Training

I am trying some new things for the upcoming ATL Half Marathon, which I hope help improve my time and conditioning over the 13.1 Marathon. I am mixing things up more with the running, stationary bike, and elliptical, and wish I had access to an indoor pool as well, to throw in some swimming.  Monday I go for an hour on the treadmill for speed, trying to hit a better 10K time, and after that slow it down a little after I hit 10K, and then bike or do the elliptical for 45 min - 1 hour after.  Tuesday I am doing 90 min on the treadmill on a 2 incline, a light incline to increase difficulty and a little bit slower pace with gradual increase, followed by 15-30 min on the bike.  Wednesday I do road work, a minimum of 10.25 in the neighborhood, and the neighborhood I live in has some flat points, but not many, and some really nice hills, I don't try to kill myself with speed, just a nice steady pace with gradual increases.  Thursday I may not do any running, and just do an hour on the elliptical, then the bike for at least 45 minutes.  Friday is 5K day, I turn the treadmill up and go hard to do a 5K, and then turn it down a bit for the rest of the hour, and may follow this up with the bike or elliptical.  Saturdays is long run day 2-2.5 hour run, in a nice local park, again very hilly and even some trailing involved, to top it off I will hit the bike in the afternoon for no less than 90 minutes, going on somewhat fatigued legs to try and make them ready to go longer.  Sunday is rest day.

I've also been doing a lot of calf raises with and without weights, just trying to build up more strength in the muscles.  Also deep knee bends on legs days, even on nonleg days also, I'll do about 300 straight of them, widening my stance, to almost horseback stance, for those familiar with the martial arts.  I do not go down to 90 or come up to 180 on these, I stay between 110 and 170 at most, that way the muscles do constant work and really fatigues them, also can cause jello legs.  I do the deep knee bends barefoot, and most of the other training I am doing is in my Vibram Five Finger KSO's.  This is just a breakdown of my cardio and additional leg work I am doing with my regular weight lifting.  I am also constantly working on my ChiRunning forms and improving them to help me be a better runner and injury free.  I would love to have some boxes to do plyometrics as well, to do jumping with, and may get a jump rope, along with adding some martial arts routines in here as well.  I will see how all this works out come 11/25, hopefully it helps me a lot.  Any suggestions would be appreciated as well.

13.1 Marathon in Atlanta

I got up at 3:45 this morning, to  get ready this mornings run.  I had a small bowl of grits with blueberries and goji berries mixed in it, along with a banana, yogurt and a glass of water.  I had everything laid out last night so getting dressed and having everything in order was no issue.  I arrived at the MARTA station in Doraville around 5:20, which gave me plenty of time to just sit and relax until I got on the train, while listening to my prerun playlist.  I got to the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe station just after 6 am, and walked briskly up to Oglethorpe.  I had plenty of time to warm up and use the portapotty twice, as nerves were at work.  Checked my bag and made it to my start corral, where I kept moving a bit to stay warm, as it was very cool this morning.  The race started promptly at 7 AM.

The first few miles I was keeping a very good pace, over 8 mph, but couldn't keep it up and finished with a time of 1:38.52, which is about 7.95 mph or a 7:33 minute mile, finishing 147 of 2887 runners, not bad for my first half marathon.  The course was a bit rough, very hilly, so anyone who plans on running this, I really recommend doing A LOT of hill work, maybe even 2 times a week, and on your long runs doing no less than 15 miles.  Even with the work I had done, I was not 100% prepared for this race, some minor foot pain I had for a week or so, and a 2 week sinus infection didn't help me much.  I really started feeling it about mile 11, but kept up a very good pace, as I say the hills were brutal.  The course was well planned and went by some nice really nice places along the way.  There were plenty of water/gatorade stations, with a few portapotties near them, I did have to stop once along the route to use one.  Also having cheerleaders, and musicians along the route, also the workers at the water stations were very enthusiastic and encouraging to the runners, as well as the volunteers on the course, and having plenty of them and police in place.  The medal was a very nice one: 

There was plenty of water, bananas, and other food in the finish area, as well as a band performing.  There was a massage area, but I didn't take advantage of it, and having a tent you could go to for results was very nice, so you could have you time right away. 

Things I learned from this race number 1 is the importance of doing hill work.  I also need to work on my cardio conditioning, not like I am in really bad shape, but I need my cardio capacity to be a lot higher.  I can accomplish this by working on my breathing through my nose, also doing more intense cardio workouts.  Though I did some longer runs, I need to do them on a more regular basis, which will help my cardio capacity, and keep me going better.  I still need to work on my posture and other forms from ChiRunning, but this is always a work in progress.

I plan on doing this race again next year, and will do a lot better, as I have a feel for the course, and know how to train better for it.  The winning time was 1:15.03, so with the right training I could be right up there next year, no doubts in my mind.  As long as I keep things up with runs, and doing good longs runs weekly, and hill work as well, not to mention working on my Chi Running anything is possible, I would need to add about 2.5-3 mph to my speed, which is not impossible I feel.  Next up is the Atlanta Half Marathon on 11/25, time to start getting ready for it and train very hard.



Music Playlist

I know a lot of people like to run with an ipod/mp3 player, I never have for a race.  The ipod I have is bigger and is a pain to run with as it is, and keeping it strapped to my arm is difficult.  Maybe if I had a zoom or something then I would consider it, but even then I doubt I would.  I like to stay more focused on the road and my surroundings when running in a race.  Also it allows me to stay focused more on the ChiRunning focuses, and checking in on them on a regular basis.  Not to mention I have playlist of music going on in my head as it is, so that is good enough.  I have put a playlist together for my warm up and prep prerace, and below is how it goes:

Motorhead - The Game
White Zombie - Thunder Kiss '65
The Cramps - Bikini Girls With Machine Guns
The Ramones - Blitzkreig Bop
Dropkick Murphys - The Warrior's Code
Social Distortion - Reach For The Sky
David Bowie - I'm Afraid Of Americans
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
Skinny Puppy - Testure
Front Line Assembly - Mindphaser
Combichrist - Get Your Body Beat
Leæther Strip - Sex Dwarf
Das Ich - Destillat (VNV Nation Remix)
Project Pitchfork - Timekiller
Apoptygma Berzerk - Starsign
Neuroticfish - There's A Light...
Razed In Black - Oh My Goth (DJ R<I>B Trance Remix)
LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out
Public Enemy w/ Anthrax - Bring The Noize

First 1/2 Marathon

This Sunday I'll be doing my first 1/2 marathon ever, it is the 13.1 Marathon Series in Atlanta.  It should be a fun event, and even with some minor setbacks in training I should be ready to go.  I had to battle sinus congestion and a some minor foot pain during training, but didn't give up. 

I have been reading over Danny Dwyer's book ChiRunning again, and working with some of the focuses.  I have mostly been working on posture, even during the day at work.  I will check myself and adjust to be more straight and upright, even leveling the pelvis, which feels add after standing incorrectly for so many years.  I've also been working on my lean, and finding the comfort zone with that.  Relaxing my lower legs, especially the feet and ankles, trying to not have as much tension in them.  Working very hard on my foot strike being more in the midfoot.  Lastly working on breathing more through the nose.

Another issue that has come up is Marta, has changed it's train hours starting this week.  I will catch the first train out of Doraville at 5:55 and get to the Brookhaven station around 6:02, then have to go 1 mile north to Oglethorope.  The race starts at 7 so things are going to be tight with stretching and being warmed up well, and also having time to use the portajohn, and do bag check.  I prefer getting to a race like this at least an hour before start, to have my head on straight and be ready.  I am not sure about being so rushed, but I think things will be fine. 

The last few days I have been eating a lot of rice and quiona, along with sweet potatoes, fruit, espcially bananas, and various veggies of course, along with tofu.  Tomorrow I plan on having salad and soup, a big bowl of rice and quinoa, and having plenty of fruit again, nothing to heavy, but plenty of carbs for the big day.  I always kind of see what works good the day before a race, and see how I feel, as to how I adjust my diet.  No pasta though, I have never been a big pasta eater, and  have been actually eating less wheat gluten for a bit now, and it is good I like rice so much. 

After Sunday I will take it easy Monday and just lift, maybe bike a bit, and then Tuesday I have to crank it up a few notches for the Atlanta Half Marathon and then Charleston Marathon in January.  Plenty of other runs inbetween, mostly 5k's.