Article Day!

Today is article day - found quite a few articles I wanted to share with everyone:

First one deals with using sleep to improve your performance for sports. Basically, they did a study where people improved on their tennis drills (accuracy of serves, speed, etc.) after changing their sleep schedule to get 10 hours per night. I'm sure there is a huge cross over in running and being sleep deprived 95% of the time, I will use this as an excuse to sleep in more :)

Next article is an interview of one of the marathon greats and former world record holder Paul Tergat by the Running Times. They talk about him being the first man to break the 2:05 barrier in the Berlin Marathon, and what his career has become now that he in the twilight years. Exciting to hear he will be suiting up for the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Seattle very shortly, as well as making another run at a marathon title in the fall!

Last one talks about running strategies in training. I paid a little more attention to this article since I am in flux with my training and sort of confused as to what kind of effort I should be putting into my workouts. Currently, I have adopted the Kenneth Williams "run how you feel that day" methodology, but may wean back to putting the pedal to the metal on certain workouts since I've been experiencing a plateau of sorts lately. Regardless, there is no wrong way to train and certainly there are many solutions to get the same end result so I will just keep experimenting until I find what works best for me.

Last night, dragged Crystal out to the track for our Tuesday night speed workout. The plan was 16X200 at hard but controlled pace, breaking the reps up to 4 sets with small water break in between. Weather was hot, but cooled off a little by 9 p.m. (low 80's, high 70's) so wasn't completely uncomfortable. Did a 1 mile warmup, then we were on our way. First set was kind of a struggle - a little physically, but more to get into a rhythm. Fluctuated with times a bit, but felt a little more comfortable in the end. Second set, finally settled in and everything became really easy. Was recovering fast, and my stride felt awesome on the last straightaways. Splits were consistent and on the faster end of the range we had set for ourselves. Third set was pretty much the same - felt very smooth, and relaxing. Crystal at this point wasn't feeling well so bailed on me, so did the last set solo. Wanted to push it a little, so went out with what felt like a harder effort but was still getting the same times - didn't realize how much it helped to have someone to run with. Last 2 reps, picked it up and tried to max out on those. Succeeded, did a one mile cooldown and stretched. Got home, got in an extra couple miles to make up for missing Monday, then stretched some more. Total mileage: ~8 (everything included) - 200 splits (don't have them on hand, but making educated guesses) were: 37, 33, 36, 36, 35, 36, 35, 34, 36, 35, 37, 34, 34, 34, 32, 30.

Easy run tonight, might tack on a couple miles to completely make up for my Monday miss. Feeling pretty good this week so far :)