Back to a bit of speed training

Well, shock horror - I’ve been doing some quality running sessions!  I’ve never been a fast runner - especially when I compare myself to my esteemed club mates at Winchester & District AC - but whatever speed I ever had from training for marathons has gone, since I’ve been training for ironman races.  And yes, you do do speed training for marathons!

Anyway, after about six weeks off to recover from Ironman Regensberg in August, I’ve been putting in some effort to run harder over shorter distances rather than constantly churning out long slow runs.

And it’s started to work I think. I did the Solent Half Marathon yesterday and did my fastest time for a couple of years… although it’s still a time I’d have been horrified at three years ago.  It wasn’t a completely flat course and I felt fairly comfy all the way round so the ‘good’ result has encouraged me to keep up the shorter, sharper stuff to see if I can do a half decent effort at the Lordshill 10 mile race next month.  I might even dip my toe into the muddy waters of cross country racing…  now that’s really great training all round.

So far I’ve done a couple of hill sessions at Farleigh Mount, a couple of  tempo pyramids  (a continuous pyramid of jog, steady, threshold, steady, then jog) and a couple of threshold sessions.    It’s quite nice going out and knowing that the payback for working hard is getting back home earlier.

My next challenge is to try to make my training a bit more efficient and see if, over the winter, I might be able to participate in the sessions I coach on a Tuesday night.  They’re tough, but all on grass which means my knee will have half a chance of behaving itself.  But it means I can’t offer the same level of coaching to club members if I’m running rather than timing and encouraging.  We’ll see.

Tags: cross country, ironman, race, running, training, Winchester & District AC

A glimpse at the life of a full time athlete

Earlier this month I did a week’s training camp in Lanzarote.  What an eye opener. And what a great week!

It was a triathlon/running camp organised by Martin Yelling, Liz Yelling and Ian Corless.  Liz obviously focussed on running (she’s in her pre-London phase so was training hard, herself), Martin and Ian focussed on the bike with the help of pro ironman triathlete Joel Jameson, and Loughborough Uni-based swim coach and Olympic team psychologist Dave Fletcher led the swimming, again helped by Joel.  The coaches were top notch - all so good at what they do, but also supportive,  inclusive and generous with their time. And they all had a sense of humour and made even the most gruelling sessions … less gruelling.

There were two runs, a swim and a bike each day which we could all dip in and out of as we wanted.  My focus was on the bike as it’s my weakest tri discipline, but with  such a good swim coach on hand  I’d have been mad not to swim every morning, too.

My routine went something along the lines of wake up, banana, swim, breakfast, bike, food/rest/food/sleep, wake up, banana, swim, breakfast etc etc. By the end of the week I’d trained for almost 30 hours - more than double my previous max week total. That might be a normalish week for an elite triathlete, but for us campers such big volumes were extraordinary and not sustainable for much more than a week.

Most people’s focus was on working hard to make the intelligent most of the camp’s offerings, then relaxing and eating properly to recover from one session and gather energy for the next. With no normal household or work responsibilities it seemed normal to do at least two sessions a day.  After a couple of hard days I had an ‘easy’ day - although I’d already swum for an hour and biked for two! The ‘easy’ bit was a whole afternoon and evening off with no session planned. I begun to wonder how on earth I ever thought one session was enough back at home.  But of course a training camp’s not normal and, unless you’re very lucky - or a professional full-time athlete - it’s hard to fit that level of training and recovery into a regular day.

In fact I was over-reached by the last day.  Over-reaching is the first stage of over-training.  Heart rate can be erratic, mood temperamental, sleep impaired.  I’d been unable to sleep well at all for the whole week which certainly didn’t help my recovery but on the last day I was experiencing a few tell-tale signs.  My heart rate was stratospheric during the easiest of warm up drills in the pool. Then I threw a strop on the bike when it was too fast for me (well… it was meant to be an easy recovery session and it was proving a tad faster than that).

To avoid over-training I thought I’d been very careful: picking my sessions, not doing the run sessions (because I know I take a long time to recover from them and I wanted to have energy to do the major bike sessions properly)… but I’d obviously done just a bit too much.  Alternatively, perhaps I got it right, but the lack of sleep meant I didn’t get the full recovery my poor body so desperately needed.

Luckily over-reaching is fully reversable with a few days off and it was obvious to us all that the week following the camp needed to be an easy one to help us recover and let the training bed in.  If the camp had been one day longer I would have exploded.  Martin was very nice and said it meant that I’d got it about right.

Now, having been back for just over two weeks, I’m starting to feel the benefits.  My energy levels are returning and I mashed through a long bike at the weekend in a much shorter time than it would have taken me this time last year - at the same sedate perceived exertion level and heart rate. And that was at the end of quite a big week.

So. I’ve  booked for next year. I’d recommend a training camp - but make sure you get one that has the right level of activity and ethos for you.  I’m so glad I went on this one rather than a cycling-specific one - I just don’t think I’d have coped. Club la Santa in Lanzarote is a mecca for this type of activity and I can see why. And the silly tan lines for 2011 are coming along nicely.

Tags: Add new tag, cycling, heart rate, Lanzarote, nutrition, over reaching, overtraining, recovery, sleep, swimming, training, training camp

Calling all runners in Winchester!

Just in case you’re reading this and you live in or around Winchester, you might be interested in this.

I’m an endurance running coach at Winchester & District AC (WADAC) and we’re about to make a real effort to attract a broader range of runners to the club. We want to make sure everyone feels they have a place there - whether they’re beginners or if running for 30 mins is their limit.

The great thing about being part of a club is the camaraderie (and WADAC’s very good at camaraderie!).  It’s wonderful having someone to run with around the dark streets in the winter or over the downs on a balmy summer evening. If you enter races it’s lovely to travel there with friends or at least see some friendly faces on the start line. And if you’re wavering about whether to go out for a run at all, knowing that you’ll see your friends there or not wanting to let any of your friends down, is a great motivator. And we all feel better after a run however rubbish we felt before!

We have some amazing runners that help us to win local cross country and road running leagues.  We’ve got national and international team members. But there’s lots of room for ‘normal’ runners who just want some company or new routes to run… and if they eventually decide they’d like to train more seriously or do a 10k or half marathon… or a marathon… they’ll be in the right place for lots of help along the way.

So - if you know anyone who runs a bit and who you suspect might like to run a bit more … tell them to email me.  We’ll make sure they’re looked after.

Tags: club membership, joining a club, running, Winchester & District AC

More on caffeine… it’s not all bad

Actually, now that I can see that last post about caffeine, the headline makes it all look a bit scary, when in fact caffeine is not all bad for endurance athletes.

One of the reasons I’ve weaned myself off fully-leaded coffee is to make the effects of caffeine more marked when I do have it. I can’t cite the many research papers here, but it’s well-known that caffeine can boost endurance considerably - or certainly by an amount that makes a difference on a long effort.  That’s why you can buy gels and sports drinks with caffeine added.

The obvious benefit is the mental stimulus/lift that it can give when the going gets tough.  But what lots of people don’t realise is that it seems to mobilise free fatty acids, making them more easily available for use for muscle contraction and general energy production. This would preserve your precious glycogen stores. And the longer your glycogen stores last in an endurance event, the better!

There’s more to it than that, but if you want more, google ‘caffeine endurance performance’ and there’ll be plenty for you to read.

Tags: nutrition, running

Train, recover. Train, recover. Repeat.

Well, I’m well and truly back into ironman training.  This is week 6 of a 30-week programme. At this stage it’s all low intensity endurance work, building up the ability over 10 weeks or so, to swim and bike the full ironman distance (swim 2.4 miles and bike 112 miles).  Running, for me, takes a bit of a back seat.  In fact to do an ironman at my level, full marathon training just isn’t necessary.

This has been brought home to me this week.  I did a 10 mile running  race at the weekend because it’s a great club outing and a hilly, challenging course. I didn’t race it, but used it as a training run, running to a heart rate that kept me firmly aerobic. At no time was I working hard and I had a lovely time. But that evening the tell-tale hammered legs syndrome kicked in and today, two days later, they’re still feeling heavy.

And that’s why you don’t do too much insane run training for ironman! It takes so much out of you that it can impede the rest of your training.

So the focus is fully on getting in the miles at the moment, recovering and resting well between efforts, eating well, then doing it all over again.  It’s a long haul to get to the start line unscathed and fighting fit - so it’s best not to blow it early on.

Tags: heart rate, ironman, nutrition, recovery, rest days, running, training to heart rate, Winchester & District AC

Give yourself a chance to recover

Well, it’s been ages since I posted, but now that marathon madness is done and dusted for a while, there’s no excuse.

I didn’t run a spring marathon this year because I know I take a long time to recover from them and that would have got in the way of my ironman training. (And, as a novice cyclist, my biggest ironman gains will be from getting as strong as I can on the bike so that I’m not in pieces before I start the run). But I trained for, ran and re-lived Brighton,  London and Stratford vicariously through my clients and WADAC club mates.  Almost as good as the real thing…  I particularly loved getting excited with the London first-timers.  London is a FAB first mara.

Anyway, the point of this post is to emphasise the importance of recovery after a marathon. Proper recovery. That means at least a week off running, maybe two.  There’s plenty of research to show that having a complete break from exercise after a major endurance event can have you recovering faster than doing even very gentle, conservative recovery runs.

The thing that catches people out is that, one the muscle soreness has subsided, people think they’re healed and can pick up the training again (and I use the word ‘healed’ on purpose).  What people don’t realise is that the damage goes deeper than must sore muscles and joints.  I intend to research this further and will post on here as and when I know more, but Nick Anderson -  GBR endurance coach - explained it to me by saying that a marathon causes massive damage and disruption to our energy systems at a sub-cellular level.  So even if we’re not feeling stiff any more, actually our muscles aren’t working optimally until the energy systems and sub-cellular structures are repaired and fully operational again.  This can take up to a month - the rule of thumb is to take a day’s rest for every (running) mile raced.

It’s clearly a complex subject and not a lot of info is readily available.

After a few days complete rest, though, it’s good to do some active recovery to help get those muscles working and lined up again.  Choose non- or low-impact activity like swimming, gentle cycling on the flat and walking.

Of course people run for all sorts of reasons - not just to get ready for a marathon or other key race.  Once the training’s finished, there can be a bit of a void, even depression. I think people sometimes run too soon after a marathon for all sorts of reasons, not just a keen-ness to get back to training. People run to clear their heads, because it’s part of their routine, to minimise depression or to boost self esteem.  Or because they’re addicted, even.

One of my clients ran a great marathon, despite a less than optimal preparation due to unforeseen circumstances.  Three days afterwards, just before his post-race massage, he said that he ‘ought’ to go for a run that evening.  We discussed the ins and outs of recovery and running too soon after a big race and he decided to give himself a few more days rest.  When I started the massage, straightaway he felt soreness and discomfort throughout his legs.  That was all the evidence he needed to convince him it was too early to run!

Tags: long run, marathon, race, racing, recovery, rest days, running

Cycling vs running from a body’s viewpoint

Preparing for the ironman, my training week now involves not only a long run, but a long bike and a long swim instead.  Anyone who’s a distance runner either looks forward to or dreads the long run… but whichever way it’s an important session that has to be fitted in, come what may.  So, as you can imagine, fitting in three long sessions every week can be tricky.

The long bike is now my major weekly session.  Cycling is my weakest discipline - and certainly the one I have least experience in, so it’s going to be my focus for the entire ironman build up.  The rationale is that if you’re strong on the bike part of the race (112 miles) you’ll be in good shape for the run (a marathon).  It makes sense that being a super strong runner means nothing if the bike element leaves you in pieces before the run even starts.

Long bikes at the moment for me are anything over four hours - or about 50 miles; although I’m now feeling that if I did ‘only’ 50 miles for a long bike it’s now not really enough, except in a recovery week.  The longest I’ve done is six hours which is what it took to do a 76 mile cyclosportive on 7th March.  I’ve done a couple of five-hour rides, too, so it’s all going in the right direction.

What’s interesting is how different I feel after a long bike to a long run.  Yes I feel tired all over - but in a pleasant, sleepy way rather than a completely drained, shattered way.  And, however much my legs ache during the ride, going up the hills, they never feel as tired afterwards as they do after a long run.

It’s all obvious really, I know, but it’s brought it home to me quite how much we hammer our legs - joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons - when we’re running.  It’s given me new respect for anything we can do to look after our legs and bodies after running, in particular.  So the ice baths (or even just cold ones!), stretching, massage, sleep and good food are just vital!

Tags: Add new tag, cycling, ice, ice baths, ironman, long bike, long run, nutrition, recovery, running, sleep, stretch