To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)
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dis_or_dat
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How could you leave her out!!!
ZellyB
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Since @Keels is reading this thread...here's mile 18 in her honor. I really hope whatever race this was had a beer aid station. Lots of pics of people "cheers"-ing their water bottles with the sign (which is the correct thing to do.)
Best mile marker ever!
canglim52
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Hey I've been reading your blog, and you have fantastic information! I've been trying to build a year round training program, but everything I look up online is training for a specific race or base training. I understand now that I've probably been doing too many hard workouts per week, and not enough endurance work. What kind of training do you do when you are NOT preparing for a race, and how do you intelligently build training cycles throughout the year? Any info would be appreciated!
DopeyBadger
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Since @Keels is reading this thread...here's mile 18 in her honor. I really hope whatever race this was had a beer aid station. Lots of pics of people "cheers"-ing their water bottles with the sign (which is the correct thing to do.)
Nice! That's a funny one!
Treadmill guy sounds...simultaneously weird and flattering.
Yea, I think that is spot on. Such a weird thing to do to someone. I think if he had started the conversation differently it might not have felt as weird, but probably still weird.
I know. I know. It totally slipped my mind. It's mostly because I pre-write most of the journal on Monday night/Tuesday morning so the Tuesday entry is typically an after-thought. So even though it just happened, it didn't make it in. I'll add one other thing. She saw me coming from down the street. Stopped whatever she was doing and quick jumped on her bike. And then pulled up right next to me. I about LOL'd because it was so funny how determined she was to meet up with me on her bike.
Agreed!
Thanks! Always happy to help!
So building a year round running program is tough. I would probably advise against it just because you're going to make physical gains within a 12-18 week timeframe. In addition, specific types of workouts are best done in microcycles of 6-8 weeks because that tends to be the period of time it takes to maximize the benefits of a specific type of workout. So my advice would be to plan out training sessions in 12-18 week blocks with a few (either 2 or 3 microcycles) contained within the plan. After each 12-18 week cycle, re-evaluate your plan, possibly change your goal race/time/paces, and then start up again with something fresh.
I actually haven't been not training for a specific race since I started (2012) because I've always had a race/time as a carrot/goal. Even if you don't have a specific race/time you'd like to hit in a race it can be used as a measuring stick for what you'd like to do during training.
For example, in 2017 my sole focus will be to BQ in a Fall marathon. Based on how my Fall 2016 marathon goes will dictate what I choose to do for training come next year. Some things I'm tossing around:
Jan-March: Building just endurance and recovery from Dopey 2017
April-June: Focus on 5K/10K workouts (or improving VO2max)
June-August: Focus on HM workouts (or improving lactate threshold)
August-October: Focus on Marathon specific endurance workouts (or improving Running Economy)
So essentially this would be considered a year long training program, but as you can see each macrocycle is focused on a race distance/workout type and then within each of these macrocycles will be microcycles focusing on specific types of workouts. I haven't completely iron out the details yet, but this is my rough picture. So this means, the paces for these workouts aren't even close to being finalized. I'm not even willing to finalize my training/paces for Dopey training starting in mid-October until I see how this upcoming marathon goes. My philosophy is to train where you are not where you want to be. This will enable maybe not nearly as many benefits, but will definitely lower the risk of injury and have you training each aspect of your running (VO2max, LT, and Running Economy) appropriately.
Is there a specific distance you'd like to race (doesn't have to be soon, but something you'd like to build to in the next year), or perhaps goal time of a distance race you'd like to reach? I think that's where you want to start in terms of deciding how to build your training plan. Then evaluate what you've been doing lately and your goals to decide what is and isn't feasible in your life.
If you're looking for some more specific help you can send me a PM and we can go through a list of questions to see what would work best for where you're at right now.
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DopeyBadger
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I'll add a few other thoughts. You'd like to focus on endurance building. That's best done with easy running, long runs, and more days per week. These things will help maximize your running economy (which is your endurance base and ability to stave off fatigue). Something to try and build to is consistently running 60-90 minutes everyday (or 6 days per week). I'm not saying start this right away because it matters where you're starting from. But that's where you'd want to end up. I like to call the 60-90 minute duration the golden endurance zone. It's long enough to elicit benefits of running economy, but short enough that it reduces the necessary recovery time between workouts. And no matter how much running you do, I always like to suggest 80% easy / 20% hard with roughly marathon pace + 40 seconds being the cutoff for easy/hard. However, not all 80% easy comes at MP+40 sec but in fact in a normal week of marathon specific training for me it breaks down like this:
MP-10 seconds = 7% of weekly duration
MP = 14% of weekly duration
MP+40 seconds = 24% of weekly duration
MP+60 seconds = 14% of weekly duration
MP+100 seconds = 29% of weekly duration
MP+130 seconds = 11% of weekly duration (warm-ups/cool-downs/recovery intervals)
As you can see, I spent roughly 79% of this example week (which was 9/5-9/11) at MP+40 seconds or slower (or easy) and 21% at MP or faster (or hard). But beyond just the simple 80/20 split, I spent 54% of my training at MP+60 seconds or slower. Could I have gone faster? Sure, but that defeats the point of the different aspects of running I'm currently trying to work on (maximizing running economy)
Let's say I wanted to focus on lactate threshold instead, it would likely (but just as a theoretical example) look like this:
10K pace = 6% of weekly duration
15K pace = 10% of weekly duration
MP+40 seconds = 24% of weekly duration
MP+60 seconds = 14% of weekly duration
MP+100 seconds = 31% of weekly duration
MP+130 seconds = 15% of weekly duration (warm-ups/cool-downs/recovery intervals)
canglim52
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This was really helpful, I've been reading a lot online but it's sometime hard to put everything into an organized practice. I've definitely been doing way too much speed work and not enough easy days. I guess that explains why I haven't improved much recently... I can't figure out how to PM you though, I have a few more questions
DopeyBadger
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This was really helpful, I've been reading a lot online but it's sometime hard to put everything into an organized practice. I've definitely been doing way too much speed work and not enough easy days. I guess that explains why I haven't improved much recently... I can't figure out how to PM you though, I have a few more questions
Looks like you can't start a conversation (PM) on here until you have a few more posts. So go ahead and keep firing away your questions on here.
DopeyBadger
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This was really helpful, I've been reading a lot online but it's sometime hard to put everything into an organized practice. I've definitely been doing way too much speed work and not enough easy days. I guess that explains why I haven't improved much recently... I can't figure out how to PM you though, I have a few more questions
Do you happen to know your resting heart rate and maximum heart rate? Or do you have a recent race result?
Your run today was listed as easy, however your heart rate suggests it wasn't quite as easy as you think.
canglim52
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So my resting heart rate is only 42, but that is probably left over from my youth... I used to play a lot of sports year round, plus I'm from FL so we have the heat and humidity. I let my self get out of shape in my 20's, but even at my worst my resting heart rate was in the low 50's. I don't my maximum, but I'm 30 so supposedly its 182. I'm good at challenging my self, but my times have started plateau a bit. I've run about 650 miles this year, but I'm learning that I do too much speed work. I never run with gels or water and I thought my struggles were just because the summer heat. I usually run 5-6 times a week depending on how sore I get. Typically I run easy on Monday and Wednesday, and hard Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Sunday is my long day, but that's been my biggest issue lately. I've had a hard time getting over 8 miles even though I feel like I should be able to run half marathon with little trouble. That why I wanted to figure out a new training plan.
As for my PR's I haven't run an official marathon yet, and the only time I ever ran one I was 17 and in the best shape. I didn't train at all for it and I broke 4 hours. I also ran a 7 miles run at 6k altitude off trail in 49 minutes, 3 miles in about 19, and mile was 5:30. Now days I can't do that... I only started running again this December, so I've only been training for about 10 months. My best adult 5k was in April at 23:56. I haven't run in race since. My unofficial PR's for 10k is 55:30, my half is over 2:06, and my mile is 6:48. My biggest issue is legs getting tired. Any additional advice would be appreciated.
As for my goals on racing, I'd love to race more but I want better times first. I figured if I trained hard this year I could really start racing next year. I originally had a goal to qualify for a Boston marathon, break 18 minutes for a 5k, and 40 for 10. Now that I'm running and can see what's realistic I have backed of my goals a bit.
Lastly my run yesterday was supposed to be easy, specially coming off a rest day... But it wasn't! I couldn't keep my heart rate down and I was a little sore. If I run to slow I can't keep my strides up and I tend to work even harder. So any advice on that would help too. Sorry for all the questions, none of my friends are into running and tend to be a little overboard on my hobbies anyways...
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DopeyBadger
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Alright, finally got a chance to sit down and answer this. So you're resting heart rate (either low 40s or 50s) suggest a very high ceiling potential notwithstanding an unknown medical condition. It's not a guarantee but it means you probably have a large stroke volume per heart beat (it means your heart can efficiently bump blood throughout your body with fewer beats than most). This is advantageous for endurance running.
Do you happen to have a Garmin that provides VO2max data? Otherwise I typed in your age and approximate resting HR to give you an idea of where your cardiovascular system suggests you could be (calculator). I used a resting HR of 45. The calculator states your potential (Garmin is more accurate) VO2max is 64.
This means your HM and M predicted times for a normal performance would be:
HM: 1:29-1:45
M: 3:09-3:41
Could you walk out the door and run these times? Nope. But based on your potential VO2max this is your current predicted range based on your cardiovascular capabilities. Again, your potential is high. With this high of a VO2max and you not coming close to these times currently, this strongly suggests you need more endurance work.
I reviewed all of your strava entires and the highest HR recorded was 176, so we'll go with 190 (220-age) until we see differently. Based on the heart rate reserve zone calculations we get the following:
Each of the zones correlate with levels of effort. In my experience the zones equal the following:
Zone 1- Easy
Zone 2- Easy to Marathon Pace
Zone 3- Marathon Pace to 10k pace
Zone 4 - 5K pace
Zone 5 - Mile or above pace
Now a myriad of things can effect heart rate. However, in general your easy days should be at an average HR at zone 2 or less. Which means for you at 148 or less. You can look back at your easy days on Strava and see that you were definitely drifting above and beyond this point. So the pace might have felt easy, but it definitely wasn't easy enough. So for you what pace would be near the 148 or less? If we use your recent 5K race performance (although preferably before we set a real training plan we'd want something more recent to be more representative of your current fitness level).
So I would suggest doing all of your intervals on easy days between 9:51-10:34. This seems to jive with the results from your most recent easy day. The first interval was 9:39 and your HR was 138. But you kept increasing the pace and thus increasing the effort/HR. Keep the intervals in the 9:51-10:34 range for easy days. I think changing up your easy days, to really easy (148 or less) then you'll find that the other harder days become somewhat easier and you'll be less sore.
So to run slower try this. Keep your cadence roughly the same. Small short quick steps. But don't put too much effort behind them. Said another way don't put much power behind each step. I generally find that my cadence is the same from 9:11 to 7:33. What changes for me is the amount of effort/power I give at each step. This effort/power naturally increases my stride length without my foot falling any further ahead or behind on any of these paces. So think of the easy days as a short small stride shuffle. It will feel odd at first but over time will become more natural. This can be a more efficient stride and will allow you to fatigue your muscles less at all paces over time.
So your unofficial PRs suggest exactly what you assumed. You need more endurance work. You stack up each of your races on a race equivalency chart and if you're 5K time suggests faster times for longer distances than your PRs, then you need more endurance work (this is you). This means a significant dose of easy running, long runs, and consecutive days.
I think your goals as lifetime achievements are doable (Boston probably the most likely of the 3 listed). It will take some time (about a year) before you'd be ready to tackle these. I'd say you have a very similar running profile as I did/do and by following a similar progression will likely see significant gains in the next year on a good endurance based training plan.
So would you like to create a more formal training plan? If so, answer the following questions (some are redundant to things we've talked about, but it places all the answers in one easy to find place for me):
1) What is your "A" goal?
2) What are some of your other running goals?
3) What are your lifetime PRs?
4) What are all of your race times in the last year? If any of the races had extenuating circumstances (weather, sick, super hilly, etc.) as to why they are not a good judge of your fitness please include that information as well.
5) What went wrong in your best races? What held you back from doing better? Did you feel the reason you couldn't go faster was because a) you were out of breath, b) your legs felt dead tired, or c) some other reason/combination of the two?
6) Have you had any recent injuries or do you feel over the long term you are injury prone?
7) If you've suffered chronic or a recent injury was the cause running related (because we want to avoid it then)?
8) How many and which days are you willing to run each week? How much time on those specific days are you willing to devote to running?
9) What fueling do you do during runs? What fueling do you do after runs? What fueling do you do before you run?
10) Are there specific types of runs that make you feel more fatigued than others?
11) Why do you enjoy running? What is your motivation to run?
12) Why have you chosen the goals you've chosen?
13) What type of technology do you use to run? Treadmill, garmin, heart rate monitor, phone app run tracker, etc.
14) Are there any types of fuel pre-run, during run, or post-run that you like better than others? What led you to choose these items versus others on the market?
15) For races that provide splits, do you tend to be positive, negative, or even split? Why do you think that is?
16) What other training plans have you used in the past?
17) What kind of training have you been doing the last three weeks? Mileage, pace, etc?
18) If you run/walk. When you run about what pace do you do? When you walk about what pace do you do?
19) If I told you to run as slow as you can, how fast would you be running? This would be at a pace where you're barely breathing differently than normal walking. It feels like you're barely trying.
20) Most importantly, what is your upcoming race schedule? What/when is your next "A" goal race that you want to focus your training towards?
Don't worry keep asking questions.
DopeyBadger
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Decided to cut the 11 mile tempo (14 total miles) run short today (down to 9 mile tempo/ 12 miles total). By mile 9 of the tempo I could tell I was again more tired than I should be. Partially the paces weren't being hit because I'm still not willing to give 100% tempo effort on hills (either up or down). Which means I've been slowing down the effort significantly and thus the paces have suffered. Decided it was better to shut it down and try to conserve and recover in advance for the marathon in (mile marker) 17 days. I'm hoping the run goes better next Tuesday/Thursday cycle as these are the last two hard workouts left. But I'm not concerned. I know why things appear slower. The goal for marathon still remains the same. Do the best I can on race day. That's all I can expect to do.
DopeyBadger
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So I decided to look back on my training from the Wisconsin Marathon in May and Lakefront Marathon last year October (same race). Well I'm convinced the second to last Tempo run is cursed. All three of these cycles the run didn't go as planned. Weather ended in September last year, and paces weren't quite what I wanted last May. So seems like a pattern for me. Good thing both of those races went very well. 
canglim52
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This is incredibly helpful. I knew I needed to run slow, but I come from a contact sport back ground of no pain no gain. I literally get bummed when I feel I left anyhing on the table for a run... Hence the terrible recovery runs. My Garmin says my resting heart rate is 42 currently with the occasional upper 30's! I haven't truly tested my vo2 max, but I'm already at 52 and that was done on a long run!! My lactate threshold supposedly is 8:29/166bpm. The watch is still new so I think those are both wrong.
I absolutely would love help learning how to train. I'm one of those weird ones that loves practice as much as the actual race. So here are my answers:
1: Goal a is the be as fast as I can humanly get... Literally! I'm ridiculously competitive with my self, so if there is any room for improvement I want it.
2: as previously stated I want to qualify for the Boston marathon and break 3 hours. I also would love to break 5 min mile, 18 min 5k, and 40 min 10k.
3: life time PR is tricky all my times from when I was a teen are unofficial. I only ran occasional my to get ready for my other sports, and never ran a race until this year. Official 5k is 23:56, and everything else was done during training. In fact I only ran 2 races ever. Best run ever was when I was 16 after an outward bound, I ran 7 miles of trail at 6k elevation in 49 min and I beat all the other campers
4: only ran 2 races this year. Both 5k's. First I ran 24:44, and I ran out of steam for the 3rd mile but sucked it up a sprinted the end out. Second, I ran my official PR at 23:56 and I ran out of breath... Ran negative splits for the first 3 miles with a 7:17 mile for mile 3, but pulled back when I couldn't catch the next group and felt like I was going to puke. I always run faster chasing someone down, hence I played defense in most sports.
5: this is tricky considering I don't have a lot of races and I've only been running for 9 months. I think in the beginning I would run out of breath and have burning legs vs now it's almost always my legs and never my breath. Only time I run out of breath now is when I run hard intervals.
6: I have no injuries, I rarely ever get injured, and I don't feel like I'm injury prone. Even when i hurt my self I typically recover fast.
7: again no real injuries other then my first month back in December. It was only runners knee and I cured by run/walking
8: I'm willing to run 7, but I know I need rest days if I want to get stronger... usually I run 6 unless I'm exceptionally sore or family/work gets in the way. I usually can do an hour, and Sunday is my long day. I work every other Saturday, so usually alternate Friday and Saturday as my off days(hate giving up Saturday's unless I'm working).
9: 99% of my runs are on an empty stomach. I'm not a big fan of a lot food before my work outs. Also never tried eating or drinking while running(though I just bought a camalpack for my long runs). Post work out I always make a smoothie w/ spinach, kale, whey protein, Greek yogurt(for casein and fat), tart cherry juice, strawberries(for inflammation), blue berries (for the sun damage), and either carrot or beet juice. I'm currently trying Creatine too, but not feeling any benefit so I probably won't do it again once I run out.
10:yes!! Lately anything over 3-4 miles kicks my butt. I'm thinking it's because I've been doing to much speed work. In the beginning of the summer I could run 13 miles if I tried, now I don't know if I could make it and it's only because my legs turn jelly or stop wanting to move. Plus I always stop running if my form starts sucking to much, don't want any injuries. Also, I live in Orlando Fl, so the heat is always a factor. I almost always run in a dew point of 75+
11. I love running because it's always a killer workout, I love way the way it makes me feel( I guess I'm a runners high addict), and I love being active. I started running for mental health reasons. Not to get too personal, but stress was overwhelming me and I needed an outlet. Plus I love meditation, and running is a great way to meditate. It's made my family life sooooooo much better.
12: this sounds stupid, but I wasn't built to play the sports I played the most. I should have ran... I was always the best long distance runner on every team I played on. So I picked my goals to push my self too the max... I'm almost 31, so I don't have much more time to set my lowest PR's possible. If I hit them I will probably set even more ridiculous goals until my age slows me down.
13: I hate treadmills... I only run outside! I am a stat/excel geek, so I just bought a Garmin 735xt with the running chest strap! I know I could have found something cheaper but I didn't care
seriously the coolest thing ever!! Before Garmin I used Runtastic and a Fitbit. They were a good start, but they are nothing compared to Garmin. 14: outside of my smoothie, I love eating salmon or any fish high in omega 3 fat. It seems to really help with my soreness. Also, I love all pasta and rice!! I Don't like eating before I run, gives me heart burn.
15: I used to always be positive split because I was terrible at pacing. Lately I can do negative splits for about 3-5 miles because I learned that the first 6 minutes are all anerobic so I just gotta keep it slower.
16: since the start I've only built my own running plans from research on the Internet. I've never followed a real program yet. I love reading, but I don't have the time to read many books. The Internet only usually scratches the surface, so I'm always researching better ways.
17: last three weeks coincides with the purchase of my Garmin, so I've been playing around with different intervals but no clear plan. I've Been running about 5-6 days a week with 2 easy days and the rest harder. I've also been plateauing extra hard lately. I feel like should be way faster than my current results. I sometimes even get to casual/easy breathing at 8 minute miles but legs burnout a lot around 4-6 miles.
18: I run anywhere from 10 min/mi down to as low as 5 min/mile depending on intervals. My max speed I've hit in the last three weeks is 18 MPH on 200 m interval. I almost always walk my recovery intervals, and that's at a 20 min/pace. Normal walking is closer to 15-18 min/mile.
19: slowest I can run currently without issue is around 9:30-10 min per mile. Sometimes if I'm totally gassed mid 10's but any slower my form really sucks.
20: I've been reluctant to schedule races because I feel like I should be faster first. I eventually want to start looking, but I want to be able to break 20 for a 5k and 4 hours for a marathon. I know I want to run a Disney race next year, just don't which one. I live in Orlando so I'm spoiled I guess. I feel like I'm best at a 5k bit more satisfied with longer distances even if I'm not as good at them.
I really appreciate this, running has really become a passion of my mine. As long as I stay healthy I plan on running the rest of my life!
DopeyBadger
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This is incredibly helpful. I knew I needed to run slow, but I come from a contact sport back ground of no pain no gain. I literally get bummed when I feel I left anyhing on the table for a run... Hence the terrible recovery runs. My Garmin says my resting heart rate is 42 currently with the occasional upper 30's! I haven't truly tested my vo2 max, but I'm already at 52 and that was done on a long run!! My lactate threshold supposedly is 8:29/166bpm. The watch is still new so I think those are both wrong.
I absolutely would love help learning how to train. I'm one of those weird ones that loves practice as much as the actual race. So here are my answers:
1: Goal a is the be as fast as I can humanly get... Literally! I'm ridiculously competitive with my self, so if there is any room for improvement I want it.
2: as previously stated I want to qualify for the Boston marathon and break 3 hours. I also would love to break 5 min mile, 18 min 5k, and 40 min 10k.
3: life time PR is tricky all my times from when I was a teen are unofficial. I only ran occasional my to get ready for my other sports, and never ran a race until this year. Official 5k is 23:56, and everything else was done during training. In fact I only ran 2 races ever. Best run ever was when I was 16 after an outward bound, I ran 7 miles of trail at 6k elevation in 49 min and I beat all the other campers
4: only ran 2 races this year. Both 5k's. First I ran 24:44, and I ran out of steam for the 3rd mile but sucked it up a sprinted the end out. Second, I ran my official PR at 23:56 and I ran out of breath... Ran negative splits for the first 3 miles with a 7:17 mile for mile 3, but pulled back when I couldn't catch the next group and felt like I was going to puke. I always run faster chasing someone down, hence I played defense in most sports.
5: this is tricky considering I don't have a lot of races and I've only been running for 9 months. I think in the beginning I would run out of breath and have burning legs vs now it's almost always my legs and never my breath. Only time I run out of breath now is when I run hard intervals.
6: I have no injuries, I rarely ever get injured, and I don't feel like I'm injury prone. Even when i hurt my self I typically recover fast.
7: again no real injuries other then my first month back in December. It was only runners knee and I cured by run/walking
8: I'm willing to run 7, but I know I need rest days if I want to get stronger... usually I run 6 unless I'm exceptionally sore or family/work gets in the way. I usually can do an hour, and Sunday is my long day. I work every other Saturday, so usually alternate Friday and Saturday as my off days(hate giving up Saturday's unless I'm working).
9: 99% of my runs are on an empty stomach. I'm not a big fan of a lot food before my work outs. Also never tried eating or drinking while running(though I just bought a camalpack for my long runs). Post work out I always make a smoothie w/ spinach, kale, whey protein, Greek yogurt(for casein and fat), tart cherry juice, strawberries(for inflammation), blue berries (for the sun damage), and either carrot or beet juice. I'm currently trying Creatine too, but not feeling any benefit so I probably won't do it again once I run out.
10:yes!! Lately anything over 3-4 miles kicks my butt. I'm thinking it's because I've been doing to much speed work. In the beginning of the summer I could run 13 miles if I tried, now I don't know if I could make it and it's only because my legs turn jelly or stop wanting to move. Plus I always stop running if my form starts sucking to much, don't want any injuries. Also, I live in Orlando Fl, so the heat is always a factor. I almost always run in a dew point of 75+
11. I love running because it's always a killer workout, I love way the way it makes me feel( I guess I'm a runners high addict), and I love being active. I started running for mental health reasons. Not to get too personal, but stress was overwhelming me and I needed an outlet. Plus I love meditation, and running is a great way to meditate. It's made my family life sooooooo much better.
12: this sounds stupid, but I wasn't built to play the sports I played the most. I should have ran... I was always the best long distance runner on every team I played on. So I picked my goals to push my self too the max... I'm almost 31, so I don't have much more time to set my lowest PR's possible. If I hit them I will probably set even more ridiculous goals until my age slows me down.
13: I hate treadmills... I only run outside! I am a stat/excel geek, so I just bought a Garmin 735xt with the running chest strap! I know I could have found something cheaper but I didn't care
14: outside of my smoothie, I love eating salmon or any fish high in omega 3 fat. It seems to really help with my soreness. Also, I love all pasta and rice!! I Don't like eating before I run, gives me heart burn.
15: I used to always be positive split because I was terrible at pacing. Lately I can do negative splits for about 3-5 miles because I learned that the first 6 minutes are all anerobic so I just gotta keep it slower.
16: since the start I've only built my own running plans from research on the Internet. I've never followed a real program yet. I love reading, but I don't have the time to read many books. The Internet only usually scratches the surface, so I'm always researching better ways.
17: last three weeks coincides with the purchase of my Garmin, so I've been playing around with different intervals but no clear plan. I've Been running about 5-6 days a week with 2 easy days and the rest harder. I've also been plateauing extra hard lately. I feel like should be way faster than my current results. I sometimes even get to casual/easy breathing at 8 minute miles but legs burnout a lot around 4-6 miles.
18: I run anywhere from 10 min/mi down to as low as 5 min/mile depending on intervals. My max speed I've hit in the last three weeks is 18 MPH on 200 m interval. I almost always walk my recovery intervals, and that's at a 20 min/pace. Normal walking is closer to 15-18 min/mile.
19: slowest I can run currently without issue is around 9:30-10 min per mile. Sometimes if I'm totally gassed mid 10's but any slower my form really sucks.
20: I've been reluctant to schedule races because I feel like I should be faster first. I eventually want to start looking, but I want to be able to break 20 for a 5k and 4 hours for a marathon. I know I want to run a Disney race next year, just don't which one. I live in Orlando so I'm spoiled I guess. I feel like I'm best at a 5k bit more satisfied with longer distances even if I'm not as good at them.
I really appreciate this, running has really become a passion of my mine. As long as I stay healthy I plan on running the rest of my life!
Alright this is a great start. This is what I see.
Your potential VO2max is a 68 (based on age and RHR). This is the highest I have tested in anyone which again speaks to your very high potential as well as validates your early age PRs.
Whereas, your Garmin VO2max (which is more accurate) is a 52. There are however three possible confounding factors with this current value. You haven't had the watch for long and it's still likely collecting data. Also, check the resting HR and max HR in your Garmin profile and on the watch because the watch uses these values in its ability to calculate VO2max. Lastly, you've been running in some awful weather conditions (Dew point 75) which means the heart is likely working much harder at matching paces then under ideal conditions. But notwithstanding, here is your projection:
Your lactate threshold prediction on your Garmin seems close to what your paces I sent you would suggest. LT is around 60 min pace which at 8:28 is around 7.1 miles. I have your predicted HM pace around 8:24 currently (13.1 miles) so my guess is that it's just a matter of getting more fit for these to close on each other.
Given this I think we start you with a two phase program.
Phase 1 - Build to consistently run 6 days per week with mostly easy running. This should also serve as a rest on all the hard running you've been doing. It will also prepare you for Phase 2's more strenuous training.
Phase 2 - Follow a HM focused plan with focus on LT, Tempo, and lots of easy running.
I'll start to put pen to paper hopefully this weekend. If you'd like to get a head start keep most of your runs in the 60 min zone with most of the pace in the 9:51-10:34 and HR at 148 or less.
canglim52
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2016
- Messages
- 368
Gave it my first try today. I still was a touch to fast thus my heart rate climbed too high again. Also, my form wasn't as good on the second half. I think these easy runs will really help me improve my form, especially at the end of longer runs. I wonder if it would make more sense for me to focus on heart rate and time for this the first phase rather than pace and distance? Thanks again for all the help!
dis_or_dat
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2016
- Messages
- 1,045
Ugh tempo on hills. Too tough for me!
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
I love reading other people's plans and this made me want to go back and read the answers to those questions I gave end of last year for mine.
@DopeyBadger You've reached the sweet sixteen!
@DopeyBadger You've reached the sweet sixteen!
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