Monthly Archives: March 2013

Planning, Swim

Recovered + Swim

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Yesterday’s turbo set was hard. Very intense for 20 minutes and highest HR of the year on a bike. I’d imagine once I get outside I will be able to achieve a higher HR but still – the message I’m trying to get across is that it was tough.
Despite that fact I feel 100% today. I’m able to absorb these sessions no problem now. 3 months ago they were limited to 40 minutes and I was not recovering for a couple of days. So, I need to change things up.
I had stretched them out to 60 to 70 minutes in the hope that it would do the trick but it isn’t. I have to have a think about it and decide on a plan. When performance gains stop it’s time to try something different.

I hit the pool today for the first time in 12 days. I had no plan when I jumped in and it ended up being simple: swim for 4,2km non stop. Pretty easy too. I wanted to get a measure of my all day pace. Thongh I’m not impressed or excited with what that pace is – 1:43/100m – I have a benchmark now and can work towards improving it. For Stockholm Aquathlon I believe this is the most important number to target. If I’m to run a half marathon after swimming 5km I believe the swim shouldn’t be hard: All day pace + a little race day excitement should be the best way to get the best run (and overall time?). This too has to be planned.

Cycling, Running

Bad Start

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Week started pretty badly this week.
I ended my longest training week in 5 years and then the shit hit the fan at work.
29 hours working Monday & Tuesday followed by a short 12 hour day on Wednesday did not leave much time for training. I had the pain cave ready to go at 20:30 last night but I made the critical mistake of ‘just sitting down for a minute’ before I trained. I fell asleep and the cave was empty for another night.

I squeezed in a 20 minute treadmill run today followed by some eccentric strength training (for the right knee).

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Now night time and I’ve just done a very late trainer ride. I forced myself out at 21:30 because I knew if I didn’t get out tonight I would have broken by 4 months of twice a week on the trainer run… that can’t happen!
I had no plan going out and I fell into a murderous set:
The main part of it was:
3 x 8:00 @ VO2 Max (256w) on 4:00 RI
It hurt.
Strange thing is that I expected Golden Cheetah to increase my FTP based on the workout. It didn’t.
I’ll have to read how it works… ANyway, that was difficult. Very difficult.

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Running

Tough Finish

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After a slow start to the week, I ended on a high… a hard high but a high nonetheless.
Having trained hard for three consecutive days, perhaps a long run was not the wisest option. Alas, opportunity prevailed over sense and I headed out for my long plod.
I had decided not to look at my watch at all during the run – most likely because I knew the reality of the situation: my legs were tired. I felt good for the first 20km and believed that my pace was respectable. At about the 22-23km mark my legs began to suffer and I started to fantasize about coke and redbull. I then started to feel SLOW. There was nothing to do but keep running and just make it home – which I did.
Duration: 02:36:35, HR Avg: 143, HR Max: 157, Calories: 1686 kcal, Distance: 29.84 km, Pace Avg: 05:15 min/km, Training Load: 303
Slow, slow, slow.
The positive side is that I get my longest training week for about 5 years: 8:36.
My right knee feels a little sore today. I’ll get back to the gym and strengthen it up a little as soon as I feel like I wasn’t run down by a bus.
Recovery is going to be the day’s theme.

Cycling

Back It Up

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Feeling good today and managed to squeeze in a turbo set despite a busy day.

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Difficult during the set but I don’t feel tired now. It’s time to start planning the sets better. I had no plan today and thought that I could make one up on the fly. It turned out that all the power:time ratios were a little too low.

Time 1:02, av. Power 205w, av. HR 150, work 768kj, max HR 172

Cycling, Running, Swim

Sufferfest

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Did my first sufferfest last night. I have had them loaded on my iPad for some time but avoided them because I thought they might be somewhat silly. I was pleasantly surprised. The good points are that it pushes me out of my comfort zone, I actually accelerate when I’m instructed to – despite not wanting to and they are longer sets – something I’ll need to focus on from now on.
My power numbers are staying somewhat static but my sessions are longer – perhaps that’s ok for now. I’ll have to start focusing on increasing my power again after I become accustomed to the longer sessions. Work to be done. Focus needed – especially this time of year.

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For the record, I should note that I have a strange pain in my left foot; nowhere in particular but surrounding the both planter and dorsal metatarsal region.
Running doesn’t seem like a wise option but not running -with 10 weeks to Stockholm Marathon- doesn’t seem like a wise option either.
I would LIKE to finish the week with:
1 long run
1 Swim
1 Turbo Session.

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Plan modified already. I got and took a chance to run at lunch today. I was a little worried about my foot and only managed to find a pair of ASICS Piranha’s – which I thought could only exacerbate he problem. Nonetheless I decided to attempt 40 minutes and adjust the plan as necessary. There was absolutely no pain or even sensation in my foot while running so I didn’t hold back too much.
4 x [ 4 min @ 14,5km/h , 1 min @ 15km/h ]
10 min @ 14,5km/h
1 min @ 15km/h
1 min @ 15,1km/h
1 min @ 15,2km/h
1 min @ 15,3km/h
1 min @ 15,4km/h
1 min @ 15,6km/h
2 min @ 15,8km/h
1 min @ 16km/h
1 min @ 17km/h

Done! Feet good afterwards and feel good now.
However, 1 training session done and my plan wasn’t touched:
1 long run
1 Swim
1 Turbo Session.
Do I still ‘try’ to commit to it?

Swim

Surprised

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Did the tests last night and was surprised – not in a pleasant way because I was so fast. Mostly because that my times got relatively better as distance reduced; the opposite to my usual form.
100m: 1:18 – 1:18/100
200m: 2:54 – 1:27/100 (111,5% time increase/100m)
400m: 5:55 – 1:29/100 (102,1% time increase/100m from 200m, 114% increase /100m on 100m)

Comparing with world records:
100m: 0:46,91 – 0:49,91/100
200m: 1:42,00 – 0:51/100 (108,7% time increase/100m)
400m: 3:40,07 – 0:55/100 (107,8% time increase/100m from 200m, 117% increase /100m on 100m)

Conclusion?
There is a relatively good relationship between 100 & 400, but the 200 time doesn’t hold.

Swim

Test Time

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Yesterday’s run was a success – no pain today and feeling pretty good.
I resisted the temptation to train during lunch today, I think I’ll save myself for the 400m test swim tonight.
My swimming is progressing nicely but I fear that I will be disappointed with tonight’s result regardless of how ‘well’ it goes. I want to be able to go under 5:50 but fully realise that I haven’t gotten enough pool time to do that.

So I know the result is not going to be good.
I know the reason’s for this.
I know my expectations don’t meet the realities.
Yet I know I will be upset.

Tough being me.

Cycling, Distance, Running, Zero

No Run…

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The plan didn’t work out.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Swim
Wednesday: Turbo Set
Thursday: Run + Swim
Friday: Turbo Set + Run
Saturday: Swim?
Sunday: Long Run
Total Training Time: 3:39

No running at all this week; that is probably not a very bad thing but it needs to be addressed.
This week will have three runs, two Turbo sessions and at lest two swims.
Over 8 hours is the goal.
Long run planned today: 27km

Let’s see.

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Back.
Started in sunshine and finished in snow.
Ended up off-road on Ice for about 500m – I think this slowed the average somewhat.
It was very easy up to 20-22km; then it got a progressively difficult.
28,46km , 2:20:36, 147 av. HR, 4:58/km

A good start to the week.

Checking against the marathon plan:
The plan:
(10th/Feb)18,(17th/Feb)20,(24th/Feb)22,(3rd/March)24,(10th/March)26,(17th/March)28,(24th/March)30,(31st/March)30,(7th/April)32,(14th/April)30,(21st/April)32

The Training:
(10th/Feb)18,(18th/Feb)21,87,(27th/Feb)25,5,(7th/March)15-[M-Pace],(10th/March)27[Lap 2 of Mara Course](18th/March)28.5,(24th/March)30,(31st/March)30,(7th/April)32,(14th/April)30,(21st/April)32

I was thinking during my long run; what else is there to do?
I have never been running these distances so far out from a marathon… this leaves me room to try something new. Not revolutionary new to the field of marathon training or the study of human physiology, new to me. Different to what ‘works’.
I used ‘works’ because maybe there is something better. Maybe it doesn’t work!

So, the thoughts that floated around were two different ideas.
1/ Go LONG. I usually cap the training at 32km – never going longer. Why not do a 35km run? In a marathon I usually start to fall apart at km 28-30. If I ran longer distances in training would this change? Or – is it the pace? which brings me to idea #2.

2/ Run Significantly more at M-Pace. Perhaps take a full week running 10-15km per day at planned M-Pace. Is this just looking for a injury or is it looking for an edge?

Perhaps there is something in 1 & 2, perhaps it’s obvious. Perhaps it’s just a different way of saying TRAIN MORE. Perhaps it’s the madness that is music free running; too much time to think.