Category Archives: Racing

Inching Along

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I tweaked my right hamstring last October 27th.  It didn’t seem that serious.  I stopped immediately, then took it easy for two weeks leading up to the Grand Prix 5K, on November 13 which I essentially did at a fast jog.  I have a great PT and working together we’ve seen the recovery progress, then regress, then progress again.  At a fundamental level, it’s frustrating. But it serves to bring home the fact that with age recovery happens in new and mysterious ways.  As is important at any age, we go one step at a time and take what the body gives us. I had no idea three and half months later I’d still be dealing with this issue.  My training runs are slow, yet I feel the hamstring with every step.  Some days it’s better than others but always there.  Now, I’m looking at the first 2023 Grand Prix race this Super Sunday, a 5K in Cambridge, knowing I am not at my best.  It will once again be akin to a fast jog.  But I decided to go ahead.  It’s always good to see the array of club colors and catch up with folks who live four hours away from the reaches of northern Vermont.  I’m better understanding the adage … Continue reading →

Focus on the Process

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I’ve been reading The Passion Paradox by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness.   It’s not a long book – 164 pages – but it’s packed with practical ideas and analogies.  Not a quick read.  In fact, after reading it once and putting it down for a few weeks, I picked it back up and am reading it again.  Am seeing more the second time through for sure!  That’s often the case with good books.  For the record, the authors are accomplished runners and coaches.  Magness ran a 4:01 mile in high school.  I’ve heard conversations with each of them on The Morning Shakeout Podcast with Mario Fraioli.  Both really solid, thoughtful guys, which led me to buying the book. The essence of the book is that passion can be the fuel to do great things.  It can also lead us off a cliff.  Rather than seeking a balanced life, when we are driven by passion things can be great – we’re focused and full of energy – things get done – but we need to watch for signs we’re approaching the cliff.  One of the dangers of passion is it is often results oriented: “I do this so I can accomplish that.”  And it may happen, but it may not. They use an example of Brenda Martinez leading … Continue reading →

The Morning Shakeout

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The Internet is a crowded place.  Depending on your interests, there is a myriad of topics and themes to choose from.  The running space is no different.  I Googled “running-related podcasts” and came up with a list of 19 compiled by Run to the Finish.  There’s only so much time and attention in the day and week.  So, how to choose? Recently, Kevin, a member of my running club, suggested I listen to an interview with Pete Magill on The Morning Shakeout,  a weekly podcast hosted by Mario Fraioli since December 2017.  Kevin knew as a coach I recommend Magill’s book, Build Your Running Body.  After listening to Mario’s conversation with Pete, I scrolled through the archive and saw and listened to conversations with Alex Hutchinson, author of Endure, George Hirsch, founder of the New York City Marathon and former editor of Runner’s World, Amby Burfoot, and Bill Rodgers.  It didn’t take long to conclude TMS was a mother-lode of great stories about everything running on roads and trails.  Now 40, Mario has spent most of his adult life involved with the sport.  Through writing, editing, coaching, his own running, and an outgoing personality that enables him to easily connect with folks, he has a deep e-rolodex to draw on.   TMS now has an archive … Continue reading →

Favorite Races

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I expect those of us who have been running and racing for a number of years all have our favorite races.  Reasons might include location, time of year, race management, course layout, and vivid memories from those races.  Our favorites may change year to year. However, my unwavering favorite is the New Bedford Half Marathon, held the third Sunday of March.  After a two-year hiatus due to Covid, it is set to be held in four weeks.  And I can’t wait to toe the line!  This will be the 20th time I’ve run New Bedford – by far the most I’ve run any race.  The first time was 1990.  Since then, I’ve lived in Vermont and Boston: from Vermont, it’s a destination race, from Boston a long drive. So why New Bedford?  It’s a rite of spring – it falls on or about the first day of spring.  To be truly ready to race New Bedford requires training perseverance through the coldest months of the year.   Optimal size – usually around 2,000 runners.  And with NB often being in the USATF-NE Grand Prix series, it attracts the top New England runners – often 600+ from USATF clubs – a chance to see friends and fellow competitors at the end … Continue reading →

And Then…..

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How many times have we planned things out, maybe in great detail, only to have change thrust upon us without notice?  Often, I suspect.  This is the way life goes!  I believe the saying is “life happens when we are busy making plans.” My latest wrecking-ball-to-plans happened last weekend at the Clearwater Marathon Weekend 5K.  Six weeks prior we decided to visit Florida to escape the frigid Vermont cold in late January, historically the coldest time of year.  So, we made plans to visit St. Petersburg and Siesta Key, where temps then are usually in the 70s with lows in the 50s.  I saw a 5K on January 29th, organized by none other than Millennium Running, the Bedford NH operation run by John and Jenn Mortimor, who regularly host USATF-NE Grand Prix events.  I knew the race would be well organized.  So game on! It turned out Florida had a cold spell this year.  Iguanas were falling out of trees and race morning was just 40 degrees.  The wind was horrendous to boot, between 25 and 30 mph, gusting at 40+ — putting wind chill in the mid 20s.  Just pinning on numbers in the dark for the 7 a.m. start was challenging, as well as deciding how much clothing to … Continue reading →

Prehab

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We all know the word rehab.  Whether it’s a house or our running body, it’s working with something that has fallen apart, or at least not functioning properly, and making it whole or materially better – restoration!  Prehab is something of a contraction of preventative rehab.  Meaning, if we do things to ward off injury, we may avoid the need for rehab.  Makes sense, of course, and we could agree nobody wants to deal with an injury.  We just want to run!  So, what to do? First, there are some pretty basic exercises that can/should be done on a near-daily basis.  They include eccentric heel dips — (see November 10, 2015 blog post), against-the-wall calf stretches, standing quad stretches — pulling your bent leg back from the ankle and feeling the stretch in the hip flexors, rope pulls – lying on your back and pulling your leg up with three progressive 15-20 second pulls, weighted knee extensions – most easily done on the leg extension machine, and goblet or wall squats.  See the Runner Resources – Resistance Exercises section on my website for descriptions of several of these. Nothing really fancy with this battery, but they strengthen and stretch multiple … Continue reading →

Olympics 2021

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The Olympics are over.  Eliud Kipchoge ran a masterful marathon and put away the competition in hot and humid conditions, throwing in a 14:28 5K (that’s a 4:40 pace!) at 30K.  Kipchoge now joins two others as the only runners to repeat in the Olympic marathon.  He looked good; Kipchoge always looks good and probably will if he’s still running at 70! Reflecting on my last post about whether to hold the Olympics in light of Covid, I admit my fingers were crossed that outbreaks would be avoided among the 11,000 athletes and the games would be viewed as a success.  I believe that is now a given (sigh of relief!)  Certainly, the heat and humidity (which translates into the Wet Globe Index) were major factors in the races 1,500 meters and above.  Under those conditions, athletes respond differently.  In a way, it opened the door for non-favorites to medal.  Not having crowds didn’t seem to materially affect the performances.  In fact, athletes probably were able to focus better without loud crowds. There were some truly outstanding and memorable performances.  Granted, my focus was on the distance running events.  In that vein, four things stand out. Kipchoge’s marathon.  He showed … Continue reading →

Let the Games Begin!

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There is a swirl of controversy surrounding holding the Olympics in Japan this year.  The track and field events start July 29th with the men’s and women’s marathon on August 6 & 7 (EST).  Should they be held?  The arguments against it include (1) adverse public opinion in Japan; (2) the games becoming a Covid super-spreader; (3) severe restrictions on spectating — suggesting these games are for TV only.  I’d like to probe each of these arguments. For the first, I lived in Colorado in 1972 when there was a vote against hosting the 1976 Winter Olympics in Denver (and the surrounds) after they had been awarded.  Although outspent 5:1 by pro-event advocates, 60% of Coloradans voted no, resulting in the games being held in Innsbruck, Austria. It was a hot topic, fueled by an anti-growth sentiment.  Also, were concerns that much of cost of staging the Olympics was covered by taxpayers.  Forward to 1984, when L.A. said it would not foot the bill, which led to newfound reliance on sponsorship that has continued unabated.  There are also equity issues.  In both Atlanta (1996) and Rio (2000) many lower income people were displaced to make way for Olympic facilities.  I … Continue reading →

Slingshot Form

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This week I finished my graduate program in clinical and translational science at UVM and last week presented at the department’s weekly seminar, summarizing my research interests in runner biomechanics, which I explored during my program.  Suffice it to say, at this point I thought I’d have a clear idea of next steps.  Not so!  However, in preparing for the presentation, I leafed through three running books in my library: Running Anatomy by Joe Puleo and Patrick Milroy, Running Form by Owen Anderson, and Anatomy for Runners by Jay Dicharry.  They deliver the same message in different ways: to run fast and avoid injury, you need a strong chassis and you’ve got to be efficient in how you use your energy.  I looked through my blog posts and saw one from June 25th, 2019 drawing from Dicharry’s book that I entitled Gait Keeping.  I’m going to expand on this here, but recommend looking at that prior post too.   Dicharry suggests thinking about a slingshot, as we probably played with as kids.  You pull it back and there’s tension.  Depending on the thickness of the band and how far you pull it back, the projectile shoots out.  To maximize distance, … Continue reading →

A New Year!

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Most people I know are glad 2020 is over!  As discussed in my previous blog: “2021: Here It Comes!,” there is reason to hope for an end to the most stringent COVID-19 restrictions during 2021, as we move towards some kind of normalcy.  While we each have a role in containing the virus, certainly much about COVID is beyond our control.  Nevertheless, the new year provides an opportunity to take stock of what happened with our running in 2020 and plan out 2021, as best we can. Most runners I know, of all ages, regressed some during 2020.  Part of this is due to a lack of “real” races to target and train for.  For the younger set, maybe that’s not bad, giving the body some needed rest. For those of us 50, 60, or beyond, it’s likely another year beyond our PRs and a time when our capacities are progressively aging.  Regardless, for us seniors (50 YO+) it is probably best not to dive into 2021 with unbridled enthusiasm, pretending to some degree 2020 didn’t happen and we’re ready to rock n’ roll.  It would be a shame to push it early and bring on an injury that persists … Continue reading →