Adding spice to your workout
Adding spice to your workout
By Mario Fraioli
Telegram & Gazette – July 8, 2007
The sun is blazing, the temperature’s rising and the beach looks tempting, but if you’re a distance runner, forget about marinating that last piece of steak you’re about to throw on the grill – it’s time to spice up your summer training schedule instead.
Like the four types of pasta salad offered at a good backyard cookout, variety in your summer running can add some excitement to that bland everyday routine. Get away from those boring old habits of running the same loop at the same pace and mix it up a little bit. The options are endless, not to mention exciting.
If you do most of your running by yourself, it might be worth your while to join up with one of the area’s many running clubs, or at the very least, look into meeting up with a few folks who aren’t afraid to put a little mustard or relish on their hot dog from time to time rather than always eating it plain. Catch my drift?
The area’s many running clubs, including the Central Mass. Striders, Tri-Valley Front Runners and North Medford Club, offer many opportunities to run with other likeminded individuals on a weekly basis. Membership in any of these established groups provides you with the benefit of free coaching and a weekly group workout and/or weekend long run. If affiliating yourself with a group isn’t your thing, many of these clubs also sponsor races throughout the summer, so if you value your unattached status, for three to ten bucks you can jump in a low-key race regardless of your club affiliation, or lack thereof. A full listing of races can be found along with this column.
OK, so maybe it’s not worth it to you to spend even just a few bucks to run with other people from time to time. Fine. Like store-brand Styrofoam plates, running with other people can be easy on the wallet as well.
As mentioned many a time in this column, the An Cu Liath Irish Pub in Kelley Square offers a free weekly run beginning at 6:30 p.m. Mondays followed by a generous spread of food, drink and dessert. It’s a better value than that stack of double coupons you used to buy supplies for your Fourth of July cookout this past Wednesday.
And if heavy traffic on 290 is keeps you from making it down to the An Cu Liath on Monday nights, then take a trip down Route 9 to Westboro at 6 p.m. this Thursday for the first in a series of free weekly group runs starting from PR Running, located at 18 Lyman St. Runners of all ages and abilities are welcome for a 3-5-mile jaunt on the roads of Westboro.
Now that you’re going to be running with people, or thinking about it anyway, you might be wondering what else you can do to beat the summer heat. Picking up the pace of your daily run is the most logical solution – how you go about it is up to you. Luckily, you have (gasp!) options.
Aside from running gut-wrenching, quarter-mile intervals on your local high school track, simply playing with the speed of your evening stroll, a little technique the Swedish labeled “fartlek”, can effectively break up the monotony of those long, slow miles. It works like this. Pick a point – be it a tree, mailbox or stop sign – and sprint to it. Once you reach your destination, slow back down for a few minutes, catch your breath and do it all over again until you’re good and tired. It’s that easy, but also a highly effective workout. The best part? You can do it anywhere, with anyone, and for as long as you want.
Wait, did I just say long? Yes, I did, and what’s been shown to be the most effective way to rapidly improve your endurance? That’s right, running longer. Adding a steady long run to your weekly routine isn’t just for marathoners anymore. Anyone looking to improve their race times at any distance will benefit from having a strong endurance base anchored by a consistent weekly long run.
Of course, long is relative, depending on what your training is geared toward. World-renowned exercise physiologist and two-time U.S. Olympic marathoner Pete Pfitzinger suggests the best way to increase the length of your long run is by “adding one mile to your long run per week, skipping (the long run) every third week.”
By doing so, you’ll quickly improve your aerobic capacity, endurance, not to mention your ability to burn fat more efficiently, making that plate of brownies on the dessert table at your next cookout that much more appetizing.
So now that you’re running with people, running faster and running longer, don’t forget the all-important, key ingredient to your revamped summer cookout, ahem, I mean training routine – plenty of good, old-fashioned fun.