2012 Goal Setting

When talking "goal setting" I am usually hyperfocused on athletic endeavors. Well, I don't really see that changing for the year 2012. This year will be a different year than the years I have had in the past. Goals that I have set up and knocked down in the past include:

2006: Bench Press 300lbs
2007: Sub 19 minute 5k
2008: Compete in a Triathlon
2009: Do an Ironman
2010: Complete an Ultramarathon
2011: Compete at the 50K distance (This was originally "Run a 50 mile Trail Race" but readjusted to my liking).

In 2006 it was strength related. From there I switched to speed and endurance, leading to the past three years which have been primarily endurance. Each goal was set up and knocked down with vigor. When I look back, I can definitely say there were more good times than bad. The only issue with the approach that I took was the amount of focus laid upon just one discipline. Of course, I say it's a problem because I am looking at the goals of the past with the eyes of the future.
Setting up goals for the 2012 season requires a certain reflection into how the previous goals were achieved, along with positive and negative outcomes of the training that came along with them.
2006: Bench Press 1 rep max of 300lbs
This goal did not start on or before the first of the year like many new goals start. I believe that I started this goal well into the 2006 season. I had been relatively fit to begin with but I did not have any direction I was heading. While watching TV one day I came across the trailer to the movie "300." Holy shit those guys were ripped! Even if you haven't seen the movie, I'm sure everyone has witnessed the iconic scene when King Leonidus kicks the Persian messenger into the well yelling, "This Is Sparta!" From that moment I decided that I wanted my best to look like those guys and to really up my strength and size. Over the course of 6 months I beat myself up in the gym twice a day, five to six days a week. At the end of 6 months, I went from bench pressing a measely 180lbs to a whopping 1 rep max of 300lbs. But increasing my strength and the focus it needed came at a price. My running was curtailed to once or twice a week, no more than 3 miles. I lost all sorts of flexibility with the increased muscle size. T-shirts were ill-fitting at best with some of my nice button-down shirts from AE not fitting at all. And to top it all off, I just did not feel healthy.
Later that fall, I decided to jump into my hometown 5k. What a blast! I had forgotten how much fun it was to be a runner and actually compete. When being a meathead weightlifter, there just isn't the competition aspect that running had. From that moment I decided that I wanted to start running again. I had completed my strength goal, now onto the next one!

2007: Run a sub 19 minute 5K
The road back to being a runner was a hard one. Packing in all that muscle in a short time left me with little endurance. Weighing in at 215lbs, I knew I had to drop weight and muscle mass. I stopped lifting heavy weights and started a running program that had me running four to five times a week. Slowly the muscle mass started to drop and my times were improving. I'm not exactly sure that I reached my goal of Sub 19 minutes this year, but the fact that I had started and continued getting faster was a positive. Not only that, but my clothes started fitting better and I was feeling a lot healthier. I competed in a lot of events that year ranging from 5k to 10 miles. Each one prepping me for what was to come the next season.

2008: The First Triathlons
Over the course of the winter I picked up swimming and biking. It had always been a goal of mine to do a triathlon after watching Ironman Lake Placid on TV one year. Since I was becoming a better runner, I knew how to swim, and I had recently purchased a bike, I figured why not? I signed up for 4 triathlons that year: Tri Shark Classic, Mattoon Beach Sprint Triathlon, Lake Evergreen Olympic Distance Triathlon, and a sprint in Effingham in the fall. I'm not going to give race reports on the four races but I can say that I dropped Tri Shark because the swim got rained out, I took 3rd place at Mattoon, 1st in my age group at Evergreen, and 2nd overall in Effingham. After that last fall triathlon I knew I was kind of hooked and wanted to test myself with an Ironman. One month later as I was driving home from the Park Forest Scenic 5 mile race, I signed up for Ironman Louisville 2009.

2009: Ironman Louisville
By now, the 215lb musclehead Clint had been whittled down to the chistled triathlete. Countless yards in the pool, 1,000's of miles on the bike, and many many hours running had got me down to 185lbs of muscle and endurance. My race times had all dropped that year, and I finished 1st place overall at one of the sprint triathlons that I had entered. Ironman Louisville was one of the greatest accomplishments that I have yet to achieve. You really find out a lot about yourself when you are out on the road competing over the course of 140.6 miles. Upon completing Ironman Louisville my body was spent. I went from sprint to full Ironman in two years and the wear and tear were evident. I believe that it took about 2 months to really heal from the damage I did to myself on that day. When I was finally healed I had time to reflect on what 2010 was going to entail. I just knew that it was not going to involve that stupid bike and swimming laps. It was going to be distance running.

2010: Ultramarathon Running
I did not start out this year thinking that I was going to run an Ultramarathon. I was digging around through some races and figured I would do the Quad Cities Marathon. I had never ran a marathon before (except in the Ironman) and figured this year would be a great year to do it. As I started ticking away the miles of one of my long runs I thought to myself, "why not sign up for a 50k ultra? You have proven that you can run a marathon, let's take it further." I cruised the resources again and found an Ultramarathon that would give me an extra week of training to log an extra long run: The Farmdale 30 mile trail run. The training went without a hitch and the next thing I know, I'm toeing the start line on a cool October morning. That cool October morning turned into 89 degrees by mile 20. Even though I had to endure a decent amount of cramping at mile 28, I was still able to run the race in under 5 hours which was good enough for 4th place male. After about 3 weeks and the soreness wore off, I did not have the same negative emotions about running like I did with biking and swimming after the Ironman. It was then that I set up my goal for 2011.

2011: Indecision 50mile or Fast 50K?
Closing out the 2010 season, I decided that I wanted to run another 50k and then try to complete a 50 mile ultramarathon. I had a stellar training plan and like magic, the miles were ticking by very smoothly. About half way through my season I made the conscious decision that I would rather get faster and try to place at a 50k than try to finish a 50 miler. Now, as I toed the start line of this 50k, I was a thin 178lb runner. I hadn't touched a weight room in two years and I couldn't bench press even my bodyweight. But the fact remained that my body was trained for the ultra running and that was what mattered. I finished that race in 2nd place to a good friend of mine (a veteran ultra runner).

2012
Many successful years have come and gone. Now, as I am embarking upon the 2012 season, I have to analyze what I want from this year. I've been strong, I've been fast, I've had endurance. The challenge for this 2012 season is to achieve balance. Specifically what does a balance consist of? I want to increase my strength in the major lifts: deadlift, squat, bench press, military press, and rows. I want to increase my pullups/chinups, pushups, and dips. I'd like to better my physique through proper diet and exercise. And I'd like to be able to head out the door on any given day and run 10-15 miles. Another goal that I have is strictly diet related. I've toyed around with the Paleo diet before in the past with amazing results. That diet though, is really hard to follow when you are running 60 miles per week. Since I am curtailling my running down to something more manageable, I am going to try and follow the paleo diet more stricly over the course of the 2012 season. So far, I've been back on the Paleo diet for a few weeks and have already noticed a difference in muscle definition and energy.
This blog will never be a self promoting "here are my workouts, look at what I can do!" rant. Occasionally I may post about my progress, but the main reason for this post is to air out the goals and to get them on paper. These goals, like all things, are not static. Things will change and be modified as time goes forward. And as the year goes, goals will become more defined and specific. Until that time, though, this is what I've got.
***NOTE***
I do have other goals outside of working out. Odd, I know, but for once I am starting to see the forest for the trees and realize that I'm not making a living off of this. So there are going to be personal goals for 2012 as well. Which I may or may not post when I figure out what they are. Again, time will tell.

Cheers

The First Snow

I found this picture online yesterday morning and was completely awestruck. I don't know why this picture moved me as much as it did but here it is

The photographer was David Kaplan.

I woke up this morning and took this photo

This photo brought with it a handful of mixed feelings. The intial feelings were childlike at best. That first snow, no matter how many years go by, always leaves me a little delighted with butterflies in my stomach. But when I stand there and look at the scene long enough, those same butterflies begin to die off and turn rancid. The same snow that used to mean snow days, snowball fights, snowmen and Christmas, now mean hazardous driving, cold wet shoes, and shoveling the sidewalks and driveway. The years of growing up start to eat away at the child inside of you.

The challenge that I am issuing myself this year is to take every snow-laden scene and view it like that first picture. And I challenge everyone else to do the same. Don't see the burdens; see the colors and wonders. Let the butterflies in your stomach run their course a little longer than usual. It's well deserved. We're only on this earth a short time. There is no need to let responsibilities and burdens run rampant for ever minute of every day.

Christmas, New Years, and Goal Setting

It's that time of the year again when Jolly Ol' Saint Nick comes around giving all the good girls and boys presents and good tidings. You could also argue that Jesus was born on or around this time of the year as well, but it seems like everyone has forgotten about that. During the majority of the year, the church pews sit with the Christ followers and the weekend redeemers. But Christmas is the one time of year that really brings out all the heathens and heaven sent under one roof. The onset of December often has me questioning the meaning of Christmas. It always seems to be a lot of "I want this" and "Santa, give me that." The looks on the faces of holiday shoppers is never as cheery as you see on the television. They assume run you over while you're on fire, than to step aside and be the least bit courteous. Even outside the stores, the blatant disregard for the fellow man runs rampant. Cutting each other off, running red lights, and giving the one finger salute. The weeks turn into days as we slowly approach Christmas and the problems just seem to magnify. It is all very discouraging to the onlooker that just wants to see Christ in Christmas.
It is Christmas Eve and I am on my way to church. The past 23 days have deadened my emotions to this holiday. This holiday that I always fear has been outright forgotten. Walking in with my Grandmother, I look around at all the faces. Happy, cheery,embracing one another, and giving each other well wishes. For the first time in years I really start to revel in the magnificence that is Jesus and this holiday. I enter the church pew with grandma on my left and a stranger on my right. The lights are dimmed down low and the song "Oh Come all Ye Faithful" starts to play. We are asked to stand and sing. Looking around at everyone standing, singing, and rejoicing I begin to believe in humanity once again. Even though for 360 some odd days a year we are all indifferent to each other, for that one night, we are one in the birth of Jesus Christ. And that gives me hope.

Merry Christmas

Season recap and 5 tips for moderate success

Running this year was full of "ups" and a lot less "downs" than usual. The training was consistent, the injuries not very prevalent, and the race results were all that I could have really hoped for. I logged many weekend long runs over the 20 mile mark with one marathon distance training run and one 50k distance training run. All of those long runs were met with a run of 90+ minutes the day after. A short recap of race results:

Comlara Park 50K: 2nd place male 4:43:?? (the course was more like 33-34 miles b/c of an unintentional reroute due to some course markers removed by pedestrians. Sub 9min mile pace)

Farmdale 8.35 mile trail run: 1st place male (By 5 minutes)

Run the Woods 5K: 2nd Place Male

Tri the Illini: Fastest 5k I've ever ran off the bike at 18min and change. 3rd or 4th in my age group.

**NOTE** In some early posts I was training for the Farmdale 50 Mile Trail Run. Due to a change in interests I decided to focus on the 50k. The training was spot on for the 50 mile race, but I just didn't feel like running that slow for that long.

5 tips for a Succuessful 2012 Running Season

1.) Balancing your workload
When looking at training plans pay special attention to recovery runs and rest days. No matter how good you feel while out for a recovery run, hold yourself back. These runs are supposed to be therapeutic. If you go out there and trash your legs because you were "feeling it," chances are that in 2 or 3 runs later that week you'll tweak something. Rest days are exactly what they sound like. Can you go out and enjoy a brisk walk? Yes, by all means do so. Can you go on a leisurely bike ride? Of course! Just keep your extra activity to a minimum on rest days to really reap the benefits and to help improve your day to day running.

2.) Pacing
This could also be lumped into the above heading but I'll seperate it in case I can't think of 5 tips :) . I know a lot of runners that have the mindset, "I have to run fast all the time to improve. I'm going to run a PR during every training run." Newsflash: It's training. Check the ego at the door and save it for race day and your weekly speed session. I'm not all that fast, but with minimum speed training I can pull together a 5k in sub 18 minutes with my long runs being close to 10min per mile. I rarely ever hit my race pace during weekly training sessions, and when I do it is every 7 to 10 days. Be consistent, run slow on recovery runs and long runs, and you will get faster.

3.) Diet
80% of your body composition is what you eat. Believe it or not, you can go out there and log 50 mile weeks and not lose a pound (and perhaps gain weight). I saw it all the time at the running store I worked for. People would come in during the middle of the marathon training season, yes, their legs were tone and sinewy, but they were still lugging their gut around. On the weekends I would see these people packed into bars during Happy Hours drinking to their hearts content, "I ran 20 miles today, so I'm going to treat myself to a drink." That's all fine and dandy, but the carb reload you did after the run, the full pasta dinner, and the beer are a bit overkill. I'm not going to say what to eat and how much, but make smart choices.

4.) Weight training
The often neglected step child to running. Many people say that you don't need to strength train to be a good runner. Partly this statement is true. If you go out and run in the woods where the directions change, elevation changes, you have to vary your stride, and jump over obstacles, then the strength kind of comes naturally. But if you are like the 95% of runners who never stray from the roads or treadmill, you should incorporate some strength training. When running on the road and on the treadmill, the focus tends to be to run forward and get from point A to point B. You're moving in one plane like the old side-scrolling Mario video games. What happens is that the muscles used to stabilze often get weak. When these muscles get weak, they can't help out the major muscle groups when they get fatigued. Hence the formation of knee and hip problems. Here are a few exercises to do: Lungewalks, hip adductors and abductors, calf raises, and planks for your core. Short sweet and to the point. Do these 2-3 times a week and help keep yourself balanced.

5.) Have Fun
When running starts to feel like a job, step back and reevaulate why you are doing it and what got you into running. My biggest tip for getting out of a rut is to ditch the fancy sports watches, the heart rate monitors, and your pre-determined running routes. Go out unadulterated and just enjoy running. I guarantee that if you do a couple of runs like this, you'll zap yourself out of the rut and get back into the game again.

Training July 25-July 31

Monday July 25th
Did an easy swim in the morning. I listened to an interview with Geoff Roes (2010 winner of the Western States 100) and he talked about how he doesn't really cross train for running anymore. He talked about how is body has become in tune with running and that any cross training would probably derail his running. I'm starting to believe in this a little. It seems that whenever I do swim, the next morning I'm achy when I shouldn't be. I'll be able to further test this with tomorrow's run and next weeks Tuesday run since I won't be doing any swimming.

Tuesday July 26th
Am: 7 miles
Headed to the track for a little faster running this morning. Did an easy one mile warm-up and some light stretching. What started out in my mind as 4x1600 turned into a straight 4 mile hard effort. I kept the run at what I would consider my 15k race pace. Averaged 6:20's for the duration. It felt good to throw down a more intense pace, but in the end I can say that I like LSD runs even more.
PM: 3 miles
Easy 3 after work on the trails at Maxwell. Felt Really good considering the morning run.

Wednesday July 27th
5 miles
Nothing exciting to post about this run. Uneventful 5 miles through town. The legs are starting to feel the miles that I've been accumulating. Luckily, if I get through this weekend, next week is a recovery week.

Thursday July 28th
7.6 miles
A rather sluggish 7 miler this morning. I think my body is still revolting last Saturday's long run when I couldn't take in proper hydration/nutrition. Today I'll start hammering out the water and nutrition to hopefully get myself back up to par by Saturday. I'm guessing once I get my body re-saturated with glycogen and water I'll be feeling like a million bucks again. Here's to throwing out my calorie counting for the next two days so that I can try and recover as quickly as possible.

Friday July 29th
No running as usual. Legs are still feeling a bit on the weak side, but about 85% improvement from the day before. I found a lot of knots in my calves when rolling on the Trigger Point Quadballer this morning. Got on the thing 3 times and hopefully worked out enough kinks that tomorrow's run will go over smoothly. David Seng (one of the Pups from the Tri-Shark Pups program)is going to join me for the latter portion of my 20 miler on Saturday. It will be interesting to see how he handles running on the Clinton Lake Trails.

Saturday July 30th
18-20 miles (3:40:00)
Definitely a good run considering that I've felt kind of sloppy the past few days. Woke up at 4am and downed my oatmeal and coffee. Got out of the house and to the trail. The focus on today's run was to do the entire run with nothing but electrolytes and water. The first 10 miles was probably the hardest. I'm used to taking a gel at the 5 mile mark of this course. I finished out the first loop in under 1:30:00 and went to the car. I refilled my camelbak and met up with David. We hit the trail with gusto. He did extremely well for his first run out at Clinton Lake. We cruised through the first five miles with no problem. Once we hit the 2nd half I could tell that the nearly constant hills were starting to take their toll on him. Before we set off I gave him one of my handhelds to use. After about 6 miles he had it sucked dry. I topped him off with some of the water from my camelbak. We got about another mile into the run and we had both sucked our water dry. Needless to say the last few miles were a bit of a struggle due to a lack of hydration. I stopped to pee once during that 2nd half and could tell I was inching towards dehydration. But before we knew it, we breached the trail and onto the road.
I learned that on runs of under 4 hours, I can perform quite alright on no nutrition as long as I keep my electrolytes in place. Next long run though I will make sure and pack extra water for the person running with me.

Sunday July 31st
10 miles (1:35:00)

Nice and easy 10 miler at Clinton Lake. Felt really good throughout the run. I was going to do the full loop but ran into so many spiderwebs I turned it into an out-and-back.

This week was kind of rough. A mixture of working 8 straight days, the heat during the majority of my runs, and the increased mileage definitely took their toll. Looking forward to a relaxed week of reduced mileage next week.

July Training 18th-24th

Monday 7/18/11
2500 Yard Swim
Early morning swim at Fairview park. Maintained a 60% effort for 2,000 yards and cooled down the next 500. Overall I felt pretty good during this swim considering it had been a week since I had been in the pool. Relaxed the rest of the morning before heading into work.

Tuesday 7/19/11
AM: 9 miles (1:11:00)
Drove over to Weldon Springs for an easy 9 miles. I have decided to use the Garmin mainly for distance and just run off of feel. The first two miles were hilly singletrack with some stairs and plenty of shade amongst the trees. After that two miles I headed out onto the cross country ski trails. At this point the heat index was well into the 90's. I maintained a solid effort throughout mile 5. At this point I had sucked through my Amphipod handheld and took a trip down to the restaurant to refill. After a quick pitstop it was hard to get the pace back up. Once I got through mile 6 things started to click again. I finished the run with a sub 8 min average (7:30-7:40's for the last 7 miles). Did some stretching and drank a lot of fluids before heading back to Normal.

PM: 3 miles (0:28:00)
Got off of work and headed out to Maxwell park for an easy 3 mile shakeout. Everything felt good. Still ridiculously hot. Soaked through my clothes even though I was out for less than 30 minutes. Came home, ate dinner, stretched, and rolled on the foam roller

Wednesday 7/20/11
5 miles (0:43:00)
Easy effort today since yesterday was the first double of the training season. Shins were bugging me a little if I relaxed on my cadence. Ate plenty of food today since I had the appetite of a horse. Did plenty of rolling, iced the shins, did some reading, and some core work. Today I also Emailed another ultra marathon runner to get some tips and pointers from. I got some good advice from Nick Clark (3rd at WS100 and 3rd at the Hardrock 100 this year)and figured I'd email someone else and really bank on other peoples experience.

Thursday 7/21/11
10 miles (1:30:00)
Went out to the Clinton Lake Ultra course and ran 10 miles. Lots of steep inclines and declines. Even though this trail is about 35 miles away, It's the best course in the area for hill work. Blasted all the uphills and ran a decent clip on the flats. Felt very good considering the mileage this week is a bit higher than usual. Temps were in the 90's again. I went through 32oz of liquid during the run; 16 oz of water, 16oz of Powerbar perform. Did some light stretching, drove home, ate and went to work.

Friday 7/22/11
Rest Day
Did some light rolling and hammered the nutrition today to gear up for the Saturday Long Run. Feeling a little tightness in my left heel but it doesn't seem to be related to the Achilles tendon. Tomorrows 4+ hour long run will for sure give it a test.

Saturday 7/23/11
Woke up at 4am and got breakfast and coffee started. Looking forward to hitting the trail early. Hopefully the temperatures stay at bay until later this afternoon. Taking plenty of water and nutrition. Running at Weldon Springs so that my aid station (Honda Civic) will never be too far away.
6:40am
24 miles (3:57:23)
The run started out nicely. Easy rolling hills through the farm trails at Weldon springs. It was nice to watch the sunrise. After the first 4-5 miles my stomach started hating that Ironman Perform drink. I quit drinking it and suffered through the next few miles. Once I got my stomach figured out I switched to powerbar gels and straight water. After 2.5 hours went by the temperatures were hitting the 90's with the heat index peaking at 105 degrees. When 3 hours hit I was really feeling the heat. The 2 mile section of trail that I was on had no reprieve from the ever punishing sun. I slogged through the next hour and was relieved to hit the car. I bought 4 large waters from the Boondocks restaurant. Drank three of those, 16 ounces of coconut water, and ate a waffle and almond butter. Overall I consider the run a success. Only took in 440 calories over the course of the run, which was partly b/c of the unrelenting heat. Looking forward to a chilled afternoon with a little light massage and a lot of reading. Another long-ish run on the schedule tomorrow. We'll see how the legs feel.

Sunday 7/24/11
9.5 miles (1:30:00)
Got up and after a late start drove out to the trails. Upon arriving, the sky opened up and released hell fire and brimstone. Considering that I didn't want to run in the trees during a lightning storm, I resorted to driving back home to wait it out. After about 20 or so minutes of contemplation, I laced up my shoes and headed out the front door. The first mile was exactly what I expected. Just a little tight from the long run yesterday. After the I passed the 10 minute mark, everything felt good. Took it nice and easy, not wanting to kill the pace b/c this week has been a test of the new outlook on training brought on by an email from Nick Clark. He suggested running for a minimum of 90 minutes the day after my weekend long run, adding double runs, and making sure that each run is quality.

Outside of running (kind of) I just finished reading the book "The Lure of Long Distances." It chronicles the author and his training and racing that lead up to his attempt at running the Spartathlon. The Spartathlon is an Ultramarathon that starts in Athens and ends in Sparta, covering over 150 miles. It was a pretty good read and interesting to see how he balanced training and family. It also included some good accounts of how his legs felt during the training and racing. I have recently started reading Ulrich's book, "Running on Empty." I'm not quite halfway through the book yet but it's an amazing read. I'll update more about that when I get through more of it.