I'm sick and Matt's got the car so I had to bail on today's Harpoon ITT. Bummer. I've wanted to do it for the last few years. Next year! :)
I did get in a 30 minute run in 12 degrees and no ankle or hip issues. Hooray for that.
While sitting around, I finally got around to looking back through my training log from my fall run training. A few friends asked what I did so thought I'd share. It was nothing special. It was simply the ideal loads for my ability at the time, executed at the ideal times. Just balanced perfectly for me. And I learned that to be able to push my limits, I need nothing less than 8-10 hours of sleep a night with complete days off when needed.
To be in fine tune with your body is the most important aspect. It's more important than what science and coaches can tell you because it is the basis for everything else. Those are excellent tools to guide you based on what your body tells you.
From the point that I decided to do a mid February marathon, I had 12 weeks ‘til Clearwater in November (so I was still bike and swim training too). After Clearwater I planned to take two weeks to post-season recharge – one week of no training with the exception of a few short runs at the end of it, the second week I’d get back up to run volume, and just run how I felt. Then I’d start in on the specific prep for Feb. race which allowed me 9 weeks, plus 2 Taper weeks.
The whole thing was to be a test and an experiment to see how well my body and intuition could guide me, a test of my limits, to learn or reaffirm what it naturally prefers, and to see how well I could listen to it and respond beneficially. So I only really planned two aspects.
They were:
- First phase main focus = speed. Second phase main focus = endurance @ race pace.
- Long runs - Although I had no issues with my hip, I knew that I was going to want to play it safe with the long runs in the second phase, so anything over 14 miles would be on an every other week basis with 10-13 miles on the alternate weeks. So I figured that if I did a long run of 18 miles at the end of the first phase, I could get to 25-26 miles w/ 20-22 @ pace 4 weeks out from race day. And that was what I felt I wanted to mentally satisfy me and give me confidence.
That’s it. Everything else was listen to my body and roll with it with the purpose of each phase in mind. The hope was that a pattern would naturally develop and it did. I did however write up a plan for each week. Actually 2 plans. One that I wanted to do, and one that I knew is what I could/should/would do - the one that I would write up for an athlete. I know my eyes are bigger than my ability so I played the game with myself!! And sure enough...in the end I could never do all I wanted to. It always fell just at what I knew I should do. I also learned that I respond better to back to back days of intensity (ie.: speed followed by tempo). And recovery was truly recovery or nothing at all.
I never got sick. I never got injured. And I dropped 30s/mile from my marathon pace in 10 weeks.
But your hip?!...Regarding the hip issue I have now - it's a chronic thing from a labral tear that is manageable, but I was feeling so strong during the fall that I neglected my prevention practices. And for some reason inactivity triggers it so it acted up during my week off. Go figure. Lesson learned…don’t stop moving and don’t stop doing my exercises...and when it kicks in…don’t keep running on it ‘til I run myself into the ground. Had I gotten someone to take care of the knots immediately and given it a few days I probably would have saved myself months of not running. How do you do everything right and suddenly say, “hey I think I’ll ignore it all now”. Idiot. Anyway…
Here’s what my body fell into as "typical training":
I was hitting the track every 7-10 days - as I was ready for it. After a couple weeks of breaking myself in to the speed work, which I had almost none of all year, I was feeling good with zero concern of injury. So I decided to push the paces and really work the sessions. The typical pattern I fell into was after warming up for a few miles, I’d do 1-2 miles around 10k-5k effort, broken however I was feeling that day. Some were .5-1 mile reps others were tempo. Then I’d bang out a speed session of 400’s and 200’s. My body and my head work best with those so there wasn't much variety in the track sessions - just more intervals and shorter rests. 400 reps and 200’s as 200 on/200 jog. Follow it up with 1-2 miles at 5k-10k effort. I really pushed the 4’s and 2’s. Took things to the limit. My track days became my favorite workouts. The workout was never planned. They rolled to how I felt that day always keeping in mind what I'd done previously.
I gained a lot of strength from them and my turnover in all my running improved. My legs just went. After 6 weeks my paces up to functional threshold pace started to drop 5-10 s/mile per week. 4 weeks later I was running 30s/mile faster, consistently.
Overall volume wise, I wasn’t concerned about volume at this time. Only getting the duration of my long run up to 18 miles by end of phase. Volume became what my body could handle. It was not big. Most weeks were at 30-35 miles. Every few weeks were mid 40’s.
- I was doing a 9-10 miler usually 10s slower than marathon pace with a little bit of time at or just under threshold focusing on turnover and form. When I was feeling good, these would become tempo runs w/ 4-5 miles at or just over threshold.
- A long run of 13-16 miles (usually only 13) with 8-11 at marathon pace (longest was 18 w/ 13 at pace)
- Two 1.5-3 mile runs off the bike at 5k-10k effort if it was there, which it usually was
- Speed work on track every 7-10 days – if I was having an off day, I’d wait and go another day.
- Everything else was short and easy, including jogging with the girls sometimes at club practice since we were at the park.
- Strides and some drills a few times a week
- My weeks were typically 8-9 days, not 7. (Volume I noted is per every 7 day.)
If I hit it right and am able to get the appropriate sleep, I respond really well to short blocks of overreaching. But I HAVE to get in the sleep. Naps and 10-12 hour nights are what I need. So I threw in a few blocks when timing was right, which was basically about 5 days of intensity back to back and increased volume w/ some 2-a-days (on days that I did short tempo runs off the bike). What worked best was a secondary long run w/ time at threshold thrown in, sandwiched between 2 days of 2-4 mile, hard tempo runs off hard bike workouts then a second easy run in p.m. These days led up to the final 2 days - a big track workout, followed by my long pace run the next day to end the block. My most relaxed and fastest long pace runs happened at the end of these. Then after a day completely off from training with lots of sleep, I only came back stronger and faster each time.
Any days that I was tired, I let myself be tired and took things really easy. Pushed workouts off a day as needed or skipped altogether. I had to get in a track workout every 7-10 days though. That was my only hard rule. And recovery weeks were taken as I saw signs that they were needed. They naturally fell approximately every 20-24 days (roughly 3 weeks). While my working weeks were 8-9 days, my recovery weeks were typically about 5. Days completely off were taken when needed too.
Pace runs were always run by effort and I noted the pace increase over time. For the specific phase, the pace I was at at the end of the first phase is the pace I would concentrate on maintaining as I extended my pace runs out for the second phase with a goal of 5 s/mile faster, and all speed work would shift to maintenance level. I saw no need to have to run more than a peak 60 miles/wk. Most weeks around 50 with a 60% reduction in volume on recovery weeks is what my body seems to like. But I have to keep frequency up for the hip. That was the second phase plan. Two weeks into it, I was sitting right where I wanted to be, faster than I thought I would be in fact, and totally confident I'd reach my goal.
It's great to be in tune with your body enough to be able to nail you training. The key is recovery. Eating and sleeping are the most important things and it was because I focused so much on that, that I got where I did with the running. I took days completely off from all training as I needed them. But like I said, the ideal load at the ideal times. I balanced it right for me. Why I continued to run on the hip freak out is beyond me! What was I thinking?...obviously I wasn't. What could have been a week turned into months.
