Weather: The Compton Downland Challenge 20

The average person's body has about 400-500g of stored glycogen.

I started the race today with 400g less glycogen than most people!

Ooh that was a tough one! We started in gale force driving snow. That was a first for me!

The snow lasted for well over an hour before it became mere snow showers. Eventually we had a couple of sunny intervals. These were accompanied by horizontal hail. We really did have it all today.

I've trained hard this week: a hard hill run on Tuesday evening, weights Wednesday morning, 12 miles Wednesday evening, 4 miles Thursday morning, a Kenyan Hills session Thursday evening with very sore glutes and adductors from the weights and a double on Friday with 5 miles in the morning and another 5 miles in the evening.

This was never really going to be a comfortable 20-miler!

The original plan was to take it easy in the first half and then push it on in the second half with some marathon effort. By 4 miles though I was really hungry and running on empty. It was then just a matter of gritting my teeth against the snow and pushing on. It wasn't pretty, but I finished feeling fairly comfortable for a nice easy 20-mile training run, although in terms of effort expended it was more the equivalent of a 24-mile flat tarmac run. Despite the lack of marathon specific quality, I guess a 24-miler must count for something.

The course is a lovely bit of off-road, ignoring the weather for a moment, with 2200ft of climbing. I particularly liked the run through the woods to emerge on the high downs above the Thames - shame we had to contend with a freezing cold gale full in our faces as we descended the downs. Fortunately I was wearing 2 Helly-Hansen's, a club vest, a Gore-Tex jacket, hat and gloves - the most I've ever worn in a race.

I felt sorry for those who carried on at the end, to do the 40-mile option, although some decided to call it quits at 20. Judging by the laughter of those around me, some were enjoying the prospect of 40 miles though. It amused me when one guy referred to me doing the "sprint option".

It was nice to see all the old forum faces: RichK, RFJ, Gobi, Tigger's mate Roo. Well done to club mate Steve for finishing 3rd - top performance!

An experience!

Go Team! Go me! Eastleigh 10k 2008

Well done girls!

1st vet team: Miranda, Susie, Shelly
3rd senior women's team: Miranda, Susie, Shelly, Lucy
I didn't fare badly either:
Bronze Medal South of England Championships W45
Silver Medal Hampshire W45
3rd place W45

I picked up 3 lots of B&Q vouchers, and even more should I forget to hand the others theirs! ;-)

I so desperately wanted a PB but I was a minute out. I quote the results page:
The strong North wind (averaging about 20mph at the time of the race) slowed times considerably.

I reckoned after the race that I lost 30 secs to the wind, but it might have been more. Some of the lead men lost a minute over last year and the lead woman, Natalie Harvey, lost over 30s. Due to possible fatigue my heart rate was slightly down on last year so I guess I need to be happy that I'm as fit as last year and in good shape for London. How can I be unhappy after that prize haul? Our vets beat Winchester for heaven's sake!

I got to meet my online pals hilly and BR whom I haven't seen for ages. I also had a chat with our marathon hero Dan Robinson (good luck in London!), and met Leon Taylor, our Athens silver medal diver (yum!).

What of the race? I had a little virtual partner on my Garmin, which was me running the race last year - I'd know at any point how far I was behind PB schedule - nice feature. Unfortunately we started straight into the strong headwind and the little virtual me was soon leaving me behind. That just left me to focus on the real people around me, such as Stubbington Bev, my Havant track partner, and her Stubby team mate Susie. I caught the 2 of them at half way and dropped Bev, but Susie pulled away from me, finishing just ahead. That wind was particularly cruel on the run in around the edge of the playing fields - it was pretty much a re-run of 2 years ago, although without the sunshine. I've just noticed I mentioned Dan Robinson in the report 2 years ago, having watched him get Commonwealth Bronze - how spooky is that?

A very good day at the office!


Finally, as always, the heart rate data. Notice how much higher my HR was 2 years ago!
4:10 139bpm
4:11 148bpm
4:12 150bpm
4:37 152bpm (slight uphill)
4:01 150bpm (slight downhill)
4:09 153bpm
4:12 154bpm
4:14 152bpm
4:17 152bpm
4:24 153bpm (into the wind)

42:26 150bpm ave

The 20-miler

I thought I'd share my controversial views on 20-milers. I say controversial, as what I'm about to say seems to offend some people, but it's my blog and I'll say what I want. So here goes:
Do not race 20-milers!

I need to explain that one a bit of course, so first of all let me say that this is very much in the context of marathon training. I should also say that I'm not suggesting you don't do 20-mile races - they are excellent training. I should also say that I have done more than a dozen 20-mile races, but the closest I've come to racing one flat out was last year at Worthing where I jogged the first 5 miles, then picked the pace up and ran much of the remainder at marathon pace, finishing in 2:31:33 - an average pace of 7:33/mile, which was actually faster than the pace I subsequently ran the (very hot) London Marathon in! That was a measured effort and I recovered well for London 3 weeks later - it was the heat that did me in on the day, or so I believe - but this hints at the problems of using 20-mile races as marathon training.

What I mean by racing a 20-miler is putting maximum effort into your run to achieve the best time you can. I have never done this, I confess, but I know many people who have regretted racing 20 (some deny the 20 caused the problem but in the context of their training I believe it was a, or even the, major factor). The problem is simply the amount of recovery needed afterwards. It can take a full 3 weeks to recover from 20 miles of maximum effort, and that ignores the effect of whatever training you choose to do subsequently.

Most people are pushing it quite hard in the run up to a marathon. 20-mile training runs are all part of the formula, and very necessary too, but there are much better ways to tackle the 20-mile training run than running it flat out. The 20-miler should be one component of a balanced training program, allowing sufficient recovery to perform your interval sessions and tempo runs. Jog a 20-miler and you should be feeling fairly fresh 2 days later for your tempo run or your mile reps. Race a 20-miler though, and the following week you are feeling jaded and unable to put any effort into the training. You try harder and push all you can to achieve the right paces but just can't manage it. Of course that's the optimistic outlook. At worst you push too hard, get ill or injured and miss the marathon completely.

20-mile races, flat out, are hard. It should be fairly evident that their impact is almost as great as that of a marathon. One unseen risk is that your immune system pretty much collapses for 24 hours afterwards, laying you wide open to whatever bugs are around. You push on with your training and a week or 2 later you are laid up in bed with flu symptoms.

Even running a 20-mile race at marathon pace is hard. It's 20/26th of the effort of a marathon: 77% of a marathon is very tough!

20-mile races, as training, are however very useful. They are brilliant practise for getting your fuelling and hydration strategy right. What better way to do a training run than in company with others and having drinks laid on for you without the need to run with a bottle belt or camelbak? You need to view them as training runs though and run them sensibly.

Early in your marathon program I'd suggest just jogging them. Take them nice and easy and don't worry about the clock, other than to make sure you are at least a minute/mile slower than your marathon pace. There is a school of thought that says you shouldn't do your long runs too slowly as they are not specific enough. While I can see that it might come as a bit of a shock doing 26.2 miles at 7:30/mile when you've only run at 11:00/mile in training, as long as you have been doing tempo runs, and you do include some faster long runs then the occasional reeeeaaally slow run won't do any harm. Generally try to keep them between 1 and 2 minutes/mile slower than marathon pace.

Later in your program, with maybe 6 weeks to go to the marathon, try adding a fast finish to the run. Jog the first 15 miles and then try lifting the pace up to marathon pace for the last 5 miles. Make sure you carbo-load for the race as you'll find this very tough if you're low on fuel.

The hardest I reckon you should run is 15 miles of marathon effort (although I personally think that 10 miles of marathon effort is sufficient). Try this 3 weeks out, no closer. Jog the first 5 miles and then pick up the pace for the last 15. Remember that 15 miles of marathon pace is a very hard training run. Don't do this closer than 3 weeks to the marathon. Give yourself a day or 2 of recovery and you should be OK but look for signs of fatigue. If you attempt a 20-miler only 2 weeks out then jog it - don't attempt a large amount of marathon pace running so close to the marathon.

Of course people will still want to race a 20-miler, but if you absolutely must then I'd say: don't try this within a month of the marathon, consider taking several days off afterwards, and cut right back on the training afterwards with little or no speedwork for a week or 2. Bear in mind the context in which you do the race. How much other racing have you done? What is your training load? Remember that the marathon is (probably) your target. If the 20-miler is your target though, then good luck to you - you obviously won't mind if you don't do that well in the marathon.

It's amazing how heated on-line discussions can get when I say "Don't race 20-milers", but hopefully I've presented a balanced view on the topic.

Going downhill fast

After our 'Kenyan Hills' session on Thursday some concerns were raised about doing a session that required running downhill at speed. I completely understand these concerns and the perceived danger of damage to the legs that running downhill can cause, but as we'll see, there's a lot we can do to avoid such problems.

First, let me recap the session for those of you who weren't there. The idea is to run the session close to threshold effort. Rather than run flat out up hill and jog back down, we throttle back a bit on our uphill efforts and push the pace downhill to keep the effort going. In heart rate terms, rather than see the HR rocket during the efforts and drop right down on the recoveries, it peaks a lot lower, around or just above threshold level, and drops only a little on the run back down the hill. The session then becomes more of a tempo run, but with a whole lot of hills thrown in. We still get the strength benefits of a hill session, but now we are targeting our aerobic system rather than it being a predominantly anaerobic session. As you know, I'm passionate about focussing on the most appropriate energy system to us as endurance runners. The session also has an added benefit in that it's a form of race rehearsal: in races you need to keep your effort fairly even over hills, throttling back on the speed uphill and being able to power over the crest and off downhill. Pushing hard uphill so that your legs turn to jelly and then staggering over the crest will simply mean that all the people you overtook on the way up will come screaming past you on the downhill.

Incidentally, in Lanzarote I was trained by the man who first coined the expression 'Kenyan Hills': Keith Anderson. Keith had the opportunity to go and train with the Kenyans in the Ngong hills. He saw how they ran tempo sessions over a rolling hill course, and the brought the session back to the UK. We can learn a lot from those Kenyans!

So why is running downhill seen as such a damaging thing to do? The answer lies with what's known as eccentric muscle contractions. Imagine holding a dumbell in your relaxed arm and doing a biceps curl. As you draw the dumbell up towards you, your biceps contract and shorten. This is called a concentric contraction. Now lower the dumbell in a controlled manner. As you lower, the biceps are still contracted, under tension, and doing work, but this time they are lengthening. This is called an eccentric contraction. The training effect of an eccentric contraction is greater than that of a concentric contraction, as the tiny amounts of damage done by the loading, which give the training effect, are greater under eccentric loading than concentric loading. For this reason it is important that you should always lower the dumbell in a controlled fashion, during the eccentric phase, as this is where the most training benefit is. This concept should be familiar to those of you who weight-train.

So now let's look at what happens when you run downhill. As your foot hits the ground in front of you, it has dropped further than usual and your momentum going into the foot strike is a lot greater. Your leg then flexes to absorb the shock of the landing and much of this is taken by the quads as they lengthen to absorb the impact. In other words your quads are under eccentric loading - they are being worked hard and potentially could be left quite sore by a heavy session of this.

Let me give you a couple of examples of the damage potential of downhill running, both from the granddaddy of the downhill: the Boston Marathon. The course is characterised by an opening 3 or 4 miles of continuous downhill that will pound away at the legs of the unwary. At around the 20 mile mark we then have a series of hills culminating in Heartbreak Hill followed by a mile of continuous downhill before the flat run into Boston. In 1982 Grete Waitz had been running on world record pace, helped no doubt by the opening downhill miles, before cresting Heartbreak Hill with a big lead. With just 5 miles to go she retired at the bottom of the hill, the pain in her legs being too great to continue.

My experience of Boston was that I'd trained and trained for downhill running, learning the correct technique, having been advised by a former London Marathon winner Mike Gratton. On the day though I wasn't able to execute the plan, for reasons I'll explain shortly, resulting in pain in my knees by half way. The descent of Heartbreak Hill was excruciating - despite the steep hill I was no faster downhill than I was on the flat, such was the pain with every downhill stride. I finished the marathon is a respectable 3:31, but 2 days later I was barely able to walk. My legs buckled as I was handed my cases at Heathrow and the other passengers had to help me to my feet, the destruction of my quads now being complete.

All is not lost though. With correct technique we can avoid such problems. This is why I was careful on Thursday to talk about the proper technique for downhill running.

The key to comfortable downhill running is to avoid the eccentric loading of our quads as much as possible. This is done 2 ways:

• Lean forward down the hill - this reduces the amount of extra height we get with each step and reduces the impact of each stride.


• Avoid heel striking - it is natural when running downhill to dig your heels in to slow you down, but it is this that causes all the pounding and eccentric loading. You need to be as light on your feet as possible and try to land more on your forefoot. Natural forefoot runners have an advantage in this respect, but we should all try to achieve this.

We can achieve a smooth light gait by another couple of techniques:

• Relax! Play the rag doll and keep your upper body really loose. If you tense you will start to dig your heels in.


• Let gravity take over. Pick up your cadence and let the hill do the work. (This is pretty much the same point as above.)


• Consciously lift your heels behind you, more than you normally would. This will help you land more on your forefoot, and will help lengthen your stride downhill without digging your heels in. It will also help with the gravity assisted increase of pace.

There will come a time when the hill is too steep to be able to do the above and the heels start to dig. On the road, these hills tend to have road signs warning motorists of the gradient, and we don't tend to encounter them too often. Farlington Avenue in Portsmouth is just about at the limit of where I can comfortably employ this technique. The Boston Marathon certainly has nothing anywhere near this gradient, so is eminently suitable for this.

At steeper gradients there is a different, 'Gazelle', technique used by fell runners, but this requires a lobotomy, and besides is really a racing technique rather than something designed to preserve your quads. Having said that, I do find it more comfortable to employ the 'Gazelle' technique on steep off road than try to hobble down slowly, but the ankle-turning potential is great. Maybe I'll describe it in a later article.

So having described the technique, and told of how I practised it meticulously in preparation for Boston, why did Boston go so wrong? Two things conspired against me at the start:

• The crowds - we were packed into the pens like sardines, and although we were running smoothly from the gun, there wasn't room to get comfortable and relaxed.


• My natural pace, resulting in a finish time of 3:31, was far greater than my qualifying time of 3:47 would indicate, so I was in a pen with slower runners.

So the gun went and for the first 3 miles I had to keep my pace in check, unable to run freely. I was digging in my heels, trying to slow down to avoid bumping into people, and it all went wrong from there. My pace was conservative from the gun, but unlike other marathons where this would have been a virtue, it actually helped to tire my quads. If I'd been able to relax and let my pace flow, my quads would have been in far better shape by the end.

So next time you are out for a run and encounter a downhill, try practising the technique. You don't have to wait until the next hill session. Your quads (and knees and everything else connected to them) will thank you for it!

Saucony National Cross Country Championships 2008

Liz Yelling opens up what became a huge lead:

Here she crests the hill for the first time. When I saw her crest the hill on the next lap I thought something was wrong - I didn't see any of the rest of the field!:

It was a very steep hill!

Get a load of that arm action:

Marilyn goes up in style:

The men's field:

Mike concentrates:

John beats the hill:

Graham unfortunately had to retire after returning too soon after illness:

Tom Humphries opens up a lead to go on to win:

Mike Skinner ulitmately finished 5th:

Neil crests the hill working hard:

That was my first National XC, and it was a great experience. It was nice to bump into a couple of old chums, Tigger's Mate Roo and Ratcatcher. It's a shame I didn't get to see Steph Twell win the juniors (easily too, judging by the results). I did see Liz Yelling on her way to a big win (I never actually saw the 2nd place runner as she was so far behind!), but it would have been nice to watch the race - I'd have loved to see how the elites ran the hill - it was only a 100m long but very steep!

Alton Towers is a good venue. The weather was dry and conditions good underfoot, but I'd hate to think what that course would be like if it had rained a lot - I reckon it would have been a quagmire.

Many thanks to Alex and Carol for their support and photography skills. Further thanks to Alex for driving. Well worth the trip!

Pace vs HR

The faster you run the higher your heart rate - this much is obvious. However, it's useful to know the exact relationship between pace and heart rate. In most people an increase of 10 bpm will give an increase in pace of 30-40secs/mile, although as we'll see it's not a simple linear relationship.

Following on from Wednesday's pace test I thought I'd re-run a mini test at a slow pace to check whether my pace/HR relationship is still what it used to be.

Here's a short 2-lap test I ran this morning:
7:30am 22nd Feb 2008 - 3 miles slow pace 2x1.5 miles continuous:

Lap time	Heart rate	Pace
13:26	115bpm	8:58/mile
13:26	115bpm	8:58/mile

I also wanted to make this my first proper double training day (I've been doing morning gym sessions with some treadmill running, but not run 2 pure running sessions in the same day in this campaign as yet), so I decided to re-run the session this evening to see how my heart rate looked:

5:00pm 22nd Feb 2008 - 3 miles slow pace 2x1.5 miles continuous:

Lap time	Heart rate	Pace
13:27	112bpm	8:58/mile
13:24	112bpm	8:56/mile

The temperature for both sessions was within 1°C and the weather conditions were virtually identical.

The results are interesting: a 3bpm difference is at least 10secs/mile! That's a minute off your 10k time. This confirms what I suspected: I've read that your performance is better in the evening when your body is at its proper temperature and you're at your metabolic peak (around mid-afternoon in fact). Food for thought next time you are choosing whether to do that 10k at 9am on a Sunday or have a go at the Wednesday evening 10k for your PB attempt!

I digress though. We now have 2 (evening) data points:

Pace	Heart rate	Speed
8:56/mile	112bpm	6.72mph
7:24/mile	141bpm	8.11mph

So there we have it: 32secs/mile for every 10bpm rise in heart rate.

Of course it's not that simple. It never is, is it? I said earlier that it isn't a simple linear relationship. You'll notice in the table above I've added a column for speed, a measurement we runners rarely use. This is because for good physiological reasons heart rate is proportional to speed while we are running aerobically. The faster we run, the more power we require, in a simple linear relationship. The extra power requires extra oxygen, and this is delivered by a higher heart rate - all in simple linear relationships to the speed.

So lets add a couple of extra points to the above table:

Pace	Heart rate	Speed
8:56/mile	112bpm	6.72mph
8:20/mile	122bpm	7.20mph	Interpolated
7:52/mile	131bpm	7.63mph	Interpolated
7:24/mile	141bpm	8.11mph

So, assuming those interpolated points are correct (theory says they are), then my pace increases by 36secs/mile for every 10bpm at the bottom of my range, and 32secs/mile for every 10bpm at the top of my range. (It will be interesting to re-run the test to confirm these paces/HRs.)

So why is this important? I know that I can run a 10k at 156bpm when fresh. This should equate to a pace of 6:47/mile or a time of 42:13. Oh well, I'm not on PB form yet, some 50secs short in fact. Let's hope the taper works wonders, because the science doesn't lie!





Probably.

Marathon pacing part 4 - pace test

I ran the promised pace test last night. The plan had been to run 2 more laps, to run a little faster, at a slightly higher heart rate, but I still clearly had the Meon Valley Plod in my legs. I couldn't keep the pace going, so jogged the remainder of the 10 miles after just 4 1.5-mile laps of my test circuit.

The good news is that my pace was good, but unfortunately I didn't get the confirmation that I could keep the pace going without any heart rate drift. My heart rate was constant (after the first lap where I was still warming up), but the drop in pace was an indication that I was struggling. If I'd kept my pace even then the chances are that I would have seen a rise in HR by maybe a beat.

Still, 1bpm is not very much, and shows I was pretty close to my marathon pace. Contrast this to last time and you 'll see that at 15s/mile quicker I was getting quite a rise in heart rate over a much shorter space of time (laps a third of the distance). The last test's 7:07/mile is clearly faster than what I can currently sustain for a marathon, whereas last night's 7:25/mile is quite close to marathon pace.

I'll re-run the test in a few weeks' time when I'll hopefully be a bit fresher and will be able to run further.

This was a good training session though, and certainly not a wasted opportunity: a good marathon-specific session with some worthwhile data as a result - bargain!

6 miles marathon pace 4x1.5 miles continuous:

Lap time	Heart rate	Pace
11:06	134bpm	7:24/mile
11:02	141bpm	7:21/mile
11:07	141bpm	7:24/mile
11:11	141bpm	7:27/mile

A little hill running: Meon Valley Plod 2008

"When did you last run?"
"Ryde 10 a couple of weeks back"
I clearly hadn't understood the question. A short while later:
"When did you last train?"
"Yesterday"
"How far?"
"6 miles"
As we stood at the start, it occurred to me how that short bit of conversation defined the difference in attitude between us. To me this was just another training run, to her it was a race, a challenge, something to prepare for.

My only concern had been how many layers to wear. It had been -4C overnight at home and despite the sunshine it was barely above freezing now. There were some in just vest and shorts, but no way was I going to push even remotedly hard. This was a nice gentle training run.

Gentle?

This race is hard. Don't let the glorious countryside, or on this occasion the brilliant sunshine, fool you. There are some very steep hills, including Old Winchester Hill and Butser Hill, the highest on the South Downs, and some very difficult underfoot conditions. This year the going was good, unlike the previous years of mud, mud and more mud, but there were still some very difficult rutted paths to negotiate, and still a good smattering of mud to keep the mudpluggers happy.

Before the start the race director warned us not to complain if the 'nearly 20 miles' published in the race details turned out to be a bit further, or the mile markers were a few yards out. It turned out to be 21 miles!

We were under way and I was into my stride feeling good and running a good pace for my easy effort. A few up and downs and we hit our first steep hill at 3 miles and the field reduced to a slow walk. We then found ourselves queuing at a stile. I watched as the queue began to stretch down the hill. I must have waited nearly 5 minutes. This would be OK if it was the same for everyone but the tail-enders turned left, over a fence and carried on up the hill in the next field. I figured they'd get caught out as they'd have to negotiate the barbed wire back into our field, but at the top the 2 fields merged and they were able to cut a big corner as the 2 halves of the field merged on the top of the downs. Now I know this was just a training run, and I was determinedly not racing, but it narked me a bit to be overtaken by Nick, no disrespect, whom I must have been several minutes ahead of by then. I had a bit of a moan to Marilyn too as I passed her along with all the other tail-enders. Just for good measure I had a whinge at our supporters - thanks Gina for letting me vent. Ah well, it's just a training run.

On we plodded and eventually arrived at East Meon church, where the mud 2 years ago had been impossibly slippery. This year was possibly worse! The ground was firm but we were left with firm ruts with a thin coat of mud on top which made it very difficult to run. The ruts were regularly spaced across the path, at a spacing just too short to maintain a comfortable stride. If only they'd been spaced a little further apart I might have got a rhythm going. In the end, I succumbed and fell flat on my face. Fortunately it was a soft landing - nothing damaged, just my pride.

The ground was still frozen in places but it was becoming quite a warm day, which soon baked the mud onto me. The drink station was a welcome sight, as I bumped into my friend from the start line. I'm sure I'd been ahead of her before the stile! I was determined not to ask which route she took. This is not a race, it's a training run!

I had my first of 5 chunks of very nice fruit cake. I think the race has sponsorship from a cake company. Good move! Definitely a race for cake lovers! It was also nice to have slices of orange at the aid station. Good organisation.

I was running with my friend for most of the second half but determined not to race. We then got to Butser Hill and the huge climb and I started to pull away from her. Aha! (I'm not racing. I'm not racing)

At the top of Butser we met our supporters Graham and Gina again (did I see Kevin too?) and I heard them shout something about Malcolm. Maybe I was catching him? I stopped at the next aid station for a relaxed orange, water, cake number 3, to be caught by my friend and then passed by Malcolm as he rushed past with his game face on. No time to consider the rum on offer at the aid station (yes, rum!). Must get a move on! No wait, this is a training run.

I had another relaxed stop at the final, unofficial, aid station, but could see Malcolm in the distance as my friend, whom I wasn't racing, pushed on. I caught her, passed her, and eventually caught and passed Malcolm, whom I also was not racing. Malcolm caught me again as I strolled up the last hill and with a mile to go he was just ahead of me.

My recent long training runs have been rather uncomfortable, partly due to the after effects of the damage to my psoas and abdominals, the original injury that stopped me running for 4 months, and also partly due to very tight adductors which seem to have been struggling with the increased mileage. After 20 miles today though I felt in remarkably good shape. I'd only had a small amount of tightness in my lower abs and my adductors felt OK. It was with immense relief that as we passed the mile to go sign I felt full of running. I pushed the pace up a bit and overtook the 3 women I could see up ahead. By the finish I'd opened up a gap of 2 minutes on Malcolm. Good job I wasn't racing him!

The 21 miles took me 3:44:09. If I'd been running the same heart rate on flat tarmac I'd have covered 28 miles. That's one hell of a training run!

This is a fantastic race. It's well organised by Pompey Joggers. The scenery is stunning, but boy it's hard.

Let's hope we can get back to the mud bath next year!

Marathon pacing part3

In part 2 I described a marathon pace test. I tried a mini one on Thursday. Could I sustain a pace for a number of miles without any increase in HR?

No

I was running a bit too quickly. It seems from the results my marathon HR is currently nearer 143bpm, with a pace of maybe 7:20, based on educated guesswork. With a few more weeks of tempo runs and aerobic work maybe it will go back up to its original 145bpm level.

The session I ran was 758m laps of the paths round the back of the leisure centre where the club trains. The others were doing paarlauf, running alternate laps in pairs. As I'd had a good interval session earlier in the week while coaching a tempo run, I decided it was my turn for a tempo run. So instead of alternating laps with my partner, I paced my partner for her lap and then carried on and ran my own lap at the same pace. I found myself running with a couple of others and it was clearly getting a bit competitive, so I ended up running a little faster than maybe I should have.

Still the results are quite promising. My HR was drifting up a little, so 7:07/mile is clearly faster than marathon pace, as I knew it would be. My pace for a given HR looks good though as it is pretty much what I was running before the injury. Hopefully a marathon pace of 7:15/mile is realistic.

I'll rerun the test next week, going much further though, maybe 7-8 miles, and running a little slower, 7:15-7:20/mile, so that hopefully I see a constant HR.

4.7 miles marathon pace 10x758m continuous:

Lap time	Heart rate	Pace
3:28	no HR	7:21/mile
3:20	no HR	7:04/mile
3:23	no HR	7:11/mile
3:22	144bpm	7:08/mile
3:20	144bpm	7:04/mile
3:21	145bpm	7:06/mile
3:20	145bpm	7:04/mile
3:20	146bpm	7:04/mile
3:21	146bpm	7:06/mile
3:18	146bpm	7:00/mile
Average pace		7:07/mile

One final comment: it seemed like I was breathing almost as hard as some of the others I ran the session with, with them running at their 10k or 5k pace. This captures an important point about endurance training. We were roughly the same weight so, ignoring running economy for a moment, need roughly the same energy expenditure to propel us at that speed. This means we have roughly the same oxygen requirement hence the same rate of breathing. These are gross generalisations you understand, as running economy is of course important.

Why then could I keep going lap after lap when the others needed recoveries? The answer lies with the lactate threshold. By training one's aerobic system with lots of slow running, and frequent tempo/threshold running we enable the body to work faster and faster at ever higher heart rates without accumulating lactate, hence raising the lactate threshold.

For marathon running we need bags of endurance to last the distance, but if we want to run our fastest marathon then we need to work on our lactate threshold so that we can sustain a good pace. Go and bang out those miles, but don't forget the tempo runs!

Marathon pacing part 2

Having read Marathon pacing we now know the importance of knowing your marathon pace (or effort), but how can we work out what that is?

The McMillan calculator is always a good place to start:
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm

Enter a time for a recent race and you'll get a prediction of your marathon pace/time:
Here are some example paces/times based on 10k times:

10k time	mara pace	mara time
36:00	6:27/mile	2:49
40:00	7:10/mile	3:08
44:00	7:53/mile	3:27
48:00	8:36/mile	3:46
52:00	9:19/mile	4:04
56:00	10:02/mile	4:23

Of course there is a catch with the above times. The predicted marathon times assume that you have trained adequately for the marathon. This means having done lots of long runs so that your endurance is well trained. For most people, particularly those attempting their first marathon, they won't have done anything like the mileage of long runs to enable them to maintain that pace right to the finish. In practise I'd say it is unrealistic to expect to get within 10-15 minutes of the predicted time for your first marathon. In other words, you'd be wise to add on an extra 30secs/mile. Of course, if you are prepared to do at least 3 20-mile runs, preferably 5, then good luck to you. However, if this is your first marathon, then you might not have the background of mileage to be able to do that amount of training without injury. Life is a compromise - accept your limitations and set yourself a more realistic goal. If you are following a 'get you round' schedule which culminates in just 1 20-mile run 3 weeks before the marathon then you should probably add a minute onto the predicted marathon pace. Pace prediction really is a black art, but don't set unrealistic goals if you are not prepared to put in the mileage.

Many of you will no doubt be following schedules with titles such as 'sub 3:45'. I'm not a fan of this style of schedule as it too can set unrealistic expectations that simply following the schedule will guarantee a target time. Firstly, unless you can run a 48:00 10k, don't expect to be able to run a 3:45 marathon. Secondly, the sort of schedule needed by a middle-aged woman to get 3:45 is very different to that of a young man. 3:45 for a young healthy man is quite a soft target, whereas for an older woman it is much tougher: in fact 3:45 is the London 'Good For Age' qualifying standard. Don't expect to achieve 3:45 following a 3:45 schedule if you're anything other than slim young and male, even if you can run a 48 min 10k. Harsh but fair I think.

Those quoted marathon paces above are still useful though, even if it is unrealistic to be able to run 26.2 miles of that pace. A regular weekly run at that pace will help develop your aerobic capacity. Just be careful you don't become a one-pace runner always running at around that pace. You should do regular sessions of faster running, such as a tempo run or interval session, and the bulk of your running should be much slower, at least 30s preferably 1 minute/mile slower in fact.

I was careful to talk of marathon 'effort' in the previous article, rather than pace, and a great way to measure effort is heart rate. HR pacing for me is by far the best strategy as it takes physiological and ambient conditions into account. It has its detractors though. Some say it is too limiting and they prefer to run on feel. I certainly admire those who can run an entire marathon on feel, but I know several cases of crash and burn where the perception of what pace felt right was somewhat wide of the mark. HR monitoring is an extra piece of information you can use to shape your strategy on the day. It's a very personal thing though and getting your own personal level right is essential. I loath using formulae as everyone is different and the quoted formulae can give errors of +/-10bpm on max HR. MaxHR is a fairly well defined concept, despite inaccuracies in formulae, but then trying to predict marathon pace HR from maxHR on assumptions about someone's lactate threshold is fraught with difficulty. I think I have the answer though.

This is my personal method for determining marathon HR. I've not seen this written anywhere, but it works for me and for the, admittedly limited number of, people whose HR data I've seen. If anyone has further data they can add to support this, then please let me know:

Go out and run a flat fast 10k race. Make sure you're fairly fresh, run it well, even paced, and take your kilometre splits and average HRs. If you've run it well then your HR will not drop towards the end of the race - this just ensures that you have paced it well and given your best. The pace isn't critical and having a pancake flat course isn't that critical either; just avoid big hills as the downhill bits tend to make your HR drop as it's difficult to keep pushing at maximum effort down a big hill. The point here is we are trying to find what your best HR for a 10k is.

If you have run a good 10k race, take the average HR for the race, subtract 10bpm and that is your marathon HR.

The above naturally factors in a number of variables. If your lactate threshold (LT) isn't particularly well developed then your marathon HR will be correspondingly lower. Some elites can run marathons at a ridiculously high percentage of maxHR, but of course their 10k pace is even higher: well above threshold. Slower runners are unable to push hard for the duration of a 10k, running at a much lower level compared to LT, so their marathon pace is proportionally lower.

For most people, 10bpm corresponds to about a 40s/mile drop in pace, which is in line with the slowing down formula used in the McMillan pace tables, and often quoted as 'Horwill's Law' after coach Frank Horwill who uses the rule that pace drops by 4s per 400m lap every time the distance doubles - a drop of 16s/mile for every doubling. (See this month's Running Fitness magazine). I personally think it's nearer 5s per 400m lap for slower runners and nearer 3s per lap for elites - you can never entirely generalise these things across elites, club runners and beginners.

You have to know how to use your marathon HR, as your HR will not be constant for the full marathon distance. You need to start the marathon nice and relaxed and let your HR gradually rise over the first 2 miles to eventually hit your marathon HR. If you find you've hit your HR after the first few hundred metres then you've gone off too quickly - slow down! You should then be able to maintain this level until after half way, maybe up to 16 miles. At this point your aim should be to maintain your pace as your HR naturally starts to rise. By now you may find yourself slowing, which is almost inevitable in a marathon, but try to at least maintain your HR if not your pace. If you've paced correctly you should be able to let your HR rise by maybe 1bpm every mile until by the end of the marathon it is at the sort of levels you see in a 10k. If you can do this then you've paced well.

People assume that as you hit the wall your HR rockets, but in fact the opposite is true. Your HR is simply a reflection of your bodies demand for oxygen. If you slow down then regardless of how hard you think you are pushing then your HR falls. Other factors such as heat and dehydration can affect your HR of course, but if you run out of fuel to burn, your heart doesn't need to pump oxygen to your muscles.

Of course, going into a marathon armed only with a HR level and the assurance that Susie says this is the HR you need to run at, wouldn't fill me with a huge amount of confidence. There is a test we can do to verify this HR though. In a marathon we are effectively running at a steady state where lactate levels are static. Any increase in lactate means we will be unable to sustain the pace. Increasing lactate will mean an increase in HR - see my article on cardiac drift. We can use cardiac drift, or rather its absence, to verify that we have the right marathon HR:

Go to a track, or find yourself a nice flat sheltered street loop. I have one near home that is exactly 1.5 miles, although knowing the distance isn't absolutely critical unless you also want to verify your marathon pace. A track is ideal but we don't all have a track local to us. Choose a nice cool windless evening or at least try to ensure you're not going to be getting significantly hotter as you run, which will push up your HR. Winter evenings training for London are perfect. Set off as if you are starting your marathon and aim to hit your marathon HR after a good warm up of 2 miles. Now maintain your pace, noting your lap times, and trying to keep your laps very even. If you can keep going for 8 miles, maybe 10, without any increase in your HR, then you are running at or below your marathon HR.

I've blogged some of these tests in the past: 1, 2, 3. I shall be trying one in the next few weeks. They are actually very good training runs. 8 or 10 miles of marathon pace is quite a tough workout, and excellent marathon preparation. Your lap times also give you a very good fitness indicator and a good prediction of marathon time. As your training progresses you should hopefully see your pace improve. I like these tests - you are verifying your fitness and pace, and yet you are not compromising your training - you'll actually improve as a result of doing the test.

I'll report back on one of these pace tests next week as I'm planning on doing a 10 mile marathon pace run midweek before the national XC champs, in place of the Tuesday and Thursday speedwork. I'll aim for 7:15/mile and hope that my heart rate sits at 145bpm or less for much of the run. If I can manage that then I'll be happy that I'm on target for my 3:15 London Marathon. I'll try not to panic if I don't quite make it, as there are 8 weeks left, but I was running at 7:00/mile last night at my threshold of 150bpm, so it's looking promising.

Have fun training!