The Beautiful Simplicity of Progression

I've been very lucky in my running career to rub shoulders with some of the world's best athletes and coaches. I've learned a lot in these encounters but the one idea that has stuck with me the most is the idea of the progression run. The idea has been around for a while but it really took on meaning for me in 2001 when I was training under the man who is probably considered the most successful coach in the world. Dr. Gabrielle Rosa was the coach of the Fila Discovery Program in Kenya, and the Fila Discovery USA program that was alive for a short time here in the states. He is the coach of Paul Tergat and several other successful Kenyan marathon runners.
Anyway, back to the progression run(I've also heard it called a pick-up, or fulcrum run. The idea, according to Rosa, is that every run you do should be a progression. Start out slow, finish faster. It's pretty simmple and it makes sense. For the beginning of any run, you should start out easy, let the body, muscles, and joints get a nice liesurely warm-up. Over the middle miles, slowly pick up the pace, Finally over the last third of the run, start to work a little. This teaches the body the most important thing you can do in a race; to relax while running fast. It also teaches you to get used to running negative splits, which is a great way to race successfully.
Now in the Fila camp, we American runners didn't have a complete understanding of the concept. We would routinely start out at 6:30 pace and finish in close of 5 minute pace for a 10 mile run (And that was our easy day!). It wasn't until one of the runners did a training stint in Kenya that we discovered how much more exagerated the Kenyan model was. He said that these top runners in the world would often start out at 10 minute pace or slower! Really giving the body time to get warmed up and loose before cranking it up over the second half. No wonder we had a lot more injuries than they did. We were running too hard from the beginning!
Anyway, I still try to do almost every run this way. I don't finish at 5:00 pace very often any more, but I do try to slowly pick it up as I run. This way my body becomes more accustomed to a variety of paces, instead of getting locked into one.
It seems to work as long as I remember to take it easy on my easy days. The influx of speed on easier days has allowed some of the runners to actually do speed work (i.e. intervals) less often than we do it here in the states, while still maintaining world class speed.
Andy

Infinite Love for the Infiniti

I know you're not supposed to do this, but I've always been a rule breaker. I just did my first run in a new pair of shoes. 20 miles. Now the "running rules" clearly state that you shouldn't run so far the first time in a pair of new shoes. Instead you should wear them around the house and break them in with a few short runs (preferably on a treadmill so you can stop any time if you get a blister or something else goes wrong). But I don't always follow the "running rules." In fact, I've sort of discovered that the rules don't always work. It's much better to develop your own set of rules that work specifically to you.
Within my personalized set of running rules is the rule that clearly states that I can run a long run in a new pair of shoes if 1. The shoes feel fantastic walking around; and 2. I take my liners out of an older pair and replace them with the new liners in the new pair.
Well, I tried it this weekend with a new pair of Brooks Infiniti I got down at the Foot Zone and the results couldn't have been better! I've worn hundreds of pairs of shoes in my life, and after one run the Infiniti have to have moved into my top 5 of all time. The shoes are incredibly protective while still maintaining a fairly light weight and performance feel.
I set off on my 20 miler taking me around a loop going by Tumalo State Park and back home past Shevlin Park. I had no particular plans to run hard or try to hit a certain time. I just needed to put in the miles. Well, the shoes felt so good that I soon found myself rolling along. At about 7 miles in I passed J.J. Howard and Michael Dennis going the other way on a long run gearing up for the Boston Marathon and Michael yelled out, "Wow, you're going fast!" I hadn't been thinking about it really, but I realized after he said it that Michael was right, I was cruising right along at a sub 6 minute pace and feeling just fine.
The shoes continued to protect, mile and mile. I ran the last five in 28:40 for a total time of 2:00:11 for 20.00 miles on my Garmin. Not bad for a weekend long run! In fact that's my 2nd fastest time for that course and I've run in several times with a much harder effort.
Anyway, the point is, those shoes are sweet! I loved them every step of the way. If you happen to be a neutral runner or slight over-pronator you should give them a try.
More blogs to follow.
Andy