Running Shorts

Step 1: Start racing. Step 2: Finish the race. Step 3: Just kidding. Keep running, slacker. All joking aside, I had my first race of the spring season this past weekend. I went down to Louisville and ran the Anthem 5k, finishing 4th in 15:24. Not the greatest time ever, but off of a winter of base training that's about where I expected to be. Plus, I came home with $125, so that made the trip worth it. After the race, as you may guess, I did a workout: I changed out of my uniform and ran a 20-minute tempo, averaging about 5:15 pace for the post-race session. I got some weird looks from people who were still in or just finishing the race, especially since I stayed near the course so I could get mile splits. Of course, I'm not the only person doing this. The elites have been doing post-race workouts for a while now; Galen Rupp and the Nike Oregon Project recently received a lot of attention for the workout completed after he set the American 2-mile indoor record this y...

A lot of posts on this blog and other running blogs are often negative in nature: what's wrong with the sport, why don't races cater to elites, why isn't running more popular, on and on and on. Part of that sentiment comes from running's 'niche sport' status...we're runners, were passionate about the sport, we think it's awesome, and we want the rest of the country to see what we see. I've previously lamented about the status of elite and sub-elite runners as athletes (and I'm sure have more to say in the future), but I wanted to share my thoughts on a very positive development: Nonelite US Marathons Are Getting Faster . The title says it all. Male marathoners under 3:00 and female marathoners under 3:30 are increasing in number. Not only that, but they are increasing at a faster rate than general participation; the fastest growing segment of marathoners are those at the front end of the races (this includes professional elites, non-profes...

Since Thursday, all I've been doing has been watching the Winter Olympics. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but not really. While watching cross country skiing, I got to thinking: why isn't XC running a summer Olympic event? As a runner, former XC athlete, a huge fan of the sport, of course I'm totally biased. But XC running would actually be the perfect Olympic addition. Here's why: It's the ideal combination between individual and team competition. Obviously, at the front of the race you'd have athletes racing for gold, silver, and bronze...that's the same as any other racing event, and every other Olympic event. The difference, however, is that after the three medalists are determined, interest in the race doesn't end -- it gets more intriguing! When the top runners finish, the team race begins: five team runners with the lowest combined score (with a potential sixth runner acting as a tiebreaker). So in the same event, you have individual...

Well, it's official: the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials will be held in Los Angeles . The final decision came down to Houston vs. LA. Houston, the previous host who put on a well-received and successful event in 2012, against LA, one of the major media markets in the country. In terms of exposure for the sport, I think LA is a good venue for the event, especially since the event will most likely be broadcast on nationally on NBC. I also think it is good that the road race will continue touring the country every four years, instead of pigeon-holing itself into one city. There's something to be said for changing locations to engage the community across the country, as opposed to one city. And so, according to Google Maps, Cincinnati is 2,175 miles from Los Angeles. With the race in mid-February 2016, that leaves two years to get there. Welp, time to go run.

Check out some of the new pages I just added above ^^ . In the "Racing" page, I included my tentative 2014 schedule (through June) and also my 2013 year recap. In the "Fleet Feet Ambassadors" page, I mentioned the running team I'll be with this year.

Well, we're one step closer to knowing where the Olympic Marathon Trials will be held in 2016: they may be in Houston, they may be in Los Angeles; they definitely won't be in Cincinnati. At a conference in December, USATF went over some really confusing and political procedures for choosing the host city. ( Read the detailed report here ) While there's some debate between hosting in Houston or LA, at this point Cincinnati is out of the running (please excuse the pun). While I would love the trials to be hosted in my hometown (with the potential to race at home!), I think USATF made in the right call in dropping Cincinnati's bid. In defense of their position, USATF cited Cincinnati's lack of experience hosting elite athletes (from p.3 of the Road Race Management report, linked above). And you know what? They're right. Cincinnati's bid was spearheaded by the Flying Pig Marathon , an event that consistently does not offer prize money, comp'd entries, ...

File this one under old news. I've been working with a  coach for the past couple months now (since November), but I'm only getting around to posting it now. For the past two years, my coach has been myself. That guy sucked, so I fired him. All joking aside, I did like being self-coached. I learned a ton, nerded out on training literature, and overall found it to be a really good experience. However, at this point I don't have the expertise to take myself where I want to go, fitness-wise. I ran some good races but many more not-so-good races; I need some outside direction to help maximize the former. So now I'm working with Randy Cox , who is probably the best and most experienced coach in the area. He's the coach of Cincinnati's EarthDrummers racing team, and many of them (including my former Xavier teammate Becky Clark) have had great success with him. In addition, he's coached two local runners in recent years to the half-marathon Olympic Trials s...