Posts Tagged ‘first training’

Quality vs. Quantity

3, Oct 2009

I’ve been really easing into my marathon training plan this time around. Reeeaaally easing into it, running once every 3rd day and cross training in between. When I run, I run with intensity (5 miles at 6:36 pace on Friday, nice!). When I cross train, I cross train like crazy, circuit training my way around the gym and maintaining 20mph on the bike for upwards of an hour.

It’s a modified version of FIRST (www.nycin310.com/?p=259) that’s helping me get back into serious training mode, while continuing to recover from injuries. I swear to god, there’s always something wrong with me. Now I have some shit going on with my 2nd metatarsal in my left foot. Might have to schedule another trip to the podiatrist for early next week. But I digress.

I’ve been trying all week to find running articles online that will validate what I’m doing, but keep coming up short. I’m pretty sure it will be a while before I find any reliable source that says you can run 2 or 3 days a week and still run a respectable marathon time (I’m shooting for 3:25). FIRST requires 3 or 4 days. However, there’s definitely a trend in the mid-level amateur running world towards lower milage, higher intensity plans.

Today I was breezing through some of my favorite blogs and came across a post from the Running Laminator that debated the benefits of high-milage programs vs. lower milage/higher intensity programs. It’s an excellent post, with excellent comments and I highly reccomend reading it here:

http://therunninglaminator.blogspot.com/2009/09/debate-continues.html

There’s no doubt about it, if you’re trying to run elite/sub-elite times, you need high intensity running days, punctuated with easy running days in between… which leads to high milage weeks. It’s almost a guarantee that f you are injury prone, this style of training will lead to sprains, tendonitis, ITBS, etc. So in my injury-phobic state, am I going too far? Will I be able to succeed in shaving 15 minutes off of my 3:40 marathon PR by running even less than I already do?

I dunno, stay tuned.

J

FIRST Training Update – New PR’s

8, Jun 2009

I was just begining to incorporate FIRST workouts and principles into my training program when I started this blog back in March. I started wondering exactly how I could measure my improvements since that time, so I decided to compare my recent and old PR’s, especially my Age Grade scores associated with them. Here are my old PR’s for the distances I’ve raced so far this year…

RACE TIME PACE DATE NAME ST AGE AGE GRADE
5K 18:44 6:02 11/27/08 St. Pete Turkey Trot FL 27 68.9%
4 MI 25:49 6:27 12/15/07 NYRR Holiday NY 26 65.2%
10K 44:55 7:14 12/9/07 Joe Kleinerman NY 26 59.7%

And here are my new PR’s…

RACE TIME PACE DATE NAME ST AGE AGE GRADE
5K 18:04 5:49 3/8/09 Bay-toBay FL 27 71.4%
4 MI 24:40 6:10 4/19/09 Run-As-One NY 27 68.3%
10K 39:23 6:21 5/16/09 Healthy Kidney NY 28 68.2%

And here’s a table showing my Age Graded improvement on each of these distances…

RACE AGE GRADE
5K 2.5%
4 MI 3.1%
10K 8.5%

The 5k and 4 Mile improvements are pretty solid, and the 10k improvement is stellar. If I could continue to make that type of improvement on my half-marathon and full marathon times, I think a 3hr 10min marathon is well within my range by Nov 2010. You can find out more about the FIRST training program…

On My Blog: http://tinyurl.com/nycin310-run-less
And Elsewhere on the Web: http://tinyurl.com/nycin310-first

Thanks for reading, make sure to bookmark my site and come back often. Feel free to email me at Jason@nycin310.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NYCin310.

J

FIRST Training Part III

15, Apr 2009

First off, I promised to explain how to run / bike the perimeter of Manhattan a while ago. I haven’t forgotten about this, the photos were trapped inside my camera and I finally figured out how to get them out. I’m working on a post, but there are 130-some pictures… patience is a virtue.

Ok, here goes nothing…

I ran 5.5 miles this afternoon at a 6:35 pace and felt pretty strong the whole time. I know I’ve vowed to get outdoors more, but I was super busy at work today and the treadmill is just so convenient. That and my peroneal tendonitis is flaring up, probably from Sunday’s outdoor 10 miler, so it was the safest option.

I also started off a little sore from some lunges that Lauren made me do on Monday night, which just means that I don’t do enough lower body strength training, a good lead in to the remainder of this post… which is my final wrap up of Run Less Run Faster.

Before I get into Supplemental Training (strength training, flexibility and form), let me first add a few more thoughts on Runner’s Nutrition…

FIRST Part II

14, Apr 2009

I finished Run Less Run Faster this morning and wanted to add a few thoughts to what I’ve already shared about the FIRST “3plus2″ training program (http://www.nycin310.com/?p=259). Before I get into the new stuff, let me say one thing: cycling at 90-100 RPM is freaking hard.

In a past life, I would get on the bike and increase the resistance to level 13 or 14, then pick up my iPod touch and surf the net or read a book. I would hover along in the high 60, low 70 RPMs. At mid-90 pace, its pretty difficult to focus on anything other than keeping your feet moving. That being said, cranking out 30 minutes on the stationary bike now requires substantially more focus and effort than in the past, so I’m hoping that pays dividends come race time.

Ok, so the second half of the book covers…

FIRST Training

12, Apr 2009

I’ve blogged previously about my evolution into a 3-day a week runner. I don’t take off on non-running days, I just substitute in weight lifting and cardio machines. I’m not sure how I stumbled across my formula, but something tells me I must have read about the FIRST training program and subconsciously incorporated it into my routine. FIRST stands for “Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training” and it’s the foundation of my new favorite running book Run Less Run Faster (B. Pierce, S. Murr, R. Moss).

I’m only half way through the book, but I get it. The training principles are for runners who are eager to put in quality workouts, but are injury prone. That’s me. The concepts addressed in Run Less Run Faster are so simple and intuitive, here it is in a nutshell: “To race fast you need to train fast, but if you train fast, you need to build in substantial recovery time or you risk career halting injury.” That’s it… kind of.


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