The long road back: November to January training report

I've been holding writing this post over the ridiculous fear of jinxing myself. The latter half of 2013 was a seriously challenge. What started as a minor flirtation with ITBS on the left side blew up into a serious of stops and starts, ITBS on the right side and a calf strain. The niggles haven't stopped of course, running is a high risk activity when one is reaching for new heights. As I continue to run more I've had sore knees, sore quads, a sore back, what appeared to be a bruised big toe flexor and most recently some soreness in the shin area. So perhaps you can understand my reluctance to blog on about renew fitness and injury free running.

A part of me was afraid that injuries would put the fear of running into me but more than anything the experience has renewed my endeavours to get it right and do as much as I can to stay fit and run consistently. Speaking of consistency, I've come to the conclusion that much of my success was down to exactly that. There's many ways to look at data sets so when I look back through my training logs I see different patterns or lack thereof depending on the question I'm asking. With my running all over the place, one thing that stood out for me was the consistency from February 2012 to February 2013. I was sick a lot during marathon training but other than that there were rarely long periods of inactivity and even then I never took more than five days off. I could point to the mileage increase, the complexity of the sessions I was able to do, especially after the marathon but none of that would have been possible without consistently getting in the run even through the misery of winter and the anguish of the summer.

Late November 2013

But here I am and while keeping my excitement in check, can safely say that I have been thorough the most consistent extended spell of my running journey thus far. Back in November 2013 still with a sore calf but one that thankfully did not reduce me to a limp, my coach started putting me through my paces gently. We agreed to write off anything I had done that led to my minor injury. The key in those early stages was to be honest with myself, keep up maintenance work, icing, strength work etc. It was tough but after two weeks I could feel the pain going away as the muscles got stronger. Those early days, two weeks, involved a series of easy runs, two 12 km run and three 7.5-8 km run.

December 2013

Heading into December, Coach added another day of 7.5-8 km running and the 12 km runs became 13 km running. This was to be held for 3 weeks to allow my body to adapt to adapt to the weekly volume which would go from 46-48 km to 56-58 km. I also started using a heart rate monitor for the first time as I had a tendency to head out fast, aiming for the top end of my effort level for the day. So for most run my heart rate was capped at 150. One run was done at 160 and another at no more than 170, these being short runs, 7.5 km.

The faster runs were interesting. For the first two weeks the paces were consistent and suddenly on the third week, I was running at least 5s/km quicker without having to reach the target HRs. This was something that motivated me that we were on the right track

December/January

For the last full week of December and up to the first weekend of January, things went up another notch. Intermittent running was introduced in the form of 1500m repeats at around 160 bpm with 90s recovery. A 10km progressive tempo was added, 5 km easy, 3 km up-tempo, 2km fast. Two easy runs of 9 and 8 km were done and one long run increased to 13 km. Total mileage now was up to 66-68 km

I had my first niggle during this phase. On the first Sunday run, I did the long run at the Festival of Running 1 hour race in Pretoria at Phobians. It was to be an uptempoish run but a combination of the inclement weather and running in circles on muddy grass made it difficult. In the week that followed I experience soreness in my foot on push off and discovered that it was my big toe flexor that was affected. The decision was made to keep running as it didn't affect my form and to do strengthening work and ice three times a day.

The runs themselves went well. Continuing to use the HR monitor I noticed, over and above the subjective feel, that my pace at any given hear rate was getting faster. It was a good sign.

January

January proper started with a much needed recovery, dropping a run and volume down to 7 km runs as well as killing the intensity as well.

Then two big weeks that really worked me. After 8 weeks, Coach really stepped things up, not one run shorter than 10 km. The foundation was still a midweek long run and a weekend long run,  14-15 km. The faster runs were a longer progression run, 13 km with 7 km steady, 3 km hard and 3 km fast, and 1500m repeats now with 30s recovery. The rest of the week was made up of an easy 10 km run and as 12 km at what I call neither here nor there pace, mostly because you won't find it in Jack Daniels running formula!

The total mileage for those two week was to be 76-78 km. I hadn't run anywhere near that much since October 2012 and had never managed back to back weeks of 70+ km. It was tough but I coped. This time round, the HR monitor was ditched and I was instructed to go by feel. The first week was a roaring success, every run nailed, but the follow-up was challenging. Coach replaced the 12 km on Monday with a 5 km hard but controlled run, managing 19:45. The rest of the week proceeded as normal but by the weekend I was feeling it, the 1500m reps really took a lot of effort. During the tempo though I was hitting some good speeds, getting the Garmin down to 3:40-3:50/km!

So that was a good 10 weeks of training covered and I think i'll leave the rest for the February report, should I make it that far! Those 10 weeks were not without challenges of course, but the important thing was that the consistency was back, which meant that in Week 9 and 10 I was able to run 78 km  and 76 km respectively. I had 57 workout days planned for that period and I ran 57 times!

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1 18/11	7.5 km (E)	12 km (L)	7.5 km (E)	Rest	7.5 km (E)	12 km (L)	Rest	46.5
2 25/11	8 km (E)	12 km (M)	7.5 km (M)	12 km (M)	8 km (E)	Rest	Rest	47.5
3 2/12	7.5 km (E)	13 km (E)	7.5 km (M)	7.5 km (Re)	Rest	7.5 km (90%)	13 km (Re)	56
4 9/12	8 km (E)	13 km (E)	8 km (M)	8 km (E)	Rest	8 km (90%)	13 km (Re)	58
5 16/12	8 km (E)	13 km (E)	8 km (M)	8 km (E)	Rest	8 km (90%)	10 km (Re)	55
6 23/12	9 km (E)	14 km (E)	10 km (Progression)	8 km (Re)	Rest	13 km (4x1500 m w/ 90s recovery)	14.5 km (M)	68.5
7 30/12	9 km (E)	14 km (E)	10 km (Progression)	8 km (Re)	Rest	13 km (4x1500 m w/ 90s recovery)	13 km (M)	67
8 6/1	7 km (E)	Rest	7 km (E)	7 km (E)	Rest	7 km (E)	8 km (E)	36
9 13/1	12 km (M)	14 km (E)	13 km (Progression)	10 km (E)	Rest	14 km (5x1500m MP w/ 30s recovery)	15 km (E)	78
10 20/1	10 km with 5 km fast	14 km (E)	13 km (Progression)	10 km (E)	Rest	14 km (5x1500m MP w/ 30s recovery)	15 km (E)	76

Hopefully I'll have more exciting news in February. I have my first race of the year planned on 23 February at the Gift of the Givers Township Races. I did do a race on 25 January, the PWC George Classen 10 km but I incorporated the 5x1500m into the run and was disciplined enough to start slow, get into the workout, stick to my paces and back off at the end, as my finish time of 40:53 indicates. I was just happy to be at a race again.

I have no idea what will happen at Township. Coach has made it clear that I haven't done the work that will allow me to race fast yet, the fine tuning is still to come. Township will be a practice run and his aim is to get me there 90% fit and we will build to a crescendo later in the season. At the moment I'm just excited to be fit again, running more often than not and getting in good mileage. If you had asked me early November where I would be in February this would be furthest from my wildest aspirations.

For now, I'm just going to keep enjoying the ride.

New Beginnings

On the 17th July 2012 I did an interval session (5x1km at 10km pace) that was the first step an ill advised and premature quest to train for my first marathon. The folly of youth is not the topic of this post but rather the outcome (the bruised ego aside) of the 16 weeks of pain, torture and ultimately fulfillment that followed that first session. Two weeks after the marathon on the 4th November, I lined up at a 10km race, with no plan in mind, just happy to be in a familiar setting. Despite being affected by a very poorly planned start that had runners merging with walkers within the first 50 metres of the race, and 'only' getting to the first kilometre mark in ~4:30, I finished the race 12 seconds outside my 10km PB, 39:16 versus 39:04. In essence, I had covered the remaining 9km at around 38:40 10km pace, a guaranteed PB without the shenanigans at the start.

What was interesting though was how my body felt during the race. I really couldn't have any faster than ~3:50/km pace on the day, the leg speed really wasn't there, but at the end of the 10km I reckon I could have gone round again at that pace possibly up to 16km before needing to slow. When I had run the 39:04 at Wanderers at the end of August I was beat and had no more to give. At the time I was baffled and all my dad when I quizzed him amounted to, "obvious is obvious"!

My training at the time gave me no clue to explain that performance. I had done interval work for 5 weeks at the start of my marathon training before feeling burnt out and I switched then training and removed the high end work which I had understood was not needed for a first timer and with a goal of 4:30/km. The remaining 11 weeks were anchored around two core session the first being the obligatory long run that peaked at 33km. The second was marathon  pace running that first started as 4x2km at marathon pace to eventually a 16km continuous run with ~14km at  marathon pace. Every second week for added variety I would do a time trial, the route ~5.25km and by the end of the program I was close to breaking 20 minutes for the course (it was typically done at 17:15 with temperature around 25 degrees Celsius).

That's it.

The key difference between that 16 week block though was that my average mileage was 55.9km/week. Not a lot in the grander scheme of things but for me a 57% increase from last training plan! That was when I had trained for Wally Hayward half marathon from February to May earlier in the year. Prior to that I had never put in more than four weeks of continuous and consistent training. That plan was 10 weeks where I averaged 35.4km/week. Again not a lot but to put into perspective, up to the start of the plan, my highest monthly mileage total was 88km.

What followed both those focused training phases (the Wally Hayward plan was a success, I had aimed for a 1:40 half marathon and I ran 1:35:01) was first an unexpected comfort level at shorter races as well as a dramatic improvement in race times at those distances. Prior to Wally Hayward, I had never broken 45 minutes for a 10km and running at 4:00/km for anything more than a couple of laps around the track was torture. Indeed I had done a session that was paltry 2x800m and I had run 3:53 and 3:56 for those splits. Yet four days after Wally Hayward I ran 42:38 for 10km, over 3 minutes off my PB. Two weeks later I ran a 19:25 5km. Five weeks later I ran 61:40 for 15km and then after another two weeks ran a 17:49 5km. A week after that, I ran a 10.5km race in 42:24, half a kilometer further and still 14 seconds under my two month old 10km PB. Then my performances started to decline, I ran another 15km two later and ran 65:40 and though it was hilly I had expected to go faster.

Fast forward five months later and after that surprisingly comfortable 39:16 10km (you see I just don't pay attention though the evidence is there), I put in three weeks of solid training with an interval session on Tuesday, a threshold run on the Thursday and a 15km long run on Sunday. That 5.25km time trial, on  a day where it was pushing 30 degrees Celsius, after doing a 7km run in the morning with 5km at 3:45/km pace, is completed in 19:21. I line up for a 10km two days later and the end result: 90s quicker and a new PB of 37:46 (or 37:34 on the official results on Raceresults.com)!

The rest as the say is history.

The one problem was that after the euphoria of that huge PB I got sucked into intervals. I had yet to put the connection that my work capacity was a result of all the endurance work I had done before and that the intervals were the cherry on top. As I moved into 2013 I noticed (but ignored) a reduction in my work capacity. Whereas I was able to do 5 x 1mile at 5:45/mi pace after the marathon, in the new year I found 4x800 more than enough. I became a repetition junkie, churning out at a stage 65s 400m off 3 minutes recovery. Great if I was in a 400m repetition contest but useless for preparing for a fast 10km!

With plenty of time to reflect and prepare during my injury layoff, I have been putting together the final touches to a training guideline to push me to the next level. I have also been  running. For four weeks at that...and most importantly pain free. I have been holding off this post, waiting to see how my body would respond to moving again after beginning the early process of rebuilding my running toolkit.

Yesterday I ran a 5km fun run, mostly just to break free off the shackles a bit but also confidence that 5km was far enough to push myself but not too far too cause any damage. I won't do a detailed report except to say that I started fast and for the most part stayed fast. It wasn't my fastest 5km ever, in fact I have run many faster 5km splits in 10km races. In my current situation though it represented a very good effort, 18:22 on a good course, after 4 weeks of no running followed by 4 weeks of minimal mileage (17km, 21.5km, 22.5km and 30km including the fun run) and a far bit of walking. The run definitely represents the best I could have done on the day but I feel confident that I can get a lot faster very quickly actually.

My official 5km PB is 17:49 but I have run a 17:34 5km split in a 10km race, as well as 16:09 for a ~4.6km race which extrapolates to a sub 17:30 5km. I can get back there. The road to those times, and the associated 10km times in the 36's started at just under 40 minutes for 10km. Punching that 18:22 into any online calculator puts me at around 38:05-38:15 10km shape, which again is not bad considering the circumstances. I basically haven't run a lot since 1 May, 150km in June is deceptive as a lot of it was poor mileage, run while nursing rapidly worsening ITB syndrome. That seems to be past me now and my knee is getting stronger with every run, as opposed to worse in June.

With the confidence I've gained from 4 weeks of solid running, I have decided to start officially training again. Instead of adding more fast stuff at the end, the extra two weeks will be base training. That extends my base from 12 to 14 weeks. I was hoping to be at around ~40km/week in two weeks times and I'm going to use these two weeks to run easy, no hard running, and establish a routine. This means getting my warm up and cool down sorted to complement the run as well as supplementary strength work three times a week.

The basic overview is to use weeks one to four to escalate my weekly volume to my base level. Typically I can knock off 45-50km which translates to about four to four and a half hours on my feet depending on the workout composition. I can do that for weeks on end with no obvious signs of fatigue. And though I've run in the 70-80km/week range when training for the marathon I feel that my natural maximum right now is around 65km/week. Any more than that and it's hard work. So the goal of weeks five to ten will be be to sensibly build up to and exceed this volume and get into 70-80 km weeks or about 6 hours of running. In weeks 11-14 the goal will be maintenance of that volume. There are low mileage weeks planned for week 8 and week 12.

14 week base training guideline

It's not dissimilar to what I had planned before but is probably a bit better balanced. The first 4 weeks don't have any workouts in the strictest sense of the word. In weeks five to ten, I alternate a fartlek and a marathon pace tempo. In week 11 to 14 the fartlek and tempo are done in the same week but volume is held steady. Throughout there'll be neuromuscular work in the form of first hill sprints, then adding proper speed work, ie short fast sprints, nothing longer than 30 seconds. I'm using a speed development progression devised by Coach Jay Johnson. There are two races in there, the first in week eight is tentative while I'm very keen for the one in week 12, which is a known variable and it very late into the base phase and I'm sure it will be safe to race. It's time based because I know that if set a distance I am more likely to try and get through the distance quicker. It's also not set in stone. The weekly totals there are going to be variable and I just guesstimates based on my 5km race and the sort of pace I would expect to manage. I have thought about using a heart rate monitor but honestly find it uncomfortable for more than 30 minutes. I will use it on my recovery runs to conscientiously keep my heart rate down; 150 corresponds to ~5:00/km which feels slow to me and is fully conversational.

So that's the plan until the end of November. I saw some great results last year with a similar if unplanned progression. Basically I'm going to training for a marathon that unlike last year I have no intention to run, which also removes the need for 2 weeks recovery post marathon! I'm confident in this plan, I've been there before but I've used my training history to inform the detail of this new plan. But as they say, the proof is in the pudding, so time to lace up those shoes!

Rebuilding the running toolkit

The overriding theme of my winter of discontent has been a flip-flopping between various training systems and plans. Being injured it seemed a futile exercise. It has been firstly a very good learning process for me. With no running to come I've been able to educate myself on the ways of the world from a training perspective. Every book I've read, every website, every research article and twitter dialogue with coaches and fellow runners has been instrumental in giving me a clearer picture both of what I want to achieve as a runner and how I'm going to get it. The secondly I have been forced to examine my habits as a runner and critically look at my past training. It's easy to finish a training cycle and look forward to the next goal. Far more difficult is to look back with a critical eye, first celebrating the positives but then combing through the embers for clues on how to improve, driven in part by failures and those extra tough sessions. This is a lesson that I picked up from each of the many wonderful running books I have read over the winter. The past determines the present and informs the future.

So one needs to look at their current toolkit. I am a 36:13 (at the coast!) 10km runner. I have come from far, as recently as May last year my 10km PB was what now seems an unlikely, 42:38, a time I do as a training run. As I have said on these pages my future goals is to be a consistent sun 35:00 runner up here on the highveld, a goal which forms part of my desire to run fast marathons in 3-5 years time. I have spent so much time sifting through workouts, both the empirical data as well my descriptions for clues as to the next step forward. What are my strengths, what are my weaknesses? A track session I did tells me that speed is not my weakness as do my kilometre splits in some races. Strength is perhaps a problem. I was in great shape when I did the Kudus 15km back in January. I felt great for 6km but even while trying to even out the effort in the second half I was defeated by the hills. And of course my stamina is a problem as is evident by my constant inability to run close to even splits even on a flat flat course down at the coast in perfect running conditions. Endurance in itself is not terrible having running some great half marathons and done long runs up to 32km.

So in my 10km toolkit, I have the basic endurance for the distance and for my goals actually have more than enough speed. Where I fall short is in strength and stamina or specific endurance. The latter is easily explained by my lack of experience, the former something I have neglected.

In The Art of Running Faster, former 13:15 and 27:34 5000m and 10000m British runner Julian Goater talks about the 5 Ss that are the cornerstone of a good runner: speed, stamina, strength, skill, suppleness. Now I'm not sure about skill but of the remaining four, the only quality that I am confident stands up to scrutiny in the context is the first of those, speed. And skill too is debatable, so 1 1/2 out of 4.

That is the past that brought me to the present that I have used to inform both my short term planning and long term skeleton outline.

But in the meantime my thoughts are not really with running but rather getting strong again. I have committed myself to a minimum of 4 weeks off up to as long as I need to be able to run pain free. My injury has been focused on staying off my feet where possible and doing my strengthening exercises for the muscles supporting the knee. Returning to the 5 Ss, I'm using this time away from running to work on strength. The knee rehab exercises are working my lower body but I've also started to build up a strength routine that will also work my upper body.

When I do start running the first six weeks will deal with skill. I have signed for the Six Week Kinetic Revolution Running Technique course. The great thing about the course is that even though it incorporates some running, because one really needs to concentrate on doing the drills correctly, there won't be a temptation to overdo. Even with rest periods, the first week includes no more than 20 minutes a session and my careful calculations show that the volume progression will be 10km to 22km over 6 weeks. Coupled with this I'm going to start to incorporate Coach Jay Johnson's Eight Week General Strength and Mobility progression. These workouts are designed to be done after running, teaching one to make strength and mobility part of the whole running routine not an afterthought. Along with dynamic stretching I hope this will begin to address suppleness.

After the six week course, I'm going to give myself a minimum of four weeks to build up to running about 80% of my average  mileage. I worked that in the 12 months previously from when I decided to take a break, I was averaging 46km/week. I'll be looking to get to about 40km week of easy mileage before beginning formal training. I know how I want to structure my training from then on. I've really looked at how I respond to sessions, and where I'm strong and weak. My focus will be on aerobic endurance and stamina without neglecting other parts of the running toolkit, just modulating frequency, intensity and volume, and  of course getting recovery right. I'll leave it at that for now and will detail out the less strict, but honest plan in a future post.

Coping with injury and plotting the way forward

Bullet Proof, I Am

I think I had actually gotten to the stage at the end of last year and through the beginning of the year when I genuinely believed I would be lucky and not get injured. I felt at one with my body. I had survived an ill advised foray into marathon running, with a ridiculous target time to boot, with the race day falling just 16 months from when I started running properly. I late November I had done the Tom Jenkins 10km and in pursuit of a sub 40 minute finish (I fell well short by some 52 seconds) I had shredded my legs on the last 2km of downhill and my achilles told me as much. But being one with my body I had simply taken a step back, stopped training and returned as strong as before.

The first sign I was wrong was that day in Cape Town when I had to change a tempo run into an exercise in the run/walk method. Being a newbie I had no idea what was wrong, it was my knee but I would be damned  if I could pinpoint the exact spot it hurt, it was abrupt, it hurt a lot and then it stopped. Three days later I ran a 29:01 8km and a week later ran a 36:14 10km, just 1 second shy of the time I had run at the coast on a flat course, despite this being at altitude in Pretoria some 1500m higher up.

This reinforced the idea that I was strong. I could feel that I was reaching the end of this bout of improvement but having entered a half marathon, I was determined to do it. I did it. I ran 1:22.49 despite averaging 39.2km/week for the year to that point but the niggles returned. I walked more than I wanted, some cramps and some knee issues, not too dissimilar to the incident in Cape Town. I ran a time trial four days later and by all accounts it was rubbish, another clue I missed, the 3km blow out putting paid to a fast time. The following week up to Saturday I had an amazing week but on the Sunday long run my luck came to an end. I run/walked 10km of a 15km run. It was agony. A midweek run, again with a 3km blow out, confirmed that I was done.

I took two weeks off and when I returned, rested, fresh and hungry, the comeback run was ended, again after 3km. Now anyone who knows me well knows that I am obsessive about stuff I'm passionate about. And running is something that I live and breath and as such I have read so much on the subject. Yet through all of that, denialism perhaps, I somehow neglected to put together the sharp lateral pain on my left knee with that foe of many a runner, illiotibial band syndrome. I've recounted this before but now I do so with a lot more clarity and awareness of what was going down.

At the end of May I was actually running and running well after targeted rehab exercises. I was running comfortably at 4:30-4:40/km, building up my mileage and starting on a 24 week 10km program that I hoped would culminate in a sub 35:00 clocking. Novice tendencies were eating at me however. Despite evidence to the contrary, I was convinced I had lost my speed. Never mind that I had been smart and given myself plenty of time to build back and add to my speed. What did it matter if I was 2 or 3 minutes off the standard I had set in the Autumn.

So I ran a 10km and I've paid for it.

The most frustrating part of it was how easy it was and how comfortably I managed to run 37:15 and the Silver Oaks Crossing 10km, just 62 seconds of my PB or 3% slower, and good enough for 5th place with Comrades having been the weekend before. I ran close to negative splits, 18:35 and 18:40 and was just banging out consistent 3:40-3:45 splits in the middle without working hard. My body was simply compensating for my insane desire to run this race and on my recovery run the following day, I could barely crack 5:00/km and worryingly my right knee was now screaming. Unlike the ITBS issues on the left sides this pain didn't subside following the run. But believing I had a handle on dealing with it I simply increased my knee rehab exercises and reduced my volume and carried on running.

By the last week of June though, with no improvement in sight, I switched my runs off the road and onto  grass. This brought temporary reprieve before I broke down on the last day of the month and instead decided to take a more aggressive approach, targeted rehab couple with prolonged rest, at least 4-6 weeks off but ultimately mentally readying myself for an even longer lay off if needs be. By the end of June I was running no more than 30-40 minutes before experiencing discomfort. And there was cumulative loading at play, the first run of the week was great but by the weekend my indicator point was down to 20 minutes. Two days off would let me begin the vicious cycle again. I love running too much to be that constrained. I might be going short and fast for the foreseeable future, to the end of 2015 at least but don't tell me I can't run 20km should I wish to.

Self diagnosis is not enough of course but my symptoms are obvious. Day to day functioning is not affected for the most part. Walking stairs is uncomfortable particularly going up, hills not so much though. The delayed onset following the beginning of a run and the brevity of pain following the event. No particularly sensitive spots. I can actually push on my kneecap fine. Bending the knee occasionally results in a painless clicking sound but something I noticed, sitting at my desk for over 30 minutes results in the most agonizing pain when I stand up. But some hamstring stretches result in the pain going away. I'm calling it now, it's Runners Knee surely. I will however get a professional diagnosis.

In the meantime along with swearing off running and any unnecessary impact, I've started on a 10 week knee rehab program from Kinetic Revolutions, a super excellent resource. I'm also going to use this time to work on both my anterior and posterior chain, starting off with basic core and strength work and some flexibility work, basic because I don't want to do anything that aggravates the knee. Over the course of the 10 weeks I hope t get really strong and more flexible than I am now. it's embarrassing that I have never been able to touch my toes and I still only get about 10cm below my knees I'll be doing some elliptical training three times a week to keep my cardio fine, but as I learnt with the 37:15 10km, I'm not going to be losing much over the next while. If anything I probably want my cardio to be behind my physical developed so that I'm not tempted to go out for a 15km run when I come back or hit the track. I don't think my lungs holding me back for 3-4 weeks will be a bad thing when I eventually get back into running. I also want to work on my eating. I have a basic approach to food but I really want to go as fresh as possible and have my nutrition fully complement my activity.

Most of all I'm scratching any immediate performance related goals. My broad plan now is:

1. Rehabilitation and building of functional total body strength and flexibility
2. Return to Running
3. Return to Race

The first two will take 12 weeks at least to get to the point of running 80% of my pre-injury base volume ad routine. And as for returning race, probably the Old Year's Race on New Year's Eve. And crucially no time goal. I want to get around that course in one piece. Project 35 is not scrapped, just put on hold. The roughly 27 weeks from now till the Old Year's race will allow me to do things I never thought to do. Get strong and build a base. Then 2014 will see re-implementation of my racing life plan.

"Everything matters" - Brad Hudson

Training systems are everywhere, and for the most part are very similar to one another. As training has yo-yoed in the past two months or so, I've been geeking out on a whole of books and online resources. Part of that was about charting the way forward but I'm also just a nerd that likes to know everything about a topic. A big part of what I wanted to do with Project 35 was to at any point aware of immediate objectives, both training and performance wise but to also be in tune with what my long term ambition is. Thus my obsession with training systems. I'm well versed on sessions, weekly components of training but the trick is obviously to  start from a baseline level of fitness and design a progression of workouts to illicit the necessary adaptation to achieve a goal. Equally goal to goal progression has to be part of the picture. Typically a few weeks before I have raced I'm already setting out two or three new targets that might entice me. Just as any training cycle has a beginning and an end, my plan has a long term end goal and thus a myriad of possibilities as stepping stones.

As I had posted earlier I was drawn naturally to the classic system of linear periodization. That additive effect makes a lot of sense. But as I started reading more, two books in particular stood out for me both sharing a common author, RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel by Matt Fitzgerald and Run Faster coauthored by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald. Yet more systems of course but even those run faster has running plans at the end, both books are less prescriptive than either Daniel's Running Formula or Running With Lydiard. At least to my mind. I've also just started reading The Art of Running Faster coauthored by Julian Goater and Don Melvin. While I was taken by the two classic books, the three most recent books I have read (and started) have resonated a lot more with me, and it's really  not a case of 'something new, must try'.

Let me explain my thought process.

A thread that links those books is feel. I think it was in RUN that Fitzgerald says that while there is no need to reinvent the wheel, the nature of workouts that work has long been known, it is the packaging that is crucial. And that packaging will not be found in a Runner's World style Run Your Fast xyz distance race plan, that by definition is a generic fit for many types of runners. For beginners they will probably work but long term a runner needs to define their own path. Run Faster has training plans in it but when reading the text was less prescriptive than either Daniels or Lydiard even if it never ends up as winging it like RUN advocates.

Reading especially RUN actually got me thinking about my past training, and there's a whole chapter in Run Faster that deals with looking back to go forward. When I was training for my marathon last year, I had set down with my father for advice, and we had taken a standard marathon program and tweaked a little here to accomodate for both my lack of experience but also for my rapid improvements in performance up to that point. And being a good student I went and hit each session as prescribed. After 5 weeks though I was getting weary and began to doubt myself. I was running well, and infact would run a 35 second 10km  PB but it was no longer thrilling. Week 6 of my training was an unplanned recovery week and thereafter I realized that if I carried on as planned I would not make it to the start line. I ripped apart my program which followed a basic linear periodization and instead focused on key workouts, a base run, a tempo run, a hill circuit, a time trial and a long run, and built a progressive plan that worked toward a peak week. I got to the start line, I finished the race though not according to my (unrealistic) target, and as my father likes to remind, I was not defeated by my plan but by the enormity of first marathon.

Looking even further back, if forced to pick a period of training where I was really in a groove, I would choose the May and June 2012. I had just finished my first block of planned training for a half marthon and it would be 10+ weeks before formal marathon training and I needed to do something in the interim. The first few weeks of May were tough as I experimented with volume and frequency. I had been running maximum 35km per week across four sessions and wanted to increase frequency and volume by the time marathon training rolled around. I found a race at the end of June and with no formal training plan decided to wing it to race day, the plan being just to run a 10km PB. After the first three weeks, I stumbled upon a formula that worked wonders. At it's base was weekly variation, but a progressive path towards my goal. And with no sessions set out I had to trust my body every time I went out. The sequence was Rest-Speed-Recovery-Threshold-Rest-Hilly Base-Long. That was five different sessions maintained week to week. In each successive week I trusted my self to add to my long run, increase rep distance, attack different hills and so on. It worked. Though the 10km race ended up being 10.5km, My finishing time was still 20 seconds inside my 10km PB, which working backward meant ~2:30 improvement in my time over 10 weeks with no formal plan, just the principle that my body needed varied but consistent and progressive stimuli.

It struck when reading RUN, Run Faster and The Art of Running Faster that all three books shared that: varied but consistent and progressive stimuli. And all three books have made a reference to enjoyment. It's no surprise that the months of May and June and also after I scrapped my marathon training plan and did something else, my enjoyment level of running was sky high. And then let me be honest and say that despite running some of my fastest races this year, despite being able to do intervals harder and at more volume, despite running comfortably easy at progressively faster speeds, despite the evidence of training that has extracted performance from me, my enjoyment level steadily has gone down from the high of the marathon and the 4 weeks afterwards.

The change? The training system.

An interview with Brad Hudson from Running Times had the repetition of the phrase "everything matters" littered through the text, and examining myself as a runner and where my source of enjoyment of the sport comes from, it's such a truism. It took what might come across as the most vague book in the world, RUN, to make me realize that the seeds of the mind-body connection were starting to bear fruit already last year. I was beginning to get familiar with what works. I could tell when I was running to much, too hard or not enough. Yeah mistakes happened, I hit 50km/week quick and got an overuse scare and had to step back but there's alwys an element of risk, even with a perfectly crafted plan. While I have gotten results this year, 90s improvement over 12 weeks of training, I have sacrificed a small amount of enjoyment for performance gains. And surely at the heart of recreational running, even with a dose of competitiveness is fun?

So yes once I'm back on my feet, there will be further refinement, recidivism even, to figure out what works me. Something I found so intriguing about RUN was the anecdotes on what some elite runners do (I'm a firm believer in learning from the best) and the main take home was that you couldn't really take the training of someone like Haile Gebrselassie and distill it into a 12-16 week training program. Some of his workouts are mental but they work because he has figured out what works out of the accepted methods out there for him. He and other elites might have started on a system and refined it or stuck with it. And also perhaps migrations of athletes to coaches or coaches recruiting athletes would be driven by shared philosophies that don't share wit current coaches/athletes. Sessions are universal but systems are not, and individuals are most certainly not universal.

I enjoy running the most, and get the best results when balancing performance and enjoyment, when I'm training with great variety most of the time but also have some consistency that allows me to measure progress. I also seem to run a lot less mileage per session than the average person but right now that works and I would rather allow myself to work up over time instead of forcing it. It's not very well refined, that will come with time but instead of jumping from system to system or trying to just ramp up my volume because it's the right thing to do perhaps it's wise to try and build from what served me well before. I understand sessions, I'm not going to go out and do a 32km long run thinking it will be a key session in getting me to run a sub 35:00 10km. But as I found the solution to a problem last May (get faster and stay happy), I think as my knowledge of the science behind training grows and my understanding of myself as a physical specimen develops I can refine my training. It will also help me seek out help since I would be bringing something to the table beyond just a goal when seeking advice from more experienced runners and coaches.

So maybe I should just trust myself, accept that trial and error is just part of the process, and enjoy my running as that is what drives me to seek improvement. Maybe I should just wing it for a bit.

I think I will!

A closer look at Project 35: Phase I (Conditioning Phase)

It's Comrades weekend coming up, which means Sunday will be a 12 hour (viewing) marathon watching one of the greatest road races on the planet. Comrades is also somewhat significant for me as a runner as it what during the race in 2011, down there as a supporter, that I made a commitment to return to the sport (I did a fair bit of running in high school but have only flirted with it since then). This wasn't half-hearted and by the time I landed back in Joburg that even I had sketched out a tentative three year plan: a half marathon by June 2012, a marathon by June 2013 and Comrades by 2014. That plan has long since been scrapped as the reality of what it takes to run the Big C has hit home, but in it's place is a more concrete, even more long term plan, Project 35, detailed for six months at a time, outlined to 2015 and tentative to 2020...something about some big ultra marathon!

Looking back over the past two years my development as a runner can be looked at in six month blocks. The first block June 2011 to December 2011 was just about running. I never had a plan and the haphazardness is immediately detectable on my training log. I got a lot out of this phase though just getting used to getting out and getting to know myself a bit as a runner. I ran a couple of races, even managing a sub 50:0010km and laid a decent foundation for the coming year.

January to June 2012 was about introducing structure. I got a half marathon training plan and now got acquainted with the routine of running and the progressiveness of preparing for a goal race. The plan was very loose, focusing on raising endurance but also introducing some faster running, alternating between short track sessions (these were so hard), fartleks (enjoyable) and tempo runs (still my favourite workout type). I managed to stick to the entire program, missing just one session I think and ended up running two half marathons as well finishing with a sub 45:00 10km and a sub 20:00 5km.

With adherence to plan achieved, July to December was about upping the ante and I moved on to a volume phase (with a bit of faster running) and committed to running a marathon. This was by far the most challenging thing I put myself through physically out of my own free will. The long runs, the midweek tempos, the fatigue and of course the marathon itself. At this stage I did not have an endurance base, and while I was bleak about missing my marathon target by almost 30 minutes, my coach assured me that what I had gained here was far bigger than even if I had managed to run 3:10 for Soweto Marathon. The long easy miles, peaking at 82km, interspersed with time trials and long steady state runs, would serve as great base training (ruined a bit by running a marathon at the end of it) and the key was to use the large engine I had developed. Ending the period with PBs of 17:49 for 5km, 37:46 for 10km and 1:25:28 was proof of a successful transition into a somewhat serious runner.

The past 5 months has seen the final pieces of the puzzle introduced as I went through pretty harsh four weeks cycles of speed and more speed and yet more speed. In January it was short repetitions and hill work, in February a mix of repetitions and some intervals, and March was focused on interval work leading to a peak race in April. Things didn't work out as planned, with over-racing being a problem and getting injured. What has happened though is that going from just running to training for a goal race, introducing volume and then tackling some faster running, I have over approximately two years exposed myself to all the elements that make up a complete training program.

And this is how Project 35 has come about.

As I said in a previous post, Project 35 is from a running perspective, a life plan. It's how ultimately when I am at my competitive best, will look to define myself as a runner. It's not about one race or one training cycle or one season. My coach and I believe that the work that I can do in the next two to three years, based on what I have managed to achieve or relatively modest training will help me become the best marathoner I can be, one of my big goals, and also when I take the step up to ultra marathons. So in terms of it's composition all the elements are there. As a certified (detail and numbers obsessed) geek, I've read a lot in that past six months, books and websites, spoken to a lot of people and analyzed where available the training of some of my favourite athletes out there, trying to understand what makes a good athlete. Running is one area when there seems to be an us and them idea when looking at recreational runners and elites. I know when ever I read something cool and mentioned it to people the response is usually something like, "but you can't compare US to an elite athlete". But surely it makes sense to use the principles of the best in the business and apply them in a scalable manner?

But I do digress. I'm currently rotating my reading between Running With Lydirad and Daniel's Running Formula. I had some ideas earlier and had even drawn up an annual plan that seemed to tie in with elements of what those two coaches prescribe. My plan now is a mixture of both and as such is neither Lydiard or Daniels but probably leans more towards the former. In fact reading through Running With Lydiard, it was interesting to me how he calls the base phase marathon conditioning as I had done my best (not necessarily time but definitely in the manner that I ran) and most consistent fast running post-Soweto, as my father had also said I would.

In it's basic element Project 35 is a 24-26 week periodized program template arranged in five phases: base, speed/hills, stamina, sharpening and then a peaking phase. The base phase and speed/strength phase are basically scaled down Lydiard, while the remaining phase Lydiard and Daniels concepts together. Then to complete the picture, there is a supplementary strength element that gets progressively more intense alongside the running component. This tandem approaching of complementary work to aid my running is something that has been missing.

I hope to go through this tempelate every six months, incorporating 1-2 weeks downtime in between, as I attempt to improve my 10km times and maximise whatever ability I may or may not have. And as both Lydiard and Daniels advise, I always have a peak race in mind, in this cycle it's the Kollonade Retail Park 10km on 16 November. I've done the race before and I know that the structure of this program will have me ready for the route which is really fast and mostly flat with only one challenging stretch from 8k to 9km. I've worked backward from that race, allocating time to each phase as required and leaving the remainder for the conditioning phase

That phase of my training looks like this:

Phase I: Conditioning Phase

The first point is that I will try as best as I can, logistics permitting, to run to time and not distance. I've read a lot about the difference between training load and training volume and conceptually it makes sense to me. For example, Abel Kirui on his was to becoming the marathon world champion in 2011 had a longest run of 2:15 but that covered a mind-blowing 40km. At my current training paces 40km would take me at least 3:00, so equal volume but different load. A 2:15 run on the other hand would be 30km which is far more realistic for my ability. 

The key sessions then are a long run that will peak at 90 minutes, a steady state run at predicted marathon pace (from my current 10km PB) and an easy fartlek session over rolling hill (not very difficult in my neighbourhood, in face a given). The rest of the runs will be easy paced runs of 45-60 minutes. The races marked out won't be all out efforts. Even though I'm running to time I have guesstimated what the weekly volumes might be to see if they would be realistic. Those volumes are similar to what I hit during Soweto Marathon training. Back then that volume was really stressful but I think this time that won't be a problem, especially since there are no 2 hours/25km+ runs in there, which is where most of the stress came from. The first four weeks (the program started last week) are very gentle as I had to tweak the sessions since I was compromised by the IT band issue that I only became fully aware off when I started the program. As such I managed just 17km last week over 3 runs. Thankfully a week of taking appropriate measures has meant that my condition is improving rapidly and will hit ~32km this week. In effect then my training will start in earnest next week as I should be able to run the volumes I was doing,  ~45-50km, before taking a break at the start of May.

The road ahead is a long one, 26 weeks, but I'm hoping that even though I'm works towards a race, the variation in my training, which will be end when I post the coming phases, will keep the training interesting. And of course with some build up races coming up from September once Phase II is complete it will be great to work back into the racing scene.

I'm really keen to see how 1) my body responds to such a formalized training approach as well as b) if my ambitions are realistic. If the last two years are anything to go by, going from from a 51:19 10km to 36:13 from August 2011 to March 2013, 15 minutes in 19 months, an average of 47 seconds improvement every month, I definitely feel it's something I have to give a good go. Even looking at post-Soweto improvements, 38:22 in November (the Kollonade race last year, that's the official time but I stopped my watch at 39:16 so I'm still baffled by that) to 36:13 is still an average of 32 seconds every month, at a time when I was approaching a definite plateau. Sports science and observation tells us that continuous improvement is not a pipe dream as long training is logical and allows from adequate recovery, so I hope that this Plan takes me to higher highs than I've experienced up to the point.