Is "Build Your Running Body" the best running book ever? Quite possibly yes.

Build Your Running Body boldly proclaims itself as "the ultimate running guide".  At the top of the front cover is a quote from Runner's World founder Bob Anderson declaring "This is the best running book ever".  Pretty heavy stuff. Does it live up to the hype?

I've been running for over thirty years reading over twenty books on training over that time and have to say "yep, it's that good".   Certainly there are books that excel by going greater detail into certain areas, like The Cool Impossible, which I found to dramatically improve my running form, or Daniels Running Formula, still the Bible on improving running economy.  But neither of these books had much to say about running outside of their narrow focus.  The strength of Build Your Running Body is that it has no weaknesses. It covers everything, stretching, strengthening, pacing, racing, nutrition, recovery, you name in excellent detail with lots of good supporting illustrations and charts   Somehow, the authors found a way to comprehensively organize all that without being overwhelming, no easy task.  Plenty of running books that dictate a "do this, do that, but not that" dogmatic philosophy or provide so much generalized information that really can't be applied into the typical runner's training program. The nutrition advice avoids "food Nazi" territory, containing sensible diets an actual person could plausibly eat in real life.   Authors Pete Magill, Thomas Schwartz and Melissa Breyer always find the right note in explaining their training advice, making it both accessible and easily personalized.

It's one of those books you don't have to read from cover to cover, and the authors even encourage the reader to skim through it.  New runners especially may find all the material overwhelming at first, and may want to take in a few chapters at a time.

As for me, I expect to be using some of it to train for the Big Sur Half-Marathon this November.  I already have a pretty good half-marathon system in place that's worked well for the last couple years.   After running for over 30 years, I've pretty much figured out what works for me and what doesn't.   Still, I found a few things in Build Your Running Body that I've started using, mostly core and leg strengthening work outs. There's a number of good pacing charts in Chapter 7 on Building Your Running Cardiovascular System for track intervals and tempo runs that I've already started using as a guide to adjust my pacing a bit for a couple tempo runs.

Chapter 15, Build Your Training Schedule brings all the different workouts into a coherent whole, so make sure you read that chapter.  Find the training program that's best suited to you, whether it be the "12-Week Training Schedule for Beginning and Returning Runners-Non Competitive" or perhaps the "6-Week Training Schedule for 5k Race-Intermediate & Advanced" and read it carefully.  You may want to riff a little on the training plan, but these training schedules bring the various topics scattered throughout the books into focus.

I find good running books are like Alcoholics Anonymous:  Take what you need and leave the rest behind. There's a lot of good stuff in Build Your Running Body to take with you.

Running Reflections on 2013, going into 2014

The previous year's training on Daily Mile.   Other than missing
a couple weeks in June, had a very consistent 2104 year in running.

The early days of January are often spent looking forward by looking backward.  So with running in mind, I look back to 2013 to see what worked, what didn't work, and use that to build upon in 2014.  It's something I recommend all runners do.   I suppose a blog is a self-indulgent enterprise by definition, but trying to make this post slightly less than totally self-centered, I'll pass along some observations I think all runners could use.

The biggest takeaway from 2013 is that it was one of the most successful years of running I've had in the last five years, and a big part of this was due to consistency in training.  I've battled a bunch of injuries since 2008 and while a couple foot problems knocked me out for a couple weeks in 2013, it was a pretty injury free year.  Late in 2012, I discovered in a routine trip to the running shoe store that I was cramming my size 14 feet into size 13 shoes.  About a month after moving up to a size 14 shoe, chronic soreness in the ball of my right foot and left knee both subsided.  I also have to give a lot of credit for running largely pain free to the leg and core strength exercises I discovered in Eric Orton's fine book "The Cool Impossible".  Finding the right shoe size and working on core strength and balance really made a big difference in 2013, if for no other reason that I found myself a lot less sore at the end of runs and ready to go at it again the next day.  In 2013, I ran a total of 1736 miles which averages out to 33.3 miles a week, about five miles per week more than in 2012.  I also did long runs as long as 15 miles at the end of the year as compared to previous years where about 12 miles was all I could handle before my foot pain  became unbearable.

The other half of the equation is that I did a lot of tempo runs in 2013 at a wide variety of distances ranging from four to fourteen miles.  (More on long distance tempo runs here and four mile tempo runs here.)  I'm a big believer that racing success requires putting the stresses on yourself in training that you'll experience in the race, and tempo runs do just that.  Tempo runs, when done at the right pace, also allow for fast recovery.  Successful training is balancing the yin and yang of tearing yourself down in the right way in order to build yourself back up, and tempo runs worked well for me in 2013 and I'll be doing more of them in 2014.

It all paid off in the two major races I ran this year, the Santa Cruz Half-Marathon in April and the Monterey Bay Half-Marathon last November, as I was pretty pleased with both of these efforts.  I've already started training for an April half-marathon, most likely the Marin County Half-Marathon.

 I wish you all the best for running in 2014 and for those wanting to chat more about running and training, you can join me on DailyMile.

One of my Favorite Workouts: The Four Mile Track Tempo Run

These runners would be even faster if they did Four Mile Track Tempo Runs.

Today I'm going to tell you about one of my favorite workouts, the Four Mile Track Tempo Run. I started doing these runs over eight years ago with a loose collection of runners that gather at the Los Gatos High School Track Saturday mornings to do this workout with Brad Armstrong, Los Gatos running coach and owner of The Athletic Performance. The workout is pretty self explanatory. You run around the 400 meter track 16 times for a four mile run at tempo pace.

Now if running 16 laps around a track sounds a little tedious, that's partly the point of doing this. I find one of the hidden advantages of this workout is developing the mental focus and discipline required to keep knocking out lap after lap while keeping on a comfortably hard tempo run pace. And what's a good tempo pace for these workouts? You can use the Fancy schmancy tables established by coach Jack Daniel's. Daniels is the revolutionary coach who popularized the tempo run concept to increase the lactate threshold pace, the running speed at which the body starts producing energy anaerobically and generating leg-deadening lactic acid as a by-product of this anaerobic energy production.

Instead of using the tables, you can just do what I do and run at "hard to talk at more than a couple sentences pace". That's right, when I'm doing this workout, I can probably say a couple quick sentences to the person running next to me, but no more than that or I'd starting going into oxygen debt. I want to go out comfortably hard so I'm not gasping for breath the whole way, but if I could carry on a conversation with the person running next to me, I'm running too slow and missing out on the full training benefit.

The last six laps should be challenging to maintain pace, but not so challenging that it feels like a race effort. At the end, you should feel as if you could run at least another 2-3 laps if you had too. It takes a while to find the right pace, and the first couple times you do this workout, you may find yourself going out too fast and really struggling to maintain pace the last few laps. That's OK, since part of the workout is finding the right pace, and it's better to maintain pace for the whole four miles going a little slower than running the first couple miles fast and then dragging the rest of the way. The key to this workout is doing all four miles at the same comfortably hard pace and still being reasonably fresh the next day so your able to do at least a moderate workout the next day with no drop-off. If a four mile tempo run leaves you too tired to do anything but a few easy miles the next day, you've done it too hard.

I'll add that you'll want to be running at least 35 miles a week consistently before doing these workouts. If you're doing a little less weekly mileage that that, feel free to cut these runs back to 3 1/2 or 3 miles. Of course, you can also do these workouts on a running trail or other course other than a 400 meter track. Personally, I like doing this workout on a track because it's easier to make sure I'm keeping an even pace and while there is a certain monotony running 16 times around in a circle, part of the workout is developing the mental tenacity to overcome this monotony.

Of course, as your fitness level improves, you'll naturally find yourself running faster. Typically, you don't want to increase your pace more than about 5 seconds a mile every couple of weeks. It can be tempting to turn these workouts into race-like efforts, but avoid this temptation. Slow and gradual improvement as you keep an even pace over four miles for each tempo run provides best results.

The best thing about this workout is that I find it is great for preparing for a wide range of distances from 10k to the full marathon.   Currently, I'm doing these tempo runs bi-weekly with a training group on the Los Gatos Track Saturday mornings in training for the Monterey Bay Half-Marathon this coming November 17th. So far, these workouts are part of a steady weekly improvement as I ramp up my training for the big day. You never really know how things will go on race day, but by then I'll have several Four Mile Track Tempo Workouts under my belt, so I like my chances.

Los Gatos High School Track where I run the Four Mile Track
Tempo Runs. Of course, there aren't a bunch of people milling about
on the Saturday mornings when I do this workout.

Discovering "The Cool Impossible" with Eric Orton

Eric Orton is a man with big ideas.  His training methods are revolutionary, he calls for radical dietary changes and he developed his own unique sports psychology.   He describes this all in his new book, “The Cool Impossible”.  It’s densely packed full of scientifically sound training ideas and inspirational messages. Orton’s writing flows in an engaging conversational style mimicking the way he coaches his many athletes.

I doubt you’ll adopt everything he advocates in his book to your training.    I didn’t.  In fact, I’ll even go so far as to say I disagree with some of his approaches to training concepts.    But one of the strengths of “The Cool Impossible” is that different runners will each find things they will use to reach new heights in running.

And what is this “Cool Impossible”?  Orton describes it as, “…getting back to daydreaming and creating the biggest, coolest fantasy we can think of to achieve.”  While Orton claims this philosophy applies to all parts of our lives, his book focusses on achieving this “Cool Impossible” in running. 

Orton knows a thing a two about helping runners accomplish inconceivable goals. He transformed one Christopher McDougall from an injury prone runner who could only handle runs of a few miles to an ultra-marathoner who completed a 50 mile race in Mexico’s rugged Copper Canyon in just nine months. McDougall’s book about this ultra-marathon in the land of the reclusive Tarahumara Indians, “Born to Run”, became the bible of the minimalist running movement.  Declaring "running shoes may be the most destructive force to ever hit the human foot",   McDougall inspired runners to toss off their heavily padded shoes for ones with thinner lightweight soles.  Some ditched their shoes altogether and started running barefoot.

What Orton calls for is not so such much a rethinking of what runner’s wear, but how runners run.   Considering swimmers, tennis players, golfers and even sprinters spend much of their training time perfecting their technique, this may not seem particularly radical.  But running form has been largely ignored on the assumption it’s just what comes to us naturally.  Since each of our bodies our different, we naturally assume different running gaits based on our structural differences without considering how our individual running form creates inefficiency and injuries.  Challenging these long held beliefs, Orton declares  “…I have conducted more than a thousand training sessions with runners, and most have the same issues….all tend to lead back to muscle disequilibrium and improper form.”

A slant board I built myself using a couple
6 x 6 inch bathroom tiles and a slat of wood

Despite all the groovy New Age-like rhetoric on things like “awareness” and “flow”, Orton’s program is all about hard work, dedication and applied biomechanical science.  He outlines a number of running drills and strengthening exercises designed to strengthen the legs and the core to help runners achieve better form.  They can be done in your living room or backyard without much equipment.  All you need is a wobble board, an inflatable exercise ball, and a simple apparatus Orton’s developed called a slant board.   Ski poles, walking sticks or even cut off broomsticks are also used to help keep your balance for some of the exercises.

Trying Out Orton’s Techniques



Side Lift Position on the Slant Board

I was eager to try out Orton’s techniques myself and started working 20-30 minute workout sessions into my training 3-4 times a week.   My early attempts resulted in a lot of flopping and stumbling around in my living room.   Say this about Orton’s exercises, they’re not easy.  Standing on the slant board on one foot, I could feel the strain in my legs, from my feet all the way up to my hips, especially in the ankles and calves.  The inflatable exercise ball is used to develop muscles in the core by balancing on top it assuming different positions.  Plenty of times, I lost control on the exercise ball and rolled into a giggling heap on the floor.  You’ll probably have the same difficulties, but just keep working at it and you’ll develop the strength and balance necessary.  Orton encourages us that while developing these new skills “Use some patience and put your ego in check…work like a martial artist: deliberate movement and constant practice.”

Knees to chest on the exercise ball
(my back should probably be straighter)

I saw the results in my running within a week.  Running I found myself zipping right through patches of uneven ground I used to wobble through off-balance.  I can see why trail runners are particularly big fans of Orton’s training.  As a forefoot striker, I tend to get more flat-footed towards the end of runs as fatigue set in.  Gaining leg strength from Orton’s workouts, I found myself at the end of runs maintaining form and speed rather than stomping around over the last couple miles.  And I recognized from photos in Orton’s book I wasn’t lifting my knees high enough and so consciously worked on getting higher knee action in my form. 

Orton talks about visualizing yourself striding over “logs” while running to get proper knee lift.   As you run faster, you should visualize yourself striding over bigger logs.   I noticed during my runs I could use my knee lift as a “throttle” and just focus on adjusting my knee height to control my speed.   It’s powerful to suddenly realize the possibility to run faster not by working the legs harder, but to use the mind to guide the body to make subtle changes in form. 

Knee drive position on the wobble board
(Pictured on a carpet, but use wobble board on
a hard floor for best "wobbly' results)

Orton’s form and strengthening exercises are intended to supplement a nine-week “Strategic Running Foundation” training plan.  The plan is individualized to each runner’s ability level using one mile time trial and a heart rate test.  From this, Orton formulates no fewer than seven speed zones and seven heart rate zones individualized for each runner to follow in his training plan.  If keeping track of all 14 zones seems rather complicated to you, you’re not alone.  While Orton’s plan is based on sound science and I personally use a mix of running speeds to train, I found Orton’s plan way more complicated than necessary.  The workouts are also written in a notation that’s hard to follow.  I’m sure there’s some good workouts buried in there.   Many of Orton's readers will wish he outlined his Strategic Running Foundation in a more straightforward, simplified and accessible manner.

Doing the "Scorpion" on the Execise Ball

Orton on Eating Well, Running Well

When it comes to food, Orton is not bashful about his opinions.  He’s big on organic fruits and vegetables, and rails against all processed food that dominates our grocery store shelves.  That includes pasta, a carbohydrate source most runners crave.   When it comes to protein, he’s adamant about eating organic, free-range meats and wild caught fish with portion sizes no bigger than the palm of our hands.  He even encourages us to take on a 20 day sugar detox, eliminating sugar completely from our diets.  Orton goes so far as to suggest runners develop their own nutrition mission statement.

Whether it’s really necessary or even realistic most for recreational runners to make this level of dietary commitment is an open question.  To Orton’s credit, he doesn’t take a rigid “eat this, not that” attitude, and he’s OK if you eat a cookie or drink a beer now and then.  But he’s pretty adamant as he writes “Listen, we have a choice of how we want to eat.  We know what is best for us: simple, natural, nutrient-dense foods.  The challenge is choosing to eat that way, making it a habit, and sticking with that choice.  It takes discipline, focus, awareness.”

I’m not planning on going on a 20 day sugar detox or writing a nutrition mission statement.  But he has inspired me to make better decisions about what to eat.  I resist the impulse to pick up that pack of M&M’s at the grocery store check-out line.  I order a side salad instead of fries.  And yes, when thirsty, I’ve started pouring a glass of water instead of automatically cracking open a beer.  These are small decisions, but they add up to a larger dietary change.  I’ve lost 5 pounds off my 185 pound frame in the last month as a result, the lightest I’ve been in years.  I do feel better, too.

Return to Boston?

After finishing Orton’s provocative book, I found myself thinking about things I wanted to accomplish in running.  The last marathon I completed was the 1994 Boston Marathon nearly twenty years ago and I’ve always wanted to come back and run Boston again.   The biggest thing that’s held me back is my body has broken down on runs long before I’ve completed anything close to 26.2 miles. 

I’ve spent a lot of effort correcting the imbalances and weakness that led to injuries.  I saw a chiropractor four years ago to correct a hip imbalance that was causing all sorts of problems.   That turned out to be a great investment, but I still had foot and knee problems limiting my longest runs to 10-12 miles.  I discovered last fall my running shoes were a size too small, and now can complete runs of up to 15 miles without too much pain. 

When I ran the Boston Marathon in 1994, I really never embraced the whole Boston experience.  I was nervous and uptight, ended up going out to fast and barely made it across the finish line.  I wanted to come back and do the race over again, but the opportunity never came.  Returning to Boston is something I’ve held in the back of my head, but it never seemed realistic given all the injury problems I’ve had.  After reading “The Cool Impossible”, Boston doesn’t seem too far away anymore.


(Penguin Group Publishing provided an advanced review copy for the purposes of this review which will also appear in June/July issue of Adventure Sports Journal.)

Santa Cruz Half-Marathon: Somehow, the Planets Aligned

The start of the Santa Cruz Half-Marathon just before near disaster.
I'm the guy in the white singlet in the middle looking down at his watch
(Photo from FirstWave Events's Facebook Page)

One thing I've learned from running is that no matter how hard you work, a stupid thing like an untied shoe lace can bring months of hard training crashing to the ground.  The flip side is sometimes everything just fits into place and you end up running much faster than you had any business doing.  Such was the case in the Santa Cruz Half-Marathon last Sunday, as everything clicked on a gorgeous early spring Sunday.

Not that things could've gone horribly wrong.   When the starting gun fired, my car remote key entry tied into my shoe laces promptly broke off after I taking the first couple steps at the start.  Some how, it got kicked to the side of the road and a spectator picked it up.  Fighting back through the crowd like a single fish swimming against the rest of the school, I plowed my way back to the nice lady who picked it up, yelling "That's my key!" and took it from her hand in a panic, without even thinking to thank her.  Not the best way to start the race, but imagine the other possibilities.  The remote could've got kicked into the middle of the pack where it would be harder to retrieve, or may have not noticed it missing until half way through the race.  All things considered, I got pretty lucky with the whole episode.

A pristine row of porta-potties is
always a welcome site before a
half-marathon

Working my way through the field, I tried to calm down and settle into a good opening pace.  My plan for the early miles was to make sure no mile was faster than 6:45 pace, so of course, I come through the first mile in 6:35.  Telling myself to slow down and relax, I come through mile 2 at 6:40 pace.  So much for my pre-race strategy.

After five miles at 6:40-6:45 pace, I feared I would finally pay the price leaving the smooth asphalt for the uneven dirt and gravel trails of Wilder Ranch on the west edge of Santa Cruz, but I was still living a charmed life, running 6:45-6:31-6:46 for miles 6 through 8.  There were plenty of great views from the trails as we ran along the cliffs high above the ocean, but I only snuck a few peeks.  I've learned the hard way that taking too much scenery on uneven trails is a face plant waiting to happen.

Exiting Wilder Ranch, the course heads back into Santa Cruz the same way we came.   Coming through mile 9, I wasn't too worried about clocking a 6:59 mile since this part of this mile consisted of a series of uphills, especially since I followed that up with a 6:50 on mile 10.  But the hills and the optimistic pace began to really wear me down, and I started running out of gas from there, with the last couple miles a real struggle at 7:00 pace.  Still, at 1:28:26, I averaged 6:45 pace, the upper end of my pre-race goal, despite chasing down my remote entry key which probably cost me at least 10-15 seconds. 

My training the last three months was plagued with a back injury in early February and a bad stomach flu in early March, each setting my training back about 10 days.  I honestly thought breaking 1:30 for the half-marathon on the moderately challenging course would be difficult.  How did I manage doing nearly two minutes better than that?

Apparently, all those 6-12 mile tempo runs really helped, even though the fastest twelve mile tempo run clocked in a 7:09 pace.  A couple eight mile tempo runs at 6:45-6:50 pace within six weeks of the Half-Marathon were probably good preparation as well, since I came through the first eight miles not too much faster than those training runs.   I find long distance tempo runs help create the pace sense and mental discipline required to keep knocking out mile after mile at the same pace and for the first ten miles, so all those runs really paid off.

There was another slight adjustment I made in my life which also seemed to help.   I cut back on my beer consumption a bit the last couple months.  Yes, beer is good, but each beer has a fair amount of calories and tots of calories aren't good for running half-marathons.

While I'm pretty happy with the performance, what held me back was that my longest runs, save for a 14 miler in January, were all 12 miles.   At that distance, I simply wasn't prepared to grind out the last 2-3 miles of a half-marathon.  And my speed work was non-existent, consisting of a single workout of four half-mile intervals so I didn't have the strength to handle the uphills of the ninth miles and hammer thelast four miles after that.

So I'll give myself a little pat on the back for a job well done, thank the running gods for looking favorably upon me that day, and just hope I haven't blown too much running karma for not thanking that lady for picking up my key remote.  I'll take a couple days off, re-evaluate my training, and start going to work for the next race.  I'm thinking of a 10k some time in May.

The festive oceanside finish area

Half-Marathon Training: Do Your Long Runs Fast



The start of the 2012 Santa Cruz Half-Marathon,
complete with time stamp

Over the past couple years, I've been training for a number of half-marathons and stumbled upon a workout that's really paid dividends on race day.  It all started when I started running on the Sawyer Camp Trail on the San Francisco Peninsula.  The six mile trail is marked every half mile so I started getting in the habit of wearing a watch and timing my pace for out and back runs of up to 12 miles.  Of course, my inner competitor emerged on these runs and each mile I did went faster and faster.  Next week, I'd come back and run it hard all over again.  Surprisingly, instead of tearing myself down with these fast paced long runs, I started making major gains in my training I've seldom experienced in over thirty years of running.  From then on, I make sure to do my long runs fast whenever I train for a half-marathon.

Now running long runs fast goes against most conventional wisdom, as most people will tell you to slow down during long runs to avoid injury and over training.  I disagree with this conventional wisdom.  Here's why:

1. Running form tends to get a little sloppy when you run slow, and I can't think of a better way to injure yourself than spending a lot of time running with sloppy form.  At higher speeds, running form gets more efficient and so you can actually run at higher intensity at little or no more risk for injury than if you ran slower.
2. One of the most important and underrated running skills is "pace sense", understanding what running pace you can maintain over a certain distance.  Fast long runs are great at developing pace sense near the pace you'll run in the half-marathon, and that's not something you'll gain on long slow distance runs a couple minutes per mile slower than race pace.  How often have you gone out "feeling easy" in a half-marathon only to come through the first mile split was 30-45 seconds under goal pace?   You can avoid getting caught up in the early race frenzy and excitement if you've put in plenty of miles around your half-marathon goal pace.
3. Fast paced long runs, when done right, are similar to running intensity and duration you'll experience on race day.  In addition, running several miles in succession at consistent pace requires a mental discipline you'll develop on long fast runs.  The race will seem more like "just another weekend run" when you have plenty of fast long runs under your belt.  You don't get this type of training effect with long slow distance.

How far should these runs be?  I consider a "long run" to be any run that's between 25-33% of your weekly mileage.

So how fast should you do them?  I go no faster than what I call "hard to hold a conversation pace".  When you're at your fast long run pace, you could say a sentence or two between gasps for breaths, but it you kept talking for maybe 30 seconds, you'd have to stop and catch your breath. 
Sometimes you'll hear these runs called "tempo runs" but since tempo runs are a bit vaguely defined  concept and often refer to runs of 2-6 miles, I prefer to call them "fast long runs".

I suggest you first ease into these runs, slowly ramping up the intensity to find a pace that works for you.  Wearing a GPS watch or running on trail with mile markers really helps on these runs.   It may take a few weeks to determine what pace you can handle and that's OK.   Part of the training effect is learning what an ideal pace is for these runs and just what you can handle.

Make no mistake, these runs will take a lot out of you so you have to be careful to make sure your recovered after each one.  Two years ago I made the mistake of doing two fast long runs within six days and ended up with hip bursitis which knocked me out of running for a couple weeks, and I never made it to the starting line for the half-marathon I was training for.  So I've developed my own rules of thumb to prevent these runs from tearing myself down, which will work well for most runners.

1. The long run should never be longer than 33% of your weekly mileage, and 25-30% is best.
2. Two days before the fast long run, don't do any workout that is above a medium daily effort.  The day before should be a medium to easy effort, and sometimes I completely take the day off before a fast long run.
3. May sure the day after a fast long run is an easy run, and two days afterwards, your run not exceed a medium effort.  
4. Make sure you can hold the pace for the entire duration of the run.  If you have to slow down the last few miles to finish, you're going too fast.  You should feel as if you could do one more mile and still maintain your pace at the end of your run.
5. Don't do these more than once a week.   Every other week is probably best to keep yourself fresh.

Your limits may vary.  It's important to make sure you're well recovered from these efforts before taking on any other hard running efforts like speedwork, trail running, shorter tempo runs or another long run (fast or slow).    I've been surprised how much progress I can make simply by running a fast long run once every week or two with no other hard workouts in my training.

No doubt about it, running long runs fast is hard work but like all well directed hard work, will pay off on race day.







Target, Santa Cruz Half-Marathon: The Fun Begins

If I wanted to make this blog really tedious and dull, I'd write about my running all the time.  Sure, I enjoy running, its often stimulating with even exhilarating and unique moments from tim, but then some runs are about as exciting as washing the dishes.  Running success requires a certain humdrum day to day consistency which when written out, is about as exciting to read as a bus schedule.  Of course, there are days when you have a workout breakthrough, but of course, to build up a solid foundation, you have to come back every 2-3 days and run another strong workout.  So I'm not big on broadcasting about my training accomplishments on the Internet or through social media for that reason. 

 

But then, runners like to talk about running, and "How's your running going?" is always a great ice-breaker question when meeting runners.  And this weekend, I signed up for the Santa Cruz Half-Marathon, and figured it couldn't hurt to share some experiences and discuss how training leading up to the race is going from time to time.  After running for over 30 years, I have my own thoughts about how to train for half-marathons, and figure some of you might actually be interested in reading about this every few weeks.   When the Santa Cruz Half-Marathon starts April 7th, we'll all find out how all that hard work paid off, a running laboratory if you will.  For those more interested, feel free to find me on Daily Mile where we chat about our respective running and other workouts on a more regular basis.

 

As for my current plans for the Santa Cruz Half-Marathon, I figure to have a finishing time in the range of 1:25-1:30.  I'm building up my long runs to at least fourteen miles by the end of the month, with weekly mileage in the 40-45 mile range.  Then I'll start getting speedier with some 3-4 mile tempo runs starting February, and a smattering of shorter interval track workouts in March.  I'll be writing about those workouts with observations and hopefully some insight that might help you with your running.  I'll also be running The 408k, an 8k in San Jose on March 10th as a tune-up for the half-marathon.

 

Right now, the focus is on the long runs and getting a decent amount of base mileage.  And I'm a believe in doing your long runs fast.  It's a counter-intuitive approach and goes against a lot of so-called conventional wisdom out there.  But running long runs fast has worked for me, and I'll talk about that specifically in two or three weeks with a few more long fast runs under my belt.

 

For those who decide to stick around, we'll see where this all leads.



Once again, the floor is open...your running questions answered

Perhaps driven by a long held, yet never satisfied desire to coach, or by my life-long mission of being a know-it-all routinely giving out opinions, I once again open the floor to your running questions out there.  You should rightfully ask, "What do you know about running?"

Well, I've been running  over thirty years since I was twelve. I ran on high school and college track and cross-country teams and way more road races than I remember, from little neighborhood 5k's to the Boston Marathon. There was a time where I was quite the training wonk, reading just about every book on running I could get my hands on. And while I've had plenty of success at running, there's been lots of failures. There's been plenty of injuries, and at one point, was 60 pounds overweight, so I've gone through the pain and frustrations runners of all abilities go through. We all need help from time to time, and I do believe I have the experience and knowledge to draw on to help some of you out there.

So hope you will share your running question here with us, whether it be on training, racing, injuries, or anything to make your running more successful and enjoyable. No question is too basic, fundamental or esoteric.  You can either leave a comment to this post, or send your questions to my slightly odd e-mail address at: photon(dot)dpeterman[at]gmail{dot}com or use the e-mail link here.

Reality Check for the New Year

It's hard to beat a 10k race for starting the New Year for two reasons.  One, every one's in a good mood for the holidays and the event is pretty good natured.  The more practical reason is that it's good to have off-season reality checks to see how well you're really doing with your training.  These smaller, less intense races actually provide a lot of good information to take into your goal races later in the year.  And besides, if you run well, you can say "Wow, I'm ahead of where I thought I would be!". But if you run poorly, you can console yourself with "Well, I still have plenty of time to train for the big race".  So how did it go for me at the New Year's Day Run for a Healthy World 10k?

I'm glad there's plenty of time to train from my half-marathon race target.  I finished with a time of 39:39 for the 10k run on mostly gravel paths in the Palo Alto near the San Francisco Bay, virtually identical to last year's time.  That despite I put in a lot more mileage in 2011 than in 2010, when I was just coming off a dislocated shoulder in October and a bad flu in November.  All things considered, it just was a pretty lack-luster performance.

The first mile in that seemed easy at 6:06 was encouraging, but too fast, as was the next mile in 6:07.  Then the wheels started coming off with 6:30-ish pace the rest of the way, and a real loss of focus around mile 5, which allowed someone to catch me with about 100 yards to go.  So the take-aways from this race were:

1)  A need to develop a better pace sense.  The early pace at sub-6:10 was too fast, even though it seemed reserved and comfortable.  Developing better pace sense should come from the weekly tempo runs I'll start doing this week that really helped for last years half-marathons to run at a more even and energy efficient pace.

2) Find a way to stay focused and run strong at the end of the race.   The end of a race is a lot about simply digging down and finding a way to get through a "crisis period" where your body and mind want to shut things down.    Of course, developing inner desire is an elusive intangible training objective, but putting yourself through a some "mini-hells" leading up to the race will prepare for the "total hell" at the key point in the big race.  It's time to start ratchet up the intensity on the hard days.

So now that I have a good idea what I need to do, it's time to starting doing it.  You want to start out things well, but for a runner, it's not realy about how you start.  It's how you finish.

Almost barefoot running.....and living to tell about it

OK, so after this morning's tempo workout on my neighborhood high school track, I got this wild idea to take off my shoes and run a few 40 yard accelerations on the football field in my socks. It was an AstroTurf field, so it wasn't exactly running barefoot through the woods. But I thought it might be a good way to wind down a three miles of tempo running to help recover, and dare I say it, it really worked.

My feet felt refreshed, getting lots of cool air without running shoes getting in the way. And without shoes, I could really focus in on form and stride as I gradually increased my foot speed over the 40 yards. I did this only four times, but I felt a lot better after ending the tempo workout this way than if I just trudged home.

I've gone on the record as opposing barefoot running, and while this doesn't actually count as barefoot running, it is making me go "hhhhmmmmmmm".

Is this the beginning of a transformation into becoming a bare foot running?