Monday, May 5, 2008
Back Up and Running
The legs are shaved and triathlon season is upon us in Hawaii. I lost sight of training in the past few months, but I gain much priceless information about me, coaching, and life. Check back soon!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Marathon
Well, two weeks ago my friend/college housemate/college teammate came to visit and to run the Honolulu marathon. We had a great time and I really enjoyed my first marathon. Our goal was 3:10 to qualify schabby for Boston. We were on pace through the half, but I think the warm weather started to catch up with my friend, so with his permission I set off on my own course. I dropped the pace down from about 6:45's to 6:00's and it was going well until I realized I still had 10k to go and I wasn't feeling so hot. You see this was suppose to just be a training run, so I backed off to 7 flat and brought it home in 2:58:13. So my second half was 1:25. Not bad.
The past two weeks have been filled with Christmas shopping and finishing school. My body has been acting funny and although I am not sick, I haven't been feeling so hot. Training wise I have just been doing easy runs. I will get back into training in January. I am trying to peak for a few races over the summer so it's back to doing base mileage and this time I am following Lydiard's training especially since I picked up at copy of Running with Lydiard.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Shitter Get Off The Pot
First, sorry. Second, sorry. Have been really busy and trying to get everything done at work, as well as spending time with Kristine. The Honolulu marathon is in a few days and one of my college roommates is in to run it with me. Actually, he is the one that made me sign up. So, I'm off to the expo tomorrow and then it's time to run.
I say run on purpose. I am trying to convince myself not to race it, but we'll see. I took this week easy after 4-5 weeks of buildup. I am using the marathon as a long run. I think the plan is to run through 13.1 miles at normal run pace then after the half way point I am going to pick it up a little.
New Training
Since I started training at the end of October I have been inspired to train according to Lydiard's model. To date, I have only followed it half heartedly. My main focus has been to just get time on my feet, which is a part of his theory. Basically, I am going to go into it full bore. The one adjustment that I am going to make is that I am going to do a 2 week cycle that I will do twice (that's 4 weeks) and then a week easier, which will be 5 weeks. I have noticed after many years that I need to give my body a week of easier runs to recover. It is always hard to cut back a bit because at the end of 4 weeks I always feel awesome and then I keep pushing it and get sick or injured. In the 70's the Fin's took an easy week after several weeks of training. I am just trying to be proactive rather than reactive. So the rest of my base training phase will take me to the Aloha Run on Feb 8th. After that I'll take an easy week and go into hill training. The search for a good hill to train on officially begins.
Training: (missing a few days, but I'll pick up from what I have)
Saturday: (Dec. 1, 2007)
Duration: 06hr 30min 58sec
Distance: 27.1 miles
Comments: Trail running with the H.U.R.T. guys and gals. Ran up at Peacock Flats in Wailua. I really enjoyed it however my right hamstring began to bother me with about 1 hour to go. Got in all the right food and did not feel that bad afterwards.
p.s. 6,900 ft. of ascent.
Sunday: (Dec. 2, 2007)
Duration: 00hr 46min 49sec
Distance: 5 miles
Comments: R. hamstring was bothering me. I had to stop and stretch it a few times. I am a bit worried.
Monday: (Dec. 3, 2007)
Off- I wanted to rest the hamstring, especially with the marathon coming up.
Tuesday: (Dec. 4, 2007)
Duration: 01hr 29min 31sec
Distance: 10 miles
Comments: Easy run with some of the guys at Runners HI. Took it very easy and the hamstring felt ok.
Wednesday: (Dec. 5, 2007)
Duration: 00hr 18min 22sec
Distance: ??
Comments: Trail run in Waimano. Ran to the falls. Did a lot of hiking and just kind of relaxed. A very enjoyable run/hike.
Thursday: (Dec. 6, 2007)
Duration: 01hr 16min 34sec
Distance: ??
Comments: Trail run with Schab. Found the connections from Royal Summit to the place where Matt and I ran a few times. Hamstring felt strong.
Friday: (Dec. 7, 2007)
Off- I have been having headaches lately, which I think are from eating too much sugar. I also went surfing from the first time today. I got whooped.
I say run on purpose. I am trying to convince myself not to race it, but we'll see. I took this week easy after 4-5 weeks of buildup. I am using the marathon as a long run. I think the plan is to run through 13.1 miles at normal run pace then after the half way point I am going to pick it up a little.
New Training
Since I started training at the end of October I have been inspired to train according to Lydiard's model. To date, I have only followed it half heartedly. My main focus has been to just get time on my feet, which is a part of his theory. Basically, I am going to go into it full bore. The one adjustment that I am going to make is that I am going to do a 2 week cycle that I will do twice (that's 4 weeks) and then a week easier, which will be 5 weeks. I have noticed after many years that I need to give my body a week of easier runs to recover. It is always hard to cut back a bit because at the end of 4 weeks I always feel awesome and then I keep pushing it and get sick or injured. In the 70's the Fin's took an easy week after several weeks of training. I am just trying to be proactive rather than reactive. So the rest of my base training phase will take me to the Aloha Run on Feb 8th. After that I'll take an easy week and go into hill training. The search for a good hill to train on officially begins.
Training: (missing a few days, but I'll pick up from what I have)
Saturday: (Dec. 1, 2007)
Duration: 06hr 30min 58sec
Distance: 27.1 miles
Comments: Trail running with the H.U.R.T. guys and gals. Ran up at Peacock Flats in Wailua. I really enjoyed it however my right hamstring began to bother me with about 1 hour to go. Got in all the right food and did not feel that bad afterwards.
p.s. 6,900 ft. of ascent.
Sunday: (Dec. 2, 2007)
Duration: 00hr 46min 49sec
Distance: 5 miles
Comments: R. hamstring was bothering me. I had to stop and stretch it a few times. I am a bit worried.
Monday: (Dec. 3, 2007)
Off- I wanted to rest the hamstring, especially with the marathon coming up.
Tuesday: (Dec. 4, 2007)
Duration: 01hr 29min 31sec
Distance: 10 miles
Comments: Easy run with some of the guys at Runners HI. Took it very easy and the hamstring felt ok.
Wednesday: (Dec. 5, 2007)
Duration: 00hr 18min 22sec
Distance: ??
Comments: Trail run in Waimano. Ran to the falls. Did a lot of hiking and just kind of relaxed. A very enjoyable run/hike.
Thursday: (Dec. 6, 2007)
Duration: 01hr 16min 34sec
Distance: ??
Comments: Trail run with Schab. Found the connections from Royal Summit to the place where Matt and I ran a few times. Hamstring felt strong.
Friday: (Dec. 7, 2007)
Off- I have been having headaches lately, which I think are from eating too much sugar. I also went surfing from the first time today. I got whooped.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
The Young College Mind
The Current Running Red Foxes
(photo courtesy of greg masto's facebook pictures)
College Running
I was your typical freshmen in college. I thought I knew it all, trained the bare minimum and lived for racing. I listened to my coach and got hyped up for every season only while I was finishing up whatever season preceded it. I was sick or injured at the end of almost every season and barely ran over the summer much like what Tim Broe talks about in this video. Actually, as I listen to it now, everything he is saying is basically how I was except I didn't go down to Australia to realize things. I realized everything while abroad in Alicante, Spain in September of 2005 at the end of a year long lower back injury. I came back telling myself that I didn't want to be a good runner, that I wanted to be the best I could be for now on.
Since that point I had to battle the College running scene. If you have experienced it then you will already know what I am going to say. For those of you who don't I will try to explain the scene the best I can. Basically it is a battle every day. Every day you have someone on your team who is feeling great that day and they want to push the run. After a brief name calling session (i.e. "Let's just pick it up, just a little." or "Don't puss out on me now!") you match the pace. Same thing goes for workouts. Recovery or easy days are far and few in between with an easy season completely out of the question, but college distance runners are expected to somehow. It has been proven impossible to run at top form for all three season. Something eventually gives and it is usually your body or your school work (and school work is a whole other dilemma).
However, upon returning from Spain after a year of serious thinking I knew what I had to do. I had to up my mileage (avg. 20-40 to 50-60) and take the easy days easy. Taking the easy days easy was very hard and I usually ran those days on my own or with a person who I could yell at to slow down (yeah, I know, bad. Sorry!). I watched my times come down to near respectable times (8:35 3k and 9:09 3k steeple) and I felt great. I trained over the summer and was dedicated. For my 5th year I had the goal of running well during cross country and outdoors. It was a hard concept for my team to understand and my coach, but god bless them, they went with it. I also had the luxury of living off campus and a busy schedule so I had a lot of time to run and train on my own and when I didn't I had Matt there who had similar goals and training philosophies. This rubbed many people the wrong way and others just said that it probably wouldn't work. My mom thought I was too skinny and that I was killing myself. My teammates did not like that I'd show up for a workout day after missing a few runs due to student teaching and I'd direct the workout and try to get them to do it my way. I understood everybody's' feelings but I knew what I had to do.
In the end, I went against the grain and I put 100% into it. It worked for the most part. I ran 14:42 in the 5k and got in some great base training for the first time in my life. Today, I still feel the effects of that training. But, the whole reason for this post is because I was talking to a former teammate about training and I felt as if I was preaching the Lydiard ways like it was an unknown concept or theory. I have only come across Lydiard's theory on training in the past few months, but since January 2006 I have more or less have trained this way (except for the higher mileage). I was trying to tell my ex-teammate to run based on feel and not by splits. That everyone needs to run off of feel or else they be over-trained or a poor racer that doesn't know what it feels like to run 4:45 back to back. I felt like some of the words were lost on him who is a good friend and was a great teammate. I know he was being as understanding as possible, but I know that it's hard to concider Lydiard when in the college ranks because every day there is some force to take you off of your plan. Kudos to all of those that have ever executed their plans to success. Actually, also to those who have failed, as long as you went at it 100%.
Training:
Wednesday:
Duration: 00hr 31min 00sec
Distance: 4 miles
Comments: Early run. Felt ok.
Thursday:
Duration: 00hr 32min 12sec
Distance: 3.5 miles
Comments: Didn't eat enough today and felt light-headed. Had to turn back way early. Will try again tomorrow.
I was your typical freshmen in college. I thought I knew it all, trained the bare minimum and lived for racing. I listened to my coach and got hyped up for every season only while I was finishing up whatever season preceded it. I was sick or injured at the end of almost every season and barely ran over the summer much like what Tim Broe talks about in this video. Actually, as I listen to it now, everything he is saying is basically how I was except I didn't go down to Australia to realize things. I realized everything while abroad in Alicante, Spain in September of 2005 at the end of a year long lower back injury. I came back telling myself that I didn't want to be a good runner, that I wanted to be the best I could be for now on.
Since that point I had to battle the College running scene. If you have experienced it then you will already know what I am going to say. For those of you who don't I will try to explain the scene the best I can. Basically it is a battle every day. Every day you have someone on your team who is feeling great that day and they want to push the run. After a brief name calling session (i.e. "Let's just pick it up, just a little." or "Don't puss out on me now!") you match the pace. Same thing goes for workouts. Recovery or easy days are far and few in between with an easy season completely out of the question, but college distance runners are expected to somehow. It has been proven impossible to run at top form for all three season. Something eventually gives and it is usually your body or your school work (and school work is a whole other dilemma).
However, upon returning from Spain after a year of serious thinking I knew what I had to do. I had to up my mileage (avg. 20-40 to 50-60) and take the easy days easy. Taking the easy days easy was very hard and I usually ran those days on my own or with a person who I could yell at to slow down (yeah, I know, bad. Sorry!). I watched my times come down to near respectable times (8:35 3k and 9:09 3k steeple) and I felt great. I trained over the summer and was dedicated. For my 5th year I had the goal of running well during cross country and outdoors. It was a hard concept for my team to understand and my coach, but god bless them, they went with it. I also had the luxury of living off campus and a busy schedule so I had a lot of time to run and train on my own and when I didn't I had Matt there who had similar goals and training philosophies. This rubbed many people the wrong way and others just said that it probably wouldn't work. My mom thought I was too skinny and that I was killing myself. My teammates did not like that I'd show up for a workout day after missing a few runs due to student teaching and I'd direct the workout and try to get them to do it my way. I understood everybody's' feelings but I knew what I had to do.
In the end, I went against the grain and I put 100% into it. It worked for the most part. I ran 14:42 in the 5k and got in some great base training for the first time in my life. Today, I still feel the effects of that training. But, the whole reason for this post is because I was talking to a former teammate about training and I felt as if I was preaching the Lydiard ways like it was an unknown concept or theory. I have only come across Lydiard's theory on training in the past few months, but since January 2006 I have more or less have trained this way (except for the higher mileage). I was trying to tell my ex-teammate to run based on feel and not by splits. That everyone needs to run off of feel or else they be over-trained or a poor racer that doesn't know what it feels like to run 4:45 back to back. I felt like some of the words were lost on him who is a good friend and was a great teammate. I know he was being as understanding as possible, but I know that it's hard to concider Lydiard when in the college ranks because every day there is some force to take you off of your plan. Kudos to all of those that have ever executed their plans to success. Actually, also to those who have failed, as long as you went at it 100%.
Training:
Wednesday:
Duration: 00hr 31min 00sec
Distance: 4 miles
Comments: Early run. Felt ok.
Thursday:
Duration: 00hr 32min 12sec
Distance: 3.5 miles
Comments: Didn't eat enough today and felt light-headed. Had to turn back way early. Will try again tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Upper Body And Leg-Speed (edited)
Upper Body
I recently purchased two books about Lydiard's training. While I am waiting for them I have been reading as much as I can find on his training. I found one article of his lecture in Japan. Here he said a lot of the same, but one thing that struck a chord with me. It was his comments about upper body strength. He said that you should'nt do anything to build muscle since muscle is heavy and you don't need the extra weight in your arms. He mentioned that Lasse Viernen had almost no upper body muscle. So, should you or shouldn't you do pushups? Answer that question in the poll to your right.
My personal opinion is that I notice I run stronger when my arms are stronger, but now that I look at it, I am not running effciently when I run with my arms. I am slightly forceful when I do it, pumping my arms to pick up the pace or kill it up a hill. Lydiard, I assume, would be against this. He calls for a smooth arm swing in which your fist graze the side of you hips while using the least amount of energy as possible. I have been trying this and it is forcing me to lower my hands and this feels a bit ackward now, but I will give it a try. I am going to lay off the push ups for now and stick to core excersises.
Leg-Speed
I have also been wondering about how or when to push the pace during this base phase. I know some runs need to be faster than others, but where do steady-state runs and progression runs fit in? I was reading some things from Mcmillanelite, which is Lydiard based, and he was saying that they (Brett Goucher-I ran against him in the 10k at Jr. Nationals. He lapped me 3 times. He's a good guy I met him when I was visiting Hakon at Stanford.) did steady-state runs and leg speed drills once a week during base, but in Lydiard's lectures he mentions that leg-speed is to be done in the cordination phase. So I am confused. Hopefully someone can clear this up with me, but I will re-read his lecture that I have.
Training:
Sunday:
Duration: 02hr 01min 11sec
Distance: 16-17 miles
Comments: Felt awesome. Gradually worked into my pace. Ran an hour out on the Honolulu Marathon course avg. about 7:30 pace (I am guessing). On the way back my last several miles were 6:23, 6:15, 6:19, 6:23, 6:31 (hill), 6:33 (hill), 6:21. I wasn't pushing the pace just running comfortably.
Monday:
Duration: 00hr 42min 56sec
Distance: 4.5 miles (Very hilly- Aeia Loop Trail)
Comments: Had stomach issues. I'll leave it at that.
Tuesday:
Duration: oohr 30min 44sec (am) 01hr 30min 02sec (pm)
Distance: 3.5 miles (am) 11-11.5 miles
Comments: Morning run was relaxed and slow. Afternoon it took me about 30-45min to feel ok. Ran on the bike path.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Getting Back In The Groove
5:30 am Turkey Trot StyleSorry for the lapse in posting. We all know the story. Work gets crazy, holiday festivities come around, etc. Again sorry.
To make up for it I will just update you with my running and a link to an interesting opinion from someone.
To make up for it I will just update you with my running and a link to an interesting opinion from someone.
Training:
Tuesday:
Duration: 01hr 18min 47sec
Distance: 11.5 miles
Comments: Did some fartlek for 25 min (around Ford Island). Felt recovered from the long run.
Wednesday:
Duration: 00hr 30min 31sec
Distance: 4 miles
Comments: Ran with Kristine. Felt good after first time pushing in a long time.
Thursday:
Duration: 01hr 30min 00sec ??
Distance: 13-13.5 miles
Comments: 10 mile Turkey Trot. Ran it as a steady state run. Felt great the first 6-7 miles. Had to be conscious not to dig deep the last 3-4 miles. Averaged sub 5:50 pace/ mile. Was really happy with my time.
Friday:
Duration: 00hr 45min 23sec
Distance: 6 miles
Comments: Felt awesome after the workout the previous day. Keep the run as a recovery run.
Saturday:
Duration: 00hr 15min 10sec
Distance: 2 miles
Comments: Slept in and ran before bed. Been eating like crap and I have a long run in the morning so I kept it short to get more sleep.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Motivation
(click on title above.)Motivation
We can get motivated from the most unlikely sources, with the most unlikely mediums. For instance, Aerosmith's "Dream On" gets me going to the point where it gives me goosebumps (or chicken skin as it is called in Hawaii). Or, better yet, reading John L. Parker, Jr.'s Once a Runner (I am reading it for the first time now) or watching Without Limits. But, it is the unlikely sources that we don't even consider that sometimes are the ones that inspire us the most.
I recall a certain one of Kristine's comments prior to the beginning of my training. It was a harmless comment, but it cut through me clean like a hot knife through butter (or margarine, whichever you prefer). One morning we both were downstairs after a run and she observed, "Your calves don't look as defined as they usually do." Now, again, that might seem harmless, but, in my own opinion, long distance runners are defined, well, by the definition of their leg muscles. Just look at this picture above by clicking on the title. Yeah, that is what I thought. Anyways, my calves are shaping back into their old form and I am looking for other ways for motivation. Hopefully these observations remain at bay for now. I'll stick to books and music for now.
Updates
I am feeling my 20 miler a bit lately. I am not sore, but just fatigued. It also doesn't help that I consumed a large quantity of sugar this weekend. Anyways, I started my run out slow and was struggling so I took my own advice about starting off slow and increasing the speed steadily throughout the run. I continued at a comfortable pace for a little while and gradually picked it up. I probably started at 8:30/mile pace and struggling at first, but got it down to sub 7:30/mile and feeling very comfortable by the end of it. I tacked on an extra 20 minutes with my girlfriend, which was a great finish to a presumably worthless run. Is any run worthless? I guess that is another post.
Training:
Sunday:
Duration: ooh 31min 05 sec
Distance: 3.5 - 4 miles
Comments: Felt weak from all of the sugar I ate all day. I did my run in the evening so I could sleep in a bit.
Monday:
Duration: 01hr 18min 53sec
Distance: 9.5 miles
Comments: Read above.
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