Blogs : Nate Jenkins

Training June 9 to 15

Monday Noon woods 10, 1:11:49, tot. 10

               XT Swedish ball hamstring curls, core work, Peronous and Achilles stuff, Pool

                     w/up and 17x1 min w/ 15 seconds rest, c/down

Tuesday AM woods 10, 1:09:31, tot. 10

               Saw mika for massage/treatment

               XT Swedish ball hamstring extensions, core stuff, peronous and Achilles stuff,

                     shin drill

Wednesday AM woods 10, 1:11:08 tot. 10

                    XT shin drills, perounous and Achilles stuff,

Thursday travel to Peoria, IL. Took day off to hopefully help heel heal.

Friday AM jog the course  plus a little bit, with Josh Moen, Josh Eberly, Ed Moran,

                   started with Elva Dryer, Samia Akbar, and another women who’s name I

                   forget, was able to do some strides after first time on my toes in almost three

                   weeks, tot. 6-

Saturday 4AM 21 min shakeout w/ Moen, Sheehan, Eberly tot. 3

                6AM 3 w/up w/ group, strides ect.. Race steamboat 4 mile 11^th place, 19:14, I

                          got lucky cause it went out real slow but man I struggled anyway but heel

                          was fine, splits 4:44.0, 9:26.1(4:42.1), 14:21.8(4:55.8), 5k-14:52,

                          19:14(4:53), 3++ cool down tot. 11

Sunday AM 12 mile “boredom run” in Peoria with Illinois valley striders and elite field

                     from race, 1:08:39 tot. 12

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1:41 AM, June 17, 2008 .. Posted by David

I just checked one last time to see if you responded, I really enjoy your commentary, you seem to be really knowledgeable on a variety of topics related to running and physiology.

Hey nate, please disregard that last negative comment by someone. I admit that our sport is for more gore oriented individuals but we do lead normal lives. Your not wasting your life, your just committed to one your life\\\'s passions. You see in our western culture we tend to fill our lives with temporary things usually in material form so that we can make our selves feel better for inner void. Some of us sometimes do not want to think long term and invest our heart and soul into something because it takes to long, or its to challenging.We need to embrace life's challengers. A lot of people die wishing they could have achieved something great, or they had at least tried to go all the way. I'm not exactly sure which runner said this but I think it goes something like"I will reach for the moon, and even if I don't get there, I will be among the stars"

Good Luck Nate

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1:43 AM, June 17, 2008 .. Posted by Dave

few typos there sorry,

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7:44 AM, June 17, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

if you went out on a saturday night and went to the beach now and then you would be living the dream, and look back as an old man and say you seized the day. the comment above is bang on, apparently you shouldnt be passionate about something unless its drinking with mates and socialising.
fair play lining up to race, racing when you know your going to be sub par shows your in it for more than a mark on the clock.your right on the time off thing, if i can run, i will run, if i stopped every time i got an ache or pain id never get out of the door.

shoes

11:59 AM, June 17, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Nate,
<br>
<br>I have been reading the past few responses to the shoe questions. I have another question for you. How do you recommend a person switch to a light neutral shoe? I\'ll use myself as the example I am currently running in the trigon guide from sauconny, so not an overly motion contolling shoe but does have some stability. I am 5\'5\" about 160lbs. What is the procedure to switch, I would imagine one would be sore in different spots when going from a stable cushioned shoe to a lightweight shoe. Also do you feel stability is completely uncessary? I see from previous posts that you use the tangent, that has slight stability in it? Thanks for all the info! Keep up the hard work, it will pay off!

living the dream

1:02 PM, June 17, 2008 .. Posted by nateruns

I guess I need to stop whining on this thing. I've had a rough winter/spring and its taken a little more mentally to endure it but if you think that going out drinking a few more times a month or getting some job where I can chase money instead of excellence is going to make me happy or that short term fun or good times of a late night of chasing girls at the Brewery are in anyway comparable to the joy that I get from a cool morning run on an road in Ireland, or the chance to pass a legend in the home stretch of the biggest race of my life in front of tens of thousands of screaming people or doing a progression run in a park in Tokyo. Or even just the groove feeling of floating along at 5:20 pace at the end of a sunday long run and not feeling it all just going along feeling like I could hold my breath and still feel good, well then I feel a little sorry for you and I feel bad that I haven't made clear how much joy I get from what I do.
Now each person has to choose what they want out of life but as for me I choose to find the limits of my body and my soul. There is no comparison between the b.s. instant gratification joy that you can by or get for free and without effort to the true deep seated powerful payoff that you get when you had to endure and bleed to get it. Its the the difference between a drunken hook-up and life long true love. Simple there is no comparison.
Now onto the shoe question, are you healthy and happy with your shoe now? If yes then don't fix what ain't broke. If not go by your self a lighter shoe or by the trigon rides instead of guides. But for me to say based on your hight and weight that this shoe or that shoe is right for you would be crazy. Honestly both those shoes are fine because they have a neutral last so if you don't need the post in the guide you won't notice it.

Summer running

3:02 PM, June 17, 2008 .. Posted by Ruben

Hey Nate

Good to see you back running. I think you should come down to Beantown! Rex and I got 2 running loops we'd like to show you. One in Newton and another one in Dorchester. You will not be dissapointed. I plan on coming to Lowell on weekends to get put in the hurt box when you do your long runs. Stay healthy.

Ruben

cigna 5k- August 9-Manchester, NH

11:49 PM, June 17, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Nate, I think you should hit this one. Flat fast loop.
Don't say the short stuff isn't you. I watched you win the westord 5k last year on that crazy hilly course. Some serious talent usually shows at this. You do have the speed!!!

Cigna

12:14 AM, June 18, 2008 .. Posted by nateruns

I am actually looking for a race in the middle of August and I have been looking at either Cigna, Bridge of Flowers 10k or perhaps the America's Finest City Half in San Diego.
As far as being fast I'm pretty sure I only ran like 14:52 at Westford and that course wasn't that bad. Plus I was racing a good bit of short stuff around that.

Untitled Comment

1:54 AM, June 18, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Nate, have you always been a such a talented runner, I read your training and its pretty intense stuff. When did you start running and did it come natural to you?

Also, I want to learn more about running. What are some the your favorite books that you would suggest?

Thanks Man

developement

3:18 AM, June 18, 2008 .. Posted by nateruns

I ran off and on in elementry school but not too much, 10 to 15 miles a week. I started running on the varsity xc team in 7th grade, we had a jr/sr. high school. I ran year round for the first time in 8th grade and as a freshman I ran 10:20 and 5:03, so I had some talent but I really struggled in our program of all intervals all the time. I finished HS with PR's of 4:32 and 9:47 for the full mile and two mile.
In college I struggled heavily with injuries, after running 8:58 and 15:40 in dec. of my frosh year I missed all but one season over the next 3 years finally running healthy my academic sr. year i ran 14:56 and 31:20 something. During grad school I used my fifth year of eligibility, it was my second year pretty much healthy and I ran a 30:55 xc 10k and a 14:31 5k indoors. I had a small injury outdoors, I only missed 1 week but it was the week of Penn and I couldn't get back on my toes in times to run New Englands so I didn't get any PR's outdoors or qualify for Nats. After that I started coaching myself and did the Lydiard thing for the next couple of years and made some mistakes but over the next two years I ran as many as 170 plus miles weeks and tons of weeks over 140. I messed up in a lot of ways and i ended up running 1:07:28, 29:00 for 6 miles(about a 30 min 10k), but really didn't see the improvement I wanted to. But I did a cycle for my first marathon and started with the canova stuff and ran a low 1:04 half and a 2:15 marathon in feb. of 2006. I had a couple of problems after that with minor injuries, I never missed more then a week but I had reduced training for a few stretches and missed some races then in jan. of 2007 i got mono and missed 10 weeks with nothing at all. After which I was completely unfit, unable to run under 25;00 for 5 miles. So from mid march on I slowly reclaimed my fitness and then ran the 7th at the trials.
so thats my development so far. I would say I always loved to run but that doing it well didn't come natural to me at all.
Good books, dick beardsley's staying the course, renato canova's marathon book, bill rodgers autobiography, once a runner, running with the legends, ron daws self made olympian if you can get a copy. Train hard win easy the kenyan way

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8:51 PM, June 18, 2008 .. Posted by The RealRiverhawk

If nate was faster i heard Sacony would give him some extra gear to give to me

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3:06 AM, June 19, 2008 .. Posted by lost runner

nate, what do you suggest to people who have stopped running after high school and cant stay really competitive and run in college? I'm in college and I ran in HS for a few years. I absolutely loved it, it was the greatest thing I ever found but I quit in my junior year because I was burned out, my coach would put me in 4 races a meet from 800m to 2 mile, and on top of that, we would do workouts like 20x400m and 5x1 mile, and more intervals, we rarely got rest days.

Is there really much reason to run anymore?, obviously I don't have the talent to become an Olympic athlete, so is there a reason to stay on a training plan now .my buddies tell me there pointless and no one cares. that hurts

But I tell them its a beautiful in its own unique way, it gives this feeling of reconnecting with nature, but they think I'm nuts.

just run

12:02 PM, June 19, 2008 .. Posted by nateruns

why give a **** what your friends think? you aren't trying to run for them. You seem to already know the answer to your own question. You like to run, they run. It will make you happier healthier and a better more focused person. 99.99% of runners are not doing it to be truly competitive does that mean they are wasting there time? God no! Go find a club run some local races and you'll meet some great people have a wonderful time and get healthier stronger and yes faster too.
Also if you coach was young guy who has a future in the sport send him a letter/email with what your experience was and a few links to resources for better training and maybe you'll be able to help prevent others from having the same negative experience you had.