Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 55)

Samantha to be honest I do very little stretching or warming up before I run. Good or bad I usually just start my runs slow and get myself warmed up over the first mile or so. The only time I can say I warm up is if I do a bike/run brick where I am warmed up from the bike and head into the run. Again I try not to go out fast on the run either as I have tendency to do.

Question about this article (about bricks) which was in today's USAT e-newsletter

http://www.usatriathlon.org/about-multisport/multisport-zone/multisport-lab/articles/bricks-to-build-speed-020513.aspx

One example they have is to do "80%" of max... How do I determine what 80% is? Preferably through race pace as the metric (as opposed to HR).. For ease of calculation, if I want my race pace to be @7:00mm, what is 80% of that?

Yes actually....Now it's often normal for a woman to run in what appears to be a knock knee'd manner but it's due to the wider hips and the resulting greater angle of the femur.  But Jordan does need to strengthen her legs and hips.  She's come a long way over the last year in gait efficiency (based on my eyeball), but we are still working on that.  When we get to the gym I force her to do dead lifts and I'm considering adding fireman carries to strengthen her hip/pelvic region. 

michgirlsk - 2013-02-05 9:33 PM Had a physical therapy session this morning. Tonight my hamstring tension is the worst it's been in a very long time. I thought PT was supposed to avoid this kind of thing? It's the whole reason I wanted to start PT in the first place- because I was starting to feel that tension and didn't want it to get to a worse place.

Sometimes things get worse in the short-term when we make a change that can help in the long-term.

Don't blindly follow PT if it's hurting you.  But don't give up just because it hurts more initially either.  Inflammation is part of the healing response, so you might be able to look at this as additional healing being triggered by the PT you had.

That remains to be seen though, keep evaluating it.

If you can spare 2 days of travel to Indy, you can stop over for the night at my place.  Zipcode 38401...is it on your way?

It's OK to do LIGHT stretching on cold muscles, but far better to warm up the muscles and joints first.  If you are otherwise healthy and feel good, then you can certainly just start up with an easy lope and gently pick up the pace as you warm up.

For me, that's seldom the case since I'm always in so much pain.  So I do almost all of my runs after a swim or ride.  For the few that I don't, I walk first.  Just takes 60 seconds or so to start out that way...then I will lightly stretch a little.  Then I start out with the slowest of possible jogs and stay at that pace until my pain fades away and gradually increase my pace up to my easy training pace.

What I don't like about using running as a warmup for running is that you are using the very activity that has caused an overuse injury as your warmup so it can be somewhat like not warming up.

My major pain these days is at the base of my achilles.  So when I don't have a non-running warmup first, I do toe raises from level and eccentric drops.  I might walk around on my toes somewhat too.  The walking, light stretching, toe raises and such can go on for 5 minutes or so prior to beginning my run and does a decent job.

I do believe that your ideas of warm-up are good though.  Generally, cold stretching can be a negative thing and unless you have a specific pain when commencing a slow run that's a fine way to start.

That always needs to be defined.  It could be 80% of true max, which is your 100 meter sprint speed.  It could be 80% of your VO2 max which is often right at threshold.  It can be 80% of threshold or it could be 80% of race pace (which for a marathon is way lower than threshold).

The clue to what the author means is here:

" As a coach, I would always assign a percentage of your top-end speed with it, so you can steadily progress toward a decent race pace. "

He must be talking about 80% of race pace.  So if you are doing a sprint distance brick, like in his example it would be 80% of your target 5k race pace in your sprint triathlon.  So if you are looking for around or just under 22 minutes in your sprint tri run (7:00 pace), his 80% suggestion would be 8:24 pace.

I am debating this trip, but it will take some convincing.  I like having a built in excuse!    The timing is bad as my main race (Timberman) is 2 weeks later, and I'd really want to be doing some long rides that weekend and between the driving and the race itself it would be a serious disruption.  I'm not ruling it out, but I need to think on it some more.

How about getting some folks back here for the Pumpkinman half iron on Sept 8?  I thought I heard you say you were planning to do that one, and some of my Gnomie teammates are coming up from Texas for it.  Flatest bike course in New England for you mid-westerners!

I have a very short warm routine up I do before runs, assume the run is not already following a ride.  It's just a few dynamic movements my ART guy has suggested I do based on the specific issues I've had.  No static stretching - I agree that's a bad idea on cold muscles.  And I also always run the first 1/2 mile or so at a ridiculously slow pace as I warm up to the running motion.

Warren, all you need to do to handle this scheduling issue is to be at full fitness a week earlier.  Then you can race Tri Indy and maintain conditioning.  The 'long' rides you are talking about are needed to build endurance, not to maintain it.  Just accelerate your training plan as if the Tri Indy race was the Timberman then maintain fitness and sharpness for 2 weeks longer and you will do great.

You're missing the point - I like having the excuse!

michgirlsk - 2013-02-06 12:27 PM Thanks for all of your warmup routines!  Fresh perspective

I was just listening to an interview with a masters runner who is the oldest American ever to go sub 15 for a 5k (49), and ran a15:02 at 50.  He was asked if there were one thing his "older" him could go back and tell his younger version, in terms of running, what would it be.  His answer was patience.  Patience in running, patience in recovery, patience in results, patience in injury.  Patience is a tough one to get a hold of with our type A personalities.

Warren I was actually thinking about doing Timberman possibly for next year. I would like to do at least one HIM next year and do something that isn't exactly local. Timberman is definitely on my list.

Tony I'm impressed you keep going back for more!

Tri Indy is a no go for me and I'm one of the close Junkies! We have a family reunion in St. Lou that weekend and my mother told me about in December so I can't use the old "Oops I already have a race scheduled" excuse . Actually I really like my family and missed seeing all my cousins and their kids during the holidays (we used to all get together every Christmas) so I really don't want to miss this.

No training for me. Gracie and I went to the city to visit my sister and the new baby. First time we got to see her in person. I know all babies are tiny but at barely 5 lbs Violet is the tiniest baby I have ever seen! I was afraid to hold her!

Speaking of Patience, I tweaked my knee on Sunday when I decided it was a good idea to do my longest run in over a year on a concrete multipurpose path that is almost entirely hills then spend an hour on my knees cleaning my floors. I'm smart like that. Now I have a lovely stabbing pain in the center of my knee. The good news is my feet held up well!

Karl you must be really sick to be down for 2 days without exercise! Hope you feel better soon!

Karl sorry to hear about the cold. Take care of yourself and feel better soon so you can get back to working out.

Looks like a big storm is headed our way in the northeast. They are talking about up to 16 inches of snow in my area and even more up north. The forecast is changing by the minute though so we'll see what happens but we are going to get something come Friday night into Saturday. I may get a big workout having to shovel all that snow. I can't say I am looking forward to that.

wbayek - 2013-02-06 1:34 PM

michgirlsk - 2013-02-06 12:27 PM Thanks for all of your warmup routines!  Fresh perspective

I was just listening to an interview with a masters runner who is the oldest American ever to go sub 15 for a 5k (49), and ran a15:02 at 50.  He was asked if there were one thing his "older" him could go back and tell his younger version, in terms of running, what would it be.  His answer was patience.  Patience in running, patience in recovery, patience in results, patience in injury.  Patience is a tough one to get a hold of with our type A personalities.

I really do appreciate this point. Just this morning I had two folks tell me that they just can't recover the way they used to and it's because they are getting older. They are both in their early 40's and one didn't get active until her late 30's. I asked her if she ever pushed her body like this in her early 20's or early 30's - her reply was no. I couldn't help but pass this infomration along to her.

Oh no! Take it wasy Karl! Hope you get over that cold quick and back to your routine.

Training update, post Tally HM.

I did an abbreviated brick yesterday morning. I was supposed to do B-70, R-35, but could not drag my butt out of bed before 4:50 a.m. So, workout ended up being B-60, R-20 and I focused on taking it easy, I just wanted to keep my legs moving as my IT band still recovers from Sunday and my quads are still a bit sore.

Today, I ran with a running group and I have to admit it was the first time I ran with a group in YEARS. I am normally a lone soldier with my tunes. I let them know in advance I was recovering from Sunday and dealing with an IT band that was not 100%, so I  would be taking it easy and only had 3 or 4 miles in me. Well, welll, well.......

The run was awesome. Turned out one of the guys is training for HIM Augusta for 2014 (looks like I have a training buddy).... and, my old Army running days came back to me. I was able to do a little interval work as we circled back around to pick up the slower runner. The faster runners had never done this before- normally they would just stop and wait for the slower runner to catch up and then start running again! Talk about torturing the slower runner (and the slower runner is the only one improving) Hah! I put those seconds to use and had them doing intervals.

Afterward, I jumped in the pool to swim mfor 30 minutes. I felt my IT band then. It did not hurt, I could just feel it wanting to get tight on me. I swam 20 and then got out and SSTTRREEEETCHED!