Running Shorts

Disclaimer: This is a history post...I am a history teacher, after all. You're about to get a history lesson. Fair warning. Last year around Thanksgiving, I wrote a brief cumulative history of Cincinnati's 100+ year-old Thanksgiving Day Race . It's a great local tradition that I look forward to racing every year; however, it turns out that most cities and towns have their own turkey trot traditions. (Heck, Buffalo's race is even older than Cincinnati's.) For thousands of runners across the country, road races are a Thanksgiving tradition. We don't often think of them like that, but the community turkey trot belongs in the conversation with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and football as Thanksgiving staples. As it turns out, we can trace the legacy of running (racing) all the way back to the first Thanksgiving in 1621. Running has a stronger tie to the initial holiday than stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc - foods which weren't served at t...

So I haven't posted much in the last month or so. Truth be told, I haven't had much to post about. Here's how it's been going: I posted after US Half Champs that I was taking a much-needed break, which I did and it was fantastic. Rest is a very powerful training tool, and something that most people seriously neglect. After a week or so of not running (I typically get antsy taking any more than a week off), I started back up fresh and super-motivated. Finally, after getting my training back on track last year and with the Olympic Marathon Trials a year away (at that point), I was committed to return to the marathon two-year after my last one. I knew I could build off of my half marathon fitness and throw down a real solid marathon. Maybe not an OT qualifier, but at least a positive experience under my belt to prepare for the trials. I was going to do the Flying Pig Marathon , here in Cincinnati. While I have been critical of that race in the past, they are makin...

So I've been waiting a few days to post this so I can sort of digest the result and deconstruct the race a bit. I wanted to take a step back and look at it analytically, not emotionally. Anyway, here's the result: 56th place, 1:05:45. No Olympic Trials B Standard. See official results here. The immediate (and lingering) gut emotional response is one of disappointment. That's why I wanted to wait to write up this race recap. In my mind, this whole fall training cycle was geared towards peaking for this specific race. When I surprised myself and ran 1:05:28 in Indy a few months ago, I figured I set myself up perfectly to improve at this race -- 10 more weeks of training and there's no reason my fitness shouldn't improve. I even hit a killer workout just over two weeks before the race: 4 x 2 mile in 10:00, 9:56, 9:52, 9:50; the fastest I'd ever done that workout and 4:57 per mile (sub-1:05 pace) on lockdown. And my race splits started right where I wanted the...

Just wanted to get in one last post before heading to Houston this weekend. Tapering's been going well, and I had my last workout of this season on Tuesday: 4 x 1k at tempo pace (I averaged right around 3:05, which is near 5:00 pace, which is near goal half marathon pace). Nothing too crazy for that workout, just something to get the legs turning over and feeling race pace. Like any diligent racer, I've also been religiously checking the weather in Houston. It looks like, compared to the past couple weeks here (highs in the single digits, below-zero wind chills), it should be just about perfect down there. A nightly low around 45 warming up to 65 by mid-day (so it should hover right around 50 degrees for the race), with no precipitation in the forecast and winds below 10 mph? Can't ask for anything better than that. And of course, what pre-race post would be complete without the shameless self-promotion? The race starts at 6:55 am Central Time, so for everyone in the ea...

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...