Lungs usually give up before legs until you get about 2 months into hill work. It's similar to doing fartlek or interval training until you get into some nice long (2 mile plus) climbs. Then your lungs adjust to the steady demand of a long climb and voila! you're hill-fit. It's then that the love that dare not speak it's name is formed, and your soul will be lost forever. Enjoy.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Well I need to find a more scenic hill than "The commuter road down to the station" before that happens. At the moment it's a means to an end, to build some power for that other evil creation, the 10K.
This week’s new development in the 10K training plan is the tempo run. I’m basing my plan loosely on Hal’s intermediate program – having taken with a pinch of salt his definition of an intermediate runner ("You should be running five to six times a week, averaging 15-25 miles weekly training" - ha) – and simply thrown out half of the sessions.
So based on his suggestion that the tempo run should be "a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near race pace. (Notice I said "near" race pace. You don't want to go faster than your 10-K race pace.)", I elected for a peak of a mile at my “dream” target pace of 45 mins for the 10K (7:12 / min). As a long-term eschewer of GPS and other clever watches, monitoring spot pace isn’t really possible for me, so I braved the user interface of MapMyRun and measured out a mile in the middle of my usual short route.
I kinda knew that I wasn’t going to complete the middle mile in the requisite 7:12. Running fast in training always seems infinitely harder than in an event; the race-day bonus caused by adrenaline, other runners, the crowd, the desire to do one’s best on a one-off occasion, or whatever it is, never ceases to amaze me.
So I set out at a gentle jog, stepped it up to nearer my normal “tempo” pace after half a mile or so, then at the pre-determined point started the watch and kicked down at what felt something like 10K race pace (it’s been over a year, how would I know?)
It felt closer to fartlek sprint pace than anything sustainable, but after a little while I settled into some sort of rhythm, which clearly meant that I was going to slowly. How I was ever meant to keep this up for 6 miles I had no idea.
But the finish line approached with me not feeling too bad, I put on a little sprint, stopped the watch, lingered under a street lamp to check the time… 6:59. Well I never. That was really quite gratifying. Whether I can repeat it 6 times over while only dropping 13 sec / mile is another matter, but if I continue to work myself hard over the next six weeks it might just be possible. I gradually brought the speed down, arriving home at a gentle jog, with only a long easy run left to complete this week.
Incidentally, I notice that Hal has written a novel. I don't wish to sound unkind, but judging by the synopsis and sample chapters, I think he'd struggle to gain entry to the RC literary circle*. -----------------
* As would I.
It's weird isn't it, how running fast is seemingly infinitely harder in training than under race conditions? I find it nothing short of astonishing how quickly I run a race (relative to the trainining for same) only then to find it utterly impossible to achieve the same pace in training soon after. Weird. I struggle to believe it's entirely to do with adrenalin, I think something else is going on in the brain which is plain strange. I was going to say it's a pity we can't bottle it, but it's probably just as well.
Afraid I'm not a big fan of Hal, but I will be interested to read what EG has to say about it (I'm assuming he will give it a read?)
Anyway it sounds like you might be closer to that 45 minute 10k than you thought. Keep at it!
(20-08-2010, 04:08 AM)Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote: I think something else is going on in the brain which is plain strange.
A lot of it for me is that training is all about staying in control. I always want to stay well within myself in training, because I will have to do it again in a couple of days' time (ahem). In an event, I want to give it my very best shot, and if I have to take a week to recover then so be it.
The 10K project continues. Saturday night saw a return to my familiar 5 mile circuit around the town. Hubristically I felt that my marathon fitness had returned and I was unable to keep the pace down. But the watch stopped just outside 45 minutes; definite “easy” pace. Happy to have it in the bank though. Album du jour: Simple Minds, Live in the City of Light. Not the right length for the run, but a recently dusted-off gem that I hadn’t listened to for ten years, and which took me back another ten. Alive and Kicking took me into the final mile, and I skipped to Don’t You Forget About Me for the home straight. Uplifting.
Tuesday morning I ventured out for another 6 hill reps. The second and last reps seem to be the best performances – for the second I’m fresh but warmed up, for the last I have nothing to lose and can empty the tank. I took another half second off the PB on the second rep, then for the last I abandoned my traditional head-down-arse-up posture and adopted a head up, back straight, purposefully striding gait. Probably not traditional for hill climbing (as I’m sure readers can confirm) but this is really just road running on an incline rather than real men’s / women’s grinding up a one in four fell. But the result was another second off the PB, which now stands at a tantalizing 2 mins and 1.5 secs.
Thursday morning was the tempo session, with the plan to run 1.5 miles in the middle at race pace or slightly better. I was very pleased - nay, astounded - to cross the mile in 6:45, and finish the 1.5 in 10:14 – far better than expected.
So it all seems to be doing me good. Not sure I could keep this up all year round though.
City of Light is a great choice Dan. I like Jungleland off that album too, a fantastic track to pick you up when tired and get you going again. A double album though - not a quick jog around the block if you're to get through the whole thing.
The previous week's 6 mile easy run was completed happily, in warm rain and to the sounds of Def Leppard's Hysteria. I imagine that this work sits too late in the history of heavy rock for many tastes around here, but it's a favourite from my teens, and I discovered that the track Run Riot is a fantastic running soundtrack, with a rhythm section that somehow sounds like an accelerating sports car, and a cadence just urgent enough to spur one to a higher pace. In that respect it's fortunate that it only lasts 4 minutes.
The rest of the week didn't go so well. I took on 7 reps of the hill climb, but apart from one effort which came within a couple of seconds of the PB, I was well off my previous pace. I think I'm obsessing too much about beating my best, at the expense of completing a set of decent quality reps. Next time I think I'll leave the watch at home. I know what a quality hill rep feels like now; who cares if I never beat 2 minutes?
The tempo run was similarly disappointing. It was attempted early in the morning for the first time, and there was little in the tank. I just managed my 1.5 miles at target race pace, but there's a gulf between that and the requisite 4 times the distance.
Either the early mornings were doing me in, or I was fatigued. I'd pencilled in a step back some time around now, so with a trip to the North East taking up my weekend, I've skipped the long run and called it a mini step-back.
Meanwhile in Brighton marathon news, I've decided to run for Cancer Research UK this time around. At the weekend I asked my friend, who is unfortunately in South Tyneside hospital and looks like spending a lot of time there, to come up with a fancy dress idea, on the basis that I would go with his decision, no matter how humiliating or painful. The choice: a stick of rock. In Brighton. I'm going to have some fun with that, I think.
I saw Def Leppard in Sheffield back in the day. They were a leading light in the NWOBHM but they lost their raw edge and wound up as a stadium rock outfit (not to my tastes). Hysteria is IMHO their last really good output. Love Bites formed part of my soundtrack (summer of 1986) as it got a lot of airplay on Houston's rock station (101 KLOL). I (illegally) taped the irreverent Stevens and Prewett show one morning & this features on that treasured cassette.
Incidentally, Joe Elliott now hosts an evening show on Planet Rock.
And the Great Wheel turns ...
Oh, and speaking of Love Bites, do you have a copy/ recording of that fine Buzzcocks LP? There's a track on there called Late For The Train. Terrific tempo run music. I'll shut up now.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
I agree - 4 great studio albums then gone to seed. I listened to the album that came next - Bryan Adams also had a new one out at the same time. They were both identikit Mutt Lange MOR stadium rock, to the point where sometimes you couldn't tell which was which.
Now back at work, I tackled the hill reps in the evening for the first time. It was a step-back week*, so the rep count was reduced to 5. Main conclusion was that I prefer running in the evenings to the mornings. It's probably both psychological and physical. Anyway, I felt strong, and I reckon that if I'd had a watch with me I might have cracked that 2 mins barrier...
Tempo run was also conducted in darkness. A middle mile comfortably under 7 mins, sandwiched between buildup and cooldown. For the next two weeks I'll see if I can complete two miles at the same pace.
I limited the long run to 5 miles -- why do more for a 10K? With an unusually free Saturday afternoon available, I eschewed the Album du Jour in favour of the sound of twittering birdies, and took to the lanes. A bit too warm to be truly pleasant, and if race day is anything like that then PB aspirations will go straight out of the window.
Meanwhile, a couple of news items recently spotted:
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* Text first appeared in a marvellously Freudian slip as "set-back week".
** Having now read all of this blog to date, I see that it contains much of interest to the RC reader -- not only detailed descriptions of the local geography, but a calf injury as well.
Good man, Dan. I tend not to reply to your updates because you just seem so darned in control of the situation. Yes, your training plans are occasionally disrupted, but you seem to get through. Long term plan, broken down into shorter-term objectives. Are you a project manager by any chance....?
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
The rest of 2010 - between marathons
RE: The rest of 2010 - between marathons 
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