Yearly training summary 2011-2020

Year	Run			Bike			All training*
	km	hours	m+	km	hours	m+	hours
2020	2181	237	40919	1502	62	13608	405
2019	2030	217	33114	606	36	8001	355
2018	2521	262	45922	48	4	1273	301
2017	1315	126	21208	39	2	550	172
2016	917	83	12787	2040	119	45321	223
2015	1871	183	26449	268	14	5497	199
2014	1074	137	27423	551	35	10335	222
2013	1747	159	22581	1302	66	14771	236
2012	2862	258	39828	2419	128	35134	386
2011	972	91	3566**	8582	387	58168**	535

* Running and cycling plus swimming, strength training, Concept 2, kettlebells and everything else I recorded. I only started recording all strength activity in 2020; perhaps also in 2019. I didn't do much strength training in 2011 and 2012 anyway, but I did a fair bit from 2013 to 2018 not recorded above.

** Probably more than this as I was using a watch that did not record elevation for much of 2011.

2020 was my:

• third biggest year for distance and time running
• second biggest for elevation gained running
• fifth biggest year for all cycling stats
• second biggest year for all activity (remembering the caveat in *)

Impact of the Spanish lockdown

Because of the strict lockdown for the pandemic here in Spain, there were six weeks I couldn't train outside (and run).

If I'd run the average for the rest of the year in those six weeks (47km, 5hrs and 890m+ a week), my running figures for the year would have been 2463km, 267hrs and 46,259m+.

This would have made 2020 my second biggest year for running distance and my biggest year for running time and elevation.

Not a bad year! And the best thing about it is the base and plan I have built for 2021. 

2021

To beat 2020 in 2021, I'll have to average over 7hr 47min of total activity a week and run more than 4hr 33min, 42km and 787m+ a week.

No! You don't need a new GPS watch!

That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.

The plan was to keep my current watch (a Garmin Forerunner 935) for at least three years (up until the end of 2021).

But every so often, I get the bug for a new watch.

What triggered it this time was the altimeter on my 935 not working. Even though this turned out to be a solvable problem, the seal had been broken on my desire for a new watch.

The candidates were the Coros Apex Pro and Premium, Garmin Forerunner 945, Polar Grit X, and Garmin Fenix 6 Pro. The most likely being the 945 and the Apex Pro. The Grit discarded because of poor navigation; the Fenix 6 because of weight.

What would I want from a new watch?

Longer batter life, wrist HR in the pool and good navigation, possibly maps.

Thus, the watches I most liked out of the above candidates were the 945 and the Apex Pro --- the 945 because of its light weight and maps; the Apex Pro because of its looks.

But I don't really need a new watch.

The 935 does everything I need. I might push the battery life in an event I want to do in October 2021, but that will only be one day. One day is not enough reason to buy a new watch (even if I could use it as an excuse). Particularly as I should be able to get by on that day with the 935, albeit at the watch's limit.

Also, the watches I'm looking at aren't that much of a jump up from the 935.

So I'm standing firm and not buying a new watch now. But I am changing my pledge to make the 935 last three years. Instead, I'm going to buy the next new release I like as soon as it comes out, be it the Forerunner 955, the next iteration of the Apex Pro or something else.

Just call me the no-vert man!

No. of weeks with over 2000m climbing (running) 2012-2020

2020	1
2019	3
2018	1
2017	0
2016	0
2015	0
2014	2
2013	0
2012	3

Wow!

You wouldn't think I've got a multitude of 500m climbs at my door. It's not even 5 km to the top!

The Parc de la Serralada Litoral, straight up from my place!

 

I didn't think I did so little climbing.

Maybe I've stumbled on the reason for cramps in the later stages of trail races, especially over marathon distance. 

Well, 2021 will be different. If all goes well, most of my weeks will be over 2000m+.

But I'll ease into it, even more so with the figures above in mind.

Say "tissue senstivity" not "injury" or "tissue damage"

Lots of wisdom here that jives with my experience with pain and (phantom) injuries.

So often, based on pain (or should I say "tissue sensitivity"?), I've self-diagnosed what appears to be an injury that the Internet tells me will be around for a while.

But after a few days of rest followed by easy running or cross-training and maybe rehab exercises, the issue fades.

The pain seems more a warning than anything else. It might be nociceptive or even inflammatory pain as described in the post linked to above (in the later case, there might be a slither of damage). There may be no actual or at least significant damage; just pain.

And hear what the author (a physio) has to say about overuse injuries:

If there is no pathoanatomical basis for the athletes pain it should not be labelled as an injury. Wording such as ‘overuse injury’ can be associated with tissue damage when none has occurred. 

Relapses especially, I've often felt, may be nothing more than cautious, brain-made pain. While the initial injury may have taken time to get over, I find relapse "injuries" or pain can pass in a matter of hours.

The above site also has as comprehensive and insightful as you'll find page on calf rehab. Not the usually recycled, out-of-date, non-runner-useful fluff Google normal serves up.

Solution to wonky Garmin Forerunner 935 altimeter

In windy conditions, when the altimeter can go haywire, wear the watch tighter on your wrist and possibly cover the watch with your sleeve.

That was easy. Whew! I was thinking I might need to buy a new watch. (Any excuse will do!)

No sleepy head on the weekend!

 

View going up the mountain behind Premià de Dalt

 

I have no problem getting up early on weekends to go for a run. 

In fact, I've always had the opposite problem: I can't help getting up early on weekends to go for a run.

So I love it when I have to go for a long run.

I have an excuse to be awake at too-early o'clock!

I normally just get up, have a coffee and sit around until a half-normal time before getting out the door.

But now — back doing long runs in the mountains and with some extra long runs coming my way — I'm going to take advantage of my mad-runner weekend enthusiasm and just get straight out the door when I get up at ungodly hour.

After my coffee, of course.

The tricky part of injury recovery: keeping up with rehab exercises

Up or down?

It's easy to rest the first few days after an injury or niggle. Well, it's not that easy. But you can learn, and it's easy to tell when you've rested enough for mild injuries and tweaks (usually one to three days).

It's easy to start running again. You find a distance or time you can manage and build from there. This is usually a steep curve: you're tentative at first, but within a couple of weeks, you're likely to be back to where you were before the injury.

The tricky part

The not-so-easy-part is to keep your guard up after the first two or three weeks. It's easy to slip into doing hard sessions too quickly. There's no pain, so you totally forget you're still recovering from an injury.

But the hardest thing to do is to keep going with the rehab and strength exercises that probably sped up the recovery or at least reduced the pain during the early stages.

I always fall at this last hurdle.

I strengthen the injured area just enough to get by and then drop the rehab work because everything is going good.

What I should be doing

• keep the daily rehab exercises going and build on them until I've equaled if not surpassed my previous level of strength in the injured area
  

Key foam rolling exercise for runners: the hips, quads and IT band

Fixes your lower leg, too!

This page prescribes rolling the front and side of your upper legs and hips for alleviating not only IT band tightness and knee pain but also Achilles tendon pain and plantar fasciitis.

I wouldn't have thought these exercises would directly affect the last two issues. I normally roll the bottom of my foot and lower calf for these problems. Although I always start with my quads and hips as they are always tight.

Another key area for me to roll and stretch are my shin muscles. This can alleviate ankle and top-of-the-foot pain.

Roll the shortened muscles; not the overstretched ones

The page in the above link contains a further gem of wisdom: 

...in general the basic goal with foam rolling is to lengthen short muscles so that the lengthened muscles can also relax.

This vital point is illustrated with a typical complaint for runners: a sore hamstring. Stretching and rolling may do nothing because it is the opposing muscles, the quads, that are tight. The hamstring hurts because it is overstretched; not shortened.

In this case, you need to stretch the quads to relieve the pain. And sure enough, as soon as you touch the quads, you realise how tight they are. Ouch!

Nearly everyday

I've found preventative rolling and stretching can do so much to help dodge injury. Niggles sneak up on me when I get slack with it. I need to do it just about everyday, at least on my quads and hips. It's also a matter of staying alert and noticing the first inkling of tightness.

 

 

How not to do an AeT test

By AeT test, I mean the HR drift test mentioned here.

Instead of using a HR target like they suggest in the article for the outside test, I decided use a power target.

Why? Because I have a pan-flat, out-and-back course along the coast. I thought I could use power like the fixed speed you would use doing the test on a treadmill. As my power meter (Stryd) takes wind into account, I thought power would be a better target than pace.

In hindsight, I should have aimed for a HR target.

I’ve done three tests now and still haven’t found my AeT. I seem to be getting fitter each time I do the test. I up the power target, but my HR stays the same or drops for a higher average pace.

According to the AnT test I did a few days ago, my AnT is 165. So I don't think I'm mistaking the two thresholds.

On the positive side, I’ve found a workout I respond to! This might be because I've done next to no zone 2 work or higher for a long time. Just easy runs with strides and hill sprints occasionally with some harder running in my long runs.

Anyway, although these tests may not have given me the info I wanted, I will repeat the last iteration of them some time into the Big Vert plan I'm doing to see how the training is going.

So at least I have a benchmark.

The perils of following training plans

Training plans are great if you don't get injured and can follow them to the letter.

This happened to me once, and I had a great road marathon as a result.

But I was spoiled by that stroke of luck. Other times since I've kept on trying to do a plan even though I was getting injured. Like banging my head against the wall. The results haven't been good.

Although at least on one occasion I remember, I did manage to adapt the programme and do the event I was signed up for (my second marathon) all right.

Everybody tells you not to follow their training plan to the letter. They say it's just a draft and that you need to tweak it as needed. But I have found it hard to get the message into my thick skull.

I have trouble diverging from the crappy little plans I cobble together myself or even changing what I say I'm going to do for the next few days, let alone stepping off the path of a serious training plan bought through TrainingPeaks.

But not this time...

I'm on week one of a new training plan, and I'm fully prepared to change it at the drop of a hat.

This should be easier on this occasion given that I'm going to run through the same programme twice. The first time just to get a feel for the workouts and to build up my weekly mileage and climbing.

This time, I'm going to be smart...

Weekly day off back in fashion

I'm going to start taking Mondays off from running, mainly because I've started a training plan that has rest days then, but also because I'm coming around to seeing a day off a week as insurance against injuries, as argued in this article. 

Having a day off when you don't need one is far better than not having one when you do need one.

Could I listen to my body and play it by ear?

Ideally, yes. But I find it difficult. If I usually run on Mondays, it's hard to take one off, even if I suspect I probably should.

In fact, the last two (slight) injuries I've had reared their heads after I ran easy on a Monday after a few days of hard training.

I had no pain. I went for an easy run. I had pain afterwards.

The main cause of the injury wasn't the Monday run, but it was the trigger or the last straw. If I hadn't have gone for a run on those Mondays, I might have dodged the injury.

Don't trust one-size-fits-all training philosophies

specially if the advice is dogmatic and contrary to conventional wisdom.

Nearly all approaches work for someone but no approach works for everyone all the time. It's best to go with coaches or training philosophies that are open to individual differences and don't talk in absolutes for everyone.

A great example of such an open philosophy can be found in the book Science of Running by Steve Magness.

An example of one-size-fits-all approach that is contrary to the usual wisdom and dogmatic to boot is Runner's World Run Less, Run Faster book, also known as the FIRST approach.

I'd also put Maffetone's approach in the one-size-fits-all bag. In some ways, it's very close to traditional training philosophy, but it's dogmatic with some odd quirks.

If the arbitrary MAF formula works for you --- as it's bound to work for some --- you're in luck.

If not, you can be left wondering whether everything in the book is hogwash. You might even throw the baby out with the bathwater and turn to the opposite end of the spectrum and try something even crazier like the FIRST approach.

Non-running, jack-of-all-sport coaches who turn their hand to giving out running advice also often fit into this category. Brian Mackenzie and his book Unbreakable Runner come to mind.

So beware the one-trick-pony coach or training plan

You never hear about their failures or the athletes who simply stop showing up or drop the plan.

If a coach is dogmatic, they're usually not being honest or have not objectively weighed up the evidence that would tell them that their approach doesn't work for everyone all the time.

This is how it might go with such a coach:

1. "Try my approach. It's the best."
2. Athlete tries it and gets nowhere.
3. "Keep trying. It'll work."
4. Athlete still gets nowhere. Excuses and superficial tweaking from the coach. "Keep trying. It'll work."
5. Still doesn't work. Athlete gets fed up and changes coach.
6. Coach forgets about the experience, writes it off as an anomaly or chalks it up to the athlete not carrying out the training properly.

Altra Superior 4.0 vs Altra Superior 4.5

Doing nearly 1000 km on a pair of shoes is as good an excuse as any to get a new pair. So last week when I saw I'd done 993 km in my Altra Superior 4.0s, I jumped on Amazon to order a pair of Altra Superior 4.5s.

Not that the 4.0s look or feel like they need replacing. They've not showing much signs of wear, and I'm not going to retire them yet. I'll rotate them for trail runs with the new Superiors and my King MTs. I might use them for faster trail runs as they are lighter and do feel nimbler than the 4.5s.

Old meets new! New Altra Superior 4.5s (left) and 4.0s with 993 km (right)

The same with more padding

The 4.5s weigh 280 grams versus the 245 grams for the 4.0s (US size 11). That's quite a big difference.

I'm guessing most of that extra weight has gone into the extra padding you feel around your foot. (Is that what they call the "upper"?)

For me that has meant a better fit with the 4.5s. I got a blister on the heel of my slightly smaller foot when I started wearing the 4.0s. I felt a warm spot in the same place on my first longish run in the 4.5s, but it never went any further.

The 4.5s feel quite stiff, too. Stiffer than my 4.0s right now at least, but that might be because the 4.5s are newer. Regardless of whether the 4.5s are actually stiffer or not out of the box, hopefully they will soften with time.

In any case, in this update there's not too much change to a shoe I've enjoyed running in. Thank you, Altra! I'm still a fan.

(I currently own six pairs of Altras I run in --- the three trail shoes I mentioned above plus two pairs of Escalantes 1.5s and a pair of Altra One 2.5s. I've worn nothing else since I bought my first pair of Altras (the Superior 1.5) in 2014.)

Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels - micro review

Practical, comprehensive but too hard for me

Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels gives practical advice on how to train for middle and long distance events up to the marathon. It's a book by a practitioner and is full of insights and empirical evidence from years of coaching.

So you can believe that the methods and advice have been tried and tested.

However, I get the feeling there may be a bias towards younger or elite athletes in Daniels' recommendations and plans.

I've tried to follow plans from the book a few times but have never got anywhere. I found them too demanding.

Most of the many plans in Daniels' book ask for at least two interval workouts a week. That old familiar formula: short intervals, a tempo run and a long run each week --- or some twist to it.

This is unfeasible for me. Even in my 20s I don't think my body would have handled two hard sessions a week plus a long run for any length of time.

Perhaps if I'd understood this before trying his plans, I could have made them work for me.

But anyway, if you don't know what a tempo run is or how to do intervals, Daniels' Running Formula is a good starting point.

Tendon rehab protocol

 As mentioned in this podcast with Pete Dickinson.

1. Rest up front (just a few days maybe, depending on the extent)
2. Isometrics a few times a day
3. Bipedal exercises
4. Single-leg exercises
5. Heavier

 I can imagine, depending on the injury, you might be running when you can do 3 or even 2.

Strength training to aid recovery

Not just to get you stronger so you don't get injured, but doing it a few hours or a day after a run to enhance recovery.

As suggested in this podcast with Pete Dickinson.

This would be strength training of the lower rep variety. Heavy, but not pushing any limits.

Possible exercises for the workout:

• a single-leg exercise (e.g. single-leg deadlift)
• a bipedal exercise (e.g. squat or deadlift)
• a pulling exercise (e.g. pullup)
• a pushing exercise (e.g. dip)

That makes things simple!

You could do one of these workouts a week plus a higher-rep, muscular endurance workout.

Change of plan

Instead of following this plan I set out a few days ago (which was a reshuffle of what I'd been doing for some time), I'm going to bit the bullet and do a climbing- and strength-based mountain programme.

Why?

Apart from because I've talked myself into it since reading Training for the Uphill Athlete, I'm signed up to do the Ultra Pirineu in October 2021. In it's 94 km, it's got 6200 m of climbing, much more than anything I've done before. So if I am ever going to try a climbing-based programme, now is the time.

What programme?

A 20-week programme from the Uphill Athlete, Mike Foote's Big Vert Plan! 

I'm going to do it twice before next October with a month's transition in the middle. I'll start the week after next.

The first time through, I'll follow it loosely focusing on building up weekly elevation.

I'm currently averaging around 1200 m a week whereas the starting weekly elevation recommended in the plan for my goal event is 3100 m. So I'll use the first cycle to get my weekly elevation up.

I'll also use the first run-through to ease into the other training in the programme: the muscular endurance workouts, hill sprints and uphill intervals.

The second time through, depending on how the first cycle goes, I'll stick more to the letter of what the plan says I should be doing for my event.

Other tweaks for the first run-through

• add one day of lower-rep leg strength
  
• keep my usual upper-body and core strength exercises of pullups, dips, swings, TGU, snatches and presses.
• shorten the longest runs in the plan or perhaps run less of them
• take the hill sprints and intervals very easy
• add in races and tests for fun and to check training effectiveness
  
• add in cycling and swimming for recovery as needed

Last but not least!

• take days off whenever and especially for niggles
• don't try to recover missed workouts, just do the next thing in the plan. Keep moving!
  
• change things around as needed
  

Getting sold on time-in-the-mountain argument

In my dilemma over whether it's better to do more flat running or climbing (i.e. speed versus strength) for trail running I spoke about here, I'm gradually being swayed to the climbing side. 

Or I'm swaying myself by looking for people who will tell me that story, like in these podcasts:

https://www.scienceofultra.com/podcasts/133

https://www.uphillathlete.com/training-for-ultra-running-podcast/

It seems speed and marathon-like training may serve you will for shorter trail events and in the short term. But for long-term adaptations (especially to the lower legs and in technique) and longer events, you might need to spend more of time in the mountains.

Ideally, you'd also do strength work. But I'd do it in either case.

I've never gone all out training in the mountains. At the most I've trained twice a week on the trails.

So why not give it a shot?

Did I just dodge a bullet?

Twinge on Sunday. Pain on Monday starting in my run and lasting throughout the day. Two days off running. Light run today. 

It seems to be OK. There is something there. But easy running for a time and strength exercises should do the trick.

Wasn't that responsible injury management from me?

It might have been a lot worse if I'd used my usual strategy of running through it, gritting my teeth and hoping for the best.

You live, you learn, and occasionally you put what you've learnt into practice!

Injury becuase of too steep a ramp?

I've taken today off to rest because of pain in my knee since my run yesterday after a twinge I'd forgotten about the previous day.

Did I pick up this niggle and possible injury because I upped my training load too much recently?

Probably, yes.

I went from averaging 57km, 1218m of vert and 6hr 25min for 4 weeks to averaging 76 km, 1572m and 8hr 49min for the next 2.

That's a 33% increase in distance, 29% increase in vert and a 37% increase in time!

Oh yes, I definitely overstepped the mark!

I was pushing as hard as I could to up the load. But I should have paid more attention.

In one sense, this is actually good. At least I know why I the knee hurts.

It also means that the load wasn't necessarily too high. It actually felt easy. The ramp up was just too steep.