Phase 2

I finally broke through the 5 km barrier yesterday. I have been ill over the last week, and just couldn't bring myself to start on the second lap of the my 5 km/3.1 mile route, which starts and ends at my house. However yesterday I managed to add the extra 1/4 mile.

So I am now on phase 2 of my training plan. I am still running every other day, but now the pattern is:

rest
short run
rest
medium run
(repeat)

The short run stays at 5 km, and here I will be working on increasing my speed. The medium run will increase by 1/4 mile each time, until I reach 6.25 mile / 10 km, which is twice round my route. Then I should be ready for that 10k run in September (hmm - which I still haven't actually entered yet - must get onto that).

After that, I plan to reward myself with a present of some Merrell Trail Glove running shoes, and then I will be giving barefoot/minimalist running a go.

Another milestone passed yesterday - I have now run a total of 50 miles since I started running properly (as opposed to run/walking). My average speed in the last four weeks was 6.2 mph. I will record this so I can compare it with next month's figure.

Training zones

I need to rethink my approach on using my heart rate monitor. On last night's run, I was trying to stay at around 93-97% of my estimated HRmax for the whole run. This proved to be impossible. My target range was 164-171, but whenever I went above about 165 bpm, my breathing became laboured, and I felt as though I was nearing exhaustion and that I would need to stop running imminently. I then had to drop down below 160 bpm to recover.

So I have read up a bit more about heart rates and decided to try a new approach, based on Lactate Threshold. This is the intensity of exercise at which lactic acid starts to build up in the muscles, and can be estimated as the highest intensity that can be sustained without significant discomfort, according to this article. A method is suggested here for estimating your own lactate threshold, but based on my run from last night, I would say mine is around 165 bpm. Based on this assumption I can define a number of training zones:

Training Zones for Lactate Threshold = 165 bpm
		Range as % of LT		MinHR	MaxHR
Zone 1	Active Recovery		80%		132
Zone 2	Aerobic Threshold	81%	89%	134	147
Zone 3	Tempo	90%	95%	149	157
Zone 4	Sublactate Threshold	96%	99%	158	163
Zone 5a	Lactate Threshold	100%	101%	165	167
Zone 5b	Aerobic Capacity	102%	105%	168	173
Zone 5c	Anaerobic Capacity	106%		175

This seems to make sense - firstly my original estimate for HRmax (177) now looks to be around the limit of anaerobic capacity, which is what I would expect. Secondly, most of my run yesterday was in Zone 3 (Tempo), which seems reasonable as this should be slightly faster than a comfortable pace, or at the point where I am pushing myself slightly.

This gives me some new target zones. For the moment I will try to do all my runs at tempo (Zone 3). Once I move onto Phase 2/3 of my plan, where I am alternating between short and medium runs, I will do the medium runs in Zone 3, and push up to Zone 4 for the short ones.

Once I move onto Phase 4/5 of my plan (see earlier post), where I introduce long runs and build up the total mileage, I will modify my original plan to include runs at different levels of intensity:

Mon	Rest
Tue	Short Run	Zone 4
Wed	Medium Run	Zone 3
Thu	Short Run	Zone 4
Fri	Rest
Sat	Medium Run	Zone 3
Sun	Long Run	Zone 2

This plan means that the rest days come either after a long run or a fast one. I may also experiment with interval training on some runs, i.e. short bursts of Zone 5 running, alternating with periods of recovery at Zone 1. This technique is supposed to build strength.

At some point I will also try to come up with a more accurate figure for Lactate Threshold, and I will measure it regularly so as to update the training zones table, as LT is supposed to increase slightly as fitness increases.

Training plan

That hydration tip worked really well - last night's run was my fastest so far. However, I don't think I left it long enough after drinking as I could feel water sloshing about while I was running - quite uncomfortable.

I have been giving some thought recently to my training plan. Up to now, I have just been concentrating on running and on increasing my mileage, but more experienced runners have told me that it helps with to have a goal in mind and a plan on how to get there.

There are lots of standard training plans in books and on the web, but I find them all rather complicated and I fear this would make them hard to stick to. I decided therefore to create my own very simple plan, and here it is:

Phase 1 - run every other day, increasing mileage by 0.25 miles every three runs, until I can run 3 mi (5 km). This should be about three weeks from now.

Phase 2 - run every other day, on a pattern of Short Run/ Rest/ Medium Run/ Rest/ (repeat). The short run will stay at 3 mi, and the long run will progressively increase by 0.25 miles each run until I reach 6 mi (10 km). This should take until the middle of September.

There is a local 10K race coming up at the end of September - the Mortimer 10K. I haven't registered yet as I decided to wait until I can run 3 miles before doing so.

Phase 3 - investigating using minimalist shoes and a barefoot running style. For this I will stick with the same schedule as for Phase 2, and gradually increase the distance run in the minimal shoes until I am doing all my runs in them, or until I decide that they are not going to work for me. This should take until the end of 2011.

Phase 4 - switch to a more traditional weekly schedule: Mon - rest/ Tue - short run/ Wed - medium run/ Thu - short run/ Fri - rest/ Sat - medium run/ Sun - long run.

The long run will be twice the length of the medium run, which in turn will be twice the length of the short run. Gradually build up the long run until it is around 10-12 miles (25-30 mi per week). Should take until March.

At this point I hope to do the Reading half-marathon. Again, I haven't booked this yet, as I wanted to get to the point where I can run 10K first.

Phase 5 - gradually increase my weekly mileage as far as I can, adding a mile onto the long run each week, half a mile onto the medium runs, and a quarter mile onto the short runs. Overtraining will mean dropping back a week, and injuries will mean taking a break and dropping back a number of weeks equal to the break.

I prefer the idea of building up my base like this, rather than doing one of the standard training programmes, as I don't want races to be the main focus of my training, which is more about getting in shape than achieving fast times.

We have a local trail marathon/half-marathon in May - the Neolithic. I will try to do whichever one of these seems most appropriate, based on my weekly mileage at the time.