Running Shorts

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...

For those of you deep in the running industry, you may have heard the story that's rocking the US domestic track and field scene. For those of you who haven't read about it, Nike is suing 800m runner Boris Berian for breach of contract. Letsrun has great coverage of the story; here's a link to it. (Sidebar: When is there not  some off-track story rocking the track world? Jeez.) I'm not going to go into my opinions on the story or rehash any of the details here, but I think it brings up an important issue in the sport that everyone wants but no one actually talks about: sponsorship . Every athlete enters to the post-collegiate world wanting some sort of sponsorship, even though just the word "sponsorship" has a nebulous definition. Does it mean a full, professional-scale salary? Gear and a small stipend? Performance bonuses? A pair of free shoes here and there? A logo on a jersey? The real definition is all of the above, which is incredibly confusing. E...

Nerd Alert: in this (hopefully regular) series of posts - 'HISTORY OF RUNNING' - I hope to merge two of my interests: history and running. I am a history teacher, after all. Athletics is one of the oldest sports in the world, and it's modern structure was standardized for the 1896 Olympic revival. In the 100+ years since then, training methods have evolved a lot, and yet...we can still learn lessons from past greats. This is my attempt to analyze history and apply lessons to today. Why Start with Bill Rodgers? Rodgers' training logs from 1973-1977 are posted online. While so many elite runners like to keep their training secret, a huge chunk of Rodgers' formative training is posted online for anyone to read. Check it out here . Bill Rodgers is the epitome of the citizen-runner who led the running boom in the 1970s. He trained his butt off for years on end without lucrative sponsorships or prize money (often while working a school job), just for the opportunity...