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Speed Work for People who Hate Doing Speed Work

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  Speed work can be painful. You are hunched over, huffing and puffing. And even when you're going as fast as you possibly can, there is always going to be some elitist randos out there who will dismiss your effort as "slow."  There are some unsavory corners of the running community that are still very "high school" and the last thing you want to do is re-visit those nightmares. What if I told you that not everyone does speed work to get faster? That it doesn't have to be painful?  Here's why you should consider doing speed work: If you spend too much time at one pace your brain will learn to only activate only muscle fibers necessary to keep going at that pace. All the other muscle fibers won't get any stimulus and won't be familiar with being activated. On long enough runs, the first stringers will eventually get tired and when the brain looks for the second string, no one on the bench will be ready to go in. The result? Your pace and p...
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2025/2026 Winter Update: Part 2 - HM Race Report

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  All race photos are from the Clark County Running Club. THANK YOU I love the Vancouver Lake Half Marathon because it manages to stay small and affordable. The park can only fit so many runners and there's limited parking, so the field is capped at around 300 runners and walkers. The thing I do not love about the course is that because its in the middle of winter, it's always usually cold and raining, and this year was no different. Because the parking lot is limited, most of us try to get there at least an hour early. Except there are no heaters and everyone is trying to keep dry and warm for almost an hour before the race starts. They did have a bag check so I kept my jacket on up until about 20 minutes before the race started. Next time I will bring a blanket to stay warm.  The last time I raced this course, I was modest and placed myself somewhere near the back half of the field. I was using up a lot of extra energy and honestly felt like kind of a jerk weaving arou...
Location: Vancouver, WA, USA
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2025/2026 Winter Update: Part 1 - 5K Time Trial

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Starting this winter, I needed to re-dedicate myself to structured training. Nothing too complicated. In the words of the great Frank Shorter  -    “Two hard interval sessions a week and one long run – 20 miles or two hours, whichever comes first. Every other run is aerobic, and you do as much of that for volume as you can handle. Do this for two or three years, and you’ll get good” That's basically the bones of my training. Structure, consistency, and a little math. I want to use this framework for the rest of 2026, adjusting the kinds of efforts I'll be doing, depending on the race I'm training for. Following up on my last post, the first task is to sharpen up my 5K. Sorry Frank Shorter, I'll do the 2 hour long runs, but with all due respect I'll be nowhere near 20 miles after 2 hours.  5K Time Trial Prep  After recovering from my  Marathon , I hit the roads again with an eye to do a mini 8 week training block with a time trial sometime near the...
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