Doesn't Get Easier

Last big workout before the 50 mi foot race at the end of this month.  Covered 32.50 mi using a 9-to-1 min run + walk ratio.  Ate a small breakfast beforehand and did some fueling throughout the workout.  Started from our home and turned around after 2.5 hrs (9:00-9:30 paces).  I'm thrashed, but should recover quickly due to the walking breaks.  At least, that's what happened last time. 

Ran a 2 x 5 miles at a really easy pace.  Feeling much better versus yesterday.

Those few of you that read my blog know that I'm a man of few words.  Let's say I lack a lot of details about my running.  Anyway, since I don't have much to say on my blog I thought I'd add some quotes from Dr. Ernest Van Aaken.  I've studied the scant amount of his writings that are available and try to follow his methods.  They have done wonders for my running and I'd like to share some his thoughts once and a while.  My hope is that it might help some of you with your running experience.  Most excerpts will come from the book called the "Van Aaken Method".  First some background for those who never have heard of the man. 

Ernest Van Aaken was born May 16, 1910, in Emmerlick, Germany and died on April 2, 1984.  During the 1930s, he studied astronomy and physics, but later switched to medicine.  He served during WWII as a surgeon and director of a field hospital.  Then after the war he set up his medical practice in the village of Waldniel.  That same year he began writing about the "pure endurance method" which he had been formulating since the 1920s after he'd watched Paavo Nurmi in the Olympic Games.  He founded and coached the OSC (Olympic Sports Club) Waldniel, and in 1960 set up the German Association of Veteran Long Distance Runners.  He has been called the "Wizard of Waldniel" and "Father of LSD (long, slow distance)".  Dr. Van Aaken displays wisdom developed over 40 years of scientific investigation and practical application.  By his own reckoning, Van Aaken has written some 300 articles and 6000 letters on matters relating to sports medicine and general fitness.  He lectured throughout Europe, Japan, and in the United States.  He has examined and advised hundreds of runners, including a dozen German national champions and several Olympic competitiors (most notably, Harald Norpoth).

His method is no mystery to Germans and as he states, "My whole teaching in one sentence is 'Run slowly, run daily, drink moderately, and don't eat like a pig.'  To be healthy, one must train and eat like a marathoner."  According to the doctor, "Only the person who runs daily, lives mostly without touching his reserves and who eats little but well will ever become a good runner."

Easy 9 mi + Easy 6 mi.  It takes about 3 miles before all of the body kinks are worked out.  Then things glide along.

Easy 8.2 + Easy 6.0

Van Aaken excerpts on the definition of health:

"A fat man, even a cardiac patient, can work himself up to a few seconds of extraordinary speed in a sprint.  But does this mean he is healthy?  This question hints at the answer we've been looking for: that is, performance capacity in athletic endurance events is the best guarantee of " biological durability", which can be accepted as a definition of health."

"Explosive muscle functions lasting fractions of a second are therefore not as important as the endurance of chemical processes which again and again, like a perpetual clock, renew themselves.  Muscle strength is a tool of the organism and has certain functions in human life.  The foundation of the human organism, though, is organ strength - expecially symbollized by the vital strength of the heart."

"The glorification of the strong man and the so called ideal figures of decathletes have strongly influenced our concepts of health.  To look really healthy, a man has to have a lot of muscles and be overweight.  But health has nothing to do with mass, and a well tanned skin after two weeks at the beach is often nothing but varnish over a rotting interior."

"The most inconspicuous people are often the toughest, and a good outer appearance very often deceives because it can only hint at possible good internal health."

Ran the last 2 mi progressively faster down to 20K pace.

Easy run of 11.7 mi this morning.