Running Shorts

Will you be in Cincinnati this Saturday, June 28th? If so, you should experience the Hyde Park Blast , the most fun race event in the city all year. Yeah, I said it. It's better than Flying Pig weekend, better than the Thanksgiving Day Race, better than the Heart Mini 15k. Why? Simple: because it puts all levels of endurance sports (well, cycling and running) on showcase through a block-party-like atmosphere. The day starts in the morning with a 4-mile run/walk. Who doesn't like road races? Trick question: everyone loves them. Especially in Hyde Park. Everyone runs in Hyde Park, and you can bet just about everyone will be participating in the run that morning. The run is followed by a series of kids races, ranging in distance from .1 to .5 miles. Nothing like getting 'em started young. At noon the even switches gears (pun intended) as the cycling races start. From noon until 8 pm, there are a series of crits  of decreasing category (which means increasing speed ...

File this one under "do as I say, not as I do." Runners are pretty often Type-A, borderline-obsessive compulsive personalities. We like to maximize all the performance enhancing details (nutrition, flexibility, strength, etc.) while also running more, more, more; faster, faster; faster. Except sometimes, the best thing to do is the opposite. Case in point: I haven't been running much for the past two weeks. Just some off-and-on mileage. Why? The good ol' hamstring's a little strained. In the days before the Music City Distance Carnival, I had a short tune-up workout: a 20-minute aerobic threshold run and then 10 x 200 at fast (ish) but controlled effort. And what inevitably happened? I felt really good and was psyched to race that weekend, so I ran the aerobic threshold too fast. Then I got even more pumped that I was running well and blasted the 200s too hard. I knew what I was doing was bad for my future performance, and yet I couldn't stop myself. ...

About 10 days ago I drove down to Nashville for the Music City Distance Carnival , which is a very unique event of mid- and long-distance track races. It's a really cool atmosphere that brings together youth, post-collegiate, masters, and professional runners contesting distances of 800 to 5000 meters. In an endless slog of road races, it's fun to change things up and experience the speed of the track, which I have definitely missed since college. It turns out the 'speed of the track' wasn't all that speedy for me. I ran 14:47 (I was hoping for about 30 seconds faster) and placed 12th. The good news, though, is that I didn't get lapped. I came into the race really confident after a 14:33 road 5k PR two weeks earlier, so I felt I was really primed to run 14:20. I could be happy with 14:20...it's right near my college PR, and to get back there after focusing on longer distances would be a good sign. However, it just wasn't meant to be this weekend. I...

After focusing most of the winter and spring on base fitness geared towards the Pittsburgh Half Marathon, I'm now making the transition to more shorter and faster work focusing around running a quality 5k. This is the first time in a while (maybe since college) that I'm really making a concerted effort to train high-intensity VO2max/5k specific fitness. After last summer's disappointing race in June/July, I'm really looking forward to redeeming myself. Here's what's already happened and what's on tap: Lou Cox 5k Monday, May 26 - Memorial Day, Dayton, OH. 14:33, 3rd place. Whoa. Not really expecting this. Huge road 5k PR (old one was 14:45 at this same race three years ago), and fastest time I've run since college. Ran very even, consistent splits, and maybe even a bit negative for the last mile. It was one of those races where I didn't feel all that much pop in my legs warming up, but once we got a mile in, I was able to find a good groove and p...

...Okay, now on to the play-by-play of the race. Warm-up Got up crazy early, but at this point I actually feel pretty darn good. Had my Honey Stinger waffles, hydrated with a little water, and just generally tried to stay relaxed. Also, I didn't have my normal pre-race #2 issues, so that was a pleasant surprise. Miles 1-3 Gun goes off, and I feel great. I mean, like perfect. Today's my day. First mile: 5:02. Effortless. Next mile, looking at the clock: 5:00. Third mile: 5:04. I can run this pace all day. Only problem: I'm running this all by myself. The pack of Africans and a few Americans was gone before 2 miles. There are a couple stragglers off the back, focus on getting them. Miles 4-6 Nope. Not my day. I was just kidding with that first 3 miles. The stragglers aren't coming back; actually, they're running away from me. I'm struggling to maintain low-5 pace at this point...it's gonna be a grind the second half of the race. Miles 7-10 The lone...

Before I get to the actual race, let me go through the weekend itself. I chose this race partly because of the American Development Project where they really take care of the runners. And boy did they take care of us. They treated us like athletes, making sure we had everything we needed to focus on race day. The weekend started at the race's host hotel, where the runners received a complementary hotel room. I was sharing the room with another guy doing the same thing as me...of course it was a little awkward sharing a hotel room with someone I'd never met before, but after four years of four-people-to-a-room in college, I was pretty used to it. At the host hotel there was an Athlete Hospitality suite on the top floor, stocked with water and snacks, where the elite contingent could relax and hang out. The race directors had our bib numbers at the suite, saving us the headache of going to the expo and packet pickup. For the marathoners, there was also a place for their pe...