Training Log Aerobic vs anaerobic training strategies

Nov 12 2020

bike
8 miles. Intense. Didn’t check HR

had to run some errands for my sister who has COVID rn. Decided I might as well make it a workout
 
Sorry y’all been a busy week with work. They have me going 5:15am-5pm some days lol. On days with long shifts (which has basically been all week) I just run hella errands on my bike and normally get minimum 6 miles, usually more.

but today i was off so we had another wonderful trail run


nov 19 2020

run
16.5 miles. 4 hrs 20 mins total elapsed time. 100-145 avg HR

so definitely a slow pace hahaha. I did take food breaks which slowed me down a lot. I need to practice eating on the run to not lose so much time. Calories on the run were:

-oatmeal cookie
-oatmeal cookie
-quinoa + bean burrito, half of PBJ sandwich, sports drink
-oatmeal cookie

(all of these were about 30-60 mins apart)

this was probably more than I needed but i didn’t get nauseous so it’s no problem of overeating or anything like that

To stay in topic of the whole point of this log - I think the high intensity anaerobic training has definitely helped. My perceived exertion on climbs especially, but also in general is significantly lower than before. The problem is that my body isn’t used to the sustained impacts of long distance running as much. One of my feet got sore underfoot about 3-4 miles in which concerned me but I decided to push through. It didn’t worsen but after 16 miles, both my feet took a beating. Now after getting home, I can barely walk on it.

Bonus: pics of the trail. This was in Wayne national forest, Ohio’s only real “backcountry”


 
nov 22 2020

bike
5 miles intense didn't check HR

my legs have appreciated the extra cycling. commuting by bike (if done with intent) really is a great workout. probably gonna send another running trip this weekend. maybe something mountainous...
 
PSA: I may be switching over to video logs for this from now on. They’re easier and quicker. I’ll be making a YouTube account here soon that I’ll post the audio too (sorry nobody gets to see my face :) )
 


here's last night

i'll be more focused on discussing how the workout went rather than the ramble that this was one was in the future lol
 
I have the video logs from the previous days on my phone. Gonna sit down tomorrow and upload em all. It’s a bit of process waiting for the WiFi to upload them lol
 
Ah fellow Midwesterner. Getting to be that good time of the year for us lol. Stay warm my friend.
 
@Serotonin101 alright bro sorry for the MIA status lol. I’ve been getting my life in order for this new semester (cleaning mostly) and been putting BL to the wayside. I can upload all the vids if you want just lmk

but this (https://ibb.co/8cxrC9W) is my crowning jewel of this training block. Which by that I mean this winter break btw. Obv this run was quite long and very slow. Cardiovascular wise I never felt gassed during it all. But my legs and especially my feet took a lot of stress. I was hurting after for sure. I’ve noted this problem before and i think it’s definitely one of (if not the) biggest hindrances if this sort of training. Your musculoskeletal system simply isn’t adapted to the stress with purely high intensity low volume training

that said I am very happy with the results so far. The high intensity cardiovascular improvements seem to have translated quite well into the slower pace runs. I will probably keep this regiment at least through winter. Once things warm up I don’t think I’ll have the self control to only do quick, short runs ;)
 
Wanted to give an update.

two weeks out from my first endurance race (50k trail ultra) of the season and I don’t feel confident that the base training i did this winter helped me too much for events of this sort. My body does not take to the long miles as well as has in the past when I’ve done normal 80/20 style training. That does not imply that 80/20 is optimal out of possible training styles but at least when compared to the anaerobic type base building I was doing this winter, it definitely has the edge. Simply put my legs don’t seem to be as receptive to the idea of repetition and sustained motion as they once were :) although my top speed aerobic is certainly a lot higher than it was than last summer. Part of this may well be perceived effort as the numbers from my strava show similar pace albeit now with longer distances

granted I started this plan with the goal of Olympic distance triathlons which are - all things considered - not comparable to a potentially 6+ hr race that is ultra will be. I’m eyeing up a 50 miler in September as well, depending on how I feel during this upcoming one.
 
Just seeing the numbers that yall run for ultras just blows my mind. That shear distance is commendable.
Lol you definitely get a bit desensitized to it after a while

we’ll find out soon if I’ve trained enough for it lol
 
ok race report time...

i always eat pretty clean but the week before i made sure to eat extremely clean. plant based and high fiber, as you all will know. lots of salt too. i got a solid 8 hrs the night before the race.

race morning i wake up and immediately have to take a shit (a sign of good things to come). cleared everything out and felt light on my feet. drank a smoothie with beets, banana, berries, ginger, lemon, and spinach. as well as 2 packs of instant oatmeal. this is about 1.5 hrs prior to start time. had some herbal tea as well, but no caffeine. i was peeing a lot that morning since i had been drinking a lot of water the whole week.

anyways, we get to the start line and wait for race start. the first few miles i took (what i thought was) especially easy. in hindsight i could've gone a bit easier but oh well. the course had most of it's climbing in the first 10 miles and then you're rewarded with an aid station.

i was especially slow on the climbs - this is my biggest training goal for my next race. i wore my legs out too much on the climbs. luckily i'm a very agile runner and made up time on the technical descents when others were more cautious. a thunderstorm also hit during this first leg but it passed after an hour or so. i was vigilant in eating calories early (clif bars and gels) as well as hydrating

i felt good getting into aid station 1 knowing 85% of the climbing was behind me. restocked fluids and gels/bars. i also ate a banana and an orange slice. plenty of electrolyte drink too

this next section was 8.5 miles to aid station 2. it was a relatively flat section. my legs and feet were starting to go on this section however. cramping isnt the right word, but tightness and soreness was building. i was able to push though and jogged the whole section. still felt good on nutrition/hydration and ate similar to AS1 but i also drank a ginger ale too

now it was 6 miles to aid station 3. more climbing than the last section though, as well as very rocky and technical terrain. not good for sore feet. this section i had to walk a fair amount. when i was running with some folks i could keep up but when alone i got too into my own head. just weakness really. got to aid station 3 and once again, ate similarly. but also had apple sauce and pickles.

only had 5 miles to go now and mostly flat or downhill. i alternated running and walking this section but i managed to run 80% or so of it. my feet were killing me at this point but the thought of finishing kept me going. also i was starting to go numb lol

with 1 mile to go i kicked it up to 8-9 min/mile pace and finished strong. final time of 7:31:00.

lessons learned:

-do more long, slow, distance runs. the body can't adapt to that sort of stress any other way
-do more hill repeats
-definitely eat and hydrate early (this one i actually did well)


all in all would i recommend anaerobic training for endurance sports? probably not. your skeletomuscular system won't be able to keep up with your heart. muscle strain will set in too quick. i will call this experiment unsuccessful, but a good lesson learned.

/thread
 
I really enjoyed following along with this.
Planning stage
Implementing the plan
Result of the plan
I'll leave the thread open as I know there will be people who have questions and you can use it to continue to log all the training implements you use or decide to experiment with. Basically it can become a compendium for people interested in endurance activities as this is definitely your forte in all the aspects from diet, supplementation, training and prepping for the event itself.
 
I really enjoyed following along with this.
Planning stage
Implementing the plan
Result of the plan
I'll leave the thread open as I know there will be people who have questions and you can use it to continue to log all the training implements you use or decide to experiment with. Basically it can become a compendium for people interested in endurance activities as this is definitely your forte in all the aspects from diet, supplementation, training and prepping for the event itself.
Thanks bro, I’m glad someone else got something out of it and it wasn’t just me rambling to myself lol

i’ll definitely continue to update with what I’m doing in my training.

I think now I’m basically just gonna do the exact opposite and do looots of long slow runs. Signed up for a 50 miler in October so we’ll see how that goes…
 
So I’m with my mom and sister out in Washington, visiting a family friend

snuck away yesterday to do a trail run. 17 miles and 5300 ft of vert. Basically one big climb followed by a monster descent. Ridgelines, lakes, old growth forest - all of it

lungs always felt good despite me living at 1000 ft above sea level and this run topping out at 6700 ft

legs got a bit slammed on the climb. I got too eager and didn’t keep a high enough cadence. I was using strong explosive steps/jumps when I didn’t need to and I couldn’t maintain this for the whole 7 mile climb.

the downhill was fun but extremely technical. Loose, uneven rocks and slippery from the forest dew. Bruised the inside of my right foot actually when I misjudged how stable one rock was

but honestly felt really good about the effort @ 5:09 The FKT is 3:13 for reference though…
 
Ok paging all the strength aficionados…

what sort of sets/reps should I be doing alongside running? I’m trying to incorporate 2-3 days a week of strength work in addition to my normal running (and cycling/swimming/other cardio).

don’t really have any specific goals other than avoiding atrophy. Could care less about mass but obv it’d be nice lol. I’m most concerned w recovering and maintaining some strength.

is it bad to just go to failure? And if I do go to failure should I be aiming to use more or less weight i.e. less reps or more reps before failure?
 
All this strat book but nobody said ''You need to allow your body to rest'', take some breaks. You can easily calculate it by how many yrs you went to ''gym''
 
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