You’ve got mail–Big Block Running Volume

I got an email from Ginny at Happy Feet 26.2 inquiring about some big volume blocks that I did last year.  I have run with Ginny may times over the past couple of years.  She is a good friend.  Ginny also does a heck of a lot of volume herself and she went to Boston last year.

Hello James,

I am working on my training for Snickers in March.  It will obviously be a shortened program because of Huntsville [Ginny just did the Rocket City Marathon].  I am not worried about the shortened program at all, because I think I have maintained my fitness and will come back fast.  Just trying not to, come back too fast.

Anyway, I wanted to ask you about the workout you did, something like 15, 15, 15 in 3 days, or something similar.  First, do you think that helped you in your training?  When did you do this in relation to your race date?  I'm always looking for new things to try, and love some variety.  With the high mileage that I ran before Huntsville, I think I would be up for something similar this time.  In the past, I would not have attempted it for fear of injury, but now I feel my mileage has been, and will be, high enough to give it a try.

Please share what you can with me about it, or any other  things you feel "really worked well" for you in training.

I will continue with tempos, intervals, and long runs, but just looking to mix things up a little.

My reply:

Hey Ginny -

I got idea from hearing something about increasing your mileage for running an ultra.  Most ultra runners do not do many long runs longer than what we do for marathon training they just do more back to back mileage.  Since I have time off over the holidays I decided to get some major volume blocks.  I thank I got 3 blocks of right at 50 miles [15 – 15 – 20].  This was all LSD type running – I mean completely conversational comfortable running pace.

I can’t really say if it helped me in my marathons but it certainly did allow for me to adapt to running on tired / fatigued legs.  In fact, I just finished up a couple of more large running blocks.  I had two 6 day blocks that just kissed 70 miles.  Just this week I have decided to shut down the high volume with 6 weeks left before my A race marathon.  Now I will be concentrating on much more intensity.  It will be 3 challenging runs each week – intervals, tempo and long run at marathon or near marathon pace. 

If you do a block of high volume I think you have to shut down the intensity.  If you do speed and volume I think you are asking for trouble.

James – See you at the Steam Whistle 12K

I think the large blocks have helped in my running.  They have allowed for me to adapt to running on fatigued legs. 
My belief is that running with the tired legs should allow for you to push the wall further back in a race.  When I ran the Mardi Gras marathon last year I did not hit the wall – sure the race got harder (much harder) around mile 22 / 23 but I was able to maintain pace – or enough of my pace to reach my goal.  The race was pretty evenly split (1:34:00 / 1:34:44).  This year’s race is going to be very difficult and I hope that my extra volume blocks will push that wall back even further – I’m trying to push it back somewhere in the vicinity of mile 27.

You can see the traces of the wall just after mile 20

(you also turned into a head wind at about mile 23 – nice).

Projected 2011 Mardi Gras Marathon – NO WALL.

A quick disclaimer:  I get the holidays off from work.  This lets me recover fully from this high volume blocks of running.  In truth, I really needed down time last year when I ran big blocks.  I would take an ice bath while sipping a recovery shake.  Then maybe even a nap.  This year I have run the high volume faster and the recovery has bee much easier.  Your mileage may vary. 

Holiday weekend - running and riding and fireworks

We had a good group for the Saturday ride. We met on 28th and headed out. The weather was cooler than last week. It is funny but it did not feel like Mississippi in July. The temperature was in the high 80’s. It was still humid but not 100 percent. In the first ½ mile JD started yelling. I sounded like he said “I lost my helmet.” I looked back and his helmet was on – we all pulled over to see what was going on. It turned out that he had a wasp in his helmet. He got stung a couple of times but this did not seem to affect his ride any. There are a couple of us that call ourselves the B-Team (because we are not as fast as the A-Team). JD made that joke a couple of times.


The first 25 miles was at a rather sedate pace. We just rolled on. We were hitting hills and looping back and forth through the countryside. About half way the pace picked up. I enjoy being the rabbit and attacking. I am never going to get away but I like to keep the group honest. They always chase me down but we end up getting out average speed up. In these rides, I am not the fastest; I just don’t have that top end like some people (I’m working on it). But I do have a little bit of endurance. I have fuel in the tank after 30 or 40 miles when so people are starting to get tired.

Saturday Group Ride: 50.74 Miles
1579 ft elevation gain
19.0 Ave moving speed

I got up Sunday for a run. I wanted to do 4 miles fast with a warm up and cool down. I had a rough time getting started. I messed around for nearly an hour just trying to get out of the door. I bricked my MP3 player. It got stuck on docked and I could not get it unstuck. I looked up how to reset the device and got a paper click to punch the button. The whole dang button went into the MP3 player. I had to look around and grab the girl’s player. (I am stealing ‘the girl’ idea from DC Rainmaker.) I loaded up some of my music on her player. So after an hour I headed outside. About half a mile into the run I realized that I did not have my heart rate strap. Oh well – I had wanted to see where my heart rate was at the pace I wanted to run – to see if it was above or below my LTHR.

I paced myself out at 7:30 pace then picked up the pace. I wanted 4 miles at 6:30 pace. The weather was still cooler than it has been but not cool by any stretch of the imagination. The miles clicked off easily. I want to be able to run this pace during my next triathlon. I seem to be stuck at 3 miles for this run. I have attempted it several times and always stumble at 3 miles. I do not know where my heart rate was but I made the decision to slow down. I slowed the pace. My fourth mile was at 7:04. My splits were as follows:

7:30
6:28
6:32
6:37
7:04
6:51

I am going to keep trying this workout until I can pull off 4 x 6:30. It should not be that tough. That is right around 20 minute 5k time. I am faster than that. I mean, during the winter I did a 12k (7.45 miles) at 6:39 pace and a half marathon at 6:53 pace. I need to work on the speed. I have the endurance but I need to find that high gear.

Sunday Run: 6.00 Miles
179 ft elevation gain
6:49 Ave moving speed (includes warm up)

The afternoon would be another group ride. There were only about 8 of us on this Independence Day. Several riders from the day before. We headed out to Sumrall and then went north. Once we left the trace the pace picked up. I was not needed as a rabbit – it was just a good fast paced ride. Riding during the afternoon was much hotter than the morning ride the previous day. My legs were a little tired but nothing bad. I was able to do a few pulls. I felt strong the entire ride.

Sunday Group Ride: 57.24 Miles
1085 ft elevation gain
19.5 Ave moving speed

My neighborhood has its own fireworks display. It is put on by Ron who lives just down the street. I guess Ron is just a fireworks aficionado. He has a big BBQ party that culminates with a 45 minute firework show. People drive to my neighborhood to watch! We had some friends over and had the lawn chairs in the front yard. We had food and drink and good company. It has been a fantastic Fourth of July!

Enjoy your Independence!

I took this in Boston a couple of weeks ago - Happy 4th!

Memorial Weekend review

Memorial Day has been grand! First there was the race on Friday night. It was a challenge and a lot of fun. After the race we went out for a celebratory drink with a couple of people from the running club. Not too much fun but a couple of drinks and a lot of talk.


On Saturday I got up early and hit the trace for a quick group ride. There were three of us and we got off the trace a couple of times and tackled the hills – 40+ miles total. After the ride Jodie and I went to the coast and did a little bit of Memorial Weekend shopping.

Sunday was another early morning ride. Some of the same guys – some different. Another good ride off of the trace with more hills – 30+ miles total. After the ride it was yard work time. Got everything trimmed and mowed.

Monday was another morning ride. Some of the same guys – some different. I was the only one that was at all three rides. This ride was completely off of the trace and quite spirited with hill – 49 miles total. After ride there was more yard work – I planted a tree and 4 bushes. Jodie planted about 20 daises around the yard. We still have about 80 more Gerber’s to put into the ground. We need to create another flower bed.

It was hot and humid and rained sporadically all weekend. All of my bike rides missed the rain. Great weekend. The Heat Wave triathlon is next weekend so I will only get a run or two this week and then the taper starts again.

Post - Thanksgiving

So I have been AWOL for the past week or so … I had a very nice Thanksgiving holiday. I went to Texas and visited with my father and my sister and her family. The diet was blown a few times (Thanksgiving) and the exercise dropped of f some. I did get a ride in on the trainer before leaving town on Wednesday (a big warm up and then an all out 6 minute maximum exertion interval). 6 minutes does not seem like much but when you are trying with everything you have to beat your prior best – let’s just say I wanted to throw up went I was done. I also got a 4 mile run in before driving back from Texas – and another 45 minute trainer ride when I got home.


While in Austin I had the change to visit Mellow Johnnies – Lance Armstrong’s bike shop in the downtown area. What a neat shop. It had yellow jerseys from all of his winning tour and many race bikes. They also had a huge sale. Most everything was discounted but I gravitated towards the clearance racks. Everything on the racks was $20. I picked up 2 pairs of Castelli bibs, a Zoot tri jersey, a Sugio wind vest and a Castelli jersey – all for $100 plus tax. That is half the price of one pair of the bibs. It was a huge score. I have always wanted to have a pair of bibs and now I have two!

Back in town I have decided to redouble my diet efforts. I have calculated my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and I have charted out several meal plans. I will eat about 1750 calories everyday – and this is where I hope I am getting a little smarter – I will add about 500 calories for each hour of exercise. I hope that this will allow me to eat a healthy diet without getting all bonky and bingie.

I have a half marathon this weekend in Baton Rouge that I am looking forward to even though I have not been working a training plan. This race is just for fun.

SWIM / BIKE / RUN - FIREWORKS

Busy long weekend. Jim and I met at the lake at 6:00AM on Friday. There were no boats out at this time so we swam across the lake and then hugged the shore. I swam the loop but also swam the buoys twice. I think I ended up with just about a mile and a half (I mapped it out on one of the mapmy sites – so give or take) in about 50 minutes. It was a nice conservative swim.

We mounted up and hit the road. We did the same hilly loop as last time but just added a little more hilly loop. Nothing fast – just working on seat time and mileage. At about 25 miles in Jim remarked that the hills seemed easier than last week. I just told him that we were simply becoming bad-asses. 25 miles later on the same hills I did not feel so much like a bad-ass. Oh- well – We ended up with 62 hot miles.

Off to the run – it was boiling hot at this time. I was not going to run the big hilly route today so I kept it more flat. I was going to try and get about 8 – 10 miles. Jim dropped off on the run at just after a mile and I kept the pace up. I would start to fade soon enough. I ended up with only 6 miles at about an 8:30 minute / mile pace. Only slightly faster than the previous week and on a much easier route. Last week, I got bloated from the poweraide drinks so I tried to stick to mostly water. I packed a bunch of pop-tarts with me – easy, portable, CHEAP. I ended up eating 11 of them for 2200 calories. I did not have any stomach problems but I am sure there are better alternatives – but at less a than $2 for the day they are hard to beat.

Saturday would be a long run, again with Jim. At about 6:30AM I got a text message that his legs were dead and he was skipping the run. I shot back that I was probably not going to run the original 15 miles but that I would get a run in. I think I have just gotten used to training on tired legs – I do not know any better.

I left the house at just before 7AM for my ‘house to Epley +’ run. I was running at a comfortable pace in the low 8’s. Just churning out the miles. As the run got longer and the temperature increase everything got harder but I was still feeling good! I ran right past Epley – the just over 6 mile turn around and kept up the pace. Feeling strong I continued to the 7.5 mile turn around – I guess I would be getting 15 miles after all – one way or the other. I stopped at Epley to refill my fuel belt – this would kill my low 8 average pace – oh well. It was now much hotter! Terry pasted me on his bike about a mile before Clyde station. I would have to refill the fuel belt again – only about 4 miles from Epley. Terry was racking his bike and asked what pace I was running and if he could join me. I told him I was running 8 ½’s and that I would welcome the company. Running with Terry, these were my fastest miles of the day – a great way to finish a long run – mile 14 was at 7:45 minute / mile pace. I finished the run (2 water stops) at 15 miles in 2:09 for an 8:38 minute / mile pace. Not bad for a hot training run – but I can be much faster – just not on that day. Beside, this was not a race. I just don’t have time for the recovery necessary for a fast 15 mile run.

Saturday Night - There is a guy named Ron in our neighborhood that puts on a wonderful fireworks show each Independence Day. It really is something. I mean from my front yard it is only a few hundred yards from the launch site. These shows also last from 30 – 45 minutes – WOW. There was some speculation that the event would not take place due to the extremely dry conditions that we have been having in Southern Mississippi. I just have to say that Ron is the man – he had a fire truck parked in his yard for just such an emergency. The fireworks were fantastic as usual. I grilled out for the event and we had several of Jodie’s grad students over to celebrate with us. I grilled chicken breast, hamburger and black bean burgers. This was the first red meat that I have had in a while. It was a fun evening.

Due to the festivities, I sleep late on Sunday morning. I had the option to take this as a recovery day but it is hard to ‘waste’ a weekend day. I decided to join the afternoon group ride. I rode my road bike again and truly enjoyed the ride. There were occasions to sit back and occasions to push the pace. I ended up with another 50+miles for the weekend.

With all of the training I may be gaining any speed but I am please with the amount of training that my body can absorb. I put in a little over 11 hours this weekend and I’m not any worse for the wear.

Rise and Shine

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. - Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)

The seat on my trainer road bike has been giving me some trouble on rides of 45 minutes and more. No major discomfort but when I am on the trainer I am looking for any reason to jump off. So I swapped out the seat, the one with the big cut-out, for a normal seat. The bike was easier to ride in the same position and I could actually sit upright and churn away on the cranks. I rode the trainer for 45 minutes at an easy pace while reading a book. Not too bad. It will take a few more sessions on the trainer to see if the seat swap makes any difference.

I also got out of bed this morning in time to get to the gym for an hour of exercise. This is the first time that I have done this in months - since running, biking and swimming outside.

It is a lot harder to go to the gym in the morning than to go outside. My training plan only called for an hour of running at a moderate pace. I cruised along on the treadmill adjusting the pace as necessary and clocked 7.5 miles at just under an hour.

Even though it is not scheduled I think I will jump back in the pool for lunch.

As a side note: I am continuing to drop a little weight - just in time for the weekend - 13resolutions.

It seems too early in the year for a holiday but I'll take it - a three day weekend should be fun even though it is a little cold.

Long Slow Distance and SORE

I have really enjoyed the holidays (I work at a university so I have been off for about 2 weeks) but I am ready to get back into my routine. With family visiting and travelling myself my training plan has really suffered. I went for two 3 mile runs earlier in the week and then jumped back on my training plan. Yesterday it called for a 2 1/2 hour run. This should not have been much of a problem. Trying to be smart I decided to do the run slow. I kept my heart rate in zone 1 and just trudged along. About 1 1/2 hours into the run it started to rain. Then thunder. Then lightening. I would normally not mind running in the rain - in fact some of my best runs have been in the rain. But at about the 2 hour mark the run got really hard. My right hamstring started to tighten up and my feet and ankles did not feel great. Soaking wet I must have weighed a couple of pounds more than normal. My shoes were heavy with water. Luckily no blisters or hot spots developed. I took some nutrition with me on this run - a power bar type thing and a gel. I consumed the bar at 1 hour and the gel 30 minutes later. I thought this might help and I did not bonk or anything.

I allowed myself to recover the entire rest of the day and I needed it. I took an ice bath (well cold water bath) in the jacuzzi bath tub to try and reduce the recovery time. There was no immediate relief. I was so sore. My legs were aching most of the evening. After a good nights sleep my body feels much better.

I would guess that I was sore because of the time off and jumping right back into a long run. Today calls for a 4 hour bike ride. My legs will be tired after this ride but they are never sore like after running long.

On a positive note - I am down 3.8 pounds and 2 body fat percentage for the new year - 13resolutions

Unscheduled off day and kittens revisited.

The company holiday party threw a wrench in the training plan. Wednesday was supposed to be my off day (the first in about 12 days). The volume has been high and after a so-so run on Saturday and a bike that I probably pushed too hard on Sunday I just went with the flow. Had a good time, played 'Dirty Santa', and ate too much. Fortunately I did not eat 'Way Too Much' like I can do at these events. It is pretty hard for my body to adjust from 6 small meals a day to 2 large gut busting meals. Since last Friday my weight is up just about 10 pounds - that's about 7 percent. I know that it is not real weight but I do feel the bloat.

No holiday party today but snacks abound. We will, however, have another holiday party (departmental) tomorrow.

The good news is that with the holiday break I can get some real volume in training wise (in between the travelling) of course. I should only be gone for 4 or 5 days have have another 14 or so days at home. Too bad the pool is closed.

I almost forgot. When we found the kittens a few weeks ago I had to rush home for a bag. Its seems that every other race gives you a nylon bag to hold the race numbers and swag. I grabbed one of these bags off of the shelf and rode back for Jodie to put the kittens in something. If you look in this picture there is a card in the bag. I am sure I would have never seen this card had we not found the kittens. It is possibly the best swag that I have ever received. The business card is from a great local tavern (and now ultra-micro brew pub)the Keg and Barrel. And on the back of this business card -