Berlin Marathon 2018 Reflection - Did Swoosh VF4% really work?
- Andy Neo
- Sep 27, 2018
- 12 min read
Updated: Oct 1, 2018
This year Feb I wasn't training particularly well for Tokyo Marathon due to heavy workload but I was still grateful to my ex-company that granted me the opportunity to run one of the WWM events again. I was also mentoring a few runners from ASICS Running Club back who were training for the same race as well. As a working adult, there is a lot of juggling of time management. I see it as a healthy process that makes my lifestyle dynamic and interesting. Ok, in summary, I clocked a less-desirable timing of 2hr54min which I was still hoping to break the sub250hr window since 2016. Not complaining too much after layoff way too long from my last marathon backtrack to Jan 2017 (Dubai M. 2hr 52min). One vital mistake made was I did not build from that new fitness attained in Dubai and there was a dip in fitness by the time I picked up momentum in Q3 of 2017 for Tokyo.
*Disclaimer: If you just want to read about my review on the Nike Vaporfly 4% do scroll all the way down and skip below lengthy contents about my marathon lead up.
Fitness Phase
Base on this lesson learned, I tried to pick up running gradually and was more cautious in building up volume and intensity as I age each year. After Tokyo, I wanted to let my body to resume training loading at a slower pace so it actually took me 6 weeks to reach my 100km mark with plenty of easy running. From there I build brick by brick once the body has some basic fitness.
Tips at this stage: Train by feel and "jog" before "run". Shorter distance/duration but more frequency. With more free time do add in a strength session like HIIT.
Foundation & Build Up Phase
Week 6 to 18 was meant to be the foundation and build up specifically for marathon hitting the highest peak close to 160km (~12hr). Nothing seriously hard sessions during this phase but focused on hill running on the weekday and paced two of my friends in the weekend for their respective marathon training in their long cruise intervals at their MP which was considered comfortable hard for me (hovering 4:1x pace). One of the pacing session samples was a 3k WU (18min) / 4.5k x 4 @ 4:1x / 2.5k x 2/ 2k WD (14min) average 4:10 pace and he nailed a sub3 timing in GCAM a few weeks later. Otherwise, a typical weekend run for me is usually medium distance 20-30 km average at 4:3x to 4:4x pace. I only limit to 2 key quality runs per week and the remaining were plenty of easy fillers depending on how much time I have on that day as a working class. My fillers were run by feel and monitored by my HR strap. The pace for my aerobic sessions was less important than duration contrary to most runners. I rather spent more time than in easier zones (can range from 5:15 min/km to 6:30 pace) than running moderate hard with less duration. Do remember intensity and duration is an inverse relationship, increase both concurrently at the wrong stage is a recipe for disaster. Therefore running slower is to increase the amount of time on the road and eventually enhances the number of capillaries in the tissues for a bigger aerobic capacity, not intensity; the mantra is "Run Slow to Run Fast". When it's time to up the intensity gear in quality track session I will make sure I can nail them 100%. Running moderate hard previous day I might end up with 80% ROI of a similar session.
Another thing to point out is that our human body cannot be training at a high volume over a prolonged period as there will always be a breaking point. It is like gambling analogy, while high volume training will improve aerobic fitness on the flip side overtraining will open doors to injury(s) and stress burnout. A recovery week with a reduction in volume and frequency is also part of training to become stronger. Intensity should still remain unchanged because you want to retain the sharpness but in a smaller dose. The body learned to heal from all the damage and repair to become more resilient in the next wave of stimulus. Week 19 was forecasted about 120+km recovery but in reality, my body could only cope with 70 km so there is no shame in slowing down. In the overloading theory which all exercise physiology students will know is that once enough overload stimulus has absorbed into the body it will go into a state of fatigue and the recovery phase is needed for repair and bounce back at a higher fitness baseline. This is just one block of example and usually, it can be stretched multiple times for a marathon training cycle shown in the second chart.
Tips at this stage: Train by time than pace, example 70 minutes instead of xx km. Running slower means you can run longer. It's normal to see your pace slow down as you pile up the volume. If you have time constraints due to other commitment, increase the duration per runs 5-15min additional instead of one more run session. Say if you run 4x a week, you will gain 4 x 15min = 60min of additional duration/volume. Inject some fartlek in this stage will help to introduce faster turnover cadence on tired legs in a small dose.
Plyometrics & Drills
Week 20 I implemented a session that focused on plyometrics (jumping exercise) and agility drills. The objective for plyometric was to improve my tendon's elasticity and recoil efficiency while the goal for the drills was to refine motor movement. In summary, both activities would tune the body to be more efficient in expending energy that could save some spare tank for the latter stage of a marathon.
Tips at this stage: Mantra is "Train to Run not Run to Train."
Recovery Phase
Week 22-23 I was away trekking 2 mountains in Japan hence a dipped in training volume. I treated the hiking trips as a strength session and recharged the body with a change of environment from road running. I took the opportunity to power hike up an elevation of Mount Fuji at about 3,800m and ran up Mount Yakedake 2,444m. So I do not see a big disruption so as long training has been consistent.
Specific Phase
Unfortunately coming back from the trip on week 24 I had food poisoning which I suspect I did not clean properly the raw vegetable salad I bought. I had terrible diarrhea lasting almost five days and did not have any good rest. Because of this I had missed out another crucial weekend long run apart from my overseas trip. Luckily I was able to find back my fitness quickly in the following week 25 and clocked a decent 120km with one tough track workout on Wednesday and my longest long run 2hr 40min 35k with The Coney Runners on Sunday. The track sample was as follow and each set was supposed to be faster at negative splits:
1) 12laps 4min RI 2) 10laps 4min RI 3) 8laps 4min RI 4) 6laps 3min RI 5) 4laps 2min RI 6) 3laps miscalculated supposed to be 2laps
Another important marathon workout was the Army Half Marathon (3 weeks before Berlin). Volume was capped at a decent 122k (10.5hr) and it was run without much tapering. The purpose was to simulate the late stage marathon and I took the opportunity to pace one of my understudies Ivan to an 84min (4min+/km) with zero gel. Usually, with such a long speed session like a 21km quality, the body will need more than 48 hours of recovery before the next quality run. However 3 days after AHM I was back on track for my next marathon workout as follow:
2k WU/ (1k @~MP effort, 400m surge @~10k effort, 200m roll) x 10 + 1k = 17k+ total. Each roll averaged between 65-77s.
Next day I ran with Safra Tampines runners for short fartlek to loosen up the stiffness. Sat run was 32k easy (final 5k was hovering about 200 watt output or equals to 4min/km).
Tips at this stage: what goes up must come down. Incorporate a recovery day/week will allow the body to heal the damage and rebounce to a higher baseline. Resting is the second half of a successful execution of a hard session which most runners tend to overlook.
Final Sharpening
9 days before D-day was the final and IMO my hardest track session. It was the same as the ditto with 1 more set.
1.6k WU/ 19k+ workout (1k +400m surge +200m roll) x 12/ 400m jog. Each set was slower than previous session but pacing was still on track and I reckon this was due to the accumulative stress I loaded during this specific phase comprised of 4x tracks, 1x 500m elevation gained hill run and 1x LR.
I was glad this was done 9 days before Berlin as the toll on the body was pretty impactful and took me quite a while to recover. My advice to anyone is to do your final hard session at least 9-10 days before so that there is ample time for recovery.
Tips at this stage: At the highest peak of fitness, it's important to train 'Smart-hard' not 'hard-hard' so training at goal pace MUST be comfortable hard. Remember you're not running at sub5k effort so it's 100% specifically towards marathon effort.
D-Week
Monday was easy 52min jog and followed by the plyometric class I'm conducting. That following midnight I packed my luggage and head to Berlin Airport.
Wed & Fri were all easy morning run from hotel to start line about 8-9 km.
Sat morning was an ez 2k jog to a nearby park to do some drills and striding and back to hotel to rest the body (see below video of the 21 drills I performed).
Tips at this stage: it's normal to be anxious and thus try to nap days before the marathon to make up for sleep hours. Rest your legs on the eve for any shopping, do it after marathon as a recovery session. Study what you need to bring for post marathon attires if the weather is too cold or too hot to protect the body as immune system will be suppressed after a very demanding effort.
D-Day 16Sep 2018
Woke up around 530am to make my own coffee with my beloved Nanopresso, a portable coffee maker and our hotel H+ had arranged earlier breakfast timing for all the guests due to the marathon. I had mainly breads with honey keeping diet as simple as possible for proper fueling.
Back to the room for some light stretches with my theraband and around 715am my roommate Sia and myself went to meet up with good friend Gen Lin near our hotel to walk to race site approximately 2km away.
Depositing our bags in the race site both Gen and me parted way as he was allocated to a faster pen gantry B (2hr 40 min-50 min) while mine was pen C (2hr 50min-3hr).
Around 915am the countdown began and I took my first Shotz gel to boost extra fuel. My plan was to do a negative splits and since my last few attempts of even splits didn't work. I treated the initiate kilometres as warm-up pace and to be honest I was slightly nervous to cross 5km mark at 20:55. However I knew marathon is a long distance and there is no need to panic. Slowly I began to get my rhythm and start to catch runners ahead of me with ease. My second gel was consumed after 50min of running and when I crossed the 15k mark at 61min I knew I was narrowing the gap closer to 4:0x min/km. At halfway checkpoint, I down my third packet of gel and half capsule of saltstick tablet. From 25k onwards I suddenly felt energized and I saw most of my per km split was 4min and faster. This feel-good energy extended to 30km and then 2hr 20min at 35km I was praying to hang on no matter what for the final 7km. At this stage I took out my small ziplock bag that has Pocari powder to fuel the final stretch but unfortunately it was too tight and I had difficulty opening. A moment of fury I threw it away and gambling on my endorphin 'high' to fuel me and maybe this decision cost me dearly. Around 37km I started to feel uneasy but still manage to push on and expecting the late stage fatigue kicking in. The next 2km was getting more difficult to find the momentum albeit on pace for minimum of 2hr 48min finishing. The magic of marathon began here where I really hit the 'wall' and suddenly I could not run anymore. The familiar faces whom I overtook much earlier on were overtaking me and I felt so helpless. I tried to jog and pushed on but each attempt lasted for a while before I halted again. The last bit of energy was when passerby gave me drink and cheered me on. I was so angry with myself that why I faded with just 3km to hang on. Walked jogged walked jogged I saw the iconic Brandenburg Gate and only left few hundred metres to end the suffering. Crossing the line in 2hr 52min 58sec, I was totally depleted with no energy. For the past 6 conservative sub3 marathons I have not tasted hitting the wall for a while until this 7th attempt and it cost me my PB that was so close.
Despite not able to nail a PB but I don't see this as a setback. The least I know is that if I didn't hit the wall, a 2hr 48min or slight below was within my reach and all is not lost with lessons to learn:
improve my nutrition strategy
extend my long runs frequency and duration
continue my supplementary workout to replace one of the run session
continue to rebuild from Berlin to avoid dipping of fitness
Photo credit to Gen Lin (Left Andy, Gen & Alvin).
Nike Vaporfly 4% Hype
Yes if you're here then I'm going to share my personal thought on this racing flat that everyone is talking about. Although it's not the same pair as the elite version but it's already a very hard to get it from any Nike stores in the world. I skipped all tech specs which most vloggers and youtubers already repeated but generally the VF (click to see the weight) is a maximalist racer but with traditional pitch height of 10mm and inserted with a full carbon plate for better energy return during propulsion. Before this pair I was already using Hoka One One Tracer v1 as my long tempo run shoes. I enjoy the thick stack height that gives additional cushioning yet the midsole is dense enough for a responsive ride. Also I like the rocker shape for a smoother foot strike to push off phase. Only complain is that the forefoot midsole of Tracer is too firm and I tend to get numbness from my toes during the late stage of the long runs. For VF the midsole material called ZoomX is very very soft... you will see wriggle lines along the material as soon you take out fresh from the box. Hence most VF users did share that they only use it sparingly, only on race days for some. Durability is suspected to be less than 400 km depending on usage and user's profile.
I ran only 1 time on the track just before Berlin just to get familiar with the ride and it turned out to be very impressive with the legs were less beat up. Compiling all my stats with VF and my other racing flats (Tartherzeal 5 and Hyperspeed), my stride length is in fact shorter but cadence is much higher. Due to the soft midsole, I can really feel the carbon plate at faster pace flexing it and sense the pop during push-off. During the race day, I felt really comfortable pounding the streets of Berlin due to a thick stack height yet retaining the weight of a racing flat. Also with the carbon plate, somehow I do tend to lean more forward (not to mix up with forefoot striking). The heel section is pretty much minimalistic and without the TPU heel counter, my left Haglund's deformity has no irritation at all. The sensation of feeling comfortable might help to conserve energy when you're in relax mode. Below photo of me in blue cap was taken by my friend Sushi-man around the late stage of Berlin route.
So is VF the perfect shoes that everyone is wow? Personally I don't think it has that 4% advantage over my other racers however it does has its unique characteristics. I hit the wall with 3km to go but it was due to poor nutrition decision otherwise it would be reason for me to say it work! The thick cushioning did help to delay the onset of neuromuscular fatigue but not fuel inefficiency. Not forgetting I did ran faster timing with ASICS Gel-Hyperspeed 6 & 7 (both 2hr 51min) than VF so that speaks for itself. Anyway the truth is that shoes play a supplementary role just like your gels and attires but not the main driving factor for performance. It's about training the right way to tune the body into a machine that can handle the gruesome 42.195km distance.
Nevertheless I still like to conclude VF's feedback into pro and con below.
Pros:
thick stack height (ideal for long distance races)
lightweight
very thin upper material (can be negative if ripped easily)
no need to 'run-in', can use immediately for race
comfortable midsole and the carbon plate helps to stabilize
fitting was true-to-size
no hot-spots or chaferring problem encountered during my marathon
The cons I feel are:
louder sound during each step
high cost (everyone agrees)
lower durability (a thick foam with lighter weight comes at a price)
waistline of the shoe is too narrow and will not suit runners with low or flat arch
very difficult to purchase as it's only available at selected channels (very scheming marketing strategy to create demand)
My advice is that VF will not going to be your choice if it's meant to be trainers or running at slower pace. Without running fast to generate enough force it is going to be difficult to flex the carbon plate optimally for a springy ride. Perhaps the Nike ZoomFly and the Knit version might be better off cater for a wider group of runners. Let me know if you have any questions and do 'like' my post if you find them useful.
Ciao,
Andy
Comments