My Lactic Acid Test

About 2 years ago I went running on a treadmill and had my ear pricked every 3 minutes.
What I learned there was that my base could be a lot better and that the shape I was in at that time did not offer a good breeding ground to do a sub 3:30 marathon.

I proved the advice wrong (barely), yet I feel I could not have achieved it without the test itself.
Running on heart rate is golden for me, it gives me a sense of security and supports me on a day-to-day basis.

About 2 months ago I went for an update, this time “in the field” (on a track is more correct).

The general idea was the same: run at a specific intensity, pause, prick some blood, put down the timings and go running at a somewhat heavier intensity.
Difference was at treadmill they crank up the speed, here I needed to watch my heart rate constantly.

So I managed 6 times 2k and shortly after that I had to push it all out over 600m to find my max HR.

For the number minded people: a comparison. My take on these numbers are underneath.

2013 2015
Recovery 134-143 <140
Z1 144-155 140-155
Z2 156-161 155-162
Z3 162-167 162-169
Z4 168-173 16-17.5km/h*
Z5 174-182 >17.5km/h*
Anaerobic threshold 168 @ 14.2km/h 168 @ 15.15km/h
Max HR 182 @ 16.8km/h 183 @ unknown (didn’t press my Garmin button properly)

* The 2 tests were with a different firm, the second one opts to only give speeds at intensity levels as HR can fluctuate too much in their opinion.

So after 2 years it turned out that:

  • The last year or so I did my long runs too slow
  • My speed really picked up
  • I have consistent zones once above my threshold.
  • There is still room for improvement on my total capacity, which means I should be able to get even faster.

Good times coming 🙂

Any of you ever did some test like this?
Did you think it upped your trainings?

Crushing The Long Runs

There has been a lot of changes in my training regimen since Summer, which I all want to share, but somehow I don’t seem to come around to writing more than 2 sentences at once.
So more is coming … probably 🙂

One of the things that have changed since Summer is the time slot of my long runs. The weekends are always super busy and with a 18 months old daughter and a SO that works 1 weekend out of 2 it isn’t always fun to run away (literally…) for 3h or so.

So we came to the agreement that I put my long runs Wednesday evening (or if that doesn’t work, the Monday) and it seems to be working.
In September I’ve managed to do 4 long runs –  1 20k (~12.5 miles) and 3 35k’s (~21.75 miles).

It’s especially with those last 3 I’m very happy! I’ve done a new lactate test on the track in the beginning of september (more later…) and it turned out that I can do my long runs faster (among others, but again, more later :-))

This meant that, three weeks ago, I went for a 3h long run, which is nothing new per se, but it did mean I was going to:

  • Up my distance from ~30k to ~35k
  • So +16.6% in distance
  • and about +11% in speed

But I can say I pulled it off and am very very happy with it, because last 2 weeks I did it on Wednesday after doing already ~30k combined on Monday & Tuesday.

This gives me a new baseline and a very bright perspective for the future!

Unexpected Golden Legs

After my Trail Des Fantômes I took a week off (although I’ve done some small runs that week).
After that it was a week of work and decent running (70k week) and lastly last week I took another week off without running. I got back Friday and did a 2h sloooow run on Saturday. Someone I know went on a 6h solo run and asked a bunch of people for support.

So all this writing is mainly to show that resting can help.
Yesterday I went on my scheduled run, but because there was quite some wind I decided to do a Zone2 run instead of a Zone1 run (more on my zones here…).
In my Z2 runs I normally aim at a 4:44m/km pace (~7:37min/mile) and from the start I dove under that.
Even after 5km it was still going great despite it was headwind. I knew I would have the wind in my back going my back so I was hoping for a more than decent run.

The Best partial timings according to Endomondo

Going back I started with about 4:22, so 22seconds faster than aimed.
Some quick counting showed I could manage a half marathon under 95 minutes if all went well. So I decided to add about 5 minutes to my training and I got my half marathon in 1:34:21.
According to Strava this is my second best half marathon ever!

(See it on Strava or Endomondo)

So do you ever run an awful lot better than you’d expect?
Has previous resting something do to with it then?

No More Heavy Weeks

Pfiieeoouuuwww…
That was basically my feeling after my Saturday run.
The last 100k week before my 6h run July 11th and I’m not really sad about it.

I felt like I was reaching the verge of overtraining: Constant tired, not really feeling like running, massive hunger all the time, …
So it seems it’s not a week to early to end my heavy weeks.

Three weeks before my race and I plan on doing 2 weeks of 70k (both in 3 runs, so plenty of rest days) and the last week will be tapering (it’s a must ;-))

I have some nice runcommute pictures of last week I wanted to share with you to start this week.

Week Recap & Preview

So last week was my rest week.
I “only” ran three times for a total of 70k.
But somehow I feel like my body is catching up with my heavy weeks from before last.

Since April I’ve been building hard towards my 6h race and I feel like my training is really working, yet it’s starting to get heavy as well. But hey, you don’t get better by doing all easy runs…

April recap of my weekly trainings (mind you, its kilometers!)

May recap of my weekly trainings (mind you, its kilometers!)

So last week was:

This week I’m planning my last heavy 100k week, but I’m guarding my tiredness, so it could be my schedule gets changed during the week…

  • Monday: 20k Z1
  • Tuesday: 7+13k Z1 commute
  • Wednesday: 21k Z2
  • Saturday: 40k

Right now I don’t feel my body can take another 40k run, so that one really hangs in the balance.
On the plus side, that would be my last +30k run before the race itself on July 11!

 

Are you planning ahead? Easy week? Heavy week?
Either way: loads of fun to you all 🙂

May Was The Best, On To June!

349k oh wow …
Best running month ever! No really, I do not talk about the feeling per se, but number-wise it’s definitely my best month ever!

My last months in Endomondo

I’ve picked up running around February 2013 and before May my maximum distance was 324km in September 2013.

Now I’ve not only broke my distance-in-one-month record, but I’ve managed to run +300km 2 months in a row.
You can imagine how happy (and tired ;-)) I am right now!
Chance is I’ll manager +300k in June as well, but a lot depends on how my body will cope with 3 weeks of heavy training (this week being 3 out of 3)

Have fun in June, I hope you all will see a lot of sun this month!

Week Recap 222015

I’ve rested last week.
I “only” did 59k (~36 miles) and took some time catching up on sleeping mostly.

My shin pains (mild) and adductor muscle stiffness seem to be gone so I’m ready for an intensive week.
The goal is to insert more stretching in my daily routine and hope this helps for various little aches.

This week I’m aiming at a 100k week again.

Monday: 18k
Tuesday: 2x12k (to and from work with a detour)
Wednesday: 18k
Saturday: 44k

I’m already excited for this last one. Running more than a marathon for training is always a serious task.

Have fun running this week everybody!

Taking What I Can…

There has been an awful lot of wind the last weeks around here.
I don’t mind pounding against nature now and then, but after a while I’ve had it none the less.

Last weeks I’m running to commute (detailed post later :-)) and one of the advantages is now that I can always take a detour home without really touching the family time.

Wednesday I had 90 minutes in Zone 2 planned, but with a wind of 12ms/s (with bursts up to 14) and feeling tired I just stayed in and called it an early night (21:15 lights out :o)

Yesterday evening the wind was a lot less and after consulting The Girlfriend I agreed to do my 90 minutes then.

It was a while since I did a Zone 2 training on asphalt, the last weeks I always went running on the beach, so I didn’t know what my pace would be.
Turns out I managed to do a 4:45min (per km mind you) pace even with my backpack.

So with the lovely weather I decided to add an extra 10 minutes and got a semi-speedy half marathon for my training.
As you can see … I’m taking what I can 🙂

 

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