Training Shorts - Marathon Running Adventures

Strength Train for Trail Running at Runner's World | Runner's World

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Training routines to build strength for a comeback tour.

I should have had this article when I ran my first, and only trail run, the Nipmuck trail run.

When I was preparing to run that race, I checked with other members of my running team. One member asked about my marathon time. At the time, it was just over 3 hours. He said, "You can add about an hour to your time. And you'll probably fall 4 times during the race."

I think I beat the odds. I only fell 3 times, but the third fall tore a big hole in the palm of my hand.

Ouch!

Found the Nipmuck trail results here. Mind you, when I ran this race, the Internet wasn't the ubiquitous communication tool it is today. So someone has been busy taking old records and sticking them into an updated MySQL database.

Gotta love it

1991 Nipmuck Trail run results here.

Here are the strength training exercises to get me back on track.

Strength Train for Trail Running at Runner's World | Runner's World

Depression, Flexibility, and Aging Gracefully

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:32:00 +0000

Depression

From the beginning of August until about two weeks ago, I was depressed!

My running had been going downhill and not in a good way. Speeds were falling off, distances were falling off. And I was in constant pain.

After the end of the Cleveland Marathon in May, I had planned to run

The Wright Patterson AFB Marathon in Dayton,
The Road Runner Marathon in Akron,
The Cleveland TowPath Marathon,
The Columbus Marathon and
Maybe one more, perhaps the Detroit Free Press, the Florida Space Coast Marathon, or the one in Indy.

During the month of August, however, I had to subtract races off of my goals list because my legs were in constant pain. My weekly mileage was getting lower and I was getting increasingly weaker.

The depression was the result of not feeling in control.

Imagine watching all of the improvements made from the middle of March to the end of July washed away in the space of a few weeks and not knowing the reason for it or being able to do anything about it.

Yeah. Major depression.

Fortunately, I got a hint of a solution from a kid on the street and from some advice I gave to a running buddy back when I was coaching him for the Boston Marathon.

Aging and Flexibility

During the start of one late afternoon run, I was scooting along with my lower back feeling like I had a steel rod jammed in it and every heel strike shooting a spike of pain up my left leg. But I was intent on running the full 11 miles. That was when I passed a group of kids playing street football. One of the kids that weren't actively involved in the game looked at me and said, “keep on running, old man”.

I thought to myself, “I'm not that old” but my legs were telling me a different story.

As I proceeded further into my run, I started thinking about how stiff and painful my gait was; how limited my range of motion had become; how old I probably looked and definitely felt.

And that's when I recalled some advice I had given to my training partner on flexibility and stretching some years back.

Back in the early 90's when I was 5 miles south of crazy, I was nearing the completion of running 12 marathons in one year, something that's considered commonplace today. But back then, two to three a year was considered the most that any “reasonable” runner could do.

I was helping a friend qualify for the Boston Marathon the following year, so we had targeted the Dallas White Rock Marathon to get in his 3 hour qualifying time.

We spent a lot of our summer and fall days running the Charles River circuits preparing for the The White Rock Marathon. On one of those days as we sped around a mid-sized loop, we noticed two older runners just starting out on their run.

As we zoomed past them, Frank said, “Good God man. Would ya look at those two runners - older than dirt and still running. Man, they look like they are having such a hard time. They should know when to quit.”

That's when I said, “You know, their level of performance isn't entirely determined by their age. Look at their gait, their posture, their stride. They're slow and in pain not because of their age, but because they have no flexibility. Their legs are tight. They've got no flexibility in their hips. Their lower body isn't loose enough to absorb any serious shock from the constant impact. They are probably limiting their running motion to reduce pain.”

“If they had more flexibility in their legs and lower back, their stride would be longer, the would have more power in each step... With their experience, they could probably put us to shame.”

“So the lesson for today is – keep stretching. It will keep you running fast and looking young.”

Stretch Brings Back Faster Times

Truth is, most of the physical characteristics that everyone attributes to aging can also be the result of poor diet, poor physical conditioning, or too much stress. In my case, it was poor flexibility.

My running posture was poor, my stride was short, and my legs wouldn’t lift up. I had resorted to a stiff legged shuffle with my legs swinging out to my sides as opposed to having them pull into my core and driving forward.

I’m sure I looked like an old man toddling along the road, which was kind of ironic since I was being passed by guys who were older than me.

So for the past two weeks, I've been on a regular stretching regimen. Every chance I get I do quad stretches, hamstring stretches, and lower leg stretches using anything and everything I can get my hands on.

When first started this exercise, I was surprised.

Shocked is more like it.

I had trouble getting my legs to separate by 45 degrees. That's about the 2nd step on a set of stairs. Hurt like hell. No wonder I had lost my power and speed. When I massaged my hamstrings, it felt like I was squeezing a bag of jello mixed with steel cables and rocks. At one point I even used a rolling pin on the back of my legs to break up the big pieces and get some more flexibility out of my legs.

Now, I can get my feet up on the counter top without using my hands to put them there. That's a little over a 90 degree angle. And on a good day, I can even lower my head down to kiss my knee, but only if I stretch long enough.

The pain is subsiding, I'm getting more power out of each foot strike, and I'm picking up some extra speed just from lengthening out my stride. My time for 11 miles has come down from a depressing 120 minutes to a fastest time of 94 minutes so far. I'll celebrate when I get it down to 88 minutes!

The Dayton Marathon is at the end of the week, so I don't think I'll be setting any personal bests. I've still got a lot of stretching to do and I have done very little speed work. This knowledge, however, will come in handy for next year's racing events.

I think I'll also throw in a couple of 10Ks next year to increase leg turnover. Doing only long slow distance has shown me that it keeps me running on the slow side.

Keep driving forward.

Lactic Acid Management

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:15:00 +0000

Today (Tuesday) when I started out, I had planned a track session to work on leg turnover. Let’s see, do about a three mile warm up, hit the track for a couple of sets of 200s to churn the legs and get that lactic acid burn we all love to feel, and then do a final 4 miles to cool down.

I got through the three mile warm up. But when I reached the track, I saw that the local middle school Girls Track Team had taken it over. Actually, it could have been the soccer team or lacrosse team for all I knew. I saw a lot of young girls milling about on the track, a bunch of parents on the bleachers, and lots of red cones. No one was running on the track so it must have been an orientation. However, I didn't feel like being a mook, going over and saying, "Excuse me. Since you guys aren't running today, could you all move over to the bleachers? I want to use your track to run a couple of 200s". Yeah, real mook material here.

So I continued onward trying to figure out what I was going to do instead.

I thought about continuing with an easy run much like I had run on Monday. But I also realized that I needed a stress day. After running easy for 40 minutes, I picked up the pace after mile 4.

It was probably too hot to put serious stress on the body, but I did it anyway and ran the last half of The Lawgiver trying to break the 8 min/mile pace. Probably did at some point in that 4-mile stint. But once the lactic acid burn sets in, you just don't get any more push out of the legs. My guess is that I burned that first mile, probably somewhere between a 7 and a 7.5 pace because my legs were on fire towards the end and I was struggling to push the speed at the finish of the loop. As one of my track buddies from my racing days once told me, "Halfway through the run, somebody tossed you a piano--and you caught it!"

During the cool down, I knew that the right choice was the track workout to work on leg turnover. But this provided a good opportunity to manage lactic acid build up. I think more of these “burn” runs are in order to train the leg muscles on efficient removal of lactic acid waste, although I don’t think there’s enough time before the first marathon of the fall season.

During my walk-run back to home base, I was reveling in the surrounding environment, noticing the humidity in the air and the cooler temperatures now that the sun was setting. That's when I heard a muffled thumping. Unsure of what was going on, I started looking around for the source of the tapping. That's when I realized that I had walked in front of my fan club’s house. Yes, the two little girls who were typically out in front of their house at 5:30 shouting, "Look Mom. It's the runner!" were now inside. Well, it was almost 8:00 PM. But that didn't curb their enthusiasm one bit. There they were in the living room window, waving furiously. Mom should have put towels in their hands. This was definitely a window cleaning "wax on" moment.

Anyway, it was a decent enough day. I'll hurt tomorrow. I'll probably take the day off, give the legs a break, and visit a Toastmasters group.

We'll call this run 1.5 hours with the warm up and cool down miles in the Asics DLs.

Easy Recovery Runs Are Necessary

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:01:00 +0000

Took an easy recovery run on Monday.

The day had less of an edge to it probably because I was getting off to a late start with the sun slowly setting. Part of the reason for the late start was that I ate too late in the day.

It was still warm, but with the sun low in the sky, it didn't feel nearly as oppressive as the day before when I did my long run at high noon.

Ran easy. I didn't really push it because I'm still feeling out the hip, and I had just finished the grueling long run the day before. But the air was wet again today. So I was back to wringing a gallon of water out of my shirt. Carried only a single bottle this time and wore the Asics DLs.

Passed the track during the run and there was a lot of activity, even at this late hour. Not sure how many more track workouts I'll get in. School is starting up and the soccer teams, lacrosse teams and the track teams are taking over the field. Should be interesting.

Easy run for 1.5 hours in Asics DLs

Water, Dehydration, And The Long Run

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:40:00 +0000

Sunday's run was over the 22 mile long T-888. The day was hot, which seems to be a common theme for the past few weeks. But somehow, this day was different. the air seemed sharper, harsher, as if it were saying, "come on out here pal. I'm gonna work you today".

And it did.

One of the challenges was that I went running just before high noon, which turned out to be a mistake. The other challenge was that the air was dryer than it has been over the past few months.

Typically, my shirt would be soaked within the first 10 minutes of the run and my feet would be swimming in my sweat filled shoes by the end of the run. The humidity has been such that water evaporation off of the skin was tough, a blessing and a curse. If your sweat can't evaporate, the body has a more difficult time cooling down your core temperature. However, on the flip side, water reclamation is as simple as licking your lips!

But not today. The air was a lot dryer than it has recently been. That coupled with the high noon heat and direct sun meant that my skin was being turned into leather with every step I took.

This day was a challenge in water management. Because of the dyer air, I lost a lot more water than usual. Typically, I can run the first loop of the T-888 and have just under 20 ounces of water left by the time I hit the water bubbler in the park. Today, there was none. I had drained both bottles and still felt thirsty by the time I hit the bubbler. That should have been a sign to quit while I was ahead.

But I figured that if I slowed up the pace interspersed with some walking, I should be able to get through the second loop on two 20 ounce bottles. So I continued onward.

Like I said, big mistake.

In spite of slowing the pace down and walking a bit on the second loop, I had less than a quarter of a bottle left, or just 5 ounces of water, with 5 miles left to go. A very thirsty 5 miles to run.

Typically I do the T-888 consuming a little over a gallon of water. Today, it was more like 3 gallons and that still wasn't enough. And my clothes were completely dry when I finished.

Lesson learned during this run dealt with water management. Naturally, there are conditions that I can control which will impact how much water I consume, such as the intensity of the run or the type and amount of material worn during the run. Even eating can have a major impact on water consumption. Digestion is a water intensive process. But there are other conditions that I can't control like temperature, weather, and now humidity. Big factors to consider on race day.

I'm not sure which is worse, high humidity where the sweat can't evaporate to cool your core temperature, or low humidity where you can quickly and easily lose your bodily fluids. One thing is certain, a combination of high temp and low humidity isn't a lot of fun. Let's see, we are gonna take away all of your fluids until you can't sweat anymore and your blood thickens up, and we are gonna heat up your outside skin temperature until it's higher than your internal body temperature. Stick me in the microwave and cook me like a Thanksgiving turkey!

This run was also about reconnecting with prior experiences, like realizing that dehydration can lead to muscle soreness, muscle cramps, loss of performance, fatigue, disorientation, and in extreme cases, heat stroke, brain damage and death. This should have been an easy realization given how much time I've spent hiking in the great southwestern desert. But I think I've spent too much time around green trees and in big cities you're only as thirsty as the nearest lawn sprinkler.

Might be time for another desert excursion!

4 hours of running in the Asics Gel 1130s.

Easy Run Turns Into A Power Run

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 05:01:00 +0000

So today I waffled between doing the hill repeats and going to the track. But it was way to nice outside, the temperature was mild, and I didn't want to do a hard run just yet. So another easy type run was in order.

The first few miles were easy enough. Easy and slow. Then I started opening up the stride. The last 5 miles were done in 42 minutes.

The temperature was in the mid 70s so I could afford to push it a little more. Still, I carried 2 bottles of water and I did need them.

This is the reason I run without the clock when I'm running to relax, relieve stress and generate ideas. If I know I'm on the clock, I become obsessed with lowering the time and I end up hurting the next day.

I'm gonna hurt tomorrow.

Speed work next week. No clock tomorrow.

2 hours (combined with the warm up and cool down miles) in the Asics 1130s.

Easy Runs In The Heat

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:55:00 +0000

The last two days have been easy, mind-body mending runs. Not running for time--just enjoying the run.

Of course high temperatures and humidity have played a part in the decision making process. When I returned from my run yesterday, I realized that in spite of taking it slow and leaving the watch at home, I still finished up feeling drained.

That's when it hit me like a fist full of quarters that heat does take a toll on the body.

It's one thing to have knowledge of an activity or an event. I knew about the strain that heat places on a system. I knew about the effects of dehydration, electrolyte loss, an elevated core temperature, and the resulting effects on individual performance.

But there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom.

And after yesterday's run, I had gained wisdom supported by experience.

Well, maybe re-experience. I had been through this all before when I trained back in Boston, and when I ran in the California foothills.

Still, in spite of the drawbacks, I still find something attractive about running in the heat, striding slowly through the miles and running through the warm air.

Perhaps it's the feeling of spontaneity, of being able to get out with little preparation.

Perhaps its the sense of freedom, of just being out in the open moving under my own power.

Or maybe it's the knowledge that in 3 more months I'll be back to cold, wet shoes, frostbitten toes, numb fingers, windburned skin, 20 extra pounds of clothing, and running in the dark.

Yeah, give me the liberty that comes with heat.

Ran another 2 hours in the Asics 1130s, and in the heat.

Here's a tip from RealAge. Feed Your Skin, Starve Your Wrinkles. An easy way to avoid the Nip/Tuck Dynamic Duo and keep your skin looking younger.

Run Like Forest Gump

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:10:00 +0000

Yesterday I really felt unmotivated to get out and put the mileage in.

Getting dressed was a chore. Putting on the shoes was a chore.

Even filling the water bottles was a chore.

All I could think about was, "should I do the mile and a half repeats, the hill repeats or hit the track?"

That's when it hit me that running wasn't fun anymore. With all of the requirements that I had put in place, deciding if I was going to do a tempo run, a long run, a track workout or a hill workout, I had lost the original reason I had started running and continue to run to this day--to relieve stress.

So as I finished lacing up the shoes, I said, "Screw it. I don't care how far I go or how long it takes, I'm going running just to run. As Forest Gump said, "I just felt like running".

So yesterday's run was just a run. No time. No hills. No fartlek. No tempo run.

It was just a chance to get out and move the legs again.

When I lived in Cupertino, I studied karate for a couple of years.

Most of the sessions covered the basics to get us to the next level, so we studied and practiced a variety of blocks, kicks, punches, and forms, also known as kata.

One evening when I went in, I had just finished up a horrendous day at work. It was one of those days where nothing went right. And as I stepped into the studio, I could tell that the train of unfavorable events was going to continue because I was the only person that showed up that day.

As my instructor prepared to review the days lesson in preparation for the next test, he noticed something about my demeanor. So he asked me if everything was alright--and I just vomited the days events all over him.

After I had finished unloading on him and a few minutes of reflection, he said, "You know what? We don't have anyone else showing up today. Over half the people who were supposed to show called in and canceled on me. As for everyone else, they would have shown up by now if they were going to come. So we are going to change things up a bit. Step over here and let me introduce you to my personal friend, the heavy bag."

For those of you who have never been introduced to a heavy bag in person, let me tell you, working the heavy bag is not as easy as those TV heroes make it out to be. It's 80 pounds of dead weight that doesn't flex or roll with the punches. If it's coming at you and you try to deflect it with a "Bruce Lee punch", it just eats your punch and keeps coming at you. You, on the other hand, will end up breaking your arm.

Dave gave me some pointers on how to strike the heavy bag--tips like don't kick it with your toe or your break it and don't try to knock the bag out of the park or you'll hurt your hand and break your arm and learn to use momentum to your advantage. After about 10 minutes of tips and examples, he said, "it's all yours. Work it out".

I was a little hesitant at first, but after a few minutes of getting the feel for the old girl, I really started getting animated. And Dave was there to offer me encouragement. He would things like, "There you go! You're getting the hang of it! Who's your daddy? Show 'em who the daddy! Who's that person you really want to give some appreciation? Put their face right there on the bag. Now show 'em some love! Give 'em a kiss with a roundhouse kick!"

At the end of the hour, I knew I had been in a workout. But surprisingly enough, I felt relaxed, energized, and liberated. I dropped all of my tension underneath the heavy bag and left the studio feeling lighter than when I went in.

It didn't help me get to the next belt level. But it was exactly what I needed at that moment.

Yesterday's run was like that heavy bag workout. It wasn't a run for a fast time, to develop extra speed, or to correct gait problems.

It was, however, what I needed.

I remember a bit of wisdom from my competitive days when qualifying for the Boston Marathon was something I could do two months before the Boston Marathon with only a mild amount of training. Hard training, speed work and racing take miles out of your "training account". To put miles back in, you need to run the easy runs that bring the mind and body back together.

If you find yourself feeling burned out or your training sessions begin to feel more like work and less enjoyable, forget about the requirements for a day.

Do like Forest Gump and just run.

Running Backwards Saves A Session

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:03:00 +0000

If there was ever a day to take off from running, today was that day. And I ignored the signs.

Running today was a real chore. The legs felt totally rung out, hips felt stiff and painful, and it was in the mid-eighties again even at 5:00 PM. To ad insult to injury, I had put in a strong 10 miler on Friday followed by a marathon long run on Saturday. So, I was tired.

Most of this run started out as a run-walk, which means after running for 15 minutes and not getting any power out of my legs, I switched to walking a bit before running again. At the pace I was using, I think jogging would be a better description. After running for a few miles, I decided to move to more of a fartlek format. I could manage a faster pace, but only for about 100 meters. After that, I started dragging again. So I alternated between the fast pace 100 meters and the slower paced 200 or more meters.

After hitting mile 6 and not feeling any better, I decided to change things up again. Since the left hip was still feeling weak and sore, I decided to try running in a different fashion to work a different set of muscles. So I started running backwards.

Running backwards was slower than running forward, but it did turn out a different kind of workout. I was on my toes much of the time, my quads were bearing much of the strain, and the hamstrings and glutes were supplying much of the drive. And, when I started running forward again, I noticed an extra spring in my forward gait.

Running backwards is not something I could do for long periods. If you have weak lower legs or are nursing shin splints, I would not recommend this exercise. All of the muscles responsible for shin splints get a serious workout and too much of this will definitely aggravate the condition. However, with judicious use, running backwards will develop some of those leg muscles that we normally ignore during a normal workout.

If you are looking to change things up during one of your easy runs, try running backward for a few intervals and work some of those unused leg muscles.

Total exposure today was 2 hours. Used the Asics 1130s.

Marathon Prep Long Run

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:11:00 +0000

Ran the 21 mile marathon circuit in 3:43:44. Used the Asics 1130s.

Today was overcast with a fairly low temperature. I got off to a late start, which worked to keep the temperatures low.

Wasn’t sure if I should run the marathon long run today or tomorrow. However, with the threat of a wandering thunderstorm moving in tomorrow, I thought it best to get the long run in today before the rain set in.

At the start, the left leg was stiff and dragging. Had to consciously control my stride and keep it long and open.

The pace was a little slower than the last time I ran this route. On my first lap, I was almost 10 minutes over my previous time. So I guess I was able to pick up the pace on the second round. I still have to squeeze in 5 more miles in this time frame before the Dayton Marathon.

Also, during the second lap, the legs started swinging outward again. I had to maintain conscious control over my stride to keep my feet aligned.

The good thing was that this run was early in the evening. So the setting sun coupled with the high cloud cover kept the temperature at a reasonable level.

I guess maybe that the faster-paced run yesterday probably had an effect on today’s run.

I still have to work on strength in the glutes and upper body strength to maintain form. I’m still falling apart after 19 to 20 miles. Not good form to run a marathon.

And another article on how to get control of your age, or at least reducing it’s affect on our appearances.

From Real Age, Several Foods for Younger Looking Hair.

Maybe I should first grow some!

Easy Marathon Prep With 10 Miler

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:07:00 +0000

I took two days off to give my hip a rest, and to avoid Wednesday’s electrical storm. Today was supposed to be another easy day where I could stretch my legs in preparation for more marathon speed work. So that is exactly what I did.

During the first 5 miles, I found it easy to maintain control over my stride, keeping it stretched out and maintaining control over foot placement. I also find that I am running on the balls of my feet more, running through my big toe, and spending less time running through my heels.

After mile 7, the gait started getting sloppy and I found my legs swinging out in circles parallel to the ground. When this starts happening, I notice that I don’t bend my legs. And when my legs don’t bend, I don’t get any drive out of them. All of the push comes from the hips and lower legs. Nothing comes from the quads or the hamstrings. So, after mile 7, I struggled to maintain control over my stride and keep pace because I was not using the full power of my legs. I’m gonna have to work extra hard to build up my strength to last over several marathons.

But I finished within 90 minutes. I used the usual 1 mile warm up and cool down.

And I wore the Asics 1130s today. They are a little heavier than the other shoes, but it forced me to pick up my feet.

At this pace, I should bring my marathon time back down to 3:40

Mixing Speed Work And Long Distance

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:29:00 +0000

Second speed workout on the road.

I think I should have taken this day off. The run yesterday took more out of me than I thought.

My initial run was slower than my final run the last time I did this circuit. And they just got slower with each run.

I used the old Asic DXs again. It might be time to retire these puppies.

I had no new revelations or observations, other than pain.

Time for the three loops:

Time pace
11:15 7:17
11:26 7:25
11:43 7:36

Also ran a 4 mile warm up and a 2 mile cool down.

Total exposure was about 1.5 hours.

Lengthening The Stride Creates An Unplanned Tempo Run

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:37:00 +0000

Yesterday began a 10-mile run to relax the legs. I ran a 21-22 mile run on Sunday so I just wanted to take it easy and give the legs an light workout.

I wore the old Asics DXs and by the time I actually started, my mindset had shifted.

First, I wanted to stretch out my stride. I’ve been running on time and not distance since before the Cleveland Marathon and recently I’ve noticed that my stride has shortened. I’ve been spending my mileage shuffling instead of running.

So when I started this run, I told myself, “let’s start by lengthening my stride and actually pushing off my power leg with some follow through instead of holding my legs stiffly and swinging them in a circular motion”.

Then, after about a mile of this, I said, “Hey, I need to use my arms more to maintain balance and keep my timing”.

Then I said, “What if I stopped leading off with a heel strike and running on the outside of my feet? Instead, what if I started striking on the ball of my feet? How long can I keep going with this modification?”

From there, the stride just felt good—less pain in the hip and less tightening in the hamstring.

Even the temperature cooperated.

So after the halfway point when I started feeling a little winded, I pushed through it and kept the pace and stride right out to the end of the run.

Oh, and changed things up by including a warm up mile and a cool down mile with the run.

Total exposure was about 2 hours.

Turn Back The Clock On Your Body With Exercise

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:55:00 +0000

Itsy Bitsy Runner tried a new running route.
Out came the rain and washed the heat out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.
And the Itsy Bitsy Runner overheated once again.

Yes, ran an easy 21 miles today in 3:36:16. Started the run just after a morning rain and the temperature was still in the low 70s. So the first half of the run felt good--no overheating, no cramping, no heat fatigue.

About halfway through, the cloud cover began to dissipate and the sun started putting the water on the ground back into the air. The legs started feeling heavy, more stiffness and more fatigue. While having the sun beat down on your back is great for maximizing your tan, it’s not so good for keeping your core temperature low. I’m glad that I had an opportunity to put some decent mileage in today without feeling wiped out.

Out for 3.5 hours

Oh, and check out this article on 9 “Harmless” Habits That Age Your Body.

Flatten Your Stomach With These 6 Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:53:00 +0000

No run today. Took a hint from yesterday’s run.

Weather today was over 90 degrees with high humidity and triple digit heat index. I remember not being able to keep my eyes open and feeling like a rung out dishrag after my run yesterday.

Decided that having a decent workout session on Sunday was worth two lousy sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

However, I did find this wonderful article from RealAge on the fat that collects around your waist and some ideas on how to cut it down. Number 3 is particularly insightful and I really like number 5.

Good reading!

A 10 Mile Walkathon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 04:59:00 +0000

Created a new loop today, just to get some miles in. This was supposed to be an easy run after doing the 1.5 mile repeats and the hill repeats. But the heat and humidity made this run feel like a real chore. A heat advisory was in effect right at the time that I started until 8:00 PM, about the time that the storm was scheduled to move in.

Hip was a pain to deal with today. And it rained just before the run, which put a whole lot more water in the air.

I did a lot of walking to keep moving forward.

It took me close to 2 hours just to get in just over 10 miles.

During the run, I passed by a girl walking with her dog. The dog looked like I felt—eyes bugged out, tongue dragging the ground, head bobbing back and forth in search of water. Poor puppy. Poor me!

Today should have been one of those days where I rested. The heat sapped way too much strength.

In fact, this run reminded me of a race I did in Salem MA, the Pickering Wharf 10k. It was over 90 degrees and over 95% humidity. A fun little race in Salem, MA but I don’t think it’s held any more.

One of the saving graces of the race, however, was the post race beer.

Kind of like what I’m having right now. Blue Moon Summer Ale.

2 hours today. And lost about a gallon of water.

Hill Work for Building Strength in Legs, Hips and Glutes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:58:00 +0000

I did another hill session today. First time I measured the hill and discovered just how much mileage I was putting on my legs during one of these little sessions.

I had first estimated the distance to be about half a track lap, a 220 or about an 8th of a mile (.125 mile). Today, I put it on DailyMile and it came out to about a tenth of a mile, which seems reasonable.

I also put into practice a tip I read in the hardcopy of Runner’s World pertaining to hill training:

Run Better: Running fast downhill will improve your leg turnover, which will boost your speed and help prepare your body for downhill segments in races.

Reducing the rest time between repeats and increasing my speed down hill allowed me to bring the overall loop time down to 73 seconds giving a total time of 49 minutes. What I didn’t realize is that this comes out to just over 6 minutes for 5 loops or about a mile, for 40 loops or about 8 miles.

This is more pounding than a track workout!

Anyway, the total exposure time is about 2.5 hours, which includes the run out to the location and back.

Speed Work On The Road

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:32:00 +0000

So today began my new venture in speed workouts.

Using the Dailymile application, I plotted out a small loop around Horseshoe Lake. After my previous run where I realized that my legs were just not providing any power, I decided that I needed a little more than a track workout but not quite up to a full-blown tempo run.

This 1.5 loop of pain and mayhem seems to fit the bill.

It provides me with a way to keep my pace smooth and even for a longer period of time.

It also puts more stress on the system. Not quite a tempo run, but it’s a good start.

Ran three of these loops and then enough time to put in a total of 2 hours today.

Time for the three loops:

Time (min)	Pace (min/mile)
11:00	7:08
11:05	7:11
11:13	7:16

Dailymile Widget

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:02:00 +0000

I dropped the DailyMile widget on the sidebar.

Dailymile has a really cool feature that lets you plot out road courses and provides you with an estimate of the mileage.

Great way to keep track of your progress.

Create your account and give it a shot.

Feeling The Need For Speedwork

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:12:00 +0000

Another Hi-Lo day.

Ran the 2 hour loop and tried to put some of my speed work into practice. My thinking was since I’ve been doing all of these hill sprints and some track work, I should be able to cut some time off of the 2 hour loop so I can lengthen it out again.

Boy did I get a shock.

I started the loop feeling good. But it didn’t take long before everything slowed down to a crawl. My legs just won’t turn over and it’s probably due to a combination of activities, like the electrolyte imbalance mentioned in a previous post and the high temperatures. Mostly, however, I think it’s due to the fact that for the past few months, I’ve been doing nothing but LSD (Long Slow Distance).

I can’t remember who said it, but I remember what they said: If you want to run fast, you simply have to run fast.

Well, in today’s run, I wasn’t running fast. My legs were feeling like big lead weights. Not only that, I could not get any lift out of them.

Since I knew I could get on the track and get 2 to 3 minutes of power out of my legs, I decided to run the last 4 miles as a fartlek. That seemed to wake things up a bit.

Over the last few months since before running the Cleveland Marathon, I’ve worked on building my base and extending my distance. In the process, I’ve probably shortened up every muscle in my legs along with my gait and atrophied any fast twitch fibers I had left in my hips.

If I plan to pull a decent time out of the marathons coming up in the fall, my training strategy will have to change. Shorter distances with a focus on the track.

I predict much pain for the month of August.

2 hour loop today (actually, yesterday again).

Marathon Training, Electrolytes, and Burnout

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:41:00 +0000

In spite of my best intentions, and it being one of those rare sunny Cleveland days, I felt way to fatigued to get out and do the track workout yesterday. Mentally, I was completely burned and physically, I felt wrung out. So when 5:00 rolled up, I was not motivated to go out and do even an easy run. I actually felt like taking a long nap.

In fact, I could hardly keep my eyes open throughout the day.

So instead of going through my mental motivation exercise, I stayed in and read in between some really long blinks.

This morning I got off to an early start, chose the 2-hour loop and took it easy on the hip.

The temperature was already in the upper 70’s and climbing fast when I started. And after just over a mile out, I was sweating profusely. No worries. I had two 16-oz bottles of water with me. But some of the sweat flowed into my mouth. And that’s when I had my epiphany.

Back before I ran the Cleveland Marathon, my sweat had the taste of seawater. But of late, it has been tasting more like bottled water.

The temperatures here for the past month have been high. I’ve been out on the road training for two or more hours a day, sweating the entire time. My diet has consisted mainly of fruit (honeydew melon, watermelon, cantaloupe, and LOTS of oranges), grains (cereals and breads), and coffee (yum).

I’ve been slowly bleeding the salt out of my body and I haven’t been replacing it.

Which leaves me thinking about my overall electrolyte balance.

According to the Merck Manual of Health and Aging, the symptoms of hyponatremia, or low sodium levels, are confusion, drowsiness, muscle weakness, and seizures. So far, I’ve experienced mild confusion, drowsiness, and muscle weakness.

I don’t intend to let this get to the point of seizures.

From now until the Dayton AFB Marathon in September, I’ll have to cut back on the mileage and focus more on strength and speed. That means more hill work, more track work, more tempo runs…

…and maybe some more salt in my diet.

Run today, 2 hour loop.

Hills Again Today

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:29:00 +0000

Yesterday I had decent hill workout and kicked it.

Today, I got kicked... into the middle of next week.

High temperature, high humidity, and some lingering fatigue from yesterday’s hill repeats worked together to create a difficult hill workout today. Probably should not have done back-to-back hills but it’s too late for that now.

I was able to use different strides, integrating some bounding strides, some longer kicks, some shorter and faster steps, and some high kicks.

Felt drained, but I gave the hip a workout. I should be ready for a track workout tomorrow.

Hill run today. 40 hill repeats for an hour. Total exposure time 2.5 hours

Running Motivation From Supportive Community

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:32:00 +0000

Today was a hill day.

The hip was still hurting from yesterday’s track workout, so the 45 minute run to the hill started off at a very easy pace until I could loosen up the locked up hamstring and inner thigh muscles.

My usual route takes me down one particular street where my fans hang out. That is right, I have fans. And after a three-week absence, they were back today.

The first fans appeared right about the beginning of May when the temperatures started getting warm, about two weeks before the Cleveland Marathon.

On that day as I was starting my way on another 2 hour run, I passed by a nondescript house where two little girls, about 6 or 7 years old, came tearing out of their backyard screaming, “Look Mom. It’s the Runner!” I didn’t think much of it, so I said “hi” and ran onward.

As May wore on, Mom got in on the act. The kids would say, “Look Mom, It’s the Runner!” and Mom would say, “Yep. There he is. Hi Runner”.

Not wanting to be left out, Dad got involved: “Hey, you’re early today. We almost missed you.”

By mid-June, most of the surrounding neighbors had jumped in as well. One guy located about 10 houses away said, “Hey, we saw you running around Shaker Lakes yesterday. How far did you go?”

Then, the heat started picking up and everyone ran inside to escape into their air-conditioned homes. I thought to myself, “OK. Party’s over. I’m back to the loneliness of the long distance runner.”

So imagined my surprise today when I passed that nondescript house to see my two original fans on the front porch with their mom having a tea party. When they saw me approaching, they all broke out in an enthusiastic waving frenzy shouting “Hi Runner”.

When I run, I don’t carry an MP3 player, ear buds, iPod, camera, or cell phone. It’s just me, a stopwatch, and a bottle of water (sometimes I’ll even wear shoes). I don’t carry anything to keep my mind engaged. After an hour of running with an hour or more to go, I’m pretty much hypnotized, also known as ‘zoned out'. Bumping into a fellow runner is a welcomed blessing, even if all they say is, “Yo, looking strong!”

So imagine what it feels like after running over two hours in the heat, tired, worn out, zoned out, and hitting that last mile where an entire block of people are waving like fanatics and cheering you on.

Yeah, it feels like I’m finishing another marathon.

I’m thinking of breaking up my route into a double loop, just so I can run through this particular block twice and get a motivational boost in the middle of my run, not just at the beginning or the end.

What do you do for motivation? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Hill run today. 40 hill repeats for an hour. Total exposure time 2.5 hours - actually yesterday now that I’m posting this.

Smokin Speed Workout

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:48:00 +0000

I was lacking serious running motivation today. Monday was a zero hour day and I knew that I had to get out and run. But the hip was still bothering me and I had spent the majority of the day in a seated position doing data backups and erasing a hard drive.

Still, I had to get on the road and as it is Tuesday, that means either the track or the hill. The hill makes my hip feel better but I opted for the track since my last track workout was almost two weeks ago.

When I arrived, the track was empty and for good reason. The humidity level was off the charts.

Anyway, as I am still getting my feel for speed workouts and my hip feels worse after these bouts, I didn’t want to push the workout. I did six 800s the last time I was on the track, so I figured eight 800s would be in order today. The times are below.

Anyway, while in the middle of my first 800, I noticed an older guy walking his dog along the track while carrying a cup and smoking a very aromatic cigar. The dog appeared to be of the young playful variety and not one of those mad dog killer types, so there would be no external motivation today.

I didn’t pay the guy any mind after my first 800, after my first recovery lap or even after my second 800. However, as I jogged past the guy during my second recovery lap, he smiled and said, “Here you are running while I’m drinking and smoking.”

I thought for a second and then replied, “Well look at it this way: you are keeping the bugs away!”

He just laughed and went on about his business, which consisted of smoking, taking an occasional sip of whatever he had in his cup, and playing with his dog.

After I completed my fourth 800, I noticed the old guy and his dog walking off the track and over the embankment to get back to the road. So long aromatic cigar.

Strangely enough, right after he left was when I started getting bugs caught in my teeth.

The lesson here, if you want to get rid of bugs, dump the OFF! Light up a big stogie instead.

Eight 800s separated by one lap recovery.

2:51
2:55
2:52
2:53
2:54
2:54
2:53
2:45

Total time, 1 hour out.

Tip For Showing Off Your 6-Pack Abs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:14:00 +0000

I recently received this article in my inbox from RealAge regarding weight gain and stress.

Apparently, excessive dieting can cause additional stress, which in turn can trigger weight gain, something we've seen in the starvation diets.

According to this article, a study that followed 121 dieters revealed a rise in their cortisol levels, a hormone commonly associated with stress. And prolonged exposure to cortisol seems to do some pretty nasty things to the body, including inducing an increase in weight.

I guess the advice here is to eat sensibly, exercise regularly, and get your rest on and you'll strip off that blanket of belly fat that's hiding your abs.

But you still have to do your lunges and your crunches to tighten up those puppies!

RealAge: Flatten Your Belly With This Eating Habit

Wikipedia: cortisol