Pat nuggets #5

Living In Faith Exchange Runners (LIFER's) Chicago Marathon Team
* Shane, John, Tracy, Steve, Chad, Bill, Lindsay, Rich, Courtney, Angi, Pat, Scott?
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Hi, LIFER's!

Lot's of great exchange this past week...great teamwork! A few nuggets:

Registration: Scott is still on the fence. Let's all encourage him to register and officially join our team!

Running Goals: Everyone has posted their goals except John, Shane, Bill, Lindsay, and Scott.
* Several of us signed up for Pikes Peak (Aug) on 12 Mar, including Scott, Courtney, Steve, Angi, and I. Steve replied to my Pikes Peak "let the suffering begin" email with these comments: "I think I'll make a shirt that says, "Don't look twice - You've just been passed by a very large man with 21 fusions and titanium rods in his spine!" I will just be glad to get to the top."

Training: The 18 wk training plans begin 8 June (novice, intermediate, advanced). Gradually build up your miles to be at the week 1 level by 8 June. Increasing your mileage no more than about 10% per week will usually prevent you from ramping up too quickly and getting hurt. Also, to prevent injury, do not go more than two days without running, take one but no more than three days off in a week, and include one cross training day (at least between now and 8 Jun). Starting 8 Jun, stick to the schedule!...you may have to ease off and then back into it if you have a minor injury or illness. Don't exceed your schedule...if the schedule says 9 miles and you feel real good, make it a solid 9 mile run...don't go 13 miles. Exceeding your schedule could lead to injury or jeopardize an upcoming workout.
* Rich is going to journal his daily training notes as a "comment" to his "Running Goals" post (consider doing this).

Stretching: To prevent injury and increase speed, stretch after every run. When you stretch, go until you feel tension and hold for 10 sec to 1 min (don't bounce). You should stretch at least these areas: calf, Achilles, quad, hamstring, groin, back, ITB. If you do not have an iliotibial band (ITB) stretch, Google it and start it today (very painful, common for >30 yr old runners).

Strengthening (core): To prevent injury (and for mountain running), do core training after stretching (after every run), including at least sit ups, push ups, calf raises, and shallow dips and/or lunges. Whenever you start a new exercise start easy (low reps) and build up about 10% per week until you level off. I leveled off at 20 pull ups, 100 crunches, 80 push ups, 150 toe raises (50 on each foot and then 50 with both feet), 100 shallow lunges/squats (50 lunges rotating legs followed by 50 squats).

ProLife Ministry support: Let's keep this simple and start casually asking friends and family to sponsor us ($/mile). Pick your own ProLife ministry to support. Angi and I are thinking about donating to the local crisis pregnancy center. Other ideas?

Run for ProLife!,
Pat
Phil 4:13

* LIFER's Chicago Marathon Team blog at marathon-for-life.blogspot.com.
* ProLife Ministry support: We have ProLife wristbands. Start asking friends and family to sponsor you ($/mile).