Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Shades Marathon Training
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Emmy and Khani, so lovely to "see" you both!
Emmy - How are those lovely huskies?
Khani - I'm pretty much in the same boat as you regarding my training. I had a sciatic problem, then really bad hay fever/asthma then I cracked a rib so has been a wonderful couple of months. Back on (another) comeback now!
Have been having the odd monster skim over the past two weeks so sorry I can't comment on everyone, just lol at Shades almost pinching a Lamborghini and a well done to Big G for that cracker of a 5k training run. Great all round base training from everyone and I'm glad you seem to be feeling a bit better Cal.
I've been out a few times over the last two weeks but it hasn't been a great success. I haven't been able to get into any routine, haven't had enough time or it's been too hot and I've been just badly organised.
Anyway, on a positive note I haven't got one single niggle and, with the summer holidays in front of me, the time to get down to some serious training!
mamafox - so good to hear that you are past the hay fever season and are injury free and can enjoy some decent training. I'm sure you'll soon get back into a routine.
Can't do anything about the weather unfortunately. We've been lucky over here, nasty hot spell during lockdown for a while but right now it's quite good for running especially early in the morning.
8 miles this morning, quite cool and fresh, I could have done with gloves. But lovely running weather
Big G - as conditions were good and my route flat, I did a MAF test this morning. Ran one mile easy to warm up. I'm not running as well as I was a couple of months ago, then I would have expected pace to be about 10 secs per mile faster. Not sure what happened in mile 3 today though!
Shades, thanks for that. Very even splits then. I reckon I can do better on a MAF test, just based on Saturday's run.
Ian, well done on the mileage and also on the number of planned longer runs. That is really strong and consistent.
10-miles for me today. Overall stats not as good as Saturday for whatever reason but still a nice, enjoyable run out. Depending on how the day goes I may go out for a 2nd run this afternoon but I'll just see what happens.
Big G-No doing another test
Big G - I forgot to say I didn't do 5 x mile laps, but as part of my 8 mile run, 4 miles out and 4 miles back. But it was flat, through Jetty Marsh Nature Reserve and onto Stover Way.
When I started mile 4 of the test I hit that 'cruising' mode and that continued for mile 5 too. Funny, I've noticed that mile 5 of any run is often my best/fastest mile of the run.
Mamafox: lovely to "see" you too. Sorry to hear you've been struggling. We've had an awful hayfever season up here. Dogs are doing well, they can't run in the heat so it's been a lot of early mornings.
Ian: I used to do my long runs midweek. It was nice to have my weekends free.
This morning, I did 5miles with the dogs and have finished my run across Tennessee! 72 days and 1021km are all done.
Shades - The heat does have a terrible effect on my HR training so it's either go out very early or end up walking and even having to stop to get HR down!
Is around 122 your target training HR?
I also heard that UK gyms will be opening soon - when is yours due to open?
Emmy - Well done on your Tennessee crossing!
Big G - My hay fever is fine now, it's only really bad the last two weeks in May and the first week of June normally. Yes, I'm back on HR training, I looked at buying the book again but it's 17€ on Amazon which I don't really want to spend, especially as I didn't find all of it useful. I eneded up Googling it and, after a read round, have realised that my HR was too low so have readjusted it accordingly. This morning I did my basic 10k loop and it was much more satisfying with the extra 5bpm that I am allowed. Was lovely to be able to go out early and not have any time limit to try and stick to as well.
Gyms are due to reopen on the 25th, my gym too. So waiting to hear new procedures, we will have to book in for a workout. My Pilates instructor has indicated that she's not keen on starting classes again until September. Funny I don't miss Pilates now but I really do miss the gym, I have a lot of work to do just to get back to where I was pre lockdown.
No 122 is not my training rate, it's my MAF rate. Big G and I were discussing the issue of cardiac drift, Maffetone doesn't really mention it, whereas with Hadd, which is what I do, it's a crucial indicator.
I train 112-120 BPM which is 70-75%MHR, for my base training.
I had suggested to Big G that I would do a MAF test to see if I had cardiac drift.
Good that your recalculated MAF rate suits you better. I'm sure you can remember what to do without the book. Have you done MAF tests before?
Ian - Hope to see you race soon. You have PB's waiting!!
Shades - Interesting to see your MAF results too.
MF - Good to hear from you.
I had a strange run on Saturday. Planned 15 miles, I ran the first 6 miles all slower than 10 min/mile pace, but HR had still gone to 129 (132 on occasion too). 129 being 75% of max, so the top of my HADD base rate. I did another couple of miles and HR still wouldn't come down, so basically threw my toys out the pram
Sunday did 7 miles with 3 of those at my new ILTHR of 140-145. Again something strange happened, first 2 miles of 9:54(118)/9:37(125) to warm up, then tried to get HR to 140, but it was hovering around 135ish. I stopped after a while to readjust my watch and carried on, but it came out to;
6:24(132)/7:11(147)/7:41(145). The last mile is probably around where I would have expected to have been based on my previous 135-140 tests. Finished off with another 2 miles 9:31(131)/9:35(128).
Can only assume some issue with my optical sensor. That brought up 52 miles for the week.
9 miles for me yesterday and like the run on Friday, was a bit of a slog. Think the slow running under MAF has made me complacent on effects of increased mileage so taking a rest day today and a cut back week this week to maybe 30-35 miles and no more than two days running in a row. Hopefully I can get back to it after that and it will help make >40 mile weeks more of a baseline rather than an exception.
That's good news about the gym. Surely you won't have lost all your fitness/form over the last couple of months, I thought you were keeping things up with tabata and strength work at home.
Steve - Did you end up getting a HR chest strap in the end?
Ian - I don't think I've ever been tempted to throw in some MP miles on a training run, I find them very hard to do in training. You really are on fine form right now.
RC - 40 mile weeks will be a great regular mileage. When had my purple patch back in 2015 and got my marathon PB it was simply down to regular high mileage with lots of steady miles and a couple of shorter races thrown in as the only speedwork I did.
Mama-This is the first time I've done it in a long run,I am fine knocking out 10MP when I start at that pace,but usually struggle adding speed so late.
Ian, great start to the week for you. Brilliant long run with MP at the end too!
Steve, I use a strap but I had that once. I was flying down a minor slope and couldn’t reach 142! Strongly suspecting a HRM issue I even stopped and manually checked my pulse expecting it to read 170 or something, but no - it was in line with what the watch was saying (I wasn’t stood still for very long at all so the manual reading wouldnt have been too far out). Very odd. In some ways I’ve been trying to find that again but I only managed it that one time - how/why it happened I’ve no idea. I had it to a lesser extent on a flat bit of road around 0.5 mile long, running at 142. That was back in mid-June and I’ve got nowhere near the pace I was running that day along that section (approx 8:20 pace, for that stretch). It’s partly these glimpses of something happening, along with the general positive trend, that I find very intriguing about all this.
Anyway, I went out and did 10 miles late afternoon. Nice, and easy paced run, with a few steep sections that I walked and the HR was still in the right area as they are steep and I wasn't sauntering. I stopped the watch at 7.5 miles as that is a regular route of mine, and then restarted it immediately to get the extra 2.5 miles in. It rained quite heavily in the last 2.5 miles but it was quite refreshing and overall a nice run out for a 20-mile day.
I think you need to try the chest strap at least once.
Ian - that's a cracking run. You could do with a marathon sooner than Reykjavik really.
Mamafox - nothing to do with being super fit, my max is only 160. 2 months ago when I was running better my base pace was faster than my season's best marathon pace for 2019. However with no long runs or races I couldn't test myself. Never mind I just have to get back to that level again.
Yes that's right re cardiac drift.
I've not been able, or that willing, to do enough strength work at home. I need a gym. I was doing some leg stuff on the machines in the gym with fairly heavy weights, impossible to recreate at home. I also don't have air-conditioning at home and when it's warm I can't do much.
Yes, that's right re MAF test. Ideally it should be done on the flat but as long as you use exactly the same course each time then it doesn't matter if you use an undulating course, as you'd be comparing mile splits like for like.
Rcouture - a step back week every now and then should recharge the batteries. Surely you should hear about Brighton in the next week or so.
I agree I'd love a race sooner as I really feel in good shape,and with a decent taper I'm ready to go.
Chicago is now gone, but the good news is that they are offering refunds or deferrals, with no extra costs for the latter.
Cal - it's a shame to hear of another race cancelled but in these circumstances that is good news for you. Will you take the refund or defer?
At least you know now and can plan your training for Valencia.
8 miles today, very humid 97%
10 miles for this morning. Very humid - very sweaty when I got back. It's a route I've not done since 12th May but still my quickest time today despite me finding it quite tough due to the conditions.
Re HRM, I haven't synced my new HRM yet am still using my old 305 that I dragged out the cupboard. I think the 305 monitor might be the most durable that Garmin have ever made. The monitor that used to come with the 310XT was awful, very uncomfortable and didn't wear well. The FOC monitor that I was given last year which is of the newer type, they are very comfortable to wear but I'm not sure how long they last as you have to unscrew with 4 tiny screws to change the battery and I think once I'd done that the first time it was no longer 100% waterproof....however I could have had one from a bad batch.
So IMHO probably not worth paying for a monitor that you don't need right now.
Committee meeting happened last night. Probably a week early bearing in mind the new EA guidance hasn't been issued yet, so we're meeting again next Monday to go over it. We're keen to introduce training and also our cut down Club Champs but can't do it with the current guidance. I'm pretty sure smaller clubs are meeting now with groups of 6 but we're a fairly big club and didn't feel it would work as we'd need more coaches than usual to take out the groups.
Young Trotter's Mum is club secretary and apparently YT has heard that London is doing an elite race this year. He's a member of a WhatsApp group that has some elites in and apparently one of them said he's been given the nod that he needs to get on with training. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but it's a good rumour regardless.
One other thing is that we're making our Totnes 10k into a virtual race. We have the medals and can post them out, and any profits after that will go to a charity. We're going to charge £8. I may even enter it myself as it'll be 31 July - 2nd Aug and it may give me some motivation to go out and do a 10k time trial. It works well as I'm hoping to introduce some kind speed work in August.
Shades: I didn't realise your max was 160. That's my average steady tempo pace. According to the cardiologist, my max is around 185.
5 miles with the dogs in the woods. Very muggy but nice to get the day started with a run. I would have pushed it but remembered half way through that I had forgotten to take my inhaler this morning
I think EA have been caught napping, they really should have had their next update ready to release straight after the government had announced the latest lockdown relaxations. I understand that there's been some confusion with some areas going ahead with plans before EA have issued their update.
My club have been having Monday night runs for several weeks and it's working really well. Groups of 6 only and they meet in different places, even different towns, they put up the list on FB (we don't have a website) and you add yourself to whichever group, nobody can turn up on spec. We only have about 50 members but they've been doing 4 groups so that's about half our membership out training on one night.
Remember under your ARC insurance, run leaders can be qualified by experience they don't need to have a UKA qualification, as long as they have the club's authority to lead.
Re London I saw a post on YT's FB (not posted by him) that an elite circuit had been measured out. I do hope that goes ahead as would be great TV, as long as they had enough runners to make it a race.
You shouldn't really be using the term 'speedwork' with HR training.
Emmy - I agree re the 305. I've got a 45 now, which is fine. I'd chosen the 235 but then they discovered they were out of stock so I settled on the 45, purchased at an Expo.
Yes, my MHR has always been low. I've been doing HR training for years but my MHR has not decreased as theoretically it should as time passes. I'm not sure what that means.
How are things in NL re the pandemic, is life back to relative normality now?