Training Update and Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon

            This morning I met up with a group of runners from the Run N Fun/Twin Cities Track Club and this allowed to do two things: (1) Hit 80 miles for the week; and (2) Hit my longest streak of consecutive days running since my last sacral stress fracture that I suffered this past summer. ……..18 days in a row (Previous best streak was 17 days). While I’m not afraid to take a day off if I need to, I generally take a day off of running every 1-3 months so this past stint of training has not been characteristic of my training habits. While I could go off in a tangent about how the last year of running has not been “ideal” for me, it has been a learning experience that should set up well for the next 4 years of training.

            Operation find my lower abs is currently in affect. While I was 153 lbs after the holiday season, I’ve cut my weight back down to 148 lbs which is a long ways off of my ideal running weight, but I’m heading in the right direction. While I’ve cut a lot of weight in a short time span, I imagine the rate at which I lose weight will slow down over the up and coming months. All of my PR’s have come at times where my weight was in the 137-142 lb range so my goal is to get back down where I should be. While I wasn’t given a naturally sleek runner’s body, I was given a large set of lungs so hopefully I can put the work in so I can take advantage of the talents that I have.

            My last week of training was somewhat uneventful which was great news. My week started out with a long run of ~15.4 miles with Paul Limpf and Dan Allen. It really was a relaxed effort which was exactly what I set out to do. For the time being, the goal of my long runs is to get time on my feat to train my body to burn fat stores early in runs rather than glycogen. As many people know, this is a key component for racing longer distances. On Tuesday I met up with the Run N Fun group and had a little quicker effort. Wednesday was my treadmill cut-down “workout”.

Mile 1 - 6:18 (9.5 mph)

Mile 2 – 6:00 (10 mph)

Mile 3 – 5:49 (10.3 mph)

Mile 4 – 5:40 (10.6 mph)

Mile 5 – 5:27 (11 mph)

Mile 6 – 5:18 (11.3 mph)

Mile 7 – 5:10 (11.6 mph)

7 to 7.25 at 9.5 mph

7.25 – 7.5 at 10 mph

7.5 – 8 at 10.3 mph

8-8.5 at 10.6 mph

8.5-9 at 11 mph

9-9.25 at 11.3 mph

9.25-9.5 at 11.6 mph

9.5-9.75 at 12.1 mph (Just wanted to see if the treadmill went over 12 mph)

9.75-10 at 9.5 mph

As you may guess, I didn’t necessarily plan this out ahead of time. Instead, I knew that I wanted to run a cut-down workout and the type of effort that I wanted to give so I adjusted the workout accordingly. The purpose of the workout is to get a sustained effort, work on stride efficiency at various speeds, work on taking in fluids while running, and not tax my body in the process. While this workout does not “show you’re in shape”, it’s definitely a workout that gets you in shape. For the up and coming season, I’m really going to focus on recognizing the purpose of each work out and stick to the purpose. On Thursday I ran a 13 mile easy mid-long run and filled in the rest of the week to hit 80 miles. All in all, the last 2 weeks of running have been very successful and I hope to continue to have consistent training. I’m planning on running 80-85 mpw in February to continue to build a foundation for the spring season. Getting healthy and consistent is my number one priority for the up and coming month.

            The last update is that I’m officially going to gear my training to peak for the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon (i.e. the half marathon at Grandma’s marathon). For the next 2 years, this race is the USAtf Half Marathon National Championships. I’ve heard great things from people that have competed in the past years. Additionally, the race is providing athlete compensation with a nice purse as well as time standard incentives. The Event Organizers are making a premiere national event which should create some buzz and attract a fast field (http://grandmasmarathon.com/site/). To anyone looking for a great late spring event, there’s about 5.5 months to get ready. If anyone from Michigan is running the race, let me know.

Correct Training Weight and 2012 Tenative Racing Plan

            After club nationals, I had to take a few days off running due to some foot issues that I was having. The foot began to feel “ok” and I resumed training. I hit 80 miles the week of Christmas and ran every day of the week which has been uncommon for me since my last sacral stress fracture. I have been trying to get in shape, but I’ve felt as though I’m on the cusp of another major injury since resuming running (i.e. about the last 4 months). While training the week of Christmas seemed to go well, my foot issues have resurfaced which has lead to more interrupted training. The bottom line is, I can’t keep training the way that I have the last 4 months. I thought that origin of my problem was doing workouts too soon, but I’ve stopped running workouts and my issues have not gone away. Over the last 4 months it has really become quite obvious to me that I really just need to start over and go back to what lead to my PR’s over the 2009-2010 seasons which is really getting down to the right running weight.

            As many people know, my college running career was not necessarily successful and was filled with many injuries. My average running weight in college varied but was in the range 149-153 lbs. Keeping in mind that I’m 5’7”, that’s not exactly a runner’s build and I wasn’t exactly a chiseled runner at that weight. Conversely, when I ran my last marathon in 2010, I was 137-139 lbs and I still think I probably had a few unnecessary lbs. While I suffered a season ending injury that year, the injury was due to feeling invincible and training rather unintelligently. While one way to drop weight is to increase mileage, this method has always lead to me to an injury. Alternatively, I have to drop weight and increase my mileage as my weight goes down. Trying to cut weight while training is mentally taxing and challenging for me, but there are plenty of websites and phone applications that now allow for you to easily track your calorie intake vs calories burned. While the calories burned are not accurately calculated since everyone’s metabolic rates are different, the caloric intake is. To lose a lb a week, you have to burn 500 more calories a day than you consume. While there is preliminary guess work involved, I am guessing that I burn between 3000-3500 calories a day after training is factored in. In a perfect world, I would like to lose 1 lb per week which means I have to take in between 2500-3000 calories per day, but there are going to be days where I have a couple beers or eat a treat and go above my caloric allowance. As a result, I’m setting a more realistic goal to lose a lb every 1-2 weeks. Currently, my weight is 150-151 lbs so I do in fact have quite a bit of weight to lose.

2012 Running Outlook

            First and foremost, I do not plan on toeing a start line until my weight is 146 lbs or lower. As of right now, I’m leaning toward targeting the half marathon at Grandma’s marathon for my peak race season. This gives me about 6 months to get fit which should be plenty of time and allow for me to not rush into things. While I love racing, I may have to sit out a couple early season races to avoid pushing myself before my body is ready to be pushed. My two goals for the spring season are to get my weight down and eventually work on speed again. I think I can get into PR territory this season, but it is probably unlikely to expect a huge PR given how the last year and a half of training has gone. Realistically, I am building a foundation for the fall/winter season. That being said, if I get the right day where I’m feeling good, I won’t shy away from attempting to hit a big PR, but the season will not be a disappointment if a PR doesn’t happen. While my fall season isn’t completely mapped out yet, I have some rough target races:

October - Twin Cities Marathon, TC 10, or the USAtf national championship marathon (not sure where it is this year).

December – USAtf Club Nationals

January – Austin Half Marathon

February – USAtf Cross Country Nationals

This is a very tentative targeted race schedule which could change, but I’ve always found that having races to target for the up and coming season helps get me through tough times in races of the current season. My ultimate goal is to be fit and run USAtf Cross Country Nationals, but I’ll only run this race if I feel that I’m fit going in. While I have an itch to run a marathon, I’m staying open to the possibility of not running one this year, but time will tell. I’m pretty sure that my next marathon will be the Twin Cities, USAtf National Championships (unsure of the location), or the Lansing Marathon (spring 2013).

            Currently, I hit 60 miles this past week on 6 days of running and one of the 6 days I only ran 4 miles. The 4 mile day and day off of running were due to my foot issues once again. While I only ran 60 miles this past week, I’ve begun to implement a little bit of biking and have dedicated a little time toward massage therapy. I’m hoping to hit 70 miles this week (if I am able to run all 7 days), but the number one priority is to get my weight under 150 lbs. After the holidays, my weight was up to 153 lbs so I’m slowly progressing toward my goal weight in a healthy manner. While I don’t know if I can or want to get down to 137-139 lbs this spring, I’m hoping to at least get back down to 142 lbs for Grandma’s half. For now, I’m keeping my long runs down in mileage and running easy to reduce the pounding that my body is absorbing. I really need to get my foot issue resolved and this seems to be helping a little. I’m not sure what the technical “injury” is, but like most injuries, it is due too much pounding. My foot is beginning to get better, and I think it will be fine as long as I correct the root of the problem.