Running

The Need for Speed ...

Brian Gould

From the Olympic Trials - to a local road race - to your high school gym class mile, anyone has run has felt it .... the need for speed.  In one of my greatest races personally, I led the Philadelphia Race for the Cure into the latest stages of the race.  As the motorbike of a local TV station closed in on me and led me to the finish line, I eyed up the tape.  What a great feeling! So great in fact, that I didn't realize the increasing roar of the crowd was not for me.  Instead, the roar was for the flash that passed by in the closing steps.  In the end, I lost a 5,000 meter race .... by 2 tenths of one second.  I felt it - and it hurt.  Like me, any experienced racer at some point has felt the need ... the need for speed.

It wasn't until years later, as a coach, that I found that I had stumbled upon what looked like a promising solution.  At a point of the season where we were mundainly logging miles on a daily basis, I wanted to have my guys get some speed in afterwards. In an effort to come up with a catchy and memorable name for an ordinary day, I came up with the "six-and-six" workout. A six mile run starting easy and progressing to a steady pace, followed by six 200m reps quick but relaxed, with plenty of recovery. What started as promising, began to make noticable changes, and eventually became a staple part of my coaching.

There are two terrible falicies in training for distance running

1. Peaking = dropping mileage and cranking in as many jarring speed workouts as possible.  I'll address this in another article.
2. Working on speed early in a training cycle is bad...

What?  It's it bad to take batting practice too early in the season?  How about shooting around?  Many times we look at training and make it more complicated than it is.  Is it easy?  No, training to reach peak condition, and peaking at the right time is a science as difficult as any other.  A little luck doesn't hurt either. However, if done correctly, working on leg speed can be done regularly with no harm.  In fact, it SHOULD be. 

In education, there has been a debate for years over teaching reading through whole language (here's a book - go get 'em tiger) and phonics (mastering parts en route to mastering the whole.) In your training, master the parts in order to master the whole.  After a solid distance run, take a break and do some sprints for leg speed.  It will not hurt you as long as your mileage is up and this is the secondary piece of your workout.  Your ultimate goal is what?  For all of the pieces to come together at the right time.  The puzzle doesn't look so good if it's missing a bunch of pieces.  Dont ignore your leg speed.

Some workouts to try:

• 4 & 4.  4 miles at a solid effort, 5-10 minutes recovery time, 4 x 200m with full rest between
• 30+ minutes of running, followed by 4-6 sprints of 5-10 seconds
• A long easy distance run, followed by some downhill striders

Running in the Summer Heat

Phil Reilly

If you're reading this and you're just about anywhere in the US right now, then you already know that it's hotter than the inside of a pizzeria oven on a football Sunday. The kind of day when your sweat sweats. But.....you still want to run. Well, you have several options.

1. Join a gym and work out in the nice, climate controlled environment. Not a bad option, but I know that not all six of our readers have that option.
2. Wake up before the rooster and run in the early AM.
3. Wait til the sun goes down. If you choose this route, make sure it's a well lit area and, esp for our growing female fandom, run with a buddy.
4. If you absolutely must run in the midst of the heat wave, try to find a nice shaded route. Hydrate!!!! And this doesn't mean for the 15 minutes before and after a run. Your morning coffee doesn't count and the beer you have while watching the Phillies doesn't cut it either. Drink water all day long.
5. You might want to go a little easier than normal until you get used to the heat.
6. After you come home, nothing feels better than a nice cold shower to help lower the body's temp.

All this written by the guy about to go out to the track and workout.....