This morning I ran five miles at a pace of just over 8:00 per mile, then finished with a mile or so of hill repeats. A few years ago this would have been a pretty standard type of workout for me, but on this day it was a big step forward to feeling like a […]
Try This Killer 4x400m Workout
June 24, 2014 By 8 Comments
One of the things I love about working with Coach Caleb is that he always keeps my training interesting. Each weekend I get a training plan with workouts for the coming week, and the speed/quality work in particular is always varied. It might be track intervals, a tempo run, hill repeats/sprints, or some other form […]
Ask Coach Caleb: How Should I Structure My Training Weeks to Maximize Running Fitness Gains?
June 19, 2014 By 1 Comment
When it comes to training effectively, running hard during workouts is the easy part. The trick is structuring your training weeks (and entire program) so that you have the right balance of hard work and adaptation/recovery. In my last post, I talked about the reasons why runners should vary their pacing from day to day. […]
Running History: Arthur Newton on Pacing in Training vs. Races (1935)
May 15, 2014 By 4 Comments
As Caleb Masland pointed out yesterday in his post on varying pacing in workouts, many runners tend to run too fast, too often in their training. This can lead to burnout and eventual injury. Caleb discussed how and why elites vary their training paces across a broad range, and how, in contrast, amateur runners often […]
Ask Coach Caleb: Why Should Runners Vary Pacing for Different Types of Workouts?
May 14, 2014 By 17 Comments
If you’ve ever had the chance to see how elite runners train, one thing that becomes apparent very quickly is how their approach to pace/effort is different from most amateur runners. Elite runners tend to run their workouts really hard when it’s called for, and they run really slow (relatively speaking) during warm-up and on […]
Setting Running Goals: Shorter and Faster for 2014
March 10, 2014 By 24 Comments
For the past several years I’ve been in marathon mode. I don’t know exactly why or how it happened, but I fell into the trap of feeling like I needed to run a marathon (or three) every year. To be honest, ever since qualifying for Boston back in 2011 I haven’t really enjoyed the marathon […]
Vermont City Marathon 2013 Race Report: Executing the Plan, and A Big Thank You to Mother Nature
May 28, 2013 By 31 Comments
Over the past several months I’ve documented my training in preparation for the Vermont City Marathon (VCM), which I ran last Sunday morning. Like any marathon training cycle there were a lot of ups and downs, and a number of memorable runs (some good, some bad). The story of this marathon training cycle for me […]
Marathon Training: Final Prep, and a Tough Shoe Choice
May 23, 2013 By 11 Comments
I’ll be running the Vermont City Marathon this Sunday, and I’m amazed at how calm I am given the amount of uncertainty that I’ve been experiencing lately. My past several weeks of training have included multiple lousy long runs, and I’ve had general sense of deadness in my legs that I’ve had a hard time […]
Marathon Training: Respect the Heat
May 14, 2013 By 25 Comments
Image via Nasa.gov I’m at the two week countdown to marathon day and my confidence heading into the race is at the lowest point that it has been this training cycle. My major goal for last week was to get in a final, solid 20+ mile training run. Well, I ran 20 miles last Tuesday, […]
Marathon Training Update: A Lesson in Perseverance From My Son
May 5, 2013 By 7 Comments
Some weeks life aligns in such a way that running becomes secondary to other, more important/essential pursuits. Such it was that what was supposed to be the final big week of this marathon training cycle aligned with my final week of classes, final exam prep, and office/lab clean-out and packing. I’m giving a final exam […]
Marathon Training: DNF’ing a Long Run – Is It Sometimes Better To Cut It Short?
April 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I hate cutting workouts short. I’m a numbers guy, and when I have a target distance for a workout I like to hit it. However, one of the lessons I’ve learned over the past few years is that sometimes it’s better to cut a workout short when things just aren’t feeling right. Today was one […]
Marathon Training Update: April 14 to April 20
April 21, 2013 By 4 Comments
I’m going to keep this one short since this has been an eventful week on multiple fronts. My main goals for the week was to get in a solid mid-distance run during the week and a strong 20 mile run today – everything else was secondary. The plan at the outset was for it to […]
Marathon Training Update: April 8-14
April 15, 2013 By 4 Comments
After a great week of training last week, the current week started out well then fizzled a bit toward the end. I could feel fatigue starting to set in – hard training and an insane schedule for me and my wife were taking a toll. Opted to ease off a bit, and I think it […]
Marathon Training: Long Run Hydration
April 9, 2013 By 23 Comments
Boston 2011 was not a good marathon for me. I actually don’t remember much of the actual race, but what I do recall is having massive problems regulating my body temperature. I remember drinking a lot, and pouring more than a few cups of water over my head to cool down. What I remember most […]
Marathon Training Update: April 1-7, Making Progress!
April 7, 2013 By 9 Comments
I feel like I things started to click a bit this week – ran 5 out of 7 days, got in three strong quality workouts, and the toe seems to be almost back to 100%. The biggest validation that my training is starting to pay off came on my long run this morning – 18 […]
