Week 5 Recap

 2011 Boston Marathon Training  Comments Off on Week 5 Recap
Nov 302010
 

I finished week 5 of my 26 week training schedule for the Boston Marathon.  This was a “cutback” week meaning that the total miles I ran was reduced slightly from last week (17 down from 22).  This brings the total to 90 miles run since I started training 5 weeks ago.  This Sunday my “long run” will be 11 miles, so wish me luck! In general my endurance is definitely improving although my speed continues to resemble the turtle more than the hare!

So far you have helped raise $1,500 towards my goal of $6,000 for Children’s Hospital and I think that is great progress at this point!  If you have not yet had an opportunity to register your sponsorship you can do so here.

 Posted by at 11:34 am

Weekly Training Report for 2010-11-28

 Training Log  Comments Off on Weekly Training Report for 2010-11-28
Nov 272010
 

Workouts 6
Time 445 min
Running 35.6 miles

  • wed: Run marathon pace using a runwalk ratio of run 2:30, walk 1 minute. Break up paced miles with light jogging.. Ran 4.8 miles for 52 minutes at 11:01 pace. Tough pacework run. But learned some interesting things. Felt Strong.
  • fri: Should be a nice easy pace for 45-50 minutes. Ran 6.1 miles for 78 minutes at 12:49 pace. Pretty awful. I felt sluggish and tired. No matter how slow I went my HR still was 165ish. Then I went and decided to change up a route and ended up going way too far. I think I was dehydrated and still recovering from wednesday
  • sun: Running workout. Ran 6.2 miles for 78 minutes at 12:46 pace. Garmin Edge 205305
  • sun: Cutback week long run. Run at marathon pace + 90 with runwalk ratio of 3 min run 30 second walk. Ran 6.2 miles for 78 minutes at 12:46 pace. Run went well. Stopped for a few minutes at 5.5 miles to stretch.
  • sun: Running workout. Ran 6.2 miles for 78 minutes at 12:46 pace. Garmin Edge 205305
  • sun: Cutback week long run. Run at marathon pace + 90 with runwalk ratio of 3 min run 30 second walk. Ran 6.2 miles for 78 minutes at 12:46 pace. Run went well. Stopped for a few minutes at 5.5 miles to stretch.
 Posted by at 8:00 pm

Heart Rate Analysis

 2011 Boston Marathon Training, Training Log  Comments Off on Heart Rate Analysis
Nov 262010
 

I have been monitoring my heart rate in every workout and I think I am getting a feel for it.  Based on a resting heart rate of 61 and a max heart rate of 192, my heart rate reserve would indicate the following zones based on the calculator at MarathonGuide.com which can be found here.  If course my max heart rate could be above 192.  The highest I can seem to push it at the end of workouts is 188.  When I do my first measured mile calculation in a few weeks on a track I imagine I might have a better number.

My experience seems to match the above chart.  When I push my heart rate above 170 I can definitely feel something shift and know I am on borrowed time.  I have looked over the heart rate data from a bunch of different kinds of workouts I have done and it seems that I spent most of my time in zone 3, followed by zone 2 and then 4.  Not surprisingly, the workouts where I am working on speed I find myself in zone 4 a lot more.

What I am still a bit stymied about is the relationship of pace to heart rate.  I would swear it is not linear, but I really don’t have a great way to figure that out.  It seems to be something like this:

  • 12:00 mm: HR around 154
  • 11:00 mm: HR around 160
  • 10:00 mm: HR around 168
  • 9:30 mm: HR around 172
  • 8:30 mm: HR around 180

Clearly the 8:30 pace is out of my reach.  I can sustain that for approx 3 minutes.  But a 9:45 pace actually feels comfortable when I am taking walk breaks every 3 minutes for 30 seconds.  But I assume that this would still result in lactic acid buildup in the marathon and ultimately disaster.  I really have also been noticing that things like temperature, hydration, sleep and other factors can change up the heart rates.   At this point my best guess at this point is to just run whatever pace that day is around 160-165 (for marathon pace).

 Posted by at 9:00 am

Speed Work

 2011 Boston Marathon Training  Comments Off on Speed Work
Nov 242010
 

Ok for this workout I ran each lap for 2.5 minutes with a 1 minute walk break.  I was supposed to run slightly faster than marathon pace.  I think I got a tad carried away and ran too fast (for me) again considering that my current marathon pace is 11:30 (explained here).   It looks like I am averaging 9:20- 9: 40 pace with one interval actually 8:20.  Why do I think I ran too fast?  Because my heart rate was hitting 172 on each interval.  Now interestingly it was only on the 8:20 pace interval that I actually got winded. Also, according to the charts I ran the majority of the 5 miles in the aerobic threshhold zone, which would not be sustainable in a marathon.  Well the idea of the workout was that it will help train my body to run faster.  Hopefully these speed workouts will be helpful there.  I think it is encouraging that I was running the 9:40 pace without much issue.  It makes me wonder if that if a 10:00 pace could be sustainable and keep my heart rate under 165 and in the aerobic zone.  I think more experimention is needed.

Workout Link

 Posted by at 2:22 pm

Week 4 recap

 2011 Boston Marathon Training  Comments Off on Week 4 recap
Nov 232010
 

I finished week 4 of my 26 week training schedule with a total of 22 miles this week including the 9.5 mile long run.  I did have some dark moments in the middle of my long run when I was doubting myself and my ability to be able to really do this.  I kept thinking to myself “how can I hope to complete a marathon if running 9 miles is this hard”.  But after the fact, and with some perspective I realize that was just fatigue talking.  The fact is 4 weeks ago a 5 mile run was out of my reach and now I run that twice a week without even thinking about it.  This brings the total to 73 miles run since I started training 4 weeks ago.  By my estimate I will run 630 miles before the marathon in April, so I have barely just begin!

9.5 mile long run

 2011 Boston Marathon Training  Comments Off on 9.5 mile long run
Nov 212010
 

Brutal.  Ok I just have to say that.  It was a deeply unpleasent experience.  I left a few minutes before dawn.  Conditions were clear and 38 degrees.  I knew I was in trouble 2 miles in when I was already feeling tired.  I had switched to intervals of run 4 min, walk 1 min since all the recommendations is to walk a min.  I hated it.   By mile 5 I was pretty miserable and at some point I switched back to my normal 3 min run, 30 second walk.  I think for some reason the 1 min walking is too long, very hard to get moving again.  I need to do some research to see if 30 seconds will be enough to reduce lactic acid buildup.  I think all the miles this week wore me down.  I am very glad next week is a cutback week.  At mile 8 I was feeling a lot of discomfort in my left foot and shin and my right calf.  I stopped and stretched thoroughly for 5 minutes and then continued.  That made a huge difference.

My heart rate distribution shows most of the run was spent in the aerobic zone, but roughly 20 percent was in the aerobic threshhold zone, which means I was probably going too fast for part of the long run.  Sheesh, the one rule for long runs is “don’t run too fast” and I can’t even get that right!

Workout link

Weekly Training Report for 2010-11-21

 Training Log  Comments Off on Weekly Training Report for 2010-11-21
Nov 202010
 

Workouts 4
Time 263 min
Running 21.9 miles

  • tue: Recovery from long run. Pace MM*1.3 + 3. Intervals of Run 3min, walk 30 seconds. Should be about 4.5 – 5 miles. Ran 4.8 miles for 58 minutes at 12:09 pace. I felt really good on this run. In fact I felt GREAT! I probably ran faster than I was supposed to for a recovery run, but I think it will be fine.
  • wed: Mix of Light Jogging and bursts of faster pace. Ran 2.7 miles for 29 minutes at 10:51 pace. My first attempt at a tempo run with no walking. I ended feeling winded. I guess I need more conditioning. Considering my final average pace was only 10:50
  • fri: Longer mid week easy run. This is mostly to build miles for the week.. Ran 4.8 miles for 54 minutes at 11:21 pace. Garmin Edge 205305
  • sun: Long run at MM*1.3+2 min pace, run 4 min, walk 1. Ran 9.6 miles for 121 minutes at 12:39 pace. Extremely difficult for me. Felt sluggish from the beginning. The ratio of run 4 min, walk 1 didn’t agree with me. Switched to 3 min 30 seconds 23 way through
 Posted by at 8:00 pm

Marathon Pace Run

 2011 Boston Marathon Training  Comments Off on Marathon Pace Run
Nov 192010
 

Today’s run was 5 miles at marathon pace taking walk breaks.  I experimented in the first half by running 5 minutes with a 30 second break.  I started to feel sluggish and switched to 3 minutes running with 30 second walk breaks.  Interestingly I ran the first half with an overall pace (including walk breaks) of 11:25 and the second half at 11:05.  I can tell I sped up the running parts in the last half and my HR reflects is at an average of 165.  I still don’t know if 165 will be ok.   If that is indeed over 80 percent of my max then that will not be sustainable for the whole marathon.

My running pace is around 10:20 – 10:30 right now, with the overall pace of 11:05 reflecting the walk breaks.  I am still very unhappy with the running speed, but hopefully that will improve with time.  I am also still not sure what the optimal run/walk ratio is.  I will be expereimenting with that quite a bit in the future.

Link to the actual workout is here

 Posted by at 9:39 pm

8 mile long run

 2011 Boston Marathon Training  Comments Off on 8 mile long run
Nov 142010
 

The third week scheduled called for an 8 mile long run.  I took the 7 mile route and added a half mile out and back down fletcher road. As per the schedule I ran this using a walk run ratio of 3 min run and 30 second walk.  I was supposed to run at marathon pace + 2 minutes, but in the end I ran faster than that, which is not good.  Spent 21 percent of my time in the aerobic threshhold zone over 165.  So my average pace, including walk breaks was 12:11.  Considering that my overall marathon goal pace is 11:45 I was obviously moving a bit too fast since this is supposed to be an long slow easy run.

Workout link

 Posted by at 6:12 pm

Weekly Training Report for 2010-11-14

 Training Log  Comments Off on Weekly Training Report for 2010-11-14
Nov 132010
 

Workouts 5
Time 324 min
Cycling 18.8 miles
Running 18.4 miles

  • tue: Treadmill recovery work. Foot still slightly tender.. Ran 3.0 miles for 44 minutes at 14:33 pace. Garmin Edge 205305
  • wed: Intervals of of pace 10:30 for 3 min walk 30 seconds. Ran 2.7 miles for 39 minutes at 14:40 pace. I guess I am not recovered from my cold. Heart rate was up 10 bpm on average and I ended on a 15 second slower pace. Ended up feeling winded.
  • thu: Road bike 40-50 minutes. Keep heart rate in aerobic zone.. Rode 18.8 miles for 84 minutes at 13.39 mph. With some new clothing I was quite comfortable. Gorgeous day, 48 degrees. Avg heart rate good.
  • fri: Intervals of medium pace for 3 min walk 1 minute. Ran 4.6 miles for 58 minutes at 12:31 pace. I think I overdid cross training yesterday. I felt tired when I started. Even though I ran fairly slow I had breath problems and HR is still too high. Muscles felt good though. Finished feeling strong.
  • sun: Long run at MM*1.3+2 min pace, run intervals of r3mw30s. Ran 8.0 miles for 97 minutes at 12:12 pace. Run went well. No issues.
 Posted by at 8:00 pm
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