Head for the Hills

When most runners think about improving their fitness so that they can race faster they immediately add some type of fast repetitions to their training. For stamina it could be three repeat miles or six repeat half miles on the track or road with a jog recovery in between. To improve top end speed it might mean some fast 400 or 200 meter repetitions on a track. But most runners overlook the most natural way to get faster – head for the hills!

It’s pretty flat where I train in central Florida, but there are some hilly areas if I search for them.   A distance run on hilly terrain challenges our leg muscles and structure as we run with more power on the uphills and turn our legs over quickly on the downhills to avoid pounding our quadriceps muscles.   This basic form of hill training, just running on hilly terrain can help us to get faster.  But I like to do hill repetitions to kick it up a notch.

There is a hill a mile from my home so today I ran to the hill and did a few stride outs on the way.  When I arrived at my destination I was warmed up and ready for six hill repetitions.   In the last couple of years I have used this hill several times and from the manhole at the bottom to a driveway near the top takes 32 or 33 seconds if I’m running comfortably fast and less than 30 seconds if I am really putting the pedal to the metal.

I ran strong on the first three reps and my times were 30.6, 30.5 and 30.1.  I was breathing heavily after the third one, but mentally ready to push the last half of the hill session.   I turned my legs over more quickly by pumping my arms faster as I silently counted ‘one, two, three, one… one, two, three, two…’ and so on every four strides.   I noted after I got to 15 four-counts that I was a bit further up the hill than the previous times and at the top my time was 29.5 seconds.  But this guy was hurting…

I jogged to the bottom and headed back up, determined to go faster.   Arms pumped, legs moved ever faster and I ran repetition number five in 28.6 seconds.   If I thought I was hurting before, now I was really spent.   I caught my breath as well as I could on the jog down and prepared for the final hill of the day.  It was a battle between my fatigue and desire on the last half of the hill as I ran it in 28.9 seconds.   I sat down and allowed my body 30 seconds to regroup before I headed home.

The jog home was welcome as I got back into my regular training pace after a half mile or so.   That hill session was short but very tough.   I only ran fast for a total of about three minutes, but it was very fast.  I worked on speed, power and mental toughness.  When I race again in the near future I am sure that my heading to the hills will reap the rewards of more efficient running and faster race times.

Run for the Trees 5k Race Report

This past Saturday I ran my first 5k road race since October.   I did a cross country race a couple of months ago, but this would be my first time in quite a while testing myself on a relatively fast course.    I ran this race one time at least half a dozen years ago and it is highlighted by a half mile stretch in the final mile on a dirt road along a lake that is usually closed to the public.

My fitness level was good since I had recently concluded 106 straight days of running at least ten miles.   I also had a great ladder track session of 1,600m, 1,200m, 800m, 400m, 200m and 200m five days before the race.  I felt I was ready to run in the mid-18s and figured a 5:50 to 5:55 first mile would be perfect.    The horn sounded and we were underway.

The ‘Run for the Trees 5k’ is in a shaded course through Winter Park, Florida neighborhoods.   Every finisher receives a small tree with planting instructions and the age group placers receive larger trees.  As I ran the winding streets of the first mile I chuckled to myself as I recalled the announcer saying, ‘If you win a tree that is too large for your Mercedes, we will deliver it to your house.’  I was driving our Mercedes today and wondered if he meant me!   I went through the mile point in 5:59 which was a bit slower than anticipated.  However, I felt good and kept my pace.

During the next mile I slowly reeled in a few runners which I like to do in the middle mile of a 5k.   My mantra is, ‘If you aren’t passing runners, then you are slowing down with them.  There was a water table halfway through the race and I took a sip of water before dumping the rest on my head.  The coolness felt good!   I typically slow down about ten seconds during the second mile, even when I’m running well, so I was surprised that I only slowed a single second to a 6:00 flat second mile.  Two miles down – one to go!

Perhaps a quarter of a mile later we turned off of the main roads onto the beautiful Genius Drive – a dirt road along Lake Mizell.  I love running on soft surfaces so it felt great on tired legs.    I caught a few runners and passed the 3-mile marker in 18:10 which was a 6:11 third mile.    I kicked in as fast as I could and finished in 18:42 – a fifty second improvement from my October road 5k.

We took a bus trip back to the start of the point-to-point course, I warmed down for a mile and then I got my first place award – a six foot tall bald cypress tree in a seven gallon pot!  I joked with the lady at the awards table about my Mercedes, but amazingly, the tree fit in the car!   Thank goodness I had some plastic to keep dirt off of the carpeted floor.

The ‘Run for the Trees 5k’ is a harbinger of good things to come in my racing.  With lots of strength and only one track session I am racing relatively fast.   With a few more times on the track and some more racing to reawaken the ability to push through more discomfort, faster times are more than likely ahead of me.

Surprising Track Session

I hadn’t been on the track for a track session since last fall so I didn’t know what to expect today.    I knew I was strong from 106 straight days of running at least ten miles, which had ended two days ago.    I also knew I had some leg speed from doing strideouts and some controlled fartlek running in the past two months, but getting back on the track is a whole different ballgame.

Andreas Moraitis, whom I coach, met me for a ladder session of 1,600  meters, 1,200 meters, 800 meters, 400 meters and two times 200 meters.   The planned rest intervals of jogging and walking were four minutes after the 1,600m, three minutes after the 1,200m and 800m and two minutes thereafter.   I told Andreas that I was aiming for 6:00, 4:25, 2:50, 80 and two 37s, but didn’t know if I could run that fast.  He is in about the same shape as me so I would lead while he followed.

A first lap of 86 seconds set the stage for a 2:52.6 first 800 meters and a closing 2:53.0 800 meters as I started out with a 5:45.6 for 1,600 meters.   I run by effort and have an innate ability to run the proper pace, so I figured each succeeding fast repetition would be correspondingly faster.   The 1,200 meters continued in this vein as I ran 82.9, 85.0 and 83.4 seconds for a time of 4:11.3.  I was tired, but the ensuing 800 meters didn’t seem quite as daunting a distance.   I went out in 80.2 and came back in 82.2 for a 2:42.4 800 meters that was pretty tough – thank goodness I only had a 400 and two 200s left!

The 400 meters wasn’t that hard as I only had to focus on one lap and I sped around the track in 75.0.   Andreas had dropped back about five seconds on the 800 meters after hanging close on the longer reps and he once again stayed close on the 400 meters.   We finished up with two 200 meters that I did in 35.4 and 34.3 seconds.  I had to really work on good arm and leg turnover on the final 50 meters of that last one as my leg speed at age 54 isn’t what it used to be.   30-year old Andreas had no trouble staying with me – oh, to be young and fast again!

When we ran our warm down mile I remarked how I ran about four seconds per lap faster on each repetition than my goal pace.  This illustrates that the goal paces were proper in comparison to each other and that I ran similarly faster on each one.   I was very pleasantly surprised by the track session.  It just goes to show that 15 weeks of steady mileage and base building does reap benefits.

To Boldly Go Where OTAD Has Not Gone Before

In the 1960s television series, ‘Star Trek,’ the opening included the line, ‘To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before.’    I was thinking about this as OTAD, ‘Operation Ten a Day,’ reached a new level this week. Let me explain…

When I was a junior in high school I ran 10 miles or more for 100 consecutive days.   In recent years it has been rare for me to even run that many days in a row.   So when I ran 13 miles on January 7th and 10 miles on January 8th and started to keep it up every single day it didn’t seem like 100 days of OTAD was possible.  As 25 days and 50 days went by it started coming into view.  When I hit 75 days it was like running the first three laps of a mile and making it to the final lap.

So two days ago when I tied that mark from 38 years ago and hit 100 days of OTAD I wasn’t sure what would come next.  Yesterday was my ‘Star Trek’ day as OTAD went beyond my teenage mark.   This made me think of my new tag line, ‘To Boldly Go Where OTAD Has Not Gone Before.’

Today it was especially difficult to run ten miles.  I don’t mean physically, but mentally.   I did OTAD for 100 days.   I went one day further.   How much longer will I keep OTAD going?   I ran five miles this morning and set out on a second 5-miler this afternoon.   Sluggishness was my foe and I contemplated ending OTAD.  I do want to do so on my own term and not due to sickness or injury.    But after a mile I felt better, I completed the five miles and OTAD stands at 102 straight days.

OTAD won’t continue much longer – maybe a week or so more.  But I am going to miss inspiring others and, so for the time being, I will ‘Boldly Go Where OTAD Has Not Gone Before.’

Listen to the Wind Blow

A couple of days ago I was running on trails and it was very windy.    It’s interesting as the sound of the wind blowing through tree branches sounds similar to the sounds of automobiles on distant roads.    It was early in the morning and my mind recalled the lyrics, ‘Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise,’ from the 1970s song ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac.

It was probably an hour past dawn and the sun was climbing above trees to the east as I ran along and had thousands of acres all to myself.    Well, all to myself except for a few small animals and birds.   At one point as I ran through some sand hill pine habitat there were two Sherman’s Fox Squirrels off to my right.  I spooked them and they headed for the safety of a pine tree.

I stopped and watched them climb the trees as they swayed in the winds of maybe 25 miles per hour or so.   There were four trees in frairly close proximity.   The fox squirrels climbed higher and higher until they were probably 50 feet from the ground and near the tree tops.   The trees moved to and fro in the gusting winds and then one fox squirrel jumped from his initial tree to another.  His buddy decided to follow suit and headed down a long branch.

Just then the winds whipped up and that fox squirrel held on for dear life.  Finally, when the winds subsided a bit he jumped to a branch on the tree which was his goal and was safe again.  I marvelled at how these creatures could do what they did and wondered if they ever have accidents like people do.   With the excitement over I recalled that I was actually on a seven mile run and still had about three miles to go – so off I headed away from the enjoyment provided by nature’s theater.

Palm Sunday Run

Yesterday morning I headed out running early before church and after less than two miles was on my familiar trails at nearby Wekiva State Park. It was before 7:00 a.m., but there was just enough light to easily see obstcles on the trail on this Palm Sunday morning.

There were plenty of scrub palms along the trail which was appropriate on Palm Sunday.  On one section of the trail the palms are about six feet high and make a natural hedge as the trail winds through them.   The temperature drops a few degrees as cooler night air remains trapped in the morning – a welcome occurence most days in Florida to have a few seconds of nature’s air conditioning.

I had hoped to run my planned ten miles for the day during this run, but calculations of the time remaining and time of day caused me to shorten the route to about eight miles.   I didn’t want to get home and to be in such a rush to get to church that it destroyed the peacefulness of the run.   Everyone seems to be in such a hurry all of the time, including me, so we must take care to enjoy some quiet and tranquility when we can.   A reinforcement to this thought were the four deer I spied on the trail.

When I got home I noted the neat stack of palm branches in front of my car that I loaded into the trunk.   I cut them the day before and they were to be used in church.  For some reason this is my fourth year of being the unofficial supplier of Palm Sunday palms.  I don’t mind as I’m happy to help out.  Unfortunately, when I was cutting the palms it reminded me that I have about two or three hours of work to trim the rest of the palm trees from their winter’s growth.  But that can wait until another day.

 

Ten Miles the Easy Way

Everyone is always looking for an easier way to accomplish a task.    Whether it’s losing 10 pounds in 10 days, learning the basics of a foreign language in just a few weeks or getting ready for a first marathon – we all want the quick way or the shortcut.    This morning two of us ran ten miles the easy way.    Now you may think this means it was easy – it wasn’t.    But it is a method that makes the ten miles ‘go by’ more easily. 

I met Ed Wood, whom I coach, for a training session that would work on his endurance and stamina as he gets ready for a marathon five weeks down the road.   The ‘meat’ of the session is three repeat two-miles at 7:40-45 pace per mile with a half mile jog in between.   We did a two mile warm up and a mile warm down which totalled ten miles.   Ed recently raced a 1:46 half marathon, so the pace on the fast two-mile segments was slightly faster than his half marathon race pace.

You may be thinking, ‘This sounds hard!   How is this supposedly ten miles the easy way.’   Well, the part that makes it easier than a 10-mile run at an easy, medium or hard effort is that we didn’t approach it mentally as a 10-mile run.  After the warm up two miles we mentally segmented the ‘meat’ of the session into three repeat two-miles with a half mile jog.  Ed ran the first two-mile at a  ’comfortably fast’ effort, concentrated on good form on the second one and focused mentally on running strong when he was more tired on the final fast two-mile.

We did the mile warm down and magically had run ten miles.  During the entire time we were runnng we did not focus on the total miles we were running, just on the next fast two-mile segment.   So this wasn’t an ‘easy’ ten miles as far as effort or pace, but it was mentally an ‘easy way’ to total ten miles.  Try focusing on segments of your run and you may be pleasantly surprised at how many miles you run when that isn’t your focus.