Olympic Closing Ceremony

Sorry about the shaky video but I was a bit taken back by what I was experiencing. Walking into that stadium was one of the best moments of my life and can only imagine what it will feel like in London!

5/26/10

I've had some really good training since the last blog. Saturday morning was a 15 mile long run down in Phoenix which meant that I could run at a faster pace than usual. Julie wasn't going to be out on the bike so I used a running belt with 2 bottles on it so that I wouldn't get too dehydrated while I was out there. NEVER AGAIN!!! Although I had never run with a belt before, I always made fun of them because I always see people wearing them for short runs (when they won't lose a lot of sweat) and the bottles are always full. The belt was terrible. If there is any difference in the weight of the bottles, the belt swings around and becomes very uncomfortable. I ended up getting back to the house at 10 miles so that I could drop the belt and get on with some good running. I had actually had to dump all the water out of the belt bottles so that it would stop swinging around my body. I guess it wasn't designed for the pace I was running. I got to 14 miles in 80 mins and jogged the last mile to finish in 87 mins. I jumped into the pool right away as it was starting to get really hot outside. Julie and I spent the rest of the day walking around IKEA and seeing if there was anything we would need for the house. We also met with our mortgage broker and signed a lot of paperwork.

Sunday was a nice recovery day with only one run of 6 miles in the morning. It was good to just turn off and let my legs just tick over. It was pretty windy so it didn't feel that hot. After church we headed over to Mesa were we are having the wedding and checked out the hotels that we can recommend to our guests.

I had the track in Sedona on Monday morning with a session of 1 mile threshold, 12*400m with 200m jog rec, 1 mile threshold. It felt really good to be doing some speed work and to get the spikes on. Both of the miles were run in 4.40 and I averaged 63's for the 400m's until the last 3 when Greg said that I was to run under 60. I ran 60, 59, 58. I think this was the first time in a year where i had broken 60 secs for a lap as we have been staying away from the track. I love getting aggressive in track sessions as I always feel that these help me to get fit and my confidence level high. I knew my calves were going to be tight as I wore spikes but it was worth it. I wore my new Mizuno Chrono Distance spikes nd they were amazing. It felt like I was running barefoot and I gripped to the track more than any other spike I have use before. Mizuno have really got the spike thing down with these shoes so I'm looking forward to racing in them some time. The rest of the day was crammed as I got back and had a quick nap before heading out for a second run at 1.45pm. I had to run really early because I was having a meeting with Greg and then heading straight to work. The meeting went well as we planned my racing and training plan. The races I will be racing are: Steamboat Classic 4 mile, Peachtree 10km, Beach to Beacon 10km, Rock 'n' Roll Virginia Beach half marathon and then a marathon in October some time. We will be doing a lot of track and speed based work during the next few months to get my legs ready for the fast races and to have the leg speed to go into the marathon phase of training with the ability to run quickly. Work was pretty boring as there weren't a lot of customers in but it meant that I could get home a little earlier than usual.

I met up with the everyone on Tuesday morning out at Cheshire to run the trails. I ran on my own most of the run as I was wanting to run a little harder than the others. I finished the 10 miles in 64 mins and did some drills before we all headed into town to meet at Pro Formance Personal training gym who have been kind enough to let us use one of their rooms to do our core and circuit work. I got a quick nap in after this and again headed out early for a second run as I had work at 3.30pm.

This morning I had a session of 2*4 mile Steady state reps with 3 mins recovery at Buffalo Park. I was feeling pretty tired but once I got going I was fine. Nick was doing a 6 mile tempo so I joined him for the first 4 miles of that and ran 5.03, 5.19, 5.15, 5.15 (20.52). The first mile is always fast as we are running with the wind for the first half mile and then when we turn back into the wind, we are running downhill so it evens out. The second mile is pretty exposed and we were getting hit hard with the wind and then of course you have to run the steep hill right before you finish the loop which usually slows you down by about 10 seconds for the mile. The second rep went well and I ran splits of 5.02, 5.20, 5.05, 5.05 for a total time of 20.32. I was happy with the way it went and at no time did I feel like I was working really hard to hit the times so that was a good sign. The rest of the day I am going to be relaxing and then moving a lot of my stuff out of Martin's garage and moving over to Julie's parent's new townhouse which is just a couple of blocks away. Its going to be good having a night off of work to relax and not be rushing about. We're heading down to Phoenix again this weekend as Julie has a long weekend off of work so i'm looking forward to having another fast long run in the heat!

5/21/10

I've been sleeping a lot again as training has picked up and i'm hitting the gym again. When I was a FSU I would always pass out for a couple of hours after I got back from the morning run and gym workout and that is happening again...and it feels good! I have eased the gym sessions this week as its my first week back and I didn't want to be sore all week. I also did a good 6 mile steady state run on Wednesday with Ian up at Buffalo Park. Greg wanted us to start out very easy so we did the first 2 mile loop in 10.40 before picking the pace. Unfortunately this was the point when the wind really picked up and although we were running hard, the times weren't that fast. It seemed like the whole way around the loop we were running into a strong wind. We finished in 31.06 which was fine as it didn't feel too hard until the last mile.

Yesterday mornings bagel run was good as there were quite a few people there and that always makes for a good atmosphere. I ran with Nick for the run and headed out on some trails that I haven't run since last year. When I got back I was greeted by a box from Mizuno that had some new spikes in it. They felt great when i put them on so I'm looking forward to trying them out in the next couple of weeks. They are almost like a racing flat with spikes in them.

Julie and I are heading down to Phoenix again this weekend as we need to meet up with our mortgage lender and look for some furniture for the house. The only problem with this is that its close to 100F down there so running is going to be a very sweaty activity! I actually don't mind running in the heat so it shouldn't be too bad.

Stadium

5/18/10

The last few days have been great. I seem to always have energy when i'm turning up to training because my mileage is lower than normal. I still have another couple of lower mileage weeks (until Bolder Boulder - My next race) and then I think we will ramp it up a bit.

Saturday's long run was good. AC, Jordan and I met all the girls and Greg at Greg's house and then ran up Rd222. Its uphill for the first 4 miles and then it flattens out. It climbs again as you go by 7.5 miles and you can continue for as long as you want on this road but we were just running 16 miles this morning so turned around at 8 miles. Jordan had already turned around so AC and I gradually picked up the pace as the miles went along at it felt great. We ran the first 8 miles in 52 mins and then the last 8 miles in 45.30. After some drills and stretching, I headed back to the house where Julie and I made a great pancake breakfast and then headed out to the east side of town to feed the ducks out there. Unfortunately I had to go to work at night so I got a quick nap in before heading to Karma.

We were planning on going down to Sedona and the creek on sunday but we ended up getting up late and then other things were getting in the way so we decided to stay in town. We tried to head to one of the hotel pool's but then found it was under construction. This somehow led us to looking for furniture at a new store that has just opened up and there were some great prices so we decided on a really comfortable sofa for our space in the living room. We actually spent a long time in the house marking out all the possibilities for where to put sofa's, love seat's and recliner's. We originally wanted to get a sofa and love seat but we think it will just be a sofa now.

I drove down to Sedona at 7am on Monday so I could get back to Flagstaff early (the rest of the group were leaving 30 mins later). I did a session of 12*200m with 200m recovery and it went really well. I was surprised with how easy I felt (probably because I was only doing 12) and gradually got quicker as the session went on. I started at 30.5 and finished in 27.0. My Mizuno Flagship shoes felt really great on the track and super light. You would think that with how light the shoes are there would be a sacrifice in cushioning or support but there isn't at all. It looks like these will be my perfect road racing shoes (half marathon and below). After doing a bunch of stretching, I headed up the road and stopped by the creek to soak my legs in the cold water before heading back to town. I had a great nap and then felt really good on my second run so that was good. There was no tightness or soreness in my legs so I am looking forward to tackling some good track session soon.

Tomorrow I have a 6 mile steady state run at Buffalo Park so it will be a good test to see how I feel running steady to fast.

The house is really coming along. It has all the dry wall in place so we can really get a feel for the size of the house now. We are about 30 days out from the house being completed so its getting exciting.

5/14/10

Boy does it feel good to run hard again! Yesterday I did a fartlek and it felt like I was flying. I was up at Buffalo Park with Nick and Andrew (fresh off of their 3rd and 1st places at the USA 25km champs) and it wasn't really windy so it was a good day for the workout. My legs were moving quicker than I thought they could right now so that will hopefully set me up for some more good workouts. The only time it started to feel hard was when I had to run the hill at the end of the loop. This always kills no matter what speed you run and it continued to hurt for the remaining hard efforts. I was going to go by the gym and do a circuit session but decided to go home and nap as I was pretty tired.

The evening run was pretty hard to do as I was feeling sluggish and very unmotivated. I drove to the gym so that I would have to get on with some sort of exercise. I ended up running on the treadmill as it had just started to rain when I got there. A brisk 5 miles later, I decided to jump into the Ultimate Conditioning class that was about to start and this was a pretty good idea. It was tough but not so tough that I was going to be too sore the next day. I think this was wise as it was my first circuit back.

When I woke up this morning I took some tests from one of the teams new sponsor's, Bioletics, that will tell me all about my Vitamin D, Mineral Balance, Strength and Hormone recovery, Iron/Ferritin, Essential Amino Acid and Essential Fatty Acid levels. Once we find out the results of the tests, we can work with the company to see what dietary and supplement changes need to be made so that we can perform optimally.

This mornings run was amusing as Andrew and I decided to take a new route back from the trails and got completely disorientated. We finally came to a stretch of road and Andrew made a joke about it being Lake Mary Rd. Not much of a joke as it was Lake Mary Rd which meant another 2 miles back to the car. At least we now know which trail not to take anymore. It was good to see some new areas though.

Most of the daytime was spent trying to organize our mortgage details. There was so much back and forth involved and we decided to wait until after the weekend to lock in a rate. I went by the house and the dry wall was being put up so we can get a real sense of the space now.

I took the evening run off as I will easily 100 miles this week without it and thought it would be wiser to be more precautious at this point in my training.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's long run. We're heading up 222 which means there will be a lot of uphill for the first half followed by a lot of downhill so hopefully I can get my legs rolling a bit.

Questions

John F - I'm currently training once a day and am looking to step up my training but want to avoid any injuries so was thinking of ways of cross training.

Cross training is a great way of increasing your training if you are worried about getting injured. Personally I would take it very slowly and try and add in an extra run a week and do that for maybe 3 weeks and then add another run another few weeks and keep this type of pattern going until you get to a point where your body is handling the running without breaking down. If you do need to add cross training instead there are a few options you can add. The 3 mains types (that are most closely related to running) are the eliptical machine, aqua jogging and cycling. Out of these 3 I would recommend cycling the most as you can really build your strength up and get some hard workouts in also. If I am injured I usually do a few spinning classes as that helps me to really push myself. I actually talked to Jos Hermans (Haile Gebrselassie's agent) about cross training and he was telling me how Haile has incorporated a lot of cycling into his training so that he can get the strength that he needs. The thing with cycling though is that you want to either put the seat as high as possible (so that you are replicating a running position - you don't have to but I would recommend it) or stay standing for most of the cycle. This can become very hard but if you can do it, the strength increases are great. I don't really like the eliptical very much because I can never get my heart rate up very hard, no matter how hard I am working. I tend to use this as a recovery tool when I am injured rather than one for hard workouts. Aqua jogging is great but be prepared for the boredom aspect of it. I have done quite a bit of aqua jogging so I don't use a belt and from the studies I have read, you also get the most out of the workout without a belt as you have to work hard the whole time.

Henry G - I have been having some hamstring tightness for the past several days. It doesn't alter my stride but it just achs and feels tight. I have been stretching and doing the roller but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Do you have any experience with this? What would you do?

I will have this sometimes if I have done something different that my muscles aren't used to like a long hill run or sprinting. Hamstrings usually take a little while to recover so I would give it a few more day and if you are still tight either go see a massage therapist or a physiotherapist as the tightness may be coming from somewhere else on your body. My hamstrings are always pretty tight no matter how much stretching I do because my back is quite weak. If I get my back worked on and there is no spasm, I can suddenly stretch my hamstrings further than I ever have. I use the Wharton stretching routine a lot to help with tightness.

The day before my Olympic race

This was the day before my Olympic 3000m steeplechase. I felt great this day but had no idea that I would feel terrible the next day. I just rediscovered these videos so I will continue to post some more as the days go by.

Training again

The days have been passing by slowly but it has become easier now that I am back training twice a day. I've only been getting 2 to 3 shifts a week at work so that has left me to entertain myself during the days and get things done that i had been putting off for a while. The one thing I am finding that I am able to do is sleep a lot more. I've never been a great sleeper even when I was running 150 miles during the week but since starting back running, I am finding that I can sleep 9 hours at night with a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. This is great as I always struggle to stay asleep when the sun comes up and the light starts poking through the blinds.

Last weeks training consisted of running 69 miles with 2 days running twice. I ran very easy all week and am ready to start hitting some good sessions again. On Monday I did a light workout of 10 laps of the track alternating between 100m hard and 100m easy. Yesterday I met the guys and we went for a run up Shultz Pass. I hadn't run these trails for a long time as they had been covered in snow and I have moved to the other side of town. It was nice to get back on these trails as I used to run them almost everyday. I almost didn't get out for my second run as I had been sitting around for a while and really didn't feel like getting out into strong winds. Luckily, Julie's workmate, Cariee, came round to run with Julie so I made myself put my shoes on and get out onto the trails. I actually felt fine as soon as I started running so the run went by pretty quickly. We all got back to the apartment around the same time and were greeted with the fantastic smell of the crock pot dinner that I had put on to cook at 8am. I had basically just thrown everything I could find in the kitchen in the pot and let it cook all day. A big hung of steak, navy beans, carrots, potatoes, loads of spices and some chilies rounded out the ingredients and luckily it turned out well. We ate this stew with a massive loaf of freshly baked bread and then relaxed in front of the TV and continued to get through season 4 of "It's always sunny in Philidelphia".

I was supposed to do a fartlek this morning but I wasn't feeling great for some reason so I just jogged for 30 mins and talked to Greg about what I should do. We decided upon doing it tomorrow up at Buffalo Park so I would just take the rest of the day easy. I am just going to run an easy 10 miles this evening through the trails. I have recently been running in full tracksuit as I was just reading about why the Kenyans do that so often. I could never understand why the Kenyans would do this but I have been reading "More Fire" by Toby Tanser (a follow up to the famous "Train Hard, Win Easy - The Kenyan Way") and the runners explain that if they are running in lots of clothes and being uncomfortable during the run, they will feel so much faster when they get to the start line of their race and they are wearing next to nothing. Doing this right now is ok as it is a bit chilly with the high winds so i'll see how I feel doing this during the summer when there is no wind and its nice and hot.

Our house is really coming along with the shingles being finished and the electrics all being wired throughout the house. They are about to put the dry wall in so Julie and I are going to wire the house for Surround sound as its fairly easy to do now that there are no wall in place. This will save a lot of time and money over doing it later down the line so we will be doing that tonight. They are anticipating that the house will be finished in a month or so and we are getting excited about moving in.

I'm hopefully going to get some video up on here soon. I was given a video camera when I made the Olympic team so I will hopefully get some nice footage of training and anything else that I find interesting. I will try and post some of the olympic videos that I just rediscovered also.

Back to blogging

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be getting back to regular blogging in the next few days. I have had a nice relaxing time during the post marathon recovery time so will be starting back up with some light sessions next week. I had a nice run on the trails with Greg and Ian this morning and now the busy weekend starts. I'm helping out at the regional high school track meet today and then heading into a big night at work tonight. I'll be quite busy for the rest of the weekend so i'll fill everyone in on Monday with how things have been going and what my future plans are.

I hope everyone is having a great time training as the weather starts to pick up. Again, feel free to contact me with any questions you may have (adlemoncello@hotmail.com).

Cheers

Andrew