Root Beer Flavored Gu Gel

Have you tried the Root Beer flavored Gu energy gel. If you like drinking Root Beer I think you would be surprised at how close the gel tastes to the real thing. I bought a box of them on Amazon because of the good price and found I like them. I have had no issues using them on long runs. Check out this video. So, if you are looking for something different give the Root Beer Gu a try.

Running When It Is Raining

Is running in the rain a good idea? There are times you may be out for a run and you get caught in the rain, not much you can do about it but keep going. If it is a thunder and lightning storm you most likely should get to cover. If it is already raining when it’s time to go for a run, do you go out anyway? I am not one to purposely put myself into that situation. Especially living in South Florida were we can get some pretty dangerous thunderstorms during the warmer months.

Running More Miles To Improve Your Running

This is my first rant about improving as a runner. The first thing anyone should do is get in the base miles before starting any kind of speed work. The best way to get stronger aerobically and physically is to increase the number of miles you run first. Of course you need to be smart about it and not increase your weekly miles too fast or more than what your body can handle. Sorry about the darkness, I run in the late afternoon and by the time I get home it’s dark this time of the year.

Leg Strength For Runners

It’s amazing how as young kids we could head right out the door and take off running at full speed. We could zig and zag, jump and roll like nothing, never getting hurt or dealing with aches and pains. The next thing you know you are in your 40’s, 50’ or 60’s and there is no way we should try that stuff before getting a proper warm-up. Even then it may not be wise to try. As we age, maintaining our agility and strength becomes more of a chore and it is more difficult to maintain what you have gained.

One major weakness we deal with is leg strength, mainly the Glutes and Hamstring muscles.  If you are a beginning runner or have been running for a long time and you are older, you need to strengthen these muscles. Doing so will help prevent injury and your running performance will benefit.

To use myself as an example, I have had issues with the Piriformis muscle in my right buttocks three times over the last three years from running. I did not start doing any leg strengthening until after the second time. Fortunately while it was literally a pain in the butt I was able to continue running each time. As I have kept up with the strength work I feel I have finally overcome the problem, until my left side started to hurt.

It’s odd that the left side never was a problem before until I was helping my wife clean house. This Piriformis flare-up had nothing to do with running; it was all due to the frequent of squatting and standing while cleaning. The motion was something I was not used to and the muscle let me know that fact. I had done some deep squats while working out but the frequency on that day must have been too much. This time it hurt so badly there was no running. In fact, it was very painful to go through the motion of standing up or sitting down.

It took five days before the pain started to subside and I ventured out for a test run. Gradually increasing mileage over a few days until I was confident it was going to be OK. I think I was lucky I was able to get through it quickly, maybe because of the leg workouts I had been previously doing. So it was a lesson learned that as I have aged I need to be aware of more things than running that may cause some odd injury.

Any way, if you are not doing leg exercises at least twice a week and you want to reduce the chance of injuries you need to start working out now. Think long term, start off slow and increase weight and reps over a period of time as your strength improves. Even body weight exercises are a great way to go if no weights are available. As another benefit, aside from injury reduction, you will become a more efficient runner and improve your speed.

The Year Ahead

OK, so I did not keep up with posting like I wanted. Life has been busy. I said in a post back in October that I wanted to do a 10K, 10 Miler and a 50K in 2016. That has changed; I want to do nothing but 5K races this year. My goals are to get faster and to get as close to the 18 minute mark as possible. My fastest time for the 5K in 2015 was 20:21. I am pretty sure breaking into 19 minutes will be fairly easy (yea right) but getting to the 18 minute range will take some serious work. Even 18:59 would make me happy.

Having said all of that I realize that I am not as young as I used to be and must be cautious with this. I need avoid injury by not overdoing speed work by neither trying too hard nor doing too much of it. Building overall strength will be a priority, especially for the legs. Running slow on those easy days will be a must.

For those of you out there that would fall under the Masters heading that are trying to run a faster 5K hopefully you can benefit from my documenting my goals to include what not to do. And, maybe I can learn a thing or two from the readers.

My best race times for 2015 are … (I only did 5 races this year)

1. 5K: 20:21, Third place age group, Jeff Annas Memorial Firefighter 5K

2. 10 Miles: 1:10:56, First place age group, Wellington Horse Country 10 Miler

3. Marathon: 1:35:50, First place age group, EAU Palm Beach Marathon and Half Marathon

Total mileage for the year: 1,327.25 by Garmin

Using A Logbook

If you are not using a log of some type to keep track of your running progress you should start now. It is  great way to help you reach your goals. Check out this video 
for more.

Now get started logging your running, it does not take that much extra time out of your day!