You asked and I answered: Tracking distance, Increasing pace, Adding Variety and Races

Happy Monday!!

Here’s my third post related to the Run This Year twitter chat. There were a lot of great questions from the twitter chat. Thanks for allowing me to evaluate my own training. I hope you find these answers helpful to your own training and progress.

The following are the questions asked during the twitter chat:

 If I have no sense of distance, how do I track it?

My suggestion is to invest in a watch with a GPS. This is the most accurate way to track your mileage on a day to day basis, and there are many to chose from. My personal favorite is Garmin. They are many different models of Garmin, varying in price. You can find them on Amazon for even cheaper. Nike and Timex also make watches with GPS.

Another suggestion, if a GPS watch is to pricey, are apps you can download on your iPhone or other smart phone. These include: Map My Run, Nike Plus Running App, Strava, and RunTastic. These are great tools and have seemed to work great, but may not be as accurate as an GPS watch. I have used RunTastic when I have forgot my Garmin and thought it did great.

What’s the best way to increase pace?  

• Hill Repeats – “It’s the worst-kept secret in running: If you want to improve strength and speed, run hills.” – Peter Magall Incorporating hill repeats into your running routine helps to build endurance and strength. Fatigue is common after hill repeats, so the more you do them the stronger your legs will become, making it harder for them to tire. Hill repeats develops muscle fibers increasing strength.
• Intervals –  Increasing your aerobic effort followed by recovery helps to build speed. Examples of intervals include: running at goal pace for 1, 2, 3 min intervals followed by 1, 2, 3 min recovery jog. If you don’t know what your goal pace is, just increase your aerobic effort to a 3 quarter’s speed or a near sprint, followed by the same amount of time in a recovery jog. My favorite workout is 5 X 3 min at 5K pace, with 3 min recovery, with 1 mile warm up and warm down. You can increase the number of repeats as you build endurance.
• Distance – Increasing your mileage is effective. This will build endurance, because as you run longer you are able to increase your pace for shorter distances. Remember to increase distance slowly so to avoid injury.
• Races – Doing shorter races will help to increase pace, as you are running with others. Races are great at increasing pace, because you tend to be more motivated to stick with a group and they bring a level of excitement to training. 
• Strength and Core work – It’s important to incorporate weight training and core work into your routine 2-3 times a week. This builds muscle and strength.
• Speed work – Working in 400s, 800s, and 200 meter repeats are great for building speed and increasing one’s pace. Eventually working up to 1200 meter repeats and 1 mile repeats, with a 400 or 800 recovery jog in-between repeats. Remember to do a 10 minute or 1 mile warm up and warm down.

How can you add variety to your program without losing focus?

Adding variety is important to your running since you use the same muscles over and over again while running. You need to develop and build all muscle groups, and you can’t do that without variety. Lifting weights, biking, swimming, core work, group fitness classes, and trail running are great ways to add variety

• Don’t look at variety has something that is taking over your running; rather look at it as supplementing your running. Variety aids in improving your running and keeping you from getting bored.

This is why I love trail running. Trail running is great to incorporate into your training because it increases faster twitch muscles and increases stability, and it helps bring excitement and enjoyment back to running in my opinion. 

• Remember that running takes precedent over other forms of exercise (if it’s what you’re wanting to improve) and make time for it first, everything else becomes secondary.

I want to get more local races in my area. How do I start?

There are many sites that offer listings for the available races in your area, and local running stores or sporting stores usually have bulletin boards of upcoming races and events.

Suggested Websites: 

• Active is a great site to visit to find races in your area. Just sign up for updates via email, by registering with your email and location or simply browse the site for races.
• Running in The USA – This offers information of races by state from 5k’s to 50 milers.
• Half Marathons . Net –  This site offers a list of half marathons by state
• Marathon Guide – Offers a listing of marathons broken down by states and even international races

Other suggestions: 

• Visit local specialty running stores and ask if they know of upcoming races in the community. They typically have fliers for the events.
• Visit stores such as REI, Dicks or Sports Authority – they usually have a bulletin board with upcoming races and events.
• Race Expos – have advertising for other races coming up in the area.

Hope you have a great Monday and Happy Running!!

P.S. Less than 4 days until my birthday. My parents are coming into town and I can’t wait to see them. For some reason even when your older having your parents around for your birthday is always fun and makes it that much more special!!

Until next time Be Whole and Be Fit!!