Strength Training

Contrary to popular folklore, weight training and running don't work against each other in building a faster, fitter body. I bring this up because: A) I've been getting into the gym and: B) someday I think I'll write a longish article for older runners.

In my case, I lost a tremendous amount of muscle when I was forced to take time off from exercising. The gout attacks didn't stop just the running, but pretty much all activity. Feet, knees, elbows, wrists, and fingers were all affected, usually two or three joints at a time.

So, I have headed back into the gym to rebuild the mass I lost. I'm not doing anything fancy. For the chest, bench presses and incline presses. For arms, curls, pull-ups, tricep extensions. For the back, upright rows and lat pull-downs. Legs, leg press. Where possible, I use free weights, mostly dumbells, and work the weaker side to exhaustion. Gradually, the sides are coming into balance.

The legs are where I went to get some help and hired a wonderful young lady named Sophia. Our goal hasn't been to get me driving the maximum possible weight. Instead, I've worked with weights much lower than I could so the proper technique gets built into the muscle memory.

We started with a series of light movement exercises, moved to dead lifts, then squats, and now cleans.

With the deadlifts and the squats, the initial hip inflexibility limited the depth of the exercise. by the second week though, I was able to drop past a 90 degree angle at the knee (remember, low weights!) while holding good form.

Cleans (where you lift the barbell, 'pop' it up at the midsection, and drop your shoulders under the bar before continuing to stand) have been comical. Fortunately, Sophie has been patient while I get past the over-thinking. It's coming along.

The upside of the weight work is that the leg strength I lost is returning, and doing so fairly quickly. The downside is the weight I'm gaining as the mass comes back. As I ramp my mileage (and that should go getter with additional muscle), I expect to burn down some of my accumulated fat. By most standards, I'm pretty skinny. By runner standards, I've got some work to do.

So far, the project is a success. I skipping a lift day today though, as the weather is much nicer than we could hope for in late January. I'm going to a run on one of my old hilly courses. That will be the test for how well the lifting is going.

Run gently, friends.

Slow Runners

Competitor magazine sent up a piece on FB about slow runners. Written by Jeff Guadette, a former NCAA D1 All-American and ace coach, the focus of the article, If You Run Slow, Who Cares?, is on the non-elite runners, so non-elite that they don't really dream of winning races or even age groups. These runners are looking to improve but already understand that they aren't elite 14:00 minute 5K runners.

Jeff makes some great points in the article, some of which I use when I coach. "There's always someone faster . . ." is one that I bet the Asotin JR kids are tired of hearing. Part of the stigma of being slow is the natural tendency for human beings to gain a position of advantage. I have seen the line between running and jogging set at 5:40 per mile, 6:00 per mile, 7:00 per mile, etc. Usually, the pace is set at whatever the speaker can run and everyone slower than him/her/it/whatever is a jogger. 'Cuz runners are cooler, or something, than joggers.

Personally, I don't get too wrapped up in the pace. (editor: 'cuz you're slow?) I worry about how hard I'm working or the kids are working. I derive a great deal more pleasure from a back of the pack runner giving his best effort than a young man with talent that won't work.

One of my epiphanous  moments as a runner came when I was still a football player and discus thrower. I had a coach that thought all members of the track team should run five miles a day, including the guy that spun in an eight-foot circle and lobbed artillery into the open fields. Fast forward a year and a half, and the discus thrower is running what will be his fastest 10K, a 35:56.

I finished that race utterly, and happily, exhausted. Eighteen minutes later, I watched a woman, probably in her forties, finish. Writ on her face was all the toil and effort and determination that I had experienced - except she had worked that hard fifty percent longer than I had.

I respected that. Still do.

I don't care if you're slow. Hell, even by my own standards, I'm slow. You're out there trying, and 90 percent of the people of this country are on the couch.

As the Coach of the San Diego Track Club, Paul Greer,  used to shout through his megaphone, "You're all winners!"

Run gently, friends - if you know anyone interested in running fiction, please consider recommending Finishing Kick or Trail of Second Chances to them.

Also, if you're a coach and want the team to read Finishing Kick, contact me for a deal on bulk pricing - I can save you some money.

Derby the Dog, and 3D Printing

May you have as happy a day as Derby.

I want what I paid for, please.

I think the way American businesses package their products could do with a few changes, not the least of which would be making it so I could actually get to the product I just bought.

I want:

• A potato chip bag that tears open completely at the top seal without me deforming the bag by seven feet.
• Frozen veggie bags that don't require a knife to open
• Eggs that crack properly - yes fresh eggs are tougher, but fresh eggs don't run all over the pan. These aren't fresh eggs.
• Salad bags that don't decorate the floor with a confetti of lettuce
• A pull tab that opens the bottle (or this morning, the box of coconut milk) instead of tearing free.
• Products that come in recyclable paper boxes instead of thermally sealed plastic designed to handle globe warming, global cooling, thermonuclear war, and the average homeowner with a paring knife.

I get that manufacturers are trying to reduce breakage and spoilage. I'm pretty near certain that they have forgotten, or more likely, decided to ignore, the person buying their products.

Anybody need a virtual training buddy?

I do.

I'd actually like to have regular training buddies but my schedule is unpredictable as heck and I have a lot of activities that need to be squeezed into tight timeframes. I know that there's a group that gets together every Saturday morning for a run. I work most Saturdays.

Tuesday night, the Palouse Road Runners have a speed workout at the University of Idaho track. It's an hour drive to get there or sticking around a couple of hours after I'm done working, depending on which town I'm in at the end of the day. Plus, the group has gotten quick and shed it's reputation of being an all-comers type of event. Workouts are now getting built for people averaging 50-60 miles per week.

The Striders have a beer-run group on Wednesdays. Sadly, beer is bad for me and they only go 3-ish miles. Slow as I am, it takes me that long to warm up.

So, I'm thinking a virtual buddy. There are sites out there that cater to people like me. Think I'll check them out and report back.

Run gently, folks.

Drop Off Runs

My last several long runs have been "Drop-off runs despite the fact that I have an angel in residence who will crew me if I ask. One of her ideas of quality time is to chase me out the door before dawn, drive ahead two miles, and wait for me to trudge into view before handing me a water bottle and a smile that says, "You're doing great."

So why, if I have crew, would I choose not to utilize it?

The easy answer is that I'm mental. The purpose of the long run is to create the physiological changes that allow for greater energy utilization. The body adapts by increasing the capillarization for blood flow allowing more nutrients - food, oxygen - to reach the working muscles. It also increases the number of mitochondria in slow twitch muscle fibers to aid in generating energy from the food and oxygen.

That happens if I have crew or not.

What changes is the option, every two miles to jump into a warm car, and think "That's enough for today."

Once I get dropped off, I'm on my own. I carry a little cash for emergencies but no phone. Also, I always get myself dropped off a little past my last long run distance. I've done enough of them that I know that my last long run is an excellent predictor of my endurance training distance. Generally, I plan on two miles farther each time until I reach my desired distance. The two mile mark is important. That's when my brain starts to tell the body to shut down, we're gone too far.

Matt Fitzgerald brings this up in his book Brain Training for Runners. (Great book, btw.) The brain, sensing that we've extend past our comfort zone, acts to "protect" us from damage by sharply curtailing the chemical signals that keep us happy while we're running. It part of our subjective feedback loop.

So, my current goal with the long runs isn't building the body. It's building the mind, conditioning the brain and my will to continue past the barriers that appear to be in front of me. My last two runs, I broke down two miles before the end. Both times, I managed to restart after breaking, forcing past the "I'm done" phase. Those first few strides were crap, sloppy and awkward, but they smoothed out.

The brain will learn, more can be done. Next week, I'll add another mile or two and go through the feel really good phase, the "this is work" phase, the "I'm done" phase, to the break-through phase.

As I rebuild my body, I'm rebuilding my brain and my will. Halfway around a 30 mile trail loop in the middle of nowhere, I'll need them to believe.

Easy Advice to Offer?

I think this piece, Admit It: You're Rich, by Megan McArdle is brilliant. Now, that may just be because I agree with her and point it out to people who complain about the rich, usually with an offer to take a check representing their net worth minus $2,000 to the Gambian embassy so they can help out the poor.

So why don't we feel like Scrooge McDuck, rolling around in all of our glorious riches? Why do we feel kinda, y'know, middle class?

Because we don't compare our personal experiences to a Tanzanian subsistence farmer who labors in the hot sun for 12 hours before repairing to his one-room abode for a meal of cornmeal porridge and cabbage. We compare ourselves to other Americans, many of whom, darn them, seem to have much more money than we do.

Envy tends towards ugly. So instead, enjoy the blessings you have, feel free to work hard to earn more, and do not begrudge others what they have.

Unless it's a sub-3 hour marathon PR.

Nah. On second thought, just go run your guts out - you're still miles ahead of the rest.

Talking Myself into a Long Run

Me: 6AM and the bed is warm.
Inner Me: Time to run
Me: It's 23 degrees outside and dark
Inner Me: Time to run
Me: It snowed!
Inner Me: Time to run. Shovel the walkways first as a warm-up.
Me: It's early, I'm creaky, I'll run tonight.
Inner me: Pah! Enough whining. The Wimp Rule is in effect.
Me: I HATE being called a wimp!
Inner Me: Whatcha gonna do about it?

So, 10.5 slow miles later, icicles in my beard, Inner Me is happy. Breakfast time.

Sharing Update

If you've read my books, you already know that I share a portion of the proceeds for both running books with local (defined loosely - we're rural, so local can be a hundred miles away or more) high school cross country programs.

The first check went to Clarkston High School. The kids there are awesome and the folks that run the program help out everyone else in the area.

I wasn't sure how often I would be doing the donations. It seems that a semi-annual basis will work nicely. There was a little push at Christmas, plus I had two different cross country teams buy directly from me (which saves them money.)

I've already decided which team gets the donation, though I'm moving a bit further out and sending the check to the Tri-cities area.

As with the first check, I wish it was bigger.

To those of you who have purchased my books-especially to a certain young lady and her mother who drove into Clarkston from Pomeroy to get copies- thank you for reading my books and, by extension, helping some kids running at the high school level.