SEB Tallinn Marathon 2014: race analyses

Hi again,

The race was already a week ago but I have not looked at collected data yet.. I have to correct this mistake.

Currently I am collecting training and race data with two devices/sources: Polar RS800CX watch with S3+ footpod and miCoach train & run application on my Windows Mobile phone. Unfortunately the miCoach app failed to work under lock screen during this race event. Now I have a fastest kilomter record in my miCoach account with time 0:00:03... Hope the miCoach support will remove it soon. But, to be honest, the data recorded by RS800CX is far more important, as it contains  HR and speed (plus cadence and altitude and incorrect (body?) temperature). For this analyses I have used the standalone Polar ProTrainer 5 software. I'm quite disappointed that Polar has stopped developing it :(

So the data from the RS800CX. Unfortunately the speed from the footpod was inaccurate: at the end of  session the watch told I had run 39.6 km's. So the speed and and paces in the analyses have correction factor 1.0655 applied.The toilet stop HR drop is nice and clear in the graph (stop length was 1:30, as the watch says)

You might remember from my previous blog post that I had five different sections during the race:

1. For first 10 km (Actually 10 x 5:28 min) I tried to keep HR below 165
2. After that, till ~14.5 km, I tried to keep it under 170
3. Between 14.5 and 26km I was "chasing" the 3:45 tempo maker group
4. After that I stayed in 3:45 group till 33/34 km
5. Somewhere between 34 and 36 km I left the group behind me, and ran as fast as I could till the finish line

Now here is the graph where those sections are marked with arrows:

Lets look at the data for each section:

First 10 km

This was slow and boring. It has green arrow on chart, because it was "easy" part of the race. Perhaps I should have ran it a bit quicker. Or the part should have been quite shorter, like 30 min? I was thinking if I should take out the toilet stop, but

1. It did not change data much
2. The stop was somewhat compensated by a bit quicker speed during next minutes.

So here is the statistical data of the section:

• Time 0:54:32 (0:00-0:54)
• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 163/103/170 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 5:34/16:12/4:36 min/km
• Distance 9.48 km

If You continue to follow numbers closely then You might notice that sum of sections does not give total of 42 km or 3:42. That's because I was not sure for some of the exact split points. As result, I left gaps between some sections, largest one being between "in the 3:45 group" and "final effort".

Below 170 bpm

Yellow as it was hard enough. Perhaps it would have been correct effort for the most of the race.

• Time 0:23:25 (0:54-1:18)
• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 169/161/175 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 5:04/11:01/4:11 min/km
• Distance 4.58 km

If I had ran the whole distance with this average speed then my finish time would have been 3:34 But I assume I would have been slowing down in final 10km anyway, so realistic time would have been 3:38, maybe.

Chasing 3:45 group

That section was a bit too hard. It was relief when I reached 3:45 and had a chance to rest a little. So red is a good color for it.

• Time 0:57:10 (1:18-2:15)
• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 172/165/178 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 4:55/9:13/4:09 min/km
• Distance 11.61 km

In the 3:45 group

Resting from previous harder effort, but still hard enough

• Time 0:41:22 (2:19-3:00)
• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 172/167/179 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 5:27/13:24/4:15 min/km
• Distance 7.57 km

Interesting that although the speed is decreased the HR remained in same range.

Final effort

A bit quicker than previous but slower than "chasing" section. the heart rate is even higher than in the chasing section. The increased HR is kind of expected for final race part as the body gets tired

• Time 0:41:47 (3:10-3:42)
• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 176/169/180 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 5:12/9:13/4:03 min/km
• Distance 7.99 km

There are some noticeable speed drops after 39 km. They correspond to small hills during the last kilometers of race. Similar speed drops are present between 18 and 21 km, but they are not as visible as on the second lap.

And now I'm really waiting for my next marathon run, so that I can compare numbers with this one. I hope the will start telling me more. Or, can any of readers help me? All comments are welcome.

SEB Tallinn Marathon 2014

So here comes the short summary what happened today:
Woke up at 6:00, a bit too early. Well, I went to bed early as well... I stayed in bed till 7:00. After that, an easy breakfast, got dressed and took all needed stuff. Last minute check-list: gadgets: check; clothing: check; carb-loading: check; well-hydrated... hmm, a glass of water and check. Out of the door at 8:20. The start line is quite nearby, about 2 km from where I live.

At the start area it seemed that maybe I was a little bit too well hydrated, I had to visit the toilet. But I still have plenty of time, and I reach to my start corridor about 10 minutes before the time. All good so far.

I was trying to keep my HR below 165 after the start. It was quite depressing, as the crowds were passing me. Knowing I would pass them later on gave me some relief. The KM times were in range 5:35-5:50.

The first drinking station was at 3rd km. I eat one jelly candy and took a sport drink. That's my normal ration for the whole race, just a few exceptions. On the minus side I felt that I needed to visit the toilet again soon. I decided to wait till 10km mark.

On the 4th km the 4:00 tempo master group passed me. I was hanging at the end group, with HR around 165 bpm. I was keeping up with them till second drinking station at 6th km. The urge for toilet was grown, and I made the stop. When I was finished the 4:15 group had passed by and I started to chase them. It seemed like I was able increase the pace a little without my HR growing too much. I still tried to keep it below 165...

By the 10km mark I had passed the 4:15 group, and increased the HR to 170. The pace was grown to around 5:10-5:20 min/km. 10km split time was 0:57:43. I think I had not reached to the 4:00 group yet

On the 13.5 km there is a "Ice power" station, where ice gel is sprayed onto the legs. I did not use the service this time, but was sure I'll need it on next lap.

My Polar watch was beeping most of the time telling me I'm over 170 bpm border. So I dismissed the HR alarm on km 15 and run by feeling afterwards. I think I have passed the 4:00 group somewhere, as there were relatively less runners on the course. Pace was around 4:45-5:05. HR had increased to 175, not much room for increase left.

On the 20th there was a small bridge built over the road. It was easy, on this lap. A bit later some supporter beside the track told that 3:45 group is just a little ahead. Now I had a goal! The next km-s are run at same pace and HR as before.

21.1km split time was 1:53:17

I caught the 3:45 group somewhere after 25km mark. Decided I'll stay with it for some time at least, as I felt I had pressed a little bit too much while chasing the group. And then there was the Ice Power refreshment point, meant to be used when coming back. But they were kind enough to refresh us on the other side of track as well. It was quite welcome on my tried legs.

30km split time 2:38:51

Somewhere after 33km mark some sport gel was offered. I took one. Not sure if it had much positive effect?

Next, the Ice Power refreshment point. That felt good again. Pity there were no more such points coming.

I was still with the 3:45 group. I decided I will keep with the group, no matter what.

2 km later, at 36km, the 3:45 group is lost. I'm not sure how got in front of it, but I didn't want to wait for them. The count down for last km-s was started, I felt rather tired but was still able to go strong. And the fact that I was one of the quickest on track was giving some extra energy.

2 more km-s and it felt like I can make no next step. But, funnily, I was still faster than others...

Just before the 40km mark: The wall is there. Luckily, just a city wall. But the cobblestone road inside the old town was really bad. Much worse than in first lap. I also had a chance to pass the 3:30 pace maker. He was clearly not keeping up the speed.

After that the bridge over road... It was not that high on first lap, was it?
And then the hill on final km... I barely noticed it on first lap, but this time I felt like I would die on it... But finally it was over and I was on finish. Final time: 3:42:24 I'm quite satisfied with it :)

It was really nice race. The weather was perfect. The supporters along the course were cheering, although the track sides were not crowded. And there were some entertainment points where music was playing or cheerleaders were encouraging.

So now it is over... All that is left is a new PB and tired legs - pretty cool :) And I have to decide how to proceed with the trainings. Will I do some more marathons this year? There are few candidates.. But that's for future post. And I want to look at recorded data as well, to see what were my real average speeds/HR ranges during different race segments. The numbers I gave in this post are just rough estimates, based on what I remember from race.

SEB Tallinna Marathon 2014: done

I have finished the SEB Tallinn Marathon 2014 with time 3:42:24. I'm happy with the result.

Analyzing the "Fast finish long run"

Today I downloaded my last workouts from Polar watch to computer so I can analyze them now. As I told in previous post I had some thoughts based on how I felt during the workout. But the data itself had some surprises...

As a short recap, the "Fast finish long run" was composed out of three working sections + warm up/cool down:

1. Warm up (blue zone) - 10 min
2. Green zone - 20 min
3. Green zone at marathon pace - 30 min
4. "Run hard" Yellow zone - 10 min
5. Cool down (blue zone) - 10 min

The interesting parts are marathon pace and yellow zones: they should tell me how fast can I run. During the training I felt that "marathon pace" was just a bit too fast to keep it for the whole marathon distance; and the yellow zone was getting me to the edge - those 10 minutes was almost maximum time I was able to keep on. At the same time I was believing that pace in yellow was only a bit quicker than in marathon pace: 4:35 vs 4:50 min/km or so. But now let's take a look at data itself:

For the 30 minutes at marathon pace the recorded values are following:

• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 168/157/174 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 4:48/5:33/4:15 min/km
• Distance 6.2 km

That's almost exactly as I expected. I also looked at shorter sections at the same phase,
last 20 minutes at marathon pace:

• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 169/165/174 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 4:43/5:18/4:15 min/km
• Distance 4.2 km  

And just a last 10 minutes from same section:

• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 170/167/174 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 4:43/5:18/4:15 min/km
• Distance 2.1 km 

(BTW, when I divide time with distance, I get a bit different average pace numbers:4:50, 4:46 and 4:46. Maybe the distances have some rounding errors...)

Now the same data for yellow zone:to everyone

• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 180/174/183 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 4:17/4:43/4:01 min/km
• Distance 2.3 km

And here comes the surprise part: The average pace was almost 20 sec/km quicker than I was thinking. And it invalidates my thinking that there's not much point push harder: the speed gain is actually significant.

But it actually does not change the HR limits for marathon race: As I felt "a little over the border" during the "marathon pace" zone and it had average 170 then it seems to be the border line for long period effort. I.e. if I keep my HR couple of beats below it I should be in safe range. And there is a general suggestion to start with low intensity, in order to allow body to start fat metabolism processes correctly. The first 10km should be below 165 bpm. Or is it too much?

I wonder what else should I look at when analyzing the the trainings? The stuff I'm doing here seems to be really basic...

I also felt I got confirmation for  my target HR limits from green "Marathon pace" run on Wednesday. It contained 25 min of green run in marathon pace:

• Heart Rate (Average/min/max) 166/148/173 bpm
• Pace (Average/min/max) 4:50/5:42/4:20 min/km
• Distance 5.1 km

It felt a little bit too hard. So keeping HR during 10km below 165 seems do be a wise decision. After that I will see if increasing to 170 feels Ok or not... Knowing myself it will be hard to resist going too fast.

So there's less than 38 left till race... Weather forecast is excellent: no rain, variable clouds, very little wind (less than 2 m/s), temperature between 13 and 16 C. I hope it will be nice run on Sunday. Good luck to everyone taking part this event, or any other events taking place around the world!

SEB Tallinn marathon 2014: few days before the race

Hi everybody.

I should write here how I am training for my next marathon. But I'm a bit late for that, the next race is just around the corner. So here are only the thoughts for today...

The race on Sunday is going to be my 5th marathon. And the 5th SEB Tallinn Marathon will take place on 14.09.2014. Yes, have participated in all of them. And only in them, so far.

My personal best so far is 3:48:11, run at SEB Tallinn Marathon at 9.September 2012. All the times so far:

12.09.2010	4:21:17
11.09.2011	4:27:28
9.09.2012	3:48:11
8.09.2013	4:09:31

So what can I expect this year? I started training early enough on spring, from the end of April. I have been following the Adidas miCoach marathon training plan with target time 3:30:00. So that what was my expectation at the spring...

But summer has done some corrections to the plan. First of all, I had a thee week break in trainings during my summer vacation in July/start of August. That means I missed some very important long run sessions. I managed to do the longest one, that's good. And I was not sitting on coach during the vacation. I had a skip in trainings last year as well, but the difference was in timing:last year I had goo training coverage in July but missed trainings in August, more closely prior to the marathon race.

So, what is my current state? And, more importantly, how should I run the race to avoid the WALL? My last race was 14 km "Run around the lake Ülemiste", which I completed in 1:04:59. That's about same as on year 2013, and 3 minutes better than on 2012. The run score provided by miCoach was 711, which should mean marathon time 3.32:32. I'm not that optimistic, I had rather high HR (180, my max HR should be around 198, and average HR during 5-6 km races has usually been over 180)  during that race and I'm afraid to hit the wall due to insufficient number of long runs during the summer. And, I had the wall last year, when I targeted 3.45:00 based on similar race time. But it is still a good marker about my abilities...

On last Saturday I had a "Fast finish long run" scheduled, which gave some very good information. It was a three stage run: 20 min "green" run + 30 min at marathon pace + 10 min "yellow" run. It taught me that increasing HR from 165-170 range to above will actually give very little gain in speed... Another good learning was from "marathon pace green run" on Wednesday. It told me I'm not ready for pace above 5:00 during the marathon race. The HR data of those runs is still in my Polar watch, I need download it and make some analyses prior to race day.

But I think I have enough information to make a plan for Sundays race:
1. Keep the HR below 165 during the first 10 km
2. Keep the HR below 170 between 10km and 30km
3. Hope to finish with PB around 3:45:00

The HR 170 sounds a bit high but I have had average HR 170 during all 4 marathons so far...

So what's next? Just one short 30 min training tomorrow or on Saturday and then the Race start Sunday at 9:00. I'm sure I will meet some wall on the road, but I hope it is only the city wall around the Old Town of Tallinn :)

Happy training,
Gert