80/20, week 4

A lot more has happened than just 80/20 training. But I'll start with that.

I've kept up with the zones as they were defined by my first test, but I find it increasingly hard to achieve the heart rates specified without going faster than the associated speed zones. There's no doubt that I'm running faster than before; almost every workout has another fastest time for this or that distance, and even my runs to work with a backpack have been in the 5:10-5:30/km range. Not particularly fast, perhaps, but faster than I was, by a solid 9 percent. Anyway, my new watch has been treating me well, and I've been reading a great deal about the endurance diet advocated by Matt Fitzgerald. Interesting stuff.

This weekend was VERY productive. Saturday was a work day, with a dinner at the Bronwyn. Sunday, I got up early and cooked quinoa (1 cup of white in 2 cups water with a chicken maggi cube), 3 large sweet potatoes, and a batch of zucchini ratatouille according to the recipe in "Recipes for Adventure II", except I steamed the ratatouille in order to avoid the use of oil. The sweet potatoes were peeled and cubed, and everything was dehydrated in preparation for making "Inca stew". I also dried some of the lime/cilantro brown ride I had made earlier in the week, as an experiment. Sara and I went for a run, got a present for a mutual friend, (finally) bought 2 11-pound bags of blue diamond cat food (which do both fit into the bucket I ordered, with the gamma lid), and went to a Greek food festival. When we got back, I steamed a coupld large potatoes for 15 minutes, let them cool, peeled them, grated them, and steamed some diced onions. Whew.

Monday, I lined a couple small rectangular pyrex dishes  with parchment paper, and poured into each a mix of 2 eggs, 85g grated potato, 55g steamed onion, and a dash each of salt, pepper, and mustand powder. They were then baked at 375F for 30 minutes, and immediately turned out to cool. I made 4 such rectangles, then cubed them up and dehydrated them at 145F. Sara and I made pasta e fagioli, except we used smoked turkey legs instead of any pork. It was a good way to use a lot of the vegetables we got in our farm share. Anyway, it turned out great, and we also went for another run together.

All told, I've got a fair bit more dried food, and certainly some new things to try. There was a lot of good food this weekend, and I'm looking forward to more to come.

80/20, week 2

Today was day 1 of my second week of 80/20 training.

Last week went reasonably well. I did most of the runs in my local park, but the Saturday run was done as a commute in to work, and was the only run that week with a backpack. It was deeply satisfying. I also stopped drinking coffee and started drinking green tea instead, despite being only somewhat convinced of the relevant health benefits. I started eating mostly "core foods", largely things like chopped salads, but I need to put a fair bit more effort into my diet if I want to pursue the model in the book I've been reading. In particular, I need to incorporate more lean dairy and protein into my diet.

Today felt productive, despite really just consisting of basic chores. My strength training has consisted of 110 reps of everything, with the situps and squats weighted by 10 pounds, for quite some time now. I did laundry, a 40-minute training run, filled a dozen water jugs, went grocery shopping, cleaned the litterbox, emptied the composting toilet, washed the dishes, poached some eggs and made roasted bell pepper sauce, and generally tidied things up.

I keep thinking about living in a really small van. Or on a small sailboat in the middle of the ocean.

80/20 running zones

Since I accomplished my goal of doing a trail-only marathon, and took a week off to recover, I've been thinking about a new goal. Last week, I did a number of longer runs to and from work, mostly 15Km runs, totally a little over 90Km. I've decided that it's time to try to improve my speed; my distance has received enough attention for a while.

So today, I did another threshold running test for 80/20 training. It turns out my threshold heart rate is 181, and my threshold pace is 4:38/km. The heart rate is well above the previous heart rate threshold I determined, but the speed is 22 seconds per kilometer faster. I need to decide whether I want to just do run training, or go back to triathlon training.

I should also get some proper nutrition going. A plan for how best to eat for both strength training and endurance training, and meal prep to support it.

Plenty of decisions to be made.

New goals

On April 29th, I went a full marathon distance 100% on trails.

I ran the first 2/3rds, then walked so I could eat and drink. The last 1/3 was a mix of walking and running, and my time was nothing to brag about, but I finished it; that's what I wanted. I also did it in my 5mm drop shoes, because I forgot (of all things) my regular running shoes.

After that, I ate an entire family sized bag of tortilla chips, with salsa, and generally did nothing of consequence the rest of the day. The next day, I went to Vermont for a short vacation. I spent a few days going to interesting shops, hiking, kayaking, and went on a tour of the Alchemist brewery (two cases of Heady Topper returned with me; only four cans have succumbed to my thirst thus far).

Today was the first day I ran since that marathon. My legs hurt for a couple days afterwards, but I had enough pain in my right knee towards the end of the run that I wanted to give things plenty of time. I ran to and from work, with full pack, in my 5mm drop shoes. It felt totally fine; whether a transition from 10 to 5 is minimal, or my previous working up to 40% of every run being done forefoot first was effective, I felt totally fine. I think I'll try to run 100km this week and next week, just to get back into running.

But now that I've done my trail marathon, I should work towards something new. I'm running a half marathon with a friend in a while, but that's more of a social event; I doubt it will be very strenuous. I should work on getting faster. I should also get back into the water.

The end of a rest week

I ran even less than I was anticipating this week.

Every run was at least 40% toe-first; it didn't seem to slow me down much. My run home on Wednesday was after donating platelets, and even that didn't seem to slow me down by enough for my pace to be outside a normal band (although I did screw up the lap counter on my watch from hitting the wrong buttons). But my run in to work today involved the heaviest pack I've carried in a long time, 7.1kg, because I brought my waffle iron. I also did 110 reps of each of my strength training exercises for the first time ever this morning. Between those achievements, and my performance the rest of the week, I'm calling this rest week complete (except for my normal stretches tomorrow).

Next week, I'll run my trail marathon. I'll be carrying my osprey running vest, because I never did find the time to try sewing my own pack. I still have the materials, though, and this is far from the last time I'll be going on a long run. I do intend to adopt a formal training plan to try to improve my speed. I've achieved perfectly respectable distances, so it's time to shift my focus to an area where I sand to improve a lot more.

I've been dehydrating a LOT of fruit lately, mostly strawberries. 16 pounds of strawberries just about fit into my dehydrator, and turn into a little over a pound when all's said and done. I've dehydrated a hair over 30 pounds, largely because they're just over $1/pound at haymarket lately.

I'm also having an interesting time tinkering with a few odds and ends for hiking. I'm working on making a good, small alcohol stove, a fuel bottle, that sort of thing. I like that a lot of the pieces are just salvaged from the trash and recycling bins.

The start of a new rest week

I guess it's been a few weeks since I posted. I improved for the last 3 weeks; last week, I was just shy of 3 marathons. I got a new smartwatch early last week; a garmin forerunner 945. I ran twice on Monday with both it and my vivoactive 3, but every run since has been forerunner only. I've been generally pleased with how things have gone lately. Today, I started a rest week of running, and increased my percentage of the runs that I spend forefoot striking from 30% to 40%.

Rest week, concluded

Every iteration of my strength training this week has included 105 reps of every exercise, more than any previous week. All of my runs have consisted of at least 30% forefoot first striking, except today. Today, I ran a hair over 9 kilometers in my 5mm drop shoes.

Ever since I bought them, I've added arch and toe exercises to my morning stretching routine, continually increased my forefoot striking while running, and generally worn the 5mm drop shoes for walking around. When I went for a run today in those 5mm drop shoes, as opposed to the 10mm drop shoes I normally wear, I didn't even notice. Which is fantastic; I'm moving towards being totally adapted to running in zero drop shoes.

Tomorrow, I'll test my dehydrated stroganoff and egg noodles.