Feeling Deadly…

I wonder if the Canadian Death Race organizers ‘pepper’ the course with a few skulls and bleached vertebrae – I think I probably would…just for fun.

As much as I would love to claim that every single one of my trail runs is all about fun and adventure, the reality of the situation is that if one expects to reach a difficult performance objective,  you might have to actually put in a ‘real’ workout (once in a while) to get the full benefits of training.   Trust me, if I could simply ‘race myself into shape’, I would…but unfortunately, there’s a lot more to going fast, than simply racing. 

I’m not going to dive to much into training ‘shop talk’, but if you’re keen on my opinion, you can read up on my training philosophy here–  Bottom line, racing will eventually get you in good shape, but interval training will help fine-tune your engine, optimize your recovery, raise your threshold and anaerobic capacities (to name a few) and get you in very good shape! 

The question of what type and when to do intensities is not as complicated as people make it out to be.  A general rule I follow, is to always work on your weaknesses, while not forgetting to use your common sense.  For example,  if you need endurance, then add some longer intervals to your routine (3X 10min);  if you need more speed, then add some shorter/faster intervals (5X 1min or 10x 30seconds);  if you’re lacking some hill speed, then add some shorter intervals while going up a hill; and if you’re training for TransRockies where you will be racing for 6 days back to back, then add some longer sustained intervals – on varied terrain (1x 45min or 2x 30min).  Oh, and don’t forget to rest…very important!  As far the ‘when’ is concerned…the closer you get to a race, the shorter the workload should be.  So do the longer ‘base building’ workouts early in the season, and the shorter ‘more intense’ workouts later.  Like I said, there’s more to it than this, but you get the picture.

With 2 weeks to go before Death Race, I’ve long wrapped up my long-ish intervals (4 X 15min @ threshold or 1x 45min), and have been working on building my VO2 max (anaerobic) capacity with shorter more intense workouts.  Last week, I did a workout up my own ‘killer’ hill, the infamous Georgetown Hill at the Canmore Nordic Centre. It’s not the biggest bump in the world, but it does the trick!  That night’s menu included 5 X 4min @ Zone 4 intensity – In other words, 5 times up the beast at an uncomfortably fast pace. The G-town hill provides a good mix of flats (100m at the start), and gradually increasing steepness (to the 3:30min mark), only to level out in a false flat for you to have to push the last 30sec of your interval to keep the HR up. My goal is usually to go hard for the first one, make a mark on the ground, and then try to beat that mark every interval.  Another helpful hint is to bring a ‘friend’ out to help motivate you to run faster(note: he/she may not be your friend anymore after you make them suffer!).  

I thought I’d show you a bit of post-interval suffering of my own…Below is a clip featuring my friend Mike F. and yours truly…as we wrap up a 5X4min intervals up G-town Hill.  I decided that I wouldn’t bore you with the bad on-the-fly-bobbing video of me going up the hill – and skipped to the end for a bit of humour.

Post-Intensity Video 5X 4min: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5IE3kO0XRg

Once you get within a few weeks of your main event, it’s time to ‘taper’…What’s the general rule again?  (look up a few paragraphs…) Oh, yeah, the closer to the event, the shorter the intervals.  And that’s exactly what I’ve got on tap…A mix of short/hard intervals (10x 30sec and 5 X 1min) every 3 or 4 days, peppered with lots of rest and easy distance days (1 to 2hrs).  Simple really 😉

That said, all of this ‘fun’ training is completely useless if your mental game isn’t there…hmmm. 

Makes me wonder why I do all this stuff in first place…Oh, yeah…It’s for the adventures!