My New Racing Flats - New Balance 1400

I Have been wanting to get a new pair of racing flats as my favorite Nike Lunaracers are getting worn down a bit. Been looking around for a shoe that fits my narrow feet and decided to give these a try. They are a narrow shoe and it fits my right foot great, it always seems to be my left foot that has the trouble with the fit. Anyway here's a video of these New Balance 1400. What do you think? Anyone else use these shoes?

A Look Inside A Nike Running Shoe

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a running shoe looks like? Check this out.

2016 Shamrock Run

Here is a quick video of the Shamrock Run on March 12 in Lake Worth, FL. There was a 5k and 10 mile race, this only shows the 5k start.

These are the links to the results for the 5K  and the 10 miler.

You Can Run A Faster 5K

I have set a goal for myself to race a 5K under 19:00 minutes by the end of the year. It could be 18:59 and I would be happy with that. I did a 5K a couple weeks ago, the first since last October I believe, and my first race of this year. Think of this as a practice run to see where my fitness is at this point and to check out this course. I plan to run another race that will follow the same route on March 12 so now I am familiar with it.

During the race two weeks ago I got off course at the half way turn around. I should have made a sharp U-turn from the road onto a bike path but I swung too far out and into a parking lot losing me a few seconds to get back on the path. I finished with a time of 20:34 which is better than anticipated at this point giving me 1^st in age group and 5^th overall. This was a popular but low key race; the faster runners in the area did not show up.

The temperature at the start was 52 degrees, which for me was cold. Even after a warm-up I still felt like I could not relax over the first mile. I just felt stiff and could not get up to speed.

So my goal for the next race is to work on speed endurance. I will do this with a couple 20 minute tempo runs, some one mile repeats and half mile repeats. I keep the recovery time between repeats short to avoid recovering too much. I only do work-outs two days a week; the other days are variations of slower runs, only running 5 days a week.

For some tips on getting faster for 5K’s check out this article from Competitor.com

Follow these workouts and crush your PRs in no time.

Despite being “short” from a distance runner’s standpoint, the 5K and 10K are difficult race distances to master.

The 5K requires you to run at close to maximum effort for 3.1 miles, which usually results in redlining only 1.5 miles in. While the race is over in just 20 to 30 minutes, toe the line unprepared and you’ll be suffering the second half of the race.

The 10K, on the other hand, is a blend of speed and endurance that necessitates running only a few ticks slower than 5K pace, yet for double the distance. Be off your pacing or fitness by only a fraction and the last two miles will be torture.

Read more at Specific Training For 5K

Progressive Tempo Workouts To Run Faster

To run a fast race you need to train once or twice a week specific to the race distance you will be doing. Know your goal pace a train around that. This video is about doing a progressive Tempo workout. This type of Tempo run has you running progressively faster at a prescribed distance.
Try this at anytime but it is good to do when you begin to do your speed workouts so you can ease into them.

While this is a great workout for all, older masters runners can take advantage of the progressive Tempo run if you are worried about the stress of running fast workouts.

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!

Longer Tempo Runs for Better Race Results

So, this week I did a 2 X 3 mile Tempo run. You need to do workouts that are specific to the distance you are racing and at the pace you expect to run in that race. You should not run at a pace that you would like to run if it is faster than what you can really do. Does that make sense? Anyway I have never tried doing two back to back 3 mile Tempos runs this way, only two milers, such as 3 X 2 miles.

All day I worried about doing this, could I pull it off? It would be almost like running two 5K races with only a four minute rest between. Turns out it was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I started late in the afternoon and by the time I did my one mile warm-up and got halfway into the first three mile it was getting dark. I use one of those clip-on LED lights for my visor set on strobe and carry a small but powerful LED flashlight for when it’s dark.

By the time I started my second three miles it was completely dark. I have run on this bike path many times but unfortunately both of my lights were getting dim so I had to be extra careful of my steps. This forced me to run a bit slower than I wanted but in the end it was still ok.

The basic rundown of this work out started with a one mile warm-up. For the three mile Tempo I wanted to run at my expected Half Marathon pace of 7:14. The first mile ended up being 7:32, the second at 7:18 and for the last I made it down to 7:13. I jogged slowly for four minutes before beginning the second three miles.

As I began the second half my legs where feeling really sluggish but managed a faster first mile over the first Temp run at 7:26. The second mile was slower because of the darkness but I was able to pick it up during the last half mile as I had more surrounding light so I could see better finishing with a 7:13. I finished this work-out with a one mile cool down.

If you are not doing this type of work-out while preparing for a Half or full Marathon you should start. You greatly improve your endurance and find yourself running faster on race day.