Several months ago, I was enjoying a cold beer with my friend Ryan Burke (no doubt at Barry’s Pub in Webster) when we happened upon an idea. We were discussing how I have coached myself since I graduated college (save for a short stint where I took the one and only Dave Rappleyea as my coach) and have offered training advice for Ryan, my wife, and others. “Dude,” he said (or was it “Bro?”), “You Read more…
Life has been busy lately. I’m still not running a whole lot, and my hamstring still isn’t quite 100%, but that’s ok because I’ve had other things to focus on instead. Ashlie and I are planning a few home improvement projects, I have taken over as president of Roadkill Racing, and oh yeah, we had a daughter! Little Miss Avery was born on August 1st. She was 21 inches long and weight 7 pounds even, Read more…
A few Sundays ago, one of my favorite days of the entire year arrived. For the past fifteen years, I have competed in the Utica Boilermaker 15K, always held on the second Sunday of July, and since 2006, I have finished in under an hour. That means this year would be my tenth straight sub-60 clocking, if I could manage it. The record for most consecutive sub-one-hour Boilermakers is held by Paul Humphrey, with whom Read more…
It’s been a while since I’ve been inspired enough to write about new music. Sure, I’ve picked up some really great albums recently, including Ne Obliviscaris, Agalloch, and Chvrches, but they haven’t grabbed me in such a way that I need to share them. That is reserved for this song, which I first heard a week ago, and have not stopped listening to it since. I have been a fan of Nickel Creek for a Read more…
In my last post, I mentioned that I would be taking some time off to let my hamstring recover. Little I know that I would end up taking five weeks almost completely off, and that my hamstring would still feel tight and inflamed even after three weeks of not running. Needless to say, March was not a good month for me. I only ran a total 51.5 miles last month, my lowest total since 2005, Read more…
The four of you who read this blog may recall that in my last post, I mentioned that I tweaked my hamstring running on snow and ice a month or so ago. In the past weeks, it has oscillated between feeling a bit tight to being to being so painful that I have trouble walking. This was doubly concerning, as not only do I want to break 16 minutes this spring, but I also was Read more…
I am now several months into my newest experiment of high mileage. And now I remember why I’ve never run 70+ miles per week over the winter before: it freaking sucks!! I have been averaging about 80mpw for the last 10 weeks, and it has become progressively more difficult as winter lingers on and on. It’s not just that it’s dark out when I leave work, or that it’s cold. The main thing getting to Read more…
Some of you may have read my last post detailing my triumphant return to running high mileage this winter. A few of those may be wondering how that’s working for me. In a nutshell: good! I took five days off from running after the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. Even though I didn’t race it (I was the 3:05 pace group leader), my legs had felt achy and sore all season, and were not happy with me Read more…
As you might have heard, I did not run under 16 minutes in the 5K this year. But that’s ok, because I have a plan. A plan so crazy it just might work! What is that plan, you ask? Well I’ll tell you! I am going to do the opposite of what I did this year, and two years ago when I ran 16:00! Rather than reduce my mileage and focus on lots and lots Read more…
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably heard lots of distance coaches, running columnists, exercise physiologists, and running store employees urging us all to run slower on our easy runs. The reasoning is simple: the slower you run on your easy days, the better you will recover and will be more prepared to run a hard workout later. Also, you actually improve during the recovery phase, so it makes sense to run as easy as Read more…