Run to Win

The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the third part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment, the second part was about nutrition basics and fueling, and the third part was about selecting proper footwear.

The fourth part of this series introduced you to the 3 athletes on the panel, and this final part will summarize their thoughts on training, teamwork, and racing as they answer the questions posed to them by the people in attendance.

What do you wish you knew in high school that you know now?

Lauren Fleshman only had 2 paces in high school, workout and racee. In college, she had 3 paces, workout, maintenance, and racing. She had a much better idea going into each workout what the goal was, and sometimes that was just to prepare for the next workout. She also would like to have known in high school how much better she could recover from two-a-days than doing 1 longer run throughout the day. In college she would run double 3 or 4 times per week.

Matt Lane would like to have known how important consistency in training was, especially having grown up in Maine where consistent running can be more difficult than elsewhere.

Matt did not run on the indoor track team, and instead competed for the ski team. Unless you are Ben True, skiing is not a complete substitute for running. It gives you great cardiovascular fitness, but it just doesn’t translate onto the track.

Matt would basically not run a single step between November and March, and his high school track times suffered as a result. He considers himself by far the slowest guy in the top 10 at Foot Lockers for his track times.

Matt wishes that he knew that running even once or twice a week would have been good enough to allow him to maintain his running fitness between the cross country and track seasons. Going for 5 or 6 weeks at a time without a run just didn’t allow him to do that no matter how well he was cross training. In the Summer, he did not have that same problem, which is why he did so much better in cross country.

Louie Luchini wishes that he had known what a difference a high volume workload can make, and wishes that he had done some harder workouts in high school.

His biggest problem with the extra volume, though, is that he sleeps too much and morning runs are out of the question for him. (Much to the chagrin of his coaching staff.)
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This week last year I began my final preparations for the New York City marathon and completed my marathon preparation series.

• I finished up the series on rest by describing how to time rest during a workout. I described different types of rest, and gave a few tips that I use to measure my rest as I am working out.
• I got out in my neighborhood for my first Halloween run. The nice thing about Halloween is that drivers are being careful as they drive. The not so nice thing is that there are twice as many drivers as usual. I did not run on Halloween this year, though, as I felt a few days off after my marathon were called for.
• I described how the starting corrals work at New York City. It is a good thing to understand how they work, especially when you want to run with a friend in a different corral. I also provided a guide for how to single me out and cheer for me at the race. The article is made more useful by the fact that it linked to quite a few resources for cheering for any runner, and not just me.
• This week two years ago, I wrote about planning your workouts. You are much more likely to stay on track if you know what you are supposed to do ahead of time. I also wrote about The Bike Shop, where children can build their own bikes and learn how to maintain them in an effort to teach fitness and responsibility. The owner “sells” the bikes for $5 to local kids, teaches them how to maintain them, and brings them on group rides. If there is not a similar program in your community, perhaps you could consider starting one?

This week last year was dominated once again by thoughts of the marathon, but this time I wrote my series on marathon preparation.

• My marathon preparation series consisted of 9 articles of 9 bullet points each. The first couple of articles just happened to come out that way, so I ran with it and made an effort to make the rest of them match that format. The articles were written for my friends that were running their first marathon last year, four of whom did it this week last year at the Marine Corps Marathon. I am running the race tomorrow with one of those guys.
  1. What to bring to the starting line
  2. What to pack in your post-race bag
  3. What to do the week before your race
  4. What to do the morning of your race
  5. What to do during your race
  6. What to do after your race
  7. What to do to stay safe
  8. Marathon strategies
  9. Choosing a marathon
• The series on rest continued this week last year with Scott’s article about why we rest and how to fuel it. A simple rule of thumb is to remember that if you do not eat after a workout, then you just wasted your time.
• This week two years ago, I wrote about the Mystic Places Marathon. That race was a lot of fun, but it no longer exists. I also discussed an old weight program that I used to use to get back in shape. My training philosophy has changed a bit in the past two years, though, so I would not necessarily follow that program as written any more.

This week last year I was getting ready for the New York City marathon, although that did not keep me from racing. I had not quite started tapering yet, though.

• I planned out my NYC race strategy, since I would be pacing a friend through his first one. Our race almost exactly mimicked the race strategy that I had put forward, except that we never got around to slowing down to 6:50 pace. In fact, the last two miles, I sped up to 6:00 pace.
• There were a couple of races. There was the inaugural Saco Bay 5k on Saturday, and the Physical Therapy 8k in Brunswick on Sunday. I ran in the 8k, as it was a part of the grand prix. Dirigo won, which was nice.
• Scott continued our series on rest by discussing measuring rest with your heart. I discussed the benefits of vitamin supplementation.
• This week last year was the first time that I ran with a headlamp. I was not completely sold on it after the run, but in the past year I have used the thing so often that I think I can consider myself sold now…

This week last year touched on a whole range of subjects, from weight lifting to drugs to accidental cheaters and how purposefully bonk during a workout.

• I shared my experience of lifting weights after breaking my ring finger. It had had a week to heal, and while there were no rings that were going to fit on it at that point, I managed to lift and control the bars all right. In other weight lifting news, I found a new animated push-up demonstration.
• Continuing on the sleep theme, I suggested that you never go to bed hungry. You won’t sleep well, and you’ll have trouble getting up and being useful in the morning.
• I also wondered why they only make belts sized for people larger than myself? I still have to spend way too much time finding a belt that isn’t at least 3 inches too long.
• Brian Morrison unfortunately had a little help maintaining forward motion in his last quarter mile of his Western States 100 Mile win. Even more unfortunately, he was disqualified for it and the win was given to Graham Cooper. A race of 99.75 miles was lost due to just a little too much trouble in that last 0.25 miles. That has to be rough. In other large sports event news, Jan Ullrich was barred from the Tour de France following suspicions in the Spanish doping scandal.
• In the performance side, I discussed research about whether or not bonking during training was a worthwhile pursuit or not. Bonking is the process of running out of fuel during a workout.
• I pondered whether or not to pony up the $100 after the Endurance 50 registration opened. I wound up getting hurt and being unable to run, so I’m glad that I decided that it wasn’t worth it for me.
• Two years ago was centered on marathoning, such as a book review and a website review, my list of marathon candidates for Autumn, and my discovery that I was near meeting the requirements to join the 50 States Marathon Club. I also won the Literacy 5k, which I believe has since folded.

Thanksgiving week last year was pretty slow. There was some random football news, but it is not really very relevant anymore. Although it was kind of funny that Jay Feeley missed so many field goals.

• I still believe that weighing yourself daily is not only a healthy thing to do but is also an important training and fitness tool.
• I tried to figure out how to structure my workouts around the holidays.
• I took a cue from Scott at Straight to the Bar and made myself some roasted vegetables; I highly recommend that you add them to your diet. I’ve found that this method works even better on the grill.
• I found out that the Paul Bunyon Marathon would be coming back to Bangor in July of 2006. Chuck Engle wound up winning it in 2:41:39.
• I disagreed with Todd Henderlong’s assertion that a 2 month break from training after a marathon was necessary. While it is certainly not a bad thing, I tend to look at it as more of an Autumn Luxery.

I have used the start of Winter as a time to recover from a long racing season. My racing season usually starts in late winter, peters out a bit after my Spring marathon, and then goes full bore through the Summer and until my Autumn marathon. After the Autumn marathon I give my legs a break.

When I originally thought about writing this article, it was because it was a beautiful day outside and I knew that I’d be spending most of the day inside. After I got home from the store, the only natural light I got was a tiny bit coming out of the soffits as I did work in my attic. I hate wasting good weather, but I want to keep my running to a bare minimum for at least 3 weeks so I told myself to stop fantasizing about going out for a run and to get home and get to work.

After the weekend was over, though, I realized that taking time off is not only hard, but it is hard work. I spent the weekend reinsulating my attic. Spending 2 days in the dark on your knees with all that crap in the air and banging your head constantly is not the easiest way to get rest.

I am not sure if there is really a lesson here, other than to try to use your rest months to get this sort of project out of the way. Manual labor the day before a race probably will not lead to your best performance.

In a collaborative effort with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we wrote about rest for the month of October. This is the final article in our series. There will be a link to each topic at the bottom of this article.

The easiest way to time your rest is with a sports watch or stop watch. You can state before your workout how much rest that you want to allow yourself before starting your next set or repeat. This will allow you to accomplish various goals during your workout. The manner in which I time my rest depends greatly upon what type of workout that I am doing.
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