There are people who are completely new to running, never ran a mile in their life and they just want to get started with running. They even have special programs such as the C25K (Couch to 5K) to get people running. I have ran before in my life. I actually used to run a lot. So for me to get off the couch and start running wasn’t as big of a change as it was for someone who never used a pair of sneakers for their intended purpose. But this doesn’t mean I didn’t need a plan. It just meant that I could start my newly found running career from a more advanced level.

I’m sure it’s crystal clear by now that I’m the kind of guy who likes to do everything full steam and with great attention to detail. This meant a lot of research and I spent a lot of time to figure out what it takes to run and to run better, faster and longer. So I consulted numerous websites and my best advice came from a co-worker when I told him that I would want to run a 10K race and I would need a training plan. He recommended that I would look at Hal Higdon’s training plans.

Hal Higdon is a marathoner and author who ran over 100 marathons in his life and wrote numerous books about running. He also has a great website which might look spartan but it is full of valuable information that is absolutely free! He also teaches training seminars and has interactive training plans available for those who need it. So for my 10K race I followed his 10K Intermediate plan. It’s an 8 week plan and I only had 7 weeks so I started with week 2 and went on from there.

During week 5 I got injured and had to pretty much skip week 6 but I still finished the plan and ran a pretty good 10K race at the end. After that plan I was hooked. I needed a new plan and I started on Hal’s Advanced Spring Training Plan 5 weeks ago. I’ve completed 4 weeks and doing week 5 currently. It is a pretty tough plan full of speed work and fast runs but as they say if you want to run fast you have to train fast. So this is the reason why I’m doing all the different kind of runs which might make no sense for the average runner who just run to get some fat off their tush and they put in 3-4 miles every night for the cause. I’m a bit more dedicated than that and this is why I’m doing the exercises that cause me to get blisters on my foot or leave me completely exhausted by the end of the run.

It wouldn’t be me if I wouldn’t have a log of all my runs. Well I do. And I have actually found a way to make them all public. So say hello to my new running log at http://runs.gregstransformation.com. It’s looking pretty good, it has all my logged runs in it but it has some minor issues with English and Metric unit conversions and currently it displays everything in Metric only. The software I used to display it is open source so I will make some changes to it as I have time to be a bit more user friendly with different units of measurements and correct units on some of the uploaded data that currently get doubly converted from English to Metric. It’s still a start, feel free to check it out. It’s more of a novelty for everyone else, it’s not a whole lot of interesting to look at my running logs I’m sure.

Today I started a new pair of shoes. My current pair has 62 runs and 266.8 miles on it. I have also noticed that the sole is getting a good bit worn and the mid sole is probably losing its elasticity too. So I have started a new pair with a 3 mile easy run and I will follow up with a fast hill interval tomorrow. As for what kind of shoes did I get? I actually have 3 pairs of New Balance MR1224 shoes that I bought on sale when I bought my first pair. I knew I would need them and I knew they fit me right so I stocked up on them when they were cheap. They are discontinued and I will have to buy something different once I go through all three of them but I’ll worry about that when I get to that point. I will still use my old ones for easy runs and long runs for another 100 or so miles but I’ll use the fresh one for speed and tempo runs and races.

Speaking of races, if you look at my advanced spring training week 5, you would see that I should be running a 5K race this coming weekend. And I actually am! I have just signed up for a 5K race, the Run For The Riders 5K event. I went to the running store and plopped down my $20 and signed up for the race. I also bought a nice Mizuno Creation Singlet and a Mizuno Maverick Short. Both look and feel pretty nice and I feel I just shaved off 10 seconds from my mile time. My stopwatch begs to differ but who cares? I’m running in style!