Day 1 of Base Training

Core: emphasis on stabilization exerises-planks on elbows and then on hands. Also, leg raises, legs in and out crunch and toe touches. Total: 8-minutes

General Strength: Mahogany and Helsinki routine-1 set of each
Mahogany and Helsniki routine consists of:

• low level leg twists
• Hip-Ups
• Seated Russian twist
• 180 to 90 degree toe touch
• Back hypers (aka supermans)
• V-ups
• Two Leg Lift over Cone
• Big 10(10 push-ups-10 sit-ups, 9 push-ups-9 sit-ups, etc)

Easy Run at the Chattahoochee River-30 minutes

High Knees, Butt Kicks, A-skip, B-skip, leg swings, 1-2 high knees, 1-2 butt-kicks

5 x 50 meter strides

Stretching with 30 second holds

Sinus Infection and Blood Test

Just now getting over a sinus infection that started May 11, 2 weeks ago. Saw a doctor on Friday May 15 who listened to me and said that I didn't have a sinus infection. Then went to a doctor with the same symptoms the following Friday May 22 and he said I did have a sinus infection. Now I am on medication and am feeling better, although I still am coughing up pleghm. When I saw the doctor I had him take my blood as well. I take medication for my thyroid and I have been low on iron before, so I got him to run three tests-one on my iron levels-both hematocrit and ferritin levels. Another test is a mono test and the third test is my thyroid levels. If my thyroid is not working well enough then they will have to increase my medication. In case you don't know the thyroid controls your metabolism and energy levels. A poor working thyroid will make you feel tired most of the time and you can't deal with that level of tiredness and train at the same time. I know because I tried it one summer and towards the end the doctor just had to put me on the thyroid medication because my energy levels were too low. I get these blood tests done once every 6 months. So in another week I should get the results.

Why I Can finish High On Regions 10k Course

Three reasons why I will finish high at regions. I will be:
1) Mentally Prepared
2) Physically Prepared
3) Execute my Gameplan

People let the distance scare them especially if they are mid-distance runners-i.e. 800/1500 runners. The distance is overwhelming for them. It is roughly 6.5-12.5 times longer than their ideal racing distance. They get out that first mile with the leaders, and if they are capable of sticking with the leaders thats fine, but most are not capable of staying with the leaders. They have this deep desire to be in a good position early in the race, thinking that once they get into that position they just have to hold that position for the rest or the race. Well...99% of the time they don't hold that position. Why is that? Because they are not mentally prepared for the race distance. Most of them get out that first mile then think "Oh..no I got out hard at a pace that I cannot hold for another 5.2 miles to go." So what do they do? They do what their body and their mind tells them to do: they slow down to a pace in the middle miles that is far slower than the pace they should be running at. Physically, lets talk about what they did wrong by getting out fast that first mile. They created irreperable damage that is going to make their performance in the race suffer. Now I want to emphasize that the runners I am talking about are runners that are not good enough to finish in the top 20 runners at Regions 10k. These are the runners that are outside of the top 20-more middle of the pack to back of the pack runners. These runners take off that first mile and go into oxygen debt and start accumulating too much lactic acid too early. No matter what they do past that first mile, they have already ruined their race, because they are not talented enough to keep up with the leaders and their bodies can't handle it. These are the runners that I plan on passing at regions this coming year. Runners that are falling back. My advice for those runners.

Get mentally prepared! Understand that you are running a 10K. Run the first half of the race conservatively. You will find out that when you try to run the first half conservatively, you will be able to have a solid second half. That is where the race starts in the 10k, halfway through it, so save your aggression for the second half of the race and don't waste it on the start.

Get physically prepared! Don't skimp out on those long runs, tempos, VO2 workouts. You are going to need all of those to be physically prepared for a 10K on a xc course.

Execute your Gameplan! Go ahead, and come up with a game plan. Walk/Run the course the day before or a couple days before. Make sure you have every part of the course in your head in terms of where the mile or kilometer markers are. Break the course into segments:
First, you should always know at what part of the course you should kick from. I hate the word kick. It means picking up the pace to a sprint at the end of a race. It is my belief that if you run a race right, you have exerted so much throughout the race that you have nothing left. All you can hope to do is maintain the pace you have been running throughout the race to the finish. Anyway, you should pick a part of the course close to the finish. Once you get to that part of the course in the race, use whatever you have left and try to expend it by the time you get to the finish. Most likely you won't have anything left if you ran it right, but if you do have anything left when you get to that point in the race you better use it.
Second, try to think about where you want to be at throughout the segments you come up with. For example, first 1/3 of the race you might want to be in the top 80 runners. In the second 1/3 of the race your goal may be to pass 30 runners. In the final 1/3 of the race your goal may be to pass another 15 runners. Now here comes the criticism. People will read this and ask, "How can I know what place I am in during the first 1/3 of the race?" My answer is you don't know. just go out and run conservatively. think good-better-best for each of the 3 segments of the race respectively. But having a goal to pass X number of runners the second 1/3 of the race is a worthwhile goal, and passing another X number runners in the final 1/3 would be great.

Obstacle #3: Finishing High

Obstacle #3)consistently finishing in the top 7 on the team throughout the season (only 7 runners per team compete at the Region meet so if you are not in the top 7 in the races before the region meet your coach will leave you at home)

Obstacle #3 is a tough one for myself because it is 100% outside of my control. I can't control how other people finish in respect to where I finish. I am a distance runner who has no foot speed. What can I do if there if #5,6,7 are right with me in a race of any distance and there is only a half mile to go? The answer is nothing but run as fast as I can to the finish and hope that I hold them off. 99.9% of the time all they will have to do is stride out to the finish and I just can't keep up. I lack the ability to close, so I make up for this deficiency my pushing the middle of the race-that is where I can put distance on people. I try to run a race even-not necessarily even pace since you can't control that in a xc race with the varying terrain but more so an evenly spaced effort so that I run at an effort that I can maintain for the entire length of the race and not a step more and not a step less.

Also, since I am at the far extreme in terms of slow twitch, the farther the distance of the race better I will do respectively on my team. In any 10K I am confident that I could be in the top 5. Why? How can I be in the top 5 on the team at this race when I am far less talented than the other runners? My form stinks. I have no foot speed. I probably have a much lower VO2 max, than most of the runners. So why do I think I could finish in the top 5 on my team given that I am fit and my teammates are fit? I will answer that question tomorrow.

Obstacle #2: Staying Healthy

There are a lot of aspects that go into staying healthy. First, is nutrition. Eating a variety of foods is key, to make sure you get all your necessary vitamins and amino acids. Along with eating healthy, take a multivitamin just to make sure you cover all your vitamins. Eating red meat is important for iron levels, but excess red meat does nothing for you. Also, there are many plant sources that have high amounts of iron and you can get a significant amount of iron from these sources BUT Remember that only a small portion of the iron you eat from plant sources is absorbed, so you must eat red meat at least 3-5 times a week. The ideal portion is 3-4 ounces, anymore and it does you no good because your body can only absorb a certain amount of iron at a time. how much can it absorb? Only 3-4 ounces of red meat worth of iron, so don't eat more than that unless you just want to build a fat reserve. If you are still not sure you are getting enough iron, take iron supplementation but make sure to check with your doctor to see where your iron level is at. There is such a thing as too much iron and it can kill you.
Stay away from sodas and alcohol-both of which have no nutritional value. Both dehydrate your body and leave your body in a state of stress. The more stress, the more of a chance you have of getting sick.
So, in terms of nutrition its real simple. Just eat:
Fruits and Vegetables all the time
Red Meat in 3-4 ounce portions 3-5 times a week
Oatmeal and other carbohydrate rich options
And avoid alcohol and sodas at all cost.

The second aspect is sleep. For distance runners, there is no amount of sleep that is too much sleep. If you can sleep 11 hours a night, fine. Do it! If you feel fine with 9 hours, then sleep 9. But any less than 9 and you are not giving your body the amount of rest that it needs. If you are serious about staying healthy while running you will see to it that you are in bed well before midnight and that you sleep as long as your body needs to feel rested.

Obstacle #1: Hamstring

My biggest obstacle for the past two years has been my hamstring. There are many different aspects that affect my hamstring. First, the number of miles and the intensity of those miles. Sprinting all out would not be a good idea. Plus I when I am sprinting all out I am not going that fast anyway. Fast strides I can handle, but anything that approaches the pace that I could run for 400 meters is off limits. In terms of the number of miles, I am going to closely monitor the # of miles. I plan to run the fewest miles this year so that my hamstring will hold up. In terms of the intensity, well this summer won't be extremely intense, but I plan on it being easy enough for my hamstring to stick in there but intense enough to ensure that I come into the xc season in good shape. Second, the strength of my hamstring. If the hamstring is weak it won't last a cross country season. What can I do about the strength of my hamstring? One activity that I really like, and I will probably do this summer is stadium steps. Running up two steps at a time. The next day after stadium steps I am sore in the hamstrings but that soreness eventually goes away and my hamstrings eventually feel stronger and thereby handle workouts better. Also, after every run I do leg curls: 3 x 10. The first set is with my foot straight and lifted up and down. The second set is with my foot pointed in and the third set is with my foot pointed outwards. This works three different areas of the hamstring. Eventually I will find ankle weights and start utilizing ankle weights for the three sets of 10. The third aspect is my flexibilty. Most of the stretching I do focuses on the hamstrings(my problem area). Probably focus solely on stretching out the hamstrings for 5 minutes after every run, and then stretch other areas. After going through all the different stretches with the hamstring and other areas, I see if I can comfortably touch my toes. If I can't I further stretch out the hamstrings until I can.

Tomorrow I will discuss Obstacle #2.

My List of Obstacles

Figure out what your obstacles are. Mentally and physically prepare yourself for the challenges ahead. There are many obstacles in my path to acheiving my goal of top 50 at Regions.

Here is my list of obstacles:
1) hamstring
2)staying healthy
3)consistently finishing in the top 7 on the team throughout the season (only 7 runners per team compete at the Region meet so if you are not in the top 7 in the races before the region meet your coach will leave you at home)

Over the next 3 days I will discuss each one of my challenges and how I will prepare my best to meet that challenge.

My Goal

My goal is clear and set. It was the same goal I had 24 weeks ago and I will have that goal in mind for the next 28 weeks. My goal is to finish in the top 50 at the NCAA South Region Cross Country Meet. Every year runners take off at the start like a bat out of hell and struggle with the second half of the race. I hope to run a smart race from the back and move up throughout the race. If you run smarter than your opponents, then you give yourself the opportunity to beat those that you are better than, beat those that you are equal to, and beat the runners that are slightly better than you just because you ran a smarter race. Basically, you didn't push yourself into oxygen debt too quickly. 10K is a long way to go. You don't want to put yourself out of the race halfwayt through because you ran the first half with reckless abandon.

Vacation

Taking a vacation for a couple days, but the training will still be there. Going to Biloxi, hoping that I'll be lucky. Next post will probably be Friday.

What's Your Specific Goal

Before you start training, you need to know what your goal is and the steps you are going to take to acheive that goal. You have to understand the purpose behind every workout, so that you believe in your training. Any doubt and you will not perform your best for both psychological and physiological reasons. If you don't believe the workout will help you accomplish your goal, talk to your coach about it. Either he will show you the purpose behind the workout or he will agree that maybe another workout would better suit your needs on that day in that given training block.
Goals should be both short term and long term. They are accomplished with proper training and consistency. You should not expect the same drop in time from year to year. Rather you should expect yourself to have decreasing drops in time as you continue running. For example your first year of running, a runner might drop his 5k time by 3 minutes, but the second year only drop it by a minute and a half, and the third year only drop it by 30 seconds.
So how should you come up with your goals. First look back at how much training you have completed. Realize that running follows the principle of dimishing returns. Talk to your coach and together come up with a goal.
Lets say that your goal is to run a region qualifying time in the 5k. The qualifying time is 14:10. Your current time is 15:10. First, when do you want to accomplish this goal. In 4 years? 3 years? 2 years? 1 year? Lets say 4 years. Then what should be your goal for each of the next 4 years? Peter Coe, father and coach of one of the greatest middle distance runners in history, Seb Coe, has written that runners follow this formula in coming up with their goals. First figure out how many years you have till you need to run that time. If it is 4 years, add up the numbers 1 through 4: you will get 10. Then figure out your first year's goal by dividing the number of years left to hit the goal/the # 10. Multiply this number .4 by the amount of time you want to drop, 60 seconds and you will get 24 seconds. That is how many seconds you want to drop your time the first year. How about the second year? Well on the second year you have 3 years of training left, so you take 3/10 * 60 seconds and you will want to drop another 18 seconds off your time.
Ex) 15:10 runner wants to run 14:10 at the end of his 4rth year
total time he wants to take off: t=60 seconds
total time he has to train= 4 years
denominator=1+2+3+4=10

1st year

4/10*60=24 seconds to take off
Goal: 14:46
2nd year
3/10*60=18 seconds
Goal:14:28
3rd year
2/10*60=12 sec
Goal: 14:16
4rth year
1/10*60=6 sec
Goal: 14:10

I will give one more example to make sure you understand.

Ex)
14:40 runner wants to run 14:10 at the end of his 3rd year
total time he wants to take off is t=30 seconds
total time he has to train= 3 years
denominator= 1+2+3=6
1st year
3/6*30=15 seconds
Goal: 14:25
2nd year
2/6*30=10 seconds
Goal: 14:15
3rd year
1/6*30=5 seconds
Goal: 14:10

What if you can't run the goal time set out for you on the first year?
This means that your goal may need to be changed. Perhaps you were injured or sick or you didn't train properly. If those are your reasons ,then sure if you get healthy and train correctly then you may still be able to hit your time goals in the next year. BUT if you trained correctly and consistently and you were neither injured or sick then you should change your final time goal to a more realistic time.

Can't Fall Asleep

Well its 11 p.m. and I can't fall asleep, so why not start a blog? Perhaps it will keep me honest with my training throughout the summer. Maybe I can look back on this blog with fond memories of how SMART and proper training brought on respecteble results.
A little background info. I am going to be a fifth year next fall and will be participating in my last year of eligibility for cross country. I have had varying levels of difficulty with my hamstring for the past year and a half. I have a good amount of knowledge of running-I've read 40+ books pertaining to running, and I want to be a high school coach in a few years.
This summer I am going to monitor things very closely-mileage and intensity to not push my hamstring too hard. Also, I am going to try to be falling asleep much earlier than I did tonight. Just finished finals week so I am off on my sleep cycle.
Also, I am going to try to lose about 7 pounds by cross country. I'm 6'1" 161 lb. right now and thats just too big. Got to eat healthier, even if it costs me more money. Get fresh vegetables and whole wheat pasta and limit my fats.
So today, I went to the grocery store and bought whole wheat pasta, fresh squash, green beans, peas, corn, potatos, sweet potatos, turkey breast, chicken breast, tilapia, ground beef, and fettucini, ragu sauce, oatmeal, yogurt and some cereals.
Got to get an early start on a good diet for this summer. Cross Country starts in August.