2013 - The Year of Speed Training and PR's

            Running is my passion. Running is at times my life.  I run for fun, mostly I run as training.  I run races of different lengths and obviously would train differently for a 5K than for a marathon.  At least, that’s the way I used to do it.  About a year ago I overtrained for my first marathon and injured my left Achilles tendon in the process.  My body was not used to the high increase in mileage and by the time I had realized that it was wearing on me I was only a few weeks out from the Cape Cod Marathon and decided to just keep going and worry about the impact on my body after the race was over.

            After some soul searching and talking with people I decided that the only way I’d be able to keep running was if I changed my mechanics.  I was a heel striker, meaning that everytime I landed I was jarring my Achilles and calves.  This of course over time would continue leading to injuries that would likely get worse and probably end my running life.  However, changing ones stride is easier said than done.

            Once I had sufficiently recovered from my Achilles injury I needed new shoes.  It was then that I found out that not only had I been fitted in shoes a size too small, but I had also been fitted for stability shoes when, after watching my stride in action, I was told I needed neutral shoes.  I had higher hopes after getting the proper shoes, Brooks Ghost 5.

            I began by having to train myself to land with a midfoot strike, doing short distances to make sure that I kept the form.  I signed up in February for the Hyannis Half Marathon with a goal of just finishing uninjured.  My time of 2 hours was less important compared to the fact that I had completed it with no recurrence of my Achilles injury and had kept my newly formed running stride intact.  I decided to go harder for the Johnny Kelley Half Memorial Day weekend.  It was at this time that I stumbled upon a training program that changed my running life.

            It’s not some big secret, just something that worked for me.  Essentially I would run as far as I could as fast as I could.  When I was gassed out I was done, simple as that.  I believe it’s known as Tempo Running, or at least that’s what it’s akin to.  It wasn’t that I was trying to get my runs over with as fast as possible, it was more that the runners in my family had said I was built more for speed and that distance training was sort of going against the genetic grain.  That was music to my ears; honestly I did not like distance training, 20+ mile runs and the toll they took wore me out mentally as much as physically.

            At first I was only able to go 3-4 miles but I kept my midfoot stride going and pushed a little further each time.  I began to notice my pace dipping while the distances grew.  By the time the Johnny Kelley Half came around I was pulling a 7:30 pace for 7-8 miles.  My idea with this type of training was if I could go as hard as I could for 7-8 miles I’d surely be able to do maybe 80% of that for 13.1.

            That plan worked perfectly.  I ran the Johnny Kelley Half in a few ticks under 1:48, breaking my personal best in the half by 7 minutes, and finishing 12 minutes ahead of my pace at the Hyannis Half just 3 months earlier. 

Was it a fluke?  I’d have to wait until October and the Harwich Half to find out.  In between those races I kept on doing my ‘going all out’ runs nonstop.  I eventually was able to go 10 miles carrying a 7:10-7:20 pace, the speed training felt like it was making everything click.

 My next goal was a sub-20 5K.  I took a shot in Bristol, Rhode Island in June.  Unbeknownst to me the 5K was a trail race with stumps, rocks, and sharp turns on paths.  I had never run a trail race and was not familiar with the trails at Colt State Park.  Still when the gun sounded I went all out.  My feet pounded on the stumps and rocks but I pulled off a 20:32/6:37 pace, close but no cigar. 

            Only a few weeks later I signed up for the Cotuit Firecracker 5K which was on streets I was familiar with.  This time I was not denied.  I was ready to pass out and gave everything I had but crossed the finish line in 19:47, I had achieved a major running goal.  I owe it all to the speed training.  Still, the true test of whether the speed training worked for longer distances was still to come with the Harwich Half.

            I went into this race only wanting to break my PR of 1:48 nothing more, just keep moving in the right direction.  I started faster than I wanted to but held a 7:20 pace through 9 miles, it was then that I realized I could theoretically speed walk to the end and set a PR.  The only thing that went wrong during this race was my calves tightening up around Mile 11.  I had to slow down some but it was no big deal with the cushion I had created.  I crossed the finish line in 1:41, topping my previous PR by over 6 minutes, amazing myself in the process.  I could not believe I had that in me and I owe it all to the speed training.

            After completing the Cape Cod Half Marathon Trilogy in 2013 I feel like as long as I keep training this way that there’s no telling how low these times might go.  Maybe this type of training isn’t for everyone, maybe it’s a bit unconventional.  All I have are the concrete numbers from my races to show that it works for me.

            What about my fellow runners? Do you have any training methods that are seen as unconventional?  How did you start training that way?  What effect did they have on your races? 

My first book, In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide, is now available at SchifferBooks.com, and Amazon.com, soon to be in stores everywhere!  Follow me on Twitter! 

Cape Cod Half Trilogy Medals

I am right in the middle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Next Level: Johnny Kelley Half 2013

            I had trained for half marathons many times in the past. I had used other people’s training programs to get to where I thought I needed to be.  As happens with experience in any field the more you do things on your own the more apt you are to listen to yourself and not others.

            My last half marathon I ran was three months ago, and that one I had basically run with my goal being to cross the finish line uninjured.  After injuring my Achilles tendon during my marathon training last fall I had been hesitant to go all out in any sort of training for fear of reinjury.  After successfully completing the Hyannis Half in February I decided that I had recovered enough and it was time to let it all hang out.

            In training for the Johnny Kelley Half I chose a different route.  Rather than do the normal long run, tempo run, recovery run, etc training plan I focused on speed.  Nearly every run I did during my training was the same: run as far as I could as fast as I could.  It didn’t matter if I could only do four miles or if I could do ten, as long as I went all out and was sufficiently gassed at the end I had done it right.

            My ultimate goal was to build up my stamina, obviously.  Ideally in going all out for ten miles I would be able to pace myself better over a half distance and set myself a nice new personal best.  My runs leading up to the Johnny Kelley Half were routinely 7-9 miles with a 7:30 pace.  Using this info I set my eyes on a sub 1:50 half which would top my PB by about 5 minutes.

            Race day came, cool and raw.  The race route had to be changed due to the fact that one of the roads was being worked on by the Army Corp of Engineers.  They said that due to recent rains the road work could be compromised by a thousand runners.  The race route had to be changed on the fly.  This decertified the course, and also left no guarantee that the route would be exactly 13.1 miles. Let me end the speculation, it wasn’t.  Using my running app on my iPhone to keep my abreast of my time and pace I found that the new course was 13.6 miles, a half mile too long.

            I started slowly as I had learned was best for distance.  I’m being sarcastic as I have often had a problem with starting too fast, going with the flow of the crowd, and ending up tired by about Mile 8.  As I got past 5 miles I felt good, my legs were feeling it and I realized that my PB goal was easily in reach.  The speed training for the half was working. 

            I stayed on pace throughout the full course which seems minor but for me this was the first time that everything fell into place.  I finished the 13.1 in 1:48, beating my PB by nearly 8 minutes.  When I was done I had nothing left.  I crashed in the nearby grass as I normally do.  I like to lay in the grass for a few minutes to catch my breath and let my body recover. 

            Normally after a longer race the last thing I want to do is run again. I am normally so sore and sometimes injured.  After the Johnny Kelley Half all I wanted to do was run again.  I had finally found a training plan that worked for me and the best part was that it was my own.  I hadn’t read someone else’s plan or asked for advice. I had my own idea and put it into practice and succeeded.  Sure, this was an idea for training for a race, but it seems to be sort of a metaphor for life also.  Sometimes if you listen to yourself and follow the path you believe is best you will succeed.  As I go on in running and in life I believe that the lessons and results from this race will help me more than I know.

            What did it feel like to set a PB in a race for you?  What did you do differently in your training?  When you set the PB what did that do for your confidence in running? Did it spill over into the rest of your life?

Hyannis Half 2013 - The Road and Redemption

            A wise man once said, “It’s not how hard you can hit, it’s how hard you can be hit, how many times you can be knocked down, and keep getting up and getting back into the ring.”

            That man was Rocky Balboa, and although he was fictional, the lesson in those words is very real. In preparing for my first marathon last fall I had been hit, hard.  During September I had developed Achilles tendonitis which later worsened into plantar fasciitis as well. I was so deep into my training that I kept it quiet, lessened my training, and did my best to simply survive the marathon.  I had come too far to quit.

            In the weeks following that race I tried in vain to heal myself by continuing to run and stretch, the way that people try to speed recovery in pulled muscles by continuing to work them, albeit at a lower weight.  This tactic only worsened my state.  It came to a head during my work’s Christmas party where I found it nearly impossible to stand without searing pain in my left foot.  I asked myself what I was doing and what I was trying to prove.  After that night I gave up running.

            4 weeks later I got a sort of shot of inspiration from someone very close to me, also a runner.  It was a simple question of whether I was running the Hyannis Half Marathon Feb. 24^th.  I told her that I would give it my best shot.  She has always been more than my friend; she’s a motivator, a partner, a coach, and yes an inspiration. I have my reasons why, but let’s just say if she was going to run I was damn well going to try. 

            So I did my best to train in 6 weeks.  I had been developing a new stride which was necessary to stop my heel striking and end any future Achilles trouble.  I had not tested that stride out in race conditions yet but felt fairly confident that I could successfully navigate 13.1 miles.

            Race day came with rain, wind, and temperatures hovering around 40.  The race was not a certainty until the evening before, the weather was thought to be that bad.  I had trained in the cold, the rain, and snow, and even trained on the very course the race was held on; to me there was never a doubt I’d run if the race was on. 

            Another wise man once said: “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”  That man was legendary UCLA Bruins Men’s College Basketball coach John Wooden. 

            I realized that as long as I had trained properly, and was dressed accordingly for the weather than I would be able to do my best no matter what.  The starting line of the race was luckily so close to my gym that I was able to go early and warm up on the treadmill and stretch inside and put off facing the elements a little longer.  This also gave me time to be alone and think.  I thought back to how I had felt when the marathon was over in October.  I remembered feeling torn.  I felt like a success because I had finished 26.2 standing up, and after only 18 months of running.  However I also felt like a failure because it took every ounce of strength left in my body to drag myself across the finish line.  I had trained so hard and that was what I had to show for it?

            It had been a recurring theme, in my previous Halfs as well as the Full marathon I had either limped across the finish line injured, or not been able to finish at all.  I kept it to myself, but my main goal with the ’13 Hyannis Half was simply to finish at 100% and know I gave my all.

            The rain would never let up during the entire time I was outside.  I walked to the starting line and immediately sought shelter under an overhang with about 150 other runners.  There were rivers rushing along the streets and puddles taking up entire roads, but I was prepared.  Of course once you have run through a few puddles no amount of preparation short of wearing knee-high waders can stop your feet from getting wet.  I dealt with that though, that discomfort, along with being packed like sardines among 3,500 runners, was only temporary.  The experience and the accomplishment would be forever. 

I remembered that when I got a terrible side stitch at Mile 4.  I used the nose of my water bottle to jab at the pain which caused it to subside, until the next morning but that didn’t matter.  I also remembered the accomplishment would be forever when I was bumped by one runner and elbowed by another, definitely accidental but in the heat of a race I had to bite my tongue.

I did slow down some as the race wore on.  It was partly due to my feet being tired thanks to my new stride, and partly because I had a fear of slipping as my feet got tired and heavy.  I played it up for the cameras as I approached the finish line, waving my hat in the air as I crossed.  This time there were no injuries, no cramps, no ‘what ifs.’  This time there was just me and something called redemption. 

As Bill Rodgers and Greg Meyer told me the night before at the Running Expo, everyone has a different path, a different time frame to reaching their peak as a runner.  It took Greg Meyer 7-years of running 100 miles per week for him to reach his peak of winning the Boston Marathon.  I was not winning Boston; I was not crossing the finish line at Boston, but as I crossed the finish line in Hyannis I knew that I still was far from my peak as a runner.  This was only another step in the journey.

In between running legends Greg Meyer and Bill Rodgers.

Hiding from the cold rain before race time.

Posing with my medal after finishing.

As Simple As Believing In Yourself

             If you believe you can do something you have a great chance of doing it. If you believe that you can’t do something, most likely you will fail.  It’s a really simple statement and was one I lived by in my training for the 2013 Hyannis Half Marathon February 24th.  The belief was in the fact that I could train for such a race in only 6 weeks.

            After completing the Cape Cod Marathon in October I had gone into a bit of hibernation with my running.  My Achilles tendonitis had made it difficult to walk let alone run.  It was mid-December when I hit my low point.  I had kept trying to run, like continually driving a car that was just flat out broken.  The pain was always excruciating during and after.  With each run the pain in my heel was unbearable to the point that I was spending longer icing and heating my foot than actually running.   

            At my work’s Christmas party I had to dress nicely, not a big deal by any means.  However, wearing the dress shoes caused me great pain walking and even standing.  I spent a good amount of the night sitting at my table wondering what I was doing to myself.  I needed to stop before something really bad happened. So I did.  I quit running and went back to my old elliptical and stationary bike routines at the gym. 

            Weeks went by and my desire to run waned.  I began to enjoy my old routines, it was like I had never been a runner at all.  This was fine until the New Year and resolution time.  I resolved to not only return to running and racing but to do it smarter and eventually better than before.  I would fix hitches in my stride to lessen heel striking and therefore Achilles pain.  Now, on January 1^st I had no plans to race again anytime soon. A week later that changed.  I signed up for the Hyannis Half Marathon and therefore forced myself to start running or else I’d be wasting money.

            I sat at home and plotted out a 6-week training schedule run by run; something I had never done.  On paper it looked feasible.  The only problem was actually running.  This is where believing in myself came into play. I set the bar low as far as pace during my runs, the idea was just to finish it standing up and uninjured.  Time would be the last thing on my agenda. 

            The first few runs were slow and plodding but got the job done of re-breaking the running ice.  Then I decided to venture outside in the cold for a few miles. The race was outside after all, so why not experience the elements?  I did about 4 miles but more than that I felt the exhilaration that came when I initially had begun running at the start.  I loved that feeling and had missed it for so long.  Training for the marathon had become a job, and at times a tedious one.  I had lost why I began running in the first place.  It was that feeling of just me and the road. 

            Rediscovering my actual love of running made the 6 week training schedule seem not only feasible, but easy.  I believed that no matter what aches and pains I got after long runs that as long as I kept working on my stride and giving proper rest time I could make this work.  I also started enjoying running outside in the cold, rain, and snow.  I felt like a real runner.

            However, the main change in myself as a runner now as opposed to a few months ago is appreciation.  I appreciate the privilege of being able to run and treat each run, especially the outdoor ones, as though it might be my last.  It’s sort of the same thing that is said about appreciating people in your life.  If you treat it as if it might be the last time you ever see them than you will never take them for granted.  I lost my ability to run for a while and now appreciate the fact that I can do it again.

            The Hyannis Half is still a few days away, and the forecast is for rain and snow which makes me feel so much better about being ‘crazy’ and training outside.  I will of course save the actual race day for another day, but just the fact that I am ready for it after where I was in mid-December already makes this a victory.  If I can steal a phrase: Believe to Achieve.  That is all you need to do whether it’s something small like running a race, or something larger in life.  I have learned it and am now living by it.  

I truly appreciate scenes like this now.