Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Run Like the Kenyans

Just read Scott Douglas' article (written around December 2004) on his trip to Iten, Kenya.

Salient points below:

Start Slow Finish Fast - like a pot heating to a boil, start at a crawl and finish fast
Vary Very Much - even fastest runners run easy runs very slowly so hard efforts produce great results
Tread Softly - stay off the pavement
Get with a Group - training with a group or partner is always easier
Hit the Hills - 30-60 sec hill repeat, jog the descent, repeat
Run Diagonally - 15-60 min of soccer field corner to corner fast and relaxed, jog straight
Do Drills - examples are high knees, quick feet, butt kicks and skipping. In just five minutes, you can do two sets of each, 30 to 50 meters at a time

Monday, January 15, 2007

Week Ending January 14, 2007

Ran 77.5 miles with a long run on the Sat and Sun. Overall a fantastic week of training in prep for the Woodside 50K. This will be my first serious race after 3+ years of "recovery" from a broken ankle.

Lessons Learned:

1. Nutrition: I love Clif Shot Blocks. Lemon-Lime, Strawberry are excellent. Cola doesn't taste as great but does the job. Easy to eat (even when very cold), easy to digest and eaten every 20-30 min in conjunction with Ultima Replenisher (banana berry) they are a great energy source and take little space.
2. Hydration: I need ~ 20oz of sport drink per hour at colder temperatures during medium intensity long runs. This worked great during the 33 mile run where I drank 112 oz over 5.5 hrs. During the 24 mile run I drank 48 oz over 3:38:00 and was pretty dehydrated by the finish.
3. Clothing: Agonized like a prom date over what to wear for the long run 1/13/07. Finally decided on Adidas pants, Pearl Izumi ultrasensor vest, PI multisport top and Patagonia Capilene 2 top over all. Hat was a problem. Wore PI skullcap but this moved around a lot during the run. Headband w/ baseball type hat might be better.
4. Footwear: Mizuno Wave Ascend on both long runs worked great. Blue superfeet is perfect control for my right foot. Soreness in left calf indicates better support needed than just the stock shoe insert. Waiting on orthitics from Doctor Starrett (cast created 12/22/06).

Introduction

Might seem somewhat strange to provide an intro after a few posts but it took a while for the purpose of this blog to gel. I'm now inputting the details of my training through Polar Web interface, saving a lot of typing and I'm reserving this forum for the lessons learned from Sport. This way I have an automated training log and a searchable body of training knowledge.

Let's see if it works!