Archives for General category
Posted on Aug 24, 2011 under General |
I finally picked up two new pairs of shoes last night. I got a pair of Saucony Ride 3′s and while I said a couple of posts ago I wasn’t going to get a pair of Saucony Kinvara’s I did. Haven’t run in them yet thought that’ll be tomorrow morning.
I wanted to share something I’m going to start doing to try and track the lifespan of my shoes so I can know how long I’ve been runnning in a pair and know yes it’s time to change and also try to get a timeline for how long a pair is lasting me. I’m liking the idea of having more then one pair in rotation so I think I’ll be buying shoes less often, although still spending the same amount.
Basically what I’m doing is setting up a simple spread sheet to track the runs in each pair of shoes. I have no idea if I’ll be able to stick with this or not, but since I run with a Garmin Forerunner 305 I have a history of my runs that I can draw upon if I miss a few days.
I’ve created a simple sheet that has 3 tabs, one for each pair of shoes I have (Ride 3′s, Kinvara’s and Mirage). For each tab I have a Date, Description and Mileage column. The plan is to update this with the date, description and distance of each run based on the data from my Garmin Connect software once a week or so.
I’ve never really tracked this sort of thing and I know that shoes often aren’t good for as long as I keep em. This should be an interesting experiment.
Posted on Aug 18, 2011 under General, Training |
This week has been a bit of a blur. It’s Thursday already and I have a 10K race this Sunday. I was out this morning for an easy 40 min run, did about 8.6KM at a 4:35 per KM or so pace. It felt pretty good, but I missed my 6 x 600 M workout yesterday due to other commitments.
Tomorrow brings my 6 x 1 Min Fartlek session and then a day off on Saturday before race day on Sunday.
Race Goals
My ultimate goal for Sunday’s race is to run 37:30. This will put me on good pace to break 37 minutes later this season, but if it doesn’t happen life will go one.
To run 37:30 I must run some where around 3:45 min / KM splits.
So that brings me to my second goal which is to start out slow.
The past few races I’ve run I’ve gone out far too quickly and it’s left me feeling BLAH to say the least at the mid point of the race. I almost always finish strong, so this time I want to go out at my goal pace and recognize that I’m not looking to win or anything, I just need to keep a steady pace through out and then finish hard.
The race is 2 x 5K loops, and I’m pretty familiar with the course as I spent a lot of last year running the same route for training purposes as it used to be close to my office.
I’ve spoken with a couple of other runners that have said that the route is quite a bit shorter then 10KM, I’ll know I guess once I”m done and see what my Garmin 305 says.
For my watch I’m going to have it run without calculating 1KM intervals. Instead I’ll allow it to track my pace cumulatively. This way when I glance down what I’ll see is my average lap pace and since the entire race will be calculated as one lap the average pace will be what my average moving pace has been for the race to that point.
New Shoes
So I’m on the hunt now for new shoes. I’ve been running the past year and a half or more in Saucony Guide 3′s. I’ve gone through 3 pairs and I think I’m ready for a change. I’m considering the Saucony Ride’s as they are a similar shoe but lack the supportive post that runs under the arch. I have a pretty normal Gait so don’t really need the support. I discovered this earlier this year in Physio when I found out I had an anteverted hip and it’s not that I under or over pronate. This isn’t something I did to myself recently, it’s unfortunately how my body developed because I did what was called W-sitting as a child.
So anyways, back to the shoes. I’ve been interested in this minimalist shoe development and have begun doing my fast training sessions and my races in the Saucony Grid Mirage. This shoe is sort of the first step to a minimalist shoe before you take the full plunge into something like the Saucony Kinvara. I’m tempted by the Kinvara, however two things turn me off.
1.) I’m not a fan of the short lifespan I think this shoe will have, and while I don’t do huge mileage (35-50K or 22 – 32 Miles per week) I like to run shoes for about 400-500 miles if I can. The estimates I’ve been reading online suggest you might get 200 miles out of a pair of these which makes it a pricey shoe.
2.) I’m afraid that the total lack of support will cause me more injury issues.
I’m till undecided but will make up my mind in the coming weeks.
For any of you fellow Canadian runners out there I’ve been shopping on a great website that has a huge selection Running Free. It’s out of Ontario and pricing is solid. Check em out.
Posted on Mar 24, 2011 under General |
Well I haven’t posted here all winter long really. I had a so so winter season. I concentrated primarily just on staying fit and keeping my body used to 45 – 60 minute runs.
Last season I struggled off and on with shin splints which constantly caused me to take time off and actually hindered the quality of my training. It turns out after an appointment with a sports med specialist yesterday I have some muscle imbalances that I have to work on.
This is unfortunately going to affect the beginning of my training this season, but I guess it’s better to get myself healed up rather then continue on a path that could potentially cause myself more harm then good.
I’m starting physio next week and will keep my runs to 3-4 days a week rotating between 30 and 40 minute easy runs. With the snow gone around my house I’ll be able to do quite a bit of my running on the trails close by so I can avoid concrete and side walks.
Posted on Aug 10, 2010 under General |
Well I’m back into things some what. I took the weekend off, both days, then yesterday did a 60 min steady run. It felt pretty good, although my watch died about 10 minutes in so I was sort of guessing at the over all time.
Today I’m doing an easy 30 min recovery run and tomorrow morning I have 5 X 2000 M at the track.
This workout tomorrow is the hardest I feel of all the runs I do for this entire 3 week training period. It’s very demanding both mentally and physically. I did a similar workout about a month ago but I didn’t do it on the track and I only did 4 X 2K on a path near my house.
Tomorrow I will do the 5 X 2000M and aim to hit them all around 7:50 with 1:30 recovery between. The key will be not going out too fast in the first one to gage my time vs effort. Also I don’t want a chance that I run with poor form and further my shin split injury I’ve been working to try and heal up.
That’s it for now will post back with the results of my 2000 M sessions after tomorrow.
Posted on Aug 05, 2010 under General |
I haven’t posted in a few days, unfortunately after the past couple of weeks my shin was hurting enough during my runs that I decided to take a few days off. So I haven’t run since last Friday (My 30 min Fartlek session) and am going to lace my shoes back up today for a 40 min easy run.
I was feeling pretty down about having to take a break, but I finally recognized this past Sunday when I started for an easy run that my shin just wasn’t feeling 100%. About 800 M into the run I turned back and decided a break was in order.
So it’s been 5 days off, how long before I can get back into my routine?
Well according to research I’ve been doing on CoolRunning.com and About.com (their section on running and fitness) if your time away from running is less then 7 days you shouldn’t lose much fitness if any at all. How ever if over 7 days your fitness will begin to go downhill rather quickly, faster then what it took to gain it.
To make matters a little worse, I’ve been struggling with a cold the last 2 days.
What about running with a cold? Well rule of thumb is if the cold is above your neck (i.e. not in your lungs and chest) it’s OK to run through it. If it’s in your chest you should take some time off to recover.
So my current plan is to run 3 times between now and Monday (easy runs only) then on Monday start another 3 week training session as I just completed.
I am going to change the final speed workout of this routine how ever to 600M intervals from 400M intervals and focus hard on the time I do each in. I aggravated my shin and calfs badly from the speed I did my 400′s in last week so I don’t want to make the same mistake twice.
Posted on Jul 27, 2010 under General, Training |
I’ve fallen into this train of thought that when I’m doing Intervals I should basically be killing myself for the number of reps I’m doing whether it’s 2000′s, 1000′s or 400′s.
In a discussion on another forum where I’ve been discussing my training routine the coach explained to me the logic behind the intervals I’m doing and the pace I should be running them at.
In week 1 I do 5 X 2000M this is to be done at my goal 10K pace and to get me ready for the ruggers of the 10K race and know what my goal pace feels like. For me this is somewhere between 3:50 and 3:55 per K. The idea is that when I’m doing the interval it should be tough but I should be thinking to myself that during a race I could keep this up for 10K.
In week 2 I do 6 X 1000M. This is done at my 5K pace, so for me between 3:40 and 3:50 per K. Again the idea is for me to be running the interval at a comfortably hard pace knowing that this is a race 5K pace. If I am feeling like I’m just fighting to finish the interval then I am going too hard.
In week 3 I do 10 x 400M (going to also rotate with 6 X 600M) this is to be at my estimated 3K pace. I haven’t run a 3000M race on track in probably 15 years, but I can estimate what I could run for 3000M based on my 5K times. Still the point is to keep in mind the goal pace behind this workout.
If you fall into the class of runners who only knows FAST or s l o w… maybe consider reading this group of articles over at mcmillanrunning.com. He has put together a great set of content that explains what each part of training helps develop, how fast you should be running it and how to help build your training plan. There are 6 parts so maybe print off each one and bind it together that’s what I did, click here to read them.
Also, if you’re training for 10K’s consider this list of training routines over at Time-To-Run.com. This is the training routine I am currently following. Click here to see the programs.
Moral of this post is I am running everything a little too fast. Even my easy runs I am going a little too quick so for the rest of this week and my next 3 week cycle I am going to focus on running the paces I should be and not faster. Even if it feels too slow.
This comes on the heels of my shin flaring up again after the past week or so of training. I want to run healthy and for me when I run with more intensity (Speed) I sacrifice my technique which in turn hurts me.
Posted on Jul 17, 2010 under General, Training |
An easy run day today of 10K. I pushed it a little harder then I should have getting my HR up into the high seventies / low eighities percent of max.
Did the run on about 60-70% crusher dust trail and the rest on side walk. My shin felt good though even with the harder surface running. I’m off tomorrow and then Monday morning is an interval day of 6 X 1k, that will be a tough one thinking back to how the 4 X 2K felt last week.
Heart Rate
I wanted to make a couple of quick notes about heart rate. I’ve been training for about 3 weeks with my Garmin Forerunner 305 with heart rate. I’ve been noticing that on my easier runs I’m not in the 70-75% of max based on the calculations in the watch and the software.
I did a bit of research on this since I want to ensure that I am getting the maximum benefit from my training and training too hard won’t achieve that.
Some common sense applied to the heart rate info is required, and since the watch uses the 220 – your age calculation for your max heart rate it is just a rule of thumb.
For me my max heart rate should be 190 Beats per minute (BPM), on last Friday’s fartlek run in the heat I hit 189 BPM which I don’t believe is my max although it has HOT outside.
I made a forum post about the topic and if anyone has been having troubles with keeping their heart rate down there’s some good info there. You can check it out here.
Posted on Jul 09, 2010 under General |
So why am I blogging about running?
I was a passionite runner in my early and late teenage years until a nasty injury put me out of commission only a few months after the National Cross Country Championships in Feb 1995.
Running was more or less everything I did from about the ages of 14 to18. A couple of times I’ve tried picking it back up again over the years but after a couple of runs I’d give up on it again.
It wasn’t until December of 2009, after my wife bought me some Winter running gear, that I decided to get back into the sport.
Since then I’ve become addicted again and have been loving the advancements in technology that have come about (GPS tracking watches, smart phone apps and Heart rate monitors) and am really enjoying road racing (something I didn’t do much of since I concentrated on Cross Country and Track events).
I wanted to create a place where I can write about my training schedule, my races, my progress, rants, gear reviews and the odd informational article about things that most of us runners face.
My current goals are:
- Staying Healthy (I’ve been struggling with Shin Splints as of late)
- Breaking 40 Min this season (2010 summer/fall) for the 10 K
So for the next couple of months I’ll be posting a lot about my weekly training plans, work out summaries and race recaps.
I’ve bought some new gear and used a few apps over the last 6 months so I’ll share some of my experiences with those for any one interested. Also I’ve been struggling a bit with a consistent training routine to improve speed and also avoiding injury, so I’ll post a bit about that as well.
Hope you’ll come back once and a while to check out what’s new, and thanks for stopping by!
