Inspired by your example, Aylie, I went into Cadillac Mountain Sports and bought a new swim suite during our whirlwind up-and-back trip to deal with the frozen pipes and flooding at our island cabin. Instead of a Speedo (my normal), I got a Dolphin competitive suit because they had it in a beautiful, not too dark forest green, instead of just in navy blue and black.

Now if I could just get rid of this horrible cold, I could go try it out!

so you can swim! Green is a good color :)

after a workout at the gym. PT exercises, abs Nautilus and stretches. Followed by the run along the river (off to a meeting after work) with a 10 pound backpack.

Keep running!

Good speed work. Matt, you better look out, Sara is gaining on you.

I do use the incline but that's because a 1.5-2% incline doesn't bother me and running extra uphill wil build strength anyways. You could easily do your intervals at 0%, but to equal outside you'd have to speed up by about 30 seconds per mile. That seems to fast for me so I go with using incline.

The outdoor tracks are open throughout the state and you could always use one. Or an indoor track. Whether or not you are allowed to use them is another question. I just do it and no one has ever asked me to leave, but why ask permission when you can simply beg forgiveness afterwards. I'd say act like you belong and knowbody cares. Ask yourself if you are hurting anyone or anything and by running around the track and I always get nope for an answer.

I've heard the general rule of thumb is 1.0 to 1.5 % incline for mimicking flat running to overcome the power of the motor. I do normal runs at 1.5 percent and I do speed work at 1.0 percent. As you get used to the speed work, you should be able to increase the number of repeats (or distance/time for tempo), the speed you do your workout, the treadmill grade, and be able to decrease the time between repeats. If you're killing yourself (speed work is never too much fun unless you're an animal) you might want to decrease one of those variables and then increase with time. A good example is what Sara's doing because she felt good and the change didn't kill her. Hope this helps, but Brian, Chris G. and JC are great resources for speed work too (as well as other).

Keep running!

Thanks for the sound advise. I will continue to use the incline and just decrease to 1% when I start feeling ill. Steve, you make a good point when you say speed work is not supposed to be fun. I think I tend to run too comfortably most of the time. I agree that running on a track would be ideal but I wouldn’t want to be chased off. Is the public allowed to use the high school track during the day? Someone told me they thought it had to be after school hours.

On another note, since I wrote my original post I found out that the Precor salesman told the "Y" that these new treadmills do a better job of simulating outdoor running because of the way the belt reacts to your footstep. Instead of the treadmill gaining mileage while your feet are in the air, there is an imperceptible pause of some sort. If you can believe the salesman, then it would follow that the new treadmills at the "Y" are harder than the old ones. I would be interested to know if any experienced treadmill runners have used the new Precor treadmills and found them harder. Perhaps the new Precor treadmills do not need the 1.5% incline to simulate outdoor running.

Rae, something to consider in your training is a recommendation that Jack Daniels makes: don't try to steadily increase either the volume or difficulty of your training.

It takes your body about three weeks to respond to any specific training stress so it's better to allow yourself that amount of time to have the same workouts get to feel easier than it is to steadily increase the difficulty in order to keep the level of discomfort high. Obviously there is a psychological benefit to this as well.

I'm backing up my goals here. I'm thinking a 9 min marathon in May translates to a 8;35-8:40 half marathon pace in March translates to a tempo run of at least half that distance at half marathon goal pace. No science behind this just the meanderings of my mind. Coach D makes total sense and I relax at the thought of a 3 week plateau adjustment phase but then I see Half Marathon, March 12 looming large.
The Question: Does a 6 mile tempo run at goal race pace seem long enough for a half marathon?

Funny, I was discussing this with Matt the other day while we were waiting for JC to finish his strides.

Personally, I don't like to do much specific race-paced training. For me the reason is that when you're in the middle of heavy training almost every run is to some degree difficult -- even an easy run at recovery pace can feel hard the day after a hard speed workout. Within the context of high mileage, a 10 or 12 mile marathon pace run can be one of the hardest workouts you can do. And yet during a marathon taper it's all you can do to hold a nominally easy run below marathon pace.

To my mind, there is a substantial danger when pushing through with a race pace run when, because of the accumulating fatigue of high mileage, the effort is as hard as a full-blown long tempo because you risk imprinting that pace in your mind as associated with extraordinary discomfort, when in fact under actual well-rested race-day circumstances the effort will be nearer to that of an ordinary Sunday run.

I think one of the benefits of racing different distances frequently is that you learn that there is no particular problem with finding any given race pace. What you match it to is the level of effort over time, not any particularly critical velocity over pavement.

Last year I would have totally agreed. But I think it important to practice your goal pace. Working up to 13-15 miles at goal marathon pace is important and here's why.

Running economy, if you don't know what that is it's how effecient(spelling) you run at a certain pace. The more you run at goal pace the more economical you are at that pace.

Brian's argruement is that we cannot easily run marathon pace while in hard training. Well you can, but you have to treat it like a hard workout and be rested for it, just like any other workout.

On the other hand tapering for the marathon takes a good 4-5 weeks and after that much rest I always can run faster than goal pace.

So I'd practice at goal pace, and with a good taper be ready to run just a bit quicker.

Now who wants to talk about trampoline running???

...Me with a 3:22 and a DNF last year -- or some yahoo with four marathon wins?

You ran under 3 hours at Sugarloafd and you'll easily do it again now that you are runnig easy on your easy days. Anyhow I walked most of the last 4-miles at Boston and that's five wins Bucky!!!

;-)

that you have won 3 marathons.

so far.

:-)

Who's counting.

:)

Oh, okay -- at first I wasn't counting that 2004 win at Sugarloaf 'cause we were back there pushing you and with your sense of pace who knows how it might have turned out if we hadn't.

But, as you ultimately had over a 25 minute lead, I suppose you do deserve a fair amount of credit yourself.

Five it is then. Not a bad percentage any way you look at it.

Those Kenyans got lucky at Boston!!!

won in 2005?

it's got a good flow to it.

because the Sugarloaf web site lists Judson Cake and Becky Flowers as the 2005 winners. I emailed them a "what's up with that?" and "calls your record keeping into question!!" but no change. Anyone care to send their two cents to outdoor@tdstelme.net? Perhaps individuals with more clout in the running world can get this fixed.

I know Sue very well. She is after all from Bar Harbor.

But maybe we can just make a compromise and call Chris, B Flowers...

doesn't work but we do have a surplus of Chris Gs and this would solve the problem.

I'm sure it is an honest mistake. At least they got my time right.

How does that work?

you run in place on a trampoline. I've got one if you want to try it. I'll make sure Brian comes over and gets a picture. I've never tried but I'd like to see if I can get one of you to try so I can get a good laugh!!!

There's one you can get that actually has different angles on it so you can run down and uphill. Gail Devers uses it, I saw it on TV!!!

one of the small ones, or a full-sized trampoline?

The diving team has a trampoline so they can practice all their fancy flips, it's folded up on the pool deck most of the time. When they unfold it I'll have to sneak in a "run"!
(The diving team also has a hot tub, which no one else is allowed to use. Spoiled little divers :P)

it fits under a bed.

instead of a trampoline: http://www.pistacentrifuga.com/

Have you ever seen the centrifigal coin in the Mathematica room in the Boston Museum of Science? That's like, the human version!!!

front and back flips on a trampoline, but I've never tried to run on one...

that's the power of knowing you run pace or get thrown off the treadmill. On the track you can just slow down and no whoops.

I don't see any reason not to run on a treadmill. There have been some great runners who have used them. The treadmill lets you get in quality sessions without environmental factors bugging you. Of course race day weather is not always perfect so those workouts outside where you feel like throwing up are helpful.

I also believe that 2% is probably the better grade to use to equal land running.

The benefit of the treadmill is that it can give you the confidence that you can maintain a given pace. The track on the other hand teaches you how to be consistent. Used consistently, I think the treadmill can make you stronger and more efficient -- but there's no subsitute for the track for making you tougher and smarter.

what about the fact that the belt is moving under you in the opposite direction? I realize that you still have to keep up with the pace but I think the fact that you have two vectors, moving in opposite directions, should make it easier.

Consider that the earth's surface is ripping right along in rotation under you every day at about 1000 miles per hour and yet it makes it no easier running in either direction on an east-west out and back.

it's fun to watch yourself run.

I were 18.

You got me bustin' a gut ... I almost choked on my yogurt. I can so relate being 47 myself and with all those young whipper-snappers doing laps around me. Now if we could invent a mirror that made us appear younger.

Keep running!

or cooking show, nature show, travel video or sporting event?
I become a lazy bad runner when I rely on a treadmill. For 5 years in a row I joined Harbor House in the winter so I could run inside. But my balance isn't very good so I ended up holding on, kept the elevation at 0% and when I hit the roads in April running felt so hard, the wind was daunting, every little hill looked like a mountain and my arms were pathetic. It's a great training tool if you use it correctly and I ran my way through a lot of sporting events that I never would have watched otherwise but I'm better off hitting the roads and knowing the weather on race day won't faze me.
Maybe you have a bit of post race let down? What's your next goal?

I read on the treadmil. I am not sure how, but I can run around 9:00 pace and still read magazines. Have you tried reading on the treadmil since you had your fancy eye surgery? It might work for you too. But don't try it with work, it is hard to retain much of importance.

SWIMMING! You can spend all the time in the world and if you could get seriously injured in a pool, it would have happened to me by now (which it hasn't).

Nice touch.

When I read 18 days, I got that nervous/excited feeling like I was running it....very excited for you!

...I think I just decided to do Sugarloaf.

Are we meeting at Duck Brook?

Duck brook witch hole, same thing.

http://www.swimex.com/treadmill/therapy.aspx

water run with a floatation belt, or without one... cheaper!

Since I run at a much slower pace, it follows that the 1.5% incline is probably too much for me if I am trying to simulate outdoor running on the treadmill.

http://merv.stanford.edu/runcalc

Good to see someone else repeating themselves.