Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Starting July 1, I am throwing down the gauntlet as opposed to throwing in the towel. This year has held tremendous change, physical challenges and upheaval in my personal life. Running has been a lifeline for me over the years in many ways. The obvious benefits are physical. The not-so-obvious benefits . . . mental, social, spiritual, perspective, stress management . . . the list goes on.

Currently, I am unable to log any great amount of distance. I was doing the Math as I was waddling along yesterday. 5 times a week at an average of 3 miles per run would give me 780 miles in a year. That would be a great year for me at this stage of my life.

Here’s my challenge to the 6AM buddies. I’d like to challenge you to 20 times out in a month. I don’t care how far you run . . . just that you come out 20 times. If you fall behind in a given week, you can make it up here or there. Or that would be 240 times a year. You can miss 125 times a year and still be “bang on”.

So, . . . respond to this post brothers . . . let me know if you are in?? I’ll keep the stats and chase you for them if you become a bit delinquent in your reporting.

Runner’s Etiquette

There’s a contradiction in terms . . . a paradox . . . ? One of the 30 yr. old freedoms that I enjoy as a 6AM runner is the freedom from behavioral expectations.

Many times I have reflected that my early morning, “not-so-polished” companions have been absolute angels of God, sent to keep me sane in the otherwise periodically maddening world of pastoral ministry. Every once in a while I realize that I haven’t shifted out of “Rev.” and then one of my buddies brings me back to early morning reality.

They don’t look so good in the morning. They don’t smell so good. They rarely say, “Excuse me . . . “. There is absolutely no sympathy to be had and quickly a fledgling 6AM’er surrenders this expectation to the therapeutic value of learning to laugh at oneself as opposed to feeling sorry for the same.

The refreshing thing is that they are REAL!

In the early morning pre-dawn hours before the world puts its masks in place, no one expects or wants anything else.

One thing that I am struggling with these days is the “No man runs alone.” thing. As I have tried to regain my slow status, I want to run alone.

Now this is one of those few “polite” gestures that we offer to people who want to start running. I think the intent is good and the sentiment . . . so lusciously thoughtful.

But . . .

leave me alone . . . please. I’ll meet you at coffee. The new motto of the aging group. “The 6AM Runners . . . where running is optional and coffee is mandatory.” This of course replaces the old one for those of us over 50. The old one was: “The 6AM Runners . . . not too slow . . . not to fast. Half fast!” Say it fast and let me know when you get it. So these days I am a half fast runner dedicated to coffee or tea in my case.

I really do love you guys. but I know what happens to people who get lured into a good “Tigger Tale”. I have seen too many people verbally dragged over the dark streets, trying to keep up with one of his addictive narratives that has little to no sense to it at all. The only one of the group who can tell a better story with no point at all is Gimli and he is on the “half fast” list right now as well.

Could someone else help me to develop our list of protocols?

Pumba

PS . . . there is a non polite origin to this nickname that has earned me my uncontested place at the back of the pack.

GALLOWAY – What the heck?

Jeff Galloway, one of the most famous elite running coaches in the world, shocked the rather purist running world with the suggestion that is was quite alright to incorporate segments of walking into your training regime, especially for marathon participants.  The suggestion did not catch on with the super elite runners, but it caught on fire with many people and for good reason.

You can check out this website to become more familiar with the program – http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/walk_breaks.html, but essentially Galloway quite accurately summarizes the benefits of the program as “By using muscles in different ways from the beginning, your legs keep their bounce as they conserve resources. When a muscle group, such as your calf, is used continuously step by step, it fatigues relatively soon. The weak areas get overused and force you to slow down later or scream at you in pain afterward. By shifting back and forth between walking and running muscles, you distribute the workload among a variety of muscles, increasing your overall performance capacity. For veteran marathoners, this is often the difference between achieving a time goal or not. Walk breaks will significantly speed up recovery because there is less damage to repair. The early walk breaks erase fatigue, and the later walk breaks will reduce or eliminate overuse muscle breakdown.”

So you may ask, why is this important to start or re-start running. By now of course you have made the commitment to workout for at least 4 times a week starting at 30 minutes a time.  Well, I have found that for the very same reasons as espoused by Galloway, a starting or re-starting runner will benefit from a run/walk program.  So, my suggestion is that after you have gone out and purchased a proper pair of running shoes and worn them on walks for a few evenings, then the time has come to learn how to start. 

Your first time out is your definition run.  Walk for about 15 minutes and then start to run making certain that you time how long you can run without having to stop.  I have found that a number of people deny their age and try to go out too fast, but this is in fact part of the plan.  Frankly, I have seen some people run only one minute and others may be able to run 5 minutes, but it matters not.  Once you know how long you can run there is a simple mathematical formula that incorporates a variance to the Galloway method of training.

Let us say that you are able to run for two minutes on your definition run.  So during the first week, on each of the four times that you work out you will walk 8 minutes and run 2 minutes for three segments (a total of 30 minutes).  Once you are comfortable with this ratio, then you will walk 7 minutes and run 3 minutes again for 30 minutes, then the ratio becomes 6/4 to 5/5 and so forth until you can comfortably run 30 minutes four times a week.  Once this happens your running regime starts and you can begin to train towards your goal.  But please note that as you increase your “time on your feet” you should NEVER increase your overall time by more than 5% per week.   The following chart is a good maintenance program from which you can take the next step towards any goal.  As one can see, this is a four week rotation that incorporates all of the major elements of training and increases some as you decrease others.  Remember to go back to the “Introduction to Running” article to make certain that you know the definition of the terms.  My suggestion is that you should first introduce either Tempo running or Hill repeats before Yassoo intervals.  Also, remember that LSD’s are the backbone to any distance running so if you have to miss one of these workouts on any given week, it should not be the LSD.

 

Week/Day	Day 1 – Long Slow Distance (LSD)	Day 2 – Basic Run with Tempo Component	Day 3 – Basic Run with Hill Repeat Component	Day 4 – Track workout – Yassoo Training
Week 1	60 minutes	48 minutes of running with 3×6 minute Tempo Runs	45 minutes of running with 8 hill repeats	After 10 minute warm up – 6 to 8 – 800’s with 1 minute break
Week 2	70 minutes	45 minutes of running with 2×6 minute Tempo runs	42 minutes of running with 6 hill repeats	After 10 minute warm up – 4 to 6 – 800’s with 1 minute break
Week 3	80 minutes	42 minutes of running with 1×8 minute Tempo run	40 minutes of running with 4 hill repeats	After 10 minute warm up – 2 to 4 – 800’s with 1 minute break
Week 4	90 minutes	40 minutes of running with 1×6 minute Tempo run	38 minutes of running with 2 hill repeats	After 10 minute warm up – 2 to 4 – 800’s with 1 minute break

Introduction To Running

Folks

Let me introduce myself, I am George (Geep) Filliter (aka the “badistic sastard” or “Coach Diablo”) and I want to be your trainer, coach, confidant, friend, enemy, supporter, encourager, challenger, joker, butt of all your jokes and most importantly admirer. I have been asked to put to paper some thoughts about running and in so doing I encourage honest discussion and questions (there are no stupid questions … just stupid answers). Remember “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single footstep”.

So, first of all, if I was paid a mere nickel for every time over the last 30 odd years I was asked why I ran, I would be a very rich man indeed. I run because I can and I feel blessed to be able to put one foot in front of the other. However, two of my heroes are now deceased, but each in their own way influenced my way of thinking. First of all there was Fred Lebow, the long time director of the New York Marathon (1970 to 1993), who some say is responsible for the resurgence of distance running, passed away in 1994 from cancer. In the early 1990’s after being diagnosed with cancer, he was asked a question as to why the numbers of participants registering for the New York Marathon were increasing in exponential numbers he answered, in a matter of fact manner he answered – “In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack or last. You can say, ‘I have finished.’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that.” Next, my favourite runner-philosopher, Dr. George Sheehan summed up the reasons for running in a very simplistic, yet profound manner when he wrote “There are as many reasons for running as there are days in a year, years in a life. But I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.”

So to begin, the first most important thing to remember is the equipment that you wear. Although it has been said by many much wiser persons than me that you are how you look, I do NOT subscribe to the theory that you should buy equipment on the basis of how it looks. All equipment is important from socks, to shorts, to tops, to undergarments and even a runners best friend …. Vaseline (I will speak about this later in the training). In particular however, running shoes are the most important of all pieces of equipment and you all should make certain that you buy the right shoes for yourselves. To purchase a running shoe does not mean going to a generic running shop and buying the most expensive, the cheapest, the prettiest or the most colourful. Each of you are individuals and as such you have an individual gait that requires separate attention when it comes to purchasing shoes. To properly purchase a running shoe you first must determine what type of runner you are, are you a pronator, a neutral runner, a suppinator. Combine this with your individualized body make up and the choices of shoes acceptable to you should be at least reduced. The best advice that I have is that you should ALWAYS consult with a qualified person in a specialty store.

Next, throughout the progression of my emails you will hear me speak of various types of training methods so I thought this would be a good place to start by defining what I will be referring to during this process.

1. Hill Training:– You should find a hill that is about a 6-8% grade. The hill should be long enough that you can run up the hill at quite a hard pace (85%) for 2 to 2.5 minutes. Once you have located the hill then after a 10 to 15 minute warm up you run up the hill at a pace that makes you work (you should be able to still speak at least one or two words as you are running, i.e. keep it somewhat aerobic in nature) for 2 minutes and jog slowly back down to run up again. Remember to concentrate on form, not speed during these sessions – LET THE HILL DO THE WORK FOR YOU. You should start by doing 4 repeats followed by a 10 to 15 minute cool down. As the summer progresses the length of the repeat should increase from 2 minutes to 3 minutes and the number of repeats should increase from 4 to 8 to 10. This should be done once a week as it improves your overall strength and assists in developing a more efficient running style. You jog slowly down for two reasons, one to recover between runs and the second so as to limit the possibility of injury as running down a hill is the hardest on the body.

2. Interval Training:– This is normally done at a track and is done for the purposes of increasing the body’s ability to efficiently utilize oxygen by working the body into the zone of oxygen depletion, to increase the speed of the leg turn over which increases speed and to improve running efficiency. So go to a track and run around the track 3 to 4 times at a slow warm up pace (each lap is supposed to be 400 meters). After your warm up, the interval training starts by you running 800 meters (twice around the track) in a time that will be determined in discussions between each of us. After exactly a one minute rest, then you repeat an 800 interval in the same time. The first workout should consist of 4 repeats and you should record your times. Eventually we will determine the appropriate pace for you to be running these repeats and over the summer the speed will increase slightly and the number of repeats will increase to 8. This is called Yassoo training and has been proven to be effective. Again this should be done once a week.

3. Base Running:– Two to three days a week you should be running anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. Note these runs are not designed to be based on distance but at the same time by running these times you are increasing your base distance.

4. Tempo Runs:– During the Base runs, on one day a week you should build in what we call a tempo run, which is a 5 to 15 minute hard run in the middle of your otherwise enjoyable pace. It should be aerobic in nature (i.e. you can speak, albeit only one or two words at a time) and should be consistent in speed. This builds strength and endurance, and has a small impact on oxygen efficiency. At the end of such a run you should not feel tired, but rather invigorated and wishing to do more.

5. Long Slow Distance LSD:– For the beginner, I recommend that your long runs be based on time not distance, and at no time should you run/walk longer than 3 hours and 15 minutes. It is during these times that you do the entire run as a run/walk portion be it 9/1 or 9/2 or whatever ratio you are comfortable with. Do it slowly, in fact if you think you are going too slow then SLOW DOWN.

Finally, there are some rules that apply to you all, the most important one being “If you want to go fast, you have to slow down“. Let me close by some wise comments. First of all remember “Don’t let yourself be concerned by what other runners are doing. By trial and error, find out what works for you.” – Gayle Barron, marathoner, as Joan Benoit-Samuelson (from Maine), the winner of the Los Angeles Olympic Marathon said “Keep varying the program. Your body will tell you what to do.”

Each of you will be much more in touch with your bodies. as well as, your mind and spirit, so enjoy yourselves and your new found sense of freedom and victory. You have entered a world of peace and fulfillment that if you keep at it will be your friend and your source of strength for a life time, it is best summarized in these words “If people are physically fit, they are better adjusted for life. Running is the greatest anodyne. It’s mental therapy. While running, one develops a rhythm. The mind becomes detached.“