Training Macrolog

This is not the log of each workout I do, but rather a higher level summary of what's happening with my training overall. For a detailed log, I use SportTracks and publish to Dailymile at http://www.dailymile.com/people/JonathanS.

1 January 2011

The statistics for January 2010 are rather sad, with only 189 miles covered, compared with 470 for January of last year. This is primarily due to the time off for my Mortons Neuroma. With hindsight, the time off did not help the healing process at all, but hindsight is always 20:20. At the new year I’d also decided to experiment with running 3 days per week and some dietary changes. It’s hard to know if these have hindered my recovery, but I’ve not bounced back as quickly as I would have expected. Therefore I’m “reverting to last known good configuration” until I’ve regained my previous fitness level and then restart some of the experimentation.

2 December 2010

My training is going well and my performance seems to be improving. I lost muscle mass and gained body fat after Hinson Lake in September, a change I've finally reversed. I've noticed a strong correlation between my running and my body composition. I'm now at about the best muscle to non-muscle ratios I've had since I've been a runner, with low body fat (guessing around 5-7%). Here are some things that I believe are working well for me.

• I've added biking as cross training 2-3 days per week. I think this has helped to control my body fat, as my calorie expenditure is a little more even. Without the biking, I was burning 2,000+ calories on non-running days and ~5,000+ on running days, which is a huge difference. I'm generally biking for about an hour.
• My protein intake is now much higher than it has been. After my long runs I'm typically taking 50-100 grams of Protein within the first hour, and probably 200-300 grams protein daily. While this is high by normal standards, to get 25% of calories from protein on a 5,000 Calorie day would require 300+grams! Since I raised my protein intake, I'm recovering better, have lower body fat and more muscle mass. I'm also less hungry than I have been, as the protein is remarkably satisfying. I'm following Nutrient Timing as a key part of my diet.
• Doing a Tabata workout on the Bike may help with my aerobic capacity.
• I've started to do some of my runs without any fuel to help train my body to burn more fat.
• My mileage has dropped from a high of 100-110+ miles/week over the summer to around 90 this fall. This is partly because I've stopped doing any heat adaptation runs in the afternoon, and partly because I'm trying to focus more on quality, even at the expense of distance.
• After MMTR trashed my legs so badly, I've been focusing more on doing hard downhill running. This often results in a much shorter workout, as Downhill Intervals take a lot out of the quads.
• I still have no idea how to taper for a race. Balancing the need for rest and recover with the need to keep fitness up and control my body fat is tough. I'm experimenting with less time off before races, down to just a couple of days. I may experiment with doing the bike up until the race itself.