Training update: Nov 2022 - Jan 2023
Training update: Nov 2022 - Jan 2023
VO2max block for a fast 10 km after a marathon PR
Last November I’ve written extensively about my past 6-8 months of training, in which I was able to make good progress after stalling for many years. In this blog, I’d like to cover the past 2 months of training, the time between November’s marathon PR and yesterday’s 10 km PR (36’40” at Prom’ Classic in Nice).
After November’s marathon, I made a high-level plan up to my A goal of the year, which is the 100 km del Passatore at the end of May 2023, a race that goes from Florence to Faenza, near my hometown back in Italy.
Following the approach I’ve covered here, I am racing about once per month, mostly short events to avoid training disruptions (5 km to half marathon) while trying to get more used to it (at least mentally) and still getting a good high-intensity stimulus. My B goal is a marathon in March, hence I split my training between November and March as follows:
short VO2max block, 5 weeks
longer threshold and steady-state block, 9 weeks
My weak spot is the inability to maintain marathon pace for the required distance (mostly due to muscle cramps, possibly due to my very low efficiency), and therefore now that I am happy with my speed for shorter distances, I decided to focus more on what I need to improve the most: steady-state. Still, I figured a short VO2max block would not hurt, especially since I was already coming from a marathon preceded by a similar threshold and steady-state block (also discussed here).
Post-marathon: recovery and sickness
After the marathon I had planned 2 weeks of easy training without any structure (no workouts), just running by feel. I did not plan any more days off than I would normally do, just my regular Monday off.
On the first week post-marathon, on Tuesday, I was extremely sore (no surprises there). On Wednesday, I was feeling better already. The following Saturday I pushed about 4-5 minutes, my aerobic pace was fast and easy, but I had no power in my legs. Sunday I felt good and ran 30 km (not planned, just kept going without overdoing it). I ran 90 km that week, which is just a bit less than my average for the year. I was really pleased with the feeling towards the end of the week, but there’s always something ready to derail our plans….
On the second week post-marathon, I got sick on Tuesday night, and probably caught a bug that Alessandra (my partner) had the previous week. I still trained but always very short and very easy, alternating walking and running if needed, and paying attention to my heart rate, which was climbing up really quickly.
Let’s look at resting physiology. Below is my heart rate variability data for the past 2 months, the marathon was on November 13th, and you can clearly see the struggle to bounce back to normal, which took a few days (something that should never happen during training).
Data was collected using HRV4Training, first thing in the morning, measuring while sitting for one minute. I believe this is the best protocol for any athlete (professional or recreational) - as I cover here and here.
Here is the same timeframe, for heart rate data, where I annotated sick days:
It was a short bout of sickness, but heavier than what I had experienced the week before the marathon, where resting physiology was not altered as much as this time. We can see how resting heart rate captures really well the transition and return back to normal, which is not the case for night data. I felt weak for several days and eventually started feeling better again towards the weekend, when I hit the hills in Brisighella for some nice views close to home.
Back to structured training
After 2 easy weeks post-marathon, it was time to get back into structured training with a VO2max block that would consist mainly of two workouts I repeat often as they work very well for me:
10-12 x 90” hard, 90“ easy
8-10 x 3’ hard, 2’ easy
These workouts give me the right dose of high intensity to trigger positive adaptations (I found little use in doing shorter sessions), while not leaving me too damaged. This is a very polarized block in the traditional sense: I either ran very easily (most of the time) or very hard (during these short sessions). While I am a strong believer in the importance of building your base and running a lot of easy miles, I do think you need to do your speedwork too and no intensity should be neglected for too long.
During my VO2max block, I like to keep the overall training volume quite high, and I often go for long runs the day after intervals. Long runs in this case are really easy: low heart rate, slow pace, plenty of climbing, just spending time on the legs, and building my aerobic base, enjoying the views, and not stressing.
These are extremely different from the long runs I do closer to the marathon during the threshold and steady-state block, which are hard and become the main workout of the week. This is what some call pyramidal training, but that’s something for a future blog.
To track progress, I use HRV4Training’s Intervals Analysis:
above we can see:
monthly progress between June and October
a step back post-marathon (November), as expected especially considering that I was also sick the week prior. In general, apart from the sickness, my legs needed more time
rebuilding to my previous top shape in December. These sessions are done on hilly terrain for lack of alternatives where I’m based this winter (grade adjusted pace would be 2-3”/km faster)
a big improvement in the last session in January
Honestly, I was curious to see how this VO2max block would go. I would have been happy to just get back to where I was pre-marathon, but I am of course glad that I was able to make some extra progress, which gave me a lot of confidence for the 10 km race. A lot happened in these 5 weeks, but these are probably the key elements: consistent training, consistent high intensity, consistent high volume at very low intensity, daily hills, and minimal life stress (see later). Lifestyle-wise, the only significant change I made was to start walking a lot more, bringing my daily steps from about 20K to 27-29K, walking about 1 hour after each meal, with plenty of hills. Hardly possible to quantify the impact of this behavior on performance directly, but I will be trying to keep it up.
Here is my log for the first two weeks of the VO2max block, you can also see some of those very long runs (50 km and 60 km):
These very long runs are of course a bit of an exaggeration, but I need them to build confidence toward the 100 km (as well as to practice some of the practicalities, like eating).
While I do enjoy the process of training and potentially getting faster, building fitness to be able to spend half a day or a full day on a running adventure in nature, is really what drives me the most.
It’s fun to get a little faster, but at the end of the day, I run for mental health. These days out make me feel whole.
Watch your niggles
As most runners know, pushing ourselves near our limits can be somewhat irresistible, but also somewhat dangerous. It is often a thin line. Over the years I got a lot better at listening to my body, paying attention to issues, slowing down, and establishing rules that prevent me from doing too much (e.g. Mondays off). While this has worked well so far, with no serious injuries in the past 3 years and a half (I did have many bad ones before), I do experience a few niggles here and there. In particular, during this training block, I started having some pain the week of December 12th-18th, mostly while sitting at home and less while running, but still, one of those annoyances you feel all the time when you move. I decided to drop all intensity the week of Dec 19th-25th, as you can see below. This helped as I was back to normal in about 7-10 days without intensity.
Needless to say, always listen to your body. I try to keep moving if the pain is not acute, but I avoid intensity and do my best to make sure consistency is not compromised (i.e. not breaking down as I used to).
Apart from this muscular issue, it was a really good 5-week block in which I executed almost all the sessions I planned (9 workouts in 6 weeks, with a few extra strides or harder efforts here and there). Most importantly, the response was very good, as shown by the HRV data below, with a baseline on the higher end of the normal range, and very few days below my normal range:
This is also due to how in this period of the year (end of December) I do my best to minimize life stress: no alcohol, no overeating, no meetings, no calls, plenty of movement, focused work, quality time with my partner, time outside in nature, reading, relaxing, and good training.
Funnily enough, it used to be the opposite. Flying from overcrowded airports (an experience I haven't missed in the past three years), overeating all the time, drinking too much, no time or energy for focused work or exercise.
Our choices are clearly reflected in our data and therefore paying attention to HRV can help us make meaningful adjustments.
Taper (?) and race week
I often like to challenge the need for a taper, at least a long one. Don’t get me wrong, you need to be rested on race day, but I believe something is really wrong with our training if we need weeks of taper before a race. Training should include the required amount of recovery and be flexible, not exhaust us for weeks. This is also why I do not use “recovery weeks”, but I try to include the required amount of recovery each week, and make adjustments when needed. If you can do a hard session every 3 days, why would you need more than 3 days before a race?
Given this intro, my training the week before the race included two of my hardest sessions of the block and a long run, with really easy efforts the other days (and I do mean really easy, at about 60% of my maximal heart rate). You can see the sessions here:
on race week, I did another hard session on Wednesday (almost as fast as I could, but half the number of reps I’d do on another week), and then went into full mini-taper mode, with three days running very easy and very little to get fresh for the race.
Given the pace I could keep in the VO2max sessions, I figured I could run 37’ minutes flat on a good day (more or less the pace of my 3-4’ reps, or slightly slower). On race day, I went out just guided by perceived effort (as I normally do for short events or workouts), and later checked the pace to try to keep it up as fatigue was starting to build up. Eventually, I had a slightly faster pace in me, and finished in 36’ 40”, a good PR and a time I thought I wasn’t going to run in this lifetime, given the struggle of the past 5-6 years.
We’ll see what next, thank you for reading.
Resources:
HRV4Training for measurements of resting physiology and additional analytics
Strava to track workouts, my full training log is available here
I hope this was informative, and thank you for reading!
Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching.
He has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.
He is co-founder of HRV4Training, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.
Twitter: @altini_marco
