My Breaking3 Project

Could 2018 be the year?

When I first started running I connected with a number of faster athletes here in the Barrie area through our local Running Room, and one of the first guys that I got to know was an ultrarunner named Keith.  It was awesome to pick his brain and learn from his accumulated wisdom and knowledge, but one of the things that stuck with me even then was how he noted that it wasn't until he was 47 years old that he finally managed to break 3 hours for the marathon distance.

Hey ... I'm 47!

And so here I am, after a few years and several (failed) attempts at completing 42.195km in less than 180 minutes, hoping to finally crack that barrier.

But you know what they say - if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got.

Which this year led me to begin working with a coach again.

At the end of the 2017 running season I knew that I had to/wanted to shake things up for me and try to stimulate some different physiological development so I embarked on a bit of a research project to assess what would be my best option for a coaching relationship.  I explored a number of options, up to and including initial conversations with some of the best coaches that I could think of:

• Kyle Kranz
• Harry Jones (of HarryRuns)
• Sage Canaday
• Caleb Masland 
• Adaptive Running Academy
• Hansons Coaching Services
• Adam Hortian (of FastIsFun)

While I'm confident that any of the coaches/services that I'd contacted would have provided phenomenal guidance and accountability, in the end I decided that I would work with my friend and fellow Barrie RunNinja Mike MacInnes.  Mike has had experience as a strength trainer, is studying currently for accreditation as a marathon coach, and has proven his own mettle by bettering his marathon time from 3:11 to 2:45 in just a couple of years.  I liked the idea of being able to work with someone locally (that I could actually spend time running alongside) as well as hopefully providing some mutual benefit to him by being just his second or third coached athlete.

The experience so far has been good, and different - Coach Mike has me focusing much more on strength workouts (lower body, upper body and core) and less on mileage.  This is definitely a departure on my previous approaches to marathon prep, but as an aging athlete I know that muscle mass is easily lost and focusing on getting stronger will not only help my speed and endurance but also will go a long way in terms of injury prevention.  Besides that, Mike has indicated to me that when we hit my peak training week my mileage will probably be hitting somewhere in the 160km department, so that'll be more mileage than I've ever put in in one week's time.  Gotta trust the coach and the system.

For now I'm getting just a couple week's worth of workouts at a time, and providing a weekly log back to my coach so that he knows what workouts I'm getting in, if I'm feeling good/bad/otherwise during them, and what else might be playing into the big picture life-wise.

I've got a few 'test indicators' coming up in the next couple of months (including a third trip to the Chilly Half-Marathon as well as another go at the Around The Bay 30k) which will serve as tune-ups in advance of my planned Breaking3 attempt at the Mississauga Marathon.

This will be my last shot at going sub-3 while I'm still 47 years old.

Let's just see whether or not I can keep up with my pal Keith in this respect.

My Breaking3 Project

From the P-Train to the O-Train

Caveat emptor - I am not a real coach.

Which may pose some real issues given that I am primarily a self-coached runner.

Over the last couple of training seasons I've been trying to work with a semi-modified version of the training plans available from the Old Mutual "Do Great Things" Training Centre.  The guides available via this web portal are geared towards those who are preparing to run specific races in South Africa (which clearly I am not ... at least not until such time that I apply to the Comrades Marathon) and are developed in consultation with accomplished ultramarathoner Norrie Williamson.  I do use the qualifier "semi-modified" as I tend to tinker with plans, usually adding in workouts to accommodate the group sessions that I run with my beloved RunNinjas.

As our group normally has a 'workout' style run (e.g. fartlek, hill repeats, tempo) on Wednesday nights and more of a relaxed social run on Saturday mornings I decided that I would sneak my weekend speed work (which typically appeared on the training schedule for Saturdays) in before the 9 a.m. group run.  While not expecting anyone to join me I didn't want to exclude any of the RunNinjas so I put out an open invitation to the 7:15 a.m. "pain train" (as my buddy Steve affectionately called it), later to be known simply as the "P-Train".

Who knew that there would be other people crazy enough to tack on a solid workout (e.g. last weekend's 8x1000m @ 10k pace) ahead of a 10k easy run?

I've been blessed with the company of many great, fast and focused runners like Mike, Rad, Steve, Bill, James, Mark and Robert.  These guys all make me look bad, but at least trying to keep up with them forces me to draw from deep inside the well.

Which is where this story begins - and perhaps ends.

While it's been a great time every Saturday morning, the last week my body has been providing me with some unwanted feedback - as in I haven't been able to hit the paces that I've wanted for some key workouts (e.g. a 10k time trial and a 150 min. long run in particular).  This has elevated my level of concern as I began to wonder whether or not I'm treading a bit too close to the overtraining (let's call it the "O-Train" just to keep it all cutesy-wootsie) threshold.  

The thing is that while I feel like I can begin to check items off in the "Underperformance" category I'm not sure that many of the indicators are in play for me ... yet.  Of course I don't want to just keep on plodding down this track and eventually begin to recognize more and more of these symptoms showing up in my day-to-day existence.  Again, it's a fine line between pushing your boundaries out further (I've written before about training, recovery and supercompensation here and here) and stretching the elastic to the breaking point ... because once a runner has really crossed over into overtraining territory, it can be a long and arduous road back.

So maybe it's time to smarten up.  I may have been sabotaging my own training gains by pretending that I don't need to dial back as much as I probably do.

What's even funnier is that next Monday night I'm presenting a mini-workshop to the RunNinjas on essential training principles and periodization.  

Me, the non-coach who's booked a ticket on the O-Train but honestly doesn't want to take that ride.

Hopefully I can share some running wisdom while applying it to myself at the same time!

From the P-Train to the O-Train

looking right in all the wrong ways

one of my favourite go-to sites for running tips is kinetic revolution and recently they've posted a couple of videos from south african-born olympic running coach bobby mcgee.  i'd not heard about bobby before, but after watching just these two quick clips i've become very much intrigued by what he has to share.  

while at first blush it doesn't come across as mind-blowingly new stuff (much of it is along the same lines of what i've found from mark cucuzzella and the natural running center), i was particularly impressed (maybe shocked?) to learn that one of my go-to drills - the 'high knees' - was something that i've been doing wrong for well over a year.  you might appreciate getting bobby's take on the 'right way' to do high knees from this video:

i plan on checking out the remainder of bobby's instructional stuff that is available online.  from what i've been able to scout out so far i'd recommend it to any of you as well - what or who would you recommend back?

looking right in all the wrong ways

from a guy who don't know nuthin' about nuthin'

being still what i would consider a novice runner (having started into this in my late, late 30s) there's so much that i know that i still don't know.  i make all of the rookie mistakes (e.g. going out too fast in races, not recovering properly after training runs, spastic breathing patterns, a stride cadence of who-knows-what) and feel like i'm a sponge every time an article comes out in competitor magazine.  

with that in mind, from time to time i realize just how many insights and tidbits i've picked up since developing this running obsession.  one of my strengths is connectedness, which i understand to be an aptitude for understanding links between events, experiences and information.  

in one way that means that i'm a walking treasure trove of trivial knowledge.

but it also means that if you need it, i can direct transfer some of that knowledge your way.

case in point:  my friend lewis is prepping for his first ever half-marathon race this april.  this week he decided to share with me something of his homebrewed training plan with an invitation to comment on it.  to his credit it had the right mix of variable workout elements:  long runs, speed intervals, race-pace runs and recovery days.  i know that the first plan that i used for half-marathon training simply laid out distances to be covered on any given day without any real description or prescription as to intensities appropriate for that workout.

my first bit of feedback to lewis was about the fact that he was plotting hard workouts (e.g. race-pace runs and tempo days) back-to-back.  here's how i responded to that:

i think that putting a race pace workout back-to-back with a tempo workout is either (a) a recipe for injury or (b) an almost guaranteed less-than-optimal tempo workout.  i think that almost any workout plan that you can find prescribed by a coach or a training program will not put key workouts like this adjacent to one another - the idea being that your body needs an easier day between speed-focused runs to recover and build on the gains from that workout.  also keep in mind that the tempo workout should be at 10-20s/km faster than race pace - if you can pull that off after a decent race pace day, then your race pace might be too generous.

i followed up that bit of sage advice (anybody familiar with sarcasm?  anybody?) with a question about his end-of-week workout which simply denoted "Run-Intervals".  when i inquired about what distance he was using for intervals - wondering out loud whether or not he might be using 800m or 1km - he came back letting me know that he was thinking more like 80-100m.  once again my fountain-of-misinformation mouth decided to spout:

so here's my challenge - to stretch out those distances so that you get a true 'interval' session. what speed training does is to (a) improve your running form as form tends to break down when running at slower speeds; (b) develop fast-twitch muscle fibres which are important for later stages of a race; and (c) aid in mitochondria development (both in terms of volume and density) which is important because it's mitochondria which help your body convert carbs and fat into energy.

the 50 or 100m sprints are more what i would consider as 'strides' - short bursts of speed which help to loosen/stretch the leg muscles but do little in terms of grander-scheme development. i would recommend trying at least 400m but optimally 800m intervals (with 90s-120s jog/walk breaks in-between sets) to really get some benefit out of the speed training.

i'm about 85% confident that what i'm sharing is accurate from a science/exercise physiology standpoint - and 95% confident that these comments can be helpful to him as he reviews his progress and the path to the start line.  but the fact that i've no formal education in science (unlike my friend stan - now there's somebody who knows what he's talking about) and that i fumble about in my own training makes me worry that i'm just offering a load of balderdash. 

i don't purport to be a coach of any kind.  

i hope that i'm not leading my friend lewis astray.   

all i can say is that the running community (online and otherwise) as i've experienced it is incredibly generous with their sharing of information and trial-and-error stories.  i know that i've benefited from tales told on the run, and i want to be part of that pipeline rather than behaving like a bottleneck or a blocked valve.  

please feel free to correct me (especially since i can pass it along to lewis!) if my advice seems askew - and let me know how you've maybe helped to encourage/coach/inform somebody else on their own running journey!

from a guy who don't know nuthin' about nuthin'

could less be more?

long have i heard and even promoted the concept that some of the world's best runners don't always run at top speed.  my friend trevor has often reminded me that one of the finest triathletes anywhere craig alexander has noted that he will often have low intensity training runs, and that when people pass him on the road he's not bothered by the fact that they can say that they outran an ironman world champion.  and it's well noted that most recreational runners spend too much time training for races at a moderate-level effort, ignoring high-intensity workouts and dismissing easy runs.

can you out-hustle this guy?

since i've started working with my coach, i've been walking more during my workouts than i have in about three years.  i've also been logging long runs at a much slower and more labourious pace.

my weekly mileage during this training cycle has also dropped by about 50% compared to where i was four months ago.  my friend stan had even wondered if i'd stopped logging all of my training on dailymile because of the lack of total training distance.  again, coach's orders.

so where do i stand now?

at this point in my training for the erie marathon, i'm running four days a week (down from six this past winter/spring).  my long runs are slower than previous long runs, but heading toward longer distances.  speed intervals are faster than i've run before (now just south of 4:00/km).  as of today, my tempo runs are now just around my desired marathon pace of 4:30/km, which is faster than what i'd been able to put together in advance of mississauga.

am i happy?

you bet.

is my coach right?

i think that i have to reserve judgment on that until after race day - but for now everything that he's been telling me is coming to pass, so i've no reason to relinquish my trust in him.

"remember, you're a machine" he tells me.

i feel like the right gears are starting to turn.

could less be more?

pick up the pace!

what do you listen to when you run?

music?

nothing?

james earl jones reading the Bible?

i began by running on a treadmill and watching music videos as my 'countdown timer', so it was a natural transition for me to start roadrunning with my ipod.  however, i had one of those ipods that you could anchor down a body in a river with, so it wasn't long before i decided to ditch the extra weight and run without music.

for the past two years i've run without music or entertainment of any kind - choosing to listen instead to the rhythm of my shoes on the pavement, the rustling of tree leaves, and the occasional honk from an annoyed driver who can't seem to figure out how to drive around me.

but on yesterday's tempo run with my coach, he told me that he's a big believer in running faster paced training workouts with music - as both a motivational/adrenalin aid but also a cue for stride turnover.  since i've managed to wrangle a less stone-age ipod from a friend, i could probably work something out to once again tote some tuneage along with me.

i know that playlists are a very personal thing - and to each his/her own when it comes to musical selections ... but here's what i've put together for my next tempo run session (in order by artist):

• Beastie Boys - Sabotage
• Blur - Song 2
• Collective Soul - Gel
• The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
• Eminem - Lose Yourself
• Herbie Hancock - Rockit
• House of Pain - Jump Around, Shamrocks and Shenanigans, Top o' the Morning to Ya
• Kid Rock - Bawitdaba, American Bad Ass
• Kiss - Deuce
• Lady Gaga - Poker Face
• Limp Bizkit - Rollin'
• Metallica - Enter Sandman
• Ministry - Stigmata
• Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Quiet Riot - Cum on Feel the Noize
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away
• Rob Zombie - Dragula
• Run DMC - Its Tricky, Raising Hell
• Rush - Red Sector A
• Slade - Run Runaway
• Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
• Van Halen - Panama
• WWF Entrance Music - The Ultimate Warrior

do you prefer music when you run?  what's your block-rockin' playlist like?

pick up the pace!

wired for speed!

this week marks a couple of firsts with regard to training:  

• it's my first week working with my coach's prescribed schedule
• it's my first series of runs using the garmin forerunner 305.

i'm really taking to this whole coaching thing - it has a ton to do with my coach and his attitude and encouragement, and in some small way is all about simply having a coach who's accessible.  just two days ago i was able to get together with my coach to run track intervals - and while knowing the plan was critical, what was of even more benefit and value to me was having him there to encourage me with "you're bang on" and "one more lap".  honestly, i felt like i was running for more than just myself. 

as for the garmin 305, so far the review is mixed - in part because i'm still getting the hang of this watch.  i'm not 100% sure that i'm settled on my data field settings (you have at least three screens that you can configure with multiple data readouts - from pace to distance to heartrate and beyond), even after having read several other users' preferred arrangements.  also, the pace alert (a feature that i've been anxious to use) may or may not be working well - i'll need a few more tempo runs under my belt with the 305 before i can say for sure.  and finally the garmin GPS threw me off when running my track intervals this week, beeping the 1km alert when i hadn't quite fully completed the 2-1/2 laps (there's a great article here that compares the performance of various GPS timepieces in varying run conditions).  so it wanted to fool me into letting up before i should have, and wound up telling me that i was booking it faster than i actually was.

however, all that being said, it helped me to have a solid, consistent tempo run yesterday - and i love crunching all the data that it spits out.  the readout size is great, and i haven't found the size of the unit to be obtrusive (although it reminds me of the casio wristwatch calculators from back in the day).

so it's still a great add to my training regime, and i'm sure that i'll get to tweaking it to just how it can be of the most help to me.

wired for speed!

and miles (less) to go before i sleep ...

now i feel like i'm really getting serious about marathon training.

i managed to get my hot little hands on a garmin 305 from a friend of mine who has apparently semi-retired from running due to injury.  as much as i hate to think that he's given up on it, i'm happy to put this piece of technology to good use:

the inaugural run with my new GPS-enabled watch was this morning, and it was very helpful to be working with the data and beeps that it was sending my way.  now that i have a bit of a baseline in terms of how it measures my performance, we'll have to see how other training runs compare to today's workout.

i let my coach know (to his pleasure) that i'm now the proud owner of this piece of running technology, and he provided me with the first week's training plan that i can now program into it.  i recall that from our first conversation that he'd said that he managed to run his sub-3 hour marathon on a training regimen that topped out at 95 kilometres in a week, so i didn't expect week one to be a backbreaker ... but yesterday he let me know that his training plan for getting him to boston had a max mileage of 75 km in a week.

the training cycle that i just came off of was 75 km before breakfast.

ok, not really ... but it did top out at 114 km in one week.

i know that i did not train as smart as i could have over the last five months - which is why i decided to align myself with my coach.  and we established that i would have to trust him in this relationship - which i do.

i'm just wondering how shifting down gears by some 40 km will work out for me.

have you had any experience in fluctuating mileage over training cycles?  and not just in terms of adding more, but reducing?  i'd love to hear about it (if only to allay my own unspoken fears)!

and miles (less) to go before i sleep ...

put me in coach - i'm ready to play ...

earlier today i had a great conversation with a person who just might be the coach for me.

(says the guy who usually likes to try to figure things out on his own)

after a brief conversation at a local Tim Horton's, i felt incredibly encouraged about how close i am to hitting my target of a Boston Qualifying time (3h15m for my age group).  and if i really believe my would-be coach, based on what's he's already researched on my training and performance history, he wouldn't be surprised to see me push closer to 3:10.

now, i'm not one who easily falls for sunshine being blown my way.  and if i read this guy correctly, he's not the kind of person to do that.  put that together with just the few pieces of recommended training tweaks that he shared, and honestly i'm starting to think that 3:10 is not out of reach.

but it's funny how conversations can dovetail as well ... i was chatting on facebook with my pal stan about training plans, heart rate monitoring and GPS watches, and he mentioned that maybe a GPS watch should maybe be on my father's day, birthday or christmas wish list.  well, doesn't my coach (let's just call him that for now) say that probably the first thing that i should do is get myself a GPS watch.

i'm not a real early-adopter when it comes to buying technology.  maybe it's because i try my best to keep my materialistic tendencies at bay - so to this point i've been using any decent digital timepieces that i could find at the local thrift stores, except for my last splurge of $11.95 on this baby on clearance:

i gotta say that it's served me well through two marathon training cycles and races - but having heard of the benefits that a true GPS/running timepiece can bring to my tempo runs and speedwork, i'm thinking that it may be time to train smarter (not cheaper).  so now i'm in the market for a garmin 305 or the like.

(see ... i'm still trying to spend as little moola as possible by going old school)

got any thoughts about garmins or other GPS-enabled devices that have made a difference to your running?  i'd love to hear about it - leave a comment!

put me in coach - i'm ready to play ...

group running vs. running alone

i just noticed today that this article was released in iRun Canada's magazine about the process of determining whether or not retaining a coach is right for you, and how to go about it.  it's almost as if they'd read my mind (or at least my previous post)!

and while i'm exploring the possibilities of entering into a coaching relationship, there's also the option of participating in a group training program which can serve a similar benefit (as noted in the iRun magazine piece).  with the benefits of being a more pocketbook-friendly version of an instructional environment and providing additional social interaction, many runners flock to group running as a great motivational tool.

i mean hey - even the kenyans are big on running in groups.

but what's one to do when one is a rabid introvert?

generally speaking, i'd prefer to be alone than to be with others.  that's my optimal, recharge time.  maybe that's why i run pre-dawn, when most of the people in my neighbourhood are still hitting the snooze button ... or on the squalling, -30°C not-fit-for-man-nor-beast days.  alone time is pretty precious to me, and so i'm often loathe to give it up.

that being said, i have two friends who are regular running partners - one on saturday, the other on sunday.  both great guys, both ironman triathletes, and yet distinctly different in terms of running 'function' - one helps to keep my pace quite moderate to easy (so i don't overtrain), while the other pushes me to run long runs at almost a marathon pace clip.

i'm thankful for both of those guys - and most weeks i look forward to the time that i get to spend with them.  i do feel like i'm a better runner because of what each of them bring to the table - from conversation to competition - and appreciate having someone with whom to share running exploits and tales.  and when i finally do race, i tend to be the guy who is a chatterbox with the other runners in the pack with our pace bunny of choice.

still, the introvert in me savours the isolated country road runs - kilometres on end with no music, no dialogue, just birds and breeze and a keen sense of the presence of the Creator.

so if you see me plodding by you with no wink, wave or other acknowledgment, don't take it personally.  i like to distance myself from everyone without prejudice.

group running vs. running alone

good will hunting or the dread pirate roberts?

first off, i was at the airport yesterday picking up my daughter who arrived home after a couple of months in france.  as we stood at the arrivals deck, i watched several people clear customs wearing their 2013 Boston Marathon jackets.  recognizing that it may well have taken them a few days just to be able to secure their exit from the city, i quietly held my hand over my heart as they walked past on the ramp.  

boston is in our hearts.

* * *

and now - just as of late i've entered into conversation with several individuals about entering into a coaching relationship with them (me as the one being coached).  as you might know, i started into this whole running thing in 2009 on my own, spurred on my a pair of leather pants that i needed to wear as an elvis impersonator in a local theatre production called "discovering elvis".

thanks to little more than a treadmill and some youtube videos (for motivation and timing), i managed to begin to work myself into some kind of running shape.

now, with eyes fixed on that elusive BQ (boston qualifying) goal, i'm entertaining the possibility of enlisting the help of a coach.  i've reached out to two potential candidates, and been approached by one other.  to this point, i've had limited dialogue with sage canaday (former member of the hansons-brooks distance project, two time US olympic marathon trials qualifier and 2012 USA mountain running champion), caleb masland (2:34 marathoner, team coach of the Hall Steps Foundation and founder of Team Wicked Bonkproof), as well as one other person whose privacy i choose to help preserve at this point, as this individual is just considering entering the coaching arena - but suffice to say that this inspired and inspirational runner is a multiple world record holder.

there's (a big) part of me that would just feel incredibly honoured to even have a smidge of attention from any of these athletes.  i mean, to benefit from that person's wisdom, experience, knowledge and encouragement would undoubtedly help take my game to the next level.

the lesser, renegade part of me thinks that i can keep getting better on my own - set my own targets - push harder, run smarter and race faster based on information that i can glean at my own convenience and discretion thanks to this tool called the internet.  plus given the tightness of finances, this would be the more economical way to go hands down.

it's less than three weeks until my next BQ attempt in mississauga, so i'm sure that that will provide me with plenty of ammo to evaluate next steps, be it a great day or a not-so-great one.

but i'd love to find out from anyone out there who might read this - what's been your experience of working with a coach?  does it come recommended for recreational competitive types?  how would you detail out the pros and cons?

your feedback is hugely appreciated!

good will hunting or the dread pirate roberts?