2014 is coming to a close – what a year it’s been! I can’t dwell on the year’s challenges and accomplishments too much…2015 is around the corner and I’m itching to kick its butt!
A while back, I thought I had 2015 figured out. It was going to be the year of Boston. Traveling to Boston for the race to watch my faster half and his brother run the Marathon, training long and hard for a BQ, and having the fastest marathon year of my life.
But a few things happened between that master plan and where I find myself today. In September, I crossed the finish line at the Run Rabbit Run 50 miler and despite the complete exhaustion I couldn’t help thinking, “when do I get to sign up for 100?” For a while, I ignored the impulse…stuck to my “faster marathon” plan. A couple months later, my faster half got monumentally injured…requiring super fun surgery and 12 months of rehab before he can think about training hard. While I didn’t rely on him to train, his commitment to hard training and super speed was inspiring and pushed me to do the same. Come marathon day, I always knew that he was somewhere way ahead on the course – it helped me settle in to a hard pace and do the same.
With these injuries and new experiences, I’ve decided to shake things up. 2015 is going to be a year of big mileage and even more epic ultras.
My number one goal is to get better at running efficiently for long, very long, periods of time. Pouring over plans, thinking about the last year of training, I knew I didn’t want to do the same thing over again – which was really just running a lot (like, over 95 miles/week) at whatever pace felt comfortable. I was listening to Larisa Dannis’ interview on Ultra Runner Podcast when everything popped into technicolor…heart rate training is where it’s at!
I’ve read up on Maffetone training and I’m diving into Matt Fitzgerald’s of 80/20 Running and Phil Maffetone’s The Big Book of Endurance Training to get more insight into long, slow training. I’ve got a lot of big goals for 2015. If Maffetone is the way to reach them, I need to commit to building up my aerobic base in January, February and March.
Other resources that I’ve found really helpful in deciding that this was the route for me:
Miss Zippy – Huge proponent of MAF training, she documents her results and it’s kind of hard not to get excited.
Run to the Finish
Jill Conyers
I used to be a stat junkie – I would log all of my training miles, distances, times, paces, and emotions in a Google Spreadsheet for historical analysis. Then I started running lots of miles, caring less about my times, but being a GPS addict. Now, I’m excited to get addicted to bio-feedback. Bio-feedback just sounds right…it’s your body communicating to your brain, what could be better than that?!
Having settled on a training strategy, I needed a heart rate monitor to make it happen. TomTom’s new Cardio GPS watch caught my attention because it monitors heart rate directly on your wrist without an irritating chest strap. It’s also got a big watch face, comes in great colors, and holds a charge (ideal for those of us who constantly forget to plug in run-tech).
If you’re thinking that MAF training is a little extreme, the Zone mode allows you to set a range of minimum and maximum heart rate you would like to maintain – perfect for just starting heart rate training! If your real-time performance falls outside of your target zone, the watch will beep or vibrate. No starting down at your watch to know when you fall outside of your target range (it’s super easy to go faster when you’re just starting out, kill your max heart rate, and reap zero benefit of this style of training).
- Sprint: All out: mostly used as part of interval training
- Speed: High tempo: training improving your speed and fitness
- Endure: Moderate to High tempo: improving your lung and heart capacity
- Fat Burn: Moderate tempo: great for weight loss
- Easy: Easy tempo: mostly used for warm-up and cool down
- Big screen – No need to look down half a dozen times to read your splits
- No need to fuss with a chest strap
- Charging station stays put – it secures to the watch and won’t get easily knocked off
- Pre-programmed zones can help you “zone out” and not focus too hard on the numbers
- Vibrations deliver alerts – so your running buddings aren’t irritated by the mile beeps
