Back to Base Building

After miserably failing to reach my time goal of sub 2h on the half marathon I'm settling down and going back to base building.

In my previous post 5K Race to Half Marathon Target I compared my 5K pace run time to two different running calculators. According to the projections I got my finish time for the half marathon should have been between 2:01:09 and 2:01:57. With four weeks of additional training I wanted to test if I could finish in under two hours. Reality hit me in the face and my finishing time was 2:19:33. The pace calculators naturally didn't account for he difference in heat. The race was run in a temperature of 31°C or 88 °F, significantly warmer than the 5K or any of my training runs for that matter. The difference in heat made some real difference. I ran further at a faster pace on training run in May than I did in the half marathon race in July, with a whopping 25 bpm difference in average heart rate. Difference in heat? 31 °C, sun, no wind and humid versus 10 °C, rain and windy. But the time estimate shouldn't be that much off anyway, should it? So why did I fail so miserably?

Poor aerobic fitness. With longer distances the importance of the aerobic metabolism grows. Shorter distances can be run with higher oxygen debt than longer. So the conclusion must be I'm lacking the proper aerobic base. Well, hello, of course I am. With only four months of training it should be obvious. Most of those past training runs were done too fast and too anaerobically. My ego had the better part of me fooled for a while there.

So what I'll do next is to build that aerobic base. I'll use the MAF-method, running at or below maximum aerobic function. As pinpointing the accurate MAF requires extensive testing I'll go with the 180-formula developed by Dr. Phil Maffetone. Subtracting my age from 180 and subtracting an additional 5, as my training has been inconsistent over the past two years. I thus arrive at a MAF of 144 bpm (180-31-5=144). I should the do all of my base building at or below this heart rate. I'll create a range of ten beats for my heart rate monitor (134-144) and stay in that range for all of my training, except even slower warm up and cool down.

For how long? I'll asses my MAF by doing monthly MAF tests. The MAF test is done on the track, after 12-15 minutes of warm up, by timing one mile splits on a five mile run at MAF heart rate. As long as the one mile splits improve, MAF will be kept the same. At some point I might delete the 5 beat subtraction and go with 148 bpm (as I probably have turned 32 by then). Time and MAF tests will show when. I don't really need any anaerobic conditioning to run over the Alps - which after all is the main target with all this training. So my only exception to MAF training will be races. Races will be done with an all out mentality. I'll reserve the right to change this plan later though.

The benefit should be greatly improved aerobic fitness. This kind of low hear rate training supposedly minimizes the productions of free radicals in the biomechanical system and it should enable me to sustain higher training volumes than training at a faster running pace (with a more anaerobic heart rate). And it should be way much healthier.

To educate myself on the philosophy of low heart rate training I ordered The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing by Dr. Phil Maffetone. So, one more book report might be coming up in the future.

Until then here are my initial MAF test results from Friday 8.7.2011. There should be plenty of room for improvement.

Race report: Paavo Nurmi Half Marathon

I had to wait for Risberg all the time. I can’t believe how bad he was! Teaming up with him really destroyed my time. And we are supposed to run over the Alps?

Only joking… I’m the one who were a bit under water at times. Ok, here comes the real story.

I knew the warm weather would be a challenge. I knew my stomach flu less than two weeks ago killed some fitness. I knew I hadn’t trained well for the last three weeks. Spending one week backpacking in Lapland one week sick and one week tapering (like I would have needed that). So these are my excuses for failing my goal of finishing in less than two hours. The clock stopped at 2:19:33. And it was a battle against the heat. Running with a heart rate rocketing to crazy heights. The heart needs to push blood towards the surface of the skin to keep the body cool in warm weather. And it still needs to push blood into the muscles to keep them going. So it has to beat harder and/or faster.

We lined up with the 2:15 rabbit. Why the 2:15 rabbit when my primary goal was to do a sub 2h time? Well, I ran a 2h pace last Wednesday. The run didn’t go well and I realized I wouldn’t be able to keep that kind of pace for more than maybe 1:15. Risberg most graciously decided to run with me. Which I think really helped, especially towards the end.

So we lined up with the 2:15 rabbit. Sweating like pigs only from standing in the sun. It was +31 degrees Celsius in the shadow. Probably one of the hottest days this summer. Off we go.

In the city the heat was intense. No wind and blazing sun rays reflecting from the black asphalt and the surrounding buildings.

At around 7 km I knew I would be in trouble soon. My heart rate climbed over 180 bpm on some uphill bits and it didn’t come back down much. Pretty soon it started to top 190 bpm on the uphill stretches. I ran for fifteen minutes with a heart rate around 190 trying to fool myself I might be ok with it.

”Elite marathoners race with a heart rate of 90-100 % of their maximum. Maybe I too will be able to do it”, I taught.

Hah! A beginner is what I am, far from an elite marathoner. So after the 10 km mark I decided to slow down to get the heart rate down to more sane levels. Speed walking. Jogging. Speed walking. Jogging. Damn it! The 2:15 balloon marking the rabbit disappeared far ahead. From 10 to 17 km was pretty awful. Switching between a slow jog and walking. But it was the only sensible thing to do. After opening too hard. Classic beginner mistake. Guilty as charged.

From 17 km on we increased the pace a bit. I decided to run the last 4 km, no matter what. Oh! A water point! Beautiful. Slowed down to walking drinking and soaking in the water. It felt good. Indeed so good I had to walk a little again. But not for long and we ran the last 2 km.

There was a guy ahead of me, maybe 30 meters from the finish gate. I decided to improve my ranking and nailed him one meter from the gate with a hard spurt. WTF? People were continuing to run after the finish? Risberg floated up beside me and told me we have to carry on for maybe 300 meters more to make a turnabout and finish trough the gate from the other direction. Helvetes helvete! I didn’t have very much left in me after spurting that hard. But somehow I managed to keep up a decent pace, passing by even more people before the real finish.

Yey! I finished my first half marathon race! I maxed out my heart with a maximum heart rate of 201 bpm (probably during the stupid spurt 300 meters from the finish). My average heart rate was 183 bpm.

Now I’m going to get some rest. Before going into low heart rate training mode next week. I have to build endurance for the next upcoming races this autumn.

Under the midnight sun far North

Large flocks of reindeers were roaming the hills. Some braver ones were coming really close to the wanderers. Exhibiting their silky horns and wise eyes. Watching the wanderers pass by their barren lands. Lemmings were scurrying quickly over the paths, lots of them. Again and again, like small furry balls rolling down the hills. White owls were circling in the sky. Carefully scanning the terrain for careless lemmings. Here and there tiny fur stacks littering the path. Silent evidence of love struck lemmings fallen pray to the owls. The poor lemmings raised their voices in their attempts to attract a partner, revealing themselves to their predators.

Lapland, I can tell you, is quite a magical place in the early summer. Not only is the wildlife active, so are the plants. Plants have only six months of light, and they need to make the most of it. Almost all the flowers of the North were blooming. Creating beautiful patterns of color, light and texture over the rolling mountains.

 

I’m back home from quite a relaxing experience of nature, space and silence. My wife and I went backpacking for a week on the Hetta-Pallas trails in Finnish Lapland. We took the less traveled direction from Jerisjärvi to Pallas and forth to Hetta, 73 km all in all. Unfortunately a heat wave the previous week brought out the mosquitoes as well as the flowers. We had to endure the tiny devils buzzing around in the valleys. It was well worth it though, and fortunately we brought some great mosquito repellant.

We met four runners. They were doing the Hetta-Pallas trail of 55 km all in one day. It strikes me this trail would indeed make a great 50k race. The Midnight Sun Run. Experiencing the barren wilderness scenery trough a runners high in the mild yellow light flowing from the midnight sun. That would be serene, magical. I believe it could well attract people worldwide. If I didn’t have my full time job in Helsinki maybe I could arrange something? Finding partners shouldn’t be hard. There were plenty of available rooms in the hotels in Hetta. A concern for the Lapland tourism is how to improve profitability of the summer season. Backpackers camping in the wild don’t bring much dough to the locals.

Maybe some day... Or maybe some one else could make something out of it. In the meanwhile, I’ll consider returning next year for an alpine run training camp. Great trail. Lots of technical stuff. Lots of uphill. Lots of downhill. Some quite steep climbs. Some gentler ascends. Loads of fun.

-Written on the bus to Turku-

I’m going to run the Paavo Nurmi half marathon today. The past two weeks I’ve been out jogging only twice. Due to the stomach flu I caught in Lapland. I had a high fever initially and prolonged imbalance of stomach bacteria. Ouch! And of course I took some time off simply tapering. Plus 32 degree Celsius forecasted with blazing sun! Start time at 13:20, it is going to be a slaughter.