Faster running following strength training

How do you balance weight training with running if you want to be a faster runner? Surely, if you want to run faster, then it's better to spend time running than time doing weight training? And if anything, weight training could cause you to gain weight and slow you down?

Well that's what I've been thinking for a long time now, and the reasons that the vast majority of my exercise for probably 5 years or so has been cardio - either running or cycling - and very little weights work.

As people who have been reading this blog will know, however, I have been doing a really fun bodyweight routine while I was on holiday (sadly I'm now back to the London greyness...). The routine was put together by Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training.

The 'rules' of the routine say that I shouldn't do the workout on consecutive days, but one day last week (the day after an intermediate bodyweight circuit) I was anxious to do something, so put on my trainers and went out for a 4k run which is definitely my most common run when I run in Sweden.

My normal time for the run is around 23 to 24 minutes depending on how much I'd been training. As I hadn't run since the Samrun 10k race, which was over 3 weeks ago, I wasn't expecting much. However, I came back in 22 minutes and 49 seconds, only 8 seconds slower than my personal best time which I set last year!

So how did this come about? Well it cetainly didn't 'feel' that I was running towards a (close) PB, but I just felt more 'solid' particularly in my hips. It felt that more of my energy was going into my legs, and they were pushing between the ground and a relatively stable pelvis, whereas previously it felt more like my pelvis would collapse a little on every foot strike.

There are a number of exercises in the turbulence training bodyweight workout which could have had this impact. One of the key things in the workout, however, is because everything is done with the absolute minimum of equipment, there is a lot of emphasis put on balance and compound movements, all of which have seemed to stabilise my pelvis and led to this improvement in running times.

What this has taught me, however, is that I really should be incorporating some strength work into each and every week in my training if I'm hoping to be able to get quicker. I'm even wondering whether this was the 'missing link' which was stopping me from getting my 5k time down to below 29 minutes? We'll see!

How much do you use weight training in your running training programme? Let me know by posting a comment!

Rapid weight loss

A bit of a funny week this has been... But a good one!

When TFR weighed in before the Wimbledon Common Time Trial 5k, he weighed around 100 kg (Saturday 23rd).

His WCTT run performance was dismal. Although he felt great around the whole course, and overtook a few people on each lap, when the clock finally stopped, it was very much the wrong side of 30 minutes... He was at a complete loss to understand why, although a bit of analysis on the Garmin Training Center software showed why. When compared with other (faster) runs around Wimbledon Common, it became clear that the run felt easy because it WAS easy... Basically, he didn't push himself hard enough - his heart rate was a good 5 beats per minute lower for the duration of the run...

So anyway, 100 kg on the Saturday.

Then his weight started to drop throughout the week, so that only 6 days later, he is weighing 3 kg less!!

So what might be the reasons for this?

1) Venom Hyperdrive!!! Actually, no. He hasn't been taking VH for a long time (and never really took it consistently... He has a stressful enough job without adding further anxiety with caffeine pills and other 'metabolic enhancers' in VH

2) Exercise? Well he's done a bit more this week than normally - a 1.5 hour bike ride (around 20 miles) on Monday, and a 30 minute run around Kensington Gardens on Wednesday evening

3) Diet? Not sure - although his lunch has become healthier (the Pret a Manger chicken salad rather than a big toasted sandwich) he has still been having a few drinks in the evening. In fact, yesterday's intake consisted of the salad, 1.5 bags of crisps, a few cans of diet coke, two slices of ryvita with smoked salmon, some shepherd's pie and two glasses of champagne. Not obvious diet food!!

So he's at a bit of a loss to explain why this is happening, but it has given him the motivation to watch what he eats more closely. In fact, he was in the office canteen this morning, where every friday they provide free sausage and bacon baguettes (and they're good!) but he went for the muesli instead.

The good thing is that he'll be hauling around 3kg less in this weekend's Nike 10k race.

Talking of which, I must be going so I can pick up my race pack!
Sun 99.1
Mon 98.6
Tue 98.2
Wed 97.7
Thu 97.3
Fri 97.1

Fat Runner back from holidays

Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun sun - as the theme from Red Dwarf states. Also a pretty good description of The Fat Runner's recent holiday!!

Unfortunately he has no photos of where he was running to post here, so he'll just describe it for us in his own words:

"I step outside of the house, set on an island in Scandinavia, and breath in the fresh air - warm from the many hours of sunshine which have been blazing already this morning, and heavily laden with the scents of the nearby fields and forests.

Strapping on my Garmin 305, two quick checks to make sure it has locked on to satellites and to my heart rate monitor, I walk down the gravel track by the side of the old barn and towards the deep blue sea. Once I'm at the boat house, a sharp turn right up to the fence which marks the end of our property, a flick of the 'start' button on my forerunner, and I'm off!

The trees close in a little over the gravel track, but it is still possible to peer through the trees to my left and see a small motor boat humming its way out to sea.

The gravel track merges with the road after about two minutes of running, the trees pull back slightly, and the air feels a little less close.

Now is the time to relax and not push the speed too much - make sure that I have enough in the tank to push harder towards the end.

To the left of me is a steep bank down from the road to the sea and I see some locals getting into their boat at their small pier, almost falling into the sea itself now.

Around a right hand corner, away from the sea and a short and deceptively steep hill. I make sure I slow down even further here, as running up hill stretches the plantar fascia and risks triggering my injury again. But soon I'm past the steep part, and around the next left hand corner is the old school for the island. It is only a few rooms - I think it never had more than about 30 students or so, and closed down over 50 years ago. It's now owned by the local landowners who collectively rent it out to a lady in her seventies. It's also where the traditional midsummer activities are held.

Past the school, and eventually the road plunges downwards and I let my speed pick up naturally with gravity. One of the things I do have is gravity!!

The hill again flattens out, probably about 15 metres or so above the sea. Again, to the left is a very steep bank, covered in pine, spruce and fir trees with the odd house. I'm sure the first one has its own smoker, because the smell of strongly smoked fish comes up towards me - I really need to get my own smoker, as I've been getting better at catching (and filleting) pike this holiday.

But before I know it, the smell has gone, and the only monotonous part of the run starts - I'm about 1.5k in now, and I'm only doing 5k runs.

The few things to look at are the yellows and purples of the roadside flowers which are left to grow virtually unmolested - there is very little traffic which comes down this road. And sometimes peeking out between the flowers you can see the bright red of a wild strawberry - which looks like a normal strawberry in miniature - about the size of a large pea, and as sweet as candy. No time to stop to pick one up though, and I press on.

Once again, the trees give way, this time to farmland which is used to raise cows - dairy cows I think. Only a minute or so and then I reach the fence which marks my turning point.

Back into the trees, past the wild strawberries and the fantastic smoking smell, check the forerunner - could be a good time!

Up past the school, and now downhill back towards the sea - let the speed build up but not too much, and carry it onto the straight. Past the public pier and back down onto the old track. Again check the forerunner - this will definitely be a personal best!

Push for about 90 seconds down the gravel track and get to the fence, stop the forerunner, and yes! A personal best by about 25 seconds!

Quick stretch before walking back up to the house past the barn, and time for a well-earned shower!"

Sounds rather idyllic!

The Fat Runner is dead...

...but still running...

Well that's what his Garmin Forerunner 305 is saying.

Before he bought the Forerunner, he researched a bunch of running forums, including the Runner's World forum to see what other runners were saying about the Forerunner 305.

Most runners seemed to be complementary about its features - fast GPS lock-on to satellites, able to track satellites while running in the woods, virtual trainer feature etc. Many of the negatives seemed to be around two things. Firstly, one of the metal contacts seems to go black, stopping the forerunner connecting to a PC and also stopping it from charging. Secondly, some people felt that the Forerunner battery didn't get close to matching the 10 hours battery life promised in the specification.

TFR decided to take a risk on the first concern, and realised that the second concern would be unlikely to be a concern for him - 10 hours of exercise in one go? He's not The Fat Ironman!!

But TFR has a third issue with the forerunner 305 - and that is the life of the battery in the heart rate monitor chest strap. Garmin promises that it will last 3 years, used 1 hour per day - in other words around 1200 hours. TFR, however, has had to replace the battery three times in two years - and this is running on average (perhaps) a few hours per week. So he's getting at most 100 hours out of a battery.

Hence the title of this post. According the his Forerunner, TFR now has no heart rate...

Does anyone else find the same? Perhaps the strap "switches itself on" even when it's not being worn? I'll contact Garmin to see if they have any idea...

Running on alcohol

Stupid fat runner.

He once again ran the excellent Wimbledon Common Time Trial last Saturday.

The only problem was that Friday was a bit of a big night.

Drinks with his team - 4 bottles of Becks
Pre-dinner drinks at a work recruiting event - 3 glasses of champagne
Drinks with dinner - 4 glasses of wine

He went to bed, feeling fine, and woke up feeling equally fine.

He even woke up early (after having a dream that he had woken up late and missed the run!)

He set the virtual trainer on his Garmin Forerunner to match the pace he ran last time.

He set off, although very rapidly found that he was working very hard to keep up with the pace he ran last time, despite the fact that the last time he ran, the first lap was at a very slow and comfortable pace.

So he gave up.

And has promised he will never be drinking that much on the night before a race.

He was very annoyed, particularly since he had trained during the week as well as at the weekend and was feeling that he could have gone for a PB.

Oh well, there's always next week!

Fooled by Garmin

The Fat Runner was running around a park in Paris this morning in the drizzle.

There is something about Paris that simply doesn't exist in any other city I've been to - it's hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.

There is a sense of style almost everywhere you look - in the buildings, the parks, the way people dress. But above all, there is a sense of harmony, and of calm purposefulness. Something I only really feel in London very early in the morning before about 6am...

So Paris was a very nice place for TFR to run - he managed to fit in 30 minutes between his morning meeting and the cab to take him back to Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar.

For those who have read this blog a few times, you'll know that TFR's pace is around the 9-10 mins a mile area. So when his garmin forerunner (set to autolap every half mile - I recommend this strongly) started showing I was getting through half miles in around 4 mins he was feeling rather chuffed!

Until he got back and looked at the map on the garmin. It was very spikey and not like the clean ovals he ran in the park, so it was clearly over-counting the distance he ran...

Oh well, at least he ran twice this week!!

Win some, lose some

As you know, The Fat Runner had a surprise last week - that his heart rate when running was able to get up to 196bpm - much higher than predicted by the many maximum heart rate formulae. This appears to prove one thing - that the maximum heart rate formulae are entirely useless when trying to understand the level at which you should be exercising.

So armed with this new information, as well as a quick look at the Runners World website to understand the ranges he should be working in, TFR headed out for the weekly Wimbledon Common Time Trial.

The Runners World website suggested that someone with a resting heart rate of 60bpm, and a maximum of 196bpm, should be running a 10k at 176-182bpm.

This seemed rather rapid, so TFR backed off a little from these figures, aiming for a heart rate of around 170-175bpm on the first lap and 175-180bpm on the second lap.

Well it seems to have gone rather well! He ran what felt like a very comfortable first lap and then was able to push a bit harder in the second lap (instead of hanging on desperately which is what he normally does).

He'll definitely be following these heart rate guides into his next race.

Now, the final sprint....

Again, his heart rate peaked in the mid 190s (so proving that the result last week was not spurious), but unfortunately when he tried to put in a second kick for the line, one of the muscles in his hamstring gave way (an obvious rip) so we'll have to see if he turns out next week or not.

Next time you hear from TFR, he'll tell you all about hamstring strain repair!!!

Maximum heart rate research

I've oone a little research into maximum heart rates (given TFR's recent run), but the overall conclusion is that these maximum heart rate calculators are entirely useless.

So let's go through them:

Basic formula: 200-age
Londeree and Moeschberger (1982): 206.3-(0.711 x age)
Miller et al (1993): 217-(0.85 x age)
USA researchers (2007): 206.9-(0.67 x age)
UK reseachers (2007): 202-(0.55 x age) for male athletes

Now applying each of these formulae for maximum heart rate to TFR's age gives a maximum heart rate of 182 (Londeree and Moeschberger) to 188 (Miller et al). Nothing like the 196 that TFR recorded on his latest run.

By the way, TFR has downloaded his heart rate from his Garmin Forerunner 305 to check whether this was a spike reading or not. The sad reading is that it wasn't a spike - his heart rate gradually crept up to this level as he sprinted for the finish...

In some ways, however, this is good news!

Now that TFR knows that his maximum heart rate is very different to that predicted by a formula, he can work out what his real heart rate training areas should be! More on that in the next post

Can his heart rate really be so high?

TFR ran again last Saturday for the ever-excellent Wimbledon Common time trial.

He also took a friend along with him - a friend who is much fitter than TFR and runs marathons in 3hrs 15, so he wanted to put on a good show, and hopefully beat his previous record of 29mins 40 seconds.

He had been running relatively hard throughout most of the race - running between 170 and 180 beats per minute, which is rather high against most of the normal criteria using the calculated maximum heart rate for a 34 year old of 186 beats per minute (the normal calculation is 220 minus age).

For the last 200-300 metres, however, TFR sprinted as hard as he could. When he got to look at his Garmin Forerunner after the race, he was surprised to see that his heart rate had reached 196bpm - way above his theoretical maximum.

This is going to have implications on how he trains - more on this in the next post!

Running music

When The Fat Runner started running, he used to do it without music. Since then, he has seen the light (so to speak) and started listening on his runs.

Initially, he used to listen to standard podcasts, either comedy or news or business. It enabled him to focus on something else other than the run, which seemed to work for him.

However, he always wondered how he could get some good music on his ipod - ideally a long mix which would just keep playing throughout his run. Well obviously he could buy some tracks from iTunes, but he's too tight for that.

So after a little searching, he found some podcasts with pre-mixed music and a minimum of talking, which he is now (or at least was) listening to on his runs.

The first ones are just general kind of 'music with a beat' mixes, but are actually quite good:

• Beatport.com burners
• Radio 538: Tiesto's club life podcast

The next one is specifically designed for working out to, and has a nice website to go along with it!

• fitPod.com: fitMix Archives

TFR's favourite, however, is actually a podcast which has published a set of hour-long mixes, all recorded with different BPMs - and the BPMs are included in the title so you know exactly what speed of music you are listening to:

• PodRunner

Now TFR has heard that running with higher BPM music can be a way to help your legs turnover faster, and therefore create some more speed. Perhaps this is true for elite athletes, but right now TFR's leg speed is more limited by the fact that when he increases leg speed, his heart rate goes up and he hits the limit he has set on his Forerunner.

But right now, by picking a song with a BPM which is close to his typical running speed (which is about 155 steps per minute) he can run, trying to keep time to the music, which just adds a little bit of a game to his workout, and means he doesn't hit the limit on his Forerunner quite so many times.

Try it out!

Running gadgets

Running gadgets have substantially helped my motivation to run. Perhaps it's because I'm male and I like gadgets, but I certainly seem to run more with them.

So what is my number 1 gadget? Very easy question - it's the Garmin Forerunner 305.

You will be able to read many other reviews of the Forerunner, so I'm just going to provide a brief description and tell you how I use it.

So what is the Forerunner?

The Forerunner is a GPS HRM watch. It is a watch with a GPS receiver built into it, as well as having the ability to track your heart rate through a chest strap. You can therefore use this watch to understand your current speed, speed since you set off, your lap speed (more on that later) etc. as well as making sure you are keeping your heart rate where you want it!

So how do I use the Forerunner?

These are the things I set up most on my Forerunner:

For training runs, I try to keep a relatively low heart rate - around 150bpm - which means I run far more slowly than I can run, but I also can run longer. The Forerunner allows me to set an alarm for when I go over a particular heart rate and reminds me to slow down.

For runs where I'm pushing myself to see how fast I can run a course, then I'll set the heart rate limit much higher - at around 170bpm. It's there just to make sure I don't run so fast that I'll need to walk part of the course. The other thing I'll do is to set the Forerunner's 'virtual partner'. This allows me to run against myself, the last time I did the course! There are two main screens I can use to see if I am running faster or slower than my previous time - but it's a great motivator to run against the best you've ever run!

Lastly, for both types of run, I set the 'auto-lap' feature. Again, the Forerunner gives you lots of different options for how it calculates laps. I set it to auto-lap every half mile, which means every half mile, the watch beeps and I can look down at it to see how long my last half-mile took.

Anyway, those are the ways I like to use my Forerunner - let me know your favourite functions too!