Strength - Inner and Outer...learning about your core and what you're really made of.

I'm in week 8 of my training cycle and I've written previously of how I'm getting into the high-mileage part of my training. And with the high mileage, I'm starting to feel worn out more mentally than physically as I can attribute this to doing regular calisthenics, especially focusing on my core to keep my body upright while in the act of moving myself forward for any given distance.

I learned running my first marathon, it starts to become very difficult keeping your body upright in the far distances of a full marathon (mile 2). I found near the end of the race my abdominals and back were sore from keeping my head up so I can breathe more efficiently. I didn't want to be like those weekend shuffle joggers, with their heads down gasping for their last breath, looking down at their shoes thinking about that hamburger at the end of their run that they so earned...

So I wanted to start working on strength training, especially my core. You have to remember in a marathon there are people cheering at you (or maybe laughing?) and you want to look good for the marathon photographer as he's snapping them lovelies for your facebook profile photo.

Ok, so what is this 'core' everyone keeps talking about? People associate core training with working on abdominal exercises like crunches and sit ups. But the core starts from your neck down to your pelvis which is the primarily the center of your body. This is mainly muscles attached to your spine and torso which  includes Shoulder, Upper Back, Mid Back, Lower Back, Abdominals, Obliques, and Hips. Strengthening the core provides stability for all movement, especially with running. It also helps reduce back pain. Stronger, balanced core muscles help maintain appropriate posture and reduce strain on the spine.

From sportsmedicine.about.com

Core strengthening exercises are most effective when the torso works as a solid unit and both front and back muscles contract at the same time, multi joint movements are performed and stabilization of the spine is monitored. Abdominal bracing is a basic technique used during core exercise training. To correctly brace, you should attempt to pull your navel back in toward your spine. This action primarily recruits transverse abdominus. You should be able to breathe evenly while bracing and no hold your breath.
There are many exercises that will strengthen the core. A large number of core strengthening exercises can be done at home with no equipment while some require the use of equipment and gadgets.

Core specific workouts include: Plank, Side Plank, Bridge which are foundations derived from Yoga. I do that along with good ol' calisthenics to help with my strength training regimen.

Now as I previously posted, my place of employment has a gym which I use yearly. Since my running days are Tuesday (Speed work), Thursday (Tempo Run) and Saturday (Long Slow Distance) with some recovery runs on Sunday or Tuesday during my lunch hour, I normally do my gym workouts on Monday and Thursday with Wednesday being the Yoga day. The workouts I do are circuit based, meaning I'll do 3 or 4 exercises at 10 reps 2 times with resistance and the last set with no resistance until failure. I rest about a minute to 90 secs between sets.

Before I start my calisthenics I like to warm up with jump rope. I do that for 5-10 minutes as that builds coordination, agility, quickness and endurance. Plus it's easy to carry and your not taking up someone's treadmill time. Some days I'll skip for 15-20 minutes and I'm pretty much done...I've completed my cardio and full body workout.

This is a sample of my circuit training workout below. If you're going to try this, I would suggest don't use weight and resistance bands at first, I've been doing this for 1 year consistently and I still have a long way to go. I'm not aiming to be no fitness model but be able to look good when marathonfoto.com comes to snapping my pic:

Osty told me to wear all neon so they can find my body if I get lost in the woods

Incline crunches twisting with weight - 10 reps

Dips with resistance band - 10 reps

Pull ups with resistance band - 7/8 reps (I'm trying for 10)

Dumbbell squats - 10 reps.

So I do this in a circuit with the weight and resistance bands 2 times with 60-90 seconds rest between sets. On the last set, I will do the same exercises without the weight and resistance bands until failure and I don't do the dumbbell squats as I'm pretty bagged by then. When I'm on the last set to failure I can sometimes do 15-18 reps or 5 reps depending on how I'm dialed in or if I'm tired or just having one of those days.

I don't always do the same exercises. Our gym has a universal machine which I don't really use, we don't have a squat rack, which I'm bummed out about, but we do have a lot of dumbbells which I like to use when I do dumbbell complexes which I'll show in another post with videos. But about 80% of my workouts are bodyweight exercises and plyometrics. I'll get my buddy Osty to show how we do plyometrics and medicine ball workouts. This is how we learned our dance moves...believe me, you'll love it.

Week 7 CPR Marathon training - Not good to close a pub and then LSD

We are starting to get into the heavy mileage weeks and I'm trying to be a lot more mindful of how I'm expending my energy and more importantly my concentration. My girls Maddy and Mack had their parent teacher interviews and I'm happy to report I have somewhat normal children. Yay me!

I'm getting my nutrition in order so I can drop a little more weight but still be able to manage my energy levels. (I'd like to be 155lbs a week before the race) I've been doing a lot of my runs on very little food as I'm trying to get my body acclimatized to using my fat as energy stores. I did have one cheat day...and hooooo...how I cheated...ok ok...I had two cheat days, honest.

March 18, 2014

Week 7 CPR Intervals

• 175m at 3km pace followed by a recovery jog
• 350m at 3km pace followed by a recovery jog
• 525m at 3km pace followed by a recovery jog
• 700m at 3km pace followed by a recovery jog
• Repeat
• recovery jog is back to starting point (each loop is 700m) 

I don't think I did what was said as we actually ran to cones that were interspersed between the distances noted. But I kept running at said 3km pace to the 525m cone and then just recovery jog to the 700m point. I'm sorry coach Dan...

Weather was actually 0C and the ground was mostly dry. I wasn't worried about my splits this time but I liked what I'm seeing with my cadence.

March 20, 2014

Week 7 CPR Tempo

Wasn't feeling too hot going into the run. Felt sick from eating at Applebees for lunch, of course Riblets and Chicken Fingers n' Fries basket, why else go eh? The weather was pleasant at -1C and I was wearing 1 top and my running jacket, forgot my hat so I let my hair flow. My buddy Osty didnt come this evening as he found out that he has bursitis on his left shoulder...poor guy. We started pretty quick off the hop and I wasn't sure if I was able to keep it going, because all that breading on those chicken fingers was playing havoc with my stomach, but surprisingly at the 6km mark I was feeling ok.

I didn't dare look at my watch until we got to the formal gardens, that's when I decided to break from Erick and Paul and was going to kick it up to stride lengths for the last mile. I got in a 5:20 min/km pace and I was red lining it as I got out of the formal gardens and realized it wasn't my cardio or any aches or pains that were bothersome, but the mental concentration to will you body to keep that pace going was what I realized I was dialing into. Started the run with Anita and Karen who just returned from Sochi, Russia to watch the Para-Olympics, Erick, Tyler and Paul.

This run ended up to be pretty good time-wise.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	56:21.0	10.08	5:35
1	5:33.9	1.00	5:34
2	5:23.4	1.00	5:23
3	5:29.4	1.00	5:29
4	5:31.6	1.00	5:32
5	5:37.0	1.00	5:37
6	5:32.0	1.00	5:32
7	5:31.6	1.00	5:32
8	5:55.3	1.00	5:55
9	5:19.2	1.00	5:19
10	5:19.8	1.00	5:20
11	1:07.1	0.09	12:40

March 22, 2014

Week 7 CPR LSD

Ok...so the night before I went out with my cousin for dinner. We did this tapas thing and had some pretty exotic type dishes (Braised lamb croquettes with seared vegatbles, wonton rabbit soup with Chinese herbs, Unagi and Foie...)the dining experience was fun but after dinner we headed to The Kings Head pub to down some beers and whiskey, because that's how you do it in the company of pretty women. We closed the bar down, I didn't get home until 3:30AM and got my dumbass up for 6:30 to get ready for the LSD.

Was not feeling this run. Yes it was cold -34C but surprisingly going down Oakdale was pleasant with the sun shining. I ran with Osty, Tyler, Anita, Travis, Tracey, Karen and coach Dan. There was a big split in the group at the 5km mark. I kept Osty and Tyler in my sites and did not catch up to them until we got into the forest. It was there I threw up, feeling dehydrated and just bone chilling cold. This was supposed to be the big 28km run but once we got to Assiniboine park formal gardens, I was done. I just did not have it in me to keep going. My legs felt leaden and I'm sure I could have sucked it up and gone for the whole distance but I really didn't want to risk getting hurt as I was shivering so badly from the wind. I'll live to run another day. Osty said it best, "Move on and run next week."

Also, shouldn't drink and run...oh well the foibles of being an old man. :)

The following week (week 8) the clinic will be doing this spring celebration week....

Strength - Inner and Outer ~ The Yoga Post and all about being a Poser

So in my last post I was talking about the strength needed for endurance running. The basis of getting good at running is to run more, its that simple. But putting down all that mileage takes a toll on  your body if you're not physically able to meet its demand and I wasn't, plain and simple. So I needed to get strong...and my buddy Osty helped me find the way.

I'm lucky that my place of employment has a gym and offers the gym members various health and fitness programs. One of them is Yoga, which Osty, one of the most competitive and informed athletes I know, was talking to me about joining yoga to help with our running last year. He read how a lot of elite athletes used yoga to help strengthen and develop the core area of the body namely the quads, hamstrings and hip-flexors which can help runners run efficiently and injury-free. So we signed up and after a couple of introductory classes we were hooked and integrated the practice into our training.

From Wikipedia; Yoga is the physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India with a view to attain a state of permanent peace of mind in order to experience one's true self. 

Our Yogini, Andrea Robin, has been doing yoga for over 10 years and teaching for the past 4. She's Iyengar certified but from what she's taught us in class the past 2 years, is a combination of styles from many of the disciplines. She always comes in with a theme, using keywords like grounded, lightness, openness, breath and we follow along with poses along the theme. Her belief is to do things that are safe and doable for everyone as we're all not human pretzels. She also has this voice, which I call 'song of the universe' as it's pretty harmonic in guiding us to our poses.

We almost always start the class with Sukhasana or Easy Pose, which is basically just sitting on your 'sit' bones, with your legs crossed, eyes closed, back erect with a tall spine, breathing lightly (always mindful of breath) and your hands on your knees with palms facing up. Then we bring our hands together in Anjali Mudra, with thumbs pressed against the heart and then Andrea begins by saying a small offering to the universe and opens the practice with one Om. I don't say it out loud as I actually much like to hear the class chant it, as it reminds me of a time when I used to sit in Buddhist temples and listen to the Nichiren monks chant followed by a bell. (Which is something I do during the class chanting Om, while in Anjali Mudra, I'd clap my two index fingers together as the sound of Om is dying to indicate the bell tone.) This is the one time when I close my eyes, I see no mental pictures flash before me, and probably the closest I feel to that 'nothingness' state.

So after a year and a half of doing yoga, I've started to understand certain sequences and poses that are really beneficial for myself as a runner and also as an athlete. The poses I do, I normally hold for 5 breaths as I learned that breathing in a posture is part of the posture itself, much like the rhythm of running and breathing. Now I only do yoga once a week and it's that class I use and note down as part of my weekly workout regimen. It's part of my calisthenics training as most of the time, after class, I'm pretty invigorated, but I also know I got in a good workout, especially when Osty wants to get spiteful and asks if we can do core workout. Damn, a lot of the core specific poses in Yoga are very challenging, and you really can feel it.

Salute to the Sun - Pre Run

Before I go out running and sometimes in general, as a morning workout routine, I do a Sun Salutation sequence that helps me warm up, stretch and prepare my body before I head out to run. The other reason I do this is, it relaxes the mind, as you have to be mindful of breath and how you hold each pose, borders on the level of meditation. The real name is Suriya Namaskara B or Sun Salutation B which is a sequence of asanas or body poses.

*Note the second pose Utkatasana (chair pose), in the diagram above, I stick my ass out literally almost in a sitting position. As you'll see in the video below. This I find helps me stretch out my hamstrings and strengthen my glutes which is part of that kinetic chain I keep harping about. All apologies to my Yogini Andrea as I'm not holding the positions for the proper length of time (5-8 breaths) and we typically do 3-4 sets. The video below shows you one set:

The other sequence I like to do is a Moksha practice and it's position 3 in a series of 26 postures. It's called Utkatasana B in Sanskrit and is known as 'awkward pose' in English. But it can also be called holy crap my thighs, calves, and achilles are burning pose. But I love it because, this requires laser focus and this posture is designed to help warm up your quadriceps, hamstrings, knees, calves and ankles. Once again, apologies to Andrea as I took liberties from what she taught me and freestyled it a little. I hold each pose for about 3-5 breaths to complete the sequence and I do this two times. This is really challenging and great for my core strength and balance.

Post Run

After a run there are 2 main poses I like to do as a cool down. I notice a lot of the people in the running club do this, and thats the Pigeon Pose which is a hip opener pose, which stretches the hip rotators (the buttocks area) and the hip flexors (the long muscles that run along the front of your thighs and pelvis). I hold the position for about 5 breaths while sitting tall and then I lean forward and hold for another 5 and switch to the other leg.

Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana)

The other pose I do is Hero Pose (Virasana) or Seiza in Japanese. Starting on your knees, sit back on your heels with the tops of your feet flat on the floor and hold for 5 to 8 deep breaths. This will help stretch out the anterior muscles of your feet. I then curl my feet under using the balls of my feet to sit on and hold that pose for 5 to 8 breaths. I find this pose helps the plantar fascia and helps relieve shin splints. It's very uncomfortable holding this pose, but with practice I can hold it for longer periods and this helps in focus on that 'one-point' in the mind.

Hero Pose (Virasana)

There have been many a times where I've put in personal requests a couple of hours before class, asking if we can work on Illiotibial Band (ITBand) pains, shin splints, or anything to help relieve pains from running and she's always obliged and integrated that into the class. Although I'm sure the class is becoming aware that when we pull out the yoga straps to do the ITBand stretch (which is blissfully painful), it's because some idiot runner is whining about how he hurt himself again. Yep...I can feel those dirty looks coming my way.

Yoga is so relaxing, but it can also be a full body workout. I find that my core is getting stronger and as you practice more and more and become mindful of breath, you start to develop that state of nothingness where you're able to drown out a lot of the noise from daily life.

My next Strength post will deal with my calisthenics workout.

Week 6 CPR Marathon Training - Lost in Translation - I thought she said 16KM!

There are nine weeks left until the Fargo Marathon and our mileage is starting to ramp up. I have to admit, this is starting to become a lot of work. Motivation is still there but it's not as amped up as when I started. Partly due to work and being a dad and the major part, is this weather. 2014 has been the worst winter that I can remember with it warming up a bit then freezing immediately after making the roads and footing very slick. At first I was taking all of the weather in stride using the adversity to mentally toughen myself up and I kept telling myself that I can only get stronger every time I'm out there running in these extremes. But now I'm finding this COLD...just that...cold. I only wear 1 baselayer, 1 cold weather technical long sleeve and my running jacket, so I'm not that cold, even except for those extreme -40 temps when I'll add another layer. But my achilles are my hands. I bought a pair of Saucony cold weather running gloves and they don't protect my hands even when I put on a synthetic underlayer, my poor hands still freeze even in -20C. So I've resorted to wearing leather garbage mitts that were a staple for all Canadian boys growing up playing street hockey in their youth.

First rest stop at Misercordia with Ron, Joshua, Osty and coach Dan lording over us with his ninja mask

Selfie...steam was coming off me

March 11, 2014

Run with Osty and Rob - sans clinic
It was my daughter Madeline's 14th birthday so I didn't run the clinic. Osty told me the workout was cancelled due to the horrible footing to be able to do the speed work so they ran the 5km loop around the park.

But during the day, I ran with Osty and Rob on our lunch break. Weather has been warming but today everything iced over. I didn't run with my spikes and I felt my quads go super tight even though I was mindful of getting that kinetic chain flowing. Felt super awful and tired going over the bridge back to the office.

March 13, 2014

Week 6 CPR Tempo
Nice and warm day and actually ran while the sun was just setting, turned out it was +7C. Of course with the very warm weather, came the melt and it was very wet in a lot of the areas Osty and I were running through, especially down Grant Ave. But regardless, even taking a pee break at the duck pond shelter and walking through major puddles, Osty and I managed to run a 10k in just under an hour. I didn't run in my trail shoes and instead took out my Brooks PureFlows to get my feet used to running in the shoes I plan to race in for this season.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	57:48.0	10.01	5:47
1	5:42.5	1.00	5:43
2	5:35.2	1.00	5:35
3	5:31.8	1.00	5:32
4	5:33.6	1.00	5:34
5	6:57.7	1.00	6:58
6	5:40.6	1.00	5:41
7	5:52.8	1.00	5:53
8	5:32.8	1.00	5:33
9	5:45.6	1.00	5:46
10	5:23.5	1.00	5:23
11	:07.7	0.02	8:02

March 15, 2014

Week 6 CPR - LSD

Longest and farthest run this year for me. When I got to Misercordia Hospital, I was with Kathryn, one of the speedier runners and asked her how far she planned on going. She told me 16 miles and I think my brain went lost in translation mode thinking 16 kilometers. Osty and I kept up in pace with Kathryn as she's preparing to race the Boston Marathon.But holy crap, her running stride was smooth.

Well, Osty kept up the pace with Kathryn as I was concentrating on my form and that kinetic chain moving so I can at least stay within their range, I was very happy with my cadence as I was in the 178spm range so that proved to me my leg turnover was getting faster and more consistent. The only time I was completely gassed was when we arrived back into the park and we got to the bridge that would lead us back to CPR. Kathryn planned on running a loop around the park to make it 19-20miles, but I hit the wall and had no energy and I was really starting to get cold as the westerly wind was blowing a -34C windchill. Great training run even though I was completely frozen.

Week 5 CPR Marathon Training - Speedier, Stronger and Longer

One of the things I love about the clinic are these factoids that coach Dan includes in our training plans that he sends out before the start of our new training week. I've learned about the benefits of Merino wool, the importance of hydration pre, during and post workouts, a recipe for a tasty post-run snack and for this weeks tidbit was 15 Best foods for Runners. Which I find I'm not eating enough of...I'll have to start looking more into my diet and nutrition.

March 4, 2014

Week 5 CPR Intervals:
6 x 3 minutes - Run 3 minutes at 5k pace followed by 2 minute slow jog or a recovery walk.

I felt great going into this training. The weather was 'warmer' considering the deep freeze we've had since late November. The footing was hard pack snow with a lot of slippery patches, but I was still able to get in great splits below my 5k interval pace I set at 4:50 - 5:10 pace.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	37:43.0	5.92	6:22
1	9:37.8	0.70	13:43
2	3:00.0	0.62	4:49
3	2:00.0	0.32	6:18
4	3:00.0	0.62	4:48
5	2:00.0	0.32	6:15
6	3:00.0	0.63	4:44
7	2:00.0	0.27	7:32
8	3:00.0	0.63	4:44
9	2:00.0	0.27	7:31
10	3:00.0	0.65	4:38
11	2:00.0	0.21	9:34
12	3:00.0	0.67	4:31
13	:08.0	0.02	8:06

March 6, 2014

Week 5 CPR Tempo

Seriously, WTF is up with this weather? It was actually a very nice evening of -5C, yeah you read that right but then it started to snow. And it wasn't your "Oh look at the snowflakes gracing us with their unique beauty..." But more like holy sh*t, it's coming down and the ground became all mushy and felt like running on sand and the drifts started to form because along with the snow, the wind decided to join in on the party and blow that wet snow everywhere we ran. My legs felt like lead, and with the sandy ground, it made footing very tough. Ran with Tyler the whole way through as Osty had hockey with his son. We just ran laps around the park as the footing was horrible.

March 8, 2014

Week 5 CPR LSD

I don't know why I was having a hard time running this morning. I slept well the night before and I was actually looking forward to running. But when I got out there, my legs were just not co-operating. I got as far as The Forks, with Osty and Tyler wanting to go a bit further, I went back with one of the groups and I kept up with them as far as the Wellington path and they started to pull away. I couldn't match them stride for stride but I made sure I didn't stop to walk. When I got back into Assiniboine park, my body was just exhausted and done but I managed to run right to the bridge and just walk myself back to the store. Not the best run, but I got in the mileage. Longest training run so far, with the exception of the Hypothermic half.

I'm wondering if this is that plateau period in a person's training. I mean, I'm trying to get faster, but my body is just not feeling it. I've kept up my calisthenics, but even my warm ups feel really 'hard.' It's like my body is rejecting my attempts to get to that next level. I don't feel stressed out, I could use a little better sleep regimen, but being a techie you sometimes have to do late night maintenance work which screws up your day and sleep patterns. Do I crank back my training pace or just fight through this?