Less Is More

It all started a couple of years ago when I met my then partner Chris S. He’s the type of guy who loves stats. A real data analyst. So for him it was more of a question of ‘why wouldn’t you want to find out all of the intrinsic details of running? and all of the #’s that coincide with it?’ It’s logic, right? He bought books, he read articles, he bought a Heart Rate (HR) monitor and a foot pod and he eventually went to a sports lab and did a Lactate Threshold Test. The latter I will come to shortly…

I on the other hand. I ran. A HR monitor, what’s that good for? A watch with all of the functions? Nah, time and distance gained is all I need. Pace? Well there’s 3 types, slow (which I only ran if I was unwell or injured), active running (any speed which was relatively ‘fast’ & gave me a rush of endorphins) and there was a full blown sprint (I avoided this kind of running because who needs to sprint when you want to cover distance).

2 types of runners, running together, 1 who succeeds and the other? Well, I invite you to read on…

I’d say I have come a long way since describing myself above but I still have a long way to go. There was no doubt I’d take an interest eventually into performance and #’s but I was definitely happy going by feel and not getting too wrapped up in the science and different theories of the sport. I enjoyed running for running and that’s what it’s always been about. However, every year I’ve wanted to do more, I’ve wanted to push distance and I’ve wanted to get faster so there came a point I had to start looking at things more deeply.

That time came about a month ago (May 2019) during the Vancouver Marathon weekend. I struggled that day for numerous reasons but overall, for the amount of work I put in over Winter I felt I should have at least walked away with something positive from that race. That same weekend I’d also happened to pick up a book that was circling among the Ultra Runners of the Bow Valley ‘Training for the Uphill Athlete’ by Steve House, Scott Johnston and Kilian Jornet. As I read through the chapters and my race un folded I couldn’t help think I may have fallen into a category that they described as ‘Aerobic Deficiency Syndrome’ ADS.

ADS – ‘A condition common in endurance athletes who spend too much training time in middle to high intensity efforts, which causes an increased development of the anerobic glycolytic metabolic pathway and reduced development of the basic aerobic metabolic pathway in the affected muscles. If this training state persists long enough, the athlete will see a lowering of his or her Aerobic Threshold’ 

Okay, I too stopped concentrating after the first sentence. My brain is not wired for big words and I had to re-read a lot of the book to try and grasp what it actually meant. However, the term ‘ADS’ crept up A LOT and it led me to think about the different activities I do. Yes, I cross train but are the activities and my attitude enhancing my performance as an endurance runner or are they actually corrupting it instead. I started to question how often I train and the intensity I train at. Whether it’s a short run, a long run, a mountain bike, a road bike, a classic ski, a skate ski … every work out I’m usually in the mind set of ‘I want to push’. I LOVE approaching things with passion, I LOVE seeing results and my HR data never fails to average at 150 or above reflecting my hard workouts. Maybe it’s the exercise endorphins I crave? after all, that ‘runners high’ is very much the real deal or maybe it’s my ego? Do I want to be viewed as a ‘slow runner’? I don’t have an answer. But it was becoming very apparent that what I love doing day in day out may actually be jeopardizing the results I want to see when it actually matters, race day.

I then got thinking about this past year. I had an incredible race season in 2018 but as soon as October approached, I was exhausted! Since then I’ve lost count of how often I’ve woken up after a full night’s sleep tired and run down. I’ve picked up viruses that have taken weeks to bounce back from. I’ve cried with frustration and I’ve had less motivation to go play outside (I love being outside!). The times I have got out there my HR has been incredibly high, even when I didn’t have it in me that day to push. Was this book a wake-up call that I needed? Was I putting together all of the pieces of the puzzle? It was time to get serious and start looking more closely at what my body may have been telling me.

My first step was to do a Lactate Threshold Test.

Anaerobic (Lactate) Threshold (LT) – ‘The lowest intensity of exercise at which the production of lactate exceeds the muscle’s ability to take up and utilize that lactate as fuel in aerobic metabolism. Above this intensity, lactate levels in the blood begin to rise. The greater the intensity above the threshold, the greater the rise in blood lactate’.

Lactate Threshold Testing is a great way for a person to calculate their Heart Rate Zones which then determines their intensity to train. A lot of the theory out there reflects on the 80/20 method. 80% = low intensity and 20% = high, so figuring out the correct zones is vital to be able to effectively train. Tests are usually conducted at a sports lab and cost around $170. Chris and I figured that if we splurged and bought a kit we could continue to monitor our progression a couple of times a year and in the long run it will be the most cost effective.

We live in a condo with a small gym so we picked a warm day to stay inside for a couple of hours to complete the test. This resulted in fewer people gawking in our direction whilst Chris pricked my finger every 5 minutes, taking a small blood sample to calculate the lactate in my blood (Note: we used a special bin to dispose of needles, we sanitized EVERYTHING before & after and followed all hygiene protocols). The test lasted 90 minutes. I did a small warm up with the treadmill set at a 1% incline and every 5 minutes the pace would be increased for 5 minutes until I could no longer stand the pace and eventually ‘gave in’. My HR was recorded along with the Lactate recording. We then drove to the park where I ran my hardest for 60 seconds. Again, my Lactate was recorded before and after and then again 20 minutes later once it had settled. All of this data was plotted into Excel (Thanks to Chris & his skills) and the results mapped out my training zones.

Despite having a rough feeling of what the outcome would be I was anxious and secretly hoped that everything I had been feeling was in my head. That I had been the ultimate definition of a hypochondriac and that I was fit, healthy and geared up for endurance success.

The results were in:

Recovery: 0-100 BPM
Zone 1 Aerobic Conditioning: 101-112 BPM
Zone 2 Aerobic Capacity: 113-125 BPM
Zone 3 Endurance: 126-159 BPM
Zone 4 Aerobic Power: 160-171 BPM
Zone 5 Max Anerobic Power: 172+ BPM

Shitttttttttttt.

I can’t tell you when things started to go downhill for me. Maybe it was last October when I first started feeling off. But, what I can tell you is having no direction or clear training plan has resulted in me destroying my aerobic base through constant Zone 3 training. Instead of savoring this zone for race day only, I have become accustomed to hanging out here a little too often and my training has had no real effect on my fitness. Basically, if I continue doing what I have been doing I will end up over trained which takes months or in some cases, years to bounce back from!

The past 2 weeks I have taken a shift in perspective. I want to be the runner I know I am capable to be. So I am on the road to getting back to where I should be and I am excited for the challenge that lies ahead. I love running. It is my passion. It is what I would choose to do day in day out if I could and I don’t want to love my sport to death. So, in order for me to progress I do have to take a few, slow, steps back.

I’ve never really felt the need to seek advice from a coach but I didn’t feel like this was something I wanted to overcome on my own. I need guidance and I need to know the training I put in is having a positive affect and not deterring me further. After hours of research I settled on finding myself someone I could trust and I am really excited to be working alongside Jen Segger. I’m already a week in on a tailored program and I feel comfortable and trust that I will end up where I want to be. When I logged into my TrainingPeaks and viewed my plan, I knew that the road ahead will be long but it sure feels nice to be steered in the right direction. As well as coaching I also sought medical advice and had some blood work done. I’ve been called back to discuss a couple of issues that I am hoping can be fixed through nutrition and vitamins. Honestly, after years of no direction it feels SO good that I am on a focused path right now and that I’ve had the courage to admit that I’ve been blindly running, long distances, with no real idea of what I have been doing.

The Canadian Death Race is only 6 weeks away and despite the fact I am out power walking and barely running it sure feels good to know I don’t have to write that race off. That I can tow the start line and that I can enjoy Zone 3 for all the RIGHT reasons.Whether I will compete the whole distance is unknown to me right now. I didn’t anticipate being in the position I am right now. However,  I used to think that if training felt hard, a intense ‘work out’, it must have been doing me good but I’ve since come to realize, less is more.