A Bad Warm-up....What Does That Mean? Nothing.

The crazy part about running is how much physical effort we all put into training. Logging miles on cold winter days, rainy days, 100 degree days the work is still put in the bank.  That type of training and effort is awesome, but how many times has the mental side of running gotten in the way of your race goals with just thinking negative thoughts.  More specifically when you felt cruddy on a race warm-up have you lost it mentally and already been beaten?  Maybe we all forget how much physical prep and work has to be put in to get to that point in time where you are one hour away from a big race.  A sub par warm-up I have found to be an awesome way to center your thinking.  Control what you can control and to get your focus back on your race strategy and goals. If your legs feel like crap then you do not have to worry about how your legs are going to feel race day....you already know that after the warm-up your legs feel like garbage so move on.  That is out of your control 45 minutes before the gun goes off.

Back in March of 2004, I raced in the USA 15k road championships in Jacksonville, Florida. The Gate River Run is the largest 15k in the United States and is definitely a top notch race if you are ever looking for a racing field trip (there is a 3/4 of a mile uphill at the 8 mile mark though).  For me the winter of training for me had gone as planned before the 15k, but during the warm-up before what was my biggest race in some time things began to fall apart. I got stuck running with a guy who would not stop talking about himself like he was Pre.  Our warm-up pace was like 10 minute mile pace (normally I go 7 minute pace), and to top it off with the slower than normal pace my feet were not too far off the ground so I caught my toe and tripped and fell.  After I tripped I sprinted away from that joker. Plus on top of it all my legs felt like crap. For some odd reason it felt like a knife was stabbing the side of my heart, I had never had that stabbing feeling before and never since but it hurt like hell.  That is where the all thoughts need to turn to race strategy and that is what I ended up doing.  Control what you can control.

I knew from past experience that USA road championships go out crazy fast so I was ready for that even after all the garbage that went on within that last 45 minutes before the race. I was not ready for a cannon false start where 25 front line runners (including me) raced off the line for 10 seconds only to be called back and then told to continue. A crazy start, I do not think I got my first mile split!  The first 5k saw the leaders out in 14:10 my split was around 14:20, I finally caught my breath through the 10k in a road PR (29:20) to that point.  The legs felt awesome to that point even after the circus warm-up act and having tired legs. The last 5k was tough with getting out pretty fast and with that 3/4 of mile hill at the 8 mile mark but hung in there for a top 5 finish in 44:25 for what turned out to be one of my better races on the roads.  After all the garbage that transpired 45 minutes before the race that all led up to a  happy race.  I never again question how my legs feel in the warm-up or what other negative stuff happens before the race. I am actually worried when my legs feel great during a warmup. Anyone else ever feel like that....that worries me??

One of the Greatest Inventions ever.....in the Running World

If there is one running toy you ever spend $10 on it should be this one. The Palmassager by the Pressure Positive Company is amazing. I bought one of these 10 years ago and the tool has helped with a sore achilles, hamstrings, a sore lower back, and slight case of plantar fascia over the years. Another benefit of using this tool is when you have tired legs full of garbage after a long run or hard workout you can work that junk through your legs to aid in recovery like getting a sports massage.

The easy part about this tool benefiting your running is that you can use it anywhere/anytime. I found the massage tool totally easy to travel with to races even using the Palmassager after my warmup if I had a tight hamstring that needed work.  Go out and buy this today.

The Perfect Workout Partner

Before you hit a hard workout you need to make sure you are mentally and physically ready to roll. Hopefully you have enough calories in you but not a full stomach.  Bust out the light weight trainers and hit the 5hr energy and you will be ready.  That all is great advice but the one missing piece from a successful workout is the perfect Ipod song playlist. Running purists will scoff at this but do not dismiss it without trying it. You may even set a workout PR because that is the power of music.

My favorite workout Ipod line of all time was by Willy Kaul an 11 time All-American and former D3 National 5k & 10k champ. Before a workout where we were looking to do 3 miles at 4:55-5:00 mile pace, 2 miles at 4:45-4:50 pace and 1 mile at 4:35 pace all on 2 laps jogging rest was..... "You know I am going to have my Ipod on during the workout...right?"  I guess that meant do not talk to me until the cooldown.  Then I knew Willy was as serious as I was, there were never any outside distractions or games when I worked out with Willy. Just before each interval he would reach down and tap the volume one time and right then I knew there was no fooling around on pace or effort. It had to be there.

For setting your playlist you need to factor in about a 15-20 minute jog warmup followed by 15-20 minutes of stretching and strides. Basically you have to fill 45 minutes with around 10 songs pre-workout with some music that is going to be just enough to pump you up but is still holding you back just a bit because you want to save the pump music for the 45-60 minutes while you are doing the workout.  Those raging 12 workout songs are going to help you hit workout splits. For your Ipod or Mp3 player make sure to title the playlists accordingly for each workout so you know what works.

Here are some pre-workout warmup suggestions soft enough but setting the table to fire you up.
Cinderella - Gypsy Road
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
ZZ Top - La Grange
Nirvana- In Bloom
The Offspring - Self Esteem
Sponge - Plowed
Monster Magnet - Powertrip

For the Workout the Playlist has to work as hard as you do.
Judas Priest - Living After Midnight
Slipknot - Psychosocial
Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls
Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart
Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade
Buckcherry -  Lit Up
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Alice in Chains - Man in the Box
Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
Sum 41 - Fat Lip
Black Label Society - Overlord or Fire it Up

If you had (1) song to listen to before the Biggest workout/race of your life.....what would it be?  If your initials are A.N. or R.M. I will not be debating this topic with you. Go out and get a music player.

A running/training Quiz.

This training dilemma has come up at least one time in every single runners training from 5k's to the marathon. Today I want everyone today to take this running quiz and decide what you would/should do.

Let's say you are 16-17 weeks into a 20 week training plan where you are looking to peak or run your key race around weeks 19-20. Up to this point training has been going great and you have hit all your weekly mileage goals, key workouts, and have logged your long runs.

Here is the training situation that in one way or another has come up for everyone:
The previous week you slogged home the last half of your Sunday long run and those tired legs are now spilling over into the next week and you notice early on that your legs are again sluggish on Monday through Wednesday's normal day runs. I don't mean just a little bit tired you are running 30 seconds slower per mile with a ton more effort than all other training runs up to this point. You know something is not quite right but what do you do at this point?  We will rule out that the tired legs are not due to lack of sleep, nutrition or stress.

What are you going to do Thursday your planned workout day with tired Legs? (QUIZ TIME)
1. You could pretend nothing is wrong and attempt to complete 100% of the 13 mile workout where 8-10 miles were to be at goal half marathon/marathon race pace..with this plan you are pretty much saying nothing is potentially wrong and you will be fine it is just a rough patch of training.
2. You could begin the workout and if things are not going well pull the plug on it/stop and try the workout next week...but complete the rest of the week's mileage as scheduled.
3. You could be cautious and admit there is something not quite right and bypass the workout entirely and just run 1/2 the mileage each day you had on your training schedule the rest of the week. (the last 4 days)
4. You could because you know your key race is in only 2-3 weeks try to put a stop to the tired legs by taking off Thursday-Sunday and get (4) full days off of running to hopefully save your key race and tired legs...and resume training as scheduled next week after the mini break.

That situation/quiz hopefully makes everyone think a bit.  This is why Olympian Kara Goucher has Alberto Salazar helping her through these rough patches. Or American 10k record holder Chris Solinsky has coach Jerry Schumacher to tell him to take a day off and what did 8 time USA Cross Country National champ Pat Porter do when he had his pre-workout meeting with coach Joe Vigil going over all potential options.  You will not find this individual training advice in online training programs or books.

Post your comments and thoughts.

Boston Marathon 2011 & Matt Larsen's Final Boston training blog

We check in with Matt Larsen for his final training update before the 115th running of the Boston Marathon today.  You can follow the live action of the race today on Universal Sports.  Good luck to to everyone racing today, the Boston weather is predicted to be amazing with a tailwind on top of it.

I don’t have any exciting workouts to post about as I get closer to Boston but am excited to race as I get closer to the big day.  My intent in training was to put three solid weeks of running in once the track season started. The final three weeks leading up to Boston would be down weeks, less with the intent of tapering and more with recognition of the fact that I would take days off if time was unavailable on meet days.  I’ll give you the rundown of the workouts/runs that I ran and I’ll give you my mindset heading into race day.

4/02- Trail Breaker half- My intent was to run marathon pace (6:00 per mile) early and close a little more quickly as from about three miles out.  Well, things did not go well, and I only got about 4 miles in at marathon pace.  I did not find a groove and shut the race/workout, whatever you want to call it, down early.  I warned you in my first post that you might see this as a theme surrounding my mental weakness.  The fact was that I did not have it on this day and pulled the plug pretty early.  I’m not going to lie and say that this did not shake my confidence, but at the end of the day, I’ve always been pretty good at justifying rough days, and historically, I have shaken them off and bounced back relatively well.  I hope that is the case this time around.  The final time was about 83 minutes for the half or about four minutes slower than I plan on going out for the first half on the big day.

4/03- 10 miler with Mr. Thull- Our intent was to run easy, feel good, and dodge the bad weather- Mission accomplished.  The legs felt very good on this day, and there was no evidence that I had done anything remotely close to racing the day before.  I took that as a pretty good sign. 

So that is about all I have for workout related stuff.  I am very excited and also a little nervous for my third marathon.  The other marathons that I have run have gone completely differently.  In 2002, I was very fit for me coming off of a summer of 70, 80 and up to 90 mile weeks.  I ran the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee, went out hard, and faded badly…. really badly and finished in 2:47.  Man, did I feel good early, and then everything went bad from blisters, to nipple chaffing, to me having a pity party and throwing an 8 minute mile in there somewhere.  Anyway – I wasn’t mentally prepared for and didn’t know what to expect in the race.   

More recently, in 2009, I ran the Chicago marathon.  I was coming off of a summer of 40 mile and 50 mile weeks and had to start the race toward the back of the start line.  In this marathon, I also raced with a training partner, Bart, and things went about as well as I could have hoped.  I ended up negative splitting to a finishing time of 2:50.  This race went so much more smoothly because I respected the pace and didn’t get ahead of myself.  Heading into Boston, I don’t have the same type of fitness that I had in 2002, but most of my training is well ahead of where I was in 2009. If things go smoothly like they did in 2009, I think this can be a very positive experience.  The plan is to be patient.  We’ll see how it goes. 

Featured Runner of the Week - Dave Romano

ThunderDome Running works with runners of all abilities all over the United States.  Each runner has their own awesome story within a story getting to the starting line of their goal races by the way they balance work, family, and training.  This week the ThunderDome Running featured runner is Dave Romano from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Dave just passed his one year running anniversary beginning jogging 1-2 miles on the treadmill last March/April 2010!  He has raced several shorter distance races but had not tackled the half marathon distance. I have no idea if Dave planned it this way, marking his one year running anniversary;  but Dave jumped right into the fire by racing a half marathon over the weekend the Garden Spot Half  in New Holland Pennsylvania.  Dave raced to a 58th overall place out of a field of 506 runners in a time of 1 hour 43 minutes and 40 seconds.... over a crazy hilly race course.

Dave is a perfect example of how runners make their own breaks and racing opportunities by putting in the work. Dave's typical training schedule has (4) total weekly runs ranging from 4-6 miles with a long run being built back up again to 11-12 miles on cross training days he is in the pool.  With the 4 running days and 2 days of swim work Dave's total mileage is currently around 25-30 miles a week with summer plans of working towards a long run of 14-15 miles and total weekly mileage climbing to 40+ total miles.

Having the opportunity to coach and work with Dave has been great and a lot of fun. I think we can all learn from each other in how to approach race week and finally stepping to the line race day and wanted to share with everyone Dave's first half marathon experience. For everyone our race days play out like mini movies each time we all make that journey to the starting line for a key race. Dave's keen perspective and prep for his race makes up for only being in this running game for about a year. Check out Dave's race journal.

Best of All -Time Races (Martian Invasion of Races)

The ThunderDome Running racing team took a little field trip to Dearborn, Michigan this past weekend for the 6th annual Martian Invasion of races.  Over the years I have probably raced more times in Michigan than in Wisconsin. The racing community and the road race scene in Michigan is amazing.  This weekend I jumped into a 10k.

Running Fit presented the Martian Invasion of Races with the opportunity to race a 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon relay, or full marathon Saturday April 2.  To pull off that sheer number of races on a single race day morning takes a ton of work and organization, but the Michigan racing community did not disappoint.  The race organization was top notch from the police dept, to the race volunteers, to the support from the city of Dearborn. There were aliens all over town!

I think the best part about the Martian racing weekend is that the race organizers realize there can be something for everyone that raced from beginners, to seasoned veterans, to elite runners.  That is what I love about Michigan races.  The race had the charity arm but also had a prize $$$ purse. The race host hotel had a pre-race/post-race breakfast that had more food than many finish line spreads. I cannot think of anything better than finishing up a tough race and getting to reward yourself with a huge Belgian Waffle.

If you get a chance jump on www.runmichigan.com and checkout the menu of Michigan road races, and hopefully you can make the quick trip to try a race outside of your home turf.  A big thank you to Running Fit for putting on  the Martian Invasion of races and to Ian Forsyth the elite race director.