Base Building

Man, it’s been over two weeks since we posted up on here.  Sorry about that.  A lot has gone on and I know Bob will want to talk about his Half and all of his buddies who hit PR’s on what was just a perfect race day.  But for me I’m just going to talk about boring old training stuff.

 

My Outdoor Track season ended back at the beginning of August and I moved from there into a Rest Phase of training.  It’s pretty much impossible to maintain a peak fitness level so there have to be times where one backs off the intensity to let the body and mind recover and get ready to grow again.  The mental part is as important as the physical in that it helps us avoid burning out and losing the desire to really push.  My Rest Phase lasted about six weeks.  I still ran some, but only about twice a week and always at a conversational pace.  Nothing intense, no racing, no intervals, no real pushing at all except for that fast finish I did down in Manteo a couple of weeks ago.  After those runs I remember feeling like my heart wasn’t even beating hard and my breathing was as relaxed as before I started.  But I still got a run in and that would keep my circulatory system operating smoothly and allow me to move into the next phase, Base Building, without having lost all of my endurance.

 

I also used my Rest Phase as a time to start building muscle back that I had lost during the last nine months.  Hard distance running actually removes muscle mass over time and eventually your top end speed begins to decline because you simply don’t have the muscle cells there to move you.  So I used my Rest Phase to begin adding that muscle back with weight training.  I think it was El G that said he spent his Rest Phase time “getting fat.”  He was never, ever fat, but he lifted weights the most during that time to build muscle so he could put it to work running later.  My weight days are divided up into Leg Day, Back Day and Chest Day.  I do core exercises and kettlebells throughout the week to augment that and round out my body’s work.

 

Leg Day to me is the most important and that consists of doing squats, deadlifts, lunges, step ups, calf raises, box jumps and skipping exercises.  This routine builds my power and trains me to transfer that with some pop in my legs and stride.  I’ve only done five workouts for Leg Days so far, but I’m now comfortably squatting 205 pounds and deadlifting 185.  Three sets of 5 each.  I’m set to move up again in both those this next Monday to 225 and 205 respectively.  I know I could do more right now, but then I wouldn’t have enough to do the lunges and step ups!  I do those with the big straight bar, too and load 115 pounds on for the lunges and 135 pounds for the step ups.  The lunges I do slow and steady to work on balance and I do those in 3 sets of 5.  The Step Ups I do with 135 pounds on the bar and I use the 12” box.  I step up starting with the left foot then bring the right up so I’m standing on the box, then step down with the left foot first then the right foot so I’m back on the ground.  I do ten of those then immediately switch to stepping up with the right foot first.  So 20 at a shot for three sets.  Makes my heart pound!

 

It also makes my legs strong, along with my hips and improves my balance.

 

I’m continuing my lifting through at least the first half of my Base Building phase since I really need about three months of lifting to get my body to significantly different place.  To help that part along I’m adding sprint workouts back into the mix once a week.  Those are the ones where I sprint all out for somewhere between 50 and 90 meters with complete recovery between each rep until I do two reps slower than the previous one back to back.  My goal is to see my 100’s drop into the low 13’s and my 200’s get done around 26 or 27 seconds.  That should make running 37’s feel  easy and that’s where I need to be to go sub 5 in the mile.

 

The Base Building part is just like it sounds.  Sort of boring to write about.  I’m running three times a week right now doing somewhere between 5 and 10 miles.  I did throw in a 14 mile run with a bunch of the Outer Banks Running Club folks and that was fun.  The main difference between my runs now and the rest ones is that instead of cruising along at somewhere around 8:30 minutes per mile, I’m doing them all at under 8:00 pace.  I still don’t feel like I’m busting it or anything but I definitely focus on doing negative splits each time out.  This week I’ve done a 5 mile run and this morning a 7.5 miler.  Saturday I’ll do 10 miles and try to stay below 8 minutes.  Next week I’ll move the 5 mile up to 7 and repeat the other two.  Little by little I’ll move them up, and then add a fourth run of about 3 to 5 miles on Sunday.  I’ll also begin doing some fartlek and Tempo runs in there as well.

 

Ten weeks from now I’ll have a nice solid base of endurance underneath me along with some stronger, more powerful legs.  That’s when I’ll start the Hills for several weeks and move back onto the track with a focus on February and March as peak time.

 

Mentally, I can hardly wait.  I’m beginning to chomp at the bit all ready, so I know I’ll be ready to kick it hard when I finally turn myself loose again!  Geez, I love this stuff.