Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Week review and my athlete updates..

Monday 12 miles.
am) 8 miles- no watch or HR.
pm) 4 miles- 26:20. Average HR 133/ Max HR 141.

Tuesday 16 miles.
am) 12 miles- 1:20 w/ 6 mi ~MAF with GZ while we watched Justin bust ass..
n) 4 miles at MAF HR 141.

Wednesday 16 miles.
am) 8 miles at HR 147 avg HR.. no watch.
pm) 8 miles in 54:00 No HR.

Thursday 12 miles
am) 12 mile progression run as: 2 miles at HR 130-135/ 6 miles at HR 140-150/ 2 miles at HR 150-160/ 2 miles at HR 161-165 (AeT). Quicker pace than I expected at the given HR's. Surprisingly- my AeT pace is not far off from my goal pace for Denver.

Friday 8 miles.
am) 8 miles- 54:10. Avg HR 137. Starting out I felt ok and warmed up 4 miles with the idea of repeating yesterday's run but for 14 miles. I hit MAF with some real effort but thought I felt ok. As soon as I tried to bridge up to AeT I realized it wasn't happening. HR was quite low/ PE was high/ pace was different than yesterday. All 3 of things indicate to me what my body needed. HR is the biggest indicator, in my opinion, when something isn't right. It tells you several things that neither PE nor pace will.
We have a full day of driving ahead of us and hope to be able to run again later. Driving kills my legs though.

Saturday 6 miles.
Very light jogging with HR average 134.

Sunday 0 miles.
In the interest of self control I took today off to keep my mileage lower for the week.

Week total was 70 miles. Legs feel incredibly good, my brain is starting to settle and I am starting to feel like my old, motivated self again. When I think of racing a marathon I get excited and my HR jumps a beat with the thought.

Athlete updates:
And welcome aboard Brian to the Lucho school of training. Brian has tipped my athlete roster nearly over my time management disabled life's limits of twenty. Brian's goals are modest given his running ability.. a 2:50 marathon. I told him that I could get him to 2:45.

Mike W.- raced a 5k today. At 48 years old he ran the fastest 5k of his life.. because he's put in the work. Because he's dedicated (too much so at times!). Because of discipline. Excellent work Mike! Once again.

And last but not least- Kerrie Wlad...
Kerrie Wlad raced IM CDA today..
Finished 12th over-all and second in her AG (by less than 1 minute!).
Swim- 1:12 (come on Wolfy)
Bike- 5:54:09
Run- 3:20:44 (6th fastest?)
Nice work K.. I'm incredibly proud of you! Your hard work and dedication shine through..

4 comments:

Chuckie V said...

You need some Skins compression tights for the drive! Talk to Jeff.

FatDad said...

Lucho,
I have some questions about how far out from a race I should start adding speed/tempo work to the MAF program, or if I should at all. I dont want to try and bogart free coaching but any guidance you have would be awesome.

Lucho said...

Fatdad- I deleted my earlier reply after realizing that my "tone" was not coming across correctly..
The short answer is: you should build MAF until a plateau in speed, then change the stimulus for ~4 weeks. "Speed" work may be ok.. but if you're training for a marathon then I would recommend just tempo work. If you do want to do some speed work though, place it no less than 8 weeks prior to your race. The last 8 weeks of your training should be as specific to your race goal as possible. Running at 98-103% of goal race pace is going to teach your body precisely what it will need to do on race day.. speed work in the last 8 weeks will do the opposite.
Now: if you struggle to finish a marathon- then speed is not the limiter. Endurance is. If you look at your training with an honest view, it should tell you where your weakness lies. I also tell athletes to go out and run 1 mile at goal race pace. If you can do that- then you're fast enough. Running 25 more non-stop has little to do with being "fast" enough and more to do with pure endurance.
In the end you should play it safe and smart and focus on the biggest bang for your buck which is MAF. And it never hurts to run a lot at goal race pace if you have chosen the appropriate goal.
Hope that helps.

FatDad said...

Lucho,
Thanks man. Appreciate the feedback. And no need to worry about 'tone'. I've read your apologetic post on that subject so I'm all good!