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. 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...

In trying to capture the running spirit of days past, I've been especially interested in reading about some of the historic greats. Ah who am I kidding? I'm always interested in learning about running history, but allow me to indulge myself a bit. My interest in doing this particular one was piqued after reading a thread on the r/running  subreddit (yes, I'm a redditor) that was about New Balance shoes. New Balance recently launched a new line of shoes named " Vazee ," and the poster mentioned he had no idea where that name came from. Turns out the name is in reference to a French slang term, " vas-y ," which essentially means "Go!" or "Go for it!" Having worked at a running store, I'd heard this spiel before, but I had to learn more. Not only is the name a fancy French word, but it is also a reference to a popular cheer for former mile world record-holder Michel Jazy (the rhyme really is catchy, it's easy to see why it be...

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...

In 2013, I ran the Boston Marathon, finishing in 2:28:28 for 67th place. I was student teaching and training on inconsistent 60-70 mile weeks. Even though I wasn't in great marathon shape, that race still stands as my personal best. For comparison's sake, here are some historic results of similar placings (Boston's archived results are nearly impossible to find - I'm not even sure they exist online). 1993: 67th place - 2:32:01 1989: 50th place - 2:30:14 1983: 83rd place - 2:19:51 (a 2:30 would have been over 300th place!) 1980: 54th place - 2:25:47 1979: 50th place - 2:19:28 (source: http://www.coolrunning.com/boston/results3.htm) The general trend seems to be that as we look at results from further in the past, race results actually get faster! How does that make any sense? Since then, training methods have improved, performance technology has improved, prize money has improved; so why haven't we improved? While road races have flourished in the dec...

...is an Ohio guy named Bob Schul. Sure, you know all the American greats: Ryun, Shorter, Pre, Rodgers, Salazar, Joanie, Webb. Maybe you even know of some of the more obscure stars: Mills, Kastor, Lindgren, etc. But how much do you really know about Bob Schul, the only American to ever win Olympic gold at 5,000m  -- which he did while also coming into the race as the favorite and world #1 at the time? The race that made Schul immortal was the 5,000m at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Racing the deepest field ever assembled to that point (including Ron Clarke, Bill Baillie, Harald Norpoth, Michel Jazy, Kip Keino, and Bill Dellinger -- all running royalty), Schul waited patiently through a tactical, surging and slowing 4800 meters until unleashing an incredible kick over the final lap. To beat out nine (9!) other runners in contention at the bell, Schul closed in 54.8 for 400m and an astonishing 38.7 for the final 300 meters -- as fast, if not faster, than Mo Farah's kick in London 20...

...when you completely bomb a race? What do you do when your pour your heart and soul into training and come up empty on race day? What do you do when you're in the shape of your life, but it doesn't show in the results? What do you do when, on the biggest stage of your career, you choke? Do you give up? Do you sulk? Do you wallow in self-pity? Do you hang your head in defeat? No. Hell no. You race again. You rest, recover (physically and psychologically) and then you get after it. You don't let all that training go to waste. You don't let that disappointment consume you; you use it for fuel. You pour gasoline on the fire that's still burning -- faintly, smoldering, but still burning. You don't let that fire go out. You're better than that failed race. You race again, and again, and again; until your feet are bleeding and you physically can't push your legs one...more...stride... These races are validation and vindication. Validation for the ...

Some days you have it, some days you don't. With training and tapering, of course, you hope to have it on race day. On February 13th 2016 in the heat of Los Angeles, I most definitely didn't have it. On a day that was a battle for everybody, I was one of the many riding the struggle bus. About 60 of the 160-ish men that started the race did not finish, myself included. I made it about 10 miles into the race before calling it a day and stepping off the course. I actually felt pretty good on my short warmup jog. I fell into aerobic threshold effort real easy and was primed to go. The first two miles, even in the mass of humanity, were right about where I wanted to be: 5:25 and then 5:18, right on. I latched onto a group that felt like it was going the right effort, ready to hang on for a ride to a solid time. But by the time we got to 10k, I knew I was in trouble. That's a scary feeling when you're hurting and you realize there are still twenty miles left in the ...

So take this with a grain of salt: I haven't raced a marathon in nearly three years, and of the two that I've finished neither have been particularly noteworthy. When I was in college, the 10,000m folks on Xavier's team had a saying about the 10k on the track: "controlled aggression released over 25 laps." For those who've never had the distinct pleasure of racing the track 10,000, you're not really missing out. On a bad (or even mediocre) day, it consists of a special kind of hell involving monotonous, mind-numbing misery. When you're off your game, the laps drag by. When you're on, they fly. Keeping that attitude ("controlled aggression released over 25 laps") helped keep us present in the race. Staying patient, racing in the moment, not thinking too far ahead ( don't think about the finish before the final mile... ) combine to create a positive experience. You focus on the race at hand -- not the finish -- and the results will ...

Welp, T-minus one week 'til race day . "Are you nervous?" I've been getting this question a lot lately. I suppose every one of the 450-ish OT qualifiers has as well. Heck, anyone who's ever trained for a race has probably gotten that question from someone . "Well, are you?" The truth is, no, I'm not nervous. I've put in the work, I'm confident in the workouts and long runs I put in this winter, and I can't wait for the starting pistol to go off. Depending on how the race goes, I feel like I could reasonably run anywhere between 2:15 and 2:25. Obviously the faster end is better, but even at the slower end I'm running a significant PR and fairly respectable time. I'm in much better shape than I've ever been in before a marathon, so if I go out and race (not pace) then I know the results will take care of themselves. The truth is also, yes, I'm nervous. It's been nearly three years since I've run a marathon....

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...

Despite all the convolutions of training -- Lactate Threshold, vVo2max, cadence, foot strike, turnover, etc. etc. etc. -- running is a very simple sport: who can cover a specified distance on foot the fastest? With all the technology and tactics and strategies and training approaches we have today, it's not really any more complicated than that. So what's my training advice for you? Simple: Do what makes you feel good. That good feeling you get in training -- the endorphin high, "full of run," effortlessness; however you want to describe it -- is your body's way of telling you, "I like this. I'm responding to this. I should keep doing this. This is playing to my strengths." You wanna get better? Listen to your body. What feels good is going to be a little different for everybody. For me, I get that effortlessly good feeling during steady-state type of runs...longer, sustained workouts at an aerobically challenging but not crippling pace. I tr...

So it's been about four years in the making, but I'm now going to the Olympic Marathon Trials. I ran the B-Standard qualifying time, I've registered for the Trials race (most reasonably priced marathon ever, by the way), and I've bough the plane tickets to LA. I'm all in. Well now what? What do you do after you finally run that cathartic qualifying time? You recover, race a 10k on Thanksgiving, and then hop into marathon training. I've spent the past two weeks taking training pretty light. The first week was very unstructured, just lots of easy mileage to get my legs back to feeling good. This past week was a little bit of a step up, with more mileage and some more tune-up workouts. This coming week I'm racing Cincinnati's classic Thanksgiving Day Race (if you'll be there come say hi!), looking to get after it  a few weeks removed from Indy Monumental. I don't want to go into the race with too many expectations, but suffice it to say I'...

Hey blogosphere, sorry for the month-long hiatus. I got a little-stitious in the lead up to Indy Monumental and was worried that I was doing a little too much talking (well, writing) and not enough training. This is the race report I posted on reddit recapping the race, so I thought I'd re-post it here as well. Hey reddit! I'm mostly a lurker here, but I raced Saturday morning in Indianapolis and wanted to share. The TL;DR: I ran 1:04:33 for the half marathon, which qualifies me for the US Olympic Marathon Trials in LA this February. I also got 3rd overall, which was pretty cool, too. So anyway, here goes... But first, a shout-out to the staff at Monumental Those guys know how to put on a top-notch race. It's so refreshing to here the rhetoric coming out of the organization that says, "we're trying to be a professional event; we understand that most people want a fun event, but we also understand that some people want to come and  race  the damn thing; we...

I bombed a race this past weekend. The Mill Race Half Marathon , to be specific. I ran 1:08:17 and finished a fading third. I came into the race with high expectations. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about going to the well in workouts, specifically citing my 4-3-2 mile intervals run at 5:00 pace. Based on that effort, I knew I was ready to challenge the Olympic Trials standard of sub-1:05 -- and the plan was to go for it at the Mill Race last weekend. I had all my splits planned for the race: 5k at 15:25, 10k at 30:50, 15k at 46:15, 10 mile @ 49:35, even 12 mile at 59:30. Given past years' competition, I knew there would be some fast Africans, so the strategy was to tuck into the pack and stay as comfortable as possible, looking for the splits to stay on target. If I was on pace and feeling good at 10k, then I'd go for; if I was off pace or struggling, then I'd back off and save it for another day. So when we went through 10k at 31:15 and I was already hurting , I kn...

"Quenton, this is where you find out. This is the time and place. All the rest is window dressing. ... You can do very nearly anything. Haven't you figured that out?"                                                                                                  - Bruce Denton, Once a Runner If you've read this blog before, you know how I often preach training at a controlled effort. Strides should be run at a relaxed fast effort. Interval workouts should be finished feeling like you could do one more . Et cetera et cetera. And I stand by the philosophy that most of your training should be controlled. Most of it, but not all of it. Every once in a while -- maybe once or twice a season MAX -- you should think about running a workout where y...

In baseball, there's a term for the ideal position player: the Five-Tool Player. This player can hit for average, hit for power, run the bases fast, throw hard/far/accurately, and excel defensively. All players strive to master all five tools, but few players actually possess them. For the competitive runner, I believe, there is a similar set of five 'tools' they should strive to develop. Perhaps a better term for the runner might be 'five paces', as there are five sets of paces that runners should have in their training repertoire. These are the types of paces that should be touched on year-round, but at different intensity levels based on any upcoming race schedules. These paces -- these tools -- will help you train smarter and race faster. Here they are: A runner's five 'tools' (or paces): Easy.  This is an easy effort. Real easy. Like, laughably easy. So easy, it should feel like you're not really getting any work in. That's because y...

So this is another edition of WOTW that I didn't do, but my high schoolers did. I do think it has value for runners of all abilities though. What is the workout? Explosive hill repeats are really simple: find a hill -- something steep, preferably grass. It doesn't have to be long, just something that takes you 8-10 seconds to bound up. (If there's not a hill near you, stadium steps work as well). Then, do hill repeats: sprint up the hill as fast as you can. Visualize yourself exploding up the hill. This is an all-out, maximum, 110% effort. At the top of the hill, walk back down and then rest for 3-5 minutes before the next one. Yes, 3-5 minutes. That part's essential -- you want to be fully recovered before you start again...this is a sprinter's workout; don't try to gain aerobic fitness on these. No, no running during rest. The first time you do this workout, only do 4-6 reps. Work your way up to 10. That's it, pretty simple. Why should you do it? M...

Ok now, before I get any complaints about being arrogant or an elitist or anything like that, let me first give my definition of an "elite runner." The way I think of it, in the running world an "elite" is anyone who places competition before participation. Elite runners range the gamut from full-on professionals to the local fast post-collegiate runners; the term to me also includes high school and college xc and track athletes as well as masters and age-group competitors. More than meeting a certain time standard, being an elite runner is more about having a competitive mindset. So now that that's out of the way, let me also say this: while elite runners are often the most visible athletes to the general public, they do make up a minority of the running community. People are often intimidated or put-off by elites, thinking that the faster runners judge anyone slower than them as inferior, less worthy, "not a real runner," etc. Of course, when you a...

And by 'easy long runs' I mean long runs (no matter how long) done at an easy effort; long slow distance, or LSD is how some people term it. But first, a caveat: long slow runs still have their place in the running world, but can we please stop doing only long slow runs? LSD runs are great in two situations: 1) when you are building your mileage early on in base training, and 2) as a low-key aerobic maintenance session during your peak competition season -- your focus should be on race-specific workouts, so long runs shouldn't be enough to tire you out. At any other point in the heart of your training? Change it up. Why? Because always and only doing long easy runs is the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. Listen, I know consistency is important to train well, but so is variation. If you want to improve, you have to mix things up bit, you have to challenge yourself and push the limits of your comfort zo...

Finishing place: ??? Time: 15:10-ish (?) Photo courtesy of Shelton Graves Alright, so this was my third time doing this event, and it was by far my best performance here. In 2013 I entered in a weird limbo between marathon recovery and hard interval training, and so nothing translated to a quality race performance. Last year I had run a great race three weeks earlier, but then strained my hamstring and didn't run very much leading up to the Blast, which showed in a poor race. This year I entered in a good training rhythm after a solid block of base training. Only problem: it was a solid block of base training . I was in great fundamental shape, but not great race shape (especially a race as short as a 5k and competitive as this one). So I had to temper my expectations a bit...I knew I wasn't going to be competitive with the top runners going 14:20-30; for me at this point a sub-15 would be a great time on this course. Having those tempered expectation, I had to stay ...