Sub 36 in 10K

[TheEd]

stick to 3rd week for this week

TheEd

[Albert83BCN]

Ok sir! :great:

[Albert83BCN]

Me again! Just back to report today's 10x400m. In fact there's not much to report, I did the training side by side with my sub 36' friend Raúl like last week and we pulled out almost exactly the same session, with the same paces and HRs, well I was not expecting any special change from one week to another either hehe.

Here's the data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/180971822

And the summary:

6 1:19.3 0,41 3:11 -> Max. HR 168
7 1:00.0 0,07 14:58 -> HR Down to 126
8 1:17.2 0,42 3:04 -> Max. HR 173
9 1:00.6 0,08 12:48 -> HR Down to 127
10 1:17.0 0,41 3:06 -> Max. HR 175
11 :59.9 0,07 14:42 -> HR Down to 134
12 1:16.9 0,42 3:02 -> Max. HR 177
13 :59.3 0,07 13:50 -> HR Down to 137
14 1:15.0 0,42 2:57 -> Max. HR 179
15 1:00.2 0,07 13:48 -> HR Down to 142
16 1:15.8 0,42 2:59 -> Max. HR 179
17 1:00.5 0,07 14:43 -> HR Down to 145
18 1:14.9 0,42 2:58 -> Max. HR 180
19 :58.8 0,06 15:24 -> HR Down to 149
20 1:13.9 0,42 2:57 -> Max. HR 181
21 :59.8 0,06 15:25 -> HR Down to 150
22 1:16.5 0,41 3:07 -> Max. HR 180
23 :59.0 0,07 13:32 -> HR Down to 153
24 1:15.1 0,42 2:58 -> Max. HR 181
25 1:00.8 0,07 15:10 -> HR Down to 149

One week ago same session:

7 1:18.3 0,41 3:11 -> Max. HR 169
8 1:00.1 0,08 12:32 -> HR Down to 134
9 1:16.4 0,42 3:02 -> Max. HR 174
10 1:00.3 0,07 15:13 -> HR Down to 138
11 1:15.7 0,42 3:02 -> Max. HR 176
12 1:00.6 0,07 14:50 -> HR Down to 142
13 1:15.8 0,42 3:01 -> Max. HR 179
14 :59.1 0,07 13:51 -> HR Down to 147
15 1:16.0 0,42 3:01 -> Max. HR 180
16 :58.0 0,07 13:22 -> HR Down to 150
17 1:14.5 0,42 2:59 -> Max. HR 181
18 :58.5 0,06 15:57 -> HR Down to 155
19 1:15.5 0,41 3:02 -> Max. HR 181
20 :59.6 0,07 13:16 -> HR Down to 154
21 1:17.1 0,42 3:03 -> Max. HR 182
22 :58.8 0,07 14:35 -> HR Down to 155
23 1:15.6 0,42 3:00 -> Max. HR 181
24 :59.2 0,06 17:36 -> HR Down to 158
25 1:13.7 0,42 2:57 -> Max. HR 183

After looking carefully at the data maybe there can be noticed a small drop in HR on the recovery periods? Well I guess it will depend a lot on the day and such, we started a little bit slower than last week but got into the fast pace by the 5th repetition or so, but this time I could not end as strong as last week since we pushed it too much on the 8th interval and that has hurt in the last two. Either way feeling quite well during the session with not much noticeable fatigue from Sunday's race. Yesterday I did a little bit of leg strength training and maybe I could slightly feel it, but not much. Calves feeling ok during the whole session and by now which I think is the most critical aspect on this fast intervals.

[TheEd]

not wise to do a leg strength session currently

you don't want to break down the good direction you going in

often people do sessions purely because they think they must

give yourself good recovery during this week as you in a good space to do well

TheEd

[Albert83BCN]

I know... but aside from my running aspirations, I somehow still want to maintain or even develop a little bit more my overall muscle & fitness, in the end I come from a bodybuilding lifestyle, remember? hehe

I'm well aware that strength and endurance don't mix very well... but I like them both

I have kind of short and small legs and that makes my upper body seem a little bit off-balance with my lower body. In the past I tried to train leg hard with typical heavy moves like squats, dead lifts, leg curl and leg press, also calves training trying to hit different angles and seeking burning... but even if I improved in strength, size was not a big difference, specially with calves, they are impossible for me.

Since I had a lot of soreness and hypertrophy the days after leg training, when I started to run faster and had to do intervals and long runs I started to drop leg training because I could not perform well on both things, in the end, if I were to choose, running is my priority now. But I'd like to introduce a little bit of it back again, maybe more into the 12-16 rep. resistance-range and not as heavy-dutty like before.

I guess that there may be some holes in the schedule where I could fit a little bit of this leg training where there is enough time to recover? What are your thoughts on this?

[TheEd]

One of the aspects of my background to coaching is performance coaching.

In the use of the word performance, this was determined by doing well on the exact day that it counts.

If it is a championship, then the ideal is to win a medal or to win the title

so there are no chances to come back the next week and perform if you lost out on the title or medal. You need to wait a year before you had the chance to make-up for the mistakes made.

So in order to avoid this and to be ready on the day that counted, you never did things to counter balance your chance on the exact day according to the calendar and the title at stake that day.

if you failed as a top athlete it hurt and it hurt for a long time

so coming back to you and your chance to perform.

As a coach and if we were working on a one on one basis, I would not have recommended you to do any strength training this week when you have a strong chance to go sub 36 minutes for 10km.

whereas strength training and all the elements that balance the runner are beneficial, one of the most enduring and enjoyable aspects of training is to get results.

As a coach I was always held to task, the athletes looked to perform at championship level or an exact day, so my duty was to deliver that performance.

I think you very close to running sub 36 minutes

good luck for the weekend

TheEd
ps.. Albert, do note I am not anti strength training but would like to think there are days when less is better

[Albert83BCN]

Yep, I understand that your goal is to deliver performance on the racing side and it's true that in order to achieve it there will be things that are counter productive and it's normal that you, as an expert, put an emphasis on this, I understand it and also appreciate it a lot

To tell the truth I didn't realise that you were so serious into getting me under the sub 36 goal! I mean, the website says that you should be able to balance running with your daily life, and since I enjoyed my strength training... I did so, and kept with it even on the racing week (although I try not to push myself the days before the race, I do it more thinking on maintenance).

But re-thinking about it and having into consideration the experience you told me -which doesn't fully apply to an amateur like me but I can somehow understand the feeling because I also put a lot of effort on this- I will have it a lot into consideration and try to maximise my chance to get on peak form to the day of the race.

Thank you a lot for your guidance as always

Getting back to the training, yesterday the worst happened
I was doing my 30' easy 6x1' fast-slow on the mill, and just in the 5 minutes before ending the activity my leg started to hurt. It was on the front, lower part of the tibia I think, I'm not expert on injuries but I guess it felt like inflammation on this part. When I got home it still hurted a bit during the night, until I got to bed. I put on some reflex spray and took a voltaren (diclofenac) in a hope on minimizing whatever could have happened.

Today I wake up feeling much better and does not hurt when I walk, but I can still feel it somehow if I touch it with my finger. I cleaned the running shoes with the washing machine and don't know if it is just coincidence or may have had some impact on form while running and caused this... :mmm: I don't really think I pushed it yesterday, in fact I felt great during the session and think I kept in the sweet spot of the purpose of the training, not overdoing it.

I'm a little bit worried for tomorrow... the race it's very near home so will go and have my warm up and depending on how I feel will decide, hope that's just an occasional nuisance and disappears fast...

[TheEd]

here's hoping you recover quickly from this set-back

please keep me informed

TheEd

[Albert83BCN]

Good Morning!

Just came back from the race. First, the good news, I didn't feel any kind of pain in the tibia nor anything else. I did my investigations and for the symptoms, I think that may have been shin splints. But today no trace about it, I think that the combination of running in the mill plus wearing my neutral racing flat shoes may cause this, since it's not the first time that I had this feeling, despite not being usual. But either in the track or the road It has never been an issue, neither in the mill with my over-pronation control Asics trainers... Will keep an eye on this.

As for the race itself, here come the bad news, I didn't perform very well, I ran it in 37:06 according to my Garmin, awaiting official results (EDITED: 37:05). Weather was 21-22 ºC very sunny with no clouds, even at 8:30AM, I guess the arrival of the summer is definitely here. I'm pretty sure that this has had quite of an impact on performance because I could feel it from the very start. I tried to put cruise pace of 3:36-3:37 but when in the 5th Km I felt already near my limits and I couldn't help it but starting to lose time dramatically on the second part. Well... comparing it to this last recent races this year where the weather has been more tolerable with lower temperature and clouds or even a little bit of refreshing rain I think that today's result is more or less consistent. But I think that also shows that I'm having a hard time improving my fitness.

Also, today I was a little bit off my low weight, I'm at 63.5 kg right now and last races I have been in the middle 62's. Thursday and Friday not running on the week's race sure make me be more rested by the date (this morning lowest HR fine, between 47-50) but I also get bored at home and have a hard time controlling my cravings and I end eating more, with little calorie expenditure...

This is today's activity on Garmin:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/182407912

Well, at least I ran this 3 last races faster than previous year, but just slightly faster. Look:



Ok, so two weeks to keep training and then another 10K on Sunday and... wait, this is new: my club has insisted me in participing in the 1000m on the track that they organize every year. I was a little bit reluctant because I have the 10K the day after but it's for free, it's held by my club and also my mates are quite revved up by it, so couldn't say no :laugh: I guess it will be fun, by the way, but as it is my first 1000m I don't have a lot of expectations on it and I'm focused on the 10K training as always.

So.. how should I proceed this two weeks? 1st week with the long run and 5x2000 and then... 2nd week? or skip to the 3rd week as I have done this week? Notice that with the recent events of doing as a pacemaker twice on Sundays I've skipped two long runs and I'm starting to miss it, I think they work pretty well with me.

[TheEd]

quite good considering the last few days before the event and what you were going through

OK .. this week .. easy run up to 1hr on Tuesday

Wednesday .. 30 to 40 minutes

Thursday .. 6 x 1k Rest 2 minutes .. longer rest, though same pace as before

Then pace run over weekend and roll down to the event

please ask questions .. let's give you a little bit of a good feeling after the 'hurt' of last week

Cheers

TheEd