Running
Having a blog can sometimes come home and bite you. My mate Mark had read my first post of the day and knew a text inviting me for a ‘relaxing’ 10k would be too much for me to resist. He was right. Not sure what happened with the ‘relaxing’ part either as we finished with a sub 4:30min/k average. No worries it was nice to run my ‘old faithful’ of a 10k for the 146th time and the first time with company. The 10k run soon disappeared as we chatted about everything to do with running as we’re both training for the World Masters in Perth in November ( http://www.perth2016.com ) Mark has been unlucky over the last few tears with injuries and this has been compounded by his Wife finding the addiction that is Triathlon’s. Add in 3 Daughters including a set of young twins and Mark and Emma have their hands full. The planning involved in both adults getting their exercise fix and also spending enough family time with the girls will always be a challenge and one so many runners face. The one benefit of maturing with age, and trust me there isn’t many, is the kids are growing up and my three daughters are now at an age where Mum and Dad aren’t as important as they once were. Friends have started to become more important in their life. In one respective this is sad but , always being the optimist, I get more ‘Kev’ time which means more running.
That being said there really was no excuse to run today with a 10k race tomorrow but as I have always maintained I love to run and I can justify that this is not a ‘goal’ race and as such no need to be totally rested, and it’s only 10k, what can go wrong? A 10k needs to be respected. You can fake a 5k, normally run a half marathon at a reasonable pace and always give the marathon the respect it deserves. A 10k can come back and bite you if you go out too fast, normally around the 7-8k mark. When you run out of fuel and the tank is empty the last 2k can be testing. as with all races it is better to start slow and build into it. This is something I can never do. When the pistol goes it’s on and I always charge straight into the threshold zone. I’ll do the same thing tomorrow and wouldn’t really have it any other way….
So after a month of running twice a day and hitting new distance records weekly it’s time to see if this has translated to better racing. I have a 10k this weekend and would hope to be able to run around 35 minutes, quicker if the conditions are good. A 10k is a testing distance because you invariably go out at 5k pace which is fine for the first 5k but then the wheels can fall off. K’s 6-8 are the testing ones and this is where you need to dig deep. The final kilometre you can normally find something and when you smell the finish line it’s amazing the kick you can produce.
This year I have run five 10k races and this has helped me drop to a PB time of 34:41 earlier in the year on a flat and fast course. When you’re chasing PB’s the course layout is important. My PB course was three laps of a lake so there was no turns and it was completely flat. Couldn’t have asked for a better course. I went out too fast and led for the first 8k until I heard footsteps behind me and I was well beaten into 2nd place. Because of the layout I was never able to look behind me and had no idea where the rest of the field was. With 3k to go I was dreaming of glory but it was not to be. It was still a PB time and the first time I had run under 35 minutes. This was a goal I had been chasing for a few years.
Should I have ran with the pack and then raced for position rather than go alone ? Tough call. It was a good PB so really you can’t argue with the time. It was nice to lead the race and have the lead bike in front of me albeit only for 8k. As I get older this time at the front of the pack will be limited and eventually I will slowly work my way back down the field. That is the way of getting older but I’ll be working as hard as possible to make the journey as slow as possible.
So to sum up this mornings post, if you are racing this weekend trust in your training. If you have done the work you will be rewarded, running is the most honest sport. Don’t be intimidated by the occasion, trust in your ability and enjoy the experience. Racing is one of the best ways to improve because you will vary rarely push yourself in a training session the way you do with a bib on your chest and a target runner ahead of you.
Fartlek is a Swedish term to describe ‘speed play’, training method that blends continuous training with interval training. Fartlek runs are a very simple form of a long distance run. Fartlek training “is simply defined as periods of fast running intermixed with periods of slower running.”
Today was my Mona Fartlek day, a 20 minute workout that I adore. Though lesson to self, eating banana bread 2 hours before is not such a good idea ! I can normally get to around 5.6k for the session. Steve Monaghetti stills hits over 6km I hear and in his prime was nearer 8km. !! He is a running legend though.. enjoy the article on a true sporting great below.
I was lucky enough to meet Steve at a photo shoot for the Perth City to Surf in 2014 and again this year as he was Ambassador for the Perth marathon. Both times I was taken aback by his down to earth attitude and his willingness to embrace all our questions and comments.
This session is good as it is fairly short but you know it’s doing you good. Golden rule no2 , add pace after the distance phase. This bad boy workout is all about pace.
Steve Moneghetti is set to leave a lasting legacy that goes beyond his set of marathon medals. As a young man from Ballarat he and coach Chris Wardlaw devised a session that fitted in with his usual stomping ground of Lake Wendouree helped him become a four-time Olympian.
Steve Moneghetti
The Session: Mona Fartlek: (2x90sec, 4x60sec, 4x30sec, 4x15sec with a slower tempo recovery of the same time between each repetition. The session takes 20mins in total.
Distance Mona covered: The session was most often used on Tuesday night at Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree. The first time Mona did it as a 20-year-old he did not complete the Lap of the Lake (6km) in the 20minutes but in his prime he completed the Lake in 17.19 and then continued on to finish his 20min session. He still does it most Tuesdays and even at 52, covers 6km.
History
Mona devised the session with his coach Chris Wardlaw over the phone back in 1983 when he was just 20. He wanted a solid fartlek session, one that would help improve his speed as well as endurance and stimulate an ability to change pace mid-run, something that helped later on his career when tackling the Africans, who had a habit of surging mid-race.
The session became a Tuesday-night ritual for Mona and while it was set up for Lake Wendouree, he’d use it whether training at altitude at Falls Creek or overseas preparing for a championship marathon.
It is still widely used today with Ben Moreau and a host of Sydney athletes doing the session. A recent feature in the UK has led to a number of British runners adopting the session along with a number of runners in the US, although some are calling it the “Mono” session.
A good idea is to set your watch to beep every 30 seconds, so that you don’t have to look down at it all the time.
Mona says
“I was always a stickler for routine and I feel that this session, coupled with my usual Thursday night session of 8x400m with 200m float set me up and gave me continuity with my training.
The 15-second reps came at the end and really forced me to concentrate on accelerating hard when I was fatigued. One night when I was in top shape I covered nearly 7km with Troopy (Lee Troop).”
Tip for other distance runners
For many runners, the session will be too demanding initially and you will need to build into it.
Mona recommends just walking or jogging the recovery as you adjust to it.
Middle distance runners may wish to reduce the length of the session, halving everything (ie: 1x90sec, 2x60sec, 2x30sec, 2x15sec) to make it a 10minute session.
After my post this morning on the benefits of recovery I was excited to run again this afternoon for more ‘quality recovery’ time. Amazingly I felt so much better this afternoon compared to this mornings recovery run. No little niggles which were certainly there this morning. The second recovery run was chalk and cheese really. Felt a lot more relaxed and had to hold myself back.
Unfortunately the same could not be said of the old Adidas Adizero shoes. These bad boys look to have run their last run, a tad early compared to the Adidias Glide Boost. My Glide Boosts are on 1358k and still feeling great while the Adizero’s have only ran 592k. My marathon shoe at the moment is the Adidas Adios Takumi Sen 3, man these are amazing shoes but they are racing flats so if you weight more than 70kg forget these bad boys.
My go to shoe in the past has always been the Nike Lunaracers. These shoes combine the padding and weight that no other shoe can. So light but also so forgiving. I have been wearing these for many years. Lately they have been a tad hard to get hold off which is how Adidas caught my eye. Luckily enough I’m light on my feet so really can wear just about anything. I even wear the Brooks Puregrit for my trail running. These are awesome shoes by the way.
The old ‘replace your shoes at 400k’ is in my view a shoe manufacturers dream. I ran 190k last week, do they want me to replace my shoes every 2 weeks. No way ! Luckily I never throw out my old shoes, into the garage they go. (Must to my Wife’s disgust) There must be well over 50 pairs in there now and a lot have a lot more life in them. Time to take a look tomorrow and see if I reuse a few, but not the old Asics Kayano’s . These were the shoe ‘back in the day’ but now they would be like wearing lead weights. These days it’s all about minimal heel drop and as light as possible.
I could go on for hours on shoes, one of my favourite subjects, but it’s a Sunday night and I’m off to bed.
If you like some shoe recommendations check out the Runners Worlds site :-
http://www.runnersworld.com/running-shoes/runners-world-2016-summer-shoe-guide
Today was a 18k recovery run. It started out as a 10k recovery run but being the Queen’s birthday it is a public holiday over here in Perth so knowing the family was still asleep I snuck in a few extra recovery k’s. While ‘recovering’ my mind wandered to the propose of this type of running. I actually enjoy a recovery run as you get to ‘smell the roses’ so to speak , where as most time I don’t even see the roses as my head is down and I’m concentrating on the Garmin splits (damn you Strava!) . This morning was no exception, the first 2-3k’s were a struggle with a few niggles, these niggles disappeared and before long I was enjoying the run enough to add on 8k, as you do.
I find the article below from Kyle Kranz a different viewpoint on the recovery run. A positive spin I believe as Karl is saying the recovery run is still stimulation for adaption, he puts forward the point hard runs take you to fatigue while the recovery run is run is a fully fatigued state, your legs are then recruiting more and different muscle fibers. Makes sense to me as Karl also mentions that recovery runs allow you to run longer and as I have already discussed distance is the key, the runner who runs the most normally runs better.
So next time you cruising along smelling the roses take heart in the fact that you are still improving as a runner, it’s a win , win situation the recovery run……
Recovery runs don’t exist.
What you think of as a recovery run does not enhance recovery.
Let’s dig a bit deeper.
There are two main types of runs.Workouts and easy runs.
Key workouts are done at anything faster than your habitual easy pace and typically require a number of non-hard days between them so you can again do a key workout at a high quality. Easy runs are done at an easy conversational pace.
People will often title the run proceeding a key workout, a recovery run. This implies that the purpose of this run is to enhance recovery.
However, I’m inclined to disagree with this.
Don’t get me wrong, you should still do the run, however this is more an issue with semantics.
If you think this run is augmenting your recovery or adaptation, you’re mistaken.
All runs are training. Every time you lace up your shoes and hit the ground running, you’re stimulating your body. It does not matter how slow or short the run is, if you’re running, you’re giving your body stimulation for adaptation.
When does this adaptation and recovery occur? When you’re sleeping, eating, walking, working, etc. Any time you are not running, you’re recovering.
With athletes I work with, I do use the term regeneration run to emphasize the easy nature of the run, however for all purposes it’s simply another easy run.
These runs, while they do not enhance recovery, do inflect less stress on the body. They are crucial for running more, which is one of the best way to become a better runner.
So if these runs do not benefit recovery, why not just skip them and let the body recover better?
Because for the same reasons doing doubles is beneficial, so are these “recovery runs”. These workouts, done in a semi-fatigued state after a hard run, are simply great stimulants for adaptation. Hard workouts take you to fatigue, these easy runs are ran fully fatigued.
That’s very important. If the regeneration run is also done in close time proximity to the key workout, your glycogen stores (body carbohydrate used as fuel) is probably a bit depleted, and training in a glycogen depleted state has also been shown to possibly improve fitness. This study from the University of Copenhagen shows that when a leg is trained more frequently (but at the same total volume) than the other leg, the leg that experiences two sessions in a day instead of one two sessions over two days adapted and strengthened more.
Another way that these “recovery” runs do not help recovery but instead simply improve fitness is that when you run in this fatigued state, you’re legs are recruiting more and different muscle fibers. This can help improve your muscle fiber cycling, which is when the body “turns off” fatigued muscles and “turns on” more fresh fibers while running.
These runs done in a fatigued state are simply more chances for your body to adapt and grow. This makes you stronger, more fit, and faster. Not the enhanced recovery, because there is none.
As I run my long run Sunday Saturday night is all about getting ready for the early morning start (we meet up at 6am come hell or waters high!) and the time on legs and everything that encompasses. Normally the long run is at recovery pace but as you near the end of a marathon training block it’s time for that long run at MP pace (marathon pace) . This is normally, or at least should be, a challenge. This article from Ed Eyestone from Runners World sums it up really…
Whether you hope to win your age group in a local 5-K or run a sub-2:19 marathon to qualify for the 2012 Men’s Olympic Trials, the long run can help you accomplish that goal. How can I be so brash to suggest the long run has such wide-reaching benefits for achievements so diverse? Easy. I see it work every year. I’m convinced the improvement most of my freshmen runners experience in their first year is largely due to the cardiovascular development they acquire from running long.
Long runs deliver a slew of physiological benefits: The heart gets stronger because it works harder to boost blood flow to leg, arm, and core muscles. Our ventilatory capacity—the ability to move oxygen in and out of our lungs—increases as we develop our respiratory muscles. Muscle strength and endurance improves because mitochondria (the energy-producing structures in cells) and capillaries (tiny blood vessels that transfer oxygen and waste products into and out of cells) become more dense. Long runs also teach the body to use fat rather than glycogen, or stored sugar, as a fuel source. This saves our limited glycogen reserves for fast running at the end of a long run or marathon. Finally, going long calluses you mentally and gives you confidence in your ability to cover many miles.
In order to reap the rewards of the long run—and avoid injury—keep the following three principles in mind.
NOT TOO FAST
Think conversational. For slower runners who race at close to their training speed, that’s 30 seconds to one minute per mile slower than 10-K race pace. For experienced racehorses, it’s about one to 1:30 per mile slower.NOT TOO LONG
If you’re gunning for a faster 5-K, your long run will likely last an hour; marathoners should build up to three hours. Run longer than that, and the physiological gains are outweighed by the stress put on your body. I believe that anything over three hours should be saved for race day—if you’ve consistently run at the proper pace for two to three hours, and tapered adequately, you’ll safely complete 26.2 on race day. Over six consecutive weeks, stair-step your long run as follows: two hours, two and a half hours, three hours, two hours, two and a half hours, and three hours. Taper the run down for three weeks before marathon day.NOT TOO FAR
The appropriate distance of your long run is one and a half to twice as long as your normal-length run. Another way to determine distance is to make your longest run 20 to 30 percent of your overall weekly mileage. So if you’re running 40 miles a week, you could run eight to 12 miles for your long run.
GO FAR: Long runs should last between one and three hours.
Weekends mean racing and I love racing. Nothing gets the old competitive juices flowing like a race bib on your chest. Some people shy away from competing but to me it is everything. I’m not racing for position normally just trying to beat a PB (PR). That’s why I love running, the only real person you’re competing against is yourself. I always use to go by the old adage you had 7 years of PB’s from when you start to run ‘properly’. Be that in your twenties, thirties or beyond. (There’s probably a age limit when this window will shorten i.e. if you started in your 70’s).. Anyway I was about on track for this as my running career started in earnest when I trained for the Comrades ultra marathon in 2008 ( http://WWW.COMRADES.COM , now that’s another story) and I thought I’d peaked in 2013/14. By changing my diet and training I seem to have hit a second wind and recorded a few PB’s this year so we’ll see if i can prove the 7 year PB window wrong.
Racing is putting all the hard work to the test. Running is the most honest sport there is, there’s no option for high tech zip wheels, lighter frames, silly helmets to gain an advantage. Just you, the distance and a watch. Racing is when you test yourself against yourself initially and your peers and age group if you so desire. The most important competitor though will always be yourself.
Don’t be nervous about racing. I must admit my family know that a weekend of a marathon I am one to be avoided. I normally perform well on the day but the day before, hell the week before, you are filled with doubt. When I get to the line and the gun goes all that is forgotten as I get to do what I love best, run and run as hard and fast as i can. I am not one for ‘running’ marathons, I race them.
I’ve attached three classic Steve Prefontaine quotes below to get you inspired for the weekend ahead.
What more can I say, go out there this weekend and be the best you can be. Then Monday start to work on being even better.
155k for the week, 6 short of a 100 mile week, never not going to run the final few k’s needed. Ran 8k for a big 38k day but more importantly a second 100 mile week. Of course this was shared with the Strava community. How did runners survive without Strava ? As I said before if it ain’t on Stava did it happen? The old tree falling in a forest type statement.
What did we do before GPS watches and the internet? How could we share our running exploits with the world? Write a letter or ten to keep everybody informed of your training highlights? Like the good old days of going out for a meal and not taking photos of the tukka and sharing with the world.
These days there are two types of runners , those who Strava and those who run for the love of running, with no watch or GPS devices and no Internet connection. I’m a Strava-addict and admit it. Probably explains my four Garmin watches!! Last time I ran with no GPS watch I hated it, a sad affair really but that’s the way it is.
Remember Strava is life, the rest is details. Is my watch charged….?
Sunday morning is long runs with the gang. Anything from a few runners to unto 10 depending on who’s training for what. Always a 6am start, which means some running in the dark in Winter, but overall the best part of the day. This morning my mate Dean who is training for Chicago in 3 weeks wanted a 30k at a good effort. After my 5k park run yesterday I wasn’t that keen but kept him honest for the distance. Finished in just over 2 hours at 4:05min/k average. Probably pushed harder that I would have liked but the 2hrs on my feet was more important. Leaves me marooned on 155k for the week, 6k short of the magical 100 mile week. I’ll try and find time tonight to put that right. Took some shots of the pancakes and the lads relaxing at the end of a great run. As always Perth put on perfect conditions.
This long run was probably too fast but normally it’s all about time on feet. Getting your body use to the extra time needed to run and race a marathon. It can be an enjoyable experience if you’re after time and distance rather than pace. Today, thanks to Dean, it was all three. Nice when you finish but the last 10k is challenging. Overall though you know it’s doing you some good and it’s all about paying your dues now rather than on the big day.
After my double-up streak was ended by a pizza night out with the family last night I was ready for a good 5k hit out. 5k is a good distance to get you high into the VO2 / Threshold heart rate zones while being short enough that you can recover quickly. The Park Run organisation puts on free times 5k runs every Saturday at 8am. This is a world wide epidemic (a good one for a change) that is such a great idea. Go online, get a free barcode, run a 5k event and then your time is recorded and emailed to you normally before you finish your coffee and muffin afterwards.
Carine Park run, where I run normally, has a downhill start and this encourages speed and normally too much. I always go out way too fast (rookie error) and then ‘pay the piper’ later. Normally I can limit damage if the legs are fresh but today I ran my quickest first kilometre (3:05min/k) and knew the piper was calling for payback.. I managed to work hard for the last k and finished in 16:43; only 3 seconds outside my PB set a few weeks ago. Very happy with that and it was time for a coffee and muffin to celebrate at the best cafe in Perth , Yelo in Trigg.
http://www.yelocornerstore.com.au
Right , was a nutrition piece. Not sure advocating coffee and muffins is the right thing on a running blog but as long as you put in the hard yards I’m a big believer in the odd treat.
