Sunday, March 30, 2014

A 60 mile week.

Spring is here!
Haven't been posting or reading blogs lately. I was out of town for two weeks (no running) at the end of Feb / start of March, then starting a new project at work. But that doesn't mean I haven't been running!

I've been noodling on how to maximize my chances for a  BQ this year. I asked a bunch of people on an internal newsgroup at my job what do they think of Hanson's marathon plans. The results showed that many people got a large benefit and everybody got some benefit. I also got a lot of good advice also from Jill: 

I decided make a big hike in mileage this year.

I like the idea of Hanson's as it does resonate with Arthur Lydiard's methods...he kinda started us all on the right track. I've been injury free for a long time, despite some pretty hard running and so it seemed the right time to try some much higher mileage training ....

So, to see what I'm in for, I dropped my pace to MP + 1 min/mile (about 9:45) and boosted my miles over the last three weeks. Like one of my coworkers did, I decided to cut out all speedwork, run 6 days per week, and stop modulating the miles in a hard / easy fashion ..i.e. run about the same amount each day.

Here's my weekly totals for the last three months:

Date   Miles    Pace    BPM   WHR%   Elev+ Elev-     YPB
2013-12-30 Mon 36.6 9:23 126.7 66.2 803.2 864.3 1.533
2014-01-06 Mon 38.3 8:40 126.8 66.3 318.9 318.9 1.612
2014-01-13 Mon 49.2 8:57 125.8 65.4 245.6 250.9 1.569
2014-01-20 Mon 24.4 9:00 125.6 65.3 92.7 93.9 1.561
2014-01-27 Mon 37.4 9:13 133.9 72.1 515.5 509.7 1.438
2014-02-03 Mon 24.0 9:07 122.5 62.7 395.5 398.5 1.584
2014-02-10 Mon 33.8 9:14 129.0 68.0 214.3 220.5 1.477
2014-02-17 Mon 35.4 9:37 117.0 58.2 585.0 588.2 1.577
2014-02-24 Mon 10.2 9:56 117.0 58.2 73.3 72.4 1.541
2014-03-10 Mon 20.2 10:03 115.0 56.5 2374.7 2314.0 1.544
2014-03-17 Mon 42.9 9:47 117.7 58.8 3706.2 3677.7 1.561
2014-03-24 Mon 60.4 9:45 118.9 59.7 818.2 820.7 1.533
Summary 412.7 9:22 116.9 58.1 10143.2 10129.6 1.543


You can see I ramped up pretty quickly to this weeks 60 miles. It was hard, but keeping the pace slow made it quite possible...everybody warned me and so I realized right away that going fast was going to ruin the next days run so I was very careful to keep the pace between 9:40 and 10:00. 

 Some days starting out I felt pretty good and some days beat up but  after running for 2-3 miles I got limbered up and did ok. I have had some stiffness in my calf muscles in the mornings (threatening Achilles Tendonitis, "AT") but using the stick in the morning and also 'plucking' the lower muscles in the calf (and of course foam rolling after every run!) is keeping it at bay.

I did the 8 to 11 mile runs with no GU, 12 milers I would take 1 GU. I would only take water for the 12 milers. (It's been nice and cool weather here)

Here's the 60 mile week:
Date   Miles P  ace    BPM W  HR%   Elev+   Elev-    YPB
2014-03-25 Tue 9.2 9:45 119.9 60.6 368.6 368.3 1.530
2014-03-26 Wed 7.5 9:46 117.9 59.0 134.9 133.8 1.539
2014-03-27 Thu 12.7 9:48 119.9 60.6 65.6 67.4 1.504
2014-03-28 Fri 8.4 9:44 0.0 0.0 76.1 75.1 0.000
2014-03-29 Sat 10.2 9:44 123.3 63.4 95.7 97.1 1.494
2014-03-30 Sun 12.4 9:44 114.0 55.7 77.2 79.0 1.591
Summary 60.4 9:45 118.9 59.7 818.2 820.7 1.532

The last mile of the Sunday run I finally opened up my stride and cranked out a full MP run..it was hard but not too bad..and boy did it feel good to stretch out.

From here I will notch back to 45 miles and then try a buildup like this: 55, 65, 50, 60, 70...and 70 will be the max. 

70 will take 12 miles/day 6 days a week..gak!..that will take about 12 hours of running! For a young'un that would be 100-120 mile week I guess.

If I can do that  and adapt to it I have a hope that I can mix in the faster running back at the relatively lower miles in the Hansons's advance program. I will probably run 18 mile long runs (3 hours) rather than 16 milers and I'll also probably sneak in a 20 or two.  

As for races I'm thinking Half Moon Bay, Chicago (if I get in) and CIM.