Committed

With a 4 year old and a 6 month old you sometimes don't get nearly enough sleep.  Last night the last time I looked at the clock was 12:30.  The only issue with that was that I wanted to get in a one hour run and that meant getting up and out the door by 5:00.  Luckily, Elliot woke me at 4:40, so I had plenty of time to get out the door by 5:00!  Other mornings I would have admittedly stayed in bed, but I've been reading The War of Art and one of the author's points is that the person who is truly dedicated to a task will show up even when they don't want to.  And, wanting to hold myself to a higher calling, I really don't want to give in to resistance and not train the way I know I need to.  The pro shows up and does the work, knowing that work done today will feed the bigger calling, which for me is doing well in the Half-Ironman.

Today's weather was a far cry from last week and I actually had to bundle up to keep me warm for the 20 degree run.  Once I got warmed up it was a really nice run.  I forgot about how tired I was and just settled into the dark silence of the morning.  There were a few people out and I even got passed by one runner, but I left my ego aside and kept the pace that would maintain an aerobic heart rate zone for the entire hour that I ran (my ego is also telling me to not share that this runner was also female and a good deal older than me from what I could tell).   If you want to see the route I took, click here.

One of my prevailing thoughts was about what works for improved performance.  There are so many theories out there and so many different methods that have all been tested and have merit.  Part of me wondered what would work best for my body since I've had good results with a lot of different regimens.  As I posted before I'm training in my aerobic zone under the tutelage of Mark Allen in order to build my aerobic base and to hopefully get to where I'm running a fast pace with a low heart rate.  This method requires a fair amount of time to show whether or not it works, so part of me is terrified of spending all this time on the wrong plan.  But, I'm committed to it and am doing what I can to have patience with myself and my runs.  I will be having one interval session a week, so we'll see if that calms my nerves a bit.

Has anyone out there dealt with this?  What training techniques have had the best results for you with endurance races?

Slowing Down to Go Faster

As mentioned in an earlier post, a friend of mine and I are competing in the Timberman Half-Ironman.  We're getting our training schedule from Mark Allen Online and Mark is a big proponent of training with your heart rate no higher than your maximum aerobic heart rate, which for me is 149 beats per minute (if you want to calculate your maximum aerobic heart rate, go the bottom of this post).  Allen still says to do 15-20 minutes per week of speed and interval work in each activity, but that we really need to build a good base to carry us the 70.3 miles.  He also claims I will experience an increase in my pace and after just a few weeks should see a dramatic improvement in the speed I can go at a lower heart rate.

I strongly believe in the benefits and effects interval training can have on a person, but I also buy into this low HR approach.  In 2009 when I started back running, I took my time.  I just cared about getting out and going for long easy runs.  After about 5 weeks of this, I tested out my speed and found that I had improved my mile time by 2 minutes!  For some reason I didn't keep doing what I was doing and decided to train at a faster pace.  You might be able to figure out what happened, but the long and short of it is that I didn't get any faster and started experiencing a lot more aches and pains. This has occurred in another area of my life too.  I once followed a workout routine for 3 months where I went for high reps with low weights.  In that time, my bench max went from 195 to 285.   I was so psyched about how much I could lift that I switched to heavier workouts and guess what...the gains stopped.  

It seems to me, the only thing standing in my way is me and my ability to set my ego aside and take things slow for a little while.  Mark Allen talks about how hard this is on our egos and that's why many will never train this way.  To keep our heart rate low usually means we have to slow way down.  For me it means I have to keep my pace at 9:30 - 9:40 per mile for now.  That's dreadfully slow, but I think I'll be okay with it just as long as it's still not that slow a month from now.  

Training slower also means that I have to either slow down my running partners or trail behind.  Last night in our family run, Becca ended up having to leave me in the dust a couple of times because I had to keep my pace down while pushing the boys...thanks for your patience, honey :-)  

I'm excited though at the prospects here.  Along with the Vegan Challenge, I have high hopes for where I'll be a month from now in my abilities.  

Does anyone have some success to report with this training style?  Anyone think it's bunk and can back up their claim?

~The Mr.

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So if you want to calculate your maximum aerobic heart rate, there are several methods out there, but here's how Mark Allen's does it: 

1. Take 180 
2. Subtract your age
3. Take this number and correct it by the following: 
    -If you do not workout, subtract another 5 beats. 
    -If you workout only 1-2 days a week, only subtract 2 or 3 beats.     -If you workout 3-4 times a week keep the number where it is. 
    -If you workout 5-6 times a week keep the number where it is.

    -If you workout 7 or more times a week and have done so for over a year, add 5 beats to the number. 
    -If you are over about 55 years old or younger than about 25 years old, add another 5 beats to  whatever 

      number you now have.

    -If you are about 20 years old or younger, add an additional 5 beats to the corrected number you now have.