Alameda Runners – Get After It!

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.

It is time to start training for the Oakland Running Festival half marathon again.  I will be carrying my 2:15 pace sign once again this year.  Last year, a lot of people fell off the pace during the run.  I did not like watching so many people fall off the pace, so I wrote a training plan for a successful 2:15 half marathon. 

Completing a 13.1 mile run in 2:15 requires an average pace of 10:20 per mile.  Last year, I planned on running a 10:15 pace to make up for time lost at the start line.

In reality, we ran at a 10:03 pace to make up for the start time and walking through the water stops and finished at 2:15:35 clock time.  To finish at 2:15 you will need to train for a 10:03 pace.

To make training easier, I wrote a training plan for you to follow.  I know a lot of people do not want to run four days a week.  Running four days a week will certainly make things easier for the half marathon but days can be skipped. 

It is very bad to skip long runs (need to build up those miles) or tempo run (which is when you build your speed and endurance).

The main training begins in January.  I started with a month of run/walk for people who are just getting into running or getting back into the swing of things.  It is a good idea to be able to run 4 miles before you start your half marathon training plan.

I like to do my long runs on Saturday.  Sunday is fine for long runs too.

Long runs – During the long runs there should be no hard breathing.  You should be able to hold a conversation for the whole run.  If you start to breathe hard, slow down.

Cruise runs are a bit faster than the long runs but do not need to be too fast.  These runs are just to add miles to the legs.

Runs are random things that are a bit faster than cruise runs.  You can vary the pace of normal runs to change things up.

Tempo runs are where you build your speed.  They hurt.  You will need to build up to 9:00 to 9:30 miles for 30 minutes.  It is good to start out by jogging for about 10 minutes then pick a target a few hundred yards away and run towards it.  You should be breathing hard when you get there.  Slow down and repeat the process.

It is tradition to tell yourself to go get a physical before you start a running plan.  If you have good luck with getting a sports physical, let me know who your doctor is. 

Get to training and I will see you on March 25th.

Week :    Mon                  Tue             Wed             Thur          Fri          Sat         Sun

12/05| 30 min run/walk | Cross train| 30 run/walk  | 30 min jog| cross train|1-3 mi|Rest
12/12| 30 min run/walk | Cross train| 30 run/walk  | 30 min jog| cross train|1-3 mi|Rest
12/19| 30 min run/walk | Cross train| 30 run/walk  | 30 min jog| cross train|1-3 mi|Rest
12/26| 30 min run/walk | Cross train| 30 run/walk  | 30 min jog| cross train|2-4 mi|Rest
01/02| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|4 mi|Rest
01/09| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|5 mi|Rest
01/16| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|6 mi|Rest
01/23| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|8 mi|Rest
01/30| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|7 mi|Rest
02/06| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|9 mi|Rest
02/13| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|10 mi|Rest
02/20| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|11 mi|Rest
02/27| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|12 mi|Rest
03/05| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|13 mi|Rest
03/12| 30 min up tempo| Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min run| cross train|10 mi|Rest
03/19| 30 min easy run | Cross train| 40 min cruise| 30 min easy| cross train|rest  Half Marathon

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

Long distance training is hard.  You have to build your way up to long distances.  While you are building up to the marathon or other long distance, you need to practice with your equipment, pace and nutrition.  Today, I will cover equipment.

Equipment:  You can read about equipment all day long and spend another day trying different things on.  Reviews are great.  Trying things on is even better.  You won’t know if the equipment will really work until you try it out for a long run.  It is amazing how much stuff works for 13 miles but causes problems at 20 miles.  I will start at the bottom.

Shoes generally work well for 20 miles if they work for 13 miles.  Minimalist shoes can cause a problem because they have little padding and alter your stride.

Socks can work well for 13 miles then fall apart at longer distances.  They can cause blisters, bunch up and be plain old uncomfortable.  A blister at mile 18 can be quite painful for the next 8 miles.

Running shorts can ride up, bunch up, chafe and cause rashes.  Spandex shorts pretty much eliminate all problems from shorts but can be uncomfortable for men and they have a weird feel when you sweat a lot. There is also a lack of pockets to put stuff.  If running shorts become a problem, a little Body Glide or Vaseline can go a long way.  There are alternative creams but I don’t know their names.

Belts are a great thing.  I love to hang a bib from mine on race day.  I use different belts for different occasions.  Belts are personal too.  My running style dictates a bottle that is held on a slant across my back.  My son uses a belt with a bottle held straight up.  He also uses a fuel belt.  Other people like to strap things onto their hands.

Shirts can be great for up to 15 miles but cause chafing under the arms and bloody nipples on men.  It is also a good idea to pull your shirt up a little bit above your belt.  The belt will pull the shirt tight causing problems.

Sports bras are important for women.  I don’t know personally but wife sure lets me know about it.  A poorly fitting sports bra could cause serious chaffing.  My wife had a strap burn that lasted more than a month and the mark remained for a year.  A loose fitting sports bra can cause painful bouncing problems.

Sun glasses reduce glare in the eyes and help keep your face relaxed while you run on a bright, sunny day.  A squinted up face cause tenseness in the whole body.

A running hat keeps the glare out of your eyes, keeps the sun off your face and helps steer the sweat away from your eyes.

No matter what you wear, stay comfortable.

I was supposed to go out for a 20 mile training run today but I decided to go take some pictures at Rocky Ridge for Brazen Racing.  The cool thing about Brazen is, all of the pictures are uploaded to Picasa and are available for download for free.  We are not professional photographers with the snazzy equipment but we do okay.  The photo album can be found here.

You may ask yourself, “Why would an Alamedarunner skip his long run to go take pictures at a trail race”?  The answer is simple, to be social.  Trail running is generally more social than road racing.  Road racing can be fast while trail running is a bit slower and hillier.  Going uphill is hard on everything.  Walking uphill can be a serious challenge to the legs but your breathing is good enough to talk.  Going downhill can be dangerous so people slow down and chat.  All of this leads to a community atmosphere.  Sam and Jasmin, the event organizers, are very friendly too.  All of this creates an atmosphere where people want to be.  The volunteers are usually people like me, who are training for something else, family members or friends.  I was out with my friends, taking pictures of my friends.  My wife and son went out to volunteer as well.

I went up to the top of a big hill of about 1800 feet, to get some pictures with a nice view.  One advantage of taking pictures on top of a hill is that everyone gets spread out.  When people are spread out, I get to try more things with the camera.  Unfortunately for the half marathon runners, they had over 3,500 feet of climbing on their legs when they got to me.  I got a lot of good pictures from the top of that hill.  It is always great when people stop to pose for the photographer.

This was a hard race for every distance.  It was hard on the volunteers who were out on the course.  Do you ever wonder how the volunteers make it to the top of a big hill to set up an aid station?  The lucky ones get there stuff delivered for them.  Many volunteers put the water, table and other supplies in wagons and haul it to the aid station.  They also send a volunteer out on the course with trash bag to pick up the cups that get thrown around.  Most trail runners hit the trash cans or come really close to hitting the trash bin but we always have to check.  The runners frequently stop to pick up the trash that others drop.

If you want to run in a friendly event, try a trail run.  Even the type “A” racers lighten up a bit for the trail runs.

I say in one line to run at your own pace, then I say find a training partner.  What is Ted thinking?  Ted is thinking about how great training partners are.  When I do my long runs, I pick places where there are a lot of people out and about.  People help me pass the time for my long runs.  I often pick up running partners along the trails.  When I am out for a long run of longer than 2 hours, my heart rate has a range from 120-130.  It is easy to adjust to someone else’s pace if they are close.  Most people enjoy company on a long run.  30 minutes of company is a great way to break up the monotony of the long slow run.

If you are out for a long fast walk, partners are especially good.  Long walks create pain in unexpected places.  If you are alone, the pain can get overwhelming and the temptation for Starbucks and bagels can win the day.  When you have company, the time seems to fly by.

When you do speed work, partners can help you find the next level in your training.  Our brains are amazing things.  We can go to a track alone and find that our max heart rate is 171 bpm.  We can go to that same track, with someone who is a little bit faster, and find that our max heart rate is 175 bpm.  When you find that extra little something, it stays with you for a while.  Find yourself a training partner or running group and be social about running.  Exercise is not about punishing yourself.  It is about being fit and having fun.  Just be careful that you do not try to keep up with the speedy group who has been at it a lot longer than you have.

Be social and have fun.

Not feeling well means different things to different people.  Some people look for an excuse to get out of work while others try to run with a fractured foot saying “it’s not too bad”.  I am not a doctor, so I won’t give out medical advice.  Personally, I don’t get sick very often.  If I get the sniffles or a cold, I continue to run but I cut back on the intensity.  If I have flu like symptoms or my head feels foggy, I will rest.

When I say not feeling well, I am talking about how your body feels.  Most people train for a goal.  That goal comes with a plan.  There is something about having a goal that people want to exceed.  People of all levels tend to overdo it.  Fortunately, we get warning signs from our bodies that we need more rest.  Unfortunately, we rarely listen to them.
A few big warning signs are:

• Dead legs when you wake up
• Running out of energy in the middle of a run
• Not wanting to run
• Feeling dizzy
• Appetite changes – An increased appetite is good.  Not wanting to eat or drink after a run is bad
• Sharp or stabbing pain on your muscles
• Joint pain

The above are all things that happened to me one or more times.  I usually get these symptoms from over training.  If you get these symptoms, it is probably time to rest.