February Training Recap
First and foremost, I apologize for having not written a post in quite some time. The good news is that I'll be racing 4 times over the next 6 weekends - excluding the current weekend - so I'll be posting at least a race recap or race preview every week from now through the middle of April. Please see the section below for the first race preview of the year!
February came and went - and for the first month since last February, I didn't race at all. Clearly, February shall live on as my transitional month from winter road races into the spring triathlon season. Training-wise, however, this month has been one of my strongest ever. My swim, in particular, has dramatically improved in a matter of just a few weeks which surely foreshadows an excellent year in triathlon. A couple of weekends ago I swam a 1000 yd time trial in 16:59, with 500 yd splits of 8:30 & 8:29 respectively. I even surprised myself with that swim, and in subsequent workouts I've felt just as good as I did on that day. My biking has also come along from the point of feeling sluggish to where I know I can ride and a decent speed. The recent spell of fantastic weather has also helped in making my rides far more enjoyable, despite some days being more suited to kite-flying than to riding a bike. Since my marathon I haven't particularly run that much, about twice per week, but my weekly mileage is back up to about 15 miles between the two runs now and I still feel as though I've maintained a lot of the benefits that I gained over the past couple of months during my marathon training. The true strength of my current running ability will be demonstrated on March 5th in Greenville, however, as I go after my best 10k time from the same race last year of 37:23.
In addition to some extremely good training recently, I ventured down to The Sport Factory in Roswell, GA this week to get a bike fit on my new triathlon bike. With the expert fitting of Matt Russ, Sport Factory and 2011 Team USA Triathlon Head Coach, along with coaching from Sport Factory coach Eric Limkemann and other resources the Sport Factory provides, this year looks to be a breakout year for me in triathlon.
Reedy River 10k Preview - Greenville, SC - March 5th, 2011
The Reedy River 10k will be my first race since the Miami Marathon and should provide a good opportunity to see where my running fitness lies 5 weeks removed from my marathon. It is also the feature of my first race preview.
I first ran the Reedy River 10k last year in 2010 and had a great race finishing in a new personal record (PR) of 37:23 - almost exactly at 6:00/mile pace. The course is certainly fairly ideal for fast times, at least for the first 5.5 miles. The race starts in downtown Greenville and heads slightly uphill for about a mile. With fresh legs this should present too much difficulty, especially as the second mile affords a long stretch of downhill running onto the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The purpose built running/biking trail provides a long string of almost completely flat pavement to run along up to about mile 5. Last year I hit the 5 mile mark just 7 seconds behind my best 5 mile time from November of 2009 of 29:41. Last November, I ran 29:07 in that same 5 mile race, but it is unlikely I head through 5 miles in this year's 10k within several seconds of that. Somewhere in between the two while remaining relaxed in preparation for the final climb with three-quarters of a mile to go would be ideal.
At the end of the day, it will be interesting to see what time I am capable of running on the same course as my fastest 10k to date, especially considering having only been running twice a week for most of February. Realistically, anything under 38 minutes would be good news heading into the triathlon season. That should mean I can run under 40 minutes for the run at Collegiate Nationals. On the other hand, my last two races were both huge PR's, why not extend the streak to three?
Tip of the Week
In light of having not had a tip of the week for the past two weekends, I'm not entirely sure that accurately defines this section. But for the sake of hopefully continuing it from here on each week I'll leave the name as it is for now. This week my big tips are for novice runners and my comments to an article featured in this Wednesday's issue of the New York Times.
As I mentioned in my post above, I'm currently running just twice a week. For now, that's enough for me, especially given that I'm putting in around 15 miles between those two runs, have bike and swim workouts in the mix as well, and that I'm coming off 3 solid months of marathon training so my running "base" is fairly well established. A "base" in terms of running, biking, or swimming, is simply the amount of the activity that you have done up to the current moment. Base training is the least strenuous type of training for the sport and just requires getting out and putting in the miles of that activity prior to moving onto more intense training. Most of my training over the past month has been this type of training, preparing for the more intense workouts that are to come during the spring and summer.
But for the beginning runner, how much running is really necessary? A lot of running coaches would probably start an athlete out at 4 or 5 days of light running each week. I'm a believer in perhaps as few as 3 or 4 days a week. If an athlete can get out to run a couple of miles 3 times each week, then they'll slowly start to build that base that makes running feel easier over time. I had never truly experienced the positive effect of base training until just a couple of months ago, then one day my runs suddenly began feeling incredibly easy compared to just a few weeks before.
With just three runs a week, though, it is helpful if another day is filled with some sort of cross-training activity such as biking, hiking, or swimming. On the three runs, though, they need not be longer than about 30 minutes each, maybe as short as 20 minutes to begin with, and progressively get longer over the course of a few weeks to the point that 30-40 minutes of running at a light pace feels somewhat easy. At that point there are many different options including extending those runs even more, adding a 4th or 5th run each week, or inserting periods of faster running. By now, though, it is beneficial to have some sort of running goal, preferably a race (i.e. a local 5k), that you can work towards in your training.
For any runner just starting out, then, I would say to run for 20-30 minutes, three times a week, building up to about 45 minutes over the course of a few weeks.
The New York Times article this week, titled Phys Ed: Should Children Run Marathons? essentially states that there is no proof behind any reasoning for children to not run marathons at a young age. One study used Twin Cities Marathon finishers under the age of 18 over the past few decades as their sample. The reasoning used to claim that marathon running is alright for children was that only 4 of the 310 runners required medical assistance at the finish line. Only about half that of adult runners. The study also explained that the finding that the incidence of injury is just 0.52 of the adult ratio was statistically insignificant. Of course it's going to be statistically insignificant with just 310 runners under age 18 compared with many thousands of adult runners!
Nowhere does the article consider the possibility of long-term health effects caused by running a marathon at a young age. Not only does running for an extended period of time slowly wear away at your muscles (every marathoner, young or old, has experienced the extreme soreness in the following days after the race) but it also detrimentally impacts the muscles' ability to contract quickly, necessary to performing well over shorter distances.
My own opinion on distances that young runners should compete at is based upon my own experience, as well as my observations of others, and the race distances that are offered for younger athletes. Quite simply, up to about age 12, there is little reason for a child to run longer than a mile or two in a race. There are plenty of kids' races held in conjunction with other races that are targeted towards runners under the age of 12. Between age 12 and 15 it is alright for a runner to race over 5k, and in high school cross country, that will likely be the distance of most races. Some conferences may even have shorter races (1.5-2 miles) for younger JV athletes. By age 15, an athlete can definitely begin to handle an increased amount of mileage in training. If directed towards 5k racing this will substantially lower his or her times. The one thing that I would change if I could about my own running is to run more mileage in training during high school. Towards junior or senior year, an athlete can probably begin to race fairly well over even longer distances such as 5 miles and 10k. Personally, I would advise against any high school athlete running a half-marathon until they have graduated, and even then, only after having thoroughly prepared with adequate long training runs. After high school, it really depends on the runner, and how much running experience they have, to what distance they are best doing. For any race, however, it is absolutely necessary to fully prepare for the distance that you are running (see previous post).
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