Next Week's Running Sched and Tomorrow's Run...

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow here at the studio at 7am for our 8 mile run!!

For those running Indy, we're one week away!! Next week's training will be light. 4 miles on Tuesday, and another 4 miles on Thursday - both runs should be slow and easy.

Here's next week's training:

Monday – Boot Camp or XT

Tuesday - Run 4 miles

Wednesday - Boot Camp or XT

Thursday – 4 Mile Easy

Friday - Boot Camp or XT

Saturday – Indy Half Marathon (for those not going to Indy 9 miles easy)

Here are some tips for the Indy Half...

Packing: Think of all the steps and things you’ve needed for each of our long runs and make sure those items are packed for Sunday morning. Don’t forget your GU, sports drinks, shoes, Glide, running belt (if you use one), running gear, change of clothes after the race, etc. A friend in Columbus said Sunday morning is supposed to be very cool. Pack both cold and moderate temperature running gear. Click here for Indy weather.

Carb Loading and Hydration starts next Wednesday! Make sure every meal contains whole grain carbs and plenty of water from Sunday through breakfast on Sunday. Remember, each day we need half our body weight in ounces of water for optimal hydration. A 150 pound person should be drinking at least 75 ounces, or slightly more.

Your Race Plan: Mentally plan out how you’re going to run on Sunday. Take caution in starting too aggressively (which is likely to biggest reason for a slower than anticipated time). It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the event...or have your competitive juices kick in when the gun goes off...or even to just forget to check your pace with each mile marker.

When you start too fast, your body shifts into your anaerobic energy system too quickly, bypassing the aerobic system, depleting your top energy system that you’ll need toward the end of the event. At a slower, aerobic energy system pace, you can go for a long period, then when you’re ready to kick up your pace, you’ll have several miles of your top energy system available.

Plan your race out in segments and make sure you have plenty of gas in the tank for the home stretch. Check your times at each mile. For example, if your goal is to finish in 2 hours and 20 minutes, you should be averaging about 10:30 per mile. Your first mile will be around 10:30, second mile at 21 minutes, third mile around 31:30, etc.

Remember, start slow. You can always pick up the pace later.

Your friend in fitness,

Brian Calkins

HealthStyle Fitness, Inc. 4325 Red Bank Rd Cincinnati, OH 45227 513-407-4665, x-105 www.CincinnatiFitness.com

Nice Work Yesterday - Half Marathon is NEXT!

Congratulations to everyone for a tremendous 10K yesterday morning. Each of you worked diligently in preparing for yesterday’s event - and your 6.2 mile time showed your effort. Hat’s off to you!!

As I mentioned a couple weeks back, we’re going to continue to step up our training to be prepared for the half marathon in just under 6 weeks. Thursday we’ll be back to a normal schedule in doing a 4 mile easy run, then Saturday we’re bumping up to 10 miles (again, at a slow pace). Each week, mentally prepare to add a mile to your weekend long run until a week out from the Half Marathon.

If you’d like to see what your projected time for the Half Marathon is, you can plug your 10K time into the McMillian Running Calculator here, and get a good estimate.

Okay, here’s this week’s schedule:

Monday – 10K Event
Tuesday – 3 easy recovery miles
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Run 4 Miles easy
Friday – Strength training or rest
Saturday - 10 Miles Slow and Easy
Sunday – Rest

Your friend in fitness,

Brian Calkins

HealthStyle Fitness, Inc. 4325 Red Bank Rd Cincinnati, OH 45227 513-407-4665, x-105 www.CincinnatiFitness.com

This Week's Running...

Below is the schedule for both running groups this week (no intervals this week!).

Again, feel free to modify your time and distances as appropriate for your November/December running goals.

Here the schedule for those who've been running for several months:

Monday - Boot Camp or XT
Tuesday - Run 45 min
Wednesday - Boot Camp or XT
Thursday - Run 45 min
Friday - XT or Boot Camp
Saturday - 15 miles slow

Here the schedule for the newer members of the group:

Monday - Boot Camp or XT
Tuesday - Run 28 min
Wednesday - Boot Camp or XT
Thursday - Run 28 min
Friday - XT or Boot Camp
Saturday - 2.75 miles slow

See many of you in the morning...

Brian Calkins

HealthStyle Fitness, Inc. 4325 Red Bank Rd Cincinnati, OH 45227 513-407-4665, x-105
www.CincinnatiFitness.com

The Long Run...

Okay, I’m excited. We are now really embarking upon preparation for long distance running. We have our 10K coming up in 6 weeks, but that’s really a stepping stone for the half marathon. So now, we’ll be increasing our distance (long runs) over the next few Saturdays, then tapering back a bit before the Labor Day 10K.

The long run:
Although sometimes perceived to be “scary”, long runs actually feel easier than shorter distance, normal pace runs. It very important to pace all of the long runs approximately 2 minutes per mile slower than you could actually run that distance. Walking breaks become critically important during long runs and will help you to slow the pace of the overall run, but you must run slower as well. It’s important to note that you get the same endurance benefit from the long run, if you run slowly, as you would if you run fast. However, you'll recover much faster from a slow long run.

The benefits of a long run:
Clearly there are significant physical benefits from running long distance. But there is an even greater mental and emotional benefit in completing the longest run to date. Strong feelings of positive momentum, enhanced self-confidence, and a positive attitude result from completing long runs. And by keeping the pace slow during a long run you will experience a tremendous expansion in cardiovascular conditioning, reduced fatigue, while remaining injury free.

Remember, keep the long runs slow. Walk when you need to walk. We’ll also need to begin “planting” bottles of water along our routes as we go longer so we stay well hydrated. The Tuesday/Thursday runs, limited to 30 – 35 minutes, can go at a normal pace. Slow on Saturdays. Did I say that enough??

Here’s our schedule for the week:

Monday - Adventure Boot Camp
Tuesday - Run 30 min
Wednesday - Adventure Boot Camp
Thursday - Run 30 min
Friday - Adventure Boot Camp
Saturday - 5 Miles
Sunday - Rest

Next Up:

Mercy Metric 10K Run on Monday, September 1, 2008 at Lunken Airport - 6 weeks away.

See many of you at Crossroads, Alicia will see some of you at Cottel Park, and Kelli will see others at the Florence Freedom Park tomorrow at 6:30am...

Your friend in fitness,
Brian Calkins