The Running Barnacle

Atrophy fading

2010-10-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

I have pushed myself off of the couch and started crawling around the world of exercise again.

My weekly routine includes Kung Fu on Mondays and Thursdays and a run on Tuesday.

Today's run (yeah it's Tuesday here) was about 8km. The weather is starting to warm up and the days are getting longer, so hopefully that provides greater opportunity to get out.

Also, I have procured a new road bike, so look for a couple of rides to work themselves into the weekly routine.

Once I get to the point of being able to run and bike consistently without putting my body into complete shock I'll try to get a program together and track progress with the GPS gizmo thingy. Hopefully that will happen in the next week or so.

Update

2010-08-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

I am now an atrophied couch potato living in New Zealand.

Though the desire to run a marathon has largely disintegrated, I feel like it's time to get back in shape before I succumb to heart failure. As chance would have it I brought my sweet GPS watch with me, so there may be some charts popping up in the near future.

The barnacle lives.

Results - Week 3 and Week 4

2008-07-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

Two updates for the price of one! Things have been going quite well an I'm feeling very comfortable with most of my runs as far as enrgy levels are concerned. The lack of base training is noticeable however, as the stress on tendons, ligiments and muscles is bringing some minor aches. Nothing a bit of stretching can't get rid of but I'm still paying close attention due to the fact that I can't afford to loose time to a serious injury.

Anyways, here are week 3 results...

Day    Distance   Description   Time     Pace
----------------------------------------------
Mon    8.1        hills         1:12:21  8:56
Tue    4.7        flat          37:32    8:04
Wed    6.0        hills         not      timed
Thu    7.0        hills         not      timed
Fri    --         --            --       --
Sat    11.0       flat          1:26:05  7:49
----------------------------------------------
Tot    36.8

And for week 4...

Day    Distance   Description   Time     Pace
----------------------------------------------
Mon    6.05       tempo(2x10)   43:20    7:09
Tue    73         biked         Lake     Tahoe
Wed    2.34       flat          15:44    6:43
Thu    7.0        int(5x800)    --       2:50.5
Fri    6.64       flat          48:20    7:19
Sat    12.1       hills         1:35:51  7:55
----------------------------------------------
Tot    34.13      running
Tot    73.0       biking

If we use the 4:1 biking to running ratio the ride around Lake Tahoe would be equivelant to 18 miles of running, bringing the total for week 4 up to about 52. That ride was awesome but unfortunately we didn't take that many pictures, but I did get an elevation profile from the GPS...

What a Difference 2 Weeks Makes

2008-07-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't been wearing my GPS much this week in order to concentrate on just getting the miles in without worrying about pace. However I did wear it on my long run this morning and I though it was pretty interesting how different the graph looked today compared to the graph of my first long run I posted 2 weeks ago. This mornings run, though longer, was along the same route as the previous one so they're very comparable. I modified the heart rate zones a little bit from their default values and replotted the first run, so it doesn't look exactly he same as the graph posted earlier.

Distance: 6.6 miles
Average Pace: 8:07
Average Heart Rate: 160

Now here are the results from this mornings run...

Distance: 11.0 miles
Average Pace: 7:49
Average Heart Rate: 153

It's hard to be disappointed about the progress made so far. Where as I felt totally gassed at the end of the first long run, this morning I actually felt pretty good, like I could have gone a bit longer if needed.

Looking Forward

2008-07-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

Now that the first 3 weeks are almost out of the way it's time to start planning how the real training should go. As mentioned earlier, each week will have 3 focus workouts and 3 recovery days. So let's look at how I'm hoping they will progress over the coming weeks.

Week    Tempo        Intervals    Long    Tot
---------------------------------------------
4       2 x 10min    5 x 800m     12      45
5       2 x 15min    4 x 1200m    14      50
6       2 x 20min    4 x 1600m    16      55
7       1 x 30min    8 x 800m     18      60
8       1 x 35min    6 x 1200m    20      60
9       1 x 40min    5 x 1600m    18      60
10      1 x 40min    10 x 800m    20      60
11      1 x 40min    6 x 1200m    18      65
12      1 x 40min    10 x 800m    20      65

Supposedly that last interval workout should be a pretty good indicator for a marathon time. One should be able to run each 800m in their target time in hr:min converted to min:sec. For example, if I want to run a 3 hour marathon I should be able to run each 800m in 3 minutes.

Preview - Week 3

2008-07-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

The target for this week was for about 35 miles. However, with the week half over I've already put in 19 and have yet to do the Saturday long run. I'm feeling significantly better than last week so I might get in closer to 40 miles. That's on the edge of my comfort zone as I don't want to increase too quickly and risk injury. After this week I will have to limit myself to upping the load by no more than 5 miles per week.

Mon - 8
Tue - 5
Wed - 6
Thu - 5
Fri - 5
Sat - 10

This is the last week of my short "base" training segment and next week I'll start throwing in some light intervals and a short tempo run. Those workouts will stay mild for a couple of weeks as mileage is still increasing, but they will soon become major focus points along with the long run.

Results - Week 2

2008-07-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Oops, a little late with the update :D

Last week wasn't too bad, threw in about 40 miles of bike riding which is equivalent to about 10 miles of running. That was probably a good thing because my legs were feeling a little sluggish.

Day    Distance   Description   Time    Pace
--------------------------------------------
Mon    22         biking
Tue    7.1        hills       1:01:25   8:42
Tue    17         biking
Wed    --         --            --      --
Thu    5.1        flat          35:38   7:00
Fri    --         --            --      --
Sat    7.54       hills       1:11:16   9:26
--------------------------------------------
Tot    19.74      running
Tot    39.00      biking

So adding everything up it's about what I was shooting for. Saturday's run was really slow, but at this stage I'm not too concerned with that. It was very hilly and my heart rate was at 80-90 percent for over 50 minutes of the run, so it had to be doing some good.

Preview - Week 2

2008-06-29T23:31:00.000-07:00

Nothing really super interesting about the plans for next week, the goal is to put in about 30 miles.

Mon - 5 miles
Tue - 6 miles
Wed - cross training on bike
Thu - 6 miles
Fri - 5 miles
Sat - 8 miles

That should give me the desired distance plus at least one bike ride, there might be a couple more as well. It's proabably a good idea to get in some cross training during these early stages to avoid injury from too much repetetive stress too quickly.

Results - Week 1

2008-06-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

My first week has already come to a close. I need to come up with a better way to post results. Right now I keep all the information in an excel document but I can't quite figure out a way to transfer it over, or to even make tables in general... so I'll just list it for now.

Day    Distance   Description   Time    Pace
--------------------------------------------
Mon    --         --            --      --
Tue    5.0        hills         40:00   8:00
Wed    --         --            --      --
Thu    5.1        flat          38:55   7:37
Fri    5.2        flat          37:13   7:09
Sat    6.56       flat          53:20   8:07
--------------------------------------------
Tot    21.86                    2:49:28 7:45

I'll go ahead round up and say 22 miles for this week. The pace was pretty slow for most of the runs but that's OK as it's the first week of base building. Pace will become more of a concern when the 8 week core training period begins. Until then I'm content with going through the motions and getting my body used to running consistently.

Tools of the Trade

2008-06-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

In the good ol' days people would just throw on a pair of techni-colored running shoes and run until it hurt, then keep running some more. Movies such as "Chariots of Fire" and "Prefontaine" are always good for inspiration. But the world today is different, full of gizmos and gadgets to help optimize every facet of our lives. And running hasn't escaped this trend.

Introducing the Garmin 405 GPS and heart rate monitor. Yeah, I'm a little bit of a technoholic and when I saw that this device could map out my runs, track my heart rate and output everything in a cool little graph for analysis I just couldn't resist.

I was very impressed when trying it out for the first time on my run today. It gave me that chart above detailing pace, heart rate, and even an elevation profile (it was a pretty flat run). It also allows you to plot out your run on Google Earth and the accuracy is pretty amazing, I can see all the way down to where I crossed streets. Which means I can post maps of some my favorite runs, at least the ones that don't give step by step directions ot my house...

The image at the top gives a pretty good picture of the shape I'm in right now and we can use this to judge improvements in the future. I averaged an 8:07 over 6.6 miles which comes out to about 1/4 of the 26.2 miles in a marathon. As can be seen from my heart-rate, it wasn't necessarily the easiest run for me either. Those two dips in the heart rate line show where I stopped to tie my shoe for the first one and where I stopped to stretch at the halfway point for the second. In order to get a C on my previous grading scale I'm going to need to average better than 7:15 per mile for four times as long. Clearly there's a lot of work to do over the next 14 weeks.

The 14 Week Program

2008-06-28T01:06:00.000-07:00

After installing the countdown clock I've come to the realization that I actually only have 14 weeks to prepare. The plan remains the same with the exception that a week comes off of both the base and core catagories. I'm actually a little apprehensive about this but it is what it is...

The 16 Week Program

2008-06-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

Plenty of books and magazines out there detail preparing for a marathon based on a 16 week schedule. However, the times I'm shooting for require a fairly high level of fitness and and most of those programs assume either a consistent past of base training or that the participant is not overly worried about how long it takes to finish. Both of these are false in my case so I am putting together a condensed training schedule. Note that this is not generally recommended and carries a higher risk of injury. But that's a risk I'm willing to take, and I plan to minimize the chances of injury by...

1) Taking the time to warm-up, stretch, cool-down and stretch again
2) Paying careful attention to how I feel and backing off as soon as something doesn't feel like the normal aches and pains expected.
3) Getting plenty of sleep.
4) Eating well.
5) Getting massages every week for the first 2 months ;)

Note that there isn't anything revolutionary in here; the time frame is simply adjusted for my particular schedule. If you want to learn more about training strategies I suggest going to Runners World(http://www.runnersworld.com/) and searching for "Ed Eyestone". He was one of America's greatest runners and currently writes a column there and is also the Cross Country coach at BYU. My only claim to running prowess is one day after running with him he told me I was "flying". I cling to that moment like only a barnacle can.

OK, with that in mind here's the plan for the next 16 weeks...

Base Building (Weeks 1-4): Just get used to running consistently. Don't worry too much about the pace but try to up mileage by 15-20% per week. Starting off around 20-25 miles the first week by week four I should be up around 35-40 miles per week. One long run per week starting at 7 miles and moving up to 10-12 miles by the forth week.

Core Training (Weeks 5-13): During this period the focus will move to getting more quality into the workouts while still increasing mileage. There will be three major workouts a week with three easier recovery runs. The three workout will be as follows...

1) Long Run - Build endurance by increasing these runs until they gets to at least 20 miles.
2) Interval Workout - Train VO2 max by running repeats of between 600-1600 meters.
3) Tempo Run - Increase lactic threshold with a hard continuous run of 30-45 minutes.

Tapering (Weeks 14-16): At this point I will start decreasing the mileage to allow my body to recover from the last 9 weeks of punishment. I still might keep an interval workout or two in here.

Run St. George Marathon

Well, that's about it. I'll give a more detailed plan for each week as it comes.

Better late than never

2008-06-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

I always told myself if I ever ran a marathon I would do it with the intention of getting into the best shape of my life and placing as high as possible. I probably should have started training for the St. George Marathon a little earlier if I was going to make good on that promise. But this makes for a good experiment: can someone who's as out of shape as I am get decent results with only 16 weeks to prepare? I should clarify what I consider decent as that is highly subjective.

Here's my personal grading scale:

F - Did not finish
D - finish > 3:10:00
C - finish < 3:10:00
B - finish < 3:00:00
A - finish < 2:50:00

With only 16 weeks to train and this being my first attempt at a marathon I would probably be pretty happy with a C as that would qualify for the Boston Marathon. That being said, I wouldn't have put the A category there if I didn't think it was possible, and that's the goal for which I will be training.

The purpose of this blog is simply to document the training process and results of the marathon. I hope to post a plan for the coming week and results for the previous week every Sunday, as well as other random thoughts at various times. Ideally I will also have a couple of 10k races and a half marathon before St. George rolls around, but I haven't really looked into what's available so we'll see how that goes...

OK, next post I will give a meta-view of what my training will look like for the next 16 weeks.