Going long at MAF

Today was my longest run since February 2011. 1hour 20minutes.

It was not the longest run distance wise (that happened last Sunday when I ran 14.5km in 1h10m) because I only covered 13km today.

That's because I have decided to give that MAF training a chance. I do not know what it stands for and am too lazy to look it up but basically you run at your MAF rate and it is supposed to help you become an aerobic machine. Apparently that's important if I want to become an endurance athlete.

I did not have a chance to try it until now because in the last two years I was either not running at all or running fast intervals. Those were the only two options that did not irritate my ITB. Now my ITB seems to be doing alright and I can do longer slow runs (although that's what I thought in February 2011 too and it let to my worst ITB problem so far) so MAF it is.

I chose it to be around 155 bpm and I am trying not to let my HR go over it too much.

I ran 1h yesterday and ended up running 5:58/km pace. (that's around 1min slower than my usual easy pace).
Today I ran 1h20m at 6:07 pace. I had to walk 4 or 5 times to get HR under 160 because I ran on a road and there are some hills, it is not as flat as the trail I ran on yesterday. Thus slower pace.

Some observations:
1h20m run would normally mean a 10-miler...
When I put the HRM on my HR was around 80, as I started tying my shoes it went to 90s.
When I stopped paying attention and stopped holding back my HR would immediatelly go up up up.
Then I slowed down it went to high 140s and it was hard to pick up the pace to get it to 155. It basically confirms what I already knew, it is hard for me to pick up a pace when I am settled into an easy pace. But it is more of a mental thing because if I did not think about it I would speed up unconsciously to my usual pace.
I can imagine how hard this might be if there are other runners around and people who you can normaly pass running backwards pass you. But since I seem to be the only runner in this town I do not have such a problem.
I know I sound like a broken record but I am worried about my ITB. Also in February 2011 there were no signs that something is wrong so I did a few long runs and then suddenly bam!.
I am not thrilled that I need to remember charging Garmin and running with it on these runs. I honestly hate that gadget. Do not know why but I hate it. I love running with a stopwatch though.

Sample training week

Because I really enjoy reading about other people's training, what they do and how they do it I figured that it might be interesting to post a sample training week.

So here is what I did this past week.

Monday
AM:
1h30m aerobic ride - I might or might not have been slightly late to work because of this.
PM:
45m easy run on trail - Pheasant hunting season is over and trails are open again. Yes!!! Now I just need more daylight so I do not run in dark through woods. It is scary.
1h swim - a lot of 200s at different paces, nothing interesting about it

Tuesday
AM:
~45min swim lesson - I am "swim challenged" and need someone to look at me and tell me how to do it right. So far I do not know whether it is working or not.
PM:
1h ride w/ 10x1' max - this workout is harder than it appears but I can suck it up for 1 minute. My home trainer tire is dead. I got 3 flats in the last 2 weeks and when I took it down and examined I see the wires starting to stick out of it. I need to get a new one but I am going to wait until racing season starts and see whether I get lucky and get some tires for free.
+ yoga and some strengthening exercises

Wednesday
PM
1h run w/ 4x2k at harder than tempo pace- I adjusted this to "harder than tempo pace" after I was not able to hold the pace I originally wanted to hold. Thus I consider this a minor fail but I ran it on some xc style trails and it was fun! These were some of the longest intervals I have ever done in training so doing something new was fun too. However I had only 50min before it got pitch dark thus I did the first intervals after only 10min warm up and it sucked. Yeah, yeah, I know. I am not 20 anymore and need a longer warm up. But it was interesting. For the first 2 intervals my legs would not respond when I wanted to speed up, they just went their steady stubborn pace. Then suddenly during the 3rd interval they woke up and I was able to run much faster.
1h swim with some 100s @ 1:30 - now this was a major fail because I was not able to hit my intervals at all. I called it quits a few intervals early and went to cry in a locker room. (Just kidding, I did not cry)

Thursday
AM
Not a real workout but still. I helped a friend to move furniture from her apartment to her car. I am sure her neighbors were thrilled with us since we did this at 6 in the morning. But there was no other way. Now I have 2 chairs in my apartment. She also gave me a lot of food so my fridge is full. I like that! Unfortunately no sweets though:(
PM
1h20min ride with 8x4' hard efforts in hard gear - this type of workout (pushing big gear) hurts my ITB if I am not careful and careful means going easier than I am supposed to. But this ride was ok, I went hard and no ITB problem.

Friday
AM
I wanted to go to the gym but instead of getting up before 6am I slept for 9 hours.
PM
45m easy run on trails
1h "flog yourself swim" - I confused words "flog" and "flop" and I have thought the whole week that I had an easy swim on Friday. Then when I read the actual workout on Friday morning I got confused because that was not easy! But Michelle explained to me what the word "flog" means. Definitely not the same as "flop". So "flog yourself swim" with some 100s @ 1:30. I did it this time, but barely.
+ some core strengthening exercises

Saturday
AM/PM (swim/bike brick)
1h20min swim - Now that I added that new expression (see above) to my vocabulary I think that this one should also be called "flog yourself swim" but instead it was only called "4000 aerobic". There were some 100s @ 1:30 again and again I did it. Barely. But I did it and did not want to cry like on Wednesday:)
3h bike ride - just regular aerobic. Weather cooperated (low 50s and sunny) so I was able to do it outside. Was chased by dogs only once (but by two dogs simultaneously). I drank and ate 800 calories during this ride and it was not as much fun as eating 2000 calories in chocolate... I rode by Rend Lake and they have a huge flashing board at the visitors center that read this yesterday: Outside temp 55, Water temp 33, Dress appropriately for water temperature!I do not think that there are actually people who go swimming now, that "warning" (or suggestion or whatever you call it) is there probably all year long.

Sun
AM/PM (bike/run brick)
1h30m ride w/ 30' time trail in the middle - I know. WTF? I could smell an influence of BatShitCrazierThanMichelle coach on her and this has confirmed it. No kids gloves. Just the way I like! But that TT sucked and so did I. I need to work on being comfortable being uncomfortable for extended periods of time. I can handle 5' of hurt but anything longer not so much. Thus need to work on that.
1h10min easy run - The longest run on a road since summer 2010. I was scared, but so far so good. I also wore Garmin and heart rate monitor (I know, unheard of me. I only wear Garmin for tempo runs outside track. I do not like wearing it on easy runs because I do not care how fast or how far I run. Over the last 4 years my priorities shifted from running 10 miles at 7:15 pace as an easy run to being able to run at all) to get some data. I ended up running 14.5k at 7:56 pace with average HR of 170. HR is too high, I need to start implementing the MAF method. My calves and quads also did not like running on road, they are spoiled. I was originally mad that I have to do this on a road (nobody forced me but I had to due to logistics) but as I was running I have realized that I need to do this. When I run on a trail it is pretty much pancake flat the whole time and this road is not, there are some hills that were killing me. I need to get used to running on terrain that is not flat. By the way, I was really hungry as I was running.
+ yoga and strengthening exercises.

So that was my week. Some of the workouts sucked, some were great. I wish all were great but will have to suck it up.
I am craving chocolate but I do not have any. I might walk to the store to get some but I cannot decide whether to do it or not.

My newest bike gadget

I mean the lamp (in case you are not sure what I am talking about)

Mile/3000m double RR

What a fun ( and interesting) experience!

Definitely an experience:)

Mile was first. I said that I would do whatever everyone around me does. If we go out at 5:10 pace I will be there. If we go out at 6:00 pace I will be there. Based on seeding times in my heat I expected that we will go out in 38sec/200m, then little under 3:30/1000m and then I will cruise the remaining 600 to 5:40ish mile. That would be a great workout!

What actually happened is this: We went out in 45sec. As the guy called out that split we all panicked and everyone (me including) made a mad dash to pass the girl who led us out at that pace. It was pretty hilarious. Although it did not work out since we all moved to the side to lane 2 and 3, so noone moved forward and the traffic jam continued. Lot of elbowing, spiking, slowing down and accelerating. That's what happens when you let 14 women "off the leash" on an indoor track for a fast and furious mile race:)Wow, I am not used to that. Then we went through 1000m in 3:36 and finished in 5:50. Hm, I guess that's what you get you are 7sec behind after only 200 meters:) It was still a good workout.

Just to further illustrate what a slow start can do to you: I went through 1000m in 3:30 and through the mile in 5:45 in 3000m race in December.

I also realized that it is very hard for me to pick up the pace after I start running. It was impossible to get down to 40s after that first 45. Blah.

Then I jogged for a few minutes (maybe 8), sneaked into a pool for a 10min flop and then I sat on my butt watching other events. Around 35min before 3k I jogged for 10min, did few stretches, 2 strides. My legs were definitely not as springy as usually.

3000m: Phew. It started ok, first 1000m in 3:41, then 3:58, and closed in 3:56 for 11:35. I did not know that one measly mile could take so much out of me. Interesting.

I wonder whether it would have been better if there was not ~2.5h break between the mile and 3k because I guess that my legs were more sore after 2.5h than they would have been after let's say an hour. I do not know. It feels that way.

So all in all it was a great fun again. Track races are so much fun. Way better than road racing. (Stop having such thoughts! Immediately! You are on a right track to become a road distance runner!) I am done with indoor track races for now. Maybe next year I will try to do some more 3000m specific workouts and race it again. And I will try to hit a certain time and not go just whatever depending on what people around me do.

Pathetically slow

You know how I always mourn about not being fast enough although I won some races, and then you think what an undercomitting-to-feel-good-after-the-race a$$hole I am?  I just read an interview with Kennedy Kithuka (he won NCAA XC nationals in Louisville and looked great doing it) and he says “you know, I was not that good” about running 15:20 5k as a HS junior. Then he runs 13:43 around two years later (according to my calculations) and says “I knew I still was not that good”.  I think that most people would be ecstatic if they ran sub-14min 5k. Heck most people would be ecstatic if they ran sub-20min 5k. But I get why he thought he was slow.   

What you think about your performances is usually relative to what you want to achieve because you are looking at a bigger picture. When there are people who have never raced anything but small local races or maybe people who have never won a race and that’s their goal then this attitude  of ”I won this race yet I am so slow” might seem very …(I lack a word here, sorry).  

If I podium in a competitive state triathlon race, I can say that I am fast. But only compared to those people in a state. And being a state champion is not my ultimate goal, my goal is being a regional champ. And I know that being competitive in the region means that I need to be faster. So actually I am not fast, I am slow for what I want to achieve.  

Matters get more complicated when you have never raced a state or regional championship and you are just guessing “what it takes” to win the race. Then you rather overestimate how fast you need to be, because if your estimate is too low you are not going to train hard enough to win. So give yourself a cushion and overestimate. And since you overestimate you will inevitably end up complaining all the time about how truly pathetic your speed/pace/watts are.

Let’s pretend I want to qualify to Rio as a “new flag” competitor. Holding 270W for five 5min intervals won’t freaking cut it, now would it? Or let’s pretend I want to qualify to Vegas and I “estimate” that I need to be able to run sub-1:30 off a bike in 90 degree weather.  Running a 19min stand-alone 5k won’t cut it, now would it? 

Makes sense?

On a different note, I am doing that mile/3000 double tomorrow. I do not even remember when I did a double last time. Must have been a looong time ago. I am sure I did more of them but I remember only one. Vividly. I was maybe 10-11 and it was 300/600 double at the regions. I raced 300 to warm up for that 600 where I was supposed to rip it to get a shiny new PR of something around 1:45. I ran 300 and remember that I totally lost my form in the last 100m because it was so hard. Then they put me into the 2^nd heat in 600 and we went really slowly. I won that heat in final 50m in 2min flat. My coach was disappointed that they put me into the second heat and that I did not run faster. I was just happy that I won my heat:) So that was one double I remember. It looks like that badly executed race is still haunting me since I still remember it. Ha. I also remember that I threw up right before 600. I think that I just put so much pressure on myself. So after I threw up for this first time I kept throwing up before every single race for the next year or two. How weird is that? My mom said I was nuts and could not understand how could I care so much for something as stupid as running. And then as suddenly as I threw up that first time, I did not throw up one time and my throwing up streak was over.

Back to tomorrow. I have a strategy in my mind, but since it is just racing for fun/experience I will probably just do what everyone around me does. If we go out in 5:10 pace I will be there. If we go out in 6min pace, I will be there. Let’s hope I do not throw up.

How is it going?

I bought a TV (I do not believe that every hour of TVwatched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer's life expectancy by 21.8minutes. One study in England claims so). As we were sitting on my sister’s couchover holidays and squinting (is that a word?) our eyes to be able to seesomething on her 19” TV I told her that if she wanted a bigger one I will buythis one from her. (At the time I did not know that she paid for this one withmy parent’s credit card and the little businessman is making profit on thisdeal). So I bought it and got Roku and now I do not need to watch Netflix movieson my 12" netbook screen. But I didn't really cared about it, I was more concerned with that thing crashing anytime soon because it already did once and I don't have a computer.