March 19, 2023 Marathon Training

It was a great run this day. It was a recovery week. Therefore, it was a shorter distance run. That allowed me to try and push a little harder than I would for runs over a half marathon.

I had a dentist procedure and the required colonoscopy for 50 year old's during the week. Therefore, I lost some training time which was another reason that I called it a recovery week.

The temperature was a very cold about 27 degrees and windy.

Shifting my attitude from wanting flatter terrain to run, I chose a hilly loop that is a natural choice for where I live. This way I can take advantage of what hills have to offer. They are like natural versions of interval or Fartlek training. I also like loops so that I am not temped to stop if I close to my house or my car.

Focusing more on my effort, I ran the hills hard to help with improving my VO2 max. For marathon practice, I used the run-walk method, 4 to 1 ratio. However, I adapted it to the hills that I was running. I took advantage of downhills and did not walk and let my heart rate climb on the up hills.

When I was running, it appears that I was able to keep my cadence around the recommended 180 steps per minute.

I tried to get my heart rate near the max. I was able to reach 173 on my Garmin Fenix 6, about 85% of my max. I am realizing that it takes a lot of effort to get close to maximum heart rate on purpose. I remember playing basketball and gasping for air. It feels like it takes that kind of effort.

I listened to a Rich Roll Podcast with Peter Attia that was very engaging and switched to my music play list when I crested the last big hill on the run. I found that helps me finish strong.

For nutrition, I brought Nuun tablet with caffeine in my water and peanut butter energy bites

Unfortunately, I need to work even harder for Garmin to give credit for Anaerobic effort. This the problem that I am currently focused on. I am adding 1 to 3 maximum efforts weekly to see if it helps. My VO2 max has not move in a while. With my new focus, I expect that it will.

The information below explains how Garmin determine determines if the intensity matches the criteria.

For recovery, I had a hot shower, a good lunch, a hot coffee. Then, I had rehydrated with ice water most of the day.