9 Training sessions, aggressive start with two interval workouts and a 4:00min/km run inbetween and a tired end of the week, and end of the 4 week mini cycle. This week marks the shift from a higher km endurance focus to a stamina (=higher pace over longer distance) focus. With the Yasso 800s workout we set a new marathon progress data point and a current reference at around 2:41h. The other interval session however - 5 x 2000m in 6:48min - was a total disaster. The first run was already above target time, the second way above target time and the third was ended at 1000m, not good. The stamina focus is deerly needed.
Tags: weekly summary
That’s the way life goes. A long run on the weekend schedule, but something breaks down and the janitor role is forced to priority level.
It looked so good. 107km accumulated in the first 5 days of the week, until Friday evening. A deserved rest on Saturday. And the Long run would add a heap of km on top of it and lift the max km per week to somewhere around 140km. That was the plan. Of course, something had to go square against it. It was the bloody oven. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: broken oven, long run
Yasso 800’s (the series of 10 x 800m interval runs) provided a first data point since the spring on how we are doing in this quest towards a sub-2:30 marathon. The direction is good again. With an average of those runs of 2:38,7min, this would indicate a considerable jump from the “upwards bump” in the spring. The full progress overview here.
Tags: yasso 800s
The Sports Tracker application has become a regular running companion again. The different workouts are nicely shown with map, route profile, speed pictures and music on the service. Check it out. Especially now when running with several pairs of shoes, the heavier and more solid ones for longer and slower runs, the lighter road running shoes for fartleks and other runs with faster streches and the racing flats for runs on the track or very fast stuff in the streets of Helsinki. The Polar foot pod is attached and calibrated to one pair right now and I’m too lazy richt now to do it for all the other pairs as well.
Click on the picture to the left to get to the 400days page on the Sports Tracker service. You might catch me live on a run. Even better, if you see, you’re close by come around and join in!
Tags: nokia sports tracker
The last of the 400m interval runs was supposed to be fast. The first 14 were all within target between 74 and 78 seconds. The last one was supposed to take it to the next level, i.e. give the muscles a real kick. After all they’re used to long efforts at much slower pace.However when running 14 runs at a comfortable level and trying to do the last one differently, it’s all too easy to fall back into the same rythm after 100 - 150m. What you need is a colleague who sets the standard. Since there were a couple of runners on the “Eläintarha” track, I thought to ask one to join. Especially this one guy who overtook me a couple of times seemed fit for the job. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: interval training, pace makers
The essence of the easy run is to fall into a run that just feels good. At any time you could still accelerate. Movement co-ordination and body position is relaxed but very controlled. Arms swing with some drive on the sides and the feet hit the ground in a way to complete this “rolling movement” feeling. Tried the McMillan guidelines for an easy run today (see the 2:29h marathon training guidelines table published here last week). Orientation was towards the slower end of the pace range. Quite a piece of work. Read the rest of this entry »
Could those training and race pace times the real reference for a sub-2:30 marathon? A couple of month back a reader here on 400days pointed to McMillan, a US coach’s web site with lots of good stuff on long distance training. He thoroughly goes through running physiology, different training forms and how to build your own training program. A basic ingredient is the McMillan race and training pace calculator that provides you a recommended pace for different runs in competition and training. You enter a recent race result that you are quite content with and hit the “calculate” button. I turned it a bit around and entered the result I’d like to achieve, a marathon in 2:29:59. The pace results were, well, let’s say intimidating. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: McMillan, trainng program
Unfortunately I left my mobile at home. Should have had it with me and taken a couple of good shots of the Japanese long distance runners I met on the “Eläintarha” track today. I was there to do my 10 x 1000m. They were preparing for the 5000m race in Lappeenranta on Sunday, June 12.
The track is a good 3km warm up distance away. I arrived there and normlly it’s me looking quite professional yellow-black in this seasons Adidas colors with my Haile shoes and a black Adidas shorts I got me about 7 years ago. But this time there was a crowd of 8 - 10 real runners sitting around on the stands and just changing. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: interval training, real runners
It’s a Golden League day today, Rome the third meeting in the series. Of course there are attempts for new records in some running disciplines and pace makers are in a central role again. In order to get into the spirit of tonight’s event I asked my pace makers, the queen and the little princess, to join me on a run this morning. Ok, they got a bit slow on steeper uphill parts and rolled away quite far ahead on the downhill stretches afterwards. It wasn’t too easy to stick to the provided pace.
Further, the little princess got bored and wanted to be entertained. Took over that role as well while running and highlighted points of interest on the way, a river, a dog that passed us by, a truck on the road. In the end we needed to keep the little one away from falling asleep (so much to my entertainment skills). It’s no good idea to change the rythm of the day for her, the switch of the lil’ princess into a little devil is all too easy. So I sang with her her favorite songs, which made her swing left and right. That earned us some critisicm from the rider who tried to keep the bike straight. It wasn’t easy. Probably the 10 x 1000m interval runs in the evening are going to be easier.
Tags: pace makers
Those triathletes are admirable. They jump off their bikes, the shoes still sticking to the pedals, slip in their running shoes and off they go onto the running leg. The rythm switches on the first 500m. It took me 21km.
After the bike tour, I took a two day time-out to rest the legs and thought to get the biking rythm out of the system. One main reason why it’s hard to run after biking is that the brain and nerv system needs to adjust to the quite different patterns of neuromuscular coordination needed for running. The legs feel as if they’d carry lead, you lean forward to speed up but the same time you recognize that this effort can’t last long. Overall, everything’s too slow.
I deliberatly chose a slow pace, 5min/km, at the beginning of the first run and thought to get the legs freed of that lead and get back to normal (around 4:20 - 4:30min/km) later in the run. Never got there, not on this first run. 5min/km that was it, through all the 21km. Had a hell of a hurry to get showered and changed afterwards, since the calculations in squeezing this run in between two meetings at work went awfully wrong.
Other observations now a couple of training sessions later. Speed has gone and the heart rate doesn’t exceed 85% of the maximum heart rate. The former is somewhat related to the different neuromuscular coordination when biking. The constantly pedalled 80 - 100 rotations per minute are so different from carrying your own body wheight with an explosive stride. A session of short intervals (400’s) and fartlek with short efforts should get us back. The latter is interesting. I do assume this stems from the lower heart rate on the bike as well. But the question is how to get back to normal on this front. The first weeks of marathon training aim at ramping up kilometers to establish a high endurance base. Those are also more lower heart rate workouts. But without getting the heart beat up to 180, it’s difficult to do 1000m intervals in 3:20min.
Tags: bike tour
