Breaking Down Ambitious Goals

Making It Real

Races provide feedback, and stimuli, that can’t be found elsewhere.

Last week, John asked me to break down one of my ambitious goals. Rather than replying to him, I’ve made a template for you to apply.

We started with a brief race report.

Part Two will cover pacing. Part Three will help you decide where you focus your training based on race feedback.

I’ve been back running for 19 months, so the 1:27 was a solid performance. More importantly, I enjoyed both my preparation and race day.

I never wonder what John is thinking…

Brief, direct, helpful

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Quantifying The Gap

John makes a good point. How big is that gap?

I’ll walk you through five ways to quantify the gap.

1. vDot Scores

2. Race Equivalents

3. Training Paces

4. Peer Training Loads & Performances

5. Age Graded Performances

vDot scores are one way to assess run performances. (Link is to my article.)

vDots are similar to VO2max scores, but not the same.

vDot of 59 feels close to my maximum potential in late-middle age. Of course, the only way to know for sure is to undertake the journey.

The vDot system provides feedback on training paces and race-distance equivalents. Thereby enabling an athlete to put their goals in context.

“Equivalent” performances. The further we get from our target distance the less meaningful the comparison. Most athletes will do relatively better at one end of the duration spectrum than the other. I tend to score higher as the duration increases.

Training paces implied by having the fitness to achieve my goal time of a 1:19 Half Marathon. It is essential to train where we are at. However, researching the training paces can help us understand “the gap.” Using lactate, my LT1 pace is 4:40 per K. Using feeling, my Easy pace is closer to 5:00 per K.

My Green Zone performance is in the right ballpark. However, the race equivalents table shows a big gap. I know this because I set my recent PBs from 2 Miles through to the Half Marathon in my recent race (i.e. on the same day, at the same event).

Not ideal to set short bests in a long event. This is partly a reflection of cautious training but also says something about my pacing. More on that next time.

Let’s recap so far.

1. Pull Up vDot Score

2. Note Race Equivalents

3. Compare Training Pace Equivalents

4. Compare PBs To Race Equivalents

My gap was diagnosed by John…

Also important to remember, there is no rush to step-up the distance.

You will often read my advice to “let soreness be your guide.” Soreness is essential info. It is tempting to focus on “fitness gaps” - in this case, my Zone 4 stamina. However, there’s no rush to close fitness gaps.

My post-race soreness indicates it is better to step down my distance and improve my general capacity and durability.

• Fitness Gaps Close Quickly

• Durability & Capacity Gaps Take Time

There’s another gap we must consider.

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Peer Training Loads & Performances

Strava revolutionized our ability to our ability to see what-it-takes.

There was a 63 year-old runner, who ran 1:19-high. So I made friends and had a look.

Seven 100K+ Weeks

…and checked his Red Zone capacity as a reality check against mine…

Recent Bests for Mr. 63

This is 5K, the above is 10K

By using Strava, we can build a portfolio of peers as a reality check.

The idea is not to replicate the training of faster athletes. What we want to do is quantify the work that’s required to achieve our goals.

This step surfaced my largest “gap.”

The athletes above me have chronic load above what I can tolerate, roughly double.

Two lessons you’ll see over and over:

1. The final 10% performance jump requires a doubling of effort.

2. Work Capacity dominates Work Rate.

Don’t lose heart.

We have tactics we can employ.

• Patience => time will close the gap. If you are a “new” athlete then staying healthy and consistent works. It’s a long journey of 5-10 years.

• Cross Training => bridge the volume gap by using bike training.

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Age Graded Performances

Running has a ton of data available and World Masters Athletics has created grading factors to score an equivalent age graded performance.

You’ll find a calculator HERE. I checked the 63 year old’s score (90%, World Class).

The calculator provides a simple way to score the gap between:

• Current Race Performance

• Peer Race Performance

• Goal Race Performance

Similar to vDot, the calculator doesn’t care about weight and covers a range of distances.

Different from vDot, we enter sex and age.

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Summary

By applying these tools, we can assess the gap different ways:

• Green Zone Pace

• Red Zone Pace

• Race Performances

• Peer Training Loads & Performances

• Age Graded WMA Scores

We can provide this information to our advisory team and make informed decisions on how best to proceed.

Next time - a deep dive on pacing.

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