Lowering the boom - 2013

Okay, then....here I am with a new blog and ready to lower the boom, fitting the definitions of the expression easily.

1. In sailing, when there will be a course direction change...you lower the boom and swing to the other side. For me, I'm making a training change in that I'm back to half marathons as a goal and I'm changing up the way I train.

2. The final punch. 2013 is going to be a year for me to get my training in gear for once in a decade and train consistently for a goal. I had a short spurt of that 2 years ago, but that fell to the wayside when I was sidetracked with running Chicago. No more! Being self employed can be tough when trying to keep to schedules. You'd think it would be the other way around, but when dollars coming in means working hours...well...sometimes you actually have less free time. I've been working through that this year and have the reins in hand so that I can get to the start line feeling like I've done all that I can do.

3. Lower - HADD. While I've read everything that Maffetone has written (I have 3 books of his plus online articles), I just can't get with the formula he uses. I tried training at 125 bpm even giving myself a 5 bpm increase but found that I needed to Racewalk to get up to that. Just walking wouldn't get me there. The whole reason I started running is because the form needed for Racewalking was causing me acute sciatica issues. In the two weeks that I tried to racewalk consistently, I realized my body was changing and trying to build new muscles groups again for that. No thank you! So, Hadd makes so much more sense to me with respect to base building. With 205 as my Max HR (tested 3 separate times on a track with my coach) it makes sense that I use his 70% or less, even using his max hr minus 55 beats..works. I selected 143-148bpm as my training zone trying to stay close to 143.

I did my Maff style HADD test on Sunday on the treadmill. Results coming in my next post. Don't have the data here with me. This weekend is my last half of the weekend, Monumental half marathon in Indy. After that is over, it's all about HADD. Yahoo!

Great to see you with a new blog! It sounds like you have a great plan in place!

Thanks, Peg! I want to see progress like you've had over the years (without the appendix issue).

Okay, my MAF/HADD test that I did this last Sunday. Trying to stay close to an overall 143-148 bpm. Warmed up for one mile prior to the test. My HR only had gotten to 136 bpm, so I should have continued warming up before this test, but so be it.

Treadmill: Warm with the heater on in the house, probably 70-72 degrees, fan on treadmill.

Mile Time AVG HR MAX HR
1 13:06 136 144
2 13:11 142 145
3 13:23 142 146
4 13:07 141 144
5 13:07 142 145

OKay, so that was nice and consistent with the exception of trying to push it in mile 3 and slowing some since I didn't want to climb too high. This is a work in progress. I may not see the huge results that others see because I'm a slower runner anyway and usually do my easy runs in the 154 avg range which would get me into the 11:00 m/miles. We'll see, I enjoyed the lower running and it was a piece of cake on the body which is part of the reason to do this.

This weekend I have the Monumental Half Marathon and while I don't plan to Lower HR it, I will wear my HRM just to get an idea of what it all looks like after 10 miles running. Cold weather will make a huge difference too.

That looks like a great start, Dot!

I've wrestled with the whole Maffetone v. Hadd debate over the past couple of years. It doesn't help that my MaxHR is far higher than what would be officially expected. What I found worked best for me was a bit of a hybrid approach, cheating a little on the Maffetonian heart rates and sometimes letting it go up into the Hadd levels. I had a lot of success using that approach - improving a lot without injury - but I did manage to burn myself out, as well. So this time, I'm erring on the lower HR side.

Looking at your test, I'm impressed with how you were able to keep both the HR and the pace consistent. As you do this, remember to focus on the HR and work to keep that steady. Pace will take care of itself. It'll fall off at first, but improve the more you do it. You need to let those mitochondria build.

And don't be so sure that your "slow runner" status dooms you to limited improvement. Keep at it, be disciplined and patient -- and you just might get a pleasant surprise.

Thanks, Mark! I really paid no attention to the time until I was finished. Just watched the HR on my watch and then clicked when a mile passed. I was pretty surprised to see such even splits.

This is a hybrid too because if I went truly HADD, I'd be going up to 150 bpm. I'd like to stay around 143-145 although I gave myself a full 5 bpm leeway. We'll see where this takes me.

Yeah, Dot - looking forward to seeing where this low HR training takes you. I used to run by HR, but now I basically run by effort and feel. I always felt my HR results were skewed due to the fact that I have a very broad range with a much higher max HR than would have been expected.

Hey, Michele! Thanks for stopping by.

Just got back from the Monumental Marathon expo downtown. It's become a popular event especially this year and I guess there is now a sell out crowd as those from middle america who deferred NYC are coming to Indy instead. This is the 5th running of the event and I'm on a streak for the half thus getting a super cool additional medal for the 5 year straight participation. Nice!

My father comes into town tonight from So Cal. No race for him this year but he's still in training for a spring 5k. He'll be 90 years old and hopefully grab an age group award.

I'm telling you that if I was 100%, I would be driving to Indy now as they are offering registration to NY deferrees. Too bad I really am not ready to run a marathon and the Sandy was/is a blessing in disguise for me.

New blog - good for you.
I will take a new photo of you in the morning, if you like, and you can have a new profile photo for the new blog.
Though the photo from the Howl is still good - my favorite of you!
Maybe we can squeeze in a little pre-race video too.

I am assuming that my ankle will be fine - it does not hurt and I will be careful.
Last year I got swept away at the start and was going 1.5 - 2 minutes a mile too fast for the first few and I paid for it later. We will hang with that 5:00 pace group, IF the pacer knows what he is doing!

See you in the morning - it will be a bit nippy and maybe a few flurries too!

Charles: I'm not hanging with that pacer. I tried to last year but as is the case with that race, it bottlenecks a bit and you lose time initially at the first few water stops. This guy (same one this year I see) decided to make up 1.5 minutes in one mile. Sheesh! I dropped him and did my own pacing. Still came in at 2:27-ish last year. I'd rather start a bit slower for the first few miles....12:00-ish for a mile or so. We can meet up near him, but lets do our own thing.

I am glad you already know about that pacer. We will just meet up in that area, but do our own thing.
Mary Beth is on board with that plan too.
And then, we may each feel different down the road and each head to the finish in our own way.

Had a very telling run today at the Monumental half Marathon. Not a race as I didn't have a goal, but the data I mined via HRM was awesome. I'll try to post that tomorrow morning.

Charles, sorry that I messed up trying to find the 5 hour pacer. Gene tells me the guy would never hold the darn sign up and I ended up starting with the 11-12:00 min/mile folks and it was fun to run into you two mid race.

We looked and looked for you at the start.
Now if I had know you had on a classy new blue outfit, including new shoes, well then . . .

I told Mary Beth that at some point you would be right at my shoulder saying hi and you did!
Our run went well and I will detail it in my blog shortly.

Glad we at least saw each other for a minute.

Charles: Love the Puma Faas 300's! I had about 50 miles on those but road races can make them look like new! (no muddy trail crossings).

Okay, the Monumental Half. Decided just to get an idea of what my HR was out there. Today, I could kick myself for not having a more aggressive goal as every once in a while I would realize that I was just plodding along as if on a treadmill. Dang!! I'd speed up and if I wasn't paying attention would slow back down. I never looked at my HR, just went by perceived effort and it just didn't feel that bad.

The legs...well the legs were a tiny bit frozen as I had opted for a running skirt and the redness of my legs at the end will tell the story in the photos, I'm sure. They started to get a bit tight but still no big deal. Why didn't I just run faster. I'm a slug! I was out there to run in under a 12:00 min/mile

Here are my splits:
11:47
11:58
11:15
11:30
11:46
11:25
11:30
11:48
11:47
11:34
11:33
11:46
11:24
1:02

You can tell that the ones in the 11:40's I had taken a walk break for water drinking. Avg HR-157, Maxed out at a quick sprint at the end up to 179 bpm, but I was no where near huffing and puffing. Drat! Who knew? My avg bpm were steady as well:144,152,155,157,156,157,158,159,160,160,161,161,162 and final sprint 168.

The weather was cold and I'm surprised that Charles didn't get any frozen rain pellets but it seemed rather centralized to just over me for about a quarter mile approaching downtown. 2:32:10 official finish time. It's all good.

On to my HADD program!!

If my friend had power walked with me those last few miles during the short walk breaks, I think we might have met up again. She was just wearing down and could not do much more. I think she did great considering all he has been through the last 2 years.

Beautiful splits, Dot! Nice job.

Dot,

so fun to see a new blog for you with a new purpose! Good luck on your training!

P.S., my hubby is heading to Indianapolis this week to see a friend and spread his mom's ashes on the Low gap trail. It is amazing what a small world we live in...

E Greenie

E Greenie! Thanks for stopping by!

My father was in from out of state for a visit and put a bit of a damper on getting started on the new plan. After the Monumental last Saturday, I managed to get in a nice 90 minute recovery style walk/run on Sunday keeping the heart rate somewhere around 138 max. This is lower than I will train at but was for recovery purposes after the Half I did.

Tuesday I ran for about 45 minutes and the heart rate barely went up to 134 at the same paces I've been doing indoors. I found that strange as it was in the evenings and it's harder for me to work out in the evening as I'm a morning person. Even so, I had to get on the treadmill as I watched election results and it was too early for any $%*(@ to hit the fan and mess with my heart rate.

I'm teaching a class for the next two days so I figure this weekend will be my official start of low hr training. The first month will be 4 days a week running with one of those as a longer run. I may still put a day of rowing and some minimal weight lifting in there for variety. The following month I may run 5 days a week with 2 long runs and the rest around 45-60 minutes (including warm up).

I'm exicited to see how this will all play out.

Cross training today. Bike and row all within the HR ranges or below.

There was an explosion nearby about a mile from me and in a neighborhood that I drive by every day. Incinerated 2 homes almost instantly and then damaged about 25 more just from the sheer force of the blast. Two other homes were almost, though not entirely burned down. Wow. 11 pm last night. Something woke me up near that time but I believe it was the sounds of helicopters that I'm not used to. Sad. Gas company doesn't think it's their problem. Could a meth lab or some other bomb maker come up with an explosion that was felt for miles like an earthquake?

Even with all the books I have from Maff, I couldn't come up with a schedule so I'm doing Hal Hidgon's Winter time schedule. It'll fit easily into my schedule with 4 days of running and 2 xt days. Probably won't get involved with a Tempo run until I see some progress.

Onward to buy a new oven. I've been using just the stove top for (I don't want to tell you how long) ever and it's time for lasagne cooking, hence the oven must be purchased.

Wow, very strange, Dot. And if not a gas leak, then my bet is on a meth lab. It can be pretty powerful and it doesn't take much. I know you can cause an explosion if you clean with ammonia and bleach - but that seems less likely at 11PM at night.

Hal's winter schedule is a good choice. I still like his schedules like that and the multiple marathon and recovery one.

That's really odd about the explosion. Has there been anything in the paper about it? I've never heard of a meth lab going up and taking out two houses, and damaging 25 others. Whatever it was, it was big.

Good job on the half marathon, BTW. It'll be fun to compare that against a half marathon after you've been doing Hadd for a while.

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Wow, very strange, Dot. And if not a gas leak, then my bet is on a meth lab. It can be pretty powerful and it doesn't take much. I know you can cause an explosion if you clean with ammonia and bleach - but that seems less likely at 11PM at night.
.

Ammonia and bleach? I always thought that it would create some sort of noxious gas that would kill you off, had no idea it was explosive.

Mark, what will be even more interesting will be that I do the Monumental every year and the weather has been consistently cold on that day. Apples to apples will be the best way to test out my HR training.

I took a little time to check out some races for 2013. The year that I PR'd every distance I was racing much more often. In 2010 I ran 3 halfs before the Indy Mini and perhaps it was just the distance running that helped or perhaps it was actually racing that helped. Either way, I'll be doing a few more halfs this year as well.

Inaugural race alert: Ken Long is putting on a new fall marathon/half in Columbus, Indiana. Mill race on Sept 28th. Not a ton of info yet but it's on his website. www.kenlongassoc.com Even being inaugural he has done an excellent job as a RD.

Ammonia and bleach will react to release chlorine gas, but an explosion would be highly unlikely unless there were other chemicals involved. A meth lab would have to be huge to create that kind of explosion. Like, huge to the point that people would have noticed some nasty smells coming from the house and probably reported it.

I'm betting on a gas explosion due to something faulty in the house. It was the Today Show this morning and that was some massive devastation. If it was gas, there was a lot of it in a large area before it ignited. If not a gas leak, somebody did something intentionally to cause it, because that large of an explosion doesn't happen by accident in a subdivision without help if it wasn't gas.

mul21 wrote:Ammonia and bleach will react to release chlorine gas, but an explosion would be highly unlikely unless there were other chemicals involved. A meth lab would have to be huge to create that kind of explosion. Like, huge to the point that people would have noticed some nasty smells coming from the house and probably reported it.

I'm betting on a gas explosion due to something faulty in the house. It was the Today Show this morning and that was some massive devastation. If it was gas, there was a lot of it in a large area before it ignited. If not a gas leak, somebody did something intentionally to cause it, because that large of an explosion doesn't happen by accident in a subdivision without help if it wasn't gas.

I think it was 2 AGM 114 Hellfire Missiles. http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1627.htm?fwcc=1&fwcl=1&fwl

T Miller wrote:

mul21 wrote:Ammonia and bleach will react to release chlorine gas, but an explosion would be highly unlikely unless there were other chemicals involved. A meth lab would have to be huge to create that kind of explosion. Like, huge to the point that people would have noticed some nasty smells coming from the house and probably reported it.

I'm betting on a gas explosion due to something faulty in the house. It was the Today Show this morning and that was some massive devastation. If it was gas, there was a lot of it in a large area before it ignited. If not a gas leak, somebody did something intentionally to cause it, because that large of an explosion doesn't happen by accident in a subdivision without help if it wasn't gas.

I think it was 2 AGM 114 Hellfire Missiles. http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1627.htm?fwcc=1&fwcl=1&fwl

Mm-hmm....

So, you don't think it was just a "pull my finger" joke gone horribly awry?

Seriously, a gas explosion seems to be the most likely explanation. Like Jim said, a meth lab blast wouldn't do that much damage. I read today that a bomb was ruled out (except by the conspiracy theorists, of course). It will be interesting to find out what they come up with.