Archive for May, 2011

My pal Jim and I had a short back and forth about recovery runs on the 3:20 thread.  Recently, he removed them from his weekly schedule and found he wasn’t missing them.  My response was that we’ve been conditioned to automatically add them in but if you haven’t done something that actually requires recovering from (a tough workout, for example) then a comfortable easy run, while not as slow as Mcmillan’s recovery range, is often enough to refresh.  I believe that when you really need a bona fide recovery run, your body will tell you.

Today, my body told me, and in no uncertain terms.

Remember last week with all those sub8 runs?  Well, I’ll take a little credit for getting faster, but more than anything it confirms the power of the taper.  This, because the previous week I was forced to take 3 days off – of course my legs were fresh and bouncy.  This week, they’re a couple of heavy appendages.  So today, I left the music at home and took it nice and slow, 11@9:02 average.  It actually felt great doing it, like a leg massage.  I’m cool with doing it again tomorrow if I need to, too.

Aerobic Talk
I really loved the interaction on the previous post, thanks to all who commented.  In timely fashion, there’s a related thread going on at LetsRun How Much Have You Slowed Down With Age?  It’s Masters who’ve been running for years so it doesn’t really apply to late-starters, but it’s interesting.

And I want to thank commenter Hmm for bringing Sabra Harvey to my attention.  With a dearth of late-starting role models my age or older, this is a beautiful find.  She started running at 51 and has been breaking records for about a decade so far.  Super duper inspiring.

That’s it for now.  Happy running, all!

I’ve been back in self-coaching mode since Carlsbad (as you can tell by my crazy goings-on), but I posed a question to Coach Adam/A Muse the other day and his answer, unbeknownst to him, struck a wildly resounding chord in me.  I had asked him how Elites manage to keep improving as the years progress.

The question arose because, even though I’m finally seeing improvements, I’m still trying to understand that long plateau I went through.  Why was I stuck so early in my running life when these people, who’ve been running for so long and are trained to the Nth power, are able to keep on an upward trajectory for so long?

In no way am I discounting their incredible genetic gifts which clearly bring them to a certain level, but to keep improving when they’re already so insanely kick-ass, well…that’s gotta be something to do with training.  I was liking this idea because, while the methods may never be available to me (no one’s inviting me to Mammoth anytime soon) it’s a fresh bit of hopefulness in the time vs. improvement continuum.

The magic thing Adam said (aside from personality traits that drive them beyond normal folk) is that these people have developed a massive aerobic foundation.  Massive aerobic foundation.  Wow.  In one phrase, he clarified something so important and simple and that is also what I assuredly do not have.  BUT…

It is something that us newcomers can improve upon to a dramatic degree.  Granted, a “massive” engine will never be in my future, I started about 35 years too late for that, but room for growth?  Shit yeah!  I’ve got tons of space available in that department.

In a timely find, I just read this quote from the great Arthur Lydiard, confirming the point, “Your aerobic development is a gradual thing. It takes years and years of marathon-type training to develop your aerobic capacity to the fullest.”

So for all you late-starters, former couch potatoes and fellow plateau sufferers, take heart that aerobic fitness is an ongoing process and it’s within our abilities to improve for a good clump of time.  Now, I misspoke in the last post saying it’s a given, of course it isn’t, but I’m beginning to think that with the right physiological recipe, there’s no reason why the oft-repeated “7-10 years of improvement no matter the age you start” wouldn’t be true.

But here’s the catch: you have to figure out what you need and then you have to work for it.  Hitting a new mileage peak for race prep is helpful but to run increased mileage over a long period of time, well dat is da true bomb.  Or if you never did speedwork and tempos, then perhaps those are your magic weapons.

I know that for me, it’s a hell of a lot more fun and easy to add a bunch more miles than to bust my ass with hard workouts.  Which is not to say I won’t get back to the tough stuff, I will!  Before the Fall arrives, I’ll be back at it with vim, vigor and a fresh attitude because by that time, I’m bound to be a stronger runner and that makes the hard stuff way more fun to handle.

But had I not switched gears with this base work, I’d probably still be stuck in the plateau moaning about how I never got my 7-10 years and that it must be my age working against me.  Ridiculous, now that I think about it.

Then again, maybe I shouldn’t speak so soon, I’m not out of the woods yet, but here’s a fun fact: my weekly volume has increased by about 52%.  Aerobic development, here I come.

Speaking of Lydiard…
I’m not following the Lydiard program by any means, but there are methods of his teaching that I find myself drawn to.  Currently, of course, is the mileage build (he was the original “run more miles” guy with his runners routinely doing 100mpw).

But one thing that is commonly and incorrectly attributed to Lydiard is the term “Long Slow Distance”.  Many people, when thinking of Lydiard, are under the impression that his runners ran tons of slow mileage, that his long runs were joggerly Sunday outings.  This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Lydiard’s base training focused on high-end aerobic running: steady-state, moderate paces, etc.  Those were not slow long runs!  They’re not time trials either, but they were/are faster than the usual  “go slow!!” admonishment-laden long runs.

Just a little factoid for you, apropos of nothing, because he was on my mind today.

Fun Reading
Also unrelated to anything above, this Running Times article is quite entertaining.  They interview some of the Age Group winners from this years Boston Marathon so you can read about their race prep, mileage, etc.  Good stuff!

The Week In Running
It cracks me up seeing all these 7:5x’s – it’s certainly new and different.  As is the average pace for the week.  Considering how new I am at this volume level and that it was 75 degrees for most of the runs, I couldn’t be happier.

Monday: 12@7:54
Tuesday: 4@8:25 (toe hurt so bad, had to cut it short)
Wednesday: 11@7:58
Thursday: 14@7:53
Friday: 12@7:58
Saturday: 15@8:06
Sunday: 13.25@8:17
Total: 81.25 mi (avg pace 8:03)

Writing a blog is such a narcissistic endeavor, a constant collection of me me me and this blog is probably worse than most (see? I just made myself even more special by calling myself more irritating).

Sometimes I embarrass myself with what I write but enough of you come back that I like to think it strikes a chord or two beyond the me-ness.  I always hope that whatever I jabber on about has some value to someone somewhere, whether applicable to your own experiences or for a “well at least I’m not as crazy as she is.”

I’ve written a lot of posts on the emotional side of running, though many never get as far as the Publish button because sometimes I think I’m just rehashing the same worries and wonders.  If this post seems like that to you, I’m sorry, it probably is.  But I’m putting it online anyway because it feels as though something new is happening and I want to document what I’m going through.

It actually came from a really fun day, yesterday, where I spent hours on the internet reading articles and forum archives on mileage-building success stories to threads about training without interval work (a fantastic thread, btw!) to all kinds of testimonials proving how different our training needs might be while at the same time, noting the universal threads that tie us together.  And what struck me over and over again is how people keep getting faster for years, even decades into the sport – that it’s a given, really.  It was extremely motivating.

So here’s the deal…
Something is happening to me in the improvement department. I’ve alluded to it in a few posts and even though I’ve only just sidled up to the gate of higher mileage, I’m pretty sure what I’m seeing is not a figment of my imagination.

But while I have quicker paces and heart rate data to back it up, I’m so used to thinking I suck that it’s requiring a real mental shift to accommodate the idea of becoming faster. I mean, it’s exciting to imagine and brings to mind those first couple years when I kept printouts of McMillan’s calculations by my bedside, dreaming of working my way down to who knows where.  But it also makes me sad that I’m having to convince myself of hope.  Negating is easier than believing.

Because over the past year and a half, I’ve seen tons of Facebook and forum friends get faster, many in a seemingly endless straight line.  It’s like everyone was zooming into new territory while I’ve been standing there, feet glued to the ground, sucking in the fumes of everyone else’s motion trail.

I think it’s safe to say that with my negative incidences within the sport, both medical and the long plateau, I’ve had something akin to depression when it comes to the racing side of running, and it’s lasted a good year and a half.  Through it all, I kept asking myself “is this about my age?” and “why am I so different from everyone else?” and “what am I doing wrong or is this even within my power to change?”.  It never made sense to me that in the relatively short time I’ve been a runner, I could have already sucked the well dry, yet I was 3/4 of the way resigned to that being the truth.

I’m sure this sounds overly-dramatic and slightly insane to some of you who might not be as mentally invested but I bet a lot of you probably get it.  Even though most of us aren’t even high-end amateurs, within our various levels of skill, so many of us share a genuine passion to see what we can accomplish in the sport, how far we can go.  There aren’t many things in life so simple, that test you as a person and offer so much experimentation to get right…or better, at least.  So it matters.  That’s part of the joy of it: the mattering.

Anyway, here I am – the data says I’m getting faster, my legs and lungs say I’m getting faster, I’m on the cusp of building a sturdier aerobic engine than I’ve ever had, yet I still manage to find myself smothered in reasons why I’m fooling myself:  it’s because I’m not racing so it doesn’t count, it’s because I haven’t been doing quality work so my legs are unnaturally fresh, it’s because the weather is good, it’s because…  STOP!

It’s time.  It’s time to start believing that what I’m experiencing is positive and real, to have confidence and trust that I’m not different from anybody else, it’s just taken me some time to find that elusive key, is all.  The key we each require to become our best.  To think otherwise is bullshit.  It’s time to believe.

Monday was, for the most part, a great run: 12mi at a quick, comfortable clip even though it was 75 degrees out (you know I love me some weather whippin’).  But my toe!! Oh my toe.  It was like running on razorblades the whole time.  Yesterday, I could only run 4mi, it hurt too much and I was changing my gait to compensate.  Very bad.

If squeamish, skip
When I got home from the failed run, I discovered that the main cause of pain was due to little blood blisters forming in the injury from knocking against the rubber surround of my shoe.
End of scary bit

So with a little help from my friendly box cutter and my oldest working pair of Mens Kinvaras, I chopped out a chunk of rubber, same as I used to have to do regularly with the Ladies Kinvaras but this time on the other foot. I also figured out how to wrap up the injury effectively – a physics problem which had eluded me from the start.  That one thing let me walk around town yesterday without a modicum of pain.  Finally!

So the worst is over.  I can’t wait to get back out there today, restarting the high mileage train I’d hopped upon before this slight derailment.  And I promise to never, ever, ever again cut the callous off my pinky toe.  Ever.

Aside from that, in completely unrelated news, Fran and I are no longer an item.  We’re still friends but I’m back to being a free agent in the world again.  It’s positive and all for the best (nothing drama worthy) but I thought I would mention it.  You know, in case some rich handsome dude reads this blog and wants to take me to the south of France or something.

As of today, I’ve had three rest days thanks to the bona fide mess that is my toe.  Aside from the original callous-cutting debacle, I forgot to mention that I also rammed it into the coffee table Wed. evening, starting the cycle all over again.  It never hurt when sitting, btw, but as soon as I bore weight on it or put it in a shoe, any shoe…ohmygod.  It simply could not have been in a worse location on my foot.

So I took Thursday and Friday off and with the help of  New Skin, Band-Aid blister bandages, a fresh tube of Neosporin, moleskin, sterile pads and medical tape (not simultaneously) I returned to the road yesterday for a wonderful, pain-free run.  But when I got home, I looked down and saw a touch of blood on my shoe – the bandage had shifted, opening it right back up again.  Grrrr.

Today, I expected a normal run, it felt and looked much better and seemed fine while I walked around the house – I figured a single band-aid would do the trick.  So I go outside, run 10 steps and damn if I didn’t feel it with each step, so I said “screw this” and went right back into the apartment.  I could have swaddled it up to get through another run but I’m tired of how long this is taking, I just want it to be done.

There has been one good thing about the situation; I needed a cutback week and I got one.  Here’s my weekly mileage progression starting at the beginning of February after the 2-week break to the present: 32, 43, 51, 51, 57, 60, 66, 70, 76, 71, 85 and, er…48.  I really noticed the effect of the rest days on yesterday’s run, btw, very bouncy legs.

Anyway, I still got in 315 miles for the month and May will be more, providing I don’t do anything idiotic to my feet again.

Here’s the week as it went.  Mon-Wed were 80 degrees and humid, Saturday was a lovely 64 degrees.
Monday: 9@8:28
Tuesday: 14@8:18 (ow, my toe)
Wednesday: 11@8:25 (goddam, my toe)
Thursday: Nasty toe rest day
Friday: Nasty toe rest day
Saturday: 14@7:55 (much better, my toe)
Sunday: Hopefully last  toe rest day
Total: 48 mi (avg pace 8:15)

An FE/Blogger Meet Up!

This morning was the Broad St. Run and while I had already decided not to race it (good thing, since this toe drama would have had me freaking out all week), I went to a pre-race dinner last night to finally meet a gal I’ve known online for a couple years, the inimitable Darkwave (Cristina).  She writes a wonderful blog featuring valuable information for injured runners, stuff on pool running and e-stim machines, etc.  Anyway, she arranged the dinner with about 10 runner/bloggers I didn’t know and a good time was had by all.

I blatantly ate 3 different kinds of seafood as if to say “I scoff at you, race!  You cannot control me!”  but mostly because the picture on the menu looked really good.  As for Cris, she’s one cool chick, I’m so glad we got to meet.

Girl In Motion/GIM/Flo & Darkwave/Anarcha/Cris

More Book Reviews
I don’t know how it works but within a week of reviewing Kara Goucher’s book, I got 3 more invites to review other running books from different publishers.  Maybe it’s because my Kara review landed on Google’s first page of results (thank you, Google) or maybe the publishers share info between them because it’s kinda odd, though I’m happy to get free stuff so no complaints.

So far, I’ve turned down a book on some Ultra guy (don’t care) but will be receiving Grete Waitz’s Run Your First Marathon and Chris “Macca” McCormack’s book I’m Here To Win.  The first one is timely due to Grete’s recent passing and the 2nd one sounds like a fun read, machismo mixed with hard-core training.  Anyway, expect those some time in the next few weeks.

Speaking of reviews, I wanted to add something about the little portable iPhone/iPod dock I bought/reviewed in March.  That thing has come in very handy for watching movies on the laptop in bed.  You know how laptop sound always sucks?  I just plug a cable from the dock to the laptop and voila…big, clear sound.  Anyway, that’s a tip for anyone with similar hardware.