The runners coached by EducatedRunner.com have been doing extremely well. A case in point is Ingmar Ekstrand, an intelligent, tough-minded, 63-year-old runner who hails from the beautiful university city of Uppsala, Sweden. Ingmar has life-time PR of 3:10 for the marathon and in the past year has hit 20:43 during a club-run 5K and 3:34:00 for the 26.2-mile event. Before coming to EducatedRunner, he was a confirmed Lydiardite, with weeks filled with 17- to 18-kilometer runs and a nearly mandatory 25- to 30-K, LSD workout each Sunday. He arrived at EducatedRunner’s door step wanting to be faster in shorter races and more-confident in competitions.

 

At the beginning of this month, coach Owen placed Ingmar on a lower-volume, higher-quality training plan, dropping his weekly Ks from 100 to about 60, boosting Ingmar’s workout intensity, and adding strength training to his program (the combination of quality running and resistance work is a cornerstone of the EducatedRunner philosophy).

 

Over the past three weeks, Ingmar has completed some notable workouts, including the following:

 

            (1) 7 X 400 in 87 seconds each, with 87-second jog recoveries (a session which EducatedRunner.com would term a vVO₂max-plus workout),

            (2) 3 X 1000 in 3:50-3:55 each, with four-minute jog recoveries (the projected split for this one was 4:18, but Ingmar felt so good with his reduced volume that he took off and felt great at the faster speeds!),

            (3) A marathon-prep session, with 6K easily, 12K at marathon tempo, and 6K easily,

            (4) Three circuit sessions with series of 10 different exercises interspersed with high-quality running segments ranging in length from 400 to 800 meters, and finally

            (5) A vVO₂max test, which involved running all-out for six minutes continuously. This was a shock to Ingmar’s system: After a winter of running at tempos of 11 to 12 km/hour, his neuromuscular system was jolted by the update to 16 km/hour! Ingmar covered 1610 meters during the exam, for an average of 4.5 meters per second (89.5 seconds per 400 meters). Completion of the vVO₂max test provides a benchmark which can be used to chart gains in running capacity in the months ahead. vVO₂max can also be employed to create a variety of high-intensity workouts, including the vVO₂max-plus session described above (# 1).

 

This kind of training pushed Ingmar’s fitness up so high that Saturday he won the Regional (Uppland) Cross Country Championship (4K) in his division, completed over a very tough and hilly course. The key period of the race was the second lap, when Ingmar overtook his opponents during a challenging uphill segment and then charged steadily toward the finish (the photo at the top of this story shows Ingmar, in second place, getting ready to make his decisive move). He is looking forward to a series of upcoming races and of course to toeing the starting line for the Stockholm Marathon on May 30.

 

As Ingmar himself points out, moving his six-minute, vVO₂max-test distance up to 1700 meters, a reasonable goal, would represent a close-to-6-percent upgrade in vVO₂max and thus in all of his race times. Before too long, he will be in sub-20-minute territory for the 5K, for example, and he will knock about 13 minutes off his marathon time. Stay tuned to this blog for further reports on Ingmar’s progress. He’ll be transitioning soon from general strengthening (as represented by the circuit workouts) to running-specific strength training and then on to hill and explosive work.