ACorn's Blog

May 01, 2024

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Location:

Holladay,UT,

Member Since:

Jul 17, 2011

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

A couple of wins in small local races.

I have always been an active person and need to do something physical everyday or I don't feel right.

Short-Term Running Goals:

Mile: 4:40

5k: 16 min (track or honest course)

10k: 33 min

1/2 Marathon: 1:13

Steadily increase my mileage to 60-70 miles a week.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Eventually run a marathon.

Run for health and sanity.

Personal:

Married. 30

I work in commercial real estate.

I enjoy golf, video games and have recently started learning chess.

Adam Cornelius

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00

Tue, Jun 12, 2012

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Trainer 1 Miles	Trainer 2 Miles	Racer Miles	Total Distance
0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00

A little under the weather today so I took the day off.

I've been reflecting on my running goals today and what I need to work on. Crazy that 2012 is almost half over. Overall it has been positive, minus the injuries and I feel like I'm learning a lot about myself and the sport.

Right now, I only have one goal and that is to run my first half marathon at the SoJo 1/2 on October 20th. I want to run in the 1:14-1:15 range.

For the past month I have been dealing with some foot and shin pain. To let it heal, I likely need to take 2 full weeks off running which I am going to start today. Also, I've never stretched and am going to start doing that as well as the little strenghtening exercises that can make a big difference.

My biggest discovery since getting a HR monitor is that my HR is higher than I had guessed at lower speeds. This leads me to believe that I've never actually built a decent aerobic base, i.e. running slower aerobic miles only for 8+ weeks. Hopefully, slower base miles will keep me injury free before I start the harder stuff towards end of August. Anyway, to those of you interested in my blog, this is my current training strategy and I'm optimistic that it will pay off and I can get a big jump in fitness then get the speed work going.

I plan to start the base building on July 1st at 30 miles and to work up to 65 miles by the end of the training cycle. Tips and suggestions are appreciated and welcomed.

Weight: 0.00

Comments

From Jake K on Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 20:18:16 from 67.177.11.154

You have a better grasp on what you need to do to get where you want to be than most runners who have been at this for a decade, or decadeS.

Building the base like you described takes a lot of patience, but it will pay off in the long run for sure. Getting aerobically stronger is one benefit, but you'll also make the tendons and muscles stronger and more durable... so you'll be able to handle the faster workouts down the road.

Despite the recent injury setback you've had an excellent first half of the year for sure. Your runs at Leopards and the Emigration Canyon race were very impressive and in my opinion, just the tip of the iceberg for you.

I'll be doing a lot of easy jogging this summer - lets start meeting up for some runs again once you're back at it.

From Andrea on Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 20:19:34 from 67.177.11.154

I hope you can finally get over the nagging injury!

From ACorn on Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 20:21:09 from 24.2.76.146

Thanks Jake, I look forward to meeting up for some jogs later this Summer.

From PRE on Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 21:49:13 from 99.50.213.11

Acorn,

Hi.

I believe you can run the Half Marathon in 1:14-1:15 come October 20th (VDOT: 63).

If you are not there, you can be by then (I believe).

I checked out the training paces for that VDOT score (in my left margin under “short term goals” there is a McMillan calculator). They are manageable.

Whenever I see your workouts, I add 2:20 to the pace you ran and determine how difficult the run was for you. In my mind, your 7:15 pace yesterday was Easy (7:15 + 2:20 = 9:35). My Easy Pace range is 9:04-9:34. Not sure if this is on target, but that is what I do to make your paces more meaningful to me.

I thought I read in your blog entries that your injuries were resolved. Sorry to hear they are not. Good you are taking two weeks off. And I hope that is not too difficult. I love down time once in a while (I am inconsistent at times with running as you may know)…but 2 weeks would be difficult even for me!

My strategy (and I don’t know if it helps):

55 Mile week peak.

Tuesday: 3-4 x 1600 Cruise intervals on Tuesday with 2-3 minutes recovery

Thursday: Tempo run,

Saturday: Long run

and three other runs during the week at Easy pace and I can miss 1-2 of these and would not be a big deal.

What must happen though is I must get the quality workouts in.

Maybe I will do 10x100s once week.

My take: can run hard 3x week. Cannot always run hard. If only running hard…only 3 runs then. Otherwise…do easy runs the other days. Recovery is important.

My Plans:

June: Maybe Fairfield Half Marathon

July: the Mudder

September: Labor Day New Haven Road Race

October: Hartford Marathon (week before yours)

November: Manchester Road Race (Thanksgiving Day)

Maybe some 5Ks along the way.

Smoking: Still not smoking. But not easy! It’s a work in progress (like my running). Thank you for the encouragement.

As always, I hope you and your family are well. Let Jing and Mom know I said hello.

From Fritz on Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 22:16:34 from 76.27.28.67

Sounds like a solid plan. You are smart to be patient and building up with slower miles, like Jake said, will help your fitness and injury prevention in the long term.

From SlowJoe on Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 06:55:33 from 69.131.141.92

Sounds like a good plan to me. I bet you will be able to reach your HM goal if you can stay healthy, and it sounds like you're going at it the right way.

From flatlander on Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 12:08:47 from 76.31.26.153

Good job. I think a runner who is willing to run slow (actually slow, not just what feels slow) is a better and smarter runner, it shows that you get it. I'm definitely going back to that as soon as I finish coming back from this injury.

From Bam on Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 04:00:09 from 95.83.195.158

Acorn, I'm with Jake. Build the miles. I found taking 4 week blocks and then increasing by 10-15 miles worked. The gurus recommend 10 percent increases. I also found that by dropping the miles in the third week my body was able to adapt. I'm up to 100mpw and I'm nearly 100 years old. It takes patience - as Jake said - but it works.

On the stretching front, A.I.S. is the answer. You probably know that already. I found that all my aches and niggles vanished a couple of weeks after doing 20 mins A.I.S. before 'all' runs and very short hold static stretching to align fibres after 'all' runs.

On the increasing miles, most people say you should increase distance/time first before adding second runs - I'm not in that camp. I.M.O. you are less likely to get injured by doing two shorter runs than 1 long run e.g instead of 10 miles do two fives. That said, you do need to do a couple of longer runs, especially as you're building for a half marathon. Just my humble opinion...

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