Category Archives: Training

I Miss Trail Running

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Reading this post over at Bad Ben Rambles, reminded me of how much I actually miss trail running. Before moving to Minneapolis we lived really close to Mounds State Park which provided great trails to run on. You had the basic 5 mile loop and a 3 mile loop with a variety of others. You could always figure out some combination of loops and segments of loops to create the perfect run distance. There was also almost always somebody to run with while there too.

While I miss those aspects, I also miss the softness of the trails. I’m really tired of pounding the pavement but it isn’t as convenient to get to real dirt trails around here. On Bad Ben’s scale I was definitely falling towards the “bad” end of the pyramid – addiction and now sadly I’m going the other way I’ve only done one trail run since we’ve been here and it was actually on snow pack, not dirt!

Hopefully as things warm-up I’ll be able to do some long runs on trails or even go race some trails. Minnesota has a trail running series. I might check out some of their races throughout the summer.

On a side note I was able to run on trails over Easter weekend.  While we were at family’s house in Indianapolis I was able to do almost half of my 14 miler on trails at Fort Harrison State Park.  It felt great – hills, mud, and good stuff!

[tags] Trail Running, Minnesota, Indiana [/tags]

Half Training: Week Eight

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Well this is another crazy week here. The race last Sunday is still playing havoc with the training schedule as well as a quick trip south for Easter.

Here’s what I got for the week:

Monday – Run 2 miles at 10K pace, then slow down to goal half marathon pace for 5 miles. After the 5 miles at goal pace, speed up to 5K pace for 800 meters. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. I actually did 4 easy miles in fluffy white snow with the temperatures right around freezing. It felt good to just go for an easy run and loosen up after Sunday’s race. I ran it in 33:30.

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran Monday’s workout on Tuesday for a grand total of 9.14 miles in 1:13:59. It was way off pace for each segment mostly attributed to the 2-4 inches of fresh, wet snow covering the trails the entire 9 miles! I’ll report my actual times but not the goal times: 2 miles in 14:57, 5 miles in 40:37 and 1/2 mile in 3:33. You can do the math and realize that these were all way off track, but the difference between each segment was approximately the same as the pace goals.

Wednesday – Run 30 minutes alternating between 30 seconds at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace and 30 seconds at an easy pace. Cool down with 5 minutes at an easy pace. I just did an easy 5.5 miles along the Greenway. It was a little cooler this morning at 28 but not very icy which was a nice change! I took it very easy and ran it in 46:28. No reason to push too hard. Overall I’m feeling a little sluggish and tired since Sunday’s race. It might be partly due to bad eating habits lately. I don’t know.

Thursday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. You guessed it I ran 30 minutes alternating 30 seconds all out and 30 seconds easy. This was a nice run with the temps hovering around 30 with no significant wind factor. I ran out and back along the Greenway. I’m sure I ticked off one runner as I went flying by him, only to slow way down for 30 seconds right in front of him. Then when he almost caught back up, I went flying off again! The joys of being controlled by a beeping device on your wrist! I almost caught him again on the way back but he turned off before I did. Nothing too exciting to report – the overall run was 6.05 miles in 45 minutes.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I probably should have run since it was sunny and almost 40 in Indianapolis, but after driving and sleeping in a car all night I’m not overly rested – and I usually cross-train once a week anyways. We don’t have any YWCA Fitness Centers around here so I can’t use a reciprocal membership to my advantage.

Saturday – Run a 10K race or a 10K time trial. Run the race or time trial in your best possible time. That’s what I did last week at the Human Race 8K. I was planning to go long today, but our schedule didn’t really make it possible without getting up at 4am Minneapolis time. So I got 2 days off in a row!

Sunday – Rest Day! Happy Easter! I was hoping to rest today but the travel schedule made today a lot easier to run. It turned out being wonderful! It was like 28 without any wind in Indianapolis. I took off under a full-moon or at least near full moon and ran around the neighborhood before heading towards Fort Harrison State Park. I ran along part of the course for the Indianapolis Half and Full Marathon in the fall. I snuck into the park through a side gate to avoid having to pay the entrance fee. It is a pretty hilly course, which I’m not really used to. I ran around the park and ran around on some of their trails which felt great. Everything was fairly muddy, but it was a crisp morning with lots of birds chirping and my first spring run! I ran a total of 14 miles in 1:57:33 which wasn’t too bad with all the hills and running solitary.

Weekly Totals: 38.7 miles in 5:16:26. I guess it was good I took 2 days off, this was the highest mileage week of the year!

[tags] Half-Marathon, Training [/tags]

What is your Strategy?

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Do you have a running strategy? Something like run fast and then run faster or go out hard and finish faster? Mine is run fast and don’t die at the end. Those are more racing strategies than running strategies. When I sit down and think about long-term races and plans – then I “strategize” by picking a training plan, setting a goal, finding a race.

Is that a good strategy? It is definitely a good starting point. But what about a real plan to achieve real success? It takes weeks of training to create a successful race and like any good dessert – there are many ingredients.

Runner’s World offers these 5 parts of strategy:

1. Minimal Training for Optimal Results – I like the sound of that! If you could run a 4-hour marathon by just running 5 miles a day – would you ever do a 20-miler? I’d hope not! While that’s not really possible, we need to make sure we aren’t over-training ourselves. Running more miles doesn’t necessarily make you a better runner capable of producing faster race times.

2. Be Consistent – This is the key to success in almost anything. It is a vital component of any training plan. While running 5 miles a day won’t make you a sub-4 hour marathoner it is better than running 5 miles a week or running a 25 mile week and taking a week off and running 3 miles the next week. Regular and consistent running lets your body adapt to the stresses and pressure of running which will greatly improve your outcomes. Even if it is a couple of days a week you should maintain some type of consistent schedule. On a side note it is easier to be motivated to run if you do it at the same time each day (consistently!).

3. Balance hard efforts with rest – Even as your body is adapting to a consistent running schedule, it needs time to rest and recover. Your body needs a little down time to repair all the muscle and bone tears that the stress of running causes. Think about this as letting the no-bake cookies set into hard cookies. I personally take one day off completely of exercise and cross-train one other day a week. This is helping keep me healthy and strong. A few weeks ago I had a “down” week and I felt a lot more rested and energized afterwards. This also helps prevent over-training and burnout.

4. Expect peaks and plateaus – My entire life ebbs and flows – I have exhilarating days and days where I’d rather just stay at home. You make a good batch of cookies and then next week using the same recipe they taste horrible. A consistent work load creates change in the body and you’ll see improvements – yet your body can only improve so much unless something else changes. If you feel like you’ve reached a plateau or stale point in your training, try something new. Find some new trails, mix in some speed work, find a running group, race a different distance. Each of these and many more ideas can help you reach new goals and overcome a stale stage in training. If you follow a training schedule it should include a time of peaking – allowing your body to be at top performance during the race. You may have mini-peaks throughout where you run a route a little faster than usual. If this happens you get excited, until next week when you run it again and its slower than before. This happens to me sometimes and then I’ll look back and realize that during the second week I had done more speed work or something and my body was tired and needed a little extra time!

5. Practice Patience – This may be the hardest for me. I want my times to start dropping immediately. Just like we want our fast food fast – we want performance improvements fast or we want to be at 35 miles a week during the first week back from an injury. To continue with the cooking analogies if you are supposed to bake cookies at 350 for 20 minutes – you can’t bake them at 450 for 10 minutes and get the same result. You can’t speed up the baking process. In the same situation you can’t pull the cookies out after 10 minutes of baking and expect them to taste right. You must be patient and follow directions to get the perfect cookie! In running you should follow the 10% rule – increase your overall mileage by 10% and any long run by 10%. You should also be careful not too add speed work too quickly. You need to have a good base/foundation before you start building up intensity.

For the perfect cookie you follow the recipe, so for the perfect race follow the strategy. Well that’s not always accurate either! Sometimes you can do everything right with the cookies and they still get messed up somehow – the same is true in running. You can follow every piece of advice, read all the blogs and article, and still have a bad race or get injured. But thinking strategically and being careful should ensure a good season.

[tags] Training, Running, Strategy, Cookies [/tags]

Half Training: Week Five

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Wow training is quickly flying by, I’m almost half-way there. I had some good runs this week and it did warm-up although that created some different problems which you’ll read about below!

Monday – 6×1600 meter repeats at 10K pace or 15 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace. Jog for 800 meters between repeats. This ended up being a really good workout. I had to get up a little early to make sure I got it done before catching the bus to work, but I didn’t have any problems with that. It was 30 degrees at 6:30am so I was actually able to wear only a couple of layers! The warmer weekend temperatures had melted some of the snow – but that created icy patches where the water had refrozen – and that impacted some of my split times during the intervals. It was a beautiful run – I ran along the Midtown Greenway to Lake of the Isles around it and then to Lake Calhoun and around it before heading home for a total of 11 miles in 1:25:25. Each mile should have been around 6:26 – 6:30 My actual splits were 7:17, 7:00, 6:45, 7:26, 6:40, and 7:21. My rest intervals stayed approximately the same amount of time which isn’t usually the case, but some of the splits weren’t excessively hard either. I felt good with the workout overall, it will be nice to get on a track or something for speed work.

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran 5.85 miles in 50:30 – dang that was slow! I was sore and it was really windy. The windchill was 4 above with the actual temp at 18 at 6:30am. This was out and back along the greenway.

Wednesday – Run 20 minutes alternating between 30 seconds at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace and 30 seconds at an easy pace. Cool down with 5 minutes at an easy pace. I did this along the Greenway as well and ran into the same problems that I had on Monday with the icy patches. It was also about 14 above with a 5 above windchill at 6:30am. I ran for 4.97 miles in 35:11. I ran one 30 second segment at 5:19 pace.

Thursday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I was going to try and run everyday except for the Friday 4 miler and start weaning myself off the bike. By Wednesday evening though my foot and legs were starting to hurt so I decided to hit the bike again. I biked 17 miles in 58:20 at the YWCA.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran 4.2 miles in 36:04 on fresh snow. It was about 30 above at 10:30 when I went running. I ran around little Powderhorn Park which had several inches of snow covering and ice! I had fun with it and took it easy. It was a nice run!

Saturday – Run 12 miles. Run the first 9 miles at an easy pace and the last 3 miles at goal half marathon pace. I ran with the MDRA Polar Bear group again. We met at the Theodore Wirth Park’s Wirth Beach parking lot and then ran up Theodore Wirth Parkway down Memorial Parkway to Humboldt Road and back to the Beach. It was a pretty good run with some hills and lots of icy patches. The middle miles were mostly flat without a lot of ice so we opened up the pace a little bit there. The out split was 5.86 miles in 48:53 while the return was 6.11 (I ran a little extra) in 47:55. I picked up the pace between mile 9 and 10 – there was a couple of guys ahead of us that I slowly reeled in catching them right before the final turn. I also slipped on the ice and fell on my rear end – hopped up and kept running. We started the run at 9:16 pace and I finished the last 0.97 miles in 7:04. I felt pretty good for most of the run – it was really hard to get into a rhythm due to all the icy patches along the way. It was about 12 above with a 4 above wind chill at the start and had warmed up throughout the run with the sun shining!

Sunday – Rest. No problem with that!

Totals: 37.9 miles running for 5:03:58 and 17 miles on the bike for 58:22.

[tags] Half Marathon, Training [/tags]

Running Groups are Great!

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It was great to run with a group of people again last Saturday. I ran with the Polar Bears a group from the Minnesota Distance Running Association. I ran with the second pack at around 8 minute pace. We ran out 45 minutes along the Minnehaha Parkway and then turned around and came back. It was very nice to run with other people and made the run go by a lot easier. The front pack of guys are training for Boston, so they went longer at a pretty steady pace.

It is amazing how much difference it can make running with other people. Even without talking the pace just kind of moves you and you feel like no effort has been exerted. Now it did feel like we ran almost 11 miles when we finished, but it was a good feeling! Crunch, Crunch, Crunch – the sound of a group running along the snow-covered trails!

I ran with them again this past week. I went out with the front group which was running around 7 minute pace. This was perfect for the workout schedule. They made it a lot easier to stay motivated and focused on pushing through the pain!

Do you train with a group?? Which one?? If you are a Twin Cities runner which running club(s) do you belong to?

[tags] Running Clubs, Minnesota, MDRA, Minnesota Distance Running Association [/tags]