6 Tips For Quality Run Training

6 Tips For Quality Run Training

Tips for Quality Run Training Train no faster than one pace quicker than the race you are training for. For example, 5k pace is good for an Olympic-distance race, while half-marathon pace suffices...

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Letter to the Triathlon Coach

Letter to the Triathlon Coach

I have been an endurance coach for some time now.  Once in a while, I receive an email from a client which chokes me up with pride.  Today, I received one of those letters, so instead of sharing it...

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Workout Wednesday

The Revolution 3 Florida 70.3 is 5 days away and I feel like I am still working out pretty hard for this “so called” taper week.  The workouts are shorter in duration but a little more intense.  Yesterday’s workout ended up being a 4 mile tempo run on Bayshore.

I started, as always with a warm-up of Dave Scott drills, ballistic stretches, high knees, hamstring leg-ups, booty kickers and bounders.  My main set consisted of a 1 mile run at an 8:15 minute mile, Four 3 minute sprints with 45 seconds rest in between, and another 1 mile run at 7:45.  I cooled down with my usual routine of 50 walking lunges, 50 monkey lunges, 50 squats, 50 crab walks and static stretches.  Does that sounds like taper week to you?  At the time I didn’t, but afterward I understood.  I was fatigued to a point where I was recovering fast, but I felt like I could do more.  I am not sure if it will actually do anything for me as far as strength or speed, but it did boost my confidence, which was just fine with me.

Bayshore Tuesday Morning

This morning (Wednesday), I looked  at my plan and an expletive was about to come through my mouth for two reasons; a) I didn’t sleep well the night before, and b) I really thought this was taper week.  As I perused the scheduled butt kicking I was about to give myself, I realized I might have been wrong.  Here was my bike trainer workout this morning:
Warm-Up – 50 single leg drills on each leg, 100 single leg drills on each leg, 10 minute spin in the small chain ring
Main Set – (and get this) Pyramid Intervals: 1 min sprint, 1 min spin, 2 min sprint, 1 min spin all the way to 6 min sprint, 1 min spin and back down to 1.
Cool Down – 15 min spin and 1 mile transition run

I didn’t expect a workout of this intensity this morning, but at the conclusion, dripping with sweat, I realized how ready I was for this weekend.  I might not do as well as I did in Augusta, but I am sure going to give it one hell of a try.

Speaking of workouts, the off-season is coming up and my goals are to develop some leg strength that will allow me to average 24 mph on the bike comfortably, arm, core and back strength to allow me to propel in the water, run faster, and stay in the aerobars longer on the bike.  I also would like to increase my flexibility to keep relieving pressure on the injury in my lower back.

Here is one of the first workouts I ever did to comeback from my back injury which helped me attain the base cardio, core and strength I have today and which has allowed me to enjoy the success I have been having. (Well, at least I think it’s success.)

Warm-up: (1 set x 10 reps)

  • Walking Knee Hug
  • Lateral Jumps
  • Fwd Lunge w/ Overhead Reach
  • Jumping Jacks
  • Reverse Lunge w/ Twist

Core (3 sets x 10 reps)

  • YTLI Raises
  • Swiss Ball Plank
  • Single Leg Glute Bridge

Strength – Supersets (3 supersets x 10 reps)

  • Prisoner Squat/T- Push up
  • Dumbell(DMB) Reverse Lunge/Inverted Row
  • DMB Single Leg Romanian DeadLift/DMB Push Press
  • DMB Lateral Lunge/Pull up

Cardio Ciruit (20 reps of each exercise x 3 rounds)

  1. Kettlebell Swing
  2. Burpee
  3. Squat Jump
  4. Shuttle Run

It’s a pretty good workout and can be done in about 45 minutes with minimum equipment obviously.  As with any workout whatever you put in, you will get out and with this workout it is no different.  I thought I would share it as a portion of Workout Wednesday.  I will continue to bring you different workouts each week whether I get them from my past experience or from research I find.  If you have any workouts you are passionate about or WODs (workout of the day) you enjoy.  Feel free to submit them via the contact form and I will post them and credit you with a guest posting.
Carpe Viam!

Milestone Monday & Magic Number 6

Happy Monday Everyone.  I know it isn’t much but this will be a small milestone as it’s the 20th blog I have written.  I have not achieved the frequency of my friend Kat at Sneakers and Fingerpaints who writes 30-40 entertaining and quality posts a month, but I am working up to it.  I would really like to allow you to follow me through this last week as I get ready for the Revolution 3 Florida 70.3 this weekend, so I am going to attempt to write a blog a day on my thoughts, workouts and other tasks I am doing in order be as fresh and strong as possible for this 70.3 Triathlon.  The Magic Number is 6.  Six days until the race.

This weekend was filled with slightly less intensity of training as I started the tapering process for the Rev3.  On Saturday the A-Train completed a pretty intense 6 mile run followed by a swim in the extremely choppy surf of Clearwater beach.  It was perfect weather for a run which took us along the beach and over the Sand Key Bridge. This was a good last quad burner for some explosiveness during the run portion next week.  I always like running with Nick Z.  He is an extremely fast runner so even though he is not running at his pace, he pushes me to keep my pace a little faster than usual.  Not quite a tempo run, but fast enough for this shake out run.  

I went up to the ballroom level of the  Hyatt right near Pier 60 after the run and had a chance to get to know one of our new members Jessica M.   The hotel is very plain from the outside but inside it is really beautiful.  We bought a couple of beverages at the coffee kiosk and then went outside to chat and found comfy couches and chairs with views for the water and the beach.  A perfect wind down to a tough workout.  Jessica is a recent transplant from Brooklyn, New York, with a love for working out and running.  We found out during the Miles for Hope ride how tough this woman really is.  I mentioned in that post that we averaged about 18.5 mph during that ride.  Ms. Jessica kept up with us the whole way on a recently purchased bike, with no cages or clips on her feet.  She did the whole thing with running shoes and flat pedals.  That had to be really difficult.  I probably couldn’t have been able to keep up.


Sunday we rode a semi-fast 42 miles on the Sun Coast Trail.  We started with seven riders and it was very comfortable.  of course I lost the valve to my Speedfill early in the ride, but with two backup bottles I was still able to hydrate effectively.  The ride started a little chilly for Florida.  I don’t know the exact temperature, but it felt low 60s.  I was concerned at first because I really wasn’t prepared with long sleeves or with arm warmers, but after a brief warm-up spin, Pete broke away for a bit and I followed.  At 23 mph and spinning at at a cadence of 95 rpm, I ended up getting my heart rate up and I warmed up very fast.  As we closed in on the baseball fields, marking the halfway point, Pete took it up another notch and we were both hitting 25-27 mph  for the mile prior.  Oh did I mention the first half was with a decent head wind?  I didn’t realize it till I looked down at my Garmin and noticed I was working pretty hard to keep 19-20 mph.  The group and I took quick break and then headed back which turned out to be faster and easier due to the tail wind.  Pete and I kept a pretty good pace the rest of the ride with Jaime, Stephanie and one other gentlemen on our wheels.  About 6 miles prior to being back to the cars, Pete decided to hang back a bit and Steph got rolling with a really nice pace so we played cat and mouse sticking to about a 21-23 mph pace.  It was a fun ride, but luckily not too intense to keep our legs for next weeks race.

I went home, showered, rolled, stretched and then headed for a really good brunch at Grillsmith.  If you have not had their brunch I highly recommend it.

This morning I woke up extremely lazy, but I knew if I didn’t jump into the pool, I would come up with every excuse in the book not to do it later.  Amy, my coach, had me doing a short workout but was form focused which is what I need right now.

WARM UP:
200 WARM UP
50 CATCH UP STROKE
50 ON YOUR SIDE (1,2,3 X 5 KICKS ON SIDE)
50 ARM STOP AND LOOK
50 KICK BOARD CATCH UP
50 KICK FREE STYLE
100 PULL BUOY, FEELING THE GLIDE
MAIN SET:
All repeats are with a steady Rest Interval (RI):
10 X 100 ALL OUT!
10 SEC REST BETWEEN INTERVALS
COOL DOWN:
2 X 25 UNDERWATER NO BREATH
200 FORM FOCUS SWIM
LUNGES

As you can see it wasn’t a long swim by any stretch, but it was enough for me.  I actually love these workouts, because of the intervals.  It doesn’t seem like it takes as long.  This workout took me about 45 minutes, where I am usually in the pool close to 75-90.  See since I really do not like long workouts, I probably need to do more of them, you think?
My diet today will consist of a good amount of protein  with vegetables and a good amount of water.  Breakfast was 4 eggs, sweet potato and turkey sausage with salsa,  Lunch will be a spinach and romaine salad with a lot of chicken, vegetables and a splashed with a light balsamic vinaigrette  and dinner with be a lean steak with another sweet potato and green beans with almonds.  In between, I have a protien shake for morning and an apple and almonds for this afternoon snacks.  Pretty lame for a day of eating but I’ll enjoy it nonetheless.
That should take care of Manic Monday.  Tomorrow I hope to start a regular post called Tribute Tuesday where I choose one person whom has greatly affected me positively and give you my story of the why and how, and then I interview them in order to let you into their personalities.
CARPE VIAM!!

2 Races in One Day?

I thought it was kinda nutty when I was invited to the Sunrise/Sunset Challenge, but I wasn’t sure the impact it would have on me.  I looked at the distances of the two races, Top Gun and the Twilight Triathlons, and thought, “What the hell?  The two distances do not even add up to an Olympic.  How difficult could it be?”  What I didn’t count on was the increased effort level?

The plan was hammer the Top Gun and do the Twilight for fun. (I am a poet and didn’t even know it.) Yeah. Right.  Considering I have been competing and training for more long course triathlons lately, I really thought I would finally be able to conquer the sprint.  My last full sprint was two years ago, when I competed in a few sprints in order to get ready for a marathon my times were less than admirable.  To be honest, I was happy with 1:20 at the time.  Now, after a few Ironman 70.3s and last year’s full Ironman I really thought I could do a lot better.  Figuratively, I actually did, but in my mind it still wasn’t what I wanted, but there were some small achievements.

I picked up an A-Train Tri member, Jaime Breibert, around 5am and headed out to Ft. DeSoto.  After the experiencing the pay-to-park line for the Escape from Ft. DeSoto Triathlon, I was pleasantly surprised this event was exempt so there were no delays driving into the park.  Nice!  Like every other race I have competed or watched at Ft. DeSoto the organization of the event was outstanding.  The line for body marking was minimal, the transition area was large enough to accommodate all of the athletes bikes, space for their transition setup and extraneous bags.  Walking into transition I spent  minimal time setting up my bike, helmet and sunglasses, towel, bike shoes, and running gear including my choice of shoes (this time being my Brooks Pure Cadence), running belt and hat.  I wasn’t rushed for time, or inconvenienced by other athletes.  It was smooth sailing which is always nice since it eliminates any unwanted stress.

I headed on down to the beach with Nick Zivolich and Jaime where the low pitched but high energy voice was repeating instructions over the speaker system.  It was a nice and comfortable environment I have come to love over the past years.  The energy of the upcoming race increasingly becoming more and more intense as the time for the first heat was getting closer.  I caught up with a bunch of friends and familiar fellow tri community members I have accumulated over the last years.  This is absolutely one of my favorite times of the race.   I have been really lucky this year as my age group has been assigned early heat times, so the intense anticipation has been minimal.  Last year, I was not so lucky, but I understand the race directors strategy of moving the groups around each year to be fair.  It will be interesting to find out what they where I will be starting next year.  I was in the fifth heat this year only 12 minutes after the first and immediately following Jaime’s heat.

I wished Jaime and Victoria luck and intensely watched them swim out to the first buoy.  Just a quick  disclaimer.  I totally and utterly suck at swimming.  For me triathlon is survive the swim and get on the bike where the competition really begins.  Not that I haven’t been working at it, but honestly, if for some reason I have to skip a workout, I’ll skip a swim before a bike, run or strength workout, but I digress.   The horn finally went off and my personal race had started.  I had been analyzing my swim prior to this, and just recently had the epiphany that maybe my pull of my arm through the water was possibly to shallow to allow me any kind of real speed.  I usually finish with the heat behind me, and even sometimes with the heat behind that one, but this time following my experiment of dipping my arm deeper and pulling a little harder, (Voila!!) I actually finished in the middle of my heat.  As I ran to my bike I noticed silver swim caps in front of me and coming behind me.  A huge smile came over my face as I was slipping into my bike shoes and put on my helmet and sunglasses.  I really couldn’t believe it.  At this point I already felt like a winner.

I ran out of transition, jumped on my bike and headed out to the course I knew so well, due to all of the brick workouts I completed here with my A-Train Triathlon family.  My goal; keep my speed above 21 while keeping a cadence under 96.  The whole ride was pretty uneventful.  The same word came out of my mouth more than anytime in the short period I have been racing.  I continually yelled the word “left” as I was passing other athletes on my right, of course it was disconcerting when I heard it coming from my left.  The ego boost came when I finished the final roundabout yelling “left” to a male athlete that had passed me at the beginning of my ride.  As, I came into transition the only thought was how fast can I get in and out of transition, start the run and whether or not I had pushed a little to hard on the bike.  According to my computer I had averaged well above 21, so was that too much?

I pulled on my shoes, grabbed my hat and ran out of transition buckling my race belt with my number attached to the front.  I grabbed water on the way, a little disappointed when it turned out to be very warm, but it was wet.  As I started trying to increase the cadence I noticed that my legs were very heavy, not a good sign.  I kept saying to myself this is fine, just lean from the ankles and let gravity fuel your momentum.  As much I told myself to lift my legs and lean a little more, my body refused to submit to what my head was commanding.   I continued through the first mile to the fort, and very, very slowly my legs started to loosen a little, and my cadence started to increase.  Passing the 1 mile aid station, I noticed a little more energy in my step and my hip flexors obeying my will.  Then I turned the corner and I remembered.  Crap!  The middle mile of this race is on SAND!  The lower extremities of my body surprised me as they adapted immediately to their new environment.  I guess all those beach runs with Amy Eck had actually done something for me.  All of the sudden I found myself enjoying the run.  My legs stretched out, by body leaned, my cadence finally reached 180 (I think) and I was flying.  Who would’ve thought feeling all that resistance under my feet would actually transform into moving faster?  Not me, but after begging my body to obey earlier I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so before my body decided any differently I picked up my pace.  Turning on the path back to the asphalt I caught another athlete with a 44 on his calf. Hmm…an athlete in my wave I will place in front of…cool.  With that thought completed I noticed another male runner in front of me with the number 41 on his calf.  My only thought; “You are mine!”  With the finish line in sight and the 3 mile marker on my left, I started to sprint with the finish line getting larger in my view and the runner in front of me coming closer and just a few feet from the timing mat, I caught him and jumped in front.  A short term goal accomplished.  I was so wiped out I could not immediately put my foot on the stool in order for the volunteer to remove my  chip.  I had to step over to a section of baracade and keep myself from falling for a quick second.  After a half a minute I recovered enough to get my chip removed, grab some water and meet some friends at the end of the finish line assembly.  Jaime had just finished and Speedy Nick was there already dried off and drinking some water.

With as exhausted as I was how was I ever going to this again in less than 12 hours?

After greeting some friends and coaches, watching some other friends and athletes come across the finish, I headed out to find some water and Gatorade.  I noticed some preliminary results were posted, so I walked over in the hopes mine might just be posted and as luck, good or bad, would have it they were.  My first split was the swim, and I was pleasantly surprised 7:53…cool.  Less than 2 min per 100m…I’ll take that considering my miserable swimming performances leading to this race.  Second split was the bike..26:51 averaging 22.3 MPH…Sweet! I never did that before.  Finally, a 26.35..5k run.  Well, I have run much faster, but not during a triathlon.  8:33 miles per minute…honestly I thought I did better, but I accepted it.  More Bricks, more bricks, more bricks.

Overall, 1:06:36.  A personal record(PR) since my last Sprint was 1:19 so you would think I would be happy and at first I was, until I looked at my place; 38th with only 67 athletes in my age group.  Not even in the top 50 percent.  That dropped me from my high pretty fast.  There were still runners on the course so maybe there a few more in my group out there where I can at least be in the top half.  As I check the results while I write this, it turns out there were I am ranked 39th out of 84 so I made it, just barely but I did make the top half.

The end of the morning consisted of congratulating friends, socializing and grabbing some breakfast at Lucky Dills in downtown St. Pete.  I couldn’t have imagined a better morning.

Next up, the two race day continues.

Hogwild Mud Run

I completed the Hogwild Mud Run this last weekend. To tell you the absolute truth it was a combination of fun and frustration. While I did enjoy the race, there were a couple of issues that would have made the experience better. Let me share my experience with you.

I arrived at the venue in Dover, a little outside of Plant city, around 11 am, following the advice of the email I received. Since my heat wasn’t until 12 pm the hour I had was more than enough time for me. I say “for me” because since I picked up my packet at Fit2Run the day before, which turned out to be smart. When I arrived, I walked up and saw this long line, so I jumped in and started talking to some of the other contestants in front of me. A group that had camouflage bandannas that had the word “FUBAR” on them(F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition), which I thought was totally cool. After realizing the line wasn’t really moving I asked a volunteer what was going on and was told the organization at the sign-in/registration table was really unorganized. It turned out since I already had my number I did not need to wait, I could go to a different table and just pick up my chip. Whew! There was no way I wanted to wait in that line in the 90-degree heat. I picked up my chip and headed back to my car since I also found there was no bag check. I dropped my shirt, put on my chip, grabbed my gloves and headed to the “expo” since I had plenty of time before my heat.

The “expo” wasn’t much but a few product vendors, the beer tent, and some food trucks, so I just decided to proceed to the start line with a quick stop at the porta potties. The start line was nowhere near as prominent as the Finish line and I almost had to ask where it was. Without issue, I found this small, area of ribbons which held a table and the start mats. I warmed up and stretched a bit and then headed into the start chute. While hanging out I met a couple that was in the military and another veteran race couple who were very nice and conversational. One of the veterans and I agreed we would like to see what we could do with this race time-wise just for curiosity sake so I set my watch and was ready to run whenever I could at a decent clip. After a bit, the official finally stated we had a few seconds until our heat started to, be ready. He blew the start horn and we were off.

This was the first time I decided to run in my Vibram Five Fingers, so I was a little hesitant at first, but after a few strides, I realized I felt pretty light and sped up a bit. The first couple of obstacles included a mud crawl, a small hurdle and a jump into a creek. The water was somewhat cool which was refreshing but there wasn’t really any markings to tell us where to go from there. We could move up onto a trail, but previously we were told by an official to stay in the creek and move to our left, which was still kind of confusing. I decided to do just that and took the lead. The water felt pretty heavy with debris but I pushed through and wouldn’t you know it but there was an arrow pointing out of the creek about 400 meters in front of us. We jumped out and I started running through a trail. I felt pretty good at this point and I was running at pretty good speed and felt pretty light because my shoes didn’t hold any of the water. I thought I am really going to enjoy these shoes. It turned out running was a waste since my next obstacle was a fifteen-foot rope wall and it had a line of people waiting to get over it. There was one rope on the far end that no one was using. After talking to one of the military guys, we decided to try it. This was a rope and the wall, while the other three ropes had some thin pieces of wood nailed to the wall to help this one had nothing. I thought what the hell, I did this before, I can do this. I had my gloves and my shoes, no problem, right? Wrong! I climbed about halfway up before my grip slipped due to the rope being soaked. I wrapped my arm through the rope for a second try but I realized I didn’t have the grip strength to pull myself up. What a wuss. I ended up getting back in line and using the medium level rope with two thin boards only on my left side to get over. Of course, I had to go back to the end of the line and waited about 10 minutes to get to it.

The next obstacle was a reverse ladder wall where the rungs where on an incline backward. It wasn’t hard for me and I got over it pretty quickly and since most people in front of me were adept to this one I only had to wait about five minutes to start. There were a couple of mud pits to run through a quick cargo wall and then a sandbag carry about a quarter mile around a lake, of which I actually ran. the bag was about 25 pounds give or take so I didn’t feel it was all that difficult. Awkward but not difficult. That ended with sliding down these tubes into deep water where you had to swim to the far end to get out. There were also ropes to pull yourself across if warranted, but seeing as though I needed to get in as much swimming as possible, I just swam it.

Continuing on from there was pretty fast. There were some trails in-between getting over barrels in the pond, another mud pit, and a haystack. I was surprised running after the obstacles. I expected to be somewhat winded but I was able to keep a pretty good pace running though. Of course, I was stopped dead at the monkey bars waiting another 15 minutes. The monkey bars were on an incline up and then back down. My arms were a bit exhausted, but I thought I had enough strength to get through. No such luck, 2 rungs to go and they gave out. Since I have been training more legs and core than anything else due to the triathlons, here is where I decided I need to get my upper body strength back, but I digress. back to the race.

Continuing on was a rope climb over a trash compactor, a very slippery hill, and another cargo net. The Vibram’s did not let me down during the climbs, when other athletes were slipping back I had no problem maintaining a grip in the mud. I was thinking how much of a believer I came to be in these shoes during those obstacles.

The next mile or so coming to the conclusion of the race included a long trail run with hills, moguls and a hay bale climb. I started passing people up during the run. I was really surprised how comfortable I felt out in the trails. It really felt like a nice change from the asphalt of Bayshore and Davis Island. I thought to myself about adding some trail runs to my training, just to break it up a bit.

The conclusion of the race ended with a muddy hill climb to a slide into a puddle, and finally a mud crawl under electrified barbed wire. The interesting part was the first ten feet, or so, was dry compacted dirt, but the last was wet, nasty, thick mud that clung to me like white on rice. I was caked and covered with this grimy, thick, gross mud that weighed me down as if I was carrying twenty-five-pound kettlebells. To make matters worse it smelled so bad I was wondering if maybe it was not mud at all.

I took a quick picture and headed to another line where there were some man-made showers where people were hosing off. That line didn’t move either, so I followed some other athletes back to the creek and jumped in. After the race, it was not only great to get the mud off, but the water was cool and felt so awesome I could have hung out there forever. All good things come to an end.

I was a little surprised that of all the races I participated in, this was the one race where I didn’t come across a single person I knew. It was kind of lonely actually. I must make a better effort to coordinate to run with friends next time.

On my way out of the park, back to my car, I did see something I never saw before. A bull decided to run right through the expo into the woods. Mooing and galloping like you see on TV but never in real life. He looked pretty majestic and strong with a brown and white coat and a full set of horns. I did see him through the trees trotting away until he stopped to graze a little. It was definitely an interesting experience.

Just a quick epilogue. The last heat was scheduled for 1 pm but at 1:30 as I was heading out I noticed a new heat just getting started. After talking with some other athletes, it turned out that if I had not picked up my packet early, I would have had to wait over two hours in that line. I would have missed my heat and had to start much later.

Due to the waiting, I ended up with a time of 91 minutes and change. Not the best. I will have to sign up a little earlier for the next mud run and obtain an earlier heat in order to actually compete and find what I could actually do. I do, however, encourage all my running and triathlon friends to give these mud runs a chance. They are really a lot of fun despite the 45-minute shower needed afterward.