Sweat Equity

I’ve got to be completely honest, right now my head is spinning and my legs are a bit gassed. Not only has this been the busiest July on record but we’ve gotten some intensely hot weather recently in the Northeast. Of all the months on the running calendar, I dread July and August the most. The heat takes a real toll on me no matter how easy the pace. Long runs, speed work, recovery miles…doesn’t matter. It’s at this time every year I think of buying a summer home in Fairbanks, Alaska.

You know it’s bad when you start daydreaming about shoveling out your driveway.

For two months straight as I’m lacing up my shoes I dawdle a bit too much before heading out the door, trying to delay the inevitable. These summer runs never disappoint either because very one of them is a battle. Spending that 40 minutes to 3 hours wiping the sting of sweat from my eyes, trying to manage the heat along with fighting back the occasional bout of nausea at times makes me question my sanity. I walk in the house after practically every workout completely drenched. Most days you couldn’t tell the difference between me post-run and me post-scuba-diving.

I’ve got a serious love/hate relationship with my training during this time of the year, emphasis on the ‘hate’. I love knowing the suffering is contributing to the end result but I just can’t get used to the heat. I’m now into the fourth summer of this going back to 2009 when I began running marathons again to qualify for Boston and history repeats itself four years later as I look to get into a more exclusive club. Right now I have less than 14 weeks to get ready for that attempt.

Eating at Windows on the World gave you a great view!

The NYC marathon has some special meaning for me this time. Growing up on Long Island and going to school in North Jersey, NYC has been a been a big part of my life. Many times I took the Long Island Railroad or the PATH trains into the city with friends and family. I remember taking my then girlfriend and future wife to eat at the top of the World Trade Center and then many years later to Tavern on the Green in Central Park. In looking back, the NYC Marathon was the last marathon I ran in my prime. I was 23 back in 1987 when I stood in a crowd of runners on the Verrazano Bridge waiting for the gun to go off. After we heard the gun we all stood in place or jogged slowly for another five to ten minutes before crossing the starting line. I don’t remember any corrals back then and there was no chip timing either. I remember fighting my way through the mass of runners for several miles until I found some room to hit my stride. The memories of that race are really vivid, each neighborhood had such a unique feel and culture. Brooklyn, Manhattan, South Bronx… I can remember those parts of the course but oddly enough I don’t remember the finish line. Maybe there’s a message there, the destination only has as much value as the journey itself.

A lot has changed in 25 years. From the number of runners to the ethnic makeup of the city and I’m excited to see the differences. I’m also different in a number of ways. More experienced, but (hopefully) more humble. Better prepared but with more wear and tear on the body. I can’t remember what I wore that day in 1987 but my race day singlet for Nov 4th is already safely tucked away in my drawer. For this race I’ve completely changed my training plan and I’ve completely changed how I fuel. Now I’m starting to see a difference.

For all my previous marathons I either used a stock training plan, or in the case of my mid-1980′s marathons, none at all. My McMillan training plan was designed specifically for me to get under 3 hours at NYC. Customized for the time, customized for the race and customized for the runner. I’m only 5 weeks into it so far and I’ve run more mileage below my goal marathon pace than during any 18 week training period to date (that’s a good thing… I think). I’m keeping an eye out for warning signs of overuse but so far good results.

In becoming a Gatorade athlete these past two months I’ve jumped into the product line with both feet. I’m not about to advocate to other athletes on products I’m not consistently using so I’m using everything. The biggest change for me was fueling pre-run. Always being cost and calorie conscious, I would often head out for a run on an empty stomach and only then fuel mid-run on my Sunday runs of 15+ miles. That’s changed as I now use either a Prime 4 oz pouch or Carb Energy Chew before I hit the pavement. For most of my key runs I’m also carrying a sleeve or two of Chews for some mid-run carbs. The water in my hydration pack on Sundays has been replaced by Gatorade Endurance Formula. The difference? I’ve hit every key workout even with the big change in routine and intensity. I’m still in evaluation mode but I don’t think this is coincidental, fueling before and during is definitely having an impact.

95 days to go, a 2:59 finish time to get to and the clock is ticking. Let’s get to work.

photo credit

Gatorade EndurAlliance – Part 1: Fork in the Road

“When you come to a fork in the road….Take it.” – Yogi Berra

So I listened to Yogi and I took it. I’d love to sit here and pontificate about how hard of a decision it was and how much thought I put into it, but it wasn’t and I didn’t. Back in October of 2011 I finally gave myself permission to think about life possibilities outside of the preconceived ideas that were passed down to me and reinforced in my adult years. I’m sure all of you middle-age guys out there know exactly what I’m referring to:

Get your degrees and certifications to improve your worth in the workforce.
Make yourself valuable to an employer by being willing to work long hours and make sacrifices.
Hope that your employer stays in business long enough for you to provide for your family and save enough so when the Human Resources’ Managers decide you’re too old/expensive to keep, you can still get by.

That sounds pessimistic I know, but how many of you are on the same track?

In January of 2012 permission became action and I actively started working on pursuing options that previously I thought unattainable. I made a point of contacting a few companies with phenomenal products and let them know how much of an impact those products had on my running. I also paid attention to opportunities to connect and work with companies I admired. It just so happened that last March I found out Gatorade was looking for athletes so I quickly filled out their online application.

The program I applied for is called the EndurAlliance. It is in its second year and Gatorade was looking for amateur and pro athletes to become ambassadors for their brand and represent them at local expos, races, training events and athletic stores in select cities. I’ve used many Gatorade products regularly over the years so throwing my hat in the ring for this opportunity was a no brainer. Gatorade products are high quality and backed by solid research. They’ve also helped me both in training and on race day to be a better runner. I thought my chances were slim but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take so regardless of the outcome I was going to take my swing. I hit ‘send’ and figured my application would just lost in a sea of other applicants.

“Three tines is not a fork. Three tines is a trident. Forks are for eating, tridents are for ruling the Seven Seas.” – Sheldon Cooper: The Big Bang Theory

In Mid-April I got an email saying I was a finalist and that they were requesting a telephone interview to help with the final decision-making. In all honesty I wasn’t nervous, I’ve been in so many interviews over the years they don’t really phase me anymore. I also wasn’t focused on landing a position, I was focused on being me. I’ve already had several interviews and sold myself for positions that turned out to be lousy fits. I wanted to make sure they wanted me as much as I wanted to be part of their organization. The interview went well and during the call I found out that my interviewer was going to be at the Boston Marathon expo so I made a point to let her know I would stop by to say hello. This was a great opportunity to see who I’d be working with and give Gatorade a chance to put a name with a face (never a bad idea).

On April 27th I got a voice-mail message congratulating me and welcoming me to the program. Wait a minute, WHAT?!?!

I played the message again figuring I didn’t hear it right. Yep, I heard it right…I was going to represent Gatorade, unbelievable!

"Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them. " - Bud Fox, Wall Street

During the past month there have been a flurry of emails back and forth (along with all the jumping up and down in excitement about the work I was going to be doing). I got the program contract and sat down with my wife to discuss it. While the document was only a few pages long it was very specific about what was expected from me. Mrs. Designed to Run and I discussed the impact and commitments. We needed to make sure we were clear on how this would affect our family during the rest of the year. She was 100% behind it as my boys were but we had to have that conversation. I didn’t want any surprises or regrets going forward.

My trip out to Chicago earlier this week was for the kick-off meeting and training at Gatorade headquarters. I’ll be posting details on the program, what we did, who was there and how you can engage the ambassadors in your local markets to get the latest info and products that Gatorade is making available for endurance athletes. Part two of this post I’ll be putting together and posting tomorrow and Part three will be following later in the week. It was an amazing experience and I was blown away at the level of detail and research Gatorade is bringing to bear on giving us the best products so we can train hard and go out there and give our best on race day.

In looking at what’s occurred over the past six months, what I’m starting to realize is as an athlete it’s not always about being the fastest and it’s not about your age. It’s about being true to who you are and if you want something asking yourself ‘how bad do I want it?’ We can’t fear the answer, we need to look deep inside ourselves and find out what price we are willing to pay, everything flows from that. Win from Within.

Mile Markers

Ten thousand miles after age 40. I’m not really a big fan of spelling out numbers, it always seems cooler when you see the zeros: 10,000 miles… yes, that’s better.

I saw this milestone coming last year as I looked at my training log. Having a numbers oriented, goal setting mentality I wasn’t surprised that I started zeroing in on this one. Looking ahead I saw it as one more achievement to check off, another one for the record book. As I tried to estimate my training mileage last year I thought I’d hit this number sometime over the summer, maybe in the months of June or July. It came a little earlier than I expected as I was able to increase my mileage for the Philly Marathon last fall and Boston last month.

I was curious when it would come, you think about big milestones having an epic story behind them. Would it come during a race, maybe during an intense interval workout? Turns out it didn’t happen that way, I had an easy 5 on the schedule today with 1.7 miles needed to cross the 10,000 barrier. Rather than messing with my training in trying to ‘create’ a memorable event, I just went with it. Got home, got my gear on, did my warm ups and out the door I went.

Familiar Surroundings

I find comfort in routine so I went out and covered the same route I always use for my runs. I know where every crack in the pavement is, where each subtle change in incline starts and ends. I know when to focus on the on-coming traffic where the shoulders narrow and blind turns appear. I wish I had that adventurous curiosity, to go out and mix it up and try something different, but that’s not me. Being that familiar with my surroundings I often catch little details most folks miss. Usually it’s nothing noteworthy, maybe a new mailbox or a newly paved driveway. I enjoy the little details, getting to know my route the same way you get to know someone and grow close over many years. No matter how well you know them, there’s always something new to discover and every time you’re together there’s an opportunity for discovery that brings you closer.

From my front door I’ve got certain markers pegged almost to the hundredth of a mile, so after mile one I started thinking about 10,000. Should I stop at 10,000 and take it all in?… nah, that’s sounds over dramatic, better just to press on. After 1.5 and 1.6 I had a change of heart, why not stop for a few minutes, so at 1.7 I hit the stop button on the Garmin to appreciate the moment. I looked around for a minute and gave it some thought. I looked at the ground, looked up at the sky, gave a wave and a nod to a power walker cruising by. I had nothing. No profound revelations, no insightful visions. Once I started thinking ‘OK, I’m feeling a little silly’, I hit the button on the Garmin and got started on ten thousand and one.

Looking Forward by Looking Back

Tonight as I’m looking back, mile 10,000 didn’t seem any different from the 9,999 miles before it, and I think that’s the point. As runners we continually define ourselves with numbers whether they’re measured in distances or time. I’m as guilty of that as anyone as I’ve often used running to feed my ego and measure my self-worth. I’m starting to figure out that this can be self-destructive. Whether I’m using my own numbers or someone else’s as a measuring stick, it can turn into a vicious cycle. Achievement for achievement’s sake is a fairly shallow pool, not much depth there to explore. While routine has its place, all journeys take you through unexplored territory. Maybe it’s time to start looking at different routes.

Photo Credit

Do the Work

Art of Running: Do the Work

It continues to amaze me how much the sport of running continues to grow. As the number of competitive and recreational runners increases, major races are filling up in record time. The Chicago Marathon registered 45,000 in six days and sold out. For the 2012 NYC 28,000 runners registered in the first 24 hours. The 2011 Boston Marathon filled up in 8 hours and prompted the Boston Athletic Association to change its registration procedure and tighten qualifying times. Multitudes of both young and old have ‘Run a marathon’ or ‘Run Boston’ on their bucket lists and are getting out on the roads in droves. This is a great time to be a runner and these registration records should be celebrated but with the influx of newcomers into the sport I have to confess that at times I’ve been a bit taken aback by some runner’s attitudes and approaches to achieving their goals.

2012 ING New York City Marathon I'm In to Finish Badge

Running is a personal sport and one of its great strengths is that each individual can approach it in different ways. Some runners are drawn to the social aspect and camaraderie, some are competitors looking to improve their performance while others might just enjoy getting outdoors and enjoying some alone time. If you’re a runner with a goal, the first step is figuring out how you are going to get to your destination. The question that you need to ask is “What price am I willing to pay to accomplish this?” Too often our answer is “as little as possible”.

We won’t ever admit this to ourselves, but we’ll see it in our actions. We’ll see it in the types of questions we ask. We’ll see it in the inconsistency and lack of effort. We’ll see it in the compressed and flimsy training schedule if we even have one. A disturbing trend I’m seeing lately among the current crop of young guys is the desire to finish a marathon with as little preparation as possible, like being under-prepared is a badge of honor. I guess it’s suppose to show your courage and how ‘awesome’ you are but I’d choose to use a different word to describe this. It starts with a ‘cl’ and rhymes with ‘shoeless’.

Woolworths' Bargain Prices

I do see where some of this attitude comes from. As consumers everyone is looking for a good deal. Companies like Groupon, Five Below and Walmart have based their business model on providing goods at cheap prices and all of us are looking for a bargain. This mentality though is bleeding over into the rest of our lives and that’s not a good thing. For the past twenty years this has been reenforced in our kids as our children have been raised in a self-esteem centered environment where awards and accolades are given just for participation. Rewards are handed out en masse for little or no effort. Achievement has moved over to the bargain bin and yet we still haggle over the cost.

Do we still understand the relationship between hard work and results? From what I’m seeing I’m not so sure. One of the first struggles is moving past the initial euphoria of goal setting and then working through the monotony and drudgery to get to our destinations. Unfortunately once that initial emotional excitement starts to fade, so does our resolve. Doesn’t achieving a goal only have value based on the work we put into it or is it really just about the finisher’s medal and a check-mark on our list?

No aspect of life should be treated like a trip to the Dollar Store. If you view life that way at the end all you’ll have to look back on are closets and shelves filled with shallow and worthless activities, lacking in value and lacking in meaning. Stop bargaining over the price of success, do the work. Train properly, prepare yourself for adversity, start a business, make a difference in someone’s life, do something that has meaning and impact. Stare down those things in your life that scare you and put a plan together to get past them. We need to stop looking for the cheapest, shiniest thing we can put around our necks to satisfy our egos and think about things that have eternal value. We’ve only got one life to do something meaningful and the clock is still ticking. Do the work.

Goal Setting

The Art of Running: Goal Setting

The past few years as I’ve dug deeper in my training research I’ve noticed that the mental side of running is somewhat neglected, particularly in goal setting. While the running community is now buzzing with the pros and cons of form and footwear many of us are trying to figure out how to get from where we are to where we want to be. This can be daunting, especially if you’re just getting started and have little experience to fall back on. There are a number of things that need to be considered no matter what you are looking to achieve and without a smart approach, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment right from the start.

The purpose of this post is to layout a high-level approach to setting goals. As you go through it, it will probably sound like basic common sense. That might be true, but all too often I find a lot of runners are setting goals by just winging it and hoping for the best. An important reason for me keeping it general is that specific goals for specific individuals need to tailored to an athlete’s current fitness level and physiology. There’s really no one-size-fits-all goal setting formula and I make no attempt to present one. This is where a good coach earns their money, by developing a solid training plan tailored to a runner’s goals and current capabilities.

Emotions play a big part in how we set our goals. I’ve seen runners get fired up with enthusiasm and set an overly ambitious goal and on the other hand I’ve seen others short change themselves out of fear by setting a goal they can easily achieve. Since both enthusiasm and fear can derail even the most dedicated runner, how should we approach goal setting? Let’s look at how to avoid these two pitfalls.

Setting Goals Too Low

It might not occur to some that setting low, achievable goals can be a problem, but it ultimately results in a lot of lost time and frustration as progress is seen only after an inordinate amount of time. As an analogy think of goal setting as a staircase, you may have a distance goal at the top of the stairs (Half Marathon, Marathon or Ultra) or a time goal (26.2 in under 4 hours). Either way you need to go through the exercise of laying out the steps to get you to that ultimate goal. Make the steps too tiny and the journey will take longer. Make them too big and you might not be able to get there, or worse, suffer a setback in trying to overreach.

Setting Goals

As you go through the exercise of breaking down your ultimate goal into smaller goals you’ll start seeing some details come to the surface that will give you feedback on whether your ultimate goal is too easy or too hard. For example say you have a goal to take 3 minutes off your Half Marathon PR of 1:42:55 to get under 1:40 by Nov 2012. Is that a good goal? Lets break it down:

3 minutes = 180 secs. Over 13.1 miles that’s a little under 14 sec per mile faster.
You’ve got 10 months to hit your goal.
Think about setting some appropriate time goals for shorter races (5k, 10k) to measure your progress shooting for 5-10 sec per mile faster than your current PR at those distances by the end of May 2012 (Goals 1 and 2 for the 5k and 10k respectively)
If you ran a Half marathon in late June (about halfway to Nov 2012), could you take about 8 secs per mile off your time (1:41:10 for Goal 3)?
Find a 5k or 10k in October to measure your progress, are you in that 14 sec/mile faster range? (Goal 4)
Half Marathon in Nov 2012 under 1:40 (Ultimate Goal)

To avoid setting your goals too low each one should stretch you a little. The runner in the above example needs to have some feel for their current abilities and by breaking the big goal down into smaller ones it should be clear if they are shooting too low. Giving yourself about 2-3 months in between your smaller goals leaves you enough time to see improvements but also allows you to make adjustments if needed.

Many new runners are a little skittish about pushing themselves too hard because if you listen to the media and a lot of traditional medical practitioners, you get the impression that our bodies are frail. This is simply not true. You were designed to run, move and be active. Don’t let unreasonable fear dictate your actions. That being said you should be getting yearly checkups to spot any potential health issues, but barring a major problem there should be nothing stopping you from pushing yourself a little harder.

Setting Goals Too High

I tend to see this the most when I read blogs and twitter posts. All competitive runners, myself included, have been guilty of this at least once. Some examples include, but are not limited to:

Trying to qualify for Boston without a solid training plan.
Ignoring serious injury caused by increasing mileage too quickly.
Signing up for an Ultra when you’ve never run more that 25 miles in a week.

Often a stretch goal isn’t thought through in enough detail. The emotional determination might be there, but you can’t get around injury or poor planning by sheer force of will. You body has physical limitations and requires time and training for adaptation, we can’t change the laws of physics to suit our egos.

"I CAN"T CHANGE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS!!!"

You’ll need to go through the same exercise as before to check your goal but this time you’ll be breaking it down for the purpose of determining if it’s reachable. Especially for stretch goals, you’ll also need to continually monitor your progress and make any adjustments as necessary. If we look at the previous example and it turns out we haven’t hit goal 2 by late September, then the ultimate goal will need to be changed or abandoned. It’s way too common for us runners to ignore training setbacks such as missed workouts, injury, and illness and then not make adjustments to our goal. We need to realize that short-term thinking can lead to further setbacks and frustration.

Summary

To set goals that are both achievable and will test your limits:

Break the ultimate goal into smaller, reachable goals that are about 2 or 3 months part. This gives you opportunities to monitor your progress to see if you are on track.
Once the smaller goals are established develop a training plan (or have one developed for you) that allows you to reach the smaller goals while keeping you focused on the ultimate goal.
Continually monitor your progress. Setbacks happen so allow yourself to adjust your training plan and goals so that you are continuing to improve.
Have fun with it! Because if you’re making yourself miserable, what’s the point really?

2012: Pivot Year

Pivot (n): a person, thing, or factor having a major or central role, function, or effect.

2012 will be a pivot year for me. I recognize it as such because I’ve had one before. In 1999 I was getting ready to separate from the Air Force and all I had been up to that point in my adult life was a pilot. I flew airplanes for a living and I never saw myself as anything else. As I sent out applications to the major airlines something just didn’t feel right, I honestly wasn’t interested in ‘driving a bus’ for the next 30 years. No matter how glamorous some folks made it sound, I just wasn’t that excited about being away from home 2-3 weeks a month and getting up for work at 3AM.

Almost on a lark I decided to see what my value might be as an Engineer. My major was Electrical Engineering but I had done nothing with it and my knowledge in that field was well over 10 years old. Who in their right mind would hire me? Since the airlines weren’t calling me I didn’t just test the waters, I went all in. I sent out resumes, contacted head hunters and went on a bunch of interviews. To my shock I was offered positions at two different companies, near what I was currently making as an Air Force Captain on flying status. Twelve years, multiple certifications and a graduate degree later I’ve caught up with my peers and I’m well established in my current career field.

Now 2012 is beginning…and something doesn’t feel right. A year ago I would have been content to continue qualifying for Boston and be happy if my legs kept holding up. Now I want more. This year I’ve read everything I could get my hands on regarding training, injury prevention and performance. I’ve PR’d at every distance I’ve run in 2011 and I don’t feel like I’m anywhere near plateauing. It’s absolutely crazy to think that at 47 I could do something meaningful with my running, but I can’t accept not trying.

I started writing this post with a totally different topic in mind but this just came out on its own. I need to either succeed in this or fail spectacularly. Risk is relative and failure doesn’t scare me anymore. It feels like its time to go all in…

Designed to Run

Endurance produces character, and character produces hope

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