Hansons Week 11
When I pull out my Hansons book (which is always near by), it is amazing and a bit scary to be on page 2 of the two page plan already! Week 11 was exhausting and really showcases the cumulative fatigue effect the plan is known for.
Here is what week 11 looked like for me:
Monday: 5 miles easy
Tuesday: Strength - 6 X 1 mile, 400 recovery
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday:8 miles Tempo Cross training
Friday: 5 miles easy
Saturday: 8 miles easy
Sunday: 16 miles long
Still not a perfect week in terms of completing all of the runs, but pretty darn close. I am not happy I had to miss the tempo run as Tuesdays and Thursdays are really the core of the plan, but the temps were in the high 90's with 90% humidity and I know that it would have done more damage than good to try and force myself to complete the run.
Strength:
Week 11 is when the strength runs start, and these are runs that are completed at 10 seconds faster than your race pace. Strength workouts are still difficult but in a different way than speed work. The focus is less on a faster pace for a short period of time with preparing your body to handle fatigue. Combined with the long run and increased tempo distances, this is where the plan gets really "fun"....difficult. To be honest, I was dreading this first run but I found it to go by quickly and I actually enjoyed it. I met my prescribed pace for every mile repeat and found the recovery intervals to be key in helping me attain this.
I listened to an older podcast this week with my favorite, Matt Fitzgerald, where he basically reiterates many of the concepts from the Hansons plan, namely that it is important to complete more intense workouts in the beginning weeks of a plan (aka, speed work) and taper off in the later weeks. Matt basically says that the worst part of the marathon is fatigue, and if you can learn to mentally and physically train yourself for this fatigue through intense workouts once a week or so, you will be able to effectively train your brain (and body) to face the marathon. While it is important to complete the easy runs easy, doing all easy runs would not help prepare you for the level of fatigue you will feel during the race. In the past I was very flat in my training. I did all my "easy" runs way too fast, and my long run slow. After utilizing this method of training for my half, I reaped the benefits from intense workouts and will admit to looking forward to them each week to challenge myself in a new way.
Long Run:
Speaking of challenging, this was the first week with a 16 mile long run, which is a huge jump from the 10 mile long runs I have been doing. I missed the 15 mile long run in week 9 where I miserably failed during the very hot day I attempted this workout and sadly this probably would have better prepared me for the 16 miles. Ironically the last time I did a 16 mile run was almost a year ago - August 29th. While I went on to run 18, 20, and 26.2, it has been a while since I have run over 13 miles and man did I feel it. I headed out early on Sunday as I knew it would take me a long time to complete this run, and I had a family party to attend to in the early afternoon. The air temp at 6 am was 67, but it was 98% humidity! I started off the run just fine, even enjoying the beautiful scenery (see tomorrow's Trail Tuesday), but around mile 11 I was completely drenched in my own sweat and feeling the fatigue from the previous day's 8 miles. Hence the purpose of the plan...to simulate the last 16 miles of the marathon, not the first. I did not have fresh legs and once the fatigue set in I struggled. My bluetooth decided to unpair with my phone in the middle of a podcast and I was left with nothing to amuse myself with for about an hour. I can run without music or distraction, but long runs are hard enough with nothing but your brain telling you how everything hurts and you want to stop. Ultimately facing this unexpected mishap is brain training so at least I can put a positive spin on the experience. Thankfully I know myself and what to plan for, and I packed an extra shirt in my car and I stopped there around mile 13 and that wardrobe change made a huge difference. I took a gel, changed my shirt, and felt refreshed and finished the last 3 miles strong. Originally I had planned to run the 16 from my house, but the trail was flooded which meant I had to run a 4 mile loop, a 9 mile loop, and repeat the 3 miles out of the 4 mile loop. This worked out well because I did not have to carry water with me and could change my shirt. In the end I finished the 16 and while it was more challenging than I had expected, it is another notch in the training belt and I know that each 16 miler will get easier. It is also a positive thought to know that 16 is the max I have to run at one time on this plan.
I have to give a shout out to Spokes Bikes for the amazing water station they set up on the Naperville section of the trail as the cold water was so refreshing when I was struggling. I also have to give a shout out to someone who will never see this, but who helped tremendously. For the past month I have run past a man several times a week who I exchange a wave, smile, and small talk with. Initially I was hesitant to talk to a strange man on the trail, but one day we caught each other in the park and had a longer conversation while recovering and he told me about his past races and achievements. I would guess he is around 60 and he is a sub 3 hour marathoner which is impressive and I loved hearing his race stories and tips. Whenever we see each other he is so encouraging and wants to know what I am running and this couldn't have come at a better time than Sunday when I was many miles into the run and suddenly there he was. He ended up running with me for about a mile at a very slow pace for him, but it was very kind of him to hang around with me and motivate me when I needed it. Most of the time I prefer to run by myself as it is my way to relieve stress, but it is times like this where I really value having someone to run with. So thank you nameless marathon man!
Fatigue Level:
My physical fatigue level was very high this week as expected, but I also know that this is to be expected and ultimately necessary. Thankfully I got my monthly sports massage and that made a world of difference. I could instantly feel how my posture was corrected and my hips dropped and aligned which helped my stride when I ran the day after. This was the first time in weeks my legs were not inflamed and felt light instead of like dead weights. I also tried out the Zensah recovery tights that Kara Goucher endorses, and if they work for her, they have to be pretty good! I put them on right after my shower on Saturday and Sunday, and I do think the compression helped. I will see if I notice a larger difference over time, but if nothing else, simply wearing them feels good. Putting them on over my giant calves was quite a challenge though....
Unfortunately due to my early wakeup call for the long run and no nap afterwards, I am lacking on sleep which is so necessary for recovery. I could tell how exhausted my body was when I woke up today and that I needed many more hours of sleep. I plan to head to bed earlier a few nights this week to hopefully speed up recovery.
Nutrition:
My nutrition was on par this past week with focus on fueling properly after runs, and also on taking in electrolytes after hot runs. I made sure to eat a really great healthy carb filled meal before my long run as I have noticed in the past this really helps the next morning. Unfortunately I did not fuel enough after my long run. While I ate immediately afterwards and had a larger meal a few hours later, the party I attended was a bummer in terms of food and I was not able to eat dinner until I arrived back home. I could not eat the dinner provided due to allergies (pineapple) and ethical reasons (factory farmed meat). I had a scoop of mashed potatoes and some chips! Not my finest moment, and it meant eating dinner at 8:00 at night. I was negative 1,000 calories for the day, and at that point my body was just shutting down and I did not have the energy to socialize with anyone. While the food I ate helped, I know I did not eat enough to help my body repair itself. I know this cannot happen again and I need to make every effort to fuel responsibly next time around!
I also used the long run to try a new gel - Gu Rocktane. I have used Gu in the past, but was curious about the Rocktane formula which promotes a stronger formula for endurance sports. I made sure to try the gel around the public bathrooms just in case I had a bad reaction, but it tasted great and I had no GI issues. It is hard to say if I felt the effects of it more than a normal gel, but I am curious to continue using it on longer runs to determine if it makes a difference.
Mental and Emotional Strength:
This is a tough one this week. While I felt mentally strong during my strength runs, I faltered a bit during the long run and had to use positive self talk to make it through the difficult miles. Aside from training, I am also struggling a lot with my job. My company will be laying off a significant part of the staff, and it is likely that I will be included in this. The atmosphere around the office is toxic and while I am trying my best to not let it reach me, I would be lying if I said that it did not affect me emotionally or impact my running at all. When you never know if today is the day you will be fired, it is hard to arrive to the office in a positive mood. When coworkers spend all day speculating who is indispensable and who is not, a level of paranoia spreads and it is just a horrible environment to spend the day in. I am glad I have running and training to look forward to each day, especially to blow off steam, but it is creeping into my mental training. While I hope that I do not lose my job, I do hope that a decision is made soon so that I do not have to live in limbo and this constant state of stress that I do not need.
All in all, I have enjoyed watching the Olympics and I was so inspired after watching the women's marathon yesterday. Desi Linden is one of my favorites and after hearing how strong she finished, I couldn't help but smile to myself and know that it is the good old Hanson's cumulative fatigue training that makes that possible!
Here is what week 11 looked like for me:
Monday: 5 miles easy
Tuesday: Strength - 6 X 1 mile, 400 recovery
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday:
Friday: 5 miles easy
Saturday: 8 miles easy
Sunday: 16 miles long
Still not a perfect week in terms of completing all of the runs, but pretty darn close. I am not happy I had to miss the tempo run as Tuesdays and Thursdays are really the core of the plan, but the temps were in the high 90's with 90% humidity and I know that it would have done more damage than good to try and force myself to complete the run.
Strength:
Week 11 is when the strength runs start, and these are runs that are completed at 10 seconds faster than your race pace. Strength workouts are still difficult but in a different way than speed work. The focus is less on a faster pace for a short period of time with preparing your body to handle fatigue. Combined with the long run and increased tempo distances, this is where the plan gets really "fun"....difficult. To be honest, I was dreading this first run but I found it to go by quickly and I actually enjoyed it. I met my prescribed pace for every mile repeat and found the recovery intervals to be key in helping me attain this.
 |
| Strength runs are fun! |
I listened to an older podcast this week with my favorite, Matt Fitzgerald, where he basically reiterates many of the concepts from the Hansons plan, namely that it is important to complete more intense workouts in the beginning weeks of a plan (aka, speed work) and taper off in the later weeks. Matt basically says that the worst part of the marathon is fatigue, and if you can learn to mentally and physically train yourself for this fatigue through intense workouts once a week or so, you will be able to effectively train your brain (and body) to face the marathon. While it is important to complete the easy runs easy, doing all easy runs would not help prepare you for the level of fatigue you will feel during the race. In the past I was very flat in my training. I did all my "easy" runs way too fast, and my long run slow. After utilizing this method of training for my half, I reaped the benefits from intense workouts and will admit to looking forward to them each week to challenge myself in a new way.
Long Run:
Speaking of challenging, this was the first week with a 16 mile long run, which is a huge jump from the 10 mile long runs I have been doing. I missed the 15 mile long run in week 9 where I miserably failed during the very hot day I attempted this workout and sadly this probably would have better prepared me for the 16 miles. Ironically the last time I did a 16 mile run was almost a year ago - August 29th. While I went on to run 18, 20, and 26.2, it has been a while since I have run over 13 miles and man did I feel it. I headed out early on Sunday as I knew it would take me a long time to complete this run, and I had a family party to attend to in the early afternoon. The air temp at 6 am was 67, but it was 98% humidity! I started off the run just fine, even enjoying the beautiful scenery (see tomorrow's Trail Tuesday), but around mile 11 I was completely drenched in my own sweat and feeling the fatigue from the previous day's 8 miles. Hence the purpose of the plan...to simulate the last 16 miles of the marathon, not the first. I did not have fresh legs and once the fatigue set in I struggled. My bluetooth decided to unpair with my phone in the middle of a podcast and I was left with nothing to amuse myself with for about an hour. I can run without music or distraction, but long runs are hard enough with nothing but your brain telling you how everything hurts and you want to stop. Ultimately facing this unexpected mishap is brain training so at least I can put a positive spin on the experience. Thankfully I know myself and what to plan for, and I packed an extra shirt in my car and I stopped there around mile 13 and that wardrobe change made a huge difference. I took a gel, changed my shirt, and felt refreshed and finished the last 3 miles strong. Originally I had planned to run the 16 from my house, but the trail was flooded which meant I had to run a 4 mile loop, a 9 mile loop, and repeat the 3 miles out of the 4 mile loop. This worked out well because I did not have to carry water with me and could change my shirt. In the end I finished the 16 and while it was more challenging than I had expected, it is another notch in the training belt and I know that each 16 miler will get easier. It is also a positive thought to know that 16 is the max I have to run at one time on this plan.
I have to give a shout out to Spokes Bikes for the amazing water station they set up on the Naperville section of the trail as the cold water was so refreshing when I was struggling. I also have to give a shout out to someone who will never see this, but who helped tremendously. For the past month I have run past a man several times a week who I exchange a wave, smile, and small talk with. Initially I was hesitant to talk to a strange man on the trail, but one day we caught each other in the park and had a longer conversation while recovering and he told me about his past races and achievements. I would guess he is around 60 and he is a sub 3 hour marathoner which is impressive and I loved hearing his race stories and tips. Whenever we see each other he is so encouraging and wants to know what I am running and this couldn't have come at a better time than Sunday when I was many miles into the run and suddenly there he was. He ended up running with me for about a mile at a very slow pace for him, but it was very kind of him to hang around with me and motivate me when I needed it. Most of the time I prefer to run by myself as it is my way to relieve stress, but it is times like this where I really value having someone to run with. So thank you nameless marathon man!
Fatigue Level:
My physical fatigue level was very high this week as expected, but I also know that this is to be expected and ultimately necessary. Thankfully I got my monthly sports massage and that made a world of difference. I could instantly feel how my posture was corrected and my hips dropped and aligned which helped my stride when I ran the day after. This was the first time in weeks my legs were not inflamed and felt light instead of like dead weights. I also tried out the Zensah recovery tights that Kara Goucher endorses, and if they work for her, they have to be pretty good! I put them on right after my shower on Saturday and Sunday, and I do think the compression helped. I will see if I notice a larger difference over time, but if nothing else, simply wearing them feels good. Putting them on over my giant calves was quite a challenge though....
 |
| Please work recovery tights! |
Unfortunately due to my early wakeup call for the long run and no nap afterwards, I am lacking on sleep which is so necessary for recovery. I could tell how exhausted my body was when I woke up today and that I needed many more hours of sleep. I plan to head to bed earlier a few nights this week to hopefully speed up recovery.
Nutrition:
My nutrition was on par this past week with focus on fueling properly after runs, and also on taking in electrolytes after hot runs. I made sure to eat a really great healthy carb filled meal before my long run as I have noticed in the past this really helps the next morning. Unfortunately I did not fuel enough after my long run. While I ate immediately afterwards and had a larger meal a few hours later, the party I attended was a bummer in terms of food and I was not able to eat dinner until I arrived back home. I could not eat the dinner provided due to allergies (pineapple) and ethical reasons (factory farmed meat). I had a scoop of mashed potatoes and some chips! Not my finest moment, and it meant eating dinner at 8:00 at night. I was negative 1,000 calories for the day, and at that point my body was just shutting down and I did not have the energy to socialize with anyone. While the food I ate helped, I know I did not eat enough to help my body repair itself. I know this cannot happen again and I need to make every effort to fuel responsibly next time around!
I also used the long run to try a new gel - Gu Rocktane. I have used Gu in the past, but was curious about the Rocktane formula which promotes a stronger formula for endurance sports. I made sure to try the gel around the public bathrooms just in case I had a bad reaction, but it tasted great and I had no GI issues. It is hard to say if I felt the effects of it more than a normal gel, but I am curious to continue using it on longer runs to determine if it makes a difference.
Mental and Emotional Strength:
This is a tough one this week. While I felt mentally strong during my strength runs, I faltered a bit during the long run and had to use positive self talk to make it through the difficult miles. Aside from training, I am also struggling a lot with my job. My company will be laying off a significant part of the staff, and it is likely that I will be included in this. The atmosphere around the office is toxic and while I am trying my best to not let it reach me, I would be lying if I said that it did not affect me emotionally or impact my running at all. When you never know if today is the day you will be fired, it is hard to arrive to the office in a positive mood. When coworkers spend all day speculating who is indispensable and who is not, a level of paranoia spreads and it is just a horrible environment to spend the day in. I am glad I have running and training to look forward to each day, especially to blow off steam, but it is creeping into my mental training. While I hope that I do not lose my job, I do hope that a decision is made soon so that I do not have to live in limbo and this constant state of stress that I do not need.
All in all, I have enjoyed watching the Olympics and I was so inspired after watching the women's marathon yesterday. Desi Linden is one of my favorites and after hearing how strong she finished, I couldn't help but smile to myself and know that it is the good old Hanson's cumulative fatigue training that makes that possible!
Comments
Post a Comment