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Taipei, Taiwan 101 building and city scape.

I’m back in Taipei after a few months in The Czech Republic. The next month of training will be in preparation for a series of three races in Canada – Loop the Lake (Half Marathon, August 7, 2010), Canadian Derby Edmonton (Half Marathon, August 22, 2010) and the Toronto Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon (September 26, 2010).

The Czech portion of my training focused on strength. Running the Silva Nortica cross country marathon in June involved hills and the need for endurance. I enjoyed being in the woods, the uneven terrain and solitude reminded me of Canada. My heart would go through the cycle of jumping out of my chest and recovering as I made my way up and down the trails. Gasping for breath brought back fond memories of the trails on The Sunshine Coast just north of Vancouver.

Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas

The Canadian races will be an attempt at increasing my speed. Loop the Lake is a training event where I’ll monitor my fitness level. A 5 min/km pace will test how well I can maintain the pace over the duration of the race. Based on the results, the Edmonton race will be an incorporation of the feedback and an effort to set a new personal record (PR) at the half marathon distance. 1:49:29 is the PR time to beat. At 5km/min, 1:45:00 could be the next race duration I’ll fixated on for my number days. Both races will ultamatly lead to the goal of a strong finish at the Toronto Marathon a month later. Running a sub 4 hour marathon remains as my main focus.

In preparation for my Taipei training I’m rereading Advance Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas. A great reference that breaks down all of the elements of training for a marathon. The details provided are quite technical but well within the comprehension of an avid runner. I’d recommend the book to anyone who loves the sport of running and wants a reference that talks of many of the issues that professionals concern themselves with.

Human Leg Muscle Anonymity

A few interesting points from the first chapter, “Elements of Training”. Perhaps some of the information can be applied to my Taipei efforts:

• High Proportion of Slow-Twitch Fibers: Our muscles are composed of three types of fibers, slow-twitch, fast-twitch A and fast-twitch B. The more slow-twitch the better our muscles are able to perform in endurance spots. The bad news, we’re simply born with a composition of the different types. Slow-twitch is non adaptable, we’re stuck with what we’ve given at birth. The good news is that fast-twitch A can behave like slow-twitch with the correct, prolonged period of training.
• High Lactate Threshold (LT): When running over 30 minutes, this quality will effect running performance the most. As we run, our muscles build up lactate through a chemical process our body uses to make our muscles flex. When this threshold is exceed our muscles stop performing, we become wobbly and if you’re like me, fall down. The goal is to always run just under this threshold. Through training, this threshold can be increased. It’s a long process of transformation in the body, the results are significant and long standing.
  • Increased Number and Size of Mitochondria: Muscle is composed of different fibers, mitochondria is the fiber used in the creation of energy aerobically. Through breathing, oxygen is added to our blood and delivered to our muscles. This fiber uses the oxygen to make our muscles flex. More fibers, more energy, more flexing to ultimately make us go faster.
  • Increased Aerobic Enzyme Activity: The mitochondria uses enzymes in it’s chemical process. An increase in this enzyme will result in more effective mitochondria. This is a good thing.
  • Increased Capillarization of Muscle Fibers: Oxygen is the key ingredient in keeping this process working. It transports fuel to the muscles and caries waste away. The more capillaries surrounding the muscles more efficient the system operates.
• High Glycogen Storage and Well-Developed Fat Utilization: Glycogen is a carbohydrate, it’s used by our body as fuel to create the energy needed to move. The greater our body can store glycogen the more “fuel we can have in our tank”. When our body runs out of glycogen it switches to focusing on burning body fat. The process of converting fat to energy is less efficient as it requires more oxygen to work. The longer we can use glycogen as our primary source of energy the better the running results. Once the body runs out of Glycogen and Body Fat, our body start to burn muscle. At this stage the body will typically refuse to function as the process has become harmful to the bodies existence. I find this process fascinating as there’s a huge physiological factor at work. Sometimes we can mentally make our body do things in the short term that it deems not possible all through will power.

Human Lower Leg Anonymity

• Running Economy: The process of running uses energy which in turn uses oxygen. Some move more efficiently than others, this is the measure of this process.
• High Maximal Oxygen Uptake (VO2 max): The higher the value the more effective the body is at getting essential oxygen into the body.
• Recovery Rate: How long does it take the body to recover from a hard workout. Exercise is a process of adaptation due to injury and stress. Done in a controlled, constructive manor, exercise will result in the body rebuilding itself over and over. Each time the areas that we’re stressed rebuilt they will end up being a little stronger. How long this process takes is the recovery rate. The faster our body can rebuild itself the sooner we can get back to stressing it again. How says we’re not sadistic in our origins?

In a future post I’ll go into detail about what’s suggested to improve these qualities to be a successful marathon runner. Currently my greatest concern is the 30+ C temperature. The effect on hydration of the body when training is surprising. I would have never guessed that it’s typical to lose 1.5kg of water per hours of running on a warm day. Loosing any more than 2% of your body weight will show up in running performance. As a general guideline I’ll need to consume 4 litres of water in a typical training day. Slosh, slosh… enough water already!

Tags: Moving to Taipei, Running Goals, Tempo Run

This entry was posted on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 8:39 pm and is filed under 10km, Intervals, Tempo Runs, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.