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.

Just not willing to put in the effort for a clever title.

            It’s been awhile, but I’m back on the blog! A quick mental break from revising my dissertation needed to be in the cards for the night, so here I am. I don’t even remember the last time I posted on here, so here’s a bit of a summary (I’m probably not going to take the time to proof read this, so sorry for the typos):

Because life has been a bit overwhelming, running has had to take a bit of a back seat. When I moved to Minneapolis this past summer, I was coming off of a 1:07:26 half marathon (easily the best race of my spring season) and my legs were finally showing signs of coming back from the sacral fracture from the previous fall and my fractured knee cap that I suffered in the spring season. Running was finally on the upswing, but transitioning from being a graduate student to taking a new job at 3M left me a little pressed for time. Did I mention that I also bought a house and am still revising my dissertation? Through this transition, running was going absolutely great and I am pretty sure I was the most fit that I’ve ever been. However, I wasn’t exactly taking care of myself and I neglected somewhat useful things such as sleeping, core work, stretching, massaging, etc. I started to get a “tight” hip right before my first race in Minnesota, the Lumberjack 10 miler. I entered the race and 3 miles in I knew something was definitely wrong with my hip. As it turns out, I finished the race and I had yet another sacral stress fracture. This was my second sacral stress fracture in a year which left me a bit bummed and erased my goal of hitting the Olympic Trials time standard for the marathon. My time that I ran at the 2010 Twin Cities Marathon was 1:50 slow (I ran 2:20:50 and needed to run 2:19). In an effort to not lose all of my fitness and get outside, I took up cycling and before I knew it, I went on 100 mile ride. Shortly there after, I ended up piling my bike and breaking my collar. I must say, I really did not understand just how much I use my dominant arm until I couldn’t use it. Even sleeping became difficult because moving at night would pleasantly awake me with a jolt of pain. Sleeping on my back also took a little getting used to. 7 weeks after suffering my sacral stress fracture and 17 days after breaking my collar bone, it was September 11^th, and I ran 4 miles. I had to stabilize my right arm, but I was at least able to get outside and get my heart rate up. Before long, I committed to running Club Nationals with the running group that I have been running with in Minneapolis, Run N Fun. At that point, I thought I could run sub 32 at Club Nationals on December 10^th. Training did not go well. I felt border-line injured after completing any workout and my body did not respond well to anything. I hopped in a couple xc races prior to club nationals and they did not go well.

October 22^nd, Jack’s Race – 6k – 20:04 (5:23 pace)

November 12^th, Minnesota State Champ – 7.5k – 25:14 (5:25 pace)

To put these to races in perspective, I averaged 5:22 per mile at the Twin Cities marathon with falling apart the last 5 miles. I wish I could say training went well between November 12^th and December 10^th, but it really did not. I ended up having to take 2 days off and everything really was a struggle. 10 mile runs were becoming easy, but any workout essentially left me crippled. I ran a 21.5 mile run (which was followed by one of my days off) and I did everything that I could to get ready to run an xc 10k in Seattle. The great thing about running team races is you have to race to help the team. In my mind, I thought I still might be able to break 32 minutes and finish somewhere around 100^th despite the fact that no workout or race had indicated that I should be able to. As race day approached, I had been having an issue with my left foot. Unfortunately, it flared up right before the warm up. Remembering the 10 mile race back in July, I was honestly considering not toeing the line. Honestly, walking in my trainers was not even feeling ok. I talked myself into at least putting on my spikes and running a few strides. As it turns out, the spikes that I had with me didn’t really allow my foot to move and it made the foot fairly tolerable. Before I knew it, the gun went off and the race had begun. I started a couple rows back from the start line which left me a lot further back than I would have liked to start. The foot was responding fairly well and at the mile mark, I believe we had a group of 4 former La Crosse runners all within 10 meters of each other (Bill W. Cory H., Jimmy P, and myself). At this point, I could tell that I was definitely well outside of the top 100 so I decided to try to move through the field. From the mile to the 5k, I passed quite a few runners and was moving toward the top 100 or so. Right before the 5k, I stepped in a hole caught myself, but my hamstring cramped up. Disbelief went through my mind as well as a million additional thoughts. My lack of fitness and core strength really began to shine. At this point in the race, I was a scoring runner for our team and I really had no idea how well the other guys were running. I backed off for about 100 meters and my hamstring fell back into place and I was able to resume racing. I think I came through 5k in about 15:58. The second half of the race was somewhat uneventful. I held my position within the field for the most part. Maybe I passed a few more runners and was also passed by a couple. I honestly thought I was fading pretty badly, but I ended up crossing the line in 32:10, 109^th place (5:11 pace). While this isn’t even close to my PR, I was very happy with the performance since I had only been “running” for 3 months and I really struggled through training. The trip to Seattle was a lot of fun and a much needed mental break.

            In the aftermath of the race, my legs were extremely beat up and my foot was extremely sore. While the foot injury could be the beginnings of a stress fracture, I’m somewhat optimistic that it’s not yet. In the 6 days after club nationals, I have now run twice. I wasn’t planning on taking any days off originally, but my body definitely needed it. I’m hoping to get back to running every day and building a solid aerobic base from here on out. Until my thesis is completed, I’m somewhat restricted by the time that I can spend training and doing my normal recovery exercises. For the time being I’m just going to focus on being consistent, getting out the door, and enjoying being outside. While the last year of running has not been kind to me, I’m definitely not ready to give up competitive running, and I am focusing on getting better over the next 4 years. For me, that starts with getting healthy.

            It was extremely weird to not being racing at Club Nationals in a Playmakers uniform, but I am very fortunate to have another great shoe store/running club in Minneapolis in Run N Fun. I really have been lucky to land in areas with great running communities. I honestly don’t think I really would have gotten back into competitive running had it not been for Playmakers. I definitely will always be grateful to the store and people affiliated with it. It was great seeing some of the Playmakers guys out in Seattle, and I’m looking forward to my first trip back to Michigan (TBD). My plans for the spring racing season are completely up in the air, but I’ll post as things become a little clearer.

Barefoot running and weekly update

            As my one poll would indicate, I am interested on people’s perception regarding minimalist running. Growing up, I always thought that more cushion would protect your body and help fend off injury. Recently, barefoot running and the famous Vibram 5 Fingers have become very popular. The question is, how beneficial is barefoot running? The simple answer is, it’s great. It strengthens your arches, promotes forefoot striking, and really just overall helps your running mechanics. On the other hand, the lack of arch support can lead to shin/calf problems since muscles such as the soleus attach run from your calf muscle and attach at your arch. For me, I love the feeling of running in minimalist shoes, but there is a risk/reward issue where I’m not sure if the gains out weigh the injury risk. I am still somewhat undecided on my opinion on barefoot running, but for the time being, I’ll probably stick with arch support. For those interested, check out the link below, featured on Flotrack. If the link wouldn’t work, search Thirsty Thursdays and there should be a talk with Jack Daniels. It’s really a great piece that spurs thought. I really enjoy listening to Jack Daniels because he really does consider most possibilities and he encourages runners to think about what they’re doing vs pushing the latest fads.

  

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/234673-Saucony-Thirsty-Thursdays-with-Jack-Daniels/video/335086-4-Barefoot-Running-Thirsty-Thursday

As for my training, this week was a little rough. My body is struggling to adapt to the heat and dehydration has been an issue which I believe has lead to some unwanted muscle spasming. I think I probably need to cut out some of my morning coffee since I seem to be drinking a ridiculous amount these days and really focus on taking in fluids. My workouts are not eye-popping, but I think they’ll continue to help me build toward my marathon goals. I still have approximately 4 months of training, so I’m trying to keep myself reserved. I am certainly in the base building stage and my workouts designed to break up the week and have a little fun without pushing my body to the edge. Additionally, I’m officially in my last week as a Michigan resident. While I’m extraordinarily excited to move closer to home and live in another great area for running, Minneapolis, I really will miss the people in Michigan. Deciding to pursue graduate school at MSU really was one of the best decisions that I’ve made in my life. I’ll definitely look forward to my future visits back to Michigan.

Workouts

Sun May 29^th – 20 easy.

Mon – 11 easy

Tues – 9 mile cut down. Goal: 6:30-5:10. Actual: 6:14, 6:14, 6:01, 5:57, 5:48, 5:36, 5:30, 5:24, 5:17. I didn’t do a very good job at controlling the pace early. The last 3 miles didn’t feel very good. My bum muscles were spasming which I think was due to dehydration. My body is struggling to get adjusted to running in the heat.

Wed – 10 easy with Strides at the end

Thurs – Goal: 3 x 2 mile at MGP (5:11), 2 mile warm up transition straight in, 1 mile brisk recovery. Actual 2 warm up (12:34), 2 miles 10:24 (5:15, 5:09), 1 mile 6:04, 2 mile 10:22 (5:10, 5:12), stopped workout due to booty muscles spasming. I could have run the 3^rd set, but I really didn’t feel great about my form and the point of the workout was really to work on stride efficiency vs pushing my body to its limit. Even after the 2^nd interval, I felt 100% recovered after a mile, but I really didn’t like how my muscles were responding on the 2^nd interval. I ended up just running a brisk pace in and doing strides at the end instead. Didn’t run the workout precisely how I wanted, but accomplished something without suffering setbacks.

Fri – 10 miles easy

Sat – 10 miles easy, strides

85 mile week. I’m planning on hitting 85 and maybe upwards of 90 for the up and coming week. However, given that I struggled a little bit this week, I’ll likely hold the miles down to 85.