1.The Return

#1 - The Return

    This is a return to my roots as a blogger. So to catch any newbies up to speed. I began a blog in October 2008 that was sporadically updated. It evolved into a travel blog I called In My Footsteps in January 2010. That blog was meant to be professional. Each post was a specific town I visited complete with photos, places to visit, stay, and eat. 

    Along the way, I noticed that I’d end up with some funny anecdotes from my road trips and just from life in general. I decided to create a second blog in May 2010 to highlight these funny and sometimes unbelievable stories. I called it Initial Impressions as I thought each post would deal with my first reactions to road trips and random events with little in the way of rewrites or taking time to let more lucid opinions form. It was purely spur of the moment.

    Over the ensuing years, the blog evolved into a chronicle of my running career before slowing down and eventually being rarely updated.

    In the fall of 2023, I created a Patreon page for subscriptions to support my content. One bit of exclusive content I created was a podcast where I reviewed and tried to shed some light on the fever dream that was the Initial Impressions blog. It was so much fun to relive and I enjoy creating new episodes of that Patreon podcast monthly.

    Recently I thought that since I enjoyed recording those podcasts so much, and since my life is still filled with weird, funny, and odd stories, why not start crafting new Initial Impressions blogs? So here we are in February 2024 with the first new Initial Impressions blog in almost 12 years. 

    These will start as a sort of weekly recap, rather than specific days. It gives me more time to experience more craziness and form odd opinions, and maybe a cryptic post or two.

1. I am a member of a Planet Fitness gym. At times while I’m there a commercial for Planet Fitness will come on one of the TVs. I have to laugh because I’ll look around and say ‘Hey, we don’t have any equipment like that here. No battle ropes, no TRX, no medicine balls, not even any foam rollers.’ It’s like seeing the pristine food in a fast food commercial and then when you get it it looks like someone just stepped on it.

2. I never thought the sound of the Recycle Bin on Windows would be something that brought me nostalgia until it was accidentally turned off for months. When I turned the sound back on and heard that crinkling paper it got me right in the feels.

3. It’s funny how even in a small community if you work hard enough you can avoid seeing someone you don’t want to see for many years. It takes talent to be this good at avoiding someone.

4. I have found myself over the last several years in a constant state of working on, editing, or marketing various creative projects in the hopes of a bigger breakthrough. At times it feels like being on a treadmill where no matter how fast I go I don’t get anywhere.

5. As I look around my place here in the first week of February I see Christmas lights up(well, white string lights), and my mini Halloween pumpkin going strong. I also have sliced turkey in the fridge but not from Thanksgiving.

The Nightmare Before Christmas at Thanksgiving Dinner

6. I highly recommend Exercise With Oxygen Therapy(EWOT) for anyone who has access. The 93% pure oxygen you breathe during cardio has so many benefits, a major one for me is allowing my body to run like it used to, even briefly. The oxygen tricks your brain into thinking it’s not working as hard as it is, thus you feel you can go harder. Here’s a link to explain more: Superhuman Protocol

7. If you had told teenage me that I’d be listening to a ton of downtempo music in my mid-40s I’d have likely shook my head in embarrassment and said I’m getting old. While that is true I find that music triggers something in my focus and creativity, plus there are some great beats.

8. I was training a client the other day, a nice older lady in her early 70s. It was going great until she got irritated at the ‘hip-hop’ music I was playing during the session. The song that was playing? Mickey by Toni Basil from 1981. Jay-Z or 2Pac it was not.

Hip-Hop?

9. Driving down a quiet road in the early morning on the way to work I encountered a raccoon walking directly toward me along the yellow median line. I stopped and eventually, it moved. I had to play chicken with a raccoon. I am now waiting for the day that I play raccoon with a chicken.

10. I have come to realize that some people will just never be happy. They could have everything they want exactly the way they want it and they would still find a reason to be upset. It’s as if they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they didn’t have something to be angry about.

Wise Words at the Sagamore Bridge, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

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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?

It's Gotta Be the Shoes, Part 2

            Back in April I wrote a piece about how the shoes you wear are the single most important part of any runner’s world.  I had switched from Brooks to Mizuno and been repeatedly dealing with nagging injuries.  Only when I switched back to Brooks at the beginning of April did I begin to see improvement in how I ran and how I felt.  From April to now I have run six races including my first marathon.  That was all well and good but I was still dealing with nagging pains in my feet that seemed to hold me back.  But I had switched to the correct shoes, right?  Wrong.

            My friend Emily had mentioned a running store in Plymouth, Bayside Runner, which had a unique way of fitting you for shoes.  They actually recorded you running on a treadmill and assessed what type of shoe you needed from what they saw.  I knew I had to at least give this place a shot.

            I wore my current pair of Brooks Adrenaline to the store as a reference for the employees.  Since it was my first time there they needed to measure my feet.  I mentioned I was a 9 1/2.  I was shocked when they measured me and suggested a 10.  The man told me it’s wiser for running shoes to be a little larger than too tight.  It seemed like a really simple concept.  Suddenly I was remembering how many times my feet, toes, and heels hurt during and after running.  Could my shoes being too tight have been the reason?

            I remembered nearly everytime I ran I would have some pain on top of my feet followed by red skin near where the shoes would be tied.  I also remembered during one of my marathon training runs my entire right foot lost feeling because of pressure on one of the blood vessels.  I guess in the moment I believed that it must have just been from overtraining.  Like I said in April, it’s all about the shoes.

            So I had been running in tight shoes for nearly 2 years which blew my mind.  Next I had to get on the treadmill and run.  They set the camera up behind me and started recording once I had been in my stride for a minute or so.  Once I was done they put my running film on a television screen.  Frame by frame the man helping me showed me what my feet did and explained just what each movement meant.  I was in for another surprise when it came to my shoes.

            I had been running in, and enjoying, my Brooks Adrenaline.  The man explained that they are stability shoes and that judging by my stride and gait I did not need stability shoes.  He said I needed a neutral shoe to 'let your feet do what they do.'  So I had been running in shoes that were too tight and gave the wrong support for my stride?  How was I even able to run at all?  I started thinking that this was probably the major cause of all my aches and pains I had been dealing with.

            I tried on several pairs of shoes but stuck with my preferred brand, Brooks.  I switched from the Adrenaline to the Defyance, a neutral shoe in the proper size.  I had felt really good and proud of all I had done running in the past 20 months.  Now I am full of excitement wondering what I might be able to do with the right shoes in my arsenal.  It all starts tomorrow with my first run in my new shoes.  

           Have any of you been fitted for shoes in this manner?  Having your stride filmed?  Maybe this is common and I’m new to the game.  Have any of you run in tight shoes?  What effect did they have on you?   

Bayside Runner.com