Training Log Archive: Gswede

I was feeling really weird on this run. I was tired so I decided to get the effort easy to be ready for the medium long hard run tomorrow. I got on the drive and I was hitting 6:20's-6:40. So it was decent pace regardless. I liked it.

2011 seconds new years Jog. 2010 has been good. I'm hoping 2011 will be just as productive or perhaps more. Getting my miles up.

30/30 workout.
8x30/30, 5 minute break, 10x30/30 With long warmup and cooldown. I covered about 170-180 meters each one. I felt really strong. This workout has gotten easy. My form did feel inefficient at times. Hopefully that'll come together.

Easy recovery run on the drive. I really held myself back at first to make sure I'll be recovered in this heavy workload week. But slowly my body just kept picking up the pace. It was nice that it was warmer out also.

Tough night workout. 10x90 sec hill reps. I covered about 430 meters each one which is quite good for Cathedral hill. I was really focused on my breathing, my form, and constantly saying in my head that I can handle this workout. Hill intervals seem to fuel the demons in my head more than the average workout so I needed to really actively change my thoughts. Productive.

A loop around Andorra. Very slow due to snow covered hilly roads. The effort was there so I'm fine with that. Really fun run too.

It's too easy to go really fast on Forbidden Drive. I suppose that's not a bad thing. This run had a perfect progression. I started out in the 6:40-:45 range, then went to 6:30s. And then the last 20 minutes were 6:00-:05, with the last 5 minutes at 5:30 pace. So this was a great and very very easy progression run. I also broke the rules and went under Walnut lane bridge and then climbed the road up to the hermitage. That's a nice area back there I'll explore it more later.

I decided to hit up the trails today so the pace would be kept a little slower. Calves and quads still feeling strangely tired. Hopefully the compression socks I got for xmas will help solve this problem. More later.

Warm up/ cooldown

Tempo run with Kswede biking alongside me. Felt good for the first 6 miles. Then it started getting very painful. The last half mile was a bit of a blur. Good workout.

Another night run on Forbidden since my internship is keeping me late. For some reason my quads and calves still feel shot at certain spots. I still went at a decent pace. I've got a 45 minute tempo run tomorrow so I hope I can get through without too much trouble. I'm getting it!

My quads and calves are still really sore. Im not sure why but oh well. I apparently was still moving pretty quickly so it's fine. Pretty warm night out.

Forbidden drive at night. 12x20/40s. My calves and thighs were still sore from Sunday. Thatll pass though.

A really nice rolling run on forbidden drive. I told myself to relax and just run the pace that felt right and that stayed right around 6:20-6:30 per mile. I'm not complaining especially for how easy it felt. I took some side trips on the trails to extend it a bit too. Last 5 minutes before cooldown were done at a tempo/ hard & fast pace. I clocked myself at 2:36 for a half during that "tempo". Wow.

1st section of Negative split.

Second section of negative split. I was rolling which is good because I was hurting. I would've been disappointed had it been slower and I was working that hard. I did this alone too which made it tough. I'm glad I did it because I was feeling lazy all day and I was thinking of just doing a normal run. Very calm evening and a slightly warmer temp today than recent days (30).

Cooldown

I was kinda busy today plus I enjoyed some desserts leftover in our fridge a bit too much. So I pushed my run off until 5:30 when the sun was down. I went out with my headlight to help insure that I wasn't hit. I tried to doing a road loop and then concluded it was too dangerous and did what was left on the rail trail. Running at night is really fun everyonce in a while. Tonight was perfect for it.

A faster run than I expected considering the snow covering the roads. I could feel a lot of energy being lost in the process as my feet slipped behind me. I felt a very weird sensation when I got on to sections of roads that were clear. As soon as I got onto those sections I could feel more energy being returned and suddenly my legs just wanted to take off like they wanted to run a lot faster. It was really weird. It felt like someone was moving my legs for me. And then I got back onto the snow and then sensation disappeared. Also the snow made for perfect muffling of footsteps as I snuck up on Bswede finishing up his run and did my best angry dog impression.

Rail trail. Fast on the way out because I had the wind at my back. A little slower on the return trip. Still not bad once I got into the tree cover. I forgot how bad the winter winds around here are. Still a nice break from finals week.

12 minute warm up. 8 x 30/30 5 minute recovery 8x30/30 and then 12 minute cooldown. I did this workout with Spence, Pio, and Jake Jones. We went out against the wind and then came back with the wind. Man the last three 30/30s against the wind were uphill and absolutely horrible. I was leading but I didn't really want to be. Glad I got this workout in. Always nice to do a workout with an Olympian.

I was really stressed for time today so I started this run at 9 so I warmed up over to the rec center and did most of it switching between the treadmill and track every 20 minutes. Then cooldown back to my house. Not my ideal place for a long run but this was not a night to go out with just a headlight. I got 'er done.

Gephart alone. My legs are dead from the workout last night. I suppose that's a good thing because it means its changing my body. But man did it suck this morning.

30/30 seconds 2x8 minutes with 5 minute rest in between. Once again this workout killed me but less than last time. I had to do it on the rec center track so there were some very sharp turns and it got very hot. For some reason this workout grinds up the outside of my right foot. It seems like its identifying possible inefficient movements in my stride with that.

Warmup and cooldown for the workout. 29 minutes of warmup. 10 minute cooldown.

Piper Rd. with a big group of guys. I felt really good this run. Meaning the 6:36's we kept laying down felt like jogging. Could be because the run is so flat but still it felt really easy. I tried clearing a bench early in the run but it jumped up at me and skinned my shin.

Easy morning run on the Sunoco loop. This combination of cold and wind is killing me. Also, every workout I do is killing my calves. Good or bad thing? I really have no idea.

Tuesday Negative split. Very windy today so we made sure to go out against the wind and come back with the wind. That made this pace feel much easier. Interesting because I wasn't very tired after this run. This isn't much slower than my races. I dropped the other guys today. I just felt so comfortable that it felt like the right thing to do.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/pa/shippensburg/4...

First 30 minutes of the run and last 5 minutes of cooldown. First 30 minutes were very cold and windy.
PS: Talked to Spence and he agreed with my idea and asked me to send him and email to describe my general idea of how I'll train with these workouts.

I stayed on the rail trail today because the wind was getting so strong. The cold temps and high wind was tough. Calves still killing me. But somehow I still enjoyed this run.

Extended School loop with Reilly. My calves were incredibly tight still. But it was nice to get out there for a little more time.

Today was a structured fartlek as prescribed by spence. The workout was 2x(8x30 secs hard/ 30 secs easy) with a 5 minute break between sets. It just so happened that this workout is very similar to the one on Brian Mac's website, 30 secs @vVO2max pace and then 30 secs easy. So I tried to cover 170 meters each 30 seconds hard during this fartlek on the track. That's equal to about 70 seconds per 400. Man that hurt quickly. My calves are still sore from it. I think if I can get used to that workout and subsequent ones that will improve my racing a lot.

16 minute warmup and 18 minute cooldown.

Easy run with Evans. We just took off to explore a new possible grass running area which turned out to be a flop. But it was nice to check out somewhere new. We were running a perfect pace and not even thinking about it. Our bodies are just so in tune to what the training should be.

Rest Day today. So I believe I've come up with a good training program for myself for the coming seasons. I read a lot of books on running and a lot of articles on running. I can usually burn through a 250 page book on running in a day or so.
But what I've found that how that relates to me is in terms of my VO2Max. I got it tested last year and they tested me at 76 ml/kg/min. So according to attackpoint's vDot calculator I should be able to run a 2:13 marathon, a 4:01 mile and a 13:54 5k. Obviously I'm not running those times.
Now what I've found from all the reading I've done is that while a high VO2max is considered a prerequisite to high performance, that is to say an athlete's "potential", on it's own it is a poor predictor of performance.
There are several other limiting factors, such as mental attitude, lactate threshold, vVO2max(the speed at VO2max), the list goes on. But how that relates to me is that when I had my VO2 tested my vVO2max was not very fast considering the result of the test. And also my lactate threshold was somewhat low.
So I've looked for ways to increase my vVO2max specifically. And recently I happened upon one article which offers suggestions and several workouts which are meant to train this system and my lactate threshold. http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vvo2max.htm It's very well explained in this article.
So essentially the idea which I've drawn from these articles is that I should do one vVO2max workout a week and one lactate threshold workout a week. The vVO2max workouts look very difficult but I'm willing to do anything to achieve that potential. Like Prefontaine said so elegantly "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
I'm going to bring up these ideas and articles to my coach and see how he feels about it. I imagine he'll be willing to give it a shot. It's really not like we have anything to lose. I'm not sure whether these workouts will really change anything but it seems like the best direction to go.