Strength Training = Runner's Insurance

Let's talk about strength training... yet another facet of my training that I am convinced has kept me injury free.

Remember these guys? 

I got back into running in Fall '09. I've had a few weeks off here and there, mostly due to injury. The most common injury I've had is a strained hip flexor(s). Without fail, it has come back repeatedly during those times when I incorporated speedwork but failed to do strength training.

Every. Single. Time.

Why?

I'm no physical therapist or sports doc, but I believe that I am one of those people for whom strength training isn't a nice *complimentary* option to running; it's ESSENTIAL to my training. I suspect-and this is purely speculation-that I am too flexible. I have a dancer/gymnast background. I'm still fairly bendy. Much more than your average runner. I can't find the link anywhere, but I remember reading a study floating around a few months ago that discussed how better runners are actually *less* flexible. Or something to that effect. It's probably like a bell curve or something. Maybe there's a mid "optimum" range of flexibility and then on either side (too little or too much)... not good.  For me, I believe strength training helps to stabilize things down there and help strengthen the areas that may be a little lax (for lack of a better word).

Does that even make sense or am I completely talking out of my a**?

Anyway...

What do I do at the gym? 

I'll start with last year's marathon training cycle. I used this book: 

I found the running aspect of it to be decent. Hey, it got me under 4 hours (using his Intermediate Plan). I think what I enjoyed the most about his plan, however, was the strength training. Looks like you can get it on Amazon for $9.99 (Kindle) and $7.04 (used). I think the sections on the strength training are worth it. Like the running plans, he does beginner all the way to advanced. 

Onto this training cycle:

I'm sort of in a lifting rut although I've decided-this week and next-to suspend strength training until after my marathon. I felt like taking a break and allowing my muscles to recharge and rebuild before the big dance. 

Here's what I normally do though:

• Smith Machine-I usually max out at around 95 pounds
• Seated Leg Extension 
• Calf Press
• Leg Curls (prone)
• Hip Adductor/Adductor (pervy looking machine)
• Vertical Leg Lift Machine (for core)
• Sit-Ups on Incline Bench (for core)
• Assisted chin-up, tricep dip Machine

I do 3 sets of each. 1st set = 12 reps, 2nd set = 11 reps, 3rd set = 10 reps

After each set, I increase the weight by 5 pounds. Pretty tired after that 3rd set.

I shoot for twice weekly. During my next marathon training cycle, I hope to be able to add a 3rd strength session, but I'll be looking for something different. Ideally, I'd like to do three different strength workouts each week.

Blogger Chicago Runner Girl has recently posted a killer strength session that I will most definitely be incorporating. I actually did her circuit last week, but my hamstring seized up during my second set of single leg dead lifts... so that was the end of that workout. My coach was not too happy when I told him about it. I believe he wrote me something along the lines of "WTF to doing this less than 3 weeks out from your marathon?!?!" Yeah, I know. Big time knucklehead move on my part.

Also, I recently received a copy of P90X from a very thoughtful friend, so that's another option I'm excited to try to spice things up.

So tell me about your strength training... Do you pump it up?

Hard Days Hard.... Easy Days Easy

Going back to this post where I talk about what's worked for me...

11 days until the Carlsbad Marathon, and I have truly never felt better. I ran 58 miles last week, and while I  remember struggling with fatigue on my Thursday 10-miler, I had a day of rest on Friday (if you don't count the P90X yoga that I did...) and I was back to business on Saturday morning. I actually ended up taking 1st female at a local 10k race with about an 80% effort.

I believe that a huge reason for the success of this marathon training cycle has been because I have learned to listen to my body. Additionally, I practice these rules of thumb:

1) My easy runs are EASY.
2) My hard runs are HARD.
3) I DO NOT do two hard days in a row.

Here is what my week in running looks like:

Monday-Recovery day from my long run the day prior. EASY PACE. I run by how I feel. 2 weeks ago, 8:58P felt easy. Last week, 9:03P felt easy. I listen to my body and make sure that I am not breathing hard and that my muscles aren't tight/straining.

Tuesday-Speedwork. My coach gives me a workout to do. Anywhere from 1/2 to 1 mile repeats (I don't really have access to a track at 5:30 am, which is when I usually do this workout). I run these HARD. Right now my goal paces are anywhere from 3:30ish for 1/2 mile to 7:20s for 1 mile. Yesterday I did 3 X 1 mile repeats at 7:19, 7:10. 7:09. Could I have done another one? Yes. I do run HARD, but I always finish feeling like I have one more in me. So I guess HARD doesn't mean RIDICULOUSLY HARD.

Wednesday-Recovery day from speedwork. I don't care what my pace is today. At all. As long as it's EASY. Today I ran almost 7 (went a little long) at 9:30P.

Thursday-Some sort of Tempo run, which my coach calls a "cutback." I'll do a 3 mile warm-up and then do 3-4 miles that look something like this: Mile 4-8:20, Mile 5-8:15, Mile 6-8:10, Mile 7-8:05. Finish up with 2-3 miles of cooldown.

However....

Let's say I have a 10k race on Saturday (like last week). Thursday will then be another EASY day and Saturday will be my replacement for a speed day.

Make sense?

Friday-DAY OF REST.... PRAISE GOD!!!

Saturday-Easy 6 miles remembering that Sunday is a HARD day (Long Run). Or, if I have a race, Saturday is a HARD day (obviously), in which case Sunday will be a relaxed (not progressive!!!!) long run.

Sunday-Long Run. The only thing my coach ever tells me about my long run is to do what I feel like doing... It used to frustrate me, but I now feel liberated by it. If I want to push the paces a bit (providing I DID NOT have a race the day prior), then go for it. If I want to chill, that's fine too. I generally try to shoot for around an 8:50ish-9:10ish pace on my long runs. This seems to have served me well as far as being able to recover quickly by the next day.

Oh, I also lift weights twice a week, but that's the next post. Stay tuned!

This is a most excellent book that was given to me by my running partner as a birthday gift. She gave it to me to help me deal with my recurrent injuries.

You know what? I am STOKED that I've only had to consult it ONCE... on my birthday.

Two Weeks to Go!

Just finished up a great weekend of running!

On Saturday, I ran in a 10k: Yuma's New Year's Resolution Run.

I didn't even get a picture this time. Not even a pre-run picture of me in the kitchen like my last 10k. Bahaha! I will throw in a picture of my race shirt for visual interest, however.

I won this shirt from a contest I entered back in the fall. I had to talk about a day in my life. Apparently, it's entertaining enough to win stuff.

 SUAR is awesome!

The race was a serious rerun. Many of the same runners... pretty much the same course. It was changed up a little to make it actually a "10k" instead of 5.95 miles like last time (according to my Garmin).

Saturday's race plan was simple: Keep it controlled, conservative and finish strong. 2 weeks out from my marathon is not the time to give it my all to a rinky dink local race. Not to mention I had 22 miles on the schedule for today. I viewed this 10k as a replacement for a strong tempo run. I ran it at about 80% and finished in 45:45. I think I finished first female, but I won't know until tomorrow. Yes, it takes an entire weekend here to get official results for a race with about 250 people in it.

Anyway.

Moving on to today's long run: My coach had told me to see how I felt and downgrade to 20 miles if need be. I headed out the door thinking I'd do 21.

Yikes.

The winds were absolutely BRUTAL today. Just awful. And I definitely picked the wrong direction to run. The first 8 miles felt pretty good. Then I turned around. HORRIBLE. A 9:26 pace felt like an 8:26 effort. I had to sort of do a zig zaggish pattern in order to get home without completely draining myself. I'd run into the headwind for a bit, then take a L. Run that way for a while, then take a R back into the headwind. Then another L... and so on and so forth. Also, I had a GU gel that apparently had a leak in it, so that spewed all over the inside of my fuel belt. Boo.

I was glad when it was all over. I called it a day at 20.25 and ended up finishing at a 9:09P. Fine by me. That's pretty much exactly what I wanted to do today considering I exerted myself pretty hard yesterday.

And with that final 20-miler, I ended the week with 58 miles!

This training cycle has been fantastic. Now I begin my taper... if you can call it that. Doesn't feel like I'm tapering!

Lots of focus on hydrating, proper nutrition, and REST these next two weeks.

Shoes and Strike

I'm still here!

I was thinking that I'd have lots 'o time to blog on Christmas break. Not so much with the kids at home! (including the BIG one-my husband)

So what's new with me? I'm on Day 2 of Peak Week for the Carlsbad Marathon, just 19 days away! My coach does not follow a 3-week taper, so this week will have me finishing at 56 miles, next week 44 miles and then race week! (20 miles + the marathon) I was a little nervous looking at my training plan when I saw that the mileage didn't back way off as per your standard marathon training plan... I asked him, "Where's my 3-week taper?" and he told me I'd been reading too much Runner's World. Hahahaha. At any rate, he just set a new American 50k record in the 70-74 age group, so I'm listening to him. His longevity in the sport speaks volumes to me.

In my last post, I wrote about the things that I believe have improved my running over the last few months. Numbers 1 and 2 were shoes and foot strike. Let's start with shoes.

I am currently rotating between four pairs of shoes:

Brooks PureFlow

Saucony PowerGrid Cortana

 Brooks Launch

Saucony Shadow Genesis

Why am I doing this? My coach advised me that it's good practice to rotate between 4-5 pairs of shoes because it helps reduce the risk of injuries based on repetitive motion. Makes sense to me. Each shoe is a little different, and it puts your foot in a different position. By changing things up a bit, you're more likely to avoid a repetitive stress injury than you are if you wear the same shoes day in and day out. Not sure if this is a scientific fact or anything, but dare I say that I have not had any injuries or even any significant aches and pains since I started this system.

Now onto foot strike... 

As I re-entered the world of running and the land of blogs, I started noticing more and more the *trend* of the mid-foot strike. Tired of constant nagging hip/knee problems, I decided that was the direction in which I wanted to proceed. Unfortunately, I did so way too quickly and ended up injuring myself. First came the persistently sore calves (red flag) and then the rest of my R lower leg seemed to fail. Still never got an official diagnosis due to not being able to get an MRI, but I am thinking that it was a stress reaction (precursor to a stress fracture).

I spent nearly 8 weeks on the Alter G treadmill transitioning (properly) to a mid-foot strike and shoes that support a mid-foot strike (Saucony PowerGrid Cortana and Brooks PureFlow). I haven't had my form analyzed (yet) or anything, but I think I'm there! Knees feel great and knock on wood... no more hip injuries. Finally!!!

Next time, I'll talk about my runs, strength training and magical compression gear. Stay tuned!!

All Time High!

I ran 51 miles last week, and I'm still STANDING! Yesterday's 19-miler officially pushed me into a new PR for weekly mileage. I feel so thankful that my body is holding up.

I don't have time to go into the specifics of each (Christmas guests!!!), but I'll share an overview of the things that I believe have kept me healthy. Over the next couple of weeks, I will break down each category into a more detailed post.

1) SHOES-Ok, this may be the biggest one for me. I've struggled with injuries on and off (mostly hips). I now rotate between 4 pairs and my legs have never felt better.

2) Changing my foot strike-I feel like this has helped me to stay healthy as well + get faster. BUT... this is how I got injured in the first place... I was too aggressive with going from a heel strike to mid-foot strike. My calves were sore for WEEKS (*red flag) and then the rest of my R lower leg broke down. Luckily, I had access to an Alter G and took another 6 weeks rehabbing on it, focusing on my form and changing into a lower heel-drop shoe SAFELY.

I love you, Alter G. You were so good to me.

3) I do my hard days hard and my easy days easy-I run by feel and I don't get hung up on the numbers. Sort of. For example, yesterday I really wanted to see if I could do my 19-miler below a 9 minute mile pace. I consider my long run day a "hard day." That being said, I still wanted to run it at a comfortable pace where I didn't feel out of breath. I also didn't want my body to feel like it was really struggling. I was able to hold a sub-9 pace, but had my body felt rough, I would not have pushed it. Today will be a VERY easy 4-mile recovery. If my Garmin says 10:00 when I look down at it, then so be it. I have spent my post-injury running completely running by FEEL, keeping in mind that the day after a hard workout needs to be gentle. NO TWO HARD DAYS IN A ROW. 

4) Hitting the gym 2-3 times per week-For me, strength training is essential. I consider it a form of insurance. I work my legs/core HARD. I am actually sore most days after my strength training. It's working. My hips/knees/hammies are getting stronger and staying healthy. I have even been lifting the day after my long runs. I was nervous about this at first, but my coach said to go for it.

5) Compression Gear-I feel like it's helping. I've bought some new compression shorts and calf sleeves and I don them after hard workouts. Full review later!

That's it in a nutshell! I'll break the nut down in a bit... Off to get ready for this with the boys and the grandparents:

Relief... and a Race!

I'm slowly making my way back to blogland. My Writing Theory class ended on Friday. WHEW!!! The instructor wasn't kidding when she said it was a 16-week class compressed into 7 weeks. OUCH! Much pain. I have less than a week left in 20th Century American Literature and then I. AM. DONE. Next semester will be my last semester of school EVER. Never say never, but I am pretty sure I will NEVER go back. Ending my academic career with an MA in English is fine by me.

So running... What's going on with that?

I've spent the past few weeks feeling like I'm running in another person's body: a healthy person's body!

I'll save what I've done differently for another post (i.e. I'm dangling a carrot to bring you back to reading my blog. Ha!).

For now, I want to tell you about my 10k this morning! This will be the lamest race report ever because well... it was a lame race.

I've made no bones about the fact that I'm not a huge fan of my town. I don't want to diss Parks and Recreation too badly because, you know, they did a good job today with the resources that they have available. The guy that gave out the medals to the winners is one of the kayaking/fishing dudes that took care of my oldest son at his day camps this past summer. He's a nice guy who does a lot for Parks and Rec., so I don't want to be a turd and make fun of the race.

(But yeah... low rent production, KWIM? Then again, the entry fee was $14. What should I expect?)

Let's interrupt for a quick pre-race photo. Because that's about it for photos. Everyone stayed home and chilled out while I went over to the park (2.54 miles away) to race.

I will tell you all about my Brooks PureFlows in another post. LOVE THEM.

So the race...

I was told by Coach to keep the first 2 miles at a 7:45 pace and if that felt ok, I could turn on my afterburners after that.

I'm entirely too lazy to download my Garmin onto the computer, but if memory serves, Miles 1 and 2 were around a 7:40 pace. I felt great, so I slowly started to pick it up.

With about .5 to go, I laid the smack down because I saw that I was 4th place female. There was no way that I was going to catch #1 or #2, but #3 was right there, and I couldn't help myself. I passed her with probably .03 miles left (it was something ridiculous). She wasn't having any of that, and we ended up crossing the finish line together. Total photo finish.

The good news: I finished in 43:32. That is *technically* a 10K PR for me. My last mile was a 6:36 (or at least when I stopped it at .95... see below). Holy cow!

The bad news: My Garmin read 5.95 miles at the finish line. What happened to the last .25 miles?!? For that reason, I don't feel like I should count this as a new PR.

At any rate, the 5.95 miles in 43:32 comes out to a 7:18 pace. I am stoked by that! I ended up winning my age group (30-39) and taking 3rd place female (along with the other girl). The winning female ran a 43:10, only 22 seconds faster than me. Woot!

Carlsbad Marathon is in 6 weeks. Very excited. I've got a good feeling... Just gotta stay healthy!!

Drowning...

That pretty much says it all!

The second half of the semester is KICKING. MY. BUTT. I started a new class (Theory of Writing) that doesn't allow much time for farting around in blog land.

But... Just wanted to check in to let everyone know that I just completed my highest mileage week EVER. 41 miles! And my body feels GREAT. Woo hoo!!!

See ya soon!