Back on the road. After 6 weeks of rest and rehab from four stress fractures, Kurt showed off his bike-spun VO2 this week with his first 5K time trial -- a speedy 24:30, under 8 pace. Now the careful transition to 20-30 mile weeks this month, and hopefully some custom inserts soon -- and he's back on track.

Treadmill vs land running

Cranking the treadmill up to a 1% grade is equal in the effort of a land run. So says this bit of research, A 1% TREADMILL GRADE MOST ACCURATELY REFLECTS THE ENERGETIC COST OF OUTDOOR RUNNING, J Sports Sci Date Of Publication: 1996 Aug. The study demonstrated equality of the energetic cost of treadmill and outdoor running with the use of a 1% treadmill grade over a duration of approximately 5 min and at velocities between about 9:00 and 5:20 per mile pace. You can't substitute substantiatial treadmill workouts for the road -- but in the plus 80/90 heat and humidity, it works for me. I recover faster and can run harder longer. Crank her up...

Still dizzy and queazy from severe dyhydration an hour after NY 2003. Shortly after this shot, I slumped on a curb in west Central Park while Lorraine flagged down a taxi. Couldn't function. Ate chicken dumpling soup in our hotel room and passed out. It was the second NY marathon that wrung me out, two out of two disaster runs. Eating the dumpling, I swore the marathoning was over. Yesterday I got picked in the lottery for some future 26.2 mile lap through the five boroughs. My memory, obviously, is still bonking. (Kurt was not selected, neither was Marabelle, Roy is guaranteed. We may roll the guarantees until we're all selected.)

Training Zones CALCULATOR

Just plug in your max heart rate and resting heart rate, and it gives you the ranges for the 5 training zones. MHR is genetically predetermined and lowers by 1 beat a minute as you age--not much you can do about this number; but resting heart beat indicates fitness level and lowers as you get fitter. This marathon guide suggests a few ways to determine MHR, including running some uphills. A monitor is probably the only way to get an accurate number. Otherwise, they tweek the formula, suggesting: 214 - (.8 x age).

http://www.marathonguide.com/FitnessCalcs/HeartRate2calc.cfm

The link to the training zone article gives some good information on this whole approach to training and what to look for if in the market for a monitor. I'm getting close. Taking my pulse with my finger isn't cutting it.

Training zones & MHR

Here's a better way to figure max heart rate. This is important in figuring training zones – how fast to run intervals, longs, tempos.

217 – (.80 x age) = MHR (for running)

Max heart rate is also sports specific. It will be different running than spinning.

To figure heart rate for training zones:
MHR x Intensity % + RHR (resting heart rate).

For me:
173 MHR – 54 resting heart rate = 119 X intensity (ex. 70%) = 83 + 54 RHB = 137
137 now equals 70% of max heart rate.

Calculating MHR helps you establish the training zones for different kinds of runs.
1. Easy/Recovery = 60 – 70% (long runs up to 75%)
2. Endurance/Strength = 71 – 80% (MP goal is 76-77%)
3. Strength/Long hills = 81 – 85% (tempo runs, just below lactic threshold)
4. Intervals/Hills/Race pace = 86 – 90% (5K and 10Krace pace) (intervals 880s)
5. Speed/Racing (short) = 91 – 100% (sprinting, short races)

RW calculator for training zones
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=1676&V=1&SP=

Pace killer: Heat/humidity

Curious about how S. Fla.'s high temps and humidity were impacting my runs in the summer, I looked everywhere for this. More science: Above 70 degrees, heart rate increases 1 beat/min per degree F. Interestingly, the oxygen demand doesn’t increase in the heat (the sucking wind portion), but your cardio system must pump more blood to your skin to enhance heat dissipation and cool you down. Higher humidity also increases heart rate, because it decreases your sweat evaporation rate. Research shows a 10 beat increase in 90% humidity, compared to 50% humidity.

My heart works very, very hard on those 90/90 days, which is why it takes so long to recover. Treadmill lets me run faster longer, and recover quicker, without the knee pounding. Boring as it is.

Lose weight pick up the pace

For every pound you lose, you are one minute faster in a marathon. Science.

At 182 (4:29), if you could get down to 152, you wouldn't have to do anything more than you did last year. Theory.

Crosstraining/Running Equivalents

You can minimize the wear and tear on your body by replacing up to 25 percent of your mileage with biking, swimming, deep water running, elliptical training, or other aerobic non-weight bearing exercises. Do these activities at a pace that will get your heart rate in your training range and count how many miles you would have run during the time spent doing the alternative training as “running equivalent mileage.” This according the NY marathong training recommendations.

Kurt, what is your heart rate in a spinning class for an hour?

Heart rate formula

Here's the most common and simplistic formula to measure effort based on heart beats:

220 - your age = maximum heart rate (MHR)

For Kurt, 220-48=172 MHR.
77-78% MHR for marathon = 132 beats per minute

See Coach Bensen's site (below) on effort-based training. He says 77-78% MHR is realistic for running a marathon, so we need to get our fitness level in that range for 8:45 pace. Once heart rate and pace matchup, and we put in the longs, we're realistic for the sub-4.

INTERVALS: He also suggests never to run your 800m repeats (intervals) over 90% MHR (155). So anything that approaches 155 MHR would give you a maximum VO2 benefit, without risk of overtraining. Recovery jogs of 400 meters should be around 70% (120 beats).

My desktop. New York's blue line through Central Park. Lottery in mid-June, both Kurt and I are in the pool. 2006?

Now the fun starts

I once read a ditty in RW that said you know you're a marathoner if 18 weeks is an important block of time. So here we are -- 18 weeks to showtime. Everything up till now has been prep.
So how did we do?

Me first: Did I work out in the gym as often as planned? No way, but better than usual. Averaged less than 2X a week when 3X was the game plan. Did I run consistently? Absolutely. Followed the 14-week basing buildup to 25 mpw, plus the long 12 miler. Hills? Nope, only a couple sessions. Speed? At least once a week-- a tempo, interval or time trial for 10 weeks, which produced pretty good results: Completed a 5K time trial this week at 7:44 pace, a 36-sec/mile improvement. Best of all, I managed to run faster and consistently for a total of 14 weeks during baseball season -- and without injury.

Which brings me to Kurt.

A nasty kidney stone and 4 stress fractures sent Kurt to an alternate Winter/Spring Training Plan, spinning on the bike for cardio and no running to let his tibia bones heal. In the next week or so, his 6-week rehab is over and he transitions back on the road, with custom arch supports from his doctor. We may not know till late June whether an October marathon is realistic or not--but it's doable. Not just finish-doable, but break-the-3:59-barrier doable. A lot depends -- no, it all depends -- on whether he was able to spin his VO2 Max to something that can deliver a roughly 25-minute 5K (8:05p) in June. Then his VO2 is in the ballpark, and maybe his lactate threshold. The goal is to get our 5k times to around 22:45 (7:20 pace--which should give us a nice VO2 cushion for a marathon) by mid-September, while racheting up the longs every other week. He has time for three 20s or longer. Weekly runs include 1 long, 1 easy, 1 speed, 1 marathon pace run.

But yeah, Kurt's stress-fractured legs have to hold up. Enter the orthotic. My bet is that does the trick. Other potential problem areas? Well, there's not a whole lot of room for any extended downtime. But getting it all done is always a tight fit.

18 weeks to go to 3:59. Stay healthy, stay tuned.