Since my last post on SimpleSole I have been thinking a lot about the direction of this site that I started a year ago. I modeled it after a couple of sites my friends currently operate (ndornz.com and ClimbingHouse). I was inspired to share my passion for running, photography, and the outdoors in general. While SimpleSole has bounced from interviews, to training tips, to my own thoughts the common thread has remained the same: trying to give people a different perspective on the oft-misunderstood area of distance running. I am not the greatest writer, or photographer, or runner in the world. But my love for the sport will carry me through.
Which is one of the reasons why I am calling this post “ROOTS”. As runners, or maybe even human beings, we have a habit of going back to what we know and are comfortable with. While I look to explore with this site, my own running, or even my life I stil go back to what I know. So I will try to be more consistent and keep to the spirit. But who knows where the trail will take me. Happy running.
1) We all learned to run somewhere. The playgrounds of our childhood. The fields of youth sport. Maybe a team in junior high or high school. Possibly, we even discover it later in life as we seek something new for ourselves. Regardless there are certain paths or trails or routes that we used to consistently follow. We take comfort in the traffic patterns, the parked cars that were always there, the dog that followed you along the fence, the crack in the sidewalk you need to watch out for, the hill at 20 minutes into your run that used to kick your ass. As we change in our lives through families, friends, jobs, training partners, experiences, where you live there is always that run you can go back to. There is something very comforting in that.
2) Workouts. For most of the people I associated with in running, we seek to get faster or at least pursue time goals. Which at some point in time requires a person to go beyond “just running” and start doing some more advanced running routines. While the kinds of workouts, the intensities, the locations, and all the other variables that go into trying to get faster are as varied as the individual it seems that there are a couple of hard efforts that a person loves to do. Obviously it depends on the type of race you are training for. However here are my favorite workouts for each type of distance. These are the workouts where if I can do them well, I know I am in good shape.
1 mile: 8 x 400 with 90 seconds rest. All intervals at goal mile pace except for 3, 5, 7 which should be run 3-5 seconds faster.
5k: 600 at goal 5k pace, 30 seconds rest, 200 real hard. Rest 4 minutes. Repeat 5 more times.
10k: Repeat miles at goal pace with 1 minute, or 200m jogging, recovery
half-marathon: Cut-down run. Various distances, but start at your goal pace plus 30-40 seconds per mile and drop 10 seconds per mile finishing at a pace a bit faster than goal pace.
marathon: virtually any interval over two miles at goal marathon pace minus 10 seconds with 800m jog between sets. 2 x 2miles, 2 x 3 miles, 2 x 4 miles. I love marathon training!
3) I am learning a lot about running photography. I met my brother mack in September at Lincoln Southeast’s track. We both graduated from there and have left blood, sweat, and tears on these lanes. He allowed me to harass him during a workout as he got ready for the Long Beach Marathon in California (He got 4th by the way). Lessons I have learned so far:
-lighting. For taking pictures of runners, I would rather have it be a bit too bright than not enough. Shutter speed needs to be fast to avoid blur and for that you need to have some good light. Of course, blur can be pretty cool also as long as you don’t overuse it.
-fast and “zoomy” lens. This allows you to get close and take crisp pictures.
-look for different angles and framing.
-you can photoshop with the vintage look all you want, but you cannot replace focus and framing.
-have fun. like anything else, a great or even decent picture of someone running can make yours, and their, day.
