  |
|||||||||||||||
Danny's Blog
Here you can follow Danny Aldridge, Heart and Sole co-owner and former elite middle-distance runner, as he trains to become an elite level masters runner. So without further ado, Danny's blog! Danny is taking a break from blogging for a while as he builds back up after his indoor double. Untill then, you can amuse yourself by reading all of his old entries, which will be kept up. March 30th, 2010 Welcome back, Yesterday I talked about how I needed to do two things to continue to get better as an older, aging runner. First, I talked about weight. I presently am weighing in at 160-164 pounds. Not to be confused with grams. In my prime, my running weight was 125-130. Now, I don’t think I’ll ever get back to that, so now my goal is 145-150. I think if I can get to that weight, barring injuries, and too many twinkies, then I have a good chance to run fast(er). Secondly, I talked about getting stronger, physically stronger. The way I’m going to go about doing this is by getting myself to do strength training with heavier weights and a little less reps than what I have been doing with light weights and more reps. So the plan is to lift heavy 2-3 times a week. Starting next week. Not this week. Next week. Last thought. I wanna talk about what I thought was really cool at the Indoor Master’s Nationals. One of the California teams brought 29 people, and one masseuse, back to Boston. Our club, the Empire Runners of Sonoma County, brought one, me, and no masseuse! What I really want to try to do is to get more of our Empire Runners involved in competing in more national master’s track meets, because I think that we have a lot of fine runners who can compete at this level, and it would be a lot of fun for a lot of the club members. So with the National Outdoor Master’s being in Sacramento this year, how cool would it be for us to take 29? Real cool! The week of running for me is going to be very low key. As a matter of fact, I’m not even going to mention what I’m doing this week, because it’s not worth mentioning. It’s a rest week for me. March 29th, 2010 Welcome back, It’s been a while. Just got back from Boston. Which if you have been following the blog you know that I was there to run in the Masters National Indoor Track and Field Championships. On Friday, I competed in the 3,000m. My goal going into the race was to break 10 minutes, which is 80 second per 400m pace. The track at the Reggie Lewis Center is 200m, so I had figured out that I would have to run 40’s per lap. I went out in 39, and was in a pack of three. The leaders, which were the two guys who would battle for the win, went out in 37. Ouch. Through the first 800m I sat in 2nd in my pack, and we were pretty much on our 80 second pace. I came through them mile at 5:21. Right after the mile I dropped into the third position in our group, as the new leader started to increase the pace a little bit. I guess I probably just felt like the pace increased, because we actually just stayed on 80 second pace! With a lap/200m to go, I was at 9:21. I knew I had to run sub 40 to get under the 10 minute mark. I ended up getting third in 9:57, which means I ran my last 200m in 36. I was pretty pleased with the race, and felt really good on the cool down. Was excited about running the mile the next day. Saturday I warmed up for the mile, and I felt pretty good. While I was doing my warm up in the gym, one of my fellow competitors came up to me and said “are you Dan Aldridge? That guy who writes the blog?” I told him “I didn’t know anyone really read my blog!” That was pretty cool. Tom: Remember to say hi to John Tuttle for me, and good luck on your fishing trip! Back to the race, my goal was to run under 5 minutes, which I was pretty confident that I could do. While doing my strides before the race, my legs felt real bouncy and my confidence was high. I came through the first 400m in 75, came through the 800m in 2:31, came through the 1200m in 3:47, and I just had no explosion in my legs. I ended up getting 4th in 5:04. What did I learn? I think my training was pretty on target, but the two things that I really need to do to get myself better is to 1) get my body stronger; ie more muscles, and 2) drop 10 pounds. While I was back at the meet, I saw some really great performances by some really old guys. It was fun being in that environment. It makes me want to continue to run well into my 90s. Do they have a category for the 100s? They will in 47 years! Recovery Week. Very little running. March 22th, 2010 Welcome back, Last week I headed on down to Southern California. I got to visit with my son and enjoy some warm weather and Aladdin got to enjoy the ocean. While I was down there, the LA Marathon was going on. So on Saturday I headed on over to the Marathon Expo at Dodger Stadium, yes, I did have a Dodger Dog. While walking around the expo, you won’t believe who I ran into. Former 10,000m, 20k, and 1 hour World Record Holder Arturo Barrios! He’s promoting a compression sock, so come on into the store and check them out, because we will (likely) be carrying them in the near future. Another cool thing that happened during the weekend was that I got to see one of my former athletes compete at the Irvine track meet. Jenna “the Dingus” Lowder was running in the 800m for BYU. The last time I got to see Jenna compete at the college level was 4 years ago at the Stanford Invitational. Jenna ended up getting 2nd in the 800m, in 2:15. A side note, for some of you Redwood Empire track fans: Tim Murphy from Healdsburg High also ran in the 800m and ended up getting 2nd in his race in 1:50 for UC Irvine. Today workout Monday 3/22/2010
March 16th, 2010 Welcome back, First things first: Congrats to Alex Wolf-Root for setting a PR in the 5,000m at the Aggie Open. Old PR was 15:49.29. New PR is 15:35.50. Alex has two more 5,000m’s planned. I think we both would agree that the goal is to get under 15:20. And the goal is very doable. Go Alex! Second things second: Gerald McCormick, on Sunday, ran and won the Empire Runner’s Ilsanjo Classic 10 mile race. Hearing about the results, it appears that he won convincingly. The reason I’m talking about these two runners, is cause they’re both Heart and Sole employees! And we’re proud of our Heart and Sole employees! And you should be too! Ten days and counting down to my first big indoor race in Boston. I’m planning on running the 3,000m on Friday and coming back on Saturday in the mile. Today workout Tuesday 3/16/2010
Today workout Monday 3/15/2010
March 12th, 2010 Welcome back, Did a nice easy 5 miles today, got back home, worked twenty minutes on the Pilates Reformer. Achilles is bugging me a little bit. Plan on tomorrow doing an interval workout with Carlos. I believe we are going to do 10x400 at about 74-75 seconds, although Carlos came into the store today trying to change the workout on me, wanting to hammer a 1,600m-1,200m-800m-400m. I said “No way. Stick to the plan.” 14 days until I go back to Boston to run the Masters National indoor 3,000m race. I’ll be following that race up with a mile the next day. And I’ll be following that race up with ice. I had a friend come into the store today, and just wanted to congratulate them on completing their first marathon. Job well done! Today workout Friday 3/12/2010
March 11th, 2010 Welcome back, I've always had people ask me what makes for a good distance runner. Not, Alex Wolf-Root. Of course, Alex knows I’m just kidding. The answer is patience. And perseverance. Distance runners are not made overnight. It takes time, and the willingness to go through some ups and downs and experiment a little bit with your training. Example: when I was at Cal Poly, I was running 70 miles a week, and running well. While I was at a meet at UC Irvine, I was talking to one of my fellow competitors, by the name of Steve Scott (Former American Record-Holder in the Mile), and I asked him what they were doing at UC Irvine, as far as training goes. He told me, what he thought the key to his success was, which was upping the mileage to the 90-100 miles per week range. He told me if you’re going to do this, gradually build up, and have the patience to let the increase workload pay off for you. And it did. I went from being a 3:42 1,500m runner to a 3:38 1,500m. And that’s a huge 4 seconds. 30 extra miles a week, for 4 seconds. Was it worth it? Yes. Today workout Thursday 3/11/2010
March 10th, 2010 Welcome here, Today we had the honor of having one of the all-time great local female distance runners pop into the store, with her mom and her baby. For those of you who do not know who Julia Stamps is, here’s a quick refresher: State Cross Country Champion in 1994, 1995, 1996, holder of the State Meet course record, State Champion at 3,200m in 1994, 1995, 1997, and State Champion at 1,600m in 1997. One of the few ever to complete the 1,600m/3,200m double. 3,200m high school PR of 10:12.20, and 1,600m high school PR of 4:42.79, which is still the Empire Record. Also, Julia was on the cover of the July/August 1995 Running Times Magazine. Speaking of magazine covers, we’ve also had another great local runner grace the cover of a national running magazine, and that would be Sara (Bei) Hall. Running Times July/August 2007 issue, to be precise. This morning I met Carlos for a 6am tempo run at Montgomery High School. Ooh boy! It was a little bit chilly, the track was a little on the icy side. Quit whining Danny! At least this isn’t the east coast! We wanted to do a 20 minute tempo run, coming through three miles under 18 minutes (or 6 minute pace). Our 800m splits were (as always, it takes us a little while to get rolling): 3:06-3:03-(6:09)-2:54-2:57-(5:51)-2:52-2:56-(5:48). Over the last 2:09, we covered 600m. Not like last week, where I came back and did another hard effort, at 10am, (by the way, in which I strained my hamstring a little bit), I didn’t do a second run. Today workout Wednesday 3/10/2010
Today workout Tuesday 3/9/2010
March 8th, 2010 Welcome back, Saturday I got to go into the SRJC Hall of Fame, which was really cool. If you ever get a chance to go over to the Haehl Pavilion you can see the plaques of the inductees from the last 15 years. In the morning, I was over at Santa Rosa High School, watching the Big Cat Invite and working our Heart and Sole booth. There were some really nice performances, most notably Reesey Byers opening up the season with a Quadzilla. 4:21.78 (1,600m) - 1:58.21 (800m) - 9:40.5 (3,200m) - 53 (leg in the 4x400m relay). Other impressive performances were the two Carrillo kids, Tyler Baker and Jeremy Thompson running outstanding 300m hurdle races. 40.20 for Jeremy and 40.34 for Tyler. I really believe that these two have a chance to go under the 39 barrier, which would be a first for any local highschool. On the girls side, Jacque Taylor opened up with two impressive performances, winning the 1,600m in 5:01.83 and coming back in the 800m in 2:21.53, to lead a Casa Grande 1-2-3 sweep. Nice. Today workout Monday 3/8/2010
Today workout Sunday 3/7/2010
Today workout Saturday 3/6/2010
March 5th, 2010 Welcome home, Tomorrow I get inducted into the Santa Rosa JC Hall of Fame! It’s a pretty cool honor. It will be my second hall of fame, first being Petaluma HS. So, no, it’s two down, and one to go! I hope to someday get inducted into the Cal Poly hall of fame. Tomorrow is a big day for the highschoolers, as the Big Cat meet at Santa Rosa HS kicks off the high school track season. If you get a chance, come on out and watch the kids run. There should be some really good performances. Taylor, from Santa Rosa, says he's gonna kick down Hauptman from Maria Carrillo. (Course this is all in good fun.) The race is on. May the faster runner win. Today workout Friday 3/5/2010
March 3rd, 2010 Welcome back, Monster workouts! Some might say, no, some did say, I thought you were cutting back on the intensity?! Are you crazy?! (Ed. Note: it was You ARE crazy!) In the morning (6:30), I went out with my buddy Carlos for a 20 minute tempo run on the Montgomery track. The plan was to run 6 minute mile pace for those 20 minutes. Carlos kept saying that we had to get 13.5 laps in. Im thinking whatever. We hit the three mile mark in 17:46, and continued on to complete 13.5 laps. And 4 steps. We both felt pretty good about the workout, and proud of what two old farts just accomplished. Me being the older of the two old farts. While driving home after the workout, my other buddies, Alex and Gerald, who, during my morning run, was asleep, was going to do a morning (10am) workout on Channel Drive. I thought, ooh! I could get another workout in! And not have to run later in the afternoon! By the rains, smart call. They were doing 4 times > mile with a > mile active recovery (about 6 minutes). So I thought that I could do part of the workout with him, getting in some quicker turnover. I figured if I could just do parts of the > miles, at their projected paces (3:30, or 70s), then I would get a pretty good second workout in. I did. Alex hit all his > miles in 3:30 or better (not much better), and I did = mile at 2:20, < mile at 70, and = mile at 2:21. Felt pretty good about it. Consistent. As Im writing this, if you remember earlier in the week, I said my legs hurt and are tired. Now they really hurt and are really tired! Today workout Wednesday 3/3/2010
Today workout Tuesday 3/2/2010
March 1st, 2010 Welcome back, Im fried! Like an egg. Sunny side up. After two months of 60+ miles per week, and some intense workouts, and even a race, this old body and tired legs needs a down week. My plan (I dont always follow my own plans though) is to take a week of less intensity and lower miles. With that said, I did get in 9.4 miles today (pace for 65.8 miles for the week). But! The intensity was quite low. Today workout Monday 3/1/2010
|
|||||||||||||||
