What really makes you fast?

Before I share my day with you…

I have a fun giveaway I’m going to announce tomorrow – be ready!

Runners Eats & Adventures

I ate the last of my mom’s M & M cookies last night – how sad! I think I may need to ask her for the recipe.

Today’s breakfast was pretty much a repeat of yesterday’s – gotta use up that leftover corn loaf. Warmed up with almond butter seems to be the best way to eat it. (Went back for a 3rd piece!)

Breakfast also included a green smoothie: banana, milk, greek yogurt, protein powder, cocoa powder, spinach, and ice. (I used to get grossed out by green smoothies on other blogs, but they are delicious – you really can’t taste the veg!)

I appreciated the much nicer weather today as I walked to the subway

I packed a killer sandwich for lunch at work! (If I’m going to pack a sandwich, it better be exciting. I went through a phase of eating way too many boring turkey sandwiches and it really turned me off from them).

• Boca burger
• Cabot sharp cheddar slices
• 1/2 an Avocado
• Lettuce & tomato
• Whole wheat bread

Heated up the burger and put it all together in the office kitchen. Eden’s organic chips were the perfect crunchy side.

Snacks included this orange and some grapes that made it into my mouth too quickly to be photographed.

Took a gorgeous walk after lunch today.

Pumpkin spottings!

Yet flowers are still abundant. And it was 82 degrees today. I think mother nature is torn between summer and fall. I kind of am too.

And after work I took a trip to my long lost love – Trader Joe’s.

Pantry staples I’ve been dying to replenish: red quinoa, couscous, almond milk, almond butter (!!!), blue agave, steel cut oats (new thing I’ve wanted to try).

While waiting for the T to go home, I left an Operation Beautiful note on the subway map.

Note says: All the beauty you need it already inside you. operationbeautiful.com

Dinner tonight was so delicious. Simple fried rice with garlic, onion, carrots, zucchini, egg, soy sauce, and fresh cilantro (awesome addition!) topped with fried tofu, per Emily‘s method (dried thoroughly, seasoned with salt, pepper & garlic powder). Totally went back for seconds on everything.

Runners Thoughts: what really makes you fast

Not being in training does not mean that I stop being interested in running and reading all about programs and workouts! Today I came across this article that specifically addresses how to get faster and challenges some of the popularized ideas out there…

Main points:

• Cardiovascular fitness is not a good measure of running fitness or performance.
• Strong legs are what powers you through a tough workout – not your heart.
• VO2 Max may also be a rather poor predictor of performance.
• Research shows that workouts that activate your slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscles in certain ways are better methods for improving performance (i.e. “making the muscles better at what they do”). These workouts are moderate to high intensity sessions.

Take home messages:

• For runners, using a heart rate monitor is not all that useful.
• Speed work is absolutely essential in getting faster – tempo and intervals workouts should be incorporated every week.
• Shorter, smarter long runs are better than longer, slower long runs. Example in article:

A 15 mile long slow run can quickly become a 10 to 12 mile effort as 4 miles easy, 6 miles at marathon pace, 2 miles at half marathon pace (or as fast as you are able). By the time you are done, you’ll have done more “work” than the standard easy run and you’ll be done faster!

• Know what your body needs to recover properly and do not neglect the recovery process.

I read/skim a ton of these articles per week, but a lot of them don’t really say anything new or practically useful. This one, however, I found clarifying, so I decided to share it. This other article has some specific workouts designed to increase speed.

In terms of my own running, I saw a drastic change in how fast I was able to run once I began doing intense speed workouts regularly.

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Dessert and laundry are calling my name — catch you guys tomorrow (for the giveaway)!