What's next? Summer/Fall 2020 Training Plan
After successfully completing my Spring 2020 goal of a sub-6 minute mile (albeit with a sour taste in my mouth given a strong feeling I could have done better with the multiple attempts planned), it's time to move on and ask what's next? Training for a 5k? Training for HM or M? After giving it some thought, the siren song of endurance running continues to call me. So I want to move back towards either a HM or M. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, it's hard to say whether a HM or M race will be occurring in October/November. So, I decided to approach the training in the following manner. Act as if the Madison Marathon Weekend will be occurring, and if it doesn't, then plan to time trial instead. I'll hold off until the race weekend is much much closer to register. And if it fills up, or is cancelled, or whatever happens, then so be it. At the end of the training based on how I'm feeling, I'll either run a HM or M. I haven't decided which distance I'll end up doing either way.
So as is usual, I wanted to look back and see what I've learned from past training plans to continue to build off those learned experiences. What worked? What didn't? I really liked where I was in November 2019 when I ran the Madison HM as a tune-up race prior to Disney 2020. I truly feel my fitness was at an all time high at that moment. The training that occurred after the Madison HM up to Disney 2020 on the other hand was detrimental as I pushed too far. I decided to lay out each of my training plans in a timeline with the associated Garmin VO2max each week. In my experience, the Garmin VO2max value in the absence of other changes is a relatively good predictor of overall fitness. The association between %HR and pace, and the changes that occur in that relationship display a change/improvement in fitness. So I wanted to see if I could glean any information from the Garmin VO2max value as each training plan progressed.
Apologies as the graphic is quite small, but I believe if you click on it, it'll get bigger. I went through and color coded the Garmin VO2max values based on whether I felt like they were trending upwards (green), staying the same (yellow) or going down (red). The pink color on a week signifies a race that was a PR. The grey color signifies a race that was not a PR. While it's not terribly fair to judge each training plan based on a single day (PR or not), I think it still provides some reasonable information along with how I felt during the midst of that training. Something stood out to me in performing this graphically. Of the 8 training plans depicted, my Garmin VO2max value fell at the end of the training in six of them (granted it may not be fair to include the mile time trial training plan since the primary purpose was raw power and not aerobic endurance). Regardless, this might suggest that I have a limited window in which I'm capable of building fitness before I start the downswing, or said another way,
I have a nasty habit of training myself into the ground at the end of a training plan. I know it, you know it, we all know it.
So I decided to look at the reverse instead. How long was I able to maintain green training, or green+yellow?
10-13 weeks
11 weeks
12 weeks
10-14 weeks
9 weeks
11-13 weeks
13-18 weeks
11 weeks
So despite these training plans lasting 13-26 weeks, on a consistent basis I was improving/maintaining aerobically for around 10-13 weeks.
So that's all well and good. But the next question would be, what similarities did the green/yellow portions have in the actual training that the red portions did not? How can I use this information? What makes something stay yellow the whole time and not really increase that much (like Lakefront 2017 and Chicago 2018) vs improve from the start (like Daniels 5k/10k, Dopey 2018, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Disney 2020)? I evaluated them based on weekly running duration, miles, pace, training load fitness level, and training load form level. None of these really stood out to me on a weekly basis. But, then I evaluated each of the plans based on the number of days in a certain region of the training load form zones. As a short refresher, the training load form zones range from:
<-10 = Optimal
-10 to +5 = Neutral
+5 to +25 = Fresh
>+25 = Transition
Since I've been cycling, I took that into consideration but with and without. The cycling just muddled the numbers, so I ended up just looking at each of the training plans solely based on running training load. And I believe I found a trend.
The above are two training plans where there was little to no improvement in Garmin VO2max value.
Versus the plans above that did show improvement in Garmin VO2max value. What I saw was that the # of days of >0 training load form was somewhat indicative of whether I would be improving. So while >-10 is considered "optimal" based on those who came up with this formula (originally for cycling), there does appear to be some data personally that suggests consistently being in the 0 to -10 range is suitable for long term increases in fitness. When I had multiple weeks of never allowing my training load to be above 0 on any given day, I was consistently improving. As soon as I started to see weeks with >3 days of >0 training load, then I started to level off or decline in VO2max.
Now this isn't necessarily some shocking revelation. Continued increase in training load leads to increasing fitness. It's why this training load system exists in the first place. But it's interesting nonetheless to see if laid out like this to me.
So the next question is, how do I take what I've learned here and apply it to the next training plan? Wel,l first off, I can't start training in earnest too far off from the actual race itself. The data shows that I can tolerate about 10-13 weeks before things start to wane. Secondly, once I do start training in earnest, then it's important to make sure that my daily training load form value exclusive to running stays below a value of 0. Lastly, in a different review in the data set we saw that in order for me to reach these higher Garmin VO2max values, my run training volume had to be in the 7.5-9hr range. I don't think I can manage that type of run volume, so I'll continue to use cycling and strength training as a supplement. Based on previous number crunching, good cycling is worth about 1/2 the run time. So if I max out around 6.5 hr running, then I'd need something like 5-6 hrs of cycling as a supplement. That would give me something like 9-9.5 hrs running equivalent.
So I designed the next 21 weeks based on those premises. The first two weeks are just nice and easy as a continued effort to heal up from the last training plan. Then, I'm going to do the first 8 weeks (Base phase) of the Half Ironman Medium Volume TrainerRoad training plan. The focus during this will be on cycling whereas the running volume will remain low and almost exclusively easy. During this 10 week phase where I'm not really concerned with running as much, I'm going to try and dial in my weight again. Once the run phase starts, then I'll go back to fueling the training to the max. Then, when there is 11 weeks to go until race day, I'll pivot the training focus. I'll move from 4 running days, 4 cycling days, 4 strength days to 5 running days, 3 cycling days, and 4 strength days. I'll start to add in some pace work focusing on brick HM Tempo work and occasionally a faster paced day. Never more than 2 hard run days per week (including the long run) and separated by 3-4 days. The cycling will be focused on volume, a brick workout, or one hard cycle per week. And on the bright side, I wrote it so that I never have to ride longer than 2.5hrs on the indoor bike. In totality, the volume will be far less than the post-Madison HM leading up to Disney 2020.
If executed correctly, then it should give me the following on the training load calculations:
Where I'll see 11-13 weeks of zero days per week with greater than 0 for training load form using running exclusively.
As for strength training, I'm doing a somewhat modified version. I took my favorite core workout from the last 8 years (McMillan core) and combined it with my favorite upper body workout (LIIFT4). So twice per week I'll do the first half of a LIIFT4 video when the lifting is occurring, and then finish the workout with the McMillan runner's core routine. Additionally, McMillan was offering a new "Marathon Legs" program that I decided to sign up for. It was $40 instead of $5 like the core routine was. The core routine has 9 follow-along videos and I was happy with that for $5. So I was really disappointed with the $40 McMillan leg program when I found out it was 36 separate exercise videos that only show a 15 second clip of a single workout. No follow-along workouts. Just shows you how to do it, but with no verbal instructions on form or anything. There's supplemental writing that comes with it that explains the moves in written form, but no audio in the videos. So I ended up combining the short clips into a "follow-along" video myself by doing some video editing. It's not perfect, but it gets the point across without me constantly having to re-upload new video clips to re-remind myself of what good form looks like. Despite being a leg strength program with no weights, it really beat me up in the one time I've done it thus far. So I'm hoping that's a good sign as it'll help strengthen my leg muscles beyond what I am getting from running or cycling. These particular McMillan leg workouts are to occur immediately after a hard run/cycle.
So I think at the moment that's what I'm planning to do. Focus on easy for the next 2 weeks, then cycling as the main focus for 8 weeks, and then running as the main focus for the last 11 weeks leading up to the Madison HM/M on November 8th, 2020. Let's see how it goes!