How is the plan going forward?
Now Ingrid Kristiansen has trained me for a few weeks in the run-up to the Rome marathon. How have I trained? Has the form improved?
Ingrid focuses on quantity, it is the number of hours of running that count, not how far I run, but how long. What are we actually training for when we run? Load on the body/legs, heart and lungs.
Ingrid is keen to write down how long I will run, and that is very motivating! If I'm tired one day, I don't think that I have to run 15 km, but that I have to be out for 1 hour and 15 minutes, whether it's 13 or 15 km doesn't matter, but the time, legs, heart and lungs have to work !
I don't do a lot of hard sessions, well below my threshold zone. I call this pleasant hard sessions, it's demanding, but I don't tire myself out.
Ingrid explains Team Kristiansen's philosophy regarding marathon training. Marathons are slow running compared to what most people can achieve over shorter distances. Therefore no stress to think speed. Our fuel is always a mix of carbohydrates and fat. The carbohydrates in a body last for approx. 90 minutes. If the goal is to run a marathon in 3 hours, you will hopefully realize that you have an energy challenge. If you go on long trips too quickly, you always have a dominant component of carbohydrates in the energy mix. It is therefore important to bring in dominant fat burning (even slim people have fat reserves for days and perhaps weeks), and then you have to adjust the speed, so that it does not go too fast. The strange thing is that you also get an additional training benefit in getting oxygen during the fat-burning speed. Theoretical difference in oxygen consumption of a given amount of energy shows that fat burning requires 16% more oxygen. Even if you run more slowly, you are exercising oxygen retrieval, so your metabolism is still very efficient. (And you also stay well below the threshold)
Conclusion: If you run long distances too fast, you are not training fat burning effectively. Big chance of meeting the so-called wall.
Another important factor in marathon training is the "mechanical" adaptation of legs and feet on hard surfaces. Every foot landing is an abrupt stop. In order to avoid problems with cramps and leg/foot problems, you have to have a number of kilometers of running. It can also be good to practice taking in liquids and nutrients, stomach problems are not so unusual.
Test run
I got to be with a group that Ingrid trains on a test run! This should simulate an actual race, the speed is high and the heart rate is high. The test run gave me a small answer to what my form is like.
We warmed up 4-5 km, ran 8 km before jogging down 4 km, on the day we ran it was -12 degrees and quite slippery, but we performed very well. I ran 8 km in 30 minutes, which corresponds to approx. 3.45 min/per km.
New PT session with Ingrid
Now I have had a new PT appointment with Ingrid. The session was not so hard physically, but more mentally, running "a little" hard over time becomes mentally hard, but I felt very good after the session. The hour on the treadmill gave us the answer that we are training correctly.
The session Ingrid chose was:
- I warmed up in 15 min
- Run 4 km, we started the first 2 km at 4.20 min/km and also increased the speed to 4.15 min/km in the last 2 km
- Ran 5 min in break before I ran 4 km at 4.15 min/km
- The pulse was "low" and increased gradually, but in a controlled manner.