Running Around 12•30•13

Week 5 • Winter Training 2013

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season so far. We'll continue with our Winter base training period through at least the end of the month. That means easy running on the roads or greenways. We should also be working on building mileage from week to week. A good goal for the Tuesday run is 8-10 miles or around an hour of running. If you just love running in circles, here is the official off-season training plan. Good for both Winter and Summer despite the name of the article. http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2008/06/summer-track-workout-progression.html Many will be running the New Year's Day 5k on Wednesday, and this is a time of year when some of us are taking time off or busy with holiday plans, etc. So the Facebook group page is a good resource to check in with each other to see who is going to be at the track or if anyone is doing a particular workout.

WORKOUT SUMMARY 1. Rest week or road run DETAILS Low key, relaxed running.     USE THESE LINKS TO FIND YOUR R, I, & T TRAINING PACES http://www.panix.com/~elflord/vdot.html http://www.attackpoint.org/trainingpaces.jsp http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/racepaces/rp

Running Around 12•22•13

Week 4 • Winter Training 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! We'll continue with our Winter base training period through at least the end of the month. That means easy running on the roads or greenways. If you just love running in circles, here is the official off-season training plan. Good for both Winter and Summer despite the name of the article. http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2008/06/summer-track-workout-progression.html This is a time of year when some of us are taking time off or busy with holiday plans, etc. So the Facebook group page is a good resource to check in with each other to see who is going to be at the track or if anyone is doing a particular workout.

WORKOUT SUMMARY 1. Rest week or road run DETAILS Low key, relaxed running.     USE THESE LINKS TO FIND YOUR R, I, & T TRAINING PACES http://www.panix.com/~elflord/vdot.html http://www.attackpoint.org/trainingpaces.jsp http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/racepaces/rp

Running Around 12•15•13

Week 3 • Winter Training 2013

We're continuing our Winter base training period through at least the end of the month. That means easy running on the roads or greenways. If you just love running in circles, here is the official off-season training plan. Good for both Winter and Summer despite the name of the article. http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2008/06/summer-track-workout-progression.html This is a time of year when some of us are taking time off or busy with holiday plans, etc. So the Facebook group page is a good resource to check in with each other to see who is going to be at the track or if anyone is doing a particular workout.

WORKOUT SUMMARY 1. Rest week or road run DETAILS Low key, relaxed running.     USE THESE LINKS TO FIND YOUR R, I, & T TRAINING PACES http://www.panix.com/~elflord/vdot.html http://www.attackpoint.org/trainingpaces.jsp http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/racepaces/rp

Running Around 12•8•13

Week 2 • Winter Training 2013

Last week the suggested workout was planned time off for recovery. Now we're starting our Winter base training period, so that means easy running on the roads or greenways. Base mileage is important in our periodized approach to training. Winter is a great time for it because the weather is usually not conducive to high quality workouts on the track. The purpose of base training is to build mileage slowly and intelligently over a period of weeks. By limiting the intensity of training during this period, our bodies can adapt more easily to the stress of adding mileage. One of the best ways to improve your base is to increase your running frequency. I've put together some guidelines here ...http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2008/06/running-frequency-progression.html This is also a great time to refocus on often-neglected aspects of our training like core strength. Core doesn't mean abs. It means abs, hips, glutes and back too. Here is an excellent site for core strength infohttp://www.ronjones.org/Handouts/index.htm. There is a series of videos on core strength at http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=16625. And lots of good articles written by Mick Larrabee (from past editions of Footnotes columns) on a variety of subjects like strength training and core at http://www.optimalperformanceinc.com/articles.html. If you ran through this week, then you can take your down time before starting back with base mileage. If you just love running in circles, here is the official off-season training plan. Good for both Winter and Summer despite the name of the article. http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2008/06/summer-track-workout-progression.html This is a time of year when some of us are taking time off or are going on vacation, etc. So the Facebook group page is a good resource to check in with each other to see who is going to be at the track or if anyone is doing a particular workout.

WORKOUT SUMMARY 1. Rest week or road run DETAILS Low key, relaxed running.     USE THESE LINKS TO FIND YOUR R, I, & T TRAINING PACES http://www.panix.com/~elflord/vdot.html http://www.attackpoint.org/trainingpaces.jsp http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/racepaces/rp

Running Around 12•1•13

Week 1 • Winter Training 2013

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and ran well - whether it was Autumnfest or somewhere else. With that, we'll mark the end of the Summer/Fall training cycle. I recommend taking some time off to let your legs and brain recover from training. Sometimes you need to rest your mind as much your legs, especially if you've really been pushing yourself. It's hard to maintain motivation and focus for an extended period. In any case, do whatever type of rest/recovery works for you: complete rest, cross training, etc. There are still some races left on the schedule, so if you are not racing this week or next, then pick your favorite workout from the past month and do that one. You can see all of the past workouts at http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/ If you want to coordinate with someone else to run this week, then post a message on the Facebook group page. Unfortunately, I'm on my 3rd week off with a knee injury, so I will not be at the track. For the remainder of the month, the standard workout will be easy runs on the road or greeways with a goal of building your mileage base for Spring racing. Workouts will being in earnest in January. If you despise road runs and need a track fix, here is the official off-season base training plan. I know it says summer on the title, but it's easier to link to it that create another one for winter: http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2008/06/summer-track-workout-progression.html. I still prefer road runs for the base period, but this is the next best thing.

WORKOUT SUMMARY 1. Time off, recovery, cross-training DETAILS Whatever works best for you.     USE THESE LINKS TO FIND YOUR R, I, & T TRAINING PACES http://www.panix.com/~elflord/vdot.html http://www.attackpoint.org/trainingpaces.jsp http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/racepaces/rp