On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

And this month's Runner's World BRINGS IT

So, I've been kind of off of Runner's World for the past few months.  Maybe it was my shiny new subscription to Running Times (actually not all that new), maybe it was the "Newbie Chronicles" (the author seems likeable, but I think it took that dude something like 6 months to run more than 2m at a time), or maybe it was the fact that their articles seem to repeat every few months.  But I've read it, dutifully, and not really gotten much out of it.

Until this month, when MAN!  So full of advice geared right for me!

Let's start with Ed Eyestone's "The Fast Lane" on p. 36.  Basically, he uses his experience training for the Olympic Trials to explain how you can lower your 5k and 10k time while simultaneously training for a marathon.

This echoes something my sister has been telling me.  I told her I wanted to bring my 5k time down, and she said, "Listen: higher mileage. Just run more," and then cut me off of gchat.  For some reason, I heard the same advice from Ed Eyestone and really listened.  Not that she's not accomplished, but she hasn't exactly run in the Olympic Trials yet.

To be fair, my sister took first female at a 6-hour "Fun Run" this past weekend.  Where she ran 35 miles in 95 degree heat.  And yes, a few of her regular training partners are going to try to meet the Olympic standard.  But I have to rag on her because, you know, she's my sister and all.  That's her on the right at her Saturday race.  Please refrain from stating that we look nothing alike; I know that.  And she actually looks less ripped in this photo than she is in real life.

Anyway, Eyestone's advice goes on, in short, to say that you can speed up for short distances while training for longer ones if you...
-run your long runs a touch faster,
-regularly do intervals at your shorter race paces with a 1:1 recovery,
-do strides to emulate speeding up at the end of races when you're tired, and
-run more miles.

Also geared right for me?  A Q&A about missing a week of running on p. 38. Answer: you're fine, and "Remember, rest is training".

I'm only halfway through the magazine - I've had to balance reading it against reading Pretty Little Liars so that I can stay ahead of the television show. because I'm busy working.  So possibly it's got EVEN MORE good advice!  I can't wait.

Random: Wikipedia tells me that Ed Eyestone was born in American Samoa.  Who knew?
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5 comments:

  1. A. MusacchioTue Jul 20, 08:52:00 AM EDT

    Thanks for posting the photo, it is not very flattering! Anyway, good point I have not yet run the Olympic Trials and I don't think I ever will. Not my fault the IOC is biased against ultra marathoners!

    ReplyDelete
  2. TTue Jul 20, 10:00:00 AM EDT

    Ha ha, I was just making the point that Ed Eyestone is an Olympian, not knocking you! As for the photo, send me the url to a different one and I'm happy to change it. I went to your fb page and picked the first photo you were tagged in that showed you running on Saturday!

    Maybe you should petition the IOC to include ultras?

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  3. Silly Girl RunningTue Jul 20, 10:50:00 AM EDT

    Great advice on the speeding up part!

    And thanks for commenting on my blog!

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  4. MikeTue Jul 20, 11:12:00 AM EDT

    The "run more miles" part should be the first piece of advice. Do this first. Then you can start playing around with speed, but chances are you'll already be fast by that point.

    ReplyDelete
  5. TTue Jul 20, 11:16:00 AM EDT

    Yeah, I know you're right. It's funny how you have to hear something a few times and from different sources in order to actually listen to it.

    I consider myself HUGELY low mileage, but it surprises me how many people I've talked to who are marathon training and planning to max out around 30mpw. In fact, I'm going to muse on this more later this week, I think.

    But more importantly: Mike! You have a blog! What can we do to get you to update it with any regularity? I can promise you that my sister and I would be avid readers.

    ReplyDelete

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