13 June 2010

Appetizers in a 4-course Menu

Route 1 of 18 to Melbourne

Monday (threshold):
3k warm up
7 x The Canal loop (approx 1.22k)
Alternating between 10k pace and recovery at 95% MP
Splits per loop: 4:40, 5:24, 4:40, 5:20, 4:43, 5:19, 4:40 with 400+ meters hard in 92secs to round up to 9km
Av fast stuff: 3:49 min/km
Av recovery: 4:22 min/km
2k cool down
Total session (w/u + c/d) 14k in 61:30 (av 4:24 min/km)

This is a mini version of Salazar session where he alternated a fast mile at 4.30 pace and a recovery mile at 5.20 pace for 7 miles (10k pace with recovery at 30secs/km slower). To cater for a slow guy like me, I chopped the distance to ~1.2k which is actually the distance my normal running loop called 'The Canal'. It also fits nicely with my training paces, as my fast splits of 4.40 and slow splits of 5.20 to cover the loop are pretty close to Salazar's splits (4.30 and 5.20). The only difference is that I was doing 1.2k, while he covered 1.6k :p An enjoyable workout with almost 5k worth of 10k paced running and a total of 9k continuous (inlcuding recovery) averaging 4.03 min/km.

Tuesday (easy):
40mins easy treadmill (av 5:22min/km)
15 mins upper body weights

Wednesday (speed):
5k warm up to CCAB track
16 x 300 - with 200 recovery in the same time it took to run the 300s
First set:
ON 300s = 62.3, 62.6, 63.2, 62.0, 64.8, 62.2, 63.6, 62.0, average 62.8
OFF 200s = 59.5, 62.5, 61.9, 60.0, 60.5, 60.9, 63.8, average 61.3
Second set (after 2mins break):
ON 300s = 62.3, 62.5, 64.4, 62.0, 66.0, 63.6, 64.0, 59.3, average 63.2
OFF 200s = 60.9, 61.6, 65.3, 63.1, 62.2, 63.5, 67.3, average 63.4
5k cool down
Total session (w/u + c/d) 18k in 84:40 (av 4:42 min/km)

Ryan Hall occasionally twits his workouts and he did this session a couple of weeks ago (his goal is Chicago Marathon - same date as Melbourne marathon). My aim was to run the 300s at 3k pace (about 3.30 min/km) which is 63secs, meaning the 200s recovery would be run in 63secs as well (5.15 min/km). Doing 300s repeats seemed easy on paper, but it certainly wasn't! As you can see, my splits in the second set were slower than in the first set. The fun thing about this session is that instead of just hitting the splits for the fast segments as per normal intervals, I had to hit the target splits for the recovery as well (same time it took me to run the 300s). It's amazing that my average splits hit a bingo at 63.0 for the 300s and 62.4 for the 200s. In total, I accumulated 4.8k worth of 3k-paced running in 16:48 (3:30 min/km pace) and total track work (including recovery) of 7.6k in 31:21 (av 4:07 min/km)

Thursday (easy):
40mins easy treadmill (av 5:30 min/km)
60 v-ups with med ball
10mins lower body weights

Friday (easy):
36mins easy (av 5:05 min/km)
including 6 x 00:15 hill sprints
80 abs crunches

Saturday (long):
27k long run in 2h:15m (av 5:00 min/km)

As usual, I always found long run to be the most difficult session, especially in the early phase of marathon training. 5:00 is supposedly an easy pace for me but certainly it wasn't! Rested couple of mins every 1/2 hour to rehydrate. Route was home-Nathan-Tanglin-Nassem-Dalvey-Coronation-Sixth-Holland-Dempsey-Chatsworth-home. Some undulations, but nothing major.

Sunday (off):
Rest, core exercises

Summary:
81k for the week, with two good workouts (speed, threshold) and a so-so 2 hour+ long run. All in all, a fairly decent start to my marathon prep. For Melbourne, I am following the Italian marathon periodization where the training phases consists of 4-course menu. It start with 5k/10k training as starters, followed by HM/Threshold training as the salad, then MP training as entrees,and finally taper as the dessert. This is also the periodization plan that Ryan Hall will use to prepare for his American record assault in Chicago. For me, I plan to dedicate 4 weeks (whole of June) to do all these ball-busting workouts, then 6 weeks to do threshold and longer intervals stuffs (until mid Aug), then 6 weeks doing tons of MP stuffs (until end Sep), and finally 2 weeks taper.

To close, below is a good note from Ryan Hall's coach on his periodization plan (unfortunately, the weblink is gone).

Marathoning 101
May 25, 2010
by Terrence Mahon
We have 20 weeks to go to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Time to draw up the blueprints and set the stage for Ryan’s training going forward. We are now switching gears from how he trained for Boston, which consisted of a lot of workouts on undulating terrain, and will now be altered to prepare for a flat, lightning fast course. In order to get Ryan ready to go for his best time we will need to increase his leg turnover and overall speed. The plan is to segment out his training into 3 different phases. Phase 1 will focus on getting him back to his best 5k/10k fitness. This will be a six-week plan that brings in shorter intervals at close to 4:00 mile pace with plenty of rest in between. The volume will be low, but the intensity will be very high. Quality is a must in this phase so we will keep the mileage down from his typical 120-140mile weeks to insure that his legs are fresh and bouncy. Phase 2 will then take that speed and start to add in some longer training. Since this will take place over the summer and the hot weather will not be ideal for a lot of long training we will frame this program out more towards the half marathon distance. The intensity will be a little less than the 5k/10k phase, but will still have plenty of fast intervals. It is just that now they will be a little longer and with a little less rest.

Finally in Phase 3, over the last 8-10 weeks we will get into the specific work necessary to conquer the marathon. The overall goal is to bring the track speed of a 13:00 track runner to the roads of Chicago. Carrying that kind of speed into a great half marathon training block will then allow Ryan to bring in his incredible aerobic fitness to carry him to the final marathon distance. It is now about fine tuning the engine so that we can get in some higher rpm’s and increase his horsepower. Ryan will look to run Chicago at an average speed of 4:44-4:48 per mile. If he can do this then he will be the fastest American to ever run the marathon. This will also set him up to chase down his first World Marathon Majors victory. It starts with a dream, then a belief and finally a plan. Here we go!

5 comments:

Clown said...

Hope the dessert menu is good.

Good to see you've got your mojo back, some really good sessions there. Looks like a really good plan.

Ewen said...

Two interesting workouts - the 'Salazar' and 'Hall' - I might try the 300/200 one, but with fewer reps. Used to do 300s with a 100 walk in 1 minute in the old days as prep for the 3000.

Also interesting that Mahon is using the Italian school training for Hall's 2:04-5 attempt at Chicago.

trailblazer777 said...

The modified Salazar and Hall workouts sound interesting. I like the Salazar one better. Good to see the long run done too, pace of the long run doesnt matter that much in my opinion...
I really like the idea of an easy week once every 4 weeks...periodization will help keep things keep on track. Plus with a menu like that, you are attacking things in a lot more ways, this could be the food that will take you too another level. Of course the key things as always though are 1. attitude and 2. consistency...Excellent starting week...

trailblazer777 said...

A lot of core stuff there too...could be handy in getting a more efficient technique which could payoff bigtime. I think your Phase 2 sounds better than Halls phase 2 but in some ways its a very different race physically for someone of his ability and training, , since he will only be going for just over 2 hours and for you your time out there is likely to be a lot closer to 3 hours...

by7 said...

Personally I am a big fan of the "Italian plan" for marathon training. It really makes sense and also all the huge improvements done by Kenyans in the recent years are due to a more specific training approach to marathon.
The book of Brad Hudson nails it quite well..
Apart from individual workouts (which does not make huge impact, IMO), alternating AT workouts and more neuromuscolar workouts will be very successful for you.
Lastly, it is pretty strange that nobody had ever made real scientific studies on the impact of heat on training/performance... but obviously training in Singapore is really tough: personally I would avoid all tempo runs and continous effort workout (like "long hard run") and focus more on intervals and workouts where you do not lose too much in stride efficiency becuase of the heat. Myself, after 45minutes, start to crawl rather than run...