endurance that transfers well to running while significantly reducing the risk of training related injuries. Since I am committed to continued triathlon training with the goal of doing the Honu Half Ironman in 2016 (gotta get better at the swim!!), I decided that this was a "What have you got to lose?" opportunity to try an experiment. Blend triathlon training with marathon training. Focus weekday workouts on running skills, do a long run on Saturday after a Friday rest day so the legs are fresh, then do a long bike on Sunday. The long runs should be much less than what a pure marathon training plan calls for, and the bike rides should be predominantly a comfortable zone 2 pace. Because I am nowhere near Ironman capacity the goal I set was to end at the recommended volume for half Ironman, with a roughly 5% per week increase over twenty weeks, but with the periodization recommended by Friel.
I will go into this plan in more detail in future posts. For now, I am in what Friel calls Transition, a week of light activity, preferably not directly related to triathlon. Monday I had a massage, Tuesday I did my weekly weight session, then for a change of pace I went to yoga after work with my wife and co-author Pattie. I ran this morning, but really slow and only for thirty minutes. Transition is weird in much the same way as taper, except in taper mode you fret a lot about the challenges that lay ahead, whereas in transition you can relax and appreciate a job well done.
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