Since the Australia Day Ultra at the end of January I’ve been putting in some serious kilometres as I get myself ready for the marathon season ahead. (see Strava extract below) This is the foundation part of the year where it is all about time on feet and building a good base from which to add pace as we near a ‘goal’ race. For me it will either be the Perth Marathon in June (my 13th Perth marathon) or if I feel good earlier there is the Bunbury Marathon in April. (my 5th Bunbury marathon) Of course after that there is my 10th City to Surf Marathon and being part of a small group of 26 runners who have run all 10 it will be the highlight of the year for me. After that there is the Rottnest Marathon (my 12th Rottnest) and finally the 6 Inch Ultra in December (my 10th 6 inch). Throw in 3-5 half marathons and at least another 10-12 races and my season is complete.

Some people run for the pure joy of running but for me I need a goal race to work towards and a time to compete against, this is why I get up early , go to be early and generally lead a nomadic existence. Frowned upon by most, including most of my running peers, but it works for me and even when I’m totally fatigued I can see light at the end of the tunnel and always assume it’s not an on coming train, so far I’ve always been right!

Today summed up my training this year. A 14k progressive with the lads this morning where my legs were ‘goosed’ at the start and even though I managed a good progressive it was a lot slower than my best (thanks for that Strava.) I’m not worried though as this is the required building period I need before giving away distance to pace later in the season. To this end I ran a 10k DanceETC loop in the evening and struggled around , albeit with a fast finish. Again the legs had very little and I’ll crawl into bed feeling very tired (see quote from Brendan Foster below). This is marathon training, it really is just a slog truth be told and the more you can put up with in the building phase the better the end result.  Eventually though you do need to break the shackles and boredom of distance and change through the gears into pace and shorter , sharper training runs. This is when the magic happens and the legs should welcome the change, add in the cardio fitness of all those hours on your feet and you can suddenly see why you run. Put a bib on your chest, sit back and enjoy the ride, welcome to racing and beating your best.

I’ve added a post I wrote in 2017 on fatigue which stills holds true so worth a revisit, in the meantime the bed is calling and after todays runs it is certainly where I want to be. Can’t wait to wake up tired tomorrow morning and start the whole process again.

Fatigue needs to be embraced.

I’ve mentioned before a quote from Brendan Foster below…

As I said in an earlier post I actually turn that quote around as in my experience I got to bed tired and wake up really tired. Maybe that’s why I’m not an international athlete ? This morning was no exception, at 4:50am I was in no mood to run my go-to 10k ‘old faithful’ for the 170th time (thanks Strava https://www.strava.com/activities/776584306 ) My old friend fatigue had come to visit and I could feel the legs were none too impressed as I set off on my morning 10k. As with most morning runs I soon got into the groove and plodded along enjoying the morning ambience and reveling in the sunrise as I cruised through Star Swamp. When I finally finished I had sneaked under 5min/k average for the distance and even raised my VO2 score , so all-in-all a good result.

Walking to work, after a quick coffee stop at my favourite café, I climbed my indicator stairs to get a feel of how my legs were feeling. The stair test is a good test as if you are fatigued you will feel it as you ascend, especially if you go two at a time. This morning I could feel climbing the stairs was a challenge and again the legs were complaining from the start. Fatigue had come calling.

The second week after a marathon you are still in recovery mode so I am not surprised I am feeling fatigued, I would be more worried if I wasn’t as this would mean I could have run faster. (Trust me, I could not have run faster at the World Masters 10 days ago.)  So fatigue in this case is a good thing, it just needs to be managed. By managed I mean as an indicator it is telling me to keep on doing what I’m doing,  which is recovery pace only.  I’ll feel better when I run lunch time (I can’t not run twice a day, that would be silly.) and I actually improve throughout the day. That’s why I turn Brendan Foster’s quote around.

This brings me to the main reason for this post. With fatigue being more prevalent for me at the start of the day I know to make this run the easiest. My lunch time run I know I’ll feel better so can use this one for any harder workouts. Other people feel differently (International athletes apparently?)  and would go harder in the mornings. As with all things running it is a personal thing. I sometimes wonder why I wrote this blog as I am sharing things that work for me but you need to be aware these are my personal findings, as long as you realise that and adjust for your training all is good. I’ve said before most of the topics I discuss are all common sense, I don’t pertain to be a exercise guru, just a runner who loves running and has had some success (at my low level) who also enjoys typing.

As with all things I discuss I have added an article to help or support my ramblings and surprise surprise its my old mate coach Jeff from Runners Connect.

 

Why Fatigue is a Necessary Part of Training and How to Manage It

Training is like trying to walk a tight rope. You need to balance putting in grueling workouts and mileage with the ability to let your body recover. Favor one aspect too heavily and you’ll either have a poor performance from lack of training or get injured and overtrained from doing too much.

That’s why learning how to manage fatigue, and understanding the role it plays in endurance training, is critical to improving as a runner. In this article, we’re going to outline why a certain amount of fatigue is necessary to improve as a runner, how to strategically implement it, and how to find the right balance.

Why fatigue is necessary

The basis for all training theory is the what we call the workout and recovery process. Running first breaks down your muscle fibers. The harder you run, the more muscle fibers you damage. Your body then works to rebuild these damaged muscle fibers and if the recovery process goes well, these muscle fibers are repaired stronger than before. That’s how you become faster and stronger through training.

But, as you may realize, it’s nearly impossible to fully recover from a workout in 24 hours. It might be possible following a very easy day of running, but any type of speed, tempo or long run is going to require anywhere from 2 to 14 days to fully absorb and recover (here’s a breakdown of what research says about how long it takes to recover from different workout types).

That means, unless you want to only run two or three times per week, training while fatigued is a necessary part of training; especially since we know slow, easy mileage is the best way to build aerobic endurance and is the foundation for running performance. The trick is finding that balance between running enough miles to build you aerobic capacity without overdoing the fatigue.

Herein lies the “art” of training.

However, there is also a way that we can utilize this fatigue to make your training more effective.

How to utilize fatigue to run faster

In training vernacular, coaches use a term called “accumulated fatigue”. Basically, this theory posits that fatigue from one workout accumulates and transfers to the next run so that you’re always starting a workout or a long run a little tired from your previous training.

This is important for longer distance races like the marathon because it’s nearly impossible to run the full distance of the race in daily training. Furthermore, if you were to start every workout fully recovered and fresh, it would be difficult to simulate how your body feels late into a race.

As such, we can strategically implement the theory of accumulated fatigue to better target the specific demands of your race.

For example, during marathon training, one of my favorite methods for introducing accumulated fatigue is to buttress the long run against a shorter, but steady paced run the day before. As an illustration, you would run six miles at marathon pace on the Saturday before your Sunday long run. Because of the harder running on Saturday, you start Sunday’s long run not at zero miles, but rather at six or eight miles, since that is the level of fatigue and glycogen depletion your body is carrying over from the previous run.

You can even apply this theory to 5k training. Using what we know about muscle fibers and the recruitment and fatigue ladder, I often have athletes run a short, explosive hill workout (something like 9 x 60 second hills at 5k pace) two days before a 5k specific workout (12 x 400 at 5k pace with 60 second quick jog rest). The hill session fatigues and depletes the fast twitch muscle fibers so that during the 5k specific work, your intermediary Type IIa muscle fibers (the ones primarily responsible for running at 5k pace) have to handle more work and thus are more specifically targeted.

How to find the right balance

Training would be much easier – and runners much happier – if you could just train hard and fatigued all the time. But, you can’t simply continue to accumulate fatigue and run these types of workouts all the time (although some runners certainly do try). There needs to be a balance.

• First, try to keep the specific accumulated fatigue workouts to once every two weeks and only schedule them during the race-specific portion of your training schedule. This ensures that you don’t overdo it and that you don’t get burnt out long-term.

• Be sure to keep your easy runs slow. One of the most common mistakes runners make is running their easy day mileage too fast. This hinders your ability to recover and doesn’t provide any additional aerobic benefit. Research has shown that the most optimal aerobic pace for an easy run is about 65 percent of 5k pace. For a 20-minute 5k runner (6:25 pace for 5k – 7:20 pace marathoner), this would mean about 8:40 per mile on easy days.

• Finally, don’t be afraid to take a down or rest week every five to six weeks where you reduce mileage by 65 to 75 percent and reduce the intensity of your workouts. These down weeks help you fully recover from and absorb previous weeks and months of training so that fatigue doesn’t build-up too much.

Hopefully, this lesson on fatigue and how you manage it will help you train more intelligently for your upcoming races.

 

Footnote : Managed a 10k run in Kings Park over some hilly terrain and trails lunch time. Felt a lot better than this morning as expected so will look forward to the alarm tomorrow morning as I’m running with my friend Mark Lee who is a lot quicker than me and more of a short distance specialist.  Only saving grace is we meet at Yelo so the obligatory coffee and muffin will be dangled as reward for the beating he’ll probably give me. On the downside I think it’s my turn to pay…