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!

A fork in the road

In my post The Unforgiving Twenty Minutes, I said I'd be basing my training on the Pete Magill article in Running Times: Solving the 5k Puzzle. I've decided to take a detour for a couple of months before embarking on Pete's training program. My aerobic condition is somewhat less than brilliant, so I'd like to polish that particular weakness first. My idea is to do some running which is fairly similar to the Hadd Training I was undertaking in 2007 — training that preceded a 20:54 5k at Stromlo.

I plan to run a "good" volume of mileage at an intensity which is at or below the 'Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate' as described by Phil Maffetone in this article. For me, this is running at a heart-rate of 130 (or lower) — around 78% of my maximum heart-rate. Over time (hopefully) I'll see an improvement in aerobic condition. My running speed at that heart-rate (and higher heart-rates) will become faster.

At the same time (if it's not too stressful), I'll do a small amount of training to work on my glaring "top-end" speed problem. Things like short/steep hill repeats, 100 metre fast strides, and running drills. I'll also run a few of the ACT Vets' Thursday evening track races — most likely some 3000s and 1500s.

Sweating up a storm at the end of a 10,000 in February

Base Camp 23:54

On Thursday evening I raced my first serious 5k since the ACT Championships on 14 January. Finished 2nd-last in 23:54.55. One of the many things I like about track races is that one (usually) receives a finish-time recorded to hundredths of seconds. 19:59.99 is infinitely superior to 20:00.1 — I can say with confidence that there's much work to be done before I'm anywhere near running 19:59.99. My base camp is a long way down the mountain.

The race itself was a little boring. It was a combined 3000/5000, with the majority of runners stopping after 7 1/2 laps. Warming up with Speedygeoff before the race, he told me his goal (achieved) was to run 4:30 kilometre pace. Summoning up the confidence of Scott Brown, I thought 22:30 sounded logically possible. I kept up with Geoff for the first kilometre (4:32 for me), thereafter gradually slowing with splits of 4:40, 4:52 and 4:59. Bronwyn was calling times at the 200 start, so I knew I had to get a move-on if I was to break 24 minutes. Managed to do this with a 4:51 last kilometre.

So, another lesson learned. I'm not only slow in terms of top speed, but I'm also slow aerobically. My heart-rates for the race on Thursday were pretty much the same as for the race in January, which was a little over 2 minutes faster (21:50.7). Maybe a lack of base mileage in recent months is the reason for my glacial 5k speed? My weeks since September have gone: 40, 5, 0, 30, 44, 52, 56, 74, 65 and 82 kilometres. I'd like to run mileage in the 90 to 100k range over the coming months and see if that produces an improvement in aerobic fitness.

A stunning revelation

I'm slow. Not in the way you might think (how fast I can race a 5k), but in a different way. I have run a couple of low-key 5k races in the past two weeks, and I must admit they weren't speedy (for a person wanting to run 5k in under 20 minutes) — 25:57 and 26:43. I tried to run these at "tempo effort", so I'm expecting something quicker next Thursday in a track 5000.

The slowness that stuns me is the time it takes me to run 200 metres. Last Sunday on the lovely grass at Calwell I ran 10 x 200 metres, with full recoveries between each run. Average time: 46.7 seconds. This is not nearly fast enough for someone who wants to run 48 seconds for each 200 of a 5k race. History shows that I need to run 10 x 200m in 36 to 37 seconds. When I was doing that (2001), I raced 5k in 20:06. In 2004, with 200 metre interval speed of 37 to 38 seconds, I ran a road 5k in 20:43.

I ran another session yesterday to check my basic speed — 10 x 100 metres, again with full recoveries, and running pretty much flat-out. These averaged 20.2 seconds, so quicker than the 200s, but still slow. I put this lack of basic speed down to weak fast-twitch muscle fibres. I've been lax in doing fast speedwork in recent times. I should exercise my fast-twitch muscles regularly to improve their strength. I'm wondering how fast you are in terms of basic speed? How fast can you run a session of 100s or 200s? How fast can you run a lap of the track? Do you think it's important to be fast over 200 metres in order to run a fast 5k race?

An 8k race at Weston Park in June 2010

Don't Fight It

I guess this is a brief report into the status of my quest to run 5k in under 20 minutes. You're not going to get much! One of the things I've realised about distance running (after doing it for 30 years), is that improvement is usually slow. For me that is. You might be one of those runners who's blessed with fast improvement. I ran most of my personal-best times in 1991 — ten years after I started running.

What I'm trying to say is two things: Firstly, if you haven't been running long and think your race-times have plateaued, keep trying; and secondly, don't fight it. Do the training you think will produce the desired result and the times will come. Eventually. Consistency and patience count for a lot.

By tomorrow I'll have run 70 kilometres for the week (my biggest week since late July). I enjoyed my first interval session on the grass at Stromlo last Sunday — 3 x 1k in 4:34, and on Tuesday ran some continuous laps on the lush grass of the Calwell Track. I can tell that I'm not yet fit enough to race well (which I'd define as 22 minutes for 5k). I guess I'd run 24 minutes. I think I'll "race" the Cross Country Club 5k events on Tuesday afternoons (as tempo efforts) to ease my way back into the racing scene.

The Unforgiving Twenty Minutes

I've been thinking about racing goals for next year. I should choose a goal that's exciting; on the edge of impossibility; one that I'd love to achieve. A fast marathon maybe? No, that's not my scene. I do believe in ideals, and my ideal race is not the marathon. OK then, here's the goal: I'm going to try and break 20 minutes for 5k. My history and progression indicates I'm likely to fail. Breaking 21:30 would be hard enough. Why set myself up for probable failure? I like the idea of the challenge; the likely long and arduous journey that will be set in motion by the goal of running under 20 minutes for 5 kilometres. I've never derived satisfaction from achieving soft goals. I'd rather fail at a difficult goal. There's also the good story I'll be able to tell at the end of the journey — a story surpassing any tall tale Scott Brown is able to tell.

On Tuesday night I was chatting to Gary at the Speedygeese dinner. He said something that has inspired me to try and run this hitherto considered impossible time. It so happened that back in July, Gary ran a six-year PB for 800 metres. 2:32 was quicker than any 800 metre race he'd run since 2004. What's more remarkable is that he's in the 60-64 age-group! I'll have to turn back the form-clock to 2001, but why can't that be possible? Getting on top of my thyroid problem is sure to help, as will shorter hours at work and "proper" 5k training. I also received further inspiration from an unlikely source — the description of an angry 5k race that resulted in a 19:51 finishing time. I need to get angry with my racing!

One consequence of my 5k racing goal is that I won't be running Six Foot next March — the training for a 45k race over mountains is too far removed from what's needed to run fast for twenty minutes. I should give myself at least 18 months to race under 20 for 5k. My training will involve putting together the puzzle-pieces talked about by Pete Magill in the April 2010 issue of Running Times. I'm not aiming for a particular race (although I'd like to run well at the ACT Championships in 2012). There will be many races, as I tend to improve with regular racing. There will also be breaks from racing, to recharge the batteries.

Not 5k Racing