Coffee...It makes you poo

Sorry to be so crass, but it's the truth.

I stopped in at Vic's Coffee this morning to discuss next week's trip to Costa Rica with a couple of friends (yes, that's right -- I'm going for 8 days and I'm psyched about it!). We came up with a basic game plan that includes volcanoes, jungles, beaches, and surf. I had a nice big cup of Vic's trademark joe, and I must say it did wonders for my digestive system throughout the morning. As someone who started regularly drinking coffee just recently, this well-known effect is somewhat new to me.

Since I did a 5k time trial on Sunday instead of my long run, I decided to swap the week around and do my 10-mile long run today. I felt light and ready as I hit the path, and the first few miles felt easy and went by quickly. I was determined to just enjoy the run today. It was beautiful, sunny, and 55 degrees out. The birds were chirping, the trees were blooming, and half of Boulder was on the creek path enjoying it all.

Somewhere around mile 4 or 5, my legs started feeling more and more fatigued. My paced slowed, until I felt like I was creeping along. I made a game-day decision to skip my usual striders. My legs just didn't feel up to it. After my turn-around point at the top of Eben Fine Park, I slowly started to feel better. By the end of the run, I was back to my usual pace.

But, my legs are tired, there's no doubt about it. When I finished my run, I had a very strange sensation. Have you ever played that game where you stand in a doorway and push your arms up against the sides of the door frame for one minute, then step away? Your arms feel like they are holding themselves up, like they are floating. Well, when I stopped running and walked for a little, my legs felt like they were moving forward on their own. Weird!

Today's stats: 10 miles, 1:25:09, 8:30 pace.

By the way, looking at the elevation profile of today's run, I think I know why I felt good at the start, progressively worse in the middle, and better at the finish. See if you can guess...

Things spotted on the run:

• A clothesline full of clothes hanging to dry, complete with bike shorts and bike jerseys (that's Boulder for you)
• A mean-looking rottweiler back from a recent trip to the vet; it had a green full-leg cast decorated with delicate pink flowers
• A cat-sized wooden raft on the banks of Boulder Creek (I have no idea if it was built for cats, but it did remind me of the time my brothers and I put our cat on a raft and sent it down the creek, much to its dismay)

The training program

I'm going to be tweaking the program over the next few weeks. I'm taking a couple suggestions to heart, and thus I plan to a) gradually increase the length of my long runs, and b) take some rest weeks. The Costa Rica trip is going to be a rest week for me. I'll run some, but maybe only 15-20 miles. I think I can use the rest.

Should I throw out my training plan?

Since I feel like I'm kind of flying solo here, I wanted to get some feedback on my training plan. Is it realistic? Does it have enough easy running? Are the long runs long enough? Is it true to Daniels' philosophies of running? I was looking for a basic sanity check.

So I posted a link to my training plan on the CoolRunning.com forum asking for critiques. I got a few responses, but this one kind of shook me up.

I would change everything.

You ran 40:39 2 yrs ago on 15 miles per week. You are a very good runner.

Just doubling your mileage to 30 miles/week will create a load.

I would change to 13 on Sunday, 5 on Tuesday, 7 on Wednesday, and 5 on Friday.

Drop the intervals/repetitions for now.

Add 1 or 2 miles extra per week. Add it to your long run. When you reach 16, stay at 16, and re-direct the extra mile to your wednesday and friday. Never on Tuesday.

Tuesday should be reserved for hill repeats. 5 miles of it. Hill repeats. Slow and powerful up the hill. It's not a sprint, its not an anaerobic workout. Work the kick, straight leg push, ankles, high knees, arm swings. etc... Note: introduce hill repeats 7 weeks out.

5 weeks out, introduce aerobic Intervals (3:51 per 1000m) x 6 with 1 min. rest on fridays. Also do a few anaerobic intervals (meaning mile pace). Do a few short 400-meter intervals with a 400m jogging recovery. Make sure you continue on afterward to cover your remaining miles.

Every 4th week cut your mileage in two. No intervals, no hills. That is designated as your recovery week. This is where the super compensation takes place.

On Tuesdays, you can alternate between hills one week and a nice 85-90% vo2max run the next. Never go past 5 miles.

Now If I had your best 1-mile time right now or a 5k time, I could attach paces with each day of the week.

Well, this wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was thinking in terms of a tweak here or there, not "change everything!"

The newly-proposed plan actually looked solid, and the poster seemed to know what he was talking about. One thing that was missing was an actual critique of my plan, the very thing I had requested. If I was going to throw out my plan and use this one, I would need to be convinced of two things. First, I wanted to know how this plan was superior to mine. And second, I wanted a few details about the poster's credentials.

In the end, I didn't really get a response to either question. I did find out that the new plan was based on Arthur Lydiard's teachings. Lydiard was a legendary running coach. Far be it from me to question him! But then again, I based my plan on a book by another legendary running coach, Jack Daniels.

So it looks like it comes down to Lydiard vs. Daniels. Since I've read Daniels and haven't read Lydiard, I'm sticking with what I've got for now.

Today's Run

I ran 6 miles today, with three sessions of 2 minutes, 1 minute, and 30 seconds hard. Rests were 1 minute, 30 seconds, and 30 seconds, respectively. This is basically a repeat of last Saturday's run in the rain, but today I did one fewer session. I'm just slightly concerned about doing too much hard running.

Still, I felt pretty good. On my bike ride to work this morning, my legs felt amazingly good. That's not saying too much, because my morning commute is extremely easy, but it's something, at least.

Training Plan

I finally got around to putting together a formal training plan. It's based on Jack Daniels' Running Formula and tweaked for my own particular needs. For example, since I plan to run only four days per week, I'll be skipping most of the easy runs. Unfortunately this means that most of my runs will be 'quality' (i.e., HARD) workouts. Gulp!

You may notice that there is no Phase 1 in the plan. That's because I've been doing base training (i.e., nothing but easy miles) since the start of the year. I did start adding 20-second strides at around 5k pace to my runs the last couple of weeks, in order to start adapting to the faster running I'll be doing this week.

Here is the key to the types of workouts:

• E: Easy, comfortable running
• L: Long run
• S: Strides, 20- to 30-second runs at comfortably-fast pace using light, quick turnover
• T: Tempo runs, done at lactate threshold pace
• I: Intervals (VO2Max development)
• R: Repetitions (speed & economy development)
• Mix: A mix of intervals at T, I, and R paces.

I will discuss pacing and the concept of VDOT in another post.

The trip to Moab this weekend was fantastic. I did a couple of classic mountain bike rides -- Porcupine Rim and Amasa Back. Here's a photo, even though this is not running related.