Hang Nine

• AM – 10 miles. RHR = 44. AvHR = 144. Got a silly one second 151 max on one of the hills by the “parade of homes.” About 8:10 average, but picked up a lot of slow miles in the tail end over the hills coming back. I need to be better about staying on top of hydration in this heat. I drank nearly 2 liters of water around dinner last night and I still felt dehydrated this AM. Worked the “2 day” kinks out of my legs from the Sunday run. Music = Rose Hill Drive, Live at the Fox Theater.
• Matt Carpenter Interview at Runner's World
• Bacon on the Peak (plus a little bit of Carpenter, some course overview, and you can actually hear him breathing for once). (this is pretty damn funny … )
• PM – pretty dang hot. Easy 6 miles, AHR = 146. Definitely was feeling a bit sluggish out there today, but at the same time I wanted to roll … almost wanted to get the miles done and roll. Stuck to easy miles though, with the plan being more miles now and running hard that the tail of longer runs. I was antsy enough to get this run started that I did not even let the GPS set … it took 3/4 of a mile to get it going. But I am still a bit beat in the legs. Music = Rush, Moving Pictures.
• Post by Joe G re: New Hampshire, Cranmore, Tilton and the like.
• June rollup … ran all 30 days with a high of 20.5 on June 28, and a low of 1 on June 19. 333 miles on the month. Halfway through the year, with 1680 miles. 14235 minutes on the year, 2734 minutes on the month. Approximately 22000 feet of elevation on the month … (and for what it is worth, my measured AHR on the month is calculated to be 149).
• Interesting thread in yesterday’s post about USMT selection

• Slept in (man that felt good) to help ensure recovery from yesterday. Felt pretty good through the day yesterday but I was ready for the rack big time when nine bells hit. Will go easy and maybe a bit lower on miles today. Looks like I might get the opportunity later this week to be up high. Resting HR this AM was 44.
• Congrats to all the folks who ran Cranmore yesterday. Joe Gray won it by a lot, Zac F was second, Matt Byrne was third. Rickey G was fourth (insightful post) but I’d think he has to be a lock for the at large berth given his performance at Mount Washington. Fellow Fleet Feet teammate and kick me in the ass at the “wall” at Mount Washington guy Simon G was seventh.
• Post race interview with Hal from WS100.  Anita O’s post race interview.  Thrashing on ultras in the comments today … Brett’s post covers it best.
• mid day – very slow and easy 8 miles (warm, 90 degrees). I notice a total deflection in pace (slowing) while maintaining the same HR on warm days around 20-30 minutes of running. I can only assume it is because my core temperature rises to a point at time where the heart has to work harder (at the same pace) to keep the body cool.  And so when I run at a near constant HR, that means I need to run slower to do that. AHR =144, max 149. Definitely a bit sluggish in the legs today – but not bad. I am hoping I get out for a few more tonight (not a guarantee)

Making beer, sipping wine, chicken bryan …

• Clearly Dave had a rough day yesterday.    I have not talked with Dave so I don’t know what happened.    All I can do is salute him … It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.  
• I got to give credit to Hal.  I totally overlooked him  … focusing on Dave and Scott.  Stupidity on my part to overlook the defending champ!
• I look at ultras with a bit of odd  respect … I say odd because I recognize they are a bit of a freak show.  Of course, running up 14000 foot mountains is a freak show (and running down them is just plain stupid).    In fact, I guess, running 2 laps around a track as fast as you can is its own freak show (and it probably the fastest way to incur symptoms in your body that best emulate what only the very sick might feel).  So, yeah, running is a freak show (and folly).  Ultras however are their own sort of freak show.  Kind of remind me of contests of who can smile the hardest.  In any case, I am not sure if I will do one some day … I feel my journey as a runner may not be complete unless I do, but at the same time, it scares the crap out of me (and I am not talking about the 50k ultra gig here).  In any case, when I get there, I will want to reference this checklist post.
• Brandy E has a blog.
• Up at 0430 for a long progression run.  I felt like crap.  After a cup of coffee, I got out the door around 5:10.  Jogged down to the school where I’d do my circuit (relatively flat, has a port-a-pottie, near the house), set up a couple of Gatorade bottles (did this route twice so I had plenty of water if I needed it).  This set me up through a warm up … then just tried to lock in at 144-148 for the next 6 miles.   I never felt great, but the miles were just clicking off at about the same pace, or a little faster or at a lower HR then when I did this course a couple of weeks ago.  At 10 miles, I took a quick bio break, got some fluids and a gel, and switched direction.  This direction is a little faster (as I get the riser in one shot versus taking it all the way around most of this half mile loop.  With these runs, it seems that I gain a bit more confidence with each mile.  My legs never felt zippy, but I could start to smell the barn with each mile I put away.  I started to nudge things a bit at 12 miles, allowing the HR to float to 150 plus.  When I got to 16, I turned the display for the HR monitor off and just ran.  To add in a little variety at this point, I broke away from the school loop and started running my gear (empty bottles) back to the house.   I saw that I had a shot a getting under 2:30 for 20 (a cum pace of  7:30) and went after that.  Got it (2:29:x).  Warmed down back to the house 20.5 miles
  .

  

• Week in review …
  • M – AM, 5 miles (41 min), PM – 7 miles (57 min)
  • T –11 miles, (94 min)
  • W – AM , 10 miles (82 min), PM 5 miles (42 min)
  • Th -  16 miles (131 minutes)
  • F – AM, 4 miles (34 min), PM, 10 miles (86 min)
  • Sa – 7 miles (59 min)
  • Su –   20.5 miles (154 minutes)

  • 782 minutes on week.  95.5 miles on week over 10 runs.  309 miles on June, 2534 minutes.  1666 miles on year, 14035 minutes,  2600 feet  of climbing on the week.

  • Next week … need to see how I absorb this week.  I had set out to get 80, but shot well over that.  I was feeling it a bit come Friday, Saturday and was concerned about how it would feel today but it seemed to go well nonetheless.  The structure will be expected to be the same with a run mid week that is mid long (15-17) and a long run on the weekend (20-23)  with a building effort on the end.  On whole, I am pretty stoked with how this past week went.  I think I recovered fairly well from Mount Washington, was able to stick to my focus for the week, got in some miles and I am starting to see some of those results.  The last four today were about equivalent in pace (averaged 6:30) to a typical tempo run I do  - but after 16. 

• Looking forward to see what comes out of Cranmore today.
  

Up early – JZ has an 8AM ball game so had to get it in before that.  7 miles.  AHR = 139, max 149.  Pace was all over the place … from tens plus (on the ups) to sub sevens (on the downs).

Not sure if I will run again today … tempted to because it would push me towards a hundred for the week – which would be a nice number – but that number is less important to me then having a good run tomorrow.  

Chasing numbers …  I think any guy I have ever talked to that has taken a road trip shares that similar story:  they are doing the calculations in their head while driving of exactly when they are going to get some place 317 miles away.  They are eyeballing their speedometer, figuring out the gas, thinking about the construction zone they will hit  … it becomes the a game.  Stop for a piss?  No way!  I got a bottle right here!

All the best to those racing WS today.  And, WTF? – they had the steeple height wrong for the water jump at USATFs for the women last night?

• AM – dog jog, 4 miles, AvHR = 134. Max = 149. RHR at wake up was 43 (maybe a 42). First mile was with the dog, last 3 were at 8 minute pace with an average HR of 139.
• PM – 10 miles. AHR = 144. Hot at the front end. Beat the crazy rains in the afternoon by only a few minutes. Was poorly hydrated for this run – just a lack of focus on that by me in the AM (stupidity). I not only felt it in the run, but I could see it with the HR monitor and the pace.
• Discovered the Standley Lake HS track … it is an old dirt cinder track. And like most tracks around here, it seems to have a pitch to it (at least according to the Garmin … it consistently saw a rise and a fall for many laps … so does Broomfield HS track).
• I have been hesitant to put up what times or paces I have been running for these sessions … for one, they have been slow. Certainly much slower than my easy runs have been in the past. I have been fine with that because I have wanted to be a bit more focused on time on my feet, getting more miles (than typical for me), recovering from Mount Washington this week and … focusing on this process of truly trying something different. Generally the pace has been anywhere as slow as mid nine minute pace to as quick as low sevens for this “capped” work. Again, I am not exclusively going to train fully at a low HR level, but will look to elevate it in the later parts of my long runs.
• As a side note, I have been wondering if getting the Garmin was a bit of a setup for me training “too quickly.” Prior to getting it, I’d run and guesstimate my pace. Typically for any unmeasured training run, I would guess a 7:30 pace. There might have been some days faster than that, there may have been slower than that. With the Garmin, I probably felt compelled to run that fast all the time, if not faster. Which was probably not a good thing in the grand scheme of things …
• Will be watching the track meet this weekend … and no, I don’t mean USATF Nationals (also webcast).
• Started playing with Garmin Connect.  I could never get it to synch my activities so I  dumped them all (deleted) and it read this afternoon’s run without issue.  Garmin still however jacks up elevation.  It reads that I ran an elevation change of 1200 feet for this run … Sporttracks reads the much more correct 250 …

• Incline Club Newsletter, including Teva Game Race Report from Carpenter … the age factor is slowly starting to play its hand. There is just no more denying the fact that kids in their 20s like these two are going to start getting the confidence to run with or even away from me. Unfortunately for them, I am not ready to accept that fact yet and I shall train with even more focus. Unfortunately for me, and as much as it pains me to admit it, father time catches us all. But for now I will try to win that race as well.
• Agreed to meet Timmy G and Peter at Teller Farm. I got out there early with the goal of getting so called extra credit, running that part easy and then not caring about pace or HR when I caught up with them. I got in a little over 9 (avHR =142), before catching up with them. The pace was only slightly faster (about 15 sec a mile), but HR averaged for that section 151 with a couple ticks above 160. It all felt easy, but I am feeling a little of the load over the last six days (82 miles). 16 miles on this run.

• 10 miles, AHR 142. I was pretty stoked that I had not hit 150 for the entire run but … there was this one last hill I was coming down in the last half mile. HR dropped to 139 and the pace was near 7. I rolled up the other side of the hill and suddenly realized the mistake. I glanced at the watch – 148 and quickly slowed to a shuffle trot … but it was too late. 150 for like 3 seconds. Yeah, a game, I realize. Easy, comfortable.
• Anyone remember Gatorade gum?
• PM – easy 5 miles.  Ran into KP and DB for a bit and the HR climbed a bit north of 150 for half a mile but everything else was easy.  AHR = 144.
• Western States Coverage, with pointers to interviews with Mackey and Jurek

11 miles.  AvHR 145.  Started with some folks at work and HR was pretty low.  It was hot (90s) and I had the camelbak.  I checked the HR at about 4 miles in on a slight climb and it was at 154 (even though the effort was easy).  I let the others go and slipped it back down.  Kept HR steady through the remainder but because of the heat, the pace deflected over the run (slower).  Most stiffness from weekend is gone but I am moving pretty slowly on the runs.

• Some of my photos re: Mount Washington got posted on irunfar.
• DoubleJ Mt Washington report (with good video)
• Dave D Mt Washington report
• Justin Fyffe report
• David Q report
• Post on Simon at Mount Washington
• Rickey Gates at Mt Washington (his race report)

• AM – 5 miles, super easy. AHR 145. Resting HR was 48 this AM … so, a bit higher than last week’s 43.
• PM – 7 miles, easy. AHR 146

 

Working on getting home …reading this …

Let me try and squeeze some more mileage from my toothpaste analogy: If you open a brand new tube, you can squeeze anywhere and expect to get some toothpaste.Without wanting to be too simplistic, see the tube as a new runner: pretty much any training you give him or her will result in improvement (toothpaste). It could even be possible that you are not a new runner, and have been running for some years but are now failing to improve substantially and believe that you have tapped all of your “trainability”. Here it is very possible (especially if you have no pace relationship) that all you have merely achieved is to squeeze all you can from halfway up the tube. You might have done a very good job of doing so, and seen sizeable improvement (toothpaste) for some time. However you might now (mistakenly) believe that is all there is in the tube.I think most people would agree that to get everything possible from a tube of toothpaste (to getevery last drop), we need to go to the very end and squeeze/roll carefully all the way up. That, if
you can excuse the analogy, is what this whole thread has been about. Maximizing your
trainability. So we can all walk away from the sport as “old farts” secure in the knowledge that
we got out of ourselves every last bit of genetically limited potential.

Photo via Scott Mason’s blog ..

Dave Q (a CMS guy who I got spanked by and jogged down with) has a blog. 

Week in review

• M – 10 miles, 77 minutes.  Lots of circles on a half mile loop.
• T –10 miles, 73 minutes, 4 mile “tempo”
• W – 3 miles easy AM, 26 min; PM 4.5 miles on Brook Loop, – 46 min
• R – AM –3.5 miles, 30 min, PM 5.5, 44 min
• F – travel day, 1 mile, 10 minutes
• Sa – Mount Washington Road Race, 172 minutes  
• Su –    travel day … very easy 10 to work out the kinks of yesterday and the flight tightness of today.  Pretty warm through the run (it got to 85 here today).  10 miles.  90 minutes.  And yes … I did slow to a walk today on the climb where the HR would begin to knock on 150.  Alternatively, I did not open up the pace much on the downs (where HR would drop) but was just real easy.

• 568 minutes on week.  65.5 miles on week over … .  213.5 miles on June, 1752 minutes.  1570.5 miles on year, 13253 minutes (~220 hours, or ~9 days)  7000 feet plus of climbing on the week.

• Next week … up the mileage (shooting for 80), run capped, but pick up on the end of longer runs.  Would like 40 percent of the mileage to come across two runs. No outright tempos or intervals (perhaps some really short strides).

Race report from the race site is up … .
Joe Dodge Lodge

View from the top

Top five and interview with the winners

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Short of it – tough day and go for me:  81 minutes and change and 61st place.  Definitely a very tough road, very tough grind.  A few shots.

A sea of clouds at the top … Dave D on the right preparing for a run down.

If you look closely in this shot, you can see the road down below and folks coming up …
 
Back into the clouds on the way down

With 7 time winner, Hodgie San (2:11:52 marathoner) (and NE running legend, and popular poster on the evil message board) post race
 
The Colorado contingent hydrates (Lisa G and Simon G)

Rickey G ran 59:58 to win.  Apparently he got word of the tightness of the hour barrier and sprinted the last hundred yards to get the time and the 500 dollar bonus.  2nd place and former champ Eric Blake is to his right
 

Fellow blogger and 70 minutes today (damn good time!)– Double J (great guy, excellent ambassador for the state of CO)
 

I did not run as well as I would have like but I ran.  There were two segments where I went to the walk – the hairpin for about 5 yards, and the “wall” (22% – really) with for about 3 seconds before I heard Simon G tell me “NO!”  That got me back in the groove.  I’d be lying if I said I was not disappointed with the result, but I think I raced where I am at fitness wise.  That is about all one can expect.  There is no faking it.

I was asked by a lot of folks today what I thought of this race as it was my first time out there.  It is, as many told me, truly unrelenting.  Well, there might be a spot for about 50 yards at four miles and change that gives a little bit (seriously).  But other than that, you grind and grind and grind and grind.

   I like to come back and give this another go.  Honestly, I think if I could get my shit together, I could be running this thing under 75 (but why it is not together is a different post).   I’d like to come back here next year with TZ for the better part of a week, enjoying time with her, the scenery, the race, the hills.  That would be a blast.  Just need to see if I get in next year.  Hell, I might do that anyway, even if I don’t get in.

Mile 1 (this is actually .9 as the miles are measured on the road from US16 – the course starts about a tenth in from that)  – 7:15, Mile 2 – 17:12, Mile 3 –28:11, Mid-point  - 38:16, 4 miles  - 39:21, Mile 5 – 51:23, Mile 6 – 62:47, Mile 7 – 74:06, finish 81:19.

Yes, that means that last 6/10ths of a mile took me over 7 minutes.  Ouch.

 

(Contrast to Rickey G’s splits … M1 6:20, halfway at 28:55, 4M 31:57) (holy crow)

I never felt good.  Didn’t feel “bad” (nothing acute that is) either.  Just couldn’t really go faster.    AvHR was 177 with a max of 185.   It looks like I may have got out too fast (the HR data / pace seem to show that) …    After the initial rise in HR, I held 183 for about 15-17 minutes, then 176 average for the rest of the race.  Yeah, that might be going out too fast.   The spike in the blue line (pace) is where I walked the “hairpin.”  The drop in pace past five miles is the one place where the course “lets up.”  As you can see … it is brief.

 

Using DD’s Mt Washington Race predictor … based on my BB10k, I fell right in the range of the predictor, but this also confirms I was a bit too fast to start.

Ran back down with Dave D, Eric M, Dave Q … great group of guys (JJ and Kevin T did not run down – too bad because I wanted to shoot the crap more with them).  It was awesome to meet these guys. 

The run down … this did not hurt at all (I think the downhill stuff I have been doing has been absorbed to some degree) … 65 down (very casual),  18 miles on the day, 172 minutes.

 

 

I wish I have hung out a bit more but I needed to hit the rack for preparing to get back home.  JJ  - thanks for sherpa-ing my stuff.  Much appreciated.  I think I left my flats in your car.  They are essentially toast (and really stink I am sure) so you can pitch ‘em, donate them, wear ‘em – whatever.  DQ – great chatting with you.  Thank you for the “fam” perspective (and yes, I am expecting you to come on out!). 

Post race got to chat it up with Scott M, Justin F (mostly about brewing beer instead of racing), (links forthcoming) and a bunch of the Colorado contingent.  Good stuff.

I was chatting with John T (who ran 68 – very nice!) about the NE racing scene compared to the CO scene.  It is definitely much more “type B” in Colorado.  The club scene here is certainly richer, and I envy that a bit.

Articles on the race … Union Leader (with pic of Kevin Tilton), and the Concord Register.  Lots of great photos from Scott Mason.  Overall results …

Traveled to Pinkham Notch, NH today ...

• … the Alterra watch told me that the airplane cabin was pressurized to 6650 feet during the flight from Denver to Minneapolis …
• … the EVDO card would not work during the flight … (dang) (but not surprised)
• … I play along with this entire travel security thing but this crap about 3 ounces of toothpaste, and take your shoes off (and all the other related stuff) is just plain idiocy …
• It took me about 2 hours to get from Portland to Pinkham Notch. Some of that was because I got turned around a bit in Portland. Ought to make for interesting goings getting out Sunday AM - as my flight is 5:45AM.
• There are Dunkin Donuts approximately every 1.1 miles out here.  It must be some New England regulation.  It obviously has not extended west of the Mississippi yet.
• When I got here (Mount Washington Valley) I headed to the Eagle House in Jackson to pick up the race packet.  I quickly spotted some folks from the blog-o-sphere, including DD, JJ, Kevin Tilton and DQ.  … first, all these guys are tinier in real life then what they look like in their blogs.   Seriously, internet – blog pictures put easily put 10 pounds on all these guys.
• I bought Dave’s book … “Only One Hill” 
• It was a little weird driving up here.  There is a familiarity of course, as I grew up in New England, and I trolled this area frequently.  Nonetheless,I am always amused at how surprised I am at how green it is.  Or differences in roads (how a road that is heading SE can be called a route West for example).   Or the telephone poles going to the old houses that are long overdue for a coat of whitewash.  And swamps.  There are no swamps in Colorado.  We have wetlands … but nothing like this.  And that ACCENT.  I crack up when I hear it.  On the radio (with one of the seven stations broadcasting about the Sawks or Celtics), and with the people.  But it is a warm blanket to my ears as well. 
• It is always weird for me to see people I have met on the web.  Suddenly they are truly alive and moving – and it is like, “whoa.”  Weird, I know.  It is kind of like seeing a movie star in real life.  And this CMS gang .. you can feel the fellowship between these guys  – it is very palatable.   I wanted to get a bunch of pix but figured whipping out the camera to ask them to pose for shots would be a little rich in the first five minutes of meeting them.
• I caught dinner at the Joe Dodge Lodge – which is the AMC run “hotel” at Pinkham Notch.  Very cool place.  After dinner, I jogged about a half mile up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail, enjoying the smell of the pine and the cool of the river.  1 mile.  10 minutes.   I got video, but it will have to wait until I have a more reliable connection.
• The Alterra seemed to hold the elevation very very well.
•  

As I have stated here before, Lucho and I have been having a long conversation regarding training.  More specifically, my training and how to best accomplish the goals that I have.  I am going to try to summarize that conversation here.  It is not really easy, as Lucho and I have easily exchanged well over a hundred mails on this topic.  I had Lucho read this before I posted it, and he provided a few clarifying points that I have pasted at the end.

First and foremost, I need to thank Tim for discussing this with me.  Tim can come across as a pretty blunt guy and I think that turns some folks off.  I welcome his take, because I am not offended by his direct nature and more importantly behind it, regardless if you agree with the message or its delivery, is clearly a passion to see folks improve.

LUCHO’s BASICS

So, I think I’d summarize the back and forth conversation between Tim and myself below.  It is a summary.  With all that email, we have talked about a lot of things that are fundamental to training and performance success but that I don’t really get into here (for example, hydration).  That said, this is still a pretty lengthy post …  

1.)  Lucho strongly believes in deep and extensive development of the aerobic system first.  This aerobic development is the base or the foundation that other fitness (anaerobic) can be built on.  If you do not have a strong aerobic base, the amount of fitness you can demonstrate (performance) will also be limited.  Development of an aerobic base is done with with lots of easy running.  Specifically in my case, Lucho and I have targeted runs at the 140-150 heart beats per minute range as the level of effort tied to this aerobic development.  
2.)  Running at this HR does not specify a pace directly, but rather a level of effort  or intensity (easy).  Of course, if you are running at this HR, that translates to a pace, but the HR is what is prescribed, not the pace.   This pace might be slow,or  this pace might be fast – but that is all relative to a set HR.  For Lucho, running at this HR / intensity yields a pace of sub six minutes per mile right now (at Boulder like elevations, on flat surfaces) and a pace for me of 8 minutes per mile.  The thought here is that training

at this intensity will over time with appropriate volume trains the aerobic system to be running at faster paces at the same level of effort.

 

3.)  Running at this level of effort (intensity) teaches the body to utilize fat as fuel instead of glycogen.  Glycogen, which is used at higher levels of effort is limited in is availability, and generally we can only stored about 2 hours of this fuel.    Running at faster levels of effort teaches the body instead to use glycogen (Lucho calls this “burning matches”) and hinders the body to learn (train) to use fat instead.  Effectively this limits the aerobic development and detrains that system – also called by some “eroding the base.”

4.)  The thought here is this:  if you have two athletes running at the same pace of six minutes a mile and one is at 150 bpm and the other is at 170bpm, then which one is better equipped to pick up the pace and perform better – particularly in the latter stages of a marathon?  Obviously it would be the first of the two, as that athlete is further beneath maximal efforts than the second.

All this leads Lucho to this diagnosis of my fitness:  I am aerobically weak.  I am training at intensities that are too high too often and have effectively little comparative aerobic fitness.  If I spent more time training aerobically, I’d increase my fitness and would be better able to perform.  My training at higher intensities (working harder) is actually doing the opposite of what I am trying to achieve:  it is making me slower.

Lucho’s approach does not really stop there.  It extends into latter phases of training once the aerobic system is fully developed (demonstrated by showing a plateau in the pace run at the same intensity for some period of time).  Then higher intensity (higher HR) efforts are included, reflective of goal race and goal pace.  This could be the classic tempo run for the 10k runner, or for a marathoner, it could be a progression run starting with 10 miles easy, 5 miles at 10 seconds slower than marathon goal pace and then five miles at goal pace (if the athlete was ready for that).  For me, it could be long run finishing a 18 mile run uphill at goal pace / effort for something like Pikes.

MY HISTORY 

.

Okay, my approach has generally been a.) based on perceived efforts (versus those measured by a HR monitor), b,) believing that I need to train different systems continuously throughout the year.  This means long easy efforts, climbing efforts, short hard efforts, tempo runs, intervals – effectively varying intensity.

 

 

I generally agree with what Lucho is saying but struggle with it on a few fronts.  The struggle is really  based on my experiences over the last 25 years of running – but that does not mean that I am right.

1.)  To get fit (fast) my training has always been basically built on four things:  run a good amount of mileage, run a tempo run each week, run intervals each week, and do a long run each week.  There are details to each of these of course, and it each has been modified over time (or even within a season) as goals (races) have changed but this has been the basic approach.  Simple.  Not easy.  It means getting out there probably every day.  It means making your teeth sweat during intervals.  It has meant in preparation for a race like Pikes also adding elements of running up and down hills and altitude training within those four elements.

Like I said, simple.  You do the training and the results will come.   But sometimes it does not.  I’d be remiss if I did not note that my 10k times have slowed by two minutes over the last two years.  My general speed as measured in the 200 striders has also slowed by 2-4 seconds.  My take on that has been that I have been doing too much mountain running – or running at speeds that are too slow (but pretty intense).   Some have proposed this is simply age, and there might be some truth to that, but the decline seems to drastic for me to accept that.

 

Part of this approach is based on what I have seen pretty much since I started running in high school (I was running before that too, but this is when it became more of a formal activity).  I see it still today.  Sure, folks have phases or periods of development, where they increase their mileage, “build their base” – but I think every runner I know is mixing the engagement of energy systems and intensities to some degree year round.  And generally, it seems to work.  There are some, in fact who seem to thrive off of intense running year round  A LOT.

2.)  I have also believed that to some extent my success at longer distances has had some correlation to my success at shorter distances.   When I could run a mile well, it translated well to a 5k.  And a decent 5k meant better success at a 10k.  I know that it is not an absolute direct translation (folks love to speculate what Michael Johnson could have done for the 800 with his 43 four hundred meter speed … or what a miler could do for a marathon) but there is some truth there.  If you can only run six minutes for the mile, you are not going to run twenty six of them consecutively at that pace.  When I ran Pikes in 2006 in 2:37 and change, I had run a 4:50 mile earlier that summer.  Neither time is zippy but the mile was a few handfuls within my best, and that Ascent remains my best.

SOME CONCLUSIONS?

Lucho’s response to these is pretty simple.  a.) How one performs at the marathon distance is less dependent on their performances at shorter distances than I like to think. b.)   all I need to do is look at my results over the last two years to determine if my classic approach is still working. c.) PE (perceived effort) is too subjective to measure.

Simple.  But not easy (to unravel 25 years of thinking).  And this is where Tim drives a great question:  is that thinking and approach still working?  Given the latest results I have had, and the decline in performance … not so much.

So where does that leave me in what I am thinking?  I am less than 2 months away from my goal race when I write this and Lucho has told me I need to focus on my weakness:  aerobic strength, teaching my body to utilize fat as fuel, lengthy runs that build.  Train long, train at an easier intensity. 

And I agree with that, but I cannot get my head free of feeling the need to run at a high intensity to be ready to race at a high intensity.  I think out of frustration in my stubbornness he has conceded a hard run a week (but put that in context of the hard stuffing being at the tail of a longer effort).  

I have also wondered how much this approach is a time investment.  Ideally I’d be training 12-14 hours a week with running (and perhaps a few more with other supplemental activities, like core, etc).  I get in about 10 hours a week, but it is often split up in smaller chunks of time (because of work, life, family, etc).  I think to maximize this aerobic development approach you not only need to increase your volume (safely, over time), but you need to make investments in bigger chunks of time.   If I could be getting in 10 hours a week, I think ideally 40% of that would come in 2 runs.  That would be a shift for me.  

And so I wonder …  If you only have 1 hour a week to train as a “far end” example, I think one gets better gains with an higher intensity approach.  But as that volume increases, a higher and higher percentage of it probably ought to be spent at lesser intensities.  I clearly get that, but I struggle with thinking that the mix for a 10 hour a week guy 2 months out of a goal race ought not let his HR get above 150 for the next four weeks.

And … the other part of this struggle is HILLS.  I am training for a hill race.  In watching my HR much more closely over the last three weeks, I have noticed how reactive my HR is to running up hills.  The HR will jump up quickly going up a hill, while the pace slows incredibly, and the PE becomes incredibly small.  Unfortunately, the converse is not true to the same degree.  HR drops on down hills, but the pace and PE seems need to be quickened greatly to keep the bugger up. 

Lucho proposes WALKING up the hill to keep my HR in check.  I have a real hard time with this.  Walking up a hill represents a mental break down, a weakness, a failure of the system.  I fear that by engaging in this practice in training, it promotes that as a weakness that could translate in a race.  After the Ascent in ‘06 I was shocked at how much I had walked.  I felt broken.  I felt a strong need to overcome that weakness.  There are still points where I walk up hills but I fight it.   I felt in the PPA last year, I was able to mentally get over that hump more than I ever had before (I think the weather sort of incented that a bit)

Finally, there are some days, when I just want to go.  Maybe it is a beautiful day, maybe it is a run with JV up some mountain, maybe it is something else.  This part has made me really question on how focused I am on a said goal versus the moment.  Call it the short term desire versus the long term reward discussion that so many of us have.

 

WHAT NEXT?

Post Mount Washington, I am going to really try to … keep things at the prescribed intensity for most (nearly all) runs, but with two runs where the intensity builds post an hour, or longer.  No intervals.  No tempo runs out of the door.

Otherwise, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is just insane.  Right? 

 

LUCHO’S CLARFICATIONS

A few points I would maybe want to clarify...
It's "striking matches" and it's a term used in cycling.
When I propose walking up hills in the early part of aerobic training, this is done so you WON"T have to in the race. Remember that the pace increase as your aerobic strength grows. So maybe in the first 2-3 weeks you do have to walk an 18% grade. But then maybe on that 4th week you don't and your HR is still low. Then after 8 weeks you are running strong up the hill at the lower HR. As you get stronger you simply get stronger. I used to have to walk even smaller hills up here. Now I can literally push up the hills.
The low HR range might be "easy" to start. But it gets harder. So saying that you are running "easy" is a misnomer. To me, easy is a recovery run at HR 125. MAF (for lack of  a better term) is actually metabolically strong. The HR correlates closely to what you need to hold at Pikes, that's if you have the proper aerobic fitness. I think using terms describing both PE and HR simultaneously become misleading. HR ranges that I talk about are descriptive of metabolism and fuel usage. PE is descriptive of effort which has nothing to do with actual physiology. Kind of confusing. In other words- if I told a runner to simply run "easy" they may never elevate their effort to a high enough range, or a weaker runner will run too hard.

• AM – dog jog. 3.5 miles. 30 minutes.
• A post from mzungo on Mount Washington.  Definitely getting a bit amped for this race.  Dreamt about it last night.   Okay … I am a little nervous.  Maybe a lot nervous.  When Rickey Gates told me it was the toughest race he ever ran …well, that put a bit of a shiver in me.    Andy A sent me this feedback recently:  As far as the race goes the best advice I can give is to try to keep a positive attitude and keep pressing the whole way. It is so steep it is easy to get discouraged so try appreciate the scenery and the effort it takes to run up such a grade. Its going to hurt but have fun!   Then I read JJ’s post from last year:  I have never had my pulse up that high ever before. My neck was actually sore from my pulse beating so hard. I could still feel it at dinner that night.  Crikey …
• Lengthy comment thread on WS100 predictions.  Obviously I am picking Mackey but I am surprised at how little play Max King is getting.  Yes, I know he has not run a 100 and it is a different game but this guy does have national class elite credentials well above the other runners – and he won the AR50 (post script – later comments posted show that he is injured and hence out).
• PM – mid day, easy.  5.5 miles.  Warm.  AHR = 147. 44 minutes.   Definitely felt the urge to roll today but obviously need to save that for a couple of days.
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• AM – 3 miles easy, including a dog jog with Lucy. 26 minutes – very easy.
• Interesting article on VO2 max from Matt F.  More good stuff from Magill.
• Astute readers of this blog probably have noticed more of a focus on easy running, HR data and probably have drawn the conclusion that I have been talking with Lucho quite a bit about training.   There is a series of the “Lucho Chronicles” that I want to put together on this (or his) blog at some point.  But I would start would this:  Lucho is definitely one of the most passionate and dedicated folks I know to the topic of driving folks to improve.  Yes, that is an endorsement.   One of the things I appreciate most about Tim is that he does not sugar coat or namby pamby feedback to you.  This turns some folks off, but I find it to be a breath of fresh air in a world where we are more apt to spin the things we say into some politically correct format (examples of such spin are “I don’t disagree …”, “ I’d say that this way …”)
• Not sure this is going to go anywhere but I was thinking about HR in a backwards way recently.  If I cover a mile in 7:45 at 150 bpm that means it takes me about 1162 beats to cover a mile.    If the relationship was linear, that means beating at 180 bpm, a mile would take me just under 6:30. So a curve to be developed there I guess.
• PM – met up with JV and did a very light jog of the “Brook Loop.”  This is about 4.5 miles out of South Mesa Trailhead.  Head up Towhee, then the Mesa Trail as if heading to Shadow.  Instead of heading to Shadow at the cabin, head right and over the Mesa connector. Back down the Mesa to Bluestem, then Bluestem back to the Mesa.  This is about 1000 feet of climbing over the run, but with all of it in the first half.  JV and I did this super easy, 46 minutes.  AHR was 150.  The group is going after this from a TT perspective tomorrow (not for me!).  It was good to get out with JV as I have not run with him in what seems like forever.  His fitness for the climbs is really on right now!  Saw JP out there too.  And a snake (#3 of the season).

• More Mount Washington video by JJ from the 90s. Spotted Elliott in the 99 video (the year he came back from not running for several years to take second at Pikes in 2:23 behind Wright) … ), and the hair on Carpenter in the 98 video is impressive (he’d run 3:44 in the marathon that year).
• Mount Washington weather.  Looks like rain on race day.
• Bobby McGee at BRC next week
• Good preview of Lake City by Justin
• Very nice post that captures why we do this by Anton.  …all I really have to do is take one more calculated, perfectly-placed, as-efficient-as-possible footstep. Certainly I can take one more step? Of course, and, little by little, the ground is covered, the delta elevation is scaled, the absolute presence is experienced. Nothing else even exists but the here and now of inching my way up this goddamn mountain.
• Brandon has been taking some video up on the peaks west of town.
• 10 miles, 73 minutes.  Not exactly what I had planned but not bad.  I wanted to get in a longer run that progressed over the end.  I slept like crud last night though and did not get up in time to get this one in the books before work.  I ended up going mid day (warm) and pressed a bit for time.  After four miles easy (capped 150 again, 7:45-8 pace), I picked up a four mile tempo, including up and down the Simms Hill (6.5% for about a half mile in there).  HR averaged 171 over this stretch, hitting 180 at one point in the heart of Simms Hill.  This never felt that bad though.  I have found that I am hitting higher HRs on runs but without a higher level of perceived effort (?).   Came back down the hill and got a bit of turn over but was able to keep the HR up a bit.  Desperately  needed a bio break (use your imagination) at four miles in, so I cut it there and just added two miles cool down.  Again, not what I planned but not bad – a little spike to keep the movement going, but not too much.
  
• In the evening I went to a Rockies game.  Yes – my third game in five days!  JZ and his baseball team were walking the field perimeter as part of pre game ceremonies.  I also was able to connect with a guy I knew from HS and that I had not seen in at least 20 years plus – as he is passing through Denver / Colorado as part of a bigger vacation.
   

• Slept in this AM. It felt really good. I know people are starting to go nuts about the weather we have had this spring in Colorado (cooler and wetter than usual) but I am loving it (and I sleep well in it). I will love the raw heat days we get next month too – but this has been an incredible spring.
• Dave M confirmed what a lot of us suspected – he has dropped some pounds.  This is a little crazy to say because to the regular person that is like saying anybody lost a few pounds.  This is somebody who was already pretty ripped (like 2nd in the PPM ripped) and now looks like he has been living on an deserted island with Wilson for a year.   I am so stoked for Dave right now because he looks crazy fit and ready to rock WS100.   We are going to miss him around here.
• Garden of the Gods results from yesterday and pix.  Impressive results from Romero and Koch. Watch Romero in the Ascent.
• Jogged the perimeter of the school yard during JZ’s baseball practice.   I am pretty certain this has effectively convinced all of the other parents on JZ’s team that I am insane as I ran around in half mile or so circles for most of the practice.  Easy run so I capped the HR at 150 (ended up averaging 149).  This was a pretty flat (a 15 foot rise / fall around the half mile), but the HR definitely would tell me when there was any sort of up grade.  I find I have to back off in what appears to be a disproportionate level of effort (drop PE a lot) to keep the HR below 150 on any sort of climb.  Conversely, the pace would pick up (but not a lot it seemed on the “downhill.”  I ran counterclockwise for five miles and then turned around for the second half.   7:26, 7:35, 7:52, 7:51, 7:53, 7:46, 7:47, 7:47, 7:44, 7:45 … all very easy, and very much the same pace.  I think the miles got a little faster in the second half because the clouds rolled in and covered the sun and I was getting most of the 15 foot “climb” in one section versus negotiating it all the way around the other way (if that makes sense).  Again – just looking to make the easy days easy.  This was 7:45 average for the 10, 77:30.
  
• Not sure if I will go hard tomorrow and take more rest leading into Mount Washington, or if I will go hard on Wednesday, adhering to the 2 day easy, 1 day hard approach.
• The street this evening …