I'm Going to Try This Again

Jeff Annas 5K 3rd place age group 20:21

Here I am again. I have not posted anything since September of last year. I am going to try and keep up with this now as I have been making great progress in my running so far in the second half of this year. During the first half I was getting little injuries that really did not keep me from running but I wanted to take it easy and not make things worse.

First thing is I had hoped to get under 20 minutes in a 5K race this year, it did not happen. But I did get down to 20:21. I only ran two 5K’s this year (during the last two months) and will only do a total of four races by December. So I think reaching 20:21 is great and I am very confident I will get under the 20 minute mark next year.

My strength training has been going great, getting stronger in my upper and lower body and midsection. This is something every runner should be working on, especially us older ones. Right now I mostly work out 6 days a week. An example would be chest and back day one, arms and shoulders day two then legs day three and repeat over the next three days. Day seven is rest day. I change this up and vary the exercises every week.

What has helped me get faster, aside from trying to increase mileage, is speed work. Before I started my speed work I did four sessions of hill sprints over three weeks leading up to this point just to get broken in. For my 5K’s I did workouts twice a week for the three weeks before the races. Things like mile repeats, ¼ mile repeats and 20 min tempo runs. The week before the race I cut my mileage, did 6 quarter mile repeats on Monday and 6 - 200 meter repeats on Wednesday before the weekend races.

I can only run 5 days a week because of my work schedule. This is good because it forces me to not run two days which gives me some time to recover.

Up coming races for 2015 are a 10 miler in October and Half Marathon in December. The day I run the Half Marathon will be one day after my 60^th Birthday. For the beginning of 2016 I would like o do a 10k, 10 Miler then a 50K in that order.

Can Shoe Goo Prolong The Life Of Your Shoes Soles?

Are the soles of your shoes wearing down faster than you like but the uppers are still in good shape? My Nike Lunaracers are wearing down so I bought some Shoe Goo to apply to the soles to see if it could prolong their life. Here is a video of that. The good news is so far the Shoe Goo has been holding up.

Keeping Track Of Running Shoe Miles

Really, how many people actually keep track of how many miles they put on their running shoes? I mean documenting the miles by day, week, month and year! I can tell you I have gone for years without a clue as to the mileage I put on my running shoes - until now. I don’t know why but I decided maybe I should start keeping track of mine.

So now of course I will see the miles accumulate on paper along with the visual of seeing the damage to the soles. I had been rotating two pairs of shoes and now have added a third pair to the mix. Keeping track on paper, now I can see which ones get used the most, as if I already did not know being I am the one wearing them.

When I decided to start doing this the first thing I asked myself was how? Surely there must be a document or file on-line that someone has already made up that I can use I asked myself, and there was. But in the end I came up with my own crude chart to log the miles for each of my shoes. By crude, I really mean it but it does the trick.

If you check on-line, type “keeping track of shoe miles” on Google, you will see there are applications you can use and unlimited suggestions on forums on how to track the data. If you like the technical stuff, then one of the apps is for you. Personally I like writing down the info on the chart I put together as I can quickly look at it without having to log onto some device or computer.

So back to why I decided to track my shoes mileage. I guess it would be useful so I do not keep running forever on the same pair of shoes. If you are a heavier runner I guess you might worry about the compression of the foam to the point that you no longer have decent cushioning, which in reality is something we should all be concerned with.

The point is to not try using the same pair of shoes to the point you are creating damage to yourself. When you reach this point you could very well start to obtain minor aches and pains that will eventually lead to bigger things, which in turn may stop you from running altogether. Below are some pictures of the log I made for myself. The shoes I am currently using are the Nike Lunaracer (Lun), Nike Pegasus (Peg) and Adidas Boost. I started using the Adidas later and just started keeping track at the bottom of the page.

It’s pretty crude but it works for me. In addition I do keep a log of my runs.

Adidas Energy Boost Video Review

This is a video review of the Adidas Energy Boost shoe that I recently purchased. I give a basic all around close up view before I take the Energy Boost out for their first run. I was looking for another pair of shoes for my longer slower runs to rotate with my Nike Pegasus and these are what I settled on. Hopefully they will do the trick for me. I was debating over whether to buy these or get another pair of Nike Lunaracers as they seem to fit my foot just great which I will still get another pair in the future.

Anyway, these Adidas Energy Boosts look like they will be OK. I may just need to wear a thicker pair of socks with them as it will give a snugger fit in my forefoot (my problem is my left foot). In general I think the Adidas Energy Boost will do just fine for me as I rotate them in with my other shoes.

Getting Stronger to Run Faster

My goal is to get to a 19 minute 5K. While it would be great to reach that this year, realistically it may be 2015 before I can achieve it. To help me get there I have been working on my speed by following prescribed methods and will be increasing my mileage overall. I am looking long term as I am not trying to speed this process up and get injured. Especially at 58 years of age.

Another thing I have been working on since my Marathon is my strength. I figure if the experts say get stronger to run faster and reduce the chances of injuries that’s for me. This includes upper body and lower body. My leg strength has been lagging behind and this is one thing holding me back.

My butt muscles have gotten pretty weak over time as I have been doing a lot of sitting at my job. There was a time I was in pretty good shape being I was running so much, riding bike and swimming. I did a lot of hiking back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s when we lived in California, lots of great places to go. Getting stronger is an integral part of my plan and it will help me get faster and hopefully reduce the chance of injuries.

I have also just gone ahead and accepted the fact that I am a Masters runner and not a youngster anymore. In fact I guess I would be considered a Grand Master runner. Accepting this notion I have started doing more reading on training for masters and how we need to pay more attention to ourselves and watch out for pushing too hard least we injure ourselves. In other words be more careful. Having said that it’s great to see how well many over 40 runners are competing at such a high level.

If you are getting back into running after an extended period of time or you are starting for the first time, it would be worth your time to work on your leg strength. Even a couple times a week would be of help. You really do not need any weights or special equipment if you think that would be an obstacle. There are plenty of exercises you can do with just your body weight.

Fuel Belt Sprint 10 0z Bottle Review

I did this review on YouTube some time ago; it’s the first hand carry bottle I ever bought. I have since been using a Nathan bottle which I like.

Catching Up on 2013 Races

Well I have seriously let my blog posts fall by the wayside but will now do some catching up. As for the Marathon I wanted to do last December – I did run it and finished with a time of 4:10:00, overall place of 140 out of 608 runners.  My average pace was 9:32 per mile. For the first 18 or so miles I was able to maintain a pace around 8:40 to 8:45 per mile but at around 18 miles I got a pain in my left hip and groin area that really slowed me down. I later learned it to be the Psoas Muscle; it was preventing me from lifting my left leg to run so I slowed down more and more the further I went.

I was determined I was going to finish this race so I sucked it up and kept going. I did a couple of 20 milers leading up to this race not to mention the 15 to 18 mile runs I did and had no problem with this at all. After the race it took a couple months for my hip to get back to 100 percent again but I kept running just enough so as not to lose too much fitness and give my hip a chance to recuperate.

Here I am in May and have been training with no problems. I ran the Save the Tiger 5K on May 17 and did pretty well with a 21:56 finish time. This is only 2 seconds faster than my last 5K last August but it felt much easier, I think I could have pushed it harder. My goal is still to get down to 19 minutes and this year I am doing the proper speed work to help me achieve this goal. I plan on doing at least 2 more 5K’s, a 10 miler and a half marathon this year.  The half marathon is part of the Marathon of the Palm Beaches. I may try the Marathon again next year (2015) but will skip it this time around so I can get more miles on my legs for a better finish.

                             Finishing the "Save the Tiger 5K" (in the white shirt)

Anyway, I am satisfied with my 2013 races and look to make improvements at all distances this year.

2013 Races:

5K -24:13

Half Marathon - 1:54:42

5K – 22:53

5K – 21:58

10 mile – 1:15:00

Marathon – 4:10:00