Coaching Nostalgia

First off I consider myself lucky. I coach on the track I ran on in high school. I report to the man who coached me in high school. Not many people can say they have these rights. That said, today was a special day. It was not that I was able to run, I do that nearly every day, but I was able to run with my runners today who normally leaves me in the dust. He is a junior and I have redacted his name, but he is the last of our distance boys. Our girls team is well represented, but our boys fell apart at the district level. On Saturday, April 27, he will run the 3200m in the state meet, he is seeded 11^th based on season bests, but recent results put him in the running for a podium finish in a tactical race.

He was not always this good. I remember him as the awkward freshman that could barely finish a race, much less break 20:00 in a 5k (he runs in the low 16:00’s now). Pain was not his friend, pain was his crutch, his reason not to run. But he grew. The first time he broke 20:00 came on the beach, in a 5k I dragged him to in order to help pace me on a Mother’s Day morning. All he decided to do was win the thing, barefoot. So, we used to run together with little problem. Today, we only do so when he needs to go slow and I want to pick the pace up a bit, meeting in the middle on days where it meets our goals. Today was one of those days, a day where he wanted to recovery from his last speed session of the year and needed some company.

Before I go farther, I didn’t make this runner, in fact I’m not sure any runner is ever made—he made himself. Sweat, determination, and a growing immunity to pain have crafted him into the man he is. But for the last three years, I have been his sounding board. We discussed minimalist running together, barefoot training, and he now runs exclusively in the style, wearing Vivobarefoot Evo, New Balance Minimus, and Skora Form (often he will run workouts sans shoes regardless of the surface). He throws nutritional plans at me, personal training regimens for the offseason (he is famous for going outside our training plans), strength work, and seeks out inspiration. His questions keep me moving, digging, and searching for answers. Over the past few years, I’ve watched him change and grow, and even though we speak daily, the running part has become a distant past.

Today I was able to learn where he is, what he plans to do in his race Saturday—we literally discussed every lap, situation, scenario, and goal. More importantly, he has committed to guts. He wants to run on guts and determination, not just Saturday, but every day for the next 365 days, until his senior season comes to halt at next year’s state competition. Lofty summer mileage goals (700+), time commitments, team goals, and well a lifetime of running mark his mind. He wants to instill the idea in his teammates, to create a program based on want and power as much as natural talent. In his mind, the sky is the limit. Thus the nostalgia—I’ve had the pleasure of watching him grow. I have the pleasure of running on the same track I ran on high school, working for the same man that coached me. Hopefully, it doesn’t change, hopefully this runner reaches his goals, just as I aim to reach mine.

Current Goals:

Guana last year via Speedy Banana

• Break 20:00 again in a 5k. Last time I did this was high school. My recent PR was a 20:06 in February. 
• Target date is Race for the Pies on June 15, 2013
• Drop my marathon time in two stages:
• Stage one, a 3:30 during my July races (two of them: Make it by Midnight Marathon on July 13, 2013, and marathon portion of 24 hour Ultra around the Lake on July 26, 2013
• Stage two, a 3:20 or faster during the Jacksonville Bank Marathon on December 14, 2013
• Run my first Ultra, a 50k, on December 1, 2013. The Guana 50K Trail race.

Skora Cores

Current Shoe Rotation:

• Skora Form for recovery and length 
•  Altra One for recovery and length
• Skora Core for speed and shorter distances 

Skora Phase, a mesh version of the Core.

On Finishing a season: Running the Real Race

“A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence”—Jim Watkins

After months of training, my runners have entered the post season environment. The air is electric, the urgent nature is apparent. These kids have gone through multiple phases of training that honestly have lasted since last summer, if not longer. They built a base for cross country starting in

June, they worked on their lactic threshold and built a speed game, they tapered for the post season, the girls took home a state crown, and then they took two weeks off. Enter track season. As November expired, they worked to renew their base, as January came in lactic threshold training began, but we still pushed, overdoing it—early season races have little substance beyond confidence and tired legs created mental strength—then we started training to race, and now we taper.

Districts are days away and it is run well or go home time. Cliché or not, anyone who had ever seen the Rocky movies felt the urgency of hearing “Eye of the Tiger” blast over the stadium loud speakers. If you do not place in the top four, you are out. You ran a 4:36 mile, you better beat the two guys breathing down your neck. That was the scene for our last workout. Nothing we did today mattered for districts, but it mattered more today. All we could do was maintain our fitness, but we chewed through the track. We said hit your 3200m pace on 800m runs, you hit it. Hit your mile pace on 400’s, you did. Run with a person you will race near, you grabbed on with your imaginary rope and didn’t let go. God forbid someone walked across the track—where we once yelled track, we now barked, daring them not move and feel the freight train or urgency coming their way.

Pontification aside, they have their eyes on the prize. We have run weekly meets for two months, not one of them means a thing. This week we are racing, run well you live on to next week, another chance to achieve on your home track for the second week in a row. Fail to understand your race and you get an early off season to rest up and prepare for cross country. As I posted in my article on daily and weekly goals (also published by Skora Running), every run has a purpose. Every time we spent half an hour working on core and doing leg strengthening has come down to this week. All the pain, all the suffering, was for now.

You may be asking how does this apply to you? Almost every runner races—races are sacred

in a way—and this week were these high school kids are getting their chance to advance, represents the end of a journey to their sacred event. When you work to your 5k or half marathon and see those workouts on your training plan, remember how each moment builds to the moment you are standing at the line waiting for the gun. They are not something to groan over and complain about, but rather means to an end. Attack them. Be excited, recognize the process, and when you get to your race, treat it like a race and not an event. Understand that there are no second chances, no going back. If you fail to meet your goal, you wait until next year. District track is once a year, so is the Turkey Trot Half Marathon. Never forget it and race your heart out.

Daily and Weekly Goals

Photo Via Speedy Banana of 26.2 with Donna 5k. 6th place finish.

This post originally appeared on Skora Running's blog

"It is good to dream big, but you also need to have middle and short term goals to fuel the fire."
- Renato Canova

Whether you run just to stay fit, beat a personal record for a 5K, or tackle the longer distances of the half-marathon and beyond, you need to set goals. As simple as it sounds, goals are the key to success, and these goals need to be incorporated into each and every run in order to achieve said success. Unfortunately, without goals we flounder and plateau. We hit a wall where we are stuck, often leaving us looking for answers. This happens with everything we do—running, typing, driving, etc.
It is for this very reason that we start each track and cross country practice with a discussion on goals. Take today for example, in recovery from a hard track workout (800-400x4 at mile race pace), the kids were told to keep it easy. Today was about going fast, but staying in control, staying within your bounds, and remembering that we have a meet on Thursday. We ran a short workout, a number strike fartlek, where athletes had the option of going to 60, 65, or 70 strides by five and then back down, around three miles of work overall, capped with core and upper body work. They were told to keep the prize in mind: April races, while staying fresh for Thursday. The result—a strong, motivated workout, but one with a mitigated effort level to ensure that both short term and long term goals are achieved.

So how does the above story apply to you? Set goals, create a plan. If you want to drop a few pounds set a time and distance and consistently get the work done. For those training to race, create and follow a training program. If you have experience, you can draw from memory or use a fixed program as a loose guide, if not consider finding a few on the internet and conflating them or consulting with an experienced coach. For the individual runner, this program is key, and while you will break from it from time-to-time (injuries or life get in the way), it will help you stay focused and committed. If you want to break the year old 5K PR, focus on speed, especially tempo, threshold, and long interval training. Yet, follow these runs up with recovery runs that rear back and shake the soreness out while building endurance. Understand that long runs are needed to build strength—thus a seven to ten mile effort per week will be as essential to dropping those thirty seconds as yasso 800’s.

The moral of the story is do not ignore the goals. Set them daily, monthly, and per race cycle. Understand that the desire to run fast every day is great, but that it can be counterproductive over time. Recovery when needed, double up workouts when the time is right, and trust the taper, for loose, light legs on race day are far preferable to heavy ones. Know that a thirty minute shakeout run has a purpose, understand that a long run during marathon training should simulate race day, so run it in stages that simulate each and every section of a race in order to ensure you are ready when the day comes. Focus on the goals, both big and small, and find success.