Monday night training saw Alan, Alistair, Amanda, Bronwyn, Christine G, Christopher, David, Ewen, Gary, Geoff B, me, Helen, Jeni, Jodie, Katie, Ken, Maria, Michael, Mick C, Neil, Peter, Rachelle, Rohan, Ruth & Tim run 12 sprints of 40 seconds each with an eighty second break. We split the session in two and ran six on a slightly uphill cycle path and six on a slightly downhill grass/dirt track.
Should the longest training runs be fast? (continued)
I have always thought that to get the most out of your longest runs, they must be done fairly quickly. On the other hand, 35 years ago the only way I could increase the distances I was running was to slow down. Admittedly I was coming off a background of sub 2 800m running, so I had a bit of slowing down to do anyway. And it takes time to gather endurance. But I was also young, so maybe I could have run harder. Did I have as an excuse that I never mastered running well on hilly courses? If I sped up too many hills I broke, which might be why my Cotter runs were very often mighty slow. But a couple of times when my fitness peaked, e.g. leading up to my sub 2:30 marathons, they could be mighty fast. Also I over-raced, which means I was rarely fresh for the longer days. I wonder if, had I raced less often and run the Cotters faster, would my marathon pb be faster? My guess is, yes. Another factor/excuse though: I found it hard to motivate myself just to train without racing. Another factor: I never got injured, not for my best 15 years! Maybe because I trained slower than I might have? Another question: Does going a lot faster in longer runs increase the possibility of injury (and exhaustion!) or is mainly the distance run at whatever pace a key injury indicator?”
Here's an amusing post about what to do if caught in quick-sand: http://www.half-fast.org/2008/02/emergency-procedures-quicksand.html. The emergency procedures include, for example, "1. STOP YOUR WATCH. The most dangerous thing about quicksand is that it can really mess up your splits, which is why it’s critical that you stop your watch as soon as you realize that you’re caught up in quicksand. If you’re wearing a Garmin hold it up above the quicksand as high as you can (because it’s expensive) and maybe it will tell the satellite to send help (no it won’t)".
More on poetry: Not Dead Yet
"I don't deny that there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die. I only say it is necessary to have another kind of priests, called poets, actually to remind men that they are not dead yet" - G.K.Chesterton.
Among my favourite poets are/were William Blake and T.S.Eliot; I must dig out their verses applicable to running!
Thursday Feb 21 track program:
ACT championship weekend – part of Alice’s email:
A reminder that entries for the weekend of championship events is due on Thursday evening. This year there will be no late entries after the Wednesday prior to the championships i.e. March 5th. All entries will be entered into the database that evening for printing into the Program the next day. Note that there are changes to the weekend timetable including (a) the 800m will be run on Friday night; (b) the Saturday session will start at 10:30am.
Well, I have entered the 1500m but not the 800m. I may not actually run the 1500m. First, let's see if we can survive the 10k this Thursday. A sub 41 minutes would be good! Still, I could run the 1500m too; I may have been avoiding quick races in recent years, but I'm not dead yet!
Should the longest training runs be fast? (continued)
I have always thought that to get the most out of your longest runs, they must be done fairly quickly. On the other hand, 35 years ago the only way I could increase the distances I was running was to slow down. Admittedly I was coming off a background of sub 2 800m running, so I had a bit of slowing down to do anyway. And it takes time to gather endurance. But I was also young, so maybe I could have run harder. Did I have as an excuse that I never mastered running well on hilly courses? If I sped up too many hills I broke, which might be why my Cotter runs were very often mighty slow. But a couple of times when my fitness peaked, e.g. leading up to my sub 2:30 marathons, they could be mighty fast. Also I over-raced, which means I was rarely fresh for the longer days. I wonder if, had I raced less often and run the Cotters faster, would my marathon pb be faster? My guess is, yes. Another factor/excuse though: I found it hard to motivate myself just to train without racing. Another factor: I never got injured, not for my best 15 years! Maybe because I trained slower than I might have? Another question: Does going a lot faster in longer runs increase the possibility of injury (and exhaustion!) or is mainly the distance run at whatever pace a key injury indicator?”
Here's an amusing post about what to do if caught in quick-sand: http://www.half-fast.org/2008/02/emergency-procedures-quicksand.html. The emergency procedures include, for example, "1. STOP YOUR WATCH. The most dangerous thing about quicksand is that it can really mess up your splits, which is why it’s critical that you stop your watch as soon as you realize that you’re caught up in quicksand. If you’re wearing a Garmin hold it up above the quicksand as high as you can (because it’s expensive) and maybe it will tell the satellite to send help (no it won’t)".
More on poetry: Not Dead Yet
"I don't deny that there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die. I only say it is necessary to have another kind of priests, called poets, actually to remind men that they are not dead yet" - G.K.Chesterton.
Among my favourite poets are/were William Blake and T.S.Eliot; I must dig out their verses applicable to running!
Thursday Feb 21 track program:
| 6:00 pm | 800/2000m walk |
| 6:10 pm | 60m |
| 6:30 pm | 200m (Boag) |
| 6:50 pm | 800m |
| 7:15 pm | 400m |
| 7:30 pm | 10,000m championships |
ACT championship weekend – part of Alice’s email:
A reminder that entries for the weekend of championship events is due on Thursday evening. This year there will be no late entries after the Wednesday prior to the championships i.e. March 5th. All entries will be entered into the database that evening for printing into the Program the next day. Note that there are changes to the weekend timetable including (a) the 800m will be run on Friday night; (b) the Saturday session will start at 10:30am.
Well, I have entered the 1500m but not the 800m. I may not actually run the 1500m. First, let's see if we can survive the 10k this Thursday. A sub 41 minutes would be good! Still, I could run the 1500m too; I may have been avoiding quick races in recent years, but I'm not dead yet!
