Running is Not Enough

Sadly, I have fallen behind on writing my blog.  I can safely say that I have missed at least three entries. ..........

Two weeks ago, when I would have written my next entry, I attended a two-day track coach’s clinic.  The entire following week I was busy writing, giving, grading, and returning tests to all my classes before they left for “winter break”.  That weekend, I embarked on a 400-mile (each way) road trip to run a marathon.  Each of these events absorbed my limited free time.  And now, Christmas is calling, which is a tremendously busy time for me.  We have roughly five Christmas gatherings we celebrate with relatives and both of our kids celebrate birthdays.  So, I am writing this from the passenger seat of a car while on a 100-mile Christmas Day drive.

I have tried to have a discussion topic for each entry before laying out my training, but with the time crunch I plan to keep this one short.  I started running road races two years after high school in 2001.  Like most runners, I was self-coached.  So, I did some web searches and jumped onto a sub-18 5k running plan as my first training model.  Within four weeks on the plan, I ran a low 17-minute 5k, which was a PR.  I would go on to bring my PR down to 16:38 on that plan, before ultimately starving and then injuring myself.  I could go on for pages discussing my various running plans, alterations, and many mistakes between then and now.  After a decade, I am now extremely confident in my ability to plan and execute a training regimen.

It wasn’t until the fall of 2009, though, that I realized a major problem with all the running plans available online or in most books.  They only emphasize the running part of being an endurance athlete.  There is little if any discussion on flexibility, strength training, or even mental toughness. That fall, I began doing general strength (GS) exercises.  I picked up the majority of my GS routine from the Iowa State cross country team, which made a big resurgence under new coach Corel Ihmels.  I now include a lunge matrix for power and stability, a back and pedestal routine for a strong core, and a hip routine for strength and flexibility.  I also do several pushups, some minor weightlifting, and a dynamic abdominal routine multiple times each week.  The result has been fewer injuries, which led to more consistent training, which led to greatly improved race times.

With the knowledge I’ve gained from writing training plans over the years and from my own mistakes and injuries, I began training a runner outside of the high school setting.  The growth I have seen from her has been amazing.  After most runs, we finish up by doing GS, which I generalize as “stretches” for my 3-year old son.  He often tries to participate with us and during one session he crawled under her during a push-up.  For several days thereafter, he talked about doing “stretch-ups” with us.  Bottom line, I highly recommend GS for runners.

Must like the abbreviated topic, I’m also going to skip going into full detail for each of my runs over the past three weeks.  Instead, here is an abbreviated version. 

Dec 4 – Dec 10

This week I ran all my runs with Courtney and did no additional running.  This was my last week prior to starting my 18-week training plan leading into the Boston Marathon.

Sunday – 12 miles – 1:31:11 (7:36 pace)

Monday – 6 miles – 45:19 (7:33 pace)

Tuesday – 7 miles – 48:35 (6:56 pace)

Wednesday – 7 miles – 55:43 (7:58 pace)

Thursday – 10 mile – 1:15:30 (7:33 pace)

Friday – 6 miles – 48:30 (8:05 pace)

Saturday – 7 miles – 50:36 (7:14 pace)

For the week: 55 miles – 6:55:24 (7:33 pace) 

Dec 11 – Dec 17

This was the first week in my 18-week training plan for Boston.  I missed the key workout of the week, a 9-mile day highlighted with a very hard tempo effort in the middle.  Instead, I played in a charity basketball game on Wednesday night, which left me very sore in places I'm not used to aching.  I hit the rest of the workouts for the week and also knew that I would be running a very hard effort the next Sunday, so I felt okay with the miss.
Sunday – 6 miles – 36:35 (6:06 pace) + 10 miles after – 1:14:09 (7:25 pace)

Monday – 6 miles – 45:57 (7:40 pace)

Tuesday – 7 miles – 51:11 (7:18 pace) + 5 miles after – 33:48 (6:46 pace)

Wednesday – at least 2 miles of sprinting during 35 minutes of playing basketball

Thursday – 10 miles – 1:10:37 (7:04 pace)

Friday – 6 miles – 48:32 (8:05 pace)

Saturday – 2 miles – 15:45 (7:52 pace) + 3 miles – 24:10 (8:03 pace) on drive stops

For the week: 57 miles – 6:40:44 – (7:17 pace) .. Wed ignored in pace calculation


Dec 18 – Dec 24

Sunday – Marathon Race – 2:43:09 (6:14 pace) .. 26.5 miles total

Monday – 3 miles – 20:42 (6:54 pace) + 3 miles – 25:27 (8:29 pace) on drive stops

Tuesday – 7 miles – 51:11 (7:18 pace) + 2 miles after - 13:14 (6:37 pace) w/strides

Wednesday – 11 miles – 1:14:53 (6:48 pace)

Thursday – 6 miles – 47:12 (7:52 pace)

Friday – 10 miles - 1:15:02 (7:30 pace) + 3 miles after – 18:04 (6:01 pace)

Saturday – 6.5 miles – 43:45 (6:44 pace)

For the week: 78 miles – 8:52:39 (6:51 pace)