Running Shorts

2/26-3/04 Monday: 16 miles in 1:51:01 Tuesday: 9 mile fartlek in 56:03 Wednesday: 6 miles easy Thursday: OFF Friday: 6 miles easy + strides Saturday: 11 miles total - 5k race, 1st in 16:06 Sunday: OFF TOTAL :  48 miles in 5 days This week started well enough, I got in the long run I missed on Sunday and then a true fartlek workout on Tuesday. My plan had been to alternate longer easier days with shorter faster days in classic Lydiard fashion, and that's how this week started. I ran slow for my long run, but that's the only gear I had. For the fartlek I just ran hard for 30 seconds to 2 minutes whenever I felt like it. I felt more fatigued as the run went on, so this one was a mistake -- especially the day after the long run. I should have taken an easy day instead. I needed all easy days the rest of the week, especially since I had a low-key race that I was nervous about. I was planning on a longer marathon-effort tempo on Thursday, but I just didn...

Monday:  2 miles -- slow Tuesday: 3 miles -- slow Wednesday: Off Thursday: 8 miles Friday: 12 miles in 1:20:28 Saturday: 7 mile marathon effort tempo in 41:17 Sunday: Off TOTAL : 32 miles in 5 days Well this week was slightly less sucky. I had made up my mind to start off this week running, and I did on Monday and Tuesday...but all I had energy for was 2 and 3 miles, respectively. I was spent after each one. But hey, when you can run in a t-shirt in February, you take advantage of it. By Wednesday I knew I needed to be responsive and take the day off, and on Thursday I felt exponentially better. Not back to normal energy levels, but at least enough to run something of substance. Same deal with Friday. One of the keys to establishing aerobic endurance is to alternate longer, slower days with shorter, faster days (see Lydiard explained here ). That's going to be my general plan going forward, and since I had felt a kind of normalcy back in my running I wanted to p...

Monday:  Sick - no run Tuesday:  Sick - no run Wednesday:  Sick - no run Thursday:  Sick - no run Friday: 4 miles in 27:22 - Felt totally depleted Saturday:  Sick - no run Sunday:  Sick - no run TOTAL : 4 miles on 1 day of running Well this week sucked. What started last weekend just got worse all week. I had (still have) a cough I can't shake and I've been just totally drained of energy. It's just the kind of thing that there's no point in trying to train through. So now there's basically two months to race day, and my cram training is already off the rails. That's okay, because I've been re-evaluating my plan and I'll be making adjustments. I'm still working out the nuts and bolts, but here are the general focuses, in order of importance: Aerobic endurance , mostly at lower intensities (up to but generally not beyond Aerobic Threshold, or marathon effort). I'm a very slow twitch runner and I know I respond well to the consist...

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...

This is a post for all you high school track and cross athletes looking to make the leap to the next level. This is a post for all you collegians at that level, shooting for the next step. This is a post for all you post-collegians eyeing the next Olympic Trials. This is a post for all runners, of all ages and abilities, who want to PR, PB, BQ, OTQ, or any other acronym you can think of. You want to get better? You can put away your training manual. Set aside the Hanson's program, or Pfitzinger, or Daniels or Higdon or Galloway or anyone else who writes a mass program. Most importantly, if you own Run Less, Run Faster : burn that crap. There is only one Way. Here it is: You need to run more. How much more? I don't know, but definitely more than you're doing now. Could be 30 miles a week. Could be 120. That part's up to you. It can't be that simple, can it? It is. For real. Running is a simple sport; stop trying to make it more complicated than it nee...

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...

This week I want to feature the Fast-Finish Long Run . I've written about n ot doing easy long runs before , and this is one that can be a staple of your training no matter what distance you're training for. A Fast-Finish Long Run is exactly what it sounds like: a long run where you run the last portion of it fast. It could be as simple as closing out the final 15-20 minutes of a run (no matter the distance) at an up-tempo, aerobic threshold-type effort; or it could be as tough as the marathon-specific session of 10 miles easy straight into 10 miles at marathon pace. The Fast-Finish fits anywhere within that spectrum. The point of a long run is to build up aerobic endurance, but sometimes we end up just slogging around at a slow pace, not really stimulating any aerobic gains while just beating ourselves up. Adding on an up-tempo finish at the end can stimulate that aerobic stamina without being too destructive. (Sometimes, running faster can be less stressful on the body t...

Yes, this is a selfish post. I mostly train alone; as it turns out, so do most of the post-collegiate runners in the Greater Cincinnati area. It's time to change that. Cincinnati is way too small of a town for us all to be doing our own thing, only to meet on race day and maybe the occasional long run. When you consider that many of the best runners train in groups, it makes sense that we ought to start training together. I get that everyone has different schedules; I'm not saying that all us runners need to live and run and hang out together all the time. All I'm proposing is a track workout on Tuesday. a tempo/threshold run on Friday (or Saturday), and a nice hard long run on Sunday. That's it, just three days. Three key workouts on three days, each week, every  week. I get that life gets in the way and you won't be able to make it every time, but you wanna get better? You gotta train consistently. Who better than training partners to keep you consistent? ...

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'...

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...

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...

What is the workout? Strides aren't a workout per se , more like an addendum to your regular running schedule. Typically you'll finish up an easy or normal run with 4-10 strides of 80-120 meters. So what's a stride? It's a short sprint at sub-maximal effort (somewhere between 80 and 120 meters; doesn't have to be exact, just eyeball it) followed by full recovery between reps (about a minute or so walking around; again, doesn't have to be exact, just feel fresh before your next one). This is all done by feel...run at a relaxed-fast, near effortless speed; no straining, no flailing, no racing. Don't worry about splits, don't worry about pace; just run smooth so you can feel fast and focus on solid form. Think of these like the running version of free-throw practice. (Edit: if you really wanted to, you could make strides a stand-alone workout: warm up, then run 10-30-ish strides with full recovery , then cool down.) Why should you do it? You should do...

What is the workout? This workout is super simple yet super effective: after a 10-15 minute warmup (starting real easy and gradually increasing the effort) you run for an hour at aerobic threshold effort. When possible, do it on a course with rolling hills. Finish it off with an easy cooldown of 5 minutes to a mile. So what's aerobic threshold? In my running lexicon, it's a moderate-intensity, high-end aerobic effort; in terms of pace, it ends up being slightly slower than marathon pace but slightly faster than normal run pace. For me, depending on the day, my pace will average somewhere between 5:30 and 5:50 per mile. That said, notice that I described the workout as "an hour at aerobic threshold effort ." Like with other WOTW installments, I feel that effort is way more important than pace. Some days you'll feel good and naturally go faster, some days you'll feel rough and have to grind it out a little more. Some courses will be a little flatter and faster...

Ok, so this post also applies to everybody, but it's especially relevant for high school -- and, on occasion collegiate -- runners. Ready? Here it is: Stop thinking you need to run harder to get faster. That's it. Simple. Unfortunately, too many runners at too many levels don't get it. I didn't get it until after I had already graduated from college. Here's the problem: the 'no pain, no gain' attitude permeates every aspect of sports culture in America. You see it all the time on high school XC team T-shirts. You know, the ones with the slogans on the back that say "Pain is weakness leaving the body," or "Pain is temporary, pride is forever," or "Our sport is your sport's punishment," or...well, you get the idea. It's all couched in the glorification of pain and suffering -- the idea that if you're not working hard, then you might as well not be working at all. However, by and large that does not apply to end...

500 teams. 420 kills. 196 miles. 24 hours (+1 minute, 55 seconds). 12 runners (or, you know, 9...) 3 hours of sleep. 2 vans. 1 Keg of Gatorade. That's a Ragnar. But in all seriousness, a Ragnar Relay is a long-distance, non-stop team relay race. A team of 12 people (or 6, for an Ultra team [or 9, if you're us and couldn't fill out a full 12]) passes a bracelet from one runner to the next, continuously, until you cover the entire distance. The teams are split into two vans, so that each person in van 1 runs a leg of about 3 to 9 miles, then passes off to the next person, and so on, until everyone in the van has run once -- then you pass off to van 2 and they run their legs. Then repeat the process two more times, so that everyone runs a total of three times. Ragnar is just one of the companies that hosts races all over the country (ours was in Washington state). One of the most well-known long-distance relays is Hood to Coast in Oregon. Closer to home, ...

...and sprinters, jumpers, throwers, vaulters, etc... ...basically, anyone who is tired of training mostly solo and looking for a group of people to train with. I'm sure I've mentioned this before , but training alone kind of sucks sometimes. I mean, I'm generally pretty self-motivated when it comes to getting in the work everyday, but logging those miles day-in and day-out can get pretty lonely sometime. And here's the thing: there are plenty of really good runners in the city, but coordinating days and times to meet up gets challenging, especially when you're trying to do it every week. So here's what I'm proposing: a consistent schedule of places and times to meet up and run, four days per week. A Sunday morning long run, Monday recovery run, Tuesday and Friday track workout. Or some variation thereof. All meeting at the same time and some place every week. Come every day if you want, or just come whenever you can. Run with a larger group, or trai...