Part 2

If you just downloaded the app and got new pace numbers over various training and race distances...it isn't really very helpful alone.

There are two things that make a good training program work; progressive overload and overload and recovery cycles. In more simple terms, for each training sequence the runs get longer or faster (never both) and you've got to have adequate recovery time so that the body can adapt.

So, how do you get in your mileage while giving enough time to recover? By alternating your longer runs with short, easy recovery runs in your plan. The math they taught us is that 30% of your raw weekly mileage is composed of your long run, 20% (each) of your weekly mileage is your harder mid week runs and 10% (each) are two recovery runs. The other two days are for rest.

Each week, 5% mileage is added to the program. When in doubt, first add the mileageto the long run, then to the longer mid week runs and lastly to the recovery runs.

So let's say we have a fit person running 5 miles a day, 5 days a week. That's 25 miles a week...decent base mileage for anyone. So, 30% of that mileage leaves us with a 7.5 mile long run. 20% of the 25 gives us 2 runs at 5 miles each and the two "recovery runs" are 2.5 miles. Since no one runs half miles really, use some sense in rounding: First week on a new program, long run is 7 miles to build confidence and recovery runs are at 3. So then the week becomes: Sun - 7; Mon - Rest; Tues - 3; Wed - 5; Thur - 3; Fri - 5; Sat - Rest. Next week, add another 5% so mileage becomes 26 miles. The long run becomes 8 and the rest stay the same. The following week, add a mile to one of the longer mid week runs...and on and on for the duration of the plan.

There is a bit more to the progression, lots of what-if and knowing your athlete that still make a good coach a decent thing to have but this is the basics of how you keep getting faster and running further. Running the same mileage daily is a lot like going to the gym, putting the same weight on the bar, doing a single set of eight reps and going home. You will see almost the same progress in the beginning as you would with a good program but progress will slow down and eventually that workout will only serve to maintain your fitness.

It's interesting to note that this was an exercise in the class, create a plan for turning a 5 miler into a half-marthoner within 16 weeks safely. The most conservative group got his base fitness there in just 12 weeks. With 3 more weeks of speed building and a week of taper, a solid plan came together.

Even with the promise of a few weeks of speedwork, it can be tough to see, much less BELIEVE how slower makes you faster...even if you can go further. Three things are what make this happen. The energy system required for everything more than a mile in length is fundamentally the same. It is best trained by use. The longer you are running, the more efficient that energy delivery system becomes. The other factor is your body. Running slower means you'll be running for a longer duration, your muscles, bones, lungs, heart and connective tissue all become stronger. Finally...you believe. Your central governor will know that you are okay with this distance, it will be comfortable with the stresses and it won't see anything out of the ordinary or difficult about what you are doing. It will allow you to use a lot more of your energy without fighting you.

Part 2 coming soon

I had some questions from Zach today and it seems that while I might have made a post to answer Katie's question about pace, I have caused questions about how it goes together. I've got some studying to get done tonight but hopefully tomorrow I can give an idea how to use that shiny new pace number in practice to go further and faster.

One bit of teaser: We did a class exercise on building a 16 training program for someone running five miles a day, five days a week and guess what every one of us reached:
Half-Marathon

Coaching, pace and fuel

My head is still swimming with things I learned. I'm still digging through the books and processing more things but one of the best things I took away was Team Oregon's method for training. Again, this is theirs, one of many, the official method of RRCA and the main teachers have MAD credentials but this doesn't invalidate anyone else's methods...any consistent training program will have you going further and faster. This is just one that they know works and they have the science to back it up.

The central notion to their training strategy in regard to pacing is the biological idea that "fat burns in a carbohydrate flame." The complex series of reactions that allow your body to use fat as fuel can only happen while your body is still able to use glucose and glycogen as well. The trick to to train our bodies to go easy on those glycogen stores so that they last the entire duration of the race so that you can continue to metabolize the fat. The problem is, which systems favor which fuel source. The glucose and glycogen burn anaerobically but to burn fat requires oxygen. This means if you are running outside of a sustainable Vo2Max, you are burning mostly glucose and glycogen...which you only have a solid ten minute supply. You'll hear 40 minutes but that figure assumes you aren't *JUST* burning glycogen, which unless you are Usain Bolt, is true.

So, the whole point of endurance training is threefold: First you train your body to endure the stress, strong muscles, strong bones, strong connective tissue...this is all why walking as a first step rocks. This part takes the longest but is the most easily done. Move more and your body will get stronger. Step two is to train your body's energy systems. The only way to train your body to be good at burning fat while running is to...burn fat while running. This means keeping as much of the run aerobic as you can. Your body is naturally good at burning glucose and glycogen and it doesn't benefit from training this system at all. So, once you edge closer to your Vo2 max, you are no longer training your body to deliver energy, you are just training it to endure...not that this is always a bad thing, this as actually key for middle distance runners (think 800m to mile). The third thing you train is your brain, you have to know you can do this. You teach your brain that by...doing it. Runs more easily completed without pain and injury reinforce success.

So, back to energy. You really only want to work easy and long runs at 80% of Vo2 Max...some elite athletes will actually train lower than that and do it for longer for even better increases in endurance. Incidentally, this is why the Galloway program is so very effective. The athletes are kept below that number at all times, that makes them slower, that makes them go longer and that makes them VERY fit. It's funny in a way. These runners go slower so that the experience is less miserable and they take less time to recover but given the level of overall conditioning, a shift in training focus for a month could easily turn one of them into a very competitive racer.

So, armed with all this, I've done the math and my ideal training pace FAR slower than I thought. I know it seems counter intuitive that running slower will make me faster but as the body gets more efficient at producing energy, that will help as for the neuromuscular changes that need to happen...that's what speedwork is for.

If anyone wants help with pace math, let me know. I can set the app in motion.
If you want a copy of your own and have an Android powered phone it's Team Oregon Pace Wizard.

AROOOOOOOOOOOO!

The Spartan Sprint is over and I did it.
It was unequivocally the hardest physical thing I've ever done...yea, reflect on that a moment. Where the Warrior Dash is designed to be the craziest fricking day of your life, the Spartans are designed to...well as they say on the shirt "You'll Know At The Finish Line."

I got a spiffy race shirt and a surprisingly nice medal. It's heavy, it's attractive and after crossing the line I feel worthy of such a thing.

The first sign that this was going to hurt was when the race changed from 3 miles of hell to 4 and then 4.5 and THEN they added a water station. Water stations don't typically appear in Sprint level Spartan races. Once we watched the elite wave go (Hobie Call leading the way) straight up the slope, I knew why. I'll be honest, unless you are a Very experienced trail runner, this race would kick your ass without obstacles. We found ourselves racing UP ski runs and up the rocky areas under the lift and up and up and up. The vast majority of obstacles were merciless. The easiest thing I did all day was crawl through a 100 yard tunnel on my hands and knees. I climbed walls ranging from 4-10 feet tall, crawled under barbed wired that was 10" above the mud, carried a 5 gallon bucket filled with gravel down and then BACK UP a ski run, dragged a 20 lb cinderblock through a lake, hoisted 2 - 20 lb cinderblocks up a 30 foot a-frame, climbed a cargo net that was at least 30 feet high, rode down a high speed waterslide to start a swam a muddy lake, rope climbed up a sloped and greased wall, jumped over several feet of fire, tested my ability to throw a spear and did battle with three pugil stick wielding people.

I failed a few obstacles. There was a wall with blocks randomly screwed into it that you had to climb sideways across. I lost my grip and it cost me 30 burpees. There was a Karate Kid styled balance obstacle where logs had been placed in the ground, about 4 feet apart and you cross about 30 feet balanced on the top of the logs. I lost my balance and that was 30 burpees. When I got to the spear throw, I hit my mark BUT the spear slid back out. Guess what I had to do then.

I got beat up a little but very little in the way of actual injury. My hamstring was hurting pretty bad after crashing down a hill near the cargo net climb (honestly that caused my failure at the logs) and when I went down the slide the rocket scientist behind me didn't give me a second so he came crashing down into the back of my neck and I saw stars. Happily I had made a few friends on the course and they kept me from going under while I got my wits back about me.

I met some great people out there. There was a 60 year old woman that I was talking to who was slogging along with me. For quite a while I got to run with two extraordinary ladies dressed as an angel and a devil...I'm sorry I missed their finish.

There were some high points in the thing, I loved hoisting the blocks. In body weight exercises, I've still got some weight slowing me down but when I can measure my strength against a fixed weight, I'm apparently quite fearsome, even among other fit people. I was also proud of how I handled the "pugilists." There was a gap in people and they were talking among themselves. I could have dashed past... I roared a challenge, made eye contact and charged each one in turn and deflected their blows quite easily.

Now for the final bits: Will I do this race again? I am not sure. Hopefully, I'll be in better shape next year and I will want a rematch but given the very physical nature of this thing, I'm not running it if I'm not 100%.  If this sounds like something you can't do, you are right. Unless you are very, Very, VERY fit (4 miles of brutal trail running and 120 burpees is an easy day for you), there is no way you can manage this event. You have to find a way to do it anyway. It is a test about what's inside...and that's what you know at the finish line.

Frail old man

I've been reading more of Hal Higdon's Masters Running and while it's not telling me anything I don't know about my chronic hamstring injury, it confirms I'm on the right track in dealing with it...and more to the point I'm not alone in this. By the way, I do love the terminology in running. It designed not to make you more keenly aware of what you aren't but to remind you in what you overcome just by pinning on a bib. I'm not an old runner, I'm a MASTERS runner! I'm not a big runner, I'm a CLYDESDALE! Doreen isn't a big runner, she is an ATHENA!

Anyway... reading the book also reminds me that if I take care of myself, I should be able to at the very least keep my current level of fitness into my early 60s but the one essential bit of reality I need to absorb is that: I heal more slowly than younger runners. This makes me a little sad in that I can't really chase a race schedule as aggressive as I had set out to do this year before I wrecked my knee. I guess I just need to be very selective in choosing very difficult races.

Speaking of difficult races. I have to admit I needed a minute  to process an email I got this morning. It's the final confirmation and instructions from the people giving the RRCA Coaching Certification class. As what will be expected of us and the logistics were outlined, I came to the part that made me so very happy: "Attire: comfortable, we will not be running." This might seem a bit out of step with me until you consider something that's been eating at me for the past month.

I've been utterly terrified of the Spartan Sprint. I think I've mentioned nerves before and people expressed their confidence in me...which helped not at all because here is the thing: I know I'm going to cross that line carrying my shield or on it BUT I was worried that I'd wreck myself too much to do the coach training. A fear like that would likely make me hold back and if you've run an obstacle/challenge/confidence course before you know this: Holding back makes it MORE likely you will fail or get hurt.

So, now knowing that no matter what comes to pass at the Spartan, I'll be able to do what's most important to me has lifted such a worry, that I can't adequately express it.

"Suffering is humbling. It pays to know how to get your butt kicked."- Christopher McDougall