tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33842329659081870482024-03-12T22:24:51.309-04:00Blackstrap HellThe Way Running Should Be.middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.comBlogger332125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-34156517273577648872014-04-09T16:09:00.000-04:002014-04-09T16:09:06.385-04:00IranI did. I ran.middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-26227081702564814722012-11-03T18:01:00.000-04:002012-11-04T08:08:25.723-05:00The Red Queen
"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" [1]
While allmiddle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-80323714171153982592012-10-10T14:55:00.001-04:002012-10-14T21:27:40.341-04:00Size mattersEver since watching Floyd Lavery race sockless, I've always wondered how much the weight of socks matter to race performance. Haven't you? Today I read an article on the NYT blog (it's an old article) on the energetics of shod v. barefoot running and I didn't really care about the point of the article (barefoot is more expensive because we use active muscle to dampen contact forces which shoes domiddle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-45403013229366760072012-09-16T17:49:00.003-04:002012-09-17T15:44:20.053-04:00Trail to Ale
Today was a perfectly stunning day to race. 36:57 10K PR. Greatly aided by 1) perfect racing weather, 2) net downhill, and 3) an uncertified course that was maybe a tad short : )? It was also a cut-back week, so I was fresher than for the bruiser.
It was fun regrouping with Jeremy and Brett, at least for mile 1. Brett took off fast and quickly got a jump on Jeremy and me. About 3/4 middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-35903391003859036582012-09-10T20:54:00.000-04:002012-09-10T21:04:14.283-04:00Bruiser ReportPerfect racing weather and conditions for a race like this. I jumped out at what I thought was a fast pace and traded pulling with Jeremy, James, and Brett Hellstedt through the first four miles. Just before bat cave I lost contact with that gang and that was it. Nice racing boys! If you want to read about real racing, read Jeremy's fantastic post. After I lost contact, I wasn't really racing middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-73438889466551277702012-09-08T13:15:00.000-04:002012-09-08T13:15:10.681-04:00Cruisin' for a Bruisin'
Since the B2B, this has been my buildup for USATF NE XC championship race in November. Rolling 7 day average of 66 miles, which is a lot for me (>30% more than my summer mileage). This is all in singles and only 2 runs were logged as "long", so it's mostly 9-10 milers. My recovery days have been about 1 hour runs at a really slow pace. The red runs include segments from a little faster middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-79882828178859538452012-09-04T22:22:00.002-04:002012-09-04T22:22:43.474-04:00How to interpret my previous plotsJamie asked, so I answered in the comments of the previous post!middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-77307504429348060852012-09-03T10:34:00.000-04:002012-09-03T10:34:42.538-04:00B2B report: a picture (or three) is worth a thousand wordsmiddle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-26812706077883873662012-08-23T10:09:00.000-04:002012-08-23T10:20:43.419-04:00Am I slower or are summers hotter?
Fig. 1. I am getting slower! These are my 5K equivalent times for all races 5K to 10K distance over the last three years. For the 8K, 5M, and 10K times I used McMillan to estimate the 5K equivalent time. Day is simply number of days since a race in 2005, so you can see the 2010, 2011 and 2012 clusters. The correlation here is .65 Also notice that race times get worse through each season. You middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-20897027035465102412012-07-29T17:53:00.000-04:002012-07-29T17:53:32.505-04:00B2B training & BaldfaceIn May I was 100% convinced that I would not be writing this post because of writing off 2012 racing due to my RCB. Perhaps paradoxically this led to my decision to jump into the Pineland 10K for fun since any damage from the race wouldn't matter. While that race completely sucked, it did give me confidence that I could train a little harder without aggravating my RCB to an unrunnable state.middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-32275724928526151642012-07-25T11:01:00.000-04:002012-07-25T11:04:05.429-04:00racing, heat, humidity, sun energyIn preparation for the B2B next week, I've looked a little more into climate factors that affect pace. A very nice explanation of humidity and dew point is here. Dew point is the better guide to comfort level. Kristin Barry sums it up with this chart:
DEW POINT (°F)RUNNER'S PERCEPTIONHOW TO HANDLE
50–54Very comfortable PR conditions
55–59ComfortableHard efforts likely not affected
60–middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-68091655104272842402012-07-21T14:51:00.002-04:002012-07-22T16:06:07.218-04:00Florida FiveMy speedwork for this week was the Bridge of Lions 5K in St. Augustine Fl. My goal for the race was to go out a little slower than 18 min. pace and see if I could hang on in the heat and humidity and maybe even break 18. My first mile was 5:50, so right on target. And I was feeling shockingly good. Mile two was 5:49. Now I started to think about breaking 18 with a fast 3rd mile. I had middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-76860168934942352512012-07-04T14:18:00.002-04:002012-07-04T14:18:48.010-04:00LL Bean 10KLL Bean in 38:06 this morning in cool but very humid weather. Race analysis paralysis to follow.
The Good - won my AG
The Bad - as Ryan noted, my AG is certainly less competitive TO WIN then either M40-44 or M50-54
The Bad - My 5K conversion time was 8s slower than FD5K last month and my FD5K was 22s slower than my 2011 MD5K on the same course
The Good - I was 25s faster than last year's LL middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-70718446580662761842012-06-17T16:42:00.004-04:002012-06-18T07:43:53.646-04:00Mount W and FD5K: Not your doctor's management plan
I had been planning on running up Mount Washington since March 18, which was when I heard that I failed to make it through the lottery for the road race. I was excited to both 1) get in my first mountain run of the season (I'm not counting Pack Monadnock) and 2) watch the elite racers take on the wall at the finish of the race. Despite the absolute fantastic forecast and the chance to watch middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-15497766584740842932012-06-04T10:58:00.001-04:002012-06-04T11:04:54.014-04:00Pack Monadnock
My annual fishing trip was rained out so I decided to go run a small mountain instead, the Pack Monadnock, which is #3 in the USATF mountain running series (meaning many of the big dogs were out to play). I stayed with a friend in Concord NH the night before, which may have been a mistake because I was up late (for me) and had lots of beer (for me), which meant I had 3.5 12 oz beers andmiddle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-39076464372172874122012-05-29T20:41:00.001-04:002012-05-29T20:41:52.292-04:00My Garmin premium softstrap HRM suxMy average HR for the mile segment of the Pineland 25K from the River Loop, through the field to the base of the Campus loop (location of the Pony aid station) yesterday was 173. This is about my HR max. I was running easy. My average HR over the 2nd mile of my run today was 77. This is the rate of a slow walk but again I was running easy on roller coaster singletrack. Apparently my "ez run HR" middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-15405691106040642682012-05-28T10:16:00.003-04:002012-05-31T14:57:56.376-04:00Pineland Double
Racing, or Fun?
I decided to double this weekend. My flow of thought went something like this. "I have no goal races this year. I'm running the 25K easy with friends. Jamie and Ryan and Scott jumped into the 10K. I want to race them. Jumping in the 10K can't keep me from racing any goal race since I don't have one. ergo - I'm going to jump into the 10K too." So my goal was to racemiddle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-62026122954615006352012-05-21T12:29:00.001-04:002012-05-21T12:29:04.406-04:00at least I'm runningI was hoping this would be my first of a string of 60+ MPWs. But Thursday I started an ez road/trail run but had immediate and fairly substantial (4/10) achilles pain. Where had that come from? I turned around. Friday I planned to run but was swamped with grading and didn't run. So much for 60s. Wednesday was discouraging and really drove home the dichotomous choice I face - train to race and middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-19922586676818142272012-05-13T19:44:00.000-04:002012-05-13T19:44:48.163-04:00Way back
Just like my west trip in 1976 to the Wyoming and Colorado. After experimenting with what does and does not aggravate the achilles, I've narrowed it down to running fast and yard work (pushing a wheel barrow or lawnmower). While the little fast running I've done in the last couple of weeks has only minorly aggravated the achilles, I'm a little worried about any kind of systemic ramp up to real middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-29073363649404261192012-05-06T16:05:00.001-04:002012-05-07T22:53:07.914-04:00HeelectomyOne of the first pieces of advice that I read on insertional achilles is to cut a slit or a V into the heel counter of your running shoe. In fact, I've seen advice to do this prophylactically. I chose not to cut any of my new running shoes but I switched immediately to the Nike Frees (1st edition), which have a very soft, flexible heel counter, for my everyday shoe. After failure to find any middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-63267836278486303352012-05-03T09:35:00.000-04:002012-05-03T10:29:59.552-04:00dialing it backI dialed back my spring training plan from a typical late phase race plan to an early phase base-building plan. I've decided to follow Hadd's method from the looooooooong LRC thread. Not sure at this point how high I'll get my mileage because 1) going forward, I will be running lots of slow singletrack, where it takes me 25 minutes longer to run 10 miles and 2) I'm afraid of doubles given the middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-7364266849701676572012-04-22T18:53:00.001-04:002012-04-22T18:53:48.908-04:00Neither epiphany nor styleM - passive recovery
T AM: 5.2 level 3 on track (HR test) PM: 5.8 level 2 @ Twin Brook
W 7.2 level 1 @ River Point
Th 7.5 level 1 @ Back Cove
F 6.1 level 1-2 @ Leighton Hill
S 12 level 2-4 @ Pineland (2.5 mi @ race pace)
S 6.8 level 1 @ Hadlock
Total: 50.5 mi / 7:22 time
What I learned: the 2nd run of the double really really hurt (achilles) for about 1 mile. The 2.5 mile at race pace on middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-30632743037093984252012-04-17T11:36:00.001-04:002012-04-17T11:37:05.262-04:00active recoveryStarted running this week because I was bored not running. Not so much bored with roller skiing.
M 3.5 miles @ 8:36/mi, Back Cove
T 5.7 miles @ 8:15/mi, Twin Brook
W 6 miles @ 9:02/mi, River Point
Th 5.8 miles @ 7:50/mi, Back Cove
F 7.8 miles @ 8:44/mi, Pineland + 48 minute roller-ski (two good climbs)
S rest
S 9.8 miles @ 10:03/mi, Hadlock
6:30 total training hours
Beginning of week I had middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-24700610671881333632012-04-09T17:59:00.000-04:002012-04-09T17:59:15.078-04:00State of the Union (between my achilles and heel)Running injuries are a balance between running and recovery. This is as true for returning from injury as it is for creating injury. Old school injury management was RICE - rest, ice, compression, elevation, and of course vitamin I. Lots of anecdote and some real data suggest that tendon/ligament injuries recover faster with continued running, to encourage proper blood flow and inflammation, and middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3384232965908187048.post-42986657925138098292012-04-05T21:43:00.000-04:002012-04-05T21:43:11.593-04:00Breaking the 4 minute mile and other good newsGood news from the stress echocardiogram on Tuesday...no achilles pain! I also learned that I had no long QT interval while my heart was working at about 93% max HR and the cardiologist gave it a clean bill of health.
Things I've learned wearing my HRM while roller skiing the last two weeks
1. my HR is very low (<130, or very ez run rate) when I'm skating without poles but raises about 10-15middle.professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02370737843957507859noreply@blogger.com6