Running Shorts

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...

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...

A word of advice: don't get out of shape. Once you are, getting back in shape sucks. And patience is hard. Coming back from injury, I've been running for three weeks; this current week will be my fourth. My progression has been as such: Week 1: 17.5 miles on 5 days (4.5 mile longest run) Week 2: 27 miles on 6 days (7 mile longest run) Week 3: 37 miles on 6 days (8 mile longest run) Week 4: GOAL 45-50 miles on 6 days with a 10-mile longest run Right now I'm just running to return to a semblance of fitness. It's base training for base training. No special workouts, and the only think I'm doing faster than easy runs are the occasional set of four strides at about marathon effort. It's tough. Progress is slow. My Achilles feels great some days and achy other days, so I have to really pay attention to it. I feel aerobically fit to run more and faster, but neuromuscularly my legs haven't caught up. I find myself almost holding back on most runs, b...

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...

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 ...

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....