Started Running

Despite the fact that we were unable to make the run at my house work, it was a great start to 2 good weeks of training for me. I hope you have all decided to start a "revolution" in your training too. You know 4th of July coming up and all. We are into the time where we only have 6-7 weeks of "summer time" so I hope we can do some serious training this month. Just get out and run, 5-6 days a week even if it is 10 minutes, write your days down and start challenging yourself. I have and feel so much better these days. I ran in Niagara Falls Canada and in Buffalo New York this week.
Hope to see you all soon

Alternate Run Option

Since Sep will be busy for the next 2 weeks, I would offer up a run in the mountains at my house. Flying J open Space in Conifer backs to my house. It will take about 10 minutes longer to get to my house than to get to red rocks.
9:00am Boymel's house./ Wednesday 6-22

Carpool from Chap meet at 8:10-8:15
It is some great ease into altitude running with not a ton of hard hills. A 6 mile and 4 mile loop are easy from my house. I have even been known to make smoothies for these occasions.
email me and let me know if you are coming. Then I can hit you with an email on how to get to my house.

Red Rocks

The good news:  We had a great turn-out, and a great workout today at Red Rocks!

The bad news:  Due to prior engagements, I will not be able to attend the next two weeks of Red Rocks sessions.

However, you are more than welcome to head up on your own, just be careful and be hydrated!

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"The Jump"

More blatant stealing from coachjayjohnson.com

Jay wrote an article for Running Times magazine on how to make the leap from decent track star to excellent cross country star.  I think his ideas a re fresh and innovative, but still appeal to my old-school sensibilities.

It's long, but it's worth it.  Read it, take Jay's advice, get super fast for the fall.

The Jump - By: Jay Johnson

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Lazy Afternoon Thoughts

Went out to dinner last night to Carmine's on Penn, with the 4 x 800 5A State Champions from this year.  We had a great dinner, the five of us devoured multiple baskets of bread, and then almost three plates of excellent pasta.  IF you have ever been to Carmine's, you know that one plate can feed 3-4 people, so we were just chowing down.  It was a lot of fun, I am glad the guys could come out, and I love the tradition of treating a state champion relay team to a nice dinner.  Been out five times now, would love to go out some more!

Just got back from a killer run. (to work off all that spaghetti, I guess.)  I went over 13 miles in about 1:45, for an 8:08 mi/min pace.  I was just feeling it, so I kept going, and going, and going.  I was hurting the last 1.5 miles, but the rest of the time, I was just cruising.  Longest run of the past ten years for me, I am pretty psyched!

The Seppala's are going to be pretty busy this Saturday, we got a huge crawfish boil Saturday night, and before that, there is the Great Divide 17th Anniversary party.  I hear there is going to be a real live Yeti there, that gets to dance on stage, hang out for picture ops, and generally create major mayhem and mischief.  I can't wait to get my picture taken with the beast, hopefully it dances like the guy in the suit on the right of the stage.

Finally, lots of people have been blaming ME for their inability to get to Red Rocks last Tuesday. :) :)  Here is the final word on it!  If you have ever run for me, be at the CHS Track at 8:30 on Tuesday!  Alums, present runners, anyone is welcome!  We're gonna change it up a bit this week, park in a lower lot and get right into some small stair warm-ups.  Should be fun!  See you all there!

Gymnastics in the Summer

I have been communicating with Coach Tom about the best way to keep up your general strength over the summer.  We were trying to figure out how to incorporate gymnastics into that, and this is the plan.

We both think the most efficient method for summer gymnastic strength training is the Sunday Open Gym sessions.  Since most of you are experienced gymnasts, this session will allow you to work on your routines, which will build your overall strength the best.  If you are not an experienced gymnast, that's OK too, as there will be plenty of coaches and assistants there to help you get into the swing of things. (pardon the pun.)

The first open gym is this Sunday, the 12th.   I will be there, so will Chloe depending upon her nap schedule (the open gym is from 11:30-1:00, right during Chloe's naptime), and Castle View's own Will Bakemeyer (pole vaulter and gymnast extraordinaire) will be in attendance as well.

This session on the 12th is free, however other Sunday Open Gym sessionswill cost 10 dollars.  If you are under 18, and you have not previously worked out at Alpha Gymnastics, bring a parent to help with waiver and sign-up forms.

The schedule for the rest of the summer is:

July 10th (whoops, I said the 19th earlier, typo!)
July 17th
July 24th

All of these are Sundays, all of these sessions are from 11:30-1:00.

These gymnastics sessions are open to all past and present high school athletes, no matter what school you are from or what sport you play.  Coach Tom and I firmly believe that gymnastics can be beneficial for all sports, so we want as many athletes there pushing each other to greater heights.  Summer training is about getting not just faster, but stronger too, and gymnastics has been proven time and time again to just for all athletes!

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Sep's Summer Training Guidelines

The summer is a great time to stockpile some serious training.  I think the summer is perfect for accumulating miles, keeping your tempo speed up, gaining overall strength & flexibility, and most of all, having fun while running.  I love training in the summer, I still have some training logs from the mid-90’s, when I was in high school and training for ski season during the summer.  The summer was where I got a jumpstart on my competition, and it is where you can start laying the foundations towards achieving your goals in the spring.  Remember how crazy and fun State meet was?  If you want to be right in the middle of all that, you need to have a great summer of training.  

I am not going to give you a day-by-day training plan, but I will be able to suggest some general guidelines that you can modify to fit your needs and your schedule for the summer, so you can go back to school in better shape than you left school in!

The first rule is each week you need to take at least one total rest day with no running at all, and one day where you do an easy 20 min jog. (Like we would do on Thursdays when we would jog to the pool and back.)  Recovery is the most often overlooked phase of summer training.  Do not neglect your sleep, your hydration and your nutrition.  I repeat, do not overlook your sleep, hydration and nutrition.  

So, that leaves 5 days a week of serious training.  One of those days we will be organizing trips to Red Rocks.  This is your serious speed and strength day, treat it like an interval day.  This will be Tuesday, and we will be meeting at the Chaparral track at 8:30 to carpool over to Red Rocks.  Make sure to bring a big bottle of water and a little bit of money in case we stop for Gatorades on the way home as well as your training shoes and an extra shirt.  Don’t forget to eat a light breakfast beforehand!  A banana, some oatmeal, something needs to be in your stomach for this workout.  This is a “red” day, where you will go until you are exhausted, so be prepared! 

One other day during the week should be tempo running.  These can be intervals in a park, fartleks along a trail, anything where you pick up the pace just a little bit for 1.5 to 4 minutes.  Remember, tempo running is not “all-out” (that’s what Red Rocks is for), it is just a slight uptick in speed.  Don’t take a lot of recovery between these speed sessions; if you need a lot of rest, you were probably going too fast.  Email me, and I can give you your paces for track tempo intervals.  If you want to do one or two of these on the track to get a feel for it, that’s probably a good idea.  But, don’t do all of your summer tempo work on the track, just do enough to get a feel for the pace.  Most of your summer tempo work should be on trails, in parks, or on dirt roads.

The other three days are straight-up running days.  One of those days should be a medium length day, one should be a long day, and the other should be a super-long day.   Make sure you have a difference between the length of your long run days, but keep the pace appropriate.  These are your long run days, not your race days.  I usually try to do a creative run on my medium run days, that’s where you stop every five minutes to do some type of calisthenic, either push-ups, sit-ups, tricep dips on a bench, tuck jumps anything you can think of to get some general strength in.  My long runs and my super-long runs are just that.  Straight running, no stopping, at an easy pace.  

And you already know this, but before all of those workouts, you should warm up with the form drills.  After each workout, cool down with the lunge routine.  I’m not a big proponent of strength in the gym in the summer, I think through Red Rocks, creative runs, and lunges, you can get all the running strength you need.

Let’s look a typical week, just to give you an idea of what your schedule might look like.

SUN:  Super-Long Run (60 min)

MON: Day Off

TUE: Red Rocks

WED: Medium Run (30 min)

THU: Long Run (45 min)

FRI: Tempo Running 

SAT: Active Rest (20 min)

Now, you won’t be running the same distances all throughout the summer.  Or maybe you will start off with longer runs already.  That’s fine, but make sure to progress appropriately. My guideline is, increase each run length (except the active rest day) by five minutes every two weeks.  That will give you the stress you need to to keep up with your fitness level. 

You can change this weekly schedule around to however you want, but look at a few principles.  I never have two interval days back-to-back.  I made sure you had a day off before the hardest day of the week.  I also made sure that the runs were all of differing length.  When you set your schedule, make sure you follow these rules.  Summer is meant to be fun, not rigid and stressful.  Set up your schedule to make sure you get the most fun and the most running in that you can.

One more thing.  I strongly suggest keeping a training log. I have always kept one, and not only does it allow me to look back and learn from my experiences, but it also keeps me motivated.  I now use an online training log, www.runkeeper.com.  It’s free, and it really perfect for the type of training we do.  Plus, it allows me as your coach, to keep track of what you are doing from afar so then we can make necessary adjustments if needed.  It also allows me to motivate, communicate, cajole, and encourage, even if I am in Long Island, or Winter Park, or wherever I happen to be that week.  Go check out that site, sign up (it’s free!), and allow me to be on your “street team”.  Signing up for runkeeper, plus a watch and www.runningmap.com, (an online mapping program that allows me to see the length of my run in miles), is all you really need to maximize your efficiency this summer when it comes to your training.  Isn’t technology amazing?

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  Lao-tzu said that hundreds of years ago, and it means you gotta start your training today, and keep running one day at a time.  You will notice the difference by the time school starts, I promise, if you are diligent and consistent with your training.  If you have any questions, please email me and I will get back to you as soon as I can,

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EDIT:  This post is a work in progress, check back often for more ideas, thoughts, comments and musings about summer training.

Training

I am not one to say I am putting in a lot of miles, I've done that in my life and now I run to stay healthy, in-shape and not look too much like a "mom". However, I have found that I can set a few minutes aside each day to run, I may have to get up really early or go on my lunch hour but I can do it. It is time for you all to set time aside. You don't have to run a ton of miles but make your time count. If you only get 15 minutes in, it is better than nothing. Get 15 minutes in, trick your body and run 3 really hard 1 minute speed changers. or do the last 5 minutes at an increased pace. This will not make you have a great base or increase your ability to produce speed in May next year but it will make your body and mind feel better about the ability to run and train. We will need to start running, we will need to start training but for now, just set your time aside and go for a run.
I am and boy do I feel better when I do.