Training log - Week ending 6/21/2020

This week was 65 miles of running -- training log is here. 

A lot of juggling and playing with stuff this week.  I started off by getting annoyed with my footpod, which I've been using to measure pace and distance on the treadmill.  

For a while now, my footpod and my treadmill have been giving completely different paces - the treadmill will say 8:57 pace, while the foot pod will say 9:14 or so.  And my perceived effort on the treadmill has been much closer to the treadmill's pace than the foot pod's pace.

So...on Tuesday, after doing supposedly 12:30 minute tempos at the same pace (according to the footpod) that I could hold comfortably outside for 40+ minutes, I decided to see just how fast the treadmill was going.  I did this by first measuring the length of the belt (11 feet exactly), and then timing how long twenty revolutions of the belt took at various speeds on the treadmill.  (for each speed, I timed 20 revolutions three times so that I could average the times for better accuracy.  As it turned out, each of the three timed intervals were within 1/100s of a second, so averaging really was just taking the number I timed).

As it turned out, the treadmill is actually going about 0.1 MPH faster than it states - i.e. it runs at 8.8 MPH when I type in 8.7.  Thus, while the foot pod claimed I was running significantly slower than the posted speed, the belt was actually going slightly faster than the posted speed.  About a 25-30 second difference between the pace of the belt and the footpod's reported pace. 

There are those who will state that the treadmill/footpod discrepancy is actually due to a quirk of treadmills where the belt slows down when one's foot is on it and speeds up between steps; hence the footpod is truly measuring the speed of the belt when one's foot is on it, and is thus accurate.  While I don't doubt that may hold true for some, my understanding is that this distortion is usually observed with heavier runners and weaker treadmill motors.  I weight less than 110 pounds and am running on a 4 CHP (continuous horse power) commercial grade treadmill (treadmills generally range between 1.5 and 4 CHP).  So I find it hard to believe that I'd be distorting the treadmill belt to the tune of 25-30 seconds per mile.  Plus,...the whole perceived effort thing.... 6:50 pace was NOT feeling like 6:50 pace on the treadmill.

So....I played some with calibrating the foot pod, and figured out that a calibration factor of 1.03 got the foot pod in line with my perceived effort on the treadmill.  However, when I took the footpod to the running track later in the week to calibrate it for outside running, I found that a calibration factor of 1.00 was best.

Which seems odd, but from reviewing online discussion of this footpod this is not uncommon.  Plenty of reports of the footpod being accurate at 1.00 outside, but needing to be calibrated to 1.03 or 1.04 on the treadmill (and no, I'm not going to say which brand footpod it is - I don't do product reviews).  So at least it's not just me.  Or alternately, we all have the same treadmill hang-up/incompetence.

Ultimately, I don't care about getting exact paces or distances on the treadmill - I've been doing my treadmill workouts by effort over time, and the body responds to effort, not pace.  But...it'd still be nice to have something reasonably accurate - I suspect this error has meant that I've been running a mile or two more per week than I knew.

As it turned out, I started shifting away from treadmill workouts at the end of the week anyway.  Our local track is open again, things are starting to open up a bit, and it's looking like smaller races may start happening in July.  I was thinking I needed to start shifting from strength to speed with some 200s, so when the treadmill decided to shut down on me in the middle of my Friday workout, I just headed out to the track (conveniently very close) and pivoted to 200s.

The 200s felt a bit awkward, which was not surprising at all - I have done no running faster than 6 minute pace in months, and the faster running that I have been doing has been on a treadmill at an incline, which encourages power, not stride length.  But....it will come back based on my past experience.

I'm going to spend a little bit of time focused on short fast stuff (really, just a week or two), and then transition to more traditional training in hopes of a return to near-normalcy.  If it turns out I'm wrong, and there will be no races in July, August, September, then I'll just take a week long break after a few weeks of "regular training," call this a completed cycle, and return to hills.

Dailies 

Monday: Live streaming yoga, upperbody weights/core, and back unloading work plus foam rolling.

Tuesday: 12.5 miles on the treadmill, including a mixed workout of 2 short hill repeats (60 seconds at a 4.5 incline), 12:30 minutes at tempo (6:48? or maybe faster?), 2 more short hill repeats, 12:30 minutes at tempo (6:42? or maybe faster?), and 2 more short hill repeats; 2:30 recovery after each hill or tempo segment. Followed with injury prevention work and live streaming yoga. Foam rolling at night.

 

Wednesday: 7 miles easy outside (9:13), live streaming yoga, 7 miles easy on the treadmill (8:56 with the fixed footpod), and drills and 4 hill strides. Foam rolling at night. 

Thursday: Upper body weights/core and back unloading work/foam rolling in the morning; live streaming yoga in the afternoon. 

Friday: 12.5 miles, split between the treadmill and outside. I started with an imitation Iwo Jima workout - 2 repeats of the following: 

-2:00 at a strong effort on a 3.0 incline (the Iwo Jima hill averages a 3% incline) 

-1:30 easy effort on a 1.0 incline 

-0:30 fast on a 1.0 incline 

-1:00 easy effort on a 1.0 incline. 

Then swapped to outside for 2x (6x200) with 200m recoveries between reps and 600m recovery between sets.  Structured each set as first pair a bit harder than 5K effort, second pair a bit harder, third pair harder yet.  Splits were 44/44/43/43/40/40 and 43/44/41/42/39/40.

Followed with leg strengthwork and recovery yoga. Foam rolling at night.

 

Saturday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:16), plus another 800m on the track calibrating my foot pod.  Then did drills, four hill strides and live streaming yoga. Finished up with some back unloading work and foam rolling. 

Sunday: 14 miles, including a workout of 2 miles at tempo effort (12:49 - split as 6:27/6:22) and then 2x~half mile in 3:06 and 3:05.  5:30 recovery after the tempo miles, and 2:3x recovery after the half mile reps.  Followed with leg strengthwork and streaming yoga, and then another shakeout mile testing a new pair of shoes. Foam rolling in afternoon.