Week 9 Training Update

Well, the weeks are a rollin' by. Time for another weekly training update.

The numbers:
Total weekly mileage: 63.3 miles
Average Intensity Factor: .82
Long run: 14 miles
Average weight: 120.4 (+.5 lb.)
% body fat: 17%
Average hrs. of sleep: 7.4

This is the first week of a new cycle (the "Build 1" Phase) where the training objectives are to continue to increase aerobic capacity and endurance, and to increase fatigue resistance at 3,000 pace and 10K pace. (Translated, that means the new speed workouts are 400m intervals @ 3,000 pace and 1-Mile intervals @ 10K pace).

As you know, I've been experimenting with increasing volume via recovery run mileage.Unfortunately, I got it wrong early in the week which set me up to struggle with fatigue all week. I struggled tremendously to meet my targets in my key workouts this week.

I was also seriously sidetracked by some reading I did about Hadd's Theory on Distance Running. It started out simple enough. I was just trying to figure out why I was so fatigued. Which if you've ever been in the midst of trying something new, you know it's practically impossible to "figure it out" on the spot. You almost always have to wait and figure it out in hindsight. Anyways...Hadd's Theory suggests that if your race times have no relationship (i.e., don't follow the race prediction calculations to some degree) it's because 1)you aren't running enough miles, or 2) you're running your mileage too fast. Now, my first clue that this information did not apply to me should have been the fact that there is a very tight relationship to my race times. But nooooo. All I saw was "you're running your mileage too fast", and I jumped all over it simply because I had been wondering if perhaps I have been running my base pace miles too fast- getting caught up in always trying to run the same course a litle faster, etc. Long story short, I went through a major freak out which involved several days of serously doubting my training, only to come to the conclusion that I front loaded my week (Mon/ Tues)with too many miles, and set myself up to feel extraordinarily fatigued for the harder workouts.

I even went as far as to wear my heart rate monitor for two days, since according to Hadd's Theory, any easy running I do should be at a heart rate no faster than 125-135bpm. Imagine my freakout when, for the second run of the day at 4:30 PM (80 degree heat), my resting HR is 89!! And my heart rate jumps right to 140 and averages about 145-147 (but not before hitting 165, which is 93% of my max heart rate (supposedly). Ugh!! How to make sense of THAT when your resting heart rate is 48?!?!?

OK. I have since done a lot of homework on HR monitors and distance training (which I will thankfully save for another post), and I have all but thrown out the HR monitor for purposes of marathon training. I am firmly convinced the (Brain Training)pace based method is the way to go.

I am officially talked down from the ledge. What a week.

Week 8 Training Update:

This was a recovery week, and here are the numbers:

Total weekly mileage: 43.6 miles
Average Intensity Factor: .84
Total Hours: 9.25
Long run: 10 miles
Average weight: 119.9 (-.10 lb.)
% body fat: 17.4%
Average hrs. of sleep/night: 7.0

What was strange about this week was that I hit a wall of fatigue mid-week. What is this about? Is it fatigue built up from last week? Am I running my base runs too fast?(Maybe). Wednesday's base run was terrible. Then I had to bail out of Thursday's intervals, which told me something was wrong. I'm not recovering, so I better back off.

On Thursday and Friday I got some extra rest in the shape of less running and more sleeping. This was rewarded by a very satisfying "long run" on Saturday. I feel like I most likely avoided any serious fallout from over-reaching a bit last week. How do I know? Because I feel primed and ready to take on the next 3 weeks of hard work.

I also made a new rule this week: If I bail out of a key workout, I must forego the additional "recovery run" that day. Just makes sense.

Up next: Leaving hill repeats behind (YAY!) and moving to the track for 400m intervals at 3,000 pace and 1-Mile intervals at 10K pace. Plus lots of easier miles in between:-).

Usain Bolt's 9.58 Reminds Me of Ben Johnson's 9.79

Yesterday I witnessed Usain Bolt shatter his world record with an unbelievable time of 9.58 seconds. 9.58.... wow. I still can't believe it. Here's the video evidence, in German to preserve the authenticity.



So far, no other event at these world championships has piqued my interest but I made sure I saw the 100m final live. You could sense the record was going to fall. You knew Bolt could run faster. I think he can run raster, still.

Watching Bolt blow away the other runners reminded me of Ben Johnson's 9.79 in Seoul. 24-hours later, Ben broke our hearts, but for a glorious day in 1988, Ben was without a doubt the fastest man in the world. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, here's Ben's drug-assisted 9.79.



I hope Usain Bolt is clean. I want him to make the world stop at 9.4s.