Progression Cruise Intervals with Dale & Joel

Hey I got out early again to get my run in today! I did an extended warm up of 4 miles then a mile on the track with Dale. Joel came out today as well and we decided on running mile repeats with short rest. We ran the first one easy in 6:53 and then decided that we didn't need a full lap recovery today so we just did a slow 200m jog. The next three miles were 6:48, 6:38, and 6:35. Joel and I ran together with Dale about 10 seconds behind. After 4 I asked Dale if he wanted to do one more. He agreed and I decided to pick up the pace. Joel hung on for 3 laps but faded on the last lap. I ran 6:07, Joel was 6:13 and Dale was 6:54. It was a nice crisp and calm morning for a track workout. My right leg is feeling better with each run. We'll see how sore it is tomorrow. Total mileage for today was 11!

Less than one week until the 2011 Boston Marathon. I am excited to watch and follow the race, especially the women's race. It is a stacked field. Reporters are saying that there are 15 women in the race who have a chance of winning. Three of the top 6 American female marathoners are running: Kara Goucher, Desiree Davilla, and Blake Russell. It was also just announced that Joan Benoit Samuelson will be running as well. Her 23 year old daughter qualified so she decided she would run too. There is speculation that she will try and run an Olympic Trials qualifying time (2:46) which she narrowly missed at Chicago (2:47:50). She says she would like to run under 2:50 for sure. I wonder if Boston is like the Masters golf tournament. After you win once are you are guarenteed entry for life?

9 miles with company

I did it! I finally got up early enough to get in a run! I got up at 5:00 and left the house about 15 minutes later. I headed west on M-8 and ran into Sergio Reyes (see previous post) going the other direction. I turned around and joined him for about the next three miles until we got to Joe Walker. There I met Dale who wanted to do some cruise intervals on the track. Last time we ran miles at around 6:40 pace with 200m recovery. Dale is still recovering from the LA Marathon and dealing with some other issues and he couldn't quite hit those times today. My first mile was about 6:45 and he was behind me. I told him we should do a full lap recovery instead of just 200m and I ran the next one in 6:38, but Dale was closer to 7:00. Then we decided to cut everything in half and run 800s with 200m recovery. I ran 3:13 and 3:09 and Dale was getting progressively slower so we called it for the day and did a cool down. I am crediting myself with 9 miles for the day.

Can Ed Whitlock, now at the age of 80, break the 80+ AG record for the marathon (record is 3:39:18)? We'll find out this weekend at Rotterdam! He felt he could have run 3:20 but came down with a cold. I guess he ran a 1:34 half marathon last fall!

Another good form drills video

Dale's Cruise Intervals & "What's a LOADING RATE?"

I had been discussing some threshold paced workouts with Dale via his blog since Surf City. My thought was that he could use more threshold pace runs. He contacted me to meet on Tuesday morning, and he let me choose the workout! Bad idea Dale! I decided we would do a total volume of 4 miles at his T-pace which is 6:40 pace (based on his 68:14 10m PR). I let him choose between 4x1600m or 8x800m. The key to the workout is the short recovery 90 sec between 1600m or 45 sec between 800m. He chose the 1600s and we took off. The difficulty in this workout doesn't come until the last few sets, unless you run the first few too fast. We finished the first one in 6:50, jogged for 200m and then hit the next 2 in 6:38. You have just barely enough time to catch your breath and feel slightly ready before it is time to hit another one. The last set was getting tough so we split it into two 800s, but also cut the rest in half so we only took 45 seconds or 100m between and ran them each in 3:20. Dale nailed the workout! I would challenge Dale to progress these workouts by adding volume first (5x1600m or 10x800m and so on), then extending the length to 3x2mile with 3 min recovery jog. Once those workouts are completed then go back and try the workouts again at the same speeds but even less rest (30sec/800m and 60sec/1600m). Eventually running a 4-5 mile threshold run at 6:40 pace.

Afterward, Dale and I discussed running form a little bit as I have been jazzed about this recent blog post by Jay Dicharry, P.T. from the University of Virginia's SPEED Performance Clinic on optimal form to minimize loading rates. I got to meet Mr. Dicharry at the UVA running clinic I attended last April. He discussed some of this topic then and really summed it up well in his last two blog posts. They are both worth a read and reread.
Here is Part 1 and Part 2.

There is so much talk about heel striking vs midfoot striking vs forefoot striking when it comes to form. The conclusion most people make is that heel striking is BAD! They blame the running shoes for causing all the form changes and allowing a more comfortable heel strike and give runners something else to blame their injuries on. They may be partially correct, but what Mr. Dicharry has found in his lab is that foot contact style is not as important as contact position relative to center of mass when minimizing loading rates. This means that heel striking can be ok as long as the ground contact position is almost directly under the runner's center of mass (or almost directly under the hip). Loading rates are how quickly the body (bone, tendon, muscle) has to absorb the ground reaction forces with each step. The higher the loading rate the more force the body has to absorb in a short amount of time, thus increasing the likelihood of injury. The problem many runners have is over striding not heel striking (although many heel strikers are also over striders).

Mr. Dicharry used some great pictures on his post from subjects in his lab, but he also used a picture of Scott Jurek that I have seen and contemplated before. Here it is.

Look at the difference in foot position on the forward leg of Scott Jurek and the Tarahumaran runner. They are completely opposite. Scott has his toes pointed up (ready to heel strike) and the other has his toes pointed down (ready to forefoot strike). Both of these runners are very efficient but have completely different forms. The thing they both have in common is that when their lead leg hits the ground it will be almost right under the hip (under their center of mass) thus minimizing loading rates. Interestingly, Scott (a heel striker) is wearing running shoes and the Tarahumaran runner is wearing sandals...hmmmmm.

Optimal stride frequency has been found to be between 180 and 190 strides per minute. If you count your steps for 10 seconds and multiply by 6 you will have your stride frequency. If it is under 170 you may be over striding. This RunnersWorld.com article summed it up well.

There are some easy form drills and cues to help you increase your stride frequency and shorten stride length. Actual research has been done that shows decreased loading rates after runners modified their stride based on the cue, "run soft." That's it just "run soft." He also discusses the importance of lumbar posture when running and how an anterior tilt, or too much curve in the low back, can shift your center of mass back, thus causing a relative overstride. This is a sign of a weak core and can be remedied with core training and again form drills.

Take home points:
1. Increase your stride frequency to at least 180 strides/min without increasing your speed. Try it on an easy run day and play with it a little.
2. Barefoot running drills are a good way to work on form since it discourages over striding. I suggest 50-100m strides on grass to start.
3. "Run soft," I don't want to hear you coming up behind me on the roads, ok!
4. Just like the word "pronation," "heel striking" is not necessarily a BAD WORD.

Track workout 5x1600m cut downs

Dale called me last night wanting to get together for a run. I was planning on my hilly route but decided to meet at the track at 5:30am for 5x1600m again. Actually, I didn't decide to do five until I had finished the fourth one. I was feeling suprisingly good this morning. I cut the rest down to a 2-2.5 minute jog around the track and cut my times down from two weeks ago as well. Here are the splits. 6:23, 6:10, 6:06, 5:58, 5:41 (average 6:03).

Two weeks ago my splits were 6:21, 6:15, 6:06, 6:04, 5:49

McMillan's cruise interval pace for a 2:55 marathon is 5:57-6:04 so I guess I am on track.


Meb was on Letterman last night and did the Top Ten "things you think about when running the marathon." Number one was "I really hope that was Gatorade."


Sunday's marathon had 43,741 starters and 43,475 finishers. The latter is a historic high; New York's own previous highest total was 38,607 in 2007.

Actor Edward Norton completed the NYC Marathon in 3:48:01. I thought this was the fastest celebrity for the year but Olympic gold medal speed skater Dan Jansen ran 3:41:43.

4x1mile cruise intervals, just beating the snow!

I didn't get out to do my threshold pace run yesterday so last night I checked the weather and there was a chance for rain/snow but little wind so I decided to bump the workout to today. I did a 2 mile warm up then 4x1mile cruise intervals (threshold pace) with 1 minute recovery in between, followed by a mile cool down. It is a great workout. My cruise intervals were 6:22, 6:17, 6:16, 6:10. My calves were a little tight, but other than that I felt great. I planned the route such that I didn't have to run into the wind/light rain for more than half of any interval. The rain was light but cold and felt like small sleet or hail. I finished the 7 miles in 49:22 (avg pace 7:03). The temp when I started was 37 degrees (felt nice) but by the time I finished it was 34 degrees and starting to snow.

As I write this at 1:30pm on my lunch it is still snowing. It has not stopped for the last 6.5 hours. I went home for lunch and here is what the house looked like. I took the boys out for a quick photo. See stutelbergscoop.blogspot.com for more pictures.Update: The snow finally stopped this evening. It snowed for more than 12 hours! See our snowman here.

Cruise Intervals! Best 30 min workout!

I had 30 minutes this morning and wanted to get in a quality run. I was hoping to spend some time at threshold pace without over doing it. It was similar to last week but shorter intervals and less rest. The workout turned out to be a great quality workout and it was completed in just over 30 minutes.

After a mile warm up I did 5x 1/2 mile at threshold pace with 30 seconds rest in between them and finished with a mile cool down.
My times were 3:10, 3:12, 3:06, 3:06, 3:10 and that 30 seconds rest sure goes by fast after 4 of them.

I finished with 3x150m accels.
The total mileage was 5 miles in 36:05 (avg 7:13 pace).

Cruise Intervals are done at threshold pace, or comfortably hard, 90% vVO2max / Heart rate. The idea is just to break up a longer threshold run to make it a little more manageable. Usually rest should be only 1 min/mile intervals. Jack Daniels recommends no more than 30-60 seconds rest. This short rest keeps lactic acid levels constant. Since I was only doing half mile intervals then my rest was only 30 seconds. In other words I could have run 2.5 miles at 6:20 pace, but breaking it up gave me a short mental break.

If you only have 30 minutes and want a quality workout try this: 8 minute warm up, then 5x (3min comfortably hard followed by 30sec easy), finsh with 8 minute cool down. Total 33:30 workout.


Here is what Jack Daniels, PhD. has to say on cruise intervals:
"Plenty of scientific evidence, not to mention common sense, tells you that you can run longer at a certain pace if you take short rests than you can by running that pace nonstop, as in tempo running. This type of intermittent run/rest approach also reduces the stress level of training. No wonder the concept many years ago gave rise to interval training - probably the world's most popular form of high-level athletic training.

Now the same idea brings us a newer, more effective form of training - cruise intervals. Simply put, cruise intevals are a type of threshold-pace running in which you divide the workout into several segments that are separated by recovery periods. As a result, the lactic acid level in your blood remains quite constant, the same as in a steady tempo run. (I have actually tested this with my runners, and found it to be true even when they were running 6 miles of cruise intervals.)

A typical crusie-interval session should include a warmup, the cruise intervals and a warmdown. I generally recommend the 1-mile distance for cruise intervals but believe that any distance from 1/2 mile to 2 miles (3 minutes to 10 minutes of hard running per interval) would prove equally effective. The short rest between intervals is essential to the workout; it should last only 30 to 60 seconds.

How many cruise intervals can you do on each hard day? The general rule of thumb is that your cruise intervals should total no moare than 8 percent of your total weekly mileage. If you run 20 miles a week, do about 1 1/2 miles of cruise intervals; if you run 50 miles, do about 4 miles. Generally my athletes run just one cruise interval session per week.

Don't let a low or moderate weekly mileage total hold you back. Cruise intervals can prove particularly effective for runners in the 15- to 30- miles-per-week range. For example, a 20-mile-per-week runner might do 3 x 880 yards at threshold pace with 60-second recovery jogs between the 880s. Cruise intervals also make an excellent transition from a steady-running program to one that includes more demanding workouts."

The rest of the article is here. Check it out.

Greg McMillan says of cruise intervals:
"The Cruise Interval workout was popularized by the running coach, Jack Daniels. They, like the other Stamina workouts, are meant to increase your lactate threshold pace. Cruise Intervals are like shorter and slightly more intense tempo intervals. They last three to eight minutes and the pace is between 8K and 12K. Like tempo intervals, they are followed by short recovery jogs (30 seconds to 2 minutes). You'll probably find that it's easy to run too fast on these. The tendency is to treat them like regular long intervals. However, keep it under control and work on a smooth, fast rhythm. Control in training is key to improvement." Read his article here.