Some training tweaks

We’ve now entered week 3 of the 12 week Gold Coast half marathon training program and all is well. I seem to have adjusted reasonably well back into the training routine and am looking forward to a largely uninterrupted couple of months cranking out the miles in the lead-up to the 3 July event.

That said, I’ve been thinking a lot about New York over the past few weeks and decided I need to try a couple of tweaks to the Higdon advanced training schedule I’ve been following almost religiously for the last few races.

First, I’ve decided to cut back the three recommended time trials (in weeks 3, 6 and 9) to two - a 5K in week 3 and a 10K in week 9. I just think I could benefit more from an additional long run rather than what would otherwise be a shorter time trial.

Second, and most significantly, I’ve cranked up the long runs themselves.

Higdon has the first four long runs at 90 minutes, the next two at 105 minutes, and the final two at 120 minutes. The three time trials are interspersed among these to give the 11 major weekly training runs. Half of Higdon’s long runs also increase the speed for the last quarter or so to something approaching half marathon pace.

Under my changes, each of the long runs increases by 5 minutes weekly - from the starting point of 100 minutes in week 1. By week 11, the ninth and final long run will be 140 minutes. I’ve kept the speed increase for Higdon’s workouts, and for the others I’ve also incorporated 10-18 minutes at the end where the speed increases gradually until the finish. The intention is that this overall increase in mileage will increase my ability to stay strong over the last 5K and avoid, or minimise as far as possible, the ‘dying’ sensation I experienced during that period of the New York race.

Already the increased mileage is evident when compared to New York. For the first two weeks of that program, the distances covered were 32.26K (with one missed session) and 41.45K. In the current Gold Coast program, my first two weeks were 40.46K and 43.78K. So far, each of the new, longer, long runs in those weeks has felt reasonably comfortable and I get a sense I’m going to benefit - both physically and mentally - from spending such a significantly longer period in motion.

In aggregate, the long runs throughout the program will go from 810 minutes to 1,080 minutes - quite a solid increase of 4.5 hours overall.

Finally, I thought I might also share a little summary table I’ve been compiling (and which I’ve just figured out how to post) about progress so far. It’s based on my thinking about the particular importance of two factors in this business - body weight and a solid running base.

Among other things, it highlights for me the what-might-have-been for the Gold Coast last year had I not suffered that debilitating hamstring tear in the final week. By the time the Gold Coast comes around this year, and in the absence of injury, I’d expect the running base numbers to be right up there, and the race weight number to start with an ‘8’. Let’s see what happens!

Happy 500th!

A slight indulgence as I dedicate this post to my 500th session at Camperdown Fitness, the Sydney gym I’ve been frequenting for the past couple of years. It happened back on Saturday 9 April 2016.

Just for the heck of it, and given it also happened to be the day before the start of my 12 week Gold Coast half marathon program, I decided to replicate the workout I undertook at my very first session back on 26 August 2013. That is, 20 minutes on the elliptical machine at its easiest setting, followed by 10 minutes on the treadmill at 5km/h at an elevation of 0.5%.

While I don’t remember that very first session well, I do have an extraordinarily vivid memory of being completely buggered at most times in those first few weeks, culminating in my attempt (in session 13) to run 5K in 30 minutes on the day before I headed overseas for a couple of months. As it happened, I could only manage 4.41K in that time. I can’t remember how I felt when I stopped, but it was probably more relief that it was over than disappointment that I’d missed a target.

Between then and now, there’s been many a running session where I felt I could have gone on forever, sessions that were a real struggle and which left me completely exhausted (but which I finished!), and the odd one where I just couldn’t keep going and was forced to bail. I even remember one where I started warming up but then stopped and went back home because my head just wasn’t in the right space. And, of course, there were those couple of awful sessions cut short by torn leg muscles.

So that’s a total of 500 gym visits in the 700 or so days that I’ve been home over that time. Throw in the various races I’ve run, several loops around the Bay Run and a few other bits and pieces and it’s not a bad strike rate really.

Here’s to a productive next 500!

And, of course, here’s to all those with their hard-won BQ’s who are lining-up at Hopkinton on Monday. Good job, and go well everyone! With a lot of hard work, and a little bit of luck, I'll be looking forward to following in your footsteps on Patriots’ Day 2020.

Race Report: New York Half Marathon - Sunday 20 March 2016

First the result - 2:01:46.

Respectable, I suppose, but disappointed I didn’t at least crack 2 hours.

Given where I felt I was in terms of my training, my plan was to trail along behind the 1:55 pacer and see how it went. But of course, s/he was nowhere to be seen at the allocated starting corrals deep in Central Park so I just went with the crowd. I did see the 1:50 pacer stationed a short distance in front of me and, in hindsight, I should have waited before the start line for the 1:55 pacer to come past me and then latch on. But I didn’t think of that at the time, and besides, I just wanted to get moving.

The result aside, my abiding memory of this race will be the cold. It was absolutely freezing.

My hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the bag drop in the street at the bottom of Central Park. At 6:00am when I arrived there, it must have been zero degrees at best, with a minus wind chill. Along with many others, I waited there as long as I could, crouched behind a wall, before finally peeling off some layers and putting them in the vans to take down to the finishing area. From the bag drop, it was a short walk to the security checkpoint at the entrance to Central Park where everyone and everything went through metal detectors that were manned by scores of hardy police. Then, it was a brisk walk through the park - still in the dark - to the starting area. I waited with many others in a helpfully located, large underground public lavatory complex that I’d managed to find nearby.

Once in the corral, and just before the gun went off, I tossed aside my gloves and jumper and the four New York souvenir tee-shirts I’d got the night before at one of those 5-for-$10 tourist shops. It wasn’t too long into the race before I realised I probably should have held onto at least one or two of them for a bit longer, but it was too late then. The undulating start to the race did work to warm us up a little, but the cold continued to bite.

Of course, I hadn’t factored the cold into my race plan. Or the deadening effects of a crammed 30 hour flight from Sydney to New York (with a 3 hour early morning transit in Abu Dhabi) a few days before. Or the swirl of time zones. But everything else I was reasonably pleased with. The final three weeks’ training continued as planned, with 65.56K in week 10 of the 12 week program, 50.52K in week 11, and 18.62 in week 12. The new running shoes had about 120K in them and felt good. I’d had regular leg massages in the weeks before leaving, and I’d even managed to drop a few late kilograms. With all this, my aim was a solid sub-2 hour race closing in on 1:55.

The first 7-8Ks meandered through Central Park and up its various inclines. They weren’t particularly savage but a couple did go on for a little longer than was really necessary. Of course, there was always the down to follow each up, and the knowledge that once out of the park, the course was flat with maybe a slight downhill. Emerging from the park and heading south into mid-town Manhattan, the wind chill picked up as the breeze made its way through the canyon created by myriad office towers - which also worked to block out the mildly warming impact of the sun. The run through a crowded Times Square (traffic-free for only the second time in the year, after New Year’s) was invigorating, but the wind and shade made it feel like the coldest place on the course. From there, it was a sharp turn west, out to the major highway that runs down the length of Manhattan alongside the Hudson River.

This last 8K or so of the course - before the entry into the Battery Park area downtown - was the most tedious with not much to distract the attention. Although it was motivating to see the new World Trade Centre (as the Freedom Tower is evidently now known) off in the distance, and gradually coming into focus as the run toward it went on. Passing it by with a short distance to go to the finish and looking up at it was a highlight.

It was on that stretch that I felt myself tightening up, especially in the left leg, and then slowing as runners started to pass. The 1:55 pacing group went by around the time I passed the World Trade Centre, which indicated I wasn’t going to make that time. But I felt I was still on track for a sub-2.

From the briefing at the race expo a couple of days prior, I was well prepared for the final mile or so with a long tunnel run underneath Battery Park, followed by a short hill and a couple of sharp left turns before shooting up to the finish line. So while the terrain didn’t come as a surprise, I also wasn’t able to accelerate across it by as much as I would have liked.

Nonetheless, I finished as I’d planned - completely exhausted after a sprint to the line. I had to grab on to a hoarding at the end to stop myself from collapsing in the finishing chute. Both the finishers’ medal and the warming sheet provided shortly after were welcome as I staggered through the recovery area, trying to dodge the multitude of runners who hadn't gotten off their cell phones since crossing the finish line. The bag collection was very efficient and I quickly (or as quickly as my fumbling, numb hands would allow) put on my warmer clothes to ward off some of the weather.

I finally wended my way up to the nearest subway station, and with medal proudly hanging around my neck, managed to catch the subway to somewhere close to my hotel. The rest of the day was spent drifting in and out of consciousness. It was suitably capped off with a snowstorm as I went out to get something to eat.

Overall, I finished 9,635th out of the 20,149 hardy souls who completed the journey. Evidently the organisers had a three hour cut-off for the race. I can’t imagine what state the backmarkers must have been in after having spent at least that time out there.

In terms of pacing, my 5K splits for the race were as follows - 1st 5km - 28:09mins; 2nd 5km - 28:43mins; 3rd 5km - 28:27mins; 4th 5km - 30:00mins; final 1.1km - 6:27mins. It’s clear that the long roadway toward the end took its toll, but maybe I also started a little too quickly through Central Park and might have benefited from proper pacing. It’s tempting, but of course futile, to think that slowing a minute or so in the hilly first 5K might have allowed me to save a couple of minutes in the last part of the race.

The race itself was pure New York - big and loud. But it also had its humanity. Enthusiastic crowds. Ridiculously helpful and numerous volunteers wrapped up in scarfs, gloves and beanies. And an uncommon urgency to help when an occasional runner tripped up.

Ultimately, it was a wonderful experience that’s on the list to do again - once this BQ quest is done.