See the results in Mind Over Matter and Just Do It. Another post, Valentines: Don’t go breaking *your* heart, is an update on one I did here last year.
FYI: Expect more writing from me over at dailymile this year. While my 2011 team ambassadorship is soon over, happily, I'll continue as a weekly contributor. Look for my posts on Wednesdays.
Lost a little of my oomph toward the end of the week, and pushed this week's LSD run (slated for Sunday) back by a day. Other slacking includes not getting my two yoga sessions in, along w/my Brain Training for Runners resistance sets. Weekly mileage is building to the highest level I've ever seen, and I'm starting to feel it. Tired a little more -- even took a nap after one my runs this week...very unusual. High humidity isn't giving anyone a boost in stride, either.
Need to get back on the ball as far as stretching and weights workouts go, but I'm also having a ball and that counts for something, too.
My latest post in dailymile's Destination: Run series is up.
A lot of fun to work on, dailymission redux: destinations to run to answers last month's dailymission question, "What elements make your city, region of the country or world the best place for working out?"
Image © Ilona Meagher | Green Lake Park. Seattle, WA - January 2011
What to slip in your carryon?
Two new books that I’ve been toting around with me lately (and returning to again and again) are Kara Goucher’s Running for Women: From First Steps to Marathons” (Touchstone, 2011) and Martin Dugard’s To Be a Runner: How Racing Up Mountains, Running with the Bulls, or Just Taking on a 5-K Makes You a Better Person (and the World a Better Place) (Rodale, 2011).
Both ‘chunk’ content in quick-to-read and digest bits, so they’re perfect for tucking away in a summertime travel or gym bag. Have a minute and want to get inspired? Pick up one of these volumes, flip it open to a page and set out to explore another topic or chapter.
They’re ideal for the time-crunched reader and running enthusiast.
See my reviews at dailymile.
This week I missed doing my drills (slipped my mind that day) and one slated resistance workout (slacker!); but, I did plenty of cross-training, including walking, yoga, swimming and some challenging mountain biking w/my husband at Brunet Island State Park in Wisconsin.
Second month of half mary training was a lot of fun.
Weeks 5-6, I continued in Base Phase, where the trng objectives are to build capacity and endurance, increase injury resistance, and up muscle activation capacity. Training then moved into the first of two Build Phases where the focus is on continuing to improve aerobic capacity and endurance, and increase fatigue resistance at 3,000m and 10K paces. For these second 4 weeks, I’d give myself an A overall. I missed a handful of the plan's specified resistance workouts (ab training specifically for running); but, supplemented lots of swimming and stuck to my weekly yoga routine...so, feel I'm plugging away pretty well.
Because of the transition from base to build phases, one noticeable difference is the switch from incline/hill repeats to interval/speed work. As much as I miss the hills, I'm *really* enjoying the speed work (something that I'd never really done before because I was confused about how to go about it to best effect). I like the feeling of pushing myself, but also knowing how much to push and what pace I need to gun for. The Brain Training for Runners plan spells all of this out in crystal detail. That specificity probably isn't needed/desired by some runners who've had more experience with speed work and hill repeats and tempo runs and plyo exercises aimed at generating fast bursts of energy a runner needs -- but for this girl, it's the bee's knees.
After letting Stressing Fitness languish for a few months, I'm dusting things off a bit. I've been pretty active since spring, blessed with lots of extended family stays at our house; doing volunteer work and helping my husband plan and host a huge June function.
I've also been enjoying being an Ambassador and member of the dailymile team this year, blogging over there sporadically; testing and reviewing fitness products here and there; and maintaining my online training log. Join me at dailymile to get my updates in real time.
One thing I haven't let languish is my race training.
Two months into a 20-week half marathon program, I've started cross-posting my dailymile training logs over here in weekly chunks so that they can be easily viewed (and returned to at a later date). I've gotten through the first four weeks and have four more to transfer, so bear with me as I add them in the next few days.
As much as the tagline for Stressing Fitness is 'You are unlimited,' realistically we are all limited -- I certainly am -- by how much we can do every day. I used to drive myself for years blogging. Now, I do it as I please, rather than worry that anyone out there will keel over if I don't get one, two or three posts up per day...or month.
*I'm* not going to keel over to ensure that *you* don't. ;-)
This blog exists for me, and any of you interested in popping in are very welcomed and appreciated for joining me. But life is to be lived, not merely written about. I do hope to be a little more productive in the writing department now that family visitors should be at a minimum, and I should have a little more quiet time to sit and produce some copy.
In the meantime, I hope your training is going well, and that life is smooth and bringing lots of smiles, wonder and blessings your way.
An august rest of the summer to you!
Photos from my trip to the fascinating (but water-logged) little beaches and trails of Minnesota's Afton State Park. The first day it was officially open following the 3-week state budget impasse and government shutdown, it's good to have access to these places, again.
Week seven begins the first of two Build Phases on the Brain Training for Runners plan. The change is immediate in two ways: Hill work is replaced by very specific interval training, and fartleks are replaced by tempo runs. I enjoyed the change, but still kind of hanker for both hills and fartleks, so they'll still make their way into my running.
Continuing to enjoy the progression and specificity of the plan, and feel they are the two key components to my not missing or messing with scheduled workouts too much.
Of course, dailymile keeps me jazzed and in my runners, too.
Even with all the chillin', training was solid and strong. Yay!
Fatigue-related pain is the subconscious brain's way of trying to convince the brain's conscious decision-making center to voluntarily slow the pace of running or stop entirely. The conscious mind has some leeway to reject this message and keep the proverbial pedal to the metal. But the only way your conscious mind can really reject pain's message ("Slow down!") is to accept the pain itself, because more pain is the inevitable price paid for not slowing down. All available evidence suggests that "mentally tough" runners accept race pain -- to the point of even welcoming and embracing it -- more than other runners, and that this acceptance enables them to run harder.Of course, the pain he's talking about is the 'I can't go on...I need to slow down...pushing so hard hurts' type -- not the injury type. I worked on copping this attitude this week, with some good results.
On May 30, I started a new 20-week half marathon training program to get ready for the Whistlestop race held in upper Wisconsin on October 15, 2011. Last year, I used a tweaked 12-week Hal Higdon plan to prep for my first half mary stab; this year, I’m trying a regimen from a book given to me by my sister and niece, Brain Training for Runners.
Weeks 1-6 is Base Phase. Trng objectives? Build capacity + endurance, increase injury resistance + muscle activation capacity. For the first four weeks of this phase, I’d give myself a C+ overall. Week 1 = A | Week 2 = A | Week 3 = F | Week 4 = B.
The program starts off slowly and is longer than Higdon’s (I didn’t miss more than 5 or so days of trng the entire 12 wks of it). With my wintertime running, I felt I had a base equal to what’s slated for this phase going in. When I came upon a really hectic period during Week 3 (where I wasn’t sleeping much or well) I cut myself some slack. Rather than pushing I pulled back and eased up on things like time online (sorry guys! ;-) and other tasks that can cause tension and spent whatever free time I had relaxing outside or enjoying family and friend time.
It doesn’t help my training, but I’ve learned it helps my mindset…and since overall health is what drives my efforts here, I give myself allowances to be human.
I know, not very inspirational. ;-)
So far, the BEST thing about the Brain Training plan is the weekly proprioceptive cue work. Proprioceptive cues are meant to improve running technique by having you focus on particular thoughts + sensations during exercise to control physical movement in a desired way. The three that I have used so far are getting engrained, each one building on the other, so that when I run I not only have the current cue in my mind’s cross hairs – the others pop back in, too. I’m not sure how much my form is improved as a result; but, I *do* like having something positive and constructive to focus my mind on when I’m on my trng runs.
Happy, happy about that. I'll pick things back up next week.
Author, coach, triathlete and Active Expert Matt Fitzgerald presents a revolutionary approach to running in his [2007] book, Brain Training for Runners. Fitzgerald compiled evidence from the latest research in exercise physiology that challenges conventional runner's wisdom by shifting focus to a "brain-centered" model.For someone like me who loves running, but whose fascination with the workings of the brain are endless, this approach is uber appealing.
The two-part book begins with a well thought out presentation of the brain-training system applicable to runners of all experience levels. Fitzgerald's motto, "train the brain and the rest will follow," explains how the main goal of brain-training is to develop a heightened awareness for feedback from the running experience to increase maximal capacity, efficiency of stride and injury-prevention.
This time I'm incorporating elements of that plan with one found in the book Brain Training for Runners that I got from my sister. In addition, this weekend my girlfriend gave me Kara Goucher's Running for Women book...so I'm rarin' to go + brimmin' w/info. Follow my training at dailymile, where I share my exercise adventures in real time.
As a flight attendant in my 20's and 30's, I used it to my benefit. When others bid for trips that left and returned home at a decent hour, if I worked under a moonlit sky, I'd snag a better schedule (with coveted or more days off) those senior to me didn't want to fly.
Assigned to the int'l division in JFK, I didn't bat an eyelash at working starry transatlantic flights filled with snoozing passengers. Flying over the pitch black Amazon to South American ports of call? A cinch.
As a domestic stew, my nocturnal nature paid off, too.
