Alameda Runners – Get After It!

I always write about “the long slow run”.  Today, I am going to talk about speed and variations.  As you may know by now, I tend to write about what I am doing.  Today, I did speed work.  Running at a slow pace helps to build stamina and endurance.  Unfortunately, running slowly also trains you to run slowly.  You have to break it up by throwing in some speed work.  A lot of us like to go out and run at the same speed every time we run.  Our only variation is when we do the long slow run.  There is a fine line between being in a groove and being in a rut.  We all fall into the rut.  Let’s get back into the groove.

It is hard to complete a marathon or become race ready by doing the same thing every day. We need to vary our routine.
The long run – what we do to build endurance
Hills – for speed, strength and fun
Tempo runs – for speed and endurance
Intervals – for speed
Easy run – recovery (I mean slower than a long run pace)

I talk about the long run a lot so I will skip it.
Hills – I like to do trail half marathons for my hill work.  Hills are cool because they make you work so hard going up them.  When I go up the sand ladder at baker beach, I am panting so hard, I am wheezing.  My heart rate goes through the roof when I go up the big hills.  You have to turn off your brain and climb that hill while hoping you don’t have a heart attack.  It only takes a few minutes to climb most hills but it seems like an eternity.  The nice part about hills is that your body gets used to feeling pain without going on a long tempo run.

Tempo runs – Tempo runs are hard.  This is where you run at 80% – 90% of your max heart rate for a short distance, usually 3-5 miles.  I usually run 4 mile tempo runs.  The first mile is a warm up mile where I get my heart rate up to about 150 (170 is my max).  I then run for 3 miles at a heart rate of 150.  It is a long 20 minutes at that heart rate.  The good thing about the tempo run is that it is mindless.  You pretty much go at your maximum sustainable pace for the 3-5 miles you select.  The better your conditioning, the higher your heart rate will be.  Since I am out of shape, my maintainable heart rate will be around 145.

Interval runs – Today, I did an interval run.  I did a one mile warm up followed by ¼ mile pickups.  The pickup pace should be a little faster than the tempo run pace.  I followed the pickup with ¼ recovery run.  I did 4 pickups then 4 recovery runs followed by a 1 mile cool down.  As you get stronger, you can pick up the pace and number of speed sessions.  Interval runs are designed for the track but I use a Garmin GPS in place of the track.

Recovery run – You can’t just go fast and long, you have to have rest and recovery days in your training routine.  I did a long tempo run (decreased tempo pace and increased mileage) yesterday and intervals today.  Tomorrow will be a recovery run day.

Changing things up helps your body get used to the different amounts of stress you put on it.  The first few times you pick up the pace, it will be painful until you get used to the exertion.  As you get used the exertion, you will get faster.

Long slow run means exactly that.  Slow!  Slow means slow.  Going too fast on the long slow run is probably the leading cause of injury for marathon training.  We all have running friends on dailymile.com or our local run groups who do long slow runs of 20+ miles at a sub 7:00 per mile pace.  People who can run that fast are special.  Most of us can’t run like that or the cut off time for the Boston Marathon would be 2:30.  Do not try to run at the speedy pace.  It will lead to injury.  If you can run 4 miles at an 8:00 pace, slow down to 10-11 minutes per mile for your long run.

It takes practice to run slowly.  I did a 9 mile practice run a couple weeks ago.  I kept picking up the pace.  I don’t know why I picked up the pace, I just did.  I could feel the change physically then slow down to my target HR zone.  Target HR zone?  What is that and what is mine?  I know my target heart rate for various circumstances because I do it so frequently.  How is a novice supposed to figure out a target heart rate?  The old tried and true method for a target heart rate is 220-age for max HR.  Multiply your max HR X 0.7 to get your long slow run rate.  This is not an exact science but it is close enough.  I am the oldest Alameda runner at 50.  220-50=170.  170X0.7=119.  See picture above.  To be honest, that picture was taken as I was slowing down to complete my run.  My average HR was 125.  Another way to find your target HR zone for the long slow run is to build up to 6 or 8 miles.  Go for an 8 mile run at a tough intensity.  Do not go all out but talking should be difficult.   Check your average HR, your long slow run should average 80-85% of this number.  Always err on the slow side.  For example; if you run 8 miles at 8:00 per mile with an average HR of 150.  Slowing down to an HR of 120-130 will give you a10-11 minute per mile pace.

While you are running, you should be able to talk comfortably and breathe deeply.  No huffing and puffing.  After you finish the long run, you should be tired but not exhausted until you break the 15 mile barrier.  Practice the long slow runs.  Get it right while you are still on the easy phase of the long runs.  It seems like a waste of time at first but these runs are very important to building stamina and preventing injuries on your quest to complete a marathon.

When you break the 15 mile barrier, a mistake can kill your chances at finishing the marathon.  It is really difficult to recover from an injury on big runs because your injuries occur on a fatigued body.  Pay attention to your body, you need to consume calories, sodium and water on the long runs.  I know that I don’t drink enough water from the fountains along the trails so I carry water.  I start out with the bottle filled with an electrolyte drink then go from there.  I try to drink 4-28 ounce bottles during a 3 hour run.  I drink some water before I start the run.  One bottle for the first hour.  Two bottles during the second hour and one to two bottles for hour 3.
Run slow, eat, drink and consume electrolytes.

The long slow run is a weird thing.  It works your leg muscles and burns a lot of calories.  I always want to pick up the pace because my brain does not like to accept the fact that running slowly will benefit me in any way.  The experts say that it trains the legs for turnover for a marathon.  Ted says the long slow run helps train the slow muscles for when you get to mile 22.  When running a marathon, there is something about the last 4 miles that are so difficult.  It does not matter why but something will happen to make you change your stride.  When you change your stride to a slower pace after 3 or 4 hours of running, you need to be prepared for it.

Today, I did my second long slow run in preparation for CIM 2011.  I got out there and plodded along at the prescribed pace.  My goal was to keep my heart rate close to 120 at a pace between 10 and 11 minutes.  I did a pretty good job of maintaining my pace without using my heart rate monitor to slow me down.   I carried a 20 ounce bottle of GU electrolyte drink, one Honey Stinger waffle and a Clif shot gel.  I also wore a pair of injinji toesocks.  The long slow run is a good time to try out new things.  The toe socks were a success.  I was bit leery about wearing toe socks for a long run but they were great.  I love Honey Stinger waffles but they are not very good for running because I inhaled a few crumbs which caused some discomfort for a while.  You don’t realize how much you use your abs while running until you start to cough up some crumbs.

I always wear a hat and sunglasses for long runs.  Good polarizing sunglasses are best.   I should wear sunscreen but I don’t.   I planned on running 15 miles but I cut my run short because I ran out of water.  There is something about stopping at home for water then going out for a few more miles.  After my run, I tossed down 16 ounces of water followed by a Clif Shot vanilla recovery drink mixed into 12 ounces of chocolate milk.  The instructions say to mix it into 8 ounces of water but I like it better when it is added to chocolate milk.  The long slow run is important.  I will write more about it in the future because I always mess up on the long run.

As mentioned in my last article, rest is important.  I don’t hate rest.  I really like to rest, I just happen to like doing things more.  It can be hard to rest.  We are afraid that rest will become addicting and we will become couch potatoes.  Rest days are good.  Learn to put them to good use.  I am saying this even when I know it is next to impossible.  I have been married for over 25 years.  One trick to staying married that long is sharing my free time.  That means Saturdays are mostly mine to beat myself up.  I can go do an 8 hour long slow workout on Saturday then use Sunday as my rest day.  Sunday happens to be the day I share with my family so it is not a total rest day but at least I am not working out.  Sometimes, I think getting out and walking around with my wife helps with recovery.  It probably does not help with recovery if you look to sit at every bench you walk by.

We all know that we need to rest.  Think about what happens when you lift weights or do sprints.  You go all out for a very short duration, take a breather then repeat.  We need to rest.  Sleeping is a big part of rest.  When you are into serious training, you need to get plenty of quality sleep.  Most of us know what time we are going to wake up in the morning.  If you go to sleep late, set your alarm clock accordingly.  Do not set your alarm clock early then hit the snooze button for an hour.  That is not a good hour’s sleep.  I noticed that I do not sleep as well when I am resting for a long duration.  When I took time off after the triathlon, work stress kept me up at night.  Balance is good.

I tend to eat a balanced diet consisting of healthy foods.  I also look for real foods with real sugar and real fat.  There is nothing wrong with going out and eating some junk food on a rest day.  I consider fat free yogurt junk food but that is not what I will indulge in on a rest day.  I will aim for pizza or In-N-Out burger and a milkshake from real ice cream on a rest day.

Drink plenty of water and get some sleep on rest days.  Rest is good.

As we increase the duration of our workouts, recovery becomes more important.  If you are under 35 and running for 3 miles or less, a glass of water after a workout is just fine.  For the rest of us, we need to consider other options.  Depending on the duration of our workout, we will need to recover in different ways ranging from recovery drinks to ice baths.

Ice baths can be a bit aggravating from going to the store to buy the ice to jumping into the tub full of ice.  On really tough days or at the end of tough weeks, I will take an ice bath after a 20+ mile run.

I don’t like to put the ice in until after I am in the tub full of cold water.  It is a bit uncomfortable but it does feel good after you are done.  I also like to have ice packs handy for my knees and calves on tough days.  I use anything I can to hold the ice packs in place.  They make custom straps with Velcro and foam to hold ice to any part of your body.

I use Ace bandages, old socks and saran wrap to hold the ice packs in place.  Use your imagination; just try to keep the ice pack tight.

I usually have a recovery drink after most hard runs.  Cytomax powder was my favorite for years.  Lately Clif and GU jumped into the fray with excellent products.  I really like the Clif and GU products with Cytomax right behind.

I always have the drink before I take a shower.  If you wait until after you shower, you will get all sweaty again.  I don’t notice any gain from the recovery drinks, I just notice the added pain from not having a recovery drink.

Massages are good but the cost can add up if you get one every week.  I use a foam roller on my calves and the sides of my legs but I don’t like to sit still long enough to use the roller because you can’t do anything else while using it.  Home electro stim machines are available for around $100 now.  They work really well to aid in recovery.  The home machines are not really strong enough to hit the big muscles but they work great on the smaller supporting muscles.

I had a low sugar Cytomax in a pre-mixed bottle.  I am not a fan of the low sugar drinks so I will not buy that stuff again.  If you like low sugar drinks it may be for you.  In my opinion, the Gatorade G-series stuff is better.

On to something worth writing about: Pretzel Crisps.  A couple of grocery bags full of pretzel crisps showed up on my door step a month or so ago.  I liked them so much, I went out and bought more.  I like the original and sesame and love the cinnamon toast flavor.  They are like potato chips.  Once you start, you don’t stop until the bag is empty so be careful.

I am not a fan of garlic so the garlic and everything flavors wound up at work.  My friends from Berkeley dipped them in soft cheese spreads and ranch dressing!  It turned my stomach to watch but they liked it.  I am going to change the subject before the political correctness police come after me.

Electro pulse stimulation on the calf muscles.  It is amazing what you can get for under $50 on Amazon.  It can take a little practice to get the pad placement just right.  The configuration I have pictured is off for the target muscle.  Since I did not want to lose my photographer, I kept the pads in place until the picture was taken.

The pad placement did the trick but it caused some discomfort after I took the pads off.  One side of my leg felt nice and massaged while the other side was tingly from poor pad placement.

I don’t need to use the stimulation machine every day but it is very easy to use and it does help.

I have been accused of being type “A” a time or two.  I say that because I consider cross training as rest.  I have also been known to do a session of P90X as my third workout for the day.  I don’t want to get injured, but I just wind up that way all of the time.  Last year, one of my Ironman buddies told me about cycling and rest.  I did my best to include buildup and rest weeks into my schedule but I just can’t help myself.  I always have to push myself.

This year, I took about 5 weeks off after the Vineman 70.3 Half Ironman triathlon.  Actually, I took two weeks off.  Did a hilly trail half marathon, and then took 3 weeks off.  I am easing back into training for the California International Marathon (CIM) coming up in December.  Most of my little injuries have healed.  I think my hip flexor injury will be with me for a few years so I will just have to live with it.

I went out for a run today and I was pain free.  When you get used to exercising in pain, it is really nice to not have pain when you go out for a run.  Rest is good.  The older you get, the more you need to rest.

I have been easing back into things for the last couple of weeks.  Now that I decided to do CIM, I have to dedicate myself to marathon training.  I would love to set a pace and finish the marathon at that pace.  I can run a half marathon at any pace I choose; the full marathon is a different animal.  There is just something about the mile 22 barrier that makes things difficult.

Now that I am back to running again, I will post my marathon training plan and do a few articles about how I mess up on my marathon training.  I imagine everything I do wrong involves over doing it on the long runs.  I will have to carry a note pad around and think of some of the things I do right too.

Rest is good.  Figure out ways to rest.

This post is a list of things on my desk as I clean up.  First thing on my desk is my cool Vineman 70.3 medal.  Since I am so proud of it, I had Jasmin at Brazen Racing engrave the medal.

It took a lot of work to complete a half ironman triathlon.  I am proud of that medal.  Brazen racing charges $10 to engrave a medal at the race and $15 to engrave a special medal.  The price difference is because the machine is set up to engrave all of the race medals on race day.  Different medals require a different machine setup.  It also cost about $2 to mail the medal out.

Most of my medals wind up in a drawer.  Special medals make it to the wall.  Really special medals get engraved.

Strutz Sole Angel arch wrap with cushion support.  I am not reviewing these for an article but I love them.  I have high arches that can be protected with orthotics but it is really hard to get something for the metatarsal area up by the ball of the foot.  These things wrap around the foot and stay where you put them.  There is something about the feet that can cause the whole leg to ache.  These supports help alleviate that pain a little.

Arctic Ease.  Another one of those cool gadgets that work.  It is basically a gauze pad that you wrap around a sore part of the body and it magically cools it off.  I don’t know how it works but I know that it does.

When the wrap starts to dry out, you add a teaspoon of water and return it to service.  I don’t use it very often but it is nice to have in my work locker for when I get sore during my morning or lunch time workouts.  If you use seran wrap to hold it in place, your clothes won’t get wet.

Earbuds.  I had enough ear buds on my desk to fill up a zip lock bag and have some left over.  I only write about the stuff I like.  If I’m not a big fan, I simply tell the company and move on with life.  Mike’s Note:  I have some neat earbuds and audio products that should get some attention sometime here in the near future (hopefully).

Chap Stick Classic.  All people who spend a lot of time outdoors should protect their skin.  Soft lips and soft skin are important if you want to get a hug and a kiss.

The more stuff I get to review, the more niches I find for stuff.  I recently received a couple pair of SockGuy socks for review.

The low cut socks with a 3-inch cuff seemed to be best suited for cycling so I took them out for a 60-mile bike ride followed by a 6-mile run and thought they made my feet numb.

Hmmm, blame it on the socks.

I tried the same socks on a 7-mile run with no problems.  I then took them out for the ultimate running test:  I ran about seven miles in the rain with no slipping or bunching.  They are very comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

I have a pair of crew style socks that are so good I wear them with casual clothes, such as jeans and a casual shirt.  I love the socks but I am afraid that I have become exercise fashion conscious.

Quality socks usually cost from 5 to 15 dollars.  SockGuy socks are usually 5-10 dollars.  They are very comfortable and competitively priced.  I love my SockGuy socks and would buy them off the rack of my local running store without a second thought.

Buy quality socks and your feet will thank you by not complaining.

The Good:

• Comfort, the packaging and the web site give you a lot of technical reasons for comfort but they just feel good on my feet.
• They are stylish.  Now that I am fashion conscious, I like style.
• The price.

The Bad

• You have to wash them a few times before they become really comfortable.
• They can’t mold my bike shoes to my feet for me.

I like my SockGuy socks for both athletics and casual wear.  They are very comfortable and well worth the price.

Mike’s Thoughts:  I wear mine for riding and casual wear, as I’ve found I replaced most of my casual regular socks with tech clothing.

I love listening to music while I do my tempo runs.  I usually wear Bose ear buds so the bar is set a little high.  I was a little apprehensive when Mike handed me a pair of Zippearz for review.

I did not want to try them out.  When I did put them in my ears, I liked the way they felt.

The cord is incredibly thin and lightweight, which is something other companies can learn from.  When I turned on some techno music for tempo, I found the bass to be incredible.  How can these $25 ear buds have so much sound?  I liked the sound.

Unfortunately, I live in Alameda (Bay Area city located on the waterfront) , where it is usually windy.  The wind goes right through the ear buds.  The sound drove me nuts at first but after a few miles, I got used to it.

The ear buds also came with ear clips to help hold them in my ears but I did not need them.  After I got sweaty, the wire stuck to my skin and started tugging on the cord.  I had to keep reaching back to pull the wire up my shirt.  I wish they came with a clip to hold the wire on my shirt.  Just like all athletes running with an MP3 player, you’ll find a way to keep the cord out of the way comfortably.

The good:

• Zippearz cost $24.95
• The sound is incredible
• They are nice and light
• The around the ear holders are cool

The bad:

• The wind going through the ear buds
• No clip to hold the wire to my shirt

The bottom line – I really like the Zippearz.  They are worth $25.  They knocked a pair of $100 Bose out of my gym bag for stationary bike work outs.  I got mine as a review pair.  I highly recommend them for people who run in areas where it is not windy,  at the gym, or as a solid pair of backup earbuds.

Mike’s Note:  I know many envious people (or audio snobs) like to bash Bose for being overpriced and overrated, but the Bose products I’ve owned have always been great.  Keep in mind I review a lot of different products – if Ted says these make a great backup pair of earbuds following his Bose, then that’s a strong indicator of how solid these earbuds are.