Training

I’ve finally had a few weeks of running without pain, so I feel pretty confident that I’ve solved the issue with tenderness in my knees. Cross-training and extensive stretching have really done wonders. With that fixed, I am not able to concentrate on extending my runs.

Even with shorter days I’m able to get in some good mileage on the weekends along with some decent miles on weekdays. I’m going to try to have a couple weekends with 21 mile runs. Then I will feel confident enough to run the 50K at Sunmart.

This evening I decided that I needed to put in a longer run. After months of rehabbing my leg/knee my runs have been almost pain-free. Certainly not any of the pain that was present for a couple months before the actual injury. The leg held up great the entire nine miles.

I didn’t run it in a remarkable time, but I was finished in about 1:40 on a hilly trail route. I prefer to be more around 1:30 but this will do. Typically I can drop a minute or two off each mile when I’m racing so that’s putting me at a decent time if I run the Rocky Raccoon 25K next month.

This week I’m in trial for a felony, so I don’t know how many miles I’ll be running during the week. Thankfully I can let some stress out this coming weekend on the trails!

Yesterday I took a break from the solitary trails and went to the track where I joined about 5 others who were getting some exercise. I ran 8-400 meter sprints with a 200 meter walk between each. My times ranged from a best of 1:31 to a worst of 1:41. Most of the times were right at 1:35. That’s not so bad when the temperature is 97 degrees.

Today I run a tempo three miles at about 8 minute miles.

The heat of the summer is certainly here. Today I went about 7 miles in the morning and then 2 miles in the evening. Finally my body has started to adapt to the heat from the past couple weeks of easing into the heat. How should you deal with the heat?

• Slow down your pace. When you’re acclimating to the heat you can’t keep the same cooler weather pace.
• Run some in the afternoon during the heat of the day if you have a race coming up. You’ve got to get ready for it. Run just a few miles in the afternoon at an easy pace.
• Wear some more clothing. It doesn’t hurt to have on a long sleeved white shirt in the heat. It’ll give your body some more sun protection and it’ll help cool you down some.
• Remember that a lot of it is psychological.
• Electrolyte replacement is a much bigger problem than hydration. Make sure that on longer runs you’re taking some electrolyte capsules. If you get light-headed or anything make sure you eat a little potato chips or crackers. That’ll help you at least finish.
• Don’t worry about PRs in the heat. See how your body is responding during the race. Let your body dictate how you’ll perform.

You don’t have to beat the heat. You just have to accept it and learn to respect it. Otherwise you’re going to lose the battle because the heat isn’t going away for a long time.

I’m not sure why I go out to run intervals. I don’t really have any reason to want to be quicker with my miles. My thought is that intervals don’t really help all that much for endurance events anyhow. But I still push my body through intervals on a weekly basis.

I went out today and did about 4 total miles of running on the track. I warm up, run 8-400s at sprint (my ability makes the sprint sort of laughable) followed by walking 200m, and then a warm down. All in all it makes for a good day at the track and I sort of enjoy the workout. It’s a nice change from the solitary drone of running through the forest.

I’m not nearly as fast when it’s hot outside. I have to slow down or walk, I reduce my overall speed, and I am a major sweater. It’s a little annoying because sweat gets into my eyes, my shirt is saturated (thank god for dry fit type shirts), and there are more wildlife outside. That means that I have to contend with insects and snakes and other weird things. I guess that’s life in Texas though!

Update:

Shortly after posting this, I noticed a post on That’s Fit about a man who was kicked out of his gym for sweating too much. I swear it wasn’t me.

I’m not prepared for the race tomorrow, but I’m going to run it anyhow. The course is my training grounds, the weather is great, and I’m in good health. I think that the first half of the race should be a breeze. It’ll be interesting to see how I do overall with the lower mileage training that I am attempting.

Good luck to anyone else racing this weekend!

This week has been a pretty busy one on the trails for me. I have to get ready for the Hogs Hunt at the beginning of next month, and I’m too out of shape right now. I went out for a seven mile run on Monday. Then I followed that up with a run through the trails on a new route involving a new trail on Tuesday. My guess was that I’d be going about 7 miles, but I think it ended up being just under nine. I can only guess because it was based on the amount of time it took and some rough mileage calculations from the trails I know the distance of. Yesterday I ran another seven mile loop as I tried, unsucessfully, to catch up with friends who started 20 minutes ahead of me. Finally, I took it easy and ran five miles today. I’ll probably try to run 21 on Saturday.

Just in case you’re interested, the message board posters at letsrun.com are having a little debate over the best way to run 100 mile weeks. At my max I am only running upwards of 50 miles in a week. I can’t image moving it to 100 miles on a steady basis. For what it’s worth, they all seem to agree that it’s in some combination of high singles and then doubling up your days with morning and evening runs.

Yesterday I worked out by running hill repeats. I found a good hill that was steep and long enough to take a minute or so to run up. I did it for 45 minutes. It sucked.

Today I went out with a friend from the running club to run a little at the park. I wanted to run five miles so that’s what we did. It was starting to rain when we started and proceeded to come down harder. I decided that I should run shirtless since I was getting soaked anyways. After about four miles we found a group from the running club. They were about 2 minutes in front of us. We ended up catching them by the end of the run. All in all it was a good day of running.

I like to have a set workout schedule so that I can keep myself on the correct training path. It changes when I’m preparing for a race (50K or greater) or when I’m recovering so I’ll put a the nuances in here. Furthermore, I do a lot of core training that includes pushups, crunches, jump roping, pushups, and various other exercises.

Non-training routine (goal 30-35 weekly miles):

Sunday: 7 mile run on trails in morning with 2 mile run on roads in evening

Monday: 1-2 hours of mountain biking

Tuesday: 5 mile run on trails

Wednesday: Interval speed training at track (at least six sprints) alternate week of hill work

Thursday: 5-7 mile run on trails

Friday: Day off

Saturday: 10 mile long run on trails

Training workout routine (goal 40-60 weekly miles):

Sunday: 7 mile run on trails in morning with 2 mile run on roads in evening

Monday: 1-2 hours Mountain bike alternate week of 5K speed run on road

Tuesday: 10 mile run on trails

Wednesday: 3.5 mile trail run followed by hill repeats

Thursday: 7 mile run on trails

Friday: Day off

Saturday: 14-21 mile trail run with occasional “training” races of 15.5-31 miles

In order to recover, I will typically take 2-3 days off running. I will start by mountain biking a few days after the race. A day later I will run anywhere from 3-5 miles at a very slow pace. I won’t increase beyond 5 miles in any given run until about 6-7 days after a race. I will slowly increase my distance and speed to aid proper recovery.

I went on a 21 mile run with a friend yesterday. We’re getting a final long run in before the Rocky Raccoon 50 mile race. Even though Huntsville got a lot of rain, the trail conditions at the Rocky Raccoon are still good. We only had a couple puddles that we had to run around. It was a great run.

I went to the track yesterday and ran some more intervals. I don’t really like doing them, so I hope that they make me a little faster. If they don’t, I’m going to be really disappointed that I spent some of my time at the track. This time I ended up running an 800, then I ran 5-400 meter sprints with a 200 meter walk between. I finished it all with one final 800 meter run.

I don’t like running fast, but I want to run faster. Conundrum if there ever was one. So today I did a little speed training. Maybe every other week I will go on a two mile run through some hills and see how long it takes. Today I was able to finish in 14:55, which is about as fast as I’ve ever finished this two mile loop. The goal is to get down to seven minute miles where I can run them without any major effort.

This was a pretty good week of running, especially as I’m going to count Bandera which was run last Saturday.

Saturday I ran Bandera 50K in Bandera, Texas. It was well organized, beautiful, and difficult. I found some weaknesses, which I’ve started to correct.

Monday I ran a couple miles around the neighborhood just to get my muscles working again.

Tuesday I went to the state park and ran 5 miles before they closed it off for hunting.

Thursday it was four miles of interval training at the track.

Friday I met some friends out at the state park and pushed hard for a sub-hour 7 mile loop. We ran a modified loop that goes into both the outer section and inner loop. Both have their pros and cons. This helps to make it more pro.

Finally, Saturday, I ran a few miles at Memorial Park in Houston, Texas. Today that park turned into an area for the marathoners to run through during the Houston Marathon.

Total miles was: 52

…sucks. I don’t really like it but I made myself do six sets of running fast 400s (only like 1 1/2 minutes for me), followed by walking a 200. I also sandwiched the intervals with 4-minute 800s.

What is most frustrating is having the racewalkers taking up each lane you could want and then moving. I don’t really care about any rules about who should have the inside lane. I’m sure there is etiquette that says the inside lane should be left for runners but I don’t care if someone walks in it. I just don’t want to be avoiding you and then have your friend move into my way while I’m trying to pass. I especially don’t want it to repeat a couple more times.

I cut my long run a little short yesterday. Although I planned on running 21 miles, I went about 19 miles. It was a good day for running. I ran three different loops (2 7-mile loops and one 5 mile loop) and met up with some friends. It was fun to get this long run out of the way for my race on Saturday.

This week I’m going to be taking it a little easier than normal. I’ve got the 24 hour run starting Saturday morning, so I wanted to taper some for it. I’m excited and will keep you posted.

Today I ran a seven mile loop in about 1:03. That’s not too fast and it’s not too slow for me. It’s going at a decent pace which is what I need to prepare for this 24 hour run. At no point should I be going at a fast pace when I’m running that race. I hope that I’ll be able to hit 100 miles, but I’m going to have to spend a little time preparing on pace before I go.

Yesterday, my training run went a lot better than expected. I went out to the trails after work thinking that I would just run the seven mile loop alone. It was a gloomy day because of a gray overcast and a little water on the ground from a rain earlier in the day.

I decided that I didn’t want to run alone, so I called my friend Phillip to see if he wanted to go. He said he needed to see if his daughter was going to hang out at his place or if she was just dropping by. He called me back a few minutes later and said he’d be at the park in ten minutes.

I’m glad that I called him because he came with his Jack Russell who was more than excited to run. We started at a fast pace, so it wasn’t long before Phillip and Bandit were far ahead of me.

Around mile 4, I noticed that my pace was a lot better that it normally was. In fact, I thought that I might be able to finish the run in under 1 hour. With this thought, I started to get a little bit of a second wind. I decided to push the pace and caught up with Phillip and Bandit. With about two miles left, I passed Phillip and Bandit and started to run 8 minute miles.

Ultimately, I finished in 59:43. That’s the first time I’ve ever run that loop in under an hour.

The long run is usually pretty fun. I don’t know why I dread it. It’s relaxing because I will usually do it on my own with a slightly reduced pace. That’s nice. What sort of stinks is how much time it takes from my day and how it can make me sore.

This weekend will be a 14 mile long run. The following weekend I will run 21 miles. Then, I think the next weekend is a race of 31 miles. That should get me ready for my upcoming 24 hour run.

I know some people in my running club who always run alone because they want to go different distances than the group. I know other people in the club who will start with the group but soon are by themselves because of pacing.

I am guilty of both at times but not always.

I like to run further than a lot of people in my club. I am training for races and most of them are just getting exercise, running for fun, or whatever.

With different goals necessarily comes somewhat different methods to achieve those goals.

More often than not, I will run on my own before the group meets. Then I will run their run with them. If I run with the group first, I am often ahead of the group; thereby, I am running alone. If I run by myself first, I am a little worn down and tend to stay with the group because I’m tired.

Seems like a good way to get the best result for running with friends while getting a good base mileage for training.

I’ve decided that it’s time for me to step up the running. I can’t believe that it’s back to the racing season. I’m happy that some of the races are sending me emails to let me know that I should sign up for this years race. It’s cool that they are good at reminding me. So, anyhow, more distance to prepare.

I didn’t run a whole lot this weekend because I was sleeping a little too much. There was a 5K that I was going to run in but slept through it. Then I ran on my own Sunday but not as far as I would most weekends. Yesterday, I only ran two miles (but in a snappy 14:30 minutes) and today it was only three.

I’ve got another race coming up in October, so I’ve got to start preparing!

This weekend is the El Scorcho 50K and I feel adequately prepared to run it. I’ve got the distance in my legs to make it 50K without any issues. My only concern is if I have enough training to run a sub-six hour 50K? I think that’s the level I ought to be at in races, but I’m not so certain I’ve prepared and trained enough to accomplish that goal. I guess that we’ll know by Sunday morning.

There is way too much rain for appropriate 50K training. This weekend is the last weekend I have for a long run. I will probably need to do it tomorrow but I’m worried a little about being washed out. I couldn’t run on the 4th or yesterday because of the rain. Hopefully it’ll be clear tomorrow so I can run 14 miles.

Who am I fooling? More than that, I sort of want to watch the Live Earth concert all day and be lazy.

Today I ran a 10 mile loop at the state park, but I didn’t actually run 10 miles. I think it was around mile six where I decided that the heat and the humidity was too draining to push it any harder. I didn’t walk the rest of the way, but I ran and walked for the remainder of the run.

Yesterday, I ran a very quick 3.5 mile loop. The day before that I ran 2 miles in 7:40 miles.

Two more weeks before my big summer race.

Texas has been flooded with rain these past couple weeks, so I have been do very little to prepare for my 50K. It’s coming up the weekend after the 4th which leaves little time to get some mileage. Today I did nothing to ameliorate that with a short 2 mile run. But, I did run it in just a little over 15 minutes…

I ran 4-400 meter sprints around the track this evening. Right now, I am only able to get around 1:35 for each which isn’t fast enough. I’m going to push myself on speed drills once a week to try to cut those times down to the 1:05-1:10 range. Then I hope that my shorter distance race times will improve. After the sprints, I also ran a mile to see if my pace was correct.

This past week was a little bit of a low mileage week. It isn’t going to be long before I have to step it up for  El Scorcho 50k, but I will wait another week or two.

I took Sunday off because I was feeling lazy. I made up for that by going on a 3.5 mile run in the rain on Monday. Then I ran with a friend on Tuesday with a killer 5 mile in just over 38 minutes. I followed that up with a similar time by myself on Wednesday.

The next chance I had to run was on Friday. I went with a guy in my club and his dog. Towards the end of the run his dog caught, and killed, a baby armadillo. That was a shame to deal with but I guess he was lucky it wasn’t an animal that could have killed his dog.

All told it was just a 20 mile week.

This week has been nothing but speed work on the trails for me. I haven’t run any distances beyond five miles, so I would consider it a laid back week. However, I’m pushing myself harder than I normally do and I’m finding that the key time shaver is pushing it when I’m running up a hill

Just like anyone else, the hills are a major psychological hurdle. This week I decided that instead of worrying about the hills, I would just run them harder than ever. Once I get to the top of the hill, I reduce my to normal pace. So far, so good.

I ran 3.5 miles on Monday in just under 30 minutes. My first mile was just under 8 minutes which wasn’t a good pace for me. I picked it up and tried to push it until the end. Tuesday I ran a five mile loop with my friend in 38:32. That was the quickest I have run that particular loop. 7:43 minute miles isn’t too shabby. Today I followed that up with a 38:40.

Each time I have just been ripping up the hills.

This week wasn’t too impressive as far as distance. I started out the week with my typical Sunday 7 mile run. I ended up walking a lot of it and running some with the president of the running club.

I went out on Monday for a quick run. I saw the storms approaching and thought I could beat the rain. I lost but finished the 3.5 in a personal best.

I didn’t venture back out for a run until Wednesday. It was soggy, there were fallen trees, and the air was far too humid, yet I trudged through 9 miles.

Friday and Saturday were both 3.5 mile runs. On Saturday I ran with a friend who was visiting for the weekend. He hasn’t ever ran trails so it was fun showing him the joys of trail running.

When I am training, I will always try to run the big hills that are on the trail. Some of the people I run with will stop when they get to the intimidating ones and walk up the hill — I don’t. That’s why I typically finish 5 or 10 minutes before my group. When I’m racing, I will play it by ear with a goal of walking more big hills than running. I think it’s very beneficial on a training run but expends to much energy in a longer race.

For a little speed work, I ran a short two miles in 15 minutes. It actually went a little quicker than I would have guessed. I think that on longer runs my average mile is more like 9 minutes. It looks like I need more speed work (e.g. ladders) to sustain the 7 or 8 minute mile pace.

I ran the seven mile loop today in about 1:03 minutes. That’s a good deal better then the run yesterday. I’d like to get that time down to about 50 minutes, because I’d enjoy being at 7 minute miles. That’s a lot to shave off.

Today was just three miles of speed work at the track. I haven’t been doing nearly enough of it. I decided that today would be a good day as I had way too many brownies at a colleague’s going away party.

Now I just need to say no to running until the race on Saturday.

This weekend is the Hog’s Hunt 50K. I really want to run quick enough to catch a hog — or at least scare them off the trail — so I’ve been told to rest.

Screw that! I ran an easy 10 miles yesterday. It started with seven slow miles around the back trail. Then I ran in the club fun run which was about 3.5 miles. My mistake was drinking 12 ounces of Gatorade right before the start of the race. (Sue me, I was thirsty from the seven miles). So I was sloshing around and feeling a little gross on the “fun” run. Needless to say — I slowed down and accepted a crappy time.

Today I hit the trails on my mountain bike. I raced through one of the loops in about 70% of the time it normally takes me to ride it.

Tomorrow I will tone it down a little and just run a few miles. Then I’ll probably rest the rest of the week until the run on Saturday.

I ran a 5 mile training run this morning on a trail. I finished it in just over 43 minutes with only a couple obstacles to slow me down. This puts me at just over an 8:30 minute mile pace, which isn’t good enough for me. Ultimately, I’d like to cut a minute off each of those miles, but I’m not there just yet. I’ll start with trying to get that down to 8 minute miles during my spring runs.

The park was filled with people camping for their spring break. Fortunately, the spring breakers didn’t venture onto the trails because, I assume, they knew the trails would be muddy and impassable. Unlike them, however, I have no good sense. I ended up muddy after my run today. Tomorrow will be rest. Saturday will be running 31 miles and then checking myself into a psych ward.

This was a pretty nice weekend for my running. I didn’t run at all on Friday, because I wanted some recovery time. But I ran 21 miles on Saturday, a 7 mile trail run today, and finished the day with a 5K club run which I finished in 25 minutes and 23 seconds. All in all, not too bad for a weekend.

I didn’t quite make it the 28 miles that I should have gone. I ran about 21 and called it quits to meet my uncle for lunch as he was driving through town.

The first 45 minutes of my run were done in a drizzle to downpour. Even with the trees blocking a lot of the rain, I was drenched with water. It was fun but made it a little heavy to run and the paths were muddier than I enjoy.

After running 7 or 8 miles, I decided to take a GU packet. I ran most of the way but would walk on a few of the hills.  The last part of the run was better than the front part of run because the rain went away.

It was a fun run. Tomorrow I will run about 10 miles with the running club to make this a 50K weekend.

Ok, so after a week of running the 50K, I am no longer able to run hills. I tried today but had to pull out so many times. Perhaps it will be easier when I have a running partner with me. Hills suck!

This weekend is my first 50K. I’m really excited about it and want to do decently. Even though I ran 7 miles today, I think that I still have enough time to let my body prepare for the run. Tomorrow I might run a light 3 or 4 miles, Thursday will be a day off, and Friday will be about 2 or 3 miles.

I like to go on an easy run the day before a race. I know that some people say you should take the day off, but I do better if I run a little bit. It won’t be far enough that it gives me any soreness, but I want to get my heart rate up and a muscles warmed up.

This evening I ran about three miles. I was able to do it with my newly purchased water bottle. It’s one of those bottles that rests on your hands with a cozy strap. I’m excited that I can have a lot of water right there with me for my runs.

I’m going to get a good nights sleep and hope for the best tomorrow!

Tonight I went on a five mile run along the northeast side of White Rock Lake. It was a good run with a strong finish. Not really too much to say about the run itself because it was just a staying in shape run. It did get me thinking about a question my friend asked me at work: what side of the road are you supposed to run on?

I have always read that you should run against traffic but it isn’t advice I follow. Generally, I feel more comfortable running with traffic because I think a car is more likely to be looking for people that way than someone coming towards them. However, I change my thinking when I’m running at night with a light. At night, I want the light to really shine on the person driving so that they know I am running right there. Also, if they have their headlights on then I can see them in the distance and plan accordingly.

My general rule is during the daylight hours I run with traffic but against traffic after the sun sets.

Well, I did go on a Sunday run, but I didn’t make it a long run. This means that I didn’t get a long run in this weekend. That’s a little frustrating to me but with some family in town, I guess it’s understandable.

This coming weekend is the Dallas White Rock Marathon. I haven’t decided if I want to run the half or not. I haven’t properly trained, so I don’t think I will run it. On the other hand, it’s a good course and easy to run without too much intense training. I think that right now I could come in around 2 hours for the half.

I think that I’m leaning more towards taking pictures and encouraging the runners as they pass through the lake area. I don’t like to run in races without being ready for them even if my times aren’t stellar.

I’ve always been the type of runner who enjoys going out alone. When I run, it is the time I have to myself to relax and enjoy the world moving around me. When someone else is running with me there is a distraction I cannot stop. I will say that even though I enjoy running alone; I don’t enjoy being alone on the trails.

Today was like that because there was almost nobody on my running path. I like to see other people as we cross paths so that I can give them a friendly nod and hand wave but today was silence. The wind was blowing hard, the leaves were crackling, and the temperature was a warm 79 degrees. Perhaps this is why people stayed in?

It’s days like these when I wish I had a running buddy.