Last 4 days

1/24 rest day fighting cold virus
1/25 rest day

1/26 A pretty good track session. 8 x 300m cut downs.

2 x (4 x 300m) @ 45,44,43,41 and 45,44,43,42
2 laps jog between sets and 400m between intervals.

1/27 am 1 x 2miles @ 10:58. This felt a little more difficult than in the past.

Sometime back to back workouts, less than 48 hours apart,
are great ways to get bigger fitness gains due to the enhanced training effect.
This is also known as crash training.

It is important to schedule equal amount
of recovery days as consecutive hard training days during crash training.

10 miles on the nike campus

I had a 3 hour gig last night then played piano for two church services. Had hardly any sleep. After about 2 hour nap, I felt ready to do an easy 10 mile run. I ran easy 7:30 mile pace. I always like to do a couple surges on the last mile.

After 2 rest days, I feel good.

My workout today was 2 mile warmup.
1x600m @ 1:32
1x400m@57 sec
1x300m@43 sec
2x200m@ 27,26 sec

100 plyometric box jumps. Very
difficult after a speed workout.

I made some good progress on my pace robot
that I am building. It is an autonomous differential steering robot that follows
the white line on an all weather running track.
The difficult thing is getting it to go at an exact
speed while staying on a white line. I am about ready
to take it for a test ride. It will be used to help
pace me for workouts.I also added sonar to it so it won't
plow into anyone.

I finally figured out how to make it have cruise control
with PID. PID is fancy feedback control equation
for closed loop systems.

I have had fun getting to learn the Arduino programming
environment. It is a version of C with a lot of
libraries that are available. Its a great place to
start if you want to build something that requires
a microprocessor.

10 miles on the nike campus

10 mile run on the Nike campus. I ran the last 5 miles with a guy named Mo Farah who is
England's top distance runner. Also a 3:33 1500m pr. He is being coached by Alberto Salazar. He told me he is running
100 miles per week. its always fun to chat with the best runners in the country and in the world. It seems that they
are all showing up in Beaverton.

My race today

I ran this race after a 4 hour drive to Seattle and only 1 hour warm up.

One of my better track workouts

With a race 1 week from today, I decided to work on

an 800m race simulation.  It was a bit more difficult

to run fast in 35 degrees outside temp. 

I started with 1x600m @ 1:26,

200m jog then 1x200m @ 29,

200m jog then 1x200m @ 28

I then took about 3 laps jog 

and decided to work on a

some 1500m date pace work.

1x800 m @ 2:07 and 3x400 @ 64,60,61 with 1 lap jog

These felt very relaxed. I was able to find

some guys to run the second part of this workout.

It made it much easier to share pacing duties. 

After running a lot of sub 60 sec 400m  pace in 

workouts, it is relatively easy to run at my goal

mile pace.    

28x100m repeats @ 14 sec and last 4x100m @ 12 sec

Tonight I started with a 40 min run with about 1000 feet of elevation climb.
I came to the track ran a high volume of 100m repeats. 28x100m with short rest.
I averaged 14 seconds for the first 20 and 20-24 in 13.5 and finished the last 4 in 12.5.
I felt pretty fresh since yesterday was a 20 minute recovery run.

This workout is very comfortable since the intervals are not long enough to get into oxygen
debt. I felt this workout was great finding a rythm at race pace. It is great practice to get so many intervals at race pace. One way to get a lot of practice at race pace is to shorten your intervals to 1/8 th your race distance and do 2 or 3 times the volume of your race distance.
For example, I hope to run 1:52 for 800m. That breaks down to 56 sec/400m and 28 sec/200m and 14 sec/100m. A good workout for me would be 24 x 100m @ 14 seconds. I always like to tag on an extra 4 intervals faster than race pace to practice a good finish. Races are often won by the person with the best kick.

In addition, doing this workout is meaningless without having the strength to go with it.
If I just do interval work, then I will just be good at doing intervals. I must add
a lot of stregnth work if I plan to race well in middle distance events.

Another track workout in freezing temperature

Started with 2 miles @ 10:50 min

2x(400m+200m) @ 57,29 sec and 56,27 sec

Again the effort felt like two seconds faster per 400m interval

than what I ran in this workout.  It was difficult to get warmed up even

wearing hats, gloves, half tights, etc...  After the two mile

I had to sit in my car with my heater on high for a few minutes before starting

my faster intervals .

I am sure that intervals in the cold will translate to faster

times in warmer weather with the same effort.  When I come home 

from a run in the cold and try to play the piano before getting warmed up,

it feels impossible. My fingers are half paralyzed. Similarly, when I run fast intervals

on the track, it is like I was shot in the butt with a tranquilizer gun.

When I do an anaerobic workout, the increase of lactic acid seems to have

double the effect. I think it may be eliciting a greater training response

that could result in greater adaptations that will result in improvements

with a proper recovery. After all, when we run hills, train at altitude,

run intervals, etc... We are trying to elicit a bigger training response

resulting in great compensations or physiological adaptations not to 

mention the improved mental toughness that is achieved from getting

outside your comfort zone. 

Rest day

Today I played the piano in two church services.  I was pretty tired today and decided to take it easy. I jogged about 20 minutes and did a few pull ups.  Tomorrow I will attempt two mile warmup in 10:20 followed by 2x(400,300,200) @ 56,42,28

2x4x300m in sub freezing temp

I am now entered in the 800m scheduled Jan 15 at the first of a series of University of Washington Indoor meets. My goal is to run a sub 1:55 opener. 

Today was a pretty solid workout considering the cold and windy conditions.

I started with 4x300m @ 45,46,46,46 with 60 sec rest. I was wearing many layers and road racing  flats. After a lap jog, I put on my spikes and ran another 4x300m @ 43,44,43,43  with 90 sec rest

and finished with a 29 sec 200m . 

This workout would translate to a faster workout in warmer conditions. This session definitely felt the same intensity as running this same workout 2 or 3 seconds faster in warmer weather. 

 There is nothing like very hot shower alternating with freezing cold shower to feel completely recovered.  Forget the concept of exposing yourself to cold as being the reason for getting sick.

IT IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE!!!  Getting exposed to cold temperatures for short durations has been shown to boost the immune system.   I just did a little research about cold therapy and found that there are amazing benefits. Before you jump into an ice bath, make sure that you are healthy enough to do so.  If you are healthy enough to do moderate exercise, then you are very likely healthy enough for total body cold therapy.  It may be a good idea to get check with your doctor to make sure that you are in good enough health to start an exercise program and or cold temperature therapy.  I found that it helps to warm your body up before taking a cold shower or ice bath. Try a warm sauna followed by a cold shower. Eventually build up your tolerance by decreasing the time in the Sauna or warm shower.  Also, I am now more dependent on a cold shower in the morning than I am for coffee. In fact, no more coffee for me, just a healthy cold shower and I am instantly healthier, happier, and wide awake.  Don't forget a healthy glass of carrot, apple, ginger juice.  Why feel like @!@#bleep%%%3 all the time?  Try a little exercise, raw juice, and cold therapy and  you will start to enjoy life a lot more.