2012 in Summary (7 Comments)

31 Dec 12 by Colin Seymour diet, goals, training

What a way to finish off this year's running: a very soggy and blustery 91 minutes round Chazey Wood. With that done, I think it's a good time to sum up my running for 2012.

So what happened in 2012 in my little running world? Well, lots.

Training

I started the year by switching my training to follow the maximum aerobic function (MAF) theory and method devised by Phil Maffetone (see my post Does Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) Training Work? post from Saturday for more details) and experienced tremendous returns.

As I was running all of my training aerobically, I found I was recovering incredibly quickly and soon found I could run for an hour or more many days on the trot, including after a 2-to-3 hour long run on a Sunday. As a result my mileage climbed to levels I've never run before...

Monthly training totals for 2009 - 2012 (all figures are in kilometers)

As you can see, every month trumped the years before with 3 huge months: June, August and November, each over 300km. I'm not quite sure what happened in February and March as I didn't log the days I didn't run (that'll be changing next year), didn't document any complaints in my logs and didn't post any blog posts to suggest a problem. I know I had a holiday in the lake district and I tapered (unnecessary in hindsight) for my first half-marathon in over 13 years in March, but that shouldn't have entirely accounted for such a poor showing in March. February we can probably blame on the weather - I've become much less of a fair-weather runner through the year .

Within all this training are 5 weeks in which I covered more than 100km in each week with my biggest week being the week of 3 - 9 September when I clocked in 121.54km. Impressed? I am and I'm chuffed to bits with the fact 8 of the 12 months have totals over 200km and the total of 2823km for the year. This is 823km MORE than I thought I'd cover when I set myself a target of 2000km for the year in January 2012.

So given the success I've had so far with this training, more on the effects on my racing coming up, I'm going to be sticking with this MAF training for a lot longer. As I mentioned in Saturday's post, the only change I'll be introducing this year is a race-specific speed session once a fortnight. I also plan to introduce a bit more strength work in the form of hills and full body weight sessions (got to get my money's worth in the gym) to the non-peak-racing parts of the year. Both will be closely monitored to see if they have a negative impact on my overall training and well-being.

Diet

After reading Phil Maffetone's Big Book of Endurance, I started to consider the merits of a lower carbohydrate diet. I then read Tim Noakes's Challenging Beliefs and I was convinced this was something I had to try and put to the test so I adopted a "paleo-lite" diet as I mentioned in my mid-year update.

After experiencing some very good results, I finally took the plunge and dropped the carbs almost entirely. No more pre-long run or pre-race carbs (I was still consuming some "complex carbs" until about June); just good ol' fat and protein and lots of it and I've not looked back and I don't think I will. Thus far I've not needed a stack of carbs before any of my runs and in fact I believe I now perform better by NOT having any carbs before I race.

So with a good 6 months of a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet I can say this works for me as...

I have lost weight without even trying. You may say performing the MAF training would have done this, and you're probably right, but only partly. Once I switched to a LCHF diet, the weight just fell off. I started the year weighing 81kg and soon stabilised at 79kg. I'm ending the year weighing 71kg with the biggest drop in their weight coming after I switched completely to the LCHF diet.
I noticed my endurance improved significantly. Once again, the MAF would have contributed to this, but I think switching to the LCHF helped even more as fat is definitely a better fuel source for me than carbohydrates.
I experienced much better and more consistent energy levels. I'm a lively chap most of the time, but I always found I had a slump around about 3pm each afternoon when I craved a choccy or some other quickfix carb snack - my will power was good so I very rarely gave in, but I still experienced the sugar low. Things were particularly bad on the weekend when I tended not to have my mid-morning apple or banana. I'd then enter the state my wife and I call "hangry". It's when I'd get grumpy, snappy and agitated because of low sugar levels. Not anymore. I can breeze through the afternoon or Saturday morning's shopping without even noticing the time or feeling the slightest bit peckish.

As an added bonus, my wife has switched to a LCHF diet with me, though with a bit less stringenc, and she too is reaping the benefits, except the running part - she's not a runner. She does however miss the likes of bread (she's a huge marmite fan) and pasta more than me.

So as with the MAF training, this is something else I'll be keeping up and I definitely encourage you to consider it too. If anything, get hold of a copy of Wheat Belly and try giving up just wheat to start with and see the benefits. The rest of the carbs will soon follow .

Racing

So you now know about my diet and training, what happened in the racing? Well check out these times:

Dist	2011 Season Best	2012 Season Best	Improvement
5km (off-road)	19:06	17:36	1:30
5mile (off-road)	32:03	30:55	1:08
10km	39:42	37:55	1:58
21.km	1:29:52*	1:19:53	10:01

* The 2011 season half-marathon was actually run in April 2012 but as I didn't run a half-marathon last year, I've included it.

The 5k off-road and half-marathon are all-time personal bests according to my records. I'm sure I've run 5km on-road quicker, but not off-road. I'd also never run a half-marathon anywhere near 1h 20m before, let alone run under it and best of all, that half-marathon included a 10k PB. I can't wait for a nice fast 10k in 2013 to see if I can get a new all-time PB.

I can only put these great times down to the fantastic aerobic base the MAF training has given me and the adaptation of my body to a LCHF diet.

I am now running at a quicker pace than I was when I left South Africa at the ripe old age of 20.

Plans for 2013

With 2012 behind me and 2013 looming on the horizon, it's time to think about my goals for next year.

My first and probably biggest goal is to run a sub-3 hour marathon at the Milton Keynes marathon in May and thus qualify for the 2014 London Marathon well within the "Good for age" limit of 3:10.

Once that's out of the way I think I'll have a good go at the following goals...

sub-17 5k
sub-36 10k
sub-78 1/2 marathon
run a 100km week at least once a month
exceed 3200km of running for the year - this isn't too important as I tend to train by time rather distance

I think these are good attainable goals which are going to be tough to hit, but with some good training I think I might be able to accomplish them. I'm also going to start logging the days when I don't run so I can understand the fluctuations in monthly totals and gauge the effects of my training more effectively.

I'm really enjoying my running at the moment and really hope next year is another bumper year. Watch this space.

7 Comments

Hello Colin.

Really enjoyed your last couple of posts.

Just a couple of observations.
Having read the PDF as suggested, I note the author suggests that a plateau may be reached in 3 to 6 months and yet you have improved continuously. Makes me wonder if his study group was as committed as you have been.

From other net readings and "born to run" do you/have you regulated your breathing by simply breathing through your nose? Can not find the piece in the book but I recall that as part of their running play, the kids had to hold on to a mouthful of water. This taught them to breathe through their nose only. The knock on of this, is that it acts as an inbuilt regulator. Keeps you operating aerobically as you cannot take enough in through the nostrils to go anaerobic. Which ties in with the concepts of Dr. Maffetone.

Heart rate monitors are comparatively affordable these days, but if one is not available, breathing through your nose will keep you aerobic.

All the best for the new year.

Jason

I saw that about the plateau in the PDF and I suspect I may not have plateaued as I was throwing in the occasional parkrun or race and also my long runs were quite long. For some reason I've found my MAF runs are always quicker the day after a long run.

Regarding nose-breathing: I did try it for a bit but found that my HR actually rose when nose-breathing whilst running at the same slow pace. Instead I concentrate on belly-breathing, that is breathing in properly with my lungs and using my diaphragm. This seems to have a great effect on relaxing me (I use this in races when I notice I'm tensing up) and lowering my HR.

Those are some fantastic results from MAF training and your documentation of your experience is great. Thanks for that. I do have one question. In your previous post you mention 'parkruns'. Is that trail running? I tried implementing the MAF approach, but do a good amount of trails with hills and resist walking up the hills to keep my heart rate under the max. I don't push it too much up the hills, but of course your heart rate is going to go up. During the past year of training how often were you doing the parkruns?

Thanks again.
Eric

OK. I'll answer my own question about the parkruns. I see they're 5K races in the UK. So seems like you were at least racing pretty frequently in 2012.

Yup, parkruns are indeed free 5Ks held every Saturday all over the country (and growing to other countries now too). I didn't do that many in the end... only 13 for the entire year which is quite low considering they're on every weekend.

If I total up all my parkruns and races for the year, I only "raced" 21 times in 52 weeks...

13x 5k parkruns
2x offroad 5 milers
3x 10k
3x half marathons

Hello Colin

Revisiting this post as posted here before but not sure if it would be better in the MAF post. I digress.
When you started using the MAF principle; did you experience your heart rate monitor pinging off before you even felt you where actually getting into your stride?

I have tried this for a month now (and even though you suggest trying for 3 months at least) I am finding it utterly soul destroying. I feel like it want to rip the HRM off and smash it to smithereens because it must be lying to me, constantly pinging saying heart rate too high, I am barely moving.
I have read Dr Mafftones Big book of endurance and this situation is often referenced, people can seemingly run happily a lot faster than they can slower. Driving me nuts.
Just wondering if you had to go through this phase or your aerobic capacity was already sufficient to operate at a low HR?

The only thing that stops me throwing the HRM in the next brook is, it works fine when out on the bike. Can keep the HR nicely at may max level of 135bpm.
I can only conclude. Running is far more taxing than cycling, my aerobic capacity or running economy is shockingly poor or both.

Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated. Failing that, the simple cold truth, is my own conclusion about right.

Jason the dis heartend

@Jason - I was going to reply here, but my response got too long and I thought this valuable for others. Check out my Disheartened By MAF post in which I respond.

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