Running Notes by HJL

Fun with treadmills, by OK Go.

Nike and Apple recently came out with the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, an accessory which turns an iPod Nano into a running training device. The main component is a small pod containing an accelerometer that attaches to your shoe and transmits sensor data back to an attachment on the iPod’s docking connector. Some Nike shoes apparently have a special pocket to insert the pod, but there is at least one hack for attaching the Nike+iPod sensor to non-Nike running shoes.

This week’s EE Times has a teardown showing how the pair of devices are put together. The retail price is only $30, and the sensor pod is sealed, meaning that when the lithium battery runs out you get a new pod. They apparently last for a while, though.

I don’t run much with an iPod lately, but if I switch to an iPod Nano at some point this might be an interesting running gadget to try out.

As I’ve written earlier, this year I wrote off my initial time goals due to training issues, so I decided to just enjoy the run and take some photos along the way.

I’ve posted these and a few more photos from the 2006 Big Sur Marathon in my Flickr account.

Non-runners sometimes ask, “How long is a marathon?”. The answer is that in modern times, they’re all 26.2 miles. This happens to coincide with the mileage posted on this highway sign, which apparently helped trigger the organization of the Big Sur Marathon something like 20 years ago. (Someone usually tacks on the “.2″ when the marathon is being held, which you can see if you click through on the photo.)

The weather is nearly ideal — overcast, cool, and misty, not too much wind.

Well, this year’s marathon training cycle for Big Sur has gone fairly miserably. Regardless, I look forward to running this Sunday. Big Sur is a hilly, but scenic course. Part of the reason I like it is because it’s simply a nice place to run, and the road along the ocean shore is closed only once a year to hold the marathon.

Since training hasn’t really gone as I’d planned, it’s time to assess where we are and come up with a plan to match.

Some shortcomings:
- Breathing and HR are still behaving strangely. The symptoms haven’t gotten worse, but haven’t gone away either.
- Weekly mileage maxed out in the low 40’s instead of low 70’s. Average in the high 20s to mid 30s, vs mid 40s to mid 50s. This is partly due to running slower paces, but I’ve also logged fewer hours on this training cycle.
- Longest runs in the low teens, no 20+ mile runs. Normally I would like to have logged 3 or more.
- Relatively little LT pace training compared to previous training cycles. This is partly related to the mysterious breathing problem, since I limited LT and anerobic training for a while, in the interest of being cautious while seeing how my body is behaving.
- Difficulty getting my mental game together this time around for training at what feel like really slow paces.

Some assets:
- This will be my 3rd time on the Big Sur course, so I have pretty detailed knowledge of the various hills that don’t show on the elevation profile.
- No major joint or muscle problems, partly because I haven’t trained that hard.
- No observed problems breathing while inactive, or at easy aerobic paces. Performance has been pretty consistent with running at altitude, or reduced O2 intake.
- I have no particular time goal, and am willing to DNF if something blows up.
- I have good data from two previous runs at Big Sur, along with training logs from this time around, which give me some confidence in how my body will perform.
- Had some good 10+ mile runs while on vacation in Hawaii. It’s much easier to focus on running without other things going on in the day.

Recent paces:
Aerobic: Most of my easy mileage has been at 10:00 pace, versus previous cycles at 9:00 or even 8:30 pace.
LT: I’m able to hold 8:00 for over an hour, versus something inside 7:30 or perhaps 7:15 at this time last year.
Anaerobic: Not useful for marathons, but I tried cranking up the treadmill and I can still turn over at 5:30 pace, just not for more than a minute or so. This is consistent with my theory that my performance is mostly O2-uptake limited right now.
VDOT: Being able to hold 8:00 pace for an hour+ (i.e. at or below LT) puts me at around VDOT 40, but I am also undertrained at longer distances. VDOT 34 corresponds to a MP of 10:00, which matches my comfortable training pace, so that gives me a range to think about.

Plan:
Run at 10:00 or whatever pace feels very easy. Don’t expect any problems in the first half, through Hurricane Point and Bixby Bridge. I usually find the hills around mile 19-22 mentally challenging, but at this point I know where and when to expect them. Will keep an eye on the HRM and see if anything strange is going on, in particular if I’m at an unexpectedly high HR. During training I have found it pretty easy to accidentally end up at a higher HR than I want, presumably because of the reduced O2 intake, and corresponding reduced outgoing CO2 rates. It’s also likely that I’m going to have a more difficult time after 3 hours / 18 miles or so, due to being underconditioned for longer runs, but it probably helps that I’ve maintained a base of 25-30 miles weekly for the past few years now.

Goals:
Primary goal: finish comfortably in around 4:30 (avg pace 10:18).
Fallback: finish under 5:00. (Course closes after 6 hours. Used to be 5:30, but they apparently extended it this year.)
In general, just enjoy the run and see how things turn out. I may stop and take pictures this year, since I have absolutely no intention of beating last year’s time (3:50).

Brad Feld has the most awesome treadmill + multihead computer setup ever. Three displays, trackball and voice input wrapped around a Vision T9450HRT and an IBM ThinkCenter.

I’ve been playing with voice recognition (Dragon Naturally Speaking) but for me it’s been too fussy to use while running. My practical limit for treadmill multitasking seems to be conference calling and watching CNBC. I can’t read while running either.

Update 05-01-2006 2205 PDT: Now new and improved!

3/12/2006 through 3/18/2006 totals: 38.43 miles, longest 8.47 miles
Year to date: 372.91 miles.
Ran a set of T intervals this week to see how faster paces are feeling at the moment. 3 sets of 5 minutes @ 7:30 pace with 5 minutes at 10:00 recovery pace. I’m constantly feeling a little out of breath at the higher paces, like I’m not quite getting a full lungful of air. On the other hand, I’m not going totally anaerobic at 7:30 pace either, the HR flattens out in the mid-160s even though it feels crummy, and I seem to be recovering OK in between.

3/5/2006 through 3/11/2006 totals: 42.12 miles, longest 9.21 miles.
Year to date: 334.48 miles.

Ran high aerobic / T-pace (currently 8:00/mile) for 60 minutes, which was most of the long run. HR starting around 150 and ending in the mid 160’s after an hour. Today I did a set of pace intervals, alternating 5 minute periods of 7:30 pace and 10:00 pace. HR at mid 160’s during 7:30 pace, and around 130-140 during 10:00 recovery segments.

Things seem to be slowly improving. I still feel like I’m not getting enough air, especially at higher levels of effort. Last week’s 8:00 pace run was fairly uncomfortable, but I could see from the heart rate monitor that I wasn’t going anaerobic. Today’s pace interval workout felt pretty similar, although the intent is to go slightly anaerobic. I’m feeling generally sluggish but getting faster.

2/26/2006 through 3/4/2006 totals: 41.08 miles, longest 12.21 miles
Year to date: 292.36 miles.

Ran another set of hill intervals at the same incline but slightly faster pace (9:30) last Sunday. This was also the longest run so far on this training cycle.

Logged another long run with hill intervals today, increasing the pace from 10:00 to 9:30 but staying with the 5% incline. The faster pace appears to have resulted in a 5-8 point increase in HR during the steady state portion of the run, ending up at around 145 compared with around 139. This is the longest run on this cycle

One of the reasons I like using the heart rate monitor and data recorder is to get a quantitative view of how training is going. The hill interval portion of the graph is more interesting to look at. Part of what I’m after at the moment is to get a better sense of what my current LT (lactate threshold) pace is.

One of the objectives for longer interval training is to improve the body’s ability to function in the presence of lactate. The higher level of effort raises the body’s energy demand beyond what can be generated through primarily aerobic metabolism, and the anaerobic systems become more important. The body’s aerobic energy systems are much more efficient than the anaerobic systems, but have a limited rate of energy release. Training for endurance sports, such as marathons or triathlons, focus on developing the body’s cardiovascular system to increase its aerobic capacity, and also on increasing the lactate threshold, which allows sustained physical effort at a higher, partially anaerobic level.

During incline or pace intervals, you’re moving the body’s energy production in and out of mostly aerobic and mostly anaerobic modes. It is important to select levels of effort that allow recovery to an aerobic effort and also pushes into the anerobic range, but without requiring one to stop. If you simply continued at an anaerobic level of effort, you’d have to stop fairly soon, but an interval workout allows you to spend more time training at a useful level of effort. The first few intervals typically feel easier than the last ones, but the goal is to find the level of effort is difficult but can be maintained. I usually try to do at least 3 repetitions.

The adaptation we’re after is an improvement in the body’s ability to buffer lactic acid. This increases the sustainable level of energy output for longer distances. If you spend too much time too anaerobic during an endurance event, you typically exhaust the readily available glycogen (”hitting the wall”, “bonking”) which is unpleasant and dramatically reduces the energy available to skeletal muscles. The LT pace corresponds to a level of effort that is faster than comfortable, can be sustained for an extended period of time (an hour or more), and if exceeded, would quickly require that you slow down to recover from O2 debt.

Part of my current planning challenge for this year’s Big Sur Marathon is that my physiological performance is very different (worse) than where it’s been over the past few years, so I don’t have a good sense of what my sustainable paces actually are. I also don’t have a clear sense of the root cause, other than some test data showing that my breathing is slightly off.

Based on today’s data, it also looks like I can hold 9:30 pace without any problems for two hours. The HR graph isn’t trending up, either, so I may already be able to manage 9:00 pace for two hours, especially if I’m not starting off with hills.

On this training cycle, so far I’m not having any sore muscles. All of my training issues (other than not breathing well) have been with mental fatigue and elevated HR. At my current level of O2 intake, I don’t think I’m pushing the muscles very hard. We’ll see what happens with longer runs and faster paces. Although allergy season is starting, I think the medication is helping more than the allergies are hurting.