At last its back to the track. I belong to a running club called North Jersey Masters. One of the oldest and best in the state. I joined just one year ago. It has definitely taken me to the next level in running. Now I have an entire community of runners who I have come to know. Some of who I have become friends with. We train at a high school track every tuesday evening from the end of March until sometime in November. We have two professional coaches. Tuesdays we do speed workouts. We always have a choice of workouts. The workout will depend on what you are training for: eg. a shorter race such as a 5k to 10k or a long rac such as a 1/2 marathon or full marathon. I never know exactly which workout to do since I run both. I am training for the NY Marathon again and will also run 3-5 half marathons this year as well as as many other shorter races as I can fit into the running season. I have already run one 1/2 marathon this year and about 5 other races. I love the track workouts.
At the track we are always trying to improve our speed. I am amazed at how well I have done; how far I have improved. I forget about my age. It doesnt matter. I do as well as I can every week and have improved immensely in a short period of time.
Its all about effort, belief and persistence.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Running in the Rain
I dont know what happened to me last night. I had a race scheduled for the morning in Central Park. The NYRR 8000M race. A wierd distance right? Its an 8K. Now I have run 5Ks 10K, 4 milers, 5 milers, 1/2 marathons and full marathons-but never an 8K. I was so looking forward to it. And then when the weather hit and threatened menacingly to OH MY GOD...RAIN...... I wimped out. OUCH!!!!!! why oh why. I have run before in the rain. Last year i ran the Scotland Run...a 10 K in CP in the rain... I DIDNT MELT...and I ran the Liberty Half Marathon in the rain...and guess what..> I DIDNT MELT. Yes a little more challenging, but fun nontheless. Isnt what we runners live for the challenge? The challenge of running not against others...but against ourselves. Overcoming challenges and hardships. Its what running...and indeed life is all about. If you back down from one challenge...whose to say what others you will back down from. And so I am truly disappointed in myself. The lure of the extra sleep; of not taking that trek into NYC at 5:30 am in the rain; to find a parking spot, pick up my number at Road Runner on 89th street and 5th ave; get over to the start at 102nd St and run and then drive home in wet clothes; only to then have to go..yes to the Running Store to work a full day; that's what I gave in to...the lure of the blanket. Now as I reflect back...that was a big cop out by me. But a lesson learned.
Running is about challenges- about PERSONAL records; setting goals; doing our best to meet them; not being afraid of challenges or of defeat. Its about achievements and trying to do your best. Rain should not stop our quest to achieve.
Food for thought!!!!
Running is about challenges- about PERSONAL records; setting goals; doing our best to meet them; not being afraid of challenges or of defeat. Its about achievements and trying to do your best. Rain should not stop our quest to achieve.
Food for thought!!!!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
SPRING INTO TRACK WORKOUTS
Wow....winter is almost over. Daylight savings time is just about here. Will be light longer. Running later instead of earlier. Lose the layers and the wool hat. Lose the tights...HELLO shorts. AND HELLO TRACK WORKOUTS.
One of my most favorite parts of running is to do the track workouts with North Jersey Masters. I started last year running with North Jersey Masters. I had never run with an organized group like this. Speed workouts every Tuesday night at the HS track with Coach Joel. Doing repeats; doing strides; doing warm ups and cool downs. Running at a pace faster then you are used to. My times last year improved dramatically at every distance. From the mile to the half marathon. And yes even the marathon. I owe so much to this group. I made great friends. I so look forward to these workouts. North Jersey Masters...go
One of my most favorite parts of running is to do the track workouts with North Jersey Masters. I started last year running with North Jersey Masters. I had never run with an organized group like this. Speed workouts every Tuesday night at the HS track with Coach Joel. Doing repeats; doing strides; doing warm ups and cool downs. Running at a pace faster then you are used to. My times last year improved dramatically at every distance. From the mile to the half marathon. And yes even the marathon. I owe so much to this group. I made great friends. I so look forward to these workouts. North Jersey Masters...go
Monday, March 1, 2010
HEAD FOR THE HILLS---speed work in disguise
Frank Shorter once said that hills are speed work in disguise. Dennis Barker, head coach ofTeam USA Minnesota, agrees, which is why he's an advocate of using different types of hill workouts throughout the training cycle. Barker says, "I really don't know any real good runners out there today that don't do some form of hill training."
Let's take a look at three types of hill workouts and why you would choose one over another, along with when you should hit which type of hill during a training cycle. Long or short, steady climb or a steep rise, there's an incline out there for everyone.
1) HILL SPRINTS
Short and steep is the name of the game here. The main mission of a short, steep sprint session is to improve overall power, increase efficiency and develop speed safely. Barker likes to use this workout with all his athletes as a means of maintaining speed during the fall base-building period.
"We don't want to get too far away from any speed," says Barker. "So once a week we do short hill sprints of about 100 meters, just to give our fast-twitch muscle fibers some stimulus."
This is accomplished with 12 to 24 repeats of an abbreviated all-out effort on the steepest hill you can find, about a 10 percent grade according to Barker. Only 15-20 seconds in duration, these short sprints can be used once or twice a week throughout the training cycle as a workout by themselves, or they can be combined with a longer threshold workout, such as a 10 to 15K tempo run followed by 10 100m uphill sprints.
"These work your core, your hip flexors, abductors, adductors, lower back, hamstrings -- all that," says Barker. "If you're just doing mileage, your fast-twitch muscle fibers don't get a workout."
While it's imperative that you hit the hills hard on the way up, be sure to take your time on the wayback down. Jog quite slowly or even walk down the hill so that you're recovered enough to sprint the next repeat.
"They're pretty short and the hill is steep enough that after four to five it starts to feel more like leg presses," Barker explains. "I'm not too concerned about recovery. We keep [the sprints] short, because anything over 100 meters and you start to lose form."
2) HILL REPEATS
Anaerobic in nature, repeats of 1 to 2 minutes in duration on a moderate grade not only constitute a solid workout during the early phases of training, but also strengthen all of your systems and prepare your body for more race-specific work later on in the training cycle. "With these we're getting into VO2 max work," Barker says. "It's a good transition between a base phase and a racing phase."
The intensity here is on the high side, at 3K to 5K effort. (And remember that word "effort"; your pace, of course, will be slower because of the hill.) Take a full recovery in the form of an easy jog back down the hill. If your heart rate is still humming at the start of your next repeat, keep jogging on the flat until you're feeling recovered.
Of course, you can always run longer and get stronger by hitting a hill for 2 to 4 minutes with a little less effort, say 10K to half marathon intensity. Jog back down the hill for recovery and repeat the process six to 10 times to achieve maximum benefit. Implemented after the introductory phase of the training cycle, this longer type of repeat workout will lead to an immediate spike in stamina and can be used in place of flat medium-range intervals such as 600-1200m repeats on
the track.
"Hill repeats start getting that system working a little bit more," says Barker. "And you get the added strength of doing the hill, so once you get on the track it doesn't feel so bad."
Given the nature of the workout, the recovery between reps will be lengthy, but necessary. Start with two repeats in the first week of using such a workout, and safely work your way up to 10 by adding one or two reps each week.
3) ROLLER COASTER RUNS
Too tired to finish strong at the end of your races? Then it might be worth your while to try taking on a series of undulating hills during some of your longer training runs.
Most appropriately used by marathoners early in the training cycle, a longer run that takes you up and down a series of steady hills strengthens your aerobic system and improves your ability to avoid falling apart at the end of a long race.
"We have a 2 1/2 mile route that involves a lot of climbing, and sometimes we'll do a straight run of up to 15 miles on it," Barker says. "Jason Lehmkuhle did that run quite a bit when he was prepping for the Olympic trials because the race was in Central Park and it was a rolling course.
He felt pretty good the entire race and was able to finish well [fifth, PR of 2:12], and I think a lot of that goes back to those long, hilly runs."
For the marathoners he coaches, Barker favors these longer, hilly runs over a session of hill repeats because of the constant terrain changes that more closely simulate race-day conditions.
"In addition to the uphills, there's also the downhills," explains Barker. "So you get the eccentric and concentric work on your legs. What a lot of people face in the late stages of a marathon is that their legs just give out, so when you do that kind of work in training it gives you a lot of confidence going into the race."
FORM CHECK
When hitting the hills, whether you're running repeats or attacking an incline during a race, a little focus on form goes a long way.
"The focus is on using a full-out sprint, running tall and getting your foot plant under your center of mass," coach Dennis Barker says.
When sprinting up short hills or running repeats, it's inevitable that fatigue will set in and your form will start to fade toward the end of a workout. According to Barker, this is the perfect opportunity to practice mimicking the mechanics you'll use at the end of a race.
"It should simulate the effort you're going to put out in the last 100 meters of a race because you're working all the muscles you would use for that in a similar way," he says.
In addition to specific hill workouts to improve speed, power and efficiency, Barker has his athletes do some basic bounding drills on an incline to fine-tune their form.
"The primary focus is your form, where you're trying to take quick powerful strides off your forefoot and really drive your knees and arms strongly," Barker explains. "It's the kind of thing where it develops speed and power but it doesn't have that anaerobic quality of hard running up the hill."
Let's take a look at three types of hill workouts and why you would choose one over another, along with when you should hit which type of hill during a training cycle. Long or short, steady climb or a steep rise, there's an incline out there for everyone.
1) HILL SPRINTS
Short and steep is the name of the game here. The main mission of a short, steep sprint session is to improve overall power, increase efficiency and develop speed safely. Barker likes to use this workout with all his athletes as a means of maintaining speed during the fall base-building period.
"We don't want to get too far away from any speed," says Barker. "So once a week we do short hill sprints of about 100 meters, just to give our fast-twitch muscle fibers some stimulus."
This is accomplished with 12 to 24 repeats of an abbreviated all-out effort on the steepest hill you can find, about a 10 percent grade according to Barker. Only 15-20 seconds in duration, these short sprints can be used once or twice a week throughout the training cycle as a workout by themselves, or they can be combined with a longer threshold workout, such as a 10 to 15K tempo run followed by 10 100m uphill sprints.
"These work your core, your hip flexors, abductors, adductors, lower back, hamstrings -- all that," says Barker. "If you're just doing mileage, your fast-twitch muscle fibers don't get a workout."
While it's imperative that you hit the hills hard on the way up, be sure to take your time on the wayback down. Jog quite slowly or even walk down the hill so that you're recovered enough to sprint the next repeat.
"They're pretty short and the hill is steep enough that after four to five it starts to feel more like leg presses," Barker explains. "I'm not too concerned about recovery. We keep [the sprints] short, because anything over 100 meters and you start to lose form."
2) HILL REPEATS
Anaerobic in nature, repeats of 1 to 2 minutes in duration on a moderate grade not only constitute a solid workout during the early phases of training, but also strengthen all of your systems and prepare your body for more race-specific work later on in the training cycle. "With these we're getting into VO2 max work," Barker says. "It's a good transition between a base phase and a racing phase."
The intensity here is on the high side, at 3K to 5K effort. (And remember that word "effort"; your pace, of course, will be slower because of the hill.) Take a full recovery in the form of an easy jog back down the hill. If your heart rate is still humming at the start of your next repeat, keep jogging on the flat until you're feeling recovered.
Of course, you can always run longer and get stronger by hitting a hill for 2 to 4 minutes with a little less effort, say 10K to half marathon intensity. Jog back down the hill for recovery and repeat the process six to 10 times to achieve maximum benefit. Implemented after the introductory phase of the training cycle, this longer type of repeat workout will lead to an immediate spike in stamina and can be used in place of flat medium-range intervals such as 600-1200m repeats on
the track.
"Hill repeats start getting that system working a little bit more," says Barker. "And you get the added strength of doing the hill, so once you get on the track it doesn't feel so bad."
Given the nature of the workout, the recovery between reps will be lengthy, but necessary. Start with two repeats in the first week of using such a workout, and safely work your way up to 10 by adding one or two reps each week.
3) ROLLER COASTER RUNS
Too tired to finish strong at the end of your races? Then it might be worth your while to try taking on a series of undulating hills during some of your longer training runs.
Most appropriately used by marathoners early in the training cycle, a longer run that takes you up and down a series of steady hills strengthens your aerobic system and improves your ability to avoid falling apart at the end of a long race.
"We have a 2 1/2 mile route that involves a lot of climbing, and sometimes we'll do a straight run of up to 15 miles on it," Barker says. "Jason Lehmkuhle did that run quite a bit when he was prepping for the Olympic trials because the race was in Central Park and it was a rolling course.
He felt pretty good the entire race and was able to finish well [fifth, PR of 2:12], and I think a lot of that goes back to those long, hilly runs."
For the marathoners he coaches, Barker favors these longer, hilly runs over a session of hill repeats because of the constant terrain changes that more closely simulate race-day conditions.
"In addition to the uphills, there's also the downhills," explains Barker. "So you get the eccentric and concentric work on your legs. What a lot of people face in the late stages of a marathon is that their legs just give out, so when you do that kind of work in training it gives you a lot of confidence going into the race."
FORM CHECK
When hitting the hills, whether you're running repeats or attacking an incline during a race, a little focus on form goes a long way.
"The focus is on using a full-out sprint, running tall and getting your foot plant under your center of mass," coach Dennis Barker says.
When sprinting up short hills or running repeats, it's inevitable that fatigue will set in and your form will start to fade toward the end of a workout. According to Barker, this is the perfect opportunity to practice mimicking the mechanics you'll use at the end of a race.
"It should simulate the effort you're going to put out in the last 100 meters of a race because you're working all the muscles you would use for that in a similar way," he says.
In addition to specific hill workouts to improve speed, power and efficiency, Barker has his athletes do some basic bounding drills on an incline to fine-tune their form.
"The primary focus is your form, where you're trying to take quick powerful strides off your forefoot and really drive your knees and arms strongly," Barker explains. "It's the kind of thing where it develops speed and power but it doesn't have that anaerobic quality of hard running up the hill."
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