The Joe Nation 2007 NYC Marathon Log

That's what you get for putting your mailbox at the end of a seven mile driveway.

(and for shooting over the head of the postman every time he tries to bring anything up to the porch.)

Joe("But I need a signature!!!" " I'm going to sign your ass with this shotgun")Nation

Did a two-miler with mike yesterday.
I'm in the mood for some serious interval work today.

i did about two miles yesterday. it was awful. i had to stop a few times because of cramps in my calves. It probably has to do with not running for about 5 or 6 days.

Also, gentlemen, can you tell me how exactly do you warm up and/or stretch before running? i usually neglect that part, but that is starting to seem unwise.

I believe in warming up before and stretching after.
A warmup should be a low-intensity version of what it's a warmup for.

One thing I do that's peculiar to me is that I hold my arms out to the side
and rotate them first in one direction, then the other. This is because I
have rotator-cuff issues.

For warmup, sometimes I do a few toe-raises, squats, kicks and twists,
sometimes I just start out very slowly, and then pick up the pace.

For stretches, I'd recommend consulting a running site. I do these, but I
think they have fallen from favor:
* Feet about a foot apart, bend over stretching toward the toes. Don't
bounce.
* Feet very wide apart, bend over and stretch first toward one foot then the
other.
* Bend leg at knee and grasp from behind. Pull to stretch the quadriceps.
* Find a curb or slanted surface and stand with toes high and heels low.
Lean forward.

I will admit that I am not as good as I should be about stretching.

About the cramps -- are you drinking plenty of water? Dehydration
makes me cramp like crazy.

aaaaah, that would make sense especially yesterday. i didn't drink much yesterday at all. ha, who knew.

i'm good at stretching, but i neglect warmup entirely. i just start running and go.... well i am learning at least.

Did my interval workout with more intensity than I've put out in a while.

It felt GREAT...















...when I stopped.

Before starting out I do a Salutation to the Sun, about three sometimes four times.

At home, the cats think it is histerical.

Then I run.

After running it's REALLLLLY important for me to stretch my right leg hamstring (Which likes to talk to me about four miles into any run) and my left hip (so I do more Sun Salutations.) I also do about the same routine as George....

Joe(No bouncing)Nation

That's a great link, JoeNation.

I didn't realize how many of our warm-ups and cool-downs for dance class are actually yoga moves.

Ya live and ya learn.

Everything is yoga.


Joe(everything)Nation

I'm thinking I have a new short-term goal.

A couple of yoga moves in Central Park.

~~~~~~~

It's already my 'special place' for breathing exercises at the end of class. Actually doing them there <nods>, that'd be like, so, cool.

Toby Tanser, quoted below will be my coach starting August 1,



May 31, 2007
Basic Training
Modern Marathoners Have Fewer Miles on Them
By JOHN HANC
SO you want to run a marathon?

During the first running boom three decades ago, aspirants embarked upon a six-day regimen of arduous runs hellbent on crossing the finish line in the fastest time possible. Hollow cheeks, hobbled feet and an overuse injury or two were badges of honor for the mostly middle-class men who tackled the 26.2-mile challenge. Their icon was Frank Shorter, a Yale-educated lawyer whose victory in the 1972 Olympic marathon ignited the mass running movement.

Things have changed.

Today's marathoner is less likely to have been motivated by an Olympian than by Oprah. Her slow-but-steady completion of the 1994 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., is considered the start of the second marathon boom, one that has dwarfed the first, and is far more democratic in nature. Ms. Winfrey was one of 277,000 marathon finishers nationwide in 1994; last year 410,000 runners crossed the line, according to Running USA, a nonprofit organization in Ventura, Calif., that keeps track of participatory running.

The marathon has become an "everyman's Everest," said Amby Burfoot, the executive editor of Runner's World magazine.

Men, women, fledglings and fossils, of varying girth, are marathoners these days ?- in part because of the proliferation of training programs that make it, if not easier, at least less time-consuming to prepare.

During his training for the Boston Marathon, which he won in 1968, Mr. Burfoot ran twice a day, seven days a week. Emil Zatopek, the great Czech runner who won the 1952 Olympic marathon (along with two other gold medals in the same Games), prepared by running mountain trails near his home in Moravia while carrying his wife, Dana, on his back.

Contemporary marathon programs require neither twice-a-day workouts nor spouse-hauling. Indeed, the new watchwords of marathon training are moderation and specificity. Gone ?- for beginners, at least ?- are the six days a week of running routinely recommended in the 1970s. Absent, in most programs, are even consecutive days of running.

Today, some popular schedules involve as little as three days a week of pounding the pavement. "It's gone from being excessive training for what many would consider to be an excessive event to a very trimmed-down, less-is-more approach," said Toby Tanser, a marathon coach in Manhattan and the author of "The Essential Guide to Running the New York City Marathon."

One of the leading less-is-more programs for running the marathon involves walking. It was developed by Jeff Galloway, a 1972 Olympian who believes that regularly timed walking intervals increase the likelihood of covering the 26.2 miles. In 2006, it worked for 18,000 Gallowalkers (as his followers are dismissively called by some old-school runners) who ran-walked their way to a marathon finish.

At least half of last year's marathoners used a minimal-mileage training plan, said Ryan Lamppa, a spokesman for Running USA.

"The expectation has changed," said Bill Pierce, the chairman of the health and exercise science department at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., and the creator of a popular three-day-a-week program. "It's O.K. now to walk. It's O.K. to finish over five hours. People have a completely different approach to the marathon."

Those people do not include the Kenyans, Ethiopians and other elite athletes from around the world who will be running in and perhaps winning the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 4. The best will not be following a less-is-more approach.

"This type of program is designed to get you to complete, not compete in, the marathon," said Dr. William Roberts, the medical director of the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Dr. Roberts endorses minimalist approaches. "They offer a lower risk for injury," he said.

Whether covering as little as 15 miles a week or as many as 100, the primary goal of all marathon programs is the same: to build your endurance to the point where you can cover 26.2 miles. Hence, the common denominator of every program is the weekly or every-other-week "long run" ?- a slow-paced run that starts at whatever distance you can now complete and, over months, grows longer.

"The long run teaches the body how to deliver and utilize oxygen more efficiently," said Carwyn Sharp, an exercise scientist with Wyle Laboratories, which conducts research on behalf of NASA.

As the runs lengthen, the body adapts by creating more blood vessels to transport oxygen-rich blood to working muscles; by manufacturing more energy-producing mitochondria; and by more efficiently repairing the microscopic tears to muscle fibers that result from the extended effort.

The long run is the one element, experts agree, that cannot be red-penciled out of a marathon program. But how long is long?

Here, experts disagree. Many say 20 miles is sufficient. Others, like Mr. Galloway, recommend conquering at least the full marathon distance in training. Still, whatever the distance of the longest long run, novices can't go from zero to 26 miles overnight, which is why most plans are at least 12 weeks long, and some last up to 30 weeks. What's more, most coaches and exercise physiologists recommend against even starting a marathon program until you have regularly run shorter distances for a couple of years.

Most programs also include at least one day of shorter but faster-paced running to improve efficiency; hill work not only to build leg strength, but also to prepare for steep elevation; and plenty of rest to allow the body to recover and rebuild.

For many people, finding the time to train may be harder than actually training. Gordon Bakoulis, who competed in the United States Olympic Trials marathon four times, and now works for the New York Road Runners, the New York marathon's organizers, says she has noticed a pattern among those who drop out before the race.

"It's not that they failed in the training," Ms. Bakoulis said. "It's just that they couldn't manage the logistics. There were too many early-morning meetings at work, too many Saturday-morning soccer games. You can't fake marathon training, especially the long runs."

But you can be reasonably certain that if you reach the starting line in one piece, you'll finish: In last year's New York City Marathon, 38,368 runners started and 37,869 finished ?- a 99 percent completion rate. Other major marathons, including the Marine Corps and Chicago's, have similarly high finisher percentages ?- and it's been that way for most of the last decade.

What does that say about the various marathon training programs?

"It says that they all work," Ms. Bakoulis said.

Basic Training looks at the latest thinking about conditioning for recreational sports.

I just can't imagine marathon training only three days a week.
Obviously, it's been done, but it just seems wrong to me.
It sounds like "marathon training for those who don't really like to run."


Ain't that the truth!

Note to self: Check date on your driver's licence before downing large Margarita and a Corona and large Roasted Chicken Burrito Bol with extra red chili sauce.

Ok.

Checked.

I am still a kid.

Leaped out of bed this morning expecting to hit my head on a hangover, but NO, no banger banger, no reaching for the Advil (ADVIL MUST HAVE ADVIL!! - former life motto-), no lingering effects of exxtremmee fakie mexicana comida.

Ran the 5.1 loop and pushed up the hills and clattered along happily down the hills.

Joe(got back in time for breakfast)Nation

So... how will you train?

I'm just glad I wasn't running behind you.

bastid

hee

155 Days to go before the ING New York City Marathon.

The eighteen week programs kick in in about two weeks.

What I've been doing for the past two years (I started walking fast two years ago the day after my 58th birthday) is increasing my weekly average distance. Right now I'm right on target to get to an average of about 25-29 miles per week with one day of that average being a 15-25 mile run. (that's what the eighteen week programs lead to.)

I decided a long time ago that this marathon was not going to my only goal. (wouldn't it be the craps if three days before THE day, X happened?) So now I just consider myself a runner. This run in 155 days is going to be one of the runs I will be doing in the next thirty years.

So, here I am, a 60 year old, still overweight guy who
(I can see it clearly)
is going to sail up Fifth Ave to the turn into the park next November 4 , run past Fred's statue, tip my hat to the guy
(no one else does that, just something I do.)
and then I'm going to run my regular three mile finish to Fifty-ninth street (just like yesterday)
only with 500, 000 people screaming their guts out for me
and all of those sloggers
and joggers
and puffers
and pain-looked pacers
all floating along on the birdsong.

Joe(Doing the Japan Day Four Mile tomorrow AND a long run after)Nation

I'm available to be carried on your back anytime I'm in New York, should you need me. I'll bring a book.