Gary’s Fitness Blog

It is now a week after the Flying Pig Marathon and two weeks after the Country Music Marathon (podcast here) and I thought I would sit down and write some lessons I learned by taking on this challenge and how they could be used in future marathon running programs.

The Back Story:

To keep it as short as possible; Nikki didn’t get signed up for the Derby Festival Half Marathon before it closed. She decided to go to do the Country Music Half Marathon, I chose to go with her and also decided that trying to do the full marathon was a good idea. It seemed like a fun idea because we had a friend running the full marathon and I thought it would be enjoyable to run it with her.

Even before I started the Country Music Marathon, I thought about the idea of possibly doing the Flying Pig Marathon the following week. Why? I am not completely sure, but I have known local runners that have done it before and it intrigued me.

So here’s the reality: I was under-trained for a single marathon (i.e. no traditional marathon training, just regular, daily run or bike), let alone being prepared to run two.

My mindset leading into the runs:

The one thing that I was absolutely confident I had to do to survive this experiment was have a solid and healthy strategy even before I ran the marathons. These strategies included some of the following ideas -

a. Run with Nikki and Jill at Country Music and have fun - But, make sure that effort remained as low as possible and if I started to develop too many aches / pains (i.e. notice my hip and hamstring problem come back) back off completely and finish run by myself.

b. Walk! Walk every aid station at both marathons.

c. Be aware of heart rates. The normal average heart rate I see for a marathon is around 178bpm to 180bpm. Because I had done zero speed work or even tempo runs, I knew that if I ever saw heart rates that high, I might be entering a dangerous zone. You can read the Flying Pig Stats to see the specifics, but I had planned on keeping it around 160bpm during the first half and allow the natural cardiac drift to occur during the second half of that run.

d. Recovery. Making the turnaround to run another race in 8 days I knew that I would have to do all I could to help myself recover. This meant as perfect nutrition as possible, extra sleep, stretching and massage if I could get it scheduled.

What happened after the Country Music Marathon:

You can read the race report to see what happened during the marathon, but what happened after the marathon was where I see some of those important lessons occurring.

1. Nutrition sucked! All week long after the marathon I felt myself craving sugar. One of the big hurdles that I have been trying to clear this year has been getting away from my soda habit. It has actually been going really well, which I have attributed to training less hours a week and not putting the pressure on myself to always be at a fitness peak. By taking some stress away from my physical training, it has allowed me to emotionally and energetically clear that soda habit of late (I even dropped 5 pounds in a couple weeks prior to the marathon).

That all went downhill after the CMM. I felt tired quite a bit, which lead to me seeking caffeine and sugar.. i.e. Mountain Dew. The ice cream cravings were pretty big too.

2. Yoga helped. Nikki and I went to our regular yoga class the day after the marathon, which helped my hips. Ironically, I felt more soreness after the yoga than the marathon. But I didn’t develop the normal post marathon shuffles that happen the few days post marathon.

What happened after the Flying Pig Marathon:

1. You can take the nutrition lesson that I learned after the Country Music Marathon and multiply it by 10. Yikes. I seemed to be in a fatigue pit that no amount of Mountain Dew, coffee or ice cream could solve. The scary part for me is that I gained 4 of the 5 pounds back, which shows the really poor cycle that can be created when a runner or triathlete gets into an overtraining - to - crash cycle. (Yes, this experiment put me into an overtrained state).

2. I couldn’t get enough sleep or rest. Lisa wrote a post about sleep that came at the right moment. The issue for me is that my 6am appointments are not so much concerned about me sleeping in (although if they can, they will change at times). And I have to admit, this week was very difficult. I tried to take a nap during the week, but that is difficult because my body normally doesn’t like to nap. I did crash for 1.5 hours on Monday!

3. My workouts after the Country Music Marathon were terrible! In fact, I had a zero quality workouts during the week. I was able to ride my bike a few times, but mainly I was out there spinning the pedals.

How does all of this apply to a typical marathon program:

Lesson #1: Don’t overreach with the long run. I realize at first thought the long run doesn’t equal the marathon, but for some - a 20 mile run in the training program could take a long time. I personally believe that being aware of the time on your feet is more important than the distance you run during the long run. (My marathon times were 3:47 and 3:20. Durations that I have seen people used to accomplish their 20 mile workouts.)

Why? Because if a person overreaches for the long run, it can often leave the runner in an overtrained state that they have to recover from all week long. Leaving the weekly workouts nearly ineffective - especially if you want to include regular tempo or interval runs, that would normally be associated with an experienced or advanced program.

I talk a lot about marathon programs addressing this issue in my podcast: Double Long Strategy

Lesson #2: When you are training, pay attention to your emotional responses to your nutrition and food choices. If you find yourself craving foods that you don’t normally crave, it could be one of the first signs that you are becoming over-trained. Some of the foods that might be included here are: sodas, bagels, breads, snack foods, ice cream, etc. - basically, foods that are high in sugars or low quality carbohydrates.

I rarely found myself wanting vegetables and even some fruits didn’t meet the needs I was feeling. The emotional response to these foods was surprising also. Not only did I find myself craving them, but after I would eat them I would feel a little more happy and energetic. That lasted an hour max and I would be fatigued and moody again. (Likely an glucose and insulin cycle of peaking and crashing?)

Lesson #3: When you decide to take on high(er) amounts of training, make sure you also build in the necessary recovery aids also:

3a - Massage. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a massage during the week between the CMM and the Flying Pig. But I was able to get in the week after the Flying Pig. It works miracles sometimes on my hips. This is a practice that I used all of 2007. A regular massage as a way to assist my training and recovery. I have become a huge believer in the benefits because when I stop going (as in the beginning of 2008), something creeps up on me.

3b - Yoga. I can say the same thing for yoga that I just said for massage. Combining the two practices makes all the difference in my continued injury prevention when the training ramps up.

3c - Rest and Sleep. As I mentioned, Lisa wrote a post about this recently. I think that as endurance athletes, we are typically self-motivated people. Often this comes with a side of compulsiveness. These personality traits are also the type of individuals that can often see rest as laziness. Sleep is wasted time that we can be productive.

Recently I was reading the Runner’s World article that highlighted the women running the Olympic Trials. They seemed to do it all: work, be a mom, household management and run everyday to train for the Olympic Trials. It was impressive and I wondered how they did it. When did they sleep.

I also read those articles asking myself if I could do it? Interestingly enough, if you read the article interviewing Deena Kastor, she says this:

“RW: Besides doing the mileage, what’s most important to your preparation?

DK: Recovery, definitely. Sleep is huge for me: I take a one-to two-hour nap daily and get eight to 10 hours nightly. When I’m awake and training, I expect so much from my body, so I really need to let it rest as deeply as it works.”

This isn’t the only example I have found discussing how high level athletes are also high level sleepers. It deserves an entire article itself.

Lesson #4: Race Strategy means everything on Race Day. This is the one lesson that I really wanted to point out. Up to race day, your training plan, recovery, rest, nutrition is what you should be primarily concerned about - But come race day none-of-that-matters if you are not willing to follow a sensible race strategy.

I’ve seen it done many times, athletes train hard and appropriately, but get to the start line on race day and throw out all the common sense lessons they learned during their training. I have done it numerous times in my own racing career. But after 9 years of training for endurance events, I feel like I’m finally getting a handle on how to manage the physical side of racing along with the emotional, mental and spiritual side of racing.

In marathons it can be incredibly hard. You’ve trained for 20 weeks (or what the program dictated) and get to race day in hopefully the best shape of your life. Combine this scenario: Best shape of life, nerves about the race, motivation to do your best and 1000’s of others around you facing the same adrenal unleashing. Without a thought out race strategy to manage those variables, race day can become a much longer day than necessary.

If I was honest with myself, I think that testing race strategies for a marathon was one reason that I wanted to do this 2 marathons in 2 weekend challenge. Because I knew I was coming into races under-trained, there would be no room for error on race day.

Here are a couple posts discussing race day strategy implementation: Flying Pig Marathon Race Report (pay attention to walk/run topic), Ironman Wisconsin Race Report (pay attention to my bike analysis), and Einstein, Relativity and Triathlon Training - which discusses basing your race strategy on reality and not hopes or dreams.

Final Thoughts:

I hope that this challenge that I put myself through and by being my own lab rat will help you in your own marathon journey. These lessons were a great learning tool for myself and as I mentioned at the end of the Flying Pig Report, I learned a lot about why I love to take on this journey of endurance again.

I have now watched the NOVA - Marathon Challenge program twice.  My personal opinion is that the documentary is way better than the Spirit of the Marathon Documentary that was done about the Chicago Marathon trainees.

That may be due to the face that I’m a little bit of a science freak when it comes to the training involved in  marathon training.  The NOVA special doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but they do address certain training issues:  injuries, VO2 Max, Body Composition and a little about nutrition during long runs.

Here are some key take home messages that I’d like to point out and my view:

1.  Long Runs

I’ve discussed this many times in the past.  I recently wrote an article that I called, “A look at the long run and marathon training.”  And my first podcast, “The long run in a marathon program.  The double long strategy,” addresses my thoughts on how to approach a long run.

One of the interesting discussions was when the exercise physiologist and nutritionist from Tufts said that by the time you get to the “long” runs you have already developed the physiological changes and the soft tissue changes, the long runs are primarily beneficial for the psychological outcomes.

That is a point that I like to make and my point-of-view is that the downside of injury (for most runners) is greater than the psychological uplift a person may generate.

Just a reminder that there is no magic to a 20 mile run.

2.  Weight Loss / Body Composition

They analyzed the body composition of the runners before and after their marathon training programs.  What they found was that only one of the runners changed their body weight or body composition during the program.

This is hard to believe for many people, especially when you consider the amount of exercise they added to their lifestyles.  The take home message (which they made) is that we often over-estimate the caloric expenditure of the activity we participate in.

Thus, if we want to get into a weight management situation or lose some weight, nutrition is a very important (if not the most important) variable in that program.  This can be hard for an exercise physiologist and personal trainer to admit because I want to believe that exercise is the most important key to any lifestyle… but there are limitations.

A better message is that there needs to be a combination of exercise and non-disordered-eating.  One thing that I see often (and see in myself), is a belief that with all the exercise that comes with running a marathon or training for an Ironman, a person can eat whatever they want.  That mentality leads to disordered eating.

Exercise Session –> Eat what mind wants –> Non-Optimal Food Choices

This is one thing that I am currently working on.  I know that when I’m in full capacity training I have little mental energy and strength to combat poor nutritional habits.  Last summer it got a little crazy as I trained for Ironman Wisconsin.  Now that I’m not in full capacity training, I see myself being able to change some of those habits.  Still more changes that need be made.

3.  The other side of body composition.
The other side to their body composition discovery was that the one person that did have changes also included a bootcamp training program in addition to their marathon program.

This is a good lesson because it helps us realize that even within an exercise program, there needs to be a balance between strength training, flexibility training, and cardiovascular training.  Many endurance athletes can become addicted to the “runner’s high” and neglect other aspects that would benefit their health (again, I am as guilty as anyone).

4.  The injury issues:

There seemed to be a lot of injury issues that the runners were dealing with.  One of the most important lessons that I’m continually learning is the value of specific strength training and flexibility training as a hedge against injury in a beginner / novice marathon program.

You can go back and read the posts I’ve had on strength training and patellofemoral pain.  Many lessons learned there.

The long run is usually viewed as the center piece of a marathon training program. In the current pop running culture, this means that most marathon training programs work towards the “20 miler”.

This is a topic that I have discussed many times in the past, with many different people, and I thought now was the time to get all my ideas out there to share with fellow runners.

Why I don’t like the “20 mile” Destination for marathon training:

1. I don’t like the concept of placing so much importance on a single 20 mile run. Why? In many running programs that I see, runners end up putting so much value on the long run that it ends up taking away from the value and training stimulus they could get by having a solid week of running. (Which means running regularly throughout the week too.)

This doesn’t mean that every runner using these programs puts too much emphasis on the long run, but psychologically it can become a trap. If you decide that the weekend long run is the most important workout of the week, it can be tempting when “life happens” to justify missing a couple runs during the week, as long as you “accomplished” the long run.

This is a trap that often leads to, in the worst case - injury, in the best case - less developed fitness due to less overall training stimulus.

This idea becomes even more magnified if a training program leads towards the 20 miler and a runner develops the belief that they are ready to run the marathon, using the 20 miler accomplishment as their only indicator.

I’m not the only one who takes this approach. Jack Daniels, in his book, Daniels’ Running Formula suggests that the longest run you do be under 2.5 hours. The risk-to-reward ratio (injury risk/physiological reward) beyond that point is often not worth it. I remember Bobby McGee taking a similar stance.

Solution: as a runner begins a marathon training program, set the initial goal to accomplish “x” number of weeks running 3 days and building to 5 days a week before taking on any run over 2 hours. “x” depends on your timeframe, but a typical 18 or 20 week program should give you at least 6 weeks to build up to 4 runs at 40mins+ or 5 runs at 30mins+.

2. Does it pass the common sense test to do more than 50% of your running in one day? It doesn’t, but many marathon runners that I see or read about do just that.

When a runner is doing less than 40 miles per week, that is what they are doing when they build to a 20 mile long run.

Again in Daniel’s book he suggests that the long run be no more than 25% of your total weekly mileage. Therefore to have a long run of 20 miles, a runner must be doing a minimum of 80 miles a week. That kind of mileage is not all that common for the average age-grouper hoping to finish a marathon.

An approach that I have reviewed several times that I like a lot (probably because it is how I like to train people too) is the way the the Hansons train their runners (their age-groupers, not their elite… that would destroy all of us).

In their approach, the longest run that a beginner or advanced runner does is 16 miles. (I know your are screaming in revolt as you just read that.) The advanced runner will see more training stimulus throughout the program, but the longest run distances are the same.

What a refreshing display of understanding an average runners needs and ability. Someday I would love to get some closer looks and discussions with the Hanson-Brooks guys, but from the outside looking in, I like what I see.

Solution:

So you are freaking out about not running longer than 16 miles prior to your marathon day - that’s normal. But it is normal due to the fact that the 20 miler has become ingrained into every running groups mindset around this country, not because there is a physiological or training stimulus significance to that distance.

I personally don’t have a 16 mile limit in many of the programs I help with, I schedule the longest run at 2.5 hours and allow a little more if the runner is running well, consistent and injury free.

So how do we address the psychology behind “being ready”?

The Double Long Run Weekends.

I have to admit this is not my idea originally. It was a style of training that a professor I had at UNL (Nebraska-Lincoln) put me through (in late 2000) when I went to her for a solution to my 2 previous failed attempts at running a quality marathon.

The basic Idea: is to alternate weekends, doing a longer run on week one, then two medium long runs on Saturday / Sunday of week two. Then repeat that pattern throughout your training program. An example might look like this:

week 1 - Saturday: 12 miles / rest
week 2 - Saturday: 8 miles / Sunday: 8 miles
week 3 - Saturday: 14 miles / rest
week 4 - Saturday: 10 miles / Sunday: 10 miles

That is a basic example, it would be changed based upon athlete, scheduling, along with other variables that could impact the schedule, such as races. I personally prefer to use time goals than mileage goals, but the same pattern would apply with either method.

What I found was that this pattern allowed me to be incredibly more consistent in my running. I would spend less time recovering from the mega long runs. I also found I could easily handle more total running stimulus in a week compared to situations when I was trying to stay fresh for the weekend long run.

Those two things improved my running greatly - consistency and greater overall training stimulus.

How to approach the Double Long Weekend?

These weekends can be tough sometimes, but they can also provide a great deal of training stimulus and self-confidence. Here are some tips that I like to share about those weekends:

1. Saturday’s run should be relaxed and comfortable. I rarely get excited about how fast or slow the runs are, because the main goal is to feel strong. Many times the Saturday run will be finished with the runner feeling a little anxious about not having done enough. Especially when they have reached a point where 10 mile runs could be done each day they run.

2. Make sure you allow your legs to recover after Saturday’s run. Proper post run nutrition, stretching, cold baths are all good ideas.

3. Sunday’s run should be done at an intensity slightly higher than Saturday’s run (but much less than the Tuesday,Thursday runs during the week.) Ideally, the runs would be completed at a pace that is 45 seconds to 1:15 per mile slower than the goal marathon pace.

This depends upon the runner’s current fitness though! Don’t run those times if they are picked out of the air, know that your fitness is prepared for them.*

4. Make the back half of the Sunday run the most intense of all the weekends efforts. Often this will happen naturally as the legs fatigue, but a very fit runner may need to push that portion of the run in order get the training effort up. (Still should be around 45 seconds off marathon pace.)

Using these double long runs in this manner, especially approaching the Sunday run this way should give the runner confidence in their ability to run the marathon’s 26.2 mile distance. It can also be a huge learning experience to feel the legs achy and tired prior to Sunday’s run and still being able to finish the distance or duration.

As mentioned, this structure also allows recovery to occur faster and decreases the risk of injury when compared to the single long run days.

Expanding this concept (even to triathlon).

This idea can be taken one step further for the more advanced runner. An example that I can share is my approach to our (Nikki and my) run programs leading up to Ironman Wisconsin last September.

Knowing that putting in a long run didn’t fit the schedule or our ability to maintain regular workouts in the other sports, we built up to a “broken marathon”. This was different for the two of us as we were different in our running needs.

My program built to this series: 12.6 am run / 6.8 pm run (included some tempo) / 6.4 am run. That got me to 25.8 miles with a little tempo built into it within a 30 hour period.

Nikki’s program built to this series: day 1: 10miles, day 2: 10miles, day 3: 6miles. That got her to 26 miles within a 48ish hour time period as the day one run was an evening run and the day 3 run was a morning run.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a prescription to copy, just an example as to how the idea of stacking runs in a 24/36/48 hour time period could be done. This method was easy enough on my body that I was able to get in an hour recovery swim during the evening of the second day.

(As a sidenote, the longest run I did in the Ironman build was 15 miles.)

Final Thoughts on Approaching your Long Run.

The long run is an important piece to any marathon program, but don’t be fooled into the dogma that the long run has to follow the staircase to 20 miles. It might just be the worst thing you could do for your training, because training and racing become difficult if not impossible when you are nursing an injury.

Try a double long weekend… you just might see your running improve like I did.

* This deserves another post that I hope to get to soon, but for now you can read Daniels’ Running Formula or search google for “VDot running”.

I am currently dealing with the results of not following my own advice. It happens to all of us at times. Here’s my quick story:

The entire year of 2008 I have made a decision to remain consistent in my training, but to not train for any specific race. I have followed through, but got the idea to sign up for an ultra marathon a couple weeks before the race. I ended up turning up the mileage on my legs pretty quickly (like doubled in the couple weeks). I didn’t have any troubles at first, but then….

I started having some hip problems. Issues that have lead to this, in my view: Running too many miles way too quick. Dropping strength training and yoga in order to get in the extra runs.

The worst part of the situation is that I always have runners that I coach and mentor focus on “leg durability” as the main goal for the first phase of their training programs. This almost always means running multiple days before running a certain mileage or duration. I fell into the trap of feeling unprepared, thus jumping into something my legs were not ready for.

As an example of what I often preach, here is a note I sent to a group I trained for the Rock N Roll Marathon back in January.

So often a new runner is concered about how far they are running or how fast they run, but one thing a new runner should be concerned about is how durable their legs are. If a person hasn’t developed the right amount of durability, then when they run “far enough” or “fast enough” to make them happy, they commonly are in a position that their legs can not hold up. Things like injury and soreness creep in and their running becomes less consistent, exactly the opposite of what they might need to produce better durability in their legs.

Two things about the program that you can pay attention to is this:

1. Are you completing all the runs during the week?
2. Are your legs recovering from the Sunday runs?

Your answers to those questions will lead to your answer of this question; “How durable are my legs?”

It’s so important that you develop an adequate durability before you start doing the typical “long runs”. I like to see people run at least 4 days a week at 40 minutes per run before they do anything that resembles a long run.

The athletes that I help become used to the “double long” weekends very quickly. What a great way to turn around your running… those runs build durability, they also allow people to get in more training than when they spend all day Sunday recovering from the weekends “mega long run”.

Guess it is time to take my own advice! As I can not run consistently right now, I’ll be cycling and swimming (and yes, getting back to strength training and yoga).

For now, I’ll keep sharing the message. Think Bobby McGee said it this way, “strong before long.”