2017 Winter/Spring Training Cycle - Jack Daniels 10k Training
It's time for something new. It's crazy to think that I have been training for a marathon essentially every training cycle since Spring 2014. That's almost 3 years of endurance, endurance, endurance... It's paid off and I wouldn't change anything from the past, but it's time for something new. So prior to my first BQ attempt in Fall 2017, I thought it would be a good idea to change it up for the training cycle prior. This plan is completely outside of my comfort zone. I'm not good at speed workouts, plain and simple. But that's exactly why I'm planning on devoting a cycle to it, because I'm not good at it. To be the best runner I can be, I need to try and maximize all of my skills and deficiencies.
How to decide my pacing
So I need to decide what my current fitness level is. Best way to determine current fitness is to evaluate recent race performances.
Disney 5k - 21:02
Disney 10k - 43:25
Disney Marathon - 3:20:52
I don't necessarily feel any of these three are a perfect match for my current fitness level. I feel as if the 5k and 10k were skewed by the poor congested starts, and because of the large race scenario it was more difficult to run the tangents and hit 3.1/6.2 closely. I feel the marathon is likely slightly skewed by the existence of the 5k and 10k.
So I came up with the following solution. Instead of looking at the times for the 5k/10k, I'll evaluate them based on the pace run during them. And I'll evaluate the 5k based on the 2nd/3rd mile and the 10k based on every mile except mile 1. I'm fairly confident the GPS data I was receiving was as accurate as the GPS data that I would use at home in training. Thus, I feel this is an appropriate method for determining my current fitness.
The 5k average pace is a 6:32 min/mile (or a 20:15) and the 10k average pace is a 6:47 min/mile (or a 42:03).
These paces (6:32 and 6:47) actually fall very closely in line with each other for race equivalency. In addition, I feel the HM (1:33:16) and M (3:14:15) are very reasonable estimates at my current fitness as well.
I also needed to evaluate these paces for Jack Daniels specific workouts. My 5k/10k paces gave me a VDOT value of 49 which gives very close estimates for other race distances to my race equivalency calculator hybrid from Hansons. All of this put together gives me the following training cycle paces:
Everything looks to be in line. Easy around 9:01 min/mile, LR around 8:04, and M Tempo around 7:25 all match well to my last cycles "effort" based pacing. Then the new paces of "T" (Lactate Threshold), "I" (Interval Pacing based on duration), and "R" (Repetition). WAIT, WHAT?!?!!?!
IS THAT A 5!!! in front of a number.
This is going to be interesting... Thankfully the "R" paces are kept to 200m or 400m and no longer. That's 44 seconds for the 200m and 88 seconds for the 400m.
The Training Plan
So, Dopey (the marathon) ended on 1/8/17. As is my standard plan, I took off from running for two weeks. I do this to assist my body in making a full recovery after the marathon. The easiest thing to point to as to why the 14 day period exists is the mitochondria. The mitochondria follow a 14 day life cycle. So 14 days after the marathon, there should be no or 1/14th remaining of the mitochondria from the marathon event itself. Otherwise all of the damaged mitochondria are now gone and have been refreshed. This is just one biophysical thing going on, but just another example as to why I choose to do no running for 14 days after a hard marathon effort.
Even after 14 days off, I still need time to get my body fully recovered. So, I follow the two weeks off with two weeks of just easy running. I consider these two sections my Recovery Phase.
On 2/5/17, the recovery phase ends and the endurance base building phase begins. Normally, I would jump right into a new training cycle after the recovery phase (2 off + 2 easy) is over. But when entering a very speed heavy training plan you really need to make sure the body is prepped and ready. So, I've included an additional 3 weeks of endurance base building prior to the Daniels 5k training beginning.
On 2/27/17, it BEGINS! The "easy" days in a Daniels plan are open ended and not defined. From my personal experience, I found that easy needs to be kept at ~60 minutes or less. Based on my "easy" pace of 9:01 min/mile that worked itself out to 7 miles max. The other open ended part of the Daniels plan was the "long run". He defines that as no more than 25% of the weekly mileage (or capped at 120 minutes) whichever occurs first. For me and based on the 7 mile easy run, it made my "long run" maxed at 13 miles. I hit the % of week mileage before I hit the duration max for his plan. The two speed days: R pace and T pace are defined by a duration and % of total weekly mileage. If I ran more miles (and thus in turn I must be faster), then I would run more intervals of R and T. But the key is that the % of the week would remain the same and the duration of the workout would remain the same. So, if I made this plan for someone with a slower race equivalency profile, then the number of intervals for that other person would be lower, but when evaluating our plans next to each other the easy, hard, and total time spent training would be very similar. You can see this when you evaluate Daniels 40-50 mile 10k plan vs the 60-70 mile 10k plan. They're different in number of intervals, but similar in duration when evaluating based on pace/time.
Another thing to consider is the inaccuracy of my GPS device. The Garmin 235 is good, but for 200m and 400m it isn't accurate enough. My choices were a high school track (or something similar) or to satellite map out 200m and 400m in my normal running route using man made objects (like sewers, manholes, light poles). I've chosen to go the satellite route since I don't have many options around here otherwise. My plan is to setup my Garmin with duration goals of 2:00 and 4:00 to represent 200m and 400m. I'll hit the lap button manually at the beginning and end of the man made objects to accurately assess the distance. This way I'll have a visual cue (2:00 or 4:00) to tell me whether to run 200m or 400m, yet it won't screw anything up if the GPS is off (hence why I won't set the GPS watch to do 200m and 400m). This plan is going to require a lot of visual memorization and a lot of Garmin programming.
Every few weeks I dropped the plans mileage to attempt to induce bone recovery. Ideally this is done every 4th week. So the plan typically follows a schedule of high, medium, high, and then low mileage. The levels are relatively defined against each other.
Gigi has signed up for Super Hero tumbling which happens on Mondays in March. Anytime she has one of these classes (I believe only 4 total) then I'll just move the "Monday" run to Wednesday instead. Since it's an easy day to an off day, it's a super easy fix.
A huge outlier from my normal training is the shift from 80/20. Normally, my training follows an 80% easy and 20% hard split (with M Tempo being defined as hard and LR being defined as easy). However, because of Daniels double speed days and M Tempo workouts every other week it forces the ratio off of 80/20 and to a split of 70/30. I trust Daniels and will follow his methodology as prescribed.
Occasionally, Daniels' schedule had a speed day on back to back days. In the text of the plan, he says that if you feel that's too much then you could put easy/off days in between. I'm not confident in doing back to back speed days. It would elicit greater benefits based on the theory of cumulative fatigue, but it also brings with it a huge injury risk. A risk I'm not willing to take. I'm already considering this plan high risk because of the multiple speed days. And I'm not willing to push my luck by putting them back to back.
My first proposed race is 4/1/17: Parkinson's 5k in Cottage Grove. This race is literally a 10 minute walk or a 2 minute drive from my house. I've participated in the half marathon twice, but never done the 5k. The 5k does have a pretty steep hill and a compacted gravel path out and back. Neither of which are ideal for a 5k PR, but they make for an interesting race environment. Since my focus this cycle is on speed my goal is to focus my races on 5k and 10ks. I haven't decided whether I will or won't run this and I have until mid-March before the next price increase. The plan would have a slight adjustment on 4/1 if I decided to run the race. Technically, this race would still be during the heavy training portion of the cycle and not yet in the "race season" section. So I wouldn't be at peak, and thus I'm 50/50 on whether I'll do it.
On 4/16/17 is the only run of the cycle over 105 minutes, and thus the only run I plan on taking nutrition.
The second possible race is on 4/22/17 (unconfirmed date). There was a cheap bare bones 5k in Madison (about 15 min drive) on that weekend last year. The course was relatively flat for around here so it would be a nice choice and further into training.
The end of the training season of the Daniels 10k plan (and thus beginning of race season) is 5/22/17. You can see over the course of the plan how the paces shift from super fast (R) to the "slower" I and T paces. He also elongates the distance/duration covered. This matches Arthur Lydiard's model of specialization (another of my favorites). As you move closer to race day, the paces in training should converge around desired race pace.
RACE SEASON! So the ending phase of Daniels 10k plan is devoted to racing. The training is just maintenance and now the fun begins. I have two 10ks on my calendar penciled in (yet to sign up). There is the Madison Twilight 10k on 5/27. A hilly night course through downtown Madison. It would also be a nice competitive mix given my estimated finishing time.
The other is the Hot 2 Trot 10k in Cottage Grove. The race date hasn't been confirmed yet, but I'm near 100% confirmed for this race so I can get redemption for last year's race. I intended to go top 5 and top 3 in age group awards so I could get a sweet fireman bobble head award. But I was clipped within 100m of the finish line and came in 4th place (AG) by a few mere seconds. Since myself and my fellow runner both live locally in Cottage Grove, I fully anticipate he'll be back too. I vowed for revenge, and thus I'm in. Here's a
recap from last year's race.
This race will bring an end to the Daniels 10k plan for me. After the Hot 2 Trot 10k, I'll move into a brief endurance phase (to give myself a tiny break) and then into the Lakefront Marathon training cycle for my first BQ attempt.
Goals
-To get more comfortable running fast. I'd like to be able to raise my speed cap (VO2max) so that I can run further faster and without as much effort.
-Stay injury free.
-Sub 20 5k or Sub 40 10k. Getting either of these will give me even more confidence in trying to hit a sub 3 marathon in October. I don't have to have this goal, but it's a benchmark I can use to measure progress. Race day conditions will always dictate the feasibility of time goals.
The one thing I won't due is risk my ability to race my October marathon BQ attempt well with this training cycle. I am fully prepared to scrap this entire training cycle if things don't feel right. I'm not a speed runner and thus I'm not sure how my body will tolerate these paces (again a 5 ?!??!??!?
). So if things don't feel right, or if I'm not hitting the paces as scheduled, or if I find myself consistently fading on these runs, then I'll shut it down and move back to my speciality of endurance training.
Alright, that's all I got. I'm excited and nervous to try something new. Excited because it might be a fun new type of punishment. And nervous because it will definitely be a new type of punishment. So, what do you think?
Edit to add: Also, it's winter in Wisconsin. Which means there very likely could be snow or ice on any of these training days. My policy will be any speed/M tempo day with adverse road conditions will be moved to an easy day when I see fit. Again it does me no good to attempt to run a speed interval session through a couple inches of snow/ice. It just won't work and it's to high an injury risk.
. I can't even fathom what that's going to feel like. My "estimated best effort" for 400m which occurred during my Disney 5k is 1:31. That's 91 seconds. And I'm suppose to do 88 seconds multiple times. 
