Author Archives: crossn81

Half Training: Week Four

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You know how I mentioned last week that the weather forecast looked pretty good for the upcoming week. Well it lied. This was one of the coldest weeks yet! It was sub-zero every morning reaching down into negative double digits actual temperatures and even colder wind chill. So I spent sometime inside!! Even running on the dreaded treadmill, aka dreadmill it was a pretty good week. It did help that this was a “recovery” week in the schedule!!

Monday – Run 1 mile at an easy pace, the speed up to goal half marathon pace for 6 miles. Run one more mile at an easy pace to cool down. Well, I looked at the schedule and realized that for me to actually get a hill workout I would need to drive to find hills, and since this was President’s Day and I didn’t have to work, I switched Weds and Monday’s workouts. I did the 10 x hill repeats. It was very cold, 4 above with -21 wind chill, and I was running next to the Mississippi River. The wind, fortunately, was to my back on the uphill, but when I turned around it was like an arctic blast! I felt pretty good and stayed consistent throughout the hills running the .16 mile (257 meters) distance in :58, :59, :59, 1:01, :59, :57, 1:00, 1:00, :56, and :58. I went a little farther on the 10th one – .22miles in 1:20, which was the same pace. The distance was a little longer than it needed to be for the hill, but I didn’t really know. My total mileage for the day was 5.6 miles in 47:22. My average pace for the repeats was around 6:00.

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran a mile easy on the indoor track – with my legs aching, before switching to the bike for 8.5 easy miles. I ran the mile in 7:53 and biked for 29 minutes.

Wednesday – Run 10 x hill repeats. Find a hill that is fairly steep and at least 100 meters in length. Run up the hill at a pace that feels like 5K pace. Run 20 meters past the top of the hill. Jog back down to recover. Repeat this 10 times. So today I did Monday’s workout or was supposed to do it. I really tried to do it but the treadmill was killing me. My legs hurt from the beginning and slowly went away (I think it is only on the indoor track and treadmill that my legs hurt). I ran 5 miles in 35:10 which was about 10 seconds off the goal pace. I think my biggest problem with the treadmill is that when I start to get tired my body wants to slow down but the belt won’t unless I make it. Of course I don’t want to admit defeat and slow it down, so I just suffer and end up running too few miles. I did finish the workout with 4 miles on the bike in 14:30. BTW it was -12 outside this morning!

Thursday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration srides. I managed to finish this workout on the treadmill! I ran all 4 miles on the dang thing. I started out slow and increased the pace a notch every half mile or so. I ran it in 30:32. After doing that I ran on the indoor track for my 5 accelerations. It felt pretty weird to run on the track after having been on the treadmill.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 4 acceleration strides. I finally got to run outside! I almost didn’t run at all. I had decided not to run in the morning because the afternoon forecast was supposed to be really good. I got home a little later from work than I had planned and Christy was already home. I managed to force myself to go out and get the 4 miles in. I did a little sightseeing and ran along the streets to see some new stuff! That worked pretty well except for having to dodge people on the sidewalks, due to the narrow shoveled paths and then parts of the sidewalk which weren’t shoveled at all. I did get to see some new parts of town that we might check out later. I made a big square and came back on the Greenway. My total run distance was 4.92 miles and my time was 39:01. It felt pretty good, even though if you were in the shade it was kinda chilly, being in the sun was great! I did 5 accelerations and those felt good too. I’m glad I forced myself to go out!

Saturday – Run 60 minutes at about 20 seconds per mile slower than your 10K pace. The pace for this run was around 6:46. I met up with the MDRA Polar Bear group again – this week we met at the Longfellow Grill. I ran with the front group today since it was supposed to be a tempo-ish run. I thought they would be a lot closer to the goal pace for the workout. They were running 16 (or 18) miles total so I ran out with them for 30 minutes and then back by myself. We picked up the pace as we ran and were right around 7 for most of it, at one point we ran 6:19 pace (according to the Garmin). It was hard running back by myself, running with the group definitely kept my pace moving. Part way through the run back I decided that if I finished under 65 minutes I would buy a hot chocolate for myself and a latte for Christy. Well I finished in 61:54 so I was pretty pleased with myself. My total distance was 8.32 miles which made it 7:27 pace overall. Not really sure what happened but it still felt pretty good. It was 11 degrees with a bright and shiny sun!! Excellent day for a run.

Sunday – Rest. Sure thing!!

Total Miles: 28.8 miles running and 12.5 miles biking for a combined total of 3 hours 32 minutes and 22 seconds of total workout time!

My year to date mileage is 168 miles running and 22 hours and 35 minutes! I’ve biked 73.8 miles for 4 hours and 24 minutes and .5 miles of swimming.

The weekend was warmer and next week doesn’t have anything under 20 for a high. That’s pretty exciting! Hopefully some good outdoor running is in store! Stay tuned to find out what happens!

[tags] Half Marathon, Training [/tags]

Hill Repeats

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I ran hill repeats on Monday morning. I had to ask around for where I could find some good hills to run the repeats on. A hill on the West River Parkway was suggested heading towards Franklin Ave. It was a pretty long hill so I chose a segment of it, which ended up being .16 miles or 258 meters. It was a good hill to run up and down 10 times in the sub-zero wind chill. Below is an elevation graph from the run:

Each repeat had an approximate gain of 44ft while overall during the 5.6 mile run I gained 9 feet of elevation. Not sure how that happened since I started and finished in the same spot! Just thought I’d show you this nice graph!

[tags] Hill Workout, Hills, Training [/tags]

Full Lunar Eclipse Tonight!

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Did you know about the Lunar Eclipse tonight? We are expecting a full Lunar Eclipse to occur tonight (Weds) starting at 7:53pm Eastern the entire event will be over at 12:09am Eastern. The full eclipse will occur around 9pm Eastern and last for almost an hour. This is all from USA Today. They have a lot more technical details for you too!  This eclipse should be viewable to almost everyone in the Northern Hemisphere, so if it is clear outside you should take a peak!

I know of several events here in Minneapolis alone, so I’m sure there are plenty of events in your neck of the woods too! Just stay warm out there!

One is at Minnehaha Falls Park (Steven’s House) – Part of Coldwater’s Full Moon Walks.  Three Rivers Park District is hosting several events including snowshoeing adventures.

What is a Superset?

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This past week I ran a superset workout on Monday. It is a little confusing and took a little research on my part to figure out exactly what it meant when I first saw it. My workout on Monday was: Run 2 x 400/800/1200 meter supersets. It also had pace goals and rest intervals included.

In my training review post I described it as simply “a 1.5 mile interval with alternating paces inside the interval.” Supersets are also sometimes called compound sets and are great for building lactate threshold, VO2 max, running economy, and finishing speed, according to Running Planet.

Body builders use “supersetting” to “build more muscle in a shorter period of time.” Body Building for You defines it this way:

A superset is an advanced training technique where you perform two exercises in a row with virtually no rest in between. Supersets are an excellent technique for muscular development, especially if you are short on time. Supersets are not, however, the most effective technique for building strength or power.

Matthew McConaughey actually does weight-lifting supersets to become an action figure!

Back to the running side of things! Running Planet’s Rick Morris says:

Interval training has been used for many years and is highly effective in building your fitness. But running super sets can provide you with even higher levels of fitness and race performance. Running super sets are very similar to strength super sets. You perform two or more intervals at different paces without a rest period.

He describes three types of supersets –

1) Drop Sets – like the one in my training week these sets start out at near full speed and then back down the pace as the distance increases. These are designed to help your body: “become more efficient at clearing that lactic acid and using it to produce energy. Starting with a very fast pace also makes your 5K and 10K paces feel easier. You become a more efficient runner and are able to “float” or “glide” with a more relaxed stride at race pace.”
2) Progressive Sets – are the exact opposite, you start with a longer and slower distance and then increase it to full speed at a shorter distance. This is a pre-exhaustion workout designed to “help with your finishing kick and train your body to run fast when fatigued.”

3) Compound Sets – combine the drop and progressive sets into one workout. These are similar to ladder workouts where you increase your distance and then bring it back down – valley compound set. You can also do it the other way around and start with a longer distance and decrease it before increasing your distance again – peak compound set. These types of sets are designed to replicate the peaks and valleys of racing.

Supersetting isn’t for everyone. I wouldn’t recommend super sets for everyone, it is part of the training program so the training is designed around the intensity of supersetting. In fact my college cross-country coach doesn’t recommend super sets at all.

His thoughts:

Although a lot of people start off too fast in a race and gradually slow down, it is an inefficient way to race. Therefore, I would not recommend training your body in a way that would be an inefficient way to race.

When we talked about supersets I didn’t have all the information I presented to you to present to him, so I don’t know if that would change his opinion or not. But I think the fact that not many training programs use supersets makes a strong argument.

Last year during training I missed a couple of the early superset workouts so I opted out of the later ones as well. We’ll see what happens this year as I train “properly” from the beginning!

[tags] Super Sets, Speed Work, Training, Intervals [/tags]