Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Latest Running News
Since the Du Run Run, I've trained a lot, but I haven't done any more multisport events. I rode my friend's bike some more, swam a lot in my pool, and did some bricks. But my swimming lessons at Excel Aquatics didn't work out so well. I got kicked out of class. Or at least they asked me not to come back until I learned how to swim.
It turns out that I'm a very inefficient breather in the water and that makes me a very inefficient swimmer. So they told me I needed to take a beginner's swimming class to learn how to breathe properly before I came back to the triathlete's swimming class. That was disappointing, but it was a fair assessment.
I bought the Total Immersion Swimming book and worked through several of its "fish-like" swimming drills. That helped some, but I feel like I'd improve 100 times faster with a live coach versus having to work solo on drills from a book. That works fine for me in most mediums, but it's not working that well in the water. I'm too out of my element there.
The multisport and outdoor swimming season ends around here in early September, so I didn't have much time to train this year. By mid-August I decided to forget multisport for this year and focus solely on running. The multisport training I did do seemed to help my endurance though, so I'm interested in picking it back up in the spring.
I'm averaging about 25 miles a week running now, and I'm doing most of them at medium to high intensity. I do 4-6 mile runs during the week with long runs of 11-16 miles on the weekend. I briefly toyed with following a marathon training program this year (e.g., for the Greenway Marathon), but I've learned that I really don't like long, slow mileage. Shorter, faster runs suit me better, and they reduce my injury risk. My IT bands don't bother me any more unless I do 15+ mile runs, so I try not to do them very often.
I'm also regularly doing strength training, stretching, and other exercises to improve my running muscles. I try to mix up my workouts so they occasionally include barefoot running, side running, backwards running, high knees, high heels, step/box jumps, rocket jumps, long strides/bounds, and short strides.
I've also found that back extensions, dumbbell lunges, and abdominal exercises really help me run faster due to improved stability and breathing. I used to finish fast runs, and my stomach/diaphragm would be hurting to the point of almost making me throw up. Since I started strengthening my core muscles, I've gotten faster, and I'm much less likely to puke at the end of a hard race.
In the last two months I've lowered my 5K, 10K, and half marathon PRs substantially:
I've tried to run smart this year by listening to my body to avoid injury. So far that's worked, and my times keep improving. Unfortunately, I was foolish enough to sign up for the Flying Monkey Marathon again. I have no intentions of racing it though because I haven't trained to run fast (or even run) for 26.2 miles. My goal is to finish the race uninjured. If possible, I'd like to finish under last year's 6:19:36 injured time. So I'll be stopping to stretch, walking the worst uphills, walking through the water stops, and doing whatever is necessary to get through the race injury-free.
I've done 21 races so far this year - at least one every month. I'm hoping the Flying Monkey won't kill my legs and break that streak for me by ruining my December races. I'm signed up for the Cougar Crawl 5K on Oct. 18, and I'll probably run the Team Nashville 10 Miler on Nov. 1. After that it's the Monkey on Nov. 23, and then seeing which races I can handle in December.
It turns out that I'm a very inefficient breather in the water and that makes me a very inefficient swimmer. So they told me I needed to take a beginner's swimming class to learn how to breathe properly before I came back to the triathlete's swimming class. That was disappointing, but it was a fair assessment.
I bought the Total Immersion Swimming book and worked through several of its "fish-like" swimming drills. That helped some, but I feel like I'd improve 100 times faster with a live coach versus having to work solo on drills from a book. That works fine for me in most mediums, but it's not working that well in the water. I'm too out of my element there.
The multisport and outdoor swimming season ends around here in early September, so I didn't have much time to train this year. By mid-August I decided to forget multisport for this year and focus solely on running. The multisport training I did do seemed to help my endurance though, so I'm interested in picking it back up in the spring.
I'm averaging about 25 miles a week running now, and I'm doing most of them at medium to high intensity. I do 4-6 mile runs during the week with long runs of 11-16 miles on the weekend. I briefly toyed with following a marathon training program this year (e.g., for the Greenway Marathon), but I've learned that I really don't like long, slow mileage. Shorter, faster runs suit me better, and they reduce my injury risk. My IT bands don't bother me any more unless I do 15+ mile runs, so I try not to do them very often.
I'm also regularly doing strength training, stretching, and other exercises to improve my running muscles. I try to mix up my workouts so they occasionally include barefoot running, side running, backwards running, high knees, high heels, step/box jumps, rocket jumps, long strides/bounds, and short strides.
I've also found that back extensions, dumbbell lunges, and abdominal exercises really help me run faster due to improved stability and breathing. I used to finish fast runs, and my stomach/diaphragm would be hurting to the point of almost making me throw up. Since I started strengthening my core muscles, I've gotten faster, and I'm much less likely to puke at the end of a hard race.
In the last two months I've lowered my 5K, 10K, and half marathon PRs substantially:
- 5K - 20:40 (6:40 pace) on 8/9/08
- 10K - 45:09 (7:16 pace) on 9/13/08
- Half - 1:36:58 (7:25 pace) on 10/4/08
I've tried to run smart this year by listening to my body to avoid injury. So far that's worked, and my times keep improving. Unfortunately, I was foolish enough to sign up for the Flying Monkey Marathon again. I have no intentions of racing it though because I haven't trained to run fast (or even run) for 26.2 miles. My goal is to finish the race uninjured. If possible, I'd like to finish under last year's 6:19:36 injured time. So I'll be stopping to stretch, walking the worst uphills, walking through the water stops, and doing whatever is necessary to get through the race injury-free.
I've done 21 races so far this year - at least one every month. I'm hoping the Flying Monkey won't kill my legs and break that streak for me by ruining my December races. I'm signed up for the Cougar Crawl 5K on Oct. 18, and I'll probably run the Team Nashville 10 Miler on Nov. 1. After that it's the Monkey on Nov. 23, and then seeing which races I can handle in December.
Labels: Running
# posted by Bill Menees @ 10:02 PM 
