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Well I have my first road 10k under my belt now, and I’m
definitely glad to have gotten the experience. The trip itself went a lot
smoother than I had anticipated. The start/finish line was literally right
outside of the Hotel doors, which made finding a safe place to put my stuff
during the race a non-issue. And we really lucked out with the weather as
well. It was in the mid 60s and almost no wind for the duration of the
race, but in the time it took me to get changed and start my cool-down the
front moved through and brought the cold, wind, and rain - talk about a close
call. I ended up finishing 8th overall, and the 3rd American
(31:13). I used this race mostly as a chance to get a feel for the
distance, and figure out a race strategy that would fit my strengths for future
races. I like to get a “Mulligan” race out of the way early on, which
usually leads to faster races in subsequent weeks.
I took a few down days after the race to let my legs recoup
a little after having gone a pretty long stretch without a break. Things are
back to normal now as I prepare for my next race, another 10k...woof. I’ll
be racing in the Lilac 10k in Rochester
on May 23rd. It’ll be nice to do a race closer to home for a
change. This will also serve as my first Niagara Association Championship
Race, so I’m hoping for some good results for that. The field is shaping
up with some strong competitors on both sides. I’m anticipating a highly
contested race, so I encourage all of you in the area to stop by and check it
out, and even register to run. Until next time, thanks for reading.
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It's been a while since my last post, and I've kept myself pretty busy. Penn Relays lived up to all the pre-race hype. Bolt rocked Franklin Field, and didn't disappoint the thousands of Jamaicans that made the long trip to Philadelphia - who made enough noise to delay the start of races. I guess splitting a 8.79 can have that effect.
I raced the 5k on Distance Night Thursday Night- a 10:30pm start time. I don't know what it is, but there's something about night races that always get me ready to roll. I spent most of that day hanging out with my old teammates from Penn State, getting ready for that night's race. All and all, I think it went pretty well. I ended up running a 14:18- a few seconds off of my pr, and good enough for 6th in the Olympic Development section. Splits were hard to come by, or at least to hear during the race, so I actually thought I was on pace for a faster time than it ended up being. That's just how it goes sometimes. The experience was a great one, and seeing all of my old friends and teammates was well worth the trip. I wasn't sure what kind of shape I was in prior to the race, but this gave me a big confidence boost for my upcoming road races this Summer.
This past weekend I travelled with the University at Buffalo's Track team to Ohio State for the Jesse Owens Track Classic. I ran the 1500m late Friday night..another 10:30pm start time. This was my first 1500 in over a year, so going into it I just wanted to race well and have fun. The race went out slow for the first 800m and then took off. I put myself in great position when it finally went, but quickly found myself boxed in and wasn't able to get out until the last 100m. Final time was 3.51- slower than I had hoped for, but a pr nonetheless. The UB team also competed well all around, which was great to see; putting themselves in a strong position heading into the MAC Championships in two weeks.
Next up for me is the Newport 10k in Jersey City this Saturday. I've only ran this distance a few times before, all of which were in Cross Country, but I figure I might as well test the water at this distance and see how it goes. Especially with the Lilac 10k only a few weeks away, it's probably a good idea to get a feel for a 10k on the roads. This race is usual loaded with Africans so I'm sure I'll have more than a few people to chase after and hang on for a decent time. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes, and as always, thanks for reading.
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Well, it's that time of year again. As the weather warms and the leaves begin to return, there's only one thing on the minds of East-Coast track athletes- Penn Relays. Quite possibly one of the greatest track meets open to athletes of all abilities- from high-school to collegiate to professionals and who can forget the 70+ 100m dash.
This year's meet will be especially anticipated as Usain Bolt has committed to run as part of the Jamaican team. If there were actually any Jamaican fans that didn't make the trip up for last year's meet, you can bet they won't miss out this time around.
The atmosphere at Franklin Field on the final day of competition with all the USA vs. the World events can be at times surreal and is the highlight of each year for me. This year it will have an even more special feel to it, as Penn State's 4x800 relay team has a legitimate shot to re-write the history books.
I will be running the 5,000m during the Distance Carnival as my first real race in almost 2 months. I'm excited to race at this meet for the first time as a post-collegiate and am hoping for big things. This meet always brings out the big guns, so there will be no shortage of opportunity.
If any of you are free next weekend I highly recommend making the trip down to Philly for what will surely be something you will never forget. If you can't make it, I'm pretty sure Flotrack will be doing a live broadcast of most of the events (they have for the past few years). I'll keep you posted as to how things turn out, and as always- thanks for reading.
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Well, as I debated what to talk about today on my blog, Sports Nutrition ended up at the top of my list. After all, I am going to graduate school for Exercise Science/Nutrition, so I figured it was about time I started including this information in my blog.
Today I will focus on a simple topic – HYDRATION DURING TRAINING.
As the Summer approaches, hydration will continue to play an increasingly central role in the overall performance of all endurance athletes (which technically only includes the 10k and up – 30 minutes +). But I will include the 5k as well, because training for a 5k rarely includes runs of less than 30 minutes.
Before I start, I think it’s important to understand that best way to identify hydration status. While it may not be the most socially acceptable…urine color is by far the best way to determine if you are hydrated or not. A clear-colored urine indicates proper hydration. If your urine is yellow, that means you need to drink more WATER – and should continue to consume it until your urine become almost clear in color.
There are three basic times that hydration becomes an important issue…pre-training, post-training, and during training.
I will focus mostly on the first two, as the third is likely to be neglected – unless you carry a water bottle with you on your runs.
Prior to training, it is important to take in enough fluids throughout the day. 64 oz is the general guide, but may increase slightly if you are a heavy sweater. To best determine how much fluid loss you have during a training episode, you should weigh yourself before training, and then again at the end. The difference in weight is the amount of FLUID loss you had- and the amount you should consume to maintain an adequate hydration status. (it is NOT the amount of WEIGHT loss…3500 Calories = 1pound = 30-35 miles of running!)
Any weight lost during a training run should be drank afterwards to ensure adequate hydrate for future runs. This will help not only prepare your body for race conditions, but also help it to recover properly. Depriving yourself of fluids as a means of weight loss will only hurt you in the long run, and make you more likely to regain the water-loss ( and weight ) in the future.
During training runs lasting longer than 30 minutes, 4-6 oz of water should be drank every 15 minutes to help ensure proper hydration status is maintained throughout. This may sound excessive, and I must agree it is not practical to drink during training runs unless you carry a water bottle with you. I typically don't drink any water during a run – only before and afterwards. So realistically, I would recommend drinking enough throughout the day to stay properly hydrated, and then drinking what you need afterwards to make up for your losses.
For any run lasting less than 90 minutes, water is sufficient in meeting your needs. A person typically has enough glucose/glycogen (energy) stores to last for 18 miles of running. So, unless you are running for longer than 18 miles, water is all you need to drink (not Gatorade). The main exception - excessive sweating. On long runs in hot and humid weather, a sports drink will replace the electrolytes you lose in sweat. This is something water cannot do.
These are general recommendations for proper hydration for a distance runner. If you have any specific question regarding Hydration or any other Nutrition-related topic, please let us know, and I will do my best to answer your question.
I will continue to discuss nutrition related-topics as a regular part of this blog, and as always…thanks for reading.
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Well, training has been going pretty well for me for the last month or so since my last race (Feb 13th). I took a few days off to recover from a solid Indoor Season and then started easing back into it. I spent about a week or so just logging in the miles before I actually started doing workouts again. This month has gone by slow as I'm biding my time and getting myself back in racing shape. I had a great workout today, even with the wind trying its hardest to prevent that, so I think that's a good sign for things on the horizon. The Spring and Summer racing seasons are just around the corner and they can't get here soon enough. But until then, I'll keep on with things as normal. Congrats to all the participated in the Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 Mile last weekend and as always, thanks for reading.
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Well I scored some free tickets to the Billy Joel/Elton John concert in Buffalo last night, so of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see these two together in concert. I went with a former teammate of mine from college, which got me excited since I haven’t seen him in a while. It’s always a good time catching up with old friends and talking about the glory days when all that was important was running fast and enjoying life.
It's amazing how fast things change. We both graduated last May and have busy “real lives” now, with actual responsibilities-that don’t require BS’ing a 10 page paper the night before its due. My buddy’s got a full time job in Rochester now and I’m doing an Internship through UB and working on my Masters. All these new responsibilities make the prospect of running fast while leading a “normal” life that much more difficult of a feat to accomplish.
Finding time to fit in training with the day-to-day grind can be difficult at times to say the least. Finding additional free-time to do normal things like hang out with friends and just shoot the breeze can sometimes feel impossible. And I have to admit, that’s something I haven’t done much at all the past several months, so when the opportunity came to go to this concert, I knew this wasn’t something I could pass up.
It took some cleaver manipulating of my schedule, but I somehow managed to get in a full day’s work and an 80 minute work-out afterwards with enough time to spare to drive down to Buffalo in time for the festivities. I find little changes like these to the daily grind can go a long way in keeping fresh the desire and passion to train hard and race harder (It also gave me some great songs to run through my head on my run today).
And I have to say, I think it’s important to live as normal a life as possible when off the track to avoid isolating yourself from the masses. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, especially when you log more miles in a week running than most people do driving, but it can be done. I like to think I do a pretty good job balancing both worlds- although my non-runner friends might tell a different story. I often get some pretty interesting looks from them when I tangent off into some of my running stories.
But all-in-all the concert was a blast, catching up with an old friend was much overdue, and my battery is now fully-charged going into the Spring Racing season. I still have a few weeks of training left before I start racing, and I’m beginning to get antsy, but I know putting in the miles now will have a solid pay-out when the time to race finally does come.
Good luck to all those taking part in the Runnin of the Green this weekend, and as always, thanks for reading.
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With March fast approaching and temperatures flirting with the top end of the freezing mark for the first time in what feels like forever, I was finally starting to get my hopes up that Spring was just around the corner. Man was I wrong. Old Man Winter reminded me in the past 24 hours that yes I indeed live in WNY and a snow storm is always a looming threat.
So when I went out for a run this afternoon...in the midst of a steady snow...I didn't expect to see anyone else fighting the cold and wind to get in those extra miles. But to my surprise I passed by quite a few runners toughing it out and fighting through the harsh conditions.
That got me thinking. How hard is it for people to keep their fitness level up throughout the Winters in this area? The competitive road racing season (at least in Buffalo) starts in March with the Shamrock Run and culminates on Thanksgiving morning with the Turkey Trot . Between those races the weather is generally decent enough to train outside without too much interference from mother nature. But from late November-early March, being able to get in a solid run or workout can pose some pretty big challenges. Extra clothes if you run outside or a gym membership if you like the treadmill, not to mention snow everywhere and cleared running paths few and far between. Add to this the short days of Winter and you've got yourself a perfect storm.
I, for one, cannot stand running on a treadmill, or any other stationary cardio machine for that matter. This presents some problems on days like yesterday and today when the snow is falling and the plows are nowhere in sight, leaving one to run down the middle of the road to avoid running through deep snow drifts on the sides. Luckily this isn't the case most days of the week, but the cold weather and usually strong winds that remain act as a pretty big deterrent for people who don't have a strange obsession with running outside no matter what.
To make it through these long Winter months, I often find myself with multiple layers of gloves, plenty of thermal apparel and doing an occasional Indoor workout to escape the snow. Thoughts of Summer races and trips to warmer climates keep me sane on those long Sunday runs. Somehow through all the cold and snow, I've managed to find time each day to get in a solid run and have kept myself in good shape.
I'd love to hear any of your thoughts on staying in shape during the Winter or beating the cold. Spring will be here soon, so keep on training hard! And as always, thanks for reading.
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Well, I want to start this blog out by saying I've never been a blog kind of person, but when I was asked to contribute for the USATF Niagara LDR website, I thought this would be the perfect time to throw my hat in the ring. Why not? I've got a mind full of crazy running information and what better place to get it out there.
I suppose this is as good of a place as any to tell you guys a bit about myself. I've been a WNYer all my life. Grew up in a tiny place called Ransomville a few miles north of Niagara Falls. I started running in middle school and had descent success. Somehow I manage to make my way to Penn State where I really developed as a runner and became a student of the sport. I'm sure being coached by some of the top coaches in the country (like Beth Sullivan, John Gondak, and the legendary Harry Groves ) didn't hurt any either.
I got a degree in Nutrition while at Penn State and ended up back in WNY at UB for grad school - in Sports Nutrition. I had one season of eligibility left for XC and took advantage of that opportunity.
I've just entered into the world of a post-collegiate distance runner and must say, I'm loving every minute of it. I've been training mostly on my own since college - which isn't always the most fun, but it gets the job done and seems to be working pretty well so far. I'm still in the process of finalizing my race plan for this spring and early summer and will keep you posted as it develops. This year looks to be pretty promising, and I can't wait to kick it off.
Well, I'll have to cut it off at that for now, grad school is "keeping me busier than a one legged man in a kicking contest". Thanks for reading..much more to come.
