Congratulations on taking your first steps toward completing a 10K footrace. For those of you for whom today was your very first run - or at least your very first run in a long time - great job out there. It was really neat to see everyone in the "mega-group" making their way around the fair grounds. Some of you walked, some of you ran, and most did a combination of walking and running to get your two-three miles in. No matter how you finished - YOU DID!
So now what? It was a little confusing, but bear with us while we sort everyone into a group that will be the best for you. This week, while you are running on your own - wear a simple inexpensive stop watch (WalMart - clearance rack: $5). Mark out your route in your car, or use an interactive map such as one found on www.usatf.org. Time yourself and try to note how long it takes you to complete each mile. If you're supposed to run 3 miles - note the time it takes and divide it by three.
Next week when you show up for Abe's Army - you'll have a better idea of what your "pace" is and we'll help match you to leaders training at that pace. Our goal is simply to assist you in meeting your goals - we've all been in your very shoes ourselves.
Remember - each time you lace up your shoes and head out the door - it won't be easy. Try varying the time of day you run to avoid the heat. Pay attention to the foods you eat as this, too, can make a difference. Drink plenty of water. Set small specific goals. Stretch. Find a running partner. Research. Learn. Enjoy cross-training.: try something new! But most of all - relax and enjoy the sights and sounds around you. After all, you want to be doing this for a very long time and Abe's Army is a great way to move forward. No one can put the miles on your shoes - but we'll be there every step of the way to encourage you to meet your goals. Training is not easy - if it were, there would be a lot of people out on the roads. But the accomplishment that comes from meeting goals - big and small - are what keeps all of us, even leaders, on our feet.
Post your comments, follow the log, and we'll see you next week! Questions? Check out the link to the right "Abe's Army FAQ's".
Mary R. (9:30 - 10:00 pace group)
"There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be. " ~George Sheehan
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Week 1 Welcome
Welcome to Abe’s Army! I’m Linda Jones and I help organize the Platoon Leaders who will be your running coaches over the next 12 weeks. We're extremely excited that 400 "recruits" decided to take the enrollment challenge and train for Abe's Amble. The leaders--your 2nd Lieutenants in Abe's Army--are honored that you want to work with us on one of your important goals. For many of you, you've already learned to love running and how setting goals makes you disciplined and gives you a sense of success. Some of you are using running as a fitness goal to improve your endurance and get in better shape. For some, this is about stretching yourself and finding out if you are capable of things you never thought you could do. Regardless of your reason for starting with the group, you will be able to find a path to success. We encourage you to write your goals in your training log and really think about what you are setting out to achieve. Every runner in our club has a personal story to share about how running has contributed to their life and brought them a lot of confidence in the value of practice, training and working toward goals.
If you are a new recruit and never run before—don’t be scared. Every one of us started that way! In 2004, I was over age 50 and hadn’t run since playing soccer in high school. I’d just lost a lot of weight with regular walking and some weight training, but I knew I needed to push up my level of fitness to maintain my weight loss. That first week, I was huffing and puffing and could hardly keep up. I wasn’t sure running was something I could do and I didn’t have any thoughts about running after Abe’s Amble. Today, three years later, I am a slow but committed runner who is looking to run a marathon this year! More than anything, through Abe’s Army and the Springfield Road Runners Club, we've found the value of teamwork and how encouraging and supporting each other makes it easier to work hard and celebrate the successes. You'll find at least one person, or if my own experience stands true, many persons, in this club who will inspire you, that you can learn from, and you will call friend!When you are setting your goals, keep them clearly stated, measurable, and REALISTIC. If you've been a coach potato this past winter, don't expect to run like the wind this summer. Remember that any accomplished athlete trains months and years to reach high performance goals. If you are struggling with inactivity, overweight, high triglycerides or other health problems, it takes as much time to undo that pattern as it took for the problem to develop. You will not become healthy and high performing overnight! But by working incrementally on your goal, you can make incredible improvements. The most common reasons that runners drop out from the sport is setting unrealistic goals, expecting too much in their performance, and overtraining for their ability and falling prone to injuries. The training program in your logs is realistic, proven in many past running programs, and will produce the results you need to meet your goal to run Abe's Amble.The training program is designed for you to run, run/walk or walk three times a week. This is very important as you are building muscle strength and endurance in these runs. Some of the distances in the training log look intimidating. When you read 2 or 4 miles for the first week—don’t freak out! We are talking about moving around a course from 10 to 20 minutes per mile. This means you will be exercising for up to 40 minutes. If you take longer, that is ok. The program has been re-designed from last year’s to put the longer runs on Tuesdays to make it easier for you to run longer with your coaches at your side and for you to accomplish the shorter runs on your own. For long runs, the goal is always to finish the distance and not worry about the time it takes you to cover it! At the beginning of training, speed is not as important to new runners and walkers. Once you have learned to develop your form, leg action, and comfort in movement, the pace can be increased. Your platoon leaders will help you adjust your pace and/or distance to make the training runs possible.
Cross training days help build endurance and make daily exercise a habit. Walking is sufficient for cross training but you will get extra value from selecting other aerobic exercises and weight resistance workouts as part of your cross training. We'll give you more information about this in the coming weeks. The most important part of your training is the rest day! Your muscles need recovery time as much as they need exercise. Plan at least one day per week for a break from exercise to give your muscles time to rebuild. This is actually an important part of the program since during this recovery phase, muscle cells rebuild stronger than they were before!
Take a look at the training program now and come back in a few days to see our training information on Frequently Asked Questions!Remember to smile when you run! I’ll see you at the finish line!
If you are a new recruit and never run before—don’t be scared. Every one of us started that way! In 2004, I was over age 50 and hadn’t run since playing soccer in high school. I’d just lost a lot of weight with regular walking and some weight training, but I knew I needed to push up my level of fitness to maintain my weight loss. That first week, I was huffing and puffing and could hardly keep up. I wasn’t sure running was something I could do and I didn’t have any thoughts about running after Abe’s Amble. Today, three years later, I am a slow but committed runner who is looking to run a marathon this year! More than anything, through Abe’s Army and the Springfield Road Runners Club, we've found the value of teamwork and how encouraging and supporting each other makes it easier to work hard and celebrate the successes. You'll find at least one person, or if my own experience stands true, many persons, in this club who will inspire you, that you can learn from, and you will call friend!When you are setting your goals, keep them clearly stated, measurable, and REALISTIC. If you've been a coach potato this past winter, don't expect to run like the wind this summer. Remember that any accomplished athlete trains months and years to reach high performance goals. If you are struggling with inactivity, overweight, high triglycerides or other health problems, it takes as much time to undo that pattern as it took for the problem to develop. You will not become healthy and high performing overnight! But by working incrementally on your goal, you can make incredible improvements. The most common reasons that runners drop out from the sport is setting unrealistic goals, expecting too much in their performance, and overtraining for their ability and falling prone to injuries. The training program in your logs is realistic, proven in many past running programs, and will produce the results you need to meet your goal to run Abe's Amble.The training program is designed for you to run, run/walk or walk three times a week. This is very important as you are building muscle strength and endurance in these runs. Some of the distances in the training log look intimidating. When you read 2 or 4 miles for the first week—don’t freak out! We are talking about moving around a course from 10 to 20 minutes per mile. This means you will be exercising for up to 40 minutes. If you take longer, that is ok. The program has been re-designed from last year’s to put the longer runs on Tuesdays to make it easier for you to run longer with your coaches at your side and for you to accomplish the shorter runs on your own. For long runs, the goal is always to finish the distance and not worry about the time it takes you to cover it! At the beginning of training, speed is not as important to new runners and walkers. Once you have learned to develop your form, leg action, and comfort in movement, the pace can be increased. Your platoon leaders will help you adjust your pace and/or distance to make the training runs possible.
Cross training days help build endurance and make daily exercise a habit. Walking is sufficient for cross training but you will get extra value from selecting other aerobic exercises and weight resistance workouts as part of your cross training. We'll give you more information about this in the coming weeks. The most important part of your training is the rest day! Your muscles need recovery time as much as they need exercise. Plan at least one day per week for a break from exercise to give your muscles time to rebuild. This is actually an important part of the program since during this recovery phase, muscle cells rebuild stronger than they were before!
Take a look at the training program now and come back in a few days to see our training information on Frequently Asked Questions!Remember to smile when you run! I’ll see you at the finish line!
Monday, May 21, 2007
New service this year from Feedblitz
Over on the right, just below the contributors list you will see a section about emailing the blog to you. This is a new service we've added this year as a trial. It's from a company called Feedblitz. If you enter your email address and go through their subscription process you will receive an email at night every day that there are posts on this blog. The emails won't include any comments, so you'll have to check back for those. The free level of service is nightly emails. You can always unsubscribe at any time.
Give it a try if you like. We'll see you tomorrow at packet pickup.
Give it a try if you like. We'll see you tomorrow at packet pickup.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Running Calendar/Log Book - Some Clarification
The calendar depicting the running schedule is the same schedule that will appear in the log book. It is a bit misleading in that it seems to indicate that new runners will have to run 4 miles on their first night. I am the first to agree that this would be too aggressive for someone who has never run before. I'll try to clarify the schedule:
This year a change in the log book is to post workouts using miles. In past years, the workouts were posted as minutes, i.e. R 30 minutes R/W 20 minutes.
(R) workouts are for the experienced runners. Those who run year round would fall into this category. The first night calls for a 4 mile run for this group. Expect a gentle warmup of 5-10 minutes of easy jogging, then 20-30 minutes of running at the group pace, then a cooldown of 5-10 minutes, for a total workout time of approximately 40 minutes.
(R/W) denotes those who will be doing the run/walk program. Walkers would fall into this category. This will probably be the largest group in Abe's Army. First night calls for 1-2 miles. Expect to walk most of this. Some groups may intersperse some short running after a warmup, between 1-3 minutes of running at a time. The pace of these running intervals will depend on the group's assigned pace. Expect a workout of approximately 30 minutes on the first night.
The megagroup workout is not posted on the calendar, but will fall somewhere in the middle, probably around 3 miles for the first night. This does not mean that you will have to run the entire three miles! We'll have leaders at all different paces to offer encouragement and help you along. Depending on your pace, you can expect a workout between 30-40 minutes.
I hope this helps, please continue to post concerns and comments.
This year a change in the log book is to post workouts using miles. In past years, the workouts were posted as minutes, i.e. R 30 minutes R/W 20 minutes.
(R) workouts are for the experienced runners. Those who run year round would fall into this category. The first night calls for a 4 mile run for this group. Expect a gentle warmup of 5-10 minutes of easy jogging, then 20-30 minutes of running at the group pace, then a cooldown of 5-10 minutes, for a total workout time of approximately 40 minutes.
(R/W) denotes those who will be doing the run/walk program. Walkers would fall into this category. This will probably be the largest group in Abe's Army. First night calls for 1-2 miles. Expect to walk most of this. Some groups may intersperse some short running after a warmup, between 1-3 minutes of running at a time. The pace of these running intervals will depend on the group's assigned pace. Expect a workout of approximately 30 minutes on the first night.
The megagroup workout is not posted on the calendar, but will fall somewhere in the middle, probably around 3 miles for the first night. This does not mean that you will have to run the entire three miles! We'll have leaders at all different paces to offer encouragement and help you along. Depending on your pace, you can expect a workout between 30-40 minutes.
I hope this helps, please continue to post concerns and comments.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Registration Closed for 2007 Army
400 new runners have registered for the 2007 program. Registration is now closed.
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