Misperception

I got a bit of a surprise when I looked at the HR graph from Sunday's XC race. Ignore the first 4 minutes, that was clearly the HRM not picking up the signal correctly.

If I had been happy with my race I would take this graph as proof that I had run the perfect race, with it's very smooth HR data. However, since I was less than happy with my performance, we are talking a different scenario. It looks like I ran the entire race with the throttle set to max but the engine not responding properly.

Since I have not run any fast miles for a long time, I guess that's pretty much what happened. Advocates of the Central Governor theory might claim that it was the CG preventing any higher output from the leg muscles, but I'm not getting into that discussion. My guess is that if I got a few faster miles into the legs, the performance would improve fairly quickly week on week as my legs (or CG) get used to the higher level. However, I want to be ready for a marathon in March, not next month, so I won't start a new regime of gruelling interval workouts (though, to be honest, the day after the race I was genuinely tempted to do just that).

One noticeable thing on Monday morning was the complete absence of any soreness. No pains and aches at all. XC definitely has its advantages.

Mind, I did find one problem after all, but not until after the run, when I checked the Garmin. During the run I could have sworn I was doing some decent pace, it was only after the run that I looked at the watch and realised that I had basically just run 20 seconds per mile slower than anticipated.

Since I had missed out on my long run on Sunday because of the race I caught up on Tuesday. It required a very early wake-up call, just like in the good old times when I always used to do my long run during the week.

The run was perfectly fine, the hills around the lake haven't shrunk since the last time I had visited them but I was moving at a good pace, I thought. Until I checked the watch with 3 miles to go, that is, and to my astonishment realised that I was not even going at 8:00 pace. My internal gauge was obviously completely off after the race, because when I upped the effort for the final 3 miles the legs had no problem whatsoever with the new pace.

I cheated slightly this morning because I checked the Garmin after a mile to ensure I wasn't plodding along again. Normally I don't look at the watch at all during easy runs and much prefer to go by feel alone, but after the last two days I thought the better of that tactic. For whatever reason, I was running a good bit faster than on Monday for the same distance, but could have sworn I was moving at the same effort level.

By now the race should have gone from my legs. I'll see if my gauge has normalised.

8 Oct

8 miles, 1:01:53, 7:44 pace, HR 141

9 Oct

16.6 miles, 2:11:44, 7:56 pace, HR 144

10 Oct

8 miles, 59:16, 7:24 pace, HR 152

Checking Progress

Some runners love their Garmins, others, usually older folk, hate them. Personally I’m firmly on the love side, but with reservations. I use it to monitor my workouts, not dictate them. As such, I find it a very helpful tool and one thing I always keep an eye out is the pace/HR ratio. I have a spreadsheet that spits out a VDOT number for virtually any pace/HR combination. The higher the VDOT the better, and as I get fitter during base training, the number gradually moves up (or, at least, that’s what it’s supposed to do).

In my previous blog entry I mentioned how that ratio had suddenly jumped up by a significant amount. Sadly, that did not last and the last few days have all yielded a much lower VDOT number. The outside factors were all fairly similar, plenty of rain, wind and cold as I ran the exactly same 8 miles each morning.

I do have a bit of a cold at the moment; I think it’s finally on its way out, but there are still some lingering effects. Nothing major, but it’s certainly a possible factor for the higher than expected HR.

Life goes on and training goes on. I have been taking it very easy since Sixmilebridge and as a result have not had any issues with heavy, tired legs that felt like a pair of concrete pillars, in contrast to the post-Dublin weeks. I would like to increase the mileage again, but right now the HR data keeps me from doing so. It’s already December, the next training phase is only a few weeks away and I want to make sure that I'm not tired at the very start of it.

All other 4-year olds I know, including my (now older) own ones, have to be coerced into eating vegetables by playing silly games. You know, pretending to be an aeroplane and landing in the mouth, that kind of caper. Maia, on the other hand, only got to be persuaded to eat her broccoli when mummy pointed out that they look just like alveoli. And if you just had to check wikipedia then I know a 4-year old who is smarter than you (and, admittedly, has an unusual obsession with the human body).

30 Nov

8 miles, 1:02:30, 7:49 pace, HR 145

1 Dec

8 miles, 1:02:14, 7:47 pace, HR 145

2 Dec

8 miles, 1:02:59, 7:52 pace, HR 144

Torture Sessions

There seems to be an impression that I don't like following advice. Not sure where that comes from, maybe from my irrational hatred against anything resembling authority, perchance? Anyway, when MC offered to coach me, it was far too good an opportunity to miss and I have been careful to follow his advice as closely as I could.

With one exception.

When he mentioned ice baths a while ago, I tried to silently ignore his advice, hoping it would go away. This worked for a while, but he was always going to come back to it. Time to HTFU and suck it up.

Saturday's MP effort had a twist. I was ordered to cover up the Garmin during the pace effort and run purely by feel. Instead of covering it up I switched the display. Never having aimed for a certain pace without my little toy, I felt completely at sea. Two miles into the effort I was highly tempted to peek but managed to resist. The MP segment was longer this time, 10 miles, and I did start to get tired towards the end. My impression during the last few miles was that I was running a bit too hard; it just did not feel likely to keep up the effort for an entire marathon. When I did look at the numbers after finishing the run I was both pleased that I had kept the pace pretty much on target (6:44 pace, HR 161), and slightly disappointed that an effort that had felt a tad too hard was “only” 6:44, after thinking of 6:40 as my marathon pace prior to the run.

The real torture came after the run in form of the aforementioned ice bath. The coach called it “cool bath” because there is no actual ice in the tub but who is he kidding! Niamh came to inquire what the tortured high-pitched screaming was all about and left with the immortal words “you f***ing eejit, Thomas!”. No sympathy from that source then.

It did, however, help the legs because they felt surprisingly good the next morning. Just too bad that the rest of me felt like crap. I think that bug that I have been fighting for the last week is trying to gain the upper hand. The heart rate was elevated (resting HR 44 compared to 40 last week) and I felt completely flat at first and like death at the end. The hilly road around Caragh Lake did not help either. The coach had told me to run easily for at least 2 hours but no more than 2:30 and use my own judgment. I'm not sure why I added another 1.5 miles after finishing the loop because that was definitely against the coach's advice. I also can't quite explain why I started hammering along during the second half. The HR was way above the low 140s where it should have been but at that stage I had decided that the germs in my body had raised the HR to new levels, meaning it did not reflect the real running effort. I also figured that if I can run 7:30 pace over a very hilly road while feeling lousy, I must be in good shape. When Niamh asked how the run had been I replied “I'm surprised you can feel so bad and still live”, but had no comeback to her “I learned that during child birth”. Given that contrast, I suppose I was not feeling that bad.

After a week with a sore throat, I have finally decided to take some medication but now I'm wondering if it was the medicine that made me feel so bad. I actually started feeling perfectly fine again as soon as I stopped running (apart from yet another ice bath. This time even the kids came to check why daddy was screaming), so it's hard to know if I'm getting worse or improving but right now I think I'll be fine again soon.

26 Feb

13.1 miles, 1:30:26, 6:54 pace, HR 157
   incl. 10 miles @ 6:44 pace, HR 161

27 Feb

18 miles, 2:14:54, 7:29 pace, HR 153

Weekly Mileage: 77+

Anaerobically Overtrained?

It doesn’t come as a big surprise, but life can be challenging with a little baby in the house. After taking her time sleeping through the night, she has now started to wake far too often. And for some unknown reason, we seem to have settled on a parental pattern – during the day she’s Niamh’s baby, during the night she’s mine. A 4:29 am wake-up call on Monday was the low point so far, because even though Maia managed to fall back asleep afterwards, I did not. Last night was almost a relief in comparison, a 1 am nappy change was enough to send her (and myself) back to sleep until 6:13, and since my alarm had been set to 6:15, this didn’t cause any problem for once, especially since she fell back asleep after a bottle.

The original schedule for Monday had called for 11 miles, but with my recent rant about not recovering enough I cut that down to 9. I felt very good, actually, and the miles passed by very quickly. I t was probably a tad fast for an easy run, but the heart rate was pretty low, and I felt good, so why not take it.

Today was a different matter. It started badly and got worse, basically. After dealing with the aforementioned Maia problem, I got the shock of the day when my Garmin refused to come to life. And that on the day of mixed intervals, the one workout where I definitely need the damn thing! Dead as a dodo it seemed, but I remembered reading about other people having the same problem and booted up the computer. I found the solution, pressing the Mode and Lap/Reset keys together for a few seconds brought the device back to life. This is even mentioned in the manual, but for some reason only known to the technical writer it's not in the troubleshooting section but on page 6 where the function of each key is explained. Strangely enough the battery was half-empty despite being fully charged last night, but it had enough juice to last my workout.

Eventually, and of course a good bit later than planned, I made it out of the house, functioning Garmin on the wrist. Unfortunately the weather has turned again and it was really windy (the weather page lists wind speeds of 20-25mph, with gusts of up to 40 mph). I could have gone to Ard-na-Sidhe, but that road was so dark that I thought I’d probably run into a tree there and I opted for the road towards Killorglin instead. Initially the weather didn’t seem too bad, and 2 miles of HMP were no problem. As soon as the first recovery interval started I thought that this had not felt like HMP effort, and when I turned around and felt the full force of the wind against my face I knew why. To make things worse, the next 2 fast segments were not only against the wind but slightly uphill as well. The 2k at supposed 10k pace were as slow as 6:49, and then I completely lost focus during the mile at 5k pace, caught myself jogging along at 7:20 pace after my mind had started drifting, and did no better than a totally embarrassing 6:59! I even hesitate to put down those numbers because they are so bad. Half a mile at 3k pace (which should have been sub 6:00 pace, wind or no wind, especially since it was slightly downhill) brought a slight improvement but still only 6:17 pace.

I’ve had plenty of less than satisfying workouts during this build-up, and I have done plenty of moaning about it, but this one was by far the worst. I don’t feel the need to go on about it any further. I didn’t feel good today, but I also worked a lot less hard than I should have, no excuses. With less than 4 weeks to go I’m wondering if there is a point in trying to push myself faster than HMP pace if my subconscious self is seemingly unwilling to do so. Well, there’s one last race coming up on Sunday, and I’ll see how that goes. Somehow I’m always able to find a few extra seconds out of nothing if there is a bib on my shirt.

One more source of slight frustration is provided by my weight. I’m about 145 pounds at the moment, pretty much the same I was for my last marathon but 3 pounds heavier than a few weeks ago, and despite attempts to lose a few, the weight curve is actually pointing upwards. I’m definitely blaming Niamh for this. Imagine the scenario. You have eaten a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch and a nice, decent dinner. Maybe you’re a tiny bit peckish, but nothing you can’t handle. Then this appears in front of you:



And the next day it’s tiramisu, followed by rice-cream the next day, and maybe some blackberry ice cream the day after. All of it homemade and all of it absolutely delicious. You could not resist either, don’t pretend otherwise. I’m definitely up against it here.

29 Sep

9 miles, 1:10:37, 7:51 pace, HR 140

30 Sep

8.5 miles, 1:03:48, 7:30 pace, HR 153
2m @ 6:41 (157/170), 2k @ 6:49 (167/175), 1m @ 6:59 (170/176), 0.5m @ 6:17 (169/174)

Monthly Mileage: 327

Back in the Loop

I said I would post another chart as soon as I would manage a run around Caragh Lake, and true to my word here it is. When I kept telling you that there are some serious climbs on the way, I wasn’t lying, and here is the proof. The toughest part are the three climbs in succession up to the highest part of the course, then it drops all the way down only to have another, albeit smaller, hill follow immediately. And the rest of the loop isn’t exactly flat either, but I guess that’s all good for me. Since I’m still recovering from pneumonia I took it easy on the climbs, but that’s a rather relative term. The HR was fairly high, but it didn’t feel as high. Oh, and one loop around the lake is just over 15 miles. I used to log 15.5. Ah well. Let’s say I gave myself a bonus half mile for all those hills.

It felt good to be on my old loop again. I hadn’t been there since that death march a few days before Christmas, when I felt like dying for the last 7 miles. Of course now I know that my lung infection was having a big effect on my body, and I should have been able to read the signs back then, but instead I kept ignoring them. I have resolved never to be so stupid again.

The run was great, the legs were fine, especially considering how long it had been since I had managed a run of that length. I felt some fatigue on the last 2 or 3 miles, but that was to be expected. I could easily have managed a bit extra towards the end, but I have to leave something for another run, don’t I?

And I got a phone call from my doctor, my x-ray results came back, and according to them I’m officially pneumonia-free. Actually, I noticed this morning that if I lie on my left side and take a really deep breath I can still feel “something” inside my chest. Apart from the obvious answer (“then don’t do that!”) it tells me that there is still some residue left, even if it didn’t show up in the x-ray. But, 2 weeks ago I was still in constant discomfort, and that’s definitely gone, so I know that I’m getting better. The weather has been spectacular over the last few days, there is not a cloud in the sky and there is no problem with the “no running in the rain” rule. Clear skies in February mean warm days but cold mornings, and the temperatures are always around the freezing point when I do my runs. I have noticed some icy patches on the road the last few days, but nothing major. I still refuse to set my alarm and instead get up whenever I wake up naturally, but I’ll have to change that next week if I want to do some decent mileage. Considering that the ultra is less than 8 weeks away I guess that’s settled.

13 Feb

15.05 miles, 2:04:37, 8:16 pace, HR 154

14 Feb

10.05 miles, 1:24:57, 8:27 pace, HR 149

Patience

For the past years I have generally been able to tell the state of my fitness by monitoring my heart rate during my runs, especially my easy runs. Accordingly I've kept a close eye on my HR since I've resumed running after my pneumonia, and the results aren't exactly what I was hoping for. The heart rate did drop by quite a few beats for the first few days, but hasn't really improved since. The situation is slightly complicated by the fact that I have changed from my trusty basic Polar HRM to a more fancy and less reliable Garmin, but I can still track the progress - or lack of it. Maybe I'm just too impatient, and an improvement is just around the corner, but somehow I'm getting doubts about how much those 5-mile easy runs are doing for me. I'm slowly increasing the mileage of my runs in the hope that the situation will improve. I'm still running exclusively easy runs, even though the HR is up to levels that were previously reserved for high tempo runs. I seem to have adopted 8:30 pace as my cruising pace over the last few days, and comparing those workouts to past ones doesn't make pretty reading. On 22 November I ran 10 miles at 8:20 pace with a HR of 139. Yesterday I ran 10 miles over the same course at 8:24 pace with an average HR of 158. Not good. But, as I've said, maybe I'm just too impatient.

The worst thing was running 10 miles alongside Caragh Lake with the Garmin at my wrist and realising that the 5-mile turnaround point was almost 50 seconds further out than previously thought. I'm not going to go back through my running logs and add 10 seconds per mile to the pace for each run on the course, but that would have been the correct pace, I'm afraid. Ah well.

Actually, saying that I'm increasing the mileage of my runs isn't entirely accurate. I'm not setting my alarm in the morning, just get up whenever I wake naturally, and that pretty much determines the miles I have time for (and if Shea wakes up with me I have to sacrifice a mile or two to make him breakfast and have a chat). As it happens, yesterday I got up at 6:10, which left enough time for 10 miles, today I got up 10 minutes later and managed 8.5 miles, which was perfectly fine by me. The weather has improved, I didn't get any rain, even though the dark clouds looked rather ominous this morning. The temperature yesterday had been 0C/32F, today it was balmy 13C/55F, and I was roasting in my two layers.

We're off to Dublin tomorrow for a wedding. My miles will most likely take a slight hit there. And I have to avoid the evil eye of my mother-in-law. For years she has insisted that all that running is very bad for me, and I'm going to make a young widow out of Niamh (she really said that). She was almost triumphant when I developed pneumonia, because it had proved her right. She'll be absolutely disgusted to see me running again.

6 Feb

10 miles, 1:23:55, 8:24 pace, HR 158

7 Feb

8.5 miles, 1:12:02, 8:28 pace, HR 158

Slow Improvements

Thank you everyone who took the time to comment on my strange HR readings, this is really appreciated. You know, the thought of a malfunctioning HRM didn’t even cross my mind. I’ve had a Polar HRM for almost 3 years, and have come to completely trust its readings. I’ve obviously transferred the same trust to the Garmin HRM, which isn’t quite as justified. That toy is brand new, I really don’t think an empty battery is the problem. As for things like wetting the contacts, I always do that anyway; I might try some contact gel as well. Having said all that, the last 2 workouts didn’t repeat the same strange readings. Maybe the aliens in their passing UFOs were still asleep.

Update: Today, after half a mile, I stopped for a moment to redo my strap that felt like slipping off my chest. And guess what? The HRM chart is showing a big spike for those few seconds. It really looks like a bad contact is causing those high readings.

On Monday I had the same conversation twice in the office: “Good morning, Thomas, how are you feeling today?” “Thanks, much better” “Good, because you looked absolutely horrible last week.” (!!!) The second person wasn’t quite as blunt, but the message was the same. Maybe they should have said something last week when I was apparently as pale as a sheet of paper, because I had felt reasonably ok.

I had hoped to run slightly longer than 5 miles either yesterday or today, but it never happened. I deliberately didn’t set the alarm, just got up whenever I woke up, which always seems to happen at 6:20 these days. Both times it took longer than usual to get out of the door. Yesterday I had to make Shea some breakfast, today I waited until that rain shower had passed. It still looked a bit dodgy towards the West, so for the first time ever I wore that rain poncho that I had gotten as a freebie from M&B a few months ago. It looks like a garbage bag with holes, but I was surprised how well it worked. Other waterproofs always left me feeling much too hot, it was like I was steaming in my own sauna, but that sleeveless poncho worked much better. The only drawback is that due to its, well, generous proportions it blows up like a balloon in the wind. Originally the hood kept coming off my head, but then I had a brainwave and used my headlamp on top of the hood to keep it in place. It did start raining again while I was out there on the course, and I expected Niamh to scald me for running in wet conditions against the doctor's orders, but she didn’t seem to mind.

The weather is supposed to improve for the next few days, and I’m keen to add a few miles to my runs. I’ll start leaving out my running gear in the evening to shorten the time it takes to get ready in the morning, and if that’s not sufficient preparation to get more miles I’ll have to give in and start setting my alarm clock again. I just prefer to wake up naturally, but at least I won’t be forced to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning any more.

4 Feb

5 miles, 41:32, 8:18 pace, HR 161

5 Feb

5 miles, 42:25, 8:29 pace, HR 155

Strange Readings

I know I promised not to post any charts, but I think this is a bit extraordinary. Can anyone with some physiological understanding explain to me just what happened during the first 7-or-so minutes of Friday’s workout? That heart rate is just insane, and it’s not like I was sprinting up a hill, I was running along relaxed and easily. There’s a drop and then a climb out of our house (the pace chart pretty much conforms to the elevation of the road), but we’re not talking real hills there. The drop is about 35 feet and the subsequent climb about 70 feet and neither is very steep. And the heart rate remained elevated for a few further minutes on relatively flat road, until it suddenly dropped from the 170s into the 140s. I know that the aerobic system takes a few minutes to kick in, is that what happened? Is my anaerobic system shot to shreds while my aerobic engine in relatively decent condition? Any answers are appreciated.

I did those 5 miles on Friday, and remained relaxed and easy until about 1.5 miles before the end when the weather gods sent hail and sleet along my way, and I accelerated a bit to get out of that. Of course the spook had stopped by the time I was back home. The weather forecast for Saturday had predicted a reasonably dry start and rain for the rest of the day, so I set out early while I was still allowed outside. I extended my run from 5 miles to 7, partly because I’m feeling a bit better each day, and partly because I was itching to get a reading of the Caragh Lake road on my new Garmin toy. I had been smug how accurate my distances on the Ard-na-Sidhe road had been, unfortunately the readings on the Caragh Lake road didn’t quite follow. The first 3 miles turned out to be longer than I had always assumed, and if you want to add 10 seconds per mile for each past workout along that route, you can do so. Interestingly, I clawed back some of the inaccuracies on the next half mile, which is where I turned around, but I assume that the 5 mile point, to where I tended to go for my numerous 10 mile runs, is a bit further out than previously thought. I’ll check that out once I’m off the restraint. And I’ll try not to worry about the fact that the Caragh Lake loop might be half a mile shorter. Whatever the case may be, at least my race times in the sidebar won’t be affected.

The weather forecast for Sunday had been rain, rain and more rain, and I fully expected an enforced rest day (the gym is closed on Sundays). This was indeed confirmed when I looked out of the window first thing in the morning, and I eventually got into the shower. However, then the rain stopped and the sky looked reasonably bright towards the west, and I said to Niamh “I know it’s stupid because I just had a shower, but I’ll go for a short run”. “You’ve said it yourself”. I headed out for 5 miles to Ard-na-Sidhe again, making sure to take it exceptionally easy for the first few minutes to avoid a heart rate disaster like on Friday, and managed indeed to get back home before the rain restarted for good.

At some stage they will have to allow me to run in the rain again. I just don’t know when yet. I guess the next chest x-ray will give us some clues.

1 Feb

5 miles, 43:52, 8:46 pace, HR156

2 Feb

7 miles, 1:01:02, 8:43 pace, HR 156

3 Feb

5 miles, 42:25, 8:29 pace, HR 155

My Present

Eric is a genius. I only have to mention that I bought myself a birthday present and within a minute he’s guessed it (ok, he got the number wrong. Who cares). After resisting for years, I have finally joined the weenie brigade and bought myself a geek watch. The price had gone down by half recently, and I gave in to temptation. I’ll try and resist cluttering the blog with too many charts – due to the scaling they always look the same anyway, but I guess once I’m allowed to run around Caragh Lake again, I might post something.

Unfortunately the weather has indeed turned nasty again, and so far I have only managed one run outside, yesterday, and that was already asking for trouble because I got caught out by rain with 10 minutes to go. Nevertheless, I managed to establish that my so-far imaginary one mile marker on the Ard-na-Sidhe road was spot on, but that my usual turn-around, according to the new toy, was about 20 meters too late. Actually, I felt quite smug at the accuracy of my distances. I haven’t managed to go out on the Caragh Lake road yet, and I’ll be interested to know how long a loop around the lake really is (within the accuracy of the toy, of course).

Today was a cold morning just above the freezing point (it still was raining rather than snowing, though), but the gale force wind made running outside an unwise choice for a pneumonia victim, so I brought my running gear into work, and went to the gym at lunchtime for 5 miles on the treadmill. This time I managed to bring my HRM, but forgot the mp3 player. I managed to stay on the damn thing for the entire distance, but with a little bit less than a mile to go I increased the pace from 9-minute miles to 8-minute miles, mainly to get it over and done with, boredom was taking over. The heart rate continues to go down, which was pleasing, but is still way above pre-sickness levels. When I switched to 8-minute pace, it went up by about 10 beats, and I used to run those at much lower levels. I don’t know how long it will take to build up my fitness again – a very long time probably as long as I can’t do more than 5 miles in a row, I guess.

The pain in my chest may be getting better, but then again, I used to think I was getting better the day before I get 40 degrees temperature, so that’s no reliable indicator. As long as that pain is still there I have a constant reminder of my sickness and the need to take it easy. I’ll better heed it.

30 Jan

5 miles, 44:30, 8:54 pace, HR 156

31 Jan

5 miles, 43:57, 8:47 pace, HR 149

Monthly mileage: 62.5 *sigh*