"Be fit" level 7, session 7: Blue recovery

Training session 7: Blue recovery

So I did it: performed today the Blue Recovery planned for Sunday. The session itself was easy, as supposed from recovery one. The temperature was near zero and the road was a little icy and slippery in some places. For the first time this year.
I thought there were no wind during the first half of the run. But after turning back the wind was noticeable and I needed to walk a little in order to keep HR under control (below 140 bpm).

Session	Duration plan/actual	HR avg/max	Distance Polar/GPS	Pace avg/max	Run index	Cadence avg/max	miCoach score %
8 -> 7. Blue recovery	45:00/48:03	136/145	6.01/6.10	7:59/6:01	51	82/93	91%
6. VO2max intervals	30:00/31:38	153/190	4.58/4.91	6:54/3:37	45	81/98	76%
5. Green 45 min	55:00/1:08:01	149/163	7.80/9.04	7:37/5:18	49	85/91	67%
4. Blue recovery	45:00/48:48	139/153	6.00/6.32	8:00/6:49	49	81/90	81%
3. Green 40 min	50:00/55:03	151/163	7.81/7.98	7:05/5:24	48	84/89	89%
2. Yellow intervals	29:00/31:28	149/171	4.52/4.68	7:05/4:28	48	81/95	55%
1. Green 40 min	50:00/59:17	145/163	8.2/8.55	7:08/5:27	49	81/90	81%

Weather was good: temperature +1°C, small wind
Clothing: 2 x T-shirt, 2 x long sleeve shirt, track suite, ski hat, gloves. Good.

Some problems with body

I also got a signal from my body today that makes me worry a little: there was a little pain in my left knee. It was just a little tiny pain, and it lasted just for minute or two, at the start of the run. But I felt it again in morning after I arrived to office. It makes me wonder if I have re-started the trainings with too high intensity? Just to remind, I had a 3 week break due to angina with very high temperature. But the training load has not been very high in my mind. On the other hand, my feet actually felt tired on day prior to VO2max intervals, and I have added the strength & flexibility plan to the schedule. So I might be over-training a bit actually. But it is hard to decide if it the case... The www.polarpersonatrainer.com site has "Training load" graph, but I'm all green there. Perhaps it is so because the marathon race is still in baseline period, and I feel like that baseline needs a reset.
Another option would be to start using orthostatic test available in my Polar RS800CX. But it has similar "baseline" problem: it needs first two week period to generate a baseline before it can start giving usable values. Perhaps I will do it, but a bit later, when I have got used with the current training level.
By the way, I also performed the strength & flexibility session this morning. Seems like my abdominal muscles are the weakest part at moment: some exercises felt much harder than others, and they seemed to be working on muscles in that area. Our company organized a physiotherapist lecture today about problems arising from sitting all day around, at it provided some good information how to strengthen those ones. As well how to work in upper body muscles in order to relieve lower-back pain (I have some problems with it). And she told that knee problems can be result of outer thigh muscle weakness... I have some thinking to do and add some bits to the current strength & flexibility plan.

Happy running,
Gert

"Be fit" level 7, session 6: VO2 max intervals

Training session 6: VO2 max intervals

So today was the first run with red section of this training plan: VO2 max intervals which had 2 times 4 minutes in yellow + 1 minute in red and 4 minutes blue for rest between the sets.

Today I applied a bit of water to my ski before putting the HR belt on. And I did not have any issues with HR readings. Let's see if moisturizing of skin will prevent future issues with HR readings.

I felt rather good during the session. But, running index does not reflect this... Well, I have not monitored the running index of interval sessions. And the warm up phase was rather short as well (3 min blue + 3 min green) - I have usually had at least 10 minutes of warm up before intervals, so comparing to old data might not be sensible.

The intervals itself felt reasonably easy to perform: first 4 minutes yellow, HR average 168 (max 174), pace: 5:31 (max 5:10), distance 0.71 km, cadence 89 (max 91). This was followed by 1 minute red run: HR average 178 (max 184), pace 4:13 (max 3:58), distance 0.24 km, cadence 92 (max 94).
The work phase was followed by 4 minute recovery in blue zone. I kept jogging slowly and managed to bring my HR down to ~140 bpm.

The second repetition of intervals was also reasonably easy to perform. Stats for yellow: HR 165 (max 174), pace 5:41 (max 5:16), distance 0.70 km, cadence 88/91.
During the second (and last) red phase I went all in before the end of phase. That resulted slightly higher stats for the phase: HR 180 (max 189), pace 4:00 (max 3:37), distance 0.25 km, cadence 94/97
The maximum HR 190 was recorded a few seconds after the red zone ended. It indicates that I was able to keep up the effort till the end of red zone.

Session	Duration plan/actual	HR avg/max	Distance Polar/GPS	Pace avg/max	Run index	Cadence avg/max	miCoach score %
6. VO2max intervals	30:00/31:38	153/190	4.58/4.91	6:54/3:37	45	81/98	76%
5. Green 45 min	55:00/1:08:01	149/163	7.80/9.04	7:37/5:18	49	85/91	67%
4. Blue recovery	45:00/48:48	139/153	6.00/6.32	8:00/6:49	49	81/90	81%
3. Green 40 min	50:00/55:03	151/163	7.81/7.98	7:05/5:24	48	84/89	89%
2. Yellow intervals	29:00/31:28	149/171	4.52/4.68	7:05/4:28	48	81/95	55%
1. Green 40 min	50:00/59:17	145/163	8.2/8.55	7:08/5:27	49	81/90	81%

For some reason my RS800CX and Polar ProTrainer are giving a little bit different numbers. Like maximum pace is reported to be 3:37 in the watch but "only" 3:42 in the ProTrainer. I'll use the numbers from watch here as I think they are more accurate: ProTrainer is re-calcualting them based on data from 1s samples collected.

Weather was quite good: temperature +3°C, no wind
Clothing: T-shirt, 2 x long sleeve shirt, track suite, ski hat. Good.

Next sessions during the week

I should have rest day on Friday (Well, actually 15 minutes of strength and flexibility) and then sessions on Saturday/Sunday. But I actually would like to have free day on Sunday(s), so I think I'll take the Blue recovery session tomorrow instead of Sunday... But let's see how I feel tomorrow morning, if I'm tired I might skip that session all together.

Happy running,
Gert

"Be fit" level 7, session 5: Long run

Training session 5: 45-min green zone

Today I went out for 55 min run. Unfortunately my RS800CX had some problems with HR reception: the number was jumping in range of 0-200. Restarted the exercise several times, problem still persisted. Finally got usable display, thought the few first minutes are still unusable. But it means that exercise in Polar watch is 10 minutes shorter. And that explains why the distance difference is so big today. But I wonder what could cause such error? Too dry skin so that contact between belt and skin was insufficient? Some static electricity which caused transmission errors? Something else? Now, when looking at older exercise data I also see some "plateaues", i.e. periods where HR remains constant. They always seem to be at the start of exercise, so they could be related to the time when body has not started to sweat enough. And all those troubles caused me to miss some pace limits for miCoach app, which is reflected in score as well. (Plus the fact that I stopped a few time to take some photos)
The wind was quite stronger today, and tail wind in first half. It seemed to help my quite a bit, so I assumed that the running index would be increased. But 49 seems quite normal for my current state... After I turned back the wind caused HR to increase so I dismissed the HR alarm.
BTW, I read that "Blue is a comfortable easy effort and Green is a medium effort." from today's session training notes. For me, my current Green is actually comfortable easy. But it means HR at range 150-155. Should I increase it so that it would became "medium"? For me 155 seems rather high for long runs...

Session	Duration plan/actual	HR avg/max	Distance Polar/GPS	Pace avg/max	Running index	Cadence avg/max	miCoach score %
5. Green 45 min	55:00/1:08:01	149/163	7.80/9.04	7:37/5:18	49	85/91	67%
4. Blue recovery	45:00/48:48	139/153	6.00/6.32	8:00/6:49	49	81/90	81%
3. Green 40 min	50:00/55:03	151/163	7.81/7.98	7:05/5:24	48	84/89	89%
2. Yellow intervals	29:00/31:28	149/171	4.52/4.68	7:05/4:28	48	81/95	55%
1. Green 40 min	50:00/59:17	145/163	8.2/8.55	7:08/5:27	49	81/90	81%

Weather was quite warm but a bit windy: temperature +11°C, moderate breeze (6 m/s: tail wind in first half of run).
Clothing: T-shirt, long sleeve shirt, track suite, ski hat. Good.

Two pictures

I thought I should share some photos of the track I'm usually running. So I stopped today few times and tried to take some photos. But I run early in the morning, today I went out about 6:15. So unfortunately it was still quite dark and I did not manage to get any good ones, my phone had troubles with focusing... And, I actually have near-zero experience with phone photography. But I still selected two better ones to share:

They are taken from about same location, but opposite directions. This sidewalk is called "Pirita promenade" and it's part of course of the "SEB Tallinn Marathon".

Happy running,
Gert

miCoach "Be fit" level 7, session 4

Training session 4: Blue recovery

This session was "active recover", i.e. very easy jog for 45 minutes. I supposed I need to perform run-walk style of exercise but I actually managed to keep jogging for the most part of it. The first half had tail wind, and I think I needed only two short walking periods to maintain HR below 140. And the way back, when the wind was against me, I needed a bit more walking but still not too much.

Session	Duration plan/actual	HR avg/max	Distance Polar/GPS	Pace avg/max	Running index	Cadence avg/max	miCoach score %
4. Blue recovery	45:00/48:48	139/153	6.00/6.32	8:00/6:49	49	81/90	81%
3. Green 40 min	50:00/55:03	151/163	7.81/7.98	7:05/5:24	48	84/89	89%
2. Yellow intervals	29:00/31:28	149/171	4.52/4.68	7:05/4:28	48	81/95	55%
1. Green 40 min	50:00/59:17	145/163	8.2/8.55	7:08/5:27	49	81/90	81%

Weather was Ok for the autumn: temperature +4°C, small-to-medium wind (5-6 m/s: this time the head wind was in second half of run).
Clothing: 1 x T-shirt, 2 x long sleeve shirt, track suite, ski hat, gloves. Good.

Week 1 summary

The table below contains just some basic data. I'm not sure what exactly should I track, perhaps I will add a few columns during coming weeks

Week	Planned duration	Actual duration	Distance
Week 1	2:54	3:15	26.5 km

I was also performing the miCoach strength and flexibility plan, "Non-equipment training", "Activate" phase. It added 1:20 training time, so total training time for week was actually 4:35

And the zone breakdown for running trainings were:

Week	Blue zone		Green zone		Yellow zone		Red zone
	Polar	miCoach	Polar	miCoach	Polar	miCoach	Polar	miCoach
Week 1	1:10	1:36	1:24	1:31	0:43	0:04	0:00	0:03

Week 2 overview

The coming week will have total time increase 3%, but the interval run intensity seems to be much higher.

Week	Total time	Increase	Long run	Interval run
Week 1	2:54		40 min green (+10 min blue)	Yellow intervals, 29 min 9 x 1 min yellow
Week 2	3:00	3%	45 min green (+10 min blue)	VO2 max intervals, 30 min 2 x (4 min yellow + 1 min red)

Add in the 3 exercises of strength and flexibility, planned duration of 45 min. But I suppose it takes me a bit over 60 minutes.

Happy running,
Gert

miCoach "Be fit" level 7, session 3

Training session 3: 40-min green zone

The session planned for today was exactly the same as the first one in training plan: 50 minute run, started with 5 minute blue warm up, followed by 40-min green work phase and lastly 5 minute blue cool down. In the firast half of green zone I kept my HR within limits (which I have set up us heart rate 140-154 bpm). But the first half was with tail wind. When I turned back and got headwind,  I got bored of constant beep-beep-beep from my watch followed by slow down in running speed. So I deactivated the HR zone alarm and kept running with comfortable speed. HR rose to 160 bpm level. It didn't feel hard at all... I wonder if I should rise my green zone HR upper limit?

Session	Duration plan/actual	HR avg/max	Distance Polar/GPS	Pace avg/max	Running index	Cadence avg/max	miCoach score %
3. Green 40 min	50:00/55:03	151/163	7.81/7.98	7:05/5:24	48	84/89	89%
2. Yellow intervals	29:00/31:28	149/171	4.52/4.68	7:05/4:28	48	81/95	55%
1. Green 40 min	50:00/59:17	145/163	8.2/8.55	7:08/5:27	49	81/90	81%

Weather was a bit cold for running (but warmer than during previous run) : temperature -1°C, small-to-medium wind (5-6 m/s: this time the head wind was in second half of run).
Clothing: 1 x T-shirt, 2 x long sleeve shirt, track suite, wind stopper, ski hat, gloves.A little chill at start, and a little hot in the middle of run. Chilled down again during second half when there was the headwind

Happy running,
Gert

miCoach "Be fit" level 7, session 2 "Yellow intevals"

Training session 2: Yellow intervals 9 x 1 min

Today's run was the yellow intervals, 9 times 1 minute. There was either 1 minute green or 2 minute blue phase between yellow intervals. The statistical results are added to the table below

Session	Duration plan/actual	HR avg/max	Distance Polar/GPS	Pace avg/max	Running index	Cadence avg/max	miCoach score %
1. Green 40 min	50:00/59:17	145/163	8.2/8.55	7:08/5:27	49	81/90	81%
2. Yellow intervals	29:00/31:28	149/171	4.52/4.68	7:05/4:28	48	81/95	55%

The yellow intervals did not feel very hard. The 1 minute is quite short for yellow interval so I'm not sure whether my speed was too slow or was it just because the length of intervals. Despite of the easy feeling of yellow I still slowed down a bit too much in green rest periods. It makes me wonder how would it be "correct" way to perform such intervals. And what would correct paces for me... The assessment workout has given me usually too high speeds, and I actually prefer HR based trainings. I wish I have a BTLE HR monitor so I could preform assessment with that. But then, I do not want to run with two HR belts. But, if I buy one for me, I'm sure I will start running with two belts...

Weather was a bit cold for running: temperature -6°C, very little rain, small wind (4-5 m/s: head wind in first half of run).
Clothing: 2 x T-shirt, 2 x long sleeve shirt, track suite, wind stopper, ski hat, gloves. Quite Ok, but if it gets colder then legs need additional clothing

Happy running,
Gert

miCoach "Be fit" level 7, session 1

Hi.

As promised I'll make a short overview of training program I'm currently following: miCoach "Be fit" level 7. The program has 4 training sessions per week:

1. Tuesday: Variable length green run, session length between 50 and 70 mins (I will call it "Long run" to distinguish from green run on Saturday)
2. Thursday: interval run
3. Saturday: Green run, 50 min
4. Sunday: Blue recovery, 45 min

Week 1 has Long run 50 minutes and interval run 29 minutes

Week	Total time	Long run	Interval run
Week 1	2:54	50 min (40 min in green zone)	Yellow intervals (9 x 1 min, 29 min total)

For the record, my current training zones are:

Polar zone	HR range	miCoach zone	Pace range
Zone 1	125 - 139	Blue zone	12:39-07:11 min/km
Zone 2	140 - 154	Green zone	07:11-05:32 min/km
Zone 3	155 - 170	Yellow zone	05:32-05:02 min/km
Zone 4	171 - 184	Red zone	05:02-04:07 min/km
Zone 5	185 - 198	Red zone	05:02-04:07 min/km

Training session 1: 40-min green zone

So today was the first long run: 50 minutes total, composed by 5 min blue "warm up" + 40 min green + 5 min blue "cool down"
The results of training: (From my Polar RS800CX):

Session	Duration planned/actual	HR avg/max	Distance Polar/miCoach	Pace avg/max	Running index	Cadence avg/max
1. Green 40 min	50:00/59:17	145/163	8.2/8.55	7:08/5:27	49	81/90

I think that the GPS/footpod distance difference is acceptable: the GPS track is a bit incorrect during the first minutes of run.


The training itself was easy (as the green run is supposed to be), and 50 minutes is just the right length for everyday jog. I jogged a bit too far from home so the session length got too long... It would be nice if the miCoach training session could have "flexible" green zone in it so that I could extend it a bit so that cool down would be ended right when I reach home. For today it meant I was walking for 9 minutes longer than needed. It has a little effect on the HR/pace statistics as well.

Weather was normal for the season: temperature +4°C, very little rain, small wind (4-5 m/s: head wind in first half of run).
Clothing: T-shirt, 2 x long sleeve shirt, track suite, ski hat. Normal in first half (actually wanted to have gloves for  a moment), a little too much (but still acceptable) when coming back with tail wind.

Happy running,
Gert

Restarting the trainings

Hi again,

It has been a while from my last blog post... That's because I was not training for thee week period. Four weeks ago I had one tooth removed ("wisdom tooth", if that's correct term), and it had some complications. As a result I had 39.9 degrees temperature 1.5 weeks after removal. Luckily the temperature decreased quite quickly, and three days later it was normal again. But it did not mean I could restart trainings right after that; doctor suggested I make a have a one week rest after. So I was able to start trainings again at the start of last week, and made 4 easy sessions in total. I'm still feeling kind of tired, and the running pace for my heart rate zones are not near to the levels I was prior to illness.

Nut I hope I'm now back on track, and that I do not catch any flu or something... It would most likely cause "lost" winter season. But I would really like to be in some acceptable fitness level in spring so I would have some chance to get sub 3:30 marathon time during next season.

So next topic was to choose appropriate training program for coming weeks. I really like the ones provided by Adidas miCoach. So the choices were:

• "Be fit" level 7
• "Learn to run" level 7
• "Climawarm Winter Training" level 4 or 5
• "Football" level 6 or 7 (thanks for miCoach user Damianod for suggestion)

Well, Football program seemed too hard, at least after such health issues. Climawarm was a bit too long at moment, maybe I'll take it next. And there seemed to be no big difference between "Learn to run" and "Be fit" programs so I took the latter one: "Be fit", level 7, 34 training sessions 9 weeks (actually it is 8.5 weeks...), 4 trainings per week.
I also took strength and flexibility "non-equipment training" "Phase 1 - Activate" as addition (9 workouts, 3 weeks, 3 workouts per week). Made the first session today morning: The instructions are telling it takes 15 minutes, but for me it took 27. Well, quite a much was spent for learning the exercises. I think I'm gonna like it: I have not performed strength & flexibility exercising usually, and that is one area that I need to improve.

I hope I can make more posting more often now. In next one I want to peek into the "Be fit" program structure and describe how the first week looks like. Hopefully I can describe the first session of it as well. So, stay tuned and

Happy running,
Gert