week of 19 June

Hot, humid, and going backwards..

Activities

• Mon.  Rest.
• Tue.
• Wed.  rain, so used my brand new treadmill.  would have done 7 easy outside, but not wanting to suffer in monotony on the 'mill, I accepted the garmin suggestion:  3x7' threshold (which is a sad 9:35 for me).  I never don't' regret accepting its suggestion and strained my right hamstring in the last minute of the last interval.
• Th.  Rest for tweaked hamstring.  Raining and got on the treadmill for a minute before deciding it was a bad idea.  I think I could have managed 3 very easy outside, but the treadmill locks you in a gate and it's hard to get loose.
• Fr.  Taking it easy.  4.8 @13:18/129.  69 and 93% humidity dp 66.  lightly raining for most of it.  Could feel hamstring was there but not hurting.
• Sa.  4.8@13:19/129.  72 and 93% humidty.  dew point 70!  Woke up with headache even hotter and more humid.  Really miserable. Tried to stay under 135 bpm and walked some hills. still feel hamstring but no tugging or anything.
• I did this 12-minute follow along strength training https://youtu.be/qOtTIOPI6qc
• Glad I did it rather than spending even more time online figure out what to do.  Probably need more but it was 3 sets of goblet squat, plank, reverse lung, crunch with 40s on and 20s rest.
• Also this to try and help my right duck foot https://youtu.be/FJzVplRn33A
• Su. 7.9@13:08/131.  72, but dp 65 felt much better.  more hill walking

Miles: 26.0.  5h31m.  calories 3295.

Really miserable week.  Sleep not great. blood pressure up.  It's getting hot and humid.  Noticed I did not quite a 5:30 marathon over the course of a week.  Let that ego go....

Blood pressure was way up late in the week.  116/72 on Wed and then 127/73, 124/74, 128/77, 129/74 Th, Fr, Sat, Su. Not sure what's going on.

Weight:  194.5 +/- 0.9 (n=6). BF 20.6%.  Last week: 194.6.

Noticed another depressing getting old thing.  194.2 was 20.1% BF in Jan 2017.  Not sure how accurate this is, but higher BF for the same weight is one of the miracles of aging.

Needing something to obsess over rather than workouts that I think are ill-advised at this point, I'll turn my attention to glute activation.  Paid attention and on my right (duck-footed) side, I seem to absorb the impact with eccentric contraction of hip flexors.  If I consciously engage glutes for a brief period, I can sense my hip flexors relaxing.

Bought the Hanson's book -- apparently again as I already had the 1st edition in kindle library...  shouldn't have counted on amazon telling me I own it already)  The 2nd edition only adds a "just finish" marathon plan to the beginner and advanced.  Just finish is all easy runs to build up mileage.

Thinking of following that mileage build up, although it's hardly different that what I've been doing/was planning on doing.  My race might be the 10-miler I was planning (instead of a marathon).  I'd just be ending week 5, which is 24 miles -- rest or XT, 5, rest or XT, 4, 5, 4, 6  So almost exactly what I did.

Again, hansons not much different than my plan, which was basically adding 5 miles/week every four weeks with a cut back every four weeks.  Wed is rest/XT.  I need to do some strength.  Can do wed, but probably should do other days as well.

week of 12 June

 Activities

• Mo. Rest.
• Tu. gc 5.  4.8 @ 12:34/130
• We. gc 5.  4.8 @ 12:29/129
• Th. gc 5.  4.8 @ 12:08/132
• Fr.  LT test CCT.  4.5 @ 10:48/142.  LT 159, pace 9:57.
• Sa.  nbhrd 3.  3.25@13:05/127.  Felt blech and didn't want to run.
• Su. 9.15 @11:53/140.  HR high for pace.  Almost stopped at first lap.  Felt OK at faster pace on 2nd lap but HR high overall.

Total:  31.2 miles, 6h12m. 3644 calories.

Weight:  194.6 lbs.  BF% 20.7.  (n=7)

BP:  118.6/71.4 +/- 4.7/4.5 (n=7)

Felt kinda crummy. Worried I got the Rona from the guy in the bathroom who was sniffling and sighing before opening a briefcase and pulling out a bottle of pills.  Or maybe it's just not sleeping enough, work stress, and doing an ill-advised LT threshold test (which is pretty tame).  Didn't get the ego boost I was hoping for.  160/9:51 10 days earlier. Then 159/9:57 with considerably better weather.

RHR jumped up to 57 last night after drifting down to 49 over the week.

My watches opinion of me has leveled off and someone degraded.  Thinks I'm good for a 28:00 5k.

Thinking of doing some faster stuff, but shorter intervals.  I did 8x1' at ~7:45 w/ 2' rest and didn't seem to create much of a recovery debt.  Might do some of this sexy new short HIT stuff (30s-30s).  I know I just need to lose weight, but mixing it up might stave off boredom and maybe impress my watch.

80/20 training plan gripe

 Shipped more money to Matt Fitzgerald for reasons I can't explain, but anyway...  Noting here for myself his notation.  For some reason, he uses the numbering system like "fast finish run 4" in his plans, so you have to go back and decode what this mean when he could have said 5' Z1/25' Z2/10' Z3.  Not even more characters or even just use color codes:  5/25/10.  These match the garmin colors.

Of course doing this, you could probably fit the book into two pages...

So much flipping back and forth to figure out what the intensity and volume of the plans is.  Eg. for level 3 marathon first week is

• Mon.  FR6 or XT
• Tue.  AM FF6.  PM FR3 or XT.
• Wed. FR6 or XT
• Thu.  FR6 or XT
• Fri.  SP 6
• Sat.  FR6 or XT.
• Sun.  LR 6

What the hell?

FR 6 = 5' Z1/35' Z2/5' Z1.  Generally all foundation runs start and end in 5' Z1 with the middle in Z2, so this is 45' easy with 5' wup/cdn.  The FR X runs go in 5' increments with X, starting with FR 1 = 20' easy.  So.... FR X = (X-1)*5 + 20 easy.  FR6 = (6-1)*5 + 20 = 45.

We get to do math to decode this!

• Mon.  45' easy or XT.
• Tue. 45' easy am.  30' easy pm.
• Wed.  45' easy or XT.
• Thu.  45' easy or XT.
• Fri.  fartlek.  38' including 6 x (1' hard, 2' recovery)
• Sat.  45' easy or XT.
• Sun.  long run.  1 mile wup.  9.5 miles easy. 0.5-mile cdn

Very reasonable, but decoding that was exhausting. Does he deliberately obfuscate the plan to get you to buy his plans from training peaks?

week of 5 June

\Mon.  1.5/12:56/125.  Got a plantar fasciitis feeling, although was back of heel, when waking and walking on bare feet.  Ok for first 0.75 miles and then felt again.  Turned around and went home.

Tues. Rest.  (up to 2am night before)

Wed. Recovery.  4.73/12:56/125.  gc5 loop.

Th.  4.8/12:08/129.  Canadian wildfire smoke drove me to run on the treadmill.  Warmed up to 5 mph (12:00/mi) over 1st mile.  Stayed at 5 mph.  Lap HRs were 120, 138, 130, 131, 131, 133, 133.  So, slowly crept up.  Very warm in gym.

Fr. 4.72/12:42/127. Had some trouble with medial aspect of left knee but stretched/walked and OK.

Sa. Burke lake 1 lap (4.53 this time?)/12:26/130.  More trouble with my knee and wound up walking almost 7 minutes.  Kept trying to start and unable.  Then pointed toe in and ran to prevent the pronation where it hurt. Kinda worked itself out.

Sun. 2 laps at BL.  7/3 run walk. 9.16/12:49/130.  Thought I'd be an adult and take a day off or at least run in the nbrhd where I'm always less than a mile from home, but... I ran my desire long run anyway and it was fine.  My one concession was to do a 7/3 run/walk.  Spent a lot of time paying attention to how my feet landed. I think the knee issue come from overpronation and it's not a problem when I land stiffly on later edge of my foot.  I really need to work on strength and stability. Planned to keep it in recovery but quickly was in zone 1/2 edge and in the 2nd lap drifted up to zone 2/3.  Very familiar drift in last lap.  In the old days that last lap drift was lap 4 and not 2, but I'll get there.

Had felt like I've been going backwards the last two weeks but today's long run really turned it around.  Want to stabilize here at 30 slow miles per week and add some strength and balance training.  That part is so complicated though.  I need the "he probably needs physical therapy" version and not "here's what a 2:09 marathoner does."

Livestrong 12.9T RIP.

My treadmill died just in time for the wildfires so had to use the work gym.  Lasted 11.5 years so not bad.  Got a great deal on it, too. Last one they had (the floor model) of the previous year's version. $850.  Got another good deal at Dick's to replace it.  Got a 2019 model Sole F80 for $1299.  2023 model is $1799.

Total: 29.4 miles (glad I didn't look and try to get another .6).  6h12m.  3644 calories.

Weight:  196.2 (n=5).  Need to get this going down.  Dropped a couple of pounds and then leveled off last three weeks:  195.7, 196.1, 196.2.

goals for the old and starting over

I want to believe I carried over some residual fitness over the years of sloth, but probably not -- at least not much. So I think I'm basically where I was when I started 1 Jan 2005 -- except I'm older and a little heaver.

In mid-April of 2005 I ran 1:24:49 at around 185 lbs as I recall.  That's a 51.8% age performance which translates to a 1:36:28 for a 52 year old, which seems like a reasonable place to start with goals (although I'm targeting a Sept 10 miler that's hilly and likely to be hot).

A stretch goal would be to avoid a personal worst, which was 1:28 something.  I ran that at 190+ running less than 10 miles a week and I don't think I really raced it.  Just wanted to get my 10-th cherry blossom finish so I could avoid the lottery in the future.

week of 29 May - recovery week, finding HR zones

Executed the no plan plan this week and went on a "what are my HR zones" odyssey, when I'm 99% sure I can just run by feel at this point.

Have done around 25 per week the last 3 weeks and was feeling a bit sore and tired, so cut back this week.  Due to random thoughts was yet again considering a parkrun to see where I am, but decided against it.  Was going to do a cut down run from 6 min/km to 5 min/km to see where I was. Then saw this garmin LT test feature and thought I'd do that instead, which is also a lot easier :-)  As you can see there's not a lot of plan in this plan.

Activities

• Mo.  2.1 @ 12:56/123
• Tue.  Rest
• Wed. 4.8 @ 10:46/148. Did the recommended garmin workout on a goof.  4 x 6' @9:40 with 2' recovery.  My route is very hilly, so I tried even effort. First was downhill and rest were net up.  grade-adjusted paces/AHR were 9:35/145, 9:30/159, 9:34/160, and 9:28/163, so I did a decent job.  Actual paces were 9:25, 9:46, 10:02, and 9:41.
• Thu. Rest
• Fri.  nbhrd 3 @ 12:01/135
• Sat.  4.51 @ 10:58/144.  Garmin LT test plus 3' to try and get max HR.
• Sun. 4.58 @ 12:00/135. Burke Lake.  Time in HR zones: 1 (6%), 2 (89%), 3 (2%).  See below for zone definitions.

Week: 19.2 miles, 3h42m.  2539 calories.

Weight: average 196.1 +/- 0.7 (n=5).  (prev week 195.7)

My hilly routes

My area is aptly called "Rolling Valley," so unless you're running by a stream, you're running over hills.  This is my 4.8-mile loop.  Total ascent 404 feet over 4.8 miles.  Marine Corps Marathon supposedly has 630 feet of elevation gain.

Need to sleep 

Sleep has been terrible.  Garmin is mocking me with "you seem stressed" messages and told me I was "bottoming out" and my body battery was at 5 out of 100.  Thanks, Garmin!

After trending down, my resting HR has been heading back up, which isn't good.

HRV also decreasing -- also, not good.

lactate threshold test

The test is a 10-15' wup followed by increasing target heart rate zones every 4' (basically a Hadd test with shorter intervals).  The first beat paper describing the LT calculation says it looks for some inflection in HRV (which is why you have to wear the strap).

I did this on one of the few flat places in this area -- the cross county trail, which runs along a stream.

Here are the sad results

• 4' @ 11:34/134 AHR
• 4' @ 11:42/136 AHR -- was center of green.  Why almost identical zone?
• 4' @ 10:04/147 AHR
• 4' @  9:27/157 AHR

The first two zones were almost identical, which as weird.  I thought it was going to give me another zone when it ended and said LTHR was 160 bpm and LT pace was 9:51/mile (ouch!).  Really surprised it ended there.  I was still doing 4-4 breathing when it ended.  I guess if I kept that heart rate up for a while, maybe I'd have transitioned to 2-2?

Since I was warmed up, I decided to see if I could hit a higher max, so I picked it up and tried to progressively increase pace until I couldn't push the HR higher.  Saw 184 on the watch.  After run, it automatically set my new max to 185 (and garmin web site says I hit 186?).  Then did another 20' jogging back to the car.  HR came down pretty easily and was 153 AHR @ 10:45 over last 8 minute lap.

Some excuses -- it was warm for me.  72 deg/61 dew point.  I woke up with a headache and BP was higher than usual 124/71/54 this morning.

HR Zones

So what zone should I use?  The ones defined by Garmin based on my supposed LTHR look pretty reasonable to me and the first three match (in feel) what I've called recovery, easy, and moderate in the past (in 2010 when I did my best running).  Garmin calls these warmup, easy, and aerobic/moderate.

Zone	%LTHR	Low	High
Max (Z5)	>100	160	185
Threshold (Z4)	90-100	152	160
Aerobic/moderate (Z3)	89-95	142.4	152
Easy (Z2)	80-89	128	142.4
Warmup (Z1)	65-80	104	128
Max	185
RHR	53
LTHR	160

I've tried to figure out how this matches others zone 2, including the Peter Attia guy.  He talks about zone 2 as between aerobic threshold/max fat and lactate threshold (2 mmol) (1 hour time)?

I have a pretty good sense of effort and correspondence base on running with an HRM all those years and my sense is that the border between Garmin's Z2 and Z3 -- ~142 -- is my aerobic threshold.    There's a fairly discrete point where my 4-4 breathing becomes just a little deeper.  Could be wrong abou this, but that's how it feels. It's strange that this is about the same HR (maybe 3 beats lower) than when I was logging a bunch of miles back in the day.  So, I think Peter Attia's zone 2 is probably Garmin's zone 3.  The most concrete I've heard is someone on reddit claims he said  he starts his patients with 78% max, which would be 144 bpm for me. All kind of lines up.

80/20 is another buzzword apparently (Matt Fitzgerald continues to make bank) and has it's Zone 2. For what it's worth, those seem to match Garmin's pretty well.

So after all this, I plan to just do easy running until I build mileage and get a good habit and time carved out of the week.  If I don't think it will hurt my recovery, I might do some moderate running every n-th day where n depends on how I feel.

Strength training

I know I need to do this, but find it all very confusing.  Only time I really did was a year I had a coach and am not sure I did any of it correctly.  Really feel like I need to do this given my age.  Also think it was one of my big weaknesses back in the day.