Switching it up

After completely bonking at mile 22 of the Shamrock Marathon a few weeks ago, I decided it was a necessity to educate myself and become a smarter runner.

I believe the issues faced at the marathon didn't have anything to do with my race strategy, pacing, or nutrition...it was quite simply training.  You see, for the 4 weeks leading up to the race, I barely ran at all as a result of what I believe were shin splints on my left leg.

The motivation of not having another crappy race was enough to get me to hit the books (or more appropriately, the web) and I got my fill of advice on topics such as injury prevention and nutrition.  Being more of a math and computer type guy, I'm not a huge fan of diving into a bunch of detailed biology and chemistry, so articles written in layman's terms were easiest to digest.  Among a few others, I found a great resource in Jason Fitzgerald's Strength Running site, which provides a considerable amount of free information, mostly in the form of blog posts, but there are also a couple of PDF "articles" that dive in a little deeper.

I'm happy to say that so far, after applying a few simple principles to my training over the past week, I haven't had any major problems and things seem to be getting better for the summer season.

So what did I do?

Mainly two things:
1) Incorporated core strengthening exercises into my workouts, twice a week.
 - I found some WODs (Workouts of the Day) online that only use body weight exercises. (e.g. Burpees, Pushups, Flutterkicks, Situps, etc)  I'll do these on Mondays and Wednesdays, in addition to running.

2) Rotate different shoes and surfaces.
 - I think the last 4 runs I did were in 4 different pairs of shoes, including yesterday in my Vibram Five Fingers, which I haven't run in in at least a year.  I also got a trail run in at Gifford Pinchot State Park on Sunday, which was a gorgeous day and my feet felt great.

While I have no goals in mind this weekend, I'm signed up to two races (1 Sat, 1 Sun).  I doubt I'll PR, and I have no intentions of pushing it hard, it'll just be nice to finish a race not feeling like total crap.  That feeling is tough to get over and I'm ready to move on...smarter and more healthy!

Double the pain, double the fun!

 As I sit here after the second day of pushing my body to the limits, everything hurts.  I'm not sure what I was thinking when I signed up for a Crossfit workout on Friday night, then a 6K race on Saturday morning.  And as I'm here typing while SNL is on the TV screen, I can't believe that only 34 minutes for working out over two days could make my body as sore as it is.

I had never done Crossfit before, but my wife goes regularly and we had the opportunity to participate in an evening workout session / party to benefit the Susan G Komen Foundation.  Everyone donned their best pink wear and did some CRAZY workouts.  I can't express in words how unbelievably fit these people are; you'd just have to see it to believe it.

The Novice (read: "me") workout consisted of 8 minutes of as many reps that we could do of 8 dead lifts and 8 burpees.  Before I did the workout it didn't sound so bad, but I'm wiser now.  I just barely squeaked in 7 reps before the 8 minute mark, and I was almost ready to puke when it was over.  I'm glad I didn't, cause I was hungry, thirsty, and they had plenty of beer and Paleo food on hand.

I had a few hours for sleep and downtime before the 6K race, which didn't start until 10AM, roughly 45 minutes away from home.  There were about 200 participants in this years edition of Sophie's Six, including my wife and a few of her friends.  I was aiming for around a 6:30 pace, but with the previous night's workout, had no idea if I could achieve such a goal.  One thing we did know though, was that we were staying till the very end of the awards ceremony, because they were giving out 40 door prizes...I liked our odds.

Nice spread of door prizes

At the start line

This year's beneficiary for the race proceeds was Camp Koala, so of course, they had a mascot:

So about the race...

It was an easy course and amazing weather, but difficult given the circumstances.  I struggled to keep a 7:00 per mile pace and honestly had no idea what place I ended up in just after some kid smoked me in the final strides before the finish line.  I was happy with my time of 26 minutes and some change and waited for my wife and her friends to come rolling in with amazing times of their own: all at or under 30 minutes!

It was about an hour till the awards ceremony began, and I was absolutely flabbergasted when I heard my name called - I WON MY AGE GROUP WITH A 26:12!!!!  After 2 1/2 years of running, this is my first award and I just can't believe it!  I guess a 7 minute mile was good enough for today, but I won't be happy with that pace at my next 5K: The Jingle Bell Run in Harrisburg on 12/8/12.

After two days of pain (and counting...), this was a perfect finish, and good motivation for my next race: the Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving, only 5 days away.