Submarine, So Far

I have been training towards a new running goal this summer. I will run 5 kilometres in 18 minutes and 10 in 38. The project goes by the name “Submarine” and I want to take a minute to reflect on what I planned, how it’s going and what’s next.

For context, I have been into endurance sports my whole life covering soccer, tennis, skiing on a relatively competitive level – not elite/professional, but recreational to competitive. Running also had its place, although more on an inconsistent, event-driven basis. I ran some competitions in the past 5 years, however, I never explicitly trained for them. My PBs (personal bests) had been ~11:30 on 3km and 41:37 on 10km. Without explicit training I considered that pretty decent. I attribute a good amount of those results to my years of aerobic base work in the other sports mentioned.

In 2023 I did some more serious training, however not following any explicit training plans. I mostly used my running sessions as recovery during my calisthenics days. In retrospect, that was somewhat unproductive, as a) I ran way too fast for it being recovery and b) it was monotonous training mixing quality and easy sessions. Thus, I also did not set any new PBs despite attending a bunch of competitions that year.

In 2024 I ran my first ever long-distance race – a half marathon –, which I again did almost without explicit training. I targeted a sub 1:45h finish which I missed catastrophically in 1:51h. But hey, I finished and it gives me a reason to come back :).

Long story short: I was not serious enough about running. I kept grinding calisthenics and building lean muscle, which worked out pretty well.

Then in February this year I kept following the Winter Olympics in Italy quite intensively. Seeing all these athletes performing at their best, and realizing I had quit basically all endurance sport activities in the last two years, I got an idea. Why not find something to really push your physical (and mental) limits (again). I knew that I was likely a bit too old to get seriously competitive on international and even national levels, but I liked the idea of exploring my own limits.

So I started asking LLMs what sports could fit my profile – allrounder, good aerobic base, nothing “special”. And it suggested: a) running, b) cross-country skiing/biathlon and c) ski cross. Ski cross was out since I did not want to go back into that resource-intensive direction, so I dove into running and cross-country (XC) skiing. I shared my ideas, physical specs and environment and had the LLM generate a training plan for me. It covers mostly running during the summer season plus some technique sessions for my budding XC skiing career xD.

The project “Submarine” was born. Wait, I forgot about the name. To be honest, it just popped up in my head and I liked the word. Now I’d interpret it as coming out of nowhere like a submarine breaking the surface – a metaphor for me starting explicit running out of nowhere. Love it or hate it, I like the idea of giving my projects names :).

Before starting with my training plan, my endurance level was low compared to a few years ago. I could run a 4:30min/km pace for 5km with my heart rate (HR) hitting the ceiling. Apart from that I was physically fit — good body composition and body control — through consistent calisthenics and yoga training.

The training plan for “Submarine” now included:

• 10h of training (6.5h running, 1h strength, 0.5h yoga, 2h ski roller)
• 65-75km of running per week
• 3x quality sessions (1x interval, 1x threshold, 1x progressive long run) + 4x easy/recovery sessions
• a scheduled progression timeline including competitions, benchmarks and milestones

I started with the training at the end of February. It was tough to keep up with the sessions from a physical standpoint in the first weeks as the volume was quite high right from the start. The interval paces set initially were way above my level, leading me to readjust them. I ended up getting injured on the right knee – presumably due to putting this volume on an untrained body. I self-diagnosed a knee valgus overtraining injury which forced me to pause the training for 12 days.

The LLM was really helpful in keeping me from resuming training too fast. Since that pause the training feels easier and my body has adapted quite well to the volume. I also picked up Runalyze, a running analytics platform, to track my runs and overall progress — it put my effective VO2max at ~45, while my Apple Watch was reading ~52.5.

In late April I was set to do my first all-out 5km benchmark run. The intention of benchmark runs is to see where you are currently standing and also to define the new training paces for the phase after the benchmark. My timeline called for a 20:30 minute finish; I targeted sub 20 however, since a) I felt I could do it, b) Runalyze’s prognosis confirmed my feeling, and c) sub 20 was a motivating barrier to break. I went all out with a negative split (second half faster than the first) and made it in 19:55 minutes. My average heart rate was sitting at 185bpm (93% HRmax) and I was tilted after that run.

On top of hitting my goal, it was a real confidence booster. I had clear evidence that the training plan was working for me and that I was able to not only keep up but even outperform the projected timeline.

This progress continued throughout the following three weeks until today (mid May). The 30-day rolling effective VO2max value has been climbing consistently at a rate of roughly +0.8/week with no signs of slowing down so far.

The time prognosis kept dropping even faster after the April benchmark, bringing me to almost sub 19 by today.

Since that benchmark run I have been running the intervals and threshold sessions 15 seconds faster at a pace of 4:04–4:09/km and 4:24–4:29/km respectively. My plan dictates that paces are derived from benchmark or race performances and thus only readjusted every 4 to 6 weeks. Other than that the training has stayed and will stay the same throughout the project.

New paces are to be set at my next benchmark run in mid-June, which will be the last one before transitioning to official competitions across 5km and 10km distances.

Rounding up with this recap mid-way through the project I feel very confident and motivated at the moment seeing and feeling the progress my body was able to accomplish in just over 8 weeks of training. Seeing your heart rate drop at the same pace, week after week, is genuinely an amazing feeling.

Also, I finally made a jump in my ski roller (roller ski) sessions, particularly on getting the movement of pushing and balancing sideways more natural. I aim to reach my running goals for “Submarine” by July at the latest – with the next bigger goal already being planned. Hint: it’s called “Revenge” :)