Monday, August 16, 2010

Pace, Patience, & Pattern


In reading several articles as well as other premier runner blogs, I have learned that to be consistent with your results means you have to be disciplined. I am bothered that so many people who aspire to lose weight and change their health expect things to drastically change overnight. Just think about it this way, there is no way you could have got that big promotion at work just for showing up on the second day of the job. There is no way you could graduate college with a bachelors degree but just filling out the entrance application. It takes time and discipline.


When training for a race you typically want to establish a finishing time goal. I have met so many people who tell me their goal is to finish, well I agree but I also know deep down they too have a specific time they are shooting for. Second to achieve that time you must establish your pace, this refers to the amount of time you need to run each leg or the race. If you are wanting to run a 5k in 24 minutes, then you want to aim for just under a 8 minute mile, you get the idea. It takes patience to train for a race, don't' expect yourself to be able to go out on the first day and meet your race goal and if you can, then you need to bump your race goal up tremendously. Last of all you need to establish a pattern with your workouts so that your body can start to adjust to all the changing that you are doing to it.


This can be applied to any type of workout that you are participating in, whether it is biking, walking, yoga, pilates...etc. Whatever you are implementing into your life to reestablish your fitness take into consideration these factors and keep having fun! It's worth it.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Yoga anyone?


"Who would ever do yoga?" "I mean only crazy people who like to hum to themselves do that" that is exactly what I used to say to myself when I first heard of yoga and definitely when I first saw people who were doing yoga. "You do all these hmmm's and bend and shape your body, why would you do that?"


I have to say that I have changed my thinking of yoga. I actually did yoga this morning and strongly recommend it to all runners who aren't doing yoga. I am probably one of the few runners who hasn't been doing yoga. I promise it is weird at first but it will definitely improve your flexibility and your overall posture and body strength.


There are many great ways to find out about yoga, I recommend going to runnersworld.com and learning about runners yoga. I have been doing the Yoga DVD from P90X but it is pretty tough and time intensive.


so get out your old workout tights and ditch those shoes for some barefoot yoga!!! it's worth it I promise.


let me know what you think?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Not Feeling it....


I am sure we all have days when you wake up at 4:30am to the sound of your dog throwing up and you realize you have to get up in a few minutes to go run? What? that hasn't happened to you....well that is how our morning started off this morning. Luckily the dog did not throw up but was just coughing heavily. (There is a point I promise)


This morning as I was getting up preparing for a speed workout. I was definitely not feeling it, I was tired, had a lot on my mind concerning work and just not feeling it. Well I kissed Megan good bye for the day and headed out on my mile warm up. Got to the track to do my speed work and it was closed to the public, so I was even more upset and even considered heading back home. I didn't.


I fought through and decided to do the same workout I did on Monday and actually finished with a great workout. So my point today is even though you may wake up and your mind is telling you "Stay in bed" get your butt out of bed and surprise yourself. The hot weather will soon be fading away and the morning runs will be sublime.


Ran 5.15 miles in 39:55

Friday, August 6, 2010

Never too old to run in the sprinkler.


As a kid I remember specifically one summer day, my brother and I were stuck at home to entertain ourselves. It was a very hot & sticky day, we didn't' want to be stuck indoors and we as any other young kid knew that the solution to our entertainment involved "Water". Now we did not have a swimming pool, unless you want to count our 10K gallon feeding trough. So we decided to set up our slip-n-slide. Yes all was right in the world! So we played and played in that slip-n-slide until we had made a nice mud patch in our neighbors yard....needless to say mom and dad weren't so happy. The next day we were signed up for day camps..haha


This morning as I was out on my short run, even though it was a much cooler morning than usual I was still quite hot and sweaty. I happen to run upon a restaurant that was watering their grass. The side walk that I was running on happen to be drenched with water and I was noticing the path of the sprinklers were going to cover me with water as I kept running, all of a sudden those memories of growing up during the summer came back to me. I ran through those sprinklers, got a little wet, cooled down and continued on my way.


August is hot!! If you are out running in it I recommend detouring off your planned route to find some yards being watered. Staying cool and hydrated is very important. I also recommend running early in the mornings. If you do decide to run through a sprinkler, be careful not to soak your shoes, you definitely don't want to get blisters......oh and don't wake up your neighbors!


have fun and keep running!!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

My alarm clock is ringing and I can't move...

Have you ever been so sore that you can't hardly move in the mornings. Or you know your feet are on the ground but you can't really feel them. Or how about when your alarm clock is sounding off, screaming at you to get out of bed but for some reason you can't really move your body to turn it off? That was me this morning!

As the alarm was going off, luckily it was music so not so annoying, I tried to lift my arm up to turn off the alarm but for some reason it would not budge. See usually I have no problem turning off the alarm pretty much the instant it begins, not today. Long story short, I managed to work my way to turning off the alarm, woke Megan up and we shuffled our way out of bed. This morning I had a tempo run that I needed to perform and I was dragging at the start.

Shortly after Megan left to head to the coffee shop I headed out on my 5 mile tempo run. Starting was rough, I was stiff and sore, and well I will just admit still asleep. Today I had a hand-held water bottle to keep me cool (Thanks Bill!!) and I used it quite a bit to splash me down and to wake me up.

My run ended well, I got the time that I needed, and ended the workout with a nice cool quarter mile walk back home. My advice today is ice down your knees, thighs, and calf muscles shortly after you complete your workout. I know the ice is painful but just think of the nasty heat outside. I promise if you do ice for 15-20 minutes your recovery will be so much better. As you can tell I did not ice two days ago and it bit me in the butt today.

Keep up the good work!!

God is Good!!

Monday, August 2, 2010

16 Weeks and Counting.....Day 1

After computer issues and writer's block, and well I will just list several excuses that could possibly make me not look so bad since I have not posted in a long time. Anyways through all of that jibberish I am saying that I am back, my posts will resume.

Today starts my 16 week training plan for the Route 66 Marathon that takes place on November 21st. Over the last few weeks I have been planning my training schedule, mapping my routes and preparing for bad weather days. So yesterday I was getting very excited looking forward to waking up at 5 and heading out the door.

It's funny how excitement for each of us is different, usually when I am excited I can't sleep and that is just what happened last night. I last remember looking at the clock at 12:05 thinking wow...this is going to be fun in the morning!!...great attitude huh?

So as I stumble around this morning getting ready to head out for my 6 mile, easy pace run Megan is getting ready to head to Perry to volunteer at a coffee shop. She is very excited to be doing that, she has been talking about it all summer long, and today is her day. Meanwhile I am trying to wake myself up to make sure I can squeeze out these 6 miles.

I say goodbye to Meg, watch her drive off and then start following the road leading to my start point. I am doing great during the run, the sad thing is I can still feel heat coming off the asphalt at 5am (fall can't come sooner). Around 3 miles, I start to get into a good feel of things, I made one stop to stretch and then continued on. Well at around the 4.5 mile mark I came upon an older gentlemen probably in his mid-late sixties. He was running too, I strolled up next to him and gave him a few words of encouragement and we actually ran together for a while. He had a shirt on that read "Running Challenge" after a little conversation he told me he was training for a local 5k coming up. I was encouraged by this man, beyond me in years but still pounding the pavement with great effort. Shortly after that I ended my 6 miles. Cooled off and started my day.

Marathon Training Checklist
1. Shake the Nerves and Excitement........check
2. Get plenty of sleep.....................working on it
3. Drink lots of water.............................check
4. Have Fun!!!