Not Enough Running

I agree with Ewen's impression of my training template that it looks like "there's not enough running /event specific training to race sub-80 for the half marathon." On face value it certainly looks that way. It may well be the case. Time will tell for sure. On re-reading Template, there are definitely some aspects of my plan which are far from clear. Time to explain a few things.

The sessions that I listed are the main focus for the day. The descriptions did not include what is involved in warm ups, cool downs and supplementary work. There is more aerobic training than appears in the description. The deficits in training will be made up with aerobic conditioning work performed in the pool, on the bike or with running. For example, I may perform 45 minutes of weightlifting, but the cool down/supplementary portion may be an aerobic 40 minute run.

My current prediction of weekly running kilometres should give me 40-50km/week.

The Long Run

To maintain and develop endurance I need to include a regular long run. The form this takes will vary, and while it may not be performed weekly, it will at least fall within 10-14 day cycles. For the most part I do not foresee it exceeding 90 minutes most of the time. Also it will not always be performed at a slow pace. The overall reduced volume of training should allow me to up the pace often in the long run. The runs will include portions at around half marathon pace, intervals at threshold conditioning paces or even faster.

Eccentric Conditioning

The lack overall running volume may adversely affect my fatigue resistance. My legs may not be as good as they have been at dealing with the extended eccentric loading experienced in 10km or longer races. Is there a way this can be developed in a shorter time? Possibly, and my proposed solution is:
  • Relative increased volume of fast, race specific running. While the overall volume is down, the amount of race specific pace and faster running will be higher than I have traditionally done in the past.
  • Increased eccentric absorption training through plyometrics and parkour training. Bounding, jumps, depth jumps and absorption of drops from heights provide massive loads. The ability to handle this may translate to efficiency in taking advantage of the elastic properties of the musculature of the legs in running and potentially increase eccentric fatigue tolerance.

Workload Tolerance

Another view that can be taken of the Template is that it cycles through development of individual elements with combining a number of these elements into a single session. The individual sessions should focus on maximal development of the desired attribute. Then the combination sessions should be a test or maximal workload performance. A session that combines high repetition weightlifting, with fast paced body control movements and running or cycling sprinting will demand not only good overall strength, stability, power generating skills, and quickness, but also will produce a massive central demand on the cardiovascular and respiratory system often at levels of or above VO2max. By extending the timeline or volume of this session, fatigue resistance from both a central and peripheral perspective will not only be tested, but developed at the same time.

Comments

  1. Ewen14 July 2008 at 20:36

    It's certainly an interesting and different program. The results and how you feel in races will be the hard feed-back.

    I'm all for longish warm-up/warm-downs. Geoff first introduced me to those in the early 90s. We used to jog 4k or more before a track session, and 2 or 3k after. Prior to being coached by Geoff I used to do two laps of the track for a warm-up.

    I think supplementary training can help running speed a lot - drills, lunges, hopping etc. I want to do more of that.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandy Point Half Marathon

Image
Any race that uses a picture of myself as promotion makes me think I should compete in it. Wouldn't want to disappoint the masses. Last year my race slow and cold over the same course. A time of 1:30:20, was disappointing and a kick up the backside to get to what really works in training. Since then I have put in a lot of consistent kilometres and have seen some improvement. I was definitely going to race faster this year. Based on my race results over the last few months the hope was to see if I could get down to near 1:24:xx. The weather was very different this year. Far from cold, in fact I think it was our warmest night in a few months. However, there was a Damaging Winds warning issued, with predictions of 65km/hr gales to slow things downs a bit. The winds hit, according to the weather sites: NNE averaging around 50km/hr with gusts of 76km/hr. That made for some interesting race tactics. Luckily the rain held off until after the race. For some reason I felt ready with only 1...
Read more

Fitting Together

It's interesting how easy it suddenly becomes to prioritise aspects of life. I have missed plenty of training in the last week, but for the first time in my life, it really, and I mean really doesn't matter. That's not to say I am throwing training on the back burner. Far from it. Of course I am finding it hard working out how life now all fits together, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Training is now just part of the puzzle. What was a very easy load a couple of weeks ago, is now just manageable. This is what I anticipated. As things settle down and I work out of few things the training load should again become much easier. At the moment it looks like I will be able to get in all the key sessions, so in reality it is going fine.
Read more

The Gorge

For work I am currently stationed away from my normal branch. This is a recent roster change that I am not too happy about due to a number of reasons that I won't go into here. The good thing is that it gives me different roads to ride on when commuting. Nothing like a bit of variety to break things up. One particular bit of terrain that I now get to cover is known as the Gorge. It is exactly as the name suggests. The road that takes you into the Gorge is simple. One side is a very wide bend, that could almost be thought of as a straight road. The other side involves a couple of reasonable bends, which wouldn't normally be an issue, but can be when hitting speeds of 60km/hr on the descent. I want to make it clear that the Gorge is far from the toughest of climbs, while quite steep on both sides it is relatively short. So what is it about the Gorge. For me it has provided a good bench mark for my cycling fitness. Back when I first started on the bike it took all my ef...
Read more