Marina Bay Half and the 10 minute PR
Hello, and welcome to the first post in my simple running blog! I wanted to have a way of documenting different approaches I have taken/will take to become a better runner. Hannah and I are runners and school teachers here in northern California. We both work in Title I schools. Hannah teaches 5th grade, and I teach Special Ed grades 1-3. That's not super important to what's coming next, but it's pretty awesome being a teacher.
Our first race together was a 10k Turkey Trot in 2015 (Thanksgiving). I have had two major injuries with my back (one in high school, one rock climbing some years later), so running has been out of my grasp for a long time. Hannah and I worked on a slow schedule in early November starting with really low milage at a really slow pace, and we built it up from there. By Thanksgiving, I was able to run 6 miles, but would need to sit with a hot pad on my back for an hour after the run. This back pain from running eventually went away, but it has taken some serious consistency and dedication from myself and Hannah (mostly Hannah) to make it happen. As for our training after my back started giving me less problems, it has been more "try to find time to train and still eat something" rather than "you could make a montage of this training regiment" because of the amount of work teachers have to do (see, the teacher backstory is already paying off!).
Summer was quickly approaching, so we wanted to actually get serious about training for our third half.
Our last two half marathons went fairly well. We finished them both at around 1:47/1:48. We were also exhausted by mile 12 both times. We realized that increasing our pace for our next race starts with fixing our exhaustion. I did some research and mapped out the most common nutrients long distance runners lack that aren't easily found in my diet: Flaxseed oil, L-Glutamine, Magnesium, Vitamin E, and Zinc. There are some others like Calcium and vitamin C, but that is more common in my diet.
The next thing I needed to look at was protein. I looked at some photos of my progression, and noticed that my upper body muscle was getting smaller, but that I still have perfect giant ear sized love handles that my body was ignoring for some reason. After some research like the good little grad student I am, I learned that "when the rate of breakdown exceeds the rate of synthesis, you lose muscle. If you're dieting, you may be burning the candle at both ends: elevating muscle breakdown and reducing protein synthesis." In other words, just because I am dieting and working out all the time does not mean my body knows to breakdown fat instead of my muscle. In fact, my body is breaking down muscle to liberate amino acid for fuel. The answer to this seems to be adding amino acids (BCAA- branched chain amino acids) and a lot of protein ever day.
Our first race together was a 10k Turkey Trot in 2015 (Thanksgiving). I have had two major injuries with my back (one in high school, one rock climbing some years later), so running has been out of my grasp for a long time. Hannah and I worked on a slow schedule in early November starting with really low milage at a really slow pace, and we built it up from there. By Thanksgiving, I was able to run 6 miles, but would need to sit with a hot pad on my back for an hour after the run. This back pain from running eventually went away, but it has taken some serious consistency and dedication from myself and Hannah (mostly Hannah) to make it happen. As for our training after my back started giving me less problems, it has been more "try to find time to train and still eat something" rather than "you could make a montage of this training regiment" because of the amount of work teachers have to do (see, the teacher backstory is already paying off!).
Summer was quickly approaching, so we wanted to actually get serious about training for our third half.
Our last two half marathons went fairly well. We finished them both at around 1:47/1:48. We were also exhausted by mile 12 both times. We realized that increasing our pace for our next race starts with fixing our exhaustion. I did some research and mapped out the most common nutrients long distance runners lack that aren't easily found in my diet: Flaxseed oil, L-Glutamine, Magnesium, Vitamin E, and Zinc. There are some others like Calcium and vitamin C, but that is more common in my diet.
The next thing I needed to look at was protein. I looked at some photos of my progression, and noticed that my upper body muscle was getting smaller, but that I still have perfect giant ear sized love handles that my body was ignoring for some reason. After some research like the good little grad student I am, I learned that "when the rate of breakdown exceeds the rate of synthesis, you lose muscle. If you're dieting, you may be burning the candle at both ends: elevating muscle breakdown and reducing protein synthesis." In other words, just because I am dieting and working out all the time does not mean my body knows to breakdown fat instead of my muscle. In fact, my body is breaking down muscle to liberate amino acid for fuel. The answer to this seems to be adding amino acids (BCAA- branched chain amino acids) and a lot of protein ever day.
Preparation:
Food
Before deciding on our diet, we did some math to get a ballpark for how many calories we need everyday and how our calories should be spent:
- Kevin's Numbers
- Height: 5'10''
- Weight: 165lb
- Age: 26
- bmr: 2,784.50
- This is supposedly the number of calories needed everyday. I think this number is a bit high, but it at least gives a general idea.
- Protein: 165.66g-225.9g
- Fats: 75.3g-112.95g
- Carbs: 489.45-640.05g
- Hannah's numbers
- bmr: 1,882.08
- Protein: 116.6g-159g
- Fats: 53g-79.5g
- Carbs: 344.5g-450.5g
For the week leading up to our race, and for most of the month before, we followed a pretty steady schedule:
- Pre Run
- 1 cup coffee
- 3g BCAA
- 50% L-Leucine
- 25% L-Isoleucine
- 25% L-Valine
- Post Run
- 1 Cup Special K
- 3/4 Cup Almond Milk
- 10g Syntha-6
- 22g Protein
- Lunch
- 1 Cup of rice, cabbage, lettuce, or quinoa
- Black Beans or lentils
- Supplements
- 1000mg Flaxseed Oil
- 500mg L-Glutamine
- 50mg Zinc
- 100mg Magnesium
- Dinner
- Black bean/Soy-chorizo salad bowls
- 1 cup black beans (sodium free)
- Soy Chorizo
- White Mushroom
- Tofu
- Brown Rice
- Sesame seed Cabbage
- OR
- Salmon Bowl
- 1 Cup Quinoa, carrots, sesame seed Cabbage, red onion, green onion, and sliced radish
- OR
- Best Thai dish ever!
Preparation:
Workouts
Hannah and I try to wake up before 6, have a cup of coffee, take our BCAAs, and then go out for our run. I will lay out how our weeks have been looking. I end every workout with 3 supersets of 20 pushups and 10 rows on the Ab wheel.
- Monday
- 5 Miles
- Tuesday
- 2-3 mile
- X-Train (Fierce 5)
- Squat 3x5
- Bench 3x5
- Pendlay 3x8
- Face Pulls 3x10
- Calf Raises 2x15/Tricep pressdowns 2x10 superset
- Wednesday
- 4 miles
- Fierce 5
- Front Squat 3x5
- Overhead Press 3x5
- Romanian Deadlift 3x8
- Lat Pulldown 3x8
- Ab Work 2x15/Bicep Curls 2x10 superset
- Thursday
- 6 miles
- Friday
- Rest (we have been trading this day with Thursdays when needed)
- X-Train (Fierce 5)
- Squat 3x5
- Bench 3x5
- Pendlay 3x8
- Face Pulls 3x10
- Calf Raises 2x15/Tricep press-downs 2x10 superset
- Saturday
- Long run 6-10 miles
- Sunday
- Rest (we trade with Mondays workout as needed)
- Fierce 5
- Front Squat 3x5
- Overhead Press 3x5
- Romanian Deadlift 3x8
- Lat Pulldown 3x8
- Ab Work 2x15/Bicep Curls 2x10 superset
Race
I switched the diet two days before the race to heavy carb loading. That meant nachos, bread, and pasta. It took a lot of dedication to be able to eat such horrible things. The night before I also had an extra 10g Syntha-6 22g protein shake. I woke up way more full than normal, and had a slight cramp on my right side. I was a little nervous because of how full and up I was on weight (I usually am 165, but was 170 the morning of the race).
We got to the race and walked around a little bit to get ready. It is rare that I find myself in Richmond, but the bay is beautiful.
The race started, and it was a little too crowded for my liking. I made the decision to potentially burn through a lot of my fuel to get in front of the main pack. After that, the race went pretty smoothly. My splits were:
Mile Splits on this Run
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| 5 | |
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| 13 |
Notes about the race. I used my Garmin Vivoactive to keep my pace between 7:25-7:40. I decided on that pace because Hannah and I train at 8/8:40 pace, and I felt I could go a little faster if it was a race. I ran a 10k a few weeks before the race at 7:00 minute pace. But, that race absolutely killed me 4 miles in.
I had no real problems with my race. At mile 6 I counted that I was at 17th for men overall. By mile 10 I was at 11th overall. The last 3 miles had no one to run with, so I found those to be challenging to stay motivated. But, that being said, I had plenty of energy and fuel in my tank by the end of the race.
RUN
- 13.0miDistance
- 1:37:19Moving Time
- 7:27/miAvg Pace
- 1,955Calories
By the time we got back, we had had ice cream, protein shakes, and some tasty
treats they were giving out. I dropped from 170 to 164. The carb loading was a
success! Praise be to Nacho!
I would consider this new approach a success. I got a 10 minute PR AND felt much better
than I normally do after a half. My body also feels good. I have noticed increase muscle
definition with love handles that stick out less.
I will say that my back was pretty sore after the run. So, I now know I can only do
these longer runs at faster speeds once every couple months. That now makes it
challenging for trying to get measurably faster.
Hannah has figured out how to get through this! Starting this week, we will be working on
speed intervals to try and increase our average pace.
I will say that my back was pretty sore after the run. So, I now know I can only do
these longer runs at faster speeds once every couple months. That now makes it
challenging for trying to get measurably faster.
Hannah has figured out how to get through this! Starting this week, we will be working on
speed intervals to try and increase our average pace.
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