Running Shorts

For most of the 1990s, American distance running sucked. There were a few outliers, like Bob Kennedy (sub-13:00 5,000m) and Todd Williams (15k American Record), but for the most part the depth that characterized American performances in the 1970s and early '80s completely disappeared. There are a number of potential reasons why (which may be a whole 'nother post), but suffice it to say that the '90s were a dark decade for American distance running. That all started to change with the new millennium. By the 2004 Athens Olympics, the rebirth was on  as Americans snagged two medals in the marathon: bronze for Deena Kastor and silver for Meb Keflezighi. Not only were they both Americans, but they were teammates; both trained with the Mammoth Track Club in California. That Olympics is one of my earliest memories being a fan of distance running. I was in high school at the time, just getting into more serious running with cross country and track. Seeing Americans mixing it ...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: My Achille's heel is my Achille's heel.  The same one that sidelined me a year ago has never really gotten better. It goes back and forth between 40 and 80%; though sometimes (like last spring) I've gotten a decent block more in the 85-90% range. But never has it been 100% healthy. For most of the past month I haven't been running very much. Summer training had been going decent, I was adding volume and getting more and more fit, but that unraveled as July turned to August. I got to the point with my Achilles where it began to get worse and worse, to the point that it was no better than a year ago. Most frustrating is that it's been never debilitating, but always uncomfortable. Eventually I'd be limping around after even a light workout or just aching like crazy while driving (when I couldn't move it). The tipping point was a family vacation in Florida: running-wise, my Achille's had felt more limber...

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while, but just haven't really gotten around to it. This is for anyone using the summer to gear up for a fall season of racing, whether that's a marathon, road races, or cross country. That said, this is especially for you high school and college athletes. Summer is the most important time of the season. It's when you build your base -- everything that's to come later in the fall is determined by the quality of this base. In fact, some might even say that your end-of-season peak is limited by how well you trained over the summer. Arthur Lydiard believed this. And his philosophies still form the foundation of modern-day distance training. You've probably heard (and maybe internalized) many of the common critiques of Lydiard-style training: it's old and outdated , or it's too hard, or, most common, it's just a lot of long slow distance. And low slow distance makes for long slow runners . The lat...

GEAR CHECK is another semi-regular-when-I'm-feeling-it series like the WORKOUT OF THE WEEK and various race recaps. There's a ton of different products out there marketed towards runners, so I wanted to highlight some of the things that I use and what I think about them. It might also be telling the stuff I don't use, but that's a whole 'nother topic. This trusty ol' watch came back from the dead yesterday. Running is a pretty simple sport; at least, that's the way it should be. In the modern era of mass marketing, the amount of stuff  that you're told you need  to have to be a real  runner is astounding. In my opinion, all you really need is a good pair of shoes and a watch. That's it. Of course, even then the industry will find ways to inflate your purchase. How about $160 shoes or a $300 watch? (Side note: that price for a GPS watch is in the mid-range of all available! How insane is that?!) Screw that. I prefer a watch that is reasonabl...

May 28, 2017 Burlington, VT 2:45:32 -- 17th Place Another marathon, another disaster. At least I finished this one. The Flying Pig Half beat me up more than I thought it did, and I never really recovered. Enter a marathon a little over the edge, and you'll end up with thigh smash before mile 10 and pitiful walking breaks after mile 20. But I don't want to dwell on this one too much. Lessons learned, for sure, but I'm really trying to approach my running from a much more positive mental framework. So this recap is going to be slightly different: I'm going to focus on some of the things that went well over the course of the whole spring season and then pick out some new things to work on over the summer and fall. POSITIVES Found joy in running again.  Stayed injury-free. Actually, my Achilles felt better as the season went on. Won the premier local race in an event record time. Returned to the same fitness level pre-injury. Refined what works for me in t...

Not racing for all of the last fall season got me thinking: do we race too often? Like most running-related questions, the answer is simple; but unfortunately, that's where it gets complicated. I decided to break this down into two parts with two different answers. And really, I think these parts speak to the divide between the competitive sport and the participant activity. Part one focused on high school and collegiate cross country and track athletes. This one will cover more of the road, trail, and ultra racing scene. So. Do we post-collegiate (or non-collegiate...or heck, let's just call it "open" runners) race too often? No. In fact, I don't believe we race often enough. [He writes, with a 5k last weekend and a marathon this one.] Back in the day, athletes like Bill Rodgers might race nearly every other week, at any distance from the 5k to the marathon. Seriously, scroll down to the bottom of his 1977 log -- he competed in an astonishing 26 races, in...

Flying Pig Half Marathon 1st place 1:08:32 -- event record Well, I finally finished a major Flying Pig race -- I just had to drop down to the half. Actually, I did this race more out of a feeling of local obligation than true motivation. My focus really remains on the Vermont City Marathon, which is now less than three weeks away. But a minor race can be a great tune-up for a goal race; in fact, I think it's often the best preparation. (Just wait for my next blog post to explain that.) And that's what this race really was: a tune-up, practice for the real deal in Burlington, VT. So instead of focusing on the mile-by-mile details of the race (I pretty much ran solo the whole way and won by something like three minutes), I want to focus on my plans coming into it and how successful I was at executing them. 1. Run the first 9-10 miles at a controlled effort and then shift gears to race the last 5k. On this one I was very happy with my execution. I didn...

Not racing for all of the last fall season got me thinking: do we race too often? Like most running-related questions, the answer is simple; but unfortunately, that's where it gets complicated. I decided to break this down into two parts with two different answers. And really, I think these parts speak to the divide between the competitive sport and the participant activity. The first one (this one) is a scholastic edition, focusing on high school and collegiate cross country and track athletes. The next one will cover more of the road, trail, and ultra racing scene. So. Do scholastic athletes race too often? Yes. Absolutely unequivocally 100% in the affirmative. Ok sure there are a select few elite NCAA teams who have the luxury of resting their top athletes for most of the season until conference champs and NCAAs (then I think the case could be made for racing more), but the vast majority of the rest do, in fact, race too often. Think of the high school team which, duri...

Ok wow, it's been a while. I have been running, I promise. Last fall I got so frustrated with my nagging Achilles injury that I just had to completely shut down. I got stuck in a cycle of: start running again, feel good, slowly feel that goodness deteriorate, end up back at square one needing more time off. Nothing seemed to be helping, so I finally just checked out of running entirely. After a few weeks in a walking boot, I decided to give it a cautious go one more time (this is around the beginning of November). I played it very safe, running without a schedule and entirely by feel, and by the end of December I was able to hit 60+ miles per week. Most importantly, though, I was simply enjoying running again. My goal for January and February, then, was to work in aerobic base training while gradually increasing my mileage and re-establishing some semblance of consistency.  I mostly succeeded -- my mileage didn't make it up to where I wanted it, but my base training went ...