Crazy weekend for runners in Texas! Saturday, there's the Texas Half in Dallas, then Sunday we have the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half Marathon in Houston and the 3M Half Marathon in Austin.
Last year, all three were different weekends and easier to get into! This year, Houston Marathon was a lottery, and 3M Half did a great job selling out early!
So with them being different weekends last year, in 2010 I managed to run the Aramco Half in Houston mid-January, then 3M Half Marathon the next weekend, and then Texas Half the last weekend of January. That's halfs in Houston, Austin, and Dallas all in one month.
My race reports are out here on the blog in case anyone finds it helpful...
Houston Aramco Half Marathon race report
3M Half Marathon race report
Texas Half Marathon race report
The Houston Half Marathon one is particularly detailed with race compliments and criticisms from my views as a runner and as a Dallas area race director, along with a bit of a blow by blow of the course in sections.
Anyway, just wanted to put that out there for anyone looking for reviews of any of those races this weekend. I'm jealous as I can't run any of them at this point in my postpartum recovery but wish all runners fast feet and fun times this weekend!
Happy Running!
Friday, January 28, 2011
The REAL Point of a Recovery Run
A discussion today had me thinking about the recovery run. It's always a controversial thing - is it beneficial or are they just junk miles? I definitely have my opinions on the subject, just like anyone else. I'm not a sports medicine doctor, medical professional of any kind, nutritionist, or scientist...just a runner with some thoughts on the subject.
What's the Term "Recovery Run"?
To start, everyone has their own terminology, so let me be clear that in my head, a "recovery run" or "active recovery run" is a slow easy run, which may even include periods of walking, of 2-4 miles for many half and full marathoners following a training plan. Often used after a hard run or race where another moderate to hard running day is unadvisable.
What Many Think is the Purpose of the Recovery Run
Many people have followed plans with recovery runs or trained others to do them just because it's what been done. The belief has been that recovery runs increase blood flow to the legs which was additionally flush out lactic acid to decrease soreness and increase recovery. Runner's World had an article here that indicated using active recovery runs after a big race as a sort of "reverse taper" to keep total mileage base on track. I'm not sure I agree with that without an explanation that using the muscles for X amount of time is beneficial.
What I Believe the Recovery Run is for
Some sources now though emphasis that lactic acid is flushed out by oxidation which is a natural process and happens quickly after a hard run. Here's an interesting article about lactic acid and lactate threshold. I believe the recovery run is more for learning to run efficiently with legs in a pre-fatigued state. Active.com had a great article this year called "A Fresh Perspective on Recovery Runs" that explains this well, better than I ever could. I highly recommend reading it!
For me, running comes down to four areas: heart, lungs, brain (mental), and muscles (legs, core, etc.). Running easy on fatigued legs is good for that fourth area - leg muscles. A good training plan needs to balance the needs of these four things so that you are strong uniformly when you toe the start line. Active recovery runs to me are a way to get those muscles working smarter.
And yes, crosstraining could strengthen up and provide fatigue practice for leg muscles as well, but I think the practice should come with the sport you'll be using them in a fatigued condition at: running. It's like using an ellipical versus running. Yeah, they can both be helpful, but there's no substitute for the action of running. You wouldn't advise someone to do all their training on an elliptical and then run a marathon (generally), just as you wouldn't spend all your fatigued days cross-training just to go run or race in a situation where you need to run well on fatigued legs.
Every run has a purpose, but just because they are slow, doesn't make them junk miles. And personally, I don't believe any runs are "junk miles" or "wasted". As a tweep, @alamarcavada said, "Im not a coach but was a collegiate athlete.....There is no such thing as "junk miles." a mile is a mile."
Personal Use of the Recovery Run
Last year, I did an outdoor running streak of 63 days. And many of these days included recovery runs of 1-4 miles. During this approximately 60 days, I took 6 minutes off my half marathon time. And didn't even do much speedwork over this time. I believe the recovery run was a big reason for my success at that time. The purpose of the streak for me was very much the same purpose as that active recovery run. I felt like my cardio & pulmonary function was stronger than my mental toughness a bit and definitely stronger than my leg muscles. My legs just felt tired at the end of half marathons - it was preventing the "get up and go" to push hard that last handful of miles.
As a mom, doing lots of 13 mile training runs and generally a big increase to training mileage wasn't very possible, especially since I'm a slower athlete than many - that's a lot of hours of training for a lot less miles covered. The recovery run strengthened my legs and helped significantly in late miles of the race.
Another example is a good friend Paula who did a year long running streak and in the middle of it, on no longer than a 13 mile training run, she completed her first 50-miler. She credits a lot to the streak of just her body knowing how to continue to perform under fatigue. Plus she's just one mentally tough cookie.
Not Advised for All or at All Times
Since every run has a purpose, and this is for efficient use of muscles during fatigue, this run only works in combo with runs that strengthen all four important body parts (heart/lungs/brain/muscles). Relying on any one type of run is just a bad thing. So in your training plan, and in your personal experience of which parts are strongest and weakest, recovery runs may or may not be useful. Or what is useful at one time is not useful at another time in our running experiences. Like right now, cardio/lung function is very important as I recover postpartum.
Recovery runs aren't for everyone. One instance would be if you have bad knees or other medical issue where the impact could hurt more than help. And then, let's face it: runners are generally an intense Type A bunch - it's a stereotype for a reason. With that, some runners just can't run "easy" or even include walk breaks as needed to keep it truly easy. These runners will end up injured or on the verge of injury a lot of the time. Adding a recovery run for these people will just make it worse. Give them a rest day, hope they are religious to sticking to the exact training schedule, even though the day off may make them itch.
Where to Leave It
What do you think? Do you disagree? That's okay, but please explain why as well. I hope to learn something from other runners. Like I said when I started, it's just one opinion peppered a lot with personal experience!
Happy Running!
What's the Term "Recovery Run"?
To start, everyone has their own terminology, so let me be clear that in my head, a "recovery run" or "active recovery run" is a slow easy run, which may even include periods of walking, of 2-4 miles for many half and full marathoners following a training plan. Often used after a hard run or race where another moderate to hard running day is unadvisable.
What Many Think is the Purpose of the Recovery Run
Many people have followed plans with recovery runs or trained others to do them just because it's what been done. The belief has been that recovery runs increase blood flow to the legs which was additionally flush out lactic acid to decrease soreness and increase recovery. Runner's World had an article here that indicated using active recovery runs after a big race as a sort of "reverse taper" to keep total mileage base on track. I'm not sure I agree with that without an explanation that using the muscles for X amount of time is beneficial.
What I Believe the Recovery Run is for
Some sources now though emphasis that lactic acid is flushed out by oxidation which is a natural process and happens quickly after a hard run. Here's an interesting article about lactic acid and lactate threshold. I believe the recovery run is more for learning to run efficiently with legs in a pre-fatigued state. Active.com had a great article this year called "A Fresh Perspective on Recovery Runs" that explains this well, better than I ever could. I highly recommend reading it!
For me, running comes down to four areas: heart, lungs, brain (mental), and muscles (legs, core, etc.). Running easy on fatigued legs is good for that fourth area - leg muscles. A good training plan needs to balance the needs of these four things so that you are strong uniformly when you toe the start line. Active recovery runs to me are a way to get those muscles working smarter.
And yes, crosstraining could strengthen up and provide fatigue practice for leg muscles as well, but I think the practice should come with the sport you'll be using them in a fatigued condition at: running. It's like using an ellipical versus running. Yeah, they can both be helpful, but there's no substitute for the action of running. You wouldn't advise someone to do all their training on an elliptical and then run a marathon (generally), just as you wouldn't spend all your fatigued days cross-training just to go run or race in a situation where you need to run well on fatigued legs.
Every run has a purpose, but just because they are slow, doesn't make them junk miles. And personally, I don't believe any runs are "junk miles" or "wasted". As a tweep, @alamarcavada said, "Im not a coach but was a collegiate athlete.....There is no such thing as "junk miles." a mile is a mile."
Personal Use of the Recovery Run
Last year, I did an outdoor running streak of 63 days. And many of these days included recovery runs of 1-4 miles. During this approximately 60 days, I took 6 minutes off my half marathon time. And didn't even do much speedwork over this time. I believe the recovery run was a big reason for my success at that time. The purpose of the streak for me was very much the same purpose as that active recovery run. I felt like my cardio & pulmonary function was stronger than my mental toughness a bit and definitely stronger than my leg muscles. My legs just felt tired at the end of half marathons - it was preventing the "get up and go" to push hard that last handful of miles.
As a mom, doing lots of 13 mile training runs and generally a big increase to training mileage wasn't very possible, especially since I'm a slower athlete than many - that's a lot of hours of training for a lot less miles covered. The recovery run strengthened my legs and helped significantly in late miles of the race.
Another example is a good friend Paula who did a year long running streak and in the middle of it, on no longer than a 13 mile training run, she completed her first 50-miler. She credits a lot to the streak of just her body knowing how to continue to perform under fatigue. Plus she's just one mentally tough cookie.
Not Advised for All or at All Times
Since every run has a purpose, and this is for efficient use of muscles during fatigue, this run only works in combo with runs that strengthen all four important body parts (heart/lungs/brain/muscles). Relying on any one type of run is just a bad thing. So in your training plan, and in your personal experience of which parts are strongest and weakest, recovery runs may or may not be useful. Or what is useful at one time is not useful at another time in our running experiences. Like right now, cardio/lung function is very important as I recover postpartum.
Recovery runs aren't for everyone. One instance would be if you have bad knees or other medical issue where the impact could hurt more than help. And then, let's face it: runners are generally an intense Type A bunch - it's a stereotype for a reason. With that, some runners just can't run "easy" or even include walk breaks as needed to keep it truly easy. These runners will end up injured or on the verge of injury a lot of the time. Adding a recovery run for these people will just make it worse. Give them a rest day, hope they are religious to sticking to the exact training schedule, even though the day off may make them itch.
Where to Leave It
What do you think? Do you disagree? That's okay, but please explain why as well. I hope to learn something from other runners. Like I said when I started, it's just one opinion peppered a lot with personal experience!
Happy Running!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Working in a Little Speed
Tonight's run goal was to try to do at least 3.1 miles worth of 1/2 mile intervals at around 5K PR pace (10:20 pace), which was of course set pre-pregnancy. This ended up being a hard task and while I fell off at the end, I did a decent job at the goal.
3.5 miles total including the warm-up walk and cool-down walk. Walk breaks between intervals were a little under a tenth of a mile.
1/2 mile splits: 10:00, 10:10, 10:37, 11:13, 11:26.
Yeah, I got tired - too hard of a pace to maintain this early in my recovery I guess. :-(
But I notice in the graph of pace and heart rate below that my pace the first 300 feet is consistent across all the splits (eventual natural pace someday?) and my heart rate remained th same even as my overall 1/2 mile pace was getting slower.
I can't wait to see it get a little easier to hold something closer to 10 min/mi pace in hopefully the next several weeks.
Happy Running!
3.5 miles total including the warm-up walk and cool-down walk. Walk breaks between intervals were a little under a tenth of a mile.
1/2 mile splits: 10:00, 10:10, 10:37, 11:13, 11:26.
Yeah, I got tired - too hard of a pace to maintain this early in my recovery I guess. :-(
But I notice in the graph of pace and heart rate below that my pace the first 300 feet is consistent across all the splits (eventual natural pace someday?) and my heart rate remained th same even as my overall 1/2 mile pace was getting slower.
I can't wait to see it get a little easier to hold something closer to 10 min/mi pace in hopefully the next several weeks.
Happy Running!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Best Workout Postpartum Thus Far
Why couldn't I have a postpartum running recovery in April with pretty weather? LOL. I've been tired of the cold and dark of my late night runs, so I've hit the elliptical the last two nights. While fighting a cold, Saturday I ran 1.75 miles and logged 5.5 elliptical miles (45 min), and yesterday I logged 6 elliptical miles (50 min). Add to that 15 minutes each of the last two nights of ab work. So going into tonight's run, my legs, glutes, abs...everything was tired and a teensy bit sore.
So tonight's 4 mile run, with a bad head cold still mind you, began as "slow and steady let's try to run more continuously than I have yet postpartum" (which was 1.5 miles before I had to walk). And somewhere it turned into a hard, hard workout. And one that I'm tremendously proud of and tells me a lot about my recovery so far and where my recovery is headed. You can call it a ladder workout, intervals, tempo run, negative splits, I'm not a huge terminology buff about classifying workouts, so the point is it was an INTENSE workout and let's leave it at that.
I dragged my tired muscles along for 2.55 miles and then I turned it up a notch. Splits...
I not only ran continuously for 3.4 miles, I got faster and faster and faster! Which makes me wonder, what pace could I have run consistently for 3.1 miles? Could PRing the 5K not be TOO far down the road? (current PR is 10:20 pace) Yes, my average pace was much slower than my 5K PR, but the summary here is that I obviously had gas in the tank at the end of this run.
Sorry to brag tonight on all this, and I know all of this seems trivial to someone running all the time and even more so possibly to someone who does that FAST, but I'm just insanely happy about my recovery so far and the hopes and dreams for 2011 running and racing!
So tonight's 4 mile run, with a bad head cold still mind you, began as "slow and steady let's try to run more continuously than I have yet postpartum" (which was 1.5 miles before I had to walk). And somewhere it turned into a hard, hard workout. And one that I'm tremendously proud of and tells me a lot about my recovery so far and where my recovery is headed. You can call it a ladder workout, intervals, tempo run, negative splits, I'm not a huge terminology buff about classifying workouts, so the point is it was an INTENSE workout and let's leave it at that.
I dragged my tired muscles along for 2.55 miles and then I turned it up a notch. Splits...
2.55 miles - 12:51 pace ... turn it upNo walk breaks between any of these intervals! Note that my abs and C-section incision scar area were hurting once I sped up the pace, so I look forward to that going away over time as recovery continues.
0.50 miles - 11:27 pace ... a little louder
0.25 miles - 10:53 pace ... what? you can't hear it?
0.10 miles - 10:03 pace ... can you hear me now?!?
I not only ran continuously for 3.4 miles, I got faster and faster and faster! Which makes me wonder, what pace could I have run consistently for 3.1 miles? Could PRing the 5K not be TOO far down the road? (current PR is 10:20 pace) Yes, my average pace was much slower than my 5K PR, but the summary here is that I obviously had gas in the tank at the end of this run.
Sorry to brag tonight on all this, and I know all of this seems trivial to someone running all the time and even more so possibly to someone who does that FAST, but I'm just insanely happy about my recovery so far and the hopes and dreams for 2011 running and racing!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Longest Run - Saying That Phrase Won't Get Old
Wednesday night was my longest run postpartum - 5.5 miles. I expect to be using the phrase "longest run postpartum" a lot in the coming months as I continue to build mileage. I was also very happy with how much and how long I ran continuously. 5.5 miles went like this: warm-up walk, 1.5 mile run, walk break, 1 mile run, walk break, 1 mile run, walk break, 0.5 mile run, long walk cool-down.
Right now, time on my legs is important as I build back the muscles. Looking forward to speed coming later.
Happy Running!
Right now, time on my legs is important as I build back the muscles. Looking forward to speed coming later.
Happy Running!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Schizophrenic Romp
Don't ask me what my goal was for this run. Or in general anymore. I'm getting a little worried that I won't be ready to run 15-20 miles March 4-6 at the Texas Independence Relay, and I'm feeling on my recent fast intervals like my leg muscles are just SO weak right now. And I miss my ab muscles. :-( (note that I lost my pregnancy weight extremely fast, but the shape of any mom postpartum is NOT the same; with stretched out ab muscles, it's like the original Libby repackaged in a sack, instead of a box.) Double :-(
So maybe I do need to sprinkle in some slower miles just to get back some strength and some stamina at the same time. I just can't get comfortable at that slower pace. I'm determined to come back faster postpartum.
So today was a schizophrenic romp of 4.5 miles. A combo of the following:
So maybe I do need to sprinkle in some slower miles just to get back some strength and some stamina at the same time. I just can't get comfortable at that slower pace. I'm determined to come back faster postpartum.
So today was a schizophrenic romp of 4.5 miles. A combo of the following:
- 0.05 mile walking warmup
- 1 mile run continuously! Yea, that's my first continuously run mile postpartum! Pace was 11:21
- 0.25 mi walk break - my upper back was so tight! I am not used to swinging my arms back and forth for any length of time at all. Stretched and it got a little better.
- 4 intervals totalling 0.53 miles at ~9 min pace with walk breaks between. 0.16 @ 8:49 pace, 0.14 @ 8:45 pace, 0.11 @ 9:10 pace, 0.12 @ 8:54 pace.
- Combo of little bit of running and a lot of walking the rest of the way as I wanted to not just do a couple miles total and had done 2.25 miles out so that I HAD to do 2.25 miles back. Try to get in a decent total mileage to work some endurance on the legs. Glutes, inner thighs, calves, and balls of feet were hurting so didn't want to do more than the 4.5 miles. These muscles have not been used in months.
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