Wednesday, July 08, 2009

CAGE THE BLACKBIRD

Just when I thought I wouldn’t have anything to write about today, a red-winged blackbird swooped out of the sky and scared the shit out of me.

This morning I was running an easy 8 miles, minding my own business, listening to my new favorite band - Cage the Elephant - when, all the sudden there was a loud hiss in my ear. Now I’ve had these effin’ birds dive-bomb at me before, but I can’t ever remember having one fly right next to me and hiss in my ear. Just once I’d like to take a tennis racket to one of them. And don’t even get me started on the geese…

I think I’m going to change the “Summer of Chad” to the “Summer of Brad”. Hmm, that’d be SOB – maybe that’s not the best option. I’ll keep thinking about it. In the meantime, here are some more Hudson-isms;

Key sharpening workouts are most effective when they closely simulate the speed and endurance demands of your race.

The aerobic system is only one of two major physiological factors in the running performance equation. The neuromuscular system (stride power, stride efficiency, and fatigue resistance) is the other major factor.

The adaptive running approach to aerobic development is not maximize aerobic development, possibly at the expense of neuromuscular fitness factors and/or specific endurance, but to cultivate just the right level of aerobic support to achieve race goals.

There are three specific jobs you must accomplish in your training to develop the level of aerobic support you need to achieve a peak-race goal. First, you must build and maintain adequate running volume, as average weekly running volume is the strongest influencer of aerobic fitness. Second, you must develop a sufficient level of raw endurance to comfortably cover the distance of your peak race. Third, you must perform workouts that are more and more challenging to your aerobic system as the training cycle unfolds.
I’m pretty confident that my neuromuscular system is pretty much dormant. So I hope there’s a lot of room for improvement. Again, that’s one of the reasons from switching for just a pure mileage goal for the summer. It’s also part of the reason for switching from such programs as Pfitz and Daniels this time around.

Quote of the Day;

"It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” – Theodore Roosevelt

3 comments:

  1. I had this same thing happen to me last year, scared the absolute shit out of me. My bird dive bombed and clawed/grabbed my hair, thankfully it didn't get scalp!

    And ditto on geese, they scare the crap out of me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Me too, on the black bird thing. Freaky.

    Keep the Hudson-ism's coming. I'm incorporating the hill sprints into my training. Might incorporate a little more if anything you post sounds interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had "Aint No Rest for the Wicked" stuck in my head while running the Afton 50K. Cage the Elephant's got some catchy songs!

    ReplyDelete