track fan

You've sure got a lot going on. Safe travels to you on Monday.

Men's 800 was very exciting! Good luck calling the men's 5K. I will be out of tv and internet land tonight...

Today while I was at the gym they had the soccer game on one TV and the Escape from Alcatraz Tri on another TV. I love soccer, but my eyes just kept going back to the running(it was the end of the tri!) It is amazing that we can sit and watch running!!!

Glad you had some cooler weather, I almost had to turn my heater on today!!!!

Kelli - I thought of you today, I found something BETTER than popsicles (I know sacrilege you say ...) -- *Eggee's* I don't know if they have them in Phoenix (they are a Tucson company) - but if they do you have to have your daughter try one when she comes out. They are kind of like a slurpee, but healthier and much better flavors (today I had a strawberry-kiwi one) YUMMMMMMY.

Hope you get some much deserved rest tonight, nice being NUMBER 1!!!!

A healthy slurpee sounds like heaven! I am not a fan of slurpees because you are just drinking sugar and I would rather have a diet coke!!! I will tell her to look out for them!

I am silly, I know, but I am crossing my fingers that I can stay number one just this one time! I do not think I will ever run that many miles in a week again so this is my only chance!!!

Hey, you made a comment on Carolyn's blog and then must have deleted it since you did not want to hi-jack her blog. So, let's discuss it here!!!

Since I started my high miles (back in February), I have run the majority of them slow and, up until recently, about 30-40% on the TM. I was worried I was going to be slow, BUT when I ran Boston I felt so fast and so good! I know I could easily have been at least 10 minutes faster than I was AND I could have kept running another 10 after I finished. I feel like the slower miles are helping my body. Before I would break down whenever I hit 60 miles per week. I still do not really know if I am any faster as I have not really RACED anything to compare, but I do not feel slower at all!!!

Hi Kelli, yes, I did delete the post because I did not want to sound like a "know it all" and I did not want to hijack her blog. I would LOVE to finish the conversation here. I need to preface my comments to being a true believer in Lydiard-style training (he was a Kiwi coach who, in my opinion, revolutionized modern coaching). He believed that high mileage was a necessity of fast distance racing. There are plenty of "discussions" about how fast those miles should be ... but most current coaches believe in some form of the following:

1) periodization of training (base, transition to speed, speed-stamina-race specific training).

2) running a majority of miles at an easy, aerobic pace

3) stress-recovery cycle (easy days/hard days)

Lydiard himself believed in LOTS of easy miles over varied terrain. The Japanese marathoners take this WAY seriously and they run in the 200 mpw range super slow (like 9 min pace for 2:25 marathoners) for most of their runs. Daniels (and Greg McMillan) run a little faster than that for many of their runs (if you look at Gregs calculator you can see that his "easy" pace is not really super slow, but rather about 1.5 - 2 mins slower than 10K pace).

Also, running "base" miles -- like many miles pretty easy for as many months as you can stand -- before actually training will make you much stronger, and resistant to injuries that occur when moving into speed and stamina training.

I have made my greatest improvements, while getting older (which makes it more difficult to recover -- this is a physiologic fact), because I run my easy runs easy -- and only run hard when I am supposed to. Not only that, but I firmly believe that learning to listen to your body (or your heart rate monitor) and not your Garmin on those easy days REALLY helps.

To me, the most important thing to remember is that training is a process, it takes years to build up to be able to run your "best" - there are no short-cuts. Patience and perseverance are where it is at ;-) ... oh, and years of consistency.

I think if you raced now you would definitely be faster than you had been in the past --however, you would not hit your *best* potential until you started to do a little "race specific" training -- and timed it right (e.g., you don't want to peak too early - which you can do if you run too many race-specific speed work too far out from your race ... or for too long and risk over-training). While many of these training methods are person-specific (some people respond better to really high mileage and longer stamina runs like tempos and progression runs -- while some respond better to super-fast interval type workouts) you need some race-specific training to prepare to run for long periods at your optimal pace.

Thanks, Bonnie, for your words of wisdom. I'm relatively new to "training", so I still have a lot to learn! I think I respond best to interval workouts and speed work; this is what makes me feel the strongest. My struggle is always with keeping the slow days slow, and I have to have both Garmin and perceived effort as my guide to stay slow and easy on longer run and easy days. I am using McMillan's chart right now to guide what my easy pace should be, and you are right, it is somewhat faster as an easy pace than other guidelines. This is serving me well, though, as my form actually gets very bad when I run too slowly.

Auntie, because you are good at shorter intervals and speedwork, you really need to work on your stamina -- like running "steady state". It is what we "dislike" that is what we need to work on the most (;-), mine is the speed stuff).

You have been doing really well lately, learning to listen to your body more and becoming more patient. It will pay off I promise, maybe it can be at a race we are both at, so I can participate in your breakthrough!!

That is all very interesting! I really think I tend to agree. I use the McMillan calculator to give me a base to go off of for paces in workouts, but, even more than that, I just go by how I feel for the day!

I HATE speedwork, so I know that is where I need work. That is why I go to my running group twice a week, they MAKE me do it even when I do not want to.

As far as running slow, it has taken me a long time to get this down! My trick is to run on the treadmill (where I usually at least start slow and get in some good slower miles that way) OR finding runners that typically run slower than me and running with them. Nothing beats running with company nice and easy!

I guess we will see when the marathon comes along. I have to say that I feel better now than I ever have running-wise. I am hitting high miles and I feel fine! I even did a lot of speedwork and HILLS last week, and still feel like it was just an average week.

The race will tell....

OH, and for the record, I actually like ice cream better than popsicles (Unless they are the nummy Breyers Real Fruit ones!!!)