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NATE JENKINS
IF YOU ADD A LITTLE TO A LITTLE, AND THEN DO IT AGAIN, SOON THAT LITTLE WILL BE MUCH~HESIOD
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 Last Hard Workout before USATF Half Marathon Championships Blog

My workout today, Saturday January 5th, was my last hard workout before the Houston Half Marathon a week from Sunday. I will do one more small workout, 5k at about goal half marathon pace, but it will pretty easy.

Today’s workout was 10k of light tempo then 10x1k w/1:30 rest during which I jogged a 200 and did some stretching.

I did a 23:46 warm up which was a little over 3 miles. Then I ran 10k on the bay state marathon course, in 33:37, it was supposed to be 34 flat but honestly it was pretty easy. I was happy because the hamstring didn’t “go” but it was there. I took 1:29 rest then got into the 1K’s. My goal was to average 2:58. These were run on a wheel measured point to point course on the blvd. My times were 2:58.6, 2:56.1, 2:57.8, 2:56.0, 2:58.5, 2:56.4, 2:58.5, 2:57.9, 2:57.8, 2:54.4, for an average of 2:57.2. My rest were all under 1:30 except one which was 1:30.9, the shortest was 1:26.3 before the last effort the average was 1:28.4. It was a good workout. I felt pretty strong and was real happy to run consistently under 3:00 Kilometers and in fact only had one or two 200m splits over 36 during the whole workout. I really hope my hamstring holds together in Houston. Oh ya I did a 2 minute warm down back to my car. All told it was a little over 17 miles of running.









Training December 24 to 30

Monday AM 1:30 at a good effort mostly on the baystate marathon course, 15.7 miles at 5:44 pace, this was rough at first, still very tired from Saturday’s workout but I settled in after a bit then it was real easy. tot. 15.7
PM 40:55 w/up then 12x100m hill repeats(19.8 down to 18.4) jog down rest, 22:41 c/down tot. 9.5

Tuesday AM Lake rd. 9 easy solo, 1 :00:06 tot. 9
PM 40 mins easy, solo, then 10x30 seconds skipping 30 seconds rest, then 3min jog back to house tot. 6+

Wednesday AM 5:30 w/up then 5 miles in 29:12(very hilly) straight into 6x7 mins at roughly marathon pace w/ 3 mins at roughly 6 min pace rest over a lightly rolling just over 1 mile loop, covered 11.5 miles in the hour for an average pace of 5:13 a mile, the paces for the efforts were as follows, 5:03/4:58/4:53/5:00/4:58/4:57, had some hamstring issues per the usual and had to stretch on the rest after the fourth one, included in the time. 4 minute cool down back to the truck tot. 18-
PM 50 mins easy, solo, 10x30m butt kicks jog rest, 3 min jog back to house tot. 7

Thursday AM Lake rd. 9 easy, solo 1:01:32 tot. 9
PM Methuen rd. 8 shakeout, 1:10:44!! That’s not a typo I ran that slow, this is a shade long and there was about a half inch of snow on the road but all the same that’s about as slow as I have ever run on my own tot. 8
Before the second run I got ART and a chiro adjustment from Cracken

Friday AM 32:28 w/up 6x400m hill circuits(60m sprint, 40m bounding, 60m sprint, 40m skipping, 60m sprint, 40m butt kicks, 100m sprint, 10 squat jumps in place) 4 mins rest between each with jog down the hill included in that. These are very hard, circuits averaged 2:25 each. 18:36 cool down tot. 10
10AM Massage at Toomey sports
Rest of the day off, family Christmas party and dinner with the Gardner’s and Andrew Grange.

Saturday AM 40:18 shakeout, solo, tot. 5
1PM 41:58 easy w/ gary tot. 6
5PM 46:29 solo shakeout, tot. 6

Sunday 11:30AM 2:15 long progressive running, first hour at 5:55 pace, next 30 mins at 5:39 pace, last 45 mins at 5:29 pace, some trouble with hamstring and had to stretch, never stopped watch per the usual. 23.6 miles total at an average pace of 5:43. This is real easy running other then the hamstring thing. Little over 2 miles jog back to the house after tot. 26
4:30PM 90 minutes of Bikram Yoga- see other blog entry for details- basically hoping to fix hamstring

Summary 135 miles for the week, with one hard effort and three medium efforts. I have to fix this hamstring thing. There was an extremely helpful and scary thread on Letsrun about the same thing I have been experiencing a lot of people who have the same thing in many cases much worse then I have had it. A lot of them had it for many years with no change. I’m going to try this yoga stuff and also I bought something called a sacro wedgy. So I’ll try that once it arrives.

Quotes of the week “It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.

Eleanor Roosevelt

"I don't run to be regarded as anything by anybody. I don't care whether people think I'm the greatest runner ever or the greatest bum ever. I don't run for other people; I don't run for my country. I'm not very nationalistic. Derek Clayton comes first in my book." - Derek Clayton









Trying bikram yoga for the first time

So in my continued search for a cure for my right hamstring problem I decided on the advice of an email and after reading a long letsrun thread on people with the same problem, some of whom had found no solution after a decade or more, to try Bikram yoga. So tonight I tried it for the first time. Honestly it will be a bit before I have any idea if it will work or not but it’s a good story so I’ll tell it now.

Ok so first a bit about me, I’m your average guy who admittedly wears short shorts. I see yoga classes as a great thing for any guy to do as a means of picking up women. I myself have never done this but I know those who have and consider it a fine plan. If this is your plan don’t do Bikram. I kind of thought this might be a way of fixing my leg and picking up some cute girls impressed by my feminine side and my confidence to be scene doing yoga.Wrong!! So the room is hot, really really hot. I was aware of this going in but I was unaware of how big a difference this would make.

I arrived in my sweats and stripped down to my bike shorts and a singlet, the closest thing I had to what I considered yoga gear. I went into the class and rolled out my yoga mat and my towel as I was told to do both by the online instructions and the instructor when I got there. Then I waited. It was hot but not killer it wasn’t like sitting in a sauna or anything but it was real hot.

Once class started it was a whole other story. I was pouring sweat from the word go. I struggled with the most basic breathing exercises which I assumed would be the one thing I could do well just on the basis of my over developed cardio vascular system. Hell I passed my life guard test and I’m as ****ty a swimmer as you will ever find but I was just so fit I could force my self through everything. I thought the breathing would be my territory. Wrong again!!!! Everyone seemed to be able to breath deeper then me, breath in longer then me and breath out longer too. It was very frustrating.

The class is 90 minutes long and there was no clock on the wall and I had no watch on. I struggled fought and pushed my way through constantly hoping the next exercises was the last constantly afraid that we had only been going for 10 or 20 minutes.

I am telling you I was the fittest person in the room. I’m in monster shape. That said these heavy middle age wonders mostly made it through fine, with a ton of sweating but they were fine. I nearly passed out once and struggled mightily many times. When it was all done my legs twitched and felt locked up and I was unable to relax them. I finished and I did all the exercises I was instructed to do, though I did stop one early because of nearly passing out but it was a struggle and took some real will power just to finish.

I actually feel pretty refreshed now though my arms and shoulders are sore but I have about as weak an upper body as you will ever come across so that’s no big surprise





December 26 workout
I only have one real workout this week, and a couple of medium efforts. It’s a bit of recovery after a killer week last week but I did the workout today. It wasn’t nearly as tough as my big ones last week but it was a good effort all the same. I did a real short warm-up, 5 and a half minutes at about 8 minute pace then I did a very hilly 5 mile loop in 29:12 with out stopping I went into 6x7 minutes at mp goal pace with 3 mins at what ended averaging exactly 6 minute pace rest after every one. In the end I covered exactly 11.5 miles in an hour for an average pace of 5:13 a mile. It was over a slightly hilly loop that is 35 meters over a mile. My paces were as follows, the first effort was at 5:03 pace, the second at 4:58 pace, the third was at 4:53 pace the fourth was at 5:00( I had a little trouble with the hamstring on this one and had to stretch it after ward but I didn’t stop the watch so that is included in the total time), the fifth was at 4:58 pace and the sixth and final effort was at 4:57 pace. The efforts all covered just over 1.4 miles except the first which was 1.39 miles. I covered a total of 8.5 miles at pace. Leaving 3 miles of recovery. I did a 4 minute cool down of about a half a mile.





Training December 17 to 23 2007 blog
Monday AM Lake rd. 9 solo easy, 59:36. Very cold 17 degrees with a wind chill of 1, roads still pretty sloppy from yesterdays storm. Tot. 9
PM Methuen rd. 10 w/ uml guys, 1:07:59 tot. 10

Tuesday AM Duff 5+ easy, 37:15 tot. 5+
PM At Reggie Lewis Center, 16 min w/up, 6K(18:59.1), 5K(15:39.2), 4K(12:23.7), 3K(9:12.1), 2K(6:03.8), 1K(2:52.1- this was all out) w/ 4 mins w/ roughly 1k jogging rest after each, w/ a stop to stretch my hamstring. 21K of effort at an avg. of 3:06.1 a K ( that’s 2:10:55 pace), with rests 26K/16+ miles at 3:16 a K/ 5:16 mile pace. Tot. 18+

Wednesday 10AM ART and Chiro adjustment
Noon Lake rd. 9 easy/solo, 58:45 tot. 9
PM rd. 9 w/ mil guys easy 59:14 tot. 9

Thursday AM 1:00:03 progression run on new blvd/varnum ave. loop. Loop lightly rolling but I was significantly slowed by the snow storm I was running in. roads very sloppy. 19:51 warm up. 4 full loops then 7:51.5 more to get the full hour, 17.6K, 10.93 miles, at 5:29 pace.
Loop 1-13:22.8(5:40 pace),
Loop 2-13:06.4-5:33 pace,
Loop 3- 12:58.4-5:29 pace,
Loop 4- 12:44 5:23, last 7:51 at 5:09 pace.
8:24 cool down tot. 15
PM 41 mins easy, then 10x200m hills, road slick, hills run all out, 41 to 43 seconds, jog down rest, ranging from 1:20 to 1:49. 21:39 cool down did the cool down and warm up with the Brothers Dewitt tot. 11 Friday AM Massage at Toomey sports
1PM rd. 6? w/ brothers Dewitt, 46:37
7PM rd. 6- solo, 46:45 tot. 6

Saturday AM 19:50 w/up workout all done on baystate marathon course, 10K in 33:51, 1:15 rest, 10K in 30:59, 2 mile cool down, 14 mins tot. 17 miles
PM 24:50 w/up 10K-33:38, 10x 1K w/ less then 1:30 rest including a 200m jog and hamstring stretch, 3:00.0, 2:58.2, 3:01.5, 2:58.5, 3:00.3, 2:57.8, 3:02.5, 2:59.7, 3:03.4, 2:56.6, avg. 2:59.8 again all on the baystate course, 1k’s point to point, wheel measured, odd ones into light wind 4mph, even with that at my back. 2min cool down. Tot.17.5

Sunday AM 5 miles 40:40, shakeout, tot. 5
PM 5 miles plus 41:10, shakeout tot. 5

Summary 143 miles for the week. Two great workouts, as good as any I have ever done, and 1 good medium effort. I was thrilled with this week the only thing is the hamstring thing so my focus will really be on getting that squared away.

Quote of the week “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” C.S. Lewis
English essayist & juvenile novelist (1898 - 1963)







December 20 Progression Run in a Snow Storm

We had a snow storm today, which sucks, and I had a progression run to do. I used a new loop, the one I have been doing I don’t really like but more importantly it didn’t really get cleared up too well after the last storm so it’s pretty un-useable for a bit. I like this new loop, its longer (2.35 miles almost exactly 3800meters) and it’s a little less rolling. Today the footing was real good for about a mile of the loop and ok for about another mile but there were two short cut-off roads that were very sloppy and I had to slow way down turning on and off of these roads. Also because of the snow I had to add on a bit on the turns and to avoid plows a few times. The roads got a bit worse with each lap but never un-useable.

I did a 20 minute warm up and then did a 1 hour progression run. I did 4 full loops and the better part (1.54miles/2450meters, I measured it after) of a 5th loop to get a full hour. My total distance was 17.6K which is just shy of 11 miles (10.93). My average pace for the whole run was 5:29.5 a mile (3:24.7 a K). I have broken it down loop by loop below

Lap 1- 13:22.8 -5:40/3:31.3 pace
Lap 2- 13:06.4 (26:29.2)-5:33/3:27.0 pace
Lap 3- 12:58.4 (39:27.6)-5:29.7/3:24.9 pace
Lap 4- 12:44.0 (52:11.6)-5:23.6/3:21 pace
Last bit- 7:51.5(1:00:03)-5:09.7/3:12.4 pace


I cooled down for just over 8 minutes. I forgot to put on body glide before the run so with the wet conditions soaking my pants I have some of the worst chaffing of my life right now which isn’t pleasant but the real news is that my hamstring held up for the whole run and I didn’t have to stop and stretch. It was a bit tender but never got bad. Admittedly I didn’t go as fast I have at times but slipping in the snow and ice has really been bothering it so in many ways this was rougher for the hammy then a lot of my other stuff has been and it made it through.







December 18 workout

Tonight I did something a little different for a workout. I did 6k, 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k, 1k with a 1k in 4 mins for recovery which is about 6:24 mile pace(though I went a bit quicker and then stopped to stretch my pain in the ass hamstring on each one). Each effort was a bit quicker then the one before going 3:10’s, 3:08’s, 3:06’s, 3:04’s, 3:02’s and all out. It was also a little interesting because I did it down at the Reggie Lewis center on there 200m banked indoor track (that’s a 105 laps of effort and another 20 plus laps outside the track backwards during the rest) This was a real good workout and I felt real strong throughout other then the hamstring bothering me.

2 miles w/up in 16:00
6K, 18:59.1
Rest k- 4:08,
5K, 15:39.2
Rest k- 4:00
4k, 12:23.7
Rest k- 4:01
3k, 9:12.1
Rest k- 3:52
2k, 6:03.8
Rest k- 3:54
1k, 2:52.1

That was 21K of work in 1:05:09.8 which is an avg. of 3:06.2 a K and 4:59.6 a mile. Which is 2:10:55 marathon pace. For the total workout (rest included) I covered 26K(16.16 miles) with an overall avg. pace of 3:16.4 a k/ 5:16.0 a mile. This was a real good workout other then the hamstring being a problem.







December 10 to 16 training

Monday AM 1:20:03, 14.15 miles, on the baystate marathon course, a 5:39.4 pace. Was supposed to be slower, 5:52’s but I felt good and easy tot. 14+
PM 45:19 easy, then 10x100 meter hills, jog down rest, 21:16 cool down tot. 10

Tuesday AM Lake rd. 9 easy, solo, 1:00:06, tot.9
PM duffy 5 loop w/ Gary easy 35:34, followed by 10x30 seconds skipping tot. 5
XT 10x30 seconds skipping w/ 30 seconds rest Treatment, ART and Chiropractic adjustment from DR. Pete, mostly worked on right hamstring( which has been a problem for more then a year now)

Wednesday AM 5 min easy, 5 miles (hilly) 29:59 6x6 mins at mp w/ 3:00mins rest at about 6:00min mile pace, done on a lightly rolling loop. The mile splits for each loop in order- 5:07, 5:02, 5:00, 4:55, 5:00, 4:58. Covered a total of 10.16 miles between efforts and rest in 54 mins flat, that’s 5:18.8 pace. 2:25 c/down, total running time 1:32:16 tot. 16+
PM rd. 7++, 52:32 (first 30mins w/ uml guys)then 10x30 meters butt kicks tot. 7+
XT 10x 30 meters butt kicks, 30 meter jog rest


Thursday AM rd. 9 easy, 1:00:14, with Tim, first five w/ Jenna and Gary too. Tot. 9
PM Out and Back Methuen rd. 10 w/ Steve and Ruben in a snow storm very bad footing, very cold, 1:09:41 tot. 10
XT shoveling

Friday AM got massage & ART from Mike Toomey(Toomey sports)
Noon w/ casey, 31:10 easy warm up. 4x hill circuits (60m sprint, 40m bounding, 60m sprint, 40m skipping, 60m sprint, 40m butt kicks, 100m sprint, 10x squat jumps) recovery between 4 and 5 minutes which was about twice as long as each circuit took. 23:34 cool down tot. 9+
PM 41:10 w/ gary shakeout, about 5 and half miles, tot. 5++

Saturday AM 2 hour structured progression run(21 miles) on baystate marathon course, just over 10 miles for the first 10 avg. pace 5:50, next half hour avg. pace 5:40, last half hour avg. pace 5:30. 2 mile easy jog back to house after, 14:35) extremely frustrating run I was supposed to do this Sunday after an easy day today to recover from the circuits but pushed it up a day because of an impending Blizzard coming Sunday so I was a little more tired then I would have liked heading in but that ended up not being much of a problem. But my hamstring was a royal pain in the ass, literally and figuratively. I had to stop and stretch it 5 or 6 times in the last 45 mins as it kept locking up my whole right leg. (I kept the watch going during each stop so over the last 5 miles I was really running 5:20 pace and adding in 10 seconds of stretching). It has done this in the past but it hasn’t been this bad since last winter. I think slipping on the ice really bothers it. Also sitting in chairs and I did a bunch of that playing on the computer waiting for my breakfast to digest before the run. Tot. 23 miles

Sunday AM 39:10 in white out conditions and absolutely ****ty footing. Tot. 5
PM 7+ easy, icy and slushy in freezing rain. 53:11 tot. 7
XT a ton of shoveling

Summary, 131 miles for the week, two good workouts and two good medium efforts. The hamstring needs to be addressed but other then that (and the weather) I’m very happy with the week and how things are going in general.

Quote of the week"If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius." ~Michelangelo (this weeks quote cut and pasted directly from Casey Moulton's blog







12/12 workout blog

Today I did something a bit different (at least to me during the fundamental phase). After 5mins of light jogging and some stretching just to loosen up I did 5 miles in 29:59 over my tough Dracut mp workout loop. Without stopping I went into 6x6 mins at mp taking 3 mins rest between efforts but keeping the rest at a quicker pace (in this case it averaged 6;00 mile pace but I actually wanted it to average more like 5:50 pace but the only distance marker I had out was for miles so gauging pace for an 800 or so was difficult.) I was running these on the slightly rolling just over 1 mile loop that I use as one of the ends of my tough Dracut loop, it is by far the easiest part of this loop. That said it sure ain’t flat. In the 54 minutes of running I covered 10.163 miles for an average overall pace of 5:18.8 a mile or 3:18 a kilo. My average pace for the efforts was 5:00 a mile or 3:06.8 a kilo. My slowest effort was the first one, at 5:07m/3:10k pace my fastest was the 4th at 4:56m/3:04k pace. This was a good workout though my right hamstring was a problem again on a couple of the later ones. I’m wondering if it might not be sciatica as it causes my whole leg to mis-function when it goes. I got it worked on yesterday and he did some different stuff and I’m getting it worked on my someone new on Friday so hopefully by hook or by crook it’ll get worked out. There was no second workout today I just did a little over 7 miles easy with some of the uml guys and then 10x30 meters of butt kicks.

Effort by Effort pace break down mile pace then kilo pace
First 5:07/3:10
2nd 5:02/3:07.5
3rd 5:00/3:06.4
4th 4:56/3:04
5th 5:01/3:07
6th 4:58/3:05








Training December 3 to 9

Monday AM rd. 8 shakeout, first 5 w/ Gary, 59:56 tot. 8
PM Methuen rd. 10, easy w/ the uml guys, 1:04:24 tot. 10

Tuesday AM 24 min. w/up 8mile progression run (42:31) (hilly st. Francis church 1 mile loop) corners sloppy and wide because of snow. 5:30.4, 10:56.7(5:26.4), 16:19.3(5:22.6), 21:39.9(5:20.7), 26:56.4(5:16.5), 32:10.0(5:13.7), 37:22.5(5:12.5), 42:31.3(5;08.8). I’m guessing 5:15 to 5:20 is mp on this loop, it is tough. 12:41 c/down. Hamstring bothered me a bit. Tot. 14
PM 18;46 w/up 12x15sec. hills jog down rest, 24:25 c/down tot. 7+

Wednesday AM rd. 9 easy, 1:04:28, first 5 w/ Gary, Rueben and Tim, then solo tot. 9
PM rd. 8+ shakeout in tewks/Andover w/ Brittany 1:02:58 tot. 8

Thursday 9AM w/ Casey in the cold (16 degrees with a wind chill of 6) , 21:50 w/up, 4x2 miles on blvd in Lowell, first and third repeats into wind, steady, not killer but real rough for a whole two miles without a break. 10:31.6(2:58 rest) (about marathon pace considering the wind and footing), 10:04.2(3:33 rest), (about mp again should have been quicker but misgauged the pace and went out in 5:08 would have liked to been about 10s. quicker), 10:06(2;59 rest) (good effort about 20sec. plus ahead of mp), 9:35, good final effort not all out but hard hopefully right about half marathon pace. Good workout overall 21:08 c/down tot. 13+
PM 30:18 w/up 10x15 sec. hills, 21:24 c/down tot. 8+

Friday AM lake rd. 9 easy, solo, 59;57 tot. 9
Noon ART and chiro w/ Cracken
PM rd. 8 solo shakeout, 1:05:17, dark and snowing. Tot. 8
Had a stomach bug all day, just a rough day all around

Saturday AM 27 min w/up then 9 mile progression (46:26) run on hilly 1 mile St. Francis church loop, in better shape then last time turns still wide. 5;44.2, 11:24.5(5:40.3), 17:00.1(5:35.7), 22:35.2(5:35.2), 28:05.1(5:29.9), 33:33.4(5:28.4), 38:53.0(5:19.6), 44:10.9(5:17.9), 49:26.1(5:15.2) still felt weak after stomach thing yesterday 12:51 c/down tot. 14
PM rd. 8 shakeout, 1:00:39 tot. 8

Sunday AM Lake rd. 10 solo, easy, 1:05:45 tot. 10
PM rd. 10 w/ Joey, Jason, Rueben, easy, 1:08:05 tot. 10

Summary 136 miles for the week with 3 hard efforts, two of which were good. A good first week. The hamstring was a bit of a problem on both progression runs which is no good. I’m hoping to get a new person to look at it and maybe finally get ride of it or at least do a better job of controlling it. Ok for those people who I sent schedules don’t get mad over the next few weeks as nothing lines up but I’ve been emailing a bit with Renato Canova and he sent me a schedule to follow for the next 4 weeks so I’m going to go with that instead of what I had initially planned. It is all the same type of stuff just different in the details.

Quote of the week “Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'”
Maya Angelou, in Daily News







December 6 workout blog

I did my latest workout this morning. Because of snow up here and my inability to find an indoor track to use, could have used “the dome” in nh but it’s a very odd distance and not marked and so it would have been a bit more work then I wanted any part of, me and Casey found ourselves on the road. Now the workout we had originally planned was a 20k run alternating 1k at hmp and 1k about 40 seconds slower but with no outdoor track that wasn’t going to happen, way to much work to do that much marking on the road and way too many turns to do 20k without breaks on an indoor track so what we ended up doing was 4x2 miles on the baystate marathon course along the blvd in Lowell and Tyngsboro. We used there markers which saved me a ton of work. The 1st and third were into the wind which was actually not bad, 5 or 10 miles an hour other then one nasty stretch as the start of the 3rd one but it was unbelievably steady. It just didn’t give us a break at all. It was also cold this morning, 16 with the wind chill at 6 and the humidity at 60%. Why do I give you the humidity? Because it makes a huge difference in how cold it feels that’s why. The footing was pretty good a few snowy stretches and a few icy patches but overall not bad. The plan was to go about marathon pace for the first one 10:00 to 10:10, then go about 10 second better for each of the next 3 so that the fourth one was at about half marathon pace 9:30 to 9:40.

So after a warm up I ran 10:31, which into the wind was probably right about on marathon pace. We took 2:58 rest. Then I went 10:04, this was probably a bit slow we took off a bit quick and I settled in way too much and ran the mile in 5:08. This was probably about marathon pace again. Not a big deal just a little sloppiness. We took 3:33 rest on the next one, a little more jogging and some dropping of extra close (the hooded sweatshirts had to go) The next one was 10:06 which was more than 20s better then the first one so right where I wanted to be and considering the very intense wind for the first three or four hundred meters and the steady one after that it was a real good effort. A 2:59 rest and then the last one went good 9:35.1 with a 4:48 mile split. I felt real strong all the way. Its nice to hit even some of the paces when running on not perfect footing and dealing with temps well below what I’d call PR weather and wearing a lot more close then would be considered ideal.

In the evening I did a 30 minute warm up and then ten 15 second hills with a jog down rest. Honestly my legs felt a little sapped but I had also not slept as much last night as I probably should have.







training for November 26 to December 2

Monday AM 7 miles, woods 5 w/ Gary and Rueben, then 2 solo on the track all shakeout, 54:00. Strides after tot. 8
PM Woods 7+ w/ Tim and Jason D. 58:00, then drills and bounding tot. 7+
XT full continuous w/up drills, 2x100y bounding, 2x100y springing, 2x100y straight leg bounds, 2x100y high knees, jog back rest on all

Tuesday AM at Mines Falls, 8 mile progression run, 42:19, on lightly rolling 2 mile loop, legs a bit tired from Sunday and bounding. Splits 10:49, 21:27(10:38), 31:57(10:29), 42:19(10:21) 3 miles w/up before and 3+ cool down after tot.14+
XT Core work

Wednesday AM Woods 7 shakeout w/ Gary, 53:38 tot.7
PM 3+ w/up 10x15 second hills jog down plus rest, 3+ cool down tot. 7
Got ART and a chiro adjustment between runs

Thursday Noon Methuen rd. 10 solo, 1:00:05 tot. 10

Friday AM w/Casey, 3 w/up, 5x2k on Dracut hs track, cold, windy(not as bad as last track w/o), ran at about a 6:00 or a bit better effort, 400 very slow jog recovery, 6:06.3,(2:31rest), 6:04.8(2:33rest), 6:04.5(2:55rest), 6:03.2(2:27rest), 5:59.2, 18:23 c/down, this was another pretty controlled effort though I noticed my legs were a bit heavy on the last one. Tot. 13
PM 5+ shakeout in tewks w/ Brittany, 44:01, tot. 5+

Saturday AM 7+ on roads in tewks, 43:44, nasty wind chill, tot. 7
PM woods 7 solo, 46:33, nasty wind chill, tot. 7

Sunday PM 24+ at mines falls easy, 2:56:30 tot. 24+

Summary 109 miles for the week, two ok workouts. It’s getting cold and I’m not happy about it one little bit. I made the choice to deal with the New England winter again but boy I forgot how much I hate the cold. I mean I’m bitching this much and the snow hasn’t starting falling in earnest yet. I need to toughen up quick or this is going to be a long winter. Real training starts this week, hopefully it goes well. The first two weeks of full volume are really the most dangerous. I really believe high mileage doesn’t cause injury, but I also really believe increasing mileage does.



Quotes of the week "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves." ~Thomas Edison







Training for November 19 to 25

Monday AM 1:16:30 easy w/ Nikki tot. 10+
XT core work

Tuesday AM woods 5 easy w/ Rex and Gary,36:42. Ran in about a half inch of annoying cold wet snow. Tot. 5
PM ART/Chiro adjustment w/ Dr. Pete

Wednesday AM 12 ¼, 1:12:23, first 10 w/ Jose on Methuen rd. loop then ran to track and did the last two there in 11:17, felt real easy all the way tot. 12+
XT core work

Thursday AM Lake rd. 10 solo, 59:14 tot. 10

Friday AM w/ Casey Moulton, 20:56 w/up, 10x1k w/ 1:44 to 2:57 rest(avg. a bit under 2:30) 3:05.2, 3:01.6, 3:00.4, 3:03.9, 3:00.7, 3:00.6, 2:59.4, 3:02.3, 3:02.5, 2:59.1. Cold and very windy so this was a real good workout, felt pretty easy the whole way, 22:16 c/down tot. 15-

Saturday AM 8.5 at mines falls easy, 54:08, followed by light bounding exercises with jogging rest tot. 9
XT 4x50y bounding, 4x50y springing, 4x50y straight leg bounds, 4x50y high Knees jog back rest after each.

Sunday Noon 15 at mines falls, 1:24:38, solid but not hard effort. Average pace of 5:38.5. Felt good the whole time weather was nice in the mid 40’s and only breezy. Tot. 15

Summary 76 miles for the week, 1 workout and 1 medium effort. It was a good first build-up week. On the easy 5 miler on Tuesday I noticed for the first time since the marathon I felt bouncy and easy like I wanted to go faster and then I felt great the next day running with Jose, I felt a little bad I didn’t realize how quick we were going and that is a real hilly loop and he had done a progression run the day before but I felt good so it was nice for me. I rolled my ankle during the long run so I’ll have to watch out for peroneal tendon problems the next few weeks and make sure to ice and stretch the ankle itself.

Quotes of the week “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” FDR

“Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” William Faulkner

“It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.” Winston Churchill







Outline for my next cycle of training

At least in terms of my running I am a planner. I tend to have daily training schedules made out months if not years in advance. Now I am never a slave to a schedule, they are just an outline of how I would like things to go in an ideal world. What I actually do is never as it is planned. I base what I do on how the training I am doing is going so if I plan a 30k tempo run a 1 hour progression run and a 20k run alternating 1k at half marathon pace and one at 30 seconds slower for a week in February and the week comes along and I am tired and need to drop one of those workouts which one will I drop? Right now I can't tell you but the chose will be easy that week. I'll make that choice based on how my workouts to that point have gone. If I tore up the previous 20k alternating pace workout then I'll drop that one because obviously my fitness at the moment is strong in the area that workout is at. If however I was unable to complete the last 20k workout or was unable to do it at a pace that lined up with the other workouts I was doing then that would become the focus of the week. All this is to say that though I plan things out very specifically I rarely follow that plan specifically. It is only a guideline.

As to my specific plans for the next few months my focus is a spring marathon, I'm planning on Boston. That will be the focus of my training and all my workouts and races from now until then will have getting my best performance on that day in mind. Between now and then I plan on running seriously the Houston half marathon on January 13, possibly the Ohme 30k in early February, possibly the USA 8k championships in Central Park in march (if nyrr decide to host it) and the Cherry Blossom 10 mile in Washington D.C on April 6. I think I will also run the Millennium mile on the 31st of December and hopefully finally get my sub 4 downhill mile, but I won't back off for it in anyway and may end up not doing it at all.

I have A, B, and C goals for all of these races but in the end I have one overriding goal that is the only one of importance. STAY HEALTHY! I was in about the same shape I'm in now at this time last year and by the beginning of this year I was in far and away the best shape of my life but I was trying to push my body in every direction at once. I was working and going out with my girlfriend at the time and staying up late, then getting up early when she was leaving for work. I wasn't eating well and I wasn't being diligent about any of my non running training. The result was a nagging hamstring problem and then mono. I know that if I can just listen to my body and train with quite steady consistency that I will improve and I will run better. I may not be the runner I dream of becoming in six months but I will be closer. If I push too hard it will just lead to another set back. So my priorities are simple, Sleep as much as I need to, avoid work at all costs, get body work(chiro,ART,ect..) at least every other week, every week if I can work it out. Also I need to eat better and make sure I'm getting enough vitamins and minerals ect... I also need to avoid doing stupid extra things that put stress on my body, ie late nights with friends or needless travel ect...

In terms of my exact training plan I would rather not type it all out if someone is really interested I can email it to you, its an excel document. But the general focus is the same, more progression runs then in the past and I'm planning on doing some circuit training for the first time but those are the only new additions. Also I was recovering better towards the end of my last cycle, at long last, and so I expect my training will be a little denser in terms of quality this cycle in comparison to the last.







first workout

I did my first workout of the new season Friday with my new workout partner for the winter, Casey Moulton. We did 1k repeats on the Dracut HS track. It was cold, about 35 and very windy, steady 18 to 22 mph from the north. I did my weather channel homework. The wind probably made the times 5 seconds or so slower then the effort put in. That’s just a guess. The planned workout was 10x1k at goal half marathon pace, roughly 2:58 to 3:02 a k, with 2:30 rest during which we jogged a 400. Basically these should be pretty easy repeats designed to just get the legs used to running relaxed at a quick pace. Casey did 7 repeats, I did 10. It was awesome to have someone out there with me, just made the time fly by.

The times were
3:05.2 rest 2:28
3:01.6 rest 2:57
3:00.4 rest 2:29
3:03.9 rest 2:30
3:00.7 rest 2:29
3:00.6 rest 1:47
2:59.4 rest 1:59
3:02.3 rest 1:59
3:02.5 rest 1:59
2:59.1

I was thrilled with this workout. The times don’t look impressive but the effort was pretty low and the wind was really bad. I love doing this workout or something like it to kick off a cycle because it is all about feeling strong without testing yourself. It really focuses on running quickly relaxed which is the key to running long races well. I also think it was a real good workout for Casey he almost never steps on the track and I think he probably thinks this didn’t go that well but we were probably running close to 2:55 or better efforts with relatively short breaks less then 3 weeks after a marathon. I think he is certainly in 29:30ish 10k shape right now which is great training shape for a great marathon.

I’ll post the rest of this weeks training tomorrow.







Training November 12 to 18

Monday AM 5 miles + easy w/ Nikki Plante and strides tot. 6

Tuesday AM woods 5 w/ Gary, 37:49 strides after tot. 6

Wednesday off

Thursday AM travel to Joplin, MO
PM 40 mins easy w/ Rex Radloff, started w/ rest of uml guys tot. 5

Friday AM On NCAA d2 champs course 3 miles w/up then 3 miles tempo(15:10.1) course is very fast, very hard and lightly rolling. Still got marathon legs this wasn't hard but it wasn't smooth. tot. 6

Saturday AM running around course for D2 national champs course cheering tot. 4

Sunday AM 1:00:25 w/ Brittany and Gary easy tot. 7+

Summary 38 miles, still recovering. I'll start to build up this week. I won't do any quick stuff this week because my legs weren't all that good on the little tempo saturday.







Training Nov. 5 to 11 (marathon recovery)

Monday PM 30 mins easy aqua jogging in the uml pool

Tuesday PM woods 5 w/ gary and some uml guys very easy, 38:50, 4 easy strides after. Still pretty sore tot. 5

Wednesday AM ART and chiro adjustment
PM 35 mins aqua jogging in uml pool

Thursday AM 5+ miles of walking at mines falls(measuring trails with a wheel)
PM 5+ miles of jogging at golf course while uml guys workout out tot. 5

Friday Noon 32 mins aqua joggin in the uml pool

Saturday AM woods 5 solo and easy, 35:28 tot. 5

Sunday (ok it hasn't happened yet but i'm taking it off so its off)

summary 15 miles for the week. Really chomping at the bit to get back to training but I know I need the recovery. One more week like this then I'll start to build up.

Quote of the week " I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird







Training October 29 to November 4

Monday AM woods 7 solo, easy, 46:57 tot. 7
4PM ART and Chiropractic adjustment
5PM 5+ easy, solo at Maudsley 37:27, tot. 5

Tuesday PM 2 w/up with Tim Guerin (uml guy), 16:28, couple of strides, 5k on the track with tim at my mp goal pace, I led until 600m to go when he kicked in nicely. I ran 15:42.4, Tim went 15:34.1. splits (3:09.2, 6:17.9(3:08.7), 9:26.0(3:08.1), 12:34.2(3:08.3) 15:42.4(3:08.2), this was super easy, 2 c/down with 15:52 tot. 7++

Wednesday AM woods 6 solo, easy 41:53 tot. 6
PM woods 6 w/ uml guys, easy, 43:52 tot. 6

Thursday AM travel to New York City
PM 31:53 out and back from hotel along bike pace on the east river tot. 5-

Friday AM 29:34 out and back from the hotel mostly in central park, also stopped for 4 easy strides with jog back rest in the park, not included in time, tot. 5-

Saturday AM 12 min w/up, few strides, Race Olympic trials marathon, 7th place 2:14:56, the biggest 32 second pr of my life. Great race on a super flat fast course 4 years ago sell ran 2:17:10 for 7th, on this hilly course I was 2 mins ahead of that on a tough course and 20 men cracked 2:18, 39 cracked 2:20. Frankly a huge statement about the quality of American marathoning.

Sunday 9AM 24:34 out and back along the east river, I’m calling it 3 because it hurt so damn much but in all honesty I’d be willing to be it was less then 2.5 tot. 2 Summary 65 miles for the week, well ok so that was the best race of my life so far. I’ll leave it at that. RIP Ryan Shay.

Race 5k splits
5k- 16:54
10k-32:27 15:33
15k-48:03 15:36
20k-1:03:33 15:30
25k-1:19:04 15:31
30k-1:34:55 15:51
35k-1:51:17 16:22
40k-2:07:44 16:27
Finish 2:14:56
Last 2.195k in 7:12

Olympic Trials Marathon 2007 Bittersweet

I only met Ryan Shay a couple of times, I’ve been in the same room as Alicia once or twice so I can’t say I know them or anything of the sort but in my interaction I found them to be class acts and to lose him so suddenly is hard on everyone in the sport. My heart and prayers go out to Alicia, and of course the rest of Ryan’s family and friends.

Now for the upside. The race went out super slow, I was in the huge lead pack and hit the mile in 5:34 and 3 miles in 16:20. Then we steadily started to run for real. I basically decided that as long as it felt like marathon pace effort or close to it I would stick to marathon pace. I was a bit worried that I couldn’t trust myself on gauging this pace because the crowds were so deep and loud, like nothing I’ve run before except maybe parts of the Boilermaker.

I felt pretty good but I could see that the splits were quick and there were some very big names around me but then there were some guys with very high numbers as well. I had one nervous stretch around the sixth and seventh miles. At that stretch my legs started to burn a bit on the uphills and I thought of letting the pack go but I decided that the damage was done and that letting people by at that point was counter productive. So I made up my mind to stick in the mix as long as I could and that if I had to drop at 18 or 20 miles then so be it.

In the 9th mile abdi surged pretty hard and him, meb, fasil, and hall and browne broke out, I had no desire to pick up the pace as my last two miles were 4:56 and 4:58. My group went 4:53 which scared me a bit but we settled back down. But around 12 I got a nasty side stitch and became very focused on the pain and on controlling my breathing to get ride of it. Around 14 it finally went away and I realized we had dropped a lot of people and a group had got away from us. Culpepper and a number of other quality athletes were already gone and I was with Matt Downin and Rohatinsky. We were about 30 yards behind Gilmore. A couple of miles later Gilmore just lost it suddenly and came back to us in about 60 yards of running and dropped out. Between there and 18 miles we dropped Downin. Then over the 19th mile I dropped Rohatinsky but my legs did there fatigue out thing. So knowing that josh had grabbed every one of his water bottles so just after the water stop after 19 I stopped and stretched my legs and jumped back in beside josh. It didn’t work. So I just hung on Josh. My 20 mile split was 1:42:02 which gave me a huge lift because I realized that I could run 5:30 pace from there to the finish I would still run in the 2:16’s which considering the difficulty of the course I would consider a superior run to Austin. I also knew that I had run 10k at that pace with my legs doing the same thing in a 40k workout 5 weeks before.

So me and josh kept plugging along and around 35k I realized he was struggling to stay with. I realized that at his age he has probably never run more then 21 or 22 miles in his life and that he had never run at this effort past 18 miles. I figured that we probably were in a similar amount of distress but I had been here before and I had done a lot of workouts that had me running hard after 20 or more miles of work. So I gapped josh by 22 miles and then my calves started to feel like there were going to cramp so I changed my stride a bit and kept hoping. Then as I was coming up on the 24 mile mark I could see meb about 300m in front of me. I knew that he must be shuffling pretty bad if he had come off the lead pack. So I figured it was my only chance to take a shot at meb and if I ended up cramped up on the side of the road then at least it was a worthy cause. At just after 25 I caught him but he fought back by me then over the last 800 I went by and was able to run away to the finish. 7th place, 2:14:56, on a tough course. Really it was the absolutely best race I could have hoped for.







Last tune up workout before the Olympic Trials

Today was my last little tune up before the Olympic trials. I actually got to have some company too which was nice. Tim Guerin one of the guys on the uml team ran with me he was doing 5k at goal 5 mile pace so he sat on my shoulder until 600 to go and then kicked away nicely to a PR. Tim has improved in leaps and bounds in the last six months or so as such his pr’s are somewhat not representative of his abilities.

The workout was 5k at marathon goal pace, done on the track. We did a two mile warm-up and a few strides. Tim ran 15:34.1 and I ran 15:42.3. This was so nice and easy just like I hoped it would be. The splits were 3:09.2, 6:17.9(3:08.7), 9:26.0(3:08.1), 12:34.2(3:08.3), 15:42.3(3:08.2). The mile splits were 5:02, 10:03, 15:04. We did a two mile warm down after. I’ts such an easy workout that it doesn’t mean much but hey it felt great I feel great so that’s always good news.

This should be my last post before the trials. I’ll post my normal weekly post and a race summary, good bad or ugly, next week.

Quote of the week “We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), speech, April 2, 1957

Training October 22 to 28

Monday Noon 22 miles on roads starting and finishing at top of Mnt. Watchusett. Medium pace(just under 6 mins per mile avg.) for first 19 miles then hard on the climb (3 miles 1070 feet) for just over a 7min a mile avg. (21:38), 2:16:52 total time, heart rate a bit over 250bpm at finish. Tot. 22

Tuesday AM woods 5 easy w/ gary, 37:11 tot. 5
PM woods 5 easy w/ uml guys, 36:23 tot. 5
Between runs got ART/chiro adjustment from Dr. Pete

Wednesday AM woods 7 solo and easy, 46:34 tot. 7 PM 7+ solo easy at Maudsley state park, 49:48 tot. 7
Got ART/Chiro adjustment from Dr. Cracken between runs

Thursday 11:30AM at mines falls 19:56 w/up, couple strides, 7 1/8 mile progression run in 34:57, (3 loops of factory loop) 12:03.8(5:04.8 pace), 11:39.3(4:54.5pace) 23:43.1 at 4.5 miles, 11:14.1(4:43.8pace) 34:57.2(4:54.4 pace) 12 minute flat cool down tot. 11-
3:15PM 18 min w/up w/ tim and ruben, solo 7k on track at about mp, 21:50, felt easy as hell, splits (3:06.3, 6:15.0(3:08.7), 9:21.9(3:07.0), 12:30.3(3:08.4), 15:36.7(3:06.4), 18:42.6(3:06.0), 21:50.3(3:07.7)) 17:56 cool down w/ ruben and tim. Tot. 10+

Friday AM woods 6 solo, easy, 44:09 tot. 6

Saturday 7AM woods 13++, 1:26:14, honestly felt a little flat after staying up too late the night before tot. 13

Sunday Noon woods 5 solo, easy, 35:07 tot. 5
5PM woods 5 solo, easy 34:51 tot. 5

Summary 96 miles for the week, 1 workout, 1 real long run, 1 pretend long run. I had to slip out for the second run just before half time of the Pats game, and miss a field goal and a touchdown because I slept so late after staying up to watch to sox last night. I’m typing this after staying up to watch them win again tonight. I’m glad they won it tonight so I have all week to get on a better sleeping schedule for a 7:30am race. It’s a wonderful year to be a Boston sports fan. That said because i'm a boston fan I'm writing this very late and need to sleep so there will be no quote again this week, sorry. Weak sauce, i know.







Last double workout

On Thursday I did my last double workout. It was obviously much easier and lower volume then the double workouts I have been doing but it was still a good workout and I honestly thought I might struggle a little bit with the hard long run on Monday and knowing I had run over a 130 miles in the seven days prior.

The first session at 11am was a progression run on the factory loop at mines falls, the same loop I have been using for all my progression runs this fall. I warmed up for 20 minutes but still felt a little tight so I did a couple of strides. I started out and felt good but wasn’t really doing a good job of gauging the pace. At the first checkpoint I have, a little after 1400 meters, I realized I was going real quick so I didn’t pick up the pace for the rest of the loop. Still I hit the end at 12:03.8 (5:04.8 mile pace), this was defiantly quicker then I had planned or thought I would run but I felt good so I picked it up a little and just decided to pay close attention to my effort level. I really didn’t feel like I had picked it up much but my next split was 11:39.3 (4:54.5 mile pace) this is actually the second fastest full loop I’ve done here and I still had one to go, feeling easy at this pace was a nice change. Entering the 3rd lap I had run 23:43.1 for 4 ¾ miles, 4:59.6 pace. Again though I felt very easy so I decided to let my self go a little on the last lap just not allowing my self to get to the point of running all out. I was able to follow this rule and run quicker and strong over the last lap without getting close to all out. I felt a little burning in my legs in the last half of the loop so I stopped ramping it up and felt great to the finish. My split was 11:14 (4:43.8 mile pace) this was more than 20 seconds faster then my fastest full loop previously and meant I had run 34:57.2 for the whole 7.125 miles a pace of 4:54.4.

Now to be honest I wasn’t too happy with this. Sure it felt easy but I really was worried that I had gone too hard and that now I was going to have to chose between keeping the effort under control and having to abandon my planned pm workout, which I considered more important then the am one, or I was going to have to go too hard to accomplish it which would be stupid this close to the trials.

My Pm workout was planned as a 35 minute warm up followed by 5 to 6k on the track at goal mp. Now goal mp on the track is a little faster then when I run it on that hilly loop out in Dracut, the effort level is the same though. I decided up front to cut the warm up down and that if I was tired I would only do a mile or two at mp. Just run until it started to get hard basically.

Just after 3pm I warmed up the 20 minutes and did a couple of strides. I started running and honestly I have a good sense of marathon pace right now so I knew I was dead on but if just felt so easy. You got to understand that normally marathon pace in workouts for me is under control but not easy. I tend to be working pretty hard. So this was nice particularly considering that I was expecting to have to cut back the workout because of the am session. I ran nice and even the whole way just waiting to get to that point of being a bit tired. It never came. After 5k I decided that I would go 7k, right about 6k I thought maybe I should go longer so I asked Gary as I ran by, this is a rare luxury for me to have a coach at the track while I workout but he had a couple of guys working out a day later then the rest of the team because they had a bunch of classes the day before so he offered to watch my workout at the same time. He said in short that he thought it would be stupid to go longer then 7k. I stopped at 7k, 21:50.31, that’s 2:11:38 pace. It felt so easy it was great. Honestly I believe I could have easily run 20k to 25k on the track at that pace right then and there, in my second workout with a 130 plus miles in the previous 7 days.

In summation, I ended up running faster then planned, which at this time is bad, but I ended up running much easier then I had planned, which is always good. This workout was at minimum great for my confidence and I think it was hard enough to keep my body from crashing in the next week. One more tiny one to go and then it is finally race day.

Designing workout response

Asker of Questions had some good questions(I have summed them up very quickly and incompletely before each answer) so I have done my best to answer them.

Where do I get my workouts?

I do use workouts that I have simply stolen from Canova, either from schedules he has posted on letsrun or elsewhere online or from his book on marathon training. I would guess that would account for sixty percent or so of my workouts. The rest are variations on those types of workouts. For example he has his athletes do repeat runs at marathon pace now I’ve only seen, in his stuff, workouts like 5k, 6k, and 7k with 1k at a bit slower pace rest but they all total between 20k and 25k of marathon pace running so I do the same type of workout but the actual distance of the efforts is more tied to the distance of loops that I can conveniently measure. I also will steal workouts from other sources such as the kimbia group or whoever puts there stuff out there.

The most important thing is to never ever do a workout that doesn’t have a specific point. I never workout for no reason, at least not anymore. So before I decide to do a workout I make sure I have a solid understanding of what it is supposed to do for my body in terms of a training effect.

Do I plan my workouts out in advance?

Yes. Extremely specifically. I plan a full cycle from rest from my last peak race through to my main goal race. I lay out a full cycle with every run I plan on doing listed out on every day with each specific workout ect... for a full cycle, which will fall between 2 months and 8 months. I generally have one or two cycles planned in advance. I write them out with multiple options so that when I decide what race(s) I want to focus on I have a plan to get ready for it. For example I have a schedule (two actually) laid out for after the trials that are focused on getting ready for getting ready for a spring marathon. But I also have a schedule that is focused on going after a Olympic trials 10k qualifier.

Now I would guess that the schedules I lay out change by 20% or so before things finish. Why, a million reasons, I get a cold or minor injury. I don’t recover as well from a workout as quickly as I had planned, or I recover quicker. I also change planned workouts based on how I handle other workouts. For example if I really struggle with a workout say 10k at half marathon pace and really dominate another workout say 30k at 90% marathon pace then I’ll change up my schedule to do more of the workouts I struggled with or workouts that have a similar training effect and do less of the type of workout I did well in. I do this because I’m trying to train my weak points more then my strong ones. If I can run 20k at 3:20 a kilometer pace easily why waste my energy doing that again and again easily when I can focus on trying to run 10k at 3:00 a kilometer easily which I struggled at.

What are some essential readings for training?

I’m a big believer in you can’t have too much information but as soon as you start reading around you’ll see that there are a bunch of different ways of doing things and many disagree with each other. So who is right? Well sometimes both people are but overall I think it is of the utmost importance to check the level of success of the author. By that I don’t mean that if someone has coached x number of national champs and someone else has coached half that many that the first coach is better but if they are getting the same level of incoming athlete well then that’s something to consider heavily. Next up I don’t care how talented or experienced an athlete you are getting to start with if you are getting athletes to the true upper tier of the sport you’re a good coach. My point is that no athlete goes under 27 minutes or 13 minutes or under 2:10 or finish in the top 5 at a marathon major because of talent alone. You got to do some good training.

One last thing, I truly encourage you to follow a program not a bit of this and that. At least to start. The reason is simply if a program is well designed it involves multiple phases and each is aimed at a certain training effect or effects and if you’re mixing and matching often you are going to do too much training of one of your systems at the expense of the others. As you get a better feel for what you are trying to accomplish then bring in other systems ect.. and create your own system. Remember if you steal from the best your at least using good materials.

Ok after that long rambling intro here are my recommendations.

Get a Lydiard book, anyone or better yet get a few. All the good programs start here so you should too.

If you are going to be doing middle distance go get both coe books.

Get anything you can on how the Africans are training. I hate to ruin the racism parade but they are not kicking the rest of the worlds ass because of any reason other then they are training better.

Train hard win easy by tobie tanser, online info on kimbia, letsrun stuff on canova, online stuff on the Moroccan’s, Get Canova’s book its on marathon training. Its on the iaaf website its cheap and you can read it in under an hour. Read it multiple times take notes really study it. I encourage that with all of these things. Just because you read something once doesn’t mean you will remember it never mind understand it.

If you can get anything on how Mottram is training do it, same with meb and hall and hansons.

That’s a start anyway.







Marathon Trials Prep by the Numbers

These are just some stats I put together to give a general frame work to the training I have done since coming back from mono. I missed 8 or 9 weeks with mono and ran two for two weeks prior to my first race back.

First race march 25 off two weeks running 25:11 for 5 miles

30 weeks of training since

2991 miles
Average of 99.7 a week
2 weeks over 150
5 weeks over 140
6 weeks over 130
6 weeks over 120
10 weeks over 110
16 weeks over 100
High week 157 miles
Low week 2 miles (after hurting Achilles at Falmouth)

Races
Road 2 miles- 1 – 9:05(2nd)
Road 5k’s- 5 - 14:50(1st, cr), 14:21(8th), 14:32(4th), 13:46(downhill, 1st,cr), 14:31(1st,cr)
Track 5k’s- 2 - 14:37(?pretty far back), 14:20(1st)
Road 4 mile- 1 – 18:50(11th)
Road 5 mile/8k’s 2 25:11(3rd) and 24:07(4th)
Road 7 mile- 1 - dnf
Road 12k 1 36:21(1st,cr)
Road 15k- 1- 46:22(13th)
Half Marathon- 1- 1:06:16 (7th)

Since starting marathon prep (last 6 weeks) I have run 103 miles at or below goal marathon pace.







the last (real) long run

Today I did my last real hard effort before the trials. It was 22 miles in 2:16:54. I started at the top of mnt. Watchusett. I ran down and did three loops around a rolling loop that is just over 5 miles. I ran pretty easy just a bit quicker then 80% mp, a bit under 6 minute mile pace. I felt tired overall but the running was very easy but again my legs started to do there dying thing on the third lap but I stopped and stretched for about 8 seconds and they were fine. I have no idea what that means but at least I was able to keep rolling and face the hill. The climb was rough, it climbed 1070 feet in almost exactly 3 miles, I ran 21:38. I actually wanted to quit the last ½ mile or so and my heart rate was over 250 bpm when I finished.

I’m glad that stretching stopped the leg fatigue problem so that I was able to finish, but it’s not exactly something that works real well in a race though it really was only 8 seconds. It’s still not an acceptable solution. My hope is that by going so hard after the fatigue thing had tried to come on that it will have the training effect of teaching my legs not to do it any more. In the end I find the whole thing a bit perplexing, I’ve never had anything like it in anyway before. But now all I can do is back off do my last couple of easy workouts and hope that I have trained enough that I can race well.









The last hard week of training

Monday AM ART and Chiropractic adjustment with Cracken (regular guy)
Noon woods 8 shakeout, 1:00:48, first 3 w/ Gary tot. 8
PM woods 10 solo(started at same time as uml guys but none wanted to go, 1:00:01 tot. 10

Tuesday AM on very hilly Dracut loop 2+ w/up (15:08) 9 at bit faster then 80%mp (53:08) 3 miles alt. 1 min fast one at roughly 80% mp (16:15) 4 miles at what was supposed to be mp, first mile I just screwed the pace but as soon as I picked it up my legs went and I gutted it out for a while but stopped after 4 in 21:10 (5:19, 10:35, 15:47, 21:10). This was an extremely disappointing workout I felt great the whole way except the legs just stopped working. Very frustrating! Tot.18
PM woods 5 shakeout with some uml guys(36:50) ran straight into 4 miles on the track at mp (20:03) splits (5:00, 10:02, 15:01) now the track is perfectly flat and those are only 1600’s hence why they are much faster then any other mp work I’ve done. My legs went a little on this but only when I was feeling tired which is much less unsettling tot. 9

Wednesday AM woods 9 solo/ easy, 1:00:39 tot. 9
PM woods 8 solo shakeout, 58:32 tot. 8

Thursday AM woods 10 solo/md, 59:53 tot. 10
PM woods 8 solo shakeout, 59:22 tot. 8

Friday 1PM on tough hilly Dracut loop, 19:56 w/up strides, 3x4 miles at mp w/ 1 mile at roughly 80% mp for rest and a bonus. 20:49 rest 5:49(26:39) 20:26(47:09) rest 5:49(52:54), 20:37(1:13:31) rest 5:52(1:19:24 for 15 miles) 1 mile in 5:18(1:24:42 for 16 miles) 3 minute cool down. I’ll put the exact splits below the summary tot. 19++
5PM 3 ½ w/up 10x9 second hills at mines falls jog down rest 18:45 cool down, 57:14 total running time tot. 7-

Saturday 10:30AM ART and Chiropractic adjustment w/ Cracken
11:30AM 8 shakeout at Maudsley State Park in Newburyport, 1::01:53 tot. 8+ PM woods 9 solo/easy, 1:02:19 tot. 9

Sunday 8:30AM at Stonehill College on there xc course, 10 miles(59:22) first 5 easy, 33:35, second 5 at roughly mp (25:56) honestly I was a bit tired so I really didn’t push. Splits 5:12.1, 5:11.1, 5:14.9, 5:07.3, 5:10.9) course was very flat but had a lot of turns and the ground was uneven in short it was nice tot. 10
10AM jogging and running around xc course getting splits for the uml men and women. At the end of this week you better believe I’m counting it, plus I had to hustle a couple of times tot. 2
Noon 8 shakeout on stonehill xc course, 54:44, a little quick for a shakeout but I wanted it over with and I was trying to get back in time for the post race banquet. I’m nothing if not a hound for free food. Tot. 8

Summary 143 miles for the week, 1 good workout, 1 ****ty workout, 4 good medium efforts. Overall I’m happy with this as a solid last week of prep. I’m not in the shape I had dreamed of but man have I come a long way from where I was on the uml spring break trip in march(my first week back from mono). I’ll post more often over the next couple of weeks about specific tune up workouts and the work I have done in general. But overall I’d give my prep for this race a B+. I did suffer one, sort of one and a half small injuries and think I should have done some more progression runs in the spring and summer. But at the end of march I raced 5 miles on a fast course and ran 25:07. So I’ve come a long way. I’m fit and ready to run. Now I need to not get sick or hurt the last couple of weeks, do enough to not feel flat, and back off enough to not be tired. Honestly the next two weeks are a bit of an experiment still. The race will be a double test, one of my fitness but then also one of my ability to honestly gauge my effort on the terrain. I’m looking forward to it.

And as promised the splits from Fridays workout first 4 20:49(5:16, 10:30(5:14), 15:39(5:09), 20:49(5:10), second 4 20:26 (4:58, 10:10(5:12), 15:18(5:08), 20:26(5:08), third 4 20:37 (5:08, 10:20(5:12), 15:28(5:08), 20:37(5:09).

Sorry no quote this week I’m being lazy.







Training October 8 to 14

Monday AM ART and Chiro work with Brian McCracken (my normal guy and yes he is a chiropractor with McCracken as his real last name.)
PM woods 6+ solo shakeout, 47:10 tot. 6

Tuesday AM woods 9 easy solo 1:03:32 tot. 9
Noon ART and Chiro w/ dr. Pete, the point is he is a different guy then usual. Better then my regular guy. Yes he has a last name and no I don’t remember it.
PM woods 7 shakeout w/ Jenna and Nikki, 55:20 tot. 7

Wednesday AM woods 9 easy solo easy 1:02:01, tot. 9
PM 1:00:32 shakeout on Hickory Hill Golf course well watching uml guys workout tot. 8

Thursday AM woods 10 solo medium, 1:02:01 tot. 10
PM woods 8 shakeout w/ Ray Drewitz, 58:32 tot. 8

Friday AM On very hilly loop in Dracut, 3 w/up, strides, 7 miles at goal mp(36:00), 1 mile rest (6:02 but that is including a 29 second) 5 miles at goal mp (25:46) 1 cool down tot. 17
PM 2.5 w/up 10x14 second hills jog down rest 2.5 c/down 50:01 total runnig time tot. 6

Saturday AM woods 7 solo shakeout, 52:56, tot. 7
PM woods 7 solo shakeout, 49:53 tot. 7

Sunday AM woods 9 solo, 59:24, tot. 9
PM woods 9 solo shakeout, 1:08:09 tot. 9

Summary 112 miles for the week w/ 1 workout. A good week. I bounced back from the race well. The only thing that bothered me was that during the workout my legs did the same going dead thing well I was still feeling good as they did at the BAA so I’m a bit more worried about that. I don’t know if it is that my aerobic system is just ahead of my muscles or that I screwed up my training or it could be that I’ve been eating poorly and that I’m running out of glycogen very very quickly. Frankly I’m not sure and grasping at straws a bit but really there isn’t much I can do at this point so I’ll do my last few workouts, try to eat better and hope that tapering and racing smart will help me avoid it when it matters. I don’t need to avoid it completely I can honestly run pretty well with it for 5 or 6 miles.

Quote of the week “Ask yourself “Can I give more?” The answer is usually “Yes’.” -Paul Tergat







Back to racing!

Monday AM ART and chiro adjustment
Noon 6 mile solo shakeout at Maudsley State Park, 48:14 tot. 6
3PM woods 6 shakeout w/ Gary, 44:54 tot. 6

Tuesday Noon woods 10 solo, 59:43, tot. 10
3PM light ART treatment
5PM Woods 8 solo shakeout, 59:48 tot. 8

Wednesday AM 3+ w/up strides 5k on track, 15:08 (3:02.3, 6:02.0, 9:03.9, 12:05.8, 15:08.4) 3+ c/down not a good workout should have been easier and should have been 15 flat basically just felt very tired tot. 10

Thursday AM woods 6 shakeout w/ Gary and Amanda Souza, 49:05 tot. 6
PM woods 6 shakeout w/ the uml girls, 47:16 tot. 6

Friday Noon woods 7 shakeout w/ Nikki, 55:45, strides after tot. 8

Saturday Noon trail 5 at Franklin Park easy/solo 34:36, full drills after tot. 5

Sunday AM 20 min w/up strides extra jogging race BAA half, 7th place, 1st American, 1:06:16, splits (4:58, 9:43, 14:47, 19:44, 25:15, 30:08, 35:11, 40:05, 45:14, 50:19, 55:35, 1:00:36, 1:05:44). Well I finished so that’s better than Falmouth but beyond that I’m not real happy. I felt great aerobically but my legs quit just after 7 miles it was a weird feeling, still it was runable. Still basically I think that one this is a fairly tough course, two that I was still hurting from the end of last week despite all the rest this week, and three I’m simply not as fit as I thought I was. 20 minutes warm down tot. 19

Summary 84 miles for the week, one light workout, one race. Ok so the race wasn’t a complete disaster but it really wasn’t a good run. I know this course is slow (Tom Nyariki won in a course record 1:02:20, which is a minute slower then he ran at NYC last year and that is a slow course. But honestly I don’t think its so slow that I should be running what I would like to believe is marathon pace over it. I know some things slowed me down. After 2 miles I was alone and I was probably a bit tired ect.. but the fact is even factoring in those things I should be faster then that, low 1:05’s at least. I have touched on this a bit the last few weeks I believe but I think that my cardiovascular fitness is way better then my muscular fitness. So I have to do what I can to close that gap but part of it is simply that that takes longer to get, or in my case right now get back. I do think this race tells me I need to pull back my goals a bit for the trials, or at least the pace for the first half of that race but in the long scope of things I’m ok with it.

Quote of the week “Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes. ” Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.







Training for September 24 to 30

Monday AM rd. and trail 10 in tewks solo, 1:01:36 tot. 10
Noon ART and chiro adjustment
PM rd. and trail 8 shakeout w/ Shannon in tewks, 1:04:55 tot. 8

Tuesday AM rd. and trail 9 solo in tewks, easy 55:17 tot. 9
PM rd. 8 solo shakeout in tewks, 1:04:06 tot. 8

Wednesday AM at mines falls, 3 w/up 22:40, factory loop progression run, 14.25 miles (6 loops), splits 13:32, 13:15(26:47), 12:50(39:38), 12:32(52:10 ten second stop on that lap to tie shoe included in that time), 11:54(1:04:04) 11:35(1:15:40), 2 mins rest then 12:09 c/down, very hot, 80 degrees despite early start tot.19
PM woods 8 shakeout w/ the umass Lowell girls, 1:05:10 hot 90 degrees plus tot. 8

Thursday AM rd. and trail 10 solo in tewks, 59:57 tot. 10
PM rd. and trail 8 solo shakeout in tewks, 1:04:10 tot. 8

Friday AM in tewks on 2.1 loop, very warm again 75plus w/ humidity, 3 w/up 24:30, 3x4.1 miles at goal mp w/ half mile jog rest, 20:47(5:12, 10:11(4:59), 5K 15:46(5:02), 5:01. half mile in 2:45 rest, 4.1 in 20:39(5:00, 10:03(5:03), 5K 15:37 (5:01), 5:02, half rest in 2:41, 4.1 in 20:40 (5:00, 10:04(5:04), 5k 15:37(5:01), 5:03, 2 mins standing rest then ¾ mile w/down. This loop is lightly rolling tot. 16
PM at mines falls 3 ¾ w/up 10 x 9 second hills jog down rest, nice to get back to these, I’ve been worried about adding them in before the achilles was strong enough but it was fine, 3 ½ c/down tot. 8

Saturday AM 8+ solo shakeout in Keene, NH on rail road tracks, 1:03:09 tot. 8
PM woods 8 solo shakeout in Lowell, 1:00:16 tot. 8

Sunday Noon just over 1 mile w/up at 8 min pace then just over 40 km (40.11) at between 90% and 95% of marathon pace on a very very hilly loop (2:16:56), ran four 9.25 km loop and finished w/ a loop that was just over 3km loop splits (32:09, 31:18, 31:08, 31:37,(3.11k in 10:41) my average pace was 5:29.65 a mile (3:24.8 a kilometer) oh ya, I almost forgot 40.11 km is 24.92 miles tot. 26

Summary 146 miles for the week with three very good workouts/hard efforts. This was as good a week training as I have ever had. After this I feel I’m certainly fit enough for the trails. Now it will come down to staying healthy, racing intelligently, and being ready for the course. The long run at the end of the week was particularly gratifying. Frankly the course was much tougher then I thought it would be but I had little problem with it, at least aerobically, (I’m still finding my weakness is muscular). Still to run just a shade shy of 25 miles at under 5:30 mile pace over a course that was much tougher then anything I’ll ever have to race a marathon on and to do it at the end of a 146 mile week with two good workouts in the previous four days was a real good effort. It was a week with a lot of distractions so to still train this well was very nice. This coming week I’ll be mostly resting up for the BAA half marathon on Sunday. I’m not real sure who is going to be there, I know Samuel Ndereba and Linus Maiyo are in but other than that I’m not sure. I’m fit and ready to run well. Hopefully there won’t be a repeat of Falmouth and I haven’t left my race in the last few days of training. Really though I’m very confidant that I’m ready to run well. The course is a little tough but it fits my style of racing well.

Quotes of the week “By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.” Christopher Columbus

“Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.” Adam Hochschild







Progression runs

I have some time so I want to talk about progression runs. These are my favorite workout. I think that they have applications at every level for every event. They are for my money the best workout you can do to improve your overall fitness level. I only started using them a year and a half ago and I haven’t fully utilized them like I should but I’m working hard to correct that.

So first what is a progression run? Well they are really any run that starts slower and progresses to finish faster. More specifically they are any time you steadily increase the pace of your workout to finish at a hard fast pace. They can be any distance and should be varied in length in any program but the bigger variations should be depending on your event. As I am focused on marathons my progression runs generally range from 40 minutes to an hour and a half, though I do do some runs of more than 2 hours that could qualify as progression runs but they are more structured and varied in pace so for this forum I’ll keep them separate. Also for this forum I’m going to stick to progression runs as a workout for distance and mid distance runners so generally speaking from roughly 3 to 20 miles and 15 minutes to 2 hours plus.

Some people like to start them at a jog, 8 min pace or slower even at the elite level. Personally I like to warm up with a light jog for 2 or 3 miles then jump in a decent clip. I don’t generally do the strides and stretching I would do before a interval workout, tempo run or threshold run for two reasons, first because I’m only starting at 80% to 90% of marathon pace I really don’t need to be all that well warmed up, second and more to the point if I do all that I tend to be too keyed up and I go out too fast and screw up the workout.

Now what makes a progression run so great? They teach you to run your fastest when you are at your most tired. In a nutshell that is the main reason that they are important. But Nate I run the last interval of my workouts faster then all the rest isn’t that the same thing? NO it isn’t, it is a good thing and keep doing that but the fact is you have rested since finishing your previous effort, you are less tired then you were then, often you end up packing away time in the first part of the effort and finishing slower, we have all gone out 4 seconds faster for the first ¼ of a mile then the pace we finish it at.(stop doing that by the way all you are teaching your body is how to do the slower running) But even if you run that last mile repeat in 75, 73, 72, 65 it still not as good as the progression run because again you had a rest after the last interval. Why is this important, because there is no time out at the 2 mile mark of your 5k state cross country meet or the 4 mile mark of your 8k college cross country race. But Nate if I’m trying to simulate the finish of a race why don’t I just go out and run a race in practice. Two reasons again, first without race day adrenaline you can’t run race pace for a full distance, can’t do it. Second there is no guarantee of success. This is the beauty of a progression run, if you think your going to slow down, kick like hell and finish, you are done. But you were planning on going 9 miles and you have only done 5, doesn’t matter, except the workout for what it is. Now I’m not saying the progression run is the only way to simulate the problems you will face in the last part of a race, far from it. I’m just saying that it is the best.

The next reason to love the progression run is the simplicity combined with its natural adaptability. You don’t need a track or a measured loop, or even a loop really (though I really really recommend using a loop). Just go out and start at an ok effort and keep picking up the pace until your running as hard and fast as you can. You can go measure it after. That’s the simple part. The adaptability is that it is always the perfect effort, why? Well because you run as hard as you can and finish strong. (if you just run as hard as you can from the gun all you teach your body is that when the going gets tough it should rig up and die)

Now the downside. The first time I did a progression run I did it all right found a loop that was like the courses I was racing, it was on one of them actually, and I started slow and finished as hard and fast as I could. It was a total disappointment. It was cross country season when I was in college and I ran about 40 minutes and covered barely 7 miles. Worse yet when I measured the loop I found that at my fastest I was only running 5:15 mile pace, now I was trying to run 25:00 or so at the time so this seemed like a total waste of a workout, hell my pr was already under 25:20. So I went back to my next workout happy to return to mile repeats with long breaks at something around 4:40 pace and felt I had wasted a workout by doing that stupid progression run. I had missed the point, the progression run had shown me my weakness I couldn’t run a sustained hard effort and finish well. I never ran under 5:10 for my last mile that year except in races where I ran super slow for the 4th mile (5:20 or worse). So if your first progression seems like a flop then understand two things, one they aren’t about averaging some super fast pace, no pr’s in these workouts, and if you really sucked then you should probably do some more because they are just what you need.

Ok so I hope that I have got my love for progression runs across to you but to sum up. Progression runs teach your body to run its fastest when its tired and to be able to finish races off of a sustained hard effort. They are best if left unstructured because this enables you to run by how you feel so that the effort automatically adapts itself to your exact condition that day. To illustrate what I’m talking about I’m going to put the last three progression runs I have done below in detail (these have been in my last couple of training logs the only difference is that I finally measured the loop so I can give you paces to go with the times) and I’ll talk about the positives and negatives of each workout.

Progression 1 September 13, 2007 (all done on Factory loop at Mines falls (2 3/8 miles pre loop)
Loop 1 13:24, loop pace 5:38.5
Loop 2 13:00, 5:28.4
Loop 3 12:36, 5:18.3
Loop 4 12:08, 5:06.5
Loop 4 11:48, 4:58.1
Total 1:02:59, average pace of 5:18.2, total distance 11 7/8 miles

Ok first great workout because each lap got faster. What I didn’t like is that my hamstring flared up and I didn’t get to do a real hard loop to finish up but I was looking to do about an hour and a quarter so if the hamstring hadn’t started to be a problem I think it would have been a great workout. But even with it I think it’s a real good go, I ran almost 12 miles at under 5:20 mile pace and the last 4.75 miles averaged marathon pace and I finished feeling easy, other then the hammy.

Progression 2 September 20, 2007
Loop 1 12:49, pace 5:23.8
Loop 2 12:30, 5:15.8
Loop 3 12:09, 5:06.9
Loop 4 11:47, 4:57.7
Straight away (.87 mile) 4:08, pace 4:45.0
Total 53:25 average pace 5:09.1
Total distance 10.37 miles

Ok once again first it’s a great workout simply because each lap got faster. Now what I didn’t like is that I went out too fast, I knew it by the end of the straight on the first lap by seeing the split but I make a policy of never slowing down in a progression run and I felt easy so I stuck with it. So what happened? I was aiming for an hour and a quarter or so again and I fell way short. I finished very fast but I didn’t have the volume of work under my legs to properly tire them that I would have liked, also I gave up on myself and only did the straight on the last one. I was right to tell myself I could stop at the end of the straight to get myself to pick it up but then I should have picked another marker and another until the lap was done, also although my last 3 and ½ laps averaged about marathon goal pace only my last lap and a half was actual at or under goal marathon pace. Pluses, well the average pace looks real good and for ten plus miles it is good but honestly I think the first workout was better simply because I exercised more control and had more miles under my legs before I started to run fast.

Progression 3 September 26
Loop 1 13:32, pace 5:41.9
Loop 2 13:15, 5:34
Loop 3 12:50, 5:24.2
Loop 4 12:32, 5:16.6
Loop 5 11:54, 5:00.6
Loop 6 11:35, 4:52.6
Total 1:15:40, average pace 5:18.6
Total distance 14.25 miles

I’m really happy with this run, I wanted to do an hour and a quarter or more, I did that, I wanted to finish at something close to half marathon pace for a full lap and I did that. So this is a great workout all around. Yes my average pace is slow but the distance is real long and I was under marathon goal pace for two full laps (4.75 miles) and averaged mp or better for the last 7.12 miles and averaged under 5:09 (the pace of the last progression for the last 9.5 miles, so almost the same distance as that whole workout). Most importantly each lap was faster then the one before it, even lap 4 when I had to stop and tie my shoe (the watch never stops during a progression run!). I had almost ten good miles of running under my belt before I started running fast and still I was able to run nearly five miles at 5 min pace or better.







Training log September 17 to 23

Monday Off sick

Tuesday Noon rd. and trail 9 in tewks solo easy, 56:28 tot. 9
PM rd. and trail 8 solo shakeout in tewks, 58:47 tot. 8

Wednesday Noon rd. and trail 10 solo in tewks, 1:01:27 easy, congestion starting to clear up tot. 10
PM 8 shakeout solo in tewks, 1:02:06 tot. 8

Thursday Noon at mines falls, 3 w/up (23:30) Progression run around factory loop, lap 1- 12:49, lap 2-12:30(25:19), lap 3-12:09(37:29), lap 4-11:47(49:17) straight only-4:08(on last lap I went 4:18 to this point) 53:25, 2 min rest 2 c/down tot. 15+
PM 8 solo shakeout in tewks, 1:00:16, tot. 8

Friday AM rd. and trail 8 solo shakeout in tewks, 59:40 tot. 8
PM trail 8+ shakeout at mines falls w/ Shannon, 1:04:30 tot. 8

Saturday 9:30AM 3+ w/up, 24:30, 2x10k on Tewks 2.1 mile loop(lightly rolling), first 10k 35:15, 1:28 rest w/ 1/10th a mile jog, a bit of water and a quick stretch, 10k in 31:19 (splits 5:06, 5:01, 5:01(15:39 5k), 4:53, 5:03, 5:11) bad side stitch the last two miles hence the slow down on the plus side other then the stitch running 5:11 felt like a walk if you’d asked me what pace I was running I would have guessed 6 mins. 1- c/down 7:48, it was warm 75 or so tot. 16.5
4:10PM 3 w/up, 22:30, warm again 80, 2x10k on same tewks 2.1 loop, 1st 10k 34:46, 1:58 rest, little water, light stretch 1/10th mile jog, 2nd 10k 31:28 (splits 5:06, 5:06, 5:03 (15:47 5k) 5:00, 5:05, 5:04), 51 second rest, 1 mile c/down, 8:01 tot. 16.5

Sunday AM rd. and trail 6 solo shakeout, 45:52, tot.6
PM rd. and trail 6 solo shakeout, 47:43, tot. 6

Summary 122 miles, two real good workouts. I measured the factory loop and the progression run was a little over 10 miles and I averaged about 5:09 a mile so that is a real solid effort and the super compensation workout on Saturday went great. I figure mp must be about 5:05 over the rolling hills, though they aren’t as tough as the ones in central park but then it won’t be 80 at 7am on November 3rd there either, at least I hope it won’t. It was nice to finally get over that cold and hopefully that will be the last unplanned hurdle for this training phase.

Quote of the week “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson







Training September 10 to 16

Monday Noon woods 24 easy in Lowell into 3200m on track in 10:11. Hamstring bothersome everything else (adductor, Achilles) good tot. 26, 2:50:10, tot.26

Tuesday AM rd. and trail 8 solo shakeout in tewks, 1:01:23 tot. 8
PM rd. and trail 8 solo shakeout in tewks, 1:01:50 tot. 8

Wednesday AM got Chiro adjustment and ART
Noon 9 easy, solo in tewks, 56:17 tot. 9
8PM rd. 8 solo shakeout in tewks, 1:04:16 tot. 8

Thursday 1PM at mines falls, 4 w/up 1 hour progression run around factory loop, 5 laps (13:24, 13:00(26:25), 12:36(39:01), 12:08(51:10), 11:48(1:02:59) 11 minute cool down. Honestly I would have liked to do another loop and really open it up but my hamstring started to get a little funny and where this isn’t really an important workout for me I decided to leave it. Tot. 17
Friday AM rd. and trail 9 easy in tewks, 56:55 tot. 9
PM 8+ shakeout at mines falls, first couple with Shannon, 1:03:35 tot. 8

Saturday off- sick Shannon has had a cold all week and I caught it had a workout scheduled and decided to try and kick the cold with a day off

Sunday 1Pm 9 at mines falls easy, 57:19, felt ok but ended up feeling crumby after tot. 9

Summary 102 miles for the week. Ok week I’m worried about the hamstring which has been an off and on problem for a year now. I think I have it figured out though. My working theory is that the problem isn’t the hamstring itself( I’ve had it worked on by a few different people and they all say basically the same thing that it doesn’t seem to be in very bad shape) I believe the problem is that my quads are way to tight and that when I run faster the hamstrings have to fight the quads more( because my heel comes up higher ect.) and that when I run quicker for long periods of time this exhausts the hamstring and causes it to fatigue out. So I have started doing some active stretching for the quad and it seems to be working, though I haven’t had a chance to really test it yet with the cold. Which is pretty much finishing up now(Wednesday).

Quote of the week “I've had a few setbacks in my life, but I never gave up” Harry Truman

Training September 3 to 9

Monday off for sore abductor, iced it about 12 times, basically 20 minutes out of every hour for the vast majority of the day

Tuesday AM rd. and trail 9 easy in tewks, 1:05:28
PM get ART and chiro adjustment

Wednesday AM rd. and trail 9 in tewks solo, 55:45, ice abductor after tot. 9

Thursday AM rd. and trail 9 in tewks solo, 55:55, tot. 9
3pm light ART work
6PM 8 shakeout in tewks w/ Shannon, 104:57 tot. 8

Friday Noon, hot!! 95 degrees, 2+ w/up, 6.3 miles medium pace (roughly 80% mp) 36:01, into 5k alt. 1 min hard 1 min medium (16:13) 3.2 miles medium (19:01 (passed 5k in 18:24), 1 mile in 5:18 was supposed to be 5k at mp but the heat had gotten to me and I stopped, 13.6 miles in 1:16:35, passed half marathon in 1:13 so all and all a good run with the heat, 11 minute c/down tot. 17++ Ice bath after

Saturday AM 6 mile easy shakeout w/ Shannon, 50:01 tot. 6
PM 6 mile easy shakeout solo, 48:23 tot. 6

Sunday AM rd and trail 9 easy solo in tewks, 58:01, tot. 9
PM 8 shakeout w/ Shannon at mines falls, 1:04:31 tot. 8

Summary 81 miles for the week, 1 ok workout. I’m healthy and got in one of two planned workouts this week. It was hot so I’ll take it for what it was. Hot or not I really struggled with the 1min hard 1 min medium stretch basically I am still really struggling with anything that involves shifting paces, but I have a few more workouts that will target this. Ok this week was not what I hoped for but it was successful, hopefully this coming week will be better.







why do short hills?

I had a great question posted on the comments section for my training last week and I figured it was worth posting an answer.

Why do I do short hill repeats if I'm training for a marathon and not a mile?

I do short hill repeats for 2 reasons the first goal, and most obvious, is to gain physical strength. Since strength is in our sport is often interchangeable with speed I see why it seems strange for a marathoner to be doing this type of a workout especially with such frequency. I mean why try to get a faster top end speed when even to run a world record I only need to run 4:45 or 4:46 a mile. The first reason is that every race is a race of speed, meaning that no matter how long the race is the fastest person over the distance wins. But that alone doesn't justify hill repeats one to three times a week. The real reason is strength and speed over the short distance equal efficiency. By doing these hills and getting stronger and faster in the maxim. I teach my body to consume less glycogen, and less oxygen when moving at sub maximal speeds. The less of these "fuels" the body consumes at a given pace the longer I can hold that pace.

the 2nd reason I do short hills is that they drive my heart rate way up in an extremely short period of time, to within 10 beats of max or higher in 10 seconds or less and then because my heart rate hasn't been up that long and no acid needs to be flushed out of my system (it takes 15 seconds of an exercise to begin to produce any lactic acid) my heart rate basically plummets back down to a relatively rested level, 120 to 130 beats per minute, in a short time 20seconds to a minute. This exercise on the heart teaches the heart efficiency as well meaning it takes less energy to pump more blood.

Now if I was training for the mile I would still do short hill repeats for the same reasons I have listed above but I would probably try to go a little longer (say 13 to 15 seconds rather then my usual 8 to 12) and I would try to do it on a slightly less steep hill and with better footing. Why? Because a miler would want to improve there efficiency, muscular as well as heart but he/she would also want to work more specifically on there top end speed and running uphill but with your form closer to that which you use to run over flat ground is a spectacular way of doing that.

Finally the greatest advantage of short hills is that you can reap huge long term benefits without having to sacrifice much of anything. They are very easy on the body and mind. Sure you run all out but only for a few seconds so they really are not hard and because little or no acid is accumulated in the system they take little recovery at all. This is why if I had one thing I would recommend to all runners to add to there program right now short hills would be it. They improve your basic speed, improve your efficiency and strengthen your heart and if you do them once or twice a week your body won't be any more tired or worse for the wear. It’s a win win situation. I am convinced that these, progression runs and the use of circuit training are the biggest reasons the Kenyans are so far beyond us here in the US. That said I believe we are starting to look to their training and we are closing the gap rapidly. So add progression runs and short hills to your routine and join the charge for world class running in the US, or at least a new pr.







August 27 to September 2 training

Monday AM rd. 7 in tewks w/ Sean, 46:37 tot. 7
PM rd. and trail 9 solo, 58:34 tot. 9

Tuesday AM 3 w/up strides, 2800m on tewks track (3:14, 3:15 (2:35 last 800) had hoped to go 10k at this pace, roughly 95% goal mp but Achilles started to tighten so I stopped. 1 lap cool down tot. 5
PM 9 miles at mines falls, first 44 mins w/ Sean, Achilles tired but ok, 58:27 tot.9

Wednesday AM got ART and chiropractic adjustment
PM 1:12:22 at Walden Pond, first 63 mins w/ Sean tot. 10

Thursday AM drove up to camp Foss in Barnstead Nh, to join uml’s xc camp in progress PM road (mostly dirt) 12, first 9.5 w/ Ruben Sanca (who is very fit), 1:11:47, we ran the normal Foss 9 loop (for anyone who has gone to camp there) in 54:54 then went out camp road which Gary had marked every 400m the day before for there 5 mile tempo run, Ruben turned at the half to get 10 I turned at the 1 and a half. This stretch was flatter, but not flat, I ran about 5:35 pace for the last 3 but it was the same effort we had been running. Tot. 12

Friday 6:50am 6 w/ gary easy, 47:32 tot. 6
10am 10 w/ uml guys, well a couple of them, 1:03:33, used the same loop as Thursday and hit 9 in 57:33 then ran 6 flat again the same effort just flatter for the last mile tot. 10
PM drive home from Foss

Saturday AM Got ART and Chiropractic adjustment spectacular appointment left feeling like Achilles was 99% healed
Noon at battle road trail in Lexington and Lincoln 10 miles in 1:04:50, wanted to do a tempo run and had heard this thing was marked but after it took over 5 minutes to reach cover the first marked “800” and then 54 seconds to cover the next marked “400” I should have realized there was no way this was going to work and slowed down but I really liked the trail so I ran the whole thing and ascertained that the markers were put out by someone just guessing at location who had no sense of distance what so ever. Great trail though. But long story short I ran harder then I should have because now I had to move my tempo to the pm tot. 10

4PM 3+ w/up 2x5k on tewks track, little windy but not bad, 15:38.0 and 15:42.0 with 800 meters in 2:56.6 for rest felt controlled and Achilles was good but I opted to stop at 2 repeats I’ll revisit this workout once or twice before the trials and do 4 or 5 repeats and try to change the rest to 1k in about 3:30, 3+ cool down, my right abductor was very tight after the run probably from favoring the Achilles over the past few weeks tot. 13

Sunday AM woods 10 easy w/ uml guys, 1:13:12, was going to go long but abductor was very tight and didn’t loosen up. I have spent the rest of the day iceing it and trying to roll it out with a tennis ball I may take tomorrow off I have had this in the past and it is rarely bothersome for more than a day or two tot. 10

Summary 101 miles for the week. The Achilles (my computer insists on capitalizing this every time I type it) is much better. I’m very happy with the comeback so far and being able to do some mp work on Saturday was great news. I’m a little worried about the abductor thing but am hoping its just from coming back so quickly, the hills at foss, and favoring the Achilles over the last couple of weeks and that a little rest, a lot of ice and a bit of tennis ball will get it squared away. I’m starting my specific phase for the marathon this week which means that my focus will move away from getting good efforts and move to hitting a specific pace. I will do 4 types of workouts,

1. marathon pace work which will make up the lions share 90% or more of my workouts, this includes repeats like Saturday’s 5k’s and possibly runs of 20 tot 25 kilo meters, varying pace runs of 30 to 40 kilometers that involve running mp off of faster and slower paces when I’m tired, easy long runs of greater then 2