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PR Table and Notable Races

Marathon:
2:21:12 (Chicago); 2:20:41 (CIM)

Half Marathon: 1:05:45 (Long Beach)
10K: 30:03 (Portland)

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AM - 7 miles.

Moved tomorrow's workout to this afternoon because we have a storm on the way and this wasn't one that could be done on the TM...

PM - 14 miles. LT Efforts: 2 x 20 minutes (2 min recovery jog) with VO2 trigger at the end of the second rep. Tempo loop. 3 up, 3 down. 

This is the easiest way to see how it broke down:

I'll do 5 of these types of workouts over the next six weeks. Starting w/ this 2x20, dropping to 4x10, 3x8, and back up to 4x10, 2x20. Then shifting to some other stuff. Here's the "rules" for these sessions:

1. Run by feel and perceived threshold effort. No goal times for these sessions, no Garmin-dictated pacing, no mile splits during the workout - just a countdown timer*.
2. The appropriate effort is what I feel like can run for 60 minutes right now... not this weekend, not at a race in a few weeks. True "date pace". This can change day to day, so its important to feel threshold and don't go beyond it.
3. If anything, err on the side of being a little slower (HM pace instead of LT pace, although for me these are relatively close to begin with).
4. Change gears in the last 2-3 minutes of the final effort and work down to 5K/3K effort. This is what we're calling the VO2 trigger. Stay relaxed during this part, otherwise it defeats the purpose.

*If I was in Africa, I'd do this Garmin-less. But I'm letting my watch record the pace information in the background for the sake of record keeping and so the progression of these sessions can be tracked. Since I'm usually pretty good about being sensible and not trying to "beat" previous workouts, I'm making the executive decision that I'm allowed to look at it afterwards.

Comments
From SlowJoe on Mon, Feb 03, 2014 at 19:27:04 from 66.69.93.8

Bam is probably shaking his head that you're even looking at the data afterward.

Cool-lookin' workout though! The last 3 minutes sounds painful.

From Jake K on Mon, Feb 03, 2014 at 20:03:12 from 67.177.11.154

Bam would prefer I just count to 1200 in my head, but life is all about compromises :-)

From Jason D on Mon, Feb 03, 2014 at 21:33:47 from 24.1.80.94

You mean you don't like running 4:50 pace on the treadmill? Me neither. Those Woodways vibrate and tickle me feet.

What is the purpose behind dropping from 2 x 20 to 4 x 10?

From Matt Poulsen on Mon, Feb 03, 2014 at 21:34:58 from 50.168.224.197

Nice one, Jake! Sounds painful, yet fun :)

From Josh E on Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 09:00:47 from 205.235.104.4

I am impressed that you made sure you got this in before the storm. I just like to stick to the schedule and blow workouts. You are so wise.

So on the 3x1 mts faster and faster, was your watch buzzing at the minute mark?

From Jake K on Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 09:01:45 from 159.212.71.25

The TM and all its buttons and lights would definitely defeat the "by feel" purpose of the workout.

I will (attempt to) explain the purpose to starting w/ 2x20, dropping down, then going back up when I have some more time later...

From Jake K on Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 09:03:29 from 159.212.71.25

Yeah Josh, I guess I'll make it public... I upgraded to the Forerunner 220. So I can pre-program workouts and then it vibrates and beeps when its time for me to either speed up or slow down. I think it will be very useful for these runs that are based on time/effort, and the also when I come back to the wave tempos.

From Josh E on Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 09:09:05 from 205.235.104.4

We discussed it a bit but I didn't realize how detailed the programming could be. I've never figured out the workout feeatures.

From Jake K on Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 09:13:06 from 159.212.71.25

The amount of stuff you can do w/ it is borderline overwhelming

From Rachelle on Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 15:29:19 from 199.190.170.28

Good stuff Jake. I appreciate you sharing the details. This is probably a dumb question but is this something you decided to do on your own or did you get it from someone? Just curious what your reasoning is for this type of training and what you think the main benefits are.

From Jake K on Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 16:14:54 from 159.212.71.25

OK Jason I'm going to try and explain briefly (and will probably fail)...

The first goal for this year is a substantial half-marathon PR... so that means making my LT pace faster. For most people, the approach would be a 5K training cycle (get fast!) and then start extending the length of LT efforts. That's a perfectly good method and works in most cases. For me, however, that isn't really the right approach for a number of reasons. 1) I'm more slow-twitch (look at how close my 5K/10K/HM paces are)... 2) I'm hesitant to do a 5K cycle during the winter because of injury risk. I plan to do a 5K cycle this year, but its going to be in the "safer" season (mid-summer).

So, we approach it from the opposite direction... start w/ longer efforts and work them down (esp since I'm comfortable doing really long workouts). As I move to the shorter efforts like 4x10, 3x8, I should (in theory) be running faster but staying on the right side of the threshold line. And then when I "rebound" and start extending the efforts again, they will (again, in theory) be a bit faster at the same perceived effort level. That's why it is important to not run these Garmin-dictated. Then it would be easy to go faster. The idea is to get faster on "feel" alone. Its not all about the LT workouts... I'll do some step down HM/10K/5K repetitions and the hill repeats which will also help improve the LT pace. After this block, hopefully I'll be fast enough to move to some other types of workouts. The benefit of this approach (top-down) is that it will also translate better to the marathon, eventually.

Rachelle - not a dumb question. This is a topic for another (longer) post, but in brief, after CIM I finally came to terms w/ the fact that I was on a 1:06/2:20 plateau. Those are good times, except that they aren't good enough for me, and I'm selling myself short if I let myself be content at that level. I started asking a lot of questions to a guy who I think REALLY understands modern marathon training. Remember Bam? :-) Hundreds of e-mails later (not an exaggeration), he has helped me put together a really good plan for this spring. This is the most confident I've probably ever been about my running... and that's saying something when I just ran 15:30/1:07:30 :-0

Anyways, I was able to get to a decent performance level on my own over the past few years. But I need help to make the jump to 1:04/2:16. A lot of help. Hard work alone isn't going to get me there. Especially w/ how haphazard my workouts have been. I can train smarter. So Bam is helping me with the workouts (he understands the patterns better than I do), and Andrea is in charge of all of my ancillary work. I am ultimately still the "decider", but I've surrounded myself w/ a team that really wants me to excel, and I trust their judgment.

That's a long comment reply!

From Rachelle on Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 10:13:30 from 199.190.170.29

Thanks for the detailed response Jake. I really appreciate you sharing all of your knowledge and I'm really excited for you. That Bam is kind of a smart dude!

From allie on Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 10:24:15 from 65.130.189.75

i am glad i waited to comment...i was reading through this on monday and i got all overwhelmed and excited like any runner would reading about threshold effort and VO2 trigger and africa. thanks for the details. this is a cool workout, and i like your approach. your summer 5k cycle could set you up for a mile eliminator $win$.

just remember that bam is a giant claw operating an epson hx-20 from the mariana trench.

From Jake K on Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 10:34:23 from 159.212.71.69

I'll post more as we get further along, explaining what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. If things work out, then hopefully it becomes a good learning tool. There will certainly be adjustments made along the way. I'll try to summarize and make it as clear as I can.

The thing to remember is that this workout means nothing on its own. Sort of like my "good" HM workouts in the fall - the 10 x mile, 2 x 5K... those didn't really mean anything or help my fitness as much as they should have, because there was no method or systematic adaptation going on. They were just stand-alone very hard workouts. This time around, I'm going to do certain types of workouts in sets of 3-6 sessions, over a month or more. So no individual workout is a building block, but instead a set of 5 LT workouts or 3-4 hill workouts (for examples) is an important piece of the foundation.

The mile eliminator needs to be moved to August... not the week after Grandmas Marathon :-) Although I'll probably just enter the Elliptigo Mile anyways.

From allie on Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 10:40:10 from 65.130.189.75

$&%^! i have to get elliptigo insurance. ok.

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