Episode 428: Intervals & Long Runs - Training Recap

For this training recap, I unpack a four week block of training where my main focus was short intervals and long runs. I highlight the thought process behind the programming, execution, and add some tips to consider in training.

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Episode Transcript:

Alright, folks, welcome back. This episode is going to be a training recap. So one thing I'm doing this year is I am just kind of journaling some of my training on Substack. And every week I send out just how the week went with some notes and some details about the workouts and some reflection pieces to that. And what I'll probably do is every 3 or 4 weeks, I'll just do a podcast. Episode two. That kind of bundles a full block of training into one episode and kind of highlights the general direction of things there. So for this particular recap, if I had to kind of summarize it with some kind of key points, it was kind of a block that focused on short intervals or like some VO2 max work and then starting to kind of get a real structured long run in place. Uh, not ultra specific, long run. And for those of you who've listened to the podcast, well, you'll probably know, but I tend to look at long runs as kind of two different categories. There's just the general long run that I look at for purposes of just overall fitness and building up that. And then I also look at kind of a second stage of that, depending on the race I'm training for, which I call like the ultra long run, which tends to be just like a little more specific to the inputs that will be done at that specific race that I'm doing, or that specific ultramarathon running event that I'm doing. So that can range depending on what the targets are. Uh, for those who didn't check out the first episode of this series, I did do an early 2025 update where I kind of laid out some of the early stages coming off of off season and things like that, and also just letting everyone know that the the race I'm targeting with this training cycle is going to be a 100 mile attempt at the Pettit Center in June, so it's going to be a fast, controlled setup. They're going for a quick time, hopefully a PR if things go well. And training kind of, uh, points that I have in my legs for the day. So that's sort of the vision going forward. For the first half of the year. This training block was four weeks and started on January 20th and then ended on February 16th. And like I said, it included some kind of VO2 Max target and some long run development. I ended up with three total long runs during that block of training, and then I had five quality interval sessions. Then you could argue that there were technically seven quality sessions. Actually, I would say seven quality sessions because two of the long runs, I actually had a bit of a workout inside of it where I did one type of work that I really like to do, kind of when things are feeling good and I have it in me for that long run, which is what a fast finish were essentially like, I'll spend the final like maybe 15 minutes or so of that long run, just kind of progressing in pace and closing a little bit stronger than I normally would for just a typical long run at an easy or base or kind of zone one, zone two type of intensity for that. So there is some quality in a couple of those two. That should be noted, because when you're looking at just training load and kind of where the intensities lie, that would be kind of an important input to consider. So I'll go through this with just highlighting each week what the focus was, what the data points were for that. And then you can kind of get an idea of what I was thinking and why I was doing what I was doing. So for that first week, which was January 20th through the 26th, I ended up with 81.01 miles for a total of nine hours and 51 minutes. That week had one quality session and no long run in it. I did wait one more week before I started getting into the long run, because the last training block was just the beginning of the year, and I kind of wanted to make sure that I was in a good place to be able to really prioritize some of the short interval sessions, and since I typically do my long runs at the end of the week, I just didn't do one that week. So I'd head into the second week of this block, which was going to end up being the biggest training load week of the training block, so I kept the long run out for that week. But the one quality session I did was the first real structured VO2 Max session that I did this training cycle, which was just 12 by 75 seconds. I did that one on the track and it was a good workout in terms of me hitting the intensity I wanted. It was a little humbling in terms of where I'm at versus where I want to be with this session. So it went. Since I go by time with these intervals, going to the track can give me some historical like targets in terms of like, well, how much distance did I cover or what pace was I averaging for that particular session? And I like to look at that pace as sort of a moving target for improvement, where if I do this session like that during this week and I cover a certain amount of distance with those 75 seconds on average, or I hit a specific pace for those, then I like to monitor. Well, considering as many variables as I can, uh, to control, how much faster am I getting? And like, are these inputs actually driving improvement at this? This? This target. So I ended up going just about 400m, maybe a pinch under and a couple and a pinch over on others. So on average probably about 400m for that one. And for some perspective like usually when I'm really humming along and have had enough VO2 Max exposure and I've been working on that for a while, I'm usually able to get that down to at least 70. Um, or I'm sorry, I'm usually hitting 400m at 70s or maybe even a little under that, so it would be going a fair bit past that 400 meter mark on the on the track on those type of, uh, type of sessions when things are, are where I really like them to be historically. So I'm loosely looking at that as a target point to decide, like, okay, once I can get to there, I may move from sort of a structure where I'm focusing on developing this to just maintaining it and then moving on to some other intensities as kind of the primary focus. But it is an intensity that historically I have to be kind of careful with, because it is the type of workout where if I get a little too ambitious with it, I can end up getting hurt or just feeling overly fatigued and losing overall quality by doing a little too much of it. So I tend to be a little more conservative with this type of workout input for me personally. Others may be different and thrive off this type of stuff, and just can hammer out a couple of VO2 Max workouts a week and keep going and see quick benefits from stuff like that. That's not traditionally how things have worked for me. So, uh, you'll maybe see a little bit of a trend line in this training block and some following ones in terms of where I may apply a little bit of caution there. So that was the main target for that week. And it was a pretty good starting point. Uh, coming off an off season and some lower volume training, you know, that almost ten hour number and 81 miles was a pretty good starting point, one where I was taking a step forward from what I had been doing that prior block, but not to a big aggressive point and not one where it was going to like kind of put me in the tank and make me really have to work hard, harder than I'd like in the next couple of weeks of training. So that second week, which was by far the biggest of the four from January 20th 7th to February 2nd, I ended up hitting 94.44 miles that week, 11 hours and 48 minutes. I actually had two targeted VO2 Max sessions and one long run as king of the three quality sessions for that week, and those two VO2 Max sessions were 12 by 60s, which, uh, was a 1 to 1 work to rest ratio kind of targeting that same intensity. And I should have said that with that first one to that first one was also a 1 to 1 work ratio for most of my VO2 max work. I like to kind of follow that trend for everyone. For every second of work done at VO2 Max, I take a second on the recovery in between. So if I'm doing 75 seconds, it's 7570 off, 60, 60 on, 60 off. If it's two minutes, two minutes, two off, it's four minutes, four minutes off. And that's kind of where I like to do if if I get to a point where I'm really moving along well there and I want to make that work out a little more difficult, what I and I don't want to add extra volume to it, what I'll do is I will reduce that recovery time. So then I could make that same workout a little more difficult, where instead of doing say, 12 by 60s with 60s off, do 12 by 60s with maybe 45 seconds or 30s recovery in between and just tighten up that recovery side of the equation. I generally wouldn't do that until I got up to probably at least 15 minutes of total work though. So my goal before deviating from a 1 to 1 work to rest ratio for these is usually getting to be able to consistently hit the targets I'm looking for with, you know, around 15 minutes or so, maybe more depending on kind of where I'm at, how I'm feeling, where the strengths and weaknesses are in training. Uh, before I start kind of getting creative with reducing the rest of the things. So that second session was kind of the exact same training workout as I had done that prior week 12 by 75 seconds with 75 seconds off on the track. And I was actually really pleasantly surprised by this. I didn't expect it to be drastically faster, especially with only a day easy between the two sessions, but I was like quite a bit faster than last time I was dipping down. Under five minute mile pace, which is well past that 400 meter mark on a few of those intervals. So I was probably hitting 400m at closer to like 71, 72 seconds on some of the stronger efforts in there. And just overall felt a little bit better with it. So maybe it's just kind of exposing myself to these intensities. Uh, it was allowing me to just execute the workout a little bit better. It's unlikely that I'm seeing any real big physiological adaptations. Yet at this point, those probably will come at more like 4 to 6 weeks or so of input from just my prior experience, where I can kind of consistently see better workouts and faster paces, but I'll take it when I can get it. So that was a kind of a promising, exciting workout to have. And what really made this week high quality, in my opinion, relative to the other ones, is between that second short interval session and my long run for the week, which was my first real structured long run of the training block. I ended up hitting 20.42 miles in two hours and 13 minutes and averaged 631 per mile, and felt good enough where I actually did do that fast finish where the last two miles I dropped down to right around 550 mile pace for that, so that one felt really good. The pace checked out really well. The heart rate was quite low actually for that one too. I think it was like, if I remember right, the heart rate was maybe only 139 beats per minute at those paces. So that was another really promising end to the week, and probably one of the better training I've had in a while, in terms of just feeling like all the workouts went as good or better than I expected, and the volume I hit was a little bit higher too. So that was just one of those weeks where I probably ended up with a little bit more than I had planned going in, because things were just working well, and I was just sort of responding to what my body was giving me that week. And that week it was giving it to me. So that one will kind of stand out maybe this week relative to the other ones. The third week was February 3rd through the ninth, and that one I hit 90.91 miles for 11 hours and six minutes. So from a training volume standpoint, pretty similar to that week prior. It was a little bit different in that I did one quality session here, plus a long run. This long run. I didn't do a fast finish though, and it was a little shorter than the other one, so the quality session for this one was just a little bit different. I just wanted a little bit of a break from that kind of more traditional 1 to 1 work ratio, VO2 max style workout. So I went to the track and I did, uh, a workout where I would do 200m just a bit faster than lactate threshold for the target, followed by a 200 meter float that was right at about aerobic threshold. So I would basically just do loops around the track, and for 200m I would pick up the pace and kind of target a little bit faster than what would feel like my lactate threshold. And then I would ease back a little bit, but not substantially so that it was still kind of not like a super easy recovery jog the way it would be if I were doing those VO2 max 1 to 1 work ratios and kind of kept things at, um, aerobic threshold. Uh, I would say in terms of hitting the paces I was looking for, for that one, it looked pretty good on paper, but it was kind of a messy workout, actually. I didn't really do a great job of pacing it. I had a handful of those 200m where I was actually probably closer to my VO2 max, if not at it, and then I had a couple of the aerobic threshold ones that kind of drifted a little bit slower as a result. So when you average everything out, it looked a little bit cleaner than it probably was, but that's just maybe something I got to kind of just keep working on as I kind of get more comfortable with kind of the structure with the workouts in the week and things like that. End of the week was a long run. This one was 17.31 miles an hour and 54 minutes at a 639 mile pace. So that one I did on the roads versus, uh, the other long runs for this block, which I did on the track. And it was a little slower, probably because of that, because the track is about as fast as I usually am able to do these long runs because it's super controlled and easy to run fast on that really flat setting. And then you get the rubber track obviously too. So that probably would be part of the reason why that one was maybe a little bit slower. And then on top of that I'll add that with the track long runs, I get asked this quite a bit too. I was like, well, why would you do a long run on the track? Pretty much the only reason I do it on the track is because the race I'm going to be doing is going to be on a 443 meter indoor track. So I want to start kind of getting not all my long runs, but at least some of my long runs on the track early so that I'm getting used to just the mechanics, the pacing, the perceived effort, And also kind of continuing with the quest that I'm currently on, which is trying to decide which shoe I'm actually going to wear for the race. In terms of which one do I feel is actually going to give me the best efficiency, feel the most comfortable on my feet, and can tolerate a lot of time on my feet because, you know, 100 miles is a long way. So there's kind of two pieces to that decision process. One is what shoe is going to perform the best, but also which one can I actually tolerate for 100 miles. So there may be some consideration there where if I say find three shoes that are, um, pretty close in terms of how they perform from an efficiency standpoint, which I will go in and get tested, actually, if you're interested, go back and listen to my episode a couple back. I think it was 426 with Dustin where we talked about super shoe tech and efficiency testing. I'll be taking a bunch of shoes into Dustin's lab and testing to find out specifically which one is going to work best for me, and say I pick three. That all test pretty similar with some maybe a little bit ahead or behind others if they're all close enough. I'm just going to lean towards the one that feels the best on my foot on top of that, because. You know. Mile 80. In the Hunter mile, I want that shoe to feel pretty seamless on my foot versus feeling like I'm fighting it in any way, or it causing me problems that slow me down and sort of negate any of the efficiency. So hopefully I'll have a list of options to choose from and it won't be like one is clearly better, but it feels terrible in my foot or something like that. That's my biggest fear with it would be that scenario. Uh, but yeah, so I'm going to get on the track a little bit earlier in this training cycle than I normally would for these. I've done other hundred mile training cycles where I wait to get on the track for long runs until that long, ultra long run development phase and kind of work on just calling those things in over that last phase. But due to the uniqueness of this one and the shoe decision stuff, I'm getting on a little bit early for that. So that's why I've had two long runs on the track for this block. Uh, but I probably won't do them all there because that gets a little bit annoying after a while. If you're just going there every weekend for an entire training cycle to do your long run on the track. So that was week two, or I'm sorry, that was week three. And then week four was just a really weird week. Pretty atypical actually. It was February 10th to the 16th. I ended up doing a D load week, but it was sort of a D load week where in the back of my mind, I knew there was a chance I was probably going to do a d load week, but I wasn't going to just take it outright versus just seeing how my body felt. But I did have some travel that week, so I was in Omaha for a few days, and then when I came back from Omaha, I ended up getting a little bit under the weather. Not terrible, where I was in bed all day or anything like that, but it was noticeably more fatiguing to do, like anything of high quality and running in general, just felt like it was a gear harder. So this week I was like, okay, I'm on, I'm on schedule for probably needing a D load week anyway. It's probably a good practice just to stay healthy and not invite a potential injury down the road and things like that. And then on top of it, I don't like to try to push through illness if I don't have to, because usually that ends up becoming a net negative in the long run anyway. So everything just kind of lined up as like between the travel between getting a little under the weather. Um, just saying. Okay, here's a good spot. Anyway, for the little week, let's take it. Be thankful that it lined up with being under the weather and travel so that I didn't have to like, you know, come off a week, then get sick and feel like I'm kind of doing two d weeks in a row. But that week of February 10th through 16, I ended up with 72.35 miles, eight hours and 43 minutes total. So a decent jump down, maybe about 25% reduction in volume. And then the only quality session I did that week was a 20 by 30s. So 30s 30 on. And that workout was one where I was pretty confident. Okay, um, after a rest, I took a rest day the day prior to that, which was also the first full rest day. No running that I've done during this training cycle. And it was just obvious that like when. Would push into the kind of intensity I was looking for. For those, I was noticeably slower. So I went into that workout thinking like I would maybe do 32nd or 30 by 30s. But I knew probably after about eight that it was going to be better to do 20, just get a small stimulus in there to kind of keep that going in that direction. But, uh, focus more on recovery. So I took it pretty easy a couple of days after that, and on Friday afternoon, I felt like I really turned a corner, feeling like the lower volume and getting over whatever I had felt like it was through. So I was like, well, I'll go to the track for the long run this week and just kind of see how I feel. If I felt like once I started running, things weren't clicking. I was planning on maybe, uh, just keeping it nice and easy, but I was willing to kind of just respond to what my body gave me for this one. And sometimes I'll do this to where if I have a download week, I'll stick a higher quality long run in there at the end. If I feel like things are already catching up, because it kind of gives me a good opportunity to leverage some easier days going into the long run than I normally would have. And it just played out really well that way. For this particular long run. I ended up with, uh, 20.2 miles at two hours and seven minutes at a 617 per mile pace, and kind of like that other long run on the track earlier in the block. I ended up with a fast finish with this time the last approximately two miles or so. I ended up averaging about 540 pace with the faster of those two miles being kind of. I think it was like a 536 or something like that. So that was really promising to be able to kind of just push down into that without feeling like I was forcing it too much and, and get that sort of efficiency out of that intensity. Um, 617 per mile for a long run at this stage in training for me is actually probably a bit ahead of schedule than I would normally be at. So again, one of the workouts that kind of stood out in this training block that I'm looking at that hopefully I'll look back on and say, okay, that was a sign that things were heading in the right direction. And that basically ended the week for the most part. I had an easy run that following day on Sunday, and then just kind of gearing up for the next training block there. So those are the totals. Those are kind of the workout inputs and things like that. And um, block number two of this training cycle is in the books