Hill Repeats on the Lakefront's Lincoln Memorial Drive, Treadmill Fartleks, and Kalamazoo Trail Running (Half Marathon Training - Week #6 Recap)
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.
Monday, February 6th:
To get the week started, I signed off from work around mid-afternoon and drove down to the lakefront. Luckily, I have a lot of flexibility at different points in my day but this usually means I’ll have to get back to work later on and wrap up what’s unfinished.
Today’s run called for 4-miles with 6x2min hill repeats w/ an undefined recovery. It ended up being 4.85-miles when it was all said and done but an enjoyable run overall.
Similar to my last hill repeat workout, I started from the rugby field parking lot on Lincoln Memorial Drive and used that as home base. After some leg swings and a series of dynamic movements, I ran half a mile down towards Bradford Beach and half a mile back to get the legs prepped. One direction is a slight downhill and the other is obviously a slight uphill.
The main workout consisted of 2-minutes up the tough hill segment with a nice kick to build speed & leg power. For the “undefined” recovery, I actually set-up my Garmin so the ‘press lap button’ option would start the subsequent uphill segment. This allowed me to be in control of the recovery period, where the goal was easy pace, while total time could be extended if I felt like I wasn’t ready for the next repeat.
Since I wasn’t necessarily monitoring pace on the hill repeat, I decided to aim for a certain distance as a bare minimum. With this hill being a sidewalk along the main road, there are no shortages of signs every 20-30 feet. I simply completed the first two hill repeats and selected one sign as the minimum distance I wanted to cover each time. So if I started from the same spot, and ended at or beyond the sign, my intensity/pace would be relatively the same. This helped me get away from looking at the watch and simply connecting with my stride each repeat. Reflecting on the metrics, recovery was approximately 2-minutes and 50-seconds which is a 1:1.5 work to rest ratio.
The body actually felt very strong. If you’ve seen this hill before you know it starts gradual and then builds to a greater incline over time. It made me think of strength training with a resistance band… As you pull initially there is minimal resistance but the difficulty increases the further you stretch the band. What I liked about this was the variability within each hill repeat as I was able to get the legs moving early on but then really struggled to maintain the pace and leg turnover as the hill got more demanding. It felt like a best of both worlds scenario.
I continue to be impressed by the beauty of Lake Michigan. Whether it’s here in Milwaukee or the beautiful western coastline of Michigan, it’s a sight to see. That’s why I try to do as many runs along the lakefront as possible to enjoy the scenery. Today I saw maybe a hundred Canada Geese landing from the air, some type of hawk circling above, and the frozen, snow covered lakeshore. All and all, a great run/experience.
Wednesday, February 8th:
5pm rolled around and Kristen & I set off to Planet Fitness. Despite the beautiful weather and rain/snow combo rolling in tomorrow, I decided to join her on the treadmill.
The program called for 40-minutes at easy pace with 5 strides. This meant watching the evening news and just letting my mind wander for a little bit which tends to happen on the treadmill. The most enjoyable part is watching her complete the Peloton pre-run warm-up as she rolls out her shoulders and completes a series of lateral shuffles on the treadmill. I always glance over pretending I’m a complete stranger and am unsure of what she’s doing!
My body felt like crap today. Truthfully, the first 10-minutes were pretty stiff and uncomfortable. I questioned if this was a byproduct of hill repeats on Monday… too much sitting throughout the work day… or a bigger issue that was ready to rear it’s ugly head…
As time went on things felt more fluid. I usually think through how different types of pain respond and weigh my options when runs like this happen. But I always give it enough time to point me in a direction rather than rushing to judgment. Let’s be honest, running is inherently an uncomfortable sport.
There has been a mild ache deep inside my right hip joint for the past 6-months. I can confidently say there is probably some type of damage from years playing hockey, soccer, and baseball, so this is something I’m always willing to deal with as it arises. I have a handful of go to strengthening and mobility movements that address it well and it never seems to progress in a way that limits activity for good. Even if it did, adjusting the training plan is very simple and would not impact my end goal of getting to race day.
If I recall correctly, the hip actually started acting up when we moved to Milwaukee. What’s always important to take into consideration is any change in daily routine because different positions or daily stressors can exacerbate things. Maybe it was getting old furniture out from storage, different sitting heights of the couch and computer chair, having 3 floors to traverse daily when we’ve been living in ranch style homes for the past 10-years, etc. All of these are factors which need to be assessed.
Tendon pain tends to warm-up and feel better as time goes on as long as intensity and terrain don’t exacerbate things. With this being an easy run on a very consistent surface, I knew that wouldn’t be a factor.
Bone pain tends to increase in severity with more repetitive loading to the area. Since the body felt increasingly better every minute, I checked this off the list. Phew!
In addition to the type of pain, rating it on a scale of 1-10 is imperative. For tendons, we want pain to remain under a 3-4/10 and subside within 24-hours. This is deemed ‘stable pain.’ Although some pain is acceptable from a tendon standpoint, bones are a completely different story where any pain is an immediate cessation of activity and no go without further evaluation from a medical professional. Bone stress injuries are a common part of endurance sports which need to be approached extremely cautiously.
On the news today was spy balloons, earthquakes, and the rowdy state of the union. I’ll be honest, I’m a little out of touch with what’s going on around the world which I’m not sure is good or bad. Things feel more negative each year and I try to be selective on what I let in.
I’ll look for a break in the rain tomorrow or settle on getting wet for a 5-mile fartlek run. This weekend will be 9-miles in Kalamazoo which I’m looking forward to.
Thursday, February 9th:
The weather threw me for a loop today… My plan was to head down to the Lakefront for a flat and fast Fartlek but the snow was so heavy I couldn’t lift my head to see in front of me. The dog got walked, dried from being soaking wet, and I left for Planet Fitness to jump on the treadmill. At that time, if I didn’t get moving, it would’ve thrown off the remainder of my day.
On the plan was 5-miles with 6x3min at interval pace with 2min easy recovery. I was hesitant about this run since there was some awareness of hip pain yesterday while completing the 40-minute easy run. But I knew, like always, it was worth warming up to give it a shot.
Throughout the day leading up to the run, I was very cognizant of how I was positioned to not exacerbate the hip pain. Rather than sitting, I actually kneeled or lunged at the desk and made sure to rotate through various positions every 15-minutes or so. This is something I normally try to do on a regular basis since I’m not fond of the impact sitting has on the human body. It actually worked extremely well and the hip was not an issue one bit.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been digging into some information regarding heart rate and various methods to determine maximal heart rate and heart rate ranges. If you are a part of the Ignite Your Run private Facebook group, you know I often talk about intensity of training. Whether it’s pace, rate of perceived exertion, or heart rate, this is an important component of any running plan to not only improve performance but mitigate your risk of injury.
Garmin normally defaults to age-predicted maximum heart rate and then the zones are calculated at certain percentages. I decided to test out the heart rate reserve method which is supposedly more accurate for fit individuals since it also takes into consideration resting heart rate. Naturally, the more fit you are the lower your resting heart rate should be which is then reflected within the heart rate ranges to provide a more accurate representation of your current fitness level. Using this method adjusted my ranges in a more lenient way for easy running which is where I have been known to struggle.
Back to the run…
I warmed up for 2-miles at easy pace and then stopped the treadmill completely since I like to zero things out to more easily track the intervals. With 6x3min @ interval pace with 2min easy recovery, I knew this would take 30-minutes to complete. So rather than counting the number of intervals I have completed, I can simply ran for 3-minutes, recovered for 2-minutes, and then rolled into my cool down mile when 30-minutes showed on the treadmill timer.
Pacing was actually on the slow end of my interval range but I did that purposely. With the hip being irritated the day prior, and 3-minutes at threshold being fairly uncomfortable for me, a more conservative workout was in order.
From a heart rate standpoint, I did notice much more flexibility as I reflected on the metrics every 10-minutes or so. My warm-up and cool down were actually borderline zone 2/zone 3 and I was able to progressively warm-up and cool down while respecting the intention of the run. This heart rate reserve method allowed more wiggle room with easy running but I’m curious of it’s accuracy with faster speedwork. The 3-minutes at interval pace seemed to be completed at a lower heart rate range than normal but that could also be an improvement in fitness, me purposely staying on the conservative side of the range, or other factors. I’ll continue to monitor this and decide what is the best method for my body moving forward.
Saturday, February 10th:
Yesterday I drove over to Kalamazoo to visit my mother-in-law. I was looking forward to this run since I greatly enjoy the area and it allows a nice get away from city lift. Out of all the places I’ve lived, there’s just something about Kalamazoo… The people are friendly and when you get outside the small downtown area it just opens up to beautiful woods, farms, and more rural living. Ever since leaving home after college I have been more attracted to a slower lifestyle as opposed to the hustle and bustle.
The plan had 9-mile at easy pace for this week’s long run. I decided to head over to Texas Drive Park in the Texas Corners area because it offers easy access to a paved path and the Al Sabo Nature Preserve.
Al Sabo has been a go to trail of mine while living and visiting Kalamazoo over the years. It’s easy to access, a mix of different types of terrains, and the people are extremely friendly & respectful. Because I forgot the total distance of the Atwater Loop, I went into the run openminded to see how many miles I could complete knowing I would eventually come out to the path and the remainder could be finished up.
The trails were pretty sketchy at first with that packed down snow which eventually turns to ice. I set out at 10:30am so the sun rising overhead lightly melted this ice to make it more slick and hazardous. After debating whether this was a smart idea or not, I continued forward knowing the trail crosses the path over the next few miles so I could detour if needed.
When you think about smart running, it’s important to follow key principles. You’ve heard me speak about frequency first, duration second, and intensity third in these blog posts. Despite not being a normal recommendation for my running clients, I was ramping up mileage while also introducing trails which hasn’t been a staple in my training plan. Not to mention they were mostly covered in snow/ice and would take some agile maneuvering and extra stabilization. So technically this was increasing two variables at once in the form of duration AND intensity. Fortunately, my years spent down in Nashville consisted of pretty much all trail running so I reasoned to myself that it was acceptable while treading carefully. This is a common justification to highlight the mindset most runners adopt which eventually equates to injury.
The first few mile went great. I saw a crew of Deer snacking right off the side of the trail. They’ve been known to be extremely friendly here since it’s a protected nature preserve. After asking for their permission, I stopped and took a quick photo.
There was minimal foot traffic outside of a few people walking their dogs. Everyone was respectful and stepped off the trail for me. The dogs were extremely friendly and I think a few would’ve preferred running with me rather then slow rolling with their owner.
My traction was okay and better in some areas than others. There were times where I had to straddle over the ice, which was directly in the center of the trail, or bound from one side to the other. I only almost fell once coming down a steep hill but that was due to stepping on a stick. I caught myself, had a reality check, and proceeded with caution.
After 3.5-miles I had completed one loop. This was a little disappointing since I was hoping for 5-6 miles before hitting the paved path. But it also provided another opportunity to repeat the loop again for some more trail fun. At this point I was adequately warmed up, knew it would be time for some nutrition soon, and was just having fun out there.
Over the years I have gravitated to different forms of activity in the woods, whether that’s running, snowshoeing, or searching for good fly fishing streams. Running the road is okay, and it does consist of the majority of my training plan at the moment, but there’s something about being more connected with nature. There’s really no need for music or other distractions besides being aware of your surroundings and disconnecting from the busy world.
The 2nd loop went off without a hitch as I was very familiar with the trail and pacing was on point. There were a few times where the heart rate would creep up but that’s the nature of trail running with it’s undulating terrain. This trail is mostly flat with one steep section and a few long and steady inclines. Other than that, it’s fairly easy as it ventures from single track deep in the woods, out into the open meadow, alongside a spring fed pond, and through the beautiful pine forest.
At 6.8 miles I was leaving the trail system and stepping foot on the paved path. This extends along Texas Drive for a period of time and then meanders into Al Sabo as well but, of course, all pavement as opposed to dirt. It was boring and I was ready for the run to end at that point. My body started to feel tight. Or, maybe I just lost enjoyment because the scenery and surface was different. I did see a hawk circling above but mostly families and kids rollerblading. After a mile or so down the path, I turned around to head back.
9-miles in the books for this long run and a drop week soon to follow. Depending on the conditions of the trails in Milwaukee, I’ll consider getting out there more often to see if this enjoyable run can be replicated. It would provide a break from the pavement and variable intensity that you don’t often get on the road.
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 7!