Embracing the Suck Part Two: How To Get Faster

I'm calling this Embracing the Suck Part Two because in part one, I talk about doing something that you hate.  Something that makes you uncomfortable.  For me that was running in the snow.  I hate it.  So you can imagine how much I'm loving this winter.  But anyway, that's where my mind was when I started this post.  I think the same thing can be said for speed work.  A lot of people hate it because it makes them uncomfortable.  It hurts.  Plain and simple.  It's not a necessary thing in every runners life, some people are content to just go out and run and that's awesome.  But there are those of us who are looking to improve our pace so speed work becomes a necessary evil.  I've also been asked by several folks how I managed to drop my times as much as I have in the past couple of years so I'm going to let you in my secrets.

If you had told me when I started running 15 years ago that I would be a whole lot faster at almost 43 than I was when I was in my 30's, well, I would have said you should go hang out with our crack smoking Mayor.  But here I am, pushing 43 and laying down times that I could have only dreamed of when I started running.  How is that even possible? you may wonder.  Aren't you supposed to slow down when you get older?  Oh I'm sure that's going to happen to me at some point, probably sooner than I would like.  For now I'll focus on the 4 key things I did to get me to where I am now but I will do so with a warning:

GETTING FASTER IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.

It is not easy.  It will hurt.  I'll let you in on a little secret:  It's all in your head.  Seriously.  Your brain will tell you to stop long before your body is ready to quit.   Once you learn to talk yourself back from that ledge and learn to work through that pain, you'll be able to gut out pretty much any work out.  This was my biggest obstacle for the longest time.  I was always afraid I was going to "blow up".  G always told me that sometimes that's going to happen but, you'll never know what you're truly capable of if you don't test your limits.  If you blow up, you blow up.  Chalk it up to a learning experience.   Learn to work outside your comfort zone and learn to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Key Point #1:  Train your brain to embrace the pain.

 
I'm not going lie, this is not an easy thing to do on your own.   It was all too easy for me to start out hard and then when the going got really tough, I'd ease off to my "safe place".  That's why I decided to join a run group.  I took the opportunity to run with faster runners and hang on for dear life for fear of being left behind.  There's something so primal about not wanting to be left behind, not wanting to be at the back of the pack.  Your survival instincts kick in and your sense of pain gets dulled.  Tunnel vision takes over.  At least that's what happens to me.  It's like all rational thought leaves and you go on autopilot.  That is actually something I strive for when I'm racing.  Rational thought will tell you to stop.  Instinct tells you to keep going.

Key Point #2:  Run with someone faster and learn to hang on. 

The other thing I did was race a LOT.  Maybe it's just my competitive nature but I have a very hard time entering a race and NOT racing it to a certain extent.  Unless of course I'm there to pace someone.  I find in a race situation you are less apt to throw in the virtual towel and call it quits.  I also find that you're able to dig a lot deeper and find that little bit extra that you might not be able to find in training.   The more you do it, the better you will get at learning how far you can push.  There is also a fine line with this too though.  You need to make sure you get adequate recovery (both physical and mental) between races or you will burn out. 

Key Point #3:  Get out and Race OFTEN

The really big thing that helped me get faster was losing weight.  I know many people struggle with this and there is a tipping point.  If you lose too much weight you'll lose power and strength which is no bueno.  And, you have to have the weight to lose in the first place.  I wasn't terribly overweight but I wasn't at my ideal racing weight either.  I figured I had between 5-10lbs to lose.  I ended up losing just over 20lbs and have since put back roughly 5-7lbs, and I'm going to guess that a fair bit of it is muscle.  At 5ft 5in and 125lbs, I think I'm pretty close to my ideal weight.  Amby Burfoot wrote an excellent article about weight loss and how it affects your running.  You can read the entire article here.  Basically, you can go 2 seconds per mile faster for every pound lost.  "Weight loss boosts maximal aerobic capacity.  The less weight you carry around, the more miles per gallon you get from your oxygen.  And because losing a few pounds makes running easier, you should be able to increase your workout distance and speed.  So losing weight helps you train harder." (Amby Burfoot, Runners World 2007) I can definitely attest to this.  Once I dropped the weight, my times started to drop and I was able to push myself that much harder in training.   How did I lose the weight?  Mainly by changing my diet.  I cut out the processed junk and focused on eating REAL food.  Not only did it help me lose the weight, it also helped me to recover better. 

Key Point #4:   Small changes in your diet can result in big changes in your waistline and your running.  

Well there you go folks.  4 things to consider if you're looking to P.R in your next race.

Is there anything else you'd add to this list?  What has worked for you?

Yasso 800's...It's What's for Dinner

So last night I put on my big girl pants and hit the track.  Again.  This week's workout was Yasso 800's.  Apparently if you do 10 of them in a row that is supposed to be a good predictor of your marathon time.  Although I've also read that you should add 5 - 7 minutes to your Yasso 800 time.  Apparently that gives you a better approximation of your marathon time.  Whatever the case, if any of that is true then last nights track session was a real ego boost. 

This was my first 800.  My last looked exactly the same.  The middle ones went:  3:03, 3:04, 3:06, 3:03, 3:03 & 3:04.  I'm nothing if not consistent, ha ha.  So if I do the math and figure that my last two would be in the same area, according to Yasso's theory + say 5 minutes, that would mean that I have a 3:10 marathon in me.

3:10.  Holy. Frig.  My brain can't even process that so I'm not even going to try right now.  Instead, I'm going to enjoy the fact, that even though I so wanted to quit after the 5th one, I stuck it out and finished.   I channeled my inner Pre and sucked it up.  Listening to old school rap, cranked, also helped.  I had House of Pain's "Jump Around" on repeat.  I may or may not have been hand dancing and flashing gangsta signs.  Just like I may or may not know all the words. 

There may have been a bit of bribery involved as well.  I told myself that if I did all 8 of them, then I could have a big bowl of my new favourite thing.  Chocolate cherry "ice cream" (there is no ice or cream in it...I'm sneaky like that!).   I think I've finally gotten the recipe right but I'll have to test it a few more times just to make sure.  And then I'll post it. 

Thankfully today was a rest day for me so I got to sleep in.  Tomorrow we are back at it, heading up to Bolton for a ride.  It's going to be an amazing weekend weather wise so we are going to take full advantage of it and get outside!

What have you got planned for this weekend? 

All Aboard the Pain Train

With a little more than 4 weeks till Scotia, I have been putting in some pretty hard miles.  And it's just going to get tougher over the next couple of weeks.  I've got my but firmly planted on the pain train apparently.  What's strange is that I'm actually kind of enjoying the ride.

I'm beginning to think I'm a bit of a weirdo.  Who else gets excited when they see that their club workout is Mile Repeats?  Apparently I do.  Perhaps all that triathlon racing has upped my discomfort level a few notches, which is good because I'm going to need it over these next few weeks.

This is the Master Plan:

That is a whole lot of fast and hard running.  I know my body can take it as long as I get my recovery in.  I just have to work at training my brain to deal with it.  I've gotten a whole lot better than I used to be but I still have my "I don't wanna / I can't" moments.  Like last Thursday.  My plan called for 4x1 mile repeats within a 13km run.  I did a nice warm up, got to the track and started my repeats.  After the second one, I felt like I was mentally done.  I managed to talk myself into a 3rd one.  The 4th one however, didn't happen.  I mentally couldn't face it.  Even though I felt fine physically, I had mentally checked out.   Normally I get annoyed with myself when I do this but this time around, I didn't.  Sometimes your brain just doesn't have it and you have to be ok with that (a challenge for me most days).

The act of training is not only about training your body but training your mind as well.  Just like your body, your mind also has it's overload point.  Sometimes you need to learn to push through that and sometimes you just have to say "Screw it, today is not my day."  It's a fine balance that I'm clearly still trying to figure out.

Tonight I'll be back at the track tackling Yasso 800's.  8 of them.  That's more than I've ever done before.  I think the most I've done has been 5 so this will be a challenge.  I hope I'm done before it gets dark, ha ha.



Do you like track workouts?  Have you ever done Yasso 800's?

Use it or Lose It.

I hate to break it to you folks but that old adage really does ring true in pretty much everything across the Board of Life.  Want to keep your grey matter sharp? Do the Sunday crossword. Want to stay strong as you age?  Keep lifting weights.  Want to be a rock star?  Keep practicing, kiss some ass and hope that you get a lucky break.
Whatever the case may be, you need to use it because if you don't there's a good chance you'll lose it.  For example, I graduated from University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.  I could draw wonderful pictures worthy of framing, at least that's what my parents said.  Now, 15+ years later, I can't even draw a decent stick figure. Why?  Because I stopped drawing altogether when I got out of University.  I'm sure the talent is still there, I just need to find it again.  It's much like riding a bike.  You never really forget, it just takes a bit of regular practice to get the hang of it again. 
 I have to say, regular practice is something that I have sorely missed when it comes to speed work.  My lack of it was evidenced by my incredibly inconsistent effort at some mile repeats last Thursday.  I kept telling myself that perhaps it was because I was fighting something but let's be real, I've done very little speed work since the marathon.  I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've gone out and run intervals or done a tempo run.  Holy moly does it ever show.  My endurance is totally fine but I've lost some serious top end speed.  My repeats were as follows:

#1:  6:16.  Totally busted a gut on this one.  Went too hard too soon.  You'd think I was a 16 year old boy.
#2:  6:35   Worked just as hard if not harder but went slower.  Go figure.
#3   6:57  WTF.  An implosion of colossal proportions as my husband so lovingly said.  I have to agree.  I had nothing left for that last repeat.  N.O.T.H.I.N.G.  The worst part of that was that I could taste my lunch in the last 400m or so.  Gotta be honest, it tasted better going down.

I can't complain about consistent sub 7 minute miles so I won't go down that road.  But the inconsistency between the 3 is huge.  That just tells me it's time to get back on track with my group runs.  Yes folks, the time for ass kicking is here and I'm going to start with my own.

(graphic copyright Phaedra Kennedy 2012)