Some of us made it out to the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day - Matt, Cassie, Carmen, Christine, and I. Yes, it was freakin' cold - just a little over 40 degrees, but with very moderate humidity. I know plenty of us (AHEM!) decided it was just too cold, and bailed on the race, so much credit to the people who showed up.
Matt's been struggling with lots of injuries and issues, and I was a little concerned about how he'd hold up, but he ran a 49:55, just edging under 10-minute miles.
Carmen showed up wearing some odd pink leg-warmers with puffy tassels. They may have helped, but certainly didn't slow her down - she stormed up the steep climb on 11th street, and roared back to a 55:32 finish. I continue to be amazed by her progress since that first day out at Zilker this summer.
Not to take anything from anyone else, but I have to say I was tremendously proud and, yeah, surprised, by Christine. You'll recall she finished the IBM 10K in 1:40:51. She's been working hard, though, trying to do less of the Christine Shuffle, and more of a true running stride and form. Thursday, we saw the results. I figured I'd see her at about an hour and a half into the race, particularly given all the hills. Imagine my surprise when she appeared on the 11th street hill at about an hour and twenty minutes in. She ran with me up the hill, and Carmen joined us. We paced her in, and kept her moving until the last downhill stretch to the finish, where she finally cut loose and was striding pretty quick to the finish line, probably just to get away from us and our nagging.
It turns out it had taken her over nine minutes to get through the start line, making her time an estimated 1:12 or so - a huge improvement for her. More than anything, though, I was really happy to see her dig in and push herself when she really badly wanted to stop. Doing so, she's opened up a whole new realm of running, and probably, hopefully, of her own life.
As for me, I just love the cold, because I can breathe. I knocked 3:51 off of last year's time. It also showed how much easier it is to put yourself through some discomfort when your heart is happy in general.
So, it's going to be tough to get up in the mornings, or out in the evenings, when it's cold, and sometimes even wet. But it's all part of what you've committed to, and it's an important part. Just like getting up early, it's a battle you have to fight that you can win simply by making a choice to do it. Once you clear that initial hurdle, you'll often even end up having a good day.
And, obviously, running in bad conditions builds the mental and physical toughness to persevere, regardless of the weather or the situations that will someday inevitably be thrown at you.
Remember what Bill Bowerman said - "There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people."
Monday, November 26, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Dick's 1982 Boston Finish
OK, Jill just sent me this link, and I had to put it up here - I'd always read about it, but never seen it... Here's the link.
Don't forget about his foundation. We all know people affected by chemical dependency, and we probably all know people who wouldn't be able to afford to get good help for it. The foundation is a great idea, and is a little guy in the sea of charitable organizations out there. Let's help it out.
Don't forget about his foundation. We all know people affected by chemical dependency, and we probably all know people who wouldn't be able to afford to get good help for it. The foundation is a great idea, and is a little guy in the sea of charitable organizations out there. Let's help it out.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Team Spee at Race For the Cure
Picture coming soon...
Aside from some pre-race confusion that prevented us from running any warmup or drills, Team Spiridon had a great day at the Race for the Cure. The air temperature was perfect, though the solar heating made it slightly warm, and the course, despite some changes that resulted in more hills, was still pretty fast.
Eve destroyed her previous best of 31:51, set at last year's RFTC, with a 28:35, running almost a minute per mile faster than the pace she ran in her two-mile time trial.
Paul picked up a substantial PR, coming tantalizingly close to breaking below 29 minutes, with a 29:00.4.
Daniel came through in 26:15, faster than her two-mile pace, and almost a minute faster than what his time trial predicted.
We never saw Jean, because she was running with an organization, the Young Hot Female Executive Association or something, but I talked to her after the race. She ran untimed, because she wasn't able to pick up her chip, but finished somewhere in the 30-31 minute range, beating her previous best, and finally cracking the 10 minute mile barrier, also faster than her two-mile time trial pace.
Carmen and Jacala finished together, at 35:01, and 35:02, respectively. It was Carmen's first race, and a new personal record for Jacala.
Michele, who hooked most of us up with the Freescale team (and a substantial discount), finished the run, at her 19th week of pregnancy, with the little guy kicking around inside.
I have to brag a bit - my 61 year-old mom, who is sort of an honorary member of Team Spiridon, ran the race with me last year in 37:18, which I was very impressed with, it being her first race ever. She didn't do any more races until this one. She is a bit of a workout freak, and she recently dropped weight to about 105 (she's 5'2"). Today, she ran hard, though she thought she could probably have run a little faster. She also saw the sign for mile 3, thought that was the end of the race, and stopped. She walked about half the remaining distance before she figured it out and ran again. Still, she finished in 30:54. If I can get her to do some proper training, she'll be a serious competitor in her age group.
And, your coach didn't slack, much as I wanted to, finally propelling my fat arse through the 25 minute total and 8 minute per mile walls, with a 24:48, 51 seconds better than my previous best. Almost as importantly, it finally put my age-graded percentile ranking into the top half (if you search your race results by name or bib number, you'll get more data, including your age-graded ranking.)
So, there are a few things we can all take away from today. First, we can see that sometimes, things go wrong before a race, like Carmen and Jacala having to spend half an hour trying to get their timing chips, through no fault of their own. That's even more reason to be on time for races, and to maximize your preparation of the things that are in your control.
Next, I think knowing the course and having a race plan was a benefit (anyone else think so?). We knew where the first quarter mile and half mile marks were, which allowed us to immediately check our pace, rather than waiting for the first mile to be over.
We saw the importance of the two cardinal rules of racing: don't go out too much faster than your pace (a key to your success today, Paul?), and run your own race, ignoring what other people might be doing. Once again, particularly running on some of the Capitol 10K course, we saw plenty of people blow past us on the downhills, only to see them again struggling on an uphill.
Finally, I think the fact that people were outrunning their time trial pace today, as some did at the IBM 10K, shows that your hard work and patience are making you faster, stronger, and more able to focus and push yourself harder. Yes, we ran time trials in higher temperatures and humidity, and it was a first time trial for many of you, but actual improvement is clearly a strong factor.
So, good job, everyone - I was extremely proud of how everyone did out there. We are ten weeks into training, with about 14 or so more to go - DON'T SLACK. You've all put in too much time, effort, and suffering to let up now. That means you make it to workouts, you get your own runs in, and it also means you take extraordinary measures to keep your body healthy.
NO SLACKING!
Aside from some pre-race confusion that prevented us from running any warmup or drills, Team Spiridon had a great day at the Race for the Cure. The air temperature was perfect, though the solar heating made it slightly warm, and the course, despite some changes that resulted in more hills, was still pretty fast.
Eve destroyed her previous best of 31:51, set at last year's RFTC, with a 28:35, running almost a minute per mile faster than the pace she ran in her two-mile time trial.
Paul picked up a substantial PR, coming tantalizingly close to breaking below 29 minutes, with a 29:00.4.
Daniel came through in 26:15, faster than her two-mile pace, and almost a minute faster than what his time trial predicted.
We never saw Jean, because she was running with an organization, the Young Hot Female Executive Association or something, but I talked to her after the race. She ran untimed, because she wasn't able to pick up her chip, but finished somewhere in the 30-31 minute range, beating her previous best, and finally cracking the 10 minute mile barrier, also faster than her two-mile time trial pace.
Carmen and Jacala finished together, at 35:01, and 35:02, respectively. It was Carmen's first race, and a new personal record for Jacala.
Michele, who hooked most of us up with the Freescale team (and a substantial discount), finished the run, at her 19th week of pregnancy, with the little guy kicking around inside.
I have to brag a bit - my 61 year-old mom, who is sort of an honorary member of Team Spiridon, ran the race with me last year in 37:18, which I was very impressed with, it being her first race ever. She didn't do any more races until this one. She is a bit of a workout freak, and she recently dropped weight to about 105 (she's 5'2"). Today, she ran hard, though she thought she could probably have run a little faster. She also saw the sign for mile 3, thought that was the end of the race, and stopped. She walked about half the remaining distance before she figured it out and ran again. Still, she finished in 30:54. If I can get her to do some proper training, she'll be a serious competitor in her age group.
And, your coach didn't slack, much as I wanted to, finally propelling my fat arse through the 25 minute total and 8 minute per mile walls, with a 24:48, 51 seconds better than my previous best. Almost as importantly, it finally put my age-graded percentile ranking into the top half (if you search your race results by name or bib number, you'll get more data, including your age-graded ranking.)
So, there are a few things we can all take away from today. First, we can see that sometimes, things go wrong before a race, like Carmen and Jacala having to spend half an hour trying to get their timing chips, through no fault of their own. That's even more reason to be on time for races, and to maximize your preparation of the things that are in your control.
Next, I think knowing the course and having a race plan was a benefit (anyone else think so?). We knew where the first quarter mile and half mile marks were, which allowed us to immediately check our pace, rather than waiting for the first mile to be over.
We saw the importance of the two cardinal rules of racing: don't go out too much faster than your pace (a key to your success today, Paul?), and run your own race, ignoring what other people might be doing. Once again, particularly running on some of the Capitol 10K course, we saw plenty of people blow past us on the downhills, only to see them again struggling on an uphill.
Finally, I think the fact that people were outrunning their time trial pace today, as some did at the IBM 10K, shows that your hard work and patience are making you faster, stronger, and more able to focus and push yourself harder. Yes, we ran time trials in higher temperatures and humidity, and it was a first time trial for many of you, but actual improvement is clearly a strong factor.
So, good job, everyone - I was extremely proud of how everyone did out there. We are ten weeks into training, with about 14 or so more to go - DON'T SLACK. You've all put in too much time, effort, and suffering to let up now. That means you make it to workouts, you get your own runs in, and it also means you take extraordinary measures to keep your body healthy.
NO SLACKING!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Help Yourself
For the marathoners and people who come to the Wednesday workouts, I've done a lot of waffling over time about when to put the next solo run. I originally had the marathoners running on Fridays, but that's the day before the long run. I switched it to Thursdays, but am not entirely happy with that. I know that I feel like I was beaten with a bag of oranges, or possibly more of the nasty persimmons Kellie bought last night, so I'll run tomorrow, and today will be my cross training day.
The ideal for those doing Wednesday workouts, I think, would be to make Thursday your cross training day, and then run Friday morning. That gives you time to recover a bit from Thursday, and to recover again for the long run Saturday morning. Running in the morning also ramps up your metabolism for the day, which is good if you're wanting to burn some fat. If anyone would like to burn some of mine, feel free.
So, someone asked yesterday if we should just be feeling sore full-time, now. Funny, because earlier in the day, I was thinking about how I was definitely in that phase of my training where I'm sore and feeling a little beat-up most of the time. Thing is, I also feel strong, and the soreness and beat-uppedness shouldn't be indicative of more serious issues, like muscle pulls or strains, shin splints, skeletal issues, or infestation by an incubating, parasitic alien.
I'll say again, we are in a phase where we have to take responsibility and start taking extra care of ourselves. This is half marathon and marathon training, not a correspondence course in, I don't know, incubating parasitic alien infestations. There are things we can do to minimize or eliminate our discomfort, and help ward off injury. I know I've posted about these things before, but they can't be said enough:
Ice baths - after long runs, even after hard weekday workouts. It alleviates a lot of soreness, and hastens recovery, so that the next run is not so horrible. I know some of you have become believers - would you please weigh in on this in the comments?
Stretch - I am the worst about this. For one thing, if you aren't very flexible, stretching doesn't seem very satisfying, and it can be a bit disheartening. We have to be disciplined and do it, though, especially as the weather gets colder. Light stretching before runs, then good stretching after every run. I like to try to stretch again a couple of hours after the run - we tend to get in our cars, go home or to work, and sit, making it as easy as possible for our leg muscles to tighten up. Tight muscles affect your stride, even your footstrike, increase the chance of some injuries, and generally makes life miserable. And with just 5-10 minutes a day, we could avoid a lot of that. Yoga is helpful - more on that in a moment.
Massage - Massage is another miracle worker. If you wanted to be completely serious about this running thing, you'd get them regularly. I know there's an expense factor. But even if you can get one once a month, it'll help tremendously.
Self massage is a good thing, too. No jokes, please. I'm checking on organizing a foam roller seminar that would cost some dough, but we'd walk away with foam rollers and some instruction on their use.
Get help now, not later - We all want to run, some of us are afraid of stopping and losing ground. But the algebra of this is simple - you can go get that pain looked at now, maybe have to sit out or minimize your running for a few weeks, or maybe just address it with rehab or changes in routine, or, you can ignore it and keep pounding at it, thinking the magical running fairies, or maybe your incubating, parasitic alien infestation are going to repair it, and end up injured, fat, and asleep on the morning of February 18.
Listen to your body - Facing and overcoming discomfort and fear, even pain, are attributes you need as a runner. But ignoring pain during training that is trying to warn you of an issue with your body is just stupid. Get to know your body, and pay attention to it.
Run softly - I keep our workouts on the streets, because that's what you'll be running your races on. Dick Beardsley was saying last week that he thinks people train on trails, then run distance on the street and their bodies aren't ready for it. I think with the great trail system we see here, that it happens a lot. I have a friend that runs ultramarathons on real trails, and will run the occasional marathon, and he talks about what a difference it makes when you aren't used to it. But there is a very real cost in impact and wear and tear on our bodies. So, on your solo run days, I encourage you to run on the trail, or even in grass. Take any opportunity to minimize the impact. You're also getting a slightly harder workout when you run on a surface with more energy absorption and less traction.
Cross train - When the calendar says "cross training", that's not like, some admonition to get to church (yeah, that was bad. sorry). You should be using that day to give your legs a break, particularly from impact,
I'm still failing to enact Phillip's suggested core training into our workouts, but I haven't given up on it. In the meantime, Jack and Adam's Bicycles, at Lamar and Barton Springs, has free core workouts on Mondays and Wednesdays, at 5:30pm. Free. Strengthening your core is going to help you run stronger, and maintain your form longer.
Also, some of Team Spee is already hitting the free Friday night yoga at Yoga Vida. Yoga is fantastic for flexibility and even building some core strength. I think all athletes should be doing yoga, actually - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gives a lot of credit for his unusually long basketball career to his practice of yoga.
There's more to discuss - nutrition is a huge consideration. And, maintaining your mental well-being, though clearly already a lost cause in general for many of you (OK, of us), is important to. And, at some point, we'll talk about how to deal with incubating, parasitic alien infestations, with the pain and the screaming and gurgling and exploding and the Sigourney Weaver and what-not.
The ideal for those doing Wednesday workouts, I think, would be to make Thursday your cross training day, and then run Friday morning. That gives you time to recover a bit from Thursday, and to recover again for the long run Saturday morning. Running in the morning also ramps up your metabolism for the day, which is good if you're wanting to burn some fat. If anyone would like to burn some of mine, feel free.
So, someone asked yesterday if we should just be feeling sore full-time, now. Funny, because earlier in the day, I was thinking about how I was definitely in that phase of my training where I'm sore and feeling a little beat-up most of the time. Thing is, I also feel strong, and the soreness and beat-uppedness shouldn't be indicative of more serious issues, like muscle pulls or strains, shin splints, skeletal issues, or infestation by an incubating, parasitic alien.
I'll say again, we are in a phase where we have to take responsibility and start taking extra care of ourselves. This is half marathon and marathon training, not a correspondence course in, I don't know, incubating parasitic alien infestations. There are things we can do to minimize or eliminate our discomfort, and help ward off injury. I know I've posted about these things before, but they can't be said enough:
Ice baths - after long runs, even after hard weekday workouts. It alleviates a lot of soreness, and hastens recovery, so that the next run is not so horrible. I know some of you have become believers - would you please weigh in on this in the comments?
Stretch - I am the worst about this. For one thing, if you aren't very flexible, stretching doesn't seem very satisfying, and it can be a bit disheartening. We have to be disciplined and do it, though, especially as the weather gets colder. Light stretching before runs, then good stretching after every run. I like to try to stretch again a couple of hours after the run - we tend to get in our cars, go home or to work, and sit, making it as easy as possible for our leg muscles to tighten up. Tight muscles affect your stride, even your footstrike, increase the chance of some injuries, and generally makes life miserable. And with just 5-10 minutes a day, we could avoid a lot of that. Yoga is helpful - more on that in a moment.
Massage - Massage is another miracle worker. If you wanted to be completely serious about this running thing, you'd get them regularly. I know there's an expense factor. But even if you can get one once a month, it'll help tremendously.
Self massage is a good thing, too. No jokes, please. I'm checking on organizing a foam roller seminar that would cost some dough, but we'd walk away with foam rollers and some instruction on their use.
Get help now, not later - We all want to run, some of us are afraid of stopping and losing ground. But the algebra of this is simple - you can go get that pain looked at now, maybe have to sit out or minimize your running for a few weeks, or maybe just address it with rehab or changes in routine, or, you can ignore it and keep pounding at it, thinking the magical running fairies, or maybe your incubating, parasitic alien infestation are going to repair it, and end up injured, fat, and asleep on the morning of February 18.
Listen to your body - Facing and overcoming discomfort and fear, even pain, are attributes you need as a runner. But ignoring pain during training that is trying to warn you of an issue with your body is just stupid. Get to know your body, and pay attention to it.
Run softly - I keep our workouts on the streets, because that's what you'll be running your races on. Dick Beardsley was saying last week that he thinks people train on trails, then run distance on the street and their bodies aren't ready for it. I think with the great trail system we see here, that it happens a lot. I have a friend that runs ultramarathons on real trails, and will run the occasional marathon, and he talks about what a difference it makes when you aren't used to it. But there is a very real cost in impact and wear and tear on our bodies. So, on your solo run days, I encourage you to run on the trail, or even in grass. Take any opportunity to minimize the impact. You're also getting a slightly harder workout when you run on a surface with more energy absorption and less traction.
Cross train - When the calendar says "cross training", that's not like, some admonition to get to church (yeah, that was bad. sorry). You should be using that day to give your legs a break, particularly from impact,
I'm still failing to enact Phillip's suggested core training into our workouts, but I haven't given up on it. In the meantime, Jack and Adam's Bicycles, at Lamar and Barton Springs, has free core workouts on Mondays and Wednesdays, at 5:30pm. Free. Strengthening your core is going to help you run stronger, and maintain your form longer.
Also, some of Team Spee is already hitting the free Friday night yoga at Yoga Vida. Yoga is fantastic for flexibility and even building some core strength. I think all athletes should be doing yoga, actually - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gives a lot of credit for his unusually long basketball career to his practice of yoga.
There's more to discuss - nutrition is a huge consideration. And, maintaining your mental well-being, though clearly already a lost cause in general for many of you (OK, of us), is important to. And, at some point, we'll talk about how to deal with incubating, parasitic alien infestations, with the pain and the screaming and gurgling and exploding and the Sigourney Weaver and what-not.
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