Ryan – Page 71 – HillRunner.com

Max recovery days

April 20, 2017 / Training / 2 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

We all have hard and easy days in our training plans, right? We all have workout days, long run days, and those other days we just call easy days. Some call them junk miles but they are anything but junk miles. We know they aid our recovery from those hard days while helping to build the aerobic fitness that we all know is so important for racing any distance from the mile up.

But do you include at least an occasional max recovery day? You should, especially if you’re an every day runner.

What is a max recovery day? It’s something I like to do at least once a week as an every day runner myself. It’s essentially a day when you take it even more easy than a normal easy day. You can plan these days but I think they work even better when you just start running, feel low on energy or find yourself with heavy legs, and decide to keep the pace extra easy because you need the recovery.

So how do you do a max recovery day? First, I like to cut the distance of the run a bit. Not because I’m looking to spend less time running but because I want to go slower without spending more time on my feet. Personally, I usually aim for about an hour running on most days. For me right now, that’s usually about 8 miles. On a max recovery day, I’ll say I’m going 7 miles and still expect to be around an hour. Then you just run slow.

By running even slower than usual, you get a little extra recovery while sacrificing very little in regards to aerobic development. Most important, that little extra recovery will leave you feeling fresh and recharged for your next hard day.

So next time you’re dragging more than usual, consider trying a max recovery day. You’ll be surprised how much of a difference slowing one run down can make in leaving you feeling fresh, recharged, and ready to go the next day.

Racing is a skill – practice it

April 13, 2017 / Training / 2 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Saturday, I ran a race. I wasn’t really race ready. I feel like my general fitness is pretty good right now but I haven’t done enough race specific workouts for my race fitness to be ready.

So why did I do this race? Because I needed some practice before my important races.

Racing is different than even the hardest workouts. While workouts are good opportunities to practice the skills we will bring to racing, no workout takes you to the place a race will. As a result, there are simply some things that can’t be practiced any time other than on a race day.

From how to handle lining up pre-race to how you respond when someone near you does something unexpected to knowing when you can kick with all you have without fear of running out of gas before the finish line and so many things in between, the only real way to develop the skills needed for race day is to get real world practice.

So sign up for a few races. If you have a goal race planned for this fall, sign up for a few summer races. Even if you’re not in peak shape for those summer races, you will gain experience that will allow you to perform even better when the goal race comes around in the fall.

Race report: 2017 Gary’s Gallop

April 8, 2017 / Race Reports / 6 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

This winter, I hit another age group as I turned 40. Seeing as I have little to no interest in racing during the winter these days, I wasn’t sure what race would become my first in this new age group. At first, I was thinking of the Legal Run Around in Fond du Lac but things just didn’t work out for various reasons.

As I was looking over my schedule and what I had in mind for late spring/early summer races (one too close to home to pass up and another that’s a favorite of mine and I have to correct a wrong from last year at) I realized Gary’s Gallop fits into the schedule perfectly. So that’s where I found myself this morning.

As it turns out, though, I completely wasted the opportunity of my first race in this new age group.

I arrived at the Wisconsin Lutheran College athletics grounds a little unsure of what today would bring me. I had a decent but not great winter of training. I feel I’m fit. By the end of this week, I’m feeling as healthy as I’ve felt in at least a couple months. However, I’m not yet race sharp. High level of general fitness, low level of race specific fitness. Of course, that’s what you expect at the first race of the year, right?

On top of that, I had some things going on this week that had me a little off my game. My refrigerator stopped working and we can’t get a new one delivered until next week. So, along with the stress and hassle of dealing with that, my diet has been thrown for a loop as we’re trying to avoid any food that would need to be cooled. I also have several things going on that just had me more busy than I usually like on a race week. So I wasn’t quite sure how great my energy levels would be.

That said, I was there to race. I’d do the best I could, whatever that meant. So I checked in and got ready to warm up.

I was originally planning to warm up on the course but, when I got past the start line, I quickly realized a gate about 100 yards in was still closed. So I detoured onto the track and did my warmup there. I have to admit I didn’t feel too springy on the warmup but I was getting things worked out and feeling at least a little better.

At the start, I was eyeing the competition. It looked like a few good runners but nobody I could pin as someone who would surely run away from me without a problem. Whatever the case, this was going to be a day of pure racing, not time trialing. This course doesn’t have ridiculous hills but it is undulating with a general downhill trend early and uphill late. Combined with a fairly stiff second half headwind, this was a day for real racing.

At one point, I overheard a conversation where someone asked a friend if another of their friends would be winning. “Yeah, of course” was the answer. That kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I sure didn’t see anyone who looked to warrant that sure of a statement. Oh well. If pre-race prognostications were always right, we wouldn’t need to run these things.

I lined up next to the two guys I pegged as the most likely lead competition. I was wrong. At the gun, I found myself right behind one of them as he acted surprised to be in the lead. Down a slight decline, I took the lead and picked up my police escort. It’s been a long time since I had a police escort so I thought for a moment how fun that was. Then I focused on getting a read for who was behind me. I could tell someone was there, I didn’t think it was the guy who started out in the lead but I couldn’t be sure until he pulled up next to me and I could see he wasn’t.

For the first mile, we were back and forth. At times, I’d get maybe a half step lead. At times, especially up one of those inclines, he got a one step lead. We were always right there, though.

We were being given splits everywhere. I heard a 4:05 and jokingly said I sure hope that’s not the mile split. As it turns out, I believe I heard 5:45 just before I hit the mile.

Around this time, I noticed that the guy I was running with was breathing pretty hard. Not to the point I thought he was about to crash but hard enough that I could tell he was working harder than me. Shortly after, we went up a slight incline and I let him get a slight lead, maybe 1 step. As we were going up this incline, I told myself the top of this incline is my moment. He’s working harder than me, he’s pushing the incline a bit so he’ll be a little more fatigued by the top, and I want to get away so he can’t draft off me into the headwind when I make my long move to the finish.

So we crest the hill and I go. I gave him enough of a lead by the top so I could accelerate before pulling up by his side, which would make my move feel more decisive. I accelerated and went by him with no fight. He just let me go. I kept pushing for a bit, then settled back into pace.

Around the turnaround and into the headwind, I could see I had about a 2-3 second lead on him and a third guy who was pretty much right with him at this point. I decided for the moment to just maintain and get to mile 2 before trying to open up a bigger lead. At least nobody was drafting off me. That was the only purpose of the lead at this point. So I settled in behind my 2 motorcycle escort and just focused on keeping as much of a rhythm as I could over this undulating course.

I cruised through the 2 mile mark, which I believe I recall being on one of these inclines. Once I crested the top, I put a little extra in, trying to stretch what I could sense based on splits being called was about a 3 second lead. At this point, I either wanted a bigger lead or the guys behind to have to work so hard they would have nothing left if they did catch me. I continued this into a second turnaround behind the stadium, then into the parking lot.

Around a turn and entering the track and football field, I picked it up a little more but knew I had the win tied up and my time was going to be off due to the course and the wind so I didn’t really try to light it up. I cruised into the finish in 18:06 and got to break the tape.

It’s been a long time since I’ve either had a police escort or got to break the tape at a race. It was fun to get to do both.

As for my first race in the 40-44 age group, though, I kind of wasted that opportunity. Who needs age groups when you get the overall win?

This is a fun race. Definitely not where you go for a fast time with the deceptively challenging course, two 180 degree turns, and today with the wind. However, it’s a good chance to get the competitive juices flowing and get an early season tune up.

Plus they have some nice hardware:

Showing up

April 6, 2017 / Training / 2 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

“It’s hard showing up day after day. It’s worth it but it’s hard.” – Jon Marcus

I was recently listening to the Magness and Marcus podcast and I heard that quote from Jon Marcus. I was already thinking of writing about this topic and that quote just clicked with me because it’s so true and so important to running.

I often find myself saying the biggest key to success in distance running is consistency. How do you be consistent? Well, obviously you have to stay healthy so your training isn’t sidelined by injury. However, in my opinion, the biggest factor is just showing up.

On those days your motivation is lagging but you know you have work to do, you get it done.

On those days when the weather sucks and you just want to stay inside, you get out the door.

On those days when the treadmill is the only good option and you hate treadmills, you get on it anyway.

It’s not easy to show up day after day, week after week, month after month. But being hard is part of what makes it so worthwhile. When you reach your goal that others were telling you was impossible, you know how you got there.

Which brings me to another quote, which seems to be commonly attributed to Jerry Rice. “Today I will do what other won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”

Photo credit: Loneliest by Andrew Murray, on Flickr

Sleep matters and building muscle

March 30, 2017 / Roundups / 1 minute of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Sleep matters

How important is sleep? Really important.

In this study, cyclists were either allowed normal sleep (about 7.5 hours) or kept sleep deprived (about 4 hours) after a workout.

The result? Sleep deprived cyclists were sleepier (shocker!) and less motivated to train. In addition, their blood pressure had not recovered as much as those who were allowed normal sleep, suggesting less complete recovery from the workout.

These results shouldn’t be shocking but they are a good reminder.

Building muscle

I’ve been going back into the archives a bit recently and this one popped out at me. What does it take to build muscle?

In short, all those things we have usually thought of from weight to number of reps doesn’t matter as much as one thing: lifting to failure or near failure.