Week Recap 21 to 27th of May-2018

Training week before my vacation next week, so trying to catch up with the days I won’t be running.

I am doing core exercises everyday before running, planks, squats, bridge and plunges. Still learning how to do them, but they help me warmup and engage.

During warmup I do two drills, high knees and butt kicking.

Not doing static stretching anymore, the guys at RC told me they don’t help much runners, better do the drills and a slow warmup.

Tuesday 22nd was the first time I did threshold intervals, 5x800m with 45sec rest and 3k warmup and cooldown.

Did this early in the morning under a thick fog in a chilly 13oC.

The 800m intervals paced at around 4:20/km. First two were easy, third was ok, fourth I had to push me a little and the last I had to push me a lot, but I nailed it.

I manage a cadence of 87 during the intervals.

Than a slow 3k back home.

Sun opened up into a beautiful day!

Thursday 24th was tempo intervals

2x3k at 4:40/km with 4min rest, 3k warmup and 3k cooldown.

This was the first run with my Saucony Kinvara 9, the shoes I intend to run the NYC Marathon next November.

Felt great on the intervals, managed to do a higher cadence, 87/86 , at the cooldown was hard to slow down, feeling fast feet.

Did a wrong calculation and ended up doing 1k more than scheduled on the cooldown.

On the shoes, felt them comfortable and well cushioned, felt a bit on the left of my left foot, maybe it needs a bit wear and tear to loose up? I will do some more running with it before the marathon to be sure, otherwise I could go with the Saucony freedom that worked perfect right away. But, the Kinvara seemed more efficient.

Friday 25th

The trucks strike hitter is bad in Brazil, so gas stations don’t have fuel, I decided to save some so instead of heading early due to my license plate restrictions on fridays, decided to run in the morning.

Easy 10k run with 4x20sec strides. On the best stride did a 3:32/km pace, in one of the strides I reached a 108spm cadence, I am getting better at that!

Saturday 26th

Long run of 16k at a pace of 5:35. Ibirapuera Park where this beautiful monument sits.

I totally forgot to get my water bottle and sun opened during the run so I dehydrated a bit. This made my heart rate slowly increase in the last 5ks around 160bpm.

I remember to take a gel with me which I took at 10k.

Ended up a little fatigued, but fine.

Sunday 27th

Recovery day asked for an extra slow run around 5:55/km.

Better yet in a beautiful park like that!

My heart zones stuck 67% in zone 3 and 24% in zone 2.

Felt completely recovered afterwards!

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Rolling Stone Music & Run 2018

All the week was in preparation for the Rolling Stone Music & Run 10k!

Tuesday was easy 6k with Yasso’s 5x800m at the pace I would like to do my 10k at Saturday.

Thursday was an easy 6k and Friday 3k with 4 fun 20sec strides.

All to be ready for the run of 10k on Saturday.

We arrived there at 7PM, my wife’s walk was at 8 and the 10k run at 8:30 so we had time to take some cool pictures.

I did run with my Saucony Type A8 bad ass running shoes!

Warrior was doing it’s show and we had a glimpse of it meanwhile I had a watermelon juice.

I planned to run negative splits, starting slower at 4:35/km for 2k, than 6k at 4:30 and the last 2k at 4:25

No man, didn’t do that at all!

i started faster running with the crowd excited by the rock music “I love Rock & Roll…”, I managed to get to my pace between 3 to 7k, but slow down in the last 2 and half kilometers.

I found strength to get back in pace in the last 500m to end up strong, though!

Final was 45min and 11 sec, not bad considering PR was 47 minutes!

Now the officials, was the 47th place among 4351 runners and the 7th of my age!

With that time Inam already doing, according to RunnersConnect pace calculator, 3:27 on the marathon, my aim is 3:30 for NYC in November!

After that was the fun part, free beers and the concert of Frejat that we enjoyed up till 1AM!

Exhausted, was time to refuel so we went to Joakin’s that stay open until late whee we find a bunch of people from the run wearing medals… Had a nice turkey sandwich and went home to have our rest.

Today was recovery day, so I went to a packed Ibirapuera Park to do easy 6k listening to cool music digesting the PR I did yesterday and what it means in that beautiful, but chilly windy sunny winter like day.

No, this is not a spacecraft, but a masterpiece of architect Oscar Niemeyer called Oca (indigenous house) in the middle of the Park.

Week Recap – Ecuador and Mother’s day

Busy week, started with a trip to Ecuador through Peru.

I arrived on Sunday in the heat of Guayaquil and managed to do a 10k easy run along the two linear parks. Had a close encounter with a scared Iguana and crossed the cool zig zag bridge.

On Tuesday did a tempo run of 5k around my half marathon pace with 3k warmup and 3k cooldown earlier in the morning so it wasn’t that hot.

On Thursday did 10 easy k’s on the altitude of Quito at 10oC and 20sec strides, didn’t feel the altitude, which amazed me.

Already back in Brazil traveled to Porto Alegre for Mother’s Day, beautiful weekend when I did a 10k and a 16k long runs all easy paces on the hills.

Logged 47k, and 4 flights…

After all that enjoyed a nice lunch with my mother and family.

May!

The month started with a short trip to Vegas. It’s been 24 years I haven’t been there.

Things changed, but not that much. Still casinos smell like smoke, the difference is that they also became fancy shopping malls.

I also used the trip to buy 3 running shoes that will help me on the rest of the training to NYC Marathon in November.

I already run 3 times this month, first was a cutout train of 10k around marathon pace, pretty cool type of training. I used it to test if my feet could handle the “bad ass” Saucony Type A8 shoes. I can!

Second was an easy run with 4 strides. I did a cadence I didn’t know I could reach, 192spm! And also the fastest pace I ever logged, 3:13min/km. Strides are fun!

Yesterday was long run day, 16k. Did 12km easy pace and 4k marathon pace. Even though I did reached the paces I felt really tired. It might be some jet leg still, don’t know.

Now, flying to Ecuador, let’s see tomorrow how my body handle a 10k recovery run. The nice surprise was an upgrade to executive class on the flight, thanks Avianca!

April 182k

April was a month full of important changes.

After bonking 3 times when crossing the 20 km line, I decided to get some professional help.

I did some research and end up joining RunnersConnect. Those guys are great! Coaches helped me understand better the challenges related to longer runs and how to prepare me for the distance.

I increased my weekly mileage without hurting my body and preparing it aerobically and learning how to handle my lactate threshold, things that I didn’t know about last month.

It’s also a nice community that helps you learn from the others and cheering you up on all my achievements.

April was also the month I decided to focus on my cadence.

I read a lot about it and decided to put some work on that.

First I look into and decided to move from Nike+ app to iSmoothRun, this app can track my cadence and export the data to Nike+ and Strava. Strava data can be imported by RunnersConnect.

Than to help me out increase my cadence to something closer to 180spm I downloaded music with a 180bpm. It’s impressive how many are there!

Now, I didn’t follow the plan exactly as supposed to, basically ran much more than scheduled, many of them slow pace easy runs.

But it wasn’t everything slow pace, I ended up breaking twice my 10k PR! Last time today!

My time on the 10k dropped from 49:39 to 47 minutes!

I ended up logging 182km!

Last but not least I also started testing on nutrition during the run. Ended up liking Exceed Energy gels, the tangerine is specially tasteful. I also tested the 4:1 for after run to help me recover.

Let us see what May reserve to me, but I am feeling much more confident to run NYC Marathon in November.

Week Recap

Another week passed by, 44.8km logged and April is almost over.

First signs of the winter are on the horizon, I used a chilly morning to break my 10k PR (47:39).

On Friday did my long run of the week 16k and today 8.57 to close the week.

Looking ahead I don’t know yet how will I log 180km this month since I won’t be around next weekend and I still miss 36km.

Plan is either run 16k again tomorrow and two 10ks on the mornings during the week or run three times in the week.

I am not fond of that idea because it means waking up very early three times before work, but all depends on me handling this long run tomorrow.

Enjoy your Sunday and best luck of who is running in London Marathon!

10k PR! 47:39

Interesting how things change.

I remember that 10k for me was a long run, a challenge to achieve.

Than I started trying to improve my pace, but anything near 50 minutes was nearly impossible.

I broke the 50 minutes barrier last January 13th (49:04) and thought this would be a long standing PR.

This cold morning I felt fresh enough to try it again.

It was a cold morning (18oC), I woke up early, ate a toast with cheese, a kaki fruit (very sweet fruit full of Vitamin C) and a cup of coffee with low fat milk.

20 minutes later I was with my light Asics Roadhwak FF running shoes at the park pacing each kilometer to break my record.

Yes, between 4 and 5km I thought I wouldn´t do it, felt really tired, but kept pushing until I recovered (maybe still digesting breakfast?).

I still had something left to push me on the last 2 km to get to the 4:44min/km average pace.

Anyway, never felt so good and in shape, the new improvement in cadence also helped me keep better form and be more efficient, I feel like I am going somewhere here!

Next May 19th I will be running the Rolling Stone 10k Night Run, not sure how will I be there, who knows, maybe I can do another PR?

Anyway, I keep logging miles to NYC Marathon in November.

Week Recap – Baby Steps

I keep on my training for NYC Marathon

A lot of changes this week.

I kept trying to improve my cadence, on easy runs (more on that in a short) I feel like doing short baby steps, kind of weird, but, in the end, less tired and less effort on my knees and feet,

After a lot of research and hearing coach Jeff Gaudette marathon training videos I was convinced to join RunnersConnect.

It is a training solution where the coaches analyze your goals and previous experience, than create a plan helping you scientifically to achieve your goals.

I am learning a lot, but there is still a lot to learn.

Having said that, I didn’t really followed their plan on the first day, I think due to time zones I saw they have scheduled a run for me on Thursday (6k easy run with strides) and another exactly the same on Friday.

Instead I did 12k on friday, 3.5k easy run, a fast mile and 6.9k on marathon pace.

Today I was suppose to do another 6k and a 15k long run tomorrow, since I won’t have time for the ling run tomorrow I switched it for today.

Yes, I know what you are thinking, why to pay for a training if I am going to change everything!

All those changes I explained to the coaches and they are following with me, unfortunately that’s the way I will have to go, kind of unpredictable life and I will have to adapt my training accordingly.

The thing is, after those two trainings I have ran in aerobic zone for two hours which is way more than I have done in months. They say this will help my body be prepared to burn fat on the marathon which is necessary to survive the whole thing.

This actually makes sense because I was always bonking at around the half marathon distance, which is more or less your limit of glycogen if you are running in the lactate zone (told you I am learning a few things).

Funny thing, I am still trying to increase my cadence and, even though coach told me I shouldn’t care much about this in the easy run I thought would be a good way to distract my mind. Ended up running with fast baby steps, now I know how the short guys run!

Week Recap

Sunday – 10k – 5:17min/k pace

Tuesday – 2.8k – .7k at 4:13min/k pace (Nike+ benchmark)

Tuesday – 7.56k at 4:55min/k pace

Friday – 12k at 5:37min/k pace

Saturday – 15k at 6:07min/k pace

Total: 47.48km – aprox. 30 miles

Today I added a zip of salt to my water before running, thought about making it an electrolyte, I did felt less thirst during the run, but my lips were salty, have you tried that before?

I also took half a liter of water in the tenth km to hidrate.

I was a bit fatigued from Friday’s run, but the aerobic pace felt so slow I handled it quite alright.

Last but not least, I am using iSmoothRun to track my training it is great!

To add the runs to RunnersConnect dashboard you need to export the data of iSmoothRun to Strava and from there import it.

Now the bad part, the integration with Nike+ and iSmoothRun just stopped working. They told me Nike has tweaked some things and that’s why it stopped working.

I tried than the several tools that I found online to export Nike+ data, but its obvious that they don’t want us to do that, none of them is working!

Well, for now I am manually uploading the last runs, but if this goes on I will eventually give up and that will be the end of Nike+ for me.

And you what are you plans for this week?

Week Recap – Changes

Keeping on my preparation for the NYC Marathon in November I decided to change everything this week.

First, after being so tired, exhausted would be the right term, on my last long runs around a half marathon, I decided to split my training in more runs so to achieve the mileage log I want to get every week, but retrieving the long run to an amount I can more reasonably handle

Second, read a lot about cadence and how a faster cadence can help me be more efficient and prevent injuries at the sane time.

That was the week plan and results

Sunday: 15k @5:33/km

Tuesday: 10k @5:13/km cadence 156

Thursday: 10k @5:11/km cadence 156

Saturday:16:5k @5:15/km cadence 158

Week: 51k, my PB!

Sunday: 10k @5:17/km – cadence 158

Felt great with this new setup, my foot is not hurting neither my back and the ling runs are going fine, even Saturday’s was on a great pace.

And what about cadence?

Using iSmoothRun and a 180bpm tried to increase my cadence. Tough call! My tendency is to go much less than 160, but at some focused moments I dod manage to increase my cadence. Average is around 156, but on the graphs I can see a lot of spikes some around 180,

Best of all I can feel the higher cadence means less effort on running and actually pushing me to go faster,

I will leep trying and let you know.

Ran on Saturday and Sunday in hilly Porto Alegre where that picture was taken

Enjoy your week!

Cadence, Cadence & iSmoothRun app

I thought it was just to use the 180bpm playlist that automatically I would change my cadence. Turned out that is not true.

After a lot of researching I found iSmoothRun app, an app that measures a lot of data in my runs including the cadence and exports it to Nike+, so I decided to give it a try on my 10k early morning run yesterday in Ibirapuera Park with my Nike Zoom Elite 9 running shoes.

The app is great, it let me create a workout of 10k, 1k warmup, 4k steady, 2k fast and more 4k steady. It exported beautifully the data to Nike+ afterwards.

It doesn’t have voice feedback on the apple watch so far, which is not so good, but hopefully they will do that soon. The only feedback it gives is that it shakes every kilometer (I plan on doing a review on that software after I use it more).

I didn’t realize that I could edit the face of the watch to show the cadence so I ran blind on that and downloaded the data afterwards. (maybe that´s good because it showed my current cadence before measuring it).

You can see by the graphs my cadence was never more than 81 (in one foot), that is 162 in both feet, way slower than 180!

I double checked the music of the playlist, some are 180bpm some are 90bpm (I supposed they think we will double the beat), anyway, getting a bit obsessed about it.

I downloaded a metronome of 180bpm and thought about hearing it before the run, maybe just stepping to get the rhythm, because running with it just seems too much torture. And, of course, I have the watch face now showing me the cadence.

Any suggestions on that? Do you care about cadence at all or never thought about it (and maybe I shouldn’t as well).

I did a 5:13 min/km pace in the end which for me is quite good specially considering I did a 1k warmup at 5:55. Plan is to run 10k tomorrow morning, I will let you know how it goes.

Enjoy your day!