Project 245 Week#9

Taper week (the real one)

Last week I casually mentioned I am “tapering” while assuming everyone in this world runs and they know what the word “taper” means. It’s like when I say the word “threshold” to people, I assume that I live in a world where carrying a blood lactate meter, lactate strips and a heart rate monitor is a common practise. Spoiler alert: It is not. But atleast Béné and my parents know what I mean when I say, I have a 22 mile workout with 2 miles warmup, 4 miles at threshold, 1 hour at 1 min/km slower than marathon pace followed by 2*2 miles at threshold with 2' recovery and a 2 mile cooldown. Or atleast I hope they do.

If I’m honest this running jargon isn’t even complicated. Swimming workouts can be insanely complicated and much harder to decode. Check this out for size:

Circling back to me throwing around running jargon, I thought that maybe it will be useful to explain my running jargon. I can then this jargon on my blog and can refer people to this post if they want further explanation.

Oh, and I thought I will attach this graphic I did years ago explaining heart rate zones too which might be able to help further:

HR max: is maximum heart rate. Also, circulation*

1. Easy Run: A run which doesn’t put too much effort on the cardiovascular system. A long run can be easy too, even though the relative effort for it is higher than a 1 hour easy run. This run corresponds to Zone 2. And, easy is a relative word in terms of pace and often misunderstood. Easy means that is should feel easy for you. Easy for Kipchoge might be your threshold. Run at your “easy” pace.
   PS: Relative effort is the physical strain created by the run.
2. Endurance Run: Usually the top end (faster side) of an easy run pace, which corresponds to the top end of Zone 2 and until about the middle of Zone 3. It’s a pace which is brisker than easy but can be held without problem for a duration longer than marathon pace (which is explained later).
3. Recovery Run: A run done on the days you feel trashed. It is akin an easy run but prior to it your body is usually not feeling good. Normal people call it “jogging”. Post a recovery run, you should feel good or atleast less trashed. Also, it is a run which theoretically shouldn’t last more than 1 hour. If it is more than that, it can have diminishing returns. The goal of this run is to flush out the legs and feel good.
4. Doubles: Double run days. I am not crazy enough (yet) to do Triples. I do recovery runs in doubles, so that I don’t spend more than an hour on my feet in 1 go on recovery days.
5. Recovery Day: Completely depends on the “training block” (explained later). A recovery day can mean nearly 14 miles of running (2*7 mile recovery runs) in peak marathon training. Or it can mean a simple 10k jog. Or even a day with just cross-training.
6. General Aerobic Run: See “easy run”. It is called “aerobic” because the body is utilizing the aerobic pathway and the anaerobic pathway has not being engaged yet. More explanation below.
7. Threshold Run aka Lactate Threshold Run: This will take a bit of explaining but I will try to make it easy.
   You know that feeling of your legs feeling heavy after you run really fast ? That’s because the body is consuming glucose and converting it into (for simplicity's sake, reality is a bit more complex) lactate.
   At rest, your blood lactate concentration is 1 mMol/liter. As you begin to exercise, the lactate concentration goes up. Studies indicate that a concentration of 2 mMol/liter is when you arrive at your aerobic threshold, which means above that your body will start to engage the anaerobic pathway along with the aerobic pathway. At this point however, the body is still capable of clearing away the lactate and you don’t approach complete muscle fatigue. At a concentration 4 mMol/liter of lactate, you arrive at the anaerobic threshold beyond which the body can longer clear away the lactate faster than it is accumulating and the muscles will quickly reach fatigue.
   When I refer to lactate threshold, I mean the anaerobic threshold (4 mMol/liter). The goal with such a run is simple: Keep the body below this threshold. By training like this, you develop your body’s efficiency to increase velocity while being below the threshold. The body becomes more efficient at clearing away the lactate and you become faster aerobically as well. The lactate concentration is efficiently measured by using a blood lactate meter and some lactate strips. But, the meter alone costs 300 CHF and the strips are 2 bucks a piece. So, most people just either use their heart rate(in heart rate training it corresponds to Zone 4) or if you don’t want to get into that malarkey, threshold is simply the pace which runners can sustain for 1 hour (or half marathon in better trained runners). It is by far the most popular form of training right now, for runners.
   There are variations on this theme. A lactate threshold workout can be anything from 25*400 meters with 30" rest to this confusing workout: 4' at threshold(T), 4' min at 5–10" per/km faster than threshold (F) followed by 6*(4' T/2' F) and everything in between(6–10*1 mile with 400 meters recovery or 3-4*2 mile with 2' recovery or even a steady threshold run of 5–8 miles). The goal is mostly to stay at threshold and if you’re taking recovery not to make it too long. What Thibault(and Jakob Ingebrigtsen and many Scandinavian runners and frankly most elite runners)does and what I want to try is “double threshold”, which is doing 2 sessions of threshold on the same day. It is quite brutal, but the training stimulus created by it yields a lot of benefits. It also might result in chronic fatigue (as Jake pointed out) and perhaps it is best tried if you have nothing else to do during the day than running. Until then, a single threshold session should suffice.
8. Tempo Run: Now, this can be confusing because a tempo can mean any kind of tempo. I used to use tempo interchangeably with threshold, but I have seen people use words like marathon pace tempo etc. I just call a marathon pace tempo an MP run.
9. Marathon Pace(MP) Run: See above. Just kidding. Marathon pace is well, the pace I can hold for a marathon. Duh. During training, early in the season MP is 5–10" per/km slower than goal pace because I don’t want to burn all the matches early season. As the season progresses the workouts at MP are done at MP. MP can be integrated into long runs as well, for example, doing a 20 mile long run with 10 miles at marathon pace.
10. Long Run: In Advanced Marathoning 3rd Edition by Pete Pfitzinger & Scott Douglas, a long run is defined as any run longer than 16 miles (26 kilometers). I was once quoted(by no one in particular) as saying “It is not really a long run until it is atleast 20 miles(32 kilometers).”
11. Medium Long Run: In Advanced Marathoning 3rd Edition by Pete Pfitzinger & Scott Douglas, a medium long run is defined as any run between 12 to 15 miles (20 to 24 kilometers). Both long and medium long runs can be done at easy pace or can have a threshold or marathon pace component to them.
12. Vo2 max sessions: Here, you are closer top end of Zone 4 and getting into Zone 5. The speed is closer to your 3k/5k pace (even 1 mile pace for shorter reps). A typical Vo2 max session for me is 2*1600, 2*1200 and 2*1000 with half recovery i.e.(800 meters, 600 meters and 500 meters of jog) done at 5k pace. They are fast. They hurt. And Jake is very good at them.
13. Strides: They are pick-ups in speed often done at Vo2 max. Usually, they are about 100 to 150 meters long or 20"-30" with double the time as recovery(40"-60"). They are a good addition with your aerobic runs, 1–2 times a week, allowing you to maintain leg speed. Just chucking in 8–10 strides in the middle of or at the end of an aerobic run brings a lot of benefit. They are also great as a warmup before threshold or Vo2 max sessions. Kenenisa Bekele does strides after a long run and so I started doing them as well. It is a great way to have a kick at the end of a marathon.
14. Season: Winter/Spring/Summer/Autumn.
    No, not really. It depends when you start your “season” but I like to divide my year into 2 seasons culminating in 1 goal for the spring and 1 goal for the autumn. Within a season, my “goal” is my “A-race” and then there are some other “B-races” which are buildup races to the “goal”. This year, my spring “goal” is to help pace Joan to a 2:45 marathon and build a strong aerobic base and then later in the year, I have Valencia marathon as my “A-race”. Within a season, there are phases.
15. Base Phase: It is a chunk of training where the focus is on doing more aerobic runs and churning out atleast 1 threshold session/week and 1 long run. You can call my spring season this year as a large base phase.
16. Marathon/Half marathon/5–10k training block: It is a set period of time (usually 12–18 weeks) where I go from doing 1 session/week to 2 or even 3 depending on the distance and volume. Mid to the last quarter of a block is usually the one with the highest mileage and 2 sessions(one threshold and one hard long run) and is characterized by bad mood, almost never feeling fresh and even recovery runs can feel miserable. Crying during running is quite common. Some other days you might feel like Eliud Kipchoge.

As long as you feel more like Kipchoge and less like wanting to cry, it is a good balance. Towards the last quarter of the training block, mileage maybe be dropped a bit to add another session (Vo2 max) to keep the speed in the legs. If it is more specific to 5–10k, the long run becomes shorter and focus on Vo2 max becomes more important.

17. Taper: The last part of the training block, where both mileage and intensity come down. You do 1 session a week to keep the legs sharp and a long run, but most other runs are either recovery or easy.

18. Rest Days: Huh?

19. Offseason: A foreign concept to me much like rest days. Though I don’t believe in “rest” days because I feel until you are really sick, you should move, I do believe in reducing the intensity and even taking days where you don’t run. You can cross-train by swimming, walking, biking or doing Yoga or playing Golf. Either way, time away from running to miss it a bit. If possible, letting the body recover in every way possible: eating, sleeping and not forcing it to workout.

I think I covered them all. So now that we are on the same page, let me begin.

This is my 2nd taper week. Last week, I came down to 81 miles from 105, a cut of nearly 23%. This week, the goal is to cut it by another 23%. What follows is a feeling of very fresh legs and a lot of free time. Your day feels a lot longer when you have to run just once. I was joking with Béné yesterday that having a “long run” of 13 miles is hilarious, because for nearly 4 weeks I averaged over 15 miles a day. In fact, as per my definitions it only qualifies as a medium-long run. I am looking forward to getting this week done and then look forward to race week. Joan definitely looks sharp and has been running strong. I am going to talk more about it next week.

Stories from the past:

Last week, I mentioned a story from my past about spring and I don’t know if you folks liked it or not but Béné did. I don’t want to pander to a single audience, but I am marrying her. So, she is an important audience. Plus, I wrote that story more as a writing challenge to help improve my writing.

Because we talked about running in the first part of the blog, I was thinking why not make the whole blog for this week running-themed? Then my SEO optimization will be easier.

I got into running in 2012. I had done some running when I was 8–9 and then some jogging during swimming offseason in 2004–2005–2006 as a teen but I was always more of a swimmer. Once out of high school and in college, I stopped believing in exercise. Or attending classes (especially in the first year of college). I made it everyone else’s problem that I didn’t get into a college I wanted to because apparently I was disappointed that they don’t give you seat in a college based on how much you had hoped to score. I have always been (and continue to be) someone who believes things will work out for him. Admittedly, I am more jaded now. I tend not to get too stressed for small things but I have failed enough in life now to get stressed about things which matter in life. Or you know, atleast I try to make an effort now and then. But back in the early to mid 2000s, I thought I was invincible. I had this unearned sense confidence which comes from never having faced anything difficult in life. Ok, yes I swam and was good at it but I don’t think I ever faced real competition outside the my local pool. I outsprinted a guy 6 years older than me, twice when I was 13 and hardly lost a race in my local pool but the competition outside was immense and I didn’t face it. I was also a good student but I never addressed the flaws I had. And heck, I even had a girlfriend when I was 13. People my age weren’t like that. Now our brain has a tendency to edit memories in our favour, so when I paint this cool portrait of me, I don’t think all was good. It’s just I don’t remember the bad parts as well as I remember the good ones.
The bad parts definitely existed because the trauma from that time led to me becoming anorexic. If you are well adjusted, you don’t behave the way I did during 2004 and 2005 (and basically long after that). But hey, we were in 2000s and trauma was normal. It would’ve been better for me to talk about my troubles with someone, but we toughed it out. I was good in the pool. I was good in classes but time had come to become an engineer.

The pool water gave way to physics, chemistry and maths. The course load was heavy and my way of dealing with problems was similar to a pigeon’s. I just closed my eyes and hoped that the problems will disappear. Plus, the illusion of confidence I had was making me believe I was understanding everything which was being taught. You don’t make it in India or anywhere for that matter if you are like that. I learnt that years later. In the absence of that self awareness I ended up nowhere. Literally, my college was in the middle of nowhere.
And instead of working hard to improve my situation, I blamed everyone and everything around me. Yes, people were wrong but it was my responsibility to deal with it. But at 19, I didn’t have that wisdom. I spent time outside of class, playing guitar and eating junk food. I never drank or smoked. My poison of choice was Domino’s Pizza. Actually, the cheesy garlic bread from Domino’s. I didn’t have a refined palette like I do now, I used to think Domino’s makes good pizza. (Italians everywhere are displeased with that line, spitting out their espressos in disgust). The consumption of every sort of junk food you could find, combined with sodas and absolutely no exercise meant I was a balloon ready to burst. Anorexia was definitely cured. It was replaced by body dysmorphia and physically hurting myself, calling myself fat and yet doing nothing about it.
The list of shit I have done to myself is quite shameful and will not be detailed here. Glorification of self-harm and mental health issues is something I refuse to support.

Then, in 2012 I had typhoid and through the sickness I had an epiphany that made me want to be fit again. I didn’t go back to the pool but instead picked up running. Running was my savior. It is literally the simplest sport in the world. You need next to nothing to do it. You can run barefoot if you want. Any real estate will do. People are known to have run marathons in prison. You’re absolutely free and that’s how I felt when I started to run. I remember, I had a pair of Nike trainers, which came with the Nike+ app which I had installed on my iPod. I didn’t know the concept of GPS or training. I don’t remember how I trained in those days. I just remember Delhi’s very warm summers and deciding to run the Airtel Delhi half marathon in 2012.

That half marathon was painful as fuck. You know, I keep saying I didn’t have GPS but it isn’t very difficult to count laps of the track I was training on. Somehow, I deluded myself in believing the gyroscopic readings of my iPod and felt I was ready to go. I have a few memories of that day. I don’t remember the start line but I distinctly remember the 16k mark. My app was telling me I was finished but there were still 5k to go. I must’ve somehow convinced myself that Procam running (the organizers) must’ve mis-measured the course. (BY 5097 meters, yeah). I guess I kept going because I definitely finished the race.

Funnily, I posted on Facebook that I had run my 1st half marathon in 1h41 (which was my time at 16k). But when I went back to the website, I saw that my time was 2:23:28. That’s who I was a person in 2012. My head was that far below in the sand.

It’s funny, I still didn’t finish in the bottom 50%.

You know, I wanted to write about how I improved after this and went from being a 2:23 half guy to now running 1:11 and am still improving.
But I feel I have been very critical about my 22 year old self and want to just praise him for a bit.

In 2012, I wasn’t running regularly and I was quite weak from typhoid. I had just started running again and in fact, July 2012 was when I started my 1st job. The schedule of the job in itself was a torture. Spending 4 hours a day to commute to an 8 hour job (which often ended up being more hours than 8). Like I said I had absolutely no clue about training, nutrition or hydration. I didn’t look up anything on the internet. I didn’t know gels existed until 2015. I don’t remember what (if anything) I ate before the marathon. I don’t know how I got through that because my only memory of that race is the 16k mark and thinking “Fuck, maybe they have the distance wrong.” I had never run for even 1 hour, let alone 1 hour 41 minutes. And I have no memory of the next 42 minutes either. I just remember being at the Metro station with my dad, almost unable to stand up. And I remember, next day at work I told someone I had run 1 hour 41 and he was very impressed, until he checked my result. You know how you feel when you’ve been slapped in the face and your ear is ringing? I had that feeling when I was told my time.

The thing is, for whatever reason when really faced with the choice to do something or quit and blame everything else and not stop at 16k, I chose to persevere. And while it took me years after this race to exorcise my demons, deal with emotional issues and eating issues (some of which I still struggle with) but I feel this was my first achievement after having descended into the path of being a nobody. Without this race there would be no Ironman or Ultraman, there would be no Switzerland and the first part of this blog.

I acted the opposite of how I had acted in life. I was embarrassed and instead of hiding, I began to run regularly. I was helped by the fact that I got an iPhone, which had a GPS on it and I could measure distances accurately. In 1 year, I improved by 58 minutes and a larger part of it was facing the idiot that I was and working my way through the problem.

Running is this big an influence on my life. It was and still is my greatest teacher. It taught me to get through times, it taught me to find a rhythm, it helped me find love and acceptance towards myself and my demons, it gave me the strength to become somebody. I don’t know who I would be without running. People always say you find other ways to fulfil your destiny but I don’t agree. If people did that, everyone in this world would be successful.

If you find yourself going through hell and this hell seems never ending, maybe it time to look around. You might be in a prison of your own design. Maybe you’re lying to yourself the way I was. Maybe you’re blaming others for things you should fix. Maybe you were really dealt a bad hand and yes, life sucks. But you know, even with the absolute truth that life sucks, people find ways to make it better. You can too. If you’re going through hell and it burns, don’t just keep walking and ignoring the heat. Look around you, look for ways to escape. Or accept that it is hell and build your reality around it. Life is nothing without its miseries and those miseries make things beautiful, those miseries make the good times feel even greater.

Pictures:

There’s already enough text, here’s some pictures and hope you have a great end of week/week ahead.