Tag Archives: steve remy

speedwork

Treadmill (n.): A Good Tool for Speedwork

1 Reply

Treadmill (n.): A torture device perfected in the 20th century, designed to destroy one’s mind though sensory deprivation and monotony. -Mark Remy Runnersworld.com executive editor, in The Runners’ Rule Book

Mark Remy is right, the treadmill is a torture device!  We should try to do most of our runs outside.  Get out on trails, run down by a river, even around your block! (at least you will be getting vitamin d!)….But the treadmill can be a great tool when it comes to speedwork.  (…and a great way to save your feet from blisters if you live in the PNW!)

speedwork

Why do I need to do speedwork you might ask?

A couple reasons:

1.  It will make you faster.  When you do intervals you deplete your muscles of energy (pushing near your lactate threshold), then recover allowing your body to begin to rebuild your energy stores with aerobic metabolism.  As you do this more and more, your body becomes more efficient at removing the waste caused by harder working muscles and begins to build more mitochondria (those bacteria that live inside your muscles that eat CO2!).  This allows you to maintain higher speeds.  This is important for those of you who have PR times you would like to hit.

2.  For those of you who don’t care about your time, intervals will make your body more efficient at making energy, therefore making your “normal” pace feel much easier.  This will make marathon or 1/2 marathon day more enjoyable.

3.  For reasons outside of racing, intervals have also been shown to burn fat better.  Intervals leave you with a larger need to produce energy post workout.  This will lead the body to tap into your fat stores to make that energy both during recovery and post workout.–Don’t think you can eat a more because of this.  This only works if you stick to your normal diet!

4.  Finally intervals have been shown to boost your HDL (the good cholesterol).  This cholesterol combined with an elevated heart rate sends rushing blood through the arteries cleansing them by removing plague build-up caused by LDL. This bad cholesterol is sent to the liver where the liver can break it down.  This will help prevent heart attacks so you can outlive all your friends!–AND EAT ALL THAT STEAK!! 😉

SO DO YOUR INTERVAL WORKOUT TODAY RUNNERS!

What’s your favorite speedwork workout?

To Bandit or Not to Bandit….

1 Reply

“Bandit (n., v.) One who participates in a race unofficially, without having registered and paid for it.  Also: the act of running a race as a bandit.  Also called jerk.

Correct: Because he couldn’t seem to scrape together the $5 entry fee, Henry ran the Podunk Lions Club 5-K as a bandit.

Incorrect: “I was looking forward to trying that new sports drink made with absinthe, but they bandit.” -Mark Remy

Runners with race season approaching, I just wanted to put out a fair warning that it is inappropriate to bandit under most situations.  People work very hard to put together a race and most are for a good cause.  Besides when you bandit, you don’t have rights to your time.  If you run a PR don’t you want to be able to post and claim it?

When is it ok to bandit you might ask?  It is never ok to run a race as a bandit, but it is acceptable and sometimes completely hilarious to bandit race photos.

bandit

“Rule 2.38 Race Photos Never Look Good

And I mean never.

Brad Pitt could show up at the start of a marathon completely rested, tanned, toned, massaged, hydrated, and professionally styles, and by the time the race photographer snapped him at mile 13, he would….well, he would probably look pretty good.  He is Brad Pitt after all.

But the photos of Brad Pitt, when he finally saw them, would look horrible,  In the photos, Brad would look like a badly dehydrated Quasimodo having a seizure.  This is the magic of race photography.  If the folks who sold race photos were smart, they’d charge people not to send prints of their pics.

That said, should you order some of these race photos anyways?  Absolutely. And the bigger, the better.”  -Mark Remy

As you know race photos never look good….so you might as well make the person’s ahead of you a funny keepsake. 😉

run around the block

Just run around the block

Leave a reply

Runners Rule 1.35

“Just run around the block”

run around the block

“On days you don’t feel like running at all, tell yourself you’ll just jog around the block.  Then go do it!  Nine times out of 10, those few minutes of movement will be enough to kick you into gear and you’ll want to keep going.  And that one time out of 10?  At least you’re run one block.  That is more than most folks will run that day”  -Mark Remy

Seriously though, getting out there is the hardest part.  So if you don’t feel motivated just say you will do one block.  My bet is with Mark that you will keep going!

Have you ever regretted going for a run?  I bet you have regretted not going….

 

runner's rules

It’s back! Here come your runner’s rules…

Leave a reply

HI Runners,

For those who have been following me via email prior to the blog you have been around for Mark Remy’s Runner’s Rule Book Lessons.  With race season approaching and some loyal runners requests for a refresher Mark Remy’s, The Runner’s Rule Book: Everything a runner needs to know–and then some, is taking up coffee table space again.  I will be sharing with you the most important runner’s rules guaranteed to get you to race day ready to run without embarrassing yourself or committing runners fauz pas along the way.

Before we dive into the actual rules it is important to define “running.”  “The only rules you need to remember for running-the-verb are these:

  • Use your legs to move forward (or to avoid moving backward if you are on the treadmill.)
  • At some point, both feet must be airborne at the same time.  (Otherwise, you’re walking, shuffling, or lunging.  Or skating, if you happen to be on skates.)
  • Avoid running into things, such as holes, vehicles, structures, cacti, lampposts, fences, other animals, and large bodies of water.

There is no better way to learn then by example so here is how we followed the most basic rules on our long run yesterday:

runner's rules

Post run in South Lake Union

“Rule 1.1 HAVE FUN

You thought I was kidding when I called this the first rule of running?  No way.  I’m serious about having fun….

In fact, even when you do it improperly, running is still pretty fun (just like another animal impulse that we could mention, but won’t.)  It is inherently, liberatingly fun.  There is a fundamental joy in movement, in forward motion….

Running is fun.  Indulge this instinct.  Enjoy it.  After all, there aren’t many animal impulses we can act on in public without getting arrested.” -Steve Remy

On long runs don’t treat them as something you “HAVE” to do.  You GET to go outside and play in the sun.  SO PLAY!  Have fun with your course.  Here are some natural obstacles I found along our Saturday run around Lake Union.

Find natural obstacles along the way. Parking curbs make great hurdles for a set of bounds mid run!

The Ladies didn’t want to partake in the fun with me, but I did get my bros to join me in a couple of bounds!

runner's rules

The Bro Pho! Way to bound it up with me gentlemen 🙂

 

Everyone did stop with me though to ham it up at the wall of death!

runner's rules

The whole group

runner's rules

hamming it up

runner's rules

Nice action shot Eric!

“Rule 1.2 EXPAND YOUR DEFINITION OF FUN

runner's rules

Wendy looking strong at the top of the lake

This is a corollary to rule 1.1.  As a runner, your definition of fun–which previously might have included such activities as  visiting water parks, watching screwball comedies on DVD, and scrapbooking–must be…well, let’s call it broadened.

For runners, fun might include:

  • waking up at 5:30 a.m. to run 10 miles
  • running in blistering heat
  • running in the rain
  • running in 400-meter circles
  • feeling as if your lungs are about to explode
  • paying a race director good money for the privilege of turning your own toes black and blue
  • any combination of the above.” -Mark Remy

 

We luckily had an amazingly nice day and didn’t get to hit any of that early 5:30 a.m., blistering heat, or rainy fun.  We just got to enjoy the sun!  On days like that you may even have enough energy to jump at the end of your run!

runner's rules

Jumping for Joy that it’s over!

 

 

 

And remember if you go for a long run you can feel less guilty about finding “fun” afterwards!  You do have to refuel! 😉

runner's rules

At paragon for Sunday FUNday Bottomless Mimosas!