Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Here is a brief on the biggest surprises of the year for me.  Most of the time, new companies squeeze into a niche by doing the same thing as the big guys while specializing in one area.  Sometimes things can be a lot different.  Who would have thought, a company could come out with wool athletic gear?  I forgot where I got the photo of the woman wearing the Icebreaker shirt but the poster credited it to Treehugger.com

Icebreaker wear is my winner of the year for performance clothing.  I wear the run ace running shirt just about anytime an opportunity presents itself.  I love the way it feels.  The material and design make the shirt very nice to wear.  It is so nice to wear the shirt was promoted (demoted?) to an everyday shirt.  The running shorts are nice but they have an oddly shaped pocket that is not convenient for my work access badge so I do no wear them for my lunch time runs.  I inadvertently wound up with the shorts for a yoga session one day and they were immediately converted to yoga shorts.  Running shorts and gym shorts are pretty much designed for forward motion and do not work very well with the stretching activities.  The wool stretches with my activities and does not stick to my legs.  Icebreaker is a bit hard to find and a bit expensive but they make some nice stuff.  I think you can get it at Fleet feet, out in the valley and REI.  If you find it in a store, try it on.

Greenlight Apparel came into view in 2011 by being the official clothing at both the Oakland Marathon and the California International Marathon.  They announced their consumer product line to us at the Oakland Marathon expo back in March.  Their products are comfortable, affordable and produced responsibly.  Because of Greenlight Apparels responsible manufacturing process, I will buy from green light if all things are close.

Injinji toesocks were a pleasant surprise for me this year.  I did not expect the socks to be so comfortable.  It did feel a bit odd having my toes separated by the cloth but I liked it.  It was great running up and down big hills without worrying about getting blisters.  The nice fit around the foot keeps the sock from moving around when you run.  No motion and no bunching mean no blisters.  My favorite socks did wear out rather quickly but that was expected with the way they fit.

Jockey wins the durability contest.  I was surprised to realize how much Jockey wear I own.  They make good stuff without a lot of fanfare and it lasts a long time.  They also know how to make stuff fit.

Now that the main running season is over, it is time to take cross training seriously again.  When I say cross training, I mean cross training with weights.  Most of us run or bike for cross training.  Now, is the time for strength training.  I like to lift weights but I have to sacrifice something to get out and do it.

Training is a personal thing with one rule.  That rule is to get out and do it.  I am in off season training mode right now.  My training for the week and reason for the training are listed below.  I am not advocating my work out plan.  I am pointing out a plan and a reason for the plan.

Monday – Weight training at the Coast guard base.  My reason for using this gym is because I am out of coffee at home and they have good breakfast at the base chow hall for about $2.00.  All of today’s training will be done with light weights.

• Squats – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Calf raises – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Leg extensions – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Leg lifts – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Bench press – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Shoulder press – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Swim ½ to 1 mile after work then sit in the hot tub for a little while.

Tuesday– 4 mile lunch time run, if I feel good.  Yoga after work because I need to work on flexibility and core strength.  The Yoga place is right next door to my work and the schedule is convenient.

Wednesday – Weight training at the Coast guard base.  My reason for using this gym is because they have good breakfast at the base chow hall for about $2.00 and Wednesday is the day they have waffles.  I like to bring my own syrup.  All of today’s training will be done with light weights.

• Squats – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Calf raises – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Leg extensions – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Leg lifts – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Bench press – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Shoulder press – 3 sets of 10-20 reps
• Swim ½ to 1 mile after work then sit in the hot tub for a little while.

Thursday – 4 mile lunch time run, if I feel good.  Yoga after work because I need to work on flexibility and core strength.  The Yoga place is right next door to my work and the schedule is convenient.

Friday – Swim ½ to 1 mile after work then sit in the hot tub for a little while.

Saturday – Bike ride, if the weather is nice.

Sunday – off

This is my plan for the week.  It is a plan that works around my schedule and breakfast desires.  My primary goal is to build leg strength and maintain fitness.  I will do a couple of early half marathons that I must maintain my fitness for but I really working on triathlon training for next year.  I am  far down the list on the Vineman Half Ironman but they also have an Alcatraz Triathlon that month so I need to be ready for a July triathlon.  I will be training like this until the holiday season ends in mid-January when I come up with a more regimented plan.

Last year Brazen Racing held the inaugural Coyote Hills Half Marathon.  This was one of my favorite races of the year.  That is saying something considering I did more than 15 events during the year, including CIM, Alcatraz, Vineman and the Oakland Half Marathon.  I may have liked it so much because of the community involvement.  I do so many Brazen races, we are like family.  I ran around Coyote Hills so much; it was like my home course.  Did I mention the fact that I ran with Ron from Punk Rock Racing?  It is always fun to be around Ron.

The parking lots filled early and people were being shuttled in from the surrounding corporate centers.  At least you don’t have to pay to park in the corporate centers.  There were enough shuttle buses to keep the wait short.  When the shuttle buses are running, the line at the sweat check table can get long so mark your bag early so you won’t have to wait when it is time to start the race.

Coyote Hills is a typical trail race where the start line is on the flattest piece of terrain around.  This race quickly goes to single track that can really mess up the speedy people who start in the middle of the pack.  If you can run 7:00 miles or faster, start in the front.  I don’t mind the single track holding me up because I run most trail races as social races.  I used to get mad when I wanted to run along at an 8:00 pace and wound up behind people running an 11:00 pace.  I have learned to lighten up, enjoy the view and perhaps, socialize a bit before passing.  You never know when you will meet a new friend.

Coyote Hills is a two lap course.  I am not very fond of running laps but I will make an exception in this case.  January 28, 2012 is coming fast.  If we get lucky the Punk Rock Runner will be on hand to keep us entertained again.

A quick update for today’s post.  My marathon is tomorrow.  I am supposed to go for a very easy 2 mile jog but I am going to skip it to give my sore legs a day to rest.  This will be my third attempt at CIM.  I did it two other times but I did not finish well.  Hopefully, I did everything right and finish running.  I was planning on running with some friends from the running club who are planning on finishing in 3:40.  I decided to slow down and run with the first pace group after 4:15.  Maybe changing things up will give me a better shot at success.  I am very excited to go back and tackle a challenge that has defeated me twice.

Now that I am finished with my marathon training, I started swimming for triathlon training.  When I was taking it easy and only training for a marathon, Finis sent me a swimsense, swim monitor to review.  I had to send it back after I reviewed it.  I liked it but I was not swimming a lot to give it a really good review.  I started swimming a few weeks ago, when I started to taper for the marathon.  I really missed the swimsense.  It is not exact but it is usually off by 25 yards over the course of a mile.  When I am out for a swim, I don’t notice the difference between 37 and 38 laps.  I was considering buying one from Amazon for about $200.  This morning, I found they sent the Swimsense back!  Christmas came early.  I don’t have “consider” anymore.  I have “mine” back.  Thanks Finis.

Wish me well for the marathon.

Let me start out by saying, I don’t understand tapering.  I taper because I am told it is good for me.  I also want to show up at the start line healthy.  I figure a healthy start will give me a better chance of having a healthy finish.

Tapering for the big event is a difficult thing.  You work so hard to get into great shape only to rest for the last few weeks leading up to the big event.  I was cycling my training up and down for 3 months to get ready for the marathon, now I am supposed to rest the few weeks going into the marathon.  My running buddies can do a marathon every 6-8 weeks with no problems.  They don’t need to taper, why should I?  I feel great; I should be able to go out for some speed work, a couple of days before the marathon.  I am tapering, I will just let my legs “carry me” for 4 miles.

Now that I am tapering for a marathon, I realize why I write a plan before I start training and stick to it.  I may vary on the day to day implementation of the plan but overall, I am pretty close.  The reason I create and follow the plan is simple.  When I am planning an event, marathon or triathlon, I am in planning mode.  To plan an event, I work on my current fitness level, what worked and what others recommend.  I take my work schedule and current ambition level into account when creating the plan.  Now that I have the plan, I move into work mode and just follow the plan.  Following the plan takes emotions out of the picture.  There are days, when I just want to roll over and go back to sleep because it is too cold to go out and run.  No excuses, stick to the schedule.  There are days when I feel great and just want to go out and tear up the trails.  Slow down, stick to the schedule.  When it is time to taper, I just want to out and do tempo runs because that is how my legs “carry me”.  Slow down, stick to the schedule.

I also take my brain into account.  I am tapering for a marathon that will happen next week.  I have an ambition for a triathlon in 9 or 10 months.  While I am doing my taper training, my mind is wandering toward big bike rides.  I realize 2 things from my cross training dreams.  I want to do a big triathlon next year.  In order to complete a big triathlon, I will have to finish the marathon healthy.

You may ask yourself how a triathlon that will happen in 10 months will impact a marathon taper.  It is because I need to finish the marathon in good shape in order to start the triathlon training.  To finish the marathon, I will need to show up healthy and slow down during the run to increase my odds of finishing healthy.  Tapering is individual.  Do your best.  Take it easy and have fun.

While talking about running half marathons and marathons, I was recently asked how people get started in running.  Now that our culture is designed around cars, we don’t walk so much.  A lot of people have desk jobs and live in driving communities.  The most exercise we get is when we walk to the parking lot to get into our cars.  If you are in this group and just starting out, I will explain my plan.

I will start my explanation with a couple of rules.
Rule #1 – Have fun
Rule #2 – Be proud of yourself
Rule #3 – Take it easy

My half marathon plan is a 3 month plan with a one month warm up to get ready for the training.  The first month is basically the same training repeated every week with the expectation of getting stronger as miles build up on your legs.  I start out with a 30 minute run/walk plan.  Make no mistake about it; running for 30 minutes is hard.  I started out by running from one telephone pole to the next, then walk to the next pole and alternate the sequence.  As the run progressed, I would start walking a step short of the pole then start running a step after next the pole.  I would talk to myself about how close to the pole I would get before I started walking.  Then I would drag my feet a little before it was time to run again.  It would look something like this:

• Pole 1-2: Jog
• Pole 2-3: Walk
• Pole 3-4: Jog
• Pole 4-5: Walk
• Pole 5-6: Jog
• Pole 6-7: Walk
• Pole 7-8: Jog
• Pole 8-9: Walk

You may only jog for 1 or 2 of these legs the first time you go out.  That is just fine.  Give your body time to adapt to motion.  Over time, you will be able to follow the plan.  As time progresses, you will be able to run the whole time and do speed intervals on the poles.  For now, just work on being able to jog for 30 minutes without walking.  Take your time.  It may take months for you to be able to jog for 30 minutes straight.  You are better off easing into things than to try and race right off.  Avoiding injuries and feeling good enough to go back are very important to every runner.  If you go out too fast, you may not want to run again because it was so painful.  If you ease into things, you feel a lot better about running and you can find that inner peace.

It is easy to get into a rut.  Pay attention to yourself and break out of the rut by doing something different.  Think about what you do every day.  Odds are, you have a routine.  You have to figure out a way to break the routine and change things up.

My last note on cross training missed my intended point, when I started talking about how easy it is to get into a rut and not cross train enough.  I started out with the goal of saying how important it is to train for your specific sport.  Every time we go to the internet or open a magazine, we are inundated with the importance of cross training and magic formulas about how standing on a Bosu ball will help us run faster.

A Bosu ball will not make you a better runner.  Running will make you make you a better runner.  Cross training will certainly help by making your supporting muscles strong.  When you are worn out from a long training session, a strong body will help you get through it.  Part of my weak body realization came when I was out on a long run and choked on a payday bar after I was out running for about 3 hours.  The coughing hurt my stomach.  Some work on the abs solved the problem.  Good abs help when you are choking while running.  They did not help me be able to run for 3 hours.  Running did.

I was out for a swim last week and ran into a young guy training for a big swim event.  He was really ripped.  He told me he spent a lot of time getting into shape to be ready for the swim.  I was thinking he would win, if the competition included standing at the end of the pool posing.  I told him that pool time was very valuable and the time should be spent on swimming.  When you are in the pool, it is not a good idea to waste pool time doing pushups on the pool deck.  Public pools can get very crowded and people will get mad if someone wastes a lane by doing calisthenics at the end of the pool.  A lot of people will sit on the bench and seethe, if someone hogs a lane.  People like me, who are used to swimming in crowds, will jump right in and make you suck it up and share.

The biggest benefit I get from cycling is that I have an elevated heart rate for hours.  Having an elevated heart rate for a long time burns a lot of calories.  Burning calories is good for weight control.  Weight loss for some and weight maintenance for others.  Stopping to do pushups and sit ups on the side of the road, help burn calories and build strength but it will also build fatigue which will cut your ride short.  The best way to be good a climbing hills on a bike is to go climb hills.

At the end of the day, it is better to get out and do something than to sit on the couch all day.  Both cross training and sport specific training are good.  Use some sense and think about your situation.  Try not to trade a long run in for a session of squats.

Sport specific training takes practice on the specific sport you are training for.  Cross training is great for the rest of the body.  I spent six months training for a Half Ironman triathlon this year.  I took a couple of weeks off, and then started training for a marathon.  I took it easy on my marathon training because of my knee issues that started to scare me on the second to last long run in my marathon training. 

Since I had a scare, I started tapering a week early.  Since I had all of this extra time on my hands, I went out and did a 90-minute Vinyasa yoga session.  I struggled to make it through the session and I was sore for 5 days.  All of the pain led to the realization that, I am getting out of shape.  I spent most of the year training for endurance with little time spent on strength and speed.  I jumped on the scale and saw that I weighed in at 153 pounds.  Not fat for a guy who is 5’ 7” tall but certainly not lean.

If you are reading this, you are probably not a couch potato.  If you are a couch potato, you are thinking about changing.  Here are some thoughts:

• Athletes are in better shape than most people.
• Athletes tend to develop sport specific muscles.
• Sport specific muscle growth causes muscle imbalances.
• Muscle imbalances lead to injuries.
• Being an injured athlete with imbalanced muscles is better than being a couch potato.

I found that I am in a rut.  I can see how I got into the rut.  Things in life happened and I let things happen.  As soon as I realized these things were happening, I set about changing them.  I could have easily told myself to wait until after the marathon to change things up.  I did not do that.  I took charge and started changing things that were in my control. 

I looked at my life and told myself that I was in a rut and I had to get out of it.  Because of the upcoming marathon, I am not making big changes but I have already changed my routine and started doing light workouts just to break up the routine. 

Life is full of people who tell you not to do something or you can’t do something.  Those people are followers.  We must all lead our own lives.  Do not worry about other people.  Get out and lead the way.

This is one of my favorite events.  I get excited every time I go out to Folsom to go prep for this race.  It may be because I have to go stay in a hotel for this one.  I am usually in good enough shape to run a half marathon at any time so I don’t know why I get excited about an event that is shorter than a training day.  I met SFMarathon from both Facebook and Dailymile.  It feels a bit awkward to chat with SFmarathon because she puts on such an awesome event.  I help out with some of the Brazen racing events so I have some idea what it takes to put on a race.  Small trail races with 600 runners and no road closures are hard to organize.  Putting on an event that closes major streets in a big city with 25,000 runners is another level.  She is probably working on permits for the next marathon before the current one even starts.

I showed up to the race early and got to watch a lot of people show up to the start area.  There were a lot of fit looking people showing up which is to be expected.  There were also a lot of people who looked like they were on the couch to half marathon in 4 months program.  I am sure a lot of them finished ahead of me but that is okay.  I was really excited for all of the people who were going to be stretched to their limits to finish this run.

The race used to start in two waves with the split at 2 hours.  I wanted to be in the tail end of wave one so I estimated 1:50.  When I got my bib, I found that I was in wave 2 of 3.  I went to the help table and had my wave changed to wave 1 which had a cutoff time of 1:45.  I know I can do a half in 1:45 so I started there.  When wave 1 was called to the start line, a bunch of people from waves 2 and 3 muscled their way up to the front.  They were all cleared out of the way by mile 3.  I did not have many people pass me and there was a big group of people running around the same pace for most of the race.

It is really odd to go out to the valley to run in 80 degree weather on October 30, 2011.  Since there is no fog the air is really dry.  Some of my buddies from the run club did the half marathon then added 7 more miles to the end of the run to get their long run in.  I added my miles yesterday to kid myself that I got the miles in for the week.  I hope I don’t pay for the short run next weekend.  My hope is that running a short run with little planning and no plan will help me in my quest for the marathon.

LN4B rating.  I really like running the LN4B.  It is not a big race but it is fun.  They do not have the amenities or family feel, like the Brazen races but it is still fun to get out for a run on a flat course every now and then.  They have great shirts and medals.  The shirt, I will wear.  The medal will wind up in a drawer unless something happens at the race to make it special.  Today was not a special day.

Pace and nutrition go hand in hand because you have change what you eat when you change your pace.  I find out things like this the hard way, usually by getting sick.  When you get sick from eating the wrong thing, the rest of the activity can be miserable and you can hit the wall.

Pace – Do not increase distance and speed at the same time.  It is an easy trap to fall into.  We all know how fast we went and want to improve on that time.
Speed – If you run 3 miles a day and try to go a little faster every day, your time will probably increase week after week until you hit a plateau.  Once you hit that plateau, you will have a very difficult time increasing your speed and you may even start to slow down.  You need to cycle your workouts.  Do speed work for 2 or 3 weeks then take a rest week where you cruise through your runs.

Good things for speed:

• cycle your workouts throughout the week.
• Add sprints into one run per week
• Do pace pickups during a run
• Do a pace increase run where you start slowly and pick up the pace until you are going flat out at the end of the run
• Try a tempo run that is just below race pace
• Sign up for a race and find out what your race pace really is
• Attempt to run at race pace while not racing.  It is not easy.
• Use your imagination

Distance – There is a 10% rule for increasing your distance no more than 10% per week.  That is a general rule.  If you have been running 3 miles a day for 5 days a week, you should be able to increase your distance to 18 or 19 miles per week with no problems.  It is not a good idea to increase your mileage by 20% per week for 3 weeks in a row.  A sample increase for our 3 mile per day runner should look something like this:

• 3,3,3,3,3,0,0
• 3,4,3,4,3,0,0
• 3,3,3,3,3,3,0
• 3,4,3,4,3,3,0
• 3,4,3,4,3,5,0
• 3,4,3,4,3,3,0
• 3,4,3,4,3,5,0

Do you see a pattern? Exercising in cycles is good It is a good practice to increase your distance for a few months then work on your speed for a few months.  It is your body, pay attention.  When you start getting into the longer distances, it is easier to get injured.  You do not always get injured the day you over do it.  It can take up to 3 weeks to pay the price for overdoing it.  Be careful.

There are training plans like this all over the internet.  There are also plenty of books on the subject.  I highly recommend books by professionals.  Here is one of my favorite places to buy books.  Alibris.com