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.