Articles in January, 2012, Page 3

A Runner Needs to Be Confident…

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Cait — 18 Comments ↓

Ryan Hall, less than a week away from the US Marathon Trials, recently wrote, “I constantly remind myself that resting takes confidence. Anyone can train like a mad man but to embrace rest and to allow all the hard training to come out takes mental strength.” And it’s true.

When I was racing I loved it, don’t get me wrong. The excitement building up, the little buzz that rushes through you RIGHT before the gun goes off, but I HATED tapering. The extra energy left me bouncing off the walls (at least inside my mind) and I’d get antsy. I’d want to run more than the workouts prescribed, I didn’t, but I suuuure as heck wanted to.

Self restraint as a runner seems like an element that comes with age and experience. It’s important but I think it has to be learned on your own, sort of like you have to just let the new runners in our sport discover this lesson the hard way. You can tell a person something all you want but it doesn’t really hit home until they see what happens when you DON’T listen. Trial by fire I guess.

Some people it takes a few fires before they get it. Another major factor in learning self-restraint is exactly what Hall stated, and that’s confidence.

* It takes MORE confidence in your ability to back off when you need to.
* It takes more confidence that you’ve put in all the necessary work and then taper before races than it does to doubt that you’re not quite ready and try to pound out one more workout before the race.
* It takes more confidence to rest or stop a run/workout short if you’re on the verge of an injury.
* It takes more confidence to be patient.

And here we’ve worked our way to patience. Patience in both racing and workouts.

Now, I’m a big fan of Prefontaine and running gutsy, I like an honest race pace as much as the next person, but there is a difference between going out hard from the gun because you can and just blitzing out like a bat out of hell and running a kamikaze mission of sorts. The blow-up comes a mile or two later and the monkey jumps on your back.

Going out too fast for you ability is lacking patience and to a degree confidence. Sure, it’s easy to let nerves and excitement carry you away and go out too fast, but after that there’s a lack of confidence. You are afraid that if you don’t try and go out hard, try to gap the field NOW, you’re never going to win. Or you’re never going to be able to keep up or run the time you want…you’re trying to build a cushion in case you slow down later.

That doesn’t work. Have the confidence to be patient, go out smart and pick it up as the race progresses.

Patience comes into play for workouts too, you shouldn’t be racing your workouts. If you go to the well every time out you’re going to be too zapped to race well. In an interview I did with Ryan’s wife Sara Hall, also a professional runner, she admits to struggling with this in the past, “I’m also going to make a conscious effort to run my hard workouts at the appropriate energy level. I’m notorious for ‘racing my workouts’ because I really enjoy running really hard, and I’ve been in the camp
for a while that ‘faster is better’ and ‘a lot faster is even better’.” Coming off her Gold at the Pan Am Games in the Steeplechase and going forward she’s working on that, “But I’m going to try to communicate with Dena [Evans] what pace exactly I need to run and try to run that instead of running all out, whatever time that is. It takes confidence and self-control, but I know it will pay off in the long run.”

Be confident in yourself.

Patience takes confidence. And a runner needs confidence.

1) How have you learned to be confident as a runner?

2) Do you like or hate tapering for a race?

3) How do you exercise patience and confidence in both races and workouts?

All About the US Olympic Marathon Trials – So Many Incredible Athletes to Root For

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Cait — 23 Comments ↓

We are fast approaching the US Olympic Marathon Trials…the gun will be going off in Houston on January 14th. If you’re a running fan it’s hard not to get swept up in all the pre-race buzz. Lots of sites have amazing coverage; Running Times, Runner’s World, Flotrack has a great video series featuring the Hanson’s Group, and Hungry Runner Girl has some great stories as well.

Source
It’s been a big year for the marathon in general, without going too far into the debate of what should or shouldn’t be counted as a record this year’s Boston Marathon was, in a word: Epic. For the women Desiree Davila was THIS close to becoming the very first American woman to take the race since 1985; regardless she set the American Course Record with 2:22:38. She further established herself as one of THE women to beat in Houston as well as the tough as grit, rise to the top stories we all love to read about.

On the men’s side, sure they weren’t Americans but Geoffry Mutai and Moses Mosop ran mindblowingly fast times: 2:03:02 and 2:03:06 and if Boston’s course were certified to be deemed World Records they would have been.

What’s more is the marathon in general has spread like wildfire amongst the general public (seems like everyone wants to run one these days!) but the elites who previously were 5k or 10k track runners have decided to take the plunge. Honestly it’d be easier to name the Nation’s top harriers who have yet to run one; between Shalane Flanagan, Kara Goucher, Lauren Fleshman, Desi Davila, Dathan Ritzenhein, Ryan Hall, and Meb Keflezighi I think we’re nearly covered. I’ll apologize for the myriad of top harriers not mentioned I know there are too many to rattle off!

Still, the amount of emerging talent in the marathon is what’s been almost more inspiring. We have athletes like Molly Pritz who establish themselves on the radar in break-out races; she was our top American at the 2011 NYC Marathon in 2:31:52…this was her first marathon! Amy Hastings’ years of hard work and perseverance have all come together at the right time, and we can’t discount the women for who this is hardly their first experience at the Trials: Deena Kastor (hello Olympic Bronze for the Marathon!), Blake Russell, Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Tera Moody who was the feel good story of the last US Trials. Again, I know I’m missing people.

For the men, personally how can you not root for Dathan Ritzenhein after all he’s been through and overcome? Injuries are part of our sport but they take an insurmountable amount of motivation and belief to get through them…especially when it feels like one thing right after the other. Tim Nelson and Brent Vaughn from the Oregon Track Club, the aforementioned Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighi are never ones to count out.

The Hanson’s Team have established themselves as the guys we all want to see do well because for so many years they were flying under the radar…again, check out FloTrack’s coverage. But, for each runner’s story we HAVE seen there are so many more we haven’t.

There’s Michael Wardian I wrote about and I just saw that twins Drew and Kyle Shackleton are going into the race running for the Michael J. Fox Foundation to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease Research. They’ve already amassed $20,000 and have a goal of raising $10,000 more by the 14th! Seriously please go check out the link and make a donation!

I’ve read about a woman entrant who moonlights as an exotic dancer…I’m not kidding. Remember that lots of these runners have ‘regular’ duel lives with jobs and families all while putting in all of those miles.

Again, how can you not get swept up in this? There’s still a bit over a week to go and daily more stories emerge…come gun time, who will you be rooting for?

1) Name your picks for the top three who will make it to the Olympics?

2) What’s the best story you’ve read or seen so far about a runner going in?

3) Does all this make you want to go run a marathon…or not? Hehe.

4) What’s your weekend plans?

Turning Those Blah Days Around and Keeping Perspective

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Cait — 20 Comments ↓

Today was just one of those days. Blah. I was really not feeling it, and truth be told I knew exactly why. It’s been a rough few days/weeks/months blur and one of those not so happy events has been this ongoing foot problem. I won’t go into the full gory details (and like I’ve said a million times over with bad news, allow yourself a short vent/wallow period then MOOOOOVE on and force yourself into a positive mindset, so I’m going to go that route) but let’s just say I’ll be cozy with the elliptical for quite some time.

Truth be told I wanted this guy to burn that blasted elliptical! 😉

So I wasn’t all too jazzed about my new BFF. I dallied around for a bit but then I knew that if I just didn’t do anything I would be in a funk and bad mood for the rest of the day. I told myself to just get going and if I wanted to stop after 30 minutes so be it…I kept going after that and while it wasn’t a blissful run in the park I did feel better afterwards.

Fact: You always do.

A couple of other things to always keep in mind when those days start out as ‘blah’ are these:

“I have left specific instructions that if I die on the course, my friends are supposed to drag my body down the rest of the course and across the finish line. And then lie about the results.” These words are from the mouth of 67-year old Laurence Macon and truth be told if there’s a way to go, kicking the bucket while running would make for a pretty good one. He’s run 113 marathons this past year and what motivates me about this is not only his age and dedication but outlook. He’s one of those people who knows he’s a happier person running and will do it until he…well, dies.

Injuries stink, but even when you’re able to run and having a crappy one or a terrible workout that stinks too. It’s all relative. The problem is when we let that sucky feeling wrap around us and we get all tied up and stressed about one single run…one off-workout…one stupid foot that feels like it may never heal. But in the end, adding that stress will only make it worse.

You get all wound up and stressing about splits you inevitably start ‘trying too hard’ and in a perverse kind of irony that makes you run even slower. It sounds so counterintuitive but if you just chuck all the weight from the stressball you’ve built and RELAX you’ll probably wind up going faster. Your runs will feel better. And if you’re injured, at least getting on the blasted cross-training machine won’t feel so much like a burden or punishment.

Even if you feel like you're sinking, grab that freaking anchor and be thankful at least you're not shark chum! 🙂

Injures also give us all a bit of a perspective check…when we’re healthy and able to run we can sometimes take it for granted. But anytime an injury takes us out, it also acts as a reality check: we are LUCKY to be able to run. So while it stinks being injured it makes you appreciate when you CAN do it that much more.

So chuck the baggage you’re carrying on your shoulders, loosen up, and just roll with it…whatever ‘it’ may be.

1) Blah days…we’ve all had them. When was your last and how did you get the workout/run in anyways?

2) What’s your best tip for coming back after bad workouts..or what’s your best tip for getting through crappy workouts?
Getting through them, if the splits are horrendous, just chuck the watch and go off of effort.

3) What’s something you think of that puts you in a good mood or that you use to look forward to after you put in the workout?
Inevitably I always think of some kind of tasty treat I’ll inhale afterwards.

Run, Fat Boy, Run — Runners Can Laugh at Our Own Expense

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Cait — 12 Comments ↓

Last night I watched ‘Run, Fat Boy, Run’ a comedy starring Simon Peg, the other really funny Brit I like. The other one being Russell Brand. It did a good job of injecting just enough runner humor that us harriers could relate to and enjoy but still would be funny to ‘normal’ people who think the whole running in circles thing is for the insane.
run, fat boy, run
Source
I’ll give you a few highlights that I particularly enjoyed and also a few things that we can learn from our little fat, running friend:

* Cop runs down shoplifting drag queen. This is before he actually starts attempting to run and pot-belly and all he huffs and puffs down the street after the offending ‘woman.’ Our lady is stealing a bra and panty set from the lingerie store our fat boy works as a rent-a-cop. If he had been fleeter of foot the whole mess would have been dealt with faster and easier, though wouldn’t have allowed us to laugh as much at his own expense. This one reminded me of the stories I’ve heard about cops who actually are runners and they are able to chase down their suspects. The one that comes to mind was a marathoner cop and upon tackling the young man to the ground he said something along the lines of, “Sucks for you I’m a marathoner.”

* Three weeks to a marathon. The fat boy decides he’s going to be able to complete a full marathon with only three weeks notice. Here cinema takes a little creative license, but we’ve got to make it worth watching and up the ante I suppose. In real life he’d probably be able to walk/jog the whole thing…again, I sort of think if Oprah can do one, anyone could.

* Rocking the bunhuggers. On his first venture out running he is wearing the male equivalent of bunhuggers...he knows they feel good and I guess figured if they’re good enough for the elites they are good enough for him. Too bad it’s the elite women, and honestly I don’t think we’d want to be watching a man run in bunhuggers for 26.2 miles…but that’s just me.

* Nip guards and chaffage. Before the big day his friend is oh so kind to offer him up some nip guards for the race. Now they joke, but I’ve talked to plenty of guys who swear by these things. I know normal chaffage hurts, I can only imagine.

* Falling in a race. Here was the only one that kind of bugged me. For dramatic effect he gets shoved to the ground after the first few miles and they show him with some scraped knees. They make it appear like if you go down that’s it. Well, I’m sorry but if all you’ve got is a little road rash then pick yourself up mister and get ‘er done! Who hasn’t been spiked in a race, there’s more blood loss there. Granted fallings SUCKS but then again should I remind us all that Lassie Viren went down in the 1972 Olympic 10k final and still got up and won the darn thing!

* Hitting the wall. I won’t spoil it for everyone, but they have a cute way of depicting this one. From what I’ve heard though it’s probably pretty close to what it would feel like. My mom doesn’t even remember the last six miles of her first marathon and I love Lauren Fleshman’s quote from her first, “There was a personal hell…it’s just surviving…get me to the next mile, get me to the next five feet.”

Another highlight was that he goes through most of his training running in cut-off jean shorts!! Ack…if the first time back from that run and into the shower didn’t teach him a lesson I don’t know what would!

I had laughs and at the expense of being a runner…sure, they can make fun of us all we want but you know what, I’m happy being a BodyGlide wearing, short shorts donning, carbo-scarfing runner. And I’m pretty sure I could chase down a bra stealing drag queen if I had too. 😉

1) Have you ever seen this movie? What’s your favorite running movie?
Prefontaine or Without Limits (both pretty much the same story/movie…haha)

2) What’s one of the funny jokes or stereotypes you think ‘normal’ people have about us runners?
This isn’t funny…but apparently there are still people that think we enjoy getting yelled at from their cars. Seriously, “Run, Forrest, Run” should be erased from everyone’s minds.

3) Where else in life do you think it would come in handy to be a runner? (as in the case of a cop chasing down a fugitive)

4) Could you outrace a drag queen?

My Podiatrist is Pinched for Training Time: Staying Race Ready With Less Time

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Cait — 18 Comments ↓

“So, I was talking to my podiatrist this afternoon.” No, this isn’t the intro to some corny joke, we’re at a runner’s blog so naturally this sentence should roll off the tongue and everyone should nod knowingly because they were doing the exact same thing a few days ago.

Back to what I was saying, I was seeing my podiatrist and we got to chatting afterwards. He’s not so much a runner because of ankle issues but is really into cycling. This year he’s going to take part in an especially grueling bike race, it’s 140 miles and a killer climb…he mentioned the exact incline but I’m fuzzy on the number, sorry.

Now the man is a doctor and has two young children too, so he was a little nervous over whether he’d have enough time to actually put in the amount of training necessary. Typically you need to ride the bike longer than you do running (it’s about a 3:1 ratio of bike miles to running miles) and that could mean hours and hours dedicated to a long ride. Runners can relate to the multi-hour long runs too.

I told him not to worry too much and he also mentioned that he’d read that one of the top cyclists is bucking the traditional training method focused on volume and more on shorter, intense rides. I piped in and told him, “Look, if you’ve only got an hour to train, do intervals, jack your heart rate up there. You can do it, you’ve just got to make those shorter rides count.”

The good news is that he’s already built himself a strong base, he’s got years of cardiovascular fitness to draw upon so from here it’s more a matter of maintaining that. Maintaining your fitness is far easier than building, and this holds true to running.

You’d be surprised at how well you can keep that endurance so long as you are still consistent and get in your regular, weekly long run. From there, if you’re limited on time then pick two days and pound the intervals. The other days of the week still put in the steady cardio but it doesn’t necessarily have to be an epic amount; realistically most of those days are going to just be recovering from the last hard workout anyways. You could even split the workout time up into two shorter sessions; a ride/run in the morning and then at night.

Hmm, I wish there was some kind of sale going on at his office today...nope.

The key thing is keeping your heart rate elevated in the correct level. Even on those recovery days you’re going to still be working, and not totally plodding along. Then when it comes to the hard days, do a short warm-up and remember to cool-down but for those intervals really get after it. Aim to feel like you’re working on a level 8 or 9 (scale of 1 to 10, 10 being all out)…we know what it feels like to work hard.

Play around with the length of hard intervals and the recovery time…do a day more endurance based with longer intervals (sets of 800’s, milers…or do 3 minutes or 10 minutes going hard) and the second day focus more on speed with shorter, faster bouts. This could be 200’s, 400’s, or alternating 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy.

So long as you are CONSISTENT, keep at least one longer run, and get that spike in heart rate you’ve got the staples. Sure, if you’ve got extra time to devote to doing more miles or biking, then by all means go for it…though you want to be smart there and not over-train yourself. In the end training is really personal to the individual and it’s more a matter of finding what works best for you and makes you feel ready come race day.

1) How do you go about coming up with your training? Do you have a coach or do you make your own program?

2) What are some of your staple workouts? Do you prefer the longer intervals or shorter?

3) Are you on a first name basis with your podiatrist? Not that you necessarily want to be, I mean we tend to seek them out with something is wrong!

4) Speaking of corny jokes, do you have one to share this fine Tuesday??

Limiting the Variables for a Winning Race – Same Foods, Same Routine, Set Your Plan

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Cait — 14 Comments ↓

I have a particularly sensitive stomach. I can’t handle too much in there digesting away if I’m going to go out and run. My favorite time to run is first thing in the morning for just this reason. Yes, I know you shouldn’t run on an empty stomach and if I were actually training for something I’d be smart and wake up earlier to have something light for energy. I used to go the oatmeal route and that worked well for me before workouts.

But now that I’m not competing I just eat a big snack before I go to bed and that tides me over. I also like being able to just roll out of bed and into the shoes. I loved morning races not only because they made figuring out what and when to eat all the easier but also they were done first thing and I didn’t have to sit around all day with me, myself, and nerves.

Still, not everyone works out in the morning and races aren’t always going off in the morning hours either. With track season coming up, 99% of the time you’ll have an afternoon or later gun time. Track throws another monkey into the mix because you could be doubling, tripling, quadrupling…hopefully you aren’t doing any more than that, but you get the picture. In order to perform to your best you need to fuel your body with the energy it needs, but at the same time you want it to sit well in your stomach. You want to eat for performance.

You can read the article I did printed in January’s Running Times, ‘Timing Your Fuel’, for some pointers on the best way to go about creating a meal plan that works in accordance with your race time. Spoiler alert: you probably won’t want to wolf down those four chili-cheese dogs.

The thing with race day is you always want to limit the variables: don’t wear a new pair of shoes, eat things you KNOW will sit well, eat at the same times, warm-up at the same times, do the same warm-up routine and drills. Practice and workouts are the times when you test new things out and play around until you find what works for you.

Eating the right foods, as with training and warming-up, is unique to each person so go in with a plan in these areas just as you do a race plan.

1) What’s your favorite time to run and race?

2) What are you pre-race picks? Do you have anything in particular you HAVE to have right before?
I know it’s not nutritionally the best pick, but during high school I’d have to have two strawberry frosted Pop-Tarts…even packed them with me when I traveled to Italy. 😛

3) Do you have a finicky stomach or are you one of those lucky individuals who could wolf down the chili-cheese hot dogs and not taste them a second time through?

Michael Wardian: A Peek into the World of a Runner Inhuman

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Cait — 7 Comments ↓

“The man is a freak of nature, unlike anyone I’ve ever met…he’s just amazing,” even Rich Hanna was at a loss for words, grappling with the right ones to fully express just how impressed he was with Michael Wardian.

Source
Let me back up a bit and set the backdrop for you. I was working on an article centered around treadmill running and how it could best be adapted for trail runners. A high number of the magazine’s readership were ultra marathoners and so I went to Rich Hanna, an ultra marathoner that I’d met back in high school while working at a running shoe store. Like many runners, his passion for the sport spilled over into his ‘real job,’ which meant coaching and heading a highly successful race marketing business. He’d regularly come in and out of the Fleet Feet Sports I worked at.

So I contacted Rich, told him about my article and the first words out of his mouth were, “Wait, I have the perfect person you have to talk to, I met him at a marathon in Hawaii and the guy is a beast…literally, he’s got to be the most talented ultra runner I’ve ever met!” This led me to Wardian. (Silver 2011 World Championships 100k, USATF Ultra Runner of the Year 2008/2009/2010)

I’d read about him actually, and he’d already impressed me. He raced an inhuman amount (think 100 milers then come back a few days later and running a marathon), didn’t believe in any kind of taper, and unlike many ultra runners he still possessed the speed of an elite level marathoner. He’s going to be lining up in Houston for the Olympic Marathon Trials this January with a time of 2:17:49.

He crisscrosses the globe on a weekly basis for races. Rich went on to detail how for the race in Hawaii he had flown in the morning before and barely made it to the starting line on time…Michael went on to win the race and further begged Rich to join him for another 13 mile hellacious hill climb. He told Rich before the gun went off, “I’ve got to fly out later this afternoon, so after I finish, grab your car, I ran this mountain trail during my honeymoon and I’ve been dying to come back.” Boom, the gun went off.

Yet, he still makes his family his top priority. How so? He’s there most mornings babysitting his children while doing his training downstairs, “I use a treadmill because I need to be close to my family and we got our treadmill the day our second son Grant was born…they still wake up and go down to the treadmill to find me and I hope off and make them their snacks and get their milk, then jump back on.”

The allure of those additional 13 mountain miles can be explained as such, “I love being outside and pushing it and trails are a great way to see a lot of amazing things in a short amount of time. I also like running to places that are hard to get to because I feel like they are just mine, if only for a few minutes.”

I’ve heard many other runners relate, whether it’s the solitude of a trail or the pulsing pace of a track race. In the end are we not alone with ourselves, reaching for a goal, pushing against the pain? That moment is all yours and up to you whether you dig deep and keep going or stop and relent.

Wardian got into running later than most and only ventured past the marathon on a dare. “Someone told me it is not possible to run 3 marathons in a month so in 1998 I ran Chicago, Marine Corps, and then New York City in four weeks and then they said, ‘Well, you couldn’t do a 50 miler on top of that,’ so I ran the JFK 50 Miler two weeks after NYC and it was hard but I finished. Still really proud of that.”

Beastly. Like Hanna, I am lacking for a better term. Many have begged Wardian to conform to some kind of taper, even Hanna recounted to me, “He won’t do it, but I’d love to see what he could do if he actually rested for one of these races.” But the Beast won’t, he just enjoys running and racing too much to cut back, and ultimately he doesn’t believe resting would yield him any better results.

How does he beat treadmill boredom? “I tend to use the treadmill like I am outside and that means I use my imagination, I pretend I am coming up to a tough section of the race and then increase the incline or speed, or then I am crushing down the hill and I might speed the treadmill up. Treadmills are great because they allow you to get everything you want whenever you want it. You just have to remember to change the variables.”

Mix things up, keep your legs guessing, challenge your weaknesses. “I am trying to do hills a few times a week, that is a weakness ,or has been, so I want to fix that,” acknowledges Wardian, “for me that means hours of running up vertical inclines, sometimes fast, sometimes just a long grind, but always pushing to get better.” Words to live by.

We all may not log 120 miles a week but there are plenty of things we can take away from this inhuman human.

•Don’t let others set limits for you. Further, don’t set the limits yourself. Instead, embrace the seemingly unattainable and try it; live to prove them wrong.

•Make your training fit your life. If you don’t have access to trails don’t think you can’t win a 100 mile trail race. If you have a job that doesn’t allow you to run outside during daylight hours, don’t think the treadmill isn’t a viable option. The same for family; you don’t have to sacrifice one or the other.

•Still include variety in your workouts. “I try to do a few really quality workouts, so hills, tempo runs, speed play, a track workout, long run and then a race or two.”

I could go on, but instead, I think I’ll follow Rich’s lead and leave you with this, “The man is a freak of nature…but in the best possible way, he’s a beast.”

Be sure to root for Michael Wardian and all of the other racers competing in the Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston January 14th.