06.26.08

itchin!

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:35 pm by Brent

well, i still have another week of down time, but i am already reading, thinking and plotting about how to get faster. I went for a three mile run, and let’s just say the mind recovers more quickly than the body. i realize that my last post was a little negative, but rest assured that i am over the slight disappointment of the marathon and looking toward my next training block. though it has not been announced yet, i have read and heard rumors that the 2012 qualifying window will open in 2009, meaning i can try for a qualifier pre-residency. it might mean not running track (or at least not being track focused), so I will have to think hard about it. anyway, i am itching to get back, but i will enjoy another few days of fat week.

Related Posts:

Permalink 5 Comments

06.23.08

getting the beat-down.

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:14 am by Brent

Another marathon, another disappointment. I guess 7 weeks (really 5 weeks before the taper) is not enough time to train for a fast marathon. I did run a decent 19 miles (1:44:35), but had nothing over the last 7 miles. This time, ambitious pacing was not to blame, rather dehydration and near-cramping legs (probably due to the dehydration). I ran overly conservative in the early going and at about 14 miles felt like a million bucks because of it. My breathing was always very steady and not too hard. Then slowly the monkey climbed on and I went 5:50, 5:53, 5:56 to mile 22. During mile 22 was a steep hill, which I felt like I crawled up, and I was starting to unravel. The “wall” in a marathon is unlike any torture I have ever experienced. Slowly you lose focus, you veer inexplicably, going downhill hurts worse than uphill…and on this day I started to get chills. Chills are not a good sign in such hot, dry conditions and they scared me. At mile 24, I stopped and walked for 20 seconds (my third such walking break of the day), fearing I was about to go down. I chugged down two cups of water and poured another on my head. I felt good enough to go 2 more miles and the crowds were loud and raucous enough to keep me going. I have never wanted not to be running more in my life than those last two miles of the race. It must have been a sad homestretch to watch as another guy, who was hurting even more, and I shuffled into finish not wanting any part of silly competition - this was survival, far more important. A sprint who have sent my quivering left hamstring into an inexorable cramping spasm.

So, what did I learn? Like I said, I am not sure I trained very effectively for this race, which I knew was a possibility beforehand. A longer build-up and higher mileage are necessary. Also, I think that during a marathon training phase, you must run at marathon pace as much as possible and not spend time running much faster than half marathon pace. The difficulty is not in the pace, rather the distance, and covering distance at pace is critical. I also learned that I might not be as good a marathoner as I am 5k-half-marathon, and I am ok with that if it is true.

Before I make this determination. I just want one more shot with proper build-up, better training, and could somebody give me some decent race day weather(75 degrees at finish - pretty hot for a marathon) and some people to run with (alone after 3 miles) for once!

The facts - there was a stiff headwind out of the west. the is course is point to point and heads WSW, so the head wind was pretty constant. temps around 70-75 for the race, sunny and dry. 5:30. 5:29(10:59), 5:24 (16:24), 5:32(21:56), 5:23 (27:19 5 miles), 5:25(32:44), next 2 in 11:19(44:04 8 miles) (during the 7th mile I had to stop bc I started to feel light headed and couldn’t catch my breath, a worrisome thing. I recovered and started running again), 5:28(49:32), 5:22(54:54 at 10), 5:34(1:00:29), 5:23(1:05:52), 5:30 (1:11:22), 5:22(1:16:45), 5:30(1:22:15), 5:31(1:27:47), 5:32(1:33:19), 5:41(1:39:01), 5:34 (1:44:35), 5:50(1:50:26 at 20 miles/5:31 pace), 5:53(1:56:20), 5:56(2:02:16), 6:08(2:08:24), 6:41(2:15:06), 6:14(2:21:21), last 1.2 7:32 - 2:28:53, 5:40 pace, 21st overall, a 3 minute PR but a 5-8 minute disappointment. ah well.

Related Posts:

Permalink 1 Comment

05.24.08

Should I pop it?

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:15 pm by Brent

Marc and I enjoyed a 23 mile long run this morning at Umstead. It had been a long time since we had run out there, so the light rain and new environs were refreshing. What wasn’t refreshing was this blister. So my question is, should I pop it? (WARNING-This picture is not for the faint of heart!)

Related Posts:

Permalink 3 Comments

05.22.08

Marathon or bust- Brent’s training update.

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:02 pm by Brent

So I am in the midst of training for a marathon in seven weeks. After Penn Relays, I took a few days off and started what will be a rather short build-up for Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN on June 21st. There will be long runs of 16, 18, 20, 23, and 22 before this race, as well as many tempo runs at or under marathon pace (which I hope is around 5:20/mile). This is an interesting experiment and so far it is going pretty well. I have put in two weeks at just under 90 miles (last week this was in 6 days, as travel and some knee tightness had me take a day off), but the most encouraging thing is that my long runs have been easier, faster and are quicker to recover from than ever before. I think this has a lot to do with the additive property of consistent training. Before tapering my mileage at the end of track, I had 13-14 weeks averaging over 80 miles a week and since returning to regular competition a year and a half ago, I have had only a total of about 4-5 weeks without running and those have almost all been planned breaks of recovery. The result of this is consistent improvement. Also, I am learning to be patient with results and not put too much importance on any particular weeks mileage or any one workout. 

Speaking of workouts, I had a good one last night, thanks to the great pacing efforts of Marc, Victor and John. I was never alone on any of my 10×1000s at ”Marc’s loop” and the pace was conistently between 3:00-3:03 per interval.  Joan’s classic 90sec-80-70-60-3:00(set break)-60-70-80-90 recovery intervals were enough to keep me from overdoing it as well.

 I have 4 weeks and two days before Grandma’s and a little more hay to put in the barn. Will it be enough? We shall see.

Related Posts:

Permalink 1 Comment

05.03.08

Ryan and Alicia Shay video

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:28 pm by Brent

You should all watch this. Especially poignant for us is that Marc is clearly shown running with Shay at about 6:30 to go in the video. Marc was next to Shay went he eventually collapsed.

Related Posts:

Permalink 2 Comments

05.01.08

impetuous, top-down, and unilateral.

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:13 am by Brent

that is what i would call such a decision to kill the blog without consultation with us, without a conversation, first (unless, of course, cryptic blog posts are considered a conversation). there, i said it. sorry, joan. i would agree that if i were paying for it, then i would be more adamant about posting or having people post. for this reason, i think it would be appropriate if we all chipped in to keep the site up…i am not sure what we are supposed to be posting, and what i have to say is rarely something i think others would find interesting. i also am a little privacy paranoid in this internet age and i guess i have a high bar for posting. all this notwithstanding i 1) enjoy like heck reading what all the rest of you post, 2) know i can do a better job of posting , and 3) realize that if you say notwithstanding over and over in your head it loses all the little meaning it already has. i would not put it past our crafty coach to be stirring the hornet’s nest with her post…well it worked on me as an added bonus i will briefly relay two awful experiences in running from this spring…

the first - every runner’s nightmare. on a longish run with ben at umstead i realized that my car key, tucked safely into my running shorts’ key pocket, was not there. sh(oo)t, i thought, i have to be on a plane in an hour and a half. ben and i ran a few extra miles that day, but, providentially, we found the key (rather some walker’s found it for us).

the second - every man’s nightmare. i was running, looking to the side and WHAM!!! i ran full-on into a metal pylon of about 36 inches in height. my pelvic bone is still sore at the pubic symphysis (you can look that up and say a retrospective ouch for me).

your thoughts?

Related Posts:

Permalink 4 Comments

03.19.08

March Madness

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:20 am by Brent

So the “M” is what we are calling it, I guess. A year ago, I did this workout. It was my first practice with CAC, as a guest. I had been doing long runs with Marc, but those runs, while tough, did not prepare me for the lung-searing “M” workout. Getting its name from the geometric representation of the fartlek “on” times, 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 “on”, 1 min “off”,  this workout might better be associated with other Ms - like masochism or madness. In my training lexicon, fartlek was before associated with early season “speed play”, as it translates from the Swedish, with first hard efforts in the fall designed to tax you only slightly. But make no mistake, this is no speed play, this is speed work. 

After introducing myself to the circle of CAC runners, I toed the line (in trainers, like Marc).  I already had it in my mind that I could run with all of these guys, a little bit of pride overestimating the fitness that came from 3 months of base training - after a 7 year lay-off. Belief is a powerful thing and it was my friend for exactly one loop of Mason Farm.  After that, it became my ruthless enemy, as I clawed and dug to save face in front of Joan and the rest of the team.  Those last two loops were a humbling reminder of the difficulty of this sport and its tendency to force the truth out of our bodies, if not our minds.

The pain of the “M” was not over, however. That night, I woke up in agony. A growing, bloody blister under my toenail was threatening its life - I had to act to save the nail. Quickly, I heated a pin to a glowing red and stabbed it into my nail, melting through the solid and into the soft flesh underneath. A single drop of dark red came through, but was the pressure-relieving procedure a success? Sadly, it was not. Over the next months, the nail died, its roots having been extracted by the pressure I had sought to diminish. Finally it fell off.

A year later this toenail is gnarled and rather odd-looking. It never grew in quite right.

A war mark. I guess.  A badge of honor. Perhaps. A reminder against foolish pride. Assuredly.

Then fall came and the “M” brought a torrential rain. Odd, since it didn’t really rain at all last fall.

What will the “M” bring this afternoon? I can’t wait to see.

Related Posts:

Permalink 2 Comments

01.16.08

S(t)imulation without taxation…

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:17 pm by Brent

This started as a comment in response to Joan’s post below. it became so long (too long?) that i thought it would be better as a post (and help get that 0 posts in ‘08 monkey off of my back)…

i would consider owen anderson an expert. i used to enjoy thoroughly his “the fast lane” column in RW when i was a young tike trying to learn how to train myself. one of the things i have been struggling with about the 100s is that it becomes too taxing after the first or second 100 of each set to reach top speed. when you do, say, 10x 200 with full recovery, you can hit every one of them at top speed. it seems like the latter might be the more specific way to increase top speed, while the 100s focus on ability to maintain form and speed (though not “top”) while quite fatigued. I would argue that they accomplish subtlely different neurological and physiological tasks.

for instance, if we take this weeks 5X (5×100) and make it 25 100s with 30-60 sec rest, then i certainly will spend more time running at a top speed, say 13.5 sec per 100 avg (maybe that time is a little generous, but it sounds good) . That probably is far faster than i will ever run in a race, even while trying to sprint at the end. But of course this would have obvious benefits of “practicing” those neurological pathways, leading to improved economy, strength, leg turnover, etc.

(optional neurophysiology lesson-Simply put, neurons work by 1)stimulation and 2)”memory”. This “memory” is called long-term potentiation (LTP), which sounds intimidating, but is really a simple concept. The initial stimulus comes from our deciding to do X. Each successive stimulation strengthens the cellular communication (by ways yet to be understood) between two neurons, one presynaptic (message sender), one post-synaptic (message receiver). Basically, a nerve cell passes a stimulus to the next neuron stronger and faster each time it is used until you reach a physiological limit. Because neurons are not simply wires conducting electricity, physiological limits that relate to cellular metabolism and availability of energy, among others, impose some limits on how fast and strong synaptic impulses can be. The opposite also occurs, called long-term depression (LDP), which results in weakening of unused neuronal “circuits”. Running is a complex neural activity, so suffice it to say that the more running-related motor pathways we can recruit and the more often we can recruit them, the “better” we will be at running. sorry to nerd it up on the blog.)

Now, I will probably never be terribly out of breath, light-headed, or feel like my heart is going to beat right out of my chest doing 25 x100 with full recovery. I experienced all of these during the 100s this week. This leads me to believe that what we are doing is different than what the experts Joan cites are describing. We are practicing the different, but very important, task of late race simulation - what one might call “simulation without taxation”. Indeed, that is what any training is meant to be. While my eyes almost popped out monday during the workout, I recovered quickly and did not have that post-race fatigue afterwards, hence little “taxation”.

To conclude, I see two implications for our training from all of this. 1)There still may be room for “all-out” repeats in our training regimen. How much and how often is probably related to our events of choice and our natural strengths. 2) The more we train the better we will be. An inflammatory statement to some, no doubt, but less so with this caveat - the most training that one can endure and still be excited, hungry, focused, healthy, race-ready and not over-trained is what it will take to be the best we can be. It would be foolish to say everyone run 60 or 80 or 100 or 120 miles a week with 2 or 3 or 4 workouts. We all have different limits, but can use the same principles to govern our training. (Thanks to Joan for putting these principles to work for each member of CAC.)

Related Posts:

Permalink 1 Comment

10.14.07

I think he is ready, folks.

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:54 pm by Brent

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of accompanying Marc and Tom on a most excellent adventure (difficult workout).  Earlier in the week, Tom had written Marc about potentially doing their long run together. In his usual understated manner, Marc replied that he was going to do 30 minutes at steady pace (6-6:30), 60 minutes at marathon pace (5:10-5:15), followed by another easy 30 minutes (6-6:30).  yes, i said 5:10-5:15 pace. Undaunted, Tom agreed to run and do what he could to help Marc. I agreed to an infinitely easier task of taking splits, supplying water, and riding along with my bike.  Not a big deal to me, but I know how infinitely helpful it was when Joan did the same for me a month ago.  I even convinced them to start the up tempo part from my house, thanks to its hilly and relatively traffic-free nature.

At the appointed time, the guys strode into my parking lot, hydrated, and were off. The first mile is a nice downhill to get things going. 5:08. Rolling hills on the second. 10:22 for Marc, 10:30 for Tom. The third mile is hilly. 15:28 (5:06) M, 15:40 (5:10) T.  Fourth mile is hilly but the guys push and use a long down hill.  20:28ish (5:00)M, 20:45 (5:05) T.  At a turnaround after mile four, Tom turns early to push marc on the 5th mile and both guys run by 5 miles in about 25:39 (5:11). After 5.5 miles of great effort, Tom calls it a day and turns around.  NICE EFFORT by Mr. Kreger-it is hard to stay with the “Buzzsaw” when he gets going. Mile 6, 30:49 (5:10).  Mile seven has 100+ ft hill in it, which gets Marc breathing hard for the first time. 7 at 36:12 (5:23). solid for this beastly incline. 8 through 10 marc finds his groove again and runs some rollings hills in 41:24 (5:12) at 8, 51:50 (10:26 for those two miles) at 10. 56:10 at 11 and 60 minutes even and 11.53 miles later marc is done. 5:12 per mile pace.  2:16 marathon pace.  I think he is ready. (M and T, splits are correct to within a couple seconds) 

for your viewing pleasure:

 www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=170801 this is the map/elev. of the run marc did. (we added on to make it longer)

http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=170753 this is a map of two loops of the trials course

Related Posts:

Permalink 3 Comments

10.10.07

DNF in Chicago

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:27 pm by Brent

So I suppose Emil Zatopek would be disappointed with my performance in Chicago on Sunday.  I was stubborn. Though the starting line felt like a tepid bath, I still had Olympic (Trials) dreams swirling in and out of my mind. Two hours and twenty-two minutes was the time I needed.  That would have been a solid effort on a great weather day. In retrospect, I was probably done before I started. An untimely bout of insomnia had me bleary-eyed and exhausted days before the race. Never have my mental weaknesses included anxiety and insomnia. Perhaps it was the reduced training of the taper that did it. Perhaps it was school, family, due dates, all of it. Whatever “it” was, it was enough to prevent more than 3 hours of sleep for four straight nights. Each night the anxiety of not having slept and desperately needing sleep contributed to the downward spiral.

On race morning, I sat in the Top 100 tent listening to people talk about goal times and the weather in a fog. After spotting a large thermos next door, I snuck into the New Balance pacing group leader’s tent for some coffee, which is probably the only reason I ran fast for half of the race.  My caffeine blood levels probably tracks with my 5K splits-16:50-percolating, 16:36-buzzing, 16:53-coming back down - 17:41-hey did i just run by a Starbucks? 18:24-flatlining…and then I saw my wife at mile 17 and called it a day. The heat was bad too. But that is no excuse for a North Carolinian right? Actually, I learned that training in heat is different than running fast in heat. I tend to forget how pace goes out the window on my long hard runs. The effort is what matters. On this day, effort be damned, it was all about the time.

It shouldn’t be this way. Great performances always seem to come from within, not from meticulous assessment of pace and splits. Just race and the times will come. I have wasted much energy worrying about times and hoping for PRs that will stamp me as “GOOD”.  Perhaps the confidence should come from the training and the performance from that very confidence. 

As I reflect on the race now, I think it was just what I needed to re-enter my training with more hunger than I have ever had before. Now free of arbitrary time goals, I hope that my next performance will be one of which Zatopek might actaually approve. 

Related Posts:

Permalink Comments