Tag Archives: Training

August Highlights

I can’t believe that it is already September.  The summer has flown by and school is getting ready to start back up.  Yikes! I think I joined with everybody else out there in throwing off my sleep schedule to watch the Olympics – including an amazing marathon performance, lots of new world records, and some great examples of the true Olympic spirit. Watching the Olympics raised the question in my mind, do I have what it takes?  Despite adding on 4 more weeks of marathon training I doubt I’ll run anywhere close to a 2:06, at least not for the full distance anyways.  Weeks 9 10 11 12 are all in the bag.  I’ve now run increased my longest run ever to about 21 miles and I’ve done the distance twice now!

When I wasn’t busy increasing my long runs I threw in some races.  I almost got a 10K PR while running the Hennepin Lakes Classic.  I managed to get a 15K PR two weeks later in the MDRA 15K.  Two weeks and a 20 miler later I set a new PR in the half-marathon distance, by a minute and a half at the Rochester Half Marathon.

I’ve been meeting and getting to know a lot of runners through a tool called Twitter.  It has been a fun way to connect and share about running and other random bit of life.  I even introduced the idea of tagging runs in Twitter so we can see each other’s better.

I am almost a 1/4 of the way to my goal for raising $2,000 to support the great work of World Vision around the world.  This month’s related posts included:

August 2008/2007 Monthly Mileage

Running – 175.5 / 123.26

Biking – 184.1 / 25.3

Swimming – 700 / 0

Last year was an eventful month as well.  I raced a few times, not doing as well as I did this year.  It was also extremely hot last year in Indiana, while my summer here in Minneapolis hasn’t been too bad! So to help deal with the heat I offered some tips to avoid the inferno. I raced a 5K and a 10K. I got a Sansa MP3 player and talked about the other “equipment” I used to run in.  This was pre-Garmin days! In the Olympic build-up year I took a look at an unusual banned substance – Caffeine. Yes, in high enough quantities, caffeine is considered illegal. A fun and popular post that I wrote was titled “Ways to Ruin Your Next Race.”

I hope you had a good August and are looking forward to fall coming!

[tags] Highlights [/tags]

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Marathon Training: Week 12

What a roller coaster of a week.  After a terrible run on Tuesday I was able to come back and PR in the half-marathon distance on Saturday.  I’m glad this week is over and looking forward to more good weeks of training.

Monday: 4-6 easy miles. I extended my downtown-Park Ave 4 mile loop to make it close to 5 miles and ended up running 4.83 miles in 40:21.  It was 66 which felt great even with the higher humidity.  I took it nice and easy for my first run after 20+ miles on Saturday!  I was a little tired and sore but felt pretty good.

Tuesday: 8-10 mile threshold workout. This ended up being a downright brutal workout due to the heat and humidity. I think it was in the mid-80’s with near 100% humidity. It was raining north and south of us but not on us.  They gave us a progression workout for a 10 mile run.  The plan was 2.5 easy, hydrate, then 2.5 at Marathon Pace, turning around and running 2.5 at Half-Marathon pace, water stop and then recover for awhile do a mile at 10K pace and recover to the start.  No one in my pace group did the 10K pace section.  We ran along the East River Parkway, next to the Mississippi River, but the scenery didn’t help the run any.  Also the East side of the river is significantly hillier than the west, so our downhills out made for some tough uphills towards the end of the half-marathon pace.  I should note that I was outside most of the afternoon, but tried to stay hydrated.  We ran the first section in 20:21 (8:01 pace) and completed the marathon pace section in 17:46 (7:12 pace).  So far so good –  MP for me is 7:15. I ran the half-marathon pace section in 17:21 (7:03 pace Goal Pace would be 6:54), during this section our group of 5 got strung out pretty good.  We stopped for water and I hit the porta-pot.  When I came out the group had a small lead, but I was never able to catch back up – which I think hurt mentally for me.  I finished the last leg in 20:05 (8:13 pace) and was glad to be finished.  We commiserated about how bad we felt and went our separate ways.  I got home, showered, ate a quick dinner, and was asleep by 9pm.

Wednesday: 5-7 easy miles. I didn’t wake up until 7:30am which is really sleeping in for me.  I still felt really drained and all around terrible.  I finally managed to drag myself to work, thankful I was going in late due to working later than normal yesterday. I drank a lot of water and by the evening felt like I should give running a try.  I wanted a little motivation so I went to Pike Island and ran on the scenic dirt trails around the island that marks the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers.  I wanted to take it easy and just run how I felt. I ended up running 4.3 miles in 34:10 and felt really good.  I picked up the pace for a little bit when a group of college runners went by, but kept reminding myself to slow down! I’m glad I motivated myself to go and it was nice to just run and enjoy the scenery.

Thursday: Rest Day. A much needed rest day, even though I bike commuted it felt good.

Friday: 6 miles at marathon pace. An unscheduled (kinda) rest day.  I was still back and forth about racing over the weekend so I knew that if I ran it wouldn’t be the scheduled workout.  I had to go to work earlier than normal and thought I’d be able to run in the early afternoon.  That ended up not working out, but taking the day off shouldn’t hurt too much since it is a stepback week.

Saturday: 10-12 miles In his notes Hal Higdon says this would be a good week for racing a half-marathon.  A group of people from my team were racing a half-marathon so I went with them.  Am I glad I did. If you read the introduction then you know that I set a new PR.  Breaking my 3 year old PR by about a minute and a half! Quite an exciting race.  I felt terrible for the middle – last part of the race so I was delighted to see the clock showing a PR!! It was a perfect day to race – temps in the mid-60’s, low humidity, a fairly shady and flat course.  My watch had me at 1:33:22, which was also my official chip time.

Sunday: Cross-Train. We rode our bikes to church and the Minnesota State Fair for a total of 13.3 miles on the bike and several miles wandering around with the hoards of people at the fair.

Weekly Mileage

Running – 32.1 miles

Biking – 53.4 miles

Hal’s Tip of the Week: There is no such thing as “bad food,” only bad choices. There’s even a place for burgers, fries and shakes in your diet. You just need to balance everything you eat. If you eat a well-balanced diet, that includes ample fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains, you can avoid expensive supplements. Tape these words to your refrigerator: “Eat a wide variety of lightly processed foods.”

[tags] Hal Higdon, Marathon Training [/tags]

Week 12

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Best of Team Cross for July

What a month! Summer months seem to go by so fast! It seems that we were gone pretty much every weekend this month.  2 of the weekends were at weddings, we should have gone to 2 more weddings and then celebrating my birthday!

Training continues to go well for Twin Cities Marathon.  Weeks 5, 6, 7, 8. Part of my marathon training is raising support for Team World Vision and their great work in developing countries, but specifically in Africa.  I continue to share about my experiences sharing the beauty of Africa, sharing a slideshow of pictures from my 8 weeks in Ghana, the importance of education, the hope and joy found in Africa, and talked about Ryan and Sara Hall.

I reviewed a couple of different things this month, including Blaine Moore’s book on Marathon Preperation and Recovery, running on the Midtown Greenway, Pearl Izumi’s Go Running Shorts, and the Hundred Push-Up Challenge.  Not really a review but I talked about recent research showing that wearing flip-flops can be bad for your legs and feet. And mentioning research, there is a lot of research being conducted on runners right now, find out if you are eligible.

Last Year was a good month of racing for me. I raced a 5K – which turned out much shorter – and a 10K.  I wrote about the infamous and fun to say fartlek run and runners obessions with keeping detailed running logs.

Monthly Mileage: (2008/2007)

Running – 152 miles/143.4 miles

Biking – 85.5 miles/20.4 miles

Swimming – 300 yds

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Taper Time

The taper is as important to your training as speedwork, long runs, and consistent training. Unfortunately, it is often abused and misused which can have negative impacts on your race performance.

For weeks/months you have been building up mileage, adding intensity, and are now peaking before your big race.  If you have been following a professional or set training schedule then the taper is already built in and it should be relatively easy to follow.

During your taper you will slowly decrease your overall mileage, as a result many people skip runs or workouts during this phase.  Don’t! It is important to stay consistent, even as you back down the mileage.  You should also focus on relaxing, stretching, and planning mentally for the big day!

According to a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise:

The primary aim of the taper should be to minimize accumulated fatigue, rather than to attain additional physiological adaptations or fitness gains.

Run to Win lists four primary benefits of the taper:

  1. A reduced level of perceived exertion: You can run faster and longer with less energy and strain.
  2. Improved muscular economy: The amount of oxygen that your muscles require at a given intensity decreases, and your VO2 max (a measure of aerobic performance) can improve by as much as 8%.
  3. Improved glycogen storage: Your muscles can store more fuel than is possible during intense training, assuming that your diet provides that fuel.
  4. You will sleep better.

BE CAREFUL

  • Watch your diet, as you train less you are burning fewer calories
  • Gradually decrease your mileage, not intensity. You can still do some speedwork even the week before a big race.
  • Keep running consistently, your body needs to stay loose, just make them easier and shorter!
  • Don’t start your taper too soon, this can lead to negative effects as your body deconditions.
  • Check out this article with a long list of problems and solutions.
  • Stretch
  • Avoid extra stress or strenuous work
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A Lost Art: Accelerations

We accelerate our cars by pushing down on the accelerator (gas pedal), but we often forget to accelerate our running.

I recently switched training programs and now after every easy run I’m supposed to do accelerations. I remember how important these are because we use to do them a lot at Taylor, but since then I haven’t done them much but did do their close cousin: strides.

Accelerations are different than strides but have many of the same benefits. Often part of a broader plyometric set (or speed form training), accelerations are simple and can be done anywhere you run. All you need is about 100 yards of smooth surface.

The purpose of speed-form training is to improve your leg turnover (or stride frequency, as some call it), power, running economy, and relaxation while running. Runner’s World

Accelerations should be done after your body is already warmed-up, you should run for at least 10 minutes before doing these. It is best to already have a decent level of conditioning and some speed work history. If you haven’t done any speedwork you should focus on strides first.

  1. Pick a starting and ending point,
  2. Begin slowly. I usually walk the first step or two
  3. gradually accelerate (pick up speed).
  4. The last 10 meters or so should be at 100% but should feel smooth, as if you are gliding.
  5. Recover for about 100 meters or 2 minutes and repeat.

Build up to doing between 4 or 5 accelerations.

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