Up-ing the ante

Longest and hardest Adelaide run to-date. Total of 20km, with 10km at HR145, and 5km at 150, 2.5km at 155 and last 2.5km at 160. Fourth consecutive day of running this week.

The temperature when I started off was cool at 16 deg C. Windy too, so I was glad to be in the sun. Headed upriver - which is my favorite route thus far. First km was slow to warm up (literally) and to get the clinks of out of the legs. Took a 100m (1 min) walk break every 5 km. Pace under 7 min per km, closer to 6:30.

Completed first 10 km in 1:15, in the city of Enfield (actually it is a suburb, and I know of another Enfield close to London, where my sister and her family live). Took a gel and had to scout around for a bin - the Australians are very particular about preserving their parks and trails - before heading back.

The next 5km back was good, actually. Pace was close to 6:30, and at times under as well. Later I realized that this was due to the slight decline. The 155 segment was good - mostly close to 6:00 as well - but the route was now undulating. The last 2.5km wasn't as bad as I thought, even though I was slower than expected - only 6:00 pace at HR160. But happy that this run was an improvement over the last run - better pace for comparable HR.

Legs felt better than expected; they're a little achy/painful the night before.



Side note: Encountered many friendly folks walking their dogs and children in prams. Also elderly folks walking or cycling. Great way to keep fit.

After thought: Checked out the weather forecast for Orlando in January. High of 22 deg, low of 7 deg C. Comparable weather. That's good news.

Further thought: At least two more long runs to go - back in the heat and humidity. :(

TLog: one week's worth

It had been a busy week at work and conference, so less time to blog. Here are the workouts this week:
Tue: 2.3k swim
300 m warmup
6x50m pull .54, .55, .59, .57, .59, .58
4x50m kick
2x50m fast swim 0.48, 0.50
4x100m (1 min recovery) 2.18, 2.13, 2.14, 2.19,
1x800m steady swim 2.26, 2.31, 2.33, 2.33, 2.38, 2.33, 2.25, 2.31
200m cool down

Wed: Stationary bike 5x6 min hard, 3 min recovery; omitted 12k aerobic run due to work dinner.

Fri: 3X1km reps, slightly faster than race pace (<6:00). Recovery 2min; 1X5km rep, race pace (6:30).

Sat: a.m.: 62k bike long intervals at Changi coastal road... went up and down three times, short 1.5k brick run; p.m.: 1.2k swim (8x100m 30 sec recovery)

Sun: Bike 38k North East loop.

Controlled pace runs

Here're the splits on two controlled pace runs this week (3 km warm up, 2 km cool down):

Feb 15:
km/pace/ave HR
1/5.59/165
2/6.20/165
3/6.59/167
4/6.29/164
5/6.16/169

Feb 18:
km/pace/ave HR
1/6.17/163
2/6.13/169
3/6.28/165
4/6.21/169
5/6.37/170

Both were on the day following a two-session training day (swim and bike), so some fatigue is present.

TLog: Blame it on the heat!

24 km long run, second attempt at making good the 3 km tempo run at the end. I was determined to make it this time.

Started out at 7 am with overcast skies, rain in the forecast. But the weather forecast was dead wrong, and the morning got hotter and hotter. First leg was uneventful, managed to keep 140 bpm cap at good pace (8+ min/km), and first tempo run was better than expected. Took a long recovery walk after that. About 250m for HR to come back down to 140, but it took a much longer time to come down to 135! I suppose this was the first sign of trouble. But I didn't think twice about it then.



Second leg was a struggle in the heat. Had to slow down to 10+ min/km to maintain 140 bpm. The last 24 km run in the evening was a cool affair, and I didn't have trouble maintaining at 8+ min/km pace. I knew it was going to be tough.

Sure enough, at 21st km, HR went up very high very fast. Hit 174/5 with the first km. Pace: 6:08, way off. The last run, HR was moderately high (about 160+). Not good.

Staring at the exposed, sunny and hot track (leading from NSRCC), I decided to fight another day. As it turned out, the temp reached 35 deg C (when I checked at 11 am, so at 10 am, it should be about 34 deg C)! No wonder I found it so tough! What can I say. I was disappointed. Simply not my day, and will attempt this another time.

Motion based had this wonderful feature that provides the distribution of distance by HR! So here's the breakdown:



Roughly eyeballing the distribution, the distance travelled under 140 bpm is about 40 to 50%, with the rest slightly over 140.

Here's a comparison of the Oct 7 and Oct 15 24 km run:

First leg: 7:04 to 8:22 pace versus 7:13 to 8:30 pace. About the same
First tempo: 5:45 (164 bpm) and 5:39 (168 bpm) versus 5:48 (171) and 5:43 (176). A little slower and higher HR
Second leg: 7:55 to 8:40 versus 10:14 to 10:49 pace. What a huge difference in pace!
Second tempo: 5:51 (167), 5:55 (170) and 7:19 (170) versus 6:08 (174!)

Clearly the weather/temp had a big part to play. In terms of hydration and fueling, there's no difference as I used powerbar electrolyte drinks (two bottles) and two gels in each run.

So what did I learn? That I don't do too well under hot temp (above 33 deg). I can run / jog slowly in high temp, but not at fast pace (especially after 3 hours). This is something to work on. :)

TLog: 15 km tempo, bike, swim and gym workout

Oct 8: Had to do this on the stationary bike due to rain. 20 km easy spin HR~110

Oct 9: Morning swim (as forecast was for rain in the afternoon/evening). 6 laps front, 4 laps left and 4 laps right side. Discovered that my chocolate side is my left. (I like chocolate). Swimming on the left side was easier. Could even do the sweet spot drill as recommended in the TI video. However, I couldn't do the same on the right side (vanilla side). In fact, I suspect I have a slight negative buoyancy, especially on the right. Kept going below the water surface, and had to consciously keep close to surface. Hhhmmm... wonder what I could do to rectify this fault?

Evening gym workout. Getting better at air cycling. Other exercises were ok. Found a substitute for the leg adductor and abductor exercises using the cable machine, thanks to the gym instructors!

Oct 10: 15 km tempo run. Same as two weeks ago. No problem except coming back. Struggled with the slopes at 13 and 14 km. The same stretch going out towards Changi Village was good as I gathered good speed going down. But the return leg was the "killer" and my pace suffered. Managed about 7:00 instead of 6:30 on that upslope stretch. A prolonged cooldown about 3 km. Weather was sunny and hot. But bearable.

Here's the HR for record:



Tempo run on Sept 28 for comparison:



Km/Oct 10/Sept 28
1/8.03/7.26
2/7.52/7.30
3/6.00/5.58
4/6.31/6.36
5/7.08/6.36
6/6.24/6.28
7/6,22/6.37
8/6.45/6.40
9/8.14/7.08
10/6.28/6.26
11/6.35/6.06
12/6.25/7.02
13/6.57/6.22
14/7.02/6.34
15/9.11/6.22
16/11.20/10.40

TLog: 24 km long run - objective unaccomplished

Cool evening, supposed to rain late afternoon, but the sky held up in the eastern part of the island. Switched run from Thu to today as I wanted to cycle tomorrow and keep Sun free. This is an evening run, as opposed to my normal morning runs.

The good news: (1) managed to keep HR below 140 for first 9 km as well as the second 9 km... hard cap in both cases (ok, perhaps 1 or 2 above 140, but this is the best by far in terms of HR).

(2) First tempo run at 5:45 and 5:39 for 10 and 11 km resp. Better than the 11:35 target. Second long run was good. Hard cap at 140 HR maintained... had to walk 500 m after first tempo run to bring HR down sufficiently to maintain the cap. It worked.

(3) Found some rthyme from the strides, even when going slow. Concentrated on the lean and kick back. Kick back wasn't high as pace was slow, but if I focused on the kick back motion and arm swing, I can improve my pace even without higher HR. This is a good outcome, I think. Was able to go below 8 min/km for km 4 to 9 even while keeping HR < 140. And also for 14, 15 and 17 km.

Now the bad news. Second tempo run fell short of target. 5:51 and 5:55 for 21 and 22 km. Had to break for road crossing after 300m on 23 km (I was actually quite relieved to have to wait for the traffic!). What's more the Garmin had a problem ... system autodown or sthg. So that broke my tempo .. anyway, the truth was that I was running out of steam then. Miserable 7:19 for 23 km. Way off the target of 17:30 (5:46 pace) for the three km! :(

Felt tired after this run, unlike previous long runs. Found this to be a hard run in spite of better slow pace run.

TLog: week ending Oct 4

Sept 28: Tempo run over 15 km: 2km warm up -> stretch -> run 1km at 6:00min -> run 5km at 6:50min-per-km pace -> slow jog 500m -> run 5km at 6:30min-per-km pace -> 1km cool down

Sept 29: 25 km bike of easy spin. No structure. This is recovery week! Average HR of 118, just shy of target of 120.

Sept 30: swim omitted due to upper chest respiratory infection

Oct 1: easy 5 km instead of 10 km. Made up somewhat by short 2 km easy run on Oct 3.

Oct 2: easy swim, 12 laps

Oct 4: easy 10 km, ave HR: 138. Target 140

TLog: HR focus, faster tempo runs

The focus for today's long run is on HR. The key is to keep HR below 140 bpm, unlike the last two long runs. It was a hot sunny morning, so I went very very slowly (slow jog, almost the same pace as brisk walk). Managed to keep a hard cap of 140 for the first 9 km. The first 1-km tempo went well, coming in at 5:39 (target was 5:45), and the second 2-km tempo at 11:33 (target of 11:40).



Found it difficult to keep HR below 140 in the second slow run, and had to walk a fair bit. So I used a soft cap, allowing HR to go up to 145. It took a long time 3:20, which was probably the longest time for a 21k (the 2008 AHM was an exception).

Left calf felt crampy during the cool down. Plus the crampy feeling in the right calf yesterday, I attributed to the calf exercises on Monday and the use of the calfs for the tempo runs.

Boy am I glad tomorrow is a rest day!

TLog: 20 km Long Run

Same plan as last week, a 20 km long run with a 1 km tempo at 9th km and a second 2 km tempo run at 18th and 19th km. The one difference is running drills - to start with a slight forward incline (reminiscent of chi running), and stride (forward thrust and knee-high backward kick). So for every km, I practiced this drill from a stationary start - which explains the big dips in HR every km - for about 100m.

Managed to keep HR closer to 140 throughout the run. Interestingly, the first tempo at 6:50 pace turned out easier than last week, and the ave HR for that was only 149. The second tempo run was harder that last week's - I attribute that to the weather. Today was clear sunny and hot, but last week was overcast and windy. I was alarmed that my HR rose so quickly on the first km of the second tempo run, but stabilized in the second km. Managed to come close to the target time of 11:48 -- just one sec over.



Happy to note a slight negative split today: 1:23 for first 10 km and 1:15 for second 10 km. [Slow, but hey, I'm old.] This is a new principle I learnt recently - to train in the lower HR zone (as well as the higher HR zone), hence increasing the effective HR range.

On the stride drills: I have not done the forward lean for some time, so it takes some getting used to. On the tempo runs, I could feel the increased pace. Key: thrust thighs forward, feet grip the ground and kick back.

Tried out the new 2XU compression shorts (what a surprise, I had to go with S size ... the first time ever. Boy do I like 2XU!) and gel bottle (2 packets) as well as the sponge MBH purchased from Guardian. [note: I discovered how useful sponging water over the head, face and shoulders can be during the Phuket race in June. So the plan is to carry a sponge for the long runs and races!] Worked like a charm for me this hot morning. :)

TLog: 14 km tempo run

The plan for this morning's tempo run was

• 2 km warm up, stretch 
  
• run 1km at 7:30min
  
• run 5km at 7:10min-per-km pace
  
• slow jog 500m
  
• run 5km at 7:00min-per-km pace
  
• 1km cool down

Since it was such a cool morning (23-24C) with light intermittent showers, I managed 30 seconds better than the stipulated pace. Surprisingly, my HR was lower than I expected. Below 150 bpm for the first 5 km tempo run, and a shade above 160 during the second 5 km tempo run. Added two 100m strides towards the end, pushing HR up to 167.



Felt comfortable and relaxed this morning, didn't feel like a regular tempo run which I normally do a 6:00 pace with some hills (but HR above 160).

TLog: Long run with tempo

Only my second run of the week, other than the 11k interval training on Tuesday. This is not LSD run, but a long run with two tempo runs. The first tempo is at the 10th km, and the second is right at the end at 18th and 19th km. I kinda worried whether my legs could do the tail tempo run, so

The plan is to keep HR<140 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4uSlsrkRDovpZUPmNe0i1bAz7pKdODkH7wjXhwZDnNvsNRBsf3UmepjEFTL5zDkh4dc5Eq1_jmiRhwMddjBLouLVASKTFQ-aLrOl6BYn7D4HeFWWCW4xzZnwY7CjVDJkPZkcRkafjpNad/s1600-h/Sept12.mb.jpg">

For a change, it was good to have company along the coastal road. Groups of soldiers were on some exercise, albeit mostly walking or sitting around. They might have wondered at the sight of this old BFG huffing and puffing along. :)

Surprisingly, I felt different when I got home... somewhat "fresh" ... nice :)

The weather was overcast and temp very mild this morning, although not as nice as last week's LSD run.


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Tempo Runs and Strides

What are tempo runs?

Tempo runs are workouts at a fairly steady, moderately fast pace. They are controlled steady efforts, not burn-ups races. The guide to tempo pace is around 80% to 90% of our max heart rate (HR).

Tempo runs are also known as lactate threshold runs. This is because tempo runs are run at a pace that builds up waste product in our legs at a rapid rate, which is called the lactate-threshold velocity. 

The lactate threshold (LT) is when lactic acid begins to accumulate in the blood and you have to slow down. Tempo runs allow us to train close to the lactate threshold without exceeding it. LT is the best predictor of distance-running performance.

Typically, tempo pace is 10 to 15 seconds slower than our 10-k race pace. Tempo runs are "comfortably hard" runs. Easy runs, in contrast, mean that we can comfortably hold a conversation. Not so for tempo runs. The pace is fast enough that you know you're working hard, but if you had to, you could keep up the pace for up to an hour. It is usual to start with 3 km or 20 minutes of tempo running before building it up gradually to longer distances. Take a short recovery break (jog) in between for tempo runs longer than 6 km.

Runner's World (RW) advocates the Tempo Run 1000s workout for new runners who might have a hard time running evenly for longer tempo runs. Tempo Run 1000s are simply 1000 m repeats done at tempo-run pace with 60 seconds of recovery in between. Or run tempo 1000s every 2 to 3 weeks in place of a more standard tempo run to add variety to your tempo training.

Why is tempo run useful?

• Tempo runs teach your body to run faster before fatiguing
  
• It increases lactate threshold running speed
  
• It gets your body used to moving at a sustained hard pace for a period of time
  

Tempo and interval runs help improve speed. But both are considered hard runs. I alternate between tempo and interval runs each week and intersperse hard runs with easy runs or rest days.

Another useful technique to incorporate is strides. Strides are runs over about 60m to 100m at an accelerated pace, about 2/3 of your sprint pace.

RW recommends finishing off easy runs with two to three strides. The idea is to ingrain the feeling of running well in a controlled manner with good form, not letting yourself get tight in the arms or shoulders. Flow with the effort and don't try to fight your way through it. Take plenty of rest between strides with recovery jogs or walks.

Much like a car that is driven at the same speed in traffic all the time, you can benefit by "blowing the carbon out" and revving up the RPMs a bit!

For a systematic training program, check out the RW customized "Smart Coach" training program. Simply input a recent race time and distance, distance you are training for, current mileage and intensity of training. Smart Coach provides a 16-week training plan that incorporates tempo/speedwork runs on alternate weeks, one long run each week, easy runs and X-training or rest days.

What I like about the program is that it gradually builds up your mileage and pace (remember the 10% rule). I have completed two half and three full marathons following the RW training programs.