Will POWERbreathing make me faster?

I still have my Maffetone 'patience phase' of training rolling along. Just making slight adjustments week to week — I'm finding that 90 to 100 kilometres weekly is a manageable amount of running to fit in around my sometimes long hours at work. Last Thursday I ran on the immaculate grass of the Calwell 400m track — eight 200s to remind my legs of the speed needed for a 20-minute 5k. A neuromuscular workout of sorts. I had a rough goal of 48 seconds for these and averaged 47.8. Walked back across the infield for a full recovery. They felt OK — like I could have run faster. I held back as I didn't want to get into any sort of high heart-rate or lactate accumulation territory.

I also purchased a POWERbreathe 'Sports Performance Plus' inspiratory muscle training device after reading some interesting research evaluation blog posts from Canute. Does anyone use one of these? My experience thus far is positive. On the first day I found it very hard to do ten breaths on the easiest of ten levels. Thought I'd purchased the wrong model! Now I'm up to 30 breaths twice daily and can foresee increasing the difficulty level and number of breaths to 2 x 30 twice daily. The POWERbreathe people recommend having the level set so that one 'fails' at 30 breaths.

I think this type of training might be suitable for people racing distances of 10k or less. For marathoners, breathing doesn't seem to be a 'roadblock', but it can be for distances where lactate accumulation is higher and for hilly races. Speaking of hilly races, the Six Foot marathon was held on Saturday (the first time I've missed it since 2003). Thought I'd leave a link to a video showing the amazing sure-footedness of female race winner Anna Frost. She recorded the third fastest female time in race history — 3:52:48 for 45k of mountainous trails on a hot day. Amazing.

Being a Ferrari (cap) owner, I can afford a POWERbreathe

Inspiration and Improvement

Scott Brown told me of the great story from last Sunday's Tokyo Marathon — the one about Japanese runner Yuki Kawauchi who placed 3rd in 2:08:37. This was a 4-minute PB from last year's race and 9 minutes faster than his PB from 2009 (2:17:33). The amazing thing about Kawauchi is that he fits his training around a regular 9-hour work day! One doesn't have to live the life of a professional runner to come up with inspiring performances.

If Kawauchi's improved running doesn't do it for you, then how about Ben St Lawrence's on Thursday night? Young (29-year-old) Ben raced the big guns of 5000 metre racing at Olympic Park and came away with a 15-second PB, running 13:10.08. A storming last lap dealt with Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp, with Bernard Lagat having to drop down another gear in the home straight to hold off St Lawrence and take the win. Four years ago Ben St Lawrence was an overweight (90 kg) door-to-door salesman and party animal. Now that's some improvement!

I'm inspired! And this week, slightly improved. I ran my 10k MAF test on Thursday at 5:38 per km with an average heart-rate of 130 (my fastest speed thus far in this patience phase of training, and the best I've run since February last year). One change I've made this week (after reading a blog post from Canute), is to practise deep diaphragmatic breathing during all my runs. I wonder if I can match the 6% lowering of heart-rate (at a particular speed) that Canute found when using this type of breathing? Even if my improvement is more modest, better ventilatory capacity is sure to help my 5k racing times. I intend to run some trial races on the track in the coming weeks, so I'll find out soon enough.

My 'excited' new running style

Running for a Sheep Station

I've completed another 4 weeks of Maffetone-style base training — 353 kilometres (a little under 55 miles per week). The pace for my 10k MAF tests (on a good day), is around 5:43 per km, so still some way off the 5:20 goal. On some runs I can detect a weakness in leg-strength, so I've begun running my hillier Rose Cottage course. I plan to introduce some short hill repeats (with long recoveries) and some short sprints (100 - 170m) on the track.

I was a spectator at the Stromlo Running Festival yesterday to watch the Australian Age-Sex Adjusted Cross Country Championships. A number of my running mates were competing in the 7.5k handicap race. The winner was back-marker and marathon silver medallist at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, Michael Shelley. My friends did well — Kathy being the first female to finish, with Liz, Michelle and Geoff not far behind.

It was a bit of a worry to see Kathy get "the staggers" in the last 400 metres, only just making it over the finish line in front of the next (much younger) female. It was a warm and humid morning. I can't do that. Don't know whether my Central Governor is wound up too tight, but I just can't push myself to the extent where I might collapse in a race. I'll stop running first. I think it comes from having done that a few times in my early years of running (particularly in the City to Surf), and giving myself a scare. Since those days my strategy has been to get in better shape than I need to be and race conservatively (my Dad would have said "you're not running for a sheep station"), only pushing the pace in the last couple of kilometres, and only if the weather is runner-friendly. How do you race? For a sheep station, or not?

Geese cheering on Michelle at Stromlo — green grass and humid clouds

Ten thousands aren't easy

One day I'll add up how many 10,000 metre track races I've run. In this town we have two opportunities per year to race this distance and I like the challenge, so I guess it's somewhere between 15 and 50. A lot of laps of a 400 metre track!

On Thursday evening I ran in the ACT Championship race. Finished 26th in 49:26.0. Not great, but not woeful. Last year I ran the same event in 45:57.54 (at a similar average heart-rate — 153 to 152 this year), so I still have work to do on the aerobic endurance side of things. I'm not one to whine, but I guess the mitigating factors this year were the remains of a head-cold and some longer than usual hours at work.

The race itself was interesting enough. I got out ahead of coffee groupie, Ironman and 3:26 marathoner CJ (she was having a bad night!) and amused myself by guessing how long it'd be before she went past. The inevitable happened around the 4000 metre mark, after which I tried to keep the elastic from stretching to breaking point. CJ increased her lead to 100 metres or so before suffering a dead patch between 7 and 9 k. I slowly clawed back the metres until she was half a straight ahead. With 1000 to go she must have wanted the suffering to be over and done with, so took off, finishing in 49:01.

Splits: 4:45, 4:46, 4:53, 4:57, 5:01 (24:22), 5:01, 4:59, 5:01, 5:04, 5:00 (25:04).

Whispering sideways

There was a discussion on the radio last week about Word of the Year, and one that was mentioned during the conversation was "presenteeism" (the opposite of absenteeism). It's when the inconsiderate git working next to me on the railroad gang coughs and sneezes for a week, thereby passing on the gift of his cold. I've been suffering with this gift since last Sunday.

My gradual build-up of ego-free mileage has gone slightly sideways. Weeks of 90 and 94 kilometres have been followed by one of 72. I'll call it whispering sideways, in deference to Lorraine Moller's story in the November 2010 issue of Running Times: Becoming a Body Whisperer. Moller talks about running without a watch or heart-rate monitor and tuning into one's body. I'm still wearing the Polar, but don't feel the need to look at it constantly or check the split of every kilometre.

One of the aspects of the Maffetone training I'm doing that fascinates me is the table in the 'Want speed? Slow down!' document correlating pace at MAF heart-rate on the 5-mile MAF test with 5k race time. I'm running the MAF test on a 10k course which isn't dead flat. I call my MAF heart-rate 130 (35 beats below maximum HR) and on 25 January ran at a pace of 5:45 per km (9:15 per mile). According to Maffetone, that would put my potential 5k race time at 22:08. In late 2007 I was running a similar 10k course at a pace of 5:50 per km at a HR of 124, which would be roughly 5:34 per km (8:58 per mile) at HR 130. I raced a 5k at Stromlo two days later in 22:25, then two weeks later on the same course ran 20:54. This is my thinking as I patiently log the kilometres: When I can run 10k in 55:40 at an average HR of 130, I should be only a couple of races away from a 21-minute 5k.

Ego checked at the door

I placed last in the 5000 metre race on 13 January (24:14), but feel satisfied the race marked a small improvement on the Base Camp 23:54 run of 18 November. "How so?" I hear you say. Well, in November I raced pretty much flat-out with an average heart-rate of 154, whereas for this race I ran at something akin to tempo effort for an average heart-rate of 149.

Scott Brown brought my attention to a post on Tim Waggoner's blog about MAF training. Tim was told by Mike Pigg in 1996 "to just train at HR 145-155 as much as possible and I would do anything I wanted." Following this advice, Tim went on to be #1 amateur in the world at the Ironman Triathlon by the year 2000. This is the base-phase training advocated by Phil Maffetone. Googling around I came across a forum post with a lengthy excerpt from the "Lore of Running" in which Timothy D. Noakes talks about the training of Mark Allen under Maffetone.

Mark Allen has an article on his website about how he switched from the "No Pain, No Gain" motto when he was a competitive swimmer to training for triathlon with his ego checked at the door. In other words, not "winning" training sessions but patiently logging mileage in the heart-rate zone advocated by Phil Maffetone. According to Noakes, Allen would monitor his progress by "regularly completing an 8-km run at his maximal allowed aerobic heart rate of about 150 beats per minute. During his Patience Phase his average pace when running at that heart rate would fall progressively. When he first started training according to the Maffetone approach, his aerobic pace during this test was 4:05 per km. During this phase, Allen would expect his running speed at his aerobic heart rate to fall by about 3 to 4 seconds per km per week. When Allen retired in 1995, his aerobic pace had improved to 3:19 per km, as the result of a steady progression during his entire career. For physiologists used to reporting human training studies lasting a few months, this is a remarkable finding. It shows that the human body may continue to adapt for 10 or more years to the form of prolonged, intensive training undertaken by Allen."

What do you think? Is there something bad in the blood chemistry of anaerobic training that retards aerobic development? My inclination is to continue training along the lines advocated by Maffetone until my pace for the MAF test stops improving. The training range for me is a heart-rate of 130 to 135 (or lower) and I'd test my progress at a HR of 130 (79% of maximum). My pace at this HR right now would be about 5:48 per km (9:20 per mile). If my pace at that HR improved to 5:20 kilometres (8:35 miles) I'd be within cooee of running 20 minutes for 5k.

Chugging along

I've had a slow start to 2011. Feel a bit like the GSX1400 chugging along on three cylinders. Two weeks down — 53k and 82k (my "year" started on 27 December due to my habit of logging mileage in 4-week blocks — 4 x 13 = 52). Spent some time over Christmas and the New Year in Wagga Wagga helping the siblings with a garden makeover at Mum's. She's 85 this year and going strong, but has this strange habit of collecting thousands of pot-plants.

I'm behind the first two weeks of last year, which were 83k and 90k. Speedygeoff has run 100k this week and I'd like to join him on that type of mileage as my base-building phase continues. Had a lovely (if humid) run around Lake Burley Griffin yesterday for 24k with Ruth and Andy. Struggled a little after 20 — I'm not used to running that far! Plan to race the 5000 on Thursday evening — would like something under 23 minutes, but my confidence isn't great. We'll see.

With the Suzuki in August 2004

What Runners Want

I told Scott Brown that I had a great idea for this post. Woke up in the middle of the night with the first paragraph fully formed in my head. It was well written. I failed to write it down. There's a tip for you. If you wake up startled with a great idea in the middle of the night, resist the temptation of the pillow and write it down!

I wanted to talk about what runners want. Well, what I as a runner wants. I'd like my running to be at that exciting stage where I can see potential for improvement. Faster times. Exciting races. M50 Personal Bests. For the majority of 2010 I haven't been in that place. My races have been struggle-fests. Killing myself at the Gold Coast to break 50 minutes for 10k. Since March this year I've felt like I've been running in six inches of powdery red dust on the back road to Uluru.

On the 15th of December I bumped off that dirt road onto a narrow ribbon of bitumen. Coarse bitumen. I saw a number on my heart-rate monitor that indicated I was, at last, improving. My heart-beats per kilometre (the RS scale) for that 10k run with my mates, were 745. Since March this number has been north of 760 — often closer to 800. The day before my one good 5000 (21:50.7) back in January, I ran at 718 heart-beats per km. As 2010 draws to a close I'm excited that improvement once again seems possible. The 20-minute 5k can happen.

What do you want as a runner? Maybe it's nothing more than feeling the breeze cool your sweat during a warm evening run in late December. If so, enjoy!

In Slow Motion

I'm writing this just before heading out for my last run for the week. It's a lovely afternoon — sunny but not too warm or humid. 15k will see 85 for the week — not too bad considering this crazy time of the year. Dubs asked in a comment on my last post about how I felt the Hadd/Lydiard base-building was going. It's going well thus far!

This week I ran in three 'training races' — a leg of an 8 x 1 mile relay on Tuesday (roped into it, and took it pretty easy, running 7:14). On Thursday night at Vets I ran a 3000, followed an hour and a half later by a 10,000. Felt pretty tired for the last half of the 10k. 14:55 and 51:49.

I've made a short video of the aforementioned relay race. I slowed the runners down to get an idea of how they ran. The times for their mile legs are sub-titled below the runners. I'd like to get hold of a Casio High Speed camera (which uses high frame rates) to do more of this slow motion photography. The music is by My Little Trotsky. As Molly would say, do yourself a favour and check them out!

Good to Go!

I had an appointment with the thyroid specialist on Friday. He told me my hormone levels are back in the normal range and I'm to continue with a daily dose of 50 micrograms of Thyroxine. This is great news! It means that (all things being equal), I should no longer suffer from fatigue, low energy, muscle soreness, and numerous other symptoms which interfere with good running. He has ordered another blood test to check my Vitamin-D levels. If those are low I'll be on 2-3000 IU per day for 2 to 3 months.

So, I'm good to go! The only thing holding me back over the next 3 weeks is an excessively busy schedule at work. Last week I slaved through three consecutive 12-hour days. It's an effort to squeeze in even a 45-minute jog on such days. I'm wary of pushing myself over the edge in terms of stress. It's like a jungle sometimes — I often wonder how well Jaouad Gharib or Tirunesh Dibaba would run if they had to fit training around 12-hour work days? I guess they'd be a little slower, and not win so many races!

Last week I ran 55 kilometres — about 40 below par for my Hadd/Lydiard base-building plan. On Monday I had an inkling that my heart-beats per kilometre were falling slightly — a sign that my aerobic fitness might be improving. Yesterday I ran 20 kilometres with my mates on bike-paths near a swollen, muddy and debris-filled Lake Burley Griffin. Amazingly, this was my longest run since March! I need to become more familiar with this sort of distance for a long run. I hope all of you have been training well and are good to go. Race well!

My shirt says it's time to go!