Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Doing a Self Assessment on Your Training. My Takeaway: Don't Start Your Hard Workouts Too Soon.

This is not the most highly scientific research, but just observations on my own training over the past several years. I've done a pretty good job at logging most of my mileage since I was a freshman in high school, which at the time I just did out of being a little obsessive but not learning a damn thing from my training habits. Now things make a lot more sense that I've got experience developing a lot of other people's training schedules. The biggest thing I've learned from it all; DON'T DO TOO MANY HARD WORKOUTS TOO SOON! Here are my findings:

Self Classification:
I am a person that runs at least 5 to 7 days per week year round and have kept pretty good general fitness (not necessarily peak fitness) for several years. I tend to be a pretty ambitious person that will stick to a schedule if I get one... which I have found to be a flaw to some degree. I realize not all people run year round and may take a little longer to get into good racing fitness, but I would imagine my information could be helpful to someone with a similar lifestyle.

Injuries/Ailments:
I don't get too many injuries surprisingly, but it's typically a form of tendinitis on the medial part of my right knee. There were a couple bad muscle strains in there, some lower back pain after a couple races, and a neuroma in my foot but nothing so serious that it puts me out for a super long amount of time. Sometimes I will work my way into some over-training about 3 or 4 weeks into a training cycle because I get too ambitious.


Races, Results, and General Training Observations Over 10 Years

I highlighted some of the races that I thought stood out in terms of what I did right in training, what I did wrong, or just generally thought was a surprising result. Here it is:



Half/Full Marathons Trained for                  Result                                 Avg MPW

Lewis and Clark Half Marathon '06                  1:17:18 (3rd)                         80
2 wo's/week/20wks

St. Louis Marathon  '07                                     2:42:16 (8th Place)                90
2 wo's/week/20 wks

P.F. Chang's Half '08                                          1:19:31                                  95 to 100
Felt tired with most workouts

Twin Cities '08                                                   DNF calf strain                     95 to 110
Dead after 25wks of tough workouts

St. Louis Marathon '09                                       2:49:37 (11th)                       50
Longest run 13mi, no long workouts

Gobbler Grind '09                                              1:17:44 (3rd)                         80
not many workouts

Boston Marathon '10                                          2:39:27 PR (199th)               80
8 weeks training

Montreal Marathon '10                                      DNF hamstring strain           70
not many long runs

Gobbler Grind '10                                              1:18:21                                  60
6 weeks training

Twin Cities '11                                                    2:40:49                                 80 to 85
not many wo's

P.F. Chang's '12                                                   2:40:00                                 90
2 wo's/week

KC Half '12                                                         1:19:51                                 80
no workouts

P.F. Chang's Half  '13                                          1:15:56 PR                           80
Easier workouts but longer tempo runs

San Diego Mara '13                                             2:46:21                                 85 to 90
Lots of good wo's and a 4mi PR

NYC Marathon '13                                              3:38:02                                 60
Very few long runs, harder workouts but not prepared for a full marathon

Boston Marathon '14                                           2:46:00                                  50
Only 5 wks training

CIM '14                                                                ?:?? strained back                 80
Good training, bad race, walked the last 8 miles

Rock the Pkwy '15                                               1:17:29                                  75
2 wo's/week, had bronchitis or possible pneumonia?

RnR STL '15                                                        1:23:05                                  85 to 90
3 wo's/wk, Felt really tired

CIM '15                                                                2:54:49                                  50
Very tired, Fatigue lasted several weeks even with rest

Omaha '16                                                            1:23:40                                  70
No workouts, base running only with longest run of only 11 miles



Takeaways From the Highlighted Races

Looking at 5 of these races, I realize that I ran pretty well off of just a few races or very low key workouts throughout some training cycles. Here are the takeaways:

  • My marathon best was done off of only 8 weeks of hard workouts because I had a neuroma in my foot. 
  • Had a decent Boston marathon in 2014 with only 5 weeks of training and a couple long runs.
  • Typically do well with roughly 80 miles per week.
  • More than 2 workouts per week makes me tired.
  • Don't skip the long runs (seems like a no brainer).
  • 25 weeks is a really long time to do hard workouts.
  • Medium workouts and only a few tougher workouts tend to suit me well.

How Can This Help You?

Take a look at some of your better races and determine what they had in common during your training stint. Obviously it will take several races over a long period of time, but logging mileage, taking notes on general week to week feelings, and recording the end result can show quite a bit over time and it will save you a ton of time, injuries, and exhaustion in training for your next event.