Volume Repeats

I do have a set of speed workouts that I learned when I was coached 3 years ago, and I do dig them up whenever I am in a build phase. One feature of MC's workouts were the tempo runs where you alternated a few pretty damn fast segments with recover parts that were still reasonably fast. Recovery is a relative concept in those runs, but I find those kind of workouts do work exceedingly well for me.

Traditionally runners do their speed workouts on Tuesday and Thursday in any given week, but I preferred to have 2 recovery days after Tuesday, and I generally don't care much for tradition in any shape or form anyway, so I did my second fast workout of the week on Friday instead.

To be honest I didn't even expect to be able to do it. I just programmed the Garmin the night before with the workout and resolved to see how far I would make it.

I wasn't actually dreading the workout, but I was a bit apprehensive all the same. The idea was to run a few 2-mile segments at 6:30, 6:20 and 6:10 pace, with 1 mile at 7:15 pace as recovery. In the unlikely case that I felt ready for more I would do another 2 mile segment at 6:10 pace.

It was a bit windy on Friday morning and I resolved not to kill myself by trying to hit the exact pace and rather run in a controlled and relaxed manner rather than concentrate on pace. The 6:30 segment felt easy enough, except that it ended in a hill where I lost some speed, which resulted in a slightly slower average pace than planned. I found it quite hard to tune into 7:15 because the change in pace had disrupted my rhythm. The 6:20 segment was much more challenging and I had to work fairly hard. I knew I would be able to do it but couldn't see myself running even faster on even further fatigued legs later on. Again, 7:15 pace in the recovery interval felt a bit strange.

I did not expect to get anywhere near the target pace for the third segment, especially so as it was net uphill and into the wind. I just started running pretty damn hard and initially didn't take any notice of the watch. It was only in the later part that I realised that actually I was pretty much on pace, but it sure was hard work and felt more like a race effort. The relief when I was finally able to relax and fall back to 7:15 pace was palpable, but by this point 7:15 felt like slow crawling. I recovered surprisingly quickly and resolved to indeed add a fourth segment. I started running pretty hard again but when I eventually checked the watch realised that I was doing 6:00 pace rather than 6:10 and resolved to leave it after one mile in order not to overdo it.

I was pretty chuffed with the workout. I think the main benefit is psychologically, though. I am able to run faster than I thought, and now I know it myself.

26 Feb

10 miles, 1:16:20, 7:38 pace, HR 145

27 Feb

10 miles, 1:15:49, 7:35 pace, HR 144

28 Feb

12+ miles, 1:21:31, 6:45 pace, HR 158

   1 mile w/u, 2 miles @ 6:33 (HR 153), 1 mile @ 7:16 (144), 2 miles @ 6:21 (160), 1 mile @ 7:15 (150), 2 miles @ 6:08 (166), 1 mile @ 7:12 (156), 1 mile @ 6:00 (165), 1 mile c/d

28 Feb

10 miles, 1:15:58, 6:36 pace, HR 143

Reflecting, Still

I spent most of the week trying to recover from Ballycotton, mentally as much as physically. I could not help but wonder what time I could have run had I not done Donadea beforehand. I'll never know, of course, but given the choice to do it all again, I'd probably skip Donadea. Not that I regret going there; I had a great time, enjoyed seeing all the marathon club runners again and am happy enough to get one really long training run for Connemara done, but in hindsight doing both Donadea and Ballycotton was a bit much.

Oh, and the photo from mile 7 (I think) in Ballycotton speaks volumes. I still had 3 miles to go at that point. Still, I got me a shiny nice PB as I keep reminding myself.

I'm still in recovery mode. As I mentioned in my previous post, my quads felt like I had run a marathon. Since Connemara is only 3 weeks away, this means that I will have inadvertently had a 4-weeks taper by the time that race comes around. Let's see what that will bring.

For various reasons, I did not manage a road run on Thursday but did a cross-country one in some neighbouring fields instead. To be perfectly honest, I cannot see what the attraction is. I prefer being able to stride out on a smooth road surface and the 2+ miles felt like a lot more, but I do hope that a break from the tarmac did the legs some good and the 8 easy miles on Friday felt reasonably good.

The kids' course in Cork is still on and it was my turn again on Saturday to drive them there. My preferred option in Cork is the Blackrock area but I didn't really have time to get there so ran on the straight road instead. There is something about that road that always makes me run faster than planned (even at mile 23 of the marathon). Again and again I slowed myself down but eventually changed tactics, doing half-mile pickups at sub-7 pace instead. It felt pretty good, but I did notice some sore legs later that day.

Sunday morning would normally have seen a long run, but with only 3 weeks to go that was down to 15 miles, especially taking my tender legs into account. I did a workout that I had been planning for a while; in fact, I had been hoping of doing it more than once. The coach had called it volume pickups last year, alternating tempo-pace half-mile sections with steady miles. As I'm training for an ultra rather than a marathon I did them slower than last year but did a couple more instead. The plan was to do the miles at 7:15 and the half miles at 6:45 pace; in reality I was a little bit faster on average. What the average figures don't tell you are the constant pace changes. I found it really hard to stay on pace and repeatedly had to change the effort level after consulting the Garmin. It felt a bit like running a race where one guy keeps surging like mad and you're trying to keep up. The idea behind the whole thing is to make 7:15 pace feel comfortable, which it did for most of the workout. I found the mental challenge brought on by the constant change in pace much tougher than the physical one.

Paces:

   mile    half-mile
   7:03    6:39
   7:10    6:39
   7:12    6:33
   7:10    6:43
   7:17    6:40
   7:14    6:44
   7:11    6:40
   7:09    6:36
   7:09    6:36

8 Mar

2.15 miles, 18:14, 8:28 pace, HR 143
   off-road

9 Mar

8 miles, 1:02:30, 7:48 pace, HR 143

10 Mar

10 miles, 1:15:07, 7:30 pace, HR 141

11 Mar

15 miles, 1:45:56, 7:03 pace, HR 151
   alternating mile and half-miles

Weekly Mileage: 50+

Is This What It's Supposed To Be Like?

I simply cannot believe how I am feeling right now. This is incredible.

I took it easy on Monday and Tuesday, recovering from the weekend. I was still feeling highly satisfied after Saturday's great tempo run. I cannot help but compare the workouts to the equivalent ones from a year ago. This time round I'm running them faster, at a lower heart rate and, crucially, running them much more controlled.

Mystery Coach gave me some highly challenging workouts, but he always warned me not to push too hard in training. I didn't always stick to that, on a couple of occasions I pushed as hard as I could just to reach the pace he had prescribed.

It all feels so much easier right now. I can honestly claim that I am finishing each workout still with a lot in the tank, the same (or at least very similar) workouts that had me sprawling on the floor.

Recovery is also good. I happened to run at exactly the same heart rate on Monday and Tuesday (that wasn't planned) but was 12 seconds per mile faster on Tuesday. It felt so easy, like floating over the pavement, effortlessly. If only I could bottle that feeling.

I felt so good on Tuesday that I didn't hesitate to run a workout this morning that almost knocked me out last year: Volume speed, as the coach called it. Warm-up, then 2 miles at 6:30, 2 mile "recovery" at 7:15, 2 miles at 6:20, another "recovery" at 7:15 and 2 more miles at 6:10. That last one almost killed me last year, which is why I didn't attempt a fourth fast segment at 6:10, something the coach had suggested I should try if, and only if, I still had plenty left at that point. What I had completely failed to comprehend back then was the extra challenge of the "recovery" mile being pretty damn fast. It makes a massive difference.

It was raining, it was windy, but neither bothered me too much. The 6:30 segment required a fair amount of fine-tuning with the Garmin, as did the 6:20. The first recovery was a tad fast, the second pretty much spot on. I wasn't exactly looking forward to the 6:10s, but ran it purely by feel, not really looking at the Garmin, pushing just enough to feel "comfortably hard", but always in full control. That resulted in 2 6:06 miles, slightly net downhill but also against the wind, which may or may not have cancelled each other out. My only regret was that I did not have time for another 6:10 segment - that's the problem with running in the morning, I don't think the boss would have accepted a "sorry for being half an hour late, I had to extend my run by 3 miles because I felt too good to stop" excuse. Mind, Niamh wouldn't appreciate the same excuse for being late for dinner either.

Real life has another hurdle. Maia is sick at the moment and I had to sacrifice a fair amount of sleep comforting her. I hope that won't catch up with me.

6 Feb

8 miles, 1:04:12, 8:01 pace, HR 136

7 Feb

10 miles, 1:18:13, 7:46 pace, HR 136

8 Feb

10 miles, 1:07:36, 6:46 pace, HR 155
   incl. 2 @ 6:28, 2 @ 6:19, 2 @ 6:06

Equinox

The legs felt surprisingly good on Monday. I expected them to be rather heavy after some hard running over the weekend, but was pleasantly surprised. I still took it easy. Two days easy after back-to-back workouts are an absolute must; recovery takes time, especially when you're well past your 30s. But I felt very good and 7:40 pace has rarely come so easily.

I had another workout in store for Wednesday. When training for Vienna, the coach twice gave me special workouts that he called volume repeats. They work like other repeats, except that you don't really get much recovery, the pace during the slower parts is still on the challenging side. That's a great workout to see what shape you're in because there is no way to fake it. If you're running too fast, it will show.

The idea was to run 2 miles at 6:30, 2 miles at 6:20 and 2 more miles faster still as long as I could maintain full control, with a mile at about 7:15 pace between each effort. Unfortunately, as soon as I left home I knew the 20-25 mph wind would be making the pacing impossible, so I decided I had to run by feel alone. The heart rate would provide some feedback, but I don't like checking the HR too often when running at 6:30 pace or so, I need all my concentration on the effort.

The first repeat was with the wind at the back, so I figured the pace should be in the 6:20s. Well, it was early in the morning and I was not quite awake yet, which is the only way I can explain why I started the first quarter mile at 6:05 pace. The pace was a bit uneven after that but on average ended up right where I wanted it. The second repeat was straight into the gale force. I kept the effort honest, making sure I would not look at the Garmin as I knew the pace figure would be demoralising. Even the slow mile after that was tough, the HR hardly dropped despite the slow pace. The last repeat was still into the wind but at least it was net downhill which compensated a little bit. I ran the final half mile too hard, that was more a race effort than a training effort, but all in all I was reasonably happy with the numbers. I now have 10 days to recover from this before Valentia. That should do. In March, the coach had me do a similar workout 4 days before Ballycotton and I ran an absolute stormer there.

19 Sep

8 miles, 1:01:27, 7:40 pace, HR 145

20 Sep

10 miles, 1:18:11, 7:49 pace, HR 143

21 Sep

11 miles, 1:17:03, 7:00 pace, HR 162
   w/u, 2 miles 6:23 (163), 1 mile 7:14 (159), 2 miles 6:48 (170), 1 mile 7:33 (167), 2 miles 6:23 (173), c/d

Volume Speed

By Monday I had figured out what had knocked me sideways during Sunday’s run. It was not fatigue, it was not the cold, it was the medicine. After a really rough first half of the night after taking the medicine one more time, I slept soundly once the effects had worn off and when I stopped taking it, I suddenly felt so much better, it was a complete transformation.

I guess the lesson is not to take medicine for the first time as you’re about to go for a long run. Who would have thought! I really have to stop doing daft things like that at some stage, but I know I’ve said that before.

Anyway, I felt really good on Monday and was immensely pleased to see the pace/HR numbers come down significantly. I initially worried about having run too fast but the low HR and the fact that I was feeling great allayed my worries. I could have run repeats on Tuesday but decided to play it safe and did another easy run that day. The repeats were pushed to Wednesday.

"Two to Four repeats 1.5 mile to 2 miles in length with 1 mile at 7:15 pace between. The paces for the fast segments try 6:30 for the first then 6:20 and maybe 6:10, if you do 1 more try for another 6:10."

I only really read 6:30 and 6:20, knew I could do that and did not worry about the rest. As a result, I did not wake up to the dreaded thought of “Oh no, speed work!”, just a vague Fear of the Unknown. Ignorance is bliss.

I ran back and forwards on the last mile of the Caragh Lake road towards the Red Fox Inn. It’s not entirely flat, but it’s as flat as an entire mile gets around here, really.

The first repeat caught me out slightly by the fact that the required effort was a bit harder than anticipated. I had run that pace during a tempo run last week and must have forgotten what it felt like. But I managed just fine.

The “recovery” at 7:15 pace meant there was no hanging around. That’s pretty much the pace of most of my recent marathons. It’s not what I would call recovery. I had missed that bit in my initial assessment but reality caught up straight away.
The second repeat was ok but for the fact that I lost concentration after the turnaround and the pace suffered a bit. I could have caught up but decided against it. In the end, I was only out by a couple of seconds.

As soon as I took the first step of the third repeat, I knew I was in trouble. Not only was this the pace of my 10k PB, I had already run 8 miles at that point and was tired even at the very start. What got me through was the thought of my new hero, Yuki Kawauchi. Cheesy as it sounds, the vision of his pained grimace kept me going. The coach had told me to mind my breathing and if it got too ragged I should back off, but it was mainly the legs that were the limiters. The second mile especially felt like I was running all out, deeply in pain, wondering who on Earth would dream up a torture session like that and just how long 2 miles can be. For most of it I did not think I would make it to the end, but eventually I did. Thank you, Yuki.

The first thing that went straight out of the window at that point was the 7:15 “recovery” (haha) pace, I just staggered for the first quarter of a mile until I felt better. I really did not think I would be able to run that pace again, but one mile later had recovered sufficiently (and the memory of the pain must have dissipated already) to give it another go.

“I’ll just do half a mile”. Surprisingly enough, I was bang on pace after half a mile, so I added another half mile. What really surprised me was the fact that my pain threshold seemed to have been re-set slightly, the pace that had felt like pure hell a few minutes earlier now seemed just a tad more tolerable and I was running slightly more relaxed. I was still almost on pace at the 1-mile turnaround point and decided to give it one more half mile. The coach had clearly stated that the repeats were 1.5-2 miles, so I would not even be cutting the repeat short. What sustained me over those final 3+ minutes was the focus on the road sign that marked the end. I never even dreamed of running past that. As soon as I was done I checked the Garmin and was really surprised to see that I had been bang on pace. Immediately the guilt trip started, surely I could have added a final half mile?

2 miles @ 6:29 (HR 161), 1 mile “recovery” @ 7:19
2 miles @ 6:22 (HR 166), 1 mile “recovery” @ 7:13
2 miles @ 6:12 (HR 171), 1 mile recovery @ 7:46
1.5 miles @ 6:10 (HR 169)

I eventually managed to push that thought to the side and was actually really pleased with the workout. Let’s hope I did not burn myself out 4 days before Ballycotton.

I even voluntarily jumped into another ice bath back home, if only for 5 minutes rather than 10, because being late at work would not have been particularly clever.

The coach has promised that MP effort would become easier once the volume repeats kick in. This better be true!

28 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:06, 7:38 pace, HR 143

1 Mar

10 miles, 1:16:27, 7:39 pace, HR 142

2 Mar

13.1 miles, 1:30:01, 6:52 pace, HR 159
   2 @ 6:29, 2 @ 6:22, 2 @ 6:12, 1.5 @ 6:10