Questions

I have made my recovery runs a lot slower (7min pace) this winter and been injured less. My steady running is usually around 6:30 - 6:00min pace. Do you tend to run most of your steady running quicker than this? (Steven V)

To be honest I don't tend to do a lot of steady running. Its usually easy or hard! My easy running up here at 7,000ft is anywhere between 6 minute miles to 7 minute miles. It changes so much because I feel so different after each days training. If I really want to recover for hard workouts then I will run really slowly and make sure that my body really isn't being taxed. During times like now, when I am training for a marathon or during a base phase, I usually don't ever run much slower than 7 minute pace because I don't have lots of races to worry about and its all about as getting as strong as possible. The main thing for me has been to listen to my body and respond accordingly. For example, this past Sunday I just did one easy run because I knew I was tired. The next day I felt great and was able to run pretty quickly. At sea level thing were different. I almost always did none of my main runs slower than 6 minute pace (my morning runs were always pretty slow) except during the track season when everything would be really slow as the main focus was to run as fast as possible during the hard days. Hope this helps a little!

I was wondering what sort of drills you do and when you do them? Do you do drills before and or after a run or both? Does core strength have any impact on foot strike? (Niall McGrath)

I do my drills before and after runs depending on what the run is. If its an easy run I will do the drills after followed by strides so that my muscles will lengthen back out to the state they were in before the run (your muscles shorten as you run and this is what can cause tightness). If I am doing a hard workout then I will do the drills before the workout so I can be as loose as possible so I can run hard without tightening up. In regards to core strength and foot strike I am not the best person to ask about this. Changing your foot strike may not be a great option as this can lead to injuries. On the other hand, it can help with your speed if you are able to push off your toes more efficiently. My former coach in Scotland spent a year trying to get me to be more efficient as I would tend to lift my head back when I got tired. This lead to me shortening my stride and moving to a heel strike so every time this happened he would shout something like think of Liz (Liz McColgan who was the epitome of someone always moving forward) and this would trigger me to drop my head and reopen my stride. It also took a lot of sprint drills (these were very tough), plyometrics and an increase in mileage for me to be strong enough to always run off of my mid foot.

I've never tried an ice bath before but tempted to give it a go. How often would you suggest having an ice bath and is it more beneficial after a long run or interval session? How long do you tend to stay in the water? (Iain Taylor)

Ice baths aren't the most comfortable thing in the world to do but they really are great for your muscles. They are beneficial all the time as they help to constrict blood vessels and decreases metabolic activity, which in turn reduces swelling and tissue breakdown. I find them most beneficial after both long runs and any hard workouts as that is when I've put my legs through the most stress. Of course it is a lot easier to do this during the summer time when the weather is nice but I find it necessary to have them year round. I stay in anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes and anything below 60F (15C) is good. I prefer close to 50F (10C) and then take a nice shower afterwards. There is also the option (if you are able to do it) of a contrast bath where you go from a cold bath to a hot bath (I did this a lot at FSU as both the hot and cold tubs were next to each other). This basically opens and closes your blood vessels so that you are basically getting a shunting effect that helps to pump out inflammation. I used to do a 3 mins cold to 1 min hot ratio.

3/29/10

Monday’s Training – Am: 97 mins easy Pm: 58 mins easy progressive to steady

Mileage – 24 miles

I felt great this morning after taking yesterday evening off and getting a good night’s sleep. I met Martin at Trina’s loop and ran with him for his warm up and then headed off on the urban trails to see if they were celar. Almost immediately I was met by Ian Torrence, Andrew Middleton, Trent Briney and Nick Arciniaga heading the other way so I just ran with them for the next 7 miles, heading through town and out along the train tracks which to my surprise were all clear. It felt really good to be on this soft ground and I felt like I was just bouncing along (we weren’t going fast but when we got to any kind of hill I felt like I was still running on the flat). I got back up to Cheshire with Trent and then did a 2 mile loop and headed back to the car. I did some drills, strides and stretching before heading over to Martin’s house to get some stuff (I am storing a bunch of stuff there until our house is built) and then headed home for some breakfast. Julie had made up a big batch of steel cut oats the other night so I warmed some of that up with some almonds, cranberries and prunes and washed it down with some orange and mango juice. Needless to say that I passed out pretty quickly after finishing that off and woke up half an hour before I had a meeting with our realtors to sign the last of our forms for upgrades and additions to the house. We’ve not seen much movement at the plot but they said they would be starting the building this week so I’m happy that we’ll be seeing some progress soon.

The evening’s run was a good one. I felt really fresh so I started to pick the pace up a little once I got to the dirt road as I was heading from the gym. The road was completely dry but no cars had really been on it so it was a little too soft and very rutted so I was turning my ankle quite a bit. It did feel good to be off the road again though so I shouldn’t really complain. I got to the 5 mile mark at 30 mins, stopped for a pee and then headed off back to the gym. I made it back in 28 mins without any real increase in effort so that was a nice feeling. I went into the gym but I just wasn’t in the mood for the workout so I decided to do it tomorrow (we are pushing everything back a day this week as the wind is going to 30mph all day for the next couple of days) after my morning run. I got back and Julie was still out running so I managed to get the dinner all ready for when she got back. I had out some steaks in the fridge to marinate yesterday so I cooked those with some asparagus and yam’s.

I managed to get a little comfort about my performance at the weekend as I looked over Charlie Spedding's training on his run up to the Olympic marathon. I remembered that he had used races to get sharp and I wanted to compare my 10km to his performances to see how he was competing during his marathon build up. It turns out that he was running similar times but with less mileage during the week (he did his mileage quicker than I did). That made me feel a little better about not running a good time and I also talked to Trina Painter (one of out assistant coaches and former USA 20km record holder) and she said that before her best marathon, she had run slowly in a 10km. I wasn't the least bit worried about how slow I ran (because I felt so strong) but it was just comforting to know that others have had similar performances before good marathons.

3/28/10

Sunday's Training - Am: 70 mins easy Pm: Off.

Mileage - 10 miles

Week's Mileage - 120 Miles

Today was a recovery day for me. I had to get up at 6am to get my run in before we headed to church at 9am. It was really hard to get out of bed at that time as I had had such a long day the day before but once I got some coffee, toast and laced the shoes up, i felt fine. It was a great temperature outside but it was very windy so it wasn't going to matter what direction I went in, I was going to have to hit the wind at some point. I basically just did a big loop on the reservation and I felt pretty groggy the whole time. I got back to the house, had some breakfast and then once we got to church I started to feel the tiredness. My eyes were closing and I was having trouble sitting and standing the whole time. I was going to leave straight from church to head back up the road to Flagstaff but being as sleepy as I was, I decided to head back to Julie's parent's house and take a nap before I got on the road. This was the best decision I could have made as I felt so much better after waking up and really alert once I had another coffee. The drive up went by pretty quickly and I met Julie at an RCIA retreat that we were to be at (RCIA is Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and i'm in my final week of classes before I get baptised next week). For some reason I was really hungry all day and after we finished the retreat, we headed over to the supermarket to stock up on groceries. I had picked up a French Bread loaf when we were there and the two of us ended up finishing it off in a few minutes. As it was such a nice day, we headed over to the little park that is just along the road and threw the frisbee around a bit before heading off to the little cliff near where our house is going to be and watched the sunset. It was really nice to relax and not worry about doing a second run. I was actually supposed to do another 60 mins easy but my body was just so tired from yesterday that I felt it better to relax and eat lots tonight instead. We made up some burritos and again, as soon as I was under the covers, I was asleep!

3/27/10

Saturday’s Training – Am: Monument Avenue 10km. 3^rd, 29.16. Pm: 69 mins easy

Mileage – 23 miles

This morning’s race was weird. Really weird. I’ll tell you about that in a minute. I woke up at 5.30am this morning as the race started at 8.30am. I surprisingly fell right asleep last night and slept well. I fumbled around for a bit when I woke up and got the coffee going so I could at least have my eyes half open. I picked up the bagel that I had grabbed yesterday to find that it was rock solid so that was out of the window. I always have a back up of Power Bars and drinks so it wasn’t too much of a problem but I decided to go downstairs to the café to see if the lady would be there yet. I was talking to her yesterday and she said she would try and be there for 6am. To my surprise she had done it and she gave me a fresh bagel and jam. She looked tired and no one else was about so I felt a little bad for her. I lazed about in my room for a little while and before I knew it, it was approaching 7am (when we were to meet in the lobby). I went down and waited in a now, long line for coffee. I got a double espresso and knocked that back in one gulp. I thought we were all going to be walking to the start and I would warm up from there but one of the volunteers took my bag to the start for me so I could stay inside for as long as possible as it was pretty cold. I went for a 5 minute jog so that I could do some stretching before I headed out for my warm up. I was surprisingly loose so that’s always good before a race. I went back to my room to get my sunglasses as the sun was rising and it would be in our face on the last half of the course. I warmed up for 20 mins and then started my drills and strides. I took a minute to go and sit on some steps and get my head in the right place for the race. I went through how I was going to run the race and then I was ready to go. I put my Mizuno Flagship racing flats on (which were really good. It was the first time I would be using them on the road and I’m looking forward to using them again. I don’t know if I would use them for anything much further than 15km because of how minimal they are (4.4 oz) but they didn’t give me any calf problems at all which is always a good sign! They really grip the road well and have just the right amount of cushioning without weighing the shoe down) and my vest, checked my number and headed to the start. Just before the start I had to run back to my bag to get some arm warmers as the wind had a real cold bite.

The gun went and tried to tuck in as we were heading into the wind for the first half. It didn’t feel fast which was great but I found myself at the front of the group just before we hit the mile which was fine because the aim of the race was to get the competitive juices flowing again. Alene Reta* was way out front and there was no catching him. He was picking the pace up every step and we were just maintaining our speed. By the turn around it was just me and an Ethiopian left and he just sat in which I didn’t mind but he kept kicking my feet so I had to turn around and push him to the side so he would stop it. It didn’t! There are some slight rises in the course and I felt great running up them so I knew my strength is where it needs to be this close to the marathon. Unfortunately I just couldn’t shake off the Ethiopian and when it came down to a sprint, he just edged me out. I felt like we were running fast the whole way (my turnover was good and I felt strong so I figured it had to be a PB). I looked up and saw what I thought was 28.16 which would have been great but it turned out it was a good minute slower! Darn! What was good though was that I wasn’t out of breath and my muscles weren’t sore or fatigued. It was one of those days that you wish the race just continued because you can hold your pace all day. It was baffling though that I wasn’t able to run faster if I was feeling that good. I went through 10km quicker in my last half marathon before I was in good shape. The point of doing this race was to get my competitive side revved up again and I accomplished that so I was fine about the result.

Now was the worst part. I had to stand around in the cold for 30mins to wait for the prize giving. It was horrible as they wouldn’t let us leave to go warm down. As soon as we were done, I went by the hotel to dump my stuff and get a warm down in. The flowers I got I gave to the lady in the coffee shop as she had gotten up so early to give me my coffee and bagel. I wanted to go for 30 mins but I had to be in the lobby for 10.30am as there would be only one shuttle out to the airport (My flight wasn’t until 2.55pm so there would be a long wait!). I felt strange on my warm down, as if I was drunk. I don’t know if I hadn’t drunk enough or if the caffeine was doing something funny to my body but it didn’t feel good. As soon as I stopped running I was fine but it was a really weird feeling. Anyway, I got showered and changed quickly and then stuffed everything into my bag so I could get going. I met Evelyn Lagat (Bernard’s sister) in the lobby and we headed out to the airport. I was hungry at this point but unfortunately there was nothing I wanted to eat so I snacked on all my bars and trail mix and decided to wait until I got to the airport in DC to grab something more substantial. I talked to Julie for a while and then called Greg and he just reassured me that it was a good thing that my muscles were fine and I was in no aerobic trouble during the race. Usually a few hours after a race I get pretty tight but my legs were fine but I still got my rope out and did some stretching, got the tennis ball and rolled around on my glutes and then rolled my calves out on my metal water bottle. I can’t carry my massage stick when I just take hand luggage so the water bottle is great for doing the same job.

The flight to DC was painless but I got really hungry a I was trying to find a place to eat and the when I found a Tex Mex place the line was really long. I got my burrito and wolfed it down and it really hit the spot. As soon as I got on the next flight (to Phoenix) I passed out (I had been given an exit row seat) and woke myself up by catching a glob of saliva that was about to fall onto my shirt. I tend to drool when I nap and have to constantly move my pillow about just to find a dry spot. I pulled out my computer and watched Transformers 2 and Ghost in a Shell: Innocence. This helped pass the flight by and we actually landed about 30 mins earlier than scheduled. Julie’s parents came and picked me up and as soon as I got back to the house, I got changed and went out for a 10 mile run. I didn’t feel great but I didn’t expect to after travelling all day and it was actually 11pm my time (8pm in Phoenix). When I got back, Lorie made me a nice dinner of salad and a BBQ chicken sandwich and then I went straight to bed as I would have to get up early to get my run in before church at 9am. Needless to say that as soon as I saw the pillow, I fell asleep.

*Alene Reta – Alene is a convicted drug cheat that changes his name as he races around the country so that he can compete in races (some races don’t allow people to compete that have a drug conviction to their name). I don’t understand why race directors invite him to their races. He is going to make it fast but at what cost? He races almost every weekend and runs fast but you will never see him at a race that has drug testing. There have been a few threads about him on the Letsrun.com forum about him and it seems like most people are in agreement about him. The New York Road Runners apparently won’t allow him in any of their races. Sorry for the rant but I just feel that people like Alene shouldn’t be allow to ruin the sport that I love.

3/26/10

Friday’s Training – Am: 50 mins easy Pm: 35 mins easy

Mileage – 12 Miles

I was awake a few times throughout the night from the pounding of the rain on my hotel window. I usually sleep with a sound machine that makes a rain noise but this was different. My room is on the 17^th floor and it was more like someone knocking on the window rather than the soothing pitter patter of rain drops. I eventually remembered that I had some ear plugs so I got them and fell back asleep. I woke up around 8.30am, made some coffee and unpacked my bag. I usually don’t have coffee in the 5 days leading up to a race as the studies I have read have shown that you get a bigger benefit from the caffeine come race day when you have your coffee. This was just a tune up race so I decided against coming off the coffee but I might as well have as the coffee that came out of the machine in my room was pretty bad. I luckily brought my own Starbucks VIA packs so I could try them out on race morning. There is also a coffee shop in the lobby so that will be good for an espresso before I head out to warm up tomorrow. I spent a little time trying to workout on the map of the course and a google map where I was so that I could run the course this morning. The knocking on the window started again just before I headed out so I knew I would be getting pretty wet during my run. I was only half a mile from the start so I ran along to Broad street which I guess is the main street in Richmond. It had a very inner city feel to it with shops and some run down buildings but what amazed me (and I remembered having the same feeling when I raced here last year) was that only two blocks down and running parallel to this street was Monument Avenue, a gorgeous street that is lined with old Georgian and Edwardian looking homes and buildings. The race is named after this street and you basically just run down one side of the street, turn around, and then head down the other side. The street is appropriately named as every half mile or so there is a big monument or statue in the middle of the road dedicated to some one of importance. The only name I could see on one of them was Arthur Ashe, the 3 time Grand Slam winner who was born and raised in Richmond. I ran for 50 mins and then stopped to do some drills and strides before heading into the hotel to quickly get changed and grab a big breakfast. My biggest problem now was getting dry as I was soaked from the run and I couldn’t peel off half the clothes I had on. After squirming about for a few minutes, I managed to get into some dry clothes and headed downstairs for some eggs, potatoes, pancakes, pineapple and OJ. I also managed to grab some snacks for later on a tomorrow morning. I got back to my room and realised that I had to somehow get all my clothes dry again for my next run so I threw them on the fan and cranked the heat up.

Most of the day was spent relaxing in front of the TV and napping. I realised when I got up and walked about that I had gotten some pretty bad nipple chafing this morning so I went for a little walk to see if I could either find some Vaseline or band aids for my second run. Luckily there was a pharmacy just along the road but they only had huge tubs of Vaseline so I was just going to improvise with some lip salve. When I got to the checkout I found some travel packs of Aquafor (pretty much the same as Vaseline) and immediately rub some on as my nipples were getting very sore at this point. After 10 minutes of stinging, they felt much better and I felt more comfortable about going for a second run. I called Thom Sudeth, the elite athlete coordinator about what I was supposed to do in terms of picking up my number as last year I had to go to the expo and get it. He said he would be at the hotel an hour later but 4 hours had now passed and I didn’t know what I should do.

I met Thom just before I left for my second run and picked up my number and he told me he would be taking the elites out to dinner. It was pretty cold when I was running, especially because everything I was wearing was wet from the morning. I warmed up though and the run passed by without much to worry about.

I met Thom and the Africans for dinner and we headed to a place called MamaZu’s. I figured it had to pretty good because when we walked in, it was packed out with an hour wait. We had a table waiting for us so we sat down and Bart Yasso ordered the food for us (because it was busy and we had a big group, we had to order family style). This was fine until I realised that every time they brought a plate full of food, they gave it to the other end of the table so that meant there was nothing left for me. I was getting very hungry and pretty annoyed at this point so I had to just grab a plate and take as much of the food as possible so that I wouldn’t be starving for the rest of the night! After hearing some of Thom’s stories (apparently he has 84 guns in his closet!) we headed back to the hotel and I snacked on some energy bars and trail mix as I was still a bit hungry.

Now I’m just going to watch a film and try to get to sleep as I have to wake up at 5.30am for our 8.30am start.

3/25/10

Thursday’s Training – Am: 80 mins easy

Mileage – 12 Miles

Today was a travel day as I was heading over to the east coast for my race in Richmond, Virgnia on Saturday. I slept badly again last night for some reason but got up at the same time as usual (6.40am) and spent most of the time before my run packing for the trip. I quickly checked my emails (which had some great news and I will elaborate on this after I get back from the race) and then headed out the door. It was pretty windy this morning, which was great for the first half of my run as I was being pushed all the way out to Country Club. Of course I knew what was coming on the way back around the town but the wind really didn’t feel too bad which was good as it gets pretty hilly on the route that I took. I didn’t have anytime to do any drills or stretching after the run as I was already cutting it close for driving down to Phoenix and making my flight in good time. I had a quick shower and some breakfast and headed down the road. The roads were pretty clear so the drive went by pretty quickly and I got to Julie’s house in the usual amount of time. Lorie, Julie’s mum, dropped me off at the airport and the rest of the day was spent sitting on planes. I watched a movie about steroid use in the USA (Bigger, Faster, Stronger) and then started to watch the Beijing Olympic Marathon. I thought I had the whole thing but it shut off after they hit 20km so that was annoying. I got into Richmond at 11.30pm and jumped in a taxi to the hotel which was in the downtown area. I just dumped my bag and had a quick shower before getting off to sleep at around 1.30am.

3/24/10

Wednesday’s Training – Am: Short Track Workout @ Sedona (4,500ft). 3200m, 5 mins rec, 2*800m, 4 mins rec, 2*200m, 200m jog rec. Pm: 49 mins easy

Mileage – 18 Miles

We all met at 8am at Late For The Train to travel down to Sedona together. I went down with Martin and it was one of the quicker drives down there. Usually we’ll always get stuck behind tourists taking photos and taking their time but we got a clear run. It was nice and sunny at the track although there was a bit of a cold nip in the wind. We warmed up across the road on the trails and then met Greg who was sitting at the finish line righting out the workouts on his clipboard. I decided to help Brett out with his workout and do a shorter version of what he was doing. He was doing 2 miles then 4*1mile so I decided to do the 2 miles and do 800m of his first 2 1mile reps. I wanted to run hardish but not really tire myself out for the race at the weekend. Brett, Martin and I started the workout and decided to trade off the lead after 3 laps. Brett lead first then Martin and I finished with the last 2 laps. It was pretty windy down at the bottom end of the track so it was good we were in a group and we could shelter for each other, I really didn’t feel that ok for the first 6 laps but as soon as I went to the front I felt fine and we cruised through the finish having averaged 69 sec laps. The 5 mins rec was an 800m jog around the track and then I would take the boys through the first 800m of their reps. I felt good on these and the 68s felt easy. A couple of 200s later and I was finished and wasn’t tired so that was good. I jogged around the track and shouted the guys on during the rest of their workouts and then we just warmed down around the infield (a nice soft artificial grass).

Photos courtesy of assistant coach Ian Torrence

Greg's Tools

2 Mile Rep

A lap later

And away we go

Recovering

Hi there!

During the mile reps

Recovering again

200m

All done!

We headed back up the road but stopped by Safeway so I could grab a sandwich. Just after we got out of town, I told Martin to pull over so I could soak my legs in the creek. The creek was pretty high and flowing quickly but that wasn’t the problem. The water was so cold that neither of us could stand it for any more than a minute or two at a time. The squealing that was coming out f our mouths would have suggested that a couple of 5 year old girls were nearby. We ended up just getting back in the car after a few attempts and headed home. I had a really good nap of about an hour and woke up pretty groggy.

My second run was a bit of a rush as I was still desperately trying to find a massage today but no one was available (I had left it late because I didn’t know I would racing on Saturday). I suddenly remembered about the high street massage place, Massage Envy and gave them a call. They had a slot at 5pm and they said I should be there for 4.45pm. It was already 3.45pm and I wanted to run for 10 miles but I knew that wasn’t going to happen as I had to drive over to the shop and run from there. I jumped in the car and got there at 4.05pm and went straight into my run. I figured I could get there at 4.55pm so I ran for an easy 7 miles and got there right on time.

A massage with someone new before a race isn’t always a great idea but I told the guy I was racing and just to flush my legs out. Well instead I got a full body massage, which felt great with minimal work on my legs. My legs actually felt ok today so I wasn’t too bothered and it actually felt great to get my back worked on. I got out of there feeling good and went next door to Safeway to pick up some salad stuff, cereal bars for the weekend and a couple of bags of ice for the bath. On my way home I picked up a couple of small Pizzas from Fratelli’s (Barbeque chicken and Buffalo chicken) as we had a voucher to use there. Julie was out running so I made up some salad and prepared my ice bath. The bath was cold but nowhere near as bad as the creek was this morning. I ate my salad while I was in there and then Julie arrived back so I had a quick shower, got changed and we ate dinner. The problem with ice baths at our apartment is that we run out of hot water pretty quickly so I am always still shivering and cold when I get out of the shower and it took me a couple of hours to heat back up and feel comfortable again. I had to pull the covers off of the bed and get wrapped up in them and have Julie as close to me as possible so I would defrost.