Elicit Substance

After reporting on a less-than-stellar run at the Sudbury Spring Tri and an admission that I don't have a training program for the run at all anymore, Ben from Becoming Timberman suggested that we push each other to run more. To that end, I decided to squeeze in mini-runs shuffle/jogs when I can in an attempt to up my run volume.

For instance, on Tuesday evening before I drove to spin class, I found myself with about 30 minutes to spare. Instead of catching up on Tweets or Facebook, I went over to the clubhouse, jumped on the elliptical for 15 minutes and then did some interval work on the treadmill for another 10 minutes.

It may not seem like much but when your runs are measured in minutes and not miles, it will (hopefully) add up. The added bonus is after you finish running, the body no longer has 24 - 48 hours to recuperate and starts adjusting it's recovery rate accordingly. Also, since I was on my way to a class that I use specifically to train anaerobically, I didn't have to worry about pushing my body on the run which saves some wear and tear on my knees. I've noticed several seasoned runners doing these types of multi-sessions at the gym so it's worth a shot.

Yesterday (Thursday) I thought that I'd be on the bike but the morning temps were convincing me to take another evening spin class. Since I had more time on my hands after work (I get out of work at 10AM on Thursdays) I decided to get on the road with my new running shoes and start breaking in those puppies. Once I was out there, I was glad I had on a jacket and wished I had on gloves. It was pretty nippy out there even for a run.

Anyway, I've been thinking about my shuffle/jog and "Chi Running". Author Danny Dreyer suggests a 90 RPM cadence. At my age, this is barely possible on the bike much less a run but I suspected that this is more than likely the reason I walk faster than I run and so I decided that I would first concentrate on increasing my leg turnover rate before adding on time to a pre-determined schedule.

I took the very manageable "Run one minute, walk 2 minutes, repeat for 20 minutes" Beginner's session and just focused on moving my legs faster. I immediately recognized that this is a key issue that needs to be addressed because when you have to push your pace just to run to the pace of the Sound of Music in your head, you're not running, you're shuffle/jogging.

I kept hearing the Do-Re-Mi song and Julie Andrews and those little kids chiming in... but I kept changing the lyrics:

"Let's start at the very be-ginning. A very good place to start.
When you read, you being with (Little Kid)'A-B-C'.
When you run you begin with, "I can't breathe." (Kids) "I can't breathe."
(Julie)"I can't breathe. The first three words just happen to be...COUGH! COUGH! GASP! CHOKE! COUGH!"

A sacrilege to The Sound of Music and Oscar Hammerstein II fans perhaps, but at the same time, maybe a thought that Andrews' late husband, Blake Edwards, might have appreciated.

Of course, if I'm running that slowly, I definitely need to pick up the pace and so the first order of business is to start running with my metronome (I've mentioned that I've tried all of this before so I've picked up quite a bit of gear along the way and a tiny golf-swing metronome by EyeLine Golf is one of those things) and just work on these simple 20 minute sessions until I'm up to pace, but for now, the only similarity between me and a doe is deer ticks and Lyme disease (yeah, I've had that, too.) I know I'm not running like any female deer, fer sure, fer sure.