Random Thoughts

1. I have a son-in-law, our first. Kind of strange to think of having a new member of our family.
2. Congratulations to our Sal's Rochester Runner of the Year representatives, Jennifer Katz (2nd age group), Jan McCullough (3rd), Pete Leonard (1) and New Roger (4th)!
3. Finding a xmas tree two days before xmas is not easy.
4. Portland Oregon is a neat city, Oregon an interesting state. Someday we will visit there when it is warm.
5. I'm still not into snowshoeing this year, despite our 50" of snow.
6. Stacy and Chris made neat wedding cake toppers.

7. Jan, Amanda and I will try our best to never fly United Airlines again, unless they give us vouchers towards future flights. Short version of story is they canceled our connecting flight from CHI to ROC on the way home, saying it was weather related. Wouldn't get us a seat the next day or tell us when we could fly out for sure. Wouldn't give us food vouchers or a place to stay. Weather related? They flew out to Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. We caught the flight to Pitt, not sure what we would do when arriving at 1am, but knew we were closer to home. Lucky for us Avis rented us a car, one-way, for $150 and we drove home, arriving at 6:15am.

Locate a Race by Brewery Location!

Amazing what people do with Google Maps now. This link will take you to a blog site that has flags of some world countries. Select a map and locate breweries to visit. Simple.
For example, someone planning to run the Dublin Marathon would have to do less searching for a place to grab a Guinness after the race by using this site. What could be better?

Ironman Training

Interesting article on Ironman training from some of the top pros, from Universal Sports. Amazing the kind of hours they put in.

This interview with Ironman Canada female winner Meredith Kessler made me feel a little better. She turned pro this year at the age of 32 and works full-time, fitting in 15+ hours of training a week.

Still, you need to be able to recover from the days and weeks of training.

Oh, and for some more IM news, Chrissie Wellington, currently considered the world's best female Ironperson, set a record by completing IM Arizona in 8:36, running the marathon in 2:52. It used to be men winning Kona IM in 9 hours or so, now the male winners commonly finish in 8:10+.

Bill Rodgers

The following article is about a race Bill Rodgers completed recently. I especially liked the last paragraph and think it relates to many of us. I'm kind of glad a former world-class athlete shares some of the same feelings as us regular folk.

From the Sun Sentinel newspaper, December 05, 2010,By Craig Davis

WEST PALM BEACH — Being a four-time winner of the Boston and New York City marathons made Bill Rodgers a legendary figure in American distance running.

It entitles him to celebrity status at races throughout the country. He made appearances in all of the events of this weekend's Palm Beaches Marathon Festival and held the finish line tape for marathon winner Ronnie Holassie. But being a living legend earned him no favors in Sunday's half marathon.

"I raced one woman for two or three miles. She was tough as nails," Rodgers said. "I was surging, giving it everything I had. It was like the Boston Marathon. I finally put the white flag up. In the end, she beat me."

He faired better against the other men in the 60-64 age group, winning in 1 hour, 39 minutes, 39 seconds. It was the third fastest half marathon of the year for Rodgers, 62, who has run about 30 races in 2010.

"I ran harder than I planned. You get caught up in it," he said. "The challenge for me is I have so many miles on my body, maybe 160,000 miles of running. … "I love going to races. I've always been a competitor, but it's getting tough. Father Time is for real."

Why Snow is Good?

Snow on December 1st in Rochester, how appropriate. Fortunately we only got 2-4 inches, not the 35 inches in West Seneca, NY. If we got that much I would have cleared a spot in the front yard and placed the "For Sale" sign up, put the Explorer in 4-wheel drive and headed south!

But, there must be some good things about snow, right? How about Ten Reasons?

10. Buffalo was shut down for two days. Who wants to go to Buffalo anyhow?
9. Time to really think about snowshoe racing season. I run just as fast wearing snowshoes as I do on clear roads, so why not?
8. I made snowmen that look like Mike and Lou in my front yard. Scares the neighborhood kids.
7. People can't drive. Expressway traffic gets backed up more than usual. This gives me more time to reflect on life while stuck on I390.
6. The Fleet Feet Snowcheap series begins on December 15th at Cobb's Hill Park. Lots of fun on the dark trails of Rochester!
5. Snowshoe racing throughout New York state. Check these three websites, ESSRA, USSSA and Roads are Poison.
4.Jan loves to shovel the driveway.
3. What could be more fun than wearing boots, gloves, thick socks, heavy winter coat, goofy hats from snowshoe racing, a scarf and snowpants?
2. Who doesn't love to slip and slide while running on the roads?
1. Another reason to run on my treadmill in the basement and catch up on all the wonderful television programs available through cable tv.

Improving VO2 Max Quickly

Many scientists consider VO2 max the most important factor in determining success in an aerobic endurance sport. Here are two methods to improve your V02 max in an 8 week period by 5-7%.
1. 15second running at 90-95% max HR with 15second recovery @ 70% HR (repeat 47x)
2. 4x4 minutes @90-95% max HR with 3 minute recovery @ 70% HR

Either method should increase your V02 significantly over the two month period. Do these workouts 1-2 times per week, with a 10 minute warmup and cooldown.

This study ("Aerobic High-Intensity Intervals Improve V02 max more than moderate training", Medical Sports Exercise Journal, 2007) compared long slow distance (45 minutes @ 70%HR, the two methods above, and Lactate Threshold running-85%HR for 24 minutes). Forty athletes were in the study and ran on treadmills set at 5% incline.

The recommendation is to use the 4minute hard/3 minute easy session, as the 47x 15 seconds is difficult for most of us to count up to while sprinting. 95% effort is 15-30 seconds faster than your 5k pace (8minutes per mile for a 5k=2 minutes per quarter, so for the four minutes you would go through each quarter in 1:52-1:56, meaning you would ideally complete more than 1/2 a mile). 90% effort is closer to 10k race pace. It might be wise to begin the interval just under 10k pace and picking the pace up a bit for the last 1-2minutes if you can. Finishing strong is always good.

A workout I always found useful and similar to the two above and equally tough, was 15x 45 seconds at 1 mile pace with 15 seconds jog recovery. Again, I would do this 1x per week as one of my "fast" days. It's easy to time the minute, which I liked. It always took a couple of weeks to get to the 15 reps, if I was really running as hard as I was supposed to be. I always did this workout by feel, not distance. But if you do the same route, say five miles, with a 1 mile warmup, then the 15 reps, then cooldown, you can check the overall time for the workout and/or see how much further you covered in the fast phase than the week before and see the improvement.

Thanksgiving

Top Ten Great Things about Thanksgiving!

10.Several hundred runners at the inaugural Downtown Rochester Thanksgiving Day 8k Race
9. 3,000+ runners at the Webster Turkey Trot
8. 1,000 or so runners at the Race with Grace(which I have run 14 years in a row)
7. Football, between college and pros - four days in a row
6. Four days of not working at MCC
5. Beating all Sal's runners at RWG (maybe)
4. My birthday is always near or on Thanksgiving
3. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy
2. Jan's cinnamon rolls
1. Family time