I’ve hit a plateau…no big surprise, right? I saw it coming in my last post on month one in the zone. I made such huge gains in month one that I knew it was unreasonable to think gains would just keep rolling in like manna from heaven. I’m trying to think about it like losing weight. You have a plan, you stick to it, and for weeks on end you see no results at all. Then suddenly - you drop 5 pounds overnight. So, you keep on your plan, and the same thing happens - long plateaus, then sudden drops. Maybe that’s how the 80/20 method works. Not sure - but that’s what I’m going to tell myself.
Month Two Data
In laying out my data, I’m trying to keep to the same format each month - I’ll post a table of the raw data of all my runs, and then some charts to picture how things are progressing. Starting this month I’m also adding a brief section on weight cross-training. I’ve been doing this for a long while, but I forget to mention it, though it is clearly an essential part of my training. I’ll just make some brief comments on the purpose, and then month to month track progress there as well.
THE RAW DATA
My running plan per week sticks to the same daily/weekly schedule, and for the most part I try to run each weekday run in the same area, so that hills and other conditions don’t screw up the data, since zone training works by heart rate and that can be so easily affected by different conditions. So, you want to keep your external variables as constant as possible to keep your data clean.
My run schedule (which is super hard to maintain given work and family!):
Mondays = 10k run in Zone 2 + 1 hour weight training
Tuesdays = 10k run in Zone 2
Wednesdays = 5 mile Zone 3 tempo run
Thursdays = 4 mile Zone 4 mile repeats; 400m warm up, then 1m in Z4, a 400m recovery, followed by 1m in Z4, repeated.
Fridays = no running + 1 hour weight training
Saturdays = 13.1 half-marathon in Zone 2
Sundays = 10k run in Zone 2.
So, in the data below, you’ll see a table column and a chart for “10k average”, which means the average per week for Monday, Tuesday, and Sunday runs. Here’s my raw data for the past two months of running on this plan:
Looking quickly at the data, you’ll note that in week 6, I had almost only one run - a long run. This was due to a medical procedure (nothing big) that kept me grounded for two days, which was then followed up by a massive snowstorm that stopped me from running for 5 days. The one long-run was hard to do given the conditions, making that data point suspect. So basically, a whole week was blown out of my plan, throwing up in the air apple-to-apple comparisons across the weeks.
I say this because when I started back up in week 7, I felt the difference of not running for one week. Should I have, after one week? I would think not, but I did. In any event, month two really doesn’t show a lot of progress, in comparison with the huge progress seen in month one - and it’s hard to say if this is a normal plateau, or the effects of that one off-week. The one exception is on my mile repeats (Z4). Only month three will tell.
CHARTS FOR EACH
Let’s talk long run first. The data is mixed here. Month one progress is so clear - 12:29 average pace to 10:16. Month two started going in the opposite direction, back up to 10:36, and then up to 10:58, though this data point is suspect given the need to run (gingerly) through snow, which also increased heart rate. I ended back in week eight at 10:23, but still that means no progress from month four. Take out the 10:58 time and you actually have a slight downward trendline, which is good but progress is real slow.
For Z3 tempo runs, I have no idea what’s going on. In week 5, I ran an 8:43 time, but then crept back up to 9:01 in week 8. My only guess is potentially weather - the week 5 run was cold, and weeks 6 and 7 (really 7 and 8, week 6 didn’t happen due to snow) were warm. Could that be what happened? A temperature change slowed me down some? Not sure. Also, if we take out week one, and use week two as the “base” of 9:16, then week eight is 15 seconds faster. For seven weeks, that doesn’t seem like much to me, that again we’ll see in month three how it goes.
The Z4 Threshold Runs, which are 4 x 1 mile repeats, were good and show continual progress. The chart shows a clear downward trendline and progress is obvious - I’ve gone from 8:45 in week 1 to 7:50 in week 8 (week 7 here, since week 6 didn’t happen due to snow). No complaints here, but of course what I’d be expecting to see is big progress in Z2 runs, not in Z4 runs, which I only run once a week.
And here are the crown jewels of the plan, the three big Z2 runs, each a 10k (here averaged together). Again, week 6 there’s no data due to snow. So what do we see? Some progress in week 8, but other than that, weeks 3 to 8 look like a long plateau after huge progress in weeks 1 - 3. Again, I’m not sure why. I’ll wait and see how month three looks.
Here are the Zone 2 10k runs, individually charted.
Looks a bit better when graphed individually?
CROSS TRAINING WITH WEIGHTS
I’m adding to my recaps my cross-training with weights because I do get lots of questions from people about things that could factor into progress with zone training. And cross-training is important, so I should mention it. My cross training plan is pretty simple - I do a full body workout twice a week, but spend most time focusing on core and legs. So what’s the point to each part of the cross-training routine?
Leg Workout
The leg workouts are for muscle. I can easily say that my legs just don’t hurt anymore while running or afterward - my leg muscles are more than up to what my training plan requires out of me. My main issues are with aerobic capacity and VO2 max - and that’s what the training plan is for. But in terms of “hardware” (muscle strength) this has really helped. I’m good. Every few weeks I try to scale up 10 more pounds.
3 x 10 Leg Press @ 280 pounds
3 x 10 Leg Extension @ 180 pounds
3 x 10 Leg Curls @ 180 pounds
3 x 10 Calf Raises @ 40 pounds (held in each hand)
Ab Work
In my view, abdominal work is essential, maybe even more so than legs. For a long while, I ran without much abdominal cross-training. When my runs hit 7 + miles, I paid the price. I started to slouch, lean forward, my form collapsed, running got harder, and I got injured. Currently, my abs are very strong - I can run 20 miles without slouching or leaning forward, which means I don’t have bad form that leads to harder runs and injuries. It’s a different world - I can’t imagine running without doing this.
3 x 10 Obliques @ 110 pounds
3 x 10 Roman Chair Back Extension @ 40 pound (hold onto it)
3 x 10 Abdominal Crunch @ 220 pounds
3 x 10 Abdominal Isolator @ 220 pounds
Arms and Chest
Admittedly, I don’t see any benefit here to running. So, in all honestly the only point to these (and I don’t do too much) is to make sure that I don’t look out of proportion given all the other things I’m doing with weights.
3 x 10 Chest Press @ 100 pounds
3 x 10 Arm Curls @ 30 pounds each hand
What I Learned During Month Two
Even during a month of plateaus and seemingly not much progress on data, I learned a few things, all good even when there was a negative involved.
#1: Run Your Own Race
The main thing I learned - or rather reaffirmed - was to run my own race. The huge disruption in week six got me pretty frustrated, and to remind myself of the need to run one’s own race, I wrote a whole post on it. In short - it’s good to develop clear, focused training plans (or life plans) but also essential not to become dominated by those plans, seeing every last line in them as “how things must be”.
Plans are good descriptive pointers, adding a good outstretched finger in the direction of where you’d like to go from where you presently are. But they shouldn’t be too prescriptive. “Where we presently are” changes; things happen, and both we and our situations (and world) change. Thus, it’s important to be open in real-time to re-negotiation of your plans are so they are authentic to “where you presently are”.
#2: This Gets Easier…Mostly
When I say “this” I mean running 80% of the time in Zone 2. In month one, as I noted, you feel like a turtle, and it is odd and embarrassing. You hesitate to load your 12 minute pace 10k runs to Strava. But after a few weeks, you don’t have to stop and walk, and your pace gets better. Eventually, you stop caring as much about going slow and start to enjoy it, and the low-intensity runs also make the Z3 and Z4 runs easier, since you’re not going into them exhausted.
But, as I said…mostly. Even in month two, I experienced some frustration. In my last long run, which was 13.1 miles, I ran 10 miles in Z2 at about 10:06 pace - a solid low-intensity pace. And then I felt the lactic buildup in my lower legs - from that point out my goose was cooked. I couldn’t bring down my heart rate, and lost almost 20 seconds off my average pace. That’s frustrating. In addition, small changes to temperature or terrain can really affect heart rate, so there are obstacles everywhere. Patience needed.
#3: I Like Not Hurting from Injury
This is related to #2. When using pace-based plans, I was always trying to kill my runs. Faster, faster, faster, more miles, more miles, and more miles. That was it. The consequence - I was fast, really fast (for 54, anyway), but I completely depleted and exhausted my body. Always some minor problem, and sometimes, more serious injuries, which meant being sidelined - and for sure always psychologically tapped out.
Well, after using this method for two months, I have no injuries to report. Not even small nagging ones. My body is doing just fine. It’s also less psychologically stressful. Until starting this method, I don’t think I saw how much I partially dreaded heading out to run. I don’t anymore. Running low intensity 80% of the time will do that, and as you get older that becomes even more essential to keep in view.
Well, that’s it - a mostly conclusion-less month two, unfortunately. Hopefully month three will bring some obvious progress and data to discuss! :)
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