Phase 1 Complete!

Without particularly aiming for it, I hit 315km in March - my 3rd highest mileage month ever!  The only two months I've topped that were in 2006, both during a successful sub 2:55 marathon campaign.  A whole year before I ever dreamt of an 800m race.


It's not something that was on the plan, it's not something I particularly needed to do, it just seemed to happen.


The key enabler has been the vastly improved recoveries.  There's nothing like doing a 10 or 11 mile run, and not feeling any fatigue the next day.  Even stringing 2 or 3 long runs together, day after day, doesn't seem to have had any impact.  And I've just enjoyed being out doors!


The improved recoveries are down to two factors:

1. The main factor is that the gait change, landing under the hips, causes less shock, and therefore less damage.  The resulting strengthened feet further improve shock absorption, this has left my legs, hips, core with less fatigue after every run.
2. The changed fuelling - metabolising fat rather than glycogen means that I'm not running low on any fuel type, and means not having to work so hard to refuel between runs.  Better quality food, in a nutshell.

This means that, according to the plan, I am officially finished with phase 1 - the building of the miles, steady pace, good gait.  Once again, here's the graph, with some more notes.  I'm officially at the "6 Months" mark:

Time to move on up the pace chart.  This week: 4:15/km pace.  I shall go to the track on Tuesday, but will time efforts to hit 4:15 and no faster.  I shall test later in the week with a 5k training run at 4:15 - make sure I can maintain strong hips for that distance at that pace.


The other runs I will keep to an off-road surface.  I don't want to get so hung up on hitting an exact pace, that I have to train on flat pavement the whole time!


More soon...

You may recall that just over a month ago, I captured some thoughts about starting to layer on some distance, now that, I believe, the correct gait is embedded at slow speeds (8 minute miles) - here.

I chose to move along the blue line on the graph, which I've shown again below.  Since then, I've done what I said I would.  Almost!

I said that, in moving along the blue line, I'd start adding distance to the base, and I have done that. I've even hit my highest mileage week ever at 81.5 miles, but crucially all at the speed that I know my gait can be maintained.

I've also been greedy, and made a couple of mistakes!

So, 99% of the miles have been "well behaved" miles, sticlking to the blue line, adding distance but no speed.

However, I've been missing my Southampton AC club mates, and in particular the Tuesday Night Track Session.  So I've been along a couple of times, and, you've guessed it, done a couple of sessions at 5:30 pace or quicker.

And both times, I've had to take off a couple of days to recover from it.  And not just general ache, but genuinely menacing pains, one in the left ankle, right hip and left big toe.

This means that I was trying to jump up the blue curve to that "NOT YET!" arrow.  This is bad.  I must move up that curve gradually, or face longer lasting injuries.

I'll still go along to the sessions - I love running with the group too much.  But I MUST drop back a couple of groups, run at the green "Target pace" arrow, and start to layer the speed on gradually

Discipline!

A milestone, worthy of a post I feel...


I have just racked up my highest week's mileage ever!  81.5miles / 130.5km, which for some of you may not be a lot, but not bad for an 800m runner, with a full time job, a 1 hour commute, two [lovely] kids going through major exams, a dog to walk, a car to clean, grass to cut, floors to mop blah blah....


Background: during the winter base training phase, I like to include at least two high mileage weeks - one in the autumn and one in the spring.  I find that this results in weeks of subsequent smooth running, improved recovery times, and improved digestion.  Usually this constitutes between 50 miles (10km per day average) and 70 miles.


Furthermore, at some point in such a week I hit a real low.  Legs about to fall off, horrendous indigestion where I can't process food quick enough between runs, and defeatism.  But this time was different, so I kept going!  This time it felt easy, and given the time, I really feel like 100 miles is doable.


These are the game-changers:

1. The new, more efficient gait (what this entire blog is about!) is causing less trauma to the legs, hips, lower back, so I'm going further on less energy, and recovering faster between runs.
2. Dropping the carbs, and metabolising fat for fuel, means that I'm not hitting 'empty' at the end of runs and experiencing the damage that that incurs.

This milestone gives me the opportunity to start introducing some speed to my gait-changing journey.  Or, to put it another way, I feel I've reached the base of the curve on the BLUE line on this graph (bottom of the page).  Now I feel the gait is nailed at speeds of up to 4:45/km I can start moving up the blue line.  The ultimate aim, of course, is to have the gait nailed at 2:30/km, tired, and full of lactic.  I'm giving myself another 6 months to get there...


And a final word.  Every mile, road or trail, was run in minimal shoes.  My feet are stronger than they've ever been (and that took 6 moths to achieve).


Here is the week according to Strava.  Remember, kids, if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen...

If you're new to the blog, and you've got 30 mins to kill, you can go to the start.  Some posts are only 3 or 4 lines long!  START HERE

Another post about nutrition

I'm 2 months into low carb now (see my first thoughts on the topic, then my one other post dedicated to nutrition).  My three week findings still hold, only the benefits are now greater.

So, it was with great satisfaction that I returned this morning from a 28.4km run, with energy to spare.  This run was fueled by a pre-run pear, apple, fistful of spinach and a cup of coffee.

There was still pain there - but unlike my carb-fueled days, the pain did not precede hitting the wall - I suspect it's more a result of impact damage (I ran in minimalist Merrell Glove shoes)

I am also still finding that recovery from long runs is much quicker (I ran an all-road 10 miler/16km yesterday lunchtime) and I am finding that my energy during long runs is much more evenly released.  There are no highs and lows, just steady energy levels.  Furthermore, I would usually have found that I went light-headed as the glycogen from my liver is recruited, but this didn't happen either.

Martin Yelling summed it up perfectly on this week's Marathon Talk podcast (issue 321) when he complained that he can't get his glycogen to last more than an hour.  That was me until this year!!  I would drop off a cliff at about 60 to 70 mins.  Now I laugh at a mere hour of running!!

Good news.


In a pattern that, I hope, is following Heidi Jones (co-Author of Older Yet faster), having embedded the new running style, my pace is quickening steadily.


So, you may have read my previous post, about mastering good style, using the drills and cues contained in the book, then starting to pile on some miles.  In the post I pointed out that I'd just finished a 51 mile week.  All those easy miles gave me an extended amount of time to think about the style, and to concentrate on maintaining the style whilst getting fatigued.


Well, a week later, and my Saturday morning parkrun time has dipped considerably.  The course at Moors Valley is reasonably quick for hard pack gravel, but I was enjoying myself, a little chat in the first 1km, and greeting the volunteers at every corner.  So I reckon there's a sub 18 on a tarmac course, and if I concentrate!!

The point is, that now I'm happy with my new style, and now that I've achieved one high-ish mileage week, which has further embedded the style, the speed appears to be returning.


My aim is a sub 17min 5km this summer.  I only managed a 17:02 last year, but a 16:44 in 2014 on my old overstriding style!!


I know what Keith would say, but I shall keep my target to a modest 16:59 for now!!!!!!

Picture this.


You've made it through Older Yet Faster
Your drills are pretty good
You're practicing your foot exercises
You've improved your style
You're landing under your hips
You're wearing "less shoe"
You're feeling balanced
Life is good


Congratulations!


For me, this point took about 5 months to achieve, but (a) I had 35 years of ingrained awfulness to get over, and (b) I overdid it a bit with the minimal shoes and had to take a month out, as you know.


And of course, we know that we'll continue to improve over the coming months and years, as the style gets deeper and deeper embedded into the subconscious.


Now what?  Do we start upping the miles, working hard to maintain good form as we get tired at 5 miles, 10 miles? 


Or do we keep it short, working hard to get the style working at higher and higher speeds - at least at our target race pace if not higher?

It's tempting to think that the right answer must be a bit of both, in equal measures, evenly distributed across the training plan.  But I'm not so sure.


There are probably two groups who have more of a simple decision to make.  The Ultra runners for whom 8 to 12 minute miles for hours on end is the norm, there's not so much call for the speed.  And for the 100m and 200m sprinters, as far as I can work out, their "long runs" seem to max-out at, erm, 200m!


For me, as an 800m runner, I naturally enjoy running fast, so the temptation was to start upping the pace, whilst keeping the weekly mileage to around 20 miles/30km so as not to get too tired and therefore to maintain good form.  By "upping the speed" I am talking about slipping into my regular training group as they knock out 20x200m reps (in 32-35s, off 30s recovery). 


But what I was forgetting was that my base fitness was lacking - I haven't done any decent miles since the winter 2014/15 base phase.  So as I layered on the speed in my new style, the niggles started appearing.


This leads me to conclude that it is probably better to start adding some miles at a pace that you know you can hold Good Form, before starting to crank up the speed.


To that end, I've just finished a 50+ mile week - all run at about 5:30/km 8min/mile.  This was on a variety of terrains from pavement to deep mud.  But I worked extremely hard to maintain Good Form as I got tired.  In particular, I was making sure that my unloaded hip wasn't dropping, and that my ground contact time wasn't getting longer.


And I have to say, that I feel the new style is becoming more and more automatic with every step.  I feel great (a little tired!) and my plans are now to layer on a little speed (perhaps a 3k tempo this week).  Then in 3 weeks, I'll squeeze in a 70 mile week, which is something I normally do twice in the winter base phase.


Happy running!

Along with those that Keith has explained, I've been trying this cue.  This picture appeared on SPIKES' twitter feed today (https://twitter.com/BritAthletics/status/697675957847638016).  The picture shows twins who train together, but one clearly has her pelvis tipped further forwards.  They appear to be at the same point in the stride cycle (albeit opposite legs).



Coincidentally, I've been dabbling with the pelvis tilted further forward than my legacy running style, and it feels very balanced.  It can be achieved at all paces, and I'm convinced it helps me land under the hips more successfully.

I am also aware that over tilting the pelvis forwards can cause injury, but I don't think there's any danger of that for me.  I'll film again soon just to be sure.