Running Tip: What to do with your arms

Today's running tip comes from the Revolution Running's Bolder Boulder training newsletter. Buried in a running form section was a tip that says the backward drive of your arms drives the body forward. I have always thought the forward motion of my arms contributes to my body's forward motion but I decided to try their suggestion during my latest tempo run. They said to hold your arms in a 90 degree position and swing them 1/3 in front and 2/3 to the rear. I started doing this when I began my warm up to the start of my tempo and immediately found I have been running wrong since my college cross country days. The change in my posture, form and balance was dramatic. And I was still in my warm up. The scary thing was if I stopped driving my arms backward during my tempo run I could instantly feel a loss of momentum. The good news is I am not too old to learn. I looked all over on Revolution Running's website for the Bolder Boulder tips so I could post the link for others. I could not find it and it seems these tips were only in the newsletter.

Shoe Review: Nike Structure Triax 16 after 300 miles

I got my first pair of Structure 16's in October 2012. I had put 300 miles on them by March when they were retired and I bought another pair of the same shoe. That pretty much sums up my opinion of them, I like them so much I bought another pair. I liked the Structure 16 on my first run with them. They are stable and lightweight. I used them for intervals, tempos and long runs. My only concern was how durable they were because the dynamic arch support can only take so many shocks. I found out the dynamic arch support lasts 300 miles. One day they were fine and the next day they were deflated. I was surprised because the outer soles hardly had any wear. They lasted 50 more miles than my Structure 15's however. I highly recommend these shoes to other moderate overpronators like myself, Galin Rupp and Mark Plaatjes.

Tempo length for Bolder Boulder 10K training

I am running a tempo or threshold run of 5K in preparation for the upcoming 2013 Bolder Boulder 10K. I will run this once a week in May. I run them at my threshold pace of 8:51 mm except for the tempo run 2 weeks before the BB when I will run at my predicted 10K pace of 8:43. How I came up with these paces is the subject of my last post. This post is my reasons for training with a 5K tempo. Runners who train for fitness or 5K are advised to run a minimum tempo of 20 minutes duration. I run my 2.3 mi course in 22:00. I add one .9 miles lap to get a 3.2 mile or 5K tempo run.

Experts give Bolder Boulder 10K training advice

The training technique to emphasize so I will have a good time in the 2013 Bolder Boulder 10K is the Tempo run according to Mike Sandrock. His latest column in the Daily Camera quotes Melody Fairchild and Frank Shorter tips on using Tempo runs to train for the BB. In years past Sandrock has said the key to running a good BB is to run 400 meter intervals. I am not a big fan of going to the track to run 400's so the shift in emphasis to the Tempo is good news to me. My questions about the Tempo run have been how fast and how long should it be. The Tempo is also called the Threshold run because it's supposed to be at the pace where your body changes from aerobic to anaerobic. Running at threshold pace increases your anaerobic threshold with minimal wear and tear on your body. The problem has always been how do you know what this pace is? Some writers advocate run at a pace that you do not have to breathe hard, that is you can sense if you are at the threshold. I can, sort of, but I come up with widely varying times for different days. Other coaches say just subtract 30 seconds or 20 seconds from your latest 5K pace. Every coach seems to have a different way to to establish the threshold pace and I chose Jack Daniel's method because he has put his formula on the web here. I highly recommend his calculator that does a lot more than just calculate threshold pace.

Running Plan for 2013

This is my running plan for 2013. It is driven by two races I want to run, the Bolder Boulder 10K on Memorial Day and the Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving. Significant changes from the previous year are I aim for 13.5-19.5 miles a week, run 4 days a week, use my Bowflex resistance machine 3 days a week, use the E Boulder Rec center for treadmill workouts and modified my weekday workouts to have a longer warm up. On Tuesday and Thursday in December and January I warm up with a 1.5 mi run to the turnaround point, then 8 10-20-30 intervals or 1.0 mi threshold run back to the 2.5 mi point followed by a .5 mi cool down. I increase my weekly mileage every month by 10% and peak at 19.5 mi/wk for the month prior to my race. A 10% increase is 1.5 miles distributed equally among the intervals, threshold and long runs. I run an easy 3 mi on every Saturday. My long run is 33% of weekly mileage. The 3 off days from running has allowed my damaged knee to recover to the point I do not notice it at all. It may be a different story in May when I am running my maximum mileage.

Completed 6 weeks of training

I finished 6 weeks of base training today. I ran 18 10-20-30 intervals, 2 mi tempo, 4 mi long run and 3 days of 2 mi recovery every week. I ran the last 4 mi 2 minutes faster than the previous 5. My next race is the Thanksgiving Day 5K at Pott's Field in Boulder, CO. I will continue with the same training schedule and not increase the number of intervals or the mileage of the tempo. I plan on increasing the long run to 5 mi and the easy recovery runs to 2.5 mi.

October Running Plan

I finished three straight weeks of training for the Turkey Trot 5K at Potts Field. I know I said I would add distance to the Long and Tempo runs now but I am going to lower their paces instead. I cannot continue running my Long run at 10:40 min/mi. I cannot run that slowly, it is just not natural. For October I will run Long at 10:00 min/mi and Tempo at my anaerobic threshold of 9:00 min/mi. I am going to run 18 10-20-30 intervals on Tuesday. This is down from the 20 per day I ran in September because I am changing from resting after 5 min into jogging at the 55th St underpass and Wellman Ditch bridge. That knocks out one interval for the outbound one mile but I will take a good rest when I turn around. Taking the Easy runs as a recovery run after each of the hard days (Intervals, Tempo and Long) has worked very well. I'll do three more weeks of this and then find a Halloween 5K to see where I am at. Then I will have three more weeks of training for the Thanksgiving 5K. I hope not increasing my mileage keeps me injury free until then.