The familiar feeling of sore legs and other mid-week craziness

After nearly three weeks of no exercise, my leg muscles were supple and knot-free. I was long and lean in my first yoga class back and no hot spots. I know the yoga girls' elusive secret of staying so flexible . . . they don’t use their legs to run 40 miles/week.

Now, one week back to running and 38 miles later, and I am experiencing the familiar feeling of sore legs every day. The rocks in my calves are back, nearly every leg muscle is sore. My legs are tender, especially below the knee.

I had a little more spring in my step those first runs back last week, even though I was not at full capacity lung-wise. This must be what post-tapering feels like.

During my cold-induced sojourn from running, I lost strength and fitness. And I am worried that I won’t be able to gain it back in time for Vegas Rock ‘N Roll because my time is short and I am congested and not yet breathing at full capacity. During runs, I still cough and my nose runs. But last week was still a solid week of training. The x-factor is how much fitness I lost versus how much I can get back in one more week of training before tapering.

I also lost confidence. Prior to the cold, I had just begun to feel confident in my ability to run my goal pace at the Silver Strand Half. My legs were strong, and I felt like I was a horse when I was running. No joke. This is what I looked like in my mind (source: GeeAlice via Wikimedia Commons):



I was mentally prepared for the pain and suffering of Silver Strand. I had visualized the race and determined that I would be mentally tough at each and every terrible moment. It was disheartening not to be able to run it.

Now I freak out after every run because it felt harder than I expected or harder than the same sort of run used to feel when I was healthy. I am constantly doing little experiments during my runs to probe how much fitness I lost/regained.

I did a speed workout today for the first time this month. It was the hardest speed workout I have ever done, even though it was one of my shorter sessions, clocking in at just over an hour and 7.2 miles total. The objective was 2 miles warm up, 5 x 1 km at 9.4 (6:22), with 0.5 km active recoveries at 6.0 (10:00), 1 mile cool down. This workout gave Penny a lot of confidence, so I thought I would try it.

Observations: My legs were lead due to (1) 38 miles last week, after three weeks of either zero miles or single digits; and (2) a leg workout yesterday, even then my legs felt dead from the weekend's tempo and long runs. I was still suffering from coughs/runny nose. Running during the rest intervals made the workout much harder than prior speed sessions I have done where I had walked to recover. Even running the recovery at 6.0 (10:00 pace) made a huge difference in difficulty. I completed all 5 fast intervals.

But: Before the 4th, I walked for about half of the recovery, and before the 5th, I walked the entire 0.5 km recovery interval slow, 3.3. I hit pause after the 3rd and 4th intervals because I felt like I could not run one. more. step. Then I hunched over, caught my breath, and carried on. My weak link here was my cardio fitness, not my leg strength. The legs are back, and I was mentally tough, overcoming the temptation to stop after 4 fast intervals. Now I need to rid myself of the last remnants of the cold.

And I need a rest day tomorrow.

Concluding these rambling thoughts, I need to shut up about the cold and stop focusing on it. That’s a promise!

two little runners (Kristen)

The Art and Science of Tapering

This is the first time I have made it to the end of a training cycle having fully completed my training plan (other cycles have been undisciplined toward the end) and having stayed injury (and accident) free! Horary! So now I am 10 days away from race day (Silver Strand Half Marathon) and feeling strong, fit, and healthy. Navigating uncharted waters, I think it is time to taper?!

There is surprisingly little information about tapering in most of my running reference books. On the blogosphere, I am seeing runners reporting “taper tantrums” from lack of running. But I’m not finding much information about how to taper, for how long, and why.

So I turned to the running Bible: Tim Noakes’ Lore of Running (4th ed. 2001) for . . .

The Science of Tapering

Tapering is the process of resting up before a major race. Runners discovered tapering by accident. History is replete with examples of runners being forced to rest due to sickness or injury in the weeks prior to their events and then having breakthrough performances.  The most famous, perhaps, was Carlos Lopes who won Olympic gold at the 1984 games in the marathon after an accident prevented him from training for 10 days prior to the race.  Another Olympic example is Joan Benoit.  She won the 1984 United States Olympic marathon trials only days after undergoing knee surgery. Benoit later said that she thinks her knee injury was the single most important factor that led to her victory:  it forced her to train less throughout the training cycle.  Noakes at 321-22.

So for the niggled/injured runners late in their fall training cycles, maybe your injury is a gift, and you'll have a breakthrough performance in your race. Stay positive!

There are also scientific studies to support the practice of tapering as having positive effects on race performance. But there have been no studies specific to half marathons or marathons. Noakes concludes that according to the few studies on tapering, a taper is most effective when “there is a rapid reduction in training volume . . . in the first few days of the taper and training during the taper is at high intensity, approximating 5-km race pace.” Id. at 321.

Noakes also believes from personal experience that the harder and/or longer your training cycle, the longer you’ll need to taper.  Id. at 621.  And further, the longer the race distance, the longer the taper.  Id. at 653.

Noakes’ book excerpts half marathon and marathon training plans written by many different experts.  Most half marathon plans include a 1 week taper. Most marathon plans include a 2 week taper. Ultras and ironman races, by comparison, may have up to a 4 week taper.

So that leaves us to figure out our tapers by feel . . .

The Art of Tapering

Peasant Woman Holding a Taper
by Jules Breton [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The goal is to find the sweet spot between giving your body enough rest to allow a full recovery of the muscles and avoiding a loss of fitness.

Right now I am feeling fit but tired. So I am less worried about losing fitness and more worried about getting enough rest. I think a slightly longer than the standard 1 week half marathon taper is in order.  

I am thinking of tapering along these lines: 

• Run no more than 15 miles during the taper period. But no running the last 3 days before the race. This means for my last week of training, I’ll cut my average weekly mileage over the last 7 weeks by 50% (I had been running roughly 30 miles per week).
• I am going to cut out leg weight workouts and plyo completely.
• I’ll keep up with core because those muscles are secondary in running and, for me, seem to recovery quickly after workouts.
• I’ll add another light yoga class next week to stay stretched out (and to give me something to do in place of running). 

Taper Plan 

1. Friday – normally scheduled rest day
2. Saturday – tempo run at race pace, no more than 5 miles
3. Sunday – 3 miles easy
4. Monday – yoga
5. Tuesday – mile repeats, no more than 4 miles
6. Wednesday – 3 miles easy, core
7. Thursday – yoga
8. Friday – rest
9. Saturday – rest
10. Sunday – race

Let the taper begin!

Any advice for a successful taper? What kind of taper has worked for you?

Kristen

Speed, Ice-cream and Step Back Weeks

So last week I pulled out one of the tougher weeks of running I've done so far. I was pretty proud of myself actually... possibly less proud of precisely how much ice cream it took to fuel said workouts, but hey, as Cait so eloquently illustrated, is there a better incentive to run? Man, I love that girl's cartoons.

Anyway so here was my week:

October 15-21, 2012
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 9 miles easy
Wednesday: 1 mile easy, 7x800s at 6:27 pace, 1 mile easy +light leg strength (treadmill)
Thursday: Elliptical 45 mins intervals
Friday: tempo; 2 miles easy, 2x2 miles at 6:48 pace, 2 miles easy (treadmill)
Saturday: 60 mins elliptical intervals + plyometrics
Sunday: 16 miles with last 3 miles at 7:36, 7:19, 7:15

Total: 40 miles

Looking back, I probably didn't need to have quite so many quality workouts. That was the highest number of 800s I had done, the longest tempo I've done, the longest long run I had done, and I even decided to add a progression at the end. The latter was not planned for, but came about because I ate a Gu for the first time in ages at mile 8 (Hello! Energy! OMG must run fast then bounce off walls!) and frankly I was getting a little bored at the end of the long run.

I ended the week with a couple of resulting niggles; I felt a tad of my peroneal tendonitis come back, a pull in my hip flexor/groin area again (different side this time) and some general muscle tiredness (duh).

So I decided to have a step back week this week. But I didn't really know what a step back week was. Do you cut mileage? Speedwork? I dunno. I just decided to keep two key workouts and cross-train as I felt like it. Oh, and slam that bloody hip flexor with some strength exercises.

Does anyone out there understand how to do a step-back week and what is the most important thing to cut?  Miles? Intensity? Ice-cream?

LR#2 Weekly Wrap Up: Rest, Recovery, and 1000 Miles

I was feeling the half marathon in my legs this week. I was very tight--quads, calves, hams--even on Thursday. So I was good to my legs by cutting way back on miles and by doing some fairly intensive yoga/stretching sessions. Meanwhile, I set new running goals and researched training plans . . . to be revealed this week on Two Little Runners . . . on the edge of your seat yet?

Thursday, I unceremoniously crossed the RunKeeper 1000 mile mark during a crap 2 mile run on the treadmill. Hey, every mile counts I suppose!

Monday (6/4): 1 mile on treadmill very slow as a warm up to yoga.

Tuesday (6/5): Recovery run, slow 3.5 miles in Balboa Park; upper body strength training.

Wednesday (6/6): Complete rest.

Thursday (6/7): 2 mile run on treadmill, at 8:30 average pace; yoga.

Friday (6/8): Complete rest.

Saturday (6/9): Complete rest.

Sunday (6/10): 6 miles, average 8:00 miles through the cornfields of Illinois; sprints through Detroit airport at maximum speed (wish I had turned on RunKeeper!) but missed the connecting flight --> 1 mile treadmill and core workout at the Detroit Airport Marriott.

LR#2
Kristen

Rest Days

They're hard to take; especially when you've recovered from injury and you're ramping back up. Even harder are unscheduled rest days. Diverging from a training plan can be daunting and irritating.

But they're important, MOST especially when increasing mileage or embarking on a new training plan.

Yesterday I ran an easy 3 miles at well over 9 min pace, and then did a core cardio and balance workout (from the recovery week of insanity). While neither workout was intense, my body felt heavy and achey, likely pains from increasing mileage. Looking back on last week, I probably did not take enough rest. Even my "rest day" contained a fairly hefty strength workout.

Because my main focus is staying injury free while increasing mileage, I need to be utterly vigilant when my muscles and bones begin giving me those "pre-injury" signals. 

But rest days are also emotionally and mentally important. A day of rest, in my faith, is a day to take stock, give thanks for the blessings in your life, and spend time with the people you love.  Acknowledging internally that it's ok to take a rest day from running is a struggle; but one worth fighting. I know I'll be thanking myself later this week when my body feels strong and rested. But its also good knowing that today, I'll have a little bit of extra time to catch up on some work, to spend time with my gorgeous husband, and to give thanks for having two legs and being able to run in the first place.

#LR1 Penny