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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Friday, 26 February 2010 |
Running is not easy to enjoy. To many that comes as no surprise, but those of us who confidently say, "I'm a runner" as if this is a common object of a to be verb expect running to be generally pleasant. We enjoy training runs and feel good after workouts if not during, but we also get competitive and we keep logs and train the way we ought to in order to optimize our race performance. Improvement can lead to dissatisfaction with anything but more improvement. Running fast can begin to feel like the norm. Anything less feels like failure.
But tonight, before the sun goes down I'm going to get out in these fat fluffy wet snow flakes, this snowicane or hurrizard or whatever they're calling it, and simply run until I feel like stopping.
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Friday, 19 February 2010 |
Please post your questions or comments at our Forum.
A 200 meter track is not great for the legs. I can feel the results of different stresses on one leg as opposed to the other when I'm done and that sort of asymmetry makes me nervous, but one thing I find the short track great for is biofeedback.
Biofeedback is the use of some kind of technology to help a person learn to control an otherwise subconscious physiological activity.
In my case, I'm trying to stay focused on the present, keep my mind now here and no where else. This is really hard. The mind's tendency is to wander.
Here's where the biofeedback comes in. When I'm trying to run 37 second laps, not 36.5 and not 37.5, a wandering mind slows me down. I get feedback on the wandering of my mind every 37 seconds, which I find to be a good interval for this reminder. The feedback comes from the clock flicking to the next second a step or two before I cross the starting line, not right on it. This is a reminder for me to come back to the present. It's a little poke in the ribs saying, hey, stay with me here.
It makes great practice for staying in the present and getting away from future worry and past regret, something we could all use. Call it physical meditation if you will.
- Neal
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2010 Cornell Kane Invitational |
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Tuesday, 16 February 2010 |
Please post your questions or comments at our Forum.
I raced the 5k indoor last Saturday at Cornell.
Click here for the complete write-up. I'm going to leave race write-ups on my personal site rather than duplicate them here.
For a list of all previous race writings, click here.
I will continue to post training info and musings here.
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Wednesday, 10 February 2010 |
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So occassionally I can't force myself out the door for even the shortest run and even a drive to the gym feels like an epic burden.
On those days I've found that one can still get a great workout at home without any equipemnt. Here are some things I do in no particular order. A bunch of these work best as multiple sets:
-Yoga
-Pillar - front and side
-Pushups
-Other core exercises: sit ups, etc.
-Supermans (back strength)
-Calf raises on the stairs
-Split squats
-Frog jumps (assuming sturdy floors and sufficiently high ceilings)
-Balance: close your eyes and stand on one leg for 2 minutes. Harder without shoes on.
Also I do a couple exercises as injury prevention. These take a bit more explanation.
-The Neal - I'm not kidding. This is what it is called. Ask anybody who runs or ran Williams XC. This is what they call it.
Start by standing on one leg and doing the running motion (other leg cycles, but doesn't touch the ground and arms pump). Once you're balanced at this, add a gradual tilt. First tilt forward from the hip as if you're leaning into the wind (cycling leg should move behind your center of gravity). Then tilt backwards as if doing a trust fall (cycling leg should move forward of center of gravity). Repeat the tilts a few times. Increase vigor of running motion if you can then switch legs.
-Rotating hop lunges
I made up the name of this one to be a description of what they look like. Imagine you are standing in the center of a large clock laid out on the ground with 12 directly ahead of you.
Hop forward to 12 o'clock, landing only on your right leg and just as you land swing your torso to the right. The goal is to develope knee strength so pay attention to that knee. If it is buckling to the right as you throw your weight onto it, you're doing it wrong. Hop back to center, landing with both feet, then hop out to 1:30 (45 degrees right) on only the right leg again, twisting your torso again as you land. Hop back, then hop to 3 o'clock.
Repeat 15 times on each leg.
The left leg, however, hops out to 12, 10:30, and 9 o'clock.
-Leg up twisties
Put your leg up on a bench or stairs. Lunge into the stairs and swing your arms and torso over the leg (so if right leg is on the bench, swing to the right). This is another knee strength / stabilizing exercise like the last one. Repeat 20 times, then if your right leg is up, put your right fist on your right hip and reach over your head to the right with your left hand. This time as you lunge forward push your hips to the left and reach over head to your right. Repeat with opposite leg.
There you have it. My most bizarre stretching / exercise secrets revealed. Well almost. The other secret is that I won Nationals on a ton of aqua-running training.
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Friday, 05 February 2010 |
Please post your questions or comments at our Forum.
I did another stellar track workout recently:
6 pairs of 800, 400. 800 pace was around 2:20-2:22. 400 pace was around 66-68. The next quarter was started 4 minutes after the last half began. The next half was started 3 minutes after the last quarter began.
This workout rolls right along with little time to think or fret and when Chad, Kizzle, and I did it the track was packed. Nothing heats up an 800 quite like fifteen guys starting their 400 right behind you.
If you lift a baby calf over your head, then you lift that same animal over your head every day, eventually you will be able to lift a full grown cow over your head, right?
A lot of runners have this mindset of running the same distance every day, perhaps incrementally increasing mileage. It's the easiest thing to do when you're all alone. I know that's what I default to in the absence of a support network.
The problem is it doesn't work. That's why these track workouts are so great. There are people all around to keep me accountable, energized, and frankly, keep me paying attention, especially when I think I'm safe out in lane three and a half dozen runners are suddenly breaking stride to get around me.
A lot of my workouts are opportunistic. I do what other people are doing where and when they are doing it. I like to think I'd be burning rubber in their absence, but it is simply not the case.
We are social animals.
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Tuesday, 02 February 2010 |
Please post your questions or comments at our Forum.
I dare say that the USA is addicted to progress, maybe all people the world over are. We want to believe that things will be better for future generations (which has caused a lot of stress recently, what with the economy, environment, etc). We seek a sense of progress even if the tangible gains are completely, well, intangible (I'm looking at you Farmville players out there.) It's not such a bad thing to list progress amongst are cherished values, you just have to watch out for the neurosis of progress which we runners are particularly susceptible to.
However, I've got a progression here that has thus far felt very tangibly productive. Get a load of this track workout 10k prep progression:
Week 1: 6 x 1600 at 10k pace plus 2 x 800 faster.
Week 2: 5 x 2000 at 10k pace plus 2 x 800 faster.
Week 3: 4 x 2400 at 10k plus 2 x 800.
Week 4: 3 x 3k at 10k plus 2k a bit faster, and a 1k even faster.
This is what Chad, Kissel, and I have been doing at RIT and it goes on:
Week 5: 2 x 4k, 2400, 1600, 800
Week 6: 2 x 5k, 1600, 800, 400
We just finished the long 3k's of week 4. The mind starts to wander as fatigue sets in. I start to consider collective nouns. Certainly "set" seems to be the word for intervals: a set of intervals. But, I thought, "set" is such a dry and colorless word. What about:
A misery of intervals.
An intensity of intervals.
An abuse of intervals.
An abattoir of intervals.
Unlike the training, this progression of collective nouns is totally worthless. See the difference between valuing progress and obsessing over it? Farmvillians, you see?
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Wednesday, 27 January 2010 |
Please post your questions or comments at our Forum.
For indoor track workouts I like to figure out roughly when I'm going to finish a mile or 2k or whatever then ignore the clock except for the last digit. I'll use the last digit to make sure I'm on pace and then, when I see that final time it’s a nice surprise, "I'm done already?!"
Often I'll even ignore the lap splits. I like to get in the moment as the laps fly by. My thoughts go to: This is how my feet feel, this is my breathing, posture. I'll move my awareness through my body like a captain surveying his ship. Is everything in tip top shape? Very good. Carry on.
Pain gets the same treatment: side stitch? fatigued legs? Duly noted. Carry on.
Worrying does no good. To slow or not to slow is a split second decision. Make the decision. Stick to it. Analyze the result afterward. Second guessing is for late evenings staring up at the ceiling with regret. Actually, it's not even any good there, but damn hard to help it sometimes.
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Friday, 22 January 2010 |
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It's about time I gave some info on what actual workouts I'm doing. I did a good one a week ago:
5 x mile at 74 sec 400 pace with lots of rest (3.5 min). I followed that up with 2 x 400 in 71.
It felt pretty good, smooth and fast to start off with, but increasingly difficult as the miles wore on. It got harder to concentrate, easier to worry about lap counting or other nonsense, or, the silliest distraction of all, how I would write it up on this blog. Afterward I felt sore but without any serious pain, the perfect workout feel.
Yesterday I ran 5 x 2000 at the same pace and also felt good (except for the blood blister that formed on my heel). I think the 2K's felt even easier than the miles. It's amazing how that works. There are so many invisible variables affecting a workout. Sometimes you feel like crap, sometimes speed is a breeze.
I've been getting in two hard track workouts per week as well as one long run on the weekend. I'm in good shape and I'll be in the best Spring shape since college if I can keep this up.
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Tuesday, 19 January 2010 |
Please post your questions or comments at our Forum.
I have a confession to make. I was supposed to do a workout today, 8 x 1000 on the track with Chad Byler. Instead I didn't run at all. Here's the kicker, I take at least one day off every week, often I take two.
Last Sunday entrepreneur Nick End, biomedical extraordinaire Chris Hine, and me (and I?) got together for a long run that lasted two hours, much of it over snow. We even got together the next day for a "short" 70 min run. I would not have run this hard or far without them.
Similarly, I woke up early, got to work early so I could leave early to meet Chad. Instead I wound up in a 4 o'clock meeting that went to 5. I went home feeling no motivation to run. Instead I did yoga with my buddy Rainbeau . It felt good, important, better than 8 x 1000. I was able to clear my mind.
How is it fair that I am faster than people who run as much or more than me? It isn't. Talking about how sleep and diet might explain why I run less at a slower pace than many people and still race faster excuses nothing. I feel guilty.
Well, I figure confession is the first step to forgiveness, even self-forgiveness. Some readers may be thinking that I'm a whiner who should run more, write more about running, and suck it up. To you I ask, why are you reading my blog? I write this for my own benefit.
Here's betting I can run even faster once I take this weight off my shoulders.
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Thursday, 14 January 2010 |
Please post your questions or comments at
our Forum.
This isn't how I wanted to start the blog, but it is what it is. My knee is acting up again, like last year around this time. I suspect the cause is either weight lifting or snow running. Ironic since I claim to weight lift in order to prevent injury. My plan is to do the standard quad stretch (pull the foot back towards the butt), but with a towel folded over and lodged in the crook behind my knee. The idea is to expand the knee cap. A PT showed me this trick when I had this problem last year. He suspected that I had inflamed my plica. I'll also be icing and digging into that area of my knee with my thumb to break up the scar tissue, a bit of self-administered active release.
Nobody grasps for the fine line between determination and bull-headed stubborness quite like a distance runner.
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Monday, 11 January 2010 |
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The sky is pitch black as I get out of work. The temperature is well below freezing. Underneath a balaclava, ski goggles, a hat, gloves, mittens, and 2+ layers everywhere else all my parts are toasty and snug.
Every once in a while it is a pleasure to run like this. I feel like a space ship cruising the void. Stars hover overhead. Occassionally the bright light of a passing star ship blinds me. All the sounds are muted. I'm separate from all the problems of the world, skimming the pavement in total darkness.
Alone time.
- Neal
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Written by Neal Holtschulte
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Friday, 08 January 2010 |
Please post your questions or comments at our Forum.
Welcome to my running / training blog. Here I'll be posting thoughts on training, racing, and the runner's life in general.
Let's start with an introduction. I grew up in Marysville, Ohio. I got my start into running in a typical fashion: won the fourth grade mile, swore I would never do any sport but soccer, found that I wasn't very good at soccer, and tried cross country. I attended Williams College and really found my stride. Running had already become a defining part of my identity in high school, now it became more so, culminating in my win at DIII XC Nationals in 2005 .
After college I briefly taught high school math and coached at the Culver Academies in Indiana. During this time I raced with the Columbus Running Company .
Finally I moved to Rochester to work at Klein Steel and joined the Genesee Valley Harriers running club.
After an anticlimactic end to the XC season (stuck on a bus on the thruway, unable to make it to club nationals) I hope to train through the rough Rochester winter ready to post good 10k thru half marathon times in the spring.
My training logs and race write ups can be found on my website here.
Thanks for reading.
Have fun out there.
- Neal
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