Week 6 Results (Sunday and Tuesday)

What a week! Although we ended our football season on a disappointing 2-6, it was still quite the week. So as you may know, I was sick last week and was feeling better for my record- smashing run. This week (especially the Tuesday run) either that same cold is coming back onto me or something else, but I just have a common cold. So Sunday, I ran a 5:43.39 which would be translated to about a 4:58 on a track (we'll talk about translated times in a little bit), and ran a 5:39.0 on Tueesday. Here is the new chart with my times.

So as you may see, I have put two lines with my actual time and my '45 second rule*' time, to better keep me going with a long-term goal in mind. Since either my 45 second rule is wrong or I am running 4:54 miles (not very probable at this point in time). My goal then, is to run a 5:30 on my actual time, consistently.

Conditions

• Road- 4/5 had 2 30-40 ft stretches where it was fairly sandy, the rest was just fine.
• Weather, (Sunday)- 60 degrees, no wind. (Tuesday) 50 degrees, wind from the LRL (left, rear, left)
• How I felt...
• Before- coughing a little bit, after light warm- up
• After (Sunday) more winded than usual. (Tuesday) slightly sick to my stomach at end, wheezing a little bit at the beginning

Goals

1. No pop for 2 weeks.

Going good, currently on day 10 out of 14. End date is Sunday, October 29.

2. Run three times this week with an average time of under 6:00.

Failed, I was going to run today (Thursday), but it was just too cold, and I had things to do at home. Change from 6:00 to 5:50.

Final Thoughts

• Very productive week. Only having two runs, I think, did me good with all of the work my muscles have done this week and because of my cold.
• Trying to figure out a winter plan. For those of you who have not visited Nebraska, it can really snow here, so I need to find a good way to run in the winter. One idea was to go to an asphault parkway around the football/baseball field that is approximately 400 meters. The only problem with that, though, is accessibility. It is in town, which is two miles from my house, I would need cooperation with my mom (former assistant track coach).
• '45 second rule'- The road that I run on is sand, has a 50 ft hill at the very beginning, and is about 1.05 miles. Based off of the last two years in training (not often until now), my time on that road has been consistently 45 seconds higher than what I was running on a track.

Week 5 Results (Tuesday)

No, I have not given up (I don't know why I would), I have been sick since Friday. Since today I was feeling a little better, I decided that I needed to go on my run with a one day safety cushion in case I completely blew it. So, at about 6:30, when I got home from football practice, I hurried up and left to go run. I was feeling a bit better than usual, I was energizing myself so I wouldn't have an awful run. I ran my 1st split about 8 seconds fast, as well as the 2nd split, my third split was about 10 seconds fast, and my final time was a 5:48.2 (which, if the 45 second rule is still in play, is a 5:03). A 16 second improvement from last week and a new all-time record by 13 seconds. I have also changed my goal from 305 seconds to 300 seconds, just to give me more motivation.

Conditions

• Road- 5/5, rained two days ago
• Weather- about 48 degrees Farenheit, dry
• How I felt...
• Before- very energized and motivated
• After- I felt like that was the hardest I've ever run

Last Week's Goals

1. No pop for the next 2 weeks

Failed, I dropped the ball on Sunday, currently on day 3 out of 14

2. Run three times this week with an average time of under 6:10

Failed, sick. Definately a goal for next week, but instead of a time under 6:00 (this one's going to be hard)

Week 4: part 2 (Tuesday)

No school today. Although we did have regular football practice and conditioning today, I went home determined to run a good mile. The road seemed like it would be good, the weather was nice, and its a good day to run a near-record mile. I went down to the road and ran a solid 6:04.2 (about 5:20). Relative to Sunday, the road had amazing traction and the weather seemed very nice (warm and dry). Maybe some of it had to do with coming back from football practice (when I'm done with football, I'm not very winded). Well, here is the new chart for this week

Both goals were achieved! New goals are:

Goal 1: Don't drink any pop for the next 2 weeks (this one's going to be hard for me)
Goal 2: To run 3 times during week 5 with times averaging <6:10

And just as a side note, my running weeks are from Thursday to Wednesday. That will probably clear up a lot.

Week 4 Results

I hate making excuses. It makes me end up feeling like I'm more at fault. Today, I have so many things I could use as excuses, and I could use as reasons. If it seems like I'm getting to the "excuse mode" please let me know.

I ran at about noon today in a light drizzle, about 60 degrees, and 3 inches of rain in the past 48 hours. So the road that I ran on was sloppy in places. I started running and I felt like I was running in the Himalayas. The air just felt so thin. I called a few people after the disappointing (to say the least) run, and they said that the air feels like it's so thin, because of the low pressure system 75 miles away, and they high amount of humidity. Although, the road had much more traction, there were many places where I was slipping. So, here are the results.



I ran a disapointing 6:20 (which is approximately a 5:35 on a real track). The best sounding thing that I can say, is that I was extremely winded, and moderately dizzy afterwards. I know that I pushed myself hard, and that my body will definately react to that. To help make up for this "loss", so to speak, I'm going to take it relatively easy on Monday, and run then. I need everything I can get at this point in time.

Last Week's Goals

1. To run a 6:05 or faster.

Next week/Monday's goal

2. To consume 60g carbs, and 20g protein after my workout.

Nearly accomplished, also next week's goal

Week 3 Results

Yes, one more workout done! I ran today after only getting 6 and a half hours of sleep last night, and doing my best not to take a nap (naps kill me). I eventally went out on a run and ran a 6:08.5. This was not a surprise to me, due to such a great improvement from week 1 to week 2. The other thing that is concerning me is the sandiness of the road. Each week, there is more and more sand on that road. That will probably show on both my time chart and my muscular improvement. Although they will probably be taking opposite directions in the short- term plan, they will ultimately help me much.

Goal: To run a 6:05 or faster.

Goal 2: To consume 60g of carbohydrates and 20g of protein 30 minutes or sooner after my workout.

I will run tomorrow as a week 3 run because I do not have school. I also may not have time to run, due to to a football game.

Week 3: part 1

Yes, week 3 is already here and so am I fresh from a workout. I have been exploring around Yahoo Answers for about the past week, and found that there are very interesting answers to the "Running" questions. I asked about by 1600 time, and directed them to this website. One person, took on the question and did their research. They suggested that I spend different training season of about 2-4 weeks to concentrate on different workout techniques. For the past few weeks, you have seen that I've been doing timed runs of 1 mile. I had to come up with another "season" of a particular workouts to "prevent my times from plateauing". And to answer your question, no I will not stop doing my weekly timed 1 mile runs, this will just be side training.

So today, I got home at about 8:15 and apparently it took me until 9:15 to decide that I had too much energy and that I needed to use that into a beneficial workout. Given that there is absolutely no sunlight left, I did what I could. I spent 3 minutes on the elliptical, and decided that I was not getting a sufficent workout. I went outside and ran 5 sets of approx. 250 meter dashes. I would run to the end of my gravel lane, turn around and come back in one set. I ended up running between a 38.5 and a 39.5, but felt very worked at the end of the workout. I will most likely get nothing in tommorow (Friday) due to an away football game (I'm probably going to get home at about 9:00. Schedule is packed tight. Saturday and Sunday are completely free, so I must take advantage of that.

Also, a segment that I'm going to add to this blog is a different topic that you can debate on. I'm not completely sure what the whole plan is (days, format), but I have a general idea. Next week, we will discuss race strategies.

Week 2: pt 3

So, I had a third run for the weekend today which really helped a lot. Although I have been feeling tired and having the "morning feeling" all day, I did my best to get the energy to go on a run today. I went out there and clocked in at 6:12.8 (translates to about a 5:28). Yes, this was 9 seconds slower than yesterday, and 11 seconds slower than Thursday, but I found out why I didn't do so good today. For one, when I ran the 6:00 mile on Thursday, I remembered the point that I was at when I hit 1:30 and 3:00 (I missed 4:30- got that today). I found out that I ran pretty dramatic positive splits. I hit the 1:30 mark at 1:28 and hit the 3:00 at 2:47.5. Secondly, I was never really awake today. On Thursday, I had school and had a light 1hr 30min football practice without conditioning. Obviously, I was awake and gone with the "morning feeling". Today I was just laying around all day. The other condition that I noticed, is the stretch of time we haven't had rain. That road is getting sandier each day (which is a very good thing).

From now on, I am going to sprint up the hill from a certain point as I'm walking back. I've had really good experience with hills last year- I improved 11.5 seconds in one week after spending that week training with hills. Today I ran a 40.8 up the hill. If that ends up being somehting of interest, I will publish that along with my running times.

Week 2: pt. 2

So I just got done having my 2nd (and probably final) run for this week. I started off kind of slow, but really picked up the pace during the 2nd half. The road did seem a bit sandier today, and worked my ankles a lot more. I eventually clocked in at 6:03, 2 seconds slower than Tuesday. I am actually really excited, because I thought it would go way up. I did end up with a minor cramp at the end, but that means I worked hard enough.

Week 2 Results

I'm back, a little bit early this week, with very shocking news to me. So last week I ran a 6:16 on a road that's about 45 seconds longer (which would equal about a 5:30). Today I had my weekly run, and ran it in a 6:01.7, which would equal about a 5:16 on a regular 1600 meter track. An improvement of 15 seconds in five days really hit me hard. Next week, I do not expect my time to be pretty to my eyes. If my time does not go up, it won't go down much. I guess that if I pay close attention to my nutrition this week and keep working on my core/leg excercises, can end up with a good outcome in the long run (pun intended).

My four days to run are Thursday- Sunday. On most weeks, I will run on two non-consecutive days and take the best time (or average) from each. On either Saturday or Sunday I will most likely run again, looking for either a better time than previously that week and/or training purposes. I will check back in with an update at the end of the weekend.

Week 1 Results

Yesterday I ran my first run on a one mile, sand road with a 50 ft hill at the beginning. Based on my experience from last year's training, this road takes about 45 seconds longer to run. My conditioning and training prior to this has been football practice where we "sprint" 1,000 yards each practice (and no, not all at the same time). Also, based on last year's experience, football conditioning is extremely good for track training. For one, you have more weight on you, and your cleats are much heavier than track shoes. And second, the mouth guard restricts air flow into your mouth to a certain degree. My run yesterday really showed. When I started running, I felt very light on my feet, and like my body was working much more efficient. When I finished I clocked in at 6:16 which translates into about a 5:30 on a regulated track. Given that I was a lot closer to my goal than expected, I was very excited (great motivation). Currently, to reach my goal I need to improve on an average of one second per week. That doesn't seem too hard with football and basketball forcing me to condition. Here is a chart of my times, and I will update them as I go on.

Not exactly the best quality, but I am trying to fix that.

If anyone want to suggest certain training techniques or nutrition techniques, I am always very open to ideas.

Let me introduce myself

Hey, so let me introduce myself. I'm Jacob, I'm 14, almost 15, and a freshman in high shool. I'm about 5'10" and 125 lbs (just for the record). For the past few years in track, I have ran the mile as my primary event. In 7th grade, my best time was 6:12.5. In 8th grade, I took it a little bit more seriously and got my time down to 5:44.6. In one week in 8th grade, I improved by 11.5 seconds, because we started running hills. This year, I decided that I really want to step it up, and make a bold statement. I looked at the calendar, and saw that it was exactly 6 months (26 weeks) until the beginning of track season. Every week I would post my time on an Excel spreadsheet and watch for progress to my goal of 5:05 by the beginning of track season. With all hope in the final goal of qualifying for the Nebraska state track meet. This is what I created this blog for. To give inspiration to new runners, and to have myself held accountable to train.