it is a long way....

I have been away from blogging for long and has been a long way also for me since the last post, a long way also both mentally and physically.

to avoid typing three page of training summary, race reports and various consideration, I try to make a bullet-style summary

• June to July 19th: I really enter into a good groove of training. Albeit a torrid summer, I keep a good weekly mileage of around 100km and my form is coming up. Polar Running Index getting close to 80 and CTL in SportTrack getting closer to 100 (these data for data maniac runners like myself)
• July 10th: 10K race. I arrive 2nd overall in a time of 35'15". On that course and during the summer, my PB was 35'04" in 2008, so I really get the feeling that I am getting closer to the same peaks touched in 2008. Just a small concerns about my left foot which is getting painful again around the sesamoidis like in April 
• July 14th: board the plane for a nice family holiday in Poland. I am salivating to the idea of daily runs in the polish forests during a chilly morning...
• July 19th: I go for a long run and it happens the unpredictable: after 15km of easy running, my right hamstring completely seizes and become like a piece of wood. No any alert, no any understandable causes (apart from weakness of the glutes, core, etc). Stranded in the middle of the polish countryside, I have also to walk (yes... walk home, I could not even jog) for 8-10km...
• end July: I am down to jog 6km daily at 5'30" pace. My hamstring loosening up very slowly
• now: back in HK I can go under the hands of my PT and feel much better, but it is like starting over again...

Current status:

- right hamstring and glutes: not get back yet full range of motion. I feel tired even after running 10k at much more modest pace than before the injury. Work with PT and foam roller/ball/stick, whatever. I hope that in 15 days I could be running again normally

- form is seriously down... my Polar Running Index dropped to around 70...

- left foot: painful like hell after every run despite the forced rest. Already booked an appointment with the ortho doctor (cortisone shot seems unavoidable...). This is just a short term fix, I am still wondering what could be a real solution (note: I wear orthotics...do not send me to a podiatrist, I have 4 pairs of orthotics from 4 different podiatrist). Maybe is a pelvis alignment problem or maybe the hamstring problems on the right side are putting too much strain on the left side...

- Berlin Marathon: well.. maybe another year. I doubt I can celebrate my 42nd birthday, running 42km... 

- mental side: I really want to give running a final serious effort for a couple of years, but it seems a bit pointless. After 40, my body is simply losing the wheels...

Now I will seriously try to work on core, glutes strength, etc, but if it does not work, it is probably time to give myself to lawn bowl... anyway the morale is underwater...

Positive thought: give a read to Lauren Fleshman's blog and her amazing turnaround from injury to DL win (my cynical side reminds me that I am several years older and I do not have Nike to support the rehab..)

Question to the readers:

- does anybody know a serious place where they can perform a running assessment (using treadmill and foot lead measurement, etc) ?

I am going to South England soon for work, also Veneto region in Italy is ok or, closer to home, Hong Kong or Singapore...

(in HK, most places that I know are really poorly equipped)

Tropical Heat and influence on the training of the runner

"I can understand a little of what you're going through there Roberto. The humidity and heat creaping up here in Osaka but thankfully not to the levels you have to put up with. Interested to hear what you do to keep running in those conditions, hydration etc etc"

I got this comment from Scott which in a sense touched an issue of common interest...
..how to train under a tropical-style heat ?


honestly speaking, most of the suggestions you can find in running magazines are pretty much obvious: run early in the morning, drink a lot, etc...


on the other extreme of the spectrum, there are all the dissertation about the role of the Central Governor in avoid overheating, etc, which are sometimes beyond my grasp...


now the question is how to do, when the minimum temperature in the day is at least 27-28C, high humidity and a long long summer ?


I personally found that running in heat poses 3 challenges:


1) Alteration of gait caused by running "slower"
Let's say that crawling around at 30"/km slower than the usual pace is anyway having an effect on the stride. The muscles get into their memory a shorter and less reactive stride.
I think that several months of that and then it can become difficult to regain the right muscolar-activation pattern 


2) Heart Rate Drift caused by heat
Once the body can not lose enough heat fast, the HR begins to rise even if the runner keeps a steady pace and the duration of the run is within his normal training.
Personally I found that with temperature around 28-29C and 80%rH, I can keep around 25-30' at easy pace or 15' at faster pace before my HR begins to rise (and rise a lot).
It is not uncommon that even if I am just running "easy", after 90 minutes my HR is in MP or HMP territory.
Even worse, while doing "faster" workout, the HR can go easily over 90% HRmax even the pace is kind of "moderate"


3) Day-by-day recovery
It is quite common in tropical weather to lose 2.0-2.5L of water per hour.
Run 2 hours and even if you drink 2-3 bottles during the run, you will end up losing 3Kg of sweat.
That means that rehydratation involves drinking at least 4 liters of fluids before the next workout. This also goes together with the loss of minerals, etc
Honestly after a long run I feel really bloated by all the water which I know I MUST drink...




Anyway first a piece of good news:
Heat acclimation gives big cycling performance improvements in cool conditions, study finds
"A recent study by human physiology researchers at the University of Oregon found that huge physiological gains could be achieved in trained cyclists by doing 90-minute easy rides in high heat for 10 days.

Before the testing, the researchers expected to find improvements in the hot-weather performance of Cat. 1 and 2 cyclists after a heat-acclimation program. But what surprised them was that the physiological improvement translated to cool-weather performance as well."

This is something that I always suspected ... because whenever I leave HK in Summer and step out from the plane in a cooler country, my running takes another dimension, almost feeling effortless...


So there is a good reason to grind through the summer, but how to make it easier:


These are only my personal thoughts and experiences:


1) try to run in "doubles".
I know is very difficult to do for an amateur runner, but running in doubles during summer could be hugely beneficial:
- it is much easier to reintegrate 2 times 1-1.5 Liter of water, than 3 Liters...
- because it is unavoidable to slow down after 30'-45', the runner can base the training on 2times x30'-40', keep an higher pace and maintain a more correct stride.

- even for a long run, probably a split into 1h+1h at decent speed is much better than crawling around for 2hours.
I know runners who pride themselves to keep going also during heat waves, even if they have to slow down a lot. But honestly I do not see the benefit to run at 5'30"/km for a runner whose "cold weather" easy speed is 1 minute/km faster..
For keeping a good stride and also mantain certain neuromuscolar patters,  I personally feel much better to run almost at my "normal" speed (let's say that 10"-15"/km slower is unavoidable), but stop when I can not keep the pace anymore...
I also do not feel anymore any issue with running 30' at good pace, stopping 5' for drinks and cool down and then start again..


2) fractional workouts
the concept is nothing different from point 1), but inside the single workout. 
No point to make "tempo runs" where the speed is too far from the target one or where you suffer a dramatic drop of pace after 20'...
much better to run at the "real" target speed, but in intervals.
So better 6-7x2km, than a 10k tempo run. The rest gives the time to drink properly and cool down the body a bit, so that every active interval is performed at the real target speed.
I am also applying this to longer runs: even for long runs, I split into many short intervals (maybe 10-15x2km) with time for drink and cool-down, or longer interval with longer rests (20' followed by 2' drink/cool-down), all performed at my "cold weather" speed or whereabouts.


3) day-by-day recovery
this is an area where I am really still in search for a better way.
- what to drink, what to eat ?
- how to recover quicker ?


for example, drinking only water makes difficult to reintegrate also the minerals, etc... but if you switch to sports drinks or fruit juices, then there is the problem of the too large caloric intake (a glass of juice is over 100-150Kcal).


Also the drinking pattern: drink a lot immediately after the workout  (not keeping into account anyway the limit of the effective absorption rate by the body), or drink a little but all over the day...


on top of that, I think that all the runners from S.E. Asia and similar climates suffer from the same situation where the fatigues increase day by day, and the heat is a kind of chronic illness which really affects the level of energy, even if in theory he/she drinks, eat and sleep enough.
There is a kind of cumulative effect on recovery of training in the heat, where it becomes impossible to fully restore from the day before.
I personally felt almost "on my knees" at the end of each summer, only waiting for the weather to get cooler and eventually recover.


What do you think?? Any practical experience to share?

summer survival

A scene that repeats itself everyday, around 5am...
after crawling away from the bedroom, I check the weather. I am really in disbelief that it could be already 29C/83%Rh at 5am, but this is the tough reality. That is something like an heat index of 35C at 5am... and it can only be worse after sunrise...

So every time I try to run between 10 and 15Km, keeping a easy pace for 30' and than going always slower and slower... I try to control the HR below 75% but inevitably drifts higher and higher, so that at the end of the workout I find myself in a combination: jogging pace @ marathon effort...

With a sweat rate of 2kg water/hr... I am usually wasted after every medium-long run.

Trying to keep the things going, last week I totaled anyway 75km.

end of survival report

Track workout breakthrough...

No, I did not run 10x1000m in 2'50"...(well... let's say not yet..., maybe)

But I DID RUN in this track, which is actually the track of 清溪第一中学..

The usage by "commoners" of sports grounds in China is completely a mistery to me... those who should be for common use are usually locked all day long unless a major sports event, but it is more likely that you can sneak in into some school sports ground before their lessons.

Despite moving to this town already 3 years ago, I always had a taboo to try my luck into entering this track. But this morning I did not feel too much to make some intervals around a a factory, I felt the need to some rubber...

All said, brief chat with the security guys at the entrance and at 6.00am sharp I was starting a modest 3x1000m to get back into interval training...

times were 3'13"-3'12'-3'11", it was nice to feel the pain of the lactic acid in my arms...

Qingxi tonw school (from Panoramio)

Apart from this, I did not follow too much the rule of "10% mileage increase"
Week 18: 0Km
Week 19: 35Km
Week 20: 72Km
all complemented by strong doses of core exercises, stretching, etc
No mistery that by sunday evening I felt like being passed over by a track....

Note: there is a strong debate about the real estate craze in China.  The pic above was taken in 2008 and by now there are at least other 3-4 mega-residential complexes (like the one which was in construction in the pic) in this small town where 90% of the population are factory workers at 200USD/mt salary...
All the apartments are snapped by eager buyers even before completion and then they lay empty or half empty for years, because the rental or purchase are beyond reach for the masses...
The brick is just a way to park the money of wealthy locals, in absence of other investment alternatives.
This said... will the bubble burst or not ?

Cold, freddo, frio ! And shattered legs

This is the temperature here this morning....
For a town located at the Tropic is really cold, compounded by a cold drizzle...
I know that compared to North Dakota o Sweden I am in a paradise, but the issue is that house DO NOT have any heating system and insulation. So 3C outside, 3C also in the bedroom or while you step out from the shower....

With this weather I felt better going out running than staying at home, at least there was some endogenous heat production.
The problem is that I come out from the Half Marathon really shattered: Monday I could not even walk downstairs and I opted for riding a stationary bike in the gym (honestly very shameful for a former hard core cyclist...).
Tuesday it was not much better and so I gave it a miss...
This morning, I ventured out in Dongguan before sunrise in total obscurity and it was slightly better but I was basically shuffling....

Being so shattered after an hilly race does not give me good signs for the HK marathon (which is very hilly). So from now on I will focus more on hilly courses and uphill/downhill training....

Week 34/2010 Summary and (nice) 5K race report

I do not know exactly why, but last week marked a turning point in my training.

Maybe because  of the weather or maybe I started to "absorb" the workload, but for the first time I felt I was RUNNING and not crawling.
If I would have to re-conduct everything into figures, I would rely on the "Training Load" plug-in of SportTrack : when I raced on 15/8, the TTSB (Training Stress Balance) was on the severe overtraining territory, becuase I was ramping up the load quite quickly. A couple of days rest, some easy runs plus the smoothing of the training load had brought back the TSS into the right zone... therefore with a decent level of freshness.

MONDAY: 13.5Km all easy effort, but end up at 4'20" average pace
TUESDAY: 14.5Km start easy with 5km progression run at medium effort... felt excellent, another 4'20" average pace with very low bpm
WEDNESDAY: 15.5Km very easy in the wild in Dongguan...struggled because of the heat
THURSDAY: I was in Shanghai (Fengxian District) for work and managed a 11km easy run under a baking sun.   It was a crappy road along the sea with no shadow at all and warm breeze... I was just hoping to getting done

FRIDAY: the return from Shanghai was a classical "airport horror story"

- 15.45 (on thursday): boarding for 16.15 take-off, flight CZ to Shenzhen
- 16.15: announcement that take off will be delayed because a passenger is missing so they must download his checked baggage
- 16.30: thunder and lighting on the horizon
- 16.45: announcement that take off will be delayed because of the thunderstorm (it did not help that on the day before there was an air crash in Heilongjiang because of bad weather... so obviously now they are taking a no-risks approach)
- 20.00: after 4 hours sitting on the plane, we are disembarked and told to wait until further notice. Rain is pouring down in droves.... the airport is a mess because all flight were suspended, so it was a fight just to find an empty seat to camp
- 00.00: boarding again. Rain stopped. We should be #2 at take off, so should be over soon...
- 01.00: we are not moving.... passengers are getting very angry and insulting openly the crew and ground staff.... seems they were is a mismatch between the passengers on board and the boarding list. The crew is totally INCAPABLE to manage such a simple issue...they do recount but with all the passangers going around the plane (!!). they do not sit down to match the boarding lists with the seats, etc... real crap
- 02.30: after the discovery that they did not recount an infant (who was in the passenger list), the arcane is solved and we take off...
- 04.30: land in Shenzhen... total delay 10 hours...
- 05.30: arrive home... I did not sleep a minute and the sun is already rising...
take shower and get ready for work...

So you can expect that I did not feel too much like going for a run with 30C outside...

SATURDAY: 5K race in TaiTam...

Actually some of you might remember that 2 years ago I won this race...but the situation was totally different.. I was really well trained then while now I would have already been happy to take the Master victory and score points in the "Adidas 5K series".

Well, it did went much better then expected...the course is a tough beast with 1.2k flat, 1k on a very hard climb, small loop at the top and then come back...
Praise to the organizer for including also a Junior category, to give some deserved space to the next generation of runners....

(Thanks to Victor Lee for these nice pics !!)

After the flat start (I am #126) we tackle the climb in a large group and little by little we lose pieces until I realize that we are only 2 at the front .
I was labouring VERY HARD, but I could not expect differently since the climb is really steep (many runners slowed down to a walk).
While tackling the downhill I felt already a bit doomed because the hamstring was still tight so I could not risk to dive into the downhill at full speed... I tried to work on the cadence, but I was losing ground and by the bottom I was already 50m behind.
Well... I hoped to be able to make up some ground, but I simply "bombed",...I was totally done and closed the last Km in damage control, scoring 2nd OA and 1st Master.

this is the face of someone hurting badly...

Nice Album from Victor Lee

The disappointment of losing out, was mitigated by 2 facts:

1) In 2008 I won in 18'05" and the 2nd come into 18'25". This time the winning time was also 18'05" and I closed in 18'25" as well... (nice coincidence...).
So I am closer to my 2008 levels much more than I expected.

2) I chatted with the winner, who was a total unknown. I found out that he is a new comer to HK and we both run the Fukuoka Marathon 2007, but his time was 2h25' (!!!!). He was still not fully trained yet, but all the same I felt like losing to someone of real good caliber

Race results are HERE

As last race here, I wore the Polar HR right to see what is my maximum HR right now and calibrate the training...

quite interesting is the comparison with 2 years ago in terms of HR levels during the race.

Average HR: 188 (2008) vs 185 (2010)
% of time HR over 190: 50% (2008) vs 25% (2010).

So in such a short race the training allows the body to push more and sustain a higher level of fatigues without the shut down effect of the central governor. Even if my 2008 training was mainly geared to marathon, I was still more conditioned to work near my maximum.

SUNDAY: rest , which was a mistake because the legs would have needed a slow jog to toss out the soreness due to the downhill... by the end of the day I felt the quadriceps like stones...

So a good week and definitely a step in the right direction. I need now to get more focused on my training and dedicate more time to increase the lactate threshold.

77

77?

This is the "Polar Running Index" in my 2 last runs this week...

This is a considerable step-ahead from the mid-high 60s of when I resumed running in January.

When I was in top form, I was consistently around 85+, but 77 is already a very good level which was similar to when I run 2h42' @Boston Marathon.

Clearly I am not anyway near to run a marathon because my range of autonomy is about 15km at most and my legs are still too bulky and stiff from the cycling. I feel very good general stamina, but the stride needs a lot of work...

for more about keeping track of the form using the Polar Running Index, check this older post

Train so far this week:

- Mon: great bike ride with E. along the Shenzhen coastline... very hilly and we hammered down from start to end... 100km in 3h20' (drizzle, slippery roads...). In the last 10km I was really dead.. since the ride was far beyond my usual range.

- Tue: 11km very easy run @4'40"/k pace (in HK)... I felt dead after the long bike ride, but I was pleased that the HR was low and kept steady (Polar Index 77)

- Wed (evening): my first time ever to try to run in Dongguan around my neighbourhood, and most of all in the evening. Somehow I carved a star-shaped loop around the blocks and it was very quiet...

It was drizzling and I felt super good... pace around 4'10" and HR very low, Polar Index 77

- Thu (am): bike ride in Dongguan... legs tired because of the run the evening before. But I was still ok to ride at 32kmh average speed until a thunderstorm came so I cut short... total 55'

- Fri (am): overslept, so I just hurried for a quick run.... air was incredibly crispy and fresh (for our standards), so I tried to make a mini tempo run... only 3k in 10'25" (3'28"/k pace): The fastest I have ever run since november 2008... I could have sustained that pace for some other km but I did not want to push too much... total 8k

5 months - 5 mesi

EN: today marks 5 months from my last run. Tendons still painful.

I am becoming a "theoretical runner"... just brownsing running blogs and forums and formulating hypotetical training plans for future marathons...

Cycling almost every day. I wish to take part in a road race to see what I would be capable to do, but at the same time I think that I would be now scared to take all the risks involved in a bike race... (road cycling is dangerous... all the scars on my body agree)

IT: oggi fanno 5 mesi senza correre, sembra un eternita'. Tendini ancora doloranti.

Ormai sono diventato solo un teorico della corsa, a leggere forums a blog senza muovere poi in piede.

Quasi tutti i giorni mi faccio 30/40km di bici e mi piacerebbe parteciapre ad una gare per vedere di cosa sarei capace a quasi 20 anni dalla mia ultima gara. Ma francamente ho la sensazione che sarei spaventato nel correre in un gruppo con tutti i rischi relativi (la bici e' uno sport indubbiamente pericolo e le cicatrici sul mio corpo sono li' a ricordarmelo)

3/December - 4 days to go

honestly my right ankle feels like a crap... the achilles are really painful, so Sunday it will be a long long way. Since yesterday I am taking huge doses of Voltaren (Diclofenac Sodicum), to at least placate the pain. I would be happy to run on a single leg like on the Half Marathon, 10 days ago.
At 8.30am Sunday (GMT+8), I will hang out the shoes for a good while until I am settled.

Tuesday 2/December (HK): interval 4x2km at Marathon Effort, recovery 1'30". Since it was really chilly, it was easy to hold 7'15" for the 2k. HR was around 165/170, but after 3 intervals the ankle was painful (not yet taken Voltaren)

Wednesday 3/December(Dongguan): took the car and drive to the edge of the forest (to avoid the 5k on concrete). Run 10k easy on soft surface, but calf tightened more than expected

Friday we fly to Singapore. I will receive the running uniform only then, so I will go live on Sunday with a brand new kit (hahah... this goes against the rule #1 of marathon: use only tested gear..).

Race strategy: I will try to run at 3'50"/km until is dark (from 5.30am to 6.45am) and than settle for a more modest 4'00" under the sun.
That should bring me to finish in around 2h45' that is quite respectable for the Singapore's heat. Obviously if the ankle goes for the worst, then I will fight Km by Km to reach the end...
One issue is that the tendons are obviously more painful in the morning than in the evening, because of the shortening during the sleep. The race starts at 5.30am, so not the right time for my achilles...

8/Oct - tired

24C/humid... worse than yesterday
I felt tired from yesterday's workout (unavoidable...), so only 13km at a leisurely 4'25"/4'30" pace. I guess also tomorrow must be taken easy.

Stefano: and you ? feel tired legs ? (relative to your potential, you took it a bit slower)

5/october

after yesterday fast and long run, I was expecting to feel tired today. I WAS tired..
15km easy @4'25" average pace.
Note: friday I did the silly mistake to run faster because I felt good even if it was supposed to be a easy run. That is rule #1, #2 and #3 of training... when it is your easy run to recover before/after hard workouts, do it easy, regardless on how you feel !!

4/october "the power of networking"

by far, the most enjoyable workout in my 9 years in China&HK !!
In the past days I had floated the plan for this workout (20km easy + 13km @MP) to my usual running friends ... well, the word spread out and at the starting point we were more than a dozen, with (incredibly!) 6 out of 10 of the best marathon runners in HK and the current 2nd best female runner !! wow..
The comment from E. was the most amusing: "I guess that not even at the HK Marathon you have this starting field..".

The weather was at his most awful, with an incoming typhoon: 27C, 90% Humidity, hot humid strong wind.
Honestly I had not recovered well from friday's workout or maybe the poor sleep, but I felt not really OK. The HR was way too high for the easy pace (155bpm at 4'15" ... no way in normal conditions).

Anyway in such a good group, the first 20km went out very easily: we were pacing 4'15" and any of us could pace the group for a while... ideal conditions...
than we started the most amusing section: 12km @ 3'40"/k pace (target).
Honestly, given my poor conditions and the ugly weather, if I had been alone, I would have simply cut short home...
Even at that pace, we were all packed and it was really a great view... while we were overtaking several slower runners on the cycling path, I heard more than one of them commenting in disbelief that all of us ("know faces" in our small territory) could be running together ...
at the end, we did the 12km in 44'50" (3'43"/k pace). Really satisfactory given the weather conditions. My HR was way out the target of 168+/-2bpm, more flirting with 175bpm towards the end, but given my conditions of the day from the start, I took it as unavoidable and it was good to finish well without drop of pace. No doubts about my marathon endurance at this point.
Total 35k in 2h22" and a real good running experience !!
My thanks to Stefano, M.K., Keith, Lai HK, K.T., E., S.F. and the others for joining !!

from now on, daily

because it is now only 1 month left to the Marathon day, I will try to blog more frequently... maybe almost daily update.

Latest developments:

- on Oct 1st (China's National Day), we did a great workout with E.
31km with 6x2km @ HM effort (target 3'30"/k pace).
Honestly something was wrong because I felt very awkward on the pace. The 3'30" pace felt too fast on the legs, but in reality the HR was barely touching 170bpm (so more in "Marathon" effort than "HM" effort). I could barely hit the 7'00" target for each interval, even if I did not feel it like a particularly tiring effort.
I do not know if someone out there met the same issue. I am not sure if it is due to still some residual fatigue from the 10k race or "too much" endurance training, without faster workouts.
From now on, I will add strides at the end of each workout to bring up to speed the legs...

- 2nd October:
easy run, 14km. Felt very tired from yesterday (understandable)

- 3/Oct:
the main purpose was a test drive on the marathon shoes.
I opted for the NewBalance RC902NR because the most similar to my previous RC600.
They are great shoes indeed... comfortable, responsive, good support for pronation control and the cushioning is decent (for a 220gr/7.2oz shoes).
I held very easily a 4'05" pace and also pushed for 2k to see the response of the shoe: 3'35" pace felt very easy.
Summary: 16.7km in 1h08' (4'04" pace), with 2km in 7'08" at medium effort (!!) + stride.

tomorrow Saturday, I was able to gather most of the best runners in HK to come with me for the long run !!! incredible... I guess at least 5 out of the 10 best will be with me for the long run with MP section !! (I feel some pressure now... better go to sleep early tonight)

A thypoon makes a difference...

Tuesday night the typhoon "Hagupi" lashed Guangdong/Hong Kong. It was very sudden and hard-hitting, unfortunately causing several deaths (7 confirmed dead + 19 missing) in Guangdong.

It did cool down the air considerably and also the humidity is lower. So this morning it was quite pleasant at 5.30am when I went out for a progression run 10k easy + 10k moderate and 10k MP effort. Nevertheless it was 26C and running around the factories of this industrial town is not the dream of every runner.... but overall it was a workout that I would not be able to do before
- around 10k in 44'
- around 9.2km in 37'26" (around 4'00"/km, hilly course)
- last 37' on treadmill with HR around 165 (awful... I hated, but it was much cooler..)

with cool-down around 30km in 2h05'. Good feeling, but I was not satisfied about the running gait, need for sure some fast interval to improve the stride