My Next Training Plan

This is what I plan to do with my running for the next few months so that I will get faster and stronger by spring time.  Brief explanations are included.
My workouts will be more targeted this winter.  I will not do shortish long runs due to pain from longish speed work and longish recovery runs.  I will not do slowish speed work due to too much speed during long runs. 

Monday: off  (I strength train Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri in 15-20 min sessions but more on that another day)

Tuesday: 2-5 mile easy jog.  The distance will depend upon how my body feels and if I'm hurting a lot or feeling like I'm pushing the line for over trained then I'll skip this run and do yoga or rest.  20 minutes is the minimum time or this run.

Wednesday:  Speed work day.  For me, instead of trying to do lots of long intervals and tough it out and shorten the rests, which makes the workout tear up my body while rarely hitting a really high level of intensity, I will be focusing on short and intense workouts.  I am an endurance athlete, I'm already good at going long and not resting.  Speed work will be a 20 minute warm up followed by 30 seconds at 95% of my max (yup, a 200 meter sprint).  The rest period will be 3 minutes of slow walking.  I will do 6 reps.  I realize this seems like a long rest period and a short work out, but again, the goal is a level of intensity that will cause real physiologic change in terms of aerobic enzymes and transport proteins.  I did not invent this approach.  Going into the science behind it would not keep this blog readable and brief so I'm leaving it out.  If you run into knee trouble and just really can't get outside some weeks then I suggest doing these on a bike stand or elliptical and just going really slow during the 3 minute rest.

Thursday: 2-7 miles easy jog.  This run too is more about loosening things up and getting light cardio.  If I have any kind of nagging troubles this is one that can be skipped or cut down to 20 minutes or replaced with cross training.  If you have to limit your total mileage or have time constraints or are a multi-sport athlete then Tuesday and Thursday can be used to cross-train.  

Friday: Off

Saturday:  Either trail hill repeats or a trail tempo run, alternating each week.  Hill repeats for me will be on the long hill on the BBA course near the beginning of the loop where the trail used to be road.  It's a quarter mile long and runnable.  Any runnable hill will work as long as its trail, even if it almost flattens out in places.  I used to do 2 hours and try to keep my effort even.  Now I will be trying to do these as intensely and painfully as I can with pauses at each end for the first hour.  After than I will jog another half hour or so of them.  I have reached the conclusion that I will be faster over all in trail races at this point if I can move up and down hills a bit faster without getting too winded, which means that jogging up hill needs to be a lower percent of my max, which means my max needs to go up.  What will I do when it snows?!?  Take shorter steps, much shorter, and be prepared to fall up hill. I am preparing to trail race.  I will practice paying attention to my footing and bending my knees.  If you find you have trouble with the muscle control then slow down and bend your knees more.  If you can't do that then get your butt to a trainer or PT and learn to do squats and deadlifts properly and then do them and get stronger so you don't wind up seriously damaged.
    Trail tempo runs are done by effort, not by pace.  If you run trail you have to learn to gauge your effort because courses vary widely.  Even the same course may vary widely day to day.  Tempo runs will involve a 20 minute or so warm up and 20-45 min warm down.  The tempo portion will be 60-75 minutes.  I have trouble maintaining effort (hard but sustainable) so I will do them on a 1-2 mile tail loop, pausing for a minute after each loop to sip water and check my effort level.  In my case I will use the ledges loop in the CVNP. 
    What about falling on technical trail trying to go fast?  If you are a trail runner and the pace you are able to maintain for an hour in a row is one you can't maintain safely on trail then you need to do some strength and agility training and you need good trail shoes and a shorter stride.  What about in the snow?!?!!?  Yes, even in the snow.  I will take very short steps and turn my legs over faster.  This will mean my effort level is maintained. 

Sunday:  Long trail run day.  For me this will be 25-40 miles and they will involve absolutely no getting out of breath.  This is the endurance day and it is done on tired legs.  If you can keep moving for 30 miles on trail the day after hill day then you are ready for a 50 mile trail race.  If you can do 24 miles then you are ready for 50K success. 
    My total weekly miles aren't all that high but my one long run will stay long and steady.  There will be much hill walking.  Every 3rd-5th week depending on how my body feels, the long run will be at the shorter end of the range.  For anyone trying to follow my general training schedule, the long run should be what ever is long for you.  If you are training up to 50k then your long run might be 15-25 miles.  I will be running a 100 K in mid January and a 100 miler in June.  These are not new distances for me.
    What about snow on the trails making it too hard to get the miles done?!!?  When it snows I run time and not distance.  How ever long it generally takes me to run about 30 miles in training, that's how long I'll spend that day if 30 miles is what I would have done.  Sure its a guestimate but heck, so are some of the race distances (thank you Rob Powell, I recommend Forget the PR 25K to people all the time).  I will not go run on pavement just to get miles in.  That does not help trail running at all.  I will have strong legs in spring!  The number of miles doesn't matter when it snows.  If you find you have to take tiny steps and make it 2 miles in an hour because of a foot of snow on the trails when you could have done 6 miles out on the road, don't fret.  If you want to run well in trail races, stay out there on the trails year round.  If you can't figure out what to wear, google it and read blogs and post on trail running fb pages and try things out on short runs close to home.

Forget the PR, Mohican 50K and 25K Trail Race

            A group of us from Grunt Girls and a few of our friends stayed in a cabin at Mohican Adventures, where the start/finish area moved for this year’s race.  Two of us ran the 50K while seven ran the 17.4 mile long “25K”.  For our friend Will this 25K was the first race of his adult life (he’s 28) and he came out of it wanting to do more.  I really like going to races with a big group and making a weekend of it, even if it does mean maybe a little less sleep and an extra glass of red wine.  This time it also meant an audience for the two of us who ran the 50K and followed it up with an ice bath.  An audience is good, it keeps you from backing out when you stick your first foot in or from getting back out before fifteen minutes have passed.  For Gabe this was his first 50K and his first ice bath.  He did very well with both, finishing the race in a flat out sprint which he says hurt like heck, and concluding that he likes 50K trail races better than 15 minute ice baths.  I have to say I agree completely and wouldn’t bother with the torture if it didn’t get my legs working right again so quickly.

            Rob Powell, the race director (and an all around great guy), changed the course for both races this year and I’m a huge fan of the changes.  Now there are better hills, including the aptly named “Big Ass Hill”, which has its own sign at the bottom and is followed closely by the “don’t hate the hill, hate the race director” hill.  Also, this year both distances included the waterfalls loop, which is a really beautiful section of trail everyone should get to see.  There are parts along the creek where the trail is really just a creek with flags along it to tell runners they’re really still on course.  Later the flags actually lead under a waterfall before climbing up out of the ravine through tree roots runners have to grab hold of due to the steepness of the side.  This kind of course is why I trail run and I love it.  The river crossing was intimidating for a few but made for great pictures and everyone in our group made it across.  Stacy fell in up to her neck but bravely went on to finish strong if a little chilly.  Gale was a little nervous about the iffy footing at first but Gabe came along on his second loop while she was considering her strategy and they crossed together, arm in arm.  Someone on the bridge above captured them on camera and posted the pictures on the race website so we all got to see.

            For me this was my best 50K so far.  It was my second fastest but a more challenging course by far than the Fool’s run three weeks ago where I managed a PR.  The two loops are not identical in length or terrain, with the half way point coming a couple miles before the end of the first loop.  This meant managing pace more by paying attention to effort than by watching my GPS watch.  I was still jogging small hills in the last few miles of the race and crossed that finish line very, very tired but running.  Learning to pace by learning how my body feels at a particular distance is a goal of mine and something I really enjoy.  I also finished first woman and fifth overall, which is the highest overall finish I’ve ever had.  I like running for its own sake but I also really like the feeling of training hard and racing hard and then seeing the results.

            What did I learn from this race?  Well, my body definitely races better on more calories.  Every time I went too long without a gel, even just by a little bit, my legs would start to tell me I’d run the earlier miles too fast after all.  10-15 minutes after putting in a gel or two my legs would change their tune.  I think low blood sugar gives me illusions of pain.  I ended up putting in four Accel gels with protein, two Gu gels and I think seven or eight Hammer gels.  Talking to a couple fast runners after the race, I think I need to add more healthy fats to my breakfast before long races but maybe I’ll just always need a lot of calories to go fast.  I’m planning to experiment with a couple spoonfuls of natural peanut butter before my next few long runs to see what kind of impact that has. 

            Endurance athletes mostly get pretty comfortable discussing body functions and learning what to do about them during our sports.  A couple members of our group have a history of problems with fast moving digestion (the kind that causes emergency pit stops in the woods) and stomach cramps during or after long races.  I had some problems last year (three problems in one 25K) and have dealt with it ever since by taking a couple Immodium about two hours before any race longer than ten miles.  I have had great success with no follow-up trouble the next day, so of course I shared this information with my friends.  Everyone who tried this approach over the weekend felt that it worked very well, and Andrea, who has always had pain in her guts for the rest of the day any time she runs long said she felt great this time.  I share all this in case anyone reading it has similar problems.  It’s not one of those things you see mentioned much in running magazines so maybe it’s not a big problem out in the running community but if you have a problem with it then it is probably big to you.

           

Green Jewel 50K

I signed up for the Green Jewel 50K this year on a whim, not really thinking about what the race would entail.  The shirts from the previous year looked pretty cool, the parks the course runs through are pretty, I’d heard other runners say they liked it lots, so why not?  Then as the race approached and I began to really think about it I began to worry.  Not about the distance but about the surface.  The entire course is pavement.  Bike path sure, but pavement still.  I ran a whole lot of trail last year, even a few 50Ks but only one road race.  It was five miles long and my feet hurt afterward.  What was I thinking?  Sure, in some ways pavement is easier.  It’s certainly faster to run on, your feet don’t slide all over the place or sink in and usually it’s flatter than trail.  On the other hand it’s a lot more impact for your body to absorb and if your running form has problems you’ll be punished for it.  What was I thinking?!?
    I had worked on form a whole bunch the previous fall after a couple minor muscular difficulties.  Still though, I run two thirds of my miles on trails.  The longest training runs I used to do were 8 miles so I upped those to 10 or maybe 12.  I signed up for the race so there’s no way I was backing out.  I figured if I got into trouble I could just run on the grass next to the bike path.  Plus also I’d learned more about during race fueling during longer races over winter and really wanted to test it out.  I’d done some four or five hour runs sure but only a race really tests a new strategy and this was the perfect opportunity.
    So how did it all work out?  Well, I forgot my fuel belt but fortunately my good friend and running partner, Gabe, was with me for support and was able and willing to retrieve it for me and pass it to me a couple miles in.  I ‘ate’ four Accel gels (20 grams of protein) during the first half of the race and 7 or 8 Hammer gels throughout.  I expected if the race went well I might finish in four and a half hours.  I ended up finishing in 4:09:30 as first place woman.  I never knew I could run that fast for that long and it felt pretty amazing, especially after months of slogging through snow because I will NOT run on a dreadmill.  My legs felt the best they’ve ever felt after a 50K.  My feet were tender sure, but not really in pain.  All in all I was ecstatic.  If you’re a trail runner tempted to try a road marathon and Cleveland, Ohio isn’t far away I recommend you run this instead.
    This post is going to run just a little bit longer because I have to share another new experience I had that day.  I decided to try giving my legs an ice-bath post race since I’ve read that lots of elite marathoners, tri-athletes and so on use ice-baths to reduce inflammation and speed recovery.  Did it help me?  Sadly yes.  If you’re asking ‘why sadly?’ then you have never tried an ice-bath.  My wonderful aforementioned friend and training partner was there in a supervisory and lifeguarding capacity and recorded the first couple minutes on his iPhone.  He can be hear giggling in the background as I ease myself into the tub, pushing ice cubes against the sides and screaming like a very unhappy small child.  I think I’d stopped rocking by the time he ran out of video space.  Will I do it again?  Of course I will, I just won’t let it be recorded for posterity and the amusement of my friends who all got a huge kick out of that video.