Practicing Speed

I believe that almost everyone would love to run faster. Each person is different with different muscle strength, aerobic capacity, age, and genes which put a reasonable upper limit on how fast we can go. Still we try.

We build our aerobic base and then we do our speedwork – fartleks, intervals, hill repeats, tempo runs, and so on. These most certainly are needed and help the body to adjust our uptake of oxygen and to pushing ourselves.

There’s three other components to speed that occur to me

1. Lean – if you lean forward, most likely you’ll go faster. Gravity is a good running aid.
2. Cadence – most of the time we have a steady pace on a run, but a faster cadence means more steps per minute.
3. Stride length – the longer out stride is, the more ground we’re going to cover

There’s one other small trick which is kick or pushoff. That is at the end of each stride, push off with the toes that are still on the ground. This really helps, but takes concentration and muscle. I’d probably only use this for shorter races.

I think there’s another great way to help get to speed – run downhill. Find a gentle downhill and then flow with that downhill. Keep your heartrate in a normal zone and enjoy the feeling of going fast! I can easily run downhill at 30-45 seconds faster than flats without any increase in effort. By running downhill you will help the body and legs to know what fast feels like. It’s also a time when you can practice lean, higer cadence, and increasing stride length while going fast – without having to push our heart rate up.

Give it a try – see if it helps your running. And enjoy it.

 

Competence

I’ve been reminded lately of the Four Stages of Competence, or what is called the “conscious competence” learning model. It’s how we learn and grow from not knowing how to do something to a state where the activity flows.

It would seem running is about as natural a human activity as there is. Humans have been doing it for their entire existence. What’s there to learn? Plenty and there’s always something new. We are always changing and with that our modes of thinking, being, and even running have to change too. For me it’s becoming more natural and still I listen to my body and the run.

I’m still struggling with sore legs and knotted muscles from hard runs several weeks ago. To stay active and work on stretching out those muscles I’ve been doing yoga 3-4 times a week. My initial exposure to yoga was almost ten years ago; since the beginning of the year I’ve been putting some effort into yoga again. This is where the competency model had occurred to me lately. It’s a rather simple, yet elegant way of looking at learning.

Here are the four stages from Wikipedia:

1.Unconscious incompetence - The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognise their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.

2.Conscious incompetence - Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage.

3.Conscious competence - The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration. It may be broken down into steps, and there is heavy conscious involvement in executing the new skill.

4.Unconscious competence - The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it has become "second nature" and can be performed easily. As a result, the skill can be performed while executing another task. The individual may be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned.

For me cycling, running, software development are all mostly Stage 4, though I go back into Stages 2 and 3 to learn and grow. With yoga I’m somewhere between Stage 1 and 2 so I need to remind myself of what I do know … and what I don’t know. At times it’s frustrating and slow, then I remind myself where I’m at which eases my mind. I’m enjoying learning something new and still bringing my experience from other realms into yoga.

So once we’ve taken the First Three Steps and experience TheFirst Time – on it goes through the Stages!

Stopping

Tonight I started listening to a radio program by an astrologer, Debra Silverman. She started by talking about the earthquake in Mexico and how at times of crisis is when we ask for help. She was going to use the idea of asking for help as the theme for her program. I had been thinking about calling in for a reading, but went for a run instead. I wasn’t sure what I would ask for help for.

It’s been a little more than two weeks since my big weekend of running with resulting strains and sore muscles. Very slowly the legs are recovering, but it doesn’t help that I’m still running 35-40 miles a week. I’ve had some amazing runs in the past two weeks, but more than enough that were less-than-comfortable. The first miles of my runs are always my warmup; tonight was no exception, except I wasn’t warming up.

My legs and hips were sore, my breathing was choppy again, my mind was charging along on its own. I was wondering about my 50k coming up in 6 weeks and if I’d be ready. I was wondering how my legs were going to recover. I was wondering how I should structure my the next weeks to deal with my soreness and still train.

And then I had enough. I just stopped, turned off my watch, and turned around to walk home. I knew right then I was not going in the right direction and I didn’t want to keep going that way.

What my body needs is true rest and recovery. If I can still run 40 miles a week, I clearly have enough energy to focus on active recovery.

What my mind needs is to stop ‘training’. I’ve spent years training and structuring, planning out months in advance what I’m going to do. Right now I don’t want to be there. I still want to run faster and farther, but not at the expense of a settled mind.

What my soul needs is to enjoy running fully. I’ve still enjoyed my runs the last couple weeks, but with my body and my mind off in different directions, it hasn’t been the same.

This blog is supposed to be about running. Life happens though and we have to adjust, just like on any run.

So I’m asking for help – something I’m usually not too good at. I don’t know from whom I need help, or even what that help might look like. I’m putting it out there that I’m asking for help. I have faith that whatever comes will be perfect.

In the mean time, I’m going to slow down.

Two feet versus Two Wheels

I'm still recovering from a few minor injuries incurred from too much enthusiasm several weeks ago. Muscles are recovering, loosening, and rebuilding, and reserves are growing again.

Even with the firm recovery efforts, I'm still feeling plenty of good energy to go, but right now my body can only handle so much running so I've done a few bike rides to keep muscles moving and loose. I've been out the last two weekends in the beautiful early-spring being brought to Colorado.

I've ridden tens of thousands of miles on a bike, thousands of hours in the saddle all over the US and the world. In all weather, all times of the day, from an hour to 8 day events. I am completely comfortable on a bike, my legs know how to spin, my body knows how to move. All this becomes evident every time I swing my leg over a bike and clip-in.

With all the distance riding I know the elements of stillness and peace within my body and soul. It has it's own clarity for me. I've been able to bring all that experience and knowing from the bike to my running. Running has become my meditation.

But two wheels are very different from two feet on the ground and this became evident again this weekend. I love the speed of the bike, being outside, feeling the wind, seeing the world at a slower pace. It's also a floating sensation, skimming over the ground, feeling the elements but with the only earthly connection through a couple tiny patches of rubber onto man-made surfaces.

Running puts me directly in the elements and connected to the earth, especially running on trails. That connection makes all the difference to me and one of the reasons I'm now a runner. I've been able to bring all the experience and stillness from the bike to my running. and it's so much more meaningful now with the stillnesss and that earthly connection.

I get the cyclist, but running moves me.

The Thrill is Gone

I'll admit to stealing the title from the hit song by that name, but it seems to fit for now.

Two weekends ago I finished off three hard weeks of training. The training felt great up until the Monday morning afterwards when I woke up with extremely sort glutes. That translated into a limp for all of last week. A physical therapy (thanks Mike at Neuromuscular Strategies) session last Friday revealed that I probably strained both glutes. The dry needling from physical therapy was effective enough to have the limp go away, but the glutes and a few other spots are still sore.

By necessity I've slowed down and am getting some good rest. In that I can feel my reserves building again. I can feel the rebuilding of the body into a stronger runner! I know when this passes, I wll be stronger again!

Even with slowing down, I've done some running in the past 10 days and it's not the same - yeah part of the thrill and flow is gone (for now). My endurance is greatly diminished, speed is gone, muscles feel weak, stride is short, breath is choppy. Not that running has been no fun, but the flow and pure fun I've had for months has changed.
Despite some of the setbacks, my full moon run last Wednesday was breathtaking!

While I don't like being sick or getting injured, for me it can signal that I've hit an edge, and gone beyond it. In some ways this is actually good because if we always stay in our comfort zone, we never know what's possible. If we pay attention when we get sick or injured, we can learn some valuable information about our bodies and life. It's also an opportunity to slow down and rest, to rejuvenate the body and soul.

It's been nice to sit and read a little more, and to do all the things I know are good regardless of injuries including applying arnica skin cream, giving self-massage, stretching and yoga, jumping in a hot tub. What's not to like in all that!

For now, the thrill is perhaps diminished, not gone. I don't know how long it's going to take to recover - maybe another week, maybe three or four. I know I'm building a stronger body right now, I know I'll have more experience to draw from. I think most importantly though is I know the thrill will be back - and it will be sweeter than ever!

The First Time

This is somewhat to the post ‘The First 3 Steps’.

When you start running, you’re probably going to be achy for a while. It’s just what happens – and it gets better. It some ways it’s unfortunate that running presents the aches it does because it deters so many people from running when it’s such a simple, natural form of exercise.

The truth is we’re not using to walking and running so it takes time for our bodies to adapt, and our bodies do adapt. We know astronauts in zero-gravity lose bone density, ligaments in women giving birth stretch, lifting weights products muscle. It goes the other way too – eating too much food and we put on weight. Running really sees who has the commitment and persistence to keep going. In some ways that’s even a rite of passage so to speak. Every runner knows the aches of starting and the joy when the body adapts.

When I started running again almost a year ago I felt the aches of a new runner. Shins, ankles, knees, hips, back, shoulders. Not all at once, but I felt something almost every day, either during the run or after. Being a lifelong athlete (but haven’t run consistently for over 20 years), this was even surprising to me. Even my body needed to adapt.  As I write this I wonder why I kept running even when I noticed these aches. They weren’t terrible or debilitating in any way, just annoying. I wanted to run though so I kept running.

I did notice that the aches started to be less, but very slowly.  

Then one day, perhaps four or five months after I started, I was out on a run and I noticed I had no aches anywhere. Everything felt good! I also realized this wasn’t the first time it had happened, just the first time I really noticed it. Since then my runs are usually smooth like this. My body has adapted to being on my feet, to putting in more miles, to stretching where it needs to stretch, strengthening where it needs to be strong. It feels great now!

That first time was a revelation of sorts. A confirmation that the consistency, steady effort and practice had paid off. More than that, running was now even more enjoyable!

So after The First 3 Steps, keep going and know it’s going to take some time. It will get better and you will find the joy of just running!

The First Three Steps

A while ago I was talking with a friend and she asked, “How do you run? I run 3 steps and then stop and wonder what people think of me.” Without thinking my immediate response was, “How do you sing? Do you sing 3 notes and then stop and wonder what people think? No – you continue with the flow and sing the song.”

I was thrilled that my friend has decided to try running and see if it worked for her, ultimately she’s more of a swimmer and cyclist, but the willingness to try something new was fantastic. I had known this woman for several years and had been singing together for most of that, which is how the response about singing came.

I don’t know why, but this conversation came into my head recently, perhaps because I’ve started doing some yoga and sometimes that’s what it feels like, what am I doing??? My housemate may have also triggered that conversation since he seems mildly interested and not sure where to start.

I would also imagine that this question, or something similar, probably runs through the mind of those who are just starting running. How do I do this? What do I wear? How far do I run? For those first runs, it actually doesn’t matter; what matters is getting out there and doing it, trying it, seeing how it feels. That a first success right there. Once you start running, ‘run the run’ just like you’d ‘sing a song’ and do what feels good to start with. It does take some time for running to be comfortable so start with where you are – take those first three steps, and keep going!

This isn't just for running either. If you want to try something new, start with what works - and keep going! Maybe it's not your thing, but you'll never know until you try. So go for it!

Thresholds

I’ve been running since last May. Since that time I’ve been very slowly increasing time and mileage. I’ve tried to stick to the rule of no more than a 10% increase per week. I’ve also allowed time for recovery, being sick, vacations, etc.

For me, it’s been fun to reach new thresholds, and even better when the threshold simply becomes comfortable. First it was a half hour, then it was a 10K, then an hour. The hour mark was significant because when I ran as a kid I rarely ran more than an hour.

Then one hour fifteen. Then 10 miles – double digits. Then 90 minutes. Each time I’d reach a threshold I’d try to run that several times to become more comfortable before moving on. This pattern seemed to be working well. Now it time to move into completely new territory because I’d never run this far before.

The jump from 90 minutes to 2 hours seemed huge with an intermediate of a half-marathon distance in there. This jump took me about three months to do – from about mid-November to mid-February with holidays, being sick for several weeks, and some weeks of bitter cold thrown in there. I was in no rush and am glad I took as much time as I did because now I’ve between 90 and 120 minutes more than a dozen times and it feels comfortable.

Each threshold has been a new opportunity to learn - about pacing, about nutrition and fluid, about where my body starts to hurt, about recovery. Every run is different so every run at any threshold has become a new scenario and wealth of experience to build on.

With a 50k coming in early May I knew my long run should be about three and a half hours. It’s a long way from 2 hours where I’m at now to that mark. Two weekends ago I started the increase. First it was a tough 2:15 run in lots of snow. I was tired after that one, and it felt very doable. Last weekend it was 2:30. With snow still covering many trails I chose a flatter, valley route including a run with some friends. Again 2:30 felt doable and thankfully it was a flat route with a downhill finish, but I really noticed the difference.

This past weekend it was time to step up again to 2:45. Saturday’s run was an Hall Ranch near Lyons which I’d never been to before, and didn’t know it was almost all up or down with very little flat – and really beautiful. I made my 2:45 goal – and with an estimate of about 2500 feet of climbing. That was definitely the hardest run I’d ever done. It was also eye-opening. My pacing was probably too fast for this kind of terrain. I probably need to bring water with me for a run this long. I had some fuel, but probably not enough. After the 2 hour mark I definitely had doubts about what I was doing – maybe I should just stick with 2 hours, maybe I should not run the 50k. At the same time I gained confidence and insight from this run. I could run this far and this hard, my body is capable of running on not much fuel.

Sunday turned out to be another test and learning experience. My plan was an easy 10 in the morning. I ran with my dog Luca in the morning within a big group. Luca was quite excited so our pace started off fairly quick. By mile 5 Luca was tired whereas I was starting to hit my stride. Between an early quick pace and slowing down to wait for Luca, it wasn’t the run I hoped for and it felt scattered. In the afternoon I decided to head out for another run – I thought I’d run Heil Ranch. I’ll start by saying I always forget how hard Heil Ranch is. It’s a lollipop trail – an out-and-back with a loop at the end. I knew going out was 2.5 miles uphill, which meant a downhill on the way back, though I forgot what the middle loop was like. What’s particularly hard about Heil Ranch is the trail surface itself – rocks everywhere. It’s a trail that requires total concentration. It’s not that I forget the rocks, but I forget how challenging it is.

I started off easy enough and at the 2.5 mile mark I was feeling alright, but tired. I decided I’d run a bit more and if I felt okay I’d keep going otherwise I’d turn around. So off I went and I started to feel okay being on rollers instead of a steady uphill. Thankfully mile 4 was halfway because now I knew that was a wrong decision. I wasn’t bonking, but I could feel I had very little reserves left. The next mile was the toughest stretch because it went back uphill and I started to lose concentration with a  few missteps on the rocks. I walked for a bit to recompose myself. I knew I could do this, I just had to pay attention. And I did – I put my full attention back to the trail and off I went. I made it back with no more missteps.

Looking back a second run was not the wisest thing to do and it was another threshold day with a lot of learning. Arguably not eating enough before this run was a mistake and yet I learned both about nutrition and recovery again, as well as knowing that I can keep it together when I need to. I learned I can do long, hard back-to-back runs.

I’m happy with both my weekend runs – and tired from them. It’s time to rest a little and do an assessment of what’s next. How do I reach the three hour threshold? Or do I at all? For now the 50k is still out there with some questions lingering there. I’m often up for challenges and I want my runs to stay fun!

We Are the Show

Steve Prefontaine, often called Pre, was one of America’s top runners in the mid-70s. He had a style all his own – brash, gutsy, outspoken. Unfortunately he died in a car crash at 24 – the world will never know what he might have been able to do. Even in his short career he changed running.

One of Pre’s quote is this: “Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else.
It's being creative." If you’re ever seen footage of Pre racing, it’s true.

I’ve heard Michael Jordan, one of the world’s greatest basketball players ever, say something similar. That when we walks out onto a court, into a stadium, one of the things he wants to do is play as well and as hard as he can. There might be one person in the stadium whose only change to see him play was that day, and he wanted them to see what basketball could be like.

Jordan and Pre knew their talent and skills. They weren’t playing to show off their skills, they were playing to put on a show. Not a show of fancy, but of themselves, of their sport; playing to use all their skills and hours of practice to make art. When athletes like this play in this way is often when we’re most inspired and Jordan and Pre are two extraordinary examples of this.

Most of us will never have the audience or spotlight professional athletes do, yet our running can be just as much art and inspiration as Jordan or Pre. Our audience might be kids, or co-workers, or a spectator who is inspired by our efforts. I remember driving on a freeway and seeing a stream of women walking on a nearby road, it was the 3-Day walk for the Cure. I was moved by the effort these women were making, I’m sure most of them stretching themselves to walk 60 miles in 3 days. Jordan and Pre made a conscious choice of how to play. We can make a similar choice or not, but regardless what we do as athletes is often inspiring. It’s our show.

Opening the Door

I've signed up for my first ultramarathon run - a 50k in early May. I've done multi-day events and single day hikes of more than 25 miles, but this will be my first run.

On a recent run with my Sunday running group, I was asking for some advice about training. That progressed to the conversation about a 50k 'opening the door'.

For over a decade I participated in ultramarathon cycling and know about 'opening the door'. I've watched many people say I'll just do a 200km ride and then afterwards decide to to the next one, but that's it. After the next one, a 300km, it's the same thing - on to longer and longer. It's not quite an addiction, but somehow we're drawn in. I started that way too.

The 50k is the shortest of the ultramarathon run distances - it's where everyone starts. Right now I'm just interested in finishing this one and seeing how I feel. I'm making no commitments to anything more though I have wondered what a longer run would be like.

But after the 50k is over - the door is open ... maybe I'll walk through, maybe I won't.