Awesome, Jeff. Will be cool to watch you as you prepare. 40 minute 10K - *mutters* damn you fast guys *mutters* - I'm just dreaming of sub-50.

Before today, my last couple of runs were on the treadmill. Treadmill running seems so much harder to me. At slow, treadmill speeds, I fell like I'm hauling ass. It must be primarily psychological, because my heart rate on the treadmill is commensurate with the effort -- i.e., the treadmill speed is relatively low, and so is my heart rate. But the biggest problem is that I must have some form issues on the 'mill, because I start hurting in ways I don't normally hurt, primarily in the hips. Today, I cranked out a nice 4-miler at 8:17 pace during lunch. Can't tell you how much easier it felt than the 5-miler I ran last night at 9:13 pace on the 'mill. I've mentioned that my general aim here is for a Memorial Day 10k. I plan to run at least on 5k tune-up probably in April. But the real fun one is this -- I discovered that there's an all-comers track meet in town about a month after the 10k, in late June. Now the meet has 100, 200, 400, 800, 5000 meter runs as well as the mile. My plan is to shift to a month of intense speedwork after the 10k on 5/26, with the goal of running the 800m and the mile. No 5000 for me -- the meet is on a Saturday afternoon/evening, but there's no way I'm running 12.5 laps in Alabama in June unless they have record cold temperatures. I told my wife about this plan, and she said, "Don't do it. You'll pull a muscle." She is w/o a doubt thinking of my misadventure 10 years ago attempting to run on a 4x400m corporate challenge relay in which I pulled up lame after 100m and had to jog it in the rest of the way. At that time, I was in pretty decent shape -- ran an 18:09 5k on a cross-country course that same morning -- but decent 5k pace guarantees nothing with regards to sprinting 400m. My wife is right -- I will hurt myself trying to race 800m. That is, unless I do some strength training, which I need to do desperately if I'm ever gonna conquer my chronic hamstring issues. So as I start to ramp up my miles, I'm gonna add some strength to the mix. I think what I may do is run in the morning, and do some pilates/strength stuff during my lunch hour at work. We'll see how that goes -- I was hoping to use my lunch hours for easy 3~4 milers on top of eventual 6~7 mile morning runs.

If I had to guess, I would think that the 5000 meter before your 400 meter race probably had more to do with coming up lame than the fact that it was a 400. Either way, when you are on the treadmill, what incline do you set it at? If you leave it at 0° then that might be why your hips are hurting. You might be hyperextending your back as the treadmill pulls your feet backwards and you lean back a little. I recommend you use a minimum of 1° which will force you to lean forward a little and prevent that from happening.

Good points, Blaine. As far as the 400m race, the 5k probably had something to do with it. But by that point, I already had a history of hamstring problems with both legs, so between having run a 5k that morning, and not actually having done any speedwork to prep for an all-out 400m, I was doomed to fail. I usually run with my 'mill at 1%. I'll try 2% and see if that helps. I think my biggest issue is mechanics. I seem to run a little differently on the 'mill. Specifically, I tend to increase my cadence. (Don't shoot, Scout). While on a treadmill, there's no longer a horizontal component to your motion, only vertical. As such, I become acutely aware as to how much vertical I have (which is wasted motion). I tend to do the one thing that reduces vertical motion while running -- I increase my cadence. Problem is that for me, a faster cadence (say >170) is awkward at easy speeds. Mind you, I don't really consciously think of cadence on the treadmill; I instead am just trying to reduce vertical motion at a slow speed. I think a combination of a) more incline and b) running faster will help.

Nice workout. That's a good, consistent effort, and its nice to see gains from year to year, isn't it?

Been a while since I've posted. I'm chugging along, trying to build a little more base up. I'm in week one of the last 12 weeks of my goal 10k on Memorial Day. I was really pleased with a run from a few days ago. Easy 4-miler with 6x110~150m strides. The good part is that I really let it rip on the strides -- if you believe my Garmin (and admittedly, it usually reads too fast for short distances), I was clicking along at sub-4:50 pace for some of those short stretches. I don't try to shoot for 180 or any other magic turnover number, but I was actually turning over as high as 195 steps per minute on some of the strides. Only problem is that I think I was turning over extremely high to compensate for the ongoing soreness in my right hamstring, i.e. more turnover means the strides don't have to be as long. In any case, it's been years since I've tried to run fast, so I'm just figuring out how to do it, again. Possible 5k coming up on March 22. I may do an assessment workout (3x1mile with 1-minute recovery) in the next week or two to see where I'm at so I can race sensibly -- I've ruined so many good 5ks in my life by going out too fast, so I instead want to go out conservatively quick. With the race 12 weeks away, I'm looking to start doing at least one quality session per week coming up. Probably a few tempo runs. And if I so decide to run the 5k, I need to do at least one mutha of a workout. Not that it would make a difference in the race physically, but mentally I have a hard time racing without having put at least one really sick workout in the bag. Something that makes a little 5k seem easy.

Great 5K you had there, Jeff! Way to go!

Thanks, Bonkin. Event: 2nd Annual Cove Family and Sports Medicine 5k Run and Walk (to benefit Defeat Diabetes) Location: Huntsville, AL When: 3/22/08 Distance: 5k Course: Flat and winding on neighborhood streets and paved greenway trail weather: 49°F and sunny at gun time (= perfect. It's all downhill from here.) Time: 19:42.2 Place: 12/72 AG (35-39): 3/6 Gender: 11/42 Splits: Mile 1: 6:16.3 Mile 2: 6:20.5 12:36.7 Mile 3: 6:28.4 19:05.1 Finish: 0:37.1 19:42.2 Full race report here. Not much more to say here in this forum other than the fact I am really pissed I didn't/wouldn't/couldn't have a finishing kick to speak of. As I said later in the race report thread, I slammed the last 0.1mi of today's run in 24.8 sec, so I still have speed, but I lacked the guts push the needle into the red and throw down. It kind of reminds me of a track meet soph year. I ran a PR in that race, but when my buddy handed me my watch with a great time on it, all I could do was throw the watch into the ground because I was so upset about being passed by 3 or 4 people in the last 100m. Saturday wasn't nearly that bad, but I might have actually felt better having run 20:01 and finishing strong, because I hate being the passee as opposed to the passer. I clearly need more miles. In fact, I am quite pleased to have run this time only doing 15~22 mpw. But I think I could drop under 19:00 in a hurry if I can just get my weeks up to 30 and do tempo runs more frequently. Like a vampire, now that I've tasted blood, I want more.

Wow, it's been a long, long time since I've posted here. I didn't even bother to post on my crappy Memorial Day 10k. Look it up if you're interested. I'm not. Long story short, I hope that the Winter of Globule has begun. After missing 17 days in a row (in one of those life ruts), I've run three in a row in what is hopefully the beginning of many more. I've never been one to have a running streak -- I've always believed in the day off here or there, so that's not my goal. But it is my goal to pile on the miles over the next 5 months to see if I can't start running closer to my 20th century times (see below). General plan: remainder of October and November: typical week to be 45 minutes x 5~6 days + 75~90 minutes long once/week tempo-ish workout starting mid Nov December onward: 60 minutes x 6 days + 90~120 long once tempo per week + one hill workout per week. I'm aiming for time more than distance. The distance will increase as I get more fit and my easier pace gets faster. I do plan to use an HRM just as a gauge to stay below 80%max, which is what I consider the upper end of easy pace. In colder weather, HRM should be somewhat reliable. Wish me luck. Better yet, wish me consistency.

And so it begins. This is Week 1 of a 24-week training cycle, leading up to my spring goal race, a 5k on 4/19. The first 6 weeks are nothing but easy base miles, with strides thrown starting in week 4. I hope to be above 50 miles/week by the end of this phase. I'm basing this plan on the 5k~15k training schedule in Daniels' 2nd Edition. But I will substitute hills for most of the "Rep" work in Phase 2. And I have a lot of interval workouts from my own bag of tricks when that times comes. So I'll be following Daniels' overall structure, but will modify some of the individual quality workouts. My planned race calendar for spring 2009: 2/15: Winter Winds 2-miler This has calf strain written all over it 3/1: UAH Spring 10k (probably a no) No can do 3/21: Cove 5k Race has been canceled 4/4: Scholarship Fund 8k (this one's a maybe) 4/18: Cookie Dash 5k <------------->Goal Race, in the 24th training week. not a goal race, but still doing it. 4/25: Music City Half-Marathon Considering this. A longer race would be good for me. 5/16: Harvey Williams All-comers Track Meet. 800m, 1 mile. If it's unseasonably cool, maybe the 5000m. 5/25 (Memorial Day): Cotton Row 10k/5k The Cotton Row is the biggest race in these parts, especially the 10k, which attracts sub-30 talent. But weather is mostly likely gonna be too warm for my Michigan ass, so although I plan to run it, it's not the focus of my season. I'm excited about the Track Meet. It used to be in June, but May sounds a whole lot better to me. After the 4/19 5k, I plan on shifting to a 4-week cramming session of Peter Snell training (Snell was the New Zealand runner who pulled off the legendary 800/1500 double gold at the '64 Olympics) to get me ready for running the mile and the 800m, which is my most feared running event. Well, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, so here's hoping I finally pull a plan together.