Besides a first place finish, the time puts my VDOT at 52.

I haven’t specifically been training for a 5k. I do tempo runs once a week, but no speed work to speak of. My goal in July is to break 1:28 in the April Sorensen Half Marathon here in Albert Lea, and my 52 VDOT puts me at 1:28, so there’s a chance I could hit it.

Note: I wore my new Asics Piranha 3 racing flats, which I’ve also been training in. They’re expensive shoes, but I got them used on eBay for $30. A guy wore them one time on a training run and didn’t like ‘em. I love ‘em! They’re my second pair of Asics Piranha running shoes. I also have a pair of the second generation shoe of the same name.

On Sunday, my legs felt tight and sore, but I decided to do my long run anyway.

I did the long run, but it was painfully slow.

As you can see, some of my miles were close to and over 10:00 per mile. But here’s the good news. That remarkably slow long run really helped me recover from the previous day’s tempo run. This morning after the previous day’s long slow run, I felt like my legs had a session in a hyperbarbic chamber; they experienced very little strain and all the oxygen they needed for over 90 minutes.

Many distance coaches and trainers argue that this is one of the primary roles of the long slow run. In addition to all the other cardiovascular, circulatory and endurance benefits, getting oxygen rich blood out to muscles in need of repair is crucial.

My plan this summer, in addition to regular mileage during the week, is to continue with a tempo run on Saturday followed by a long slow distance run on Sunday.

Also, I’m going to continue to plenty of Active Isolated Stretching. I have Jim Wharton’s “Stretch Book,” and I’d recommend it to anyone.

I’m now using a Garmin Forerunner to log my workouts. Last Saturday I ran a tempo run at the Blazing Star trail, which was 20:00 at 6:40 pace. Turned out that was a touch too fast given my current level of fitness. This Saturday I am aiming for a more conservative 6:50 pace.

As a result of last Saturday’s overextended run, I’ve got a very tight tendon down the inside of my lower leg. (Flexor hallucis longus muscle (FHL)). A little research this morning uncovered the scope of this mild injury. It’s the tendon that flexes my big toe. I get relief by gradually stretching my big toe back.

It wasn’t just the run on Saturday that caused this. I also increased my mileage last week. Ah, the perils of getting into race shape.

That’s a gross oversimplification, but what’s helpful about this book is that it’s actually for athletes in training; not just another all-purpose nutrition guide.

According to the authors, carbohydrates are our primary source of fuel — something most athletes know. But what they don’t often understand, is that our stores of carbohydrate energy are extremely limited: 450 to 475 grams. Interestingly, athletes can actually increase this capacity by utilizing a high-carbohydrate diet. As the result of a high carbohydrate diet, the body manufactures more glycogen-storing enzymes, which can actually double carbohydrate storage capacity.

As I’ve begun to integrate their thinking into my own eating patterns, I notice both a sound awareness of how strength and energy comes from food, as well as an increased feeling of preparedness before, during and after workouts. For those who feel like nutrition for performance has been a guessing game, this is a great book. The authors make extra efforts dispel confusion around supplements and other tactics that may or may not actually be as effective as a balanced, well-timed diet.

Do my lower leg muscles feel stronger as a result of having trained in minimal footwear? Absolutely. Every step felt far more solid than in past races. I noticed I felt particularly comfortable on the downhill portion of the race. Steep downhills sometimes cause me to feel slightly out of control. This was not the case on Monday.

I did notice in the last mile that my form started to fall apart, which is a result of a weak upper body. My goal this summer is to do a little more strength training: core work and some upper body work. Recently I’ve read a few articles that stress the importance of doing deadlifts. One of my favorite books, “Healthy Intelligent Training” by Keith Livingstone, argues that a runner can address up to 90% of his running muscles using the deadlift. Low repetitions with heavy weight. Who would have guessed?

Some coaches suggest doing these drills when you’re fresh at the beginning of a workout and others argue that it’s just as good to do them at the end of an easy run. Regardless, most coaches will agree that you don’t want run them when you’re overly tired because otherwise the whole point is lost.

Sadly, when I’m on my own, I often end up skipping this part of my workout. When I’m coaching, though, I rarely miss an opportunity to focus on developing good leg turnover, especially for young runners who are still learning the basics of how to run.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, running is a learned skill. Sure, some runners come by perfect form naturally, but most don’t.

First, lets better define the three main energy systems. (My own formulation of these concepts are owed in a large part to Daniels’ Running Formula, 2nd Edition.)

By endurance, I mean workouts that increase aerobic capacity…with paces approaching sub-threshold, or paces fast enough that elevate the heart rate over a relatively long period of time without producing lactate.

By strength, I mean challenging the body’s ability to both clear and use lactate, with heart rates that from aerobic to anaerobic.

By speed, I mean cultivating sound running mechanics and a solid anaerobic metabolism.

From my own observations, how a coach trains an athlete for endurance races that are also very fast, can vary quite a bit. A perfect example of this is the 800 meter dash. The need for all three systems of endurance, strength and speed is inescapable. But getting the correct balance between these three is rather difficult.

It’s like mixing cement.

You need just the right consistency to mix cement properly. Too dry and it is impossible to use. Too wet and it moves quickly to fill its forms, but will crack easily and simply not hold up over time. The mix is something like this: 1 part cement, 2 parts sand, and 3 parts gravel. The entire mix is one’s aerobic capacity. The appropriate ratio of the parts in the mix is strength and the water is speed.

You can’t do anything without the mix and if you don’t get the mix right, it’s useless. And without water, you simply cannot arrive at your final result. Too much water and you’ll crack (injuries). Too much sand/not enough gravel and it won’t hold together (no strength). Too much cement without gravel and sand and you can’t get anywhere (great aerobic capacity, but no way to use it).

For a race as short as five miles I really can see the importance of getting in speed work and ample anaerobic threshold (AT) workouts. I’m doing more of those now with the high school track team. We did three 1-mile repeats yesterday at about 6:20 pace, with close to 1:00 rest between each (jogging rest). After a decent base, I find AT work really helps to bring times down, especially when mixed with workouts that stress efficiency. And we haven’t done anything that I’d put into the hard “interval” category yet.

One of the most significant differences between hard intervals and threshold work is that hard intervals require plenty of rest. The priority is efficiency and coordination, with the overall development of aerobic fitness playing second fiddle for the day.

When the boys were done, I did one set with the girls, so I did five sets in all. I ran a 1.5 mile warm-up before and a 1.5 cool-down after, which brought me to 8 miles for the day.

I was surprised about how good I felt. One thing in particular I noticed was how well my feet turned over and how easy it was to keep proper cadence. I believe improvement in this area comes, in part, from doing all my workouts for the last three weeks in minimal shoes that force me to get off my heels.

The verdict is still out about whether or not I’ll get some peculiar injury as a result of making such a radical shift in footwear. (Well, it’s not too radical or abrupt of a shift. I trained all winter on the treadmill on the same shoes, but treadmill running is different from running on streets and sidewalks.)

So far, though, I like how I feel. It seems as though my stride is becoming more efficient.

Since December 9, I’ve run 63 workouts for a total of 43.5 hours of running. That is a whole lot of workouts that I wouldn’t have run had I not started training mid-winter. It is the equivalent of running two months straight seven days a week.

Do I get into just as good a shape after 63 workouts in four months as I do if I do those same 63 workouts in two months? There are probably advantages and disadvantages either way. Like, for the four month version I’m less likely to get injured. For the two month version, I’m faced with a higher level of training stress, which might mean that I get into better shape.

Does a higher level of fitness come from following one workout immediately after the next? Or is it simply the fact of doing more workouts in a shorter period of time that gets you into shape more quickly?