Weekly summary

Monday	Rest
Tuesday	9.2 miles	Steady pace 80% MHR	Hilly!
Wednesday	6.0 miles	Recovery 69% MHR
Thursday	5.9 miles	Tempo run 4miles @84% MHR 8:15/mile	Touch of stitch
Friday	7.0 miles	Recovery 68% MHR	Felt good!
Xmas day	6 miles	70% MHR
Boxing day	14 miles	69%MHR 9:50/mile 120bpm ave	Tired!Too much champagne?
Total	48.1 miles

Managed to keep running through Xmas. Boxing day was a struggle, not surprisingly!

Merry Xmas

Saturday seems to have been cancelled, so rather than do my usual gym session, I put on a white top teamed with a red running vest, donned a Santa hat, and went for a run along the seafront.

This is the one time when you can guarantee that people won't be hurling abuse such as "Get your knees up you fishing lazy can't" (which was said with such malice that to this day I can't understand the mind-set of the guy who said it).

Today was magical. Clear blue skies and a gentle surf rolling in. The sort of day which reminds you of why you go running. Everyone I met had a smile on their face and a kind word to say. Not a heckler in sight.

Merry Xmas everyone!

The 4th mile plot - a spy story

I just had a very good run! Despite being a recovery run, the quality of its pace was on par with last nights quality session run at 90secs/mile faster. How was I able to compare 2 runs of widely differing paces?

For each run, I wear my Garmin Forerunner 201 GPS on my left wrist and my Polar S610 Heart Rate Monitor on the right. The Garmin bleeps the mile splits at me and I tap the laps into the Polar, giving me an average heart rate (HR) for each mile. So I have the data for each run. There just remains the interpretation of it.

There is a fitness test called the Conconi test. It's a method of determining Lactate Threshold by running progressively quicker 200m repetitions and recording HR for each rep. It has been discredited in some quarters, but the graph used gave me an idea. The test involves plotting speed against HR. This gives a straight line for paces below the Lactate threshold.

My idea is to use the same plot, but plot each days speed and HR, rather than Conconi's single session. For the same level of fitness, each point plotted will lie on a straight line. As fitness improves the line will move downwards: for the same HR you can run quicker, or for the same pace you have a lower HR. This way you get a visual representation of your fitness and are able to compare runs at different paces.

There are some caveats though. You must wait for a point in the run where your HR has stabilised. The first mile is always at a much lower HR and is not suitable for this analysis. I wait for the 4th mile of the run, although the 3rd may also be suitable.

You must also ensure that the 4th mile is comparable for each run. For me this is fairly easy as there are no hills within 6 miles of my house. However, you must still be aware of the conditions: it's no good comparing a mile with a tail wind and another with a head wind.

On the other hand, you may decide to plot every mile of every run from the 3rd mile onwards. At least this will give you more data and a denser graph.

Note that you should ideally plot speed (mph or km/h) against HR. If you plot pace (mins/mile) against HR, you won't quite get a straight line. However, it's still a curve that gives a useful comparison, so for simplicity I've used pace vs HR.

Here's the graph:


You can see the straight(ish) line for each month's data. As fitness improves, the line moves down to the right. You can see that November was a very good month for me! You can also see how much I've improved since the beginning of the year. Looking at this months data, the red diamonds, you can see how much the illness affected my fitness - there is a big spread - some are on a par with January's yellow triangles - but the latest are back at my best, particularly the one to the right.

This morning's run is the red diamond at the bottom next to the pale blue triangles. This was a recovery run only 16 hours after a tough tempo run. Despite being tired and buffeted by a strong wind (see the caveat above) it is on a par with my best. Good news!

One other thing that this data tells me. Looking at the slope of the curve, an increase of 10bpm give a 40second improvement in pace. Useful information when estimating training and racing paces!

As you are probably gathering by now, I like data!

Weekly summary

As I seem to be recovered from the chest infection, now seems to be a good time to start weekly summaries:

Monday	Rest
Tuesday	8 miles	4 laps of 1.5miles@9:00/mile 80% MHR	Cardiac drift test - no drift!
Wednesday	5.5 miles	Recovery 70% MHR	Tired!
Thursday	6.2 miles	4x1mile reps 83% MHR 7:50/mile	Felt good!
Friday	5.8 miles	Recovery 70% MHR	Tired!
Saturday	5 miles	Gym session including 5 miles treadmill
Sunday	13 miles	70%MHR 9:50/mile 122bpm ave	Felt good!
Total	43.5 miles

A tough week, but finally back on form, confirmed by the gym session and Sunday's long run.

A study in recovery

Our club coach once told me that you need 2 weeks of catch-up training for every week missed. I'd always wondered if this was the case. I guess I now have the answer.

If you look at A study in loss of fitness, you will see the result of the lay-off in terms of loss of pace on the treadmill.

The plot below is the comparison of my heart rate on the treadmill from 4 weeks ago in blue, with today's plot in red. The first 3 miles are the same 9.6 km/h; the 4th mile 4 weeks ago was a cool down, hence a lower HR. The time line is as follows:

Normal 40 mile training week

Gym session - blue plot

Illness - no running for a week

1 week of gentle running - 20 miles - still recovering

A study in loss of fitness

Normal training week - 40 miles

Normal training week - 43 miles

Gym session - red plot

If we count the second week as a neutral week, just trying to avoid losing any more fitness, then it seems that the 2 for 1 rule is correct!

Chinese recovery run torture

What's harder? An 8 mile steady pace run at 80% of Maximum Heart Rate or an easy recovery run of 6 miles at less then 70% MHR? This isn't a joke along the lines of "What's pink and hard in the morning?*", but a question that get's to the core of the base training philosophy.

A lot of folks will talk about "junk mileage" and the need for quality. If my recovery runs are junk mileage then why are they so tough?

Each week I do 2 'work sessions' - they are what most people call quality sessions but they are not the classic anaerobic, eye balls out, puke your guts up sessions that some seem to love (?!). They are aerobic sessions, run at higher heart rates but still below the aerobic threshold, typically (for me at least) a medium distance (6-9 miles) run at 80% MHR, or some long intervals of 1-2 miles run at 83% MHR. The aim of these runs is to slowly push up the aerobic threshold so that ultimately I will be able to sustain a higher heart rate in the marathon. Monitoring the aerobic threshold is by means of examining cardiac drift, but this is a subject for a later post.

The days following the work sessions are easy recovery runs, to put me in good shape for the next work session. I believe that far from being 'junk mileage' these runs get to the heart of the base training idea and the need for daily running. By running tired and depleted of glycogen they train the fat burning system (this might just be my opinion rather than statement of fact - comments welcome). I also believe that no mileage is 'junk' when it comes to improving your aerobic efficiency. The following day I feel great, so there is a benefit there.

These recovery runs feel tough though, unlike the work sessions when I'm fresh and ready to go. I seem OK for the first few miles of the recovery run, but as the distance ticks monotonously by I get a really hollow feeling and it becomes more of a struggle to keep going.

So after 5 miles of running on empty, we have the following inner dialogue:
Head: "Only another mile and we're done"
Heart: "I'm cold and tired and I want chocolate!"
Head: "We need to do at least the same mileage as last week. Another mile is nothing"
Heart: "My knee hurts, the bruise on my hip hurts, and I want chocolate!!"
Head: "This isn't junk mileage. These are the bread and butter runs of base training"
Heart: "What if my knee isn't just tired muscles but the return of ITBS? Chocolate and a sit down will help!"
Head: "A nice vegetable stir fry with peanut shoots and cashews awaits us - far healthier and better for recovery. Come on - less than a mile!"
Heart: "I want chocolate!!!"

In the end 'we' compromised and did 5.5 miles. The 'chocolate' was an SIS Rego recovery drink, chocolate flavour. The stir fry went ahead though - I quite like them!

*and to answer the other question: The Financial Times crossword. Surely you knew that old chestnut?

36 today

Measuring your resting heart rate should be a simple affair, but somehow I seem to make it complicated.

It is generally accepted that it is a good idea to take your resting pulse rate each morning. If your pulse rate is elevated by, say, 5bpm, you should take it easy that day. More than a 10bpm rise and you should take time off training until it has dropped. These figures may be my interpretation, but they work for me.

In 'Running to the Top', Arthur Lydiard warns not to take too much notice of resting heart rate, due to the vagaries of hydration, room temperature and stress. He may have a point!

I have to take my pulse manually, as I can't seem to get my heart rate monitor to make proper contact, particularly lying on my side. If I take my pulse on waking, the alarm causes my pulse to rocket up. I can't then get settled as I'm thinking about work and the need to get up and ready myself. My pulse is all over the place. No consistency!

So here's the scheme: I pretty much always get up in the small hours to go to the loo - the consequence of a glass of water before bedtime, hydration being the watch-word of all good athletes (no hint of irony!). I get back in bed and take my pulse. I do this by lying on my side holding my wrist and counting. Unfortunately there's no seconds display on the bedside LED alarm clock, so I carefully watch for the minute digit to tick over and count a full minute of beats. Unfortunately I'm very short sighted so I have to wear my glasses. It's tricky to get comfortable lying on your side wearing glasses and I have to get the position of the pillow just right so that it doesn't press my specs into the bridge of my nose. Of course many is the time that the alarm has woken me several hours later, still wearing my glasses, with the bridge of my nose pushed to the far side of my face!

Now having got myself into an apparently comfortable position, I have to wait for my pulse to drop, as I've just got back into bed after visiting the loo. 46bpm, 44bpm, 43bpm, 41bpm, 40bpm, 38bpm, 37bpm, 36bpm, 36bpm. It can take several minutes for my pulse to stabilise. I will generally drop off to sleep, hopefully having remembered to remove my specs, and can fortunately remember my pulse on waking.

If only it was that simple!

It generally goes something like this:

"1, 2, 3, when's the digit going, 4, to change?, 5, 6, my eyes are dry, 7, I can't keep them open, 8, I'll close them for a while, 9, 10, 11, 12, have a peek, 13, not changed yet, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, another peek, ah its changed! "
"1, 2, did it change on 16?, 3, 4, or 18?, 5, 6, or nearer 20?, 21, 22, 23, 24, oh bum! miscount! Wait for the digits again"
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, hmmm eyes are dry, 6, 7, I don't need to look, 8, 9, for a while, so I'll close them for a bit, 10, 11, 12, 13..."
"...39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, check the time, 45, drat! it's changed already! 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, better keep counting, 51, 52, for a second minute, 53, 54..."
"...78, 79, take a peek, 80, 81, 82, digits changed!"
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, so was that a minute of 42?, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, followed by a minute of 40? , 11, 12, 13, 14..."
"...36, 37, 38, digit's changed"
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... ...18, 19, 30, 31, 32, 33... ....42, should have changed by now, 43, 44, 45, maybe miscounted?, 46, 47, changed! Must have miscounted drat!"
"1, 2, 3... ...35, 36, 37, changed - must have skipped 10 last time?"
"1, 2, 3... ...16, 17... 18.... sleepy... 19.... 20..... 21......... 22........... 23................"
[Sound of alarm]
"Ow my nose hurts! I'm still wearing my glasses? Bugger, not again!"

Some mornings it works better than others. My resting pulse was 36 this morning. This is back down to its lowest ever. A good sign that I might have got over the cold bug and be getting back some fitness!

Arthur Lydiard 1917-2004

Arthur Lydiard died on Saturday 11th December 2004. His death was confirmed today.

The legendary coach came to prominence in the 1950s and 60s, coaching many runners to Olympic gold medals. His methods established the basic principles by which we all train today. Without him I would not be doing my 'Base Training'.

A full biography and transcript of his 1999 lecture tour can be found here.

A sad day indeed.

Happy Birthday to me!

It's my birthday! To celebrate, I thought I'd try some creative use of my Garmin Forerunner 201 GPS unit.

The idea was to set the GPS running and have my Aunt drive me into the heart of the Shropshire countryside. She would then dump me, lost (I bet she's been longing to do that!), and I would use the GPS breadcrumb trail to guide me back home. (That's home on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border, not home on the South Coast, in case you thought I was ultra training!)

Well that was the plan, and I had a very nice 12 mile run, with one important proviso. If the plan had been followed exactly, then not only would I, technically, have been lost, but so too would my Aunt and Uncle. Despite them having: a car, a set of maps, each other, and years of local knowledge, they would have been in more of a predicament than me! I might have even beaten them home! I sincerely hope this wouldn't have happened, but the look of fear on my Aunt's face when I suggested the plan, suggested this might indeed be the case!

So the revised training plan was that I studied the map the night before, carefully planning a scenic but straight route, which no one could get lost on. It started for me in the middle of nowhere, took in the historic Boscobel House with it's famous (infamous?) Royal Oak (not a pub, but the real thing - King Charles II hid up it), and returned home to the lovely village of Pattingham, scene of the annual Bells of Pattingham run, and just down the road from the site of the Tough Guy race. A pretty straight route, with just one right turn to remember. I'd have preferred the adventure of not knowing where I was going, but it just wasn't going to happen!

I had a lovely run, if a little on the cold side. It's unusual for me to have my hat and gloves on for the whole run! The main thing though is it completed my first 40 mile week since the recent virus. I'm still a little slow but I feel good. Long may this continue!

A study in loss of fitness

Two weeks ago I posted Progress, showing how I'd improved dramatically over the course of just one month.

What a difference a week's illness can make!

Today I did my usual Saturday gym session involving a bit of warm up cardio work on the cross trainer and rower, some weights, mostly lower body, and finishing with 4 miles on the treadmill. I felt a lot better! My strength seems to be returning and I coped well - it felt like a normal session.

Looking at my heart rate though revealed a different story. I have slowed sooo much!

Here's the plot of the treadmill session - 3 miles at 9.6km/h (10 minute miling), then slowing for each of the last 2 half miles: 9km/h, 8.5km/h. It's overlaid with exactly the same session from 2 weeks ago.


Today's plot was 10bpm higher than last time! It's gone back to what it was 6 weeks ago.

Between the two plots I've run a slow 13 miles, then a complete week off due to the virus. I started running last Tuesday and have done slow runs of 2.5 miles, 3 miles, 4.3 miles and 4 miles.

Is the lack of form because I still haven't fully regained my strength? Or is it that the week off has caused me to lose the effects of a whole month's training?

I guess I'll just carry on and find out in a week or two's time!