There has been a rather spirited discussion on the FastRunningBlog message boards recently, debating which downhill Utah race course is faster: the new Utah Valley Marathon route, or the St George Marathon route. I am of the opinion that nothing can touch St George. Its downhill simply special, and you can flat-out roll on that course, especially the second half. I don’t think any other course will ever touch it in terms of speed. Nothing personal against Utah Valley, or any other race, but facts are facts.

Other people, of course, disagreed with me (most notably the Utah Valley race director). They argued that the Utah Valley course has a better distribution of downhill. Although the drop is not as great, there is no Vejo hill and no Dammeron Valley hill, and the downhill is more even and mellow at UVM, thus granting less quad bashing and better times. Fair enough.

Still others pointed out the higher elevation of UVM in comparison to St George. The uphills at UVM would have a larger detriment than to those at St George. Fair enough.

After the UVM race concluded (June 12, 2010), the debate really didn’t resolve. Most people conceded that UVM might be just a little slower than St George, maybe a minute or two. I still held the opinion that it was 6-8 minutes slower, which brought on sharp disagreement. As with most running-related arguments (okay, all arguments), little progress was made over time.

This was all in good fun. I actually don’t care if I’m right or wrong, but it’s fun to talk about and fun to debate. Sorry if anyone took it personally. After all, being the fastest race doesn’t imply that it’s the best. But this whole discussion gave me enough motivation to update my Utah Marathon Comparison profile. I originally made this back in fall of 2007, right before the St George race. The chart compared the elevation profiles between 3 classic Utah marathons: Top of Utah, Ogden, and St George.  I found it interesting to look at, and it has actually helped me in race preparation. Other people have told me the same. I’ve been meaning to add other races to it, especially since more and more local marathons keep popping up.

So yesterday I finally digitized the Utah Valley course, extracted elevations, and added the profile. I made sure to zoom in very tightly to make sure I got the route exact on the road and not up on a cliff or anything (an issue with canyon races). I then pulled elevations at a 0.25-mile interval, and used a 5-meter elevation model as the data source. Most states do not have 5m models available, but we are very lucky to have them here in Utah for most of the state. This is a high enough resolution to avoid most errors due to canyon walls, plus Provo Canyon is relatively wide compared to other marathon routes (ie - Top of Utah). So the elevations should be pretty good for UVM, much better than anything you’d get off of Gmap, MapMyRun, or any other USGS-based elevation web service. I also did an extraction at 0.1-mile intervals, which gives a bit higher resolution, but I ended up settling on 0.25-mile intervals in order to match the other three profiles that I made back in 2007. Using 0.25-mile instead of 0.1 would potentially “chop” some of the hills and valleys, which actually leads to a more conservative, smoothed-out profile. But when comparing uphills between these races, perhaps conservative is good.

I also need to mention that digital elevation models are generally bare earth, meaning that things like highway overpasses do not show up in the model. After all, there is ground under the overpass, and that is what is included in the model. Road cuts, however, do show up in the model, and the road cut is obvious in Provo Canyon. Long story short, the infamous “overpass hill” during the last mile of UVM does not show up in the profile, which eliminates an entire hill. I could have fudged it in, but I left it out in order to pad UVM’s numbers against St George a little bit, and also to send a hint to get rid of that hill in real life.

Okay, enough technical gibber-jabber. The result is shown below. Click on the image for a higher-res PDF file. It’s easy to see that Utah Valley is indeed the highest elevation of all the marathons. It also has the most cumulative uphill (slightly more than St G). Again, these are conservative numbers. It has the second-highest total downhill and net downhill out of all the marathons. There are no hills as big as Vejo or as long as Dammeron at UVM, but its hills are still substantial in a few spots. Interestingly, if you compare the average finish times between all of the races on MarathonGuide.com, Utah Valley comes out as second fastest, behind St George.

The Utah Valley event is a great race, and there’s no doubt it’s a fast course. But how fast is hard to determine, and no amount of “stats” or elevation comparisons,  or time cross-references, or anecdotes can really quantify it. There are a lot of variables that go into course speed, and on top of that, every individual runner is different, and will respond differently to each course. My strength may be someone else’s weakness, and vice versa. So again, this is all in good fun.

Anyway, enjoy the new profile chart. They are fun to make, and I certainly find them useful. At some point I’ll add the Salt Lake City Marathon and Des News as well, but I think I’ve got the four biggest marathons on there for now.

It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted. I simply haven’t had time, and blogging is about dead last on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. However, this morning I’ve got an extra hour to kill before it’s light enough to go out and run, so I’ll give it a shot. If I can think and type fast enough to click “Publish”, this thing will get out there, otherwise it will stay buried in blog limbo forever, with all my other drafts.

So what’s new? 2009 was a great year for me, personally, professionally, and also in terms of running. This is a running blog, so I’ll try to focus on the latter. But I will note that during this past year my baby boy had his first birthday, we moved from Logan to Smithfield in order to be closer to our church plant, and my small business, Marathon GIS, once again doubled in volume. I also began taking Enbrel to control the ankylosing spondylitis (A.S.), and it has worked wonderfully; I now have very few (almost none) disease symptoms, and no side effects to the medication. God has blessed our family, and I look forward to what 2010 holds in all those avenues of life.

For running, 2009 surprisingly turned out to be one of my best racing years of my life. Perhaps the best, better than 2007 even. I’ve debated just that internally (see bottom of post).  I came into the year with very few expectations. 2008 was absolutely awful, as it was the year A.S. reared its ugly head and really put me in a world of hurt (literally). I ended up being able to do a few races (and do pretty decent), but I still had large questions on my ability to train and to stay healthy. I did not know if I still had “it” or not. 2009 answered all of those questions: yes, I could control the A.S. Yes, I could stay healthy all year. Yes, I could run decent mileage without problems. Yes, I still got “it”.

My total running mileage for 2009 was nothing special: 2650. That’s right about a 50 mpw average, which is solid, and apparently enough to get a lot done. I made the most of my miles by doing a lot of long tempo runs. I didn’t do a ton of intervals, especially the second half of the year, and I had success in spite of that, suggesting that tempos are the bread-and-butter of training (or at least my training). If you have time to do one type of workout, do tempo runs.

Here’s the breakdown of my 2009 in racing.

• January 17 - Painters Half Marathon - 1:11:31 - 2nd place
• April 4 - Striders Half Marathon - 1:13:10 - 2nd place (horrendously windy!)
• May 2 - 500 Festival Mini Marathon - 1:08:35 - 11th place (PR!)
• June 27 - Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon - 1:08:12 - 5th place (PR!)
• July 4 - Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run 15K - 48:14 - 1st place (PR!)
• August 29 - Top of Utah Half Marathon - 1:06:42 - 3rd place (PR!)
• September 19 - Top of Utah Marathon - 2:23:07 - 1st place ($$$)
• October 18 - The Other Half Marathon - 1:09:50 - 1st place
• November 7 - First Dam Run 5K - 15:25 - 1st place

My first couple races were only so-so. But my training and racing really took a turn for the better starting in May with the Indy Mini Marathon, and a big PR there. This timing also corresponds heavily with me switching medication over to Enbrel. I started Enbrel in late March, and it took several weeks to ramp up. When I was just taking NSAIDs, I was still having a lot of stiffness in my back and hip, and also inflammation in my hamstring insertion points which really hobbled my stride at times. Once the Enbrel cleared all that up, I was able to run without a hitch in my stride, run harder and faster during workouts, and fear injury less.

The races in Indianapolis and Seattle were a lot of fun, and really good experience. I enjoy traveling, and it was great to get down to sea level and experience those courses. I really learned how to drop the hammer and race a half marathon. Invaluable. Those two consecutive PRs built my confidence, and help make my year.

The Top of Utah Half was another big race for me. I had not been running much mileage beforehand, although I was doing up-tempo pace nearly every day. I think that “brisk” pace (about 6:00/mile) day-in and day-out helped me run a really fast half without doing much mileage. I would not recommend that kind of training for a marathon, but it worked out for a half. It was an aided course, but I managed to hang relatively close to the 1st and 2nd place runners. The 1st place guy is a 2:16 marathoner, and the 2nd place guy ran under 2:19 at Chicago a couple months later, so it put my performance in perspective and encouraged me that perhaps I could run under 2:19 if I trained harder.

The half marathon PRs were big highlights of my year, but the biggest highlight was winning the Top of Utah Marathon, our local race here in Logan. I entered this race almost as a whim, and intended just to go out there, have fun, and finish a marathon. I didn’t get my training much above 60 mpw, which for me is quite low for marathon training. And I didn’t bother with any interval workouts; I just did a lot of long tempo runs and about 5 formal “long runs”. Again, those tempos proved to be the key, and although I didn’t get in many 20-milers, those that I did run I always made sure to average well under 6:45/mile pace or faster.

I had run the TOU Marathon 5 times before, but had never done that well. Back in 2003, I ran 2:35 and took 2nd place, but I had not approached that time or placing since then, despite numerous attempts. Over the years, I had many marathon successes at Ogden, St George, and Park City, but was never able to find that same success at my local race. So I did feel that I had something to prove at TOU. In addition, TOU had just raised their prize money to be 5 deep, with an increase to $1500 for 1st. I knew this would bring in lots of competition, and several Kenyans.  I love competition, and looked forward to that aspect. Sure enough, on race day there were many good runners from around the state, plus four Kenyans from out-of-state. It looked to be a great race. With that kind of competition, on my home course, it was impossible for me not to get my competitive juices going, and all my previous thoughts of “just finishing” were out the window. You can win my first race report HERE, but in a nutshell, around Mile 10 I decided to try to go for broke and try to win the whole thing, and that’s just what I did. One-by-one, the pack dropped off, and then I left my last competitor around Mile 14 with a big surge. The whole race felt great, and I loved every minute of it. It felt awesome to beat all of the “out-of-towners”, and “win one for the locals”. And indeed, racing can be an act of worship, and to this day I give God the glory for the opportunity and ability to be out there competing.

After TOU, I did a couple more races as “icing on the cake”, but in actuality, my real season ended with the marathon in September. Looking back at 2009, and comparing it to 2007, I think it was as good of a year, if not better, than 2007. I had two big half marathon PRs (three if you count the downhill TOU course). These half marathon times were a couple minutes faster than what I was running in 2007. It was a bit of a monkey off my back. In 2007 I ran three marathons, 2:26 (1st place) in Ogden, 2:18 (2nd place) in St George, and 2:22 (53rd place) at the Trials. This past year I only did one marathon. It was not my fastest ever, but it was about my third fastest ever, and most importantly, it was a win. So I had one win in 2007, and one win in 2009. The 2:23 at TOU was a better race than my 2007 Ogden, and really not a whole lot “slower” than my 2007 St George. A 2:23-low at TOU converts to a high 2:18 at St George. So all in all, I feel like my marathon level in 2009 was pretty close to what I was running in 2007, despite running 40% less mileage (60 mpw instead of 100 mpw).

I only ran one 5K in 2009: a time of 15:25 in what was essentially a solo time trial. This is pretty close to my best 5K in 2007: 15:23. And that 2007 time was done on a net downhill course, whereas my 2009 time was a loop course, so one could easily argue that the 2009 time is the better of the two. In fact, I will argue that.

So in summary for 2009 vs. 2007:

• Much faster in the half marathon
• Slightly slower in the full marathon
• Slightly faster in 5K
• One marathon win for either year
• Similar amount of prize money for either year

It could be a wash, but I’m going out on a limb and saying that 2009 was better than 2007, especially since I was able to do more on less training. Definitely per-capita, a better season. 2007 had previously been my “best season”, thus 2009 is my best racing season ever. So there you go.

So what does 2010 hold? I hope it holds some good things! I tend to alternate really good years with really cruddy years. 2003-2005-2007-2009 were all really good. 2002-2004-2006-2008 were…not so good, filled with slow races and/or injury. We’ll see. But from 2009, I feel that breaking 2:19 in the marathon and qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Trials is a real possibility. I really think I can do it if I can:

1. Continue to stay healthy
2. Use the same principles as I learned last year (long tempo runs)
3. Run a bit more mileage than last year (~90 mpw instead of 60 mpw)…but not too much more!
4. Hit the right race with the right weather to qualify (ie - get lucky)
5. Continue to keep my life in balance. I think when I elevate running to a higher priority, everything suffers, including running! When I take it too seriously is when injuries and frustration abound. Priorities need to stay: God - family - work - running. I was able to keep good priorities and balance in 2009, and know that all facets of my life benefited from that, including my race times!

If my health, or the training, or the good race conditions are not there, it will not happen, so I need everything to align. And obviously if the A.S. flares up again, or if Enbrel stops working, it’s Game Over. But I do think I can handle the training and hit the time standard; I would have laughed at anyone one year ago if they had suggested either of those things.

I plan on only one marathon this year. I think I’m pretty much through with multiple marathons, and one seems like an awfully good number these days. It’s about all I can handle mentally and emotionally. Marathon training is just so draining and time-consuming. With family and work as higher priorities, I just don’t have it in me for more than one long ramp-up per year. But I do have that one in me.

However, I do plan to do several key half marathons, and continue to try to improve my PR. Who knows, maybe I can even hit 1:05, and not have to worry about a marathon? But in any case, getting my half time down under 1:07 will be good for my confidence, and is essential to breaking 2:19 in the marathon (after all, there are very few people who can break 2:19 that can’t break 1:07).

The plan for this year is to do “maintenance” through the winter (our weather is too awful to train seriously during the winter), and then do a base-building phase, followed by a short 5K/10K phase. I expect I’ll jump in some races in Ogden and SLC during the early spring, and try to get in a few 5Ks and attempt to hone my speed before turning my attention to the half marathon later in the spring and early summer.

I am definitely running the Indy Mini again this May as a big PR attempt. I am waffling 50-50 on doing Seattle again in June, as the Seattle course is not as fast. If I don’t do Seattle, I may do the Utah Valley Half in June, since there will be very good competition there ($$$), and it would be a good opportunity to work on my racing. Utah Valley is a downhill course, so the time won’t mean much on my resume, but good competition trumps all, in my opinion.

I will likely do a short 10K cycle in late June through July with a focus race at Des News 10K on July 24. And then from August through early October, I will transition over to marathon-specific training.That would give about 10-12 weeks of marathon-specific training, which is plenty given that my base should be pretty good by then. Again, I can only mentally handle a relatively short amount of time doing high mileage. For my fall marathon, I am looking at either Twin Cities (Oct 3), Chicago (Oct 10), or Detroit (Oct 17). My preference is Chicago, because it is the fastest course. But in all honesty, the decision will likely come down to family matters and travel plans. We may be traveling for a wedding in early October, so my race decision will probably hinge on those logistics. But at least I have several viable options.

I can’t tell you exactly what 2010 will hold. I can tell you that I’m content and grateful for 2009, and if my running was forced to end due to injury or other event, I would be content with my “career” and move on with life. But for now, I still have the ability, and I still have the drive, and I wish to keep using these God-given talents. I look forward to training and racing in 2010!

It’s been a great year for running so far. I have stayed injury-free all year, have PR’ed in the half marathon twice in a row, and then followed that up with a PR in the 15K. And these are lifetime PR’s, not post-A.S. PR’s. But with these early summer races now done, the rest of the year is wide open, with lots of options.

So what’s next? Well, for one thing, we still need to sell our house and buy a new one. That’s Thing1. And Thing 2 is to get the incentive and motivation to train hard again.With my both my family and my mapping business growing, it’s hard to find time to run, and also hard to find the desire at times. I do best when I just sign up for race to get a tangible goal, and then train in bite-sized chunks. This also helps prevent overtraining, as my training cycles are shorter and more defined.

Having kids changes things

I think I did well during April-June in balancing running with life. I never got mileage out of the low-70s…but I set a couple of nice P.R.s. A question everyone has to ask themselves is: “Is it worth it?“Is the training time and wear and tear on the body worth the reward? Is the hours and hours away from family worth those digits that you see up on the finish line clock, or the numerical rank of your placing you see later in the results? The answer will vary from person to person.

For me, I do think it’s worth it, when I can balance training 60-70 mpw with the rest of my life. My first priorities are my relationship with God and then my family. This family relationship also includes being a provider, which entails working. I choose to work extra in order to allow my wife to stay home with Seth, and am happy to have this opportunity. Suddenly, running becomes “low man on the totem pole”, relegated to 4th or 5th priority in my life (in the past it was much higher). If I spend much more than an hour per day working out, my priorities quickly become out of whack, and running eats into other areas of my life where it should not go. My time is precious, and I guard it jealously. Since Seth was born, I have had to set firmer boundaries, get up earlier, and manage my time better.

By far the best way to get in those extra miles in the evening…

I’ve said this before in this blog, but I do not know what the future holds, whether it’s with my family, my work, my health, or my running. Will I even try to qualify for the 2012 Marathon Trials? I honestly don’t know. Part of me wants to, and thinks I can do it, but another part of me questions whether the sacrifice is worth it. “Can do something” and “Should do something” are two completely different things. Ultimately, my goal is to discern God’s will for all things, and then follow it. Where running falls into that, I do not yet know, as it is just one small piece of my life.

The other day I read an open letter to race directors posted on the Complete Running Network blog. The general premise was that all race directors should have chip timing, good food, lots of porta-pots, good cups, good age group awards, good online maps, and good beer. In other words, cater to the people paying the entry fees. Makes sense.

The article was written in a fun way, was an entertaining read, and certainly made some good points…yet I disagreed with the spirit of it.

Why are races expected to cater to our every whim? Why do we need rock bands along the course, beer at the finish line, a fancy website, fancy t-shirts, and other amenities? I view all these amenities as consumer-driven. Runners demanded them, and race directors obliged. As a result entry fees are raised. Runners raise cain and demand even more “value” for their money (since we’re paying more, we better get more “stuff”). Race directors accommodate this to stay competitive. Prices go up. Runners/consumers get even more demanding and picky. It seems like a perpetual cycle to me. Will there be a “bust” at some point?

And it’s getting absurd. The other day, I paid $75 for the opportunity to run a half marathon (I won’t name names, as this is getting to be a pretty typical price these days). It made me sick to write the check, but in the end I caved simply because I really, really wanted to race the course. Oh, but I get a “free” jacket and “free” beer at the finish, and a bunch of other garbage. What happened to just racing?

Here’s what I want from race directors: Just line us up and fire a gun. And do it on time. And make the race $10.

I don’t need rock bands, I don’t need beer, I don’t even need food at the finish (I can pack my own banana, thank you). I don’t need high-tech t-shirts, jackets, or vests. A cotton t-shirt is fine, although I’d like to opportunity to “opt out” in order to further lower my entry fee. Chip timing is nice, but not needed. We managed to survive quite some time without chips, after all. Rather than putting time and effort into the amenities and pampering, please just make sure the total course distance and the mile markers are accurate.

I realize that I am in the minority in these sentiments, but this is my blog, and I am an expert in my own opinion. Why do I race? I like to be around other runners, the pure community of the event. Moreover, I like to compete: against others and against myself. I get a thrill out of putting myself out there against my peers, and against my own willpower, pain levels, and personal records. Prizes are nice, and I keep them as mementos, but they are not why I race. The same goes for t-shirts and other memorabilia. But I certainly don’t enter the races to drink beer and listen to really bad live bands (I can do that at home for much less than $75, thank you).

I, for one, would like to see a return of “minimalistic races”. Low entry fees, low technology, few amenities, with an emphasis on competition and community. Anyone with me?

Well, it’s been a long road back from the hamstring tendinitis injury (but not nearly as long as plantar fasciitis). I’m not quite out of the woods, but am happy to be back running at least a few miles every day.

It’s amazing how hard a 7:30 mile seems after an injury layoff, but I take some comfort in knowing that I experienced similar issues when coming back from my PF/groin strain in 2006. I remember struggling with a 10-minute mile on the treadmill during rehab back in 2006, and wondering how on earth I would ever be able to run twice that fast for a 5K. Yet within a year I was able to average 5:15/mile for 26 miles. So my 8-minute miles right now don’t seem so bad, as I know I can still have a successful racing season in the summer ahead.

My recent hamstring injury is a tendinitis (inflammation of the tendon) where the hamstring muscle connects to the ischium (butt-bone). I have seen this referred to as “hamstring origin tendinitis“.

I first felt the injury on Dec. 25th (merry Christmas). It was quite minor, and I could run on it without much difficulty. I classified it in the “owie” category, and figured it would go away on its own after a few days. And maybe it would have.

But on Dec. 27 I attempted a 8×1000m interval workout…and pretty much destroyed the hamstring by the 6th interval. Within a span of a few minutes I went from being able to hold a 5:00/mile pace to having to walk home.

What what the root cause of the injury? I think it was a combination of all of the below (in ascending order):

• XC skiing for the first time in a year on Dec. 23. This made me pretty sore for the following week, and worked muscles that hadn’t been used in a long time. Consequently, I was running (and doing hard workouts) on weakened, sore legs during the next few days.
• Running on snow. We had a big snow storm on Christmas Eve, and my next few runs were on solid snow and ice. This slipping around is no good for the joints and muscles, and probably put unnatural strain and torque on already-sore muscles.
• Attempting to train hard for Houston. Looking back, I had just run two all-out marathons within a month, and what my body needed most was a break and a period of base-building. And that was my original plan after Trials. But then I received the opportunity to race the USATF Half Marathon Championships in Houston as a funded athlete. That was an offer that I couldn’t refuse at the time, but now I wish I had. Rather than letting my body fully recover and returning to easy mileage, I was out there doing tempo runs and interval workouts on weakened legs and in less-than-ideal weather/road conditions. Talk about setting the stage for an injury!

Obviously (looking at it after the fact), I could have avoided it all by turning down the Houston race, and just running easy mileage during the harsh winter months. But I think if the roads had good footing and if I hadn’t tried introducing a new activity (XC skiing) during heavy training, I might have stayed healthy as well. In any case, I learned not to try to train for a major race during the winter, at least as long as I live in Logan! I’ve learned that a period of easy running, core work, and weight lifting is probably the best winter training plan for me. With no winter races, I won’t feel like I need to “force” workouts.

But the good news is that I’m feeling about 95% healthy now. Here’s what I did to recover from the hamstring tendinitis:

• Rest. Running was not an option. I also took a week off with no activity, as even elliptical seemed to hurt it at first.
• After I realized it wasn’t getting much better with pure rest, I started Physical Therapy. I saw a licensed PT at our local sports med facility. I’ve done this before and think it’s a good idea for anyone with lingering injuries. My treatments:
  • Heat
  • Ultrasound
  • Stretching the hamstrings
  • Stretching the hips (these were really tight!)
  • Strengthening the hips, glutes, and hammies
    • Theraband activities / 4-way hip machine
    • Stability ball hamstring curls
    • Face-down leg raises (glutes)
    • “Walking” while sitting in a rolling chair (great hammie workout)
    • Hip sled (glutes, hammies, quads)
  • Resumed “safe” cross training:
    • Recumbent bike (non weight-bearing, did this the most early on)
    • Stair-stepper
    • Arc Trainer (great workout)
    • Elliptical (once inflammation was gone)
• Deep massage. This is helpful if you have an LMT who can get in deep to where the hamstring connects to the ischium. It is kind of a precarious spot, and you should first have an LMT that you trust and feel comfortable with. I got about three good massages, and it helped clear up a lot of the initial inflammation.
• Chiropractic. I saw my DC right after the injury, and my hips were way off. I think this was yet another factor that contributed to the injury. Correcting any misalignment (through PT and chiro) is necessary for a permanent fix once you get the inflammation down and resume running. The same goes for muscle imbalances. Getting rid of the inflammation is one thing, but resolving the root issue is another.

Now that I am back to running a little, I way to stay injury-free! This, of course, means taking things slowly. However, I know I can increase fitness faster (and safely), by supplementing with cross training. Another strategy I am starting to use to increase running volume while keep risk low is by breaking up my runs into short doubles. For example, rather than doing one 6-miler, I will do two 3-milers. The best way to get better at running is to run a lot, and doubles are great for that. Plus, the longer the run, the more battering and fatigue you get. Doubles help mitigate this, as fatigue and breakdowns in form do not set in as much on the shorter runs.

My primary goals for the spring are:

• Kick all remaining symptoms of the tendinitis
• Gradually increase mileage back to the 100+ mpw range
• Lose all the weight I gained (about 8 lbs)
• Resume real races by the end of May

It’s been a really crappy winter, but I have high hopes for it being offset by a great summer and fall! free real ringtones tone | download free mobile real ringtones t | composer free nokia ringtones | free u.s cellular ringtones | mp3 ringtones converter | send free ringtones to your phone | free cellular one ringtones | cell download free phone ringtones | free yahoo ringtones | free sprint real ringtones | music nextel real ringtones | yahoo ringtones free download | ringtones verizon wireless | free cellular phone ringtones | e315 motorola ringtones | free real tone ringtones | free ringtones | free ringtones converter | free real ringtones for verizon | cingular free music ringtones |

Well, it’s almost playoff time for football season, and after watching some Packer history DVDs, I was inspired to do another quotes blog. This time all of the quotes come from the late, great Vince Lombardi. Let’s face it, the man had a way with words.

And yes, all of the quotes are in reference to football, but can be easily applied to running or life in general. That what makes them so good. Underneath each Lombardi quote, I’ve posted my own commentary and what it means to me in terms of running and/or life.

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“A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.” — Vince Lombardi

I’ve said this before, but “reaching the next level” for runners takes a conscious decision and it takes sacrifice. I’ve given up or greatly limited some of my loves, such as skiing or beer, for a much greater good and a concrete legacy. I don’t really miss most of it either. And I think part of becoming a great runner is believing in yourself and believing that the dedication and drive will pay off with rewards in the long run.

“Dictionary is the only place that ’success’ comes before ‘work’. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.” — Vince Lombardi

Similar theme to the last quote, but emphasizing that the only way most of us will achieve our goals is to work our butt off. I look at guys like Brian Sell and Peter Gilmore as inspiration. They take on tremendous training loads, but it has paid dividends for them. I have seen dividends in my own running as well. When I did not value hard work and hard training, I was a 2:40 marathoner. Now, as I see it, I have just now learned how to train hard, and I am already a good 20 minutes faster. How many other 2:40 or 2:50 marathoners are out there that are just a big training cycle away from becoming a 2:20 marathoner? How many 2:25 marathoners out there are a few training-filled years away from becoming 2:15 marathoners?

“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” — Vince Lombardi

Lombardi said this before the ‘67 season, before the Packers won their 3rd straight championship. The reference was that late in the game, if a player (or team) is fatigued, they will not be able to show guts; they will not win. So he trained his team like mad during the summer to make sure they were better-conditioned than any other team, and could therefore perform in “crunch time”.

Similarly, a runner’s ability to surge or to beat down the competition is based on their conditioning. Guts mean nothing if you are not in shape to use them. There is nothing better than making a bold move late in the race, and having the confidence and conditioning to finish it with authority. The alternative is hanging on for dear life, just counting steps and waiting for the race to end. Been there, done that, don’t like it much.

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.“– Vince Lombardi

Nothing beats being utterly exhausted after a race during which you’ve given your all. And nothing beats the feeling of walking around like a wounded soldier during the following week of recovery after a marathon. Enjoy your soreness, it’s well-deserved.

“Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” — Vince Lombardi

Nothing beats a team. When you are running for something bigger than just yourself, it is easy to get motivated, to do that extra bit of training, and to push harder than you’ve ever pushed during a race. That is why a lot of people have trouble training on their own after a good college experience. That also may be why the Hansons are having so much success. They don’t have fancy altitude tents or a glamorous place to train, but they have over a dozen people out there pushing each other and supporting each other. That will go farther than altitude training ever will. I hope that the new FastRunningBlog.com racing team can support and push each other in a similar way, and make each other into better runners.

“It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not a winner.” — Vince Lombardi

If you can survive the hard times and “trials by fire”, you will come out a better runner. Injuries and “off times” are not times to lose the discipline, but times to really use it. Again, a team or other community and support will do wonders when things look bleak.

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.” — Vince Lombardi

I know plenty of runners who are very talented and very fast, but they don’t believe in themselves. One will never win unless they believe and set themselves up into position to win, through training or in the race itself.

“Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure, and the temporary failures.” — Vince Lombardi

Success comes at a cost, but once you concede and accept the rigors of hard training, it actually gets easier. I’ve found that a 100-mile week is no harder than a 60-mile week in some ways. I think most of that is psychological. You accept your training as what it is, then put your head down and do it. Once that resolve is made, little aches and pains, tiredness, and an occasional ho-hum workout just become things that you accept and move on over. Hard, high-volume training also forces you to prioritize and manage time more. Yes, I don’t quite have much free time anymore, but what would I have been doing with much of that free time? Watching TV? Now I keep what free time I do have as constructive as possible, in order to utilize and take advantage of every waking minute.

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” — Vince Lombardi

Dream. Dream big. Set high goals and chase after them. If you fall short, so what? Chances are, you’ll still hit better race times and finishes than you did before! And what is there to lose?

“Success demands singleness of purpose.” — Vince Lombardi

This is an unfortunate truth, and is why the best runners are generally professionals. Ie - they do not work full-time jobs. I wonder for myself if I’ll ever need to (or have the chance to) quit my day job. The thing is, I really like my vocation, plus realize that a person can only hope to make a living as a runner for a relatively short number years. I imagine if I were ever presented to chance to go after running with “singleness of purpose”, I would probably still work about 20 hours/week just to keep my mind occupied and my skills sharp. What else is there to do while I’m not running?

Completely across the spectrum, this quote also brings up the idea of specialization of training. In order to become a very good marathoner, you must do marathon-specific training. This singleness of purpose within training may mean that you won’t fulfill your potential in the 5K, but it gives the best chance in the marathon. And vice versa for a 5K runner. Deliberately pick your races, pick your training methodology, and “run with it”.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” — Vince Lombardi

I’ve already hit on this, but running is one of the few activities out there where one can really make huge improvements simply by wanting it bad enough. From desire and motivation comes very hard training, and from hard training comes fast race times.

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” — Vince Lombardi

It’s nearly impossible to give up during a race if you’ve prepared thousands of miles of training for that race.

“We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.” — Vince Lombardi

Or a rephrase for running would be, “I didn’t lose the race, I just ran out of road”. I think we’ve all had that happen, a race where things go bad in the middle, only to have a second wind and be eating people up at the end…and the finish line is curse rather than a blessing. Although I was hurting, I do wish I had an extra mile for the Trials race. People were coming back fast, and I ran out of road.

“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” — Vince Lombardi

Not everyone can be an elite runner or a professional runner, but everyone can certainly play out the cards they’ve been dealt. Doing so with fervor usually leads to fulfillment as well as a few surprises. This quote also reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30), which is obviously about more spiritual things. In any case, we should live our lives as stewards and develop what assets we’ve been given to our utmost, whether that is faith, running, parenting, vocation, or other things.

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” — Vince Lombardi

I sometimes wonder if people think I live a lower “quality of life” because I’ve given up a lot of recreational time in order to toil and train so much. In truth, it’s just the opposite. By pursuing a dream and developing my running talent, my life is richer than it ever was. 40 years from now, I won’t remember donuts I’ve eaten, parties I’ve gone to, or extra hours I’ve slept. But I will certainly remember the feeling of winning Ogden, qualifying at St. George, racing with the best at Olympic Trials, and whatever is yet to come. Not only is the process of getting there enjoyable and fulfilling, but so is the legacy and memories that will be left.

“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it“. — Vince Lombardi

For me, this past year of running was made so much more sweeter by how awful last year was. While being sidelined by various injuries for 5 months, I sometimes doubted if I could race again, but thanks in part to the encouragement and support of others, I managed to keep at it and was eventually rewarded. It takes a time of darkness to really appreciate the light.

****************

And one more thing…Go Pack!

Well, since the new server is up and running, I can get back to blogging!

I’ve had a few weeks to mull over the USATF’s recent decision to revamp the OTQ standards for the men’s marathon. My initial blog posting was my knee-jerk reaction that I wrote a few hours after reading about the decision. Since then, I have heard many good (and bad) arguments opposing various aspects of the new standards. And it has given me a lot to chew on. Here are my current thoughts on the issue:

• Adding a Half Marathon qualifier: good. No change of opinion here, and most other people agree with this one too. Also, taking away the 5K qualifier: good. I don’t think anyone took up the offer this time around anyway. So what remains is a 10K qualifier at 28:30 and a Half Marathon qualifier at 1:05:00. A lot of people still dispute allowing runners to qualify with a 10K, but I think this year’s 10K runners (Browne, Rohatinsky, Carney, Gonzales) more than proved that they belonged (not that Browne had anything to prove, but he did qualify via 10K). Yeah, 10K times are not the best indicator of marathon times, but I do think they are a good indicator of marathon potential. Tim Noakes notes in Lore of Running that most elite marathoners are elite 10K runners as well. You need to have a good amount of leg speed to go under 2:10. And 28:30 is pretty darn fast. Sub-28:30 represents our top-tier runners. Encouraging our top-tier 10K runners to move up to the marathon should produce at least a couple top-tier marathon runners. I think this year is already proof of that with Rohatinsky and others making impressive debuts.
• Getting rid of “aided” (downhill) courses as qualifiers: good. I hold to my initial assessment of this as well, with a few concerns. Interestingly, this is the least debated of all the USATF decisions, as I have read very few voices of dissent on throwing out courses like St. George, Steamtown, and CIM. Although I’m fine with qualifying somewhere other than St. George, out of love for St. George and other local downhill races, I hope that they can find a way to stay relevant among top-tier runners around the state and region. Prize money is usually a good way to stay relevant. It would be a shame if all of the sub-elites that typically run St. George abandon the race for “legit” courses. Another concern brought up by others is that USATF may be playing “god” with what courses are legit, and what courses aren’t. At first I was not too concerned about this, but now it gives me bad vibes. Although I support Boston, New York, Twin Cities, and other point-to-point courses being exempt from the new rule, I would like to see some firm protocol or criteria being set in place for other exemptions. Just being a major marathon shouldn’t be the only way in. What about all the other small, local point-to-point courses that do not traditionally produce “aided” times? Do they get the shaft, while New York gets in because…well…it’s New York? I would like to see a way for smaller point-to-point races appeal their way in or get voted in by something more democratic.
• Getting rid of the “B” standard: good. I hold to my original position. I don’t think anyone should have to pay their own way to Trials, or that runners should be treated differently because of their qualifying time. Just pick one standard, and go with it. If you make it, great, if not, tough.
• Lowering the standard to 2:19: good. I hold to my original position that this will be a good thing for American running…with an asterisk. If we can qualify 200 people in 1984, we should be able to do the same in 2012. And most arguments stating, “so and so wouldn’t have qualified with this standard, and that would have ruined their careers” are garbage. For instance, Jason Lehmkuhle (of 2008) and Brian Sell (of 2004) would have qualified with their half marathon times. The most famous dark horse, Trent Briney, would have been within seconds of qualifying in 2004 with his half marathon time. However, after reading a lot of these counter arguments, I do have some concerns.
  • Runners need a reachable “carrot” hanging in front of them to keep motivated. The USATF just took away many peoples’ carrot and moved it far out of current reach. This would be a major blow to the motivation of many. I could go on a tangent about the “quitter mentality”, but in truth people need sets of intermediate goals to step to in order to establish themselves and move on to the next goal. Where is the “intermediate” goal for the 2:25-2:30 marathoners? How do we get a guy who ran 2:23 to keep going, when the “big carrot” is still 4 minutes off?
  • Marathon training takes extreme dedication and sacrifice; there needs to be some sort of incentive. In short, we need more “carrots”. I am totally fine with a 2:19 standard, and potentially fewer participants, if the incentive provided by the “B” standard can be replaced by other races and events. That way the USATF would meet their goals of making the Trials be a truly “elite” group that can push for medals, but still continue development of younger runners, sub-elites, and regional runners using proper, sustainable incentives. With more “carrots” to chase after, the Brian Sell’s, the Peter Gilmore’s, and the Trent Briney’s can continue their development from sub-elite to elite, and be able to make the push up front. Take away those carrots, and I am a little afraid of what could happen. Probably 4-8 more good years of American running, and then when Hall and Ritz get old, we may be back to 1996.

So the crux of the whole matter is replacing the incentive of Trials with new incentives that are reachable to 2:22+ runners. Easier said than done, right? But let’s think of it this way: the Trials occurs every four years, and it is the focus of many aspiring marathoners. This has been “taken away” for a lot of people. But if develop “big races” that occur every year, there could be a world of opportunity.

For instance, the US Marathon Championships occur every year. Well, this year it happened to be Trials, but every other year it is more accessible. “US Marathon Championships” sounds pretty cool, but the problem is that most people don’t even know about it! I think one potential solution is to market and make the US Champs into a “big deal”. Make it highly visible, give it more press, make prize money 20-deep. Make it something notable to put on your resume. Make a time standard of 2:30 to get in the race, and make that known to everyone. Perhaps make it a team event, like US XC Club Nationals, where the best USATF-sanctioned marathon teams can win bonus money with cross country-style scoring. I believe that adding prestige and innovating scoring to the existing US Championship race(s), including the Marathon, Half Marathon, 25K, 20K, and others, could provide the incentive to continue development for a lot of runners.

And what if the USATF doesn’t do anything to “replace” Trials? Do we just sit on our hands and complain? Do we wait for the “government” to help us out? Do we quit because it’s too hard? No way! During the mid-90’s when two brothers in eastern Michigan noticed that U.S. distance running was in a wretched state, they didn’t just complain and wait for the USATF to fix things! They took things into their own hands, started supporting, coaching, and developing young runners, and now the Hansons are sending a runner to the 2008 Olympics! I firmly believe the development of American runners will come from the bottom-up, not the top-down. In other words, it is up to us, the grassroots; it is not up to the USATF to trickle down money to the little guy. I think the Hansons program is a model of what can happen on the grassroots level, when people just decide they want to help with the development of distance runners. Brian Sell going to the Olympics is about the best thing that could happen for American distance running. He may not win a medal (although I won’t count him out), but the Hansons will grow stronger, and more “Hanson-clone” teams will spring up, because the model works.

So my final point is that we can either sit around on our hands moaning, complaining, and waiting for the USATF to do “right”, or we can get up and do right ourselves. Don’t like how races are administrated? Join a race committee or start a new race doing things how you see it. Want to develop runners? Join a club, mentor a runner, get into coaching, or financially sponsor a developing runner. Want to run fast yourself? Find other like-minded people, support each other, and train your butt off.

End of rant. As usual, discussion and dissent are welcome. That’s what keeps the wheel turning, right?

For those of us thinking we need to get under 2:22 to qualify for 2012 Olympic Trials, think again! And for those of us “borderline” runners thinking we can get an OTQ at St. George, think again! Race Results Weekly recently posted an article about the official new OTQ Marathon standards for 2012.

Here’s the kickers in a nutshell (or maybe a kick in the nuts, based on your opinion):

• No more “A” and “B” standards. One time fits all now.
• New time standard: 2:19.
  • Can also get in with 10K (28:30) and Half Marathon (1:05)
• “Aided” courses no longer acceptable
  • New “approved” list with all “acceptable” marathons (to be released shortly).
  • Elevation loss of no more than 1 meter per kilometer
  • Start and finish of point-to-point courses have to be separated by less than 30% of the race distance (ie - <7.9 miles for marathon)
  • Special provision to be made for Boston, New York, and other point-to-point or non-record eligible courses that do not traditionally produce fast times

I am sure this will be a controversial subject for many. My opinion? (this is a blog, after all) I think these are all good things. That may surprise my three readers, since I myself qualified at St. George this year, and am not currently capable of breaking 2:19. But here’s why I like the changes:

• It’s for the good of America. I’m a patriotic dude. Tougher time standards will challenge American runners and stimulate improvement. 2:19 is the new 2:22. 2:15 will become the new 2:18. 2:11 will become the new 2:15. And increasing the number of guys in the 2-teens will push the very top guys even more. As a result, I predict we will see more American runners under 2:10 and contending at major marathons.
• No more “B” qualifiers. This equals fair treatment for all runners that qualify. Everyone who makes it will receive comp travel. Everyone will receive elite fluid service. Everyone gets the same living and racing conditions.
• Half marathon qualifier standards equals more opportunities. Most people can only do a couple good marathons per year, so opening up half marathons as qualifying venues should open more doors. Halfs are easier to recover from, so they can be attempted more often, and if you get bad luck with your marathons for the year…well, better luck with the half!
• No more debates about downhill courses. They are a non-issue now. Forget about it. The writing was on the wall anyway. I love St. George and Top of Utah as much as anyone, but again, I think this is for our own good. This will also take tailwinds (or headwinds) out of the equation, since most true point-to-point courses will be “banned”.

What does this mean for those of us dreaming to break 2:22? Well…recalibrate those dreams to 2:19! I am basically a 2:20-2:21ish marathoner right now. Four years from now I sure better be 2:18 (or faster)! And that is what I train and dream for. The bar has been raised; let’s go after it and be part of the American resurgence of marathoning. See you on the roads.

First off, just let me say: Yeeeaaahh!! 2:18!! NY here I come!!

There, that feels good. For anyone who missed it, the 2007 St. George Marathon was an absolute gem of a race, not just for me, but for the vast majority who participated. I can’t even count the number of PR’s of just the people I know. Unreal. And yes, a PR at St. George is a PR. Maybe not as impressive as a PR at Boston or New York, but 26.2 is 26.2, and a PR is a PR. There are different types of PR’s (downhill PR’s vs. flat PR’s; elevation PR’s vs. sea-level PR’s; young man PR’s vs. old man PR’s, etc.), but those who PR’ed at St. George should be proud. It was an amazing day to run.

Looking back at my earlier dilemma of whether to run St. George, Chicago, or Twin Cities, I get chills and cravings for an I.V. when I think about what would have happened if I had picked one of those big, sexy, mid-western marathons instead of my tried-and-true “local” race. One American qualifier at Chicago (who is stud of the world for doing that, by the way). No qualifiers at Twin Cities. If I had chosen one of those races, all I would have qualified for was a bummer.

Instead, I chose my local race, St. George. It was a no-brainer. The whole trip cost my wife and I a total of $175, thanks to having friends down there to stay with (thanks again, Clyde and Mik’l). And it yielded an 8-minute PR and an all-expense paid opportunity to toe the line with America’s best in New York City on November 3.

True, St. George gets no love, exemplified by the fine thread on LetsRun.com. Some of the criticisms are valid, other criticisms are elitist LetsRun.com drivel, typical for that site. But it probably provides a pretty valid cross section of what most people outside of Utah think of St. George. People who have never run the race exaggerate how “easy” it is. They describe it as “cheating” even. Run the race first, then criticize it. On the other end of the spectrum, Utah natives and long-time St. George participants exaggerate the difficulty of the first half of the course, and tend to play up the effects of altitude and downhill battering.

The truth of St. George lies somewhere in the middle. Most of the uphills do not show up the course profile, but there is over 400′ of climbing, mostly in the first half. The second half of the race…is ridiculous in its speed. If you are trained for hills (both up and down) you will fly. If you are not, you may not even finish. Flat-landers beware. I think the elevation has almost no effect on the downhills, and only moderate effect on the uphills. A well-trained Utahn will most assuredly run a huge PR at St. George. In my opinion, an elite runner will finish 2-4 minutes faster at St. George than at a flat, sea-level course, depending on their downhill aptitude.

By qualifying at St. George, I did not earn any respect, nor did I expect it or think I deserve it. I plan to go out and earn respect in three weeks at Olympic Trials, and in my subsequent racing over the next few years. I have a nice PR of a low 2:18, but for now I always have to follow it up with, “…at St. George“. It’s definitely a bit of an asterisk, as far as elite running circles are concerned. But I did not run St. George to earn the respect of LetsRun.com. I ran it because it made the most sense.

• It is the closest race to where I live (ie - I can drive there in a few hours).
• It is one of the top 20 largest marathons in America, ensuring great competition.
• They treat semi-elite runners very well (water bottle service, separate staging, etc.).
• The weather is virtually always excellent and reliable in the desert in early October.
• It is the fastest course in America. Who would not want to run the fastest course?
• It was my best shot at an “A” qualifier and a free trip to NYC.

So given its proximity and the speed of the course, why would I not run St. George? Why would I not want an “A” qualifier? If the USATF says it’s legit, then it is legit. Period. It would have been insanity to drop a couple grand to take myself and my wife out to some strange huge city and run a 2:40 in hot, humid conditions. I know this is retrospect, but I can’t help patting myself on the back, along with the other 16 people that qualified in the desert this weekend. St. George: 38 degrees at the start, 50 degrees at the finish. Slight tailwind most of the race. Even without the massive downhill, St. George had perfect conditions, and it was a PR day, the kind of day that makes runners salivate. Throw in the downhill, and it gets even more fun.

So yes, I am looking forward to “proving” myself on some flat and rolling sea level courses. Personally, I think I can run even faster if I hit a fast course like Chicago on the right day with the right pack. Right now, I am eyeballing Twin Cities for next year, which is the USATF Marathon Championships. I hope to make an impact. I’d also like to travel and do some big-time races such as the Fifth-Third Riverbank 25K in Grand Rapids (mid-May), as well as something like the Crim 10-miler or the Utica Boilermaker. I think one of the primary steps to becoming elite on a national scene is to travel to national races and mix it up with people better than me. Good butt-whippings make a person strong. Oh, and so does training like a mad-man, which I plan to do as well. I’ve got 100-mile weeks mastered; it is time to try 120 mpw in 2008.

Adjusting for the downhill speed of St. George, right now I consider 2:20-2:22 guys to be my peer group, and like all races, I hope to out-compete my peer group in NYC. And if I can knock off some 2:18 guys, that would be great too. I am certainly not content with 2:18, whether I ran it at St. George or at Boston. The reason we train and race is to perpetually get faster. St. George this year was an important step in my own journey, but certain not the end.

I frequently listen to the Dave Ramsey Show (and encourage anyone else with an interest in personal finance to do so as well). Each show, Dave reads a “Quote of the Day”, and most of them are pretty inspirational and worth chewing on. Dave’s quotes the last several days have been especially good, and I’ve swiped them and posted them below with some of my own musings regarding their application to running.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work” - Steven King

There is a host of pedigreed, talented runners out there who do not come remotely close to their potential. On the other hand, I’ve seen an even greater number of unheralded runners develop into great marathoners. Some of them (*gasp*) didn’t even run track or cross country in high school or college! Whether your goal is sub-4:00, sub-3:00, or an Olympic Trials Qualifier, you will make your greatest gains through sheer workload. Find the right mix of consistent training volume and intensity, and pursue it with passion, and you will soon find yourself burying those who are supposedly more “talented”. (although I think that the ability to push yourself and show intense drive is a talent in itself).

“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have” - Zig Ziglar

How do we truly rate success in running? Is it breaking a certain time barrier? Finishing high in a race? Beating a particular rival? I think all those things can factor into success, but the most important criteria of success is simply meeting your potential. Not everyone has the genetics to win races or place in age groups, but everyone has the opportunity to push themselves to their limits, to answer the question: “What is the best I can be?” Reaching your maximum potential transcends any race time or placing. It is independent of age, course layouts, bad weather, or sore knees. It should be what we ultimately pursue. The times and race finishes will follow.

“There’s only one way to succeed in anything, and that’s to give it everything” - Vince Lombardi

How bad do you really want it? Are you willing to sacrifice and push the envelope in order to achieve greatness? How bad do you really want to qualify for Boston? How bad do you want to break 3:00? 2:40? 2:30? 2:20?

These are the types of questions I regularly ask myself, and challenge the readers of this blog (all three of you) to ask themselves as well. The legacy of your running and the stories you accumulate will last longer than the pain of any workout or the sugary taste of those Friday donuts. For myself, I have decided that it is worth sacrificing most of my non-family free time to run, stretch, do core drills, and get extra sleep. It is worth watching my diet and eating healthy. The yard looks like trash, but I am fit. Socializing can be done while running. Beer is good, but Olympic Trials is better. Sleeping in on Saturday is nice, but reaching for my maximum potential is done while awake.

It’s difficult to stay inspired and motivated during hard training cycles. I personally struggle with the “little things”, so need some motivation along the way. Hopefully these quotes will inspire you as they’ve inspired me. No more brurgers until I qualify. Happy training!

Vegetarians may want to look away…

Today I’m here to describe the wonders of the “Brurger”. What is a brurger, you ask? A brurger, also known as the “hambur-brat”, is a fascinating mix of wonder-meats. The core unit consists of a hamburger patty, cheese, and a Johnsonville bratwurst, all tucked into a standard hamburger bun. The bratwurst is first cut in half, and then split along its longitudinal axis before mounted on its greasy beefy base.

However there are a plethora of variations and enhancements can can be performed to the standard brurger. One nuance is simply additional condiments. We have tried salsa (Tex-Mex Brurger) and blue cheese dressing (Fatty-fat Brurger), all with great success. Another novel idea is adding fry sauce (Utah Brurger). *Note* for those who don’t know, “fry sauce” is a mixture of ketchup and mayo, and is generally only found in Utah for some reason.

Furthermore, the standard brurger can be built upon by simply adding more meat, for instance bacon (Pig Brurger), a second bratwurst half (Br-Brurger), a second hamburger patty and a second bratwurst half (Double Br-Brurger), or a chicken breast (Noah’s Ark Brurger — give me two of every animal!). Most of these variations are experimental and not recommended for people who want to live past age 60.

The best brurger I’ve ever had was just last week, while camping with my wife and a friend in northern Washington. After my first “Standard Brurger”, I decided I wanted something more, and soon invented the “Br-Brurger”. The layers were: bun, bratwurst, cheese, patty, cheese, bratwurst, bun. Although it dripped the largest amount of grease I’ve ever seen, it ended up being about the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

So what does this have to do with running, you ask? After all, this is running blog. Well, the brurger’s history roots deeply into the realms of running. The original brurger was invented by myself and several friends after the 2004 Canyonlands Half Marathon. After working ourselves over in this early-season half marathon, we all decided that we deserved something “special”, something that would replenish our depleted calories and fat stores. Being a Wisconsin native it seemed logical to me that bratwurst should be involved. One thing led to another, and after some group collaboration the first brurger was born in the campground at Arches National Park.

The brurger soon become a traditional post-race meal. The deal is that you have to “earn” it. Usually a half marathon is sufficient, although special exceptions are allowed as well, such as long journeys and reunions with friends.

While in training, I keep my diet pretty tight: a lot of vegetarian cuisine, lean poultry, and fish. However, at times I feel it appropriate to let loose and celebrate, whether it’s finishing a tough race or enjoying the companionship of friends. For me, the brurger symbolizes the balancing of rigid training with celebration. Eating healthy is definitely beneficial for running…but something you just gotta unbuckle the belt and enjoy!

And while I’m off-topic, go Packers!

Al Gore was right. Along with the unfortunate polar icecaps, we are experiencing relentless heat up here in the usually cool realms of the northern Utah. Although our temps normally dip down to the 50’s at night, I’ve been waking up (in a pool of my sweat) to upper 70s. This is bad. Did I mention I get up at 6AM? Did I also mention I usually do a second run at 6PM? Here’s an inconvenient truth: running in 95+ degree temperatures sucks! (And so does living in an house without air conditioning…).

I usually prefer to do high mileage (80-100 miles/week) during the summer because:

1. I have more time to run during the summer
2. There is more daylight to train in during the summer
3. There are more races, and therefore more incentive to train, during the summer.

Last summer was beautiful. No 100-degree days that I can recall. However, I was laid up with about 17 different injuries and didn’t run a step from May through August. What a waste.

This summer is a different story. I’m healthy and motivated to hit those two-a-days and those 100 mile weeks, but the weather is turning into an inhibitor. An inhibitor that I’ve been ignoring.

Despite the intense sun and soaring temperatures, I’m still hitting my mileage, still getting in all those evening doubles, and still booking those Big Workouts…perhaps against my best interests. Dehydration is surely a factor, and a dangerous one at that. Fatigue and lethargy are also in the mix to bring me down. Perhaps I should bag it during the summer and do my high mileage during the winter and early spring.

But nay, I say we press on.

High mileage is doable in the heat, and so is high performance amidst all that volume. Here are my keys to achieving high mileage during the height of summer:

• Drink water like mad. Yes, dehydration is an issue while training in the heat, but fortunately there’s a cure: water. I keep a water bottle next to me a work all day and will go through it a couple times before I clock out. This helps me recover from my morning run and preps me for my evening run.
• Gin and tonic, hold the gin. I’ve been avoiding alcohol like the plague lately. The funny thing is that it doesn’t even sound good. Whenever I think I may want a beer or other “adult beverage”, I just think about my morning run approaching in 10 hours or so, and any urge disappears. I can’t afford the performance hit of a diuretic, not in this kind of heat.
• Nap so much it embarrasses your dog. As if logging 80-100 miles/week isn’t tiring enough, the heat completely removes any remaining energy and ambition. Combat this with a solid 8-9 hours of sleep at night, plus naps whenever you get the chance. Last Saturday, I managed to take two separate naps within a span of 4 hours, a new PR. I think increased sleep is key (in tandem with increased hydration) to maintain high performance during a stressful time.
• Never miss a morning run. The earlier the better. Better to get up at the crack of dawn and take a nap later than to miss your window of heat-free running. For double-days, make the morning run twice as long as the afternoon/evening run.

High mileage during the thick of July is quite doable with a bit of discipline. Keep hitting that water bottle and remember that autumn is right around the corner!

Well, the Wasatch Back Relay is almost upon us. This means three things:

1. Time to start rummaging around the basement for headlamps, coolers, reflective vests, and other miscellaneous debris
2. Time for a team member to call me to say “I can’t run” due to:
• Injury
• Sickness
• Work
• Dog attack
• Some combination of the above
3. Time for me to go into emergency find-a-runner panic mode.

Every (and I mean EVERY) relay I have run, we have lost runners with less than two weeks until the race, and have had to find last-minute ringers. Fortunately, our ringers are generally pretty fast.

This year, with one week to go until Wasatch Back, our entire original team was still intact. I started to get nervous. Something seemed wrong.

With three days to go (ie, yesterday), our entire original team was still intact. Now I am sweating nervous. This is definitely not right. We should have had one, nay, two runners drop by now. Was someone just not telling me something??

I decided to pick up the phone and make some calls. Turns out one guy was indeed “out” due to sickness and scheduling, just nobody knew about it until now. Good thing I called! As usual with these situations, he was very apologetic, but I never hold these kinds of things against people. Get 12 runners together, probability and statistics dictate that at least one will get injured or sick during the time preceding the race. It’s just a fact of life with runners.

So I learned that we were down a runner at 8AM Wednesday, about 56 hours before our start time. With travel time and planning, we realistically had about 24 hours to find a replacement runner. And not just any replacement, but a runner of 2:40 marathon caliber or faster. A tall order. But this is where things got cool.

Within the hour, our team set the search process in motion. Like clockwork, we networked through phone, email, and blogs, through cellular networks and through cyberspace.

Perhaps our most useful asset was the FastRunningBlog, an online training blog community that most of our team participates in. There are many fast runners on the Blog, and a large number of them live in Utah, which makes them available targets. Blog friends were contacted, as well as friends of friends. Over the next several hours, I received many “no” answers from potential canditates (most people already had a team). But sure enough, by 4PM Wednesday (8 hours later), we had our 2:40 marathoner. Our new teammate was the friend of a friend and is on the FastRunningBlog as well. The system works.

Panic mode is over.

On that note, since joining the FastRunningBlog, my network of runner friends has greatly expanded. I feel like I know half the runners in Utah now. And it’s not just an online thing (which would be exceptionally nerdy), but I see these people face-to-face at most of my races. The Utah running scene is a small pond, now made even smaller by the Blog. From Logan all the way down to St. George, connections and contacts have been made. New friendships have been established, and there’s new places to stay while traveling.

And it’s a heck of a lot easier to fill relay teams!

Well, it’s official, I’m running the St. George Marathon as my fall OTQ attempt. I contacted the good people at St. George Leisure Services on Tuesday, and they were happy to let me in, especially since I had to cancel my registration last year due to injury.

So why did I choose St. George over Chicago and Twin Cities? Simple, the benefits far outweighed the costs. Not to mention a nearly 2:1 majority vote for St. George in my poll. One of my favorite proverbs is “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17), and I received a lot of good advice and feedback from my running peers that I valued while making the decision.

In the end, it came down to teammates. If I run St. George, I knew I would be shoulder-to-shoulder with several Wasatch Running Center teammates, as well as with several other friends that I consider “teammates” even though they happen to wear another singlet.

Two horses working together can pull a heavier load than the sum of the loads pulled by individuals. Similarly, teammates working together can accomplish much greater things than individuals. At my NCAA cross country championships, I noticed that people who qualified as part of a team tended to perform better than people who qualified as individuals. The individual qualifiers almost always had fewer allies, less support, and less motivation. Team qualifiers, on the other hand, were supported by each other, ran for a greater cause, and benefitted from pack running. I look forward to doing some pack running with my WRC teammates and others at St. George, and helping pull that OTQ load.

And its not just the people running in the same pack as me, but those running at all speeds. Thanks to the FastRunningBlog community and other contacts I’ve made, I will likely know well over 25 people running St. George. I want to be there with them before the race, to see them finish, and to celebrate their races with them.

Finally, if I travelled to Chicago or Minneapolis, it’s unknown whether my wife would be able to go with me or not. That’s no good for either of us. By running St. George, I know that she will be there with me.

I’m already pumped for the race. 2:20 or bust!!

So I’ve made a decision: I’m crossing over to the “nerdy side” and will soon be buying a Garmin Forerunner 205. Ah yes, now I’ll finally be able to to measure my runs to two decimals and take quarter-mile splits. I’ve elected not to get the heart rate monitor (ie - the Forerunner 305), simply so that I can have more speed and distance stats simultaneously available to me on that glorious, honkin’ huge watch face.

We runners sure love our nerdy gadgets, and it’s been getting worse and worse. And thanks to the distractions of iPods and Virtual Training Partners®, our social running will further spiral as well. Thank goodness for running blogs and the wonderful social interaction they provide (heh heh).

But the real question is: which is nerdier, the Garmin Forerunner 205/305 or the old Casio calculator watches? Although the Garmins score points with pace alerts and a customizable screen, the calculator watches have that irresistible ’80s retro flair. Hmmm…I’ll have to ask my Virtual Partner® and get his opinion on this one.

Wow, the Ogden Marathon went unbelievably well for me! Between setting a PR and course record (2:26:24) and winning the race, it was a thrilling experience. Now I’ve got a new training cycle ahead of me, and after running some 5K and 10K races, it’s back to marathon-specific training. After my Ogden performance, I firmly believe that I can meet the “B” Standard for Olympic Trials, and potentially even the “A” standard. Ogden, after all, is not known as a blazing course, due to its topographic layout and average elevation of 5000′ above sea level. In addition, fighting warm temperatures and running solo nearly the entire race indicated to me that I can go faster with better conditions.

The question therein lies: which fall marathon should I do to qualify? Seeing as to how I want to train as long as possible, and the end of the qualifying window is October 7, my options are three: St. George (Oct 6), Chicago (Oct 7), or Twin Cities (Oct 7). I’m at a bit of loss of which one to do, so have compiled a list of pro’s and con’s.

St. George Marathon - Pro’s

• Probably the fastest of the three courses; highest probability of hitting the “A” standard here
• I’ve ran it before and am familiar with the course
• Many of my friends are running it, and I will have support and potential carpooling options
• Thanks to new friends made from the FastRunningBlog, I can likely get free lodging
• Closest race, least travel = least stress
• Saturday race = preferred

St. George Marathon - Cons

• No prize money. Yes, I’m that shallow.
• Course is fast, too fast even. Feels like cheating. I’ll doubt my ability to run well at NY if I scrape by with a qualifier here.
• Weakest field of the three races. Yes, there is strong competition, but not nearly as thick and bloody as Chicago or TCM. Highest probability of getting stuck by myself here.
• Higher elevation than the other courses.

Chicago Marathon - Pros

• Sea level (well, close enough)
• One of the fastest courses in the world - flat. I’m a rhythm runner, and I can get in a great rhythm here.
• Thick, thick, bloody competition. Top 30 would be a brilliant effort. Lot of advantages to working with a pack.
• I’ve got a lot of old teammates in Michigan who run this race. Potential lodging and team running opportunities.
• Big marathons are sexy.

Chicago Marathon - cons

• Potential expenses. I don’t see anything on their website about Olympic development. I’d be a very small fish here and would probably have to pay most of my own way.
• Long travel = stress
• Virtually no chance of winning any sort of prize money. Yes, I’m that shallow.
• Risk - it would be shameful to travel that far and spend that much money, and then have bad weather or a bad race and not qualify.
• I hate the Bears.

Twin Cities - Pros

• Like Chicago, very close to sea level
• They appear to have some sort of Olympic Development program…potential expenses paid?? (need to inquire)
• Bigger than St. George, but smaller than Chicago - the best of both worlds. There will be excellent competition here, and yet I’ll still have a shot at Top 10.
• Good prize money here. They give bonuses for hitting “A” and “B” standards, but achieveable prize money for Top 10. Yes, I’m that shallow.
• I have some family in the Twin Cities, so potential lodging

Twin Cities - Cons

• Looking at the profile, this is the slowest course of my three options. This is a big con.
• Long travel = stress
• Potential expenses.
• I hate the Vikings.

So what do I do? In any case, I figure I should contact Chicago and Twin Cities and see if I can get any expenses paid. If not, it’s a no-brainer: St. George. But even without considering expenses, my brain is telling me “St. George”. It has the fastest course, surest qualifier bet, least travel impact, and most friends and loved ones in vincinity. It’s just not as sexy as Chicago, is all. There’s just something about the idea of running 5:15-pace with a pack of twenty people, all clawing after the same thing, surrounded by hordes of cheering spectators, that appeals to me.

Obviously, I can think myself into circles here. Fortunately, I have a little while to decide. In the meantime, your comments and insights are appreciated in this decision-making. Perhaps I’m missing something?

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Slow day on the blog. I was looking at my shoe rack the other day and realized that I have 12 pairs of shoes total, and 8 of them are running shoes. The crazy thing is that I wear all of them (except one pair) for running and only running. Am I some sort of freak, or is this normal?

Numbers in the photo above correspond to numbers in the list below:

1. Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 yellow - 497 miles - road training; about to be retired
2. Saucony Tangent - <50 miles - racing flats; haven’t been used since I got plantar fasciitis (PF)
3. Birkenstocks - what I wear when I’m not running; great treatment for PF and comfy as all heck.
4. Dress Shoes - I’ve had these since high school and I hate them; wear them whenever I wear a tie, which is about twice a year.
5. Brooks Burn - 143 miles - lightweight trainers; I’m wearing these for workouts and races until I have the guts to wear racing flats again (post plantar fasciitis trauma)
6. Brooks Cascadia - 88 miles - trail-running shoes; also wear sometimes for hiking
7. Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 black - 455 miles - road training
8. Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7 blue - 79 miles - road training; my newest shoes
9. Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7 orange - 316 miles - road training
10. Nike Zoom Kennedy track spikes - ?? miles - track racing; haven’t worn since college, but can’t bear to get rid of since they cost $110. They’re pretty rad though.
11. North Face sandals - haven’t worn since PF; may start using again this summer
12. Fuzzy Slippers - note the SuperFeet inserts. PF changes your life and your slippers.

Several things are evident from this photo

1. I rotate many many pairs of running shoes. Rotating shoes makes them last longer, as it gives the EVA time to decompress and dry out. This is especially helpfully when running a lot of doubles. I’ve found I can get an extra 100-200 miles out of a pair of shoes by rotating, and it helps ward off injury.
2. Shoes have specific uses. Road shoes are used on the road. Trail shoes are used on the trail. Racing shoes are used for racing and speedwork. I don’t wear running shoes for everyday use; they are only used for running.
3. I like Brooks. Don’t know why, I just do.
4. I like the Brooks Adrenaline. For mild overpronators such as myself, it’s a great shoe. There’s nothing wrong with buying the same shoe over and over and over and over…
5. I don’t dress up much. If I have to wear a nice shoe for an event, it’s usually not worth going to.

If you think my shoe rack is bad, you should see my t-shirt drawer!

You might be a mileage junkie if:

1. You rotate 5 different pairs of shoes
2. Your training log has more mileage on it than your car odometer
3. You view holidays merely as more time to run
4. Garmin has voided your warranty on all purchases
5. You record your mileage to two decimal places
6. You view walking your dog as another chance to run
7. Your dog hides whenever you put on your running shoes
8. Despite the fact you own eight pairs of running shoes, you would never wear them for anything else besides running
9. Your spouse and children take up running, solely as a way to spend some time with you
10. Your chiropractor gives you presents on your birthday and Christmas
11. Your massage therapist gives you presents on your birthday and Christmas
12. Your podiatrist gives you presents on your birthday and Christmas
13. You run everywhere, because “walking is boring”
14. You hate tapering and look forward to your marathon as a chance to get more mileage
15. You routinely brag how you haven’t missed more than xx consecutive days of running in the last xx years. You are oblivious to how your friends are unimpressed.
16. You turn down co-workers when invited to go out to lunch, not because you’re a cheapskate, but because you were planning on grabbing an “easy 8” during the lunch hour
17. You adjust all of your appointments and meetings to your running schedule
18. You have no social life outside of your running group
19. Most people have never seen you in street clothes
20. You don’t let the sun down unless you have run xx miles
21. You run the evening after a race, just to “shake the race out”
22. You wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but decided to get a few miles in while you’re at it, since “you’re already up”
    

Did I miss any?

Update time. In Part 1 I outlined my initial aversion to the fusion of mp3 players and running, and how I eventually decided to give it a fair shake. Here are the results of my experiment with adding “flavor” to my running via music & podcasts…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint!

Well, I’ve broken down and done it. I have purchased an mp3 player … and I intend to run with it! Most of you are probably thinking: “Well, so what? Welcome to the 21st century!”…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint!