Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Went to church.  The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on being spiritually clean. I had some thoughts following those talks. At the start of 3 Nephi 11 when Christ appears to the Nephites they hear a voice three times before they can even understand what it is saying. The voice is described as a voice a perfect mildness. That kind of voice cannot be heard or understood in noisy surroundings. Spiritually noisy that is. Feelings of anger, envy, hatred, selfishness, lust, etc are a source of that noise. For that reason I refuse to listen to certain types of music or watch certain movies. Not just because the Church says you should not. I know what it does to my ability to hear that voice of perfect mildness. It is difficult enough already to hear it, I am struggling as it is. I do not need to surround myself with things that make it more difficult.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10.1 total. We did another tempo on the Fast Running Blog 5 Miler course. The way I saw it was to finish the 5 miles we did not finish on Saturday. My total time was 29:06. Jeff kicked and dropped me with 200 to go and his time was 29:03. The splits were 5:56 - 5:49 - 5:52 - 5:51 - 5:38. The last five quarters 85-87-84-83-84. 

The temperature was 16 F and it was foggy. The trail conditions were similar to Saturday - mostly dry, occasional snow/ice segments.

I was happy to see that my last 4 miles of the tempo were done in 23:10, which is only 5 seconds slower than my race time for 4 miles in November, but sure with a whole lot less effort even though my quads started feeling strained a bit between 3 and 4 miles, and then caved in the last 200. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:30. Last quarter in 91. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:16. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:39. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:33. 

A.M. 10.1 alone (Jeff slept in) in 1:19:21. Did some 100 meter strides. Timed a 200 in 35.7. Felt strong, but clumsy. Legs felt like untrue wheels of a bike. Found Jenny and Sarah with about 0.4 to go. Jenny ran the last 0.4 with me. We timed a quarter in 1:46. Jenny ran a total of 2.5.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:53. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:07. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35. 

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:19:58. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:23. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:18. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:43. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:44. 

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:19:56. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:27. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:04. Jacob and Joseph did not run due to sore throat and cough. 

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:17:56. Did a quarter pickup in 71.6. It felt good, better than I expected. I was pleased with that. However, the form was still clumsy, still feeling like biking with untrue wheels. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. All kids except Jenny and William had coughs. So they ran less and slower. 1 with Julia in 9:14. 1 with Benjamin in 9:17. 0.25 with Joseph in 2:35. Jacob got another day of rest. 

A.M. 15.2 with Jeff in 1:59:06. Did 5x400 with 400 recovery jog after about 2.4 warm-up. I was hoping to hit 72-73, but with Jeff's help it went a lot better. 71.0 - 70.1 - 67.8 - 68.7 - 70.5.

A thought on quarters or any intervals for that matter. The main purpose of those for a marathoner is to learn to run with good form. To accomplish that purpose we need to choose the pace carefully. The idea is to run fast enough so that anaerobic bear will ride you your back if you run with bad form, but slow enough that he will not ride on your back regardless of your form. So suppose with bad form the anaerobic bear starts feeling a whole lot heavier between 70 and 71. Or in other words if you hit that quarter in 70 with good form, you feel the comfort of 71. If you run it in 71 it is comfortable regardless of the form. If you run it in 69 it is uncomfortable regardless of the form.

So in that example - the problem with 71 is that you can keep running with bad form and you do not feel it. The problem with 69 is that it is so painful that even if you improve the form you do not notice a whole lot of difference. Another problem with 69 is that you start training anaerobic bear tolerance. Which means that the pace at which you feel the difference between a good and a bad form becomes faster without any improvement in long distance performance. This also has a side effect of faster fuel burn at any speed, which leads to a spectacular wall experience in the marathon. This is why it is so common to see a post-collegiate star that should be running no slower than 2:13 barely manage 2:30 or worse in his first marathon. Too much anaerobic tolerance from all the brutal track workouts in college (and likely post-college as well, since he is used to training that way), so the metabolism shifts, 5:00 is a jog for him, but all of a sudden he gets past 15 and he cannot do 6:00, then he gets past 20, and he cannot even do 6:30. This takes some time to overcome.

However, if you can just feel that balance of speed, you can achieve good results. The form will smooth out, and the performances in all distances from the mile to the marathon improve at the same time.

There is really no formula to calculate that speed even if you know your race performances because different people could have a different degree of anaerobic tolerance even if they have the exact same race times. You need to do it by feel. One way you would know you've done it right is that you'll notice that as the workout progresses your subsequent intervals keep getting faster and you cannot quite understand why because you are not working any harder. The form feels smoother, you start developing a greater measure of harmony and balance. You are able to enjoy the speed without paying too great of a price in terms of pain.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 16:52. Julia and Benjamin, still sick, ran only 1 mile with us in 9:23. Then Jenny closed with a 7:29. 0.25 with Joseph in 2:36. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35.