In this weekly blog series, I plan to share a training recap as I prepare for Brew City 1/2 Marathon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It will include an overview of my training plan with the good, the bad, & the ugly which every runner undoubtedly experiences along the way. Enjoy and let me know if you have any feedback or thoughts based on your experience. 

Tuesday, January 31st:

I’ve been looking forward to this day as the intensity of the speedwork was scheduled to pick-up… Time to crank things up a bit with more mileage and intensity.

For the next 6-weeks or so I’ll be focusing on hitting some faster paces with Fartleks. Fartleks are 2-4 minute segments at interval pace. The goal is to improve running speed and aerobic power (VO2 max). Although not all out, these are typically fairly hard in intensity and require adequate rest in between each interval to not accumulate too much blood lactate.

With the conditions outdoor and still waiting on my YakTrax, I elected to complete this run on the treadmill at Planet Fitness. The workout called for a 1-mile easy warm-up, 8x2min at interval pace with 1-minute walk recovery, and 1-mile easy cool down. 

Rather than going too hard, I tinkered with a variety of paces within my desired interval range and used it to narrow my focus on where I need to be moving forward. With 8x2min with 1min recovery AND 4x3min with 2min recovery on the plan, I’ll be able to explore the entire range based on the length of the interval. I choose these runs specifically to focus on hitting fast paces but also ones that are sustainable for a slightly longer duration.

One key takeaway from the Fartlek was how well my body felt afterwards. Easy running is a mainstay in long distance running with 80% of your runs needing to be conversational, but the limited range of motion often leaves me feeling tight. Fartlek’s, or even adding a series of strides post-run, really opens up the muscles and joints where I finish the run actually feeling better physically compared to when I started. Granted, today’s run was only around 4.5-miles… But I think faster paces will feel better overall if I can make sure not to push too hard.

Wednesday, February 1st:

Today Kristen and I headed over to Planet Fitness in the evening to jump on the treadmill. She had a Peloton run planned and I needed to knock out a few easy miles. It was short and I think we were only there about 45-minutes total. The gym was fairly busy as it usually is during after work hours. Luckily we found two treadmills next to each other and got to work.

The run today was 30-minutes at easy pace to nicely separate the two speed days. This week is a bump up in frequency from 3x/week to 4x/week so the added run is fairly short. I always find it’s important to introduce things conservatively to ensure the body doesn’t protest with any aches or pains.

While reflecting on the Garmin, the run was executed very well. My heart rate fell entirely in the lower zone 3 for 30-minutes which respects the goal of being an “easy” run. I added 5 strides afterwards since she was still wrapping up her run to open up the legs and finish with some intensity. Although strides are a little more awkward on the treadmill, I bumped the speed up to 8.6 for a total of 20-30 seconds.

Overall, I have been very happy with the new Altra Provisions. They are extremely comfortable and have that natural foot shape which I like. I’m mixed on the New Balance 880s as my right foot just feels off… I don’t know if my right foot is slightly wider or the shoe has a defect but it always makes me want to adjust how my foot is positioned inside. I’ll continue to monitor this and make a decision in the coming weeks once I get more outdoor runs under my belt.

Friday, February 3rd:

Off to Planet Fitness we go… Kristen and I jumped on the treadmill again for an after work run.

On the schedule today was 4-miles with Fartleks. Although somewhat similar to Tuesday’s speedwork, this run was laid out as one mile warm-up at easy pace, 4x3min at interval pace with 2min walk recovery, and one mile cool down at easy pace. 

The intention here was to use that one additional minute to work on sustaining the faster, interval pace for a longer duration which can often be tricky. I find a lot of people are fast, but they can’t necessarily run these paces and maintain them.

From a training standpoint, pushing interval push to 3-4 minutes has a strong impact on aerobic power/VO2 max. 2-minutes early in the week didn’t really elevate the heart rate too high since the duration was short. However, 3-minutes proved to be much more challenging. In the end, it is 50% more time to maintain pace during each segment. Because of that, I decided to hang out at the slower end of the range. 

The only body area that was chirping at me was the left hamstring which felt tight each time I went from the one minute recovery into the interval. Ladder Down intervals and strides were completed frequently over the past 4-weeks to prepare for these high intensity efforts, but maybe I just need the body to get a few workouts under it’s belt to fall in line.

Up tomorrow will be an 8-mile long run which I’m looking forward to since the weather is calling for 30-degrees and sunny skies.

Saturday, February 4th:

35-degrees and sunny skies. It was a beautiful day to get out and enjoy an 8-mile run!

I started from Atwater Park in Shorewood and traveled down Lake Drive into Lake Park. This is an easy stretch of flat ground to start slow and get things loose. I debated turning down the hill at Lincoln Memorial Drive towards the Lakefront but decided to stay up on the bluff through the park.

Lake Park is always a nice place to run. It was perfectly plowed and you typically only have to dodge the occasional dog. One little dog tried biting me halfway through but I was just too fast for it… Luckily for me, it’s owner got control of the leash quick enough so I didn’t lose any skin.

After leaving Lake Park, I continued south down Wahl Ave., North Terrace Ave., and down Lafayette Hill. It was nice seeing kids and families out there sledding and snowboarding. I fondly remember the big sledding hills we used to enjoy back home in Massachusetts.

When I hit Collectivo Coffee on the Lakefront, I continued south and turned into Veterans Park. This was probably the worst section in terms of snow-covered ground. It’s almost like they purposely decided to stop clearing certain sections as it was covered with very soft snow that made running a challenge.

The scenery through Veterans Park was beautiful. From white, untouched snow to the ice-filled Lake Michigan. I stopped for a few pictures and then looped around the pier to head back. This was probably 4.25-4.5 miles into the run so it was time for some nutrition. I brought with me UCANN Edge pineapple which did the trick. Although I didn’t have water, it was fairly easy to rinse down. I actually considered eating fresh snow at one point but decided against it.

On the way back, I ran north past McKinley Park to Bradford Beach. There was actually a guy out there surfing so I had to stop for a few minutes to see if I could catch him riding a wave. Something about surfing in a lake, not an ocean, in the middle of winter is mind boggling. Kudos to this guy for climbing over the ice covered shoreline into the 35-degrees Lake Michigan water. It was just so crazy to me that I actually googled the current water temperature. My favorite beach up in York, Maine is currently 42-degrees and that water was brutal to get into even in July/August as a kid. I can’t imagine what 35-degree water feels like, but I digress… 

Continuing north up Lincoln Memorial Drive I went. The snow covered beach is pretty cool right now as there is a 8-10 foot ice wall. It looks like this was formed by the waves crushing and the water froze higher and higher over time. This has to be very recent since I didn't see it on Wednesday when walking the dog.

The next beast to conquer was the long hill after the rugby field which actually went pretty effortlessly. I monitored heart rate and got up into zone 4 while focusing on powerful strides to maintain pace. What pleasantly surprised me was how quickly my heart rate recovered back down at the top of the hill. It seemed like 30-60 seconds maximum and I was back in the easy/zone 3 range.

Heart rate recovery is an important aspect to any training plan. Oftentimes, we focus on running faster speeds with greater intensity without even considering how quickly our heart rate settles back down. If your heart rate stays elevated after hard efforts, it will lead to a climbing heart rate over time. But, if your heart rate quickly & consistently returns back to baseline, you can often run in a more sustainable manner without losing control. This could actually be attributed to the short walking breaks I take on speedwork vs. running them. Or, truthfully, maybe a function of the sports I played as a kid that consisted of higher intensity bursts followed by recovery. 

Back on Lake Drive heading north to Shorewood, I knew I was only a mile or so to my car at Atwater Park. I took this stretch pretty easy, as a cool down mile, to conclude the 8-mile run. The sun was now dropping behind some clouds so the temperature was noticeably cooler then when I started. I was noticing a little pull in my right arch at this point. Maybe this was due to wearing the Altras for their longest run to date or even the grade of the sidewalk when running up the last big hill.

Overall, a solid long run. Total distance ended up being 8.41 miles and it was a beautiful way to enjoy a warmer winter day. The legs were a bit sore towards the end but I suspect that’s from the Fartleks completed the evening before.

Thanks for following along this week! If you have any questions or want to talk about creating an individualized running and injury prevention plan for you, click the ‘Healthy Running Program’ tab above and fill out the form.

Onward to week 6!