Running Shorts

Welp, time for end of the year lists, time for reflection, time for taking stock on the recent past. LOOKING BACK AT 2014 2014 was, from my perspective, very much a return to form. I finally got back the consistency that had been lacking in my training since college. In 2012 and 2013, I was constantly shifting between race plans and training methods. I wasn't running consistent mileage, I wasn't doing appropriate development workouts, I wasn't training with any real plan in mind. I was just following my whims of the week. But a little over a year ago I stopped writing my own workouts and got a coach to do that for me. I picked a new focus on long-term development for the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials, which gave direction to my training. I had stability in the workplace, so I could get into a regular routine of running. I focused on solid, fundamental training. And the results speak for themselves. I definitely had a few hiccups (summer hamstring woes) and a few disa

Winter is the time most people relax and take stock in their fall racing season. Whether training for a marathon, a cross country season, or even a series of road races, racing often winds down as the temperatures drop and the days get shorter. Thanksgiving often mark a last hurrah, one final chance to see what you've got in your legs, before retreating back into the winter slog of base training for the spring. Not for this guy. I still have one final race on my schedule this training block: the USA Half Marathon Championship hosted by the Houston Marathon on January 18th. As it's name suggests, it's one of the premier half marathons for American athletes. I'll most likely be racing against some runner named Meb and other people like him. I'm going to get my ass kicked, and it's going to be fantastic. Wait...what? This race attracts the best runners in the country, and -- just being realistic -- I know I'm not quite at the level where I can mix it

Sorry for the delay in getting this post out, I don't really have any good excuse. Holidays and such, I guess. Anyway, for the third time in the last four years, I finished second . (The one time I wasn't second, I was fourth.) So that's disappointing in a Phil Mickelson-esque way. My time this year was 30:48, which was a solid 30 seconds better than last year, but about 30 seconds slower than I ran earlier this fall at Minster (which, admittedly, is a much faster course with much more competition). Coming down the home stretch. The race this year was over by the first mile. By that point, Team USA Minnesota member and eventual winner Eric Finan had started to gap the rest of the lead pack. Going up Liberty hill around the mile and a half mark, that gap became a gulf, and all that was left was a race for second. By the time I was struggling up Liberty, I realized today just wasn't my day. So what can you do? Pack it in, gut it out, and don't let anyone

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer archive - http://www2.cincinnati.com/blogs/running/category/100-footprints/ On Thanksgiving morning in 1908, 21 men took off from the Fort Thomas Central YMCA, winding their way through Northern Kentucky and across the Ohio River into Cincinnati. 18 men reached the finish outside the downtown YMCA at 7th and Walnut streets. The winner that year -- as he was for the next four installments -- was Lovell Draper, covering the approximately 7-mile course in 37:15 and winning by over three minutes. (For some perspective, in that 7-mile race, Draper's 10k split would have been about 33:00, which would have been good enough for 11th place in last year's race , out of 14,259 total finishers.) While some cities celebrate Thanksgiving with a parade of floats, balloons, and bands, Cincinnati celebrates the holiday with a parade of runners. This is the abridged story of a local tradition. Before I go any further, the astute reader might point out that,

I love working at a running store because I get to talk about running all day. I get to meet some really cool people and hopefully help them reach their personal goals. I also get a lot of questions...a lot of the same questions. For the sake of some lighthearted humor, here are some of the most common questions (or general comments) and my would-be responses. Of course this is sarcastic and all in good jest, so don't take any offense to it. "I'm not a runner, but..." You say you're not a runner? Then why did you come to a running specialty store? If you put one foot in front of the other in a repetitive fashion, then you're a runner. "Are you a runner?" No. I'm just working at a running store, standing on running shoes, and wearing a shirt that says "Run" on it. But no, I'm not a runner. "Do you work here?" Ok, I know I look like one of the high school kids I'm certified to teach, but believe it or not I

Here's my recap of this past weekend's half marathon at Indy Monumental . Results are here . First I'll do the play-by-play, and then I'll give my overall reactions to the race. The day started off with less-than-ideal conditions -- starting line temperatures hovering around freezing with a steady (sometimes gusting) wind. It was a solid 10-15 degrees colder than it has been at any point this fall, so I was bundled up with a hat, gloves, and a light long sleeve under my singlet. Fun stuff. If the temperature and wind did anything, though, they slowed the really really fast guys down. So instead of people gunning for times below 1:04, everyone was content to settle into the pack and run relatively relaxed 5:00 per-mile pace (which is a 1:05:30 finishing time). From the time the gun went off, there was a pack of close to 15 guys, all running consistent 5:00 miles. Our first mile was 5:04, and then at every next mile interval we were right on pace (give or take a few s

WHAT'S THE WORKOUT? 20 minutes at aerobic threshold pace (slightly slower than marathon pace), then 6 x 40 second hill repeats at 3k effort, and finally 4 x 200 at about 34 seconds. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? This is a classic tune-up workout. With a race in a week, I don't need to get in any more fitness work, but it's a good idea to reinforce some of the positive steps I've made through my training. I'm a very aerobic runner (meaning I respond best to long-distance effort-based work. The 20-minute AT (run near my marathon pace), is enough to stimulate my aerobic fitness without taxing my body too much (in a typical base-building session, the AT would be 60 minutes). The hills and the 200s are very similar in purpose to one another. While the AT targets aerobic endurance, the latter two parts of the workout target the opposite end of the fitness spectrum -- neuromuscular coordination. They reinforce efficient running form (especially the hills) while improving run

As I write this, a crisp wind blows a pre-winter chill in from the north. Roiling grey clouds cover the sky as leaves float to the ground signalling the fiery death summer. It's jacket weather. Better yet, it's distance-running weather. Training in the Midwest, you get to deal with four distinct seasons -- which all, in a way, lend themselves to a periodized schedule over the course of the year. Winter represents the hibernation, where the college athletes (and increasingly, high schoolers as well), take to the indoor track. Runs in the gusty winter chill are endured, not enjoyed, knowing they'll make for a stronger, tougher athlete come spring. Spring is the rebirth. As the flora comes back to life, so too do athletic aspirations. Rising from the winter doldrums, we step on the track once again, eager to unleash the speed that has been pent up all winter. As May comes and goes, Spring merges into Summer, and training takes different paths for different runners. F

This is the first in a hopefully-weekly segment covering the different workouts I'm doing as part of my race preparation. Before I get too far involved, I should mention my basic philosophy on workouts: no one workout is going to make your season; however, one overdone workout can ruin it . The key is to keep everything within a certain level of moderation (as Arthur Lydiard put it, "Train, don't strain") so that each successive workout builds on the previous one. A successful program of workouts should fit together like pieces of a puzzle, building the race you want to run when you want to run it. That said, I thought it'd be cool to give you an idea of the type of work I'm doing, the rationale behind it, and how it all fits together over the course of a season. WHAT'S THE WORKOUT? 4 x 2 Mile at around my lactate threshold (aka, tempo) pace on a bike path. Negative split the intervals as follows: #1 - 10:05-10:10; #2 - 10:00-10:05; #3 - 9:55-10:00; #4

So far this has been the fall of progress. Or, maybe, a return to form. Yesterday, as part of small-town Minster, Ohio's annual Oktoberfest, I ran their 10k in a new road PR of 30:12.5. As a testament to how competitive the race was, I only finished 7th (the winner finished in 28:33). Coming off of base training this summer, I've seen: a solid 10k win in 31:10 (faster than my time from last year's Thanksgiving Day Race), a runner-up 30-second PR at Hudy (my old PR was from 2011), and most recently a road PR in the 10k (my previous PR was 30:40 from 2011), which is a full minute faster than a month ago and is near-equivalent to the sub-30 times I was running on the track in college (track times are almost always faster than road race times). It's been a few years, but my training finally seems to be clicking and I'm seeing the results. As for the race yesterday, I had cautiously optimistic hopes going into it. I pushed too hard in training last Friday-Saturd

2:02:57. It's official: the marathon has been figured out. The marathon has always had an element of mystique about it: super fast speeds for super far distance. No one really knew how to race it, and even fewer people truly understood how to train for it. In case you hadn't heard, Dennis Kimetto broke the former world record of 2:03:23 in Berlin this weekend, running the above-mentioned time. Oh yeah, and the second-place finisher, Emmanuel Mutai, also ran under the old record time, finishing in 2:03:13. How ridiculous has the marathon become in the past 5 years? Here are some stats: 2:02:57 is 4:41 pace per mile and 14:34 pace per 5k. My road 5k PR is 14:33 . One of his 5k splits was 14:09, faster than I've ever run a 5k (I ran 14:13 on the track once in college). The second place finisher (2:03:13) also broke the previous world record. Talk about bittersweet: you just ran a world record!...But you finished second, so it doesn't actually count . Kimetto

As per my fall racing schedule from last week, I raced the Hudepohl 14k this past weekend. It's a fun kickoff to America's largest Oktoberfest celebration. The race starts at right outside of the Moerlein Lager House, between the Reds and Bengals' stadiums. Heading west at the start, the course basically makes on giant loop around downtown and Over-the-Rhine, passing many historic breweries and -- of course -- a couple killer hills. Like the past couple years, the competition was a little sparse; however, Michael Eaton from Louisville showed up again. He won last year by about a minute, (and is a 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier) so I knew I'd have a tough race ahead of me. I finished second to Eaton in 43:36 and couldn't be happier. The race went out fairly conservative the first mile, and then I tried to get into a good groove and ratchet the pace down a little bit. From the start it was just the two of us, and it would remain that way for the durat

So now that it's mid-September (what?!), I just realized I should probably post my planned fall racing schedule. My last race of the spring was the Hyde Park Blast ( read about it here ), which ended on a bit of a downer. Trying to push through a nagging hamstring injury, my spring races didn't end as well as I hoped they would. Since then, I've taken about 2 months away from racing, instead getting in some quality training. My hamstring is fully recovered and healthy, my mileage is back up in the 90+ per week range, and I'm running regular 20 mile long runs, 60 minute aerobic threshold runs, and hill repeats. Training's going great, and I've been feeling great during it. With that said, I've actually technically started my fall season. Two weekends ago, I ran the Zero Prostate Cancer 10k here in Cincinnati. This year was the first year this race has offered prize money: $250 for both the men's and women's winner of the 5k and the 10k. I chose t

File this one under more-serious-less-fun articles . It's kind of depressing, but it's something that I'm passionate about and feel needs to be discussed. If you haven't read about it already, the New York Times wrote a pretty good summary of what's going on in the NCAA. And there's more about it here . But let me just give you the TL;DR version: the athletic departments of the Big 5 conferences (Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12, SEC, and ACC) now have the authority to essentially play by their own rules - they can pay athletes a living stipend, increase the value of their scholarships, give out health insurance, let players contact agents, etc. From the second article, it also gives athletes the rights to royalties that the NCAA was making off of their likenesses (mostly from video games). Sounds great, right? More power to the athletes, let them get paid, stick it to the man! And it is great... if you play football or basketball, and if you play one of those spo

I've been on a real nutrition kick lately. I mean, not like actually eating well (yet), but more learning about how to properly fuel the body for athletic performance. Consider it the precursor to better eating habits. For most of my running career I haven't been too concerned with nutrition. And, quite frankly, for 5k and 10k performance it's not really that  important. Your body can run a decent 5k off of cookies and candy. As I've been getting into marathon training, however, I'm starting to realize that everyday nutrition is much more important to your performance. Like I've told some of my friends who've also gotten into marathons, you can gut out a quality 10k, but you can't fake a marathon. Even though I'm not running a marathon in the near future, I'm certainly doing marathon training...hence the nutrition kick. So what's the difference between a 5-10k and a marathon? Without getting too scientific and complicated, it's actual

Ross Park hosts one of Cincinnati's hidden gems: a crushed gravel track. When it comes to an extensive, linked trail system for soft-surface running, Cincinnati is pretty lacking. There are lots of small trails that are really good for little snippets of a run, but not a whole lot in the way of trails for the full distance of a run. Enter Ross Park. Now, every track is by default a soft surface, but there's just something more natural and primal about running on dirt and gravel. I think it's the steady crunch of the rocks underneath each stride that really does it. Ross Park is nestled right at the interchange of I-75 and the Norwood Lateral, in the city of St. Bernard. The track itself is tucked behind a baseball field and tennis courts, held off the highway by a concrete barrier. So it's not the most scenic area...but it's a gravel track! It looks short. Looking at it and running on it, I could swear it's not a full 400 meters; but accordingly to online m

500 teams. 420 kills. 196 miles. 24 hours (+1 minute, 55 seconds). 12 runners (or, you know, 9...) 3 hours of sleep. 2 vans. 1 Keg of Gatorade. That's a Ragnar. But in all seriousness, a Ragnar Relay is a long-distance, non-stop team relay race. A team of 12 people (or 6, for an Ultra team [or 9, if you're us and couldn't fill out a full 12]) passes a bracelet from one runner to the next, continuously, until you cover the entire distance. The teams are split into two vans, so that each person in van 1 runs a leg of about 3 to 9 miles, then passes off to the next person, and so on, until everyone in the van has run once -- then you pass off to van 2 and they run their legs. Then repeat the process two more times, so that everyone runs a total of three times. Ragnar is just one of the companies that hosts races all over the country (ours was in Washington state). One of the most well-known long-distance relays is Hood to Coast in Oregon. Closer to home,

I'm not a cyclist. I'm not a cycling fan. I've never ridden in a cycling race, and I couldn't name many of the top cyclists in the world. I spent no more than $250 on a used road bike, which I use more for commuting than training. For 49 weeks out of the year, I could care less about cycling. But for the other three weeks, it's all I have on TV. The Tour de France is awesome, and NBC Sports Network's coverage of it is fantastic -- enough to make a fan out of me, at least for a few weeks. For four to five hours a day, for 21 straight days, they broadcast and cover each stage live. And you're telling me we can do the same thing for two-hour footraces only three times per year? (Chicago, New York, Boston) Here's what, to me, makes the Tour so compelling to watch: 1. The commentators are incredibly well researched and knowledgeable about the race course and the riders in the field. They know everyone and their results (and they let you know), not jus

Damn. This was a fast field. The course isn't really all that fast...it's four loops with one deceptive hill each loop (which seemingly gets bigger every time around) and one 180-degree turn (which kills all momentum). And yet...the winner ran 14:00. That is quick. About 30 seconds quicker than the winner usually is here. This was by far the deepest field in the Blast, and (with the exception of the Chicago and Boston marathons) one of the fastest fields I've ever raced against. Which, of course, is the reason I love the Blast. Because the field was so fast, I can't say I'm too disappointed with my race. I ran 15:20-something to place just outside the top-10 (I can't say for certain, because I can't find the official results anywhere). As the leaders took off crazy fast, I ended up running most of the race on my own. I did finish in sight of 2:13-marathoner Craig Leon , so I can't feel too let down about this one. That said, I really wanted bet