This was supposed to be the year I finally trained for a ‘proper’ marathon attempt, which I bailed on after about a month after I decided that it sucked.
Ironically then qualified for our HM state team at Sunshine Coast, and the uni nats 10k Sydney. I’m also doing the Gold Coast 5k this weekend as a bit of a fun run since I had some free flights and family up that way, so in between those three I’m entered in all of our major marathon events while racing everything but the marathon. Pretty well sums up my usual level of season planning…
I’m still officially signed up for the NY Marathon in early November. But my weekly long runs are limited to two hours (which right now means 13K) and my priority is increasing speed (HM best pace 8:45/km), and I still have a lot of weight to lose.
At my current pace and weight, my marathon goal time would be six hours. And I’m just not sure that giving my body that kind of a pounding is a good idea when the real goal is only to become as strong and as fast as possible in the next five-ish years.
So I’m confident that I’ll run the Staten Island Half in October… but totally open to bailing on the full-length marathon if I don’t feel I’m ready for it as we get closer to race day.
Anyone else spend time looking for hills to rep? I’m broadening my local search to find better ones to train on. There’s a ridge within 30mins drive from me that has a myriad of interesting climbs/descent. Nothing over 100m vert, but that’s big for round here.
Luckily for me, I do not have to search for hills. I live at the base of YangMingShan National Park. It’s great for cycling and running. I can be running uphill within about 100m from my front door. If feeling spry, I can continue all the way up to about 1100-1200m elevation. There are 10 peaks in all. There is even a trail route where you can do all of them in one go:
I’d recommend that you find and use your lactate threshold heart rate to calculate your zones rather than using your known max heart rate. It’s much more accurate in my opinion.
Also, if you’re really looking to work on pacing, another metric that has helped me a lot is a power meter. No, it’s not totally necessary, and RPE is arguably the best gauge of effort, but having solid HR and power zones can really help you dial into your efforts in real time really well. I’ve started using a Stryd foot pod this year and it’s really useful and was really key in helping me properly pace my first half marathon this spring.
I am curious how running affects the Green light/Red Light.
Its hot here in FL, and my HR is usually high because of it (high 150s, low 160s).
Mostly every time I do a run, I get an adaptation and like 50% of the time a yellow warning.
I usually take the adaptation and move on, but wonder if I really should.
One day i did a run, before the bike and th bike ride end up being harder, not because if was challenging, but because running in the heat kills me! The rest of the week was yellow, I refuse the adaptations and everything was fine, wo were exactly where they needed to be…
In the same way we do for cycling, we look at your overall training history to determine the most productive rate of progression, that will make you faster.
It looks like you are on a High Volume Triathlon Training Plan which is simply a lot of training volume. You are not being shown Yellow Days because of the runs specifically. I can see that you are also given Yellow Days after bike workouts too.
Over the last 3 weeks, you have increased your training volume quite dramatically. RLGL is looking at all of your training to ensure that you don’t ramp up too quickly.
We don’t always feel the effects of a jump up in training volume immediately. Think of RLGL as a check engine light. It’s indicating that continuing on at this rate may have consequences further down the line. RLGL is correcting your Training Plan to prevent that trajectory.
Accepting the adaptations will ensure you are following an optimal rate of progression for you. If you are following the High Volume Training Plan but getting a lot of Yellow and Red Days, I suggest swapping to a Lower Volume Training Plan until you are able to consistently hit the key workouts scheduled in your Calendar. Just because you have the time to do a High Volume Training Plan, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is best for you.
Thanks for the information.
I think I see the possible problem. I usually ignore the run schedule and that might be screwing up the alg… I usually running with friends and I try to do at least 1 hr, even if the schedule say to run fo 25 minutes (that is unless is a double day, or brick).
For the most part i do take the adaptations and I can feel they are doing the job. But last week was different…
IN any case. I am trying letting the algo do its things and hoping for the best.
RLGL is actually working for you in this case. It’s designed this way so that you can have this flexibility in your training! It adapts in response to these changes so that you can run with your friends and follow a Training Plan that will make you faster.
As I mentioned earlier, a Mid Volume Training Plan may work better for you in making you faster, if you want that flexibility with your training. Given your training history, you would be more likely to consistently complete those key workouts on a Mid Volume Plan because the overall load would be more manageable. Therefore, you would likely see less adaptations.
I’m getting back to running after a long time on the bike. In 2019 I developed a bad case of patellar tendinitis. Before then I ran a lot including a couple 100 milers. I transitioned to the bike and since then I’ve done some very large endurance rides and I have a couple more on the calendar this year. During my off time I never went to zero. But nearly so. At best I’d run five miles every two weeks.
I’d like to do some ultra distance runs next near. The problem is I’m finding it very difficult to build from zero. My fitness is pretty good from riding so when I run I feel very slow and it’s difficult psychologically. I can manage 5 miles at 8:45 pace or so, but it feels like a death march. And after the run my knees feel stiff.
I guess I’m looking for some confirmation that if I stick with it, do 3-6 mile runs two or three times a week for the next couple months, things will likely improve, and I’ll be able to ramp running fitness more quickly there after.
Anyone have experience with coming back from a long running hiatus?
Been there! The same thing happened to me when I was training for my first marathon.
Mileage is something that’s takes awhile to see the full benefit from. My marathon went well but took a year or two to trickle down to the shorter stuff like the 5k. Keep at it and the eyes on the big (and long term) goal!
I don’t know about this whole volume thing.
I’ve reduced my volume from a peak in April (about 40mpw) continue to do speed work once a week and spend 3 days/wk in the gym doing strength work.
I’m steadily getting faster and faster. No niggles, no discomfort at all, have raced from 1 mile to 50 this year off 30mpw average.
Half mara in Feb 1.17
Mile in July 4.58
50 mile podium in June.
10 mile trail race in July (450m of vert), 65mins and the win.
I turn 50 next week and am prioritising robustness over all else. Seems to translate into good running performances. I see so many high milage runners, hobbling along with their gimpy style thats developed from being in pain the whole time. Seems dumb to me.
It feels to me like the one track session a week which is only 25mins of intervals, gives me proper running form and a VO2 boost.
The strength work which is three separate full body strength workouts, gives me muscles (yay!), and then the rest is such easy running or walking, often with friends, heart rate down in zone 1 a lot of the time, that most wouldn’t consider it training, but it seems to give me a lovely fluidity over the ground.
Appreciate everyone is different, but it’s always worth finding your own path I reckon.
The ‘trick’ is not to stop in the first place - I know I hated hearing that too.
Once a fortnight’s better than nothing but I’ve tried to keep it at once a week minimum. My volume has never gone beyond 4-5hrs really and only held at that for a few months. I’m seeing if I can find a way to be consistent around the 4hr mark without hurting myself again.
@grawp that’s cracking running. Always been a runner or a late bloomer?
It took me about 6 months of 2x per week running after not running for 6 years or so before I felt like my joints and bones were adapted to the effort. I’m was about 54 years old when I started back running.
And I’m just not sure that giving my body that kind of a pounding is a good idea when the real goal is only to become as strong and as fast as possible in the next five-ish years.
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