Wind and Rain

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I had to kick my butt out the door this afternoon for today’s run. Not having a race on my calendar to train for really makes it easy to stay indoors, especially when the weather is threatening rain with gusty winds. It’s not that I haven’t run in the rain before or that I’m afraid of getting wet. I ran earlier this week on a morning that looked less rain-ful than today and I ended up getting hailed on before I finished the 4-mile out and back. Rain is one thing, hail is much more hurtful.

Thankfully, the rain held back for me this afternoon, and the temperature was perfect (50 degrees +/-) even with the gusting wind. Today’s run put 30 miles on my legs this week, and they felt a little weary and my breath too came in heaves because I was running at mile high elevation this afternoon. But all in all, I am glad I got over myself, and got out the door and moved myself down the trail and back.

Running…How To Do It

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“I told him I’d started running, and I wasn’t sure if I knew how to do it. He said there wasn’t all that much to it, aside from remembering to alternate feet.”
Step by Step ~ Lawrence Block

This quote made me laugh when I first read it and I knew I wanted to share it on my blog one day soon. I just finished reading this book and enjoyed Mr. Block’s memoir; running and walking was (and I hope still is) a prominent feature of his life’s story.

Tomorrow I’ll be running my first 10K of 2015 and I’ll probably be smiling while I think about this silly little quote about alternating my feet. The Dr. Gann’s Cinco de Mayo 10K is in it’s 35th year, but tomorrow will only be the second time I’ve run this race. It’s an out and back mixed, hilly route which thankfully ends with the last 2 miles downhill. Should be nice and warm too, around 70 degrees at 7am.

I’m not as trained this year as I was last year, my schedule was full of work and caretaking for a sick parent, so tomorrow’s race is for the pure pleasure of running, simply because I can and I have no where else to be at 7 o’clock in the morning. I hope to at least run the same pace as I did last year, but if I’m feeling fresh and strong you can count on me to push the pace up a bit too. So here’s to tomorrow’s race and to how to do it!

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving. ~ Anatole France

Racing or Running?

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What is your intention? Your intention for the day makes all the difference to how you will rate the finish line at day’s end. Will you race through your day? Or will you run through it? By definition, a race is a competition or contest in which there will be a winner with many runners’ up. Likewise, a run indicates quick forward momentum, when for a short moment, both feet are off the ground.

So what is your intention for the day? Will you treat it like a race and gut out your day, heaving with great sighs of breathing and straining with an intensity and focus that tramples every obstacle in your path? Or will you instead lace up for your day with careful pacing of your energies and metered awareness of the passing moments so as to accomplish those chores and duties you encounter through the day.

Racing through your days can wear you down and leave you feeling defeated if you don’t finish the day ahead of your to-do list. However, if we can run through our days with attention to our pacing and purpose, then we may accomplish what is most needful for today and be satisfied with no more or no less.

Kara-Goucher

Keep Running…It May Save Your Life

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I love to run…anyone who knows me knows that, but what I love almost as much as running are stories about runners who inspire…inspire me to keep going as I run through the decades of my life. Yesterday’s post on Runner’s World was just such a story. A story that took over half a century to unfold, but those many years were needed to make a strong point about the power of running to heal our bodies and minds; when we put our shoes on and show up to run, no matter how we feel (mentally or physically) we set off a chain reaction of health and healing for ourselves. Whether we are 30 years old or 80+ years old, running is excellent therapy. Read Sylvia’s story and be inspired today and know with certainty that the obstacles to your  well-being can be overcome with the help of God and your own two legs.  Now get out there and have a wonder-filled run!

If there’s any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can’t think what it might be. In running, the mind flies with the body; the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to pulse in the brain, in rhythm with out feet and the swinging of our arms.
The Faith of a Writer by Joyce Carol Oates

Running!

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Run Training…Intervals

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In the previous Run Training posts, I described the tools which runners typically use to improve their running performance. Whether elite or recreational, all runners bodies respond to the training effects of Base Training, Hill Training, Strides, and Intervals. In regards to interval training, many folks just beginning their exercise journey may engage in interval training to increase calorie burn. And almost all sports use some form of interval drills to improve athletes’ aerobic and anaerobic exercise thresholds. So what does interval training involve? Basically, interval training uses measured bouts of hard-easy repetitions to help athletes adapt to higher levels of aerobic and/or anaerobic exercise. For runners, interval training is meting out hard-easy running in bouts measured by time or distance (minutes or meters). Unlike tempo training (comfortably hard effort) interval training involves running at a high level (near red-line) of exertion for a short amount of time, followed by a recovery interval equal to or greater than the work interval. Novice and recreational runners should begin interval training only after they have laid down their base training. While extremely effective to improve a runner’s running form, economy, endurance, and fat-burning, interval training need only be included once a week if the runner also performs other training methods (strides, hills, tempo) in their weekly runs. Read this article from Active.com about interval training. This is an excellent resource which describes the science of intervals together with interval training plans for runners who want to improve their 5K or 10K race times.

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Run Training…Strides

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It’s time to mix things up a bit in your running workouts as you near the end of your 500 mile base training. In a previous post, I discussed the value of tempo training for runners of every fitness level. In today’s post, I would like to introduce you to another tool for your running toolbox: strides. By definition, strides are short bursts of swift running usually held for 60 to 100 meters. Strides are valuable for runners who want to improve or promote better running form while also engaging fast twitch muscle fibers. Also known as pick-ups, strides can be interspersed into any of your conversational pace training runs. Perform 3-5 strides after your initial warm-up; divide your each stride into thirds (first 10-20 meters at conversational pace; increase speed and intensity over the next 20-60 meters; slowly decelerate to conversational pace for the last 10-20 meters). If you are not sure what 100 meters looks or feels like, go to the nearest running track a jog the straight sections. These sections are roughly 100 meters long. So one stride (divided into three parts) would last as long as that straight section of track (give or take several meters). Once you have a feeling for how long 100 meters is, you can add strides to your next easy run. Practice these once or twice a week and you will surely build your strength, stamina and speed! Want to read more about strides? Go to this article from Runner’s World.

Run Training…Tempo Time

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A 500 mile training base may seem like an astronomical goal to achieve for novice or recreational runners. However, as discussed in a previous post (Run Training…500 Miles), laying this foundation is a critical step in developing a runner’s fitness and running economy. At some point before reaching their 500 miles though, many runners are wanting to increase their running speed often before they increase their running distance. This need for speed seems primal and perhaps it is even hard-wired into a runner’s psyche. From my experience, once I was able to run comfortably for 3 miles, I wanted to beat my own run times, and run those 3 miles faster. Intuitively, I began to employ ‘tempo runs’ into my 3 to 5 mile runs long before I knew about this bread and butter workout. Simply described, tempo runs (also known as lactate threshold) describe a comfortably hard pace which a runner can sustain for at least 20 minutes. The actual pace of that 20-minute period is individual to each runner’s current fitness level; the key training outcome of performing weekly tempo runs is that these workouts will actually help you become a stronger, faster runner! How do you gauge if you are running too fast during your tempo run? I like to keep it simple and suggest that if you can’t hold your up-tempo pace for at least 10 to 20 minutes, then you are running too fast. The purpose of a tempo run is to train your body to become efficient, in fuel metabolism and running mechanics. The tempo-run is not an all-out sprint; rather, it is learning to pick a pace that is not conversational which can be maintained over a one or two-mile distance. It takes time to practice and dial in your comfortably hard pace, but if you have a need for speed, this is a worthwhile training tool to add to your runner’s toolbox. Read this article from Runner’s World for an in-depth explanation of the mechanics and benefits of tempo training.

 

Run Training…To The Hills

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After laying down a running base of 500 miles, serious run training (i.e. intensity) can now be safely added to a runners training program. Hill repeats are drills that build runners’ stamina and strength quickly. Here’s a link to an article regarding the specifics of hill training from Competitor.com magazine.
Today I ran with a small group of local (Oracle) runners and we ran hills today… again…why? Because no matter where we run in our little mountain town, we run hills. Up hills, down hills, there is no relief from the rolling, undulating topography. We have no choice but to run hills for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most of us like to complain about our hills; and I don’t know any local runners who do the ‘hill drills’ we so often find in those spiffy half marathon training plans. I think it’s because we’re too tired from running the ‘hills’ we find before us the moment we jog out our front doors. The only place we get to run flat and fast in our town is around the junior high school dirt track. Funny thing is though, most of us local runners prefer the hills to the track…go figure. Even though we love to complain about our mountain geography, lately some of us have noticed that our hill training has made us stronger runners; and maybe even a tad bit faster too…especially when we go down the mountain to run the big city races. So all in all, hill running clearly has its own reward, and it also makes for beautiful metaphors and parallels when we compare the hill running life to our non-running life. Running the hills is not only good run training it’s good life training too!

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Run Training…500 Miles

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How far, how fast, how long? The answers to these three questions form the basis of every training plan created to improve runners’ performance. Whether elite or recreational, all runners must lay down base mileage before beginning the rigor of their training cycle, and the magic number for this base training seems to hover at 500 miles. Why so many miles? Because physiologically, those base miles boost aerobic conditioning, develop slow-twitch muscle fibers, increase blood volume and glycogen storage, strengthen connective tissue, and enhance the body’s ability to burn fat*. But here’s the best news about the 500 mile base: they are to be performed at conversational pace! That means an effort level of 6-7 on a scale of ten. This is an extremely doable effort for most all runners; and because this effort is not race pace intense, individuals wanting to run every day can lay down 3 miles a day, 5 times a week and reach their 500 mile goal in 8 weeks. In my next post, I’ll outline the types of training that runners use to advance their fitness for specific race distances.

*Source: http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/build-better-base