Monthly report: Oct-2010

Thueholmsøen-Albertslund

This month has consisted of one week of transition(40), one week of preparation(41) and two weeks of basic training(42 and 43). In addition I've participated in an ultra competition-6h race in Copenhagen, 30th of Oct.
The first week in the period was good. I did one session in each sport with low intensity and felt ready to start the basic training the week after that. In the first week in the basic period(42) I noticed pain in my knees again-especially at the end of my long run on Saturday. By taking measures such as days off and extensive use of ice I managed to reduce the pain to such a degree that I thought I'd dealt with the problem once and for all. It appeared later on that I hadn't. At the end of week 43 I participated in Copenhagen 6h race and had to back off after 3h due to severe pain in my knees. It's evident that I the cause of the pain is still present. The pain is just a symptom that something is wrong. The cause is of biomechanical nature. I need to adress it in that way. This is critical. In order to be able to train in future I need to correct this-preferably as soon as possible.
Apart from running I've carried out the training programme pretty much as planned.
My first measure when it comes to adressing the injury is to buy a new pair of shoes that corrects a mildly form of overpronation. After two sessions I'm not utterly convinced that this is the right measure. The shoes seem to prevent my natural pronation. I appears that I have a normal pronation. My next measure then is to buy a new pair of shoes that adresses this and try them out. In addition I think it's a right measure to reduce the amount of running compared to what I've planned in the fourth quarter. Most important to me now is to get injury free as fast as possible and no later than the end of this year. The amount of running was fourth times bigger in the second quarter and third quarter compared to the first quarter. It may be that progression has been to rapid. In addition the amount of cross-training was very low in both the second and third quarter. I also introduced lighter and more race-like shoes and used them extensively. It may very well be that my bones and ligaments hasn't been able to catch up with this increased workload.
Besides a par of new shoes my approach in the month to come will be to reduce the number of running sessions and only run light endurance-sessions. I'll start out with three sessions. If that works out I'll add another and so on till I reach five. After that I'll start quality-sessions, and finally increase the duration of the long run. I'm afraid my scheduled race at the end of this month is off if nothing special happens in the week to come.

 
1. Total activity:
-Workouts: 21, including 1 b-priority competition
-Distance: 231,9 km
-Time: 32h 6m 54s
-Verticals: 2.306 m
-Calories: 14.720 C
-Days off: 8 days of 31(26 %, one week is transition period).

2. Running:
-Workouts:10
-Distance: 200,57 km
-Time: 25h 06m 54s
-Verticals: 2.172 m
-Calories: 13.733 C

3. Bike:
-Workouts: 2
-Distance: 29,73 km
-Time:  1h 20m
-Verticals: 134 m
-Calories: 987 C

4. Strength:
-Workouts: 5
-Time: 2h 40m

5. Flexibility:
-Workouts: 1 (sportsmassage)
-Time: 50m

6. Shoes(as of 31th of Oct):
-Mizuno Wave Ronin (purchased 8.4.10)     : 522 km
-Puma Concinnity (purchased 30.4.10)        : 220 km
-Montrail Masochist (purchased 14.5.10)     : 415 km
-Mizuno Wave Aero 8 (purchased 28.7.10) : 219,3 km
-Saucony Kinvara (purchased 9.9.10)          : 137,5 km
-Puma Trailfox (purchased sep 2006)          : 85,5 km

Monthly report: Sep-2010

UltraBirken-2010

In short this month has consisted of two weeks of tapering and an competition period of two weeks-the latter with one A-priority competition at the end of the week.
In the beginning of the tapering-period I suffered from a ligth stretch in both my hamstrings. In addition I was subjected to a virusinfection that put me off for a couple off days.
At the end of the tapering period I felt very fit, but experienced injury-problems. I had pain in my butt  right where the muscles of the feet is attached to the butt. I spent some time stretching and made use of ice and managed to reduce the pain. I didn't disappear, though.
First week of the competition period I participated in the race UltraBirken. I finsihed, but somewhat slower than I'd expected. I experienced again pain in my butt and felt a bit unfit on race-day. I endured a great deal of pain to finish the race. The race was nearly pure trail and I need to train more on racelike conditions to improve on my finish time.
Second week of the competition period I was just resting and trying to recover after UltraBirken which cost a lot of effort to finish. Anyway, I felt rather fit at Berlin Marathon and managed again to finish at PB under difficult conditions with a crowdlike race and lousy weather.

Evaluation:
I went through three, tough races in August-the last one at the end of the month-and I didn't recover properly before starting the tapering period. As a matter of fact I needed to start the tapering period a week earlier. I've been putting a lot of strain on my body both in July and August and I suffered from that in September. I have scheduled to many competitions on a limited time-range. In addition I'm not good enough to differ between hard and easy workouts. Further on my quality workouts is to lengthy. Not including cross-training in
the building period was a mistake. I paid the price with experiencing injuries in my hamstrings and butt.
Both the races taught me invaluable lessons. First I need to train more in the terrain to improve on my time. Second I'm able to endure a lot of pain allready and I'm sure that I can improve a lot on that area by including mental training in my programme. Thirdly, I need to improve on my nutrition-intake during my races-I have to establish a routine. Fourth, my core is weak and I need to improve on that in order to increase on my running pace and keep it steady over the whole time of the race. Fifth, I'm attending to many races. It wears me out and leave me less prepared for the important races. Sixth, I need to improve on my recovery routine-in general and after competitions.

1. Total activity:
-Workouts: 12, including 2 A-priority competitions
-Distance: 224,9 km
-Time: 25h 3m 4s
-Verticals: 2.948 m
-Calories: 14.805 C
-Days off: 18 days of 30(60 %, the whole month is in the tapering and competition period adn half a week in the transition period).

2. Running:
-Workouts:10
-Distance: 208,59 km
-Time: 23h 21m 50s
-Verticals: 2.836 m
-Calories: 13.919 C

3. Bike:
-Workouts: 1
-Distance: 16,34 km
-Time:  51m 14s
-Verticals: 112 m
-Calories: 886 C

4. Strength:
-Workouts: 0
-Time: 0m

5. Flexibility:
-Workouts: 1 (sportsmassage)
-Time: 50m

6. Shoes(as of 3th of Oct):
-Mizuno Wave Ronin (purchased 8.4.10)     : 512 km
-Puma Concinnity (purchased 30.4.10)        : 220 km
-Montrail Masochist (purchased 14.5.10)     : 415 km
-Mizuno Wave Aero 8 (purchased 28.7.10) : 146 km
-Saucony Kinvara (purchased 9.9.10)          : 56 km
-Puma Trailfox (purchased sep 2006)          : 40 km

Monthly report: August-2010

Brandenburger Tor-Berlin

Total amount of workouts is up slightly and the distance covered is down by 20%. Verticals is down by more than 50 %. In running I've had 9 quality workouts-distributed on speed-work, running-strength and treshold pace. In addition I've completed three competitions-two marathons and an ultrarun(6h-race). I'm down on strength-training and cross-training-not doing the amount I planned in advance due to need of recovery.
Around 90 % of my training is running now. I'm set for an injury if I don't make any precautions. That'll be some more cross-training and reduced amount of training volume as I enter the tapering period now-as a matter of fact I tapered for my last marathon in Stavanger last weekend. I haven't had any problems connected with injuries, but I've been training "over the edge" when it comes to amount. I do think that to include a weekly trail-session does prevent injuries. I'll continue with that in the tapering period. My new focus-towards street-running-has paid off. I finished with a new personal best at Stavanger Marathon last Saturday-in the building period. I think that this is due to the amount of training, both in quality and in endurance-workouts.


1. Total activity:
-Workouts: 22
-Distance: 340,29 km
-Time: 33h 57m 43s
-Verticals: 3.177 m
-Calories: 22.945 C
-Days off: 9 days of 31(29 %-a bit under every third day, most of it the last 9 days-5 days).

2. Running:
-Workouts:19
-Distance: 312,25 km
-Time: 32h 05m 37s
-Verticals: 2.961 m
-Calories: 21.649 C

3. Bike:
-Workouts: 1
-Distance: 28,04 km
-Time: 1h 2m 06s
-Verticals: 216 m
-Calories: 1.296 C

4. Strength:
-Workouts: 1
-Time: 35m

5. Flexibility:
-Workouts: 1
-Time: 15m

6. Shoes:
-Mizuno Wave Ronin(innkjøpt 8.4.10)     : 489 km (from the time of buying)
-Puma Concinnity(innkjøpt 30.4.10)        : 220 km (from the time of buying)
-Montrail Masochist(innkjøpt 14.5.10)     : 379 km (from the time of buying)
-Mizuno Wave Aero 8(innkjøpt 28.7.10) : 111 km (from the time of buying)

My cross-training in the weeks to come will be swimming and cycling. Strength-training is off untill the next quarter-starting in October. My running workouts in the tapering period will consist of endurance and treshold-pace sessions. That'll last till the end of next week. I'm scaling down on my verticals-below 10/km.
My A-priority race for this quarter is only just over three weeks away-Berlin Marathon. In that race I'm racing to achieve a new personal best. More on stratetgy for the race later on.

Monthly report: July-2010

I thought it could be useful to evaluate each month in addition to every week. It makes sense because a month represents a cycle with weeks leading up to a recovery week with increasing workload before recovery the last week. There are certainly some experience to gain from each month in many ways and I'm sure I will benefit from the effort.
Well then, July was the first month of the third quarter and the last days of the second quarter. I've decided to consentrate on street-running with the A-priority target being Berlin Marathon 26th of September.
Initially I had a transition week in order to recover fully from the second quarter. No activity in week 27 at all. Just trying to give the body a total rest.
After that I've completed one week of preparation and two weeks of good, hard training. Planned working load was 25,16h in total(Running: 19,4h) , 279,9 km of movement(219,9 km, 60 on the bike).
Initially I didn't plan a race before Kongsvinger Marathon the 7th of August.
My training log shows:

1. Total activity:
-Workouts: 19
-Distance: 373,88 km
-Time: 42h 57m 10s
-Verticals: 7.150 m
-Calories: 23.708 C

2. Running:
-Workouts:13
-Distance: 317,88 km
-Time: 38h 50m 15s
-Verticals: 6.728 m
-Calories: 21.045 C

3. Bike:
-Workouts:2
-Distance: 56 km
-Time: 2h 6m 55s
-Verticals: 421 m
-Calories: 2.663 C

4. Strength:
-Workouts: 2
-Time:1h 30m

5. Flexibility:
-Workouts: 2
-Time: 30m

Thuringen Ultra is included here as the race was held the 3th of July. In addition I decided to replace two running, endurance-workouts  with a race-Rallarvegløpet. I'd planned a total workload of 40h in the same period. I'm a bit over then. Running was about 35h planned-I ended at just under 39h.
I'm very satisfied to have completed Thuringen Ultra within 14h. It serves as a qualifier to Western States next year. In addition it was an awesome experience to race and finish. I shall never forget the feeling right after I finished. A very strong emotional experience. It's one of the reasons for racing again.
I've increased the length of my long runs as planned. A long run to me is over 3h. I've also experienced some problems with my knees, but I've elemintated that by changing the shoe I use while running. Mizuno serves me good-models Ronin and Aero 8. I've also incorporated bike-, strength- and flexibility-workouts in my schedule. That was a relief. I need the cross-training in order to gain strength and variety.
Focus in the third quarter is street-running. However, I will schedule one workout weekly on trails.
I've carried out three quality-workouts when it comes to running weekly and two endurance runs. I'll stick to that as earlier planned.