Posted on Mar 30, 2010 under running |
It seems like a lot has been going on these days, none of it is necessarily bad news, which is always good. Just..busy. There are a couple of things I want to update on though, running-wise.
Marathon Training
My first full marathon training program has been ironed out (technically, today was day 1: rest/cross-train: run for 20 min, basketball for the evening). This came directly from my internet-running-coach and fellow runner, Caleb Masland [Twitter, DailyMile, Blog]. I hope he doesn’t mind, but if you ever need running tips or advice, he’s definitely the one to go to. I have provided a screenshot of the program below. The weekly miles are going to be more than I have run consistently for quite some time. And assuming I still run on the days I have for rest/cross-training, then it will a lot more! I still have a 5K and half marathon planned for next month, so I’ll do my best to make sure I can still get an equivalent workout in for the day.
Run on the Trail
I came back from a weekend in LA and hit up the local high school trail that I ran when I was in cross country. It was roughly an 8 mile run and hit just over an hour. Although I wasn’t able to measure the mile markers accurately, I did keep track of the splits for each checkpoint and was pleased to run negative splits. As to not confuse you with actual street names, I’ve labeled them with just letters. One thing I noticed was that after the run, my body felt very drained. It was probably a combination of the heat (Spring has arrived!) and the distance. I had to drop my sister off at the airport which was only a 30 minute drive, but I was still nervous about falling asleep at the wheel. I survived that trip, but was definitely dreading the 2 hour drive back to San Diego. Fortunately, I was able to get a power nap (although not very successful) and had an energy drink to help keep me up.
Splits:
A-B: 8:22
B-C: 7:55
C-D: 9:21
D-E-D: 5:10
D-C: 9:00
C-B: 7:06
B-A: 6:39
100 Pushups Program
I completed the first week of the 100 pushups program. Technically it was the 3rd week since the program tells you to move ahead if you can do more than a certain amount during the initial test. It’s only 3 times a week, but pretty tough none-the-less. The first day was harder than I expected, but by the 3rd day, I was surprised at how much more pushups I was able to do. Only 3 more weeks and I’m supposed to be able to do 100 straight pushups, sounds hard right? I think the same thing. What you’re supposed to do after the 6th week is do the final 100 pushups test. But if you’re not able to do it, it tells you to go back a week or two and try again. I have a feeling that is going to happen for a couple of weeks, but who knows. I definitely feel stronger after each day and I’m hoping that it’ll pay off come race day!
Posted on Feb 17, 2010 under running |
Why you should join DailyMile 🙂
It has been a while since I wrote a running update. The reason for that is because I haven’t had any breakthrough runs since my race over 3 weeks ago. My typical routine after a race is to take a couple of days off to rest and recover, then just continue running so that I don’t get too out of shape when it comes time to start a new training program. It’s strange because weeks prior to my half marathon, I was not really running very fast times, but I ended up running my fastest half ever. That trend has continued after my half, and I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m running in the mornings. It has become apparent that I am not a morning person. I never want to get out of bed in the mornings and am tired throughout most of the run. I don’t eat breakfast before my runs, so I think if I woke up a little bit earlier, the time I spent eating breakfast would help me wake up. But waking up earlier would involve sleeping less (technically), which I hate. I know people who wake up at 4 AM to run or have to endure ridiculously horrible running conditions (i.e. snow), so I don’t really have much to complain about. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Jan 06, 2010 under Random |
Welcome to 2010, runners! I hope everybody had a safe/fun holiday the past couple of weeks. For me, it was filled with lots of driving, eating, visiting family, lounging around and a little bit of running on the side. My half marathon was in mid-November and my next one is in late January, which meant I was supposed to start my 10-week training right after that half.
My 2009 year end report according to DailyMile.
I took a couple of days off to recover from my half and then didn’t really follow any training plan after that. I have been trying to continue to run so that I didn’t get out of shape and maybe even run more miles to build up my base. What I learned from my first half is that I definitely have the speed, but not the endurance. To compensate for that, I have been trying to run more miles than I did from my last training. One way to help is by running 7 days a week, instead of 6. Another thing I did was just have a regular run instead of intervals since that is usually 3-4 miles total. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Dec 22, 2009 under Random |
I was contacted by an editor from Archie Grand, a notebook publishing company in Sweden. From his email, it sounded like he used to be a runner, but now with three kids (and probably many years later), he doesn’t run much anymore. As a thank you, he offered to send me one of his notebooks, Runners I Met And Liked. It was a very nice gesture and like always, I am very thankful for it. If you go to the site, you’ll see that they make these small notebooks with random “[type of person] I Met and Liked” notebooks. These are pretty nice notebooks: the paper is really thick and the binding and cover is very sturdy and smooth. But it’s so nice; I don’t want to waste the pages on just anything. I used to have a notebook to write down my runs, but then went digital and posted them online. Also during my first half training, I wrote down some of my splits during intervals. I’m still thinking about what would be the best use of this really cool notebook.
Runners I Met And Liked
Writing about this book gave me the idea to talk about running in 2009. I ran for a short time in 2008, but it just got too hard and I wasn’t really motivated or had much support. I tried again early this year and was on a running forum and someone mentioned a website where you can post your runs and talk to other runners. Runners on DailyMile were very supportive and provided me with that bit of motivation needed to keep me running. That, integrated with Twitter really got me into running and racing for the first time in years helped push me over the top. Since then, I have ran 3 5K’s (including an AG win), a 10K and my very first half marathon. That half marathon was my greatest achievement to date; I never thought I would be able to race that many miles. With that under my belt, I know that a full marathon is just around the corner (Rock n’ Roll San Diego). I have quite a few half marathons planned throughout 2010, admission into the Brooks I.D. program and like I just said, my first full marathon.
I’m not necessarily going to name runners that I met and liked, mostly because I haven’t really met any runners, per se. I have gotten to know, received support, and talked to many runners in 2009 from: DailyMile, Twitter, blogs, forums, Meetup.com and Nikeplus.com. I probably wouldn’t still be running today if it weren’t for all of the people from these great places. I have also received many running products from some generous companies for me to test and review. Although that is very nice of these companies, I have to say that getting to know all the runners is the best gift I can ask for. I feel very thankful this holiday season; I know not everyone can say the same. It has been a very tough year (economically) with so much happening around the world; you’d think it’d never stop. 2010 is a new decade, which can mean many things: a new year, new job, new running season and just a fresh start all-around. Hopefully everyone enjoys their Christmas and New Years to get 2010 started off right.
Keep on running!!
SDrunner
Posted on Nov 16, 2009 under Race |
I just completed my first half marathon, the Silver Strand Half Marathon and the main takeaway I got from running my first half marathon: it’s very hard!! While I was waiting in line to use the restroom, a guy was talking to another guy about how on his last half marathon he said, “Man this is really tough, but I’m almost done. When I finally finished, I thought to myself, wow, I would have only been HALF done if this were a full marathon.” My thoughts exactly. First let’s get to the overall results on the half marathon: 1:38 (6:52, 6:41, 6:48, 6:44, 6:46, 6:47, 7:08, 7:36, miles 10-13.1: SLOW). Placing: 14th in my age group (20-24) out of 72, 181 out of 2600+ overall. It’s sad that I was on pace to hit my goal of sub-1:30, but then just flopped at the end. I’m not going to let that discourage me from running additional half marathons and dare I say, a full marathon!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Nov 09, 2009 under Training |
It’s been a while since I wrote a post about my half marathon training, the good thing is that I have still been running and training (for the most part). It’s not necessarily due to laziness, but I just had to attend to other very important things that were going on in my life, outside of running. It is fairly safe to say that I will be able to focus on running again (maybe even more than before) very soon, if not in the near future.
There are some cool stats in DailyMile: TVs Powered, Gas Saved and best of all, Donuts Burned!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Oct 28, 2009 under Random |
I’ve always wanted to create a running quotes page (link also on the top of the blog..), but just never had the time to find all the good ones and compile into one list, and I still don’t.
After my first year of running cross country, I had one of the senior XC captains (also a friend of my older brother) sign my yearbook. What he said was pretty encouraging and got me to train really hard that summer and improve that very next cross country season.
My old high school cross country coach did this thing at the end of the season where he got a picture of each of the runners from a race, wrote something about that runner, framed it and gave them as gifts during our cross country banquet. And behind that frame, he wrote a more personal note that only the runner got to read, I decided to share what my coach said to me.
I’m hoping I could think of more of these types of quotes, if not, at least put up some other ones that I remember from high school cross country or even now. I do get daily running quotes from Runner’s World, it shouldn’t be too hard.
Maybe this will help encourage others to either start running again or continue to train and work hard at whatever they’re trying to achieve.
Posted on Oct 21, 2009 under Random |
This is what my business card would look like if running was my job.
If running really was a job that I got paid for doing rather than just a hobby/obsession that I do on the side of my actual job, then I would be able to do all the things that professional athletes and coaches suggest to do as a runner. What I mean is, there is so much great advice from other runners and articles in magazines and online that will give you tips on how to be a better runner, but who really has the time to do all of that? From what I have read from runners on twitter, DailyMile and on blogs, it does seem like a fair amount of people do dedicate a lot of time to running, but for others (like myself), it’s hard to be able to follow through on all of the great advice that other runners provide. With that being said, if I actually got paid to run and could focus on it 24/7, I would do/focus all of the following:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Oct 12, 2009 under running, Training |
Half Marathon Training: Peaking too Soon?
Each week, as my first ever half marathon comes closer and closer to reality, it seems as if I’m having better and better workouts. On days I need to go hard, I’m able to hit the pace that I’m hoping for and on days where it’s easy or off, I may not have the best workout which I’m OK with. The only thing I’m afraid of now is if I am pushing myself too hard and will peak too early. Back in high school cross country, our coach planned our hard workouts for the entire season in hopes of us peaking at the very optimal moment (league finals for some, and CIF prelims/finals for Varsity). I do feel like the half marathon training program that I was recommended is geared toward peaking exactly when I actually run the half, but I may be pushing the pace too much that I begin to burn out toward the end of the program. I’m happy to say that nothing of that nature has happened yet, but who knows whether or not that will happen next week or the week after. So now I am in a position where I can either do really well and actually hit sub-1:30 for my first half (based off Sunday’s long run) or I will push it too hard to the point where I can’t even finish the race, which would be a huge disappointment. This is something that I have to keep in the front of my mind as I am completing this program.
So as far as runs for the past week, I’m going to try and keep it as short as possible. Tuesday’s intervals was successful, 6x1000m @ 6:40 pace (4:10). Results: 3:49, 3:50, 3:44, 3:41, 3:34, 3:22. It’s weird that this program never asks for mile repeats but I did them ALL the time in high school to train for 3 mile races..Oh well. Friday was a 6 mile tempo run at moderate pace (7:00), which I was a little worried about. But I was able to run it pretty well, splits were a little off though: 6:27, 6:50, 6:39, 6:39, 6:29, 6:09. Sunday was probably one of the best workouts I’ve had so far, it was supposed to be 12 miles, easy. I never ran that many miles before, so I just wanted to go at a pace where I would be able to finish the whole thing in one piece. So I started off pretty slow, but I felt pretty good and my breathing was under control so I started picking up the pace as each mile passed. I ended up running at a pretty quick pace for an easy run and was surprised at the finishing time: 1:26. I just thought to myself, “I know I could run 1.1 more miles, I’m ready to race!” So now that I know I should be able to complete the half, I need to focus on how fast I want to run it. I still don’t want to start off too fast and then die half way through, so I think I should consider the strategy I accidentally did today, which is go out thinking it’s an easy run and just gradually pick up the pace. I know it’s going to be easier said than done since come race day, I’m going to want to hang with all the others out front, but I need to use self control and know that I will catch up later on.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Intervals 6x1000m @ 6:40 min/mile 3.75 mi 00:22 05:51 pace
What better way to start off the running week than with intervals? Was looking forward to these, probably the hardest one to date since it was a lot of intervals at a longer distance. Ran them pretty well and was able to run progressively faster after each interval. Results: 3:49, 3:50, 3:44, 3:41, 3:34, 3:22.
175/187
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Loop – 5 mi
Post interval run, nothing special. Took it really easy and felt relaxed.
140/151
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Run not logged: 4 miles, easy
Friday, October 9, 2009
6 Mile Tempo Run 6 mi 39:16 06:32 pace
Tempo run for the week, 6 miles at moderate tempo pace (7:00) with mile warmup and cooldown. I was a little nervous about this run since it’s a good amount of miles at a decent pace. Like always, I started off too fast, but toned it down the very next mile to run the next couple of miles very comfortably. Had enough energy at the end to hit a pretty fast last mile. Felt pretty tired after the run, which is expected, might have to take tomorrow off instead of the usual easy/recovery run. Splits: 6:27, 6:50, 6:39, 6:39, 6:29, 6:09
176/193
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Run not logged: easy 25 min run around UCSD campus
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Fastest Long Run to Date 12 mi 01:26 07:10 pace
12 miles is the most I have ever ran so I wasn’t planning on going too hard, just easy enough to actually complete the workout. So I started off pretty slow (8:01) and would have been more than happy running the whole workout at that pace. But I ran the next mile faster and then the next and so on. My breathing was under control the whole time and it was actually cold out so heat was not an issue. It was quite a workout, and I still can’t believe I did it and did it well! I know that I would have been able to run 1.1 miles more, I’m so ready to run my half marathon already!! Too bad I’m only half way through my training! Patience..
Here are the splits, the loop I ran isn’t exactly 5 miles, so each mile within the loop is probably different. But if you compare the splits from loop 1 to loop 2, you can see that they are definitely progressives, nice!
Loop #1: 8:01, 7:43, 7:26, 7:21, 7:12,
Loop #2: 7:21, 7:18, 7:07, 6:46, 6:36,
1st mi of loop: 6:58,
Back: 6:42
161/185
Got some great feedback from that run: http://www.dailymile.com/people/SDrunner/entries/497603
Each week, as my first ever half marathon comes closer and closer to reality, it seems as if I’m having better and better workouts. On days I need to go hard, I’m able to hit the pace that I’m hoping for and on days where it’s easy or off, I may not have the best workout which I’m OK with. The only thing I’m afraid of now is if I am pushing myself too hard and will peak too early. Back in high school cross country, our coach planned our hard workouts for the entire season in hopes of us peaking at the very optimal moment (league finals for some, and CIF prelims/finals for Varsity). I do feel like the half marathon training program that I was recommended is geared toward peaking exactly when I actually run the half, but I may be pushing the pace too much that I begin to burn out toward the end of the program. I’m happy to say that nothing of that nature has happened yet, but who knows whether or not that will happen next week or the week after. So now I am in a position where I can either do really well and actually hit sub-1:30 for my first half (based off Sunday’s long run) or I will push it too hard to the point where I can’t even finish the race, which would be a huge disappointment. This is something that I have to keep in the front of my mind as I am completing this program. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Oct 06, 2009 under Random |
When my brother was in high school cross country, he would always show off his medals to my mom after his races. He had a little section in our room where he put all of his medals and trophies. When I ran a couple of years later, I didn’t get as many as him, but won my fair share of medals and trophies. They were all fun to get at the time and we kept them around the room, but after a while, we just decided to put the past behind us and store them away. When I visited my parents in LA not that long ago, I decided take a look at where all of the medals we have accumulated over our combined 6 years of running high school cross country and track. I didn’t bother with the trophies which are stored in some attic-like place in our room. Read the rest of this entry »
