Onward

This last week saw some good progression so we are cleared for take off for this weekends upcoming Ottawa marathon, the key being this Sunday's workout where I did a 25Km progressive tempo run with 10km to 20km's in 35minutes.

Monday I took easy and then Tuesday put a light run with 6 x 200m strides at race pace on pavement.

This week I will be completing small amounts of serious speed on hard surfaces. Running on slow, soft surfaces (like grass) during your taper will tune your legs to feel slow and heavy, the hard surfaces will get my  legs (and brain) ready to run fast on race day. 

The last 14 weeks of build has seen the following miles logged with two weeks where the body broke down slightly, the first(84) being from pushing the milage too quickly without adapting to the load and the second(0) after attempting a yoga position I knew I shouldn't but my competitive spirit got the best of me:-);

1. 100miles
2. 128miles
3. 84miles
4. 111miles
5. 120miles
6. 120miles
7. 120miles
8. 120miles
9. 100miles
10. 100miles
11. 118miles
12. 110miles
13. 0miles
14. 115miles
15. now we taper!

This week should be fun!

Well, well...

Well, well indeed! What to do? That is the question of the day in my little world, long prep for Ottawa, great progression then I over do it in a yoga class and lightly jank my back, do a Frank's race the next day and jank further. Things seemingly settled down and then fully jank mid way through the Vancouver Half Marathon and spend the next week unable to run.

Having just spent the last week on bed rest, unable to walk for longer than five minutes, I finally went for a run today and seem to have handled the stress.  I say "seem to" as I went for a walk on Friday and thought all was in order and on the road to recovery but it in the end set me back.

It is all or nothing with disc issues it seems, either you can go or you cannot and there is no discussion.

It was a set back for sure but at the end of the day, it was a good rest and I am happy to be back running and to get on with the training.  Now with this set back do we continue with plans or adjust, it is certainly going to take awhile to get back on track as it is one thing to go for a run and another to be able to put in on the line in a marathon.

Since starting to right this post I have been out for two easy runs and feel better with each run so things look promising that the disc is behaving itself and we can start to work back up. I think for now I will see how the body handles this week and then decide on the weekend.

Certainly great to be back!

Some light janking

So here's the thing, I lightly janked my back last week doing yoga and because of this went into last weeks Franks race and this past weekends Vancouver half a little off my game. Things had settled after Franks but flared up again midway through the half causing some slowing of pace.

I was pleased with my build up and preparation for Vancouver and overall not a bad result, first in category, 1:18 for the half, but having the back issues return is never encouraging and if I had been doing the full marathon I was not far from having to stop and walk and apparently it was noticeable as one spectator close to Shauna, as I was finishing, asked; "why is he running so slow" :-) 

Hopefully things will settle down quickly with a few treatments and I can return to training without too much interruption but with this flare up I think it is best I skip this weeks Franks race and the 5 Peaks event on the weekend. For now until things are 100% I will need to focus on easy milage and reduce the intensity so that I do not continue to irritate the area and prolong recovery.

Hard and then easy

Last week saw 118miles of miles logged with the start of this week being pretty steady with 52miles for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday including tonight's Franks race and now we taper things off with short easy runs leading into the half this weekend.

The mileage has been quite high and Wednesday's workouts have been quite taxing with the all out Franks run's being between 4km to 5km in length with 5 to 10 x 5mins intervals at the end of each race.

Tonight's Franks race was a big one coming in third just loosing touch of the lead two feeling slightly off my game and then putting in another hard workout post race with 1-2-3-4-3-2-1min intervals with 2min off on my run home from the shop. With a few days of easy runs this should put me ready leading into this weekend's half.

Once the half is complete we take a few days of easy mileage and things ramp back up with a few weeks over 120miles with a drop in mileage before the marathon.

Of note the limited yoga I have been doing has been helping with focus and pushing through those hard spots in races, similar to holding a pose in yoga and embracing the tightness and pushing through.

Easy shall we

With the the big races getting closer the easy runs have been toned down and the hard workouts have been ramped up to include Franks race and tempo Saturdays. This week saw two big days Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesday included Franks race plus 10 x 5 minutes with 1minutes off for 20 miles of marathon  intensity and Saturday saw 5 x 20 minutes with 3 minutes off for 20 miles of some more marathon specific intensity.

Overall this past week saw 100 miles of running with two big days with the balance easy recovery runs working out the last workout preparing for the next.

This coming week will include Franks race and the 10 x 5 minute intervals on Wednesday and with that we will see how the weekend plans pan out, a few logs in the fire.

Have a good week of training, see you on the trails!

The weight is down

The weight is down to under 160lb and was able to run this past Sundays race completely pain free with no back, leg or glute pain. Finishing up a long build up of 120mile weeks with the St Albert 10miler where I was looking to break 55mins, I came in in 56:34 so was close given the conditions. I held with the lead pack until 6miles but lost contact in the downhills and then gained back a place in back half through the hills.

The gang, looking good!

The aim now is to move the weight below 155lb, reduce pace of recovery runs and increase pace of intervals. My strength is great but seeing the the lead pack slip away on the downhills so easily shows it is time to introduce some speed work.

For the past 8 weeks the focus was solely high end aerobic runs and strength so with a light dose of speed we should see another good jump in fitness in the next 4 weeks.

Writing this post, I am still wrapping my head around the events yesterday and my thoughts are with those affected.

The miles are easy...

For me putting in the miles has always been easy, I love putting in the work but I also love to eat so getting the weight down has always been difficult. Most top marathoners range in the 130lb to 150lb range and at my normal 175lbs I tend to carry a little extra weight around. At best I have reduced to maybe 165lbs for a goal race and this time I would like to go into my goal event in the range of 150lbs to 155lbs.

When looking at the Kenyans runners diet what comes as a surprise is the amount of calories consumed. Given their activity levels, they don’t eat very much, most Kenyans are in negative energy balance in periods of intense training. Almost all Kenyans experience a significant reduction in their BMI in periods leading up to a race.

The same is true of their fluid intake. Most runners don’t drink anything before their 10-15 mile runs in the morning, and the majority of Kenyans don’t re-hydrate during races. At first glance, these practices seem sub-optimal. After all, the importance of carb-loading and being well hydrated have been staples of western training regimens for years.

A re-consideration of the literature on the biomechanics of running suggests these seemingly counter-productive habits actually provide a benefit to Kenyan runners. Because their diet is high in carbohydrates, the majority of Kenyans metabolized extra fat during periods of negative energy balance, which reduces their BMI without significantly affecting their glycogen stores or oxidative capacity. This effect is enhanced by the fact that Kenyans typically eat right after their workout, negating the glycogen depleting effect of negative energy balance. At race time the reduced body mass lowers the energy cost of locomotion without affecting maximal energy producing capacity.

So in addition to running two to three times a day I will attempt to maintain a negative energy balance and see if I can reduce the weight, so far I have gone from 175 to 165lbs without too much difficultly.  Interestingly I have found with the increased aerobic work and decreased strength work I naturally seem to be eating considerably more carbohydrates.  

Nothing overly complicated, "light" bump in milage, "light" cut to calories which will lead to a negative energy balance, which will lead to a slow decrease in weight and will eventually lead to me racing at my optimal race weight.