As I mentioned earlier this week in my weekly training recap, we are on vacation at the beach! Myrtle Beach, to be exact. My family takes a trip here every year, and has done so since before I was born.

This year Barry and I are down here with my dad, his friend, my little sister and her boyfriend, and my aunt and uncle. We always stay in a campground, which means Hank and Scout are here with us, too.

For the past few years, I have always been in training for a fall race while we are on vacation. So I typically don’t take any time off of running. I like starting most of my days with a run, though, despite the heat and humidity. On Monday, our first day here, I kicked off my vacation with an easy 4 mile run. My legs were really tired, but the weather wasn’t too bad.

On Tuesday I had my second track workout of training. I was a bit worried on how this would work out while being on vacation, but my dad had the idea to look up the local high school. Turns out it’s only about 8 miles from our campground, so he drove me over there that morning and walked/cheered me on while I ran. The Hansons had 8 x 600m on tap for me, for a total of 7 miles, and once again things went pretty well. I need to stop doubting myself so much.

Wednesday was my one glorious rest day, and Thursday had me doing my second tempo run of training. I had 5 miles at marathon pace on the schedule. That shouldn’t be too challenging, since I intend to run 26.2 miles at that pace, but it always causes me some anxiety. What if I can’t hit the pace on a much shorter distance? But I did and I averaged 10:13/mile, about 5 seconds per mile under my goal. It was really hot and humid on Thursday morning, too.

Yesterday morning I had an easy 4 mile run. It was relatively cool out for beach standards, albeit still humid of course. My legs felt pretty good and I had a hard time sticking to the easy pace prescribed by the Hansons. But it’s important to take the easy days easy so that I’m still able to hit the required paces on track and tempo days.

This morning I am headed out for an easy 6 miler and tomorrow I have a 10 mile long run planned. Outside of running, it’s been a nice vacation so far. We had some rain on Monday and Tuesday, but the weather has been favorable since then. We’ve done the typical beach stuff: hang out on the beach and read, play in the ocean, go out to eat, and hang out together at our campsites. We also had some excitement yesterday when five hammerhead sharks came through the area. A big crowd of people was walking up and down the beach watching them and the lifeguards put up ‘no swimming’ signs for awhile.

Other than the sharks things have been pretty relaxing. Just what I needed 🙂

Do you stick to your usual workout routine when you’re on vacation?
Does your family take an annual vacation to the same spot each year?
What do you like to do at the beach?

As a kid, I was involved in a lot of typical activities: soccer, swim team, piano lessons. But when I was eleven years old, I also joined a children’s circus club. A little before my 11th birthday I saw a kid on TV riding a unicycle, and decided to ask for one for my birthday. It took me about a month to teach myself how to ride it, hours spent riding back and forth along our deck while holding the railing. Shortly thereafter, we found out about a kid’s circus club in the area.

The exhibition club was started in the late 60’s by Jim Moyer, a PE teacher at the elementary school that was home to the club. He wanted to teach children acrobatic and circus skills. Unfortunately, Jim Moyer passed away shortly before I joined the club so I never got to meet him. But the club was left in good hands. Upon joining, I advanced my unicycling skills and learned many other circus and acrobatic skills.

Unicycles

When I arrived at circus club, I was only able to ride my unicycle forward and turn. They taught me how to free mount (without the assistance of a wall, a helpful hand, etc.). I also learned how to ride in formation for parades and exhibition shows.

Later on, I learned how to do more advanced skills such as ride backward, ride with one foot, jump rope on a unicycle, and ride down steps and over teeter-totters.

Once I mastered these skills, it was time to move on to a “giraffe” unicycle, which is a tall unicycle that uses a chain to power the wheel. The club had giraffe unicycles from 5 feet to 12 feet tall, and I started out on a 5 foot tall one. It took me a bit longer to learn to ride this one, and thankfully I had a patient dad by my side who would walk back and forth across the gym holding my hand while I learned. Once I got the hang of the 5 foot unicycle, it didn’t take me long to move on to a 6 foot and then a 7 foot unicycle. In 2002, I rode my 7 foot tall unicycle in the Cherry Blossom parade in DC.

To this day I still own my first unicycle, my own 6 foot giraffe unicycle, a miniature unicycle, and an “ultimate wheel” (a unicycle with just a wheel and pedals – no seat). I can still ride all of them, except the ultimate wheel, in the same way you never forget how to ride a bike.

German gym wheel

Another neat circus skill I learned was the German gym wheel, which is a bit hard to explain. The wheel had wooden planks on the bottom that you strapped your feet to, and then you held onto handles as you rolled the wheel.

There were different variations in the way you stood inside the wheel. You could also have multiple people in the wheel. There was also a trick called Ferris Wheel, where two people rode around on the bars. I usually always rode my unicycle in parades, but would also perform on the gym wheel in exhibition shows.

The trick in the above right picture is called a “penny roll” and it was one of the most difficult tricks that we were taught. I tried to learn it a few times, but kept getting stuck and ending up with the wheel falling flat on it’s side (thus hitting my face on the ground).

Juggling, balancing, and tight rope

In addition to unicycling and the gym wheel, I also learned to juggle. I started out with scarves, and later moved on to juggling balls. I can also juggle oddly shaped objects, but I never learned to juggle clubs. I still have my own set of juggling balls.

We were also taught various types of balancing acts. We were taught to balance on rolling globe balls, cylinders, stilts, and other people. We also threw in other types of tricks like juggling, jump roping, and hula hooping on these apparatuses.

One time we also got the opportunity to train with the Taiwan National Acrobats, who were touring the country. We learned a lot from them, and also taught them a few of our tricks in the gym wheel. That’s me standing on the guys hands on the left!

The club also had a tight rope for us to practice on. I dabbled with the tight rope in practice, but never had the patience to develop any skills for exhibition shows.

Tumbling and contortion

Finally, we also learned a variety of tumbling and contortion skills. I learned to walk on my hands and do basic tumbling passes like a round-off back handspring. We also had an inflated inner tube that we would bounce off of and then do flips and tricks in the air.

Circus club was a great experience for me. I always looked forward to going to practice, and I learned a lot of skills that I still have today. Back then I dreamed of becoming a professional circus performer. My younger sister joined the club when she 5 or 6, and it was fun performing together. We ended up leaving the club when I was in high school, though. It had kind of fizzled out. It’s still around today, but its not what it used to be. Hopefully some day it will be returned to it’s former glory.

*many of these photos were provided by the Jim Moyer Circus Club

Do you have any hidden talents? I can juggle, ride a unicycle, and walk on my hands
Did you ever dream of being in the circus when you were a kid?

This was a big week for me. It kind of felt like my first full week of training. Up until this point all of my runs have been easy runs, but this week I had my first track workout and my first tempo run. Now it feels like training has really begun.

Monday- 4 mile easy run in the evening. I had a long day at work, so I ended up just running with Sven (the treadmill) when I got home.

Tuesday- 12 x 400 on the track. This was my first track workout of training, and it went pretty well. The workout was 8 miles total, including the 1 mile warm up and cool down, and the 400m recoveries in between intervals.

Wednesday- Rest.

Thursday- 5 mile tempo run after work. This was my first tempo run with the Hansons. For them, tempo run means marathon pace run. So I did 5 miles at 10:18/mile pace with a 1 mile warm up and cool down, for a total of 7 miles. I had other things to do that evening, so I ran on the treadmill just to save time.

Friday- 4 mile easy run in the morning before work. I was at my dad’s house (I drove up Thursday night and was only there for a little over 12 hours), so I ran around the neighborhood. I had wanted to go run in the woods a bit, but they had the access path closed.

This run was a bit tough for me. My legs were pretty fatigued, I was tired, and it was pretty humid outside. It was my first taste of cumulative fatigue.

Saturday- 8 mile easy run with Kim on the Dora and New River trails in the morning. It was nice and cool outside, albeit a bit humid. My calves were really sore, but after we stopped and stretched halfway they felt a lot better. My legs weren’t feeling as fatigued as they did on Friday, either.

Sunday- 8 mile easy run with Sven. I had to get up and do this run pretty early in the morning, because we were leaving for the beach (oh yea, I’m at the beach on vacation now!). But nevertheless I was able to get my miles in before we hit the road.

Total Miles: 39 miles
July Total: 113.91 miles

I was a little nervous about this week of training, because this week my mileage jumps from 24 to 39 miles. That is much more than the 10% rule. Try somewhere between 62 and 63%. So far things have been going well. My legs felt pretty fatigued on this morning’s easy run, but that’s all part of the Hansons plan. More on that in a minute.

I had an easy run on Monday, my first doozy of a track workout on Tuesday, and then took a rest day on Wednesday. One thing that was pointed out to me by Jeano (a Hansons veteran) was that my track workout was coming at the end of six days in a row of running. That’s the way it’ll be throughout the training program. I knew that already, but forgot about it on Tuesday. Probably a good thing, as I have no idea what my mind would have done with that information as I chipped away at 12 x 400m.

After my rest day on Wednesday (my only rest day each week of training) I had my first tempo run on Thursday. Tempo means something a bit different to the Hansons, though. Traditionally a tempo run is a faster-paced run where you hold a “comfortably-hard” pace. But for the Hansons “tempo” and “marathon pace” are synonymous. So a tempo run for them is a marathon pace run. From my understanding, their tempo runs are also longer the traditional type.

For my first one, I had 5 miles at 10:18/mile pace, sandwiched between a 1 mile warm up and cool down. I was short on time in the evening so I ran with Sven (the treadmill). Pretty easy to nail your pace when all you have to do is set the speed and go. The next two weeks will also include 5 mile tempo runs, and over the course of training I’ll build up to a 10 mile tempo.

This morning I had a 4 mile easy run on tap. No biggie, right? Baby miles. But once I got out there (on my old high school stomping grounds, no less) I found that my legs were actually very fatigued. That’s to be expected, as I just wrapped up my first week of running six days per week (something new for me).

This morning’s run gave me a little taste of what the Hansons refer to as “cumulative fatigue.” Cumulative fatigue basically means never feeling fresh for any workout, and learning to push through even when your legs are tired. I suppose you could say it’s one of the pillars of the Hanson program.

I’ve got 16 more miles to go before I wrap up my 39 mile week, with an 8 mile easy run on both Saturday and Sunday. I’m definitely fatigued, but *knock on wood* nothing is feeling injured. Maybe I am cut out for this type of training after all?

Do you stick to the 10% rule in running?
What is the highest weekly mileage you’ve ever done (running, biking, etc.)?

 

Last night I had my first speed workout of marathon training. The base building portion of training is over and now it’s time to incorporate “something of substance” workouts. The Hansons training program incorporates speed workouts on Tuesdays for the next five weeks. Treadmill Tuesday has become Track Tuesday! The workout they had on tap for my first week was 12 x 400m with a 400m recovery jog in between each interval. This was pretty daunting for me. It was the longest track workout I have ever done and I hadn’t actually done a track workout in ages.

I actually got so anxious about the workout that I ended up asking Barry to come along for moral support. He sat and laid in the stands while I did my workout and kept me company. I started out with a one mile warm up before I got down to business. It was nice and cool with low humidity outside, which is unusual for July. There was a strong breeze, too, which I enjoyed (except for the headwind on the back stretch of the track). I was going to break the workout down into 3 sets of 4, but once I got started I decided to just chunk it in half.

My goal pace for the 400m repeats was 2:15, which came straight out of the Hansons book and was based on my marathon goal and my 5K time. The Hansons explain that most training programs have you do intervals at 100% VO2max. However, their paces are based on 80-95% VO2max in order to maximize the physiological gains they’re aiming for. Here’s how the first 6 repeats broke down:

1- 2:16      4- 2:13

2- 2:14      5- 2:12

3- 2:14      6- 2:13

My legs were definitely getting more tired with each interval, but I was recovering well after each one. With that I headed into the second set of 6. Right after interval number 7 (or number 1 of set 2) I needed to use the restroom. There’s a building with restrooms right next to the track, but the women’s was locked. The men’s was unlocked, though, and no one was in there so I used the men’s instead! It was clean, at least 🙂

7- 2:13      10- 2:11

8- 2:11      11- 2:13

9- 2:09      12- 2:14

I started going a bit too fast on these. I would go out too hard during the first 200m and have to slow it down during the second half. The Hansons advise sticking to the prescribed pace and warn that doing speed workouts too fast can lead to injury. I think I did alright, though. After the second set of 6 I went right into my cool down mile.

This workout really intimidated me, as it was 8 miles total including the warm up, cool down, and recovery portions. I think there was as much to gain mentally as there was physically with this workout, as with most speed workouts. The Hansons say speed workouts require you to put your game face on, and I certainly did that last night. I’m glad today is a rest day, though, because my legs are sore and tired (especially my calves). Tomorrow I have my first tempo run!

When was the last time you did intervals on the track or a speed workout?
What types of workouts intimidate you the most?