Pete's Blog

Training 5/18/08 - 5/24/08

5/18 - 10 miles

   ING Bay to Breakers 12k, 8th Place, 36:44

5/19 - 16 miles

   AM: 11 miles easy

   PM: 5 miles easy, sore left quad

5/20 - 22 miles

   AM: 3 miles easy, 12 mile moderate progression, 2 miles easy.  64:12 for 12 miler, 5:42 down to 5:00.

   PM:   5 miles easy

5/21 - 18 miles

   AM: 6 miles easy w/ 6 x hill circuit

   PM: 12 miles easy

5/22 - 12 miles

   AM: 3 miles easy, 8 mile moderate progression, 1 mile easy. 43:40 for 8 miler, 5:42 - 5:08.

   PM: Rest, sore right foot

5/23 - 15 miles

   AM: 5 miles easy, 7 sets (1000, jog 400, 400, jog 400) at Golden Gate Park polo field.  1000s were 2:54 to 2:51, 400s were unmeasured. Very heavy legs. Two weeks ago the 1000s were 2:48 - 2:47 with fresher legs.

5/24 - 0

   Right foot very sore after the intervals yesterday. Ice, ibuprofen has it feeling better.

93 miles total.

Dr. Saxena told me my foot pain is an irritated tendon that should heal with arch supports and continued icing. I'm not too worried about it, that type of thing has come up regularly for years and always gone away in a week or two. The big problem is my left hip that has hampered me for years. This week I started a new program with Kristin at PT Works in Los Altos. We do a series of flexibility and strengthening exercises. The benefits were apparent instantly. My hip didn't hurt at all during the intervals on Friday, or on an easy run this morning.

The hill circuits are simple form drills and hill sprints combined into a single weekly workout. The hill is 60 meters long and starts at about 8% grade and gets closer to 12% at the top. During the early season sessions I sprint up the hill at a 90% effort. At the top I jog around a parking lot for a minute to catch my breath, then perform one plyometric exercise per circuit. These plyos rotate from bounding to lunges to squat jumps. Another minute jog halfway down the hill and I'll do one form drill, either skips, high knees, butt kicks, fast feet (Mookies), or cariocas. Jog down to the start of the hill and one circuit is complete. Closer to the end of the season the sprints get faster and the plyos get shorter. Location is key to the workout. Its tough to find a steep hill that has a flat section (or two) for drills, and a switchback trail to jog down with minimal impact. The total number of circuits starts at 6 and gradually moves to 9 by mid-season.

The hill circuits and progression runs were two elements that I added in early 2006. They corresponded to a decrease in my marathon time from 2:16 in the fall of '05, to 2:12 in spring '06. I have no way to prove that these workouts were catalysts for that change, but they sure didn't hurt. Last year a bout of plantar fascitis kept me off the hill circuits, so I 'm excited to bring them back into the fold. 

   

ING B2B

Sunday morning brings us San Francisco's biggest contribution to the world of running, the ING Bay to Breakers. This year's race will be my fourth B2B and my goal is a top 5 finish. Fifth place has been around 4:45/mile pace for the past few years, which seems like an ambitious target given my current fitness.

Former Nike Farm Team steeplechaser, the great Josh Muxen, will once again be in charge of the elite race. As always he is doing a fantastic job, seemingly getting zero sleep the week of the race, but still attending to the needs of all the athletes. He send KRON 4 (big local TV station) my way earlier this week. They filmed a short piece of me running and answering a few questions. It aired on the Tuesday morning news and hopefully they'll use some footage during the race coverage on Sunday.

The local media in the SF Bay Area is completely focused on the big three professional sports. Cal, Stanford, and The Sharks get some play when they have a good team, but running gets no love. That's what makes the ING B2B weekend so special. We actually get some attention. The Bay Area has so many top runners, along with a competitive club and high school scene, and a huge population of Team in Training type recreational runners. The audience is there if the sport is presented properly. Hopefully the TV coverage will feature some running-knowledgeable commentators and isn't dumbed down as is so often the case. My dream team for a road race would be Toni Reavis and Ed Eyestone, with Ado Bolden thrown in if it were a track meet. Like Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin at the Tour de France, they don't talk down to the audience,they focus on the competition, and have the background knowledge to understand the strategy and tactics unfolding in the race. Those three traits are found in almost every single TV commentator covering baseball, basketball, or football so why is it so elusive in our sport?   

On Saturday morning I struggled through a tough race at the Fifth Third River Bank 25k in Grand Rapids. My left hip tightened up on me in the second mile and continued to hurt the rest of the race. The pain was manageable at a slower pace so I cruised along at 5:10-5:15 per mile for the final 2/3rds of the race.

Fixing this hip pain is now my top priority. Its hurt off and on since 2005, and cost me countless opportunities to race well and train effectively. I believe the pain is a result of my pelvis being out of alignment and causing one leg to be effectively longer than the other leg. The leg isn't actually longer, but since the pelvis is tilted, one leg rides higher and is shorter. I got some great advice from my new friend Derek Kite in Grand Rapids. He suggested a variety of core strengthening exercises to balance out the lower back and hip muscles, along with some chiropractic adjustments to straighten out the hips. Without the strength work the adjustments will be worthless because the hips will fall back into their old alignment. From what I've read, it shouldn't take too long to see some results from this approach. Hope it works...

Welcome

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. I love to run and I also love to write. I want to use this format to share ideas about training, racing, and other topics near and dear to my heart.

For those who, like me, are constantly trying to figure out the most efficient way to achieve peak fitness, I'll share my weekly training logs. They contain the handful of successes and failures that I face each week. Hopefully, these logs can be a small addition to the huge body of training knowledge already available on the Internet.

As this week goes on I'll more thoroughly introduce myself. Check back often and please leave comments so I know who I'm talking to...