Running in the Rain

Almost back in a normal training routine

2012-01-07T20:35:00.003-08:00

The hardest thing about training with a baby is trying to recover between sessions. No matter how good I am about my diet, stretching, or active recovery (i.e. light activity, mobility, getting on a foam roller, yoga) the lack of sleep makes me feel a bit old! Soreness doesn't go away as fast and it's harder for me to handle long medium-intensity sessions where I have to just keep grinding away. I've been staying away from caffeine (I've never been a coffee drinker) and I'm reluctant to start but that may change! At least for the next couple months... Lucas is now going to sleep around midnight or 1am and is lasting 3-4 hours between most nighttime feeds but he still makes noises I can only describe as "tropical bird squawking" for a few hours beginning anywhere from 6 to 8am.

Since my last post I've done several short speed workouts, lots of mobility, weights, and proprioceptive work (balancing on balance boards, drills with resistance tubing etc.). I'm working hard to get everything firing the way it should be and it seems to be paying off. My starts are as good as they've ever been. I'm beginning to work on the transition and top-speed phases and should be ready to run a good 60m soon. Only 340m to go! ;)

Once my ankle sprain healed I developed a tight Achilles on the same leg that forced me to keep my volume low and skip some running sessions after getting physio to loosen it up. This has prevented me from doing any tempo or speed endurance sessions for 6 weeks as I've been saving my Achilles for speed work. It's at a point now where I can do speed on a fly in spikes and 150s and 200s in flats at 24 second 200m pace with no problem. I'm going to try getting into spikes for the longer reps next week. I'll start with 6x150 with 3 min. rest in 17 seconds on Tuesday. If my Achilles is still happy the next day I'll feel comfortable writing out some definitive workouts and will finally get to take myself off "day-to-day" status. I might even have some good training sessions to post about!

Getting motivated again

2011-12-04T22:56:00.001-08:00

It was a tough November but I'll be all the better for it come summer. There have been some serious setbacks over my career that put my recent injury troubles (see Strange Injuries) into perspective. I was starting to feel really down about not having done a proper track session for 4 weeks until, during a conversation with a friend about my newly born son (see photo here: The very unusual athlete), I was confronted with the question: "I wonder how long it will take him to beat your pb in the 400m!?" So it's a matter of time, eh?! That's fine. If he does pursue athletics I hope he smashes my best time, but that comment reminded me of how deeply unsatisfied I am with my current PB and how much work I have ahead of me if I'm going to fix that problem.

I ran my personal best 400m in 2005, winning the Canadian National Championships on my home track in very windy conditions with 46.12 seconds (I also ran 21.02 in the 200m earlier that year). I was pleased to have broken my previous PB of 46.35 but felt that I had underperformed. No worries, I thought, I'll run what I'm capable of in August at the World University Games.

I made a horrible tactical mistake at the Games and was eliminated in the 400m semi-finals finishing tenth overall in an event I felt I could win (it was won in 45.95 with no wind). After lackluster performances in the 200m and 4x100m relay my teammates and I never even got out of the blocks in the 4x400m relay final. The microphone in the starting blocks malfunctioned so I couldn't hear the "set" command and even though it was illegal to start the race since I still had one knee on the ground it started anyway. Although we protested we weren't allowed to run against time and thus ended a physically and emotionally draining 2 weeks.

Fueled by the disappointment (anger?) of the summer I had the best fall training of my life. I ran a 500m in 60.1 in October then in November I did workouts like 5x250m with 90 seconds rest in 30.2 (average). By December I could run (hand-timed) 38.8 in the 350m and ran a session of 3x300m in 35 with 5 minutes rest. I was itching to run a 400m because I knew that 46.12 was going down. With this attitude I went to les Jeux de la Francophonie in Niamey, Niger. What happened there will be the focus of one of my next posts but, long story short, the day before my race I got terribly sick. I lost 10kg (22lbs) in 3 days. I suffered some symptoms for the next 3 months, either couldn't train or trained poorly during that time, and managed only 46.40 as a seasons best that May.

Since then I've come close to my PB, managing to run both 46.21 and 46.23. I've also made a lot of "life" decisions that I knew full-well weren't the best for my career (moving to a cold-weather place with no training partners and no coach while doing graduate school being the most relevant!). I fully accept that my decisions that are to blame for not breaking that 46.12 and I took them with a "rest of my life" perspective. I feel that in many ways I've made the right choice but now, at 27, I'm having some athletic mortality angst and don't want to retire before I've done what I fully expected to do in 2005.

The fitness level I have now makes the kinds of workouts I just mentioned seem surreal but I know that I've done them before and can do them again. When my son asks what my best 400m time is I don't want to say "46." This will be the 8th year of that "46" and I'm sick of it. The past month has made me focus on all the little things that I find easy to neglect when I'm worn out from intense track sessions. All the tedious stabilizer work, the self-treatment, stretching, and mobility drills will be compulsory for me this year. If I end my career with a 46.12 best, fine. But I'll have had years to better that mark and I won't accept any regrets or excuses if I fail. Today I test my ankle on the track. Whether it's another week of everything-but-running or not, I'm ready.

The very unusual athlete?

2011-11-29T12:47:00.001-08:00

In my experience having a child slows one's perception of time. My son, Lucas André Vadeboncoeur sent my wife into labour at 4am on his due date (Nov 15) and was born at home at 9:29 that night. From early that morning my notion of time became the space between contractions. In my wife's case these were 4 minutes apart almost from the beginning. Now time is divided into the space between feeds, about 1-2 hours (I have a very hungry kid, he's gained half a kilo in a week, or 16% of his total body mass!). He's two weeks old but it seems like we've had him forever. It's been an amazing fortnight and I look forward to every day I get to spend with him as he makes his way (slowly!) toward the social world. Big thanks to the midwifes for their wonderful (and continuing) support through his development from bean-sized foetus to infant. Here he is at 5 days old, looking considerably less squished than when he came out...

If you've read my first post (it's here) you'll know that Lucas is a beautiful addition to my already full plate. I feel like spending all day at home with him and his mum, but I also want to complete my PhD and have a great athletics season. Those contrasting thoughts are a constant reminder that desire without action is a daydream. I need to spend time working hard and spend time at home. I can see now more than ever why that's called having a "balanced" life, one could easily find themselves falling off either side. Very luckily my wife has 52 weeks paid maternity/parental leave at 55% salary up to $468/week (thanks Govt. of Canada!). We also get around $3,000 per year in child benefits until age 6, then about $1,200 per year after that. This is a blessing and will help with this "balance" but it's still nothing like what they provide people in Scandinavian countries, Bulgaria, or Slovenia (see a summary on Wikipedia here). Having supported my wife through the process of pregnancy, labour and now child care, while learning about maternity benefits, is highlighting women's rights as a social issue. Since this is a sports blog, I'll be brief:

In Canada a women is guaranteed the position she held when she took leave, or if that is not available, a position of equal rank at the same salary. Now, what about during her time away? Fifty-five percent of salary up to $468 per week is great for women who have a good salary, live in a part of the country with a low cost of living and/or are married to or in a relationship with someone who has a good salary. In the case of my family, the support we receive from the government is great but in the case of single mothers with average-to-low salaries it's a different story.

There is no defined cut-off in Canada for a poverty line. Rather, there are Low Income Cut Offs (LICOs) defined by Statistics Canada that are set by family size and location of residence. Earning less than the LICO is used as a measure of economic hardship and may be thought of as a proxy poverty line. Using 2005 numbers, a family of two (single mum and 1 child) has a LICO from $17,429 to $25,319. The average Canadian single mum earns $42,800 per year, but the 50th percentile of earners gets right around $30,000. That means that with our current benefits package, half the single mums in the country will have to make due with a taxable income of at most $16,500 during their maternity/parental leave while the average mum will get 97% of the full benefit of $24,336. Remember, this is all before taxes. Should we be asking so many of our mothers to spend a year in poverty to raise a child? Keep in mind that Canada has one of the best maternity/parental leaves in the world. Is global society, at some level, fundamentally set up to discriminate against women? Food for thought...

Strange Injuries

2011-11-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

What's the strangest way you've ever hurt yourself? Has anyone out there ever torn a rotator cuff opening a jar of peanut butter? Or maybe broken a finger by falling UP the stairs? Neither of those have happened to me but I've got a couple strange ones going on right now.

After spending a week being really good about my self-treatment (stretching, rolling out on a foam cylinder, working my feet out on a golf ball, etc.) I managed to sprain a ligament in my ankle in a speed workout. I didn't roll over on it or anything, I was just sprinting. It's a minor strain and I'll be back on the track (but only in flats) on Monday, one week later.

Well, time for a pool session! I can't possibly hurt myself suspended in water, can I? Wrong. When I got out of the pool I noticed that my clavicle was sticking out a bit right where it connects to my ribs under my throat. Turns out my shoulder muscles didn't like all the hand-over-headness of swimming and decided to dislocate my clavicle by rotating it part way off my chest. Great. Since it only came off a little bit I'll make a full recovery, but it's severely annoying.

Training update: Week 13

2011-10-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

This week the emphasis is on speed. I've been blending speed into my sessions over the past month by integrating accelerations into my warm-ups, even on tempo days. Getting a training plan right for the 400m can be very challenging because of the wide range of energy systems that need to be in top form to produce a good 400m result. It's important that speed is done first on days where it's mixed with other types of running because, 1) you need to be fresh because if you're not running fast you're wasting your time, and, 2) your body adapts best to the first kind of training you do in a session, or over a day, when you're using mixed energy systems. Since speed is the most important component of a 400m this kind of running should come first (plyometrics can be done in the warm-up since this also require maximal speed contractions).

Here are my last few sessions:

Saturday:
-Light cleans: 3x10 hang cleans (60kg) 3x10 cleans (80kg)
-25 minutes of plyometrics (standing long jumps, tuck jumps, drop jumps, standing triple jump, hurdle hops)
-3x10m starts from a rollover position
-2x40m starts from a rollover position
-General weights (3x12 squat (full ROM), bench, pull-downs)

Sunday: Off

Monday:
2x speedmakers* with 5 minutes rest
2x100m rhythm runs with a 3m run-in @ 10.high

Tuesday: Easy stretching

Wednesday:
-Light cleans: 3x10 hang cleans (60kg)
-Speed: 3x30m, 3x40m, 2x50m (2 min rest, 4 min for the 50s)
-Plyo: 15m on a Vertimax (speed squats, jumps for height, single leg speed step-ups, tuck jumps, running 'A')
-General upper-body weights (3x12 bench, 3x12 bent over row)

Thursday:
-Easy tempo (distance in hundreds of metres): 1-1-1-2-3-2-1-1-1-2-3-2-1-1-1-1-1 (2500m) with 20 seconds rest on grass. Mobility after, stretching at night.

Friday: The workout I'm planning is 2x600m @ 1:30 (10 min rest), 3x200m easy tempo (1 min rest), 3x200m @ 26 (3 min rest). Then weights.

*'Speedmakers' is an exercise made popular by Clyde Hart. It's usually done on the diagonals of a football field but I do it on a track. It is 4 sets of a 40m sprint, 40-50m easy deceleration, and a 10-20m walk done in a sequence. I start my 4 sprints at the 400m, 300m, 200m and 100m start lines so when I'm done I've completed one full lap.

Training AFTER a cold

2011-10-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

I've been back at training for about a week since I came down with a bad cold. I went by the book as soon as I started feeling sick (see post). When I started backing off on my training I began to convince myself somehow that this would prevent me from actually getting sick. Wrong. I was actually surprised when I got the full-on cold symptoms and didn't feel like going out of the house.

Compared to how it used to go when I tried to train through an illness I did pretty well. As I described in the last post (see link) I would end up losing pretty much 2 weeks of training because I would be either, 1) too sick to train, or, 2) so sick that my sessions sucked and I wasn't able to recover properly and just ended up making everything worse.

Here's how the two weeks played out this time:

Monday-Saturday: Starting to feel sick. Low volume sessions of speed and weights. I feel relatively good.

Sunday-Tuesday: Blah. I'm super sick and have to save all my energy for complaining about how I don't have energy to do anything except complain. And then I would complain about how my throat hurt from too much complaining. And then I would be sad.

Wednesday: Able to do an easy tempo session. 2.5k 'run' then 600-500-400-300-200-100 with 3 minutes rest at 18 sec 100m pace.

Thursday-Monday: More tempo, circuits, and weights. The intensity is up now but it's still not full-on.

Tuesday: Back to hard training! Speed and weights/plyo.

So, instead of practically wasting 2 weeks with sessions where I end up over-training myself I was able to get in a lot of light/medium ones where I focused on maintenance and working on the things that are easy to neglect, like stabilizer muscles. Missing training is hard, but this was better than the alternative.

Training with a cold

2011-09-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

When it comes to training with a cold I used to believe that it was best to get in as many "regular" sessions as possible and then take a few days off when the cold gets bad. I don't believe this any more.

An illness, even a mild one, is a stress and the body needs energy to fight it. If someone is doing hard sessions while sick it's likely that they will not only perform bellow their best, they also won't be able to get the full training effect that comes during recovery periods. The stress of hard training and a cold can be a lose-lose as it can take longer to fight off the illness. In my experience trying to maintain regular training with a cold means that the workouts don't go as well, the recovery is slower, and the illness lasts longer. Recovery is a crucial part of training. If your body isn't able to adapt to the stress of your training sessions you're not only wasting your time, you may be making things worse.

One of the goals of training, especially early in the year, is to get in as much work as possible. Although it can be hard for athletes to accept, sometimes this means we have to take it easy. In my experience I can get in about 3 fairly regular sessions at the beginning of a cold, but I feel progressively worse each day and then I get really sick and have 7-10 days where I can only manage relatively poor quality sessions, if any at all. This means that I'm not getting much out of my training for about 2 weeks.

I started feeling sick Sunday night and rather than try to plow through I've adjusted my training. I'm doing light workouts every other day (weights: sets of 12 at 60% with 1 min rest and 5x20m sprints). I started this as soon as I began to feel a little sick. It's not much work, but better than nothing, and it allows my respiratory system to take a bit of a break. If I feel like I'm getting worse I back off and maybe do 10 minutes of light circuits. That's all. My cold hasn't become worse but I can still feel it progressing through the regular stages: sore throat -> stuffy nose -> cough. At this rate I should be able to resume regular training early next week, if not Monday. That means that rather than practically wasting 2 weeks as before, I'm getting in one "maintenance" and one "regular" week. As an athlete it's important to have a focus on what you're doing day-by-day, but sometimes it's good to remember the bigger picture, too.

Tips for training while sick:

-A cold is a stress on the body that you will need to recover from. Think of it as a kind of unplanned workout. If you decide to continue training imagine you are doing two-a-day sessions and adjust the intensity and/or volume a bit.

-If your symptoms are mild and "above the neck" light training should be fine. If they're more severe or "below the neck" rest is best. Respiratory infections are bad news for athletes.

-If you have a fever, take a rest.

-If your resting heart rate is about 10bpm higher than normal, take a rest.

-If you really don't feel like going out for a session try taking a walk. If you don't feel better, consider taking a break.

UPDATE: See part 2, Training AFTER a cold.

Training update: Week 8

2011-09-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Taking the summer off from competition was one of the best decisions I've made in my career. After sitting on the sidelines watching the summer meets and the World Championships I've reached a level of motivation I haven't had for a long time. The Brussels Diamond League meet today was a great psychological send-off for the months of hard training ahead.

Now that I'm in my second week of 'real' training (i.e. not exclusively general strength stuff that I find excruciatingly boring) I've been looking forward to every session. I feel like I'm able to get into a good rhythm in all my runs and I'm recovering quickly. Here's what I've done this week:

Monday: 2x600m @ 1:30, 3x200m easy for recovery, 3x200m @ 26, then weights.

Tuesday: 10min run, 10x 120m on the grass with 50m jog rest, stretching.

Wednesday: 3x350m @ 45.8, 46.3, 46.6 with 7 min rest. Plyo (150 contacts). Self-therapy with the foam roller and stick.

Thursday: Rest, stretching.

Friday: 150 contacts of plyo. 5x20m sprints with walk-back for rest. 5x100m (60m hard, 40m coast) with walk back rest. Then weights.

Training update: Week 7

2011-09-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

I started this training year by grinding out 'easy' running and circuit sessions in the park. Once I had adapted to that I had a miserable time making my body 'remember' what it's like to lift weights. I'm glad to say I've adapted to that too and not only is my heart rate now 120-150 instead of 150-180+ in the weight room, I'm no longer sore (or sick!) after lifting. All this means that after six weeks of general conditioning I'm almost ready to begin track sessions!

Before I can start the type of training that actually makes me feel like I'm improving rather than just getting uncomfortable and becoming super self-conscious about how I am NOT an endurance athlete, I need to let my body go through the motions a few times. This is so that I can begin adapting to these more strenuous (intense) sessions and be better able to recover between them next week. I'll have 2-3 days per week on the track to start off with and can't start each one with left over soreness or they won't be the quality that they need to be. Of these 2-3 sessions one will be speed, one will be intensive tempo and the third day could be either.

Last week I eased myself into more specific work with the following two sessions:

Intensive Tempo: 600m @ 1:30, 5 min rest, 3x300m @ 53 with 1 min rest.

Speed: 10x20m from a 3-point start with walk back rest then 2x90m with 3 minutes rest off a 3 metre run-in at an easy 'feel good' pace (9.6, 9.7).

I've changed the exercises in the weight room a bit, too. Instead of front squats I'm now doing single-leg squats (one foot on the ground, the other well behind me on a box so I'm going up and down in a lunge position) and I'm incorporating a wide variety of upper body exercises to help get my injured right shoulder more stable. I'm still continuing with the hamstring and calf exercises as before.

Here is what this week is looking like:

Tuesday: Easy tempo, stretch, massage, stretch.
Wednesday: 2x600m @ 1:30, 3x300m @ 53 (for recovery) then weights.
Thursday: 15x 50m on a very steep hill followed by an easy tempo session and a swim.
Friday: 10x120m on grass with a 50m jog for rest, then stretching and self-treatment (foam roller, tennis/golf ball).
Saturday: 10x20m with walk back rest. 3x90m with 3 min rest then weights.

Usain Bolt, Caribbean sprinters, and 400m predictions

2011-08-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

Usain Bolt's false start in the 100m final this past weekend prevented him from achieving a nearly supernatural "triple-triple." Had he managed to defend his 100m title he would have had a chance to be the first to win the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at three consecutive global championships (2008 Olympics, 2009 World's, 2011 World's).

Beyond Bolt, the Caribbean has become the global sprint power region since around the time the IAAF training centre opened in Jamaica a few years ago. Later on today the men's 400m final will feature 4 sprinters from the West Indies, joining the 5 men and 4 women from the region who contested the 100m finals, and the 2 Jamaicans who appeared in the women's 400m final.

This has been an unusual Championships for the 400m men. There were only 5 heats, far fewer than normal, and while we saw some exceptionally fast (sub-45) runs in the preliminary rounds the slowest qualifier was way back at 46.10. Over the past several years a high 44 second run wouldn't be enough to guarantee a spot in the final but this year the slowest qualifier was 45.53.

I feel terrible for Chris Brown, always fourth at global championships (although he won world indoors), who became even more unfortunate this year by losing his spot in the final by 0.01 seconds because of what I can only assume was a total lack of concentration. I can sympathize because I made a virtually identical mistake in the semi-finals at the 2005 World Universiade (World Student Games, or, FISU).

After watching the rounds here is my prediction for the men's 400m final:

1 Kirani James GRN
2 LaShawn Merritt USA
3 Kévin Borlée BEL
4 Jermaine Gonzales JAM
5 Jonathan Borlée BEL
6 Rondell Bartholomew GRN
7 Tabari Henry ISV
8 Femi Ogunode QAT

The winning time will be 44.5 and there'll be a big spread after that with all the athletes being tired after their fast times in the opening rounds. I realize LaShawn Merritt ran a world-leading 44.35 in the first round. That's why I don't think he'll have enough to beat Kirani James, who has looked much more comfortable thus far.

UPDATE: YES! I called it. :) Find results here.

UPDATE #2: See what happened to Lashawn Merritt in the last 10m here.

The first day of weights

2011-08-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Have you ever felt sick from lifting weights? Today was one of those humbling days. I've lifted once since June and have only sporadically worked on upper-body since January due to a frustratingly nasty shoulder injury. It was time to get re-acquainted with the iron.

After a wonderful week-long vacation visiting family in Gimli, MB with my wife I kicked off the fifth week of this training year doing my best to complete what used to be a very easy session. I should have known when my shoulders hurt catching a 60kg clean to start the first set of front squats that this would be tough. I payed no mind to my now sissy shoulders, figuring that all my lunge-walking must have made my legs tough. Four minutes later my 3x15 reps were done and my heart rate was 180. It would stay between 150 and 190 for the next 30 minutes of the session. I guess circuits and weights are different things...

My body didn't quite know how to react to this new stress after a week where my heart rate got into the 60s for no more than a few seconds. It decided that if it made me nauseous enough I would stop and it could get back to happily floating from a chair, to the beach, and back again. Sorry, legs, I need you for more than standing.

So what was it that made me so uncomfortable? Well, I'm embarrassed to say but here it is:

Front Squat: 3x15 @ 60kg (132lbs)
100 units of abs
Pull-ups: 3x10
200 units of abs
Single leg hamstring curls: 3x15 @ 27.5kg (60lbs)
200 units of abs
Single leg calf raises: 2x45 (each leg)
Standing reverse dumbbell flys: 2x15 @ 9kg each (20lbs)

I took 60 seconds rest between each exercise except for abs where it was shorter. Each rep was done through the full range of motion and all were slow and controlled (Exception: I cheated on a few reps of chinups in the second set, sorry). Most abdominal exercises were with a 4kg medicine ball.

Gimli is about an hour north of Winnipeg in the Interlake region of Manitoba, Canada.

There are lots of birds, including pelicans.

Beautiful sunsets, like this one at my parent's place just south of the town, are common.

And the fishing is great. Especially in August when, if the weather's right, it's not unheard of to catch 50-100 white bass (like this one) in a day.

Training week 3

2011-08-12T23:00:00.001-07:00

Base season has been going very well so far. I've enjoyed being able to do my sessions away from the track but will be happy when I can stop doing 2min tempo reps. Anything over a few seconds is 'long' for sprinters. Having a strong strength component in 4 sessions each week has been tiring, especially right after my off season, and my body is ready for the easy week I have coming up. I feel like I've improved my basic work capacity and after this recovery week the next 3 weeks will get a lot harder. For those interested in what I've been doing here's the progression:

My rest between plyo is 30 seconds, walk back rest for lunge walks, jog back rest for hills. Both hills and tempo are each done twice per week. Plyo goes with hills, circuit exercises go with tempo. Single leg calf raises are all done off a stair or curb to get full range of motion and are controlled on the way down. Tempo runs are 2min, 680m reps on grass with a slow up hill and brief, steep downhill.

The Lactaur survival guide

2011-08-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

Widespread fear of human-lactaur encounters often scares people away from athletics. This can happen as early as high school. Experts agree that management of lactaur attractants is the most important step in controlling ‘problem lactaurs,' making the sport, and long sprints in particular, more appealing. Insufficient training, poor warm-ups, and other unwise behaviours all contribute to human-lactaur conflicts by sparking a lactaur's interest in human activities. Once they attack there’s nothing anyone can do to scare them off, so the best strategy is avoiding them in the first place.

Lactaur Aware is an educational program designed to prevent and reduce conflicts between people and lactaurs. Athletes are often skeptical about their role in initiating encounters. We often forget that when we’re on the track it’s us that are going into their territory. The next time you find yourself in lactaur country remember the steps outlined in this guide. Happy training!

Lactaur Aware!

Before venturing onto the track make sure you're prepared. An adequate base training season is essential. If you're properly conditioned a good warm-up of between 30 and 60 minutes is needed once on the track. This includes strides, mobility, speed drills, and short sprints.

If your session includes a few long speed runs or intensive tempo you’re likely to find yourself deep in lactaur territory. If confronted by a lactaur, walk, don’t run.

No matter how sick or dizzy you feel resist the urge to lay down. Remain standing. Laying down makes you look like prey.

Being doubled-over is generally ok if it’s only for a few seconds but it’s best to avoid this if at all possible. Any change in posture stimulates their appetite.

If your session is over, and once you feel able, begin a slow jog. Don’t go too fast or you could stimulate a feeding frenzy.

If you have more reps to do and you have already attracted the attention of a lactaur, God help you.

If you find yourself being attacked by a lactaur sometimes throwing up can make them back off. They hate this and think it's really gross.

If you do get attacked, remember: immersing your body from the waist down in a 'cold pool' or 'ice bath' immediately afterward is your best chance of making it through the night.

The first week

2011-07-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

Imagine you’re relaxing in a park on a warm summer day. You hear the wind rustle the leaves, smiling as it cools your skin. As you lay back in the soft grass you hear the laughter of a picnicking couple behind you while toddlers play a gentle game of ‘tag’ off to one side. Suddenly you hear desperate gasps struggling your way. Jerking back to a sit you notice an exhausted, sweaty, creature lunging up a hill you didn’t think was that steep into a wind you didn’t know was that strong. You notice this wild thing is actually a person as they come to an awkward, laboured stop. Arms swinging and head down they spend a minute gasping for breath before running off again. Feeling slightly uneasy you look around. There are no bears, no cougars, and the ice cream truck left ten minutes ago. Why then, would anyone be running like that? Because it’s base training season.

In all fairness base is really in the fall. Mine is this summer because although I should be competing right now, I’m not (see end of post #1) and I won’t be any closer to competitive form if I don’t get started now. The purpose of this first phase of training is to prepare the body for the more specific work that will come later. All the effort that is put in now builds ‘work capacity’ so that it’s possible to do more of the specific training that will ultimately translate into a good performance later on.

The first step in building work capacity is what’s referred to as ‘anatomical adaptation.’ This is where your body goes from “what the hell are you doing to me?!” to “oh right, that.” By strengthening tendons, ligaments and small stabilizer muscles this phase helps reduce the chance of injury later on. It also helps the body ‘remember’ what it’s like to work hard by stimulating muscle growth (this includes recovery) and the release of hormones that assist in this process (like testosterone). Training is all about subjecting the body to controlled stress and letting it adapt. When someone takes time off at the end of the season their body begins to adapt to it’s new, less demanding lifestyle. The body an athlete has after a few weeks or a month off isn’t able to perform at anywhere near the level it could at the end of the season. It takes months to get even close to that again.

Part of anatomical adaptation is ‘general strength’ and ‘general conditioning.’ General strength involves high repetitions of low-to-medium intensity plyometrics (depending on one’s strength and experience), bodyweight circuits, medicine ball throws, light-to-moderate weightlifting, and hill running (more about this in a later post). General conditioning refers to non-event specific runs, flexibility (stretching) and mobility (dynamic stretching). The running component is made up of extensive (high volume, low intensity) or intensive (high intensity, medium volume) tempo, usually on grass. A ‘tempo’ run is where repetitions are at a steady pace (tempo) over a series of set distances. This pace is often best explained in terms of a percent of an athlete’s best time but in practice a good coach will be able to assess their athlete’s capabilities, how they feel on the day and adjust the target times accordingly. While there is no set rule, extensive tempo pace is usually around 60-75% of an athlete’s best time, or projected best time when reps are longer than a distance the athlete would run in competition. The work-rest ratio is usually 1:1. For a 400m runner the total volume for one of these workouts ranges between 2000m and 4000m. Of course, this is a complete joke to distance runners. Such low workout volume is ok for sprinters since they mostly need aerobic capacity to help them recover during more event-specific workouts. This is because performance in maximal runs of less than 60 seconds is unaffected by hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions (for example, see Weyand citation below). Extensive tempo also helps in recovery by flushing out metabolic waste through increased circulation.

Intensive tempo refers to runs done between 75-85% with a typical work-to-rest ratio of between 1:2 or 1:4, depending on the workout. The total volume is usually between 1000m and 2000m. These workouts are often done in oxygen debt and as they progress the body shifts from aerobic to anaerobic glycolysis. This creates metabolic waste products such as lactic acid while hydrogen ions accumulate in the blood causing pain and decreased motor function (see Lactaur). Intensive tempo is a test of aerobic power (the amount of oxygen that can be used by the body during maximal work, see V0₂^max) and anaerobic glycolysis.

The aerobic energy system is what people usually mean when they say they’re doing ‘cardio’ or an ‘aerobic’ workout. This is different than the anaerobic energy system, and the two shouldn’t be confused. During aerobic exercise oxygen is used to produce energy. This can go on indefinitely as long as there is a constant supply of new glucose as the waste product (CO₂) is expelled through the lungs. During anaerobic exercise oxygen runs out and energy is produced endogenously (within the body) as glucose in the muscles is converted to pyruvate and the resulting waste products accumulate in the blood. This type of activity can only last a few minutes. Intensive tempo is much more useful for 400m runners as it uses more of the energy systems (like anaerobic glycolysis) used in a race but extensive tempo is still needed because it helps athletes recover more quickly between reps of intensive tempo, allowing them to do more, faster.

To give an example of what this looks like when it’s put together in a training program I’ve included my training plan for this week (week #1, sorry, no intensive tempo this week but that will come later). I’ll talk more about how a training plan gets set up for a whole season in a later post, and throughout the year I’ll provide examples from my own training program. Questions are welcome in the comments section, and a training discussion would be great. For now, here’s what I’m doing as I disrupt idyllic summer afternoons in my neighbourhood:

Monday:
-Active warm-up (40 minutes, including mobility drills)
-Plyometrics (2x20 ankle hops, 2x20 tuck jumps, 2x10 frog hops, 2x10 bounding. All with 45 seconds rest).
-10x50m hill sprints at 90% subjective effort with jog back rest
-10 minutes of core work
-20 minutes of flexibility

Tuesday:
90 minutes of stretching and self-treatment (rolling out tight muscles on a foam roller or with a tennis ball or golf ball, more on this in a later post).

Wednesday:
10 minute run
20 minutes of dynamic warm-up (mobility drills)
5x ~700m grass run in a park over hills in 2 minutes with 2 minutes rest
2x70m lunge walks with walk back rest
2x35 slow pushups with 45 seconds rest
2x30 single leg slow calf raises (each leg, on a curb with full range of motion)
15 minutes of core work
20 minutes of flexibility

Thursday:
(same as Monday)

Friday:
(same as Wednesday)

Saturday:
(same as Tuesday)

Weyand, P. et al. (1999) High-speed running performance is largely unaffected by hypoxic reductions in aerobic power. Journal of Applied Physiology, 86 (2059-2064).

An Apology

2011-07-18T13:30:00.001-07:00

I would like to take responsibility for everything bad that’s happened in your life since July 2004. It’s been seven years and you probably still don’t know that everyone’s problems are my fault. I was initially grateful that your rationalizations led you to attribute blame to some hapless and more reasonable source, but over the years I’ve felt my soul eroding from beneath the vale of reason you've cast upon me. I will make things right but first I have to tell my story. To everyone in the world, I’m sorry.

The North American, Central American, and Caribbean Championships had just ended and Team Canada was reeling from a red-eye bus trip from Sherbrooke to Montreal. No one would even be able to check in for their flights for a couple hours. The airport was completely empty. I was standing near the back of the line when I heard what I can only describe as a determined plodding coming my way. I turned toward this unusual sound and this is what confronted me:

That was a serious accusation for 5am, and by an airport official in his full airport official uniform, too. That meant it was for real. He was incensed. It was as if I was some kind of perverse, reverse Santa Clause who had just completed his transglobal shenanigans by delivering a final, decisive package of misfortune. How could this be? “Uhh…” I stammered, “I don’t think I’ve ruined anything.” Wrong answer. Apparently I had. Here’s how.

The airport

We arrive at the airport at 4:45am on zero sleep the morning after an intense competition. Everything seems fine at this point. We’re all exhausted except for the token morning person who seems to feed off our lethargy. If anyone’s going to ruin everything, it’s him.

Thirst

Once we’re in the door I go look for a water fountain while most of the team goes to the check-in area. The airport is completely empty and so far everything is still ok. I can’t remember if I left my water bottle on the bus or not. I really hope I didn’t but I’ll have to check.

Not thirsty anymore

I find my water bottle and fill it up. Things are actually going better. Now that I’m slightly less dehydrated I start to feel alive again. At this point I walk toward my teammates who are sitting down at the far end of one of those check-in labyrinths, waiting for the counter to open.

A puzzle

Those check-in labyrinths can be tough and I’m really not in the mood. I’ve got to figure out a way to get to my teammates with the least possible amount of effort. Here’s what the puzzle looked like:

Cracking the code

Luckily, check-in labyrinths are made up of hundreds of those little ropeythings that clip together. I’d never done it, but I’ve seen people who work at the airport unclip and re-clip them. I unclip the ropeything, step through to meet my teammates, then clip it back in place. Easy.

Pandora’s box

That’s when the ground started shaking. And the labyrinth troll escaped. And everything was ruined. Somehow, between the labyrinth troll's panicked curses and the anguished moans of everyone around, I managed to hear very distinctive footsteps coming my way. I turned and was immediately berated by an airport employee who stammered something about “respecting the line” before accusing me of what had become only too obvious, I had “ruined everything.”

Lactaur - The lactic acid monster

2011-07-13T00:26:00.000-07:00

When I come off the last bend in a 400m race, I'm scared. There's something right behind me, behind all of us. At first we're safe. If we remembered what was waiting for us we might not have taken off so quickly, but we want to win. Stupid. That's what it wants. About 80m into the race we settle into a rhythm. It doesn't like that, but it knows there's always someone who is a little too excited. As we come into the bend at 200m the real race starts. Anyone who's either taken the race out too fast or is not in peak form knows that a Lactaur is waiting to feast on their soon-to-be agonizing flesh. Lactaurs, known also as Lactic Acid Monsters, feed on the metabolic waste of exhausted sprinters. They wait until lactic acid has built up so high that hydrogen ions are staring to acidify our blood, slowing down our nervous systems (and legs). That's when they strike.

By 250m there's nothing we can do anymore. A Lactaur can't catch a 400m runner at top speed but once we start slowing down they gain ground quickly. By 300m they can easily outrun anyone.

Lactaurs are typically invisible to people who haven't run either the 400m, 800m, or 400m hurdles. Even if you are unable to see them you'll be able to tell when they strike if you know the signs. Look for stiffening of the arms, dropping of the knees, the grimace, and occasionally a cocking back of the head. In extreme cases when someone's been overcome by an exceptionally humongous Lactaur you will be able to clearly see an exaggerated rotation of the torso with each arm drive as the unfortunate victim tries to shake off the beast. When the race is over the athlete is helpless and there's nothing anyone can do. The Lactaur has them now.

For those of you who have never seen a Lactaur I've made an illustrated guide showing you exactly what it's like to run the 400m:

UPDATE: Check out part 2, "The Lactaur survival guide!"

The unusual athlete

2011-07-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

Gene Kelly has never been to Vancouver in January. This is when the "glorious feeling" only comes once you're back indoors. Before the Richmond Olympic Oval was opened to the public after the winter of 2010 I had to do all my sessions, speed included, exposed to what I can only describe as liquid anger. Sometimes this liquid would become so angry that it would burst into a thermodynamic fit of rage, throwing its energy blindly into the atmosphere before changing into a frozen shell, falling slowly to earth making the track slippery and impossible to train on. That's when this would happen:

One of the advantages of living next to the ocean is that the tide does a good job of clearing snow. When it's really coming down (as it was right before the session pictured above) you may still have to deal with it a bit, but at least you don't have to run like a jacana. After a couple weeks of being laughed at by skiers I decided that I was never going to get faster on the beach. I had to clear off the track. It didn't matter that there was 1 metre of snow between me and a decent surface to run on, that this surface was frozen, and that I didn't have a shovel. There was no way I was going to be able to compete against people with a coach, training partners, physical therapists, and warm weather if I kept planning my workouts with tide charts. Somehow, if I could carve out a long enough stretch of frozen ice-rubber I'd be able to do some real training.

It doesn't snow very often in Vancouver but when it does the five shovels the hardware store has in stock sell out quick. I managed to find one leaning against the wall in the storage room of my apartment building. We bonded immediately. After several hours together our relationship had produced the magnificent frozen nightmare I had been hoping for:

One-hundred and twenty metres of ice-rubber flanked by seriously dense and heavy-as-shit snow. It was beautiful.

These are the kinds of things that have become a regular part of my life since I became PhD student/self-coached national team athlete who is trying to maintain an international athletics career. I certainly have a much harder go at athletics than I did when I had a coach, world-class training group in a warm-weather region, and access to physio/massage every day. Still, a lot of unusual and crazy things can happen over the course of a career and they've made me resilient. See, for example, what a strange looking beetle that sneaked into bed with me did to my ankles the night before the 400m semi-finals at the 2007 Pan American Games:

I've never been so itchy in my life and I'm from Manitoba.

This is the story of what will be my 11th season of international athletics. I should be in the middle of the 2011 season but this was cut short mostly to take a psychological break from the 400m, but also partly due to a tight hip. Come share in the stories, sessions, and strange adventures that is my sporting career as I begin preparing for the 2012 European circuit meets and the Olympic Games. In the sport of athletics you're only as good as your last race and I won't know what professional meets I'll be competing in until the spring. No one will know the Olympic team roster until mid-summer (next year). What I do every month, week, and day until then will determine success or failure. Del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho*, and we've only got a year.

*From the word to the deed there is a great distance.