6-Run-4 Mother Runner

Late-bloomer tries to get serious...

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5 week in...

First, I should apologize for ever saying there would be weekly updates.  I know myself better than that.  I’m too busy, and let’s be honest: a weekly post about my training runs wouldn’t be that exciting.  

Five week ago I had lactate threshold testing done, and I’ve tried to modify my training plan to accommodate zone training.  Guess what?  It’s a struggle! Maybe not for everyone, but for me, staying in Zone 2 for most of my workouts has been nearly impossible.  Some days I’m more diligent about trying than others.  It takes some major self control to slow down.  Sometimes I just want to get out there and push.  Most days I’ve been setting my watch face to ONLY show me my heart rate and zone.  I’m trying to pay less attention to my pace, and work to stay in Zone 2.  Here’s where I’m at:

So yeah...I need to slow down.  I was encouraged to run 9:30-10:00 to stay in Zone 2, but that isn’t working.  My best attempt I slowed to 11:09 and still spent less than half my time in Zone 2.  What other factors am I missing?  How much do my nutrition, hydration, and the weather play into this?  Less than 12 weeks to the Columbus Marathon... 

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Rethinking my training

It’s been a little over a week since I had my lactate threshold tested.  Let’s talk about what I learned from the test and what impact this has upon my training.  

The first thing I learned was this: even though I was using my Garmin Forerunner 235 to track my heart rate, the ZONES were not accurate.  Check out the difference!  The good news is that it’s fairly easy to reprogram your Garmin to YOUR specific zones.  Pretty cool!

Okay, so now my watch is set correctly, but what do these zones mean?  Confession: I kind of always thought the higher, the better.  It was proof that I was really working hard.  HA!  I was so wrong.  Here’s the information I received from Summit Multisport.  Bear in mind this is SPECIFIC to the test I did.  These are MY zones, not YOUR zones.  

I want you to think about the training plans you’ve used.  Couch to 5K, Half Marathon Training, Marathon Training, Ultras, whatever.  Hal Higdon, Columbus Running Company, Marathoners in Training, Jeff Galloway.  The list goes on and on.  These plans give you mileage and specify things like intervals or tempo runs, but how did you determine your pace?  I’ve heard that you should do your long runs at anything from 30 seconds to 90 seconds slower than your intended race pace.  But what if there’s a science to focus my pace?  Something formulaic that tells me if I want to improve and eventually run at X-pace, I need to train at Y-pace?  That’s what I’m doing!  

I’m one week in and here’s what I can tell you.  I ran my fastest 5K ever yesterday.  Yay for a PR!  That’s obviously not due to my new approach to training, but it is evidence of the consistency in my running since February.  I also competed in my first-ever triathlon last Sunday.  I highly recommend giving this sport a go if you’ve never done one!  Aside from those two days, on all of my other runs I took a new approach to using my Garmin.  Rather than keep on eye on my watch for pace or distance, I chose to ONLY see my heart rate and heart rate zone.  This heat is a killer and keeps driving my heart rate up no matter how slow I try to go, but I’m getting a little better each time.  Tonight, for example, I ran 4.15 miles in 38:50, which ends up being a 9:21 average pace.  I should have been running 9:30s or slower.  That puts me in No Man’s Land, where I’m not deriving a benefit from the workout.  It was 86 degrees out, so that didn’t help!  I did stay in Zones 1 and 2 for about 35% of the workout, so there’s still a learning curve for me.  Unfortunately, I still allowed myself to creep up into Zones 4 and 5 for about 22% of the time.  I shouldn’t have been there at all.  And 42% of the time I was in Zone 3...precisely where I shouldn’t be.  It’s going to take some discipline, but I’m excited to slow down to speed up.     

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Just lace up the shoes...

Well here goes nothing!  Even though my main goal here is to chronicle a form of training that’s new to me, I feel like I need to give a little back story.  

I started running almost 10 years ago.  I wasn’t an athlete in middle school or high school.  I had just started seeing a guy unlike anyone else I’d ever dated.  This one had potential.  Something about him made me want to be a better version of myself.  And with that, I decided to take up running.  It started with the goal of running a 5K.  Eventually, it led to signing up for a half-marathon.  You know how this goes, right?  I know y’all drank the Kool-Aid, too!  

So what’s happened in the last 10 years?  Well, I’ve run more 5Ks than I can count.  There’s a box in the basement filled with medals no one ever sees.  I’ve run 5 half-marathons.  I’ve also had 3 kids in the last 4 years.  When I started running again after the birth of my third daughter (May 2017), something felt different.  I felt stronger and more determined than ever before.  I felt a desire to challenge myself and reach new heights.  When I signed up to run the Cap City 1/2, I set a goal time of 2 hours.  This is right around where I’ve finished in the past, so if I could do that again after 3 babies, I’d be happy.  But I trained really hard this winter.  I didn’t deviate from my plan, and I really invested in speed work.  I ended up moving corrals with a new goal time of 1:50.  On race day, I fell short of my goal with a finishing time of 1:51:52.  This was still a big PR for me, and I was ready for the next challenge.  Currently, I’m training to run the Columbus Marathon in October 2018.  I stay connected with Moms Run This Town (MRTT) so that I can rack up some miles with local moms. I also signed up for Marathoners in Training to help me conquer the 26.2.  

Anyhow, back in April, following the crazy weather at the Boston Marathon, I saw this image posted.  It was taken from a Runner’s World article. (https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a20853168/6-training-habits-that-lead-to-boston-qualifying-times-according-to-strava/)  

I started to realize that I was running MOST of my runs at race pace or faster.  I was only slowing down for long runs and not by much.  But how do you get faster by running slower?  

Enter LACTATE THRESHOLD TESTING.  I used a company out of Grandview called Summit Multisport Racing.  I was just tested two days ago, so this is really fresh info! For anyone interested, here’s how the process went:

Blood is drawn just like it would be if you were a diabetic.  It’s a tiny little pinch on your finger.  She started by measuring my resting values.  Then I hopped on the treadmill and started jogging at an easy pace.  The pace was determined in advance based on info I had given them about my runs.  Every 2.5 minutes I would report my heart rate (from my Garmin watch).  At the 5 minute mark, I would straddle the rails of the treadmill while my blood was collected to measure the oxygen levels.  Then I would hop back on and increase the speed.  We did this over and over until I maxed out.  I started running 10 minute miles and called it quits after 2 minutes of running a 6:30.  Now I’ll take the data, apply it to my training plan, and retest in about 8 weeks.  Depending on the results at that time, I may need to adjust my training for the last 8 weeks or so leading up to the marathon. 

I mistakenly thought that lactate threshold testing was for elite athletes.  Listen up!  It’s for anyone who is serious about getting better, whatever that means for you!  Most posts won’t be this long.  I’m just excited to share the results of the test and keep track of my training in such a way as to highlight what I would have been doing had I NOT been tested, how I’ve made adjustments, and what kind of progress I’m seeing.  Next post will showcase the results I received from the test.  Stay tuned!