Tuesday, December 13, 2005
10 years older - and it's showing...
Having gone to close to a couple of 10-year old PBs on Saturday, I was beginning to think that nothing had been lost with age. That was until I got out of bed Sunday morning! Muscles I had forgotten existed were aching.
After a crappy 4.5 hours sleep (stressing over a situation I really couldn't have altered, but feeling bad for letting a friend down), I dutifully went through the motions at 5:30am, and headed out the door for an easy 16km. My current training defines easy as 4:30/km, but this doesn't account for yesterday's workout or the roller-coaster landscape, and I was happy just to scrape in under 5 min/km, doing the 16km in 1:19.04. Felt flat as a tack the whole way - any spring in my step had been left at the triple jump take-off board. On the plus side, my heart-rate averaged 137 for the whole workout, so it was exactly the long run I needed - it just didn't feel like it at the time.
If Sunday was bad, Monday was worse, and DOMS had well and truly kicked in (although it felt more like riga-mortis), and my hamstrings and groin were aching. However, with Amelia staying in Bondi for the night (having been to a Hafla (belly dancing performance) in the city), Louis was my only source of compassion - and not a very good one. Walked him to swimming lessons (about 2km) and back, and had a great time during the lesson (as did Louis), which helped the tightness a little. Headed out for my sheduled 9km run at lunch, which I got through in 39:40 - some quick kms, but mostly just getting by.
I have started to process the wealth of data from Saturday's various events, and have drawn a few conclusions.
* my triple jump was a huge confidence booster - indicating that speed and strength are at about the same level as 10 years ago (my technique has certainly not improved), if not higher. So hopefully nearly all my PBs from that era are reachable, and given a more focused training plan, beatable (the 800m probably being the exception here)
* although my 200m was the slowest I've ever run, the head-wind and potentially dodgy timing puts it on about par with my first runs of the season back in 1993 and 1994. In those seasons I was running sub-24 seconds a couple of months later, so there is no reason to think differently this time.
* I really need to start working on my sprinting technique and strength. After some good feedback from EasyTiger from CoolRunning, I will be making a few adjustments to my weight training regime (primarily to start doing it regularly - I have been quite slack of late, although this is mainly due to injuries). Will be heading away from the basic strength routine and towards a more event oriented plan - using Dan OBrien's (decathlon world record holder and Olympic gold medalist) book as a base.
* shoes! Triple jumping in distance spikes can't be good for my legs. Likewise, discus throwing in running shoes (so as your body spins, your feet stay put, so eventually you screw your legs off) isn't helpful. And 200m in shoes designed to run 10,000m in is hardly optimal. So it is off to Running Science for three pairs of shoes (sprinting, jumping and throwing) - and another test of my financial commitment to the event.
* aerobic stength. This needs to receive a boost to help with the four long events (3000m, 3000m SC, 5000m, 10000m). From yesterday's run, I don't think I would be capable of running sub-35 minutes for 10km at the moment, which I think is a benchmark I need to get back to and maintain. The 600m intervals at 5km pace are good, but probably too short. After this week, I will extend them out to 1000m, making this a tougher session, but delivering in an area that has suffered over the past couple of months.
* the physical effects of Saturday are probably the major difference over the intervening 10 years - ie. my body can still produce the same physical output, but it will take a greater toll and take longer to recover. This puts the emphasis back on recovery activities like stretching and massage.
Track session scheduled for this afternoon - still tight, so may revert back to the 5x600m session in place of the 8x300s. Actually, I think I might just go for a swim, and give my legs another day to recover.
After a crappy 4.5 hours sleep (stressing over a situation I really couldn't have altered, but feeling bad for letting a friend down), I dutifully went through the motions at 5:30am, and headed out the door for an easy 16km. My current training defines easy as 4:30/km, but this doesn't account for yesterday's workout or the roller-coaster landscape, and I was happy just to scrape in under 5 min/km, doing the 16km in 1:19.04. Felt flat as a tack the whole way - any spring in my step had been left at the triple jump take-off board. On the plus side, my heart-rate averaged 137 for the whole workout, so it was exactly the long run I needed - it just didn't feel like it at the time.
If Sunday was bad, Monday was worse, and DOMS had well and truly kicked in (although it felt more like riga-mortis), and my hamstrings and groin were aching. However, with Amelia staying in Bondi for the night (having been to a Hafla (belly dancing performance) in the city), Louis was my only source of compassion - and not a very good one. Walked him to swimming lessons (about 2km) and back, and had a great time during the lesson (as did Louis), which helped the tightness a little. Headed out for my sheduled 9km run at lunch, which I got through in 39:40 - some quick kms, but mostly just getting by.
I have started to process the wealth of data from Saturday's various events, and have drawn a few conclusions.
* my triple jump was a huge confidence booster - indicating that speed and strength are at about the same level as 10 years ago (my technique has certainly not improved), if not higher. So hopefully nearly all my PBs from that era are reachable, and given a more focused training plan, beatable (the 800m probably being the exception here)
* although my 200m was the slowest I've ever run, the head-wind and potentially dodgy timing puts it on about par with my first runs of the season back in 1993 and 1994. In those seasons I was running sub-24 seconds a couple of months later, so there is no reason to think differently this time.
* I really need to start working on my sprinting technique and strength. After some good feedback from EasyTiger from CoolRunning, I will be making a few adjustments to my weight training regime (primarily to start doing it regularly - I have been quite slack of late, although this is mainly due to injuries). Will be heading away from the basic strength routine and towards a more event oriented plan - using Dan OBrien's (decathlon world record holder and Olympic gold medalist) book as a base.
* shoes! Triple jumping in distance spikes can't be good for my legs. Likewise, discus throwing in running shoes (so as your body spins, your feet stay put, so eventually you screw your legs off) isn't helpful. And 200m in shoes designed to run 10,000m in is hardly optimal. So it is off to Running Science for three pairs of shoes (sprinting, jumping and throwing) - and another test of my financial commitment to the event.
* aerobic stength. This needs to receive a boost to help with the four long events (3000m, 3000m SC, 5000m, 10000m). From yesterday's run, I don't think I would be capable of running sub-35 minutes for 10km at the moment, which I think is a benchmark I need to get back to and maintain. The 600m intervals at 5km pace are good, but probably too short. After this week, I will extend them out to 1000m, making this a tougher session, but delivering in an area that has suffered over the past couple of months.
* the physical effects of Saturday are probably the major difference over the intervening 10 years - ie. my body can still produce the same physical output, but it will take a greater toll and take longer to recover. This puts the emphasis back on recovery activities like stretching and massage.
Track session scheduled for this afternoon - still tight, so may revert back to the 5x600m session in place of the 8x300s. Actually, I think I might just go for a swim, and give my legs another day to recover.
