Weekly routine #1: making 8 to 9 hours the norm

Main goal:

• make eight to nine hours a week of running and hiking the norm

How:

• run easy and make the early part of the week as easy as possible to recover from the weekend but still get the time in
  

By:

• running flat terrain until Thursday instead of varied trail and flat throughout the week. Assuming flat is always less stress than easy mountain (maybe it isn't because of less variety)
  

Mon	20-40' recovery, rest or bike
Tue	55-75' Z1 flat
Wed	55-75' Z1/2 flat + speed or AeT test	Build to short then long intervals
Thu	55-75' Z1 tech trail with vert	Maybe swap with Wed to do AeT test today
Fri	55-75' Z1 hills + hill sprints	Build up
Sat	90'-180' Z1 flat, hills or fire roads	Build up to 180' or AnT or other test
Sun	90'-180' Z1 tech trail with vert	Build up to 180'

 Strength:

• two leg days: one higher-rep endurance session on the same day as an easy run and one heavier session on the day of a hard run. Remember to include a single-leg exercise in the heavier day
  
• pullups, dips, and kettlebell snatches, swings, Turkish get ups, cleans and presses each once per work for core

Cross-training:

• swim or cycle for recovery if you want
  

 

Training for the Uphill Athlete: MAF without the mumbo jumbo! (book review)

Aerobic and base training are king says the Uphill Athlete. As do many other books, but this one explains better than any other I've seen why and how the aerobic threshold (AeT) changes with training.

The authors do give some methods for finding your AeT in the book, but you'll find their most practical test on their website: Uphill Athlete heart drift test for finding AeT.

I winced and thought about throwing the book in the bin when I saw they cited Phil Maffetone's hit-and-miss MAF method.

I read Maffetone's book years ago and bought his low-HR story hook, line and sinker. This against my better judgement.

How could his one-size-fits-all formula of 180-age for finding your AeT fit all runners? Knowing, as I did, how variable heart rate can be from one person to another.

But as a fervent disciple of the Maff, I put my blinkers on and did at six months of MAF training and MAF training only (no intensity), only to find my fitness and performance drop off a cliff.

Maff's argument made sense to me --- he is a persuasive creature --- but his methods didn't work for me. 

Now, all these years later and thanks to the Uphill Athlete, I know why.

It was of course because of the highly individualised nature of the AeT. Mine must have been, as it is now, a fair bit higher than the magical MAF number, and I was undertraining.

This wasn't helped by me following Maff's other tenet of not doing any hard running --- or anything else bar MAF runs.

If I'd done also run hard occasionally, I wouldn't have been so undertrained. I did actually get fitter when I did some races.

Anyway, the Uphill Athlete is crystal clear on how and why you should run mainly easy.

To be fair to Maff, he isn't the only one giving out blanket methods for finding your AeT (top of zone 2). Just about every other book or zone system calculates it off either your lactate threshold or your maximum heartrate. No-one tries to pinpoint the AeT as sharply as the Uphill Athlete.

As well as telling us how to find the AeT and how individual it is, the Uphill Athlete drives home the message that it moves with training.

If you are aerobically deficient, something you discover by doing AeT and lactate threshold (AnT) tests, your AeT will be much lower than your AnT. When you get fitter, your AeT will rise and this gap will close.

In practice, it may not matter that much if you just follow the often touted advice to run easy a lot.

If you're aerobically deficient and run easy, you'll be running in zone 2 most of the time. This, according to the book, will raise your AeT over time and make you less deficient.

If you're not aerobically deficient and run easy, you'll be running in zone 1 most of the time. Something, again according to the book, you should be doing to maintain your AeT or raise it further.

But it's good to know where you sit on the scale of aerobic deficiency as you can see if you're training is working. You'll also know when you should do more intensity (zone 2 or 3).

Other interesting points from the book:

• specific, mainly higher rep strength training is favoured over the lower rep general exercises (e.g. squats and deadlifts) often recommended
• distinction between category 1 and 2 athletes. Category 2 athletes averaging over 400 hours of foot-borne training a year plus some other things
• non-impact cross training only for recovery (foot-borne training rules!)
• proponents of doing a lot of vert (as a opposed to not doing too much to not get slow as talked about in this post)*
  
• weekly long runs of a higher percentage of weekly mileage than often suggested*
• fantastic photos and athlete stories
  

* probably due to the authors having mountaineering backgrounds as opposed to other books by mainly runners

Uphill Athlete vs The Happy Runner: to vert or not?

The Uphill Athlete says you need to do lots of climbing if you want to cope well in the mountains (trail running).

The Happy Runner says too much climbing will make you slow and that improving pace and economy on the flat will translate into good climbing as climbing includes the horizontal component of running you hone best on the flat.

What The Happy Runner says fits my experience. The best I've felt in technical trail races was on the back of or in the middle of marathon training with little or no climbing.

I was fit, and the foot speed I had from flat running kept me light on my feet going up and down.

I had always assumed it was because I was just fitter from training from the marathon. I'd never trained that hard for trail races. But either way, it's hard to train that hard for trail races in the mountains on technical terrain, doing long runs with portions at marathon pace as you do when training for a marathon.

It's also true that when I was younger that I did well in mountain races training mainly on the flat and fire trails.

So The Happy Runner strikes a chord.

But who knows?

I have also heard that flat running will help you progress quicker in the mountains in the short term but for long-term development and becoming an advanced trail and ultra runner, you'll get further aiming to max out climbing and hiking.

It may depend on your preferences.

If want to do a bit of everything, road and trail races, short and long, maybe you're better off always working to improve running economy, i.e. doing lots of flat running. If you're always going to be in the mountains, perhaps you can forget about running speed.

I live near mountains, so I can do both. Perhaps a 3-3 approach would work. Three days in the mountains and three days on the flat or rolling hills with one day flat for recovery. I could change the training focus --- make one or the other type of run more recovery --- as I changed event focus.

Train from where you are

I often forget to do this.

I'm chugging along in my training, building up workouts from week to week. Then I read a book and want to change everything, forgetting where I'm at.

I aim to make changes slowly. But even this can be too much.

So I get injured and have to start from scratch. I didn't get to see where the original training was taking me, and I didn't get to give the new approach a fair go.

Train from where you are, always.

Injuries only happen on Tuesdays

Except for on one occasion when I didn't warm up and did an all out 1 km effort, I've never injured myself in a race or a hard training session.

Injuries always happen early in the week on easy runs, usually after a hard effort, a string of them or a race on the weekend.

Note to self: Go really easy after big workouts, even if you feel OK.

Monday check-in runs

I used to think my Monday easy run/hobble was a recovery day. But it's really a check-in run to show my brain how my body is after a couple of days of hard training and to reassure it everything is as it should be.

If I go easy on the Monday run, the brain relaxes and says, "OK, everything's all right. I'm not going to sound off any pain alarms".

If I go too hard, my brain says, "WTF!", and what might have been a slight niggle flares into injury pain that could last weeks.

Why might I run too hard on a Monday?

Maybe I'm feeling good. But even then I will have some residual fatigue from the harder or longer training on the weekend that my brain is keeping track of.

So if I run too hard for my brain's liking, it puts the brakes on in the form of pain that could last weeks or months, usually in a tendon in my case.

And this check-in run must happen. If I don't do it on Monday, then Tuesday will have to be at least partially a check-in run.

This is also why I only ever get injured on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, never when doing the hard workouts, even if without the fatigue of these I would never have gotten an injury.

How to run everyday

Following on from this post, things I find make it easier to run everyday:

• Vary terrain. I mix pan-flat with hills and technical trails each week.
  
• Do lots of easy running. Of course!
  
• Follow a similar routine each week. I've gotten into trouble when I've gone too hard — because I felt good — on days I usually go easy, like Mondays.
• Run knowing you're going to run tomorrow. I.e. don't go all out, even on hard days.
• Run at the same time each day. That way you're body knows by when it's got be ready. If you run in the mornings, you can push run back to later in the day if you're tired to give your body a few more hours recover.
• Make Monday a check-in run. Show your brain everything in your body is how it should be.
  

Running seven days a week for injury prevention?

See update at the end.

Or, as this article puts it, only take a rest day when you need it --- not necessarily every week.

But can this reduce injury risk?

This seems crazy. Most experts and plans suggest taking a day off each week.

But there is some sense to it.

First, to run every day, you have to run less or slower on some of those days. When you run each day knowing you're going to have to run the next day, you self-protect.

Second, your body gets used to it. If it knows it has to run every morning, it gets everything ready for the daily start time.

I've found myself waking at two in the morning with a noticeable niggle only to find it gone by the time I get up for my run. It's like the body gives itself a bit of inflammation time during the night when it knows it can before shutting if off in the morning when it knows it will have to run.

Third, even if you run everyday, you still have 22 to 23 hours to recover from your last run. This is a main point in the article linked to above and was an eyeopener for me. That's a long time to recover. Especially if you don't have an active job. 

But less injury?

According to the article linked to above, more regular training in manageable doses improves recovery capacity. This is apparently even more beneficial as we age as we have less innate recovery mechanisms turned on by default. Training every day can hone the recovery mechanism that haven't yet faded or maybe even turn some back on.

So perhaps it's more accurate to say training everyday can lead to better recovery, and this may lead to less injuries.

Update: I now like having a rest day (31/12/20)

After running nearly every day for a year and maybe longer, I've gone back to having at least one day.

I did this mainly because I started a training plan that had days off in it, but I've come to like having those days off.

Perhaps it is true that we, or I at least from experience, don't need one rest day every week. But I do need a rest day some weeks.

The problem is, if I'm not taking a week day off every week, I find it hard to drop one in, and I did on occasions give myself niggles I might have avoided if I'd taken a day off.

So a day off may be too much rest most weeks (48 hours instead of 24 hours), but it might be worth having for when you need it. It might save at least a couple of weeks of hampered training getting over a niggle picked up on a would-be rest day.

Hours per year, running and endurance training

Update: Full table here.

Year	Running	All endurance*
2020 excl. Nov & Dec	192…	312…
2019	217	355
2018	262	301
2017	126	172
2016	83	223
2015	183	199
2014	137	222
2013	159	236
2012	258	386
2011	91	535

* Includes all cardio: cycling, MTB, cardio machines, swimming, kettlebells, skipping, etc.

• way under 400 hours running per year
  
• what happened in 2014 and 2016?

400 hours/year =

• 1hr 6 min a day
• 7hr 41min a week
• 33hr 20min a month
  

 

I have a new best friend: WK04

I’ve finally managed to do away with my complex-like-a-forest Excel file for recording my runs and rides.

I’d tried Strava, Training Peaks, SportTrack, GarminConnect and many other online sports tracking applications. I still use some of them. But none had let me finally stop recording the runs manually.

None recorded all the info I wanted or let me interpret it in any meaningful way.

Then I discovered WKO4, which is not an online tool but a program you download and run on your computer.

It’s amazing! It automatically downloads your runs from Training Peaks and then gives you the flexibility to look at the data you want of the time period you want. Fantastic!

The downside is you need a PhD to use it properly. But I'm getting by with the bountiful hoard of WKO4 videos I've found on YouTube.

Finally a plan (for running)

I finally have a running plan and goal for the first half of 2018.

I've got two main goals:

1. A road half marathon at the start of February.
2. A trail half marathon at the end of April.

In the lead up to the road half marathon, I'm going to do two 10 km tuneup races. In the lead up to the trail marathon, I'll do a 12 km trail race. 

So that's that.

I'm using a training plan from the book Faster Road Racing by Pfitzinger and Latter: the lowest mileage half marathon plan. I just started this week on week nine.

For the trail half marathon, I think I'll use the same plan but adapt it to trail running.

I'll be running four days a week, and doing weights the other three. At the moment, I'm going to continue using the StrongLifts 5x5 programme, but I might change that later on.

Let's go!

Progress with 5 x 5 stronglifts: 1 month, 3 weeks, thereabouts

Just under two months ago, I started a strength programme called Stronglifts 5x5.

It's a weightlifting programme you do 3 times a week. You alternate between two different workouts:

• Workout A: squat, bench press and barbell row.
• Workout B: squat, overhead press and deadlift.

 You do five sets of five and add 2.5 kg each workout (5 kg, for the deadlift).

That's it. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes per workout, and is dead easy to follow.

But is it effective? So far, yes.

My squat is much better

Squating three times a week has improved my squat out of sight. I did squat in the gym before, but nothing like this. I had also gone through phases of doing lots of bodyweight squats. But I've never felt so comfortable and strong with squating as I do now.

I also don't get sore muscles from squating anymore. When I used to squat once or twice a week, I was just about always had sore muscles for at least two days. Maybe I was doing too much not often enough.

What ever it was, the frequency and dose are just right now. I can now even run every other day without fried and stiff muscles.

And I'm definitely getting stronger. My legs are bigger, which is not something I actually wanted. But I do feel good on days I squats. The exercise does seem to trigger hormonal systems or something in your body, as you do hear people claim.

I can still run 3 or 4 days week, so far at least

I was worried an intensive leg program like 5 x 5 would affect my running. But this hasn't happened. As I mentioned above, I'm not getting sore legs from squatting,  so I'm finding it easy to combine the programme with my running.

I am planning to ramp up my running over the next couple of months. And, as the weight and demands build on the 5 x 5 programme, I'm sure something will give. Either my runs will be affected, or I my 5 x 5 progress will be hindered. Both will probably happen.

No matter. By that time, in a couple of months I imagine, I'll have built a good base with the 5 x 5, and I'll probably just want to maintain strength. I might even change programmes or scale the 5 x 5 back to two workouts a week.

I've put on weight!

And I'm sure it's because of the programme. I'm quite lean and have weighed the same for a long time now, between 70 and 72 kg, which is where I want it. I wasn't looking to put on weight, even if it were only muscle. But without trying (or, rather, trying not to), I've put on around a kilo (I'm now always somewhere between 72 and 74 kg).

That doesn't seem like much, but as I said, my weight's been stable for a long time, so I've noticed the difference.

Why don't I want to put on weight, even if it were muscle? Because I think it'll make running harder and me slower, especially if I want to do a trail marathon or an ultra. Although it hasn't seemed to have had an effect up until now. In fact I've felt quite strong running of late.

Either way, I'm sure I can get rid of any excess weight if I need when I crank up the running later on. Especially if I lay of the weights.

Of course, I can't expect to do a strength programme, expect to get stronger and not put on weight. The world just doesn't work that way. But, in all truth, I'd be happy just getting a little bit stronger and not putting on any weight.

The numbers

I started with just the barbell or a minimal amount of weight. This is, of course, very easy, but it helps you build good form, particular on the squat. This is how the StrongLifts page suggest you start out.

The idea is to start easy and continuously add weight for as long as you can keep doing five sets of five. When you fail to do five sets of five, you stay on that weight until you can. Then, depending on how you progress or don't progress, you might do a download or something else. I haven't got that far yet, so I'm not sure.

I'm currently at the following weights:

• Squat: 61.5 kg. It's now starting to get difficult. I don't think I'm too far off dropping reps on the latter sets.
• Bench press: 46.5 kg. This is still fairly easy. I think I've got a fair bit of margin for improvement here.
• Barbell row: 46.5 kg. Getting tougher, but still room for improvement.
• Overhead press: 36.5 kg. Dropped my first rep at this weight on my last workout. I did 5/5/5/5/4. So this one already got tough!
• Deadlift: 69 kg. Easy. Heaps of margin for improvement here.

Give me one more month and I reckon I will have maxed out on just about all the exercises. Except may be the deadlift.

The StrongLifts app is great

There is StrongLifts app you can download onto your phone. It tells you what you have to do each day, and makes logging workouts simple. I'm using the paid version now, which gives you a few extras like telling you what to lift for warmup sets, but even the free app is useful.