Workout

Ever sense last post, I've been a little bit sore for the long run. I took Monday ,Tuesday really easy and then yesterday I decided to get a short fartlek in. A fartlek is when you do short or long burst of speed during the run with short active recovery between each interval. My fartlek was 8 by 1 min hard with 30 sec (active recovery) It was pretty short workout only taking 11 min total during the 6.5 mile run but I feel It help me with the start of a race and the burst of speed you may have to use to drop someone or try to catch someone. Fartlek I feel get me in shape the fastest and ready for races. This is my last week at 70 miles and I have to go up to 80 miles for 3 week then I'll start to try to peak for my half marathon I plan on running at the end of March. The rest of my lead up to the half marathon I want to run one or two 5k's or possible a 8k/10k if I can find one. I was going to run another 5k indoor but I think it would help me more, if I do a race outside with the cold/wind. If anyone has any comments on half marathon training or workouts that helped you please let me know!!!

Thanks Brandon

Long Run

Today was long run day, I always dread Sunday morning. I knew this meant I have to run alone and I have to go at least 11 miles. Then once I get done I feel the great. Well today I wanted to get in 13 miles, so I did my 6 mile loop that goes by my house then continued into my 7 mile High school loop. I felt great half way, so I decided that I would get a tempo run. The tempo was a 2.5 miles and I must of been going 5:45/mile or so. I was feeling the lactic acid build up , so I think it was a little to fast. I want to get ready for my half marathon for the end of march. I got up by the high school and then I hit the windy part and I just wanted to be done with the run. I remembered the article I read in Runners World about Kara Goucher the other day and how Salazar her coach tells her different words like fighter , and I actually though of that on my run and it helped me fighter past the pain of the tempo and wind. Once I got to were I new I could finish all the mental part was easy. I've always trained like a half-marathoner while in college with averaging 70-90 early season and 80-110 during summer but now that I am getting to actually race a half, It's pretty tough getting in the hard V02 workouts.
I finished the run and felt great, probably could have done another 2-3 more miles but I didn't want to force anything so I ended it at 13 mile (1:21:25) Pace 6:16. I wore my Playmakers jacket and Brooks switch shoes.
Later
Brandon

Me, Myself and I

Hello everyone, this is my first blog and I'm going to dedicate it to get back to running fast. I plan on writing about my training goals, training runs, races, my daily workouts and the difficultly I may I have. I'm going to let everyone know right now I am a terrible speller so there will be spelling errors so I apologize right now.

I want to start off with a little info about myself. My name is Brandon Johnson, I am from around Lansing Michigan. While in high school I was ok runner for averaging 20 miles a week. I really didn't care till my junior year of high school when I broke 5 min in the mile. My Personal records were 17:10 (5k cross country), 800 (2:04) Mile (4:40) and 2 mile was 10:55. Then I went off to Saginaw Valley State University were I feel I didn't deserve to run because a 4:40 miler should be running in college but I guess I improved and by my junior year I got a scholarship for running and ended my college running with a 4:25 mile, 8:41 (3k) 15:03 (5k) 25:38 cross country 8k, 31:10 outdoor track 10k personal records. My junior and senior year we qualified for cross country nationals and placed 5th and 11 th as a team. Now I've been injured the last 2 1/2 years and i'm trying to get back into it slowly and hopefully healthy. I've been slowly getting up the mileage and doing tempos and fartlek and trying to get up the strength. (I'll talk more about that later in a different post.)

I also am a Cross Country coach at my local high school and I love it. I want to help these kids improve and hopefully they will get to experience what I got to in college athletes and possible get a running scholarship. I've been at OHS for two years now and I've had 3 different student athletes qualify for states one being All-State two straight years. Last year the girls team was 1 point away from qualifying for states which was a killer but hopefully it will give them a huge goal to go after. It's been at least 5-7 years sense the girls made states and it's been 15 + for the guys. I just got offered the Middle school Assistant coaching position also, so that will help with getting them ready and stealing them from other fall sports haha ...at least I hope I can !!!.

I also run for a few different stores/companies the last couple years. First Playmakers shoe store in Okemos Michigan , It's been in runners world and few other magazine as a top running store in the country. I recently been getting some help fro Gu energy and Brooks ID program. Oh, I almost forgot, I wear test shoes for Runners World which is awesome because you all know shoes are really really expensive.

Well I think that pretty much everything about me in terms of running, Got to get some rest for tomorrows long run.
Peace Brandon