Five Weeks Until 10K...

Okay, how was the 5 mile run on Saturday? How did you feel when you finished? If you didn’t attack the run too aggressively, you should have felt awesome at the finish…and your body should have felt great on Sunday.

Remember, long runs should ALWAYS go about 2 minutes per mile slower than a what you can typically run. Going slower DOES NOT adversely impact cardiovascular endurance, but it DOES keep the body from becoming beat up. Until we taper down our long runs (just before a 10K or Half, for example), just plan on running slowly and taking lots of walking/water breaks on Saturdays.

Signs You’re Running Too Fast on the Long Run:

• Needing more than an hour afternoon nap the day of your long run (assuming you weren’t already sleep deprived)
• muscle soreness in your legs that lasts more than two days
• difficulty breathing during any part of your run – inability to hold a conversation during the run
• a feeling of “hitting the wall” in the last mile or two of the run
• a general feeling of agitation at the end of the run
• nausea or lightheaded

This week our schedule is the same; we’ll do another 5 mile run on Saturday. Until the 10K event, plan on increasing by one mile every other week. So this week we’re at 5 miles and then the following Saturday we’re up to 6 miles. Here’s the schedule:

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

Here's to another great week of training!!

Your friend in fitness,
Brian Calkins - Cincinnati Fitness

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

The 10K is Next...

Hats off to everyone who participated in the Fairfax 5K on Saturday – you all did very well and it’s been a lot of fun watching you progress over the past many weeks of training. The Adventure Boot Camp Women had an awesome showing as 7 ladies took home medals for their times: Shannon Gilmore, Vicki Cunningham, Wendy Maxwell, Leigh Smith, Betsy Butsch, Lisa Lysne, and Ellen Springer. We even had a few boot campers' significant others participate and finish strong. Congratulations on a fantastic event!!

Next up, the Mercy Metric 10K Run on Monday, September 1, 2008 at Lunken Airport. We are exactly 7 weeks away from this next milestone.

As we look beyond the 10K, for those striving for the half marathon, we are just about 14 weeks away. To accommodate morning work schedules, we’ll be doing 30 minutes after camp on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the long runs on Saturdays. In just a few weeks we’ll be into the 5-6 mile range. As we get closer to the half marathon, it will be very important that our volume of running and cross training allows for 6 days per week of training. If you are an active boot camper, your Monday, Wednesday and Friday boot camp training will be your cardio conditioning (as well as your strength training). If you are not an active boot camper and are training for the half marathon, you’ll want to make sure you are doing some type of heart elevating cardio work on M-W-F. Although running is fine on these days, you should also consider cross-training and strength training to protect your body while keeping your cardiovascular conditioning progressive.

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 - 4 Miles
Sunday - Rest

Once again, congratulation on your progress thus far - you should take a moment to feel good about your achievement!!

See many of you at Crossroads tomorrow at 6:30am...

Your friend in fitness, Brian

The 5K is Saturday...

Our first milestone arrives on Saturday! Congrats for laying the groundwork over the past 7+ weeks as you are now ready for the 5K.

If you’re running on Saturday, you can register online (registration deadline is Wednesday!!) Please let me know that you are running so we can all start together as a team and share in the post-race festivities. Click here to register for Fairfax Day 5K

Next week we’ll add some mileage to our Saturday run as we kick off the preparation for our next milestone, the 10K. But first, let’s savor the 5K on Saturday!!

Below is our schedule for the week...

Tuesday - Run 30 min
Thursday - Run 30 min
Saturday - Fairfax Day 5K Run
Sunday - Celebrate!!

See many of you at Crossroads tomorrow at 6:30am...

Your friend in fitness, Brian Calkins