Starting LSRS and Going Negative

3/12/2008

From today I will be updating this blog once a week - unless something changes. This is mainly because blogger.com and blogspot.com have been blocked at my office mostly due to individual assholery that is enjoying tacit institutional sanction.
Yes, some blogs have porn but what serious porn seller or consumer would use a blog to do their business? Duh! When the inane barricades get lifted, I will resume daily updates. Some nutjob is having a power hard on by being able to block sites. What’s worse, its not even his job.
I am considering using my phone to connect to the net but that will involve breaking one of my own rules: no internet at home. I have been avoiding that. But what the hell...

At any rate, I have been off form for about four weeks though not off training. I have been struggling and suffering and wondering what’s going on. I have been getting knocked out after 25 laps and have wondered what the heck was going on. I got a cold last week and as it wore off, I gradually came back. Taking 5 days off twice didnt help. But after the cold, I came back to become me last Friday November 28th 2008.
I think I probably hadn’t recovered from the Marathon until last week and I now feel okay when I run and when I sleep and wake up.
Yesterday, I ran with my running mate Sikuku, who I pace with and did 5K in 22:14 and completed the 10K in 46:17.

Its only after the run that we realized wee couldn’t have done better because we knocked ourselves out on Monday. But the statistics reveal interesting things:
The good news is that we can improve our speed and that our speed is not that bad. What we need to do is increase our lactate threshold and do long runs so that we are stronger even after several laps.
Here are the results of the 10K (25 laps)

Lap Time Duration (s)
1 1:35:00 95
2 3:16:00 101
3 5:02:00 106
4 6:50:00 108
5 8:39:00 109
6 10:30:00 111
7 12:20:00 110
8 14:09:00 109
9 15:58:00 109
10 17:50:00 112
11 19:42:00 112
12 21:30:00 108
13 23:18:00 108
14 25:11:00 113
15 27:10:00 119
16 29:04:00 114
17 30:56:00 102
18 32:54:00 118
19 34:52:00 117
20 36:41:00 110
21 38:32:00 111
22 40:26:00 114
23 42:27:00 121
24 44:27:00 120
25 46:17:00 110

Broken down to 2Km distances, our times were follows:

1st 2Km 8:39
2nd 2Km 9:11
3rd 2Km 9:20
4th 2Km 9:31
5th 2Km 9:36

What we need to do is attempt to do 95 secs per lap consistently and to ensure we don’t slow down beyond 110 seconds.
I want to read up stuff on how to increase lactate thresholds. Friday trainings will focus on that aspect of training.
Cheers.
A

5th Dec 2008
I am now in excellent condition. The pain in my upper thigh is almost gone and I feel strong and "healed." I am in that "do something incredible" mindset.
My training plan is still inchoate and I would like it to shape up and find what suits me and my schedule and work it for a few months. So I have been reading stuff on how to increase my AT/LT (Anaerobic Threshold/Lactate Threshold) and VO2Max(Maximum Oxygen uptake). From my 2Km splits above, we can see that this brother needs speed bro. He needs speed so bad, he doesn’t need ta tell ya.
The good news is that he has the hunger, the passion, the anger, the grit, the focus, the intensity, the perseverance and the guts to pour sweat, blood and guts to get that speed. Now (adopting a Cody Maverick demeanor), I am fucking serious bro and I want to go sub 1:30 next year, if it kills me.

There are Tempo Runs and Cruse intervals (fartleks), marathon pace runs and repetitions.
I have looked at all of them and since I don’t have hills and I am not exactly ready for speed runs of 100-200m, I will use 800m intervals EVERY FRIDAY. So Friday is speed work Time.
I will do 800m X 5 with 2mins jogs in between. And I will seek to do the 400m in 90seconds.
That’s it. The talk is over. The walk starts today at 5.30pm.

Now, what I want to target is 90 seconds per lap, which translates to 450 seconds for 2Kms, which is 7mins 30seconds. Which is pretty good if I can do it even as intervals. Remember Wanjiru mightily kicked ass in the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the first 5K in 14:52 which comes to around 3mins per Km.

I am still trying to figure out where to fit in my 24Km long runs. I will, pretty soon because they are indispensable. O'wise, I am cool. Staying off the radar of work politics and the asshollery going around like a bug.

Monday 8th Oct Update
I went for a 5k evening run with Sikuku, he took it pretty fast and we did the first two laps in 3mins flat. We struggled to maintain the speed in the next ten laps and my watch and count tells me that we did 5K in 20:20. He doubts it and has a different time for it. Hopefully, we can verify that today because I have fresh legs from two days of rest.
This Friday is a holiday. I will go for my 24Km long run then.

I took milk and that just messed me. I developed a bad, runny stomach. I still went for the run though and did 5K in 20:22 then slugged through another 14.4 laps. Maybe I will give it another try tomorrow.
Cheers.

11th Dec 2008
I ran a good 10K yesterday with my runningmate Skuks (as the gals call him) taking the time. I was in excellent condition. I had hydrated well, I ate well and had the psyche. In fact, it turns out we even had Ogutu's cousin available to take our timing for each lap. Sikuku was feeling tired from overtraining so I had the honour of having him take the time for me and I established my current times.
I started fast, this being the last positive split I would run. I cleared the first lap (by my standards) in 85 seconds and the next one in 98 seconds. I cleared the first Km in 3:43 and I crossed the 5Km mark in 22:10. The biggest problem was inhaling smoke from some burning rubbish nearby. It affected me accross some half dozen laps. But like they say, Africa is not for sissies.

I managed to sort of maintain an even pace of a 110.2 seconds per lap and cleared 10K in 45:55. This time I managed to keep all my timings below 2 minutes per lap.
At any rate, I will treat this as my PR and try to improve on it as we move along. Whats certain is that my speed has increased over the past two weeks: I have shaved off 23 seconds from last weeks 10K run.

My training is still inchoate right now. The only certain thing is that we run three times a week. Tomorrow being a public holiday affords me a chance to resume my long runs. I will do 24K and see what happens - its a huge one but what the heck. Lets see how it goes.

I am reading plenty of running literature for ideas that will go into a 9 month training plan that will hopefully culminate with me doing 60Kms per week and running a sub 19mins 5K and a Sub 40 mins 10k. That would be excellent.

And from next week, we are going negative as a strategy.
Cheers.

12th Dec 2008
I got up at 4:50am and went for a 24Km (approx) long run. My first LSR (Long Slow Run). I took it slow and basically had fun. I met close to ten runners and I was surprised that people are running at this time of the year. For the first time, I did the long run as I should: in a conversational pace. They bshould be run and 60-75% of one's VO2 Max and I did that and enjoyed myself. These endurance training runs help increase one's aerobic threshold by increasing the blood volume pumped by the heart and increasing build up of blood capillaries (tiny ones) and blood vessels in the working muscles. I concentrated on good form as opposed to speed and it went pretty well. I sorta speeded up in the last 3K as I should.

I am reading lots of text on running and running strategies and by the end of the XMas period, I will have devised a training schedule that can deliver Sub 1:30 half. I have realized that the speed runs have made my legs much stronger. I will factor them in with the necessary pylometric excercises. Ultimately, I know my training program will be very similar as that of one training for a marathon. Essentially, it will be a build up to my 2010 marathon debut.

Its Jamhuri Day. Some idiots in power are trying to gag our vibrant media. I am too annoyed to be annoyed any more so I just go about my business. I am looking for leather seats...