Thursday 071113

Good luck to all Hardrockers, Silver Rush and BTMRs this weekend.  Be sure to channel your inner Chuck Norris.

To further inspire, a 1500 meter race from 1977 where they take it out in 56 (!) (and making it look like 80), and then Ovett has a kick that “tears the field asunder.”

Ovett’s move at 200 to go is sick.  Walker (sporting the Oceania jersey of all things) steps off the track about 3 seconds after it starts.  Wow.

Time to get a little rest in before this weekend’s race.  4.3 miles easy today.  95 degrees so I was curious as to how that would impact HR.  I did loops on the outside of the track.  The blue line is pace, the red is HR.  You can see how the pace slowed at the fix HR over the run as I “warmed up.”

Been eyeballing the Masters USATF results.  A 71 year old guy ran a 41 10k.  Dayum.  Sort of mind boggling to think in a dozen years I will be pressed to break 20 for a 5k.

Friday 052413

Holy crap.  XC Nats are coming back to Boulder!  While I suck in the mud, I am definitely interested.

Caught latest ATUC today … good stuff on HR in the heat (which I had to deal with later in the day).

Krar, sort of hard not to pick him at least as a podium finisher at WS given what he threw down in the ditch.  Yeah, we all know a 100 is much further, but would anyone be really surprised if he won it outright?  Plus he is one of a few number of runners that I know have dealt with a Haglund deformity (I got one).

I was pretty determined to finish the pool project before heading out to Ireland tomorrow.  Well maybe not finish it but get it up and going by today.  Started early over at Home Depot, getting one of those rent a trucks.  Then got it loaded with another ton and quarter of sand to finish out the leveling.

Leveled it out and then threw down some really cheap carpet over the whole thing to further pad the bottom.
Couple of hours later


It is going to take a while to fill.

JZ built the ladder.  Cool. Wait.  What is this?  Left over parts …

Ummm.
Not done yet, but we essentially replaced one round deadly object in the back yard with another round deadly object.  The second shot shows the level of protest when I announced removal of the trampoline was about to start.

 

To be fair, the tramp is still good.  The curtain and the net around it are a bit beat from 10 years of Colorado elements.  Side note -- I was able to transplant most of those raspberry vines in the front of the tramp.  They seem to have taken just fine.

Soooo …  by the time I got to run … I was pretty cooked.   When I woke up, I felt fine.  I even answered a mid morning email from “Luch” asking if I was sore.  I replied that I was in pretty good shape.  My hips were tight, but not bad.  However, after moving the sand, assembling the pool, etc – soreness slipped in.  The run on tap was to be easy, but it was the lower HR limit that I was concerned about (no lower than 140).  I had to nudge the pace above to comfortable in a few places to make this happen.  9.2 miles.

You can see “cardiac drift” with the blue line as reflected by pace.  Or it could be the slight uphill back.

The second run, as the sun was setting, was even more challenging to keep HR up.  Downs would have HR plummet.  And so pace would need to crank up.  But any little up and it was ready to go off the handle.  Pace is the blue line.

 

I could feel the load today.  It felt good.

Core work:

Some silly HR calculations

So, I was thinking about this a bit while doing the “travel thing” as I head back to the glorious heaven of Colorado.

Let’s say I do a 10 mile run at an AHR of 150.  A run I did here earlier this week is an example of that. 

 

This is not the most perfect example because two things happened in this run above:  1) some natural drift, and 2.) I stuck more to a pace than a particular HR (these are sort of saying the same thing).  In other words, I could have looked to have held the HR tighter to 150, but for the sake of the thought experiment I am going to kick around here … this run works.  10 miles, AHR of 148 bpm for 78 and 3/4 minutes.

Here’s is where I start picking at this a bit.  148 bpm times 78.75 means this run took me:  11655 beats. 

Question:  do all 10 mile runs take me about 11655 beats?  In other words, if I go faster, and hence at a higher heart rate, will I finish sooner but with a higher heart rate that still multiplies to a product of 11655?  (I am pretty sure the answer to this is no, particular at the top end, but it is an interesting experiment to consider).  And what about mix speed (interval) runs?

Here is run over Green Mountain, down Bear Canyon and the Mesa last week.  Very different run.  10 miles but with close 2700 feet of climbing and at elevations five to eight thousand feet higher than the run above.  AHR was 139 over 122 minutes.  16958 beats of the ticker.

Okay, hugely different.  Maybe it does not work to compare sea level runs to altitude runs, or ones where I climb versus flat runs.  Maybe it is better to compare runs that are more similar.  Where could do that?

Here is the HR data from Pikes Peak Marathon 2010.  4:30:55 or we can call it 271 minutes at an average HR of 170.  46070 beats to take that round trip.
 
Here is Pikes Peak from 2009.  That was 4:53 effort.  Average HR was 166.  48639 beats.   So a lot closer.  Could be coincidental I guess. 
It is hard to make comparisons, and all measures are flawed, but I think there might be something to consider here that the number of beats as a measure of work.  Clearly I performed better in 2010 as measured by the result time, but the HR data also shows that.  I was able to maintain both a higher HR for the distance of the race, but by executing more quickly and being more fit, it was a less amount of beat work.

Or something like that.  I might mull on this a bit more.  Your thoughts?

Tuesday 022112

Scott wrote this today.  I wonder if this guy is a brother from another mother or something because there appear to be a lot of parallels I see in our lives.  Of course, there is a question by some in my family if I am actually from Mexico, as I am adopted, so maybe we are brothers from the same mother.

For example, yesterday I wrote in my weekly log:  I know the mill ain’t for everyone, but it is almost like cross training for me.  I can get after it a bit, and not end up too beat up afterwards.

Today, as I ran on the mill again, I was thinking of how good of a tool it is for me.  It allows me to sneak runs in at paces that I would not be able to – because of work, or weather or whatever.  And given its surface, I walk away a bit less taxed from runs on that then I would had I done that same workout outside.  I totally understand that a 5:30 mile on it is not a 5:30 mile outdoors, and so a treadmill workout is only comparable to a treadmill workout.   It also allows me to do very compared workouts (if I can not be ADD enough so that I do something the same each time.

Today I did a dozen miles at 0 percent grade – I am not big on getting the vertical … yet.  There are plenty of offerings for me to get out and frolic in the snow over on Green, but given the tightness of my schedule as of late, and the the training buck effectiveness I feel I would get out that, I am not doing that now.  I am not against it, because certainly if the opportunity is right, spending an afternoon goofing off the guys on the hill side would be great.

But in any case, here are the dozen today.

8:16 AHR 131, MHR 152
7:59 AHR 141, MHR 149
7:53 AHR 143, MHR 147
7:47 AHR 144, MHR 148
7:40 AHR 146, MHR 148
7:35 AHR 147, MHR 151
7:29 AHR 148, MHR 151
0:44 (potty break)
7:24 AHR 154, MHR 145
7:19 AHR 150, MHR 149
7:13, AHR 153, MHR 153
7:08 AHR 153, MHR 156
7:02, AHR 156 MHR 156
 

Back on 020612, I did this:

I started the pace at 7.0 mph, and upped it a .1 of an mph every 2 minutes until I got to 8 mph (so that was 20 minute).  Then I upped it a tenth every four minutes as I was already in that 140ish zone.  And then at five miles, I just upped it every mile.  It is amazing how you can see that in the heart rate graph.  At an hour, the mill died (and you can see that), and so for the last two miles I brought it to just under seven minute miles (8.6) and upped it every half mile.  This run was very easy and I enjoyed it.

8:16 AHR 124, MHR 133
7:55 AHR 135, MHR, 139
7:33 AHR 141, MHR 142
7:21 AHR 144, MHR 145
7:18 AHR 146, MHR 148
7:13 AHR 148, MHR 148
7:08 AHR 151, MHR 151
7:02 AHR 154, MHR 155
6:47 AHR 153, MHR 157*
6:42 AHR 159, MHR 160

So, I think this is a bit of an apples and orange comparison but I think the run a couple of weeks ago was better from a HR perspective (so to speak – I ran faster at a lower HR).  This might be because I am a.) fatigued from yesterday, b.) I might be a bit under hydrated.  But today was easy … and just relaxed.  One workout does not make a good case study, but I will try to continue to watch this.

For what it is what it is worth, this the HR for the 2:36 effort post the run getting 2 x 40lb dumb bells up four flights of stairs from the gym rack (and back).  This leaves me winded pretty quickly.

 

Thursday 120111

Podcast listening … Lucho’s weekly installment (from earlier this week), and Anton on URP.

Exercise helps your brain.

Recovery day … treadmilled to keep it easy.  And because I am not this tough.  94 minutes on the tready … listening, watching this.  Now that is mental toughness training.  More seriously – just hung out easy with the HR monitor.  Average was 139, with a max of 145 … didn’t see deflection up until the last four or five minutes and I kept the pace the same (7.7, 0%) grade the whole time.

Apparently, “live high, train low” might be a total crock.

 

Good to see this guy who has been working it back home.

Saturday 021911

I felt pretty lethargic today but was better once I got outside and moving - the weather helped. Jogged over to the local track and decided to do a fixed HR test for a bit just to see where that was at. As the objective today was just an easy run, I capped it at 150. After five miles on the track (AHR - 148, 7:39 mile), I got bored going in circles and wandered out - total 12 miles.

Thursday 123010

AM – 20 miles, treadmill.  Kept it pretty easy for the first dozen or so (HR sub 150), and then decided it was okay it get it done and let it float up.  Started real easy (8:30) and then it was hovering 7-7:30.  The dip in the graph is where I had to restart the mill (did not stop the watch)

4087 miles on the year.

Thursday 092310

AM – 7 miles.  Left knee is still a bit agitated, and it seems to like going up hill the least.  To keep things flat I decided to head over to BHS track and do some fixed HR work.  HR at 150 or less averaged 7:20-7:25 for four miles.

PM – four easy miles

Wednesday 080410

Burch has part of his GM100 report up.  He puts GM100 as more difficult than Pb100.

Culpepper on the move to SD article.

A different take on 3-2-1 hill workouts.

I went to bed thinking I might get to the track and do some turn over work.  When I woke up, however, I knew I was not ready for that.  I could just feel it in my legs.  Nonetheless, I jumped out for the warm up – assessing.  Confirmed:  I felt sluggish and my pace was slower to accommodate as much.  I knew I could force the workout, and even contemplated different variations (200s rather than a larger ladder for example), but there would be some disappointment with that.  On days when I feel good and I am ready to work this, I need to force a slow down on the warm up – as I am roaring to get going.

But anyway, because of indecision, or the hope that things would suddenly be great, I ended up at the track.  And at the last minute, I decided to do a fixed HR workout.  I decided to cap my HR at 150 for 3 miles and see what pace came out.

Well!  That was a nice surprise, particularly since I have not seen these sort of paces at a sub 150 HR since at least 2007.  Felt good, and it actually woke up those legs nicely.  8 miles.

Afternoon – legs felt better … and so I got out and did some half mile repeats (recently motivated) but on the road (upper Simms).  So the odd numbered ones were slightly down and the even numbered ones were slightly up.  2:46, 2:50, 2:42, 2:50, 2;39, 2:46.  2 minutes rest between each, at a very easy slog jog.  A bit warm out (90) but I felt good.  8 miles.

Tuesday 062210

AM – little stiffness from yesterdays harder efforts (good!).  7 miles, easy.  AHR = 139, max = 148, pace averaged just under 8s.

Coworker who chases storms rhino-lined his vehicle and set it up with bullet proof glass.  You can see why.

More Mount Washington reports:  Jim Johnson (There is probably no other time that going out conservatively will benefit you more, than at Mount Washington), Scott Mason, Jim P.  … Photos by Kristen W and Photos by Scott Mason

More Mount Evans – Jim Mallory.

Bucks on the line for records at WS.  Funny thing is when I look at Meltzer’s odds there is a theme to be successful:  run your own run, and guys slugging it out with each other or the watch are almost prescribed to fail.

PM – easy 8 miles.  Warm.

Archiving this poll … Gates, Blake, Gray make the team.  I did not even have Siemers on the list.  Few folks picked Manning (I did …).

Evening walk with KZ

Wednesday 040710

Mid day – 10 miles on the mill.  Easy.  Started at 8 minute pace.  I wanted to go easy today, mostly to assure I was recovering from the tempo yesterday, and the slightly higher mileage day (not that I felt tired, but the itch in my head was to be careful).  So I was sort of interested in what the HR would be again, just bumping the speed up very slowly (.1 mph per mile).  Really more of a game to pass the time while jogging easy. 

So this all ended up feeling easy, but as I have said three and a half times before it does not mean shit in comparison to anything other than other treadmill efforts.    I want to go back and check, but I am pretty certain that I was not doing sub 8 min/mile treadmill efforts at a HRs sub 140.

Which I guess would lead me to say (again) that fixed HR training works but my experiment of one here has made it pretty clear (to me) that it requires a significant bump in mileage to get the “same pace, lower HR” outcome (of any significance – which I think I am seeing).

Again, I feel that I am sort of getting the training I can, versus the training I need.  Definitely lacking in my training right now is the vertical and the much longer run.  So I feel like I am compensating by getting in time, mileage where I can.  Overall, I am cautiously optimistic that I am making progress, but also recognize I have a good amount of work still to do.

PM – 5 miles easy.

And I am eating the door off the fridge.

Monday 110209

AM – mill, 4 miles.  Started super slow (6mph) and easy and accelerated slowly to see when HR would hit 150.  Takes me about five minutes to get HR to stabilize initially (warm up).  Ended up be at 7.9-8.0 mph for a 150.  Miles 3 and 4 came in 7:32 and 7:40.  this is 1.5 percent.  Just wanted to run easy because I felt a bit stiff to start.  Nothing zippy, and the HR / pace is about what I would expect at this point.  Need to test this outdoors to see if there is a difference at the same HR and pace (or vice versa).  All  If there is a significant diff outdoors, I might need to up the grade on the mill more for “equivalence.” 



Meb … beautiful American story. 

Tony hit 50000 miles …

I have thought about this in light of his entry. I started running when I was 8 - but there are no logs and I certainly was not doing 2000 mile years then.  If I go conservative and guess that I was doing an average of 1500 miles a year starting in 83 (freshman in HS) through 96 - that gives me 21k. I think I can then go 2k from 96 to 2000 for another 8 (29k), and then 2.5k per year for the last 8. Gives me 49k. But it could be way off.

Steve Jones interview … hmm, it is probably me but I think I know who he is talking about when he says … So I say stick to your quality work -- speed, speed, speed. I had a guy call me up once and he told me he had been coached by all these fine coaches. He says, “I need to know how many miles I need to run so I can run faster than ever.” I told him, “You’re probably running more miles now than you have to.” It’s not about running 140 miles a week, it’s about pushing the envelope to get to the next level.

Fast food challenge

… a detail that bubbled up today (NOT going to do this): 

Course: This year’s course starts and finishes in Belmar Park and … (snip) The meals this year are as follows:
1.)   Simply Sloppy Joe's - 1 sloppy Joe and small can of coke – at main Pavillion in Belmar Park
2.)   Virgilio’s Pizza – 1 Slice of Pizza + small drink
3.)   **Chipotle - order of three tacos; must select 1 meat, 2 toppings, and 1 salsa
4.)   Carl's Junior - 1 Chili Cheeseburger; drink is optional
5.)   Panda Express – 1 Egg Roll + small drink

PM – 7 miles. 

Thursday 091709

Mid day.  Decided to test fixed HR again (these are treadmill tests at a cap of 150 for me with the mill at 1.5 percent grade).  After a 1.5 mile warm up (all this at 1.5%), I ran capped at 7:36, 7:36, 7:40, 7:46, 7:47 for five miles in 38:25 with an AHR of 149 (there was a quarter mile segment in the middle where the monitor read that my HR had gone to 195 – whatever) .  So the fact that all of these were under 8 represent improvement.  The last time I did this test, I did it on the mill in my garage and this was one at work with the fan on – so there is a difference there (and the mills might not be calibrated the same).  I am not going to put a lot of stock in one test as I have seen variation move either way significantly over the course of one test.  … but …

… I did notice, that before my run on Tuesday where I went up Green, I had been feeling pretty beat up and lethargic on my runs.  I certainly did not worry about HR when going up Green.  Simply – I can’t worry about it there.  It is going to go above 150 unless I walk the whole thing.  I never pushed, but was feeling pretty worked at the end of that session.  But yesterday morning, I suddenly felt “opened up” in a way that I had not in a few weeks.  Not going to say it was the trip up Green, the easy running I have been doing, my encounter with the lady bugs or the strides … or if it had bearing on today’s run.  So I am just not saying…

Totally behind on a series of other interesting looking posts.  Ah well.  Did 3 miles at the soccer fields while the crumb grabbers practiced.  Barefoot.  The grass between the toes felt good. 

Wednesday 090909

• AM – dog jog. 3 miles.

• Feeling a bit beat up, and a bit “scientific” I decided to go to the mill in the afternoon. I set it at 1.5% grade. After a 5 minute warm up at 10 min mile (6mph) pace, I upped the pace every minute by a tenth until HR stabilized at 148-150. This was a 7.4 mph (or about 8:08 a mile). I took splits for mile 1, 2 and then every quarter – as obviously the Garmin thought I was going no where. Twice (the two dips in the curve) I accidently hit the kill switch (it is really poorly positioned, and I caught it the same way each time – my right arm coming forward as part to the running motion). I warmed down with a slower mile as well. This all effectively served as a fixed heart rate test. I am not particularly concerned about these results as much as I was curious as to where I stood at the moment. For five miles it was 41:00, with an average HR of 147. “Miles” were: 8:06, 8:07, 8:10. 8:12, 8:24. HR did some interesting fluctuations at the end …Overall run was 8 mill miles. The Sporttracks software picks up the HR data, even though there is no distance data (and it still adds the work to the training load). In any case, I will probably look to do these tests periodically … the mill is a good controlled location …

Tuesday 072109

• AM – 11 miles. Jogged over to BHS to get an idea as to where I was in terms of HR to pace and ended up there for most of the run. HR did some crazy stuff shortly after I got on the track and read as high 191 for a short stretch (while I was slowing down) (you can see that in the chart below). But other than that, just sat at 149 for a half dozen plus miles. Interestingly, the pace got faster through the first five miles of the run, but then moved back up in the last mile. AvHR over run was 148. I think it is very fair to say there is a hill in that track. The results of this run are “okay.” I like to see a bit more improvement in the pace at this HR but it is what it is, and not surprising – two days post a bigger run and post a couple days where I have been “chasing” hydration.

• PM – super easy with a bunch of guys at work. Again, HR went nutty for about a half mile, averaging 180 with a high of 195, but all while I was running 8:15 pace. At this point, I decided to ignore the monitor for the rest of the run. As it turned out it was an average over the run of “149.” (I put that in quotes because the run other than this anomaly was average of 146.
• I have the next four weeks planned out for running and a taper … want to sleep on it though to give it some thought.  Current plan – which is very likely and subject to change …

• This week (28 days to go) (July 20-26) 100 percent, 13 hours, 90 miles.  2 long runs with "building" at the end.  Week similar to last few weeks.

• Next week (21 days to go) (July27-August 2) 90 percent, ~ 80 miles or 11.5 hours.  2 long runs with "building at the end.  Drop some secondary runs.

• 27 -

  AM 7 miles, PM 4 miles

• 28 - AM 11 miles

  29 - 17 miles, race HR after 10 miles

• 30 - AM - 6 miles, PM - 4 miles

• 31 - 8 miles

• 1 - 4 miles

• 2 - 20 miles, race HR after 12 miles

• Following week (14 days to go) (August 3 - August 9) 75 percent, or 68 miles or 9.75 hours.  1 long run with a building on the end.  Drop all secondary runs.

• 3 - 8 miles

• 4 - 8 miles

• 5 -  17 miles, race HR after 10 miles

• 6 -  8 miles

• 7 - 7 miles

• 8 - 4 miles

• 9 - 16 miles, race HR after 9 miles

• Race week (7 days, including race day) (August 10 - 16) 60 percent or 55 miles, including a 26 mile race on Sunday (so 29 miles on the front of the week)

• 10 10 miles

• 11 3 miles

• 12 9 miles - race HR effort last 3 miles

• 13 4 miles

• 14 3 miles

• 15 off

• 16 race

• A tattoo parlor is a sponsor of the White River 50?
• Been playing with a training load plugin for Zone Five.  Not wholly sure what it all means yet (reading to do!) and hence it will not change my training approach, but looks interesting.

Thursday 071609

I am getting a HR monitor tan line.  Seriously

.

17 miles in the AM.   Thought I would run around the Khol loop  - just for consistency and measurement.  I jogged some Gatorade bottles down there but then I decided to slip away to extend the warm up a bit.  After six miles (AvHR =142, some weird spikes in the max as the HR would suddenly go from 145 to 155-160 for a few strides and then back down.  Might be time for a new HR battery?  Or maybe I was just getting pumped listening to Tool:  10000 Days?), I ended up at the BHS track and decided to measure there.  I did five miles (AvHR=148, max 150, Avpace=7:48) there.  After that, I just ran – not pushing but not holding myself back with the monitor either.  Just going.  Last six miles had an AvHR of 162, max 173 (only a few seconds over 170, and in the last hill back to my house in the last third of a mile), avpace = 7:13.  Total time was about 2:12.  Good run.  I felt good – never really pushed and enjoyed it.

 

Tuesday 071409

• Bad news: JV broke his foot. I feel horrible for the guy.
• Good post on coaching by Magill (I see it more as a post of defining a training program for anyone, including when you define that for yourself)
• More good altitude related stuff from Chuckie V.
• Some race photos are up from Barr Trail (thanks to Bethany Garner) 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Back on June 24, I did 10 miles at or under 150 HR. On that run, I averaged a HR of 142 and a pace of 8:15 a mile.

Today, on a pretty similar course (actually a little longer and so a touch more up/down) (and still a tad sore from Sunday), I averaged 8:05 with an average HR of 144 and a max of 150, I noticed post mile 8 my HR had become more likely to react to subtle changes to the terrain, pace, etc (part of the drift situation). While this is not an exact test, as the courses were slightly different, I think it is fair to state that it represents some level of progress.

PM – 6 miles easy, AvHR = 144, max 150