Without pain, without fatigue

Introduction

Pain and fatigue are unnecessary when running. Both are telling the runner they are borrowing from tomorrow to run today. In the case of injuries or cumulative fatigue, the runner may sacrifice many days of training to have one fast or long run. In my opinion, it's better and faster to progress so slowly that pain and fatigue don't happen.

Yesterday and today, I started saying cadence in time with the click track.

"I am running, without pain."
"I am running, without fatigue."
"I am doing it,"
"Falcon Runners"

The "Falcon Runners" comes from a book I'm writing about an Air Force Academy running team that is striving for a sub two-hour marathon."

When I focus in this way, then I run faster.

Today's Run

11/23/15 (Run 15)
Temperature: 31
Wind: 10 G 16

 Distance: 6.34 miles 

Stride Rate: 127.84

Average pace/mile: 15:26 (Personal Best)

 

Charts

 

My heart rate was slower than usual. I've been increasing the speed of my warm up walk, and this is helping. I could increase the length of the warm up walk, but then time for the run becomes a factor. I'm hoping that early peak disappears in time.

 

This was my fastest run. Only the last two miles were personal bests. I finally got a mile under 15 minutes. Internally, mile 3.5 to 4.5 was also under 15 minutes. 

 

Notice the speed is increasing as the distance is increasing. This is happening at a rate where my runs are taking less time. It's tempting to increase my stride rate faster, but this will increase the odds of some injury if my body doesn't have time to adjust.

 

Big Personal Best!

Introduction

I'm getting used to the cold and 23 degrees didn't feel bad. I was wearing a new pair of fleece gloves I bought yesterday. They worked well.

This was a breakout run which was 30 seconds per mile faster than my previous best. It started by running faster in the first mile and not worrying about my heart rate. I figured maybe I'd warm up sooner and my heart rate would settle down. It stayed near 127 bpm the entire run.

This type of quick progress is not likely to continue unless the stride rate is getting high enough to make quicker runs possible.

One big thing did happen today. I am writing a book, and I thought about the book instead of listening to the audio book. Since the book is a novel about running, the plot may have helped me go faster.

Today's Run

11/22/15 (Run 14)
Temperature: 23
Wind: Calm

 Distance: 6.32 miles 

Stride Rate: 127.78

Average pace/mile: 15:31

Charts

 

The flat spots show the monitor wasn't receiving a great signal from my wrist. Perhaps it was due to the cold. Any errors probably offset. The heart rate for every half mile was the same at 127.

In my opinion, going faster in the beginning allowed me to warm up more quickly and let my heart rate settle down. I'll see what happens in the future.

 

This was a huge improvement. I set a personal best for each mile. I thought the progress to about 10 minutes a mile would come in a few months, and I'm beginning to believe it may happen. 

 Today's run is an outlier, and it's likely I'll regress somewhat to the mean.

Conclusion

My heart rate has been a little high throughout the day. I may take tomorrow off depending on how it does while I'm sleeping.

Changing maximum heart rate

Introduction

Surprisingly, it was snowing a lightly when I started running. This slowed me a little at times when the surface was slick. I felt like I'd have been better off without the rest day yesterday.

Today's Run

11/19/15 (Run 12)
Temperature: 26
Wind: Calm

 Distance: 6.31 miles 

Stride Rate: 127.72

Average pace/mile: 16:20

Charts

 

My average heart rate exceeded the target maximum again. It seems like my heart likes to settle at 127 or 128 beats per minute. Setting 128 bpm as the maximum is unrealistic. I'm raising the maximum to 131 and using some discretion about days off. 

 

Aside from the snow, I purposely ran more slowly today in an attempt to keep my heart rate down. I'm not going to do this anymore.

 

This is the big picture for the final goal of 15 eight-minute miles. This is supposedly out of reach for my age, but I'll see what happens. As I looked at this chart, I realized the faster I improved my times in the beginning, the more slowly I would need to improve them at the end.

I discovered my times improve the more frequently I check my pace. I'll be monitoring half-mile splits and current pace to make this happen while being careful not to strain too much.

Conclusion

Every plan gradually changes as reality meets theory. This plan is no different.

Training from the Heart - Maffetone Method

Introduction

This information is based on the Maffetone Method as described in The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing by Dr. Philip Maffetone. I do not exactly follow his method, although I may get closer to it in the future.

Maffetone says most of our training should be done in our Aerobic Training Zone which is 180 minus our age to 10 beats below that. I'm 62, so my training range is 108 to 118. I'm currently unable to stay in this range while running, so I use 128 as my maximum allowable average heart rate during a run.

Maffetone says Training = work + recovery

I added stress so Training = work + recovery + stress

Stress is anything other than my training runs which causes physical or mental fatigue resulting in a higher heart rate on my next run. 

This morning, I hit upon the concept of Balanced Training. In perfectly balanced training, I'd be completely recovered by the next day's run, and my heart rate would be at or below 128 on the next day. Paradoxically, the way to know if training is in balance is to occasionally exceed my maximum heart rate on training runs. Otherwise, I wouldn't know if I was giving my optimum training effort on any given day. 

  

Work

Procedurally, I  try to ignore my heart rate while running, and check the Fitbit website after my run to see how I did. I found trying to keep my heart rate low for every step of runs led to slower times and no progress. Instead, I use a click track (metronome) on an audio book to set the stride rate for the day. Until it stops working, I'm increasing my stride rate by .06 steps per minute each day. This will ultimately improve my times.

In an ideal world, we'd be able to perfectly analyze ourselves each day to see if, how far, and how fast we should run that day. In the real world, we rationalize to get the answer we want. At least I do. If left to my own analysis, I'd run too many miles too fast and end up injuring myself, burning out, or inducing cumulative fatigue. How did I fix this?

I set mileage goals which will increase my distance one or two hundredths of a mile each training day. I maintain the target stride rate for the run and increase it each day. These may change if I hit a wall in my training program.

The heart rate is my heartless coach. If it exceeds 128 bpm, I must take the day off. If it's 128 bpm or less, I run the next day unless there is another reason I shouldn't. 

Recovery

It's possible to get lost forever in books and other sources while learning what happens in the recovery phase. I'm not going to do that, but I will give some examples of things that improve on rest days.

• Heart strength
• Muscle Strength
• Muscle cell rejuvenation
• Increase in size of all blood vessels
• Mental rejuvenation
• Bone strengthening
• Repair of minor injuries
• Skin toughening
• Etc., etc., etc.

It's enough to say stuff gets better, and not worry too much about the details. You may observe many of them as they happen.

Today's Run

11/19/15 (Run 12)
Temperature: 27
Wind: Calm

 Distance: 6.30 miles 

Stride Rate: 127.66

Average pace/mile: 15:59

 

Charts

 

It would be easy to say if it wasn't for the relatively short period where my heart rate was high, it would have not exceeded my maximum of 128 bpm. It would have taken only six beats less in over an hour and a half of running. Without a firm maximum, there is no maximum, so I'm not allowing myself to run tomorrow.

Today's run was outstanding. I had negative splits in each mile and beat my personal best in four out of six miles. It was my best time for six miles. The reason for this is the higher stride rate is beginning to force me at times into actual running instead of fast walking with my arms up. I'm making adjustments for running both up and downhill.

Since this is the second day in a row I beat my personal best for six miles, I wanted to run again tomorrow. You can probably see where that would head. Instead, on the next run I'm going to give myself permission to run a bit slower in order to keep my heart rate under better control.

I'm way ahead of the target speed I expected at this point in my training plan. This isn't a bad thing as the training plan was a guess. The target speeds will adjust based on trailing seven day averages.

Conclusion

Taking recovery days after exceeding my maximum target heart rate gives me a rigorous method of balancing work and recovery to achieve the most training in the fewest miles and the fewest days. This should avoid injuries, which can lead to a big loss in training miles and time. It may not be the best method, but I can see it is a method that works.

 

 

 

High winds!

Introduction

I took yesterday off for two reasons. First, my heart rate was above my target limit of 128 yesterday. Second, the winds were about 40 mph gusting to 72 mph.

Today, the winds settled down to 20 gusting to 40 during the time I ran. It wasn't as bad as it sounds as it was a tailwind for the time I was in the open, and buildings blocked the wind most of the rest of the run.

Today's Run

11/15/15 (Run 11)
Temperature: 44
Wind: 20 gusting to 40 mph
Distance: 6.30 miles  

Stride Rate: 127.60

  Average pace/mile: 16:13

 

Charts

This is a busy chart that works for me. The purple line is the Maximum Daily Output line. This is my goal for each day. It adjusts for previous performance.

The line with the colored labels shows my time for each run and the heart rate for each run. It has a logarithmic trend line.

The line with the blue labels is how far I ran each day. This line is sloped gradually upward.

I'm using a click track on audio books to increase my stride rate a tiny bit each day. This number is in a separate table. Now, the stride rate is 127.60 

Improvement!

Introduction

Yesterday's run was slow, and I was somewhat disappointed. Then I started wondering how much difference about 60 seconds made over a run over six-miles? None, really. From my running days over 30 years ago, I knew a good performance usually follows bad performances. Then I got the idea the bad performances cause the good performances. It's those times we press on when it's hard that often produce the best results.

Today's Run

11/15/15 (Run 10)
Temperature: 34
Wind: 8 mph
Distance: 6.25 mile   

Stride Rate: 127:54

  Average pace/mile: 16:29

 

Charts

 

 

My heart rate was above my maximum target by one beat. I'm supposed to take tomorrow off. It may be raining anyway.

 

Gradually, each mile is getting faster. 

 

 

Saw SUV Roll

Suv Roll

I took a half mile walk starting just after 3 am. A couple minutes after I started my run, I took a left turn on the main road near my house. An SUV randomly decided to roll about 150 feet in front of me. It rolled upside down, and then back on to all four wheels. While I was calling 911, the driver drove off in my direction with the right front wheel sparking like a chase scene in a cop show. The SUV went past me and turned up a street a couple blocks away.

When the police came, they asked me which way the SUV went. I suggested they follow the skid mark from the right front wheel. They found the SUV, but not the driver. They found a fist-sized baggie among the debris with something that looked like meth in it.

I went right home, and went for my run about 8:30 am. Unfortunately, I forgot to eat breakfast, so the run was slow.

Today's Run

11/14/15 (Run 9)
Temperature: 34
Wind: 8 mph
Distance: 6.25 mile   

Stride Rate: 127:48 

  Average pace/mile: 16:47

 

Charts