Monday, September 10, 2007

Almost a Week of Pure Hadd

In the Hadd document there are some time-based (rather than distance-based) schedules that Hadd used for Joe to progress from 50 to 80 miles per week. I found my training was starting to approach the third of these tables, and without a clear plan for my continued progression, I decided it would be a good thing to aim at. It goes like this (with adaptation to remove the references to Joe-specific heart rates):

Mon

60 min easy

easy side of lower aerobic

Tue

90 min

incl. 70 @ upper aerobic HR

Wed

75 mins easy

lower aerobic

Thu

75 mins easy

between lower & upper aerobic

Fri

90 min

incl. 70 @ upper aerobic HR

Sat

75 mins easy

lower aerobic

Sun

3 hrs easy

lower (w/60 min @ upper aerobic)

Approx 80+mpw


All those "easy" descriptors are a bit misleading f you ask me. That schedule is by no means a stroll in the park. I actually got off to a bad start with only 5k easy on Monday morning. Then Tuesday I approximated the Hadd run, but only got to about 75 minutes (17.5 km) before knowing I'd had(d) enough. On Wednesday (15.75 km) and Thursday (16.4 km) I met the Hadd prescriptions pretty much spot on.

I was hoping to do all the runs before work, but a passing typhoon ruled out running on Friday morning. I got out in the evening for three laps of the Palace and again fell a bit short on the time (18.2 km in 1:20, with a couple of slow km at the start and finish). With that run still fresh in my legs, I went out for what should have been an easier run on Saturday morning, except for the little matter of six reps of my 700-m hill circuit. It was a warm, humid morning, and I was a totally different (as in wasted) runner leaving the hill circuit to the one I was when I approached it. So that was 13 km in 65 minutes, some of it tough, compared to the 75 min "easy".

During yesterday's long run I felt OK to start with and moved at decent but not fast pace. But my legs were definitely full from a fairly hard week, particularly the previous two runs. By 15 km I was feeling fatigued, and by 25 km I was almost ready to quit. I battled on to 29 km, at which point I decided enough was enough, and I resisted the lure of doing another 1 km for the sake of round numbers. So 29 km in 2:32 it was. Total for the week, 115 km. My longest week since October last year.

Overall I fell a little short of the time-based Hadd prescriptions. This is good because it says the schedule is achievable, but still gives me something I have to reach for. The Hadd workouts are also far from easy. The Tuesday and Friday with 70 minutes at upper aerobic are hard runs! And Sunday's three hours with 60 min at upper aerobic...what!? That seems almost insane, at least under current weather conditions. Insane, but not out of reach with sensible building. So as long as I take a couple of weeks to work up to completing this weekly schedule, I think it will be a really good basis for continued progression of the base-building phase.

I've managed to back up from yesterday's long run with a steady 12 km in one hour this morning, so this week is off to the right start. I have a sense of dread about tomorrow though!

8 comments:

Tesso said...

115k - huge!

The pgm is starting to sound tough. And this is just the base building? Can't wait for the real suffering to begin :-)


PS In answer to your question, yes, I am doing Melbourne Mara (7th Oct).

GKK said...

Thanks for the training tips on my blog.

2P said...

I thought you might have had hadd had you done anymore....

Glad to hear you haven't been had ;-)

Ewen said...

72 miles! Only 8+ to go ;) I agree the long upper aerobic runs are on the hard side. 70 within 90 minutes running - good luck! I'd be going on the lower side of upper aerobic for that one.

Then when you consider all the other days, there's quite a cumulative effect. I mean, the shortest day is 60 minutes 'easy'. Hope you haven't had(d) enough by Saturday.

Robert Song said...

I'm interested in the upper aerobic runs.
Could you maintain an even pace and steady HR for those runs?

Given that the aim as stated by Hadd for these runs is to finish and feel like you could do it again, your decription of them as being a hard run may mean that you need to drop back the the HR level a bit at this stage.

Squeeze the toothpase all the way from the bottom as he says.

TD said...

This Hadd stuff is all very interesting, of course, but I was more intrigued by the passing Typhoon that ruled out a Friday morning run for you. I would have thought a wind-assisted (170k's plus) backing would have done wonders for your speed work!

Ewen said...

"Feels kind of heard on the legs" ;)

Looks like you're hadded for a big week.

Although I'm just into it, I'm finding the same thing (having to run fairly fast/hard at upper aerobic HRs). The cardio system is cruising, but the legs aren't.

Maybe after some weeks including longer UA runs the legs will start co-operating? If you have any other ideas, let me know!

GKK said...

Steve, regarding your quest for 7 'hads' - Mayu was telling me there's a similar sentence that only works in Kansai-ben. It's:

Chau-chau chau?
Chau-chau chau!
Chau-chau chau-n
Chau-chau chau

(Basically: That's a chau-chau dog isn't it? No. Surely it is. No, I tell you, it isn't.)