Running Log (repost of a repost of a riposte)

Someday, I will share with you all the legend of Running Log, the great Native American track and field star. But not now.

If you'll look to the left over there, you'll see a link for the Nikerunning website, which contains a free training log.

I really recommend that you keep track of your running. Most obviously, it helps you have a picture of how often you're running, and what kind of mileage you're putting in every week. Most people think it'll make them feel bad when they miss a workout - actually, that's not a bad thing. But it will also give you an appreciation for how much you're doing. When you miss a workout, but you still see that you ran six or nine or (eventually) 20 miles that week, it can prevent that Stuart Smalley shame spiral where you decide it's all hopeless, and you go grab the peanut butter, a jar of Bonne Maman strawberry preserves, and the largest spoon that will fit in the mouths of both jars, and go to town, washing it down with successive Lone Star tallboys, the tinge of aluminum made slightly salty by your own tears.

It happens. Or so I hear.

So, check out the training log. It's fun to do, and you can also track your other activities, like yoga, cycling, swimming, and your weekly pickup jai-alai games. It'll also track your vitals, like your weight.

A training log is also good because it helps you track the mileage on your running shoes, which we call "tennis" or "tenny" shoes in Texas, but which the British, apparently being masters of the obvious and explicit, call "runners."

So, You Made Us Suffer for Two Miles. What's Your Point?

OK, this is another exceedingly long post about stuff.

I sort of fear being challenged on some of this - I'm no scientist, and I prefer to geek out on physics, but I can give you a poor, but usable, explanation of my poor understanding of what our bodies do, with some of the more hazily remembered numbers culled from the Internet, that bastion of infallibility.

So, when a boy or girl reaches a certain age...

Wait, that's the other thing I have a poor understanding of.

Running. Yes. So, our physical ability to run is governed by several things, of course, but the key fundamental component is our ability to burn fuel, which involves our use of oxygen at the cellular level.

Yeah, you have to physically get oxygen into your lungs and blood vessels and to the cells, and there are variables and potential roadblocks along the way. But all those extraordinary conditions as they may be, it still comes down to your ability to burn fuel.

Two of the key measures of this ability are our VO2 max, and our lactate threshold.

VO2 Max
Your VO2 max is specifically a measure of your body's maximal, or best, ability to transport and use oxygen. There's a couple of different expressions of it, but for athletes, we usually talk about milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. It's generally accepted as the best measure of aerobic fitness.

Our VO2 max is largely genetically determined, but can obviously be affected by weight, and by training. The average VO2 max for untrained men is around 45 ml/kg/min, 38 for women. Decently trained athletes will get into the 50's and 60's, world-class athletes higher. Lance Armstrong? Reportedly around 86. Freak. A famous skier had an off-season measurement of 96. In the off-season, not at his training peak. Total freak. Interestingly, Wikipedia lists Iditarod sled dogs at upwards of 240 ml/kg/min.

Lactate, or Anaerobic, Threshold
So, VO2 max measures your ability to deal with aerobic training under maximum effort. At some point, though, your cells are burning at as high a rate as they can with the oxygen they're getting. Essentially, they burn through all the oxygen, and begin to rely on either creatine phosphate or glucose to burn for energy. This is anaerobic energy production.

There are certain byproducts of this new zone of energy production, including lactic acid. Up to a certain point, your body can reuptake it, limiting its build-up in your bloodstream. On top of everything else, Lance Armstrong has a freakish ability to reuptake lactic acid, meaning he can hold a higher level of intensity for longer than lowly humans, and recover faster. It's just not fair.

Once the demand for energy reaches a point and becomes even more inefficient, lactic acid production outpaces the body's ability to reabsorb it. Once it hits a certain level in the bloodstream, generally accepted to be, like 2 somethings per something else, you're considered to have hit your lactate threshold.

Very often, you hear people say they couldn't hold their speed or push more weight because of the lactic acid, which is technically wrong, or because they were lactating, which is completely wrong in almost every case.

Really, the lactic acid in the bloodstream is a symptom, not the cause.

Our higher-intensity workouts will push you just into the anaerobic/lactate threshold, which will help push it higher. And yes, this kind of training will benefit your distance running ability, as well.

OK. So, like... what?
I've done the testing. It's humbling, and not entirely comfortable. You run on a treadmill, with a huge mouthpiece jammed in your grille that, because of the noseplug, is your only way to inhale and exhale. You get pushed to successively higher levels of exertion for periods of time, and periodically, they jam a needle into your ear for a blood sample to test for lactic acid buildup. It is unpleasant, though you do feel like Steve Austin for a while.

From your VO2 max and lactate threshold, you can derive with some accuracy your predicted potential paces for other distances.

Running the two-mile time trial (remember, that's what all this crap was supposed to be explaining) bypasses all that testing, and essentially works this process backwards. Running it ideally, you are running at maximal capacity for a distance that is long enough to get you into the anaerobic zone, and long enough to not just be something you can totally will yourself through, yet short enough to run without spending too much time in the anaerobic zone.

You run it, and in an indirect way, it measures your VO2 max and lactate threshold. I suppose that doesn't matter, because just running the time through a formula, you can still determine your ideal paces. But I think it's good to know why it works.

Whew. Still with me? So, here's what you do. I'll email you your times. Go to the link on the left for the McMillan Pace Calculator. It's a magical thing that will tell you with freaky accuracy what your paces should theoretically be for other distances. You'll use these paces for some of our workouts, and you can use them as guides for your pace in races. Also (Amy), please note (Amy) the suggested long run paces (Amy). By the way, Amy, I think you should particularly look at that, Gunner.

A final note about this: these paces are ideals based on your body's most fundamental capabilities. They don't take into account terrain, headwind, illness/hangover, a bad day, a good day, or the other things that start happening to your body when you hit a certain mileage. It has predicted my times well up to the half marathon, and then it breaks down for me. Honestly, I have yet to have my ideal, or even acceptable, marathon. I'll own up to that. But I've had some great coaches in the past, and I'm confident of my own coaching. It's just something I need to deal with and overcome.

So, don't live and die by these numbers. They're just a guide. If nothing else, the time trial teaches you to push your limits of discomfort, and for that alone, it's valuable. More on that later.

Rain or Shine, People!

"There's no such thing as bad weather. Just soft people."
- Bill Bowerman, legendary coach guy

In the midst of all this hurricane business, I hear a theoretical tiny, tinny, whiny voice crying out, "But what if it's raining?" Easy - we run in it. Aside from lightning, there's no reason not to run in the rain, and every reason to do it.

Races are run rain or shine - they, like us, will only cancel for lightning or major meteor strike at the start/finish area. What good would it do you to train in ideal conditions, just to show up and have to run in the rain? Very little. And if you think you're not all hardcore about running a race - when you slap down your $120 or $80 or whatever for the marathon or a half marathon, you'd be pretty lame to turn tail and go home because it's raining.

It's an exercise in commitment - If you're going to let moisture stop you from training and putting in the work, then what else are you going to let stop you? Not having clean socks? Everyone Loves Raymond reruns? Do you want to be someone who gives in that easily? Do you want to be someone that loves Raymond? No, you don't.

It's freakin' epic - Pounding the pavement or the track or the trail in a downpour, you feel like you're in the middle of a Rocky training montage, or in the climactic scene of a movie. Leave the iPod at home, because you can pretty much hear the orchestra churning along with you. People drive by, and those that don't "get it" may think you're an idiot, but the many who do "get it" will think you're a bad-ass, and maybe they'll think about their own level of commitment.

So, tomorrow, we run, and take pictures, rain or shine - anything but lightning, a decision I'll make at 6:30.

All this is not to say you shouldn't be prepared. Bring dry clothes and shoes to change into afterwards. Wet shoes and socks make for wet skin, which increase the chances of blistering - use some Bodyglide or Vaseline on your arches and anywhere else you tend to rub in your shoes.

It's gonna be fun, really.

Safety Things...

So, the incidence of runners being attacked or harassed or simply creeped-out is sort of frighteningly high. I don't like being alarmist, but we have to be conscious that stuff happens out there, whether you're running in upscale Tarrytown, where a runner was attacked but escaped the other day, in Clarksville at the tail end of a group workout, where a couple of men followed Laura the other night, or across the street from Whole Foods with a bunch of bystanders.

There's also the issue of running at night, which is probably not so much an issue now as it will be in October. At that point, we'll move our workouts up to 5:45 or 6:00pm, to try to get us a little more daylight, what with the apparent shortening of the days by means of some black magic that liberals and conservatives can blame each other for, the falling-back clock action, and the gradual, evil lengthening of workouts.

So, let's be smart about things, by means of my beloved bullet points:

• Turn on your heartlight - OK, so quite simply, get you some light, so you can see and be seen. Bettysport, RunTex, Academy, REI, all have varieties of lightweight blinky lights. The blinky LED's that go on the shoes are incredibly disconcerting to watch, but that noticeability is exactly what you want, and they even end up casting a little light in your path. REI even has some super-bright halogen headlamps that you can wear on your head, or maybe clip to your arm or waistband.
  
  Christina and I also run with these little guys. They're heavy duty, super-crazy bright, and made for law enforcement. They're bright enough that you can actually use them to momentarily stun someone. Seriously. They're easy to carry in your hand when running, have a button to momentarily activate them, or you can leave them on. The LED version is a little pricey, but gives you really long battery life. The regular version is $35. I've even strapped it to a beam with a hair scrunchy and used it as a spot for a friend's show. They're available at Whole Earth, Cabela's, and online.
  
  
• Black is the new way to get your butt run over - Yes, you look cool, and you get to play Ninja Runner Person. But you'll never get to use your nunchuks if you get smacked by the car that you were stealthily invisible to. Wear light colors, with reflective stuff. Reflective vests are cheap, if you'll take alive and stupid-looking over dead and cool.



• Be actively visible - Run on the left, unless circumstances make this clearly the worst option. When you have cars coming at you, make eye contact, even wave at them. Make sure they see you.



• Take a buddy, or at least someone you can almost stand - Don't run alone. Simple enough. You're more visible, you have a spotter, you're less likely to get messed with, and if you see the other person fall into a gaping hole, you can then avoid the hole and continue your run.



• Step light - When you're running through a dark patch, don't assume that it's not the only patch of sidewalk in five miles that isn't clear. Confused by the double negative? Me, too. Point is, find the most lit path through the darkness, slow a little, pick up your feet, and step lightly, as if you're running across a rocky stream. If there is something wonky underfoot, you'll have a better chance of recovering from it.



• Pick your route carefully - There are lots of considerations here. Stay out of deserted and/or dark areas, and clear of pothole infestations. Vehicle traffic can provide you a bit of light and security, but you need to steer clear of narrow roads, blind hills and corners, or high speed limits. Portions of the trail are OK, but it gets awfully dark. If you're close to the trail, you might be better off running downtown, or on South Congress.



• Run tough, act tough, be tough - Last year, one of our runners was accosted by someone who thought she looked good in shorts, but then wanted to see if she, um, felt good, too. She tried to edge away and be polite. That's understandable, but if it's not going to work with a frat boy in a bar, why would it work with a possibly loony predator? If a comment gets made that's over the line, ignore it. Don't give them anything. If they persist or approach you, say, look them in the eye and say "Hey. Back off. I'm running." Ignore him when he calls you whatever he calls you, as long as he walks off. Keep anything you say short, but be assertive and make the point that you're not going to be messed with. In the situation our runner was in, she could cross the other street, approach some other people, or even go up to one of the cars in the intersection, and start communicating with them - make sure he sees that people see you and him, and he'll probably move off. If you get in serious trouble, yell, and flag down a car.

Above all, use yer head. It's your best weapon, your best shield. Be alert. I'd strongly consider ditching the iPod for night runs, but if you choose to run with tunes, day or night, you have to take extra steps to be alert, period.

But whatever, whenever, just be alert, be thinking, be aware of your surroundings. Think about strategery - what's open? Where are there people? What house on this block has lights on that you could get to if you needed help? Being alert and aware are good skills to have anyway, and if that's something you learn from running, then that alone is valuable.

OK. There you go. Please, take this stuff seriously. I'm the only person who should be trying to annoy or hurt you.

Hills, Stupid Hills: The Quiet Commie Menace

OK, I'll bore you with this tonight, but I'd like to bore you with it now, because it's important in Austin to know how to run hills properly. It is important to realize that I am a big geek, and when I'm running, I'm thinking through all this stuff, and how best to try to explain it. So... here ya go.

Running Uphill

It helps to think about the physics of hill running, and first it comes down to geometry. Think about the geometry of your body in relation to the ground when you lean back - you've got a triangle formed by the ground: the imaginary line from the top of your head intersecting the ground at a 90 degree angle (side A); the line from there to your front foot (side B), and the line from that point back to the top of your head, which is the triangle's hypotenuse.

Now, think also about the vector of gravity's pull... on a hill, it's not perpendicular to the ground, right? It's straight to the center of the earth (let's stick with Newtonian physics and ignore more recent modifications of it). Hence the suckiness or coolness of running up, or down, a hill.

Ideally, you maintain the same upright, hips under you form as you do when you're on flat ground. Of course, your ability to do that depends on the steepness of the hill.

So, once a hill hits a certain level of steepness, the geometry of our bodies makes it impractical to stay perpendicular to the ground. So, we increase forward lean. This makes Side A, in front of our bodies (top of the head, perpendicular to the ground) shorter, and lengthens the hypotenuse, which is from the top of your head to the foot pushing through the strike behind you. Because of the way our legs bend, and because of the way we're best able to exert force for maximum traction and power, the lean forward makes sense.

The big problem is that most people get their lean by bending at the waist. First of all, as we've talked about on flat ground, this angle between the hips and leg is biomechanically inefficient.

Next, the butt starts falling out behind you, changing your center of gravity, and distorting the geometry of your body.

Once that happens, people tend to hunker their shoulders, which is often also a result of people dropping their heads down.

The result - an inefficient, tiring, difficult-to-breathe running posture. No bueno.

The answer is in your hips, shoulders, and head. Keep your head up - be looking at the next point on the hill that you're aiming for. Keep your shoulders relaxed, but back, allowing a good, unobstructed flow of air. Finally, keep your hips under you. On steeper hills, it helps me to imagine pressing the hips forward into the hill.

Move your arms. Their relation to the body will change on hills - they'll be moving a bit more in front of your shoulders, but still not crossing the front of your body. When your legs are failing a bit, focus on moving the arms, and the legs will follow.

A lot of people strike with the foot and lift straight up. On hills in particular, they're missing out on a huge bit of strength, just in your foot and calves. So, strike, and roll all the way so that when you're taking off, it's off the front tip of your shoes.

Finally, break the hill into manageable chunks. Find a landmark, and just focus on getting to it, then pick another and get to it. If you look up Wilke or some of the other hills we'll be running, you'll try to find a tree and a bit of rope to hang yourself.

Running Downhill

The general rule is that uphills and headwinds are harder than downhills and tailwinds are easy. But make no mistake, downhills run properly and patiently can give you a good deal of time back. They can also wreck your legs in a longer race.

On the downhills, the temptation is to lean back and let gravity carry you. This is actually not good.

Think back to the geometry thing. When you lean back, you feel more in control because the hypotenuse is intersecting the ground at an angle that matches the vector of gravity's pull. The problem is, it also stretches that hypotenuse out - your body has to get longer in front of you. To accomplish this, two things usually happen. First, you lengthen the front part of your stride by stretching the leg out, straightening the knee out and striking on your heel. Because you're also shortening side A of your triangle (the imaginary back line), and lengthening side B (the bottom), gravity gets to accelerate you a bit longer on each stride, resulting in higher speed and greater impact.

Bottom line - bad for your knees, ankles, hips, spine... hell, everything. It even makes my teeth hurt.

Meanwhile, if you're also trying to move your feet faster over a longer distance (side B), you might actually be working harder and getting your heart rate higher than when you're on flat ground. Also dumb.

The answer is to run downhill with the same form and angle as you run on flat ground, and uphill. When you do it, you're going to feel like you're falling forward. This is why you want strong quadriceps muscles, and a quicker, but not too quick turnover. This is a matter of just getting the right feel running downhill.

I try to get to a point of turnover where I'm still striking midfoot, but immediately rolling forward and through the strike. There's a split second between the initial strike of the foot, and the point at which your shoes and joints compress, and you get the sudden, sharpest moment of impact. That's what you need to minimize. Rolling forward immediately helps dissipate some of that energy.

The cautionary warning here is that on a long, very hilly course, like the Austin Marathon and Half Marathon, slowing yourself too much will wear out your quads and increase the odds of them cramping up later... So, it can be a fine line.

Everyone wants to bank time running downhill. But even if you're being conservative and patient, you're just gonna pick up some speed. Side B of your triangle is going to naturally lengthen a bit when you factor in that you're still falling downhill a little, making each stride, even at the same cadence, cover a little more ground.

More importantly, managing a downhill gives you a chance to recover. In the Austin Marathon and Half Marathon, managing the course is everything, and will make or break your day.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but I think this is enough to make everyone wonder just what the hell I'm talking about...

What, When, Wha?

TEDIOUS ALERT! There's good stuff here to learn and understand, but you'd better go get a cup of coffee...

OK, so let's talk about what the thinking behind the schedule is. This is incredibly long, and as mentioned, tedious. But I think it's important to understand the "why" of what I'm asking of you, here.

Basically, I have a giant, wall-filling six month calendar. I write down all the workouts for the season, including your solo runs on small strips of paper, twist-tie them to darts, blindfold myself, and throw them at the calendar. It's an amazing system, actually, though the cat doesn't always clear the room, so part of your fee goes for vet bills.

Sometimes, however, I actually plan this thing out, and there's a method to my madness.

First off, there are some reputable and probably successful marathon or half-marathon programs out there that will train you for 19 weeks. Every now and then, Runner's World runs a headline that you can do it in three weeks, for just pennies a day or some crap.

I used to train in and coach in a program that ran for six months. Despite wanting to try to be as different from them as possible, I looked at other similar programs, and 24 weeks seemed to be somewhat of an industry standard. For one thing, the math works out - bring in half-marathoners that are capable of running the reasonable and common distance of three to four miles, see what you have to build them up to, and if you're into the use of macrocycles (as we are), it gives you a nice period of time to do a steadily progressive program. Same with marathoners.

Now, this macrocycle thing. Again, this is not anyone's patented system. No running group, in Austin or otherwise, owns it or is maverick in their employment of it. In fact, I believe all the major groups in Austin use some form of it. Here's an excerpt from a paper by Dr. Atko Viru, who has a very impressive scientist-y name:

The potentiality of intensive adaptive changes in the organism are limited by the adaptive energy (Selye, 1960), or the adaptive capacity reserves. The exhausted reserves are, as a rule, restored by relative rest (reduction of the training volume). However, further intensive training and competition loads will progressively exhaust the adaptive reserves and can lead to a drop in the performance and finally result in overtraining. It is impossible to assume that an athlete can meet the requests of the competition calendar set by organizers and remain in peak form for six months or even longer. Even the organism of an athlete needs rest.

Ah, gotcha. Science! So... just what the hell does that mean? Simply, ya gotta rest. You keep increasing the workload, or even trying to maintain a high level of distance and intensity, and you're gonna poop out, burn out, or worse, get injured. Sorry if that's still too much technobabble for you.

So, you'll see that we'll build in distance for a couple of weeks, then you'll get a recovery "week". This is mainly visible in our long run miles, though I also take into account total distance for the week, and the intensity of our weekday workouts, as much as one can for a group of athletes with somewhat different abilities and needs. There's also the fact that a general principle of running is that you don't want to increase long run mileage or total mileage by more than 10% a week. A few times, we might breach that by a couple of points, but if it's more than that, I'll make up for it with a flatter route, or a less intense Tuesday workout.

Now, as for the weekly schedule, there are probably very scienc-y principles underlying this, but basically I'm going by what I learned worked from my own training. It's about getting a rhythm in your training that, like the macrocyle method, incorporates intensity and recovery.

Let's look at this as Monday through Sunday, with Saturday long runs, and Tuesday intensity workouts. On Monday, you're still a bit stiff and sore from Saturday, unless you slept in/didn't set your alarm, Dina and Carmen. So, a nice, easy run seems to work that out. You might feel a bit clunky starting the run, but by the end, unless you push the pace too much, you'll work out the kinks.

Tuesday, I try to hurt you.

Wednesday, at least in the beginning, you need to rest. Rest is a very real need. You might feel like a running machine, unbreakable and... untirable or something. Well, if you are, then you need a much more bad-assed coach than me. Your body needs to heal its muscles, its joints, and its brain, even. So, your cross-training should be low- to no-impact, and relatively low intensity in terms of workload on your legs and cardiovascular system. Do stuff that will get the blood flowing, keep you moving, build upper-body and core strength, or work on your flexibility.

Thursday, run again. Again, with the clunkiness, and, if you haven't been diligent about stretching, maybe some stiffness and soreness. Again, in addition to building mileage, this helps work out the kinks from Tuesday, and set you up to be at your best Saturday.

Friday right now is light cross training, and a bit of rest before your long run.

Sunday, you rest. Period. Learn to like watching football or something. But nothing too taxing, especially as the long runs get longer. I don't care how good you feel, your body needs the recovery, especially since you'll run again Monday and be getting your butt kicked again on Tuesday.

Now, there's reasons we'll deviate from the norm sometimes. There'll be races, most of them on Sunday, that we need to account for and work around. There's also be personal reasons. The big thing you don't want to do is try to make up mileage and runs in a haphazard way. So, let's look at a couple of real examples I got in my email in the past couple of days...

I did a good run this weekend. It was over a 7 mile run. Regarding the training schedule, are the days to cross train set in stone or are they flexible?

You probably have the answer from my explanation above. Again, the Sunday off is set in stone. Period. As for the placement of running and cross-training, the schedule is preferred, but if you need to, deviate from it. If you understand the principles above, you can make up for some of it by moving runs to mornings or evenings, to get those recovery runs in, and get as much actual rest-recovery as you need.

Here's another one:

I’m a mess this week- I have a meeting on Tues night so I’ll miss that run, Wednesday I have tennis practice so I can’t make it up then, and Saturday I have a tennis game at 8:30 (singles, so at least I’ll be running around a lot, but more sprints). To top that off, I managed to acquire a massive bruise on the back of my upper thigh on Saturday that is about the size of a softball which is so painful that it’s actually difficult to walk, sit in a chair, or even sleep. Blah. I’ve been icing it, but it’s just a bad bruise. So, all that to say, do you have any suggested runs I could do this week maybe on Thursday, Friday and/or Sunday? Maybe I could do the Clarkesville run on Thursday and the normal Sat. run on Sunday if my leg is feeling better.

So, lots of things going on, here. First of all, this runner needs to stop using two spaces after periods. That's an old-school holdover from the days before proportioned typefaces. But I digress. Hopefully, this runner will still get her three miles in today. At some point, she could pick up her miles or even the specific workout tomorrow morning. But, think about that - doing it in the morning is cutting recovery time in half, which may or may not be an issue, depending on the individual. If she can run in the mornings Monday and Tuesday, that would be ideal.

The ideal here would be to run the Tuesday workout early, and stick with the schedule, but let's say she can't do that.

I think running the workout Wednesday morning is her next-best option. If Wednesday night was a tournament, then she might just take an easy run that morning. Even with practice, she'll need to be sure to stretch, particularly after running hills. She should stretch right after, again later that day, and a little tiny bit before the practice, if she's feeling really tight. Then, she'd chill Thursday, and run Friday, in the morning, if possible, again to maximize the recovery time, which is not as critical now with our current mileage, but, still.

Now, a quick word on the extracurriculars. I wouldn't ask anyone to stop playing tennis or basketball or jai-alai, but just know that it complicates your training a bit, and each activity can increase the odds of injury in the other. Just sayin'. You'll need to be extra diligent in both sports, and as you get within a month or two of your goal race, you might consider backing off of a sport where you could roll and ankle and be sidelined from both sports.

If you're in doubt, or even just because you're bored, you can always run your schedule by me, and I'll try to suggest some alternatives. And, as a side note, I'm still working out the schedule, so some of the distances I have posted for two to three weeks from now might get tweaked a bit.

Nike Human Race Video

More to come, but for now, and to get your uncalled for AC/DC fix, there's this:

Help Yourself (the Repost)

OK, so let's talk about a few things up front. This is largely a repost, but with some things to bring it up to date.

Our schedule is pretty specific for certain reasons. For those doing Tuesday workouts, Wednesdays will be your cross training day, and then you run again Thursday. That first run after Tuesday's harder workouts may feel clunky - you might be tight and sore. Just go easy, and bear with it. The run, even short, will work some of that out, and help set you up for a Friday run and the Saturday long run.

For those doing a different schedule, like Wednesday workouts or Friday long runs... I'll work with you individually.

You might want to consider running in the mornings during the week. It's cooler, and helps sort of minimize the gaps between runs. 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.

Some of you are gonna be sore. You might be sore starting out, and then later, you might be sore because you're hitting your stride and you're working harder, and then later because of the mileage. Great, huh? I do get to a time in my own training where I'm sore and feeling a little beat-up most of the time. The 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.

At every phase of the training, 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. We'll talk more about some of these things as we go along, but here's a few points:

Ice baths - Yeah, ice baths. After long runs, and 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. In fact, class one, we did foot drills, and then I thought food and beer, and didn't enforce stretching. Help keep me in line about stretching as a group, please.

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. Look into foam rollers. They're a wonderful thing, if you remember to use them...

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 told us last season that he thinks people train on trails, then run distance on the street and their bodies aren't ready for it. I think that with the great trail system we have here, that 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 want cross training to be as non-impact as possible. Swimming, cycling (don't wear your legs out), yoga, weightlifting (don't wear your legs out) are good examples.

Jack and Adam's Bicycles, at Lamar and Barton Springs, has free core workouts on Mondays and Wednesdays, at 5:30pm. Free. Like, no money. 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. In just a few weeks of returning to yoga myself, I've started to regain some flexibility. I can now touch my hands to my knees. OK, just my fingertips, but still.

There's more to discuss - nutrition is a huge consideration. I have someone that will come talk to us about that at some point. 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.

For now, if you have any questions, let me know.