Summer 2009 - week six

It's kind of hard to believe week six of the summer is here so quickly! Hopefully everyone had a great holiday and I look forward to hearing tales from the Peachtree Road Race!

After last week's opportunity to consolidate training gains, this week brings an opportunity to start pushing the volume levels even higher. While we don't want the intensity to be too low, make sure you focus first on handling the higher volume. Only push the pace on runs to the point where you still feel comfortable with a relaxed rhythm (and running with proper technique!). Keep in mind that weather conditions will affect your pace and adjust accordingly.

Opportunities for extra credit this week: 3 x 15' & 1 x 30'

Most if not all of you have received the strength-training schedule from Scott. Some of the new people have not, some have. If you haven't, you can email me and I will forward it to you. One of the areas of emphasis right now should be the core. If you don't have access to a workout facility, there is still plenty of bodyweight work you can do and plenty of core work you can do. Make sure you are putting in some solid work on your core. It can't be too strong.

Some educational opportunities for this week:

Here is a link to an article that discusses the iron supplementation issue which I think is very important to both men and women alike:
http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/hs/coachscorner/20051215.html

and a link to a thread on a running website which also discusses iron supplementation:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=3089515&thread=3089378

Lastly, I have read recently about the importance to recovery of keeping testosterone levels elevated throughout the day. Below are some stategies that help keep those levels elevated:
-sleep (take naps when at all possible)
-eat smaller meals, 5 x day
-eat protein with each meal
-zinc supplement
-increase good fats in diet (nuts, etc.)
-push-ups after runs, etc.

Summer 2009 - week five

It's great to read about everyone's training and it looks like a number of you will have fun re-connecting on the 4th of July. Keep up the solid training - as we've said in the past, just take care of one week at a time and before long you will find yourself in fantastic shape.

Week five is a good week to consolidate the mileage increases over the past several weeks. With a very minimal increase this week, it is an opportunity to recover and regroup as the mileage climbs higher over the next few weeks. Make sure you're living like a clock, getting into a routine with rest, diet, stretching, strength-training, etc.

Extra-credit opportunities for week five are 2 x 15' and 1 x 30'.

Regarding extra-credit, mostly it's meant for those who are easily able to get all their weekly mileage in one run per day. The extra-credit gives you an opportunity to add up to three additional light runs for the week. For those with heavier mileage targets, many of you are already running more than once each day.

And lastly, speaking of re-connecting, I had an opportunity to visit with Morgan in his home state - he took me on a tour of the southern and eastern parts of Oahu and it certainly was beautiful. It was great to see his hometown of Kailua and below is a picture Kailua Beach, I believe.