January 1

Hello to everyone,

Today is January 1st and this is the start of my Blog. On encouragement from my staff at Heart & Sole Sports I've decided to talk about my training and thoughts on a daily basis. Through out 2010 I will be bringing you into my world of training and thought. Call it Danny's World! If this is something that you find fascinating and interesting, then come back each day and join me in my journey to become one of the best masters runner in the world. I have set specific goals for myself which I will share with you tomorrow. Also tomorrow, I will give you a bio of my running background. You know, all the goods, like PR's and running accomplishment's. Then on January 4th I'll start the daily posting of my training.

Danny Aldridge
Masters runner

 

January 2

Welcome back

As I mentioned yesterday, today I was going to give you a personal bio of myself, along with some goals for 2010. I was born in Michigan, at the age of three moved to Petaluma, California.

As a single mother, my mom raised my younger brother and me. We moved around Petaluma throughout my early years, attending several different elementary schools. I was an active kid, playing many different sports, and was a cub scout. I had a great child hood. My mom gave me freedom to try new things and not to be afraid of failure, which would serve me well in my running years.

Each day on the Blog, I'll reveal a little bit of personal info like I did above, just so you get to know me a little better, but you will need to come back to find more about me. There is a good story here.

Here is a sample of my running Bio

High School - Petaluma
10th (1973)  880 yards  1:57.5. Mile  4:23.7
11th (1974)  880y  1:54.0.. Mile  4:21.6
12th (1975)  880y  1:49.7 (still current school and Redwood Empire record), 2nd at state meet.. Mile  4:16.5

College  USC  Santa Rosa JC  Cal Poly SLO
Freshmen (1976) (USC)  800m meters  1:49.0.. 1500m  3:47.4 (4th at PAC 10 Championships), member of NCAA National Championship Team, Div I All American
Sophomore (1977) (Santa Rosa JC)  800m  1:52.4 1500m  3:47.5 (Current School Record), JC State Champion in 1500 meters
Junior (1978) (Cal Poly, SLO ) 1500m  3:41.9, Div 2 NCAA National Champion, All American in Cross Country and Track, 7th at Div 1 in 1500 meters, All American
Senior (1979) (Cal Poly, SLO) 1500m  3:40.8 (Current School Record in 1500), Div 2 NCAA National Champion, All American Cross Country & Track (1500 meters) (5th in Div 1 NCAA 1500 meters)

Tomorrow Ill give you my best all-time PRs from 800 through the Marathon, and yes, the running goals are coming.

Run with no fear, and remember the passion from within. Danny

 

January 3

Hello Everyone, Welcome Back

First, hope everyone had a nice run today, and if you didn't do your run, then get off this page and go for your run. Run first, computer time second. No whimps on my blog.

Here are some race tidbits for you. On January 1st the Empire Runners had their 5k Resolution Run. It started at Montgomery High with about 200 runners turning out for this year's event. It was nice to see that Cathy DuBay, the women's winner, is healthy as she is coming back from her fight with cancer. Way to go Cathy, we are all excited with your progress! The overall men's winner was Reesey Beyers of Santa Rosa High School, who was our 2009 Heart and Sole/Saucony Runner of the Year. Getting 2nd in the men's race was recent UC Davis grad and H&S employee Alex Wolf-Root.

Another event that happened on the 1st was the 1st Annual Redwood Empire Eggnog Mile. It works like this: you must consume a 12oz cup of eggnog, then run 400 meters; you do this 4 time,s making it a total run of 1 mile (and yes, they started at the mile, not 1,600m, start line). At the end you would have consumed 48oz of eggnog. Just so you know 48oz of eggnog has just over 3000 calories. The race had 20 runners, and the winner was Alex Wolf Root in 5:35.9. Yes, this is the same Alex who earlier in the day got second in the Resolution Run. Craziness, but you got to love it. And how about Jacque Taylor (another Heart and Sole/Saucony Runner of the Year) showing up and running the ladies' race. This is one of the best high school distance runners in the country (she won the 2009 California D2 State Cross Country Championships).

Tomorrow I'll start to show you my daily training log.

Now, I'll finish up with my Bio from yesterday. What I'll give you today are my all-time best times, and then I'll give you some of my best races and awards on another day. So here are some of my PR's - can't remember all the 10ths, but they are close.
400 - 47.9 - 4 x 400 meter relay leg -1976, 1977
800 - 1:49.0 - 1975 - 1976
1500 - 3:38.70 - 1981
2000 - 5:04.41 - 1982
3000 - 7:48.02 - 1983
3000 Steeple - 8:59.50 - 1986
5000 - 13:30.95 - 1985
10k - 28:28.84 - 1982
1/2 Marathon - 1:07.45 - 1982
Marathon - 2:21.48 1989 ?

  Bye for now.
Danny
Masters runner (53) - running fast is what I do.

 

January 4

Welcome Back,

Hey everyone, my daughter Jenny (age 25) just got engaged. For those of you who don't know anything about her, she is the oldest of my two kids; Ryan (age 21) is the other one. Both of them ran for me at Maria Carrillo High. Jenny ran 4:49 in the 1600 and won a State track title. Ryan was our League Cross Country Champion.

Today Im going to take you into my world of training. My training is revolved around running fast, period. I love to test my body and enjoy the feeling of running, fast. I hope to get back to some of the same type of workout that I did while running for Nike and Athletics West. Although I know that it won't be possible to reach the mileage (100+mpw) or times of the past, I believe it is possible to bring the same desire and intensity to the workouts. For example: I use to run 10 x 400 @ 57-59 with a 1:00 rest. Once I could achieve these times, along with all the other training during the week, then I felt ready to break 4:00 in the mile. Im thinking if I can get back to running the 10 x 400 @ 70-74 with a 1:00 rest, then I'll be able to break the 5:00 mark. Each year since I have turned 50 (now 53), the goal has to break 5:00 in the mile, along with running a fast 800. Each of the past 3 years I have come down with injuries that have slowed my progress towards those goals. In the past 3 years I have run 4:58 and 5:01, but that is not good enough. If I stay healthy I will run faster. Goal: 4:45

My weekly training goals: 50-70 miles a week for the next 8 weeks.

Todays workout:
AM  7:00: 5.3 miles  3rd mile at 6:54 (within that mile ran 4 x 30 sec pick-ups with 1:00 between.)
PM  4:00 5.0 miles  ran to JC from Heart & Sole, did 4 x 400 (1:35), 200 jog rest. Run back to store.

Enjoy your runs. Danny

 

January 5

Welcome back,

Yesterday I got a phone call from Bruce Meadows from the Press Democrat. On March 5th Im getting inducted into the Santa Rosa Junior College Hall of Fame. It was nice talking with him about my days at the JC. It brought back some memories, one of which was a 1,500m race that I ran during the Conference Championships in 1977. I believe you can learn something from every race that you run; the lesson learned during this run is that pacing is very important part of racing...

As I was eager to go after the 1,500m JC national record that day, my enthusiasm got the best of me as I opened up my first 400m at 55 seconds (which is under World Record pace). Coming around the first turn hearing 5152 my thought was simply Oh shit! I ended up coming through the 800m at 1:55, the 1,200m at 3:05, and finished at 3:47-3:48. Not bad, but not smart. Upon finishing, and picking myself up off the ground, I was taken to the training room and was given an oxygen mask so that I could attempt to run my next race, which would have been the 800m. As I came out to the track--and my eyes were still rolling in the back of my head--coach pulled me from the 800m and told me to get ready for the 4x400m relay. Although Ive run 3:38 in the 1,500m, I never went out that fast again. Well, except this one time, when I rabbited for this guy named Seb Coe

The lesson learned, for all you young guys, is to make sure you pace yourself in all your races.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles  3rd mile at 5:52
PM: 5 miles  with 5 x 1minute surges with 1minute jog recovery

 

January 6

Welcome back,

Okay, um, lets see! Yesterday I talked about the importance of pacing in your races. Hopefully you learned from my example, that if you don't pace right, bad things can happen. From all my past experiences and past races, I found that whenever I paced the race right, I performed the best. All my prs came from either even splits or negative splits. I believe most of the world records are done in the same manner; even splits or negative splits. Thats why those guys look so fresh at the finish, because they've mastered the art of pacing. If you fail to pace correctly, and you go out like a bat out of hell, you'll most likely come in looking slow and ugly. I remember my PR 1,500m where I ran 60, 60, 60, 38 (which is about 54 second 400m pace), and in HS when I ran my PR 800m when I ran 1:49, I came through in 54.5, and you can do the math. I'm a firm believer that all of us need to do workouts that emphasis correct pacing and negative splitting so that we can all continue to get what we strive for  those continuing PRs. Pacing in life, is the key.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles  3rd and 4th mile ran 30 second pickups with 2 minute recovery
PM: 5.2 miles  with 8 x 200m (40-44 seconds) with 200m recovery

Talk to you tomorrow,
Danny

And dont bury yourself with bad pacing!
Or bad humor...

 

January 7

Welcome back,

So all I'm going to do is talk about goal setting. Set your goals high, put yourself on a journey to achieve that goal, never give up on yourself, and you'll be a better runner for it. 100% of people who never set a goal never reach that goal.

That's all for the day.

Todays workout:
PM: 6 miles easy. Shoes: Nike Structure Triax
AM: 4.2 miles progressively faster. Shoes: Nike Lunarglide.

 

January 8

Welcome back,

Im tired. After running four straight days of double days, putting in 10 miles a day, Ive decided that this afternoon my body needed to have a rest period. Although Im not running, I will go home and work on my Pilates Reformer, which I periodically do two to three times a week as a supplement to my runs. I used to count this as part of my mileage, in 2009, but I got harassed by one of my coworkers that this couldnt possibly count as miles run. Doesnt mean its not useful, it just means dont put it as running miles in the log book. So sad. Ive decided that for 2010 I am going to increase my water consumption, as Im trying to become more hydrated. I was told by a professional that the human body (not to be confused with the body of a dog) needs to consume a large quantity of water daily. Roughly, the formula is, divide your weight in pounds in half, and drink that much in ounces. (ie: 160 pounds --> 80 ounces water). Im hoping my adherence to this formula reduces the amount of muscle soreness, strains, and pulls that Ive been having over the past couple years.

Ive also changed my diet a little bit, by going to a gluten-free diet to help with some stomach ailments (bad gas) and allergies. Its not helped the smell in the bathroom, so say my coworkers. Although Ive never been one for a healthy diet, as I like chocolate, sweets, etc, I will be continuously working on the diet as well, so that I can shed a few pounds. In my heyday I had a racing weight of 125-130. Im currently at 165 pounds, and I hope to get down to between 150 and 155. I have come a long way from my dough boy stage (the one my son is currently in) of two years ago, when I weighed in at 180. Too much coaching, not enough running (although I enjoyed my time coaching).

As you can see from the last several paragraphs, Im prepared to do the things that it takes to get to a very high level in the sport of running.

Cheers for now, talk to you tomorrow,

Danny

Todays workout:
AM: 5.4 miles, 3rd mile was done with 30 second strides, 1 min jog recovery in 6:55
PM: Hot cocoa/off

 

January 9

Welcome back,

I loooooove the track! If youre wondering why there are that many os in love, its because thats the number of 800m repeats I ran today. I met one of my ex-Sonoma State runners, Carlos Castelo, for a workout of six times 800m. It was so much fun getting the track juices flowing, as we progressively increased the pace of each interval to a fantastic conclusion. We started the first 800m at 2:57, and progressed down to 2:38. Each 800m was followed by a 200m jog in about 90 seconds. I would encourage anyone that is serious about achieving goals to get on the track for an occasional interval session. This is the best way to figure out pacing and is a great way to progress towards a PR performance. My belief is that track interval training is more valuable for the 5k and 10k training, than it is for say a half or full marathoner. If you are interested in some good half or full marathon training come into the store to see Downtown Kenny Brown (who has since moved uptown).

Thats all I want to write for today. Tired from the intervals.

Todays workout:
AM: 2 mile warmup, 6x800m with 200m jog recovery, 2:57-2:55-2:54-2:52-2:51-2:38, 2 mile cooldown.

P.S. Check out this team that is shooting for my Valley Ford all-time team record: Jonathan Peck (SRHS, 2009 NBL 1,600m JV Champ), Alex Wolf-Root (ex-MCHS, ex-UCD, 2010 World Leader Eggnog Mile), Reesey Byers (SRHS, fastest Redwood Empire junior 3,200m runner ever and second all-time [9:06.93]), Erik Olson (Novato HS, sub-9 minute 2miler). Theyre not gonna do it. Its our record. (Current, and future, recordholders are Mike Stone, Ty Strange, Erik Walker, and me.)

 

January 10

Welcome back,

Congratulations to Alex Wolf-Root (Heart and Sole staff) for placing 5th today in the Cal 10. Alex's time was 54:35. My run today was not of the same quality, as I just went for a whimpy 8 miler. My weekly mileage was good for 61.2 miles. I was pleased with the week's worth of running and look forward to the coming weeks of training.

That's it for today.

 

January 11

Welcome back,

It dawned on me, during my morning run, when in my customary manner, I was picking up the pace for a set distance, that the pace I was running at right then (6:00minute/mile pace for 2,000m) was a pace that I used to run for 10 miles, every morning, in my Athletics West days. Needless to say, it was a little discouraging. My goal is to make 6minute pace feel like it once did, easy and relaxed. Now I know I wont be able to do this on a daily basis, and I do have a limited window because of age, but it would be nice for it to happen within the next two or three months.

My plan for the year is to average 50 miles per week for the entire year. This is about half of what I was running per week in my peak years, which consistently consisted of 100+ mile weeks. I dont know if this makes any sense, but I figure if I can do 50 miles per week, and get back to some quality workouts, then it will equate to running a sub-5 minute mile. Because at 100 miles per week, I could run a sub-4 minute mile. Doesnt that make sense to everybody? Welcome to Dannys World

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles, with 2,000m at 6:00min/mi pace. PM: 5.4 miles, with 10x200m in 39-41 with 200m jog recovery in 1:00.

 

January 12

Welcome back!

Another wonderful day of running! I want to just spray some kudos to one up-and-coming runner and to one not-so-over-the-hill runner. Keep an eye on this young starlet, Rylee Bowen (10). Over the last several months her name has kept popping up in results. How about a 9th place overall and first female overall, regardless of age, in the Run to Feed the Hungry? In the Resolution Run 5k, she was the third female overall, and the fastest all-time girl under 12 years old. And then back in December, at the USATF Junior Olympics, she took 10th in the Bantam division (girls born in 1999-2000). This compares to the Julia Stampss, Trina Coxs, Jenny Aldridges, and Jacque Taylors of past Santa Rosa Express fame. Rylee is the daughter of Nika Bowen (former Horn), who stared at Santa Rosa HS and was one of the first great female runners out of the Redwood Empire.

The other runner that I want to mention is Clinton Stevens (36), who over the past year has been improving through the local ranks. In his most recent race, the Resolution Run, Clinton placed 5th in 17:21, and became the 6th fastest in the 35-39 year old age group. Back in October at the Wine Country Marathon, Clinton ran 3:27:48.7, placing 14th overall and 2nd (to the overall winner) in his age group. He achieved this improvement by putting in some quality runs. Just last week, Clinton put in two 20 mile efforts, and a couple of speed sessions. Keep up the training Clinton.

Today I had two pretty good runs. Afternoon session was 5.2mi run with a very quick third mile. We (Clinton and I) covered that third mile in 5:30. What was really exciting was the way we ran it, negative splitting (like we talked about in this blog before). The first half was in 2:52, closing the second half in 2:38. Clinton informed me after the run that this was the fastest training-mile that he had ever run.

Todays workout:
AM: 5.2 miles, 3rd mile 4x30second pickup with 1min easy run recovery, resulting in a 6:54 mile.
PM: 5.2 miles, 3rd mile in 5:30.
Mileage Week to Date: 20.8

 

January 13

Welcome back!

Lets talk about why I train the way I do, and why you train the way you do. Its fun. If youve been following this blog youve probably noticed that in almost all my workouts there is some type of up-tempo segment of the training. The reason I do this is because I enjoy that type of training, and if you dont enjoy your training, you wont stay with it for a long period of time. By no means am I suggesting this is the way everybody should train, but for me its what works. Its what keeps my interest. Its what motivates me. Its whats fun. Another reason why I continually do pickups during my runs is that it reminds me to keep leg turnover and proper body mechanics. While typing this last line, I just met a new friend. Her name is Lauren. Good luck in your triathlon! I just want to make sure that everybody understands that this is the way I train, and that this is not the way everybody else should train. You need to know what works for you and continue to do it. And if it doesnt work, stop doing it and move on to something else. I thought about this on my morning run, as I was starting my 30 second pickups, that I wonder if people are reading my blog and asking themselves Why is this nut sprinting on a daily basis?

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles in Structue Triax. 3rd mile with 5x30 seconds with 1 minute recovery, total time of 6:44.
PM: 5 miles on treadmill in Adidas Adistar Salvation. Ah, running on the treadmill is so boring.
Mileage Week to Date: 30.8

 

January 14

Welcome back!

Today I was starting to plan my racing schedule for this season. As I was planning this schedule, I started to think of the races ahead of me, and the races behind. Which brings me to an interesting story, you know the stories like Hans Christian Anderson used to tell. When I was a professional athlete running for Athletics West (Nikes club), I was over in Europe running in a meet in Hengelo, Holland. After the race, I was approached by the meet promoter for a meet in England, which would be run at Crystal Palace. What they wanted me to do was rabbit for Sebastian Coe in a 1,500m race. Of course, they paid me a tidy sum. I jumped at the chance of rabbiting for one of the greatest middle-distance runners ever. For three days, I was put up in one of the finest hotels in London, given basically a blank check for food and other luxuries. They told me that Peter Coe (Sebs dad and coach) would be approaching me on how hed like for me to rabbit the race. So for the next three days I did some nice training runs, got to visit all of London, and enjoy myself for free.

On the day of the race, I still havent heard from Peter Coe on how he would want me to run. Im now warming up, its one hour before the race; still no word from Peter Coe. Im now doing my strides 15 minutes before the race, and I stop to do one last minute stretch by putting my leg up on the rail and I see this figure walking towards me and I realize that it is Peter Coe. He comes up to me and asks me Are you Dan Aldridge? and I say Yes, and Im the rabbit for your son. What would you like for me to do? His exact words were I want you to run as fast as you can for as long as you can. I want to see where my sons fitness is. I thought to myself Is this man crazy?! but, I wasnt going to disappoint, and I was going to give it my best shot, and let the chips fall as they may.

Gun sounds, I take to the lead, we come through the 400m in 52, which, by the way, is way under current world record pace (about 55). At the 800m, were at 1:51, which was still under the current world record pace. My contract with the meet promoter was to take him through 1,000m, and thank goodness for that! As I reached the 1,000m mark, with very tight gluts and straining immensely, I stepped off the track, hands went to knees, head down, and gasping for breath. I slowly was able to raise my head to watch the finish of the race, and at the 1,200m mark Seb was feeling the same pain. He ended up not running anywhere close to his PR and faded in front of the home crowd to third place. Needless to say, the promoter wasnt happy, Sebs father wasnt happy, but I did what I was asked to do. I never heard from Peter or Seb Coe again. I found out later that his dad didn't tell him what I was going to do because he wanted to see how Seb would react. Only if we all had nice fathers like that.

Ready to go home, stores closing. Hope you enjoyed the story.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles 3rd mile 4x30 second strides with 1 minute jog recovery in 6:46 total. Shoes: Structure Triax
PM: 5 miles easy with Katy Lee, who was Sonoma Academy's top runner this past cross country season. Shoes: asics gel 2140s
Mileage Week to Date: 40.8

 

January 15

Okay, welcome back,

Bow-wow, my doggies sick. Aladdin (all of you who visit the store know that this is his store) has come down with an ear infection, because of bad fathering hood. I forgot to give him his swimmers ear medicine after going into the swimming hole (aka Doyle Park Creek). The reason I am mentioning this is because I did have several customers come in and ask where's Aladdin? I wonder, if when I'm not here, if people come in and ask where's Danny? And my perception is probably nope. (Editors note: nope.) On a good note, the morning run went well today. I shook things up a little bit; instead of doing my customary 30 second strides I went for 45 seconds. And, with less recovery. I've decided that I'm goanna keep with the pattern of doing double days Monday through Thursday, and single runs on Friday through Sunday. For now. Until I get bored.

Yesterday I talked about planning my racing schedule. Id like all of you to know that I've decided to go back and run the Boston Indoor meet at Reggie Lewis Center, which is also the Master's Indoor National Championship. At this moment, subject to change, I plan on running both the 3,000m and the mile. I hope to get in a few all-comer meets before the Indoor Nationals at the end of March.

Thats all I got to say today.

Todays workout:
AM: 10k (6.2 miles, for those who don't know), 3rd mile in 6:34 with 4x45 second pickups with 45 second active recovery.
PM: Pilates. Hot Cocoa. Reeses Big Cup. Every once and a while you just got to treat yourself. Within reason.
Mileage Week to Date: 47.0

 

January 16

I got up this morning with all intentions of doing my workout, but I had a little bit of a knot in my leg, so I decided to take the dog for a walk and try to stretch it out for a little bit before trying to run on it. By the time I got done with the walk, it was too late to run so I had this great idea that I'd just go down to the store and run as soon as I got there at 10am. Two hours later, after waiting on many a customer (which is a good thing!) I was able to sneak out to the JC for an interval workout. I went there with the idea of doing 10x300s with a 100m active recovery. But because my leg was still feeling a little knotty, and that's not naughty, I had to make an adjustment to the workout. I decided to run a two-mile and not start out too aggressively and see if the leg would warm up from lap to lap. My splits went 1:40-1:35-1:32-1:27 for a 6:14 first mile, then I purposefully slowed down the fifth lap so that I could start the same cut-down process over again. My second mile splits went 1:37-1:33-1:29-1:24, for a 6:03 second mile. The leg was feeling pretty good, so I decided to jog an 800m and then run a series of 200ms, with the idea of doing 4. I did 8. They ranged from 33-35. Cooled down two miles back to the store, and helped some more customers.

Todays workout:
AM: see above (8 miles total)
Mileage Week to Date: 55.0

 

January 17

Welcome back,

Today was a relaxing day, as this is my one day off from the store. Today's run was an easy 7 miler, and the last mile was run with my dog Aladdin. I was a little sore from yesterday's workout. It was a exciting day for all us Viking fans, as our team kicked butt on those Cowboys (the cowboys being my brother's favorite team), and will be playing in the NFC Championship game next week. Go Vikings.

Hope all of you had a nice week of running.
Mileage for the week: 62

 

January 18

Welcome back,

I'm proud of myself. I got up this morning, it was raining, I thought about bagging the workout, but I decided to put on the rain gear and get out there and just do it. (The following was not a paid advertisement for Nike.) On the morning run, as usual, I did pickups on my third mile, but today I decided not to time my entire mile because I think I am getting too competitive within myself trying to go faster every day. It actually felt good being out in the rain, so instead of doing my normal 5.something miles I did 6.5. PM run again started out in the rain. Shortly after starting the run the rain stopped, so as in the morning, I increased the miles by 1, getting in 6.0. Not a bad day of mileage.

As I was debating whether to whether the weather (did I get the weather right?), my coworkers and I were discussing/arguing about badassary. My coworker, Alex, was telling me about Antonio Vega, who just won the USATF Half-Marathon National Championship. Why is that so cool (besides for the fact that he won a national championship)? Because he did the training for this half marathon entirely (except for three runs) on a treadmill. Our understanding is that he trains 120 miles a week. Let that sink in for a minute. So we decided that this is one Badass Runner. Now, we've decided to come up with a Badass Story for each day the rest of the week. Tomorrows Badass Story is going to be about a high school runner by the name of Rich Kimball, who in 1974 pulled off a California State Meet double in 1,600m/3,200m, but the Badass Story will be how he did it.

For the rest of the week, we invite you to drop by and share a Badass Story with us. If we deem it a badass enough story it will make this blog. We look forward to your stories.

Todays workout:
AM: 6.5miles 3rd mile 4x45second pickups with 45 second active recovery, 5th mile 5x30second pickups with 1 minute active recovery.
PM: 6.0 miles easy, relaxed
Mileage Week to Date: 12.5
New Feature! Projected Weekly Miles!: 87.5 Watch it go down...

 

January 19

Welcome back,

Ahhh, got up this morning, rain was coming down, and, as we all do, I questioned if I should skip the run or not. As a runner, and as a competing athlete, I knew what the answer had to be. Get out the door, and brave the elements. I'm proud to announce that I got in my five miles and was not struck by lightning. Yesterday I mentioned that I was gonna talk about Rich Kimball, so now I will.

During my junior year (1974) I got to go watch the California State Track and Field Meet, where I got to witness one of the all-time most badass performances in high school history. Kimball, who was already becoming a legend amongst us high school runners, who had earlier in the year posted two 4:02 miles, was planning on doubling in both the 3,200m and 1,600m. The rumors were that Kimball had come down with a severe case of Plantar Fasciitis, and if any of you have had Plantar Fasciitis you know how painful it can be.

After watching a few laps of the 3,200m, it was quite clear that he was favoring the foot. You could see the pain on his face, and that he was gutting this race out to get himself a state title. It came down to a kickers race, and Kimball was able to prevail in 8:46, running his last lap in 63. As soon as he crossed the line, he went straight to the ground and his coach had to literally carry him off the field to the medical tent, where he stayed with his foot wrapped in ice until the start of the 1,600m.

So now the talk was if Kimball would come back and attempt the 1,600m. Most thought he would no-show. As the runners came down the track towards the starting line, everybody was trying to see if Kimball was among them. He walked to the starting line, with no warm-up, no strides, nothing. He stood on the starting line and we were all betting on what lap he would drop out. Nobody, I repeat nobody, thought he would finish. The gun went off, he took his customary position near the front, not wanting to give an inch to this class field of runners. We all watched closely and we could see with every step he was winching. We would all cheer wildly and were going nuts over this performance. We could not believe what we were seeing. With a lap to go he took to the front. Andy Clifford, who would go on to be a star runner at UC Berkeley, got right up on his shoulder. Four times, Clifford tried to go by. Four times, he was held off. With 50m to go, Clifford drew even, but that's the best he could muster. Kimball and Clifford leaned for the tape, and Kimball came away with a 0.1 second victory, 4:06.6 to 4:06.7. The entire stadium was going nuts. It was the most badass performance I have ever witnessed.

Remember, if you got any badass stories that you want to bring in and share with us, please stop by the store. We love badassary.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles, third mile 4x30 seconds
PM: 6 miles, with 8x300m (62-64, last in 54) 100m active recovery (~50-60 seconds)
Mileage Week to Date: 23.5
Projected Weekly Miles: 82.25 Watch it go down...

 

January 20

Welcome back, Got up with all intentions of doing my morning run, but, unlike yesterday, where I braved the weather and went out and did my run, today I wimped. Not a total wimp, because I did go work out on my Pilates Reformer for 30 minutes. There was reason behind this decision, figuring that, with the store coming in, that our store would be slow today, and that I could use one of the two store treadmills for my morning run. My plan was to go for my normal 5 mile AM run, but I was so happy to be dry that I decided to run for an hour, which got me to the 7.8 mile mark. You know me, boredom, I made the treadmill go from an incline of 0 to 3.0 and I've decided to take the afternoon off.

Todays Badass Story is coming from Uptown Kenny Brown. On Kenny's 40th birthday his good buddy Erik Bohn signed him up for the Quadruple Dipsea. Kenny wasn't able to do big mileage because of a hamstring strain and I believe he got the strain from running with his Thursday night training group trying to catch up. Even though he wasn't prepared to run this length (28.4 mountainous miles), being the badass runner that Kenny is, there was no way he wasn't going to attempt this, even though his buddy, Erik Bohn-less, backed out.

From the beginning, Kenny knew it was going to be a long, long day. For those of you who don't know anything about the Dipsea course, one way is 7 miles over Mt. Tam. So the Quadruple Dipsea requires 9,000 ft of climbing. I'm starting to think that this is not a badass run but a dumbass run (editors note: duh). After the 21 mile mark, Kenny was thinking about pulling out. But the Badass Dude that he is, he forged on, taking pictures along the way. Not so badass. Kenny completed the run in 6 hours, 15 minutes, and 59 seconds, placing 78th overall.

Badass, nay or yea? Please come in and let us know!

Todays workout:
AM: 7.8 miles on treadmill AND Pilates
PM: American Idol
Mileage Week to Date: 31.3
Projected Weekly Miles: 73.03333etc Watch it go down...

 

January 21

Welcome back,

As I went out the door for my afternoon run, it was 38 degrees and rainy. How rainy? Real rainy. For the fourth day in a row, all of us runners have been fighting the rain. I'm a little bit sick of it. I know its good for Sonoma County to fill the reservoirs, and I'm all for that. But, come on! Can't it stop raining for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening during my runs?! I thought this was Gods country!

I took my afternoon run heading towards the JC trying to figure out what I would do once I got there. On the way over, it came to me, I'd just try to run each lap on the track faster than the previous lap, for as long as I can. I started off at a modest pace of 1:45 and the proceeding splits went as follows: 1:41-1:38-1:35-1:32-1:28-1:26-1:18. I gotta admit, it felt great once I got done. Going out the door I thought this was going to be the run from hell. It just shows you that if you put your mind to it, a negative can turn into a positive. Its magic!

Here's a badass story from my Maria Carrillo High School coaching days: One of our runners, Alex Wolf-Root, a senior, the week of the Cross Country State Meet, on Monday came down really sick. He knew that he had to go to school all week so that he would be able to participate in the race due to school rules. Each day, the sickness just kept progressing further and further. The day before travelled down to Fresno, as our customary ritual, we ran the State Meet course and gathered as a team to do our pre race strides, and I could see that Alex wasn't feeling his usual self. As his energy was low, and if you know Alex Wolf-Root you know his energy is never low, Alex was trying to hide how sick he really was. He knew that if I knew how sick he was, I might not allow him to run in something he had worked towards for four, no three, maybe two-and-a-half, years.

As all the kids were up socializing, as most kids do when their let loose in a hotel, Alex decided to try to get to bed at a relatively early hour. After about two hours of trying to fall asleep, the halls remained quite active. Alex had had enough of that. He got up, went out into the hall to tell our team to quiet down so that he could get some much-needed rest. As Alex went out into the hall, he realized it wasn't our team (boy was I relived!), that it was the team in the room across the hall that was making all the noise. Alex burst into their room, and just went off, telling them all that he was sick, tired, and needed to get some rest, and quoted Some of actually us want to run fast tomorrow! As it turned out, he was talking to the team that ended up talking to the team that took 7th in the state meet in Division 1 (the biggest, best division).

The most badass part is how he was spitting up blood the morning of the race, and still had the guts to toe the line. It turned out that he actually ran faster than the majority of that other team and was our number one guy leading our team to a 12th place finish. Of course he continued spitting up blood after the race, and spitting up a lot of green stuff too. Eww.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 mile run, third mile with 5x30 second surges
PM: 6 miles, see above
Mileage Week to Date: 42.3
Projected Weekly Miles: 74.025 Watch it go down...

 

January 22

Welcome back,

I really enjoyed my morning run: nice and easy five miles. No strides. No strain. No pain. And a lot of gain. I was thinking, though, on my run, how excited I was about yesterdays workout. Not only was I able to increase each laps pace, but it was done in the pouring rain. And I didn't complain about it - out loud - even once. I even came back into the store with a smile on my face, telling the boys in the store that I kicked that workouts butt! But, did I really? Or did it kick my butt? Although I was proud of my workout, it did bring me back to some of my past workouts, and how my pace now is so much slower. Which is going to bring me to my badassary for the day.

Im gonna give you my five most badass workouts: 1) 3x2mile during my Athletics West days. Just remember, at the time of this mile, I was in 8:30 2mile shape. First two-mile: 9:14. Second two-mile: 9:11. Third two-mile: 9:08. With an 800m jog, slow jog, recovery. That's a badass workout!
2) 50x200m. Cal Poly days. 29-34. 200 jog rest.
3) 10 miles on the track in under 60 minutes, just for fun.
4) 20x400m. High school. I don't know what our times were. Just remember it hurt.
5) 6-5-4-3-2-1 minutes fartlek with 5-4-3-2-1 minutes active (running) recovery at 5k race pace. Times two.

Remembering these workouts wore me out. I'm done. That was my double for the day.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 mile run, easy
PM: Rest. Tomorrow I have a good track workout with Carlos, who is one of my former athletes from Sonoma State.
Mileage Week to Date: 47.3
Projected Weekly Miles: 66.22 Watch it go down...

 

January 23

Welcome back,

Quickly. Had a nice morning interval session with Carlos. We did a series of 800m repeats, six of em to be exact. We did this workout about three weeks ago, and this one was better. Better in time, and easier in effort.

But that's not badass. But who was badass? We all know Steve Prefontaine was badass. This is just one of many examples of how Badass Steve Prefontaine was. NCAA Championships, Pre ran the race with a foot bleeding so bad that he had to be helped from the track as he crossed the line. As he lay there with a puddle of blood around him, one of his competitors was quoted as saying You ran like that? You are crazy! But what he really meant is You are one badass dude!

Everybody have an enjoyable Sunday run. I'll talk to you later.

Todays workout:
AM: 3 mile warmup, 6x800m 2:52-2:52-2:51-2:51-2:51-2:40 with 200m jog recovery, and 2 mile cooldown
PM: Dinner at La Guerre
Mileage Week to Date: 55.8
Projected Weekly Miles: 65.1 Watch it go down...

 

January 24

Welcome back,

While on my morning run today (7 easy miles) it came across to me that that running is like being on a rollercoaster ride. It's gives me the thrill of the moment and most times I'm screaming with excitement, but yet there is this fear of the unknown that always awaits me. Just thought I'd share that with you.

Congrats to all the High School kids that ran yesterday and advanced to the California Indoor State meet. meet will be held in Fresno on Feb. 6th. Locals qualifying: Michelle Stone (Ursuline, pole vault), Reesey Byers (Santa Rosa, 3,200m), Brian King (Cardinal Newman, 3,200m), Spencer Hall (Casa Grande, 3,200m), Nick Spector (Sonoma, 3,200m), Jeremy Thompson (Maria Carrillo, long jump), Tyler Baker (Maria Carrillo, 550m), and Alissa Page (Montgomery, 100m and 200m).

Go Minnesota Vikings.

Todays workout:
AM: 7 miles easy
Mileage Week to Date: 62.8

 

January 25

Welcome,

Did you notice I didn't say back? You know what I liked best about the last week and a half with all this rain? Is that it tests the mind and enhances the spirit. And tests your will. And conviction to running. And it gives me a good chance to bust the balls of some of those who come to the store just to run on the treadmill, instead of braving the weather, the rain, you know what I'm talking about Gerald! I want to make it clear that we do hire some candy-asses at this store, Gerald. Enough bashing and teasing and poking fun at one of our own. I know hell be a good sport about it.

I got up this morning to another day of rain. I went out in the rain, Gerald, and ran 6 miles. The run felt quite refreshing, Gerald. As is customary, I did my 4x30 second strides within the third mile. When I got back to the house I had time to hop on the Pilates machine and get in a little extra work. This afternoon, once again it was raining during my 5 mile run, Gerald.

Speaking of Gerald, I asked him to go for a run with me this afternoon. And he came up with some candy-ass excuse, that he had no running clothes to deal with running in the rain. Did he have shoes? Did he have shorts? Did he have a shirt? Yes. So therefore, he had running clothes. O, yea, the shirt is optional. You don't necessarily need a shirt to run in the rain. Just gets wet. I didn't let Gerald know that I was going to get dressed in my half-tights, long-tights, t-shirt, arm-warmers, long-sleeve, beanie-cap, and night-life gloves. But I was running in the rain, Gerald.

Todays workout:
AM: 6 miles, 3rd mile 4x30 seconds
PM: 5 miles, 4x200m ~45 seconds. I consider this crawling for 200m.
Mileage Week to Date: 11

 

January 26

Welcome back,

Blah Blah Blah. That's all Ive got to say about my morning run. Well, wait a minute. I got a little bit more to say. I went out the door thinking that this would be no different than any other morning run that Ive had over the past three weeks. I started the run at my usual casual pace, knowing that Id pick up during the second half of the run. But no, not today. No strides. No feeling good. No picking up. Blah Blah Blah.

Ah, things can get better in a hurry. I went out with no expectations on my afternoon run. I'd just go and see how I felt, and then make adjustments from there. Guess what? I started feeling good after the first mile. I had a thought (really?!) that I would see if I could try to increase each mile as I went along. I started the first mile at 8:03, second at 7:43, third at 7:02, fourth at 6:45, fifth at 6:25, and the last .8 I cruised back to the store. As you see, if you can just give yourself a chance, even though you may be feeling not so chipper going into your run, that sometimes they can just work their way into something positive. Be positive. It works. I'm always positive.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles easy, Blah Blah Blah
PM: 5.8 miles, see above
Mileage Week to Date: 21.8

 

January 27

Welcome back,

I had a nice run this morning. Did my five miles with 4x30 second pickups. I couldn't resist. I had to time it. Ive gone a whole week without. Big withdrawal pains. 6:52.

On my morning run, a thought came to me (a rare occurrence). What makes someone want to run? Some of us do it for health, some do it money, some do it for social reasons, etc, and after pondering this for several minutes on my run, I figured it doesn't matter why you do it, and there's no wrong or right reason for why we run, the fact that we all share a common interest is great with me.

After consuming my sample of Pineapple Roctane Gu, I headed off for my run to the JC, which is about 1.5 miles. Once I got there I did 800m worth of stride the straights, float the turns, then went into a 400m with the idea of running 75 seconds. I came through the 200m in 35, which was a bit of a surprise, because it felt like I was going 75 second pace. In an instant, I changed from running 75 seconds to trying to break 70. Which means Id have to run 34 or faster (duh). I ended up with a nice 68 second negative split quarter. You do the math. I followed the 400m with another 800m of stride the straights, float the turns.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 easy, 3rd mile 4x30 second strides, total 6:52
PM: 5.4 miles, see above
Mileage Week to Date: 32.2

 

January 28

Welcome back, blog time, Danny time, run time, dream time,

Listen! Listen to me! Listen to me good! Wear running shoes! After reading the article in this mornings paper entitled Who needs running shoes? I was a little bit on the furious side. The article, to me, was a little bit too sensational. I feel that the media is grabbing on to this whole idea that barefoot running is what's best for runners. I totally disagree. In the article, it was suggested that we would all benefit from not wearing anything that supported our foot. I have yet to see anything scientific written that even comes close to suggesting that running barefoot is better for you. We all here at Heart and Sole believe that a better solution is to correct your gait and your foot strike, to promote a softer and more efficient stride. And, THATS what most of the studies are implying. Enough for now, I need to cool down, and I don't mean by running.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 easy miles, no third miles, 5 easy, that's it
PM: Half-hour basketball with my buddy Butterbean Bob. Then 4.2 miles easy
Mileage Week to Date: 41.4

 

January 29

Welcome back,

Hahmmmm, ohmmmmm, nice easy run of 5.2 miles this morning. Did my usual pickups on the third mile of 4x45 seconds, coming through the mile in 6:40. The reason I say coming through the mile is because I extended it to 2,000m, which added one extra 45 second pickup, for a total of 5. Will be doing no PM run; hoping to get in a quality track workout tomorrow, weather permitting.

Anybody up for another racing story? Well you're gonna get one anyway!

Remember the story about how I rabbited for Seb Coe? Well I was paid to rabbit one other time. This time it was here in the states, for a gentleman named Sydney Maree. The meet was in Berkeley, and I was asked to do the pacing for a mile race. The pacing duties was to consist of 57-1:54-2:51 (that's it). That's as far as I was gonna go! As a rabbit, your biggest fear is that, as you take off to the lead, and hit the correct pacing, that none of them will follow. I went out in 57, they went out in 61. I came through at 1:54, they came through at 2:01. I was looking like a fool, they gearing up to kick my butt. I could hear people yell from the stands Danny, steal the race! Steal the race! I wish I could've. At the 800m mark, I realized that there was going to be no record today. And so at 800m I dropped out of my commitment to rabbit the field through at 2:51. Because I was looking like a fool, and it wasn't doing anybody any good. And the entire zoo had jumped on my back anyway. It was windy. The pace was way more difficult than it should have been. And nobody was taking the race as a serious attempt at a record.

I still got my carrots.

That's good enough.

Todays workout:
AM: 5.2 miles, see above
PM: Crab feed to support a local organization.
Mileage Week to Date: 46.6

 

January 30

Welcome,

This morning, I ran three miles to the dog park at a dog-like pace. I did this so I could loosen up for an afternoon interval session. The afternoon workout went pretty well. I did 2 sets of 5x300m with 100m/1minute active recovery, with 500m jog between sets. The first set I was trying to do 400-pace work of about 1:20, which is a 60 second 300m. My splits were between 56 and 58. Second set I wanted to increase the pace a little bit, and I was able to run between 55 and 57. After another 500m jog recovery, I decided to run one last 300m and open it up a little bit, finishing with a 48.

Tomorrow I plan on taking an easy run and going out and timing my protigi Alex Wolf-Root in a 2mile time trial. If all of you feel inclined to come on out and cheer Alex on, there will be coffee and (gluten-free) donuts. Which I will be eating. And there will be none for you.

Todays workout:
AM: 3 miles easy
PM: 7.5 miles, see above
Mileage Week to Date: 57.1

 

January 31

Welcome back!

Had a nice run today of 5.4 miles giving me another 60+ week. By hitting 60+ miles for the week it makes the fourth week in a row that I have gone over the 60 mile mark. I would like for all of 2010 to average over 50 miles. We will see....... I once had a period of 26 weeks in which I did 100+ miles per week. You do that kind of miles, for that long, and you believe you can do anything. Guess what? All those weeks of 100+ miles were done in running shoes, imagine that, running all those miles and not getting hurt. Maybe a gooooood pair of running shoes are an ok thing. Hope you all had a enjoyable run today.

Alex, one of our store employees, had a nice up tempo two mile today. We went to the track and wanted him to tempo at about 10:00 pace. He ran 9:55 in a controlled effort. After watching him run the 2 mile, I feel he is ready for about a 15:20 5k. Alex and Kenny (another one of our store employees) are getting ready to run the Annadal Half Marathon on Super Bowl Sunday. Go guys!! Represent......... Heart and Sole........ show'em our colors.

Todays workout:
AM: 5.4 miles of easy running.
PM: walk the dog, Aladdin.
Mileage Week to Date: 62.5

 

February 1

Welcome back,

Today, I had a great conversation with Kim, who came in the store, and I realized that there are a lot of people out there doing group training. Which to me seems really cool. It seems that the running boom is definitely back. Hopefully barefoot running won't kill it. I just want people to understand that although I don't believe in barefoot running as the sole way to train, I do believe it can enhance one's training if done correctly and in moderation. Something like maybe twice a week on a grass field as post-run strides. As I was talking to Kim, who is training with Kathy DuBay, and she was telling me about some of the interval training they are doing, and some of the other structured workouts they do, it seems to me that not only are people just running, but they are trying to push themselves and improve their running, taking it up a notch. Bam!

AM run went well. Actually felt really good. Did a nice 5 miles with the third mile being the start of my 45 second pickups. I came through the mile in 6:40 and felt so good I extended it for another 400m, which I did in 90 (8:10 for 2,000m total).

PM: The morning run went so well I decided to do the exact same workout for the afternoon run. Basically the same thing: 3rd mile I started my 45 second pickups, which brought me through the mile at 6:25, finishing the 2,000m in 7:58.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles, see above
PM: 5 miles, see above
Mileage Week to Date: 10

 

February 2

Welcome back,

There was something I was trying to remember from my run this morning. O yea! Phil came out today! He's a groundhog. Guess what? He saw his shadow. That means there'll be six more weeks of winter weather. So keep out that winter gear. And if you don't have any winter gear, where should you go? Duh! Heart and Sole!

Todays workout:
AM: 6 miles, third mile 4x30 second strides, no time. It was at a turtle's pace
PM: I'm gonna do 4 miles on the treadmill at a hotel. In Fresno. Lovely Fresno.
Mileage Week to Date: 20

Note: May not be able to blog the rest of the week, depending on computer situation. Going to LA. Not sure if they have the internet down there, being out in the country and all.

 

February 3

Welcome back,

Got to LA, drove from Fresno to LA, as I'll be spending the week down in Huntington Beach. Within 15 minutes of arriving in LA I was out the door for a run. Legs were all cramped, had to get out and stretch them out. The LA canals have some great bike paths above them. You should try running on them. It's really cool, the are marked every quarter mile.

For the rest of the week, through Saturday, I've decided that if you can tell me the name of the groundhog that I mentioned in this blog, then come into the store and mention the name of said groundhog and you can get 20% off one item of winter gear.

Todays workout:
AM: 6 miles easy with Aladdin. Went on a really cool dirt levee in Fresno among the Dawgs.
PM: 4.8, first mile at 7:57, second at 7:23, third mile at 6:41, fourth mile at 6:08.
Mileage Week to Date: 30.8

 

February 4

Welcome back,

I'll tell you what I did today. Not much.

Todays workout:
AM: 5.2 miles easy run. Lost in Huntington Beach, ending up in some island. Just call me Gilligan.
PM: 4.2 easy miles, found a race today that I think I'm going to run this Saturday at Cerritos college, all-comers, hope to break 5 minutes in a mile.
Mileage Week to Date: 40.2

 

February 9

Welcome back,

Spent Wed-Thurs down in the OC, baby. OC being Orange County. While I was down there, I got to see parts of the Huntington Beach Marathon and Half-Marathon. Aladdin and I actually jumped in and ran two miles. The reason for this: it was the only way back to the place I was staying. And if I waited until the race was over I was gonna be stuck on the beach, which isn't a bad place to be stuck, for another three hours until everybody passed.

What was cool about watching the race, what I saw, was such a variety of people running. Big people, little people, blonde people, brunette people, fast people, not-so-fast people, people that Aladdin and I could pass during the run. All these people were sporting shoes of all kinds: Adidas, Nike, Saucony, Asics, Brooks, Pearl Izumi. While I was down there, I did a lot of leisure running. It was good to let my legs rest for a period of time, with some looong, sloooow, easy runs, as most of my runs were run with Aladdin.

That's it.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles, with 8x30second pickups during third and fourth mile
PM: 5.4 miles, run to the JC, 10x200m with 200m active recovery. Goal of the workout was to make each 200m faster than the previous one. 46-44-43-42-40-39-37-36-35-33
Mileage Week to Date: 17.4

 

February 10

Welcome back,

I believe it's 9:17 at night. Or maybe it just feels like it's 9:17 and it's really 6:17. Must have been a long, hard day at the store. Really, it wasn't that long, hard day at the store, as it was a long, hard day on my run. Wait. The run was short; it just felt long and hard.

Since I've started this blog, what's really cool about it, is I've reconnected with some oooold former athlete's, who, after reading the blog, tell me they've started their own running regime again! Can the young pups keep up with me. No! Yes! No! Maybe? So. So, what is the truth? One of those people that I have reconnected with is Scott Pierce, a former Sonoma State runner of mine. Scott is also trying to get back into the master's scene, as he tells me he's trying to run 100 straight days in a row. Go Scott! Another one is Peter Egerton, former SRHS runner. He's on the all-time Spring Lake cross country list, ranked in the top 30. Boys, (I mean not men, I'm the only true man here!), it's good to see you out there again! (You'll always be boys to me!)

Okay, that's it for the day.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles easy
PM: 5.3 easy miles, which ended up being long, slow, and hard.
Mileage Week to Date: 27.7

 

February 11

Welcome back,

I'm gonna go over some definitions. So sometimes you guys hear me mention words like “float”, “active recovery”, “pickups”, “strides.” I know a lot of you might know what these terms mean, but some of you who are reading this may not. Like Michael Brew.

 

Float: The great Muhammed Ali once said “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” This is true. Float, in the running world, is when you are running a workout and there's a segment within that workout where you want to back off a little bit. And instead of using the word “jog,” which I hate, we use “float,” because it's a little bit more elegant. That's it.

We'll continue with some of the terms later on. I don't wanna overwhelm you too much.

Todays workout:
AM: Went out for 5 miles, third mile decided to open it up a little bit to see what I could cruise through the mile in, which ended up being 5:38. And feeling pretty good.
PM: 5 miles, two of the miles did float the turn, stride the straights, with mile times of 6:58-6:40.
Mileage Week to Date: 37.7

 

February 13

Nice day for running, warm an sunny..

Hope you all have a president day Weekend, and remember that we are having a sale at Heart and Sole Through Monday. Lots of Shoes at 30-50 dollars. Winter close are also on sale at 20% Off.

Todays workout:
AM: 4.2 easy miles
PM: 8.0 miles. This work out consistent of running from Heart & Sole to the JC Track for intervals : 10 x 400 with a 200 jog (1:30) 1:17,1:18,1:16,1:17,1:16,1:14,1:16,1:17,1:06,1:16.
Notice that on the 9th 400 I opened it up a little and ran a 66 second 400, had to work it, but it felt under control. Jogged back to Heart & Sole. This was a fun workout.

 

February 14

Welcome Back,

Happy Valentines Day

Todays workout:
AM: Went for a nice easy 5 miles, which put me right around 60 miles for the week.

 

February 15

Welcome Back,

I found out a good scoop today. One of our local high school programs is having the kids run 20 by 400m's. Let's just call them the Panthers. That brings me back to good memories. Back in the day, when 20x400 was a weekly workout. And we all loved it, because we knew that, to be good, it was all about the work. And believe me, it's work doing 20x400. Good job, Panthers.

Todays workout:
AM:5.5 miles, middle 2,000m's 45 second surges/45 second active recovery, coming through the mile in 6:40, ending in 8:08.
PM: 6.5 miles, easy run
Mileage Week to Date: 12

 

February 16

Welcome Ahead, (just seeing if you're paying attention),

Was so excited about the Panher's 20x400's that I had to bust out a good mile today! During my run, after 22 minutes of running, which took me from the store to the Brush Creek Bike Path, I busted out a 5:12 mile. Sean: Next time you guys do 20x400m, count me in! I'm still excited! Just talking about it! I want to be a Panther! I used to be a Panther. Then I was a Puma. Now I'm a Coyote. But I'll always be a Trojan. Petaluma rocks!

So let's talk about all my mascots. I once was a Valley Vista Viking! (that's my grade school). Bantams rock! That was my Petaluma Junior High name. I went to the Trojan's, USC Trojan's. We all know the USC fight song. That's famous. SRJC Bear Cubs. Not so intimidating. Cal Poly Mustangs (what is an Aggie, anyways?) From Cal Poly I went on to Athletic's West, which might be called the Swoosh's. Basically I made that up. I ran for the Sub 4 Track Club; let's call them The Clocks. Ran a brief period for the Reebok Aggies (what's an Aggie?!) Currently, I run for the Empire Runners, which you all should be a member of. If you're not, pull out your checkbook, write the check, put it in the mail, and you get a free race, great newsletter, and a shirt! But, they don't yet have a great mascot name. So come on by the store, and toss us a name or two, and yours could be the one that just might stick!

Todays workout:
AM: 5 easy miles
PM: 5.5 miles, see above
Mileage Week to Date: 22.5

 

February 17

Welcome Back,

I thought this was an original “Welcome Back,” but I walked into Applebees yesterday, and over their door is a sign that says “Welcome Back!” Believe me, I didn't steal it.

I got a prediction for you. My first prediction of the year. Many to follow! After watching the high school cross country season unfold, and looking at some of the returning runner's track times, I think that, for the first time ever, Redwood Empire will have four girls under the 5:00 minute mark for 1,600m. I thought about going out on a limb and predicting five, so come on coaches, prove me wrong! There's only been twelve girls to break 5:00 ever from Redwood Empire, and only once have three done it in the same year. In 2007, Kristen Sanzari, Jacque Taylor, and Leanne Fogg all broke the 5 minute barrier.

Tomorrow's prediction: How fast will Reesey Byers run?

Todays workout:
AM: 5.2 miles, third mile 4x30 second strides
PM: 5.6 miles, 10x300m (64-66), 100m active recovery (35-40 seconds)
Mileage Week to Date: 33.3

 

February 18

Welcome Home,

Today, I told you I'd make my prediction for Reesey Byers of Santa Rosa High School, who stopped by the store today. My prediction is Reesey will be the first Redwood Empire runner under 9 minutes.

Todays workout: AM: 5 miles, easy
PM: 5 miles, with Sonoma Academy runners, 2 sets of 10x30 seconds with 30 second active recovery. I ran my sets with The Great Katy Lee.
Mileage Week to Date: 43.3

 

February 19

Welcome back,

Another of my running terms:
Active recovery: The slow, recovery run between hard intervals. For those of us who don't like to walk between intervals, we prefer to keep the running motion and it helps us to stay engaged in the workout.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 easy miles. Getting ready for Valley Ford Relays! I get to lead off, cause we are goanna run slowest to fastest.

That's all folks! Mileage Week to Date: 48.3

 

February 20

Welcome back,

Excited! Get to run my first race in 2010. Tomorrow I'm goanna run the Valley Ford Relays, put on by the Empire Runners. The race consists of four legs of 2.75 miles. The first and third legs are net downhill's, and the second and fourth are net uphills. I hope to break the 15 minute barrier. Two years ago, at age 51, I did 15:03 for the downhill leg. My PR, at the age of 37, is 13:05. Should be a lot of fun tomorrow.

Todays workout:
AM: 4 miles.
Mileage Week to Date: 52.3

 

February 22

Welcome to my world,

Doodle-Dog (aka Aladdin, the store dog) says “hi.” Yesterday was the Valley Ford Relays. And the team that I ran on, The Pink Cows, got third overall, and first in the 30-39 age division. By the way, none of us are actually in the 30-39 age group. I led off with a 15:03, which was the exact same time as two years ago. But! I'm two years older, so I was pretty happy with the time. Michael Brew, (age 22), ran second. Let's just say he's past his glory days. 17:10. Sigh… But! He did not get passed by anybody. Unless you count turtles. Our third leg was Alex Wolf-Root (23), who was doubling back after running an earlier leg for another team. He was the only person on our team who actually moved us up a place, from 4th to 3rd! Way to go Alex! His time was 14:21. Nice double. And anchoring for the team, also running his second leg of the day, was Gerald “Treadmill” McCormick (27). Both of his times (14:12 and 14:28) were faster than my time. Maybe, I need to get on the treadmill some more! Sunday's total mileage was 8 miles, and that put me over 60 miles for the week.

Todays workout:
AM: 5.2 miles, third mile 4x30 seconds (what, do you think I take it easy after a race?!)
PM: 5.3 miles, each mile progressively getting quicker. 8:28-8:03-7:23-7:19-7:02
Mileage Week to Date:10.5

 

February 23

Welcome back,

I gotta do a story today. This blog is getting too dull. I need to spice it up.

I got a pretty good story for ya. My first time breaking 4:00 in the mile. Bruce Jenner Meet, San Jose. (For those of you who don't know who Bruce Jenner is, he was an American Olympic Champion in the decathlon.) This was the first big meet of the year, and the first meet in which I really thought I had a chance of going under the 4:00 minute barrier. Although I had run a 1,500m in 3:40.80 at the NCAA D1 Championships, taking 7th, and the charts say this converts to a 3:57 or so mile, I still couldn't call myself a sub-4 miler. I remember telling my high school coach there were two things I wanted to do before I finished my running career. One was to break the sub-4 minute mile, and one was to make an Olympic Team.

On race day, I was really nervous, because I knew I was fit, and ready to finally break the 4-minute mile. I was also really nervous, because there were two great Kenyan's in the race, one of them being Henry Rono, holder of 4 world records, and the other runner being Cherioyot, I can't remember his first name. Both were running for Washington State (DI), and I was running for Cal Poly (DII). David versus Goliath(s.

My plan from the start was just to follow these two great Kenyans, and hope that they would pull me to that first sub-4 mile. After the first lap I was just wondering what they were thinking, that this Division II athlete was hanging with two of the greatest distance runners in the world. But this was a mile. Which some, including myself, consider a middle distance race. The two of them exchanged taking the lead throughout the first three laps, and I just sat, covering their every move. We came through the ¾ mile in 3:01. I knew, with a good last lap, that I was goanna go under.

On the last lap, with 300m to go, Cherioyot went by Rono, and I followed immediately, setting myself up into second place. As we passed the 200m mark, now 200m to go, I moved up on Cherioyot's shoulder, and thought “I might win this thing!”And indeed I did. As I swung wide coming off the turn, and started to accelerate by Cherioyot, I realized he wasn't going to cover the move, and I was goanna come home the winner.

Although the victory wasn't all that important to me, at that moment it was all about whether I had gotten under 4 minutes. As I jogged 100m around the track, my coach was sitting in the stands, pointing at his watch. Yelling out “3:58!” I know from past results, that he always had a quick finger. As I stood by the stands, waiting for the results to become official, over the loud speaker I heard “And winning the mile, in 3:59.99, Danny Aldridge, from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo!” You've never seen a kid with a bigger smile.

Todays workout:
AM: 6.2, third mile, (not sub 4) 5:42, active recovery for 5 minutes, then 5x30 seconds with a 30 second active recovery (for five minutes)
PM: 4 easy miles on the treadmill. Yes, Gerald. I'm a wimp too. But you're still a wimp too.
Mileage Week to Date:20.7

 

February 24

Welcome,

Just to clarify, on yesterday's story, I mentioned that I was excited about breaking the 4-minute mile barrier, because it was a goal that I had set back in high school. But my other goal was to make an Olympic Team. And that goal, I didn't reach. After watching the Winter Olympics, and seeing how the American's did in curling, I think I still got a shot! Where do you try out for the curling team? Hahahaha!

Todays workout:
AM: 8.2 miles, 20 minute run to the Montgomery track, 3xprogressively faster miles on the track. Did this workout in an interesting fashion. Laps of 1:54-1:48-1:44-1:40 (7:06 mile), 1:46-1:40-1:38-1:35 (6:38 mile), 1:45-1:39-1:37-1:29 (6:30). Not bad.
PM: Rest. Watch American Idol.
Mileage Week to Date: 28.9

 

February 26

Welcome back,

Sorry about not blogging yesterday, but I was extremely tired.

What's really cool about this blogging stuff, is that I hear from people that I haven't heard from in a long time, or some that are just introducing themselves for the first time. Got contacted today about a Badass Workout. A former UC Irvine runner told me about a Badass Workout that they would do down at Irvine that was created by then-American Record-Holder Steve Scott, who I had the opportunity to room with at one of the USA Cross Country National Championships, when we were both running for the Sub 4 Track Club. Super nice guy. This is how it was told to me: “there are 31 hill(streets) that come up off Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna that are all pretty steep. Scott came up with this workout where you sprint up each hill, return to the bottom, go to the next street, do the same. 31. Enough said. I did it a couple of times and can attest to the pain.”

Todays workout:
AM: 10 miles. I had so much fun doing a similar workout two days ago that I decided to repeat it, and add to the fun by adding in some extra 200m's. Workout: run to Montgomery HS track, 3 miles on the track, mile 1: 1:53-1:47-1:42-1:37 (6:59), mile 2: 1:47-1:40-1:38-1:35 (6:40), mile 3: 1:43-1:36-1:32-1:24 (6:15). Then recovery mile. Then 4x200m w/200m active recovery: 36-37-36-32. Run back home.
Mileage Week to Date: 43.9

 

March 1

Welcome back,

I'm 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 don't 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.

Todays Workout
AM: 5.4 miles, 3rd mile easy 30 second pickups times 4.
PM: 4 easy miles
Mileage Week to Date: 9.4

 

March 2

Todays Workout
AM: 5.2 miles easy
PM: Nothing!
Mileage Week to Date: 14.6

 

March 3

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. I'm 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 I'm 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!

Todays workout:
AM: 6 miles, see above
PM: 5.5 miles, see above
Mileage Week to Date: 25.1

 

March 5

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 goanna kick down Hauptman from Maria Carrillo. (Course this is all in good fun.) The race is on. May the faster runner win.

Todays workout: AM: 5.2 miles, third mile 4x45 second pickups, with 45 active recovery. (Didn't I say I was goanna back down the intensity a little bit? Liar!)
PM: 5 miles, run to the JC, 4x200m with 200m active recovery, 33-33-34-33. (In spikes for the first time all year.) 200's felt really good, and pretty easy efforts.
Mileage Week to Date: 40.3

 

March 6

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles, easy
Mileage Week to Date: 45.3

 

March 7

Todays workout
AM: 5 miles, easy
Mileage Week to Date: 50.3

 

March 8

Welcome back,

Saturday I got to go into the SRJC Hall of Fame. 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 high school. 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.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles, easy
PM: 5 miles, with Gerald, and we didn't have to run on the treadmill!
Mileage Week to Date: 10

 

March 9

Todays workout
AM: 5 miles, easy
Mileage Week to Date: 15

 

March 10

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, heres 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, weve 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 didnt do a second run.

Todays workout:
AM: 7 miles, see above
PM: Recovery. Thumbs up.
Mileage Week to Date: 22

 

March 11

Welcome back,

I've always had people ask me what makes for a good distance runner. 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 youre 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 thats a huge 4 seconds. 30 extra miles a week, for 4 seconds. Was it worth it? Yes.

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles, 3rd mile 4x45 seconds, w/45 second active recovery (6:45)
PM: 5 miles, jogged to the JC, 2 miles of cutdown 400ms. First mile: 1:49-1:45-1:39-1:35 (6:48). Second mile: 1:45-1:38-1:32-1:28 (6:23).
Mileage Week to Date: 32

 

March 12

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. Ill be following that race up with a mile the next day. And Ill 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!

Todays workout:
AM: 5 miles, easy
PM: ice
Mileage Week to Date: 37

 

March 14
AM: 5.5 miles, easy
PM: Rest
Mileage Week to Date: 5.5

 

March 16

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.

Todays Workout:
AM: Pilates Reformer for 30 minutes
PM: 4.2 miles, easy
Mileage Week to Date: 9.7

 

March 22

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.

Todays workout:
AM: 4.2 miles, 3rd mile 4x45 second pickups with 45 second active recovery, mile at 6:44
PM: Rest. This will be a real easy week for me as I'm getting ready to go back to Boston to run in the Masters Indoor National Championships
Mileage Week to Date: 4.2

 

March 29

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 30, 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.

 

 

 

Danny is taking a break from blogging for a while as he builds back up after his indoor double. Until then, you can amuse yourself by reading all of his old entries.