Friday, December 7, 2007

Reply to a comment + Long run- 22 miles.

am) Long run- 22 miles in 2:27. Just below 6:45 pace on a fairly accurate course. My hydration and nutrition protocol was excellent so I saw little elevation in HR towards the end. The first 10 miles were in 1:10 (7:00 pace) so I was able to negative split comfortably. The effort and fatigue for this run was hardly noticeable. HR averaged 151 with a max of 164 at the very end with a slight push. Minimum HR after mile 1 was 143. This run is what will allow me to reach my goals.

Brfoot posted a comment on yesterday's post with a few good questions in regards to my last 10 weeks of training. I appreciate it a lot when you lurkers ask questions! It gives me a chance to show you my thought processes and approach to my training ideas. Plus we can hopefully open up lines of discussion and learn a bit from each other. I encourage and ask you all to ask more questions and post comments. I have lot's to learn too.

Brfoot writes: So do you have any rest days....real rest days....on your butt watching tv, playing with your son?? Getting 2 full nights of sleep between runs.What kind of taper will you do, if any.

My response: Good questions. As for rest days, I will take a day off if I feel that a run will only make me feel worse. Generally though, a full day of rest makes me feel worse than had I gone for a jog. I have considered throwing in recovery workouts on my mountain bike (or God help me- in the pool) but right now I need to build my running volume consistently over the next 2 years. I consider this year and next as preparation for the real training to come.
Remember that I am a stay at home father.. so I play with my son from about 8am until about 6pm every day! I do place playing with my son above my training though. I also plan my weeks around my wife's work schedule so that I do have time to fit my mileage in. I quit triathlon because the training was so time consuming, now a 100 mile week for me is about 11 hours of work... that really isn't much! I am usually done with my morning run before my wife and son get out of bed. I also use the baby jogger more than I write about and have done tempo runs with it.
Getting 2 full nights of sleep between runs. Before Ben was born I went about 2 years of sleeping 4-5 hours a night. Right now I feel phenomenal off of 6-7 hours.
My taper will be following the ideas proposed by McMillan and will not have a sharp reduction in volume. Part of the idea behind this last 10 week's schedule is that I won't be running my body in to the ground as much by trying to hold 100+ miles per week. I hope to go in to my last 2 weeks feeling somewhat rested. My last 4 weeks before Austin should have a mileage taper roughly like ~90/ 80/ 70/ 70. The week of the race is 70 but that includes the race. In the past I feel that I always went from (for Ironman) high volume of 30+ hours a week and dropped my volume too sharply. A severe drop in volume is a shock to your body and can make you feel like crap. When I plan an athletes schedule their "rest weeks" are only 4-5 days and there is only one complete day off, this is to limit the shut down of their metabolism and the loss of blood volume, both contributors to the feeling of lethargy. A body in motion stays in motion could be used here. The lethargic, shut down feeling is something I always thought was normal for a taper but is doesn't need to be. You do need to be fearless in trying to hold a higher volume/ frequency of training than a typical taper though.

6 comments:

Alberto said...

I really enjoy reading your blog. It shows your great knowledge on training and at the same time it is very inspiring.

I know you are talking about training for a run event in this post, but it makes me think and question about what my coach is making me do for my Ironman training. He has got me on a 5 days on / 2 days off week.

I would love to try one of your training plans in the future. Since I met you in Atlanta through Sharpie you seem like a very knowledgeable person. I have also hear great things about you and your coaching from Murphy and Travis.

We should plan a training camp in boulder for the summer. I'll talk to Sharpie about it...

Thanks for sharing Lucho !!

Lucho said...

Alberto-
I will be in Birmingham next week- talk to Travis. There is a group of athletes driving over to run with me on (It think)Sunday, you should come along.
Thanks for the good word! I would love to help you if I can.
T

dude said...

Hi Lucho

Your blog is a great inspiration as I am kinda in the same boat. I'm also an ex-IM (sub9) now turned runner (2:37) due to time constraints so I can really relate to your posts even if you are way faster. I'll never be nearly half as fast as you are gonna be, but I will try to get as close to 2:30 as possible. So thanks again for helping me reach that goal with your inspirational.

During the spring/summer I really miss cycling and can't really stay off it, I hope moving to NYC soon will help with that. I also have to shed upper body muscles (and fat of course). I always considered myself slim but at any marathon the guys around me are half my size :( (6'1, 165lb).

Keep up the good work, thanks again and cheers from Dublin/Ireland!

Uli

ace said...

I always leave reading posts on your blog shaking my head. I'm sure there is a slight amount of disbelief involved. But in a very good way. Your blog really allows me to challenge my assumptions of what is possible and look for new ways to think about my training. Not that I didn't try to do this before, but when I really want to shatter a previously held, though possibly unsubstantiated assumption, all I have to do is cruise over here and read a few posts.

Today, the "I feel great on 6 - 7 hours of sleep" caught my eye. I was wondering if you felt there was any reason (such as diet) for it when a lot of folks would really like at least 8 hours? I've read about athletes getting by on less (Dean Karnazes comes to mind) but don't really know many personally.

I also like how you are approaching the prospect of becoming a 2:15 marathoner. It is very thoughtful. First train to get the point where you can handle the training, then train to race. Again, something very important to keep in mind. Anyway, thanks for another very thought provoking post.

Lucho said...

Uli- Thanks for the post.. we sound like brothers from other mothers.. Let me know if you want some help with your running. I hear you on the bike training.. there's not a day that goes by that I don't miss the bike. I think my strength in triathlon was the bike but I never was rested enough to ride well. Cheers!! Lucho
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jason said...

(Sorry if you get seventeen versions of this...blogger puked when I tried to submit it, and when I tried to go back and get my post from my history, it kept resubmitting.)

Since you asked for comments, I've been wondering about your height and weight. At 6'4", 225 lbs., I don't think your methods are going to be directly applicable to me, but your posts definitely keep me motivated to run.

Oh, and a jumprope question. I spent a little time after my two easy runs this week with the rope, and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I found, though, that I can do one-legged jumps relatively easily on my right leg, but I can't do my left at all; I just couldn't get it off the ground, which was a real eye-opener. Any thoughts on what would cause that? Is it just a muscular thing?