Thurs
Day off
Fri
Very hard 14min challenge involving around 3.5km of running and other exercises. Heart rate peaked at 172 - that’s 7 higher than previous This years highest. Still 11 beats off what the max i have seen (now 3yrs ago)
All up, 5.43km and 38min of training in the morning.
PM - 4km of recovery running - 19:32min and avg heart rate 126
As of Fri - 4hrs of training this week
Sat, 7km in 32:50.
Recovery run, avg hr 70% or 129
avg speed, 12.8km/hr
running index 82 - this is by and far the highest index i have ever achieved. The cooler weather is certainly helping. The higher the Index the better.
Sun
Day off, very fatigued day.
Monday Was a rather hot afternoon
Recovery run with a hard 1km towards the end as i got caught up chasing some dude who was doing intervals, just to see what sort of pace he was doing… (about 3min per km)
6km
avg hr 143 max hr 166 avg speed 14km/hr
running index 69
Tue
Ended up being a super HOT day (a heat wave it seems has hit a lot of Australia) but they do recon a cold front is on it’s way!???
Plan was for a 10km run to a park, do a few 200’s until the guys turn up, then do an Hr of running circuits.
After only 3km of run, i was struggling due to heat, after 5km the sun was smashing me!
AFter the 10km run, that was it - game over for the day.
But - I do have some Q’s for myself and You guys
1st Reason for doing Marathon - It’s part of an Aerobic Base building for some Fast 3km - 10km races later in the year.
1st Marathon = Gold Coast (one of the biggest marathons in Aust) Date = 1st July - Making the top 10 would be insane, making the top 50 should be well within what i could do. A top 10 would be possible at some stage - but it’s hard to say. It’s a very Flat course, and Fast.
2nd Marathon = 5th August - A brisbane based run, that potentially may not have a full marathon - they are asking for those interested before committing. From what i have seen Brisbane based guys, or Qld based guys for that matter, also being only 1 month from Gold Coast, then really Top guys wont go hard in this or wont do it. It will include hills, so will be slower than Gold Coast. But it is One month later
3rd Marathon = August 26th - Sunshine Coast - A good chance of Being in the top few - Course will be dead flat in areas, and Very hilly in other areas. So wont be as fast as Gold Coast.
There doesn’t appear any prize moneys for Brisbane or Sunshine coast, if they do, it’ll be small. A Top 10 at Gold coast wont get any $$ either - So racing for Cash in these events is useless - But a good time and the Aerobic endurance will be used for fast times for shorter events that attract Cash.
The shorter events
6th May - Half marathon with Prize $$.
11th June - 18.5km, race the Rattler (it’s an old steam train) Avg pace is about 17km/hr for the train - but it is hilly. Not sure about $$ but would be a good run race.
22nd July - Pomona king of the mountain - It’s been won by a guy like 6 times in a row. And the winner gets a paid trip to New Zealand to run a mountain race over there! That’s pretty cool
5th Aug - a 15km run with decent price $$ - attracts a decent field as a result.
19th Aug - a 3 or a 8km race with decent prize $$ - the 8km winner is pretty fast over the last 2yrs, and i can 2nd in the 3km by 3sec last year. The winner of the 3km gets more than 3rd in the 8km. Plus i would like to smash out a really fast 3km time (it does have a big hill in the middle, the hill is where i lost it last year)
27 Oct - the mountain race in New zealand, Kawera - the prize event if one wins the race on 22nd July
31-4th Nov - a 5km road race that is the Fastest road race in Aust. Plus maybe a 10km run the next day as part of a Triathlon team.
I think the 2nd and 3rd marathons are out of the Q - too close to other better events that attract Cash prizes.
I could do the Half marathon in May then the Full marathon in end of June - but then i wouldnt do the Race against the Train on the 11th June.
If i wanted to race the Train - I would do the Half marathon as my Longest race for the year and Not do a full Marathon.
Thoughts?
1st Reason for doing Marathon - It’s part of an Aerobic Base building for some Fast 3km - 10km races later in the year. hmm ok, but why a full and not 1/2?
1st Marathon = Gold Coast (one of the biggest marathons in Aust) Date = 1st July - Making the top 10 would be insane, making the top 50 should be well within what i could do. A top 10 would be possible at some stage - but it’s hard to say. It’s a very Flat course, and Fast. Aiming for top 10 first time up is a BIG call. The perils of marathons even for the experienced are well known. Maybe finish and see what happens may be a better, even if more conservative option.
I think the 2nd and 3rd marathons are out of the Q - too close to other better events that attract Cash prizes. agree
how important is racing the train to you?
Thanks John
Re- racing the train - You’re right. I might just use the 1/2 Marathons as a training session. I have done 29km in training this year - might as well do it in a race eh?
Last week
Thurs - off
Fri - 53min of running circuits (easy)
Sat - 4km easy - then a 5km Hard hit out in 17min (not time trail pace) - then 3km easy
Sun - Off
Mon - 5km easy recovery run
Tue - off
Wed -
3km Time trail - in training joggers - into a strong 20-30km/hr head wind on the road.
Tried to keep it even without going out too hard.
9min 51sec
Heart rate only got to 167
Max heart rate recorded in the last 3 yrs is 183 - and that was 3yrs ago.
I have had it to 174 over the last couple of weeks - Im sure it can go somewhat higher
I’m sure it can go sub 9min min soon.
Also ran another 2km to wind down, then another 30min of running circuits at the park.
Just did a google seach, and found that 1mile handicapt race - it’s in 3.5wks time. Or 2 weeks after my 10km - the 5th of May - this is the day before a Half Marathon - so i think it’s out of the Q.
Just realized, that 3km TT - was 17sec quicker in same shoes (same type - heavy trainers) than in Aug last year.
With a max HR of 175 and Avg of 166
If i also remember - i was swimming in a pool of La+ and H+ ions real bad… Whereas this time, it just hurt (esp the cooler drier air in the lungs, seemed to burn?)
Thur - off - foamrolled
Fri - 10min on the spin bike, then 42min of running circuits, 7.2km all up. Nothing too hard.
Sat - 1hr Time trial - 15.9km. Hr avg, 158 - max 168 (max was in the last 500m) typically avg 162ish after the 1st 10min
Lungs were hurting after 12km till about 14km - sort of felt cramping?? weird. Otherwise, the pace was pretty consistent the entire way, 8km in 29:50 and the 2nd 7.9km in 30:10.
Even though it’s cooled off - there was rain about and therefore high humidity, so still lost 1.5kg of sweat in the HR.
1week to go before 1st 10km race of the season.
apologies as we have discussed this before, but do you us HR as a fitness monitor (compare afterwards) or pace monitor (during session), or both?
I know that lung thing, bloody sore and in my case more lower throat. Can’t believe you haven’t had it before, often it is cold weather related.
Depends on what the Plan calls for.
That run, was trying to keep to 16/km/hr - and just see what the heart does.
Other runs, esp recovery runs, are to keep the HR down.
Runs that are for base training, are to keep the HR UNDER La+ at all times (a couple of sec here and there due to road conditions…) But yeah, there are deff runs that are done watching the HR instead of speed or whatever else. This makes training easier to recover from, and allows for more volume.
Re- lung thing - I have had the burning throat thing from cold - i think i have had the crampy lung thing before, but - not for such a long period of time (in terms of time eg months or yrs, and in terms of time eg During a 1hr run, or Time Trial - if it was during a normal training run, i would have stopped for a minute or two…)
Sunday -
21min easy recovery run or 3.8km
then 35min of Running Circuits - 4.2km
Total for the week - 4hrs 11min
2 x time trails
2 x days off
Mon - off - lots of foamrolling, legs very stiff
Tue - 20min of easy jogging, more foamrolling, legs still very stiff (new areas, not same as yesterday)
Wed - warm up, then 3km of run at race pace (18km/hr) then jog (12-14km/hr) around a park, North/South runs were Race pace, East/West were Jogs. Felt really good at the end.
Thurs - Off
New mattress arrived Wed - for when i’m away from home working (typically 2 nights a week). The old one was very bad…
Two nights in a row i have used it, and this morning, woke up feeling Awake! First time in ages, Months, maybe 6 months.
1st race of the season is this Sunday. 10km as part of a team Triathlon.
Up coming Races and Training Plan
Training Plan (after this weekends race)
Base for 2 x months
Hills for 1 x month
Intervals for 8 wks
Hold racing form for 1.5 - 2 months
Racing Plan
6th May - Half marathon Falls in Base
11th June - 18.5km Falls in Base
1st July - either half or full marathon?? Falls in Base - Next week is start of Hills
15th July - 21k or 10k? Falls in Hills
22nd July - king of mountain (about 25min) Falls in Hills
29th july - 5,10 or 21k Start of Intervals / La+ workouts
5th Aug - 15km Falls in Intervals
19th Aug - 3km Falls in Intervals
26th Aug - 5km Falls in Intervals
2nd Sept - 5km Falls in intervals
14th Oct - 10km Peak racing form
1st Nov - 5km Peak racing form
3-11th Nov Pan Pacific Masters Peak racing form
I need more races during Sept/Oct - Hopefully will get some 800m and 1500m races, but there are none planned this far out except for Pan Pacific
Hi Bold,
I am very much looking forward to hearing how your first race goes. Keep us posted!
Thanks T-slow.
To explain what the race is - Triathlon, It’s a 1.5km Swim, 40km Ride, 10km run.
Conditions were very Calm, zero breeze and started cool at 7;30am but 99% humidity, and by 10am it was 28deg C and still around 80% humidity - so like summer (it’s nearly winter here…)
As a team, we have three guys, each doing One Leg each (i did the run)
With 600 people competing, and nearly 100 teams, They had to start the event in Wave type starts.
Elite men start, then elite women, then Age group Individuals in various wave starts.
By the time Out team Swimmer had started, The elite individual men already were on their bike, around 35-40min before us.
Out swimmer swam great, he was 60sec behind the winner, in a pack of about 4 fighting for 2-5th.
On change over, you have to swap over a Timing chip, which our cyclist lost about 30sec doing…
At the end of the cycle race, we had moved into a solid 2nd and still 60sec behind - and past a lot of individual guys in the process.
During the run, i was keeping Pace with the 1km markers perfectly for a 35min run - this lasted 3km and i didnt see any more 1km markers till 1km to go!!
Constantly passing guys due to starting so far behind, eg, perhaps passing one person on average every 50m (it makes you feel like you’re going faster than you really are)
I felt like the pace was consistent till around 4km - then the Heat started to really effect me - started to make the Heart rate go higher and the pace go slower. (Normally the only thing to make the Heart rate go higher is a Faster Pace - otherwise it just sits there if pace is the same)
Eventually, i got sight of the Leader runner and caught him by around 800m to go - Where i sat till we got to the Finishing park (around 300m to go) After which, i passed him and just sprinted away and put around 100m on him. (seems the spring wasnt really needed, but i was in pain and just kept running)
Wasnt too happy with my time - I lost way too much speed between 3km and 9km - during the km splits i could see, i was running for 35min pace, when i didnt see them, it slowed way down to 4min per km avg. So overall time was just under 38. It was hot as all buggery, but even in that heat, wasnt a very fast time. Oh well. Heart rate graph didnt really show a very high Heart rate, it was up, but nothing specially high. Considering it was hurting a lot - i thought the HR would have been somewhat higher (Heat Stress??)
I was that Hot, that later when i went to bed, even when it cooled off, i couldnt sleep under sheets - i felt burning.
So - have to release my calfs (a bit sore) and get ready for a 2 month big base (more km and more hrs, with hopefully faster base km pace)
Mon - 5.6km recovery run. Lower legs sore, not so much the calfs, but underneath them, the tibilas Posterior was shattered
Tue - 7.1km of running circuits in 50min
Wed - 8.5km of running - felt pretty good
Ordered a new Gell Mattress today with 7 different spring zones, with pocket springs. The goal being a better mattress gives a better sleep, and lets the muscles recover quicker and better. It arrives in around 1week.
A win is always nice, well done.
How do you correspond
I felt like the pace was consistent till around 4km - then the Heat started to really effect me - started to make the Heart rate go higher and the pace go slower. (Normally the only thing to make the Heart rate go higher is a Faster Pace - otherwise it just sits there if pace is the same)
with
Heart rate graph didnt really show a very high Heart rate, it was up, but nothing specially high. Considering it was hurting a lot - i thought the HR would have been somewhat higher (Heat Stress??)
was the first one how you felt or were you looking at HR while racing?
Hey John
cheers
The pace was pretty consistent in the 1st 4km going by 1km splits. The HR was up about where i was expecting for a 10km run. Typically what would happen, at this stage, is for the pace to maintain, the heart rate would go up, but, im talking like 2-4 beats over the rest of the race, and another 4-5 beats for the last 1km or half a km due to kicking it home. But - That didn’t happen. The HR stayed at the same level as at the end of 4km till the last few hundred mtrs. At which point, it went up 5 beats only.
What’s happening here - 6 months of base work with very minimium La+ training. The heart is now a lot Bigger than before, and without the Strength in the walls for fast beating. So it’s just Thumps the blood around. The strength hasnt been built up yet to get it really going fast RPM.
The other thing - Cardic Drift - this occurs duing Hotter weather and when Carb intake is low. Talking to my Cyclist, Who is also a Naturapath, my internal body thermostat could be wrong (as each yr im hating and hating summer more and more) this Can be caused due to Thyriod issue and should get some blood tests to check it out - I might need some special Iodine to help it out? As per the low carbs - normally during base training i keep my carbs around 30% or so of daily intake. But during racing, your body isnt really using much Fats (unlike base) and uses Carbs like a furnace. Was i carbed up? Gees no - I had forgotten all about it, in fact, my carb use the 24hrs before the race was possibly down to around 20%. So what happens with cardic drift is as you dehydrate, and burn away your carbs, the blood plasma volume can decrease significantly due to sweat loss, and this reduced volume is still expected to kept at a constant pressure when pumped to the rest of the body. Therefore the pump has to work harder.
A higher carb intake, actually stores More water.
Heart rate seems to be recovered as of yesterday, Wednesday.
A new way of gauging if the heart rate is recovered is as follows,
Using a Heart rate monitor.
During Aerobic work, the heart rate has a fairly Linear relationship between blood pumped and distance covered.
This means, during Aerobic work, it will take an athlete a certain number of beats to cover a specific distance.
For instance, if one can cover 10km in 35min at an average HR of 155, the Maths = (35 x 155) = 5425 beats per 10,000m, or (10000/5425) = 1.84 meters per beat.
This same athlete could expect to cover 10,000m at 40min and 45min with the same ratio… so at slower speeds the average heart rate will drop to maintain the ratio.
So therefore, if we know it takes 5425 beats to cover 10,000m of a know course, we can more or less predict what he should average for different aerobic times over the same course
If he takes 40min, the the 5425 beats will give an average HR of just over 135, and at 45min, it will drop to 120 average.
The exact ratio will vary according to bio-mechanics and can improve over time with better aerobic development and leg strength. So it’s good for Short term training blocks. (then re-test)
This sort of record keeping will determine when it’s safe to resume Hard training again. Systemic acidosis will elevate resting HR, and glycogen depletion with muscular tiredness will lower stride distance
The athlete simply has to go for a very easy morning run over a known course and determine the ratio. If it is back to normal, he is running eficiently again, if not, he should look at easier recovery until ready.
The set course should remain largely unchanged (ie road) and doesnt have to be accurately measured. So long as the same set course is used for such tests, the ratio over that course is all that matters
So, End of Last week
3hrs 50min
47.3km
2 days off, Fri n Sat
All aerobic work - just keeping it easy and recovering from race
This week
Mon - Well, i was all dressed and ready to run at 5:30pm, when it hit me. Toilet… then again… It reminded me of the previous Thurs - where i ran and about 1/3rd the way through, only about 2km, i was out looking for the toilet, badly…
What i put it down to - Peanut butter sandwich i had for lunch both them days. Don’t normally eat that - and it certainly done a number on me.
So Monday, just rode for 5min warm up, then did 30min of foamrolling.
Tue - 40min of running circuits 5.8km
Wed - 45min of running circuits 8km - avg Hr was pretty good today for this session, recovery has happened. I also ate more Carbs during the day than normal, actually a lot more.
Thurs - Off
Fri - 8.7km of running circuits - 50min
Avg HR of 140
Went well - felt good. I think the extra Carbs are doing their job nicely.
Sadly, it was raining on us - will this rain ever end for awhile…
Was supposed to race a Half Marathon this weekend - but was broke due to easter (still recovering financially)
So, maybe i’ll plot out a course and run my own?