Friday, March 27, 2009

Training Update 5

Monday M16: PM 76 minutes of pool running followed immediately by 60 minutes of elliptical (7.11 "miles")

Tuesday M17: PM 92 running (up and down Turkey Hill Road twice- steady on the way up, easy on the way down- actually saw a bunch of turkeys) followed immediately by 76 minutes pool running

Wednesday M18: AM 97 running (Paine Mountain Ice and snow run) PM 35 elliptical followed immediately by 77 pool running

Thursday M19: AM 69 minutes running (up and down Turkey Hill Road with some additional outs and backs) PM 78 minutes pool running

Friday M20: PM 81 running (up and down Turkey Hill Road with some additional outs and backs) PM 77 minutes pool running

Saturday M21: AM 163 minutes running (Earhart loop- mostly hard frozen roads)

Sunday M22: AM 60 minutes running (laps around Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine- flat)

Weekly totals:
9:22 running (54% of total)
1:35 elliptical (9% of total)
6:24 pool running (37% of total)

17:21 total

Comments: This week was my first week back from spring break and I was having difficulty making it out the door for my morning runs. I also had the Northeastern GSA meeting at the end of the week and attending the meeting (and preparing for it) disrupted my training a bit. This was a solid but not a great week. My totals were not where I wanted them but they were not too bad. There were no real workouts but I did get in some good hill running nonetheless. Below is an image of a mural from a pub near the conference in Portland.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Training Update 4

Monday M9: PM 180 minutes of snowshoeing on Paine Mountain with pretty bad conditions along the ridge- lots of post holing- did manage to get to Irish Hill

Tuesday M10: AM 120 minutes of elliptical (7.2 "miles" for the first 60 min, 7.05 "miles" for the second) followed immediately by 30 indoor cycling

Wednesday M11: PM 167 minutes of running (20 min WU/2 hours on the treadmill at 12% 9:42/mile 7758'/27 min CD to and from the Shitty Mobile with a heavy pack on the return trip)

Thursday M12: AM 115 minutes running (on roads in the Northfield Mountains) PM 65 minutes elliptical (7.25 "miles" for the first 60 min)

Friday M13: AM 65 minutes elliptical (7.03 "miles" in 60 minutes) followed by 55 minutes indoor cycling PM 95 minutes running (Paine Mountain Ice and snow run- beautiful but cold day)

Saturday M14: AM 123 minutes running (in roads in the Northfield Mountains) PM 87 minutes cycling (to and from Little Shaw's)

Sunday M15: AM 72 minutes running (up and down Turkey Hill Road with some additional outs and backs) PM 92 minutes cycling (to and from Little Shaw's)

Weekly totals:
12:32 running (59% of total)
4:24 cycling (21% of total)
4:10 elliptical (20% of total)

21:06 total

Comments: This week was my spring break and so I had a bit more of a relaxed schedule but it also meant that the university gym that I use quite often this time of year was closed for five of the past nine days. The pool was also closed and this is the reason that I was not in the pool for the week. Luckily, the weather was nice enough that I was able to get out cycling on four of those five days and I made it out for a few sunny but wet and messy rides. The other day, it snowed six inches and so I went out for what will probably be my last snowshoe run of the year. My goal for the week was to get in 21 hours and I managed just that. The week's best workout was Wednesday's treadmill workout; it was a similar workout to last week (two hours at 12% but I made it just a little bit farther (higher) than last week (7758' vs. 7,603'). I was still just shy of the PPA which climbs 7,815'. Next week it is back to class and the Northeastern Section meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland (ME) which should shake things up a bit...

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Weekly Training Update 3

Monday M2: PM 76 minutes pool running followed immediately by 72 minutes (run up Dole Hill road with cemetery out and back and down on the snowmobile trail- new snow and treacherous ice)

Tuesday M2: AM 98 minutes running (run up the snowmobile trail and down Dole Hill Road with snowmobile trail out and back and cemetery out and back) PM 77 minutes pool running

Wednesday M3: PM 76 minutes of pool running followed immediately by 44 running (run to and from Grand Union- heave pack on the return trip)

Thursday M4: 44 minutes indoor cycling followed immediately by 76 minutes of pool running

Friday M5: PM 137 running (7 min WU/2 hours on the treadmill at 12% 10:00/mile 7603'/10 min CD followed immediately by 32 minutes of indoor cycling

Saturday M6: AM 112 running (run on roads in the Northfield Mountains- felt good) PM 82 cycling- nice and easy)

Sunday M7: PM 44 running (Hubbard Park and neighborhoods around MontP with PM) followed immediately by 128 minutes of cycling

Weekly totals:
8:27 running (46% of total)
4:46 cycling (26% of total)
5:05 pool running (28% of total)

18:18 total

Comments: ...probably a step down from the last two weeks in terms of volume (similar total time but a soft total with more cycling). A decent week none the less with lots of late nights spent working on a new lab meant that I slept in four out of five weekday morning workouts. I have got to stop that! This week had a few firsts for the year. Friday, I did my first treadmill workout of the year, Saturday, I did my first outdoor bike ride of 2009, and Sunday, I did my first run of 2009 with another human. It was great to be out riding in early March and I got two days of riding in. The highs a predicted to be in the 30s for the next week and so this may be the last riding that I do for a while. Oh well. The week's best workout was definitely Friday's treadmill workout; admittedly, it is difficult for me to convince myself that 10:00 pace sound impressive but I did manage to climb 7,603 feet (as a comparison, the PPA climbs 7,815'). Next week is spring break- this means that I will try to get my total up for the week and it also means that the pool is closed (smile).

Friday, March 6, 2009

Weekly Training Update 2

Monday F23: PM 60 minutes of indoor cycling followed immediately by 76 minutes of pool running

Tuesday F24: PM 76 minutes of pool running followed immediately by 63 minutes of running (up Dole Hill road with cemetery out and back and down on the snowmobile trail)

Wednesday F25: AM 96 minutes of running (up the snowmobile trail and down Dole Hill Road with snowmobile trail out and back and loop through town) PM 76 minutes of pool running followed immediately by 34 minutes of running (to and from the Grand Union with a heavy pack on the return trip)

Thursday F26: PM 60 minutes elliptical (6.9 "miles" in 60 minutes) immediately followed by 37 minutes of indoor cycling immediately followed by 78 minutes of pool running

Friday F27: AM 66 minutes elliptical (7.2 "miles" in 60 minutes) PM 91 minutes of running (from Northfield to MontP with a medium-weight pack)

Saturday F28: AM 93 minutes of running (from MontP to Northfield with a medium-weight pack)

Sunday M1: AM 174 minutes of snowshoeing (on Paine Mountain with plenty of breaking trail faster conditions than last week- got to Irish Hill)

Weekly totals:
9:11 running (51% of total)
1:37 indoor cycling (9% of total)
2:06 elliptical (12% of total)
5:06 pool running (28% of total)

18:00 total

Comments: Another pretty good week with a good combination of running and x-training. The highlight workout of the week was definitely Sunday's snowshoeing expedition of almost three hours. The conditions were not as good as last weekend (we had a slight mid-week thaw) but the the snow is still pretty deep with over three feet on the ridges in some places.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Mount Washington Lottery and Miscellany

Fist things first, the Mount Washington Road Race lottery opens today and will go until March 15th. If you have any interest in running one of the World's truly classic mountain races, make sure that you enter before the 15th of March. It is rumored that about twice as many runners enter the lottery as can be allowed (for logistical reasons) to enter the race. This means that if you enter the lottery, you have a 50-50 chance of getting in. There is a lotter bypass system as well.

Second things second. I was recently interviewed for the inov8 team blog and one of the questions that I was asked was
"Living (at low) altitude(,) do you feel altitude is overrated and/or that focus on speed can make up for the lack of altitude acclimation? It seems as though it did not affect Blake once again at Mt. Washington last year."

My answer was as follows.
My feeling is that training at high altitude allows an athlete to better develop their cardiovascular system and training at low altitude allows an athlete to better develop their leg strength and speed. Certainly, someone training for a race that requires speed (shorter than, say 3km) would be best served by training at lower altitude while someone who is training for a marathon or ultra would be best served by training at high altitude. In training for the mountains, I honestly do not know which is better. Personally, I love the feeling of overall fitness that I get from training at high altitude (I have spent periods of training at high altitude in the past); I also love the feeling of slamming uphills at low altitude.

As for the Mount Washington race specifically, I do not think that athletes coming from low or high altitude training situations necessarily have the advantage. An analysis of past result suggests this as well. Of the 96 performances of 65 minute or faster on the hill, 29 came from athletes training at high altitude (4999 feet above msl) and 67 came from athletes training at low altitude (42’ to 1400’ above msl). Taking into consideration that the race is in a region where most of the population lives at low altitude (thereby adding a very difficult to quantify independent variable), this seems like a pretty even split. What is really odd is that no one coming from between 1400’ and 4999’ has ever run faster than 65 minutes. Weird.

It should go without saying that athletes that are trained at high altitude have a notable advantage in races that are held at high altitude. Anyone who says otherwise is stupid or lying.

I had always had a gut feeling that neither"athletes coming from low or high altitude training situations (do not) necessarily have (an) advantage" but I thought that I would look into it because, well, I like to be able to make informed statements rather than just going with my initial "gut" reaction. So, to make an informed decision, I make a bivariate plot of most of the times run under 65 minutes vs. the training altitude of the runner responsible for the time. The "training altitude" serves essentially to more Derrek Froude from his low altitude home of NZ to the high altitude of Boulder, CO and moves Daniel Kihara from his high altitude home of Kenya to the low altitude of Philli Metro.

A few other notes on the graphs: i. For the sake of simplicity, the altitude for each athlete is based on the altitude of their hometown as listed in the race results thus, anyone from Boulder, CO would be listed at 5202' even though, obviously, not everyone in Boulder lives at exactly 5202'. ii. Matt Cull, Mark Berman, David Ezersky, Peter Pfizinger are not plotted because their geographic affiliations were not listed in the race results; all are low altitude at Cull (I believe) was living in VT at the time and the others represented either BAA or GBTC leading me to believe that they were coming to the race from low altitude training centers as well, iii. I chose 65 minutes as a cut off because I did not want to spend too much time on this and because I thought that it would be a good round number that would separate the national-level performances from the regional-level ones- since the race is, after all, held in New England, including too many runners in the analysis would actually make the results less meaningful (Eric Morses 65:00 from 2001 is included in the plot), and iv. the black plot represents the performance of Eddy Hellebuyck who tested positive for EPO in 2004. The point representing the 64:49 that he ran in 1995 is black because it would be unfair of my not to point out the the performance of a known drug cheat.

Anyway, one of the things that becomes immediately striking about the plot is the dearth of sub 65 performance from runners training between 1400’ and 4999’.


I placed two lines on the second graph- one a hypsographic curve showing the cumulative percentage for the world's landmass and a curve representing global hypsographic demography (the elevation at which humans inhabit the Earth). I did not have specific curves for the USA but I would suspect that they would look very similar to the world curves. The curves, of course demonstrate that there, of course, more land surface near sea-level but also that there is more land (and people) in the 1400’ and 4999’ range than there is in the 5000'+ range. So where are all of the runners?


One more figure shows the locations of sub-65 performances geocoded onto a map of the continental US. This shows what is essentially a bimodal distribution with the primary cluster in New England and a notable secondary cluster along the Front Range cities of the Rocky Mountains of CO and NM.