this first body pump session was devilish. the session itself is short, about an hour, and quite compact. i.e. there are no longer breaks, but rather the exercises on the different body parts follow in quick succession. one can easily over do it by putting on a bit too much weight on the bar. the group work out will keep you going a little bit longer compared to when you are alone in the fitness room, or doing your own series of exercises. right afterwards you feel tired but satisfied with the effort. and when stretching the muscles afterwards it feels good.
but it’s the next day that’s brings the pain and actually the next as well and the next, too…
the body pump session was on tuesday. on wednesday the 1000m and 2000m interval runs were way behind target, i.e. 10 to 20 seconds slower. on thursday, the planned 20km run was reduced to 15km and on friday, today it was time for a rest. this body pump needs to be tried again, just to see whether it hurts equally long next time… runners are masochists or just plain stupid, because history doesn’t teach them anything.
Tags: body pump, muscle pain
the girls from work finally got me to join the body pump session that’s given on tuedays at 5:15. or was it the weather - rain pouring down today - that did it? either way, after a short warm up run, 6.5km outside, we found ourselves in the basement 10 past 5pm. water from the rain still dripping off the hair and face. hm, perhaps not as fresh looking as the well dressed, nicely smelling indoor herd-fitness worshippers. from the choice of words one can indicate correctly that this whole fitness wave, where people stand in rows in a closed room and wiggle and wobble in a synchronized fashion to the instructions of one person in the front, never really was my cup of tea.
the session was packed. getting your gear, a bar with some weights, a pair of 4kg dumbbells, a mat and a stepper, turned out to be an early bird competition. after some confused looks on my part, my friend helped me to secure the scarcest resources, the locks for the weights on the bar.
warming up with the first exercises had some initial warning signals. the heart rate went high up and i quickly understood that this won’t be the place and time to show some manly strength. lifting and pushing the bar high up over the heads, well, with gitted teeth and a smile in the face i followed what the instructor said. then legs - knee bends - the strong hold of the runner. let’s show them something. all weights on board, i.e. on the bar and with dynamic movements and a cool face through all exercise parts.
oh my god, the legs where shivering afterwards, totally ready for some rest, that they didn’t get. still to come back, shoulder and arm exercises. but this was all survival. with equal weights than the girls from work, but more rest in-between we crept towards the end of the hour. this called for a re-match.
overall body pump seems to be a well matching addition to the winter training program. more independent of the weather and discovering muscles we didn’t have the faintest idea of their existence is quite fascinating. runners generally neglect strength workouts especially for the musculature of trunk that provides stability and improves running efficiency.
the economy is slowing down. is micke-midlife drawn into this downturn?
there are signals indicating a slowdown in the disciplined weekly training. the darkness and wet weather in the evenings after work seem to make our hero shy away from his clockwork precisely programmed training schedule. week 11 training, right after the first test race, was a sketchy one, as was the one before the test race.
the enthusiasm of the good race in kuivanto beared still through the the first couple of days. but then wet weather and longer work days kept us tied to the desk inside. the interval runs on friday were good as such, but too early in after lunch. those should have been 8, but ended up being four. the hill runs on sunday were good though.
the winter training period needs some adjustment. the same training program than in the fall might not work. more sessions inside, circuit training for strength - there’s a fitness room at work - and perhaps once a week onto an indoor running track in the nearby esport arena. they charge eur 60 for a 10-ticket, mh this might come handy to bridge the icy weeks from end of december to march.
or perhaps i need to kick me in the butt, stop whining and go out for training as all heros do.
Tags: slowdown, winter training
not quite sure if this was a good training session or a bad one. on the one hand, out of the planned 8×1000m intervals, only 4 were run. it was way too close after lunch (3 hours), got stomach ache and felt the need to go the rest room towards the end of each effort. but then those four runs showed quite some speed. 3:22mins for the first one, 3:28mins for both the second and third and 3:30 for the fourth. rest in-between was only 400m jogging compared to earlier 600m jogging. this is clearly one level up from previous intervals that were mostly on the other side of the 3:30mins mark.
it’s something interesting to observe that after a race interval running times and results on other timed training runs go up a notch. this clearly underscores the need for races in the preparation for a bigger goal. the energy at road races provides furtile ground for excellent speed work and improvement of VO2 max (capacity of oxygen) intake. and you don’t have to do it alone!
with the total milage being 17.5km today, the training session felt eventually as a good one.
Tags: faster, interval training, speed
what’s the optimal weight for a marathon personal best of below 2:30? the usually used BMI doesn’t really help. one is considered “normal weight” from a BMI of 18.5 - 24.9. quite a wide range. this translates for a 186cm tall person to something between 63kg and 86kg. well, most probably 86kg won’t do the trick on the marathon distance. but how close to 63kg do we have to go?
a better indication of a normal weight is given by dr stillman’s height/weight ratio table. this table allocates for the non-active healthy man 49.9kg (110lbs) for the first 152.4cm (5 feet) and 2.495kg (5.5lbs) for every 2.54cm (1 inch) thereafter. for women the table foresees 45.3kg (100lbs) for the first 152.4cm (5 feet) and 2.268kg for every 2.54cm (1 inch) above this. no idea how dr. stillman came up with this (my guess empiricly), anyway the non-active healthy man of 186cm in height would weigh 82.9kg.
the uk website peak performance lays out the relation of weight and performance for runners. dr sheenan, a highly regarded writer on distance running sees the height/weight ratio as the key factor for distance running success. he recommends for
- sprinters (100-400m) to be 2.5% lighter than the average
- middle distance runners (800m - 10k) to be about 12% lighter
- long-distance runners (above 10k) to be 15% lighter than the non-active healthy comparison
peak performance provides a couple of examples. unfortunately too few above 180cm long-distance runners. but there are indications that for tall long-distancers the range is more towards the upper %-range and beyond 15% lighter.
for my fat belly this translates to 15% down from 82.9kg, equals 70.5kg as optimal running weight. ohhh, some way to go… soup the next couple of days?
day 72 of course you would like to know your potential marathon time before actually running one. that’s what all those marathon time predictors on the internet are there for. they are quite handy, you enter a time you run over a shorter distance and get your marathon time prediction. the longer the distance you enter, the more the results make sense. the 10k result from yesterdays kuivannon kymppi is the first one on a longer distance. up to now yasso 800s were the base for the first couple of marathon time estimations.
yesterday’s 10k race result was 37:30min, the total distance was 10.6km and the total time 39:26min. this 10k time was fed into calculations on the following sites:
the washington running club race time prediction utility
riegel formula and cameron formula plus age-grading predictor
the latter provides three results. one using each formula and one using the so called age-grading predictor. the age-grading takes your age group into account, more details on the web site.
the predicted results were all quite close to each other, between 2:51 and 2:55, the average at 2:53:30. see the graph on the progress page. one question that comes up is of course, how much individual are the actual results versus such predictions that based on general formulas? no idea.
Tags: cameron formula, marathon time prediction, riegel formula
no registration beforehand, no starting numbers, no prize money, no african gazelles. but rather tracktors holding up the start and finish banner, a prize raffle in the end and local people, a lot of local people. over 650 runners and walkers participated on a sunny and cold (2°C) november sunday. this old-school event was just superb. the atmosphere totally relaxed and family like. no suprise, the dads and some kids were running, the mothers and the other kids were organizing and socializing. the setting in rural southern finland, about 100km north east of helsinki.
in the end it’s the race we came for. that was decent as well. no pushing and shoving in the front line of the start field, as it’s familiar with many larger city runs. there was even some space around you and to the front to the actual starting line. after the starting shot elevated into the sky, elvis - also in the first row - was quickly left behind. two groups formed, the first at a 3:30min speed the second at a 3:45min speed. after 3km, i started to lead the second group and after 5 showed them some uphill accelereration capabilities. after 6km they showed me some fast on a flat strech capabilities and there i was looking at their backs. the last 3km went surprisingly well and as 12th i reached the finish in 39:26min. since the whole distance was 10,6km, the 10km mark was at 37:30min, i.e. a 3:45min/km speed. good for a first one.
he proposes to go out to run together. she doesn’t object but isn’t enthusiastic. she agrees. the little one is happy to go out. she wants to go slow. he wants to train, but it’s a slow run in his training program. the little one is happy to sit in the stroller at whatever speed. he knows he should do at least 10k today. she knows she won’t do more than 6k. he consents with grinding teeth. the little one doesn’t care. he wants to go up and down. she wants to run on flat terrain. the little one is just interested in the dogs strolling around. he wants the run to be still some kind of training for him (and her). she wants the run to be convenient. the little one just wants to go out.
in the end they won’t run far enough for him, a bit too fast for her and the little one falls asleep after 500m.
family runs are not the easiest ones. but all are satisfied when being back home again 
Tags: family run
it was dark and cold and windy and rain poured down. if i hadn’t agreed with a friend from work to go out for a run, it would have been the fourth day in row without training. it’s not supposed to be tough this week anyway, because there’s a 10k race on sunday, but there was some running planned. the sudden darkness in the evenings due to daylight-saving has brought some not very welcome change.
they say that running in the rain is no problem, it’s the clothing that can be. well, well, this sounds to me like the marketing department of any running gear outfit. we were out there, water dripping of our faces, the hands becoming stiff from the wet cold. we were happy that didn’t take the 10 or 16k route, but left it at a nice - because short - 6.7km stroll. if this weather continues that way, my friend suggested some alternative training sessions, e.g. one of these “yeah let’s all do funny moves in a room” thingies, i.e. body pump or some other hamster wheel stuff.
never the less here some (copied) tips for running in the rain - short version here, long version behind the link:
- dress in layers, no ski jacket
- wear a hat, less rain in your face
- don’t overdress: not too much clothing, could also mean: use your old gear, your new and shiny stuff is useless, people will mostly pity you.
- be visible, reflectors’n stuff
- use a garbage bag (for your shoes afterwards, they stink!), naa, here we talk about standing behind the starting line at a race in the rain.
- just run, … eh yes, i guess that was the whole point.
- dry out your shoes afterwards, even if you think its good fun to put on wet shoes on your next training session
hm, i think, i still prefer the run in the rain to the body pump session (you almost got me).
dangerous times we live in. the headlines after the spring and fall daylight-saving shifts indicate that man came up just with another means to toture its kind. our friends in north america who decide to be part of this fun part of life every other decade (or so) seem to suffer the most. news headlines in canada and the us see daylight-saving MIGHT cost us more in energy bill, it COULD sabotage your sleep schedule and it CAN impact the risk of heart attacks.
the constant use of the conditional form in the headlines is definitely annoying. there’s a probability of something happening in everything. i.e. there’s a potential chance that you die earlier because of running (run over by a car) and there’s a probability that you live longer due to running (health and what not). reading such news is a waste of time.
the risk of heart attacks was studied to be 2% higher on monday following the spring shift due to one hour of less sleep. hey, better not having any kids, you definitely die young.
however, the fall shift made me not going out for training for three days in a row now. it’s dark, it’s cold and it has been quite wet as well. sitting in the warm office in front of the pc with a steaming hot cup of tea next to me was a way better proposition when imagining oneself running outside against the wind with the rain drops hitting the face and the wet clothes starting to cling to the body. but the big goal, the sub-2:30 marathon… hm, what ever, next week…
