Week 14 Recap / Shamrock RR

The goal of the week was to prepare myself for a tough run at the Shamrock Half Marathon. Given this was my first half marathon race outside of a half-Ironman triathlon I intended on putting forth a good effort despite my minor injuries. I had trained hard this off-season and a good race was going to be my payoff.

When race day arrived the weather took a turn for the worst. The forecast was miserable with temperatures in the 40s and 15-20 mph winds. Luckily the rain ended before the race began. I registered a time of 1:45:00, which I felt would be a great achievement since my PR from the Duke Liver Half triathlon was 1:57:13. This time put me in the first coral with some serious distance runners. I decided not to toe the line with them. Instead I huddled with a mass of individuals that appeared to be more my speed. The plan was to draft off the pack as long as I could before braving the wind alone.

Once the horn sounded the pack separated rather quickly and I chose to stay with two particular guys. I had spoke to them pre-race and knew they were shooting for 1:40ish. When I reached the first mile marker I was surprised to see 6:57 appear. The pace felt good, almost unchallenging, so I decided to keep it although it was out of my planned range. Before the second mile marker, the small pack began to separate when someone blew past. I thought we had slowed down too much so I made a move. My second mile came in at 6:51, which was much faster than I wanted to go, but I was feeling great. I continued to click off 7:00 or so miles to the halfway mark. I thought once I had the wind at my back I could ease up and coast home at the same pace.

At mile eight I began to feel my hip tightening and my IT band soon followed. I noticed I had begun to lean forward from exhaustion. The poor form not only hurt my legs but my back as well. I had to concentrate on my posture for the remainder of the race. Once I reached eleven miles I was ready to walk but didn’t want to ruin a good race. I had somehow managed to run a 7:00 pace for eleven miles so another two and change was nothing. A guy noticed me laboring and tried to coax me to break 1:30 but I wasn’t having any of it. I didn’t want to blow out my knee on the first race of the season.

I ended up finishing with a PR of 1:31:33 (7:00 pace). I placed 25th out of 380 in my age group. Not bad for my first half marathon. My splits were as follows: 6:57, 6:51, 6:59, 7:00, 7:05, 6:55, 6:59, 7:00, 6:59, 6:55, 6:59, 7:55

By the end of the week I logged 4100 yards swimming, 6 miles biking, and 17.1 miles of running in 3 1/2 hours. If I can manage to get my biking up to par I should be good for the Smithfield Sprint in two weeks.

Coastal Racing Club

I've basically trained for a whole year now and learned a wealth of information in that time, much from my NC triathlon connection (thanks Scott). I can honestly say 98% of my training has been done alone. I initially thought this was a good thing since nobody will be there on race day to draft off of. To me, triathlons are about you and the course. There didn't seem to be a need for anyone else.

On Monday I made a great decision to join the Coastal Racing Club in Virginia Beach, VA. It's a bit of a drive for a Newport News resident such as myself but I think it's worth it to hangout and learn from like-minded athletes. Triathlon is not only a sport, it's a lifestyle. It will be nice to chat with people who feel the same way.

I look forward to making new friends and participating in all of our planned group trips, training seminars, meetings, and socials. It feels great to be part of a team again.

Week 13 Recap

Another solid running week in the books. And now just a little closer to the Shamrock Half Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA on March 16. It's nice to think I won't have to swim or bike before I race on Sunday, although the ocean is right there...

There's plenty else to worry about before the race, namely my newest injury, the dreaded iliotibial band. I've suffered through this moderate pain several times in my career as a high school/college runner and never though twice about where it came from. Until a few days ago I didn't even know there was a name for it, which is ITBS. In the past I kept running and the pain would eventually disappear. However this time the pain has remained. It probably has something to do with my recent increase in run intensity and poor bike positioning. Prolonged efforts in both disciplines induce acute pain on the outside of my right knee. I foresee a week of rest, ice, compression, and elevation in my future.

Week 13 was, for all intents and purposes, a taper week so my volumes were down to 6100 yards swimming, 10 miles biking, and 13 miles running. That equates to just over 4 hours of work.

The toughest workout session of the week was four hill repeats on the same 1/2 mile stretch of hill used in Week 4 and 10. Much like the previous workout I forgot to check my times for the course before heading out. After an easy mile warm-up I struggled to run 2:55, 3:00, 2:59, and 2:58. These times were exactly on pace with Week 10's efforts so it wasn't too bad considering I recently went close to two weeks without serious training.

Early in the week I tried getting in some much needed biking on my trainer. Yet for some reason, both 20 minute sessions seemed extremely difficult. I began to wonder how much damage I had done to my biking abilities by neglecting it for months. A few days later I decided to do a little maintenance on the bike and noticed my rear brake had been knocked into the tire. It had been continually rubbing for who knows how long. I heard this happened to Lance Armstrong during his 5th Tour de France victory.

Week 12 Recap

As promised in my last blog I returned to solid training on February 25th. My breathing still wasn't quite right but I figured running would help clean out the remainder of the phlegm in my lungs. It did. On the other hand, I felt like I was training at altitude because I became light-headed easily. I guess I wasn't getting the proper oxygen absorption due to the bronchitis.

The week's workout plan featured another trip to the track for Yasso 800s. Since I was a bit under the weather I kept it down to six repeats. I certainly didn't set any PRs that day but I managed to keep all of them under 3:00. I can't wait to run my first 5k at the Smithfield Sprint.

Although my swim times have been steadily declining, especially now that I do more kick drills, I've decided to use a new plan structured by Chuck Burr. He maintains a thread at the US Masters Swim Forum. I've linked to it on the right. If you're not a swimmer, you'll have to decipher the swim lingo before using the workouts. I still ask a collegiate swimmer friend of mine what everything means. So far the training has been tough but manageable.

It was a good week coming off an illness. I logged another 6 1/2 hour effort covering 6900 yards swimming, 5 miles biking, and 30 miles running.

On a semi-sad note I played my last rec soccer game this past weekend. I've retired. The constant injuries from flagrant fouls have worn me out. Now I can concentrate fully on triathlons. I can also ease my mind and legs each Saturday because I'll not be taking a beating from some hack.

Week 11 Recap / Heart Rate Training

After having the death flu for a week I'm not even going to mention anything concerning training from 2/10-2/17. My immune system couldn't have taken any abuse that week. But I am finally feeling better and plan to resume serious training on 2/25.

So this leaves us with this past week, which I'll call Week 11. Since I was still coughing up strange things when elevating my breathing I decided to keep all my workouts indoors. When I was in high school I had a similar illness and had to run indoors at the YMCA's 25 meter walking track for two weeks. It was pretty ridiculous. Lucky for me they've invented the elliptical machine since then (I don’t care much for the treadmill). I find it’s great for getting the legs moving and the heart rate into the desired range. For me, that range is 140-150 BPM for an easy “run” workout.

There’s not much to report about my adventures with the elliptical machine so I’ll take a moment to talk about how I use my heart rate to train. I’m not a doctor and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night. Take this information for what it is; just some random triathlete sharing how he approaches training.

First off it’s important to know what my resting heart rate is. I found this out by laying in bed a few minutes after waking up and then, while still lying down, counted my beats for a minute using my alarm clock. I’ve got a near death RHR of 43 BPM. Once my resting rate is known I needed a maximum rate for cycling and running. The two are not the same. The best way to figure out my MHR was to perform several maximum effort intervals. I was sure to warm-up good to lessen the chances of injury. By the final interval of five I was peaking. I won’t lie, finding my MHR was hell. Another less accurate method is to use this generally accepted formula:

MHR = 205.8 - (0.685 * age)

When I use the formula my MHR is calculated as 185. This is off a slight bit from my MHR (from intervals) of 190 and 184 for running and cycling respectively. Heart rates are a function of genetics and age so there is a ton of variability. That’s why I put myself through the ringer to get my MHRs.

Once RHR and MHR was known I created an exercise zone chart by percentage. The math is simple.

(MHR – RHR) * (%) + RHR

For each percentage (50 to 100) I calculated my target heart rate, shown here:

I use Zone 1 mainly for a warm up. Sometimes my warm up creeps into Zone 2 because I’m impatient. But for the most part Zone 2 is an easy/recovery day effort. Zone 3 takes up the majority of my time because it’s great for endurance building. I’ll typically do 8+ mile runs and 40+ mile rides in this area. Zone 4 and 5 are my interval zones. I’ve found it difficult to keep my HR monitor on during run intervals so I go by feeling. When the lactic acid burn begins to rear its ugly head I know I’m pushing myself to the right level. Cycling is a different story, but when I’m going that fast I don’t feel comfortable looking down at my watch. Again, I have to go by feel.

There are other ways to monitor the amount of work I’m performing (such as a power meter on a bike) so I’m not cheating myself or wasting time. Though I find the HR method is not only easy to understand but to use. It’s also nice when the weather sucks or illness strikes and I can hit up the gym to get a good workout at the right intensity.

Week 10 Recap

In Week 4 I performed my first good hill workout on a 1/2 mile stretch I've found in Yorktown, VA. In my blog I described running those intervals in "adequate times." This was two months ago. Until Week 10 I had been unable to make it out to the location due to the lack of sunlight after work. As you'll soon see my return was a triumphant one.

On Tuesday I was standing at the bottom of the hill, all warmed up, properly stretched, and mentally prepared to kick my own ass. Then I began to wonder what type of times I ran last December. Nothing came to mind so I decided to challenge myself but not over do it on the first repeat. 3:09. I thought not bad, but had to have been slower than before. 3:08. "Okay so maybe this is all I've got in the tank today." 2:59. "Whew, where did that one come from?" 2:55, 2:55. "Wow, it's time to cool down." I was losing sunlight quickly and I didn't feel like getting hit by a car.

The next day I added the data to my workout journal and noticed my previous efforts of 3:26, 3:21, 3:15, 3:37. All I can say is I must be doing something right to drop, on average, 0:26 off a split.

The rest of the week was going well until I felt sick on Saturday. I played the full 90 minutes of a soccer game and then immediately afterwards ran the trail for 7 miles. I had to force myself to run the last 2 miles. The whole time I contemplated how much fitness I was gaining from a meager 2 miles more and if it was worth it. After the run I ate lunch as planned and thought I could sleep my way through an easy 2500 yard swim. I had a headache and my back was aching a bit so I figured I’d take a nap and stretch some before the swim. Once my body hit the couch training was over.

Sunday's soccer game was out of the question, along with the remaining training I had planned. My body ached from head to toe. My chest and stomach hurt from coughing. A trip to the doctor’s office on Monday revealed I had the flu and bronchitis. I had felt miserable since Saturday afternoon and had continued to feel so until last night. I’ve probably only been awake 16 hours in the past five days. Thank codeine. I won’t be working out till next Monday so Week 11 training is a complete bust. I've also decided to cancel my adventures in Hal Higdon's marathon plan for some much needed time on my bike trainer.

Even with a reduced amount of training I put 6 hours in over 6800 yards swimming, 9 miles biking, and 22 miles of running.

Garmin Forerunner 205

For the last month and a half I’ve been using the Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS receiver watch on all of my easy and long runs. At first I borrowed it from a friend for the trip to Europe. Once I got back she stated she wasn’t using it due to her pregnancy and that I could try it out on a few local commonly used run/walk courses. Both of us had been curious to see how the watch faired against a specific course in particular, that being the 5-mile loop of the Noland Trail in Newport News, VA.

The course is a packed dirt and sand trail that winds along Lake Maury. Along the way the trail includes fourteen bridges, scenic lookouts, benches, water fowl, a million squirrels, turtles sunning, and importantly 1/2-mile markers. The trail is heavily wooded and has some relief but nothing I consider challenging. I’m guessing the largest “hill” has an elevation of +25 feet. However a few locations could be considered steep, especially if you do all your running in southeast Virginia.

After two measured runs on the Noland Trail the GPS unit indicated the course to be approximately 0.2 miles shorter than published. If you’re running a 10 min/mile pace this means you’d need to run an extra two minutes on the course to get your distance in. I believe 0.2 miles is a substantial difference if you want to gauge future performances off trail times using the existing markers.

I wondered where the mileage discrepancy occurred so I began to keep a lap count for each 1/2-mile. This is when the watch began to give some oddball answers. Over two consecutive sunny days this winter (no leaves on the trees) I ran 18 miles combined on the trail. By doing so I was able to record at least three pieces of data for each segment of the trail. The results showed 9 of 10 markers to be shorter than 0.5 miles. I averaged each segment length and summed the total distance, which was surprisingly 4.6 miles, not 4.8 as previously measured on continuous runs. The fact that the data points for each segment showed a variation of approximately 0.05 miles was troubling. If you’re running a 10 min/mile pace that’s a difference of 30 seconds per half mile.

The point I’m getting at is that the Garmin Forerunner 205 is not as accurate as most people would like, at least not on the Noland Trail. I am concerned it is difficult to consistently replicate a distance over a known course with this watch. Yet I do believe it is a useful tool for 1/2 marathon and up training.

What the watch is good for is letting you get a decent idea of how far you've run on easy and long run days. It would appear that the discrepancies even themselves out over larger distances. With a tool like this you can run aimlessly through town, into a park, and down a street you’ve never been on.

I think one feature that could be removed from the watch is the pace function. It consistently indicates I'm running 2-3 minutes per mile slower than I end up running for the whole workout. It has never been a reliable source for pace information. You can only deduct that information from the watch by looking at lap times on key intervals and multiplying in your head. But even that's not accurate because the mileage can easily be off 0.1 or 0.2 miles. But it’s something, which in some cases is better than nothing.