A review of my last marathon in May 2022 with Stryd
9:18pm, 11th Feb 2023 | Goitzsche Marathon | 4 Comments
Blog by tipsku
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Now that I’m nearing halfway in my current marathon training plan, I’m reviewing the previous attempt at running a fast (by my standards) marathon last spring. One addition to my data gathering habits was a Stryd power meter pod, which I received a week before my marathon. It had some benefits but also some disadvantages during the race and maybe I should have left it at home but since I agreed to being a part of a study – that’s why I got it for free – I figured I should capture as much data for the research team as I can and a marathon generates tons of data. The following blog is the first part in a series where I’m reviewing Stryd’s performance as a training tool. Today’s part deals with the marathon on 6 May 2022 in Bitterfeld Wolfen, later parts will probably look at more recent data.
Having trained to HR since 2011, I am used to tracking various data points during my training plans. I like having another metric to track, running power. I’ll start with the positives: As mentioned, I got the pod just before my marathon and it knew more about me and my fitness than I did. I had trained solely to HR so cardiovascular fitness was my main metric to gauge what a sustainable marathon pace would be. In tests, I figured that I could get close to 3:30, maybe 3:35, based on HR data. 8:00 was a tad too fast but 8:05-10 seemed a good pace. Stryd disagreed and thought that based on my power data, I would struggle to finish under 3:40 and 3:43 +/- 3:30 minutes would be a reasonable target. I was undeterred, set out at just above 8 m/m pace and clocked the first km in 5:02. So far so good.
One problem early on was that the pod seemed to measure short. Every km marker came later than according to stryd and my pace was too slow, 8:30 and slower even though it felt more like 8:10 or faster and HR supported that. I disabled stryd as the distance device after 6 km and continued with GPS from Garmin and that did a better job. I just kept the 300 m I was already short pretty much until the end. But the pace was still off, so I disabled that a few km later. The km splits 1-10 were all over the place for that reason.
At the 10k marker, I saw that my pacing was spot on, 50:38, even a bit on the fast side but my watch still showed only 9.7k. HR was where I wanted it to be. The splits provided by Garmin showed me a more reasonable pace around 8:10-20. For the next 8 km, I was a happy camper except for running into an increasing headwind which brought my pace down a bit. Suddenly, at 18k, my left adductor tightened up and I had to shorten my stride. This meant I had to drop down to 8:45 pace and slower on the hills to keep the discomfort level even to avoid making matters worse. I realized immediately, that this wasn’t something I could ignore or I wouldn’t finish. So I continued at the pace I could still run and HR even dropped a bit. Meanwhile, the clouds had dissipated and the sun was out and it got warmer. By 30k, I had to drop the pace further to 9:00 and a finish time of 3:45 also looked rather impossible at that stage. My legs hurt quite a bit in the final 7k but I still managed to overtake a few runners who had gone out way too fast and were now walking intermittently. I was still capable of a steady 9 m/m pace despite the aches and pains, HR steady as she goes. At the end, my watch showed 42 km when I crossed the line in 3:51:44. To get the Garmin badge, I still had to walk another 200m to make it to 42.2.
In the post-mortem analysis of the marathon, I realized that my average power for the marathon was pretty much what Stryd had been trying tell me from the start: don’t run that fast; even though your heart and lungs could do it, your legs/hips are not strong enough for the pace you want to run for that long.
What would have happened if I had relied on Garmin from the start for pace and distance but taken Stryd’s numbers to heart? There’s no way to be sure but probably a slightly faster marathon, maybe sub 3:45 and no aching adductor. So I learned that, while my pod seems to have a bit of an issue with distance, the power data is still very useful to gauge my fitness in ways that I hadn’t considered previously. I probably should have taken the different systems equally into account when deciding on a goal marathon pace.
Training affects the cardiovascular system the fastest, the muscles lag behind by quite a bit and the other ‘hardware’, bones, tendons, ligaments, connective tissue, may even take longer to get used to increased volume and intensity. This is one of the reason why a lot of new runners end up injured in the first year or two of taking up the sport because they run to their cardiovascular fitness which allows them to go faster and longer much sooner than the rest of their bodies can cope with.
When I ran my fastest marathons in 2014-2016, I had a solid base of 3 seasons of 1000+ miles under my belt and I made only steady progress during that time, giving me the readiness for running 8:05-15 pace for 26.2 miles. This time, my situation was different. I had come back from thyroid surgery in 2020, first concentrated on building a base at very slow paces, sticking to MAF training for a while before I embarked on 5k and 10k training plans in spring 2021 to get back to the paces I once ran. While I did an ultra and a few long slow runs for that with several months of high mileage, that was just not enough to prepare my body for running a marathon under 8:30. The cardiovascular side reacted to the training plan as expected but I wasn’t strong enough. Stryd came into play just at the right time to make me aware of that. So I’m still happy I have it.
Having trained to HR since 2011, I am used to tracking various data points during my training plans. I like having another metric to track, running power. I’ll start with the positives: As mentioned, I got the pod just before my marathon and it knew more about me and my fitness than I did. I had trained solely to HR so cardiovascular fitness was my main metric to gauge what a sustainable marathon pace would be. In tests, I figured that I could get close to 3:30, maybe 3:35, based on HR data. 8:00 was a tad too fast but 8:05-10 seemed a good pace. Stryd disagreed and thought that based on my power data, I would struggle to finish under 3:40 and 3:43 +/- 3:30 minutes would be a reasonable target. I was undeterred, set out at just above 8 m/m pace and clocked the first km in 5:02. So far so good.
One problem early on was that the pod seemed to measure short. Every km marker came later than according to stryd and my pace was too slow, 8:30 and slower even though it felt more like 8:10 or faster and HR supported that. I disabled stryd as the distance device after 6 km and continued with GPS from Garmin and that did a better job. I just kept the 300 m I was already short pretty much until the end. But the pace was still off, so I disabled that a few km later. The km splits 1-10 were all over the place for that reason.
At the 10k marker, I saw that my pacing was spot on, 50:38, even a bit on the fast side but my watch still showed only 9.7k. HR was where I wanted it to be. The splits provided by Garmin showed me a more reasonable pace around 8:10-20. For the next 8 km, I was a happy camper except for running into an increasing headwind which brought my pace down a bit. Suddenly, at 18k, my left adductor tightened up and I had to shorten my stride. This meant I had to drop down to 8:45 pace and slower on the hills to keep the discomfort level even to avoid making matters worse. I realized immediately, that this wasn’t something I could ignore or I wouldn’t finish. So I continued at the pace I could still run and HR even dropped a bit. Meanwhile, the clouds had dissipated and the sun was out and it got warmer. By 30k, I had to drop the pace further to 9:00 and a finish time of 3:45 also looked rather impossible at that stage. My legs hurt quite a bit in the final 7k but I still managed to overtake a few runners who had gone out way too fast and were now walking intermittently. I was still capable of a steady 9 m/m pace despite the aches and pains, HR steady as she goes. At the end, my watch showed 42 km when I crossed the line in 3:51:44. To get the Garmin badge, I still had to walk another 200m to make it to 42.2.
In the post-mortem analysis of the marathon, I realized that my average power for the marathon was pretty much what Stryd had been trying tell me from the start: don’t run that fast; even though your heart and lungs could do it, your legs/hips are not strong enough for the pace you want to run for that long.
What would have happened if I had relied on Garmin from the start for pace and distance but taken Stryd’s numbers to heart? There’s no way to be sure but probably a slightly faster marathon, maybe sub 3:45 and no aching adductor. So I learned that, while my pod seems to have a bit of an issue with distance, the power data is still very useful to gauge my fitness in ways that I hadn’t considered previously. I probably should have taken the different systems equally into account when deciding on a goal marathon pace.
Training affects the cardiovascular system the fastest, the muscles lag behind by quite a bit and the other ‘hardware’, bones, tendons, ligaments, connective tissue, may even take longer to get used to increased volume and intensity. This is one of the reason why a lot of new runners end up injured in the first year or two of taking up the sport because they run to their cardiovascular fitness which allows them to go faster and longer much sooner than the rest of their bodies can cope with.
When I ran my fastest marathons in 2014-2016, I had a solid base of 3 seasons of 1000+ miles under my belt and I made only steady progress during that time, giving me the readiness for running 8:05-15 pace for 26.2 miles. This time, my situation was different. I had come back from thyroid surgery in 2020, first concentrated on building a base at very slow paces, sticking to MAF training for a while before I embarked on 5k and 10k training plans in spring 2021 to get back to the paces I once ran. While I did an ultra and a few long slow runs for that with several months of high mileage, that was just not enough to prepare my body for running a marathon under 8:30. The cardiovascular side reacted to the training plan as expected but I wasn’t strong enough. Stryd came into play just at the right time to make me aware of that. So I’m still happy I have it.
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tipsku
Triathlete in my youth (1994-2001), martial artist in Finland (2002-2006), a brief stint on the rugby field (2009-2010) before I ran my first marathon in October 2010 and haven't looked back since. Still looking to improve my PBs even though it's been 13 years of running. Times to beat: 5k: 21:20 (2016) 10k: 44:37 (2023) half: 1:37:42 (2023) mara: 3:29:26 (2023)Profile | Blog | Other Blogs