The Long Run (from the best)

Remember that post I did a few weeks back about what a 140mpw looks like and how it would take someone who runs 10min/mi over 20 hours a week to run that far? Well the same principle should be considered during the weekly long run, and here is the breakdown on this topic from Coach Jack Daniels PhD. Makes a lot of sense to me. An elite marathon runner would almost NEVER go out for a 4+ hour training run so why should the beginner?

Watch more video of Saucony Thirsty Thursdays with Jack Daniels on flotrack.org

Run, Forrest, Run!

"Now you wouldn’t believe it if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was goin’ somewhere, I…was…runnin’!"

Run, Forrest, Run!
Forrest Gump at MOVIECLIPS.com

Texas A & M Core Training

Texas A & M just won the men's and women's NCAA Div I National Championship for the 3rd straight year. They also had 46 All-Americans in men's and women's track & field. This may be one of the main reasons. Listen to their strength and conditioning coach. She mostly works with sprinters but the rules apply to everyone.

"Hold your posture while applying force to the track."

"If I can apply more force [to the track] over a longer period of time, I am going to win the race."

"Get as strong as humanly possible without getting bigger."

Watch more video of The Pros in 2011 on flotrack.org

Watch the race!

I finally got to watch the HS dream mile and I am amazed by the effort of Lukas Verzbicas! (My internet at home is on the fritz). Those conditions were so tough. Of the 5 HS boys to break 4 min, that was the worst weather for sure. I say take 2-3 seconds off that in ideal conditions. Props to Elias Gedyon for the move he made with a lap to go. He would have been under 4 too in good weather, so would Mudd. The class of 2011 may be the best since 2001 (Hall, Ritz, Webb). It will be fun to see where they all are in 4 years, 8 years. We may have just watched a bunch of future Olympians. Jim Ryun and Lukas Verzbicas are the only HS boys to break 4 minutes in a HS only mile!

Watch the race here.

Post race interview with Lukas here.

He did it!

I knew Lukas Verzbicas was a special talent, but he sealed the deal today by becoming only the 5th high schooler ever to break the 4 minute mile! I honestly thought there might be 2 or 3 kids do it today but it sounds as though windy conditions made it awfully hard to get it done. Congrats to Lukas! What an amazing year this young man has had (Footlocker xc champ, Nike Cross Nationals champ, National 2 mile record holder, and now sub 4 minute miler). I look forward to following your career for many more years.

Watch more video of adidas Golden Stripes 2011: Dream 100 & Jim Ryun Dream Mile on flotrack.org

Thirsty Thursdays!

What was your toughest workout ever?

Watch more video of Saucony Thirsty Thursdays with Jack Daniels on flotrack.org

Thirsty Thursdays are back!

Flotrack started a new series with Coach Jack Daniels, PhD. This week was about mental fatigue. I have heard him tell this story about the runner in South America before and it is a great one.

Take it one mile at a time, one lap at a time, one step at a time. It is a simple act of puting one foot in front of the other. Don't make it more complicated than it is, and remember the faster your run the faster it will all be over!

Watch more video of Saucony Thirsty Thursdays with Jack Daniels on flotrack.org

Steady 8 miler

The only calm morning this week and I got to enjoy it! It was beautiful out this morning and I got in a nice steady 8 mile run in 60:18 (7:32 pace). It is exactly 3.1 miles from my house to the end of Ave M at 75th West. Sounds like a good time trial run to me.

Found some great slow motion video of the men's and women's leaders at the Boston Marathon. I love watching people run in super slo mo!

Boston Marathon 2:03:02!

Me at the finish line, Boston 2008

It was an incredible day in Boston. It must have been magical to be there.

Four men broke the previous course record, set last year.

Two men broke the world record by almost a minute, although because of Boston's loss of elevation and point to point nature the records will not be ratified.

Geoffrey Mutai won the race in 2:03:02!

Moses Mosop was second in 2:03:06 in his debut marathon!

Ryan Hall's time is the fastest American time ever, first American under 2:05, and broke the Boston course record, and he was FOURTH!

The 2010 Boston Marathon winner, Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot was less than a minute off his course record that he set last year. This year his 2:06:43 was only good enough for SIXTH PLACE!

17 of the past 20 Boston Marathons have been won by a Kenyan man. This dominance continued again this year with Geoffery Mutai.


8 of the past 12 Boston Marathons have been won by a Kenyan woman. This dominace also continued this year with Caroline Kilel in 2:22:36

Two women ran under 2:23 today and finished within 2 seconds of each other. In the last 4 years the women's race has been decided by 3 seconds or less!

The second place female was American Desiree Davila, who's time of 2:23:38 is the fastest ever for American females at Boston (previously held by Joan Benoit Samuelson).

Joan Benoit Samuelson, who had been dealing with back pain and thought about not even starting the race, ran 2:51 at the age of 54.

Kara Goucher ran a PR by over a minute with a time of 2:24:52 (a time that would have won Boston the previous 4 years) just 6 months after giving birth to her first son, and placed FIFTH!

Great video recap of the significance of this years Boston Marathon.

Watch more video of 2011 Boston Marathon on flotrack.org

Coolest Gameshow Ever!

High School Cross Country at it's finest! NXN

Must watch all 9 minutes! This is a brutal course.

Snow at 3000ft!

My house sits at about 2600ft elevation. I awoke this moring to snow dusted hills just above the aqueduct. I decided to run up there and check it out. It was still very cold and windy. When I got to the aqueduct (3000ft elev.) I did find some snow but mostly a heavy frost over most of the hills. Look at the left side of the picture between the houses. I took the dirt side of the aqueduct and caught the trail up to the Joshua Ranch Trail where there was definitely snow. The trail was covered with half snow, half heavy frost which froze the dirt underneath and made the ground hard instead of muddy. It was even colder and windier at the top. I paused long enough to enjoy the view and start freezing my hands before I headed back home. I got back in just under an hour for a total of 7 miles. It was too cold to be out there much longer. Us west coasters are wimps in the cold!

FYI: The Garmin Forerunner 305 (the watch that I use) is on sale at Walmart.com for $99 bucks! A steal!

Check this out: A 91 year old woman who competes in all track and field events and owns many world records for 90+ age group. Watch her thow the javelin and hammer! Amazing!

Nike Commercial

5 miles...no improvement

I ran 5 this morning. I started out feeling pretty good. After about 4 the calf started to tighten. By 5 miles I was altering my stride due to the pain/tightness and called it. Ice massage afterward. Sore most of the day. No improvement since Monday. Getting tired of this.


In more positive news, Molly Huddle, formerly of Notre Dame, broke the American Record in the 5k on Friday with a time of 14:44.76. She broke Shalane Flanagan's old record by 4 hundredths of a second. This was her third time this season under 15 minutes. She got into a fast race (ended up 10th) and hung on to the pace to set the record. 10th PLACE WAS AN AMERICAN RECORD! That shows you how far behind we still are. See her post race interview here.

Even more interesting is to watch her post race interview from two weeks ago after running 14:57 in London. She says, "I'm not calling anything out or pointing at it or anything...but...if you can run 14:51 maybe you can try for some 14:44.7 range...its just something to try for...a goal for the summer. It's not really that serious of a goal...that's just what I'm going for." Well she did it!


BTW: Sergio Reyes was 5th today at the US 10 mile road championships at Crim Festival of Races in Flint, Michigan with a time of 48:32 (4:52 pace). See results here.
See the full race here...if you have 65 minutes to spare. Fast forward to 58:00 to see Sergio finish.

Announcements

1. Chris Solinsky broke the 13 minute barrier for the 5k for the third time this year. He now has 3 of the top 5 US 5ks of all time. Watch the video of Thursday's race below. It is the final lap of the race and Chris moves up into second on the home stretch only to be passed by Merga at the end.



2. I will not be running at the Totally AV Fair Race tomorrow. My calf feels better today but not well enough to run it and I don't feel like jogging it. Instead I have been given the job of being the lead bike with the front runners and I am excited about that. It will be interesting to see who is the first across the finish line.

3. I officially signed up for another marathon for next spring. I am running the Orange County Marathon on May 1st, 2011. They just opened registration and for the first two days the entry fee was only 70 bucks. I got a message from a friend Dan Ham that said he was interested in running it and possibly shooting for a BQ (Boston Qualifier) there. I told him I would help pace him to a sub 3:10. Orange County is almost exactly 3 months after Surf City, so I should have plenty of time to recover and build back up. 3:10 is only 13 minutes off my PR so it will still be a hard effort. After running the OC half a year ago I told myself I would never run the full down there. But the idea of running it with someone else makes it bearable.

Update

If you are wondering what the lack of blog posts meant, well it meant a lack of running. I strained my soleus last Sunday. There is two muscles that make up your calf. The gastrocnemius being the more superficial and the soleus the deeper. The gastrocnemius crosses the knee joint but the soleus doesn't. To stretch the gastroc you dorsiflex or extend the foot with the knee stright, to stretch the soleus you dorsiflex or extend the foot with the knee bent. The soleus stretch is typically felt lower in the calf just above the achilles tendon. I have no pain when I stretch my gastroc, but I feel the same tightness and pain when I stretch my soleus. Here is the rundown of the last week.

Monday: Calf sore all day from cramping Sunday.

Tuesday: Calf feeling better. Tried to jog to my car...not happening.

Wednesday: Thought about running in the morning but the calf was very tight first thing in the morning.

Thursday: Stayed up too late Wednesday night and was too tired. No pain with walking. No pain jogging to my car.

Friday: Decided today was the day to get in a slow easy run. I just ran up and down M-12 so I wouldn't get too far away and have a problem. It was tight the whole time and after a mile started to get a sharp pain with every step. Now, I have been running long enough to know when a pain is saying, "stop now" and when pain is saying, "be careful." Today it was saying, "be careful" so I stopped at 3 miles. It was sore and painful with every step the rest of the day.

I did an ice bath tonight.

I looked back at the last time I got a cramp as bad as this one. It was April 19, 2009 and I complained about it for exactly 14 days. Although on the 14th day I ran the OC half marathon in 1:27:22. If it takes me that long to recover again I will be ready next weekend.

Tyson Gay beat Usain Bolt in the 100m in Stockholm, Sweden today clocking a 9.84. Watch Tyson turn it on at 60m. His turnover is amazing. He is 6 inches shorter than Usain!

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Does running damage your knees?

Oh no, here goes Karl on one of his rants again. Doesn't all that running damage your knees? I still get that question which is a very common misperception. I addressed this question earlier this year, but here I go again. I recently watched an interview with Molly Beckwith on how she started running. Molly just became the 7th American this year to break 2 minutes in the 800m (a HUGE barrier for women). In the interview she tells of how she ran track for one year in high school, then decided to play soccer year-round. She got a college scholarship to play soccer for Indiana, but after multiple knee injuries and surgeries from contact and rotational forces of the game, the pain forced her to quit soccer. She then walked on to the track team, ran 2:14 in her first 800m, dropped to 2:06 her Junior year, and was second at NCAA Championships her senior year. This summer she is one of the top 800m runners in the country.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

So did running damage her knees? No, but one could say that soccer did. Was she able to run after multiple knee injuries and surgeries? Yeah, I'd say she is able to run pretty well after all that. Is she now at a higher risk for early onset arthritis because of her multiple knee surgeries? YES! Could the running actually be good for her knees and delay any chance of arthritis or further degeneration? Well, the jury is still out on that one, but I have read some articles that show running may have a protective effect on the knees! Read this abstract.

Here is another one that showed a decreased incidence of arthritis with physical activity, although they don't really define what "Moderate Recreational Physical Activity" is.

First track workout of the year (6x800m)

I am feeling more confident about my endurance these days and decided it was time to start some track workouts. I did my warm up to Joe Walker MS (1.5 miles) and did another two laps on the track. Then I did a few strides and some skips and butt kicker drills and started into the workout. I decided to run 800s for a first track workout, because it is not too long but not too short. I planned on 5 or 6 sets and wanted to run each one a little faster than the last. I figured I should be able to run them all at least around 3 minutes with a one lap recovery jog.

Here's how it went down:

3:02, 2:58, 2:55, 2:52, 2:47, 2:44

Cool down back home for a total of 8 miles for the workout.
I was very pleased with how I was able to run the last 3 under 2:55. I felt like I could have done a few more. Wednesday morning is going to be my new track workout day. I will be varying the workout each week over the next two months. The plan is to slowly increase the volume of intervals. Today I get credit for 4800m of work. I will build up to 6 to 7000m of total volume by the fall.

The Badwater Ultra was this week. No one broke the 24 hour mark this year. 2008 winner Jorge Pacheco started off on pace but had to stop for an hour due to stomach cramps and his pace slowed for the rest of the race. He ended up 6th. Also 2008 female winner Jamie Donaldson, broke her own course record with a time of 26 hours 16 minutes 12 seconds. This was her 3rd Badwater win. She runs very even and picking off runners late in the race. After Furnace Creek (mile 17) she was in 13th place and worked her way up to a 3rd place over all finish. See results here.

I found a cool blog of another Badwater runner Dominic Grossman who ended up 11th. His website is ultrapt.blogspot.com but I can't figure out if he is a PT or not. He did a Gatorade commercial...check it out.

Gatorade "Dominic" from BlipMobile on Vimeo.

8 mile am run and RUNNING NEWS

I got in a nice 8 miler this morning. It is 2 miles to the aqueduct from my house, then I did an out and back up there, and returned home. It is so nice to get up on the aqueduct again on a nice day. We have had some windy weather and the aqueduct is not protected at all. If it is breezy in town it will be windy on the aqueduct. This morning it was beautiful up there. I had a little left calf sorness from running on the track on Sunday. The only thing that means is that I have to ease into track workouts or it could get worse. The 8 miles took me about 63 minutes, I steadily picked up the pace during the run and cruised back at 7 min pace.


ATTENTION READERS: There is a track meet at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, CA on Saturday night, May 22, with some of the best middle distance runners in the country. They are only running 800m and 1500m. The 800s start at 7:00pm and the event should be done around 8:30! There are many Olympians and Olympic hopefuls on the entrant list (W: Barringer, Flanagan, Rowbury, Pierce, Begley, Hall, Donahue, Martinez) (M: Rupp, Manzano, Dobson, Smith, Torrence, Leer). I plan on attending and invite all of my readers to come out. It should be great fun.

If you have checked my blog list on the right side of the screen you will notice that I have been adding blogs from some elite American Distance runners that I enjoy reading. I just added another one today, Ian Dobson and Julia Lucas, an elite running couple with OTC.

Dean Karnazes had a good post today on organic fruits and vegetable and which ones have the highest levels of pesticides on them if not organic called "The Dirty Dozen." We try to buy organic when ever possible and continue to use abundant harvest organics for our weekly "veggie box."

Finally, Coach Jay Johnson out of Colorado, posted a great basic kettlebell for runners workout video. It is a good program for introduction to kettlebell training, which Clay and I use for leg and core strengthening to suppliment our running. I think his kettlebell is too light for him because he doesn't need to swing it that high, but he has some good commentary and the video is worth watching. Here it is!


I'm intersted, how many of my readers are "going organic?"

Lateral right knee pain

I ran 5 miles this morning but was limited by lateral right knee pain. I had discomfort in this area (lateral femoral condyle) during most of the LD50. The ITBand just rubbed and rubbed for 9 hours. It is the limiting factor in any progression in my training. I didn't want to run any farther today.

It also stopped me after a four mile run last Thursday.


Here is the link to an article on Amy Palmiero-Winters (first amputee to qualify for Western States 100 and a US Track & Field team for the 24 hour world championship run). Awesome!