Peaks and Valleys

So July was hot. I hear that altitude does wonders for your aerobic capacity, but 90%+ humidity will certainly get you fit. I was able to complete two solid weeks of training around 25 miles (weeks 18 & 19) to kick off July, including a 30 mile 7 day stretch. I told you about the 6x700m session in my previous posting, and I also completed two fartleks in those weeks, consisting of 9 and 8 3on/1off cycles at AT & EZ paces. 

Week 20 (16th-22nd), the heat was pretty horrid and I opted to go on some bike rides instead, inspired by the Tour de France, though I was still able to log 22 miles, including a couple fast finish (AT pace) easy runs. Week 21 (23rd-29th) was less forgiving. I started it off with a bang, doing 5 x :35 hills @ 5k effort, followed by another 6x700m session, this time averaging 3:21 off only 60 seconds of rest, finishing with a couple 100m strides @ :22. I felt really good during it all but the next day my calves started getting tight, and the leg soreness lingered for a few days. The final two days of the week, I went on a trip with some visiting family and just rested. 

While I'd love for every day and week to be great and show a rise in ability, it's important for me to understand that I won't feel 100% every day and some weeks will reflect that. I only logged 16 miles, and most of it came via that big workout. But yesterday, feeling recovered, I took a fitness test for the DMV and ran a :44 300m and a 9:58 1.5 mile, both marks faster than I predicted for myself. And this morning, my 3.8 mile easy run felt just fine, no soreness or labored breathing. 

In both backing off the intensity of these workout sessions and weathering these peaks and valleys that come through training, I can grind my way to some personal bests this Fall. 

Structured

While it is said that things with more structure are more sound, structure is quite interesting to experience. I recovered from my cold after a few more days and gingerly returned to running on the days before my trip to DC, and even managed to get some runs in while on the trip. The purpose for the trip, a structured interview with Customs & Border Protection, was a success and allowed me to enjoy a couple days in our nations' capital before spending a night in Raleigh with some friends on the town.

This is where another form of structure has been developed, in my training. That Sunday, while Damarius enjoyed 3 sets of 3x300m @ 800m pace, I attacked my first workout. Modeled after the workout seen here, Badger Workout, I did a mile warm up, a two mile tempo @ 17:00 w/ 3:00 rest, a one mile tempo @ 7:40 w/ 2:00 rest, 5 x 300m @ 75 w/ minute rest, and then a mile warm down. I needed a rest day that Monday, but since then I've gone on at least a 35~ minute run each day. I say at least because I've also put in a 55~ minute long run, a 45~ minute medium long run, and a 6x700m session averaging 7:37 pace w/ 1:30 rest, and a combined 1.5 miles of warm up and down. In addition to the structured base training, I've also started doing push ups and pull ups most days, and am attempting to progress through Coach Jay Johnson's General Strength & Mobility routines, seen here Jay Johnson's GSM.

The structured approach is (roughly) this: a long run of 20% of the total weekly mileage, 10% of the work faster than easy but slower than 2 hour race pace, and 10% of the work below 2 hour race pace. This allows for the necessary aerobic development and prevents over-training. Over the past week I've run 30 miles, so after a few weeks, I'll increase the total up to 35 and continue building a base for fall races.

Post Collegiate Racing

Word on the street is that I am my friend Damarius' track coach, and by word on the street I mean this blog. Here's a link to some training we did in the Fall of 2013: August, September, and October. I've been giving him workouts since the beginning of Spring but I recently decided it would be a good idea to share them with you. I've backlogged everything major he did in June and will share it here with you, and going forward will provide periodical updates.

1) 4x800m @ 3:12 w/2:00 rest. 4x400m @ 1:18 w/1:30 rest. 4x200m @ :33 w/:60 rest. 4x100m @ :14 w/:60 rest.

2) Pre-meet: 300m/200m/100m @ :60/:35/:15 w/1:30 rest. Meet: 11.6 100m and 52.4 400m.

3) 2 sets of 4x200m @ 32 w/1:30 rest, 3:00 between sets.

4) 6x600m @ 2:20-2:10 w/1:30 rest. 5:00 rest. 6x200m @ 33-30 w/1:30 rest.

5) 2:08 800m.

6) 5x300m @ :49 w/1:30 rest. 5:00 rest. 3x150m @ :20 w/2:00 rest.

7) Wednesday: 51.6 400m. 12:04 3000m tempo. Saturday: 20:05 5000m.

8) 3 sets of 3x300m @ :50 w/1:15 rest and 5:00 between sets.

9) 2x300m @ 42 & 40 w/6:00 rest

He opened up his season on May 20th with a 24-low 200m and a 2:13 800m. The following week he ran a 53-mid 400m. In his only mile of the season, he ran 4:58. Every week he has stepped on the track, he has run a seasons best, and considering all his personal bests are from more than 6 years ago now, I think he's had a great summer so far. However, the goals are still the 50 second and 2 minute barriers. Hopefully I can help him get closer to those before the next time I provide a training and racing update.

Pros and Cons of Getting Out

I have a cold, so the rest continues while I struggle to breathe and avoid to unbearable North Carolina heat. While I'm used to it being hot here, the abrupt jump to 100 degree weather is quite baffling. Anyhow, last week's medical exam went well, outside of a test the hospital failed to administer. Thankfully Laurinburg is just a short drive from here. A week from now, I'll be headed to Washington, D.C. for my Border Patrol oral hiring board, that will not be a short drive.

On Thursday, I was supposed to have a fitness test and interview for a correctional officer position with the state. But I got lost in Raleigh for 40 minutes, and my heart rate was through the roof and I wasn't allowed to take the test. While I'm sure it was elevated, they used a battery operated cuff to check it, and if you aren't aware, they are extremely inaccurate. Oh well, I will reschedule. The weekend just started earlier than planned. I got to hang out Thursday evening with my cousin and his wife in Chapel Hill, got to have drinks with my friends late into the night in downtown Raleigh, and got up early on Saturday for a road trip to the mountains. We made our way to Gorges State Park and hiked into the Pisgah National Forest, where we saw Rainbow Falls and dived into it from a ledge 20 feet up. Pro tip, make sure your friend can swim before doing such things, because mine tried to drown on me, NOT GOOD. But it was a fun weekend with family & friends.

By the end of the trip, my calf was completely healed, which left me excited to restart my training. However, this cold decided to hang out with me for a few days. So it looks like I'll have taken 2 weeks off before I can restart. Remember there are worse things than resting on minor injuries and through colds, no use burying myself beneath a worse injury or letting the sickness drag on and further affect my lungs.

So there you have it, pros and cons of getting out. You might have a great time, or your friend might try to drown and you'll get sick.

The Joy of Racing, the Agony of Resting

I last spoke to you through this medium in the midst of Week 11, right after logging three straight 19 mile weeks. I now come to you after logging 23, 27, and 28 miles the last three weeks. After racing three times, on two days, over the span of five days. And after taking four days off now due to a minor calf strain. First, let's address that 150% bump in mileage. I simply went from running 3.8 miles five days a week, to running 4.22/4.45 six days a week. While that's roughly a 15-20% increase in daily mileage, it isn't that big of a jump when you aren't running high mileage, my body handled it really well.

Here is the exciting part. I returned to racing for the first time in three years with a 2.9 mile road race, called the Columbus County Farmer's Market 5k in Whiteville. I went in with the goal of running 7:20 pace and finishing in the Top 10. I came with 2nd place off 7:16 pace, moving up from 4th to 2nd in the final mile. I followed that up four days later with a return to the track after 6 years away. I raced a mile and a 800m at an all-comers meet in Chapel Hill. The goals there were to run under 6:40 and 3:00. Luckily, there was about an hour between those two races. Unluckily, me and my friend only got there five minutes before my mile race. My warm up consisted of a one lap jog, and a 100m sprint from the bathroom. I didn't have time to change out of my trainers. I still ran 6:29. Yeah, I know. I recovered from that effort, got into my racing shoes, and rocked a 2:47 800m. Safe to say I'm in much better shape than I thought.

Okay so about this calf strain, I had a pre-employment fitness exam for the Border Patrol last week, and afterwards I came home to run 5 miles and do a few strides. For one of them, I had a neighbor join me before he started shooting hoops, and it turned into a sprint. Didn't feel anything then, but it was a bit sore that night. Ran the following morning, did my strides, and from there on my calf has been pretty useless. It's starting to come around, which is good because I have a pre-employment medical exam tomorrow, and another fitness test in three days. Once it has cleared up, I'll be able to return to logging mileage, continuing that patient buildup I mentioned in 'Brick by Brick'. This complete down week allows for a bit of extra recovery after 13 weeks, or 3 months of consistent mileage. None of that fitness building was in vain, as now I'm at a new level for when I "begin again" next week.

Brick by Brick

I've run a lot of miles since I last posted about training. I gained a lot of fitness, lost some of it, and am now somewhere between not fit and really fit. My last training post came in July, after I had been using the Flotrack running logs for the previous month. In April through June of 2014, I probably averaged about 15 miles a week. In July, my weekly totals were 15, 17, 18, and 12. In August, 17, 17, 14, and 19. In September, 10, 19, 26, and 17. In October, 23, 30, 30, 33, and 26. In November, 40, 27, 26, and 27. With an 11 and a 13 in December. Then I took a break because my legs were way past beat up. Then I continued the break because it was the holiday season. Then my Mom passed away and there just wasn't any joy to be found in running for a while. Then I wanted to start back but felt ashamed I had stopped. But now I'm in the middle of my 11th week of running again. Weeks 2 and 3 were cut short due to a wisdom tooth extraction, but in the other 9, I've managed to get in 17, 14, 16, 19, 17, 19, 19, and 19 miles. I've increased my daily run length by nearly 2 miles now, but I went from 7 days of running to 5 days because of hectic travel and injury concerns.

Looking back on last years cycle, I am amazed to see I ran in the 30s several times and even managed a week of 40, but there was a no progressive build up to those totals, which I believe sacrificed my ability to maintain health. This time, I hope to be more conservative in my build up to peak mileage. One difference in this cycle from the last is that I am only doing easy running, as opposed to intermittent workouts like last year. I've also reduced the number of strides I do after a run, and not added in a long run yet, but I do surge up a 250m hill a couple times a week, as well as do a couple strides up the steepest 100m section.

While I didn't have many interval workouts last year, I have a few I want to try again once I end my base phase. First, I did a 4 x Mile session, averaging 7:27 with 2:15 rest, in mid-October. In early November, I did 12 x 700m averaging 3:13 (7:24 pace) off 65 seconds rest, and felt very strong, though it did make me very sore.

I look forward to posting more regularly about my training from here on out!

On Loss

I'm going to skip the part where I reintroduce myself to you and fully explain my absence from the digital writing scene. We all know where that post leads. (hint: To a subsequent reintroduction and explanation of further absence.)

Rather, I'm going to talk about what it's like, for me, to miss someone who is truly gone. On January 14th, my mother passed away at the age of 57. While she had been varying levels of sick since 2004, her death shocked me. She had gone in to the emergency room for a painful albeit non-life threatening condition on January 5th, when they discovered the toxin levels in her liver were high. On January 6th, she underwent her third liver stent placement, which was successful. I sat with her in post-op and later in her room until they delivered her dinner, at which point I kissed her on the forehead and told her I loved her, and she told me she loved me too.

Those were the last words my Mom spoke to me, and the last time I saw her awake. The following day, while I stayed home to clean up the house for her return, she became increasingly incoherent. Despite a blood transfusion that night, she was worse on Wednesday morning when my Dad went up, and they had to move her to the IR, where she was placed in a coma, one that she would not wake up from.

I spent countless hours by the Mom's side over the course of the following week. But I can't quite picture her in that state, a mental block I'm glad I have. I don't want to remember her like that. When I think of my Mom, I think of all the television we watched together, the walks around the yard admiring nature, the adventures in Lumberton. Those are pleasant memories, ones that brings a smile to my face. This is part of missing someone, missing the shared experiences and happy moments. But it is not all that you miss.

Most painfully, you miss the future moments you could have had. Things you wish you could say, things you have to learn to do alone, moments where you desperately want that person with you. Luckily, these are usually in passing or else I'd be tortured on a daily basis just doing the dishes or watching crime dramas. While I certainly wept when she passed away and I wept when we buried her, I haven't since. Nothing has brought me to that level of sadness, as each day has been equally bad as the previous one. However, I do think that there will be monumental days in my life in which her absence will bring me to tears. When I get married, and when I have my children, I will surely be a wreck, as I promised my Mom I would make her an integral part of those events unlike my older brother.

I wanted to share this with you simply to get it out of me. I don't expect any of these feelings and thoughts to be shocking, but as someone who had never experienced the loss of a loved one before, I was unaware how I would react. And for those of you who have and continue to support me through this new chapter in my life, I can not thank you enough, you have been invaluable to me.

Training in July

I wanted to share my training for the month of July. Since my last post, I've started using the running logs on Flotrack, and now I don't know why I hadn't started before, they are pretty awesome. Yesterday, I wrapped up my 4th week of logging my mileage:

July's Training (Aug 2nd is 2.7 miles at 8:38 pace, with six 100m strides at 5:32 pace)

On the 29th through the 1st, I felt pretty sore and tired, so after pushing through two days of training, I decided to take two complete rest days. Most of the other non-running days still have bike days, including an 82 minute ride on the 14th after a long day of travel. I'm starting to feel more fit, though I'm still a while away from being able to break my personal bests. My strides have been between 800m and Mile pace, and I will soon start running little bits of 5k pace work. I want to run some hills, but it is pancake flat around here for the most part.

With cross country and fall road race season (for us non-elites) swinging into gear now that it is August, I hope everyone stays healthy and can get some good training in!

Improvement Albeit Slowly

I am officially an alumnus of East Carolina University, with a double major in political science and history, just waiting on the diploma to prove it to you. Feels great to be able to say I've completed my undergraduate, but I find myself wishing I would have been able to stay healthy and complete my military training so my career would be more certain. As of now, I'm home with my parents, soon to begin the job search and work on getting my license. Yes, I know, how do I live without it at 23. Luckily I love to run and bike, and that's all I've been doing lately.

I had to take about two weeks off running, but with my final finals, an achilles flare up, and then a sinus infection, I had good reason to rest. Now that I'm not sick and my achilles is fine, I am back in the short shorts and dirty shoes getting in tiny bits of mileage. 15 minutes and a few 60 meter strides may not be much, but after months of not running, I have a great appreciation for what I can do. I've also been hammering out half hours on the stationary bike in the living room while watching World Cup games. Not sure which of those causes the higher heart rates though.

As I progress with my training, I will continue to include a hefty dose of intense cross training for weight loss and the fitness benefits. In terms of the running, I continue to read about different training methods and plans to further understand the entire process. Lately, I've been reading a lot about how Steve Magness trained high school athletes, which I think is very applicable to me as I too have a lack of foundation.

I'm hoping to interview some friends about their running in upcoming posts, thanks for reading!

An Update of Sorts

I'm going to skip over some things really quickly because there's honestly no point in freaking myself out over my uncertain future, and you aren't here to read a sob story about my life.

I will tell you the important details; I finished up physical therapy in November, and throughout the winter became pain free, with still some limited flexibility in my hip and hamstring. I took part in the Spring Commencement Ceremony and will officially graduate at the end of this month after 1st Summer Session. I have no idea what will happen next. It's a scary thought.

Now for the fun stuff, prepare yourself. I AM RUNNING AGAIN! It's pretty awesome, albeit slow (10min pace). I've been doing 30 minute easy runs about 5 days a week for about 3 weeks now, plus strides after most runs. I've been doing some light lifting too but I need to increase my time spent training to lose some weight and get fit.

Look for an update soon as I continue training!

Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

I'm taking a break from watching my Redskins get beat up on by Dallas to update you all on the past few weeks of my life and preview the next few as well. To start off, I had a fantastic albeit long trip to and from Clemson, but they put on a great show and I got to enjoy some quality time with a close friend so that did a lot to give me an emotional boost. Physical therapy has also been going great for me and I've had some noticeable progress in terms of my strength and movement capabilities. I'm still far from where I want to be, but I'm glad that the exercises have been working. My doctor at Fort Bragg put me in for some more weeks so I will be able to continue to progress under their supervision and guidance. I can't thank the kind folks at Viquest enough. Sadly I can't be in Clemson this upcoming weekend to see them take on the 'Noles, but I'll definitely be cheering them on!

Both Damarius and myself have seen some gaps in our training lately, but my travels to Clemson and then Fall Break are to blame. Let's call it a Fall Training Break. Before the break, he had two good sessions and then a fantastic one. First I had him 4 x 1k @ 4:00 with 2:30 rest, followed with 4 x 400m @ 1:15 with equal rest. The following day, I had him do 12 x short hills, followed by 4 x 200m @ 33 with 60 rest. Of course he went a little fast but those were both quality mixed sessions. That Wednesday before break I had him repeat a previous session; 6 x 300m @ 800m pace off 2:00 rest followed by a 150m fly @ 400m after 3:00 rest. Previously he had averaged 51.5 and ran 19 low. I wanted him to average 50 and hit 18 high. He averaged 48.5 and went 17 high. Very good session.

As for myself, I took a break from the elliptical but I started back Thursday. I didn't go over the weekend but I'll be sure to get in plenty of sessions during the week while I'm on campus. I'm back to doing 30 minutes per session but I think I'll be able to get in several double days over the coming weeks, so that has be excited about improving my fitness slowly, but mainly maintaining and dropping my weight down. In addition to getting in more weekly training hours, being here consistently until Thanksgiving will allow me to do my physical therapy exercises on a regular basis, to improve and speed up my recovery. A lot of the things they have me doing will benefit me even after I'm fixed, as it focuses on strengthening your core, sometimes dynamically. 

My diet should be an easier thing to improve. I've been drinking water like a fish and an striving to cut out junk foods and fast food when at all possible. I picked up some weight loss shakes and shake mix this weekend but I'll be getting a non-soy powder next, as research on soy protein has shown to have some negative side effects. While obviously shakes are usually used for muscle gain, I'm looking for meal replacement and additional ways to get nutrients. It will be difficult cooking more regularly and turning down all the fast food and restaurant requests from my friends, but I need to work on self discipline in this regard. However, cutting out sweet coffee isn't going to happen. I'll just to have work harder on the elliptical to counteract my obsession for Starbucks. I need to work hard or this plan will be hardly working.

I had two midterms last week in my history courses, but I feel like I did pretty decent on them, BECAUSE I didn't study and stress out about them. I actually relaxed over Fall Break and let my mind unwind and just took the tests cold, preventing my mind from being stressed. Hopefully my strategy works out. I have to start planning out what should be my final undergraduate semester here at ECU, as well as start my graduation preparations and start work on applying for graduate school and taking the requisite tests. While I don't want to get started on all that, it will be well worth it when I have my diploma in hand and an headed to my first Masters course.

Well it looks like the Redskins are making a bit of a comeback, hope you enjoyed the read, catch up with you later!

Stress and Eating

Today was a stressful day for me. I had to discuss the Athenian General and Archon Aristides in my History class this morning, despite not actually reading the passage on him (oops). Following that dreadful situation, I had a 55 questions multiple choice test in Introductory Anthropology. I'm not used to multiple choice tests, and having to decide on an exact answer was a little different but I felt like I did okay enough. I checked my grade and seeing a 78 revealed just that. My second test of the day came in Western Civilizations, in which I wrote a 4 page essay about Minoan and Mycenaean culture, the Greek 'Dark Ages', and the transformation of political systems in Greece, namely Athens. As I have a class on Greek History, that essay wasn't too terrible but it definitely had me stressed out. I also had 7 identification terms to write a sentence or two about on the test, but those were quite simple and straightforward.

As soon as I got the essay test, and even more so after I completed it, I felt like a load had been taken off of my shoulders and all the stress and anxiety I had been experiencing over the weekend went away. Just before the test I even began to feel nauseous (though that could have been them having the heat on in Brewster -_-). While I was able to get a healthy breakfast in of two servings of oatmeal, the rest of my eating today has suffered as I've tried to calm my nerves and give myself energy. For lunch, I had a Sun Drop (soda), a french vanilla, and a king size each of Reese's, Twix, and M&Ms, and some chocolate cake donuts too. Lunch of Champions. Not to be topped, for dinner I had 7 soft tacos from Taco Bell, and a large Baja Blast (delicious). I'm on a dietary roll!

I need to in general, eat healthier and smaller portions, but also limit my binge snack eating, as days like today don't provide me the energy I want and don't actually improve my emotions the way I want them too. I think I'd have been a lot happier and felt better had I hydrated better throughout the day, and had a sandwich and water for lunch. As I'm now up to 185 pounds from the limited exercise and slowly improving diet, I need to make more concerted efforts to control my weight and improve my fitness.

Speaking of that fitness improvement, two weeks ago I started using the elliptical. I was able to get 4 days of work and 30 minutes each day. Last week I did 3 days, doing 40 minutes each session. Thursday, I put it on the interval setting, 2 minutes on, 2 minutes off, working my rate up to 160 and building to 190 during the on, and bringing it back down to 120 or so at first, but later only to about 140. Hard, but fun session. Friday, I did a 30 minute tempo, slowly increasing the difficulty as my heart rate climbed from 150, to 160, to 170, to 180, and finishing the last 3 minutes or so at 190. Very hard but a great feeling afterwards. I'm hoping to get four 40 minute sessions in this week, but that might be difficult looking at my schedule.

Wednesday, I have my first physical therapy session in the afternoon, with my second one on Friday morning. Last Monday, I went over and had my evaluation. While taking the bus to Brody School of Medicine was easy, I didn't expect it to be a 3 mile walk to the clinic. I definitely need to look into the Vidant bus schedule before I head back Wednesday afternoon. They told me after my evaluation that they noted I still had a lot of strength, but a severe inability to flex my leg. They could visibly see the bulge in my back, and corresponding inflammation on the right side of my spinal cord. The PT student who actually did my evaluation, under supervision of course, said that she wanted to do a lot of core strengthening exercises, not only along my posterior chain, but also in my abdominal and oblique region to stabilize my core. So I'm pretty excited not only about improving my condition, but strengthening my core for my (Don't Call It A) Comeback!

As I wait to get healthy and cleared to do my own running, I've continued coaching Damarius in a variety of workouts, ranging from Mile pace ladders on the track, 1000 meter repeats on the grass, to running a 400 meter time trial. He's definitely improved his running fitness and is adapting to the workouts. I'll probably cycle through them again soon to see how much he is improved since we have begun. Today I had him do 3 sets of (400m, 300m, 200m). He averaged 75 seconds, 54 seconds, and 33 seconds. The rests varied a little but averaged about 75 seconds after the 400m and 300m, with 3 minutes after each 200m. Tomorrow we are going to do some stadiums or some short steep hills, they take him about 6 seconds to go up and are about 40 meters long. Wednesday, the last day he will workout this week, we are looking to do a workout on the fields behind the Belk Building across from the track, probably doing 8 x 400m averaging 1:20 with 1:40 rest.

I'll be headed home Friday afternoon and heading to Clemson this weekend to catch my first ever Tigers game in Death Valley. While I'm a massive Notre Dame and East Carolina fan, the Tigers are fun to watch and I'll get to spend some quality time with one of my closest friends and favorite people. Hopefully my physical therapy sessions have me feeling a little better so the long car rides won't kill me.

Look for me to update you guys on things in about 2 weeks over Fall Break as I begin figuring out the rest of my semester, next semester, and my future school plans!

August In Review

Hey Everyone! It's been a hot and humid HUMP DAY and I wanted to give everyone an update on my last few weeks. I moved back up to Greenville on the 14th, into a single bedroom apartment just a few blocks from campus. The short walk back and forth is good exercise for my leg, especially after having to sit in those uncomfortable school desks. I'm mostly settled into the new place as it is starting to feel more like home to me. I should be able to start physical therapy soon, maybe even next week if I'm lucky. Pain wise, it has migrated into my back but my joints in my right leg are feeling the lack of activity and have been popping a lot and giving me pain as well.

I had left for basic training at around 189 pounds, after several months of lifting I had gained a bit of muscle. I returned home at 172, due to the loss of muscle and a lack of sugar in my diet. But after a month of indulging in snacks and being unable to exercise, I'm back up to about 180. I need to start doing more walking and try out the exercise bike or elliptical before I balloon, as well as watch my eating now that I've got my cravings out of the way.

While I obviously haven't been able to run, I've continued doing more research into training methods, plans, and workouts in an effort to optimize my coaching abilities and my own training. Recently, a friend of mine ran two workouts I prescribed for him and they both went to perfection. First, he did a 8 x 400m session, at 80 seconds with 90 seconds rest. At the end, he finished progressively faster and averaged 80. The next session was 6 x 300m, at 54 seconds with 2:30 rest. He ended up averaging 51.5 seconds, and we threw in a fly 150m at the end, in which I wanted him to hit 21 to 22. He hit 19. So two great workouts already, good start to my coaching career.

Hopefully the next time I post, I can tell you all about all the improvement I've seen through physical therapy. Thanks for reading!

Training Philosophy

While individual training plans can differ by athlete due to a wide number of things, including goals and injury history, there are some major concepts that remain constant inside any training plan. For me, this philosophy can be more easily described as a "Strength Based" training style. The major concepts in this philosophy are the long run, thresholds, and hill training. Coupled with high mileage and/or many cross-training hours, the aerobic system can become highly developed, allowing for greater physiological changes when doing "speed work".

The long run is a distance running staple as it provides the body with a stimulus for running longer than it is normally asked too. The body hums along as a nice steady pace, training itself to use fat for fuel and to be more efficient when covering longer distances. You should perform a long run once every 7 to 10 days and it should make up roughly 20% of your weekly mileage, trending slightly lower for a Miler, and trending higher for a 10 Miler or above. Ideally this long run would be performed at your easy pace, though during base training or earlier parts of the season, short pickups, a tempo section, or a progression could be used for added stimulus.

Threshold workouts can come in various forms, from long continuous steady state runs, to broken up tempo intervals. For a 20 minute 5k runner, a steady state run is a run between 6 to 15 miles at 20K to 30K race pace. A tempo run would be from 2 to 5 miles at 10k to 10 mile race pace. Tempo intervals would be from 1 to 2 miles each at 8k to 12k race pace. Performing one to two of these workouts every 7 to 10 days throughout the entire training cycle in some form or fashion is crucial.

There are two kinds of hill work. One is doing long runs, easy runs, or the continuous strength work up multiple or one long hill. It doesn't have to be steep, but going uphill even at a slightly slower pace will strengthen your legs, decrease the impact forces on your legs, and provide your systems a added stimulus without having to increase turnover. During the base and strength oriented phases of your training, one to two of these runs should be included every 7 to 10 days. The other kind of hill work is hill sprints, which can vary in speed and length depending upon the slope of the hill. The slope itself doesn't have to be steep. A hill with less of an incline can be used for longer hill repeats at 5k to 8k effort (10k + pace), whereas a steeper hill can be used for shorter harder efforts of Mile to 3k effort (3k to 5k pace). Not only do these sessions assist with neuromuscular adaptation and leg strengthening, they can be used in conjunction with other workouts to simulate tired legs.

Maintaining these three components in a training plan will help increase the aerobic strength of an athlete, which increases the maximum yield any tradition speed work can have. Being a high mileage or big cross trainer can add to those aerobic gains with more heart rate and wattage workouts or just more easy miles (or minutes), though you should be careful not to add too much to your plate because with degrading form and freshness thrives increased risk of injury. Good luck with your training!

P.S. Still suffering with my bulging discs and sciatic pain, but I saw a doctor who put me in for both a Physical Therapy and Orthopedic consult, so I'm getting closer to fixing this thing!

Home

Home Sweet Home! I've been home for just shy of two weeks now and despite all my pain and discomfort, it has been incredibly relaxing. I've been able to enjoy coffee, soda, tea, beer, and even some wine. I've eaten reese's puffs, powdered sugar donuts, twix bars, and reese's cups. I surprisingly came home weighing in at 172 pounds, as opposed to most of the other guys who left weighing in 10 pounds heavier. I'm assuming it was the lack of junk food and my upper body muscle weight leaving that has caused my weight loss. But I've gained a few of those pounds back from eating all these snacks and sweets.

I tried to use the exercise bike to get a small sweat going and get my leg working, but after two 10 minute sessions, I realized that my pain was too sharp when trying to both sit and pedal. I don't have my first appointment until August 7th and I have no idea how much longer after that all the other appointments will take, so I have no time table for my return to any kind of training. Instead, I've been reading all the articles on running websites, and watching videos on Flotrack, while doing more research into training methods and workouts.

I still have to link up with my National Guard RSP to finish my discharge process, they haven't made themselves available yet to report to. When I do head up in their direction, I will have to find an apartment in Greenville so I have a place to stay for when school starts. This is a time when being far away from your school, 2.5 hours in my case, really hurts you.

Good luck with your training, eating, and life :).

Planning is Key

Having a plan, and a back up plan, and a back up to that back up plan, is an important part of life. Without a plan, you'll probably end up wandering aimlessly and end up no where in particular. And without back up plans, you'll be confused and rushed when things don't go your way. Luckily, that isn't the case for me, but it may be the case for you.

Successfully completing my training to become a soldier has become another adventure in failure, due to injury which shouldn't surprise me or anyone close to me. While this is the most serious injury I have dealt with, I've dealt with injuries before that derailed my short term plans, mainly my training plans. I've been 3 months without running, biking, or being on an elliptical now, so my cardiovascular fitness is probably in the bottom of the barrel. And it may be a few weeks more before any of those things can become options to me again. But I have a plan.

First, with all this time to sit around and think, I was able to get my fall schedule situated and now will be taking 15 hours worth of coursework as I inch closer to graduating. I also accepted my financial aid and will have enough to cover tuition and an apartment and food. From there, I looked into get a job and a car, both things which I have decided to delay getting until later this year. With joining the Army no longer my primary plan after college, I've shifted my research into graduate school, and I hope to stay at ECU to get my masters in either History or Security Studies.

But my major concern is getting healthy, either through surgery or through physical therapy, and then getting back into shape. I know I've put on a few extra pounds since I left home, but I'm not too bad off. My plan is simple, burn off the fat with large amounts of aerobic base work, using the elliptical and bike at first until it's safe for me to start running. The cross training will help me shed the pounds and get a little bit of fitness back before I start running at a lighter weight to prevent any more injuries.

Outside of the elliptical, cycling, and eventually running, other things I plan to include in my training plan are: 2x a week upper/lower body lifting sessions, pullups/pushups/dips on non-lifting days, ancillary drills/strenghtening, and core strenth sessions. Possible additions to this plan include swimming, pool running, and ruck marching, those these would be less frequent.

I've been trying for years, but hopefully coming off this injury, I can maintain my health and get a lengthy period of base work in. I'm not sure how long the cross training phase could take, but once I start running regularly, I want to do about 3 months of basework before starting to do any speedwork. I also want to get my weight down under 180 for starters, with a further goal of pushing it closer to 170.

Now, I just need to get home to get started on all these things I've had time to plan out. While I would love to be home sooner, it looks like I get to leave here on the 17th, which gives me about a month before school starts to get some of these things done, primarily finding a place to live and getting my back fixed so my leg regains full function and flexibility.

What You've Missed

My L4-5 and L5-S1 discs are protuding to the right, pinching my nerve, causing pain that shoots down my legs. I can even feel it slightly in my back when I try to expand my spine. I'm currently in the process of getting discharged from the Army; hopefully I will be home 2 weeks from now. But here is how we got here:

I flew out on April 30th after packing up everything at my apartment hurriedly. I got to Fort Benning late on that Tuesday night and started process immediately. I pushed through the pain for a few days, but the following Wednesday I admitted to the Athletic Trainers of my gaining unit that I had a lot of pain and an inability to flex my leg/back completely. That Friday, I watched my company ship downrange while I got sent to RHU(Retain and Hold Unit) down the hill. After 25 days of sitting around as a holdover down here, I got brought back up the hill to ship. I had already had an x-ray and been given muscle relaxers and pain relievers but I had yet to get my MRI. My processing company, Bravo Company, took me to my x-ray on my 3rd day back with them, and after the weekend, I got my results back. I was both relieved to know that what I was feeling was real, but floored at the prospects of recovering from such a serious injury. I'm now on my 22nd day back at RHU, having already signed my packet and simply waiting for it to make it's stops at Battalion and Brigade before Trans gets it and I get a ship date. That should be the 17th of July. I've never wanted to be home so bad in my life, but if I can push through these final two weeks and get there, I will be eternally greatful for the supportive friends and family I have in my life.

This long period of inactivity has me quite out of shape but hopefully through PT or surgery I can heal quickly and ease back into training before too long.

This has been one of the most unexciting and painstaking adventures in failure I have ever had, and hopefully it will come to a close before I know it.

Success, Greatness, Satisfaction, and Happiness

I’m by no means the definition an elite runner. In the world of recreational running, also known as hobby jogging, I’m pretty average. My 1 Mile PR is 6:00, and my 5K PR is 20:37. My current running goal is to get healthy, that goal is followed by the goal to get back to roughly that level of fitness, and from there, I can work on running sub-6 and sub-20.

But I still consider myself to be successful. Success is less of a singular event, and more of a way of life; and the way to live a successful life is to work hard consistently. In the world of running, success doesn't equate with winning, or setting records, or even being the best. Success is work. Success is a process. Success is improvement. Success is addicting. And it doesn't have to be improving on your times, or improving how hard the running feels. It’s the improvement of effort. You are successful as long as you make it your life and as long as you give maximum effort.

I also believe I can achieve greatness. I believe that I am great now, but I know that my future is yet brighter than today and today was brighter than yesterday. Why? Because as soon as you resign yourself to not achieving greatness, you fail. And greatness doesn't mean money, or power, or anything of those tangible things. Greatness can't be calculated. It can't be measured. It can only be admired. Be respected. Greatness awaits you.

Now while I believe that I’m successful, and I believe I’m great. I’m not even remotely satisfied. You should never be satisfied. To be satisfied is to admit that you are weak. That you are inferior. You should always want to go faster, go harder, and go farther. If you commit yourself to success and dream of greatness, then you will never be satisfied, as your continued improvement will push you continue to give maximal effort. I will only be satisfied when I’m done.

Don’t confuse satisfaction and happiness though. I’m very happy. Even injured, I’m happy. If I was healthy tomorrow morning, I imagine I’d have a difficult time breaking 7 minutes in the mile. After all, I was maybe in 6:45 shape 2 weeks ago and I haven’t run since. And if I ran a 5k, I imagine it would be 24:xx. But I’m still happy, because I know that I had been putting in solid consistent work, and that these injuries are just a temporary setback. You can be unsatisfied while being happy. The two aren't synonymous.

Good luck in all your training, and may you live success, discover greatness, and enjoy happiness!

Made of Glass

I'm realizing that I'm made of glass. I recovered from that high ankle sprain easy enough. I recovered from my groin sprain in just a day or two more. But now a major injury has popped up; sciatic nerve pain in my right leg, the same leg those soccer injuries happened in.

I don't think it's sciatica because I don't feel any pain in my back. My side and bottom of my glute are extremely tight and I get pain shooting down my right leg through my calf, with my outer hamstring area being extremely tight. I've found a few stretches that help loosen it, but it can be hard to walk at times, let alone run.

I normally wouldn't be too concerned by this, though it would be disappointing no doubt, but I ship to basic training in about 17 days, so I don't have time for this kind of setback. If it doesn't improve this week, I have to figure out what I'm going to do for drill first. If I had to base my decision off my current condition, I'd delay my ship further into the summer, but that's if I'm healed by then.

So that's it, I've decided I'm the Glass Man. In the future, I'm going to spend a lot more time working on injury prevention and running specific ancillary work to strengthen my body. While I'm a little disheartened now from all the injuries I've gone through over this past year, I'm confident that when I do get healthy, I'll quickly improve just by getting in some consistent training.

P.S. I hope everyone enjoyed watching an exciting Boston Marathon this morning; what a great race!

Progress and My Running Bucket List

Okay, so I've made some progress from the weekend. High ankle sprain is gone, pulled groin muscle seems to be relaxing, but now I've got a pinched nerve under my hamstring. Doesn't hurt when running, just when I sit and stand in certain positions. Hopefully that goes away.

Well I took Sunday off, icing my leg some more, but decided that I should get back to it on Monday. I began by doing some stretching inspired by Coach Jay Johnson, which seemed to loosen me up pretty good. Later in the afternoon, I was able to stationary bike for 35 minutes, do elliptical for 20 minutes, and did a 3.5 mile easy run. It felt awesome.

Tuesday I was too drained from classes, I should have ran in the morning, but coffee sounded better. Oops. Got up early Wednesday and got after it though with a broken tempo, doing 5 minutes on with 75 seconds off, for a total of 26 minutes. Pretty good workout with the rising heat outside. A couple of hours after dinner I went to the gym and did 25 minutes on the elliptical, increasing from about 65 to 85% of my maximum heart rate during the workout.

The plan is to wake up early tomorrow morning to get a long workout of running, biking, elliptical, and then ancillary work in, but we'll see how that goes.

I wanted to give you my running bucket list, as it's the hot topic to post about in the running world.

• Set new personal records in the Mile and the 5k, my current pr's are 6:00 and 20:37, I'm hoping for a sub 20 5k this Fall.
• Establish pr's in the 2 Mile and 10k, I'll get a 2 Mile from Basic Training, but I'm not sure when I'd move up and do a 10k
• Compete in another cross country race. I'm not worried about time, since all courses are different, but I'd like to run one this Fall, hopefully with some good training in my legs as opposed to the previous 2 times.
• Win another race. I won a 2.8 mile race when I was sick once, pretty cruddy time but no competition.  But I want to win a more competitive race. I think this is a long term goal.
• Become a coach, even a free one for one athlete. It would be awesome to apply the training techniques I've learned about and use them on an athlete and coach them to success.

What are some things on your bucket list, running or not?