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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Reg - good volume; well done. For the cramping maybe try a magnesium supplement and/or a magnesium spray.
My calculated* risk on my achilles didn't pay off. Haven't run since Thursday. Did manage 5m of walking yesterday, including a pub roast in the middle. That didn't seem to irritate the achilles, so suspect the dog will be very fit by the time I get back to running. Hopefully it's not too long as it appears to be settling down well - I've stopped all painkillers, voltarol gel, etc, to leave it recover naturally, and won't even try a jog now until it's 100% pain free, but hoping that won't be too long.
* sh!t or bust might have been a better description than a 'calculated risk', but I knew the consequences of the risk, so as crap as it is there's no point sulking about it. I've used my time off well to decide on my approach to get back to where I was/want to be, so it hasn't been wasted time at least.
That takes that debate away.
Sorry to hear of the current woes - won't expect to see you Sunday then!
Heck of a mileage from Reggie.
Back to really cold this morning - longjohns and gloves again.
Last 2 mornings I have had a Eat Natural bar and a bit of Soreen early doors, I have them on the bedside table to eat as soon as I wake up. I'm definitely in the fuelling camp - I have heard someone say it's straining your body otherwise, like Why wouldn't you put fuel in a car before a long journey etc..
I have only gone 5 miles without any food. Could probably do a bit longer tbh.
Did the morning Monday morning 9, no training this week as racing the mile indoors Wednesday and Surrey League Saturday.
Intensity has to matter though. You can get away with lesser if you're not going as hard.
Cheers, TT ,the tablets I got have magnesium in so I'll see how it goes with them first. Sorry things aren't going to plan for you.
Did 4 at lunch today and then went to go to sports massage after lunch and realised I had no car and my 'cheap' bike had a flat so I had to jog over to get there in time. That's 1 extra mile added to the total. I was not short of sore muscles!
A little snip on the gel packet to make it easier to open is a worthwhile little hack, I always eat them just before a water station so I can wash it down and lob the wrapper straight away.
Starting with the time aspect first, the 2 hours of available glycogen stored in the body (more in the muscles than liver actually, if I remember correctly, PMJ) is actually about 2000kcal of glycogen, rather than strictly speaking '2hrs'. The 2 hours was arrived at on a calculation of 100kcal/mile pure glycogen usage. Even somebody with horrendous fat metabolism rates is still unlikely to burn pure glycogen for 2 hours, and, even if they were capable of such preferential glycogen/carb metabolism, muscle breakdown would be far more likely to bring them to a stop, than running out of fuel.
Realistically (which I imagine you are already very aware of PMJ), there is a contribution of both fat-burning and glycogen burning to pretty much all distances* and one of the main objectives of your training is to shift the ratios in favour of your event's requirements (more glycogen heavy for shorter distances, more fat heavy for longer).
Obviously for marathons the desire is to improve the proportion that fat burning contributes to your fuel usage, so anything that helps that along the way is desirable.
However the percentage of fat-burning improvement required (compared to what happens in the body naturally at the correct effort) to get through a marathon, without bonking, and without using fuel, is minimal. Taking the aforementioned 2000kcal of glycogen that can be stored in the body, and working on the assumption that it takes 100kcal of energy to run a miler (actual figure can vary wildly for many reasons, but I'll save that for another day), then what you are looking for as a percentage of fat-burning contribution is actually 622kcal out of 2622kcal total (or just less than 24%). Realistically what will bring you to a halt in the marathon is more likely to be the aforementioned muscular breakdown than fuel deprivation of any kind.
Running on empty reputedly helps, but there are also potential downsides to that (though ultimately the idea is that eventually your body will adapt to whatever you repeatedly ask it to do).
Personally, I feel pure volume of running, and running at aerobic paces are more efficient ways of improving your fat-burning profile/ratios, and it has the added benefit of improving muscular endurance to prevent the breakdown referred to in the 'pure glycogen' example above.
* sprints being the exception where ATP contributes a significant amount of fuel for the initial few seconds.
Reg - marathons are full of people that go off too hard and dont fuel it properly too. Getting the gels in early whilst the stomach is functional and then pushing on later (10m to go) is my favoured approach nowadays. Theoretically someone should be able to run a marathon really hard if they can absorb a large amount of fuel, but its not possible whe the stomach wont absorb it anymore.
If it's not, I don't have to do another
As you rightly say, there is no sudden switch between mechanisms and individuals differ and that difference can be exploited. The marathon happens to be such an area but also there is a similar switch when sprints transition to middle distance so you get statistical outliers who win medals.
The other thing is the absolute number of calories. As you say, if you run a marathon that is about 2,600 calories and 3,500 calories is about 1 pound body weight so running a marathon equates to about 12oz weight loss. You get all these "fat burning" videos and coaches but you are not going to lose significant weight by running: that has to be lifestyle changes. I saw a FB post a few days ago with a "runner" saying she had lost 120 lbs in 6 months (so 4,200 miles at 100 calories a mile) and it turns out she had a gastric band operation and runs 5k twice a week (so maybe 150 miles in total, or 4 pounds without snacks afterwards).
Usual drill - took ages sitting about, then a 2mile slow warm up with strides in full gear, plenty of disclaimers in head about just doing this or that, thinking about next Sunday etc...
before finally getting going, being pleased the first mile was 6.18 despite some slippy slidiness on the half mile frosty grass, before averaging at a very pleasing
6.15
That's 6 secs a mile quicker than the last one 2 weeks ago and another significant improvement as these have eased up in mileage and time over the last 5-6 weeks. Lovely.
Pre covid I did a few of these 6.08-6.12 sort of mixer, so a 6.15 feels quite competitive just outside of that zone.
Felt the right sort of effort too, no pushing, and probably what helped was very rarely looking at the pace as I went, checking the split on the beep.
That's a crazy case of misdirection on that weight loss! And I totally agree with needing lifestyle changes; you can't get off that much excess weight just through exercise.
When I started running I lost 28kg (~62lbs) in about 9.5 months. Admittedly I was doing more volume than most, but that level of weight loss would still require a daily average deficit of ~750kcals for the 9.5 months, which I was highly unlikely to have achieved. Additionally I lost a huge proportion of that weight up front which would have made the initial deficit require way more, so it can only have been down to reducing water retention through healthier living.
Reg - I missed your post yesterday. I use tablets with magnesium in them too but find I need more with high volume (ex-coach put me onto the idea of supplements). If you decide you need some Zipvit on Amazon are good quality.
SG - coming along nicely. Good stuff.
My schedule treated me with a single digit run today, just 9 miles in the general aerobic zone. Although post sports massage pummeling, I found it difficult to get away from the recovery effort. Just 68% of max but 7:29 pace so hopefully a sign of increase fitness. About 10 days without eating treats now so perhaps it's starting to take an effect as well.
Have visions of you being this hench machine with 4% body fat and massive guns with this new mileage and pro training regime
And yes, that was brutally cold this morning. For the session I didn't even consider ditching gloves or longjohns!
Interesting bit on weight loss - so not eaten anything naughty for about a month now, probably gone down about half a stone towards 11 and a quarter. So not that much really, but i'm medium build and 6'2" so getting down to 11 won't be easy.
Obviously noticeably harder to lose the weight now being 50 than 10 years ago.
So indoor mile tomorrow at Lee Valley - having seem his name on the start lists, I have checked with him and so more than likely that I will be seeing (and possibly racing)... the lesser spotted @DeanR7 Richardson....
Trying to summon my inner SC and Reg and avoid the treats. I find it tough especially when sleep isn’t great, but I find a momentum can build that makes things easier – just got to get that phase!
Enjoy the indoor mile, SC.
Impressive tempo in the literally freezing cold, SG. Lots of fuelling chat re your 20M, I see. I am too tight to pay for gels in training so take some dried apricots liberally covered in salt. Cheap but do the job blood sugar wise.
Enjoyed your analysis, TT. Your end point about ATP contributing significant fuels for minor very hard bursts also ties into these enabling a brief raising of blood sugar levels.
Seemed to have only a brief foray with Covid, with any lingering cough now died away. Managed to get to 68M last week, including my first ‘Kenyan Hills’ fartlek. I gather there are different ways of doing this, but I went for steady up (c3 mins), hard down (c2 mins) x 9 with no other recovery. I guess it is essentially a hilly tempo, but good training to smash the legs downhill and also allow for a bit of speed in there. Knackered by the end! Also did a ‘nearly twenty’, with 19.6M including 2 x 4M at 6:50s.
Kicked things off this week with a recovery 5M on Monday then uphill intervals yesterday: 12 min hilly tempo-lite to start, then 8 x 2 mins hard uphill. Marginally speedier than a fortnight ago, so hopefully headed in the right direction!
SG - did you find an ice free route for that tempo then?
SQ - good that CV didnt set you back, back to it nicely.
Been super icy again here, was -4 on the trail i was commuting on today. Got away with some strides yday, so went for some reps on a decent section of the trail today, only took ~2.45 for he full distance of that part of trail so shorter than the usual 3min reps, but the trail was safe when its so icy. 12 reps done, bit slow due to the surface but only slight groin moaning and with the extra bits 11m in total. 4m home tonight was a bit sore, but I'm hopefully on the up now. Had icicles in my beard, so knew it was cold.
Good luck with the healthy eating SQ and some good Kenyan Hills there. Used to do those over Bedford way years ago.
Last night was fun - got there about 6.30 to register, met up with @DeanR7 and a few Vets I know, plus Mike C from HHH. I was in race 6, with Dave Cowlishaw, a great V55 going for a world mile indoor record. Ten in each race.
Quite hard to know how well you are going with one clock in the corner and although initially the pace was a little down, but sped up a bit feeling ok through 5 laps to go with DC right behind me and about in 7/8th place.
Managed to get up to about 4th with 400m to go and felt relatively strong to the finish in 4.39 - a couple of whippersnappers sped past me in the last 100m.
Really like indoors - two laps defnitely doesn't seem as long as one lap outside! Dean ran well to run 4.30.6 in the next race, I don't think his results are up yet as they may have had a rogue runner somewhere. Results should be below.
LF Results (athletics-uk.org)
Happy with it - now i'm 3rd in the All time indoor mile V50 rankings behind Dean and Tony O'Brien.
Had a marathon 5m warm down to Seven Sisters tube with HHH Mike. Gutted when I got home, got a takeway and there were no taxis in town. Had to run home. Bit of a marathon day!!
I've looked at Magnesium supplements TT, seems like a minefield with different types and dosages, I might try a diet approach to start with. Get some pumpkin seeds and other magnesium rich foods.
Pretty special old fogie ranking there SC, well done.
I had a strange niggle on my 9 miler on Tuesday but didn't think too much of it but it persisted and I had to immediately turn back 1 minute into yesterdays run. It's sort of back of the knee tightness. Came on immediately when I first felt it. I've treated it as if it's one of either high calf, low hamstring or popliteus. The latter I'd never even heard of before but I think it's the most likely. I also suspect that the sports massage may have played a part in it, due to the fact it was my first run after having the massage and i felt it almost straight away so the actual run itself had barely got going.
Just did 4 miles and whilst I could feel something and the knee felt a little unstable, the run itse'f didn't seem like a mistake. Will hopefully improve tomorrow to allow a longish run but this week is looking like a lower mileage affair.
I just did a bit of Excel on your powerof10 profile and you have 10th all time V45 3000m indoors and 64th v50 at parkrun. How do you rank those against the mile? parkrun shows the depth of v50 talent, 16:46 to get into the top 100, 16:33 top 50, top 5 under 16!
Reg - magnesium is recommended for older runners, esp for the nerve type issues re hammy and backs. I take a zipfit 500mg tablet daily.
Yep the mile indoors is a bit niche - and looking at the 5k rankings it shows that it's best to stick to shorter stuff to keep your stock higher. I'm glad I can still do a decent 1500m and 3,000. The 5k is getting harder by each year....but I still think I may have another sub 16 in there somewhere...We'll see.
Blood test results are in: I’m B12 deficient apparently so hopefully some regular pills will have me back to normal ASAP.
Repeated last week’s formula of cycle commutes, lunch track running & an easy evening run yesterday. Slightly quicker on the progressive 5K & the 5K w strides as did 12x100 rather than 10. In spite of running them on consecutive days my legs weren’t quite as painful for today’s recovery run so extended it to 6K. Glorious weather for running at lunchtime. Bloody freezing on the bike though 😆