Breaking Through

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This morning I ran hill repeats on my favorite loop at Rancho San Antonio. It takes me about 22 minutes for each loop. The loop consists of a .3 mile steep section and then levels out slightly but still goes uphill for about another .5 miles. After that, it starts going down and back to the parking lot where I can begin the loop again.
Doing these loops today brought home one really important aspect of running long – the mental aspect.
I start these loops OK but feel slightly tired. I purposely went swimming for about an hour before just to take my energy level down a notch. It is important to train in depleted conditions and teach your body and mind to perform even at low energy states.
The first loop is a warmup; the second loop I feel stronger. The third is the kicker. I start up the hill and I feel the run up the hill in my legs and in my breath, which becomes labored faster. It is at this time I start thinking about quitting after this loop and just heading back to the car. The voices in my head tell me it’s just better to stop and rest; why fight the muscles burning to do another loop?
But it’s important I get to this 4th loop. Last run I did here, I did 3 loops and felt pretty good. But now everything in my mind is just telling me to quit. I need to continue building past the 3 loops and beyond. It’s the only way to deal with those damn bridges on the NYC Marathon course.
I ignore the voices and desire to quit. My focus becomes razor sharp as I pass the parking lot and head out on the 4th loop. As I hit the steeper early section, I focus only on moving my legs at the previous rate. I reach the less steeper part and then I accelerate. It burns in my lungs and my legs, but I ignore both and just concentrate on cycling my legs. I hit the top and then recover down the back side, reach the bottom and then sprint faster towards the parking lot. I reach the lot in 21 min, having gone a minute faster on the last loop, in which I am most tired.
Negative split training is so important in toughening up the body for endurance. It works the body, but also conditions the mind to force the body to perform in very fatigued states. Breaking through these periods and finishing strong is so important. Otherwise, you’ll just give in to the little voices in your head and your pains, and just quit.
This is not the mark of a champion.

Yasso 800s

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Today I traded emails with a buddy of mine who is a sub-3 hour marathoner.
If you do the calculation, to run a 3 hour marathon, you’d have to maintain a pace of 6:52/mile the whole way, and that’s not counting dealing with the terrain and environment (ie. if it’s hilly or hot/humid day).
That’s pretty freakin’ fast.
So I asked my friend about how fast your track paces would have to be in order to have a chance of running a 3 hour marathon. My sub-3 hour friends are running 400s at about 65-75 seconds and 800s at about 2:30-2:45, and able to maintain that over as many as ten repeats.
In fact, some guy named Bart Yasso, the race services manager at Runner’s World magazine, came up with this workout of 10×800 on the track, and if you can run this workout at fairly even pace, you can get a prediction on your marathon time. Another writer named this the “Yasso 800” workout. So basically, if you can maintain a pace of minutes:seconds for each of ten 800s, then your predicted marathon pace would be about (minutes->hours):(seconds->minutes). My friends on the track who are sub-3 hour marathoners typically can run 10×800 at about 2:30-2:45 per 800, so that would mean a predicted marathon finish time of 2 hours and 30 minutes to 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Ugh. Currently I could probably sustain a 400 of about 1:32 and 800 of about 3:35-3:40! Good prediction of a 3:40-ish marathon finish time so not bad. But a far cry from 3 hours!
This morning I did 10×400 and was redlining towards the end of the last few 400s to make a ~1:32 finish!
At least now I have a rough measuring stick on how to improve. To get from 1:32 on a 400 to 65 seconds, I merely need to run that twice as fast. To get from 3:35 800s to 2:30 800s, I just have to run about a third faster. Easy.
…(sigh)….

Waikiki Rough Water Swim 9-4-06

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Waking to a beautiful aloha morning in Honolulu and swimming 2.4 miles is the best thing.
The Waikiki Rough Water Swim was the original swim after which the swim leg of the first Ironman was modelled after. It makes this swim extra special to do.
This year, they let us out, after heavy winds prevented a race start last year. The water was very calm at the start and getting through the rollers was a breeze. It’s always fun swimming through the breakers and the challenge of not getting wiped out as you’re making your way through the waves is very cool.
The swim is one of the best marked I’ve seen. The buoys are easy to spot, with a tall flag rising above the waves into the sky. They are also spaced very close so that as soon as you reach one, you can pretty much see the next one. And by the way, you’re not sighting into the sun on this race at all…Very nice!
Clouds obscured the sun for most of my swim which was great to not have the sun beaming into my eyes upon taking a breath. Also, burning my race numbers into my skin would have been embarassing as well!
It’s about 14 buoys to the turn and I make it to the beach feeling very strong the whole way. I hit the beach at around 1:20 or so and my arms feel very tired. It was a good swim and I am glad to have shown improvement all this year in my strength and form.
Can’t wait to do it again next year! Maybe next year I’ll do the Dick Evans road race the day before.which is a 112mile bike race around the island. Also of Ironman fame, is the Honolulu Marathon which one of these days I’ll have to run…

Running Injury Free

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A buddy of mine just started a new site called dailystrength.org. It is a place where you can get support and advice for various problems or issues you may have in a multitude of areas of your life.
There was a post about running and knee problems, and how people were down on running and didn’t know how to solve those problems.
So I posted my 3 big solutions to my running problems, as the combination of these has basically kept me running injury free for about 2 years now. In addition to that, there are 2 more solutions which also contributed to my injury free state:
The big 3:
1. I use hard orthotics. Not the soft kind you find at a shoe store, but ones that are created from plaster molds of your feet. They basically remove any and all possibility of pronation and, thus, one source of strain to your knees and muscles.
2. I run using the Pose Method, which teaches running on the balls of your feet and definitely NO HEEL STRIKING. Running on the balls of your feet means that there is one extra joint to absorb impact and has been shown through some studies to reduce impact stress by as much as 50%.
3. Every week I go to get ART and Graston Technique. The two methods of massaging your muscles remove adhesions that form and build up over time. If they build up over time, then your muscles get less flexible and the possibility of injury increases as the muscles get tighter and tighter until all sorts of bad things happen.
The 2 other things are:
1. The old method of training meant beating up your body again and again until it breaks down to the point of injury. The new way has recognized that you don’t need to beat up your body as much as previously thought in order for peak performance. Your body needs rest and time to grow stronger. So no more overtraining leading to pain and injury!
2. Crossover training effects from swimming and cycling have immensely affected my running ability. It has also meant that I don’t need to break down my body by running alone in order to be at some high level of fitness. I can improve my abilities through other less impact activities and run faster.

Back in Action!

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This week, which is now into the fifth week post Ironman Austria, I feel finally back and fully recovered. I can definitely feel my endurance lacking somewhat, but generally I feel pretty good. I am glad to see the adaptation occuring from last year. I would be really bummed if my body didn’t recover faster than last year.
It’s amazing thing to see this process change me year over year. I think it was a good thing to have the long view on this.
When I signed up my coach, I told myself I would keep at this for 5 years before evaluating it. Now, I am into my 2nd year with my coach and racing Ironman and think the positivity I am feeling is tremendous.
I have definitely seen others who wanted results too quickly, or are impatient to get to some level of fitness and ability and it doesn’t happen quick enough so they quit. It is really a shame. Patience and getting to know one’s body are key concepts in getting better at racing.
Onwards to the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, the Long Beach Half Marathon, and the NYC Marathon to close out the year. I’m already planning next year!

Ironman Austria Recovery: +2 weeks

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Today I went swimming for the long 2 hour swim at Foothill College. I was a little hesitant due to the length of the workout, but I went anyway thinking that I would not sprint at all and only stay aerobic.
My Master’s coach of course would not oblige (ha!). He gave us some fast intervals over a long 1800m set. I knew my condition would not stand up to sprinting, so I chose only to stay aerobic and slightly under tempo stroke rate. I managed to get through the set, and even did some 50m sprints at the end.
This is in great contrast to last year. About 2 weeks after Ironman New Zealand, I could not last even a normal 1.5 hour set at this time.
Still, I went for a 1:20 bike ride afterwards and I am still unable to get to hard efforts. My heart rate still is higher than normal even when I was backing off a notch on a rolling hills ride. I avoided hills completely to keep my heart rate lower.
I am definitely recovering faster this year than last time. This is a positive thing to see: I am adapting to the stresses of Ironman training year over year. It will be interesting to see how one more week affects my recovery and my ability to sustain higher and more normal stresses.

From the MIT Center for Sports Innovation and Technology

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An interesting article from Bicycling magazine, September 2006, p. 32. Great insights into bicycling aerodynamics and the science of cycling.
1. Time trialing is about efficiency, not power. It’s much easier to increase efficiency rather than increasing power.
2. Your bike accounts for only 15-20% of overall drag.
3. 75% of drag is determined by your body’s resistance against the air.
4. There is a relationship between biomechanics and power output and aerodynamics. You have to balance all 3 to maximize power output over time.
5. A non-aero helmet creates four times the drag of a non-aero wheelset. So spend money on an aero helmet!
6. How the race number is fixed to the bike matters – make it as flat as possible against the bike.
7. On a round tubed bike frame, a water bottle on the seat tube is more aero than without. It is more aero to put it there than putting it on the down tube.
8. Wearing gloves creates more drag than having a non-aero front wheel.

Ironman Austria Recovery: 6 Days After

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This last week I was in London and resisted actively romping around the city too much. I found that after the race, I still had that feeling in my chest of overexertion for quite a while. I did walk around a bit, but felt drained by mid-afternoon and returned to my hotel room for a nap each day. I did nothing but walk around; no swimming or biking at all. My legs were sore, but walking around helped my circulation and reduced their soreness and stiffness. Each day, however, I took 2 packets of Emergen-C to stave off getting sick. I knew my immune system would be weakened and didn’t want to get sick out in Europe somewhere. Plus, I am sure the extra vitamin hit was helping my recovery.
By end of the week, my legs weren’t sore any more, although my left IT band still is protesting a bit. I used my foam roller a lot and it definitely helped push through the remnants of the exertions on race day.
I can definitely tell that I am recovering fast this year as I am not as wiped out as last year. Today (Saturday) I hit the pool to see how swimming felt. I only did a form workout today of 1700m, but I didn’t feel taxed at all like last year. I remember after Ironman NZ 2005, I swam Master’s 2 weeks after the race and I was feeling very wiped out midway through the workout. Today, I felt almost no elevated heart rate or feelings of not being able to continue. I did not push the workout and only did form drills, but I could tell that I might even be able to survive a usual Master’s workout.
I hope for a faster recovery as I am eager to get onto building for the Waikiki Rough Water Swim on Labor Day, and start building for the NYC Marathon coming up early November.
This coming week: lots of recovery, start biking workouts, get back into Master’s swimming, and lots of ART and Graston for healing.