24 May 2009

Week 6 of 12

Did 93k in 8 hours (av 5:05) during Week 6 of 12.

The recent increase in training load has finally caught up with me (600k in last 6 weeks vs 2 months of sporadic training during paternity break plus 2 months lay-off due to injury). Began to experience niggles and strains, around the knee and groin/quad area. The latter was particularly very sore around the area of lower groin, quads, and below the waist. Does anyone what kind of strain is this? I’ve gone for a massage, but since the pain is in the groin area and my masseur was a lady, there were a few awkward moments.

Due to Sunday’s race, there was no long run. Had a medium long run on Wednesday (25k), other runs were slow and easy. The race itself didn’t go that well. My plan was to average 4:00 pace for the 10.4k, but ended up averaging around 4:06 due to ‘human wall’ of slow runners who started the 15k wave earlier.

Will be flying to Melbourne on Wednesday to visit my son for a week. Probably a good opportunity to take a down week, before the final stretch of training (3 weeks of hard training, 2 weeks taper). Also, will discuss with Mrs. Sling about the next trip (which will determine whether I am running GCM or Perth).

Mon (Rest):
OFF

Tue (Easy):
AM: 60mins Easy with 6x100m strides (av 5:12)
PM: 25mins Recovery on treadmill (av 5:28)
(Total 16k for the day)

Wed (Workout):
AM: 25.6k Hosaka workout (av 4:58)

The June’s edition of Running Times has an article called ‘Day After Day’ about Yoshihisa Hosaka (WR marathon for 60-65 yo in 2h:36m). His training as follows:
AM: 2.5k up, 5x1k from 4:00 to 3:20 pace, 2.5k down (10k)
PM: 12k (5:00-6:00), 5x1k downhill from 3:40 to 3:20, jog up for rec (22k)

Essentially, Hosaka does this workout everyday, all year around, aka 32k per day in doubles (no long runs). He said intervals are the way to go for old runners since long runs are very taxing on the body. When asked about the lack of variety, he said that marathon is all about running at constant effort, therefore a runner needs to train to manage that constant.

Based on Hosaka’s MP (3:40 pace), my interpretation is he starts his morning intervals at MP+20sec, dropping the pace by 10secs each one to MP–20sec (4:00, 3:50, 3:40, 3:30, 3:20). For the PM session, he begins at MP, and then cuts it down by 5secs to end at MP–20secs (3:40 down to 3:20).

This week, I tried the Hosaka workout but instead of running doubles, I combined the two sessions into one as a variation of medium-long run. Did 3k ez, 5x1k (4:40, 4:30, 4:20, 4:10, 4:00), 10k ez (5:30 min/km), 4x1k on flat ground (4:15, 4:10, 4:05, 4:00), 3k ez. Recovery was about 1min standing. Total distance was 25k +, since I skipped one rep and didn’t do 1k recovery jogs due to time constraint.


Thu (Easy):
AM: 40mins Recovery (av 5:31)
PM: Massage

Very sore groin and it affected my running form. The massage was painful since that area is softer than other parts of the leg.

Fri (Workout):
AM: 55mins Fartlek (av 4:48)
PM: 25mins Recovery (av 5:50)
(total 16k for the day)

Did a light workout to test the legs. 15mins easy, 20mins Moderate (4:40), ½ Mona fartlek (90, 2x60, 2x30, 2x15, jog rec), 10mins easy. Effort was harder than it should be.

Sat (Easy):
PM: 40mins Easy (5:17)

Slept in and missed the morning run. Ran at 7pm in the evening.

Sun (Race):
3.3k warm up
10.4k Saucony Passion Run 42:36 (av 4:06)
6k cool down
(total 19.7k for the day)

Due to traffic jam, the cab dropped me 4k from the start line. Ran to start line and just made it in time. No time to do strides and do active stretching. My plan was to average 4:00 pace for the run and I was on pace for the first 2.5k. After that, I encountered ‘human wall’ of slow 15k runners who started 10mins earlier than the 10.4k runners. My pace then slowed for the next 6km since there was no enough room to pass. My pace blew up to 4:13, 4:11, 4:18, 4:15, 4:19, and that’s after pushing/elbowing runners and ran on the grass/beach sand beside the pavement. I was glad to finally reach the turnaround point, and ran home the final couple of ks under 4:00 pace. Should have skipped the race. Probably a long run in place of today’s race would have more training benefit.

Total 93k for the week

5 comments:

Clown said...

Another good week, shame about the races over in Singers, must be pretty frustrating. Hope the groin improves, the masseur may love it :).

Enjoy your time in Melb, must be exciting to go and see the young fella and the wife.

Interesting article, not sure that I could train that way but obviously works for him

homo said...

Just about time to take a break it seems. Enjoy being with the family, it'll take your mind off running and give you a mental rest as well.

Hosaka is just awesome; I guess if you have been running for as long as he has and you do 32ks a day, you really don't need to build up base anymore!

Ewen said...

That's interesting about Hosaka's training. We only have the May edition at the moment.

I think the cumulative effect of doing the same 2 workouts day after day would be quite different to combining them in one session done occasionally. In any case, you did well!

His paces for the AM 1k reps are moderate - the fastest one would be slower than his 3k race-pace.

Does the article say how steep the downhill PM ones are? Again, pretty easy pace for him. Also interesting that the warm-up 12k is at a very moderate pace.

I hope Melbourne is a good trip - enjoy the cool change!

Sling Runner said...

Hi Ewen,

The article only mentioned that Hosaka in the evening runs 12km around 600m loop in a park at 6:00-5:00 min/km pace. After that he runs the intervals on a downhill road stretch, jogging up for recovery.

Ewen said...

Thanks Sling, I buy Running Times from the newsagent but it'll be another week or three before they get that one.

The downhill ones (I presume a gentle downhill) would be welcome after the AM session. If he runs about 75 for a half marathon then his pace for the fastest km repeat is HM pace minus 7%, so the equivalent for a 90-minute runner would be 3:58 per km.

I think both the sessions would be very low lactate sessions. I'm sure he'd be capable of 5 x 1k in 3:20, but the idea seems to be to build strength/speed from lots of repetition (not to forget the huge aerobic development from the weekly volume).