Inspiration and Advice
Runners often get trapped in the same training patterns. They find a pattern that works for them (speedwork or distance) and often follow it to the exclusion of other patterns. Sometimes resistance to change can stifle your improvement. One way to improve is to do something different. Focus on different distances, which will force you to change training patterns.
Jack Daniels
If you develop an injury, find a sports-medicine professional who runs, or at least takes your running seriously. Otherwise you will probably just be told to stop running. The professional should be comfortable working around your injury with treatment, training modifications, and cross-training so that you won't have to resort to complete couch-potato status.
Bart Yasso, RW race and event promotion director
Many good runners just don't realize how slow they need to run on their easy days. They don't know how to rest and get the recovery they need. This creates a chronic glycogen deficit in the muscles, which inevitably leads to poor workouts and sub-par races. To adapt to hard training and to improve, you must sprinkle in plenty of easy running. Or take a day off to recharge your batteries.
Roy Benson
Have a vision of the future. Set specific training and racing goals, then use those goals to focus your running life. You have to know where you're going in order to get there.
Jeff Galloway
To prevent injury, don't rush your run. Trying to squeeze a 4-miler into world-record time can lead to stress, fatigue, and injury. "Your daily training runs should be relaxing and should include a proper warmup, whether that's brisk walking or easy jogging and should come after a brief period of anticipation. That is, give yourself a chance to look forward to it."
Michael Sachs, Ph.D., Temple University in Philadelphia.
You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
Steve Prefontaine
Stretching is a fine preventative measure when done regularly. But when you have a case of tendonitis or some other overuse injury, too much stretching can prolong rather than speed recovery. Instead, schedule a deep-muscle massage in the muscle group immediately above or below the affected area.
Ed Eyestone, men's cross-country coach at Brigham Young University
Practice, practice, practice: You don't get to test yourself at the marathon distance as often as you do at, say, the 5-K. But you can do plenty of homework. Make sure you log five or six 2 1/2- to 3-hour runs (one every other weekend, at most) in the three or four months before your race. And schedule your last long run at least two weeks before the big day.
Steve Plasencia, head coach of men's cross-country, University of Minnesota
I concentrate on major events, train through lesser races. I believe you should prepare your training and racing programs carefully within your general lifestyle.
Bill Rodgers
Turbo Charging with Tempo Runs: A tempo run is most commonly defined as a 20 to 25-minute run conducted at a specific intensity and pace targeted at zapping the runner's anaerobic threshold system. If a runner has developed a solid aerobic base, the tempo run (conducted at least once a week over a span of four to six weeks) will bring all the good stuff online, opening up an athlete's ability to run at fast paces for long periods of time while improving efficiency and mechanics - and injecting a massive boost of confidence. After a month or so of implementing tempo runs in your training, racing becomes something you not only want to do, but something you must do
Warming up before a 5k to 10k Race: We all have our prerace rituals that we usually don't stray too far from as we go from race to race. It may, however, be worth examining occasionally, especially if your times are not what you had hoped for. The general idea is that the shorter the race, the longer the warmup is. Before a 5k to 10k race, you should start the process about 30-40 minutes prior to the start. Run easy for 10-15 minutes. I like to call this a 'Kenyan style' warmup to emphasize the slow pace. If you ever see a Kenyan runner warming up before a race, they are running so slow and light. And usually the only time you'll pass this runner will be during the warmup. After you slow run, spend about another 10-15 minutes stretching. Make sure you hit all the major muscles groups and spend a little extra time on anything that aches. I try to use this time to relax and focus on what I'd like to accomplish during the race. About 5 minutes, or so, before the start, head to the line do run some strides. Run about 4 to 6 strides of about 15 to 20 seconds in length. Go about the pace you intend to start at. You don't have to do these off the line, but knowing the first few steps of the race course can be an advantage when things get congested. You can look for any pot holes, marker cones and make sure you line up on the best side. Running a few strides, right before the gun, is really important because you don't want your heart or legs to be shocked at the start. Preparing yourself will ease that initial explosion at the start.
Two Months To Goal: I've been running since I graduated from college - I won't tell you the year - let's just say I started running before marathons and half-marathons had made their way to just about every city across the country. Before the neighborhood sidewalks and parks were full of runners and walkers every night of the week. Before shoe technology was so, well, high-tech.
It took me this long to decide it was time to be serious about it - ok - I've always been serious about it - the right shoes, right clothes, runner's high, feelings of withdrawal if I went too many days in a row without running. Maybe scientific is a better word to describe my decision to make my next race -the 2005 Evansville Half Marathon on October 9 my best one. Enter Gordon Benfield (www.teambenfield.com) - runner, trainer, speedwork organizer and the push I needed in the right direction.
When I moved to Evansville from Ft. Mitchell, KY in April of 2004, being a runner (on my terms) the first thing I looked for was a local running community. At a Runner's Club meeting someone told me about Tuesday Speedwork at the State Hospital Grounds - "email Gordon - he'll tell you about the group". This was a completely new and somewhat intimidating experience for me. I'm too slow for speedwork! That was last year. This year, after missing speedwork for the first half of the season I emailed Gordon the first week of August and was now officially in training. Maybe I was still too slow for speedwork but now I had a goal and ignored the fact that I was still in the back.
My first training run was 5 1/2 miles on a Sunday morning at 7 a.m. - I hate getting up that early on weekends! Gordon just ignores that. By the end of that first week, I had run 21.1 miles (that .1 is important!) which included my first race, a 5k, with Gordon as my coach AND - my first ever running trophy! I was second in my age group - and as Gordon said...it doesn't matter how many in your age group were there, you got out of bed at some ridiculous hour and braved the extreme heat to race. Gordon's support helped push me that last quarter mile. He's never tired, I think, so he finishes his race and comes back for more...still outrunning me. I had a lot of fun telling family and friends about that trophy. Funny...everyone asked the same question - how many were there in your age group? Obviously, they don't understand!
My next race, a 5k on September 3, is again, hot, humid, small crowd, and in the middle of nowhere - actually straight down the middle of two cornfields. My second award! And my time is 36 seconds faster per mile! I'm starting to see the results. Then, the following Sunday, September 11, my father died. During my training weeks from mid-August (leading up to his death) until mid-September, my focus was way off and I was back home a lot but I knew my father, all around star athlete in his high school years, wouldn't want me to give up and would want me to keep doing what makes me happy.
Without Gordon's help, he CAN be bossy - but in a good way, I would have skipped runs and just finished the half-marathon without any specific goal. Setting up a training log on coolrunning.com, knowing that if I didn't do my runs I'd have to answer to Gordon and just refusing to give up despite all the things that got in the way helped get me to race day.
Physically, my body started to protest - besides my weak upper hamstrings, my left foot was swollen on the top (no stress fracture but it was close) for the two weeks before the race - one of which was spent in Chicago for business where I was still getting in those runs – icing and Advil helped. My original race goal: 2 hours. My modified race goal: beat my ’05 Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon time of 2:13:11 and run 2:09. Even with everything life threw at me I managed to run through several miles of foot pain, followed by hip and hamstring tightness as my left foot started to compromise my left leg and I made it past mile 12….and then I see Gordon running toward me encouraging me to run it in. I pushed hard to meet his stride and came across the finish line at - 2:09:03. Close enough and a new PR!
My new running goals: start running again in mid-November if I get the Dr.’s ok, find more races where I can win more trophies! (I’m kidding – sort of) and focus on a new PR for the Flying Pig Half Marathon on May 7. I may not be the fastest, but I'm a runner all right – and now I'm a runner with a plan.
Barbara Cox