I'm Getting Schooled... Part 5 of 5 (Coaching Costs)

The first four parts of my coaching series dealt with services that I had to pay for.  I intentionally left out the payment details until now so that I could sum them all up together.  As I mentioned in Part 1, the potential costs were an issue I had to overcome.  Turns out, hiring a coach was cheaper than I thought it would be, not that I'm done whipping out my checkbook yet.  Here's how my expenditures break down:


Initial Consultation

• Duration - 1 hour
• Cost - $40

Lactate Threshold Test

• Duration - Aprox. 40 minutes
• Cost - $75

Stride Analysis

• Duration - Part of a 1 hour training session
• Cost - $40

AlterG Treadmill

• Duration - 1 hour
• Cost - $20/hour, better rates if multiple sessions are prepaid.

Custom 10k Training Plan

• Duration - 5 week plan
• Cost - $35

Since I didn't have to pay to try the AlterG, the total I've paid for services so far from my coach is $180.00 (including a $10 coupon).  Pretty reasonable wouldn't you say for all the help I've got?


Of course, rates will vary from coach to coach, region to region, and year to year, but I think posting these numbers will be helpful to others who are seriously considering hiring a coach like I did.



Go To:
Part 1 of 5 (My New Coach)
Part 2 of 5 (Lactate Threshold Test)
Part 3 of 5 (AlterG)
Part 4 of 5 (10k Training Plan) 

I'm Getting Schooled... Part 4 of 5 (10k Training Plan)

As I alluded to in the first part of this series, I have done alright on my own as a runner, and have come a long way since my clueless beginnings.  However, my marathon PR still sits 20 minutes away from a Boston Qualifier, and I am looking for better improvements.  Hence, it's time for a coaching change (I'm firing myself).


With the change comes a new and welcome training plan, customized for me by Coach Wadsworth.  In the short term, I've got my sights on a 10k race, and that training plan is what I'm going to share with you today.  While this 5 week 10k training plan was tailored for me, I'm sure there are many runners who could gain something by it.


I would describe the plan as advanced, and geared toward a half or full marathoner who needs to squeeze in a 10k.  Note that the minimum daily mileage besides Sundays and race week is 6 miles, and it maxes out at about 56 miles in the third week.  One possible inconvenience is instead of listing paces for each workout, the speed is determined by heart rate zones.  I will go into more details after the training plan chart.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Rest or (E-A) 6 miles	(E-A) 6 miles	(E-A) 7 miles/strides	(T) 2 miles	(E-A) 7 miles	(E-A) 10 miles	Rest
Intervals 4x800, 4x400, 4x200 meters w/equal jog rest (T-I) zone	(E-A) 7 miles	(E-A) 7 miles/strides	(T) 3 miles	(E-A) 7 miles	(A) 12 miles	Rest
Fartlek 15x60 sec. w/equal jog rest (T-I) zone	(E-A) 7 miles	(E-A) 8 miles/strides	(T-I) 4 miles progressive	(E-A) 7 miles	(A) 14 miles	Rest
Intervals 5x1000, 4x200 meters w/equal jog rest (T-I) zone	(E-A) 7 miles	(E-A) 7 miles/strides	(T-I) 4.5 miles progressive	(E-A) 6 miles	(A) 10 miles	Rest
Fartlek 10x90 sec. w/ 2 min. jog rest	(E-A) 6 miles	(E-A) 5 miles/strides 8x200 meter fast w/ 200 jog	(E-A) 4-5 miles	Easy jog 3-4 miles w/ strides	10k Race	Rest

Notes: Blue denotes a recovery week.  Week 1 was denoted a recovery week because I just raced a half marathon the day before.

Heart Rate Training Zones:

(E) - Easy/Recovery Zone:  70% LT - 84% LT*

(A) - Aerobic Maintenance Zone:  85% LT - 95% LT*

(T) - Threshold/Steady Zone:  Lactate Threshold HR ± 2%*

(I) - Interval Zone: 102% LT - Max HR*

*To make this plan as generic as I could, I converted the zones to percentages of Lactate Threshold.  You will have to either get a LT test done or make some educated guesses to obtain desired heart rates.  One estimate to determine LT is to take 85% - 90% of your max HR.  My LT is about 88% of my Max HR.  If you want to throw out all this Lactate Threshold and heart rate stuff, you could simply think of the 4 zones as slow, medium, fast, and fastest.

One of my pet peeves of a lot of other training plans found across the world wide web is they only give minimal information like distance and maybe a 2 word description.  They might say nothing about intensity or specifics of the speed work.  Hopefully I can fill in the gaps.

• E-A runs start in the Easy zone, finish in the Aerobic zone.
• Jog between intervals.  Allow HR to dip below Easy zone before starting next one.
• For all Interval, Threshold, or Fartlek days add a 2-3 mile easy warm-up and a 2-3 mile cool-down to what's listed in the chart.
• The fartlek repetitions should get gradually faster (progressive) so that although they might last the same duration, you should cover greater distances as the workout goes on.
• Strides are 100-200 meter accelerations at 80-95% max speed with a short 1-2 minute rest between. Aim for 4-8 repetitions and relaxed but fast running.  Do strides at the end of the day's run with no jogging in between.

Feel free to contact me if I left out any details.  Maybe this training plan will be helpful to others who are needing to mix things up a bit like I did.  In my final post for my coaching series, I will go over what all this advice has been costing me.  Thanks for reading.



Go To:
Part 1 of 5 (My New Coach)

Part 2 of 5 (Lactate Threshold Test)

Part 3 of 5 (AlterG)

Part 5 of 5 (Coaching Costs)

I'm Getting Schooled... Part 3 of 5 (AlterG)

On May 11th, I had another appointment with Coach Wadsworth.  The main objective this day was to have him give me a stride analysis.  I really won't go into the gory details of it because it went pretty well, and what I'm about to talk about is a lot more interesting.  However, he made the observation that my left foot wasn't kicking back as high as my right, nor did it appear to be going through the full range of motion.  The cause most likely is my left leg is weaker and less flexible than my right, so I will be doing some exercises/plyometrics he prescribed.

The secondary purpose of my session with Nathan was to give his AlterG treadmill a test drive, er run.  I can vividly remember the first time I ever laid eyes on an AlterG.  It was in an issue of Runner's World which I used to have time to read cover to cover before I started blogging.  Now I mainly skim through it.  Anyhow, I thought it was a bad-ass piece of machinery that only Olympians had access to.  They are still pretty rare.

Somebody reading this may have never heard of, or know what an AlterG treadmill is.  Well, you're about to.  AlterG is short for Anti Gravity.  They are made in California with a price tag of $75,000.  They can be used for rehabilitation or performance training.  In some cases, they can just be used for a fun and unique experience.   The purpose of it is to allow you go on a crash diet and become up to 80% lighter than your current body weight while you otherwise use it like a regular treadmill.  It works by pressurizing an almost airtight tent that envelopes the lower part of the mill including you.  The resulting air pressure tries to push you out of the hole in the top thereby making you lighter.  Using the touch screen, it goes up to 18mph with a 0-15% incline.  It will even go 10 mph in reverse.  Other than that, a picture says 1000 words.

My maiden AlterG experience.  I'm actually running a near effortless 10 mph (6 minute mile)
in this photo while at 50% of my body weight.

The AlterG is controlled by a touch screen.  Like an iPod app on steroids.  I think those beverage
holders could easily hold a couple 40 ouncers.

I had it up to 12mph (5:00 pace) while at 40% of my body weight.  I'm sure I could have gone faster, but I wasn't used to the sensation and I felt a little off balance, so I played it safe.  The lighter I got, the more it felt like I was running on my tiptoes.  I wish I was wearing a HR monitor.  I've never tried that pace on a regular treadmill, and not sure I want to.  My PR in the mile is roughly 5:52, and I remember that being a lot more painful.

Aren't you glad you don't have to look at another picture of me.  Here's
a picture of my coach holding the special AlterG shorts I had to squeeze into.
Notice the industrial white zipper that runs around the waist. 

Even though my first run on the AlterG was more for fun and to get a feel for it (and to brag about it on my blog), someday I will probably try to work it into my routine.  Now that I got this experience off my bucket list, it's back to training.  In my next post, I'll go over the custom 10k training plan Coach Wadsworth created just for little old me.


Go To:
Part 1 of 5 (My New Coach)

Part 2 of 5 (Lactate Threshold Test)

Part 4 of 5 (10k Training Plan)

Part 5 of 5 (Coaching Costs)

I'm Getting Schooled... Part 2 of 5 (Lactate Threshold Test)

Before Coach Wadsworth could make me a suitable training schedule, we had to figure out what kind of shape I was in.  By shape, I mean what my lactate threshold is, and I'm not referring to when my mammary glands start milking.  For those that have no idea what I'm talking about:

Lactate Threshold is the exercise intensity at which lactate starts to accumulate in the blood stream.  That may insinuate that lactate is bad, but really it is just a byproduct of lactic acid along with hydrogen ions which are the real problem.  Hydrogen ions cause an acidic environment in the muscle, a process referred to as acidosis.  Acidosis interferes with muscle contractions, causing fatigue. 

So a lactate test is just another way to measure the amount of hydrogen ions that lead to acidosis, and therefore is an indirect marker for fatigue.  I spent about an hour studying that and trying to put it in layman's terms.  Is it still clear as mud?

So that's all well and good, but how does knowing all that help my training?  The answer is, by knowing what my threshold is I can train at the highest intensity possible for the longest time while improving my ability to conserve energy and fight fatigue.  Obviously, we can't train like that all the time or we would become "overtrained" or injured.  The general guidelines state that this intensity of workouts should only makeup about 10 to 20 percent of total mileage for the week.

On April 24th, I met up with coach at his training center.  To conduct the test, he had me put on a heart rate monitor, and warm up on a treadmill for about 10 minutes.  After that he started to increase the incline and the speed every couple minutes.  After each increase he would have me rate my perceived level of exertion on a scale of 1 to 10.  Then he would have me place my hand (while I was running) on the frame of the treadmill while he pricked it to get a blood sample.  He measured the sample with a digital machine and marked down my lactate level along with my heart rate.  To finish the test he turned into a sadist and upped the incline to 8% and the pace to 8 mph until I cried uncle.  He said he did that to find my max heart rate, but he was smiling a lot when he said it, so I think he was just wanting to see me suffer.

This is the lactate test kit that was used on me.  The white and blue tool at the bottom is used to prick fingers.
The black canister holds little litmus type strips of paper used to collect the drops of blood,
and the yellow device is a digital meter used to measure the amount of lactate in your blood.

This is simply a chart to record all the heart rate and
lactate levels as the test progresses.

Now for the moment we've all been waiting for:  Nathan emailed me a letter containing my results along with an explanation of the test.  I've posted the letter below in its entirety.

A treadmill graded exercise stress test was performed 4/24/12.  A 12.5-minute warm-up at 3.5-5 mph was carried out prior to the test.  During the first stage of the test, you maintained a running speed of 6 mph with a 0 degree incline.  The incline increased to 8%, while the speed increased to 8 mph by 16:30 minutes.  During the test, you reached a maximum heart rate of 197 bpm. The “will to stop outweighed the will to keep going” and “no finish line” were the reasons for ending the test, although a Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of 9 out of 10 was achieved indicating a near-maximal effort.  Blood Lactate levels of 4.0+ mmol/L were achieved at 16:00, which means that your body has gone over the lactate threshold value.  This indicates a switch from having a surplus of oxygen to going into oxygen debt (or the amount of carbon dioxide that your body is removing by ventilation is greater than the amount of oxygen you are able to breathe in).  Namely, you have gone over your lactate threshold.

Improving lactate threshold and mechanical efficiency can be accomplished by performing interval workouts above your lactate threshold heart rate of 183 bpm.  Quality aerobic training needs to be carried out in the heart rate range of 130-180 bpm, which is below your lactate threshold.  Tempo runs at or just above or below your lactate threshold heart rate of 183 bpm will increase your lactate threshold and allow you to improve your aerobic fitness level.

Strides and tempo runs will help you to run faster and more efficient. Be sure to perform your recovery runs at a HR of 130-150 bpm.  This level will ensure that you are recovering adequately.  With the implementation of these suggestions you will be able to improve your running times.

Heart Rate Training Zones:

Easy/Recovery Zone:  130-150 bpm

Aerobic Maintenance Zone:  151-180 bpm

Threshold/Steady Zone:  181-186 bpm

Interval Zone: 186+ bpm

A re-test in six weeks would be beneficial and should show improvement.

Now with a lactate threshold in hand, a customized training schedule can be developed where some of my workouts will be ran at that threshold.  If you'll notice, Nathan also gave me zones for Recovery, Aerobic, and Interval.  This should help me to know how fast to run based on the day's objective.

For part III of my blog series, I get to hop on my coach's AlterG.

Go To:

Part 1 of 5 (My New Coach)

Part 3 of 5 (AlterG)
Part 4 of 5 (10k Training Plan)
Part 5 of 5 (Coaching Costs)

I'm Getting Schooled... Part 1 of 5 (My New Coach)

Recently I did something that I have never done before in my 13 years as a runner:  Hire a running coach.  This has been a long time coming.  While I have slowly improved on my own thanks to gained experience, increased workouts, and self education, I have long wondered if I've been living up to my potential.  My wife thinks she has that answer, which I won't repeat here.


I want to be able to focus on the different aspects of my new journey, so I'm going to divide the topics up into 5 shorter posts.  This first one will be an introduction to my new coach, and how it all came to be.


I had 4 barriers to hiring a coach.

1. Ego.  Freud had one and so do I.  In a nutshell I thought, "I've been at this a long time, I know what I'm doing and getting better."
2. Cost.  Maybe the biggest issue.  Not only was I concerned with my monthly budget, but I didn't want to be self-centered by taking money away from the rest of the household.
3. Who to hire?
4. Is he going to laugh at me (à la Adam Sandler)?

After lots and lots of thought, here's how I resolved those 4 issues:

1. I'm ready to try training differently (hopefully smarter), and I want a new perspective.  Worst case, I stagnate for 6 months, then go back to doing what I think is best.
2. I got the go ahead from my wife to enlist a coach, and I budgeted for it with a portion my tax return.
3. After overcoming the cost and ego parts, I researched and asked for a few recommendations on a good coach for me, and then came to a consensus with myself.
4. I'm used to getting laughed at.

So I contacted a local coach/personal trainer named Nathan Wadsworth.  Nathan went to a Division I college (my Alma mater) where he was an all-conference track star and graduated with a Masters degree in Exercise Science.  His career highlights that stood out to me include a 21st place Boston Marathon finish in 2007, a 57th place finish at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials that same year, and a 2:21:51 Marathon PR.

Maybe I should note at this point that he isn't giving me any incentives to mention him, and it is too early in my training to know if any of his advice is paying off.  However, part of my reason for blogging is to educate and pass on information, so if any local runners are needing a trainer, he is an option to consider if you're in the Wichita area.  Also I/Nathan should note, if he wants to give me any financial incentives, I'm open to the idea.

Considering all the years I procrastinated getting a coach, I was counting down the minutes until my first appointment.  I first met with Nathan on April 19th for a one hour consultation.  We discussed my running goals, and where I was at fitness wise.  Part of the plan was for him to customize a training plan for me, so I went through the trouble of writing down various race paces I was capable running along with other training I had been doing for reference.  By the time the hour was up, he had another client arrive, but we had a good understanding of each other, and I had fun talking to an elite runner about our sport.  We agreed to meet the next week to start my "education."

I was interested in doing Lactate Threshold workouts as a regular part of training, but since I wasn't sure what my threshold was, we scheduled a Lactate Threshold Test for the next week, and that is where I will pick up in part II of this little series. 

Go To:

Part 2 of 5 (Lactate Threshold Test)
Part 3 of 5 (AlterG)
Part 4 of 5 (10k Training Plan)
Part 5 of 5 (Coaching Costs)