Wonder how I've never heard of this before

My sister-i-l A__ shared this story with me. Amazing.

6. Run long when the sun shines

Spencer has been dealing with Chicago in winter. DC hasn't been great either, though I would guess it's a lot nicer than there. But every so often a day comes along . . .

Today is 60 degrees with clear skies. It's supposed to get wet and cool starting tomorrow. My running obligations this week include a longer (~75') run, a tempo run, a hill workout, and a long run. Today was supposed to be the tempo: quick warmup, 25' at a pace faster than I feel like going, then a jog home.

But that leaves 75' cruising for a less pleasant day. Nobody will notice if I rearrange my schedule, will they? I'm going to try the Utah Ave. to Western to Oregon loop that D__ and I found the other weekend. Then a trail through the woods at dusk to Beach Drive and back south. Whether I come home by way of Nebraska or past the Rock Creek stables depends on just how pleasant it is. I'm guessing I take the long way, but time will tell.

Oh the weather outside is frightful

The fantasy of a soft short winter has been crushed by 4-8 inches of snow and howling winds.  My Saturday run with the BOMF running group will probably morph into a short gym session in my building's work out room.  On the other hand, I signed up for my first 2012 race, the March 25th Shamrock Shuffle where I will receive either a C or B Corral seeding based on last year's result and the other race results I submitted (thank you ATlinks!). 

On such a day, an antitrust prof's thoughts turn to late fall/early winter marathons.  I am just starting to research a nice small race in a pleasant clime late in the year or very early in January so I can do the bulk of my training in the fall instead of the stinking heat of July and August.  Besides the mid-November Malibu marathon any suggestions?

Heart Attacks

The idea of my heart blowing up in a marathon has been giving me more than a little, er, heartache, certainly since this recent story of Chris Gleason, a 10:00 IM triathlete, and about-to-be 3:00 marathoner, about my age, who left behind his family with only 1/4 mile to go in last fall's Philadelphia marathon.

Of course, I'm conscious of the plane-crash versus car-crash phenomenon, and recognize that the statistics certainly favor us runningprofs over the "Duh Bears" guys from SNL.

A member of a triathlon list-serv to which I belong just shared this Runner's World article, which summarizes a New England Journal of Medicine study. Time reported it as well. Apparently, we're OK, no longer being 22. The only problem is running triathlon.

Here are a few more links to reports on studies (1, 2, 3), which the same list-serv group member shared. (I'd like to attribute, because it's really interesting stuff and I appreciate her sharing it, but I have a rule against naming people by name, so I won't.) A one-sentence summary: everything you know is true -- you shouldn't run long if you aren't properly trained (I've violated this injunction more than once); you need to hydrate (I'm getting much better at this); digging deep at the end isn't healthy (fortunately, I'm really good at walking at the end!).

5. Form matters

Fifth lesson of running is that there is a best way to do it. Presumably, there is actually a single best way, but more realistically there is a best way for each of us, meaning I'm never going to stride like Meb but I can learn to stride as well as I can.

We lawyers generally get this, with our emphases on procedure. We rail against convicting even the guiltiest of SOBs if we did it the wrong way. We teach that there is a best way to communicate a thought. I'm currently grading exams down, at least in part, if the students express the right idea in the wrong words.

So of course when we go for a run we intuitively understand there's a right way to do it. Do we do it the right way? I have spent most of my running career figuring that I ran fine in light of my modest talent and work ethic. This winter I'm playing a little with foot strike, stride length, linearity of motion.

How do you work on form? I am told there's one sure way to do it. Hill Repeats. (Deliberately capitalized.)

I did a short spin down into Rock Creek Park, emerging via the Tilden climb to Connecticut. Right on Albemarle and wind back to Linnean to return home. Then up Ingomar 6 times. I was going to stop there, but The Youth cycled through on my iPod, so I knocked out 7 and 8. And after a week in which we said our goodbyes to two family members -- one, my grandmother; the other, my stepfather's brother J__ -- I had an inspiration about what living means. So back downhill. I spent number 9 remembering Grandma and number 10 remembering J__.

Olympic Trials Marathon

Men's results here. 4 under 2:10. Not sure anybody saw that coming!

Women's results here. Also an exceedingly tight finish.

Top three in each qualify -- I believe so long as (for men) they are under 2:15. For women, 2:37. (Here's the standard list, for what it's worth.) As I understand it, if you have three A-standard-meeting athletes, you get to send all three (plus an alternate, if that alternate also meets the standard). Apparently if you don't make the "A" standard, you can send one athlete qualifying with the "B" standard.

4. Do what you don't want to do

This surely has an analog in life: concentrate your efforts at your weaknesses. This makes intuitive sense: when you pick up something new, the learning curve is steep (i.e., you progress quickly), and then it becomes more gradual with time. That gradual part is the dreaded "plateau."

I have a theory for planning a workout program. I don't implement it because I pay a guy to help me structure a training schedule, but I think this idea might work.

There are really about 5 or so workouts that we do over and over during the year. Strength training (weights or calisthenics), speed work, whether on the track or fartlek-style runs, distance work, tempo runs, and cross-training of some sort. Of course, exactly what each of those are changes as we get fit, or take time off, or whatever, but generally everything fits into one of those categories.

What if every three months you sat down and listed from 1-5 the workout you really wanted to do? Right now it might be (for me):

1. Distance work (how lovely. Just me, my iPod, and a quiet road.)
2. Cross training (a little yoga, a little cycling.)
3. Lifting weights (not really fun, but it's pleasantly narcissistic.)
4. Fartlek or interval runs (at least the volume is low!)
5. Tempo runs (ick. Sounds really hard.)

Then you structure your workout to emphasize numbers 4 and 5, while obviously not completely ignoring the others. At the end of three months, reassess. My guess is that the list will look different. That means you improved.