Lift Heavy Things (part 3)

Ok... it's time to lift. If you haven't started then now you are behind and it is only the first week of the year. This is the final part of my off-season blog posts on weight training and now its time to talk about how much. During one of my fall runs with some of the guys at Roanoke College and with some of my Roanoke Valley Elite team mates, the topic of lifting came up. There is only one thing that I wanted to stress then and that I cannot stress enough now- lift weights like a weight lifter, not an endurance athlete! Give me a chance to explain.

Remember in my first post I stated that weight training is all about muscle fiber recruitment. In order for your body to be signaled to recruit more muscle to do work, it must be stimulated by something heavy. Not so heavy that it is impossible to move, but heavy enough that there is a need to bring on more muscle for the job.  So what is enough without being too much? When I set multi-sport athletes up to begin lifting, I start them out with five basic movements- bench press, lat pull down, seated row, squat, and leg press. These are all multi-joint movements designed to hit big muscle groups that also do the majority of the work in competition. 

Always begin by doing a warm up set of 15 with very little weight in order to get blood into the muscles you are getting ready to stress. For the first three or four workouts do NO MORE than two sets of no more than ten reps of a weight that is a struggle to get to ten. I begin this way in order to allow your body to adapt to the workload that you are putting your body through without causing soreness. After that, you should move it up to three sets of 6-8 reps on each movement. Remember, your goal is to recruit muscle for the job and this is done at the neuro-muscular level. Weight lifting is not an endurance activity... it is totally done to get a higher level of power output from your muscles to transfer into your endurance activities when you need it. As you work harder in the gym the more of your training efforts will be transferred over and allow you to do more work with less effort in the sports where you need it. I promise, if you stick with it for at least two to three months leading into your season it will pay big gains during your 2014 race season!

Lift Heavy Things (part 2)

In part one of Lift Heavy Things, I did my best to share with you why you should begin a weight training program during your off-season. Hopefully this helped you make the commitment to head to the gym and get started. But now you realize you have no idea what to do or how long it should take. Remember, as an endurance athlete your goal in the gym is to develop strength to be able to apply more force to the pedals, pavement, or water... that's it. Your training program should focus on the function of the muscle and as such here are a few things for you to consider as you get started:

1. Use Multi-Joint Movements- in order to save time and hit as many muscle groups as possible use big movement exercises. These are three joint movements such as a squat and leg press for lower body or lat pulldown and bench press for upper body. When pressed for time or just starting out, do these four exercises first!
2. Focus on the Muscles that do the Work- Don't go into the gym and start using machines or doing certain free-weight exercises that are not sport specific. You are wasting your time and all of your hard work will not carry over to improve your overall ability in your sport. Think about the biggest muscle that is used to do most of the work. If you are unsure ask a trainer.
3. Copy your Movements- As you are working pay special attention to where you place your feet and hands. Try your best to put them in similar positions to the sports you are training for.
4. Work on Correcting Imbalances- Throughout your season you work hard and push your body to its limits. As such, you train and race through soreness and even minor injury in order to meet your goals. But in doing so your muscles get out of whack just like the tires on your car do over time.
5. Connect your Muscles- It is great to develop the strength of your upper and lower body, but if you do not also develop your core those forces will not get utilized. Your back and abs are your lever point when applying force and if your mid-section resembles a slinky then the forces get absorbed and not transferred into work.
6. Pay Attention to your Time- Your time is valuable so don't spend all day in the gym... maybe an hour to an hour and half at most. Focus on big multi-joint movements to get the best bang for your buck and add in core work. Also, your weight training workouts are a supplement to your winter training endurance workouts... not in addition to. Don't get burned out before the season even begins. 

I hope this helps. Don't forget... if you are in the Roanoke Valley, you can start coming to my classes at the Gainsboro or Kirk YMCA in January. If you have any questions for me or are interested in joining me at the YMCA, feel free to email me at edward.h.shepherd@gmail.com.

Lift Heavy Things (part 1)

It is now getting crazy cold outside and you should be ready to start moving some of your workouts indoors. In my last post I shared with you some ideas for what you could get in to during the off-season. One of those very necessary workouts should be lifting weights. A lot of you don't care much for it, but it is a very important part of building a strong foundation to your 2014 race season.

You may be reluctant to head to the gym in the off season because you are unsure of what machines to use. This may be true, but it is not a good enough excuse to leave weightlifting out of your winter training plan. All good gyms have instructors that can help get you started or if you are in the Roanoke Valley you can start coming to my classes at the Gainsboro or Kirk YMCA in January. The point is, make it happen! Weight lifting is not going to replace your fitness or sport-specific training, but supplement it to (1) improve integrity of joints, (2) correct imbalances, and (3) improve muscular strength to help you sustain a larger workload over time.

A lot of people say they don't want to lift too much weight because they don't want to "bulk up." Well here is a news flash- that will never happen to most of us! As an endurance athlete, you will never be able to lift enough to counter the amount of endurance training you do to cause that to happen.

 

So why lift at all then? As an athlete, you want to recruit multiple motor units, which means more fibers are firing, causing an increase in force production and strength. As an endurance athlete, you can have a relatively small number of motor units, but with weight training you gain the ability to recruit more of those motor units in order to help with the workload. What this means is you don’t gain more muscle, just recruit all of the  units in the muscle you already have! By starting small and working up over the next few months you will be surprised at the gains you will see. All of the hard work in the gym will pay huge benefits when you are standing on the podium!

 

This is part 1 of a series I will be blogging about for the rest of December on the need to weight train. If you have any questions for me or are interested in joining me at the YMCA in January, feel free to email me at edward.h.shepherd@gmail.com.

Off-Season = Cross-Training

 As 2013 comes to a close, it is now time to keep your levels of fitness from diminishing in the winter months. I love to race, but as the season moves on I find myself wishing I could do something that is not sport specific to racing. That is why I love the off-season just as much and in some ways even more! Now is the time to have fun and experiment with new ways to stay in shape. Here are a few transition activity ideas you can try:

Head Indoors:

There are tons of opportunities for cross-training available to chose from at your local gym.  Don't be afraid to get a gym schedule and check some of them out. Guys, if you think these classes are easy or too "girlie" for you... get over yourself. I have just started attending a circuit class and it kicked my butt into humbleville! These classes have some of the fittest people in the gym in them and will give you a run for your money in the challenge department. If your gym has a pool and you are not already swimming on your own, check to see if they offer a masters class or a set time for free swim.

The winter months are also a necessary time for you to get into the weight room. If you were lacking some of the power you needed to really get a strong pull as a swimmer or push a bigger gear on the bike, now is the time to work on that. A lot of times this can be intimidating for endurance athletes because of self perception, but at the end of the day if you want to be a better athlete then here is where your off-season training must begin.

Misery Loves Company:

If you are like me, riding outside when it is cold is not a pleasant experience and one that I don't mind avoiding. Unfortunately if one of your off-season goals is to improve your time trial ability you will need to figure out how to train in spite of the cold. How about getting together with your buddies and have a group trainer ride? These can be just simple rides or structured training sessions using a video series such as those offered by Endurance Films. They offer a variety of videos that are challenging and in a group setting are a lot of fun!

Group trail runs are also a great way to keep up your running. I love racing on trails, but with some convincing from my run coach I stayed away from them for the most part this year. I did make an exception for the Into the Darkness race which almost sent Coach Pincus over the edge, but lucky for me I survived. Trail running in the winter is a good break from all of the miles pounded out on the pavement and a great change in scenery. Yes, your pace will be slower but in the off-season that is just fine. This will allow you to relax both physically and mentally. You can't go hard all the time so this is all about enjoying running while recharging your mental motivation to want to go hard when it counts in the spring.


Just do Something:
Ok... you worked hard this year to get yourself in shape and do the best you could at the events you entered. It would be a shame to let all of your effort go to waste and have to start all over again next year. Take your current level of fitness and try to carry some of it over to next year so you can come out stronger than ever. I am not saying you have to develop an elaborate winter training plan, in fact don't do that. I am saying just do something and have fun doing it!

Finishing out the Season

So... how did it go in Richmond? Even though I didn't break my goal of running under three hours, I would have to still say it went great! My good friend Hunter French and I hit the road Friday afternoon to meet up with JJ White at the event check-in and packet pic-up. Once we arrived, we roamed around and checked some of the booths of interest to get what freebies we could before heading out to fuel up for the Marathon. After a great meal and feeling the need to go to bed at 7:30 we all finally retired for the evening and BOOM faster than I fell asleep, it was time to get up and get ready.

After getting everything set up including my Hammer Nutrition supplements, Runwell gear, and visiting the bathroom a few times, we hit the road. It was supposed to be only a 20% chance of rain, but we quickly figured out that was definitely not the case. We made our way to the Marriott to meet up with the Fleet Feet Roanoke crew and cheer them on and then it was go time!

Well... as if the rain wasn't all ready enough, right off the bat it started off crazy. I go to find bag check and am told its four blocks away and I have four minutes to go before the start! Great!! So now I am doing my best football dodging moves to find the bag check and make it back. After getting to the check in and heading back to the start line I realize I am not going to make the official gun time so I just relax and take my time to move in with the crowd to go over the start line and activate my chip. I hit the line and now I am officially running the Richmond Marathon for time. Even with the rain I feel pretty good clipping off 6:40 pace miles with ease all the way to the river. As I start making my way through mile ten, I get hit with a major urge to attack the first Port-O-Potty I can find. The problem is there isn't one in sight and I am getting desperate! As I begin fearing that some unsuspecting neighbor is about to get a very bad surprise, I finally see a row of green heaven and break into an almost full on sprint to the first open door I can find.

Two plus minutes later, I am happy again but now my legs are not in agreement with my request to run and getting back up to speed takes a bit. I manage to push forward at a pretty good clip until about mile seventeen where now my hips are beginning to rebel. Between miles eighteen through twenty-three both hips are aching just as they did in training and all I kept telling myself is "Do not stop to rest... its a trap!" I knew that if I listened to my legs request any chance I had of going under three would be finished for sure so I pushed on at a now much slower 7:30 pace. Just as last year, once I started making my way back into the city any pain that I thought I was having began to take a back seat to the feelings of accomplishment I was being overwhelmed with. As I topped the hill and headed down to the finish line I high-fived anyone in the crowd that was willing and cheered the whole way down. I was so glad to be done no matter what my time was I wanted to celebrate! An official time of 3:04:05 was not the goal I set for myself but it was still a PR and a damn good time so I was pleased with my effort in spite of the obstacles.

Richmond Marathon Week = Nerves and Excitement.

Well... it's almost time. Time to intentionally hurt myself for what will hopefully be less than three hours. I can honestly say I am totally nervous about doing this. There is no way I will be near the leaders for this one, but what makes this such an anxious event for me is this is the first time I will be running a Marathon with a goal time in mind. 

Anything can happen while running a Marathon but I am confident that I will achieve a Personal Best time on Saturday, even if I hit "The Wall" after mile 20. My fitness is there and the training was done... that combined with my current PR time means I will do that. But I have set the bar very high this time for myself. I will be going for something I have never done or attempted before thus the nerves and self-questioning. As my friend Colin has told me over and over this year... no matter what I say, I have to consider myself a runner at the paces I am getting to. Even with all of the joy I have experienced this year running, training, and developing new friendships it doesn't make doing a Marathon like this any easier!

You can track my progress by clicking on the picture.

Saturday will be a huge test for me, physically and mentally, but I’m as ready as I can be to do battle with myself to achieve my goal. I am Anxious to get started and Excited to get it over with! The good news is this has been something in the making over time. I have done the Richmond Marathon three other times and the course has hardly changed so I know what to expect. I have had a ton of people cheering me on all season and that has been truly appreciated more than you all will ever know. I have also become a part of a great organization in Runwell that supports a cause I believe in and been invited to be a part of the Roanoke Valley Elite Track and Field Club which is a huge honor. So like a sleeping volcano, here I sit trying to appear unassuming and calm while underneath the emotions and energy of it all are building within me waiting to be unleashed. I am ready to stare myself down and prove to those voices of doubt that I can do this. I will do this.

#DoWok in October for November Goals

Well I was really hoping to get to Duathon Nationals in October, but that was just not in the cards this year so I decided to turn all of my attention towards running.  After several second and third place finishes this season, I started off the month by getting my first running win at the Johnny CASA 5 Miler even while battling through a cold. I followed that up with a third place finish in the Mountain Junkies "Into the Darkness 4 Miler" the next weekend which I did despite the objection from my running coach, Finn Pincus. Why did he object? Because I was in the midst of training to do a personal best at the Sports Backers Richmond Marathon and his concern was I could get injured. Lucky for me that did not happen!


I have continued to up my mileage each week in October as well and train with RV Elite teammates Steve Crowder, Ali Kassens, and Andrew Parkins. They have helped keep me focused and motivated to push myself towards my Marathon goal. Steve has helped pace me through some of my long runs and give me advice. Ali is training for the Philly Marathon which occurs the very next day so we have been pushing each other on the speed workouts... good luck Ali! And Andrew just did the Chicago Marathon in a blazing fast 2 hours and 39 minutes! I am very grateful to God to be surrounded by great team members. And I have to say thank you to Hammer Nutrition for providing me with the proper nutritional supplements designed to help me work towards my ongoing pursuit of achieving optimum performance.

Now it is the beginning of November so the taper has begun and the reality of it all is starting to set in that I am actually going to push myself as hard as I can in a Marathon! Yes, I have done Marathons in the past but never to the brink of breakdown so I am starting to get very anxious and yet excited all at once. I am just ready to get it going and I am sure next week I will be even more wound up... so I have to say thank you to my lovely wife for dealing with me as I begin to act like a kid before Christmas wondering if he will get what he asked from Santa. It will all be over soon and then I can relax a little bit before I begin gearing up to do it all over again next year. In the meantime, I just hope my Marathon goes a little better than the stages below. And for all of you out there that are doing one or have done one, I am sure you can relate.