Training Archive -

Really? Why NOW? 

Snap. Just like that. I am down on the ground, writhing in pain. Did I just not see the curb? Was I dragging my foot? My right hamstring is shredded. It is a mere four weeks in front of the New York City Marathon. As I sit for two hours in the urgent care facility on the single-most beautiful Sunday afternoon this fall – I am awash in emotion.

Runners set ambitious goals so that we stick to a training plan. With fierce determination, we obsessively follow that plan. The reward for our discipline is a well-executed race.

BUT – even with the perfect training plan – things happen. Illness, time constraints and injury are the biggest bad boys of the training schedule gone awry. It happens to nearly every runner… eventually.

I guess it’s my turn. Now I am among the walking (not running) wounded. I have plane tickets for two, hotel reservations for four nights and the chance of a lifetime to run the biggest marathon in the world. And a silly curb tripped me up and doused my plans!

Deep sigh. With a forced and weak smile, I will go forth and follow the doctor’s orders. I will be patient and see how quickly this bizarre turn of events can be put in the past. I resolve not to wallow in self-pity. I will remain positive and make the best of a disappointing and painful situation.

Stay tuned for the end of the story. Will I run or spectate in New York City on November 6?

13th October 2011

Gazelle Girl, Training, Women's Interest

Running IS my inspiration…

Running is a means to an end… to many ends, in fact. The more I run, the more energy I have. Seems backwards, really. I mean, why is it that the more TIME I devote to exercise each day, the more that I can accomplish in that same day in other areas of my life? I can take the same 24 hour day and seemingly “lengthen” it by ADDING an hour of exercise. Go figure.

So, I don’t need to be inspired to run, because it is the other way around… I run to inspire my daily living. On the days that I can’t exercise because of the craziness of family life, work or meetings, I feel distracted, sloppy, out-of-control and unproductive. When I can devote one sweaty hour to pure physical exertion I am recharged and focused. Training for a marathon works beautifully in this scheme of things as it gives me the excuse to make the time for that natural stimulant.

It wasn’t always this way. I learned of this body/mind/energy connection at the age of 42. A local road race course ran by our house every third weekend in August. In 2002, I stopped cheering on my neighbors and entered that race. I learned in that first running event that I was capable of doing what I’d watched other people do, and I was not going to “spectate” anymore. It was time to physically challenge my body and soul… to step outside of my comfort zone. Thanks to my involvement with a local running club, the miles starting piling up. Within two and a half years of that initial jog/walk around the block, I registered to run my first marathon. And in a few weeks, I will run my eighth.

Being physically active has not only allowed me to run marathons and fill my days with more activity than I ever imagined possible, but it has inspired me to encourage others to lead healthy lives… and to believe in themselves. I try to practice what I preach every day to set an example for my family and our community. Wellness is like a religion; once you “believe,” you want to encourage others to experience the benefits.

My daily exercise, whether it be running or cycling or yoga or walking the dog… inspires me to keep stretching for new challenges and to infuse others with my excitement for healthy living. I don’t require inspiration to run… I need running to inspire me to reach my potential.

6th October 2011

Gazelle Girl, Training, Women's Interest

Stressin’

Before my blog begins, I want to once again invite you to the Runners’ Book Club, Vol. II. We’re reading My Life on the Run by Bart Yasso. Even if you can’t finish it before our meeting, I encourage you to read as much as you can and join us. Yasso’s book is funny and inspiring. Put it on your calendar: October 6 at 8th Street Grille.

Stress gets a bad rap. Stress is what makes our training work. When you run, you’re stressing your body. The duress you place on your muscles is what makes them stronger. These stronger muscles only show up during the recovery period after the stress.

I’ve had a few poor runs lately, and I was kind of concerned. After all, my marathon is in a few weeks. Then I thought about how much stress I’ve been placing on my body.

Of course I’ve got the running miles, 50-60 per week. I have been a little discouraged, though, because I usually target 70 as my peak during a marathon build-up. Then I realized that I’m not only running. I canceled my car insurance and have been biking to work. So I’ve been running 50-60 miles and also biking 50-ish miles each week. That helped me to be a little more confident of my training.

Something was still nagging me, though. I still felt like my runs were flatter than they should be. It took my biannual taper clinic for me to figure it out. The physical stress is only half of the equation.

School just started again, and it coincided with some the peak of my training. So, I’ve hit my max mileage and added the mental/emotional stress of a new school year.

Many people don’t realize that your body accepts physical and emotional stress in similar ways. When you’re recovering from a hard workout, stress is stress. It doesn’t matter if it is a tempo run or new class to organize and plan for.

My goal in the upcoming weeks (my taper) is to eliminate as many physical and emotional stressors as possible. The physical stresses are easier to deal with. I’ll carpool a few days a week to reduce the bike miles, and gradually cut back my running miles like normal.

The mental stressors are a little bit trickier to avoid. Part of it will be planning a little further out in my classes. I’ll work on adding detail to my lesson plans for the next month or so. Having a plan will reduce some of this stress.

The big stress of this new school year is all of the change. There are a myriad of changes to structures and technology at school. I’ll work on looking at the positive changes to try to reduce the stress. Attitude is key. Maybe I’ll tack the Serenity Prayer up in a prominent place.

Finally, sleep is key to dealing with stress. During the remainder of my taper, I’ll strive to increase my sleep stores. This is when the body recovers from and rebuilds the damage caused by stress.

I hope reading about my stress strategies helps you examine your life and your training. Take it easy.

22nd September 2011

Events, Training, Uncategorized

There is life after 30

“Whatever does not kill him makes him stronger” -Friedrich Nietzsche

In high school, the joke was I’d be in a wheelchair by 30.

In college, the joke was I’d be dead by 30.

I turned 30 just about three months ago, and I am happy to tell you I am still alive (and not in a wheelchair). Any of you who know me know that I don’t lead what you would call a reckless lifestyle. And if you’ve known me for a while, or been through a Good Form Running clinic that I’ve led, you know that my body doesn’t exactly have a history of durability.

I’ve had my run of injuries: anything from concussions to strained muscles to sprained ligaments and almost everything in between. The big joke isn’t that I’ve been injured so much, but more that I’ve spent so little time being healthy. I’ve actually had a pretty good spell over the past couple of years, and Good Form Running has been a big part of that. However, my body does not limit itself to running injuries.

This past winter my brother talked me into joining him on an indoor soccer team. (Sidenote: I’m NOT good at soccer. Something about the coordination of running and kicking and looking around just doesn’t work in my brain. I got cut from middle school soccer both years I tried out. MIDDLE SCHOOL! Everyone makes the middle school soccer team! I guess they just didn’t have room for a doofus who continually tripped over the ball…) Knowing my history, and the fact that I was training for my first half-marathon, I was hesitant. But, he had recently moved back to West Michigan from the Bay area, and I thought this would be a good way to hang out together. Plus, as I mentioned, I had been having pretty good luck lately. (Another sidenote: is it really good luck if I’ve just been avoided anything other than running or cycling? Hindsight is 20/20) So, I decided to go for it. In the first half of the first game, our brother-in-law-to-be sprained his ankle and was out for the season. I started to get nervous.

The season went along, and I had no problems other than being sore in places I had forgotten about. Our last game was a Tuesday night, 5 days before my half-marathon. Things were going well, and this game was for 2nd place in the league (no thanks to my ballhandling). About halfway through the second half I trapped the ball in our end as an opponent was fast approaching. As I tried to decide what to do, he reached me, and did not respect my need for more time. He clearly subscribes to the theory that the quickest way between two points is a straight line, so he attempted to kick the ball through my foot. He was unsuccessful, unless his goal was to get me out of the game. In a very heroic manner, I limped to bench, calling for a sub. Instead of just getting some ice and sitting the rest of the game out (I am, after all, a man), I “walked it off” and came back into the game a mere 3 minutes later. Adrenaline carried me through the rest of the game, and we won. I had a good feeling that it would feel better in just a couple of days. I have LOTS of experience with sprained ankles, and this one didn’t seem so bad.

It was worse than I thought.

The reason I’m telling this tale today is that I have had a rough couple of weeks. Every morning upon waking up, the ankle felt as stiff as it did the day after my half-marathon nearly 6 months ago. I’ve had what I would consider 3 major injuries in my life thus far, and each of them was an ankle sprain that hung around for at least 6 months. The first was caused me to lose my entire senior track season, and highly influenced my decision to not run competitively in college. The second happened about 5 years ago playing soccer with a bunch of 5-year-olds (I told you I’m not good at soccer) and was the impetus behind my gaining 30 pounds in the 52 weeks I could not walk without a limp and, eventually, getting back into running. I still don’t know what path that this injury is taking me on. I know that I am stronger in many ways than I have ever been before, and I know that most days on which I want to run, I am able to warm it up and run without pain. But it’s those first few steps in the morning as I climb down the stairs like a toddler that keep me humble. Perhaps I’ll never know what it’s like to jump out of bed and hit the ground running, but I will continue to do what I need to do to stay active, to grow stronger, to be better.

5th September 2011

Training

Things Happen

This has been a rough week for training. Last Saturday was spent traveling to, attending, and returning from a memorial service. That ruled out a long run. Then RunnerGirl did her long run on Sunday, so my long run got moved to Monday. Tuesday was spent in meetings for school. I left from the meetings for a fantasy football draft in Jackson. That left no time for running on Tuesday. I got back so late on Tuesday that running Wednesday morning would have been counter-productive due to a lack of rest. I had meetings until 4:00 (of course, I couldn’t leave right at 4) again and had to be at Gazelle by 5. When the Gazelle training concluded at 9:15, I just wanted to crash. I did finally sneak a couple of miles in before school meetings resumed on Thursday morning, but it was pretty short.

I’ll grab some miles this weekend, but my training volume this week will be pretty low compared to my usual marathon-training load. I need to keep telling myself that THIS IS OKAY. I’m not going to lose my base or my endurance because of one weak week.

The urge of most runners when they miss a workout from their training plan or have an off week or over indulge at a potluck (I’m guilty of that one this week, too) is to cram a bunch of extra hard workouts in to make up for it. Unfortunately, this is counter productive. Cramming extra workouts in is a recipe for injury. If injured, more workouts will be missed. It’s a downward spiral I’m trying to avoid.

So, what do I do? I’ve been off my plan for about seven days now. I guess I should probably just resume my plan and forgot those missed days/workouts. I don’t think I’ve missed so much that my fitness has regressed, so I don’t think I need to go back and repeat any of the previous workout.

Mental preparation has probably taken the biggest hit. I was hoping to have a really solid workout week before the rigors of starting a new school year hit me. That didn’t happen, so now I need to block it out of my mind and move on.

I hope your training is going better. Also, I hope you’re planning on attending The Runners’ Book Club, Vol II. We’re reading My Life on the Run by Bart Yasso. We’ll be discussing it on October 6.

2nd September 2011

Training, Uncategorized

Patience (and not the kind at your doctor’s office)

“take it slow it’ll work itself out fine; all we need is just a little patience” -Guns ‘n Roses

I’ve had what feels like a hundred ideas for a blog this week, but with each one started came the realization that it just wasn’t quite right. So, I decided to take my family for a walk as inspiration. My amazing wife, my beautiful 3 year old daughter, and my rambunctious 6 year old mutt of a dog set out with me for a 0.7 mile journey around our block.

One thing you need to realize is that I really want to be able to take nightly walks with my family; I really want to enstill the joy of spending time outdoors being active. Another thing you need to realize is that going for a walk with my family is not enjoyable. For instance, have you ever seen a dog that walks so well that it doesn’t even need a leash? That’s not my dog. I know it’s completely my fault for the lack of proper training I gave her when she was still young, but it’s a constant tug-of-war between the two of us while we’re on our walk. It doesn’t help that we’re incredibly inconsistent when it comes to walking, so she’s never been able to really learn well. Then there’s the daughter. As any 3 year old, she moves at her own pace. Sometimes it’s incredibly fast – sometimes it’s incredibly slow. It’s rarely right at the pace we’re hoping for. On this particular evening, it was incredibly slow. Between admonishing the dog and encouraging the daughter, I had no time to talk to my wife. It was not enjoyable.

As we neared the end of our journey, I found myself thinking about patience and my lack thereof. Why do we get impatient? A simple answer is because we want things to be easier right now. We don’t care about the journey or the lessons learned along the way, we just want things to be easier right NOW. I want my dog to walk this walk like one of those dogs who don’t need a leash. I want my daughter to walk like a 30 year old. In that moment of impatience, I don’t care about her expressing her independence or finding her own path – I just want to have a nice walk.

We do this in other areas of life, too. We don’t allow time for processes to work or for things to develop in their own time – it’s the age we live in. I’m constantly frustrated at how “slow” my internet connection is at work. Then I remember that just 10 years ago, I was using dial-up. At least once a week I have someone come in the store and tell me about an injury that happened because they rushed into a training program or came back too quickly from a separate injury or tried to transition into a barefoot-type shoe without proper preparation. We live in a culture of instant gratification. If we want something, we want it now. My worry is that we’re missing out on the journey.

25th August 2011

Training, Uncategorized

Wake up, sleepy head!

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” – Bruce Lee

“Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep”

It’s 6:00am, Saturday, I don’t even have to look. I stop the alarm clock and lay in bed. The debate rages in my mind: I really should get up….but it’s so comfortable here.

Typically the battle is won or lost the night before. What time I go to bed, what I eat or drink in the 2 hours leading up to that time, and the action of setting the alarm clock. But not this time. Nope, this time I did everything right the night before. I made sure I got 8 hours of sleep, I hydrated well (but not too well) before I hit the sack, and I promised myself I would get up when the alarm clock rang. This time, the true battle came in the morning.

I don’t know why it’s harder to wake up to an alarm clock on a Saturday. Being in retail, I work some Saturdays (I hesitate to say “lots” of Saturdays, because some other people in our store may beg to differ), and I do my best to treat them just like a weekday. But, alas, it is not a weekday. During the week, I usually pop right out of bed as soon as my alarm goes off – I’m ready to get the day started. But on the weekend….well, things are different. Imagine a 3 year old zombie – I’m slow, lethargic, and whiny. I guess you could say I’m generally unmotivated. It’s almost as if I’ve trained myself somewhere along the way (college) that the weekends were all about doing nothing. I know from experience that even if I don’t set the alarm, I don’t sleep in past 7:00 anymore, but there’s something inside me that says maybe, just maybe, I would have slept until 11:00 if it weren’t for that darned alarm clock.

The debate continues: You never regret getting up, but you almost always regret staying in bed.

As a coach, it is my job to get the most out of each athlete every day. As a coach, I’m afforded some kind of intrinsic authority that even teenage girls (usually) respect. They will do the workout I’ve prepared because they trust that I have a specific reason for the day’s exercise, no matter what it is. I also have the benefit of practice being in the afternoon, after school, and before they’ve gone home; they are there already, so they may as well come to practice, and since they are at practice, they may as well do the workout. As a coach of others, I have all this working for me. It’s too easy to say “no” to your coach when your coach is yourself.

It’s 6:07am, Saturday, this time I look that alarm clock straight in the face, roll out of bed, and prepare myself for an amazing run.

8th August 2011

Training, Uncategorized

Coming Soon – Hoka Bondi B

While everyone seems to be talking about minimalism, this post may be geared more toward maximalists. Due to hit Gazelle Sports stores next week is the Bondi B, the latest addition to the Hoka One One family.

The technology behind Hoka is fairly straightforward; 30% softer and 2.5 times the volume of a typical shoe to help dissipate shock, a higher, rockering profile to lessen the movement of the knee, and a weight to size ratio that’s considerably less than you’d think, making your feet and legs feel “light as a feather”. Couple these with an outsole containing up to 50% more surface area than a typical running shoe, and the inherent stability coming from that, and you’ve got a shoe that’s definitely worth checking out. Get a pair of these on your feet and you’ll suddenly see what all the buzz is about. There’s a reason Karl Meltzer, world-renowned ultra runner, switched to these unsolicited. Next time you’re in a Gazelle Sports – ask about Hoka… Because it’s time to fly!

31st March 2011

Product, Training