Why do I run?

At first response it’s usually the same answer for me, I want to keep improving my times and I want to push my body to its limits and see how far I can take it.  And while yes that is a part of why I run, I think in retrospect it’s not the bulk of the reason.  It’s not the reason I am out there every day running 6-8 miles or putting myself in tons of pain for a workout, or running through 100 degrees heat or below zero temperatures.  The reason that I love running and I do run is the friends and family I have made through it over the years. The running community is this magical group, where you can meet a random person one day and they will without even a  second thought support you and cheer your performances.  Not just in running but also in life.  Where you can meet someone on the roads and be able to strike up a conversation without any judgment.  Running has given so much to me over the years that I can’t ever begin to repay it back.  I continue to do my best to be out there supporting friends, offering advice and just being a positive member to the running community but there is so much more it's given me.  Additionally, running is also more than just logging miles, doing workouts, pushing the body to me.  It’s also this amazing sport where a group of people who might never meet all bond together and come closer because of it.  In Baltimore I was lucky enough to find my current team, the Falls Road Racing Team and they are a huge part of the reason why I continue to run today. 

It’s running and an amazing leader who bring us all together at the beginning but the team itself is about so much more than running.  Sure we train together, we sometimes talk about running ad nauseam and we go to races together.  But through that we become a family, where we spend time outside of running together.  Where we care about one another, not just about how each others training is going but how their life is going.  Where we meet up outside of running as a group and make memories.  And where we support each other in racing but also in every aspect of life.  I doubt without running I would have met any of these wonderful people who now make up a huge part of everything in my life.  But thanks to running, I am glad I have.  Don’t get me wrong, I suffer through a workout on the track to improve my fitness and run faster, but I am also suffering with my friends. Which makes it that much more enjoyable.  In the end I just think when it comes to the question why do you run, it’s important to have an answer that keeps you coming back and keeps you motivated.  For me, my running team and the pursuit of constant improvement is what gets me out the door every day and as long as I have that I will continue to love running.

Recent Running:

Since Pittsburgh I took about a week of downtime to recharge the battery and then I got right back into training.  I wanted to keep this fitness around and do some shorter races for the next couple of months before moving into Marathon training for the fall.  I ran a couple races in May and then this past weekend with some push from a friend decided to try out an aggressive weekend double, Baltimore 10 Miler on Saturday, Bel Air Town Run 5k on Sunday.

Baltimore 10 Miler - It was a hot and humid morning and I knew there would be some competition for me at this race but I wanted to get out and see what happens.  I knew Dave Berdan was the local favorite and I was just bib #4471 when it came to race coverage and contenders.  No worries I was ready to go.  One of the reasons I choose this race was 5 years ago it was my first race back to competitive running, I got 100^th place and ran 1:10:59 and I wanted to see how far I’ve come in the past five years.  So the gun went off and I got out early with Berdan, and despite it being hot and humid came through the mile a little quick around 5:15, rolled into 2 miles around 10:38 when a Howard County runner, the eventual winner Eric came by and the pace quicken.  I quickly knew I was not going to be able to handle this and fell back a bit but tried to keep enough contact in case the humidity got to anyone.  As we hit Lake Montebello(mile 4/5), it was clear I was off the pace and not getting top 2 today so I settled into 3^rd and wanted to not lose my podium place.  At around mile 6 there was a turn around so I was able to calculate I had a 50 second lead on 4^th.  With a race tomorrow I began to let my foot off the pedal a little bit, clearly way too much.  Sometimes you can get too cute in racing, today was an example of that for me.  As we rolled through the hills before getting back into Druid Lake I was feeling confident attacking the final big climb.  As I hit the final water stop I did a quick look back and saw my lead had shrunk to about 20 seconds.  Panic set in as I feared I was going to get caught as we entered the tack-on loop around the park.  I put on a big surge around one of the turns and looked back again (ugh I need to stop doing that) and knew I had it.  Rolled into the finish line 3^rd place overall to the announcers saying “In 3^rd place #4471, hold on we have no clue who that is” and then they proceeded to butcher my last name.  57:16 and 3^rd place on a hot morning, I’ll take it.  Got a pretty fun glass container and got to spend the morning with the woman’s winner Meg, trying to appear in the background of her various interviews.  

Bel Air Town Run – Sunday it was about the Bel Air Town Run.  This was my second time running the Bel Air Town Run, first being in 2014 when I got 18^th and ran 17:38.  I spent most of Saturday doing everything possible to get my legs ready for the next day.  Got to the line and the gun went off and the pace went out real hot.  Down the first hill by the corner we were rolling 4:30 pace and the leader Tyler was pulling away.  So I let him go and a pack of 3 of us formed behind him and stayed that way until the mile, 4:48.  On a hot humid morning, after a 10 mile race probably not the best idea.  After the mile the pack broke down to 2 of us, and at about 1.75 miles second place finisher Chris pulled away and I decided to not go with him.  Probably the thing I am most upset about all weekend.  I convinced myself in the moment to let him go and I’d go after him at the last big hill around 2.5 miles.  I’ll need to be mentally tougher during a 5k in the future, the race is too short for mental lapses like this. I rolled through 2 miles in 10:11 and when we got to 2.5, I was about 10 seconds back but made no move.  Rolling down the final hill I could see him finish and ended up with another 3^rd place finish with my fastest 5k 16:25 since college.  All in all if that’s the only thing I am upset with this weekend I can deal with it.  Watched our woman’s team go 1-2-3 so that’s fun and hung out afterwards and got another fun award and some money.  Overall a great racing weekend.

Up Next for Me:

My fall season is up in the air currently not sure what I will target as my peak race but I’m pretty sure I am targeting a Marathon.  As for the summer I’ll do some more local 5k’s, 10k’s and maybe a half sometime in September.

If you’d like to read more about me, I was given the great honor from the Baltimore Road Runners to be the Member of the Month for June 2016.  Get to know me better here

Lastly check out some fun pictures from the past couple weeks of racing.  And lastly I added an email section if you would like alerts for future blog posts!

You’ve got to start somewhere!

I’ve wanted to at least be blogging once a week with my training but neglected the past three weeks.  It’s a common theme for me when my training hits a setback or isn’t going as I expected my excitement about running goes down, when sometimes that is when you need that motivation the most.  I hit a setback about 3 weeks ago when I had thought I was beginning my build up post Boston when my hamstring issue plaguing me off and on since October got to be too much.  With some talking to my doctor it was advised to hit up some physical therapy to strengthen and get back to 100%.  Some initial advice is this issue is linked to my weak glutes which are forcing my hamstrings to do all the work and the glutes nothing.  Funny thing about running, everyone will say to get faster all you need to do is run, which is 100% true but to stay healthy and always be at your peak you need to make sure you do not neglect all your other strength, mobility, recovery training.  I’ve neglected it too long and now it is beginning to have a negative impact on my running.

With PT under way, a new found respect for core work and new recovery techniques aside, I still had a race to run the Bel Air Town Run 5k on June 1^st.  The 5k is an event that gets a ton of disrespect these days but it's to me one of the hardest, most painful races you run.  With everyone sucked into the half and full marathon craze the 5k loses all it's luster as only a 3.125 mile race, but believe you me when you run it all out, it really hurts...  That said having done 0 workouts since Boston and only one 40 mile week, I was not confident about this race.  But I needed a kick in the butt and to just race to get back at it, so I came out here nonetheless.  As I warmed up I was worried but also had some excitement to try and become a 5k runner again, as opposed to the half and full runner I have become of late.  I toed the line, took a deep breath and I was off.  The first 200 meters in I was in about 30^th place behind probably the entire Bel Air High School track team.  I settled in and ignored these kids sprinting down the hill and focused on me.  Having forgotten my watch was a fantastic start to this race, so I relied on effort and racing people around me.  I came through the mile in 5:10, which I am told might be 5:20 but it didn’t matter either way I felt pretty good through 1 mile.  As the second mile dragged on I really didn’t feel like I was slowing down but the gentlemen at 2 miles seemed to tell me a different story as he shouted 11:04, doh.  I was a little deflated since I had felt smooth through mile 2 and I knew mile 3 was the toughest but I had to push on, or at least I told myself to.  Mile 3 was terrible though, the lack of training and miles since Boston got me and even as I crested the last hill to the final downhill I had nothing.  I was passed by about 6-7 runners the last 600 meters, just terrible.  I finished in 17:47, 19^th overall and 1^st in Age Group(Won a sweet glass bowl, not pictured).  That said it is technically still a post collegiate PR(I think I have run faster during the Club Challenge 10 miler, and I did 17:43 on the track 4 days before Boston) but it’s not what I wanted.  As the title says I had to start somewhere and now I know the work ahead of me.  If this race did nothing else it upped my motivation to get faster and my excitement for a summer of pain and fast running, which is exactly what I was hoping this race would do.  Sometimes even when you are tired or not at your best lining up and racing can be a positive experience as long as you can take something useful from it.  For me I learned a lot from this race about where my fitness needs to be improved and got some butterflies of running 5k’s out.

The advice I can give to runners everywhere is don’t be afraid to race, don’t be afraid to fail.  I could have easily bagged this race for not being “ready” and who knows where my mind would be at today.  I could also look at this result and be super disappointed that I lost to a few teenagers, and finished 90 seconds slower than someone who I finished even with at the half marathon in March, but instead it’s about focusing on the positives and using the negatives as fuel to get out there and get stronger.   It’s about having a goal and using races, workouts and any motivation you can to reach it.  I want to run sub 16:30 by the end of this summer, and yesterday gave me my starting point.  The rest is up to me to get strong enough to do it.  I just need to enjoy the process of getting there, one step at a time.

Last 4 weeks of training since last blog:

5/5 – Off

5/6 – 7 Miles, a couple miles in the 6:20 – 6:30 range just to get the legs moving

5/7 – 7 Miles today – Plyometrics

5/8 – Off

5/9 – 7 miles

5/10 – 6 miles – Plyometrics

5/11 -11 miles – strides

Total – 38 miles

5/12 – 7 miles

5/13 – 6.5 miles

5/14 – 7 miles, attempted a workout but just couldn’t get into it, shut it down after second interval

5/15 – Off

5/16 – 7 miles

5/17 – 5/18 – Off   Trip to Cooperstown cut into training, bah to real life!

Total 27.5 miles

5/19 – 7.5 miles

5/20 – 9 miles

5/21 – Off

5/22 – 7 miles

5/23 – 8 miles

5/24 – 10 miles

5/25 – Off – Hamstring

Total – 41.5 miles

5/26 – 7.5 miles

5/27 – Off

5/28 – 8 miles

5/29 – 8 miles – 3-4 at 6:20 pace – No workout until after race so just getting legs moving – Core/Plyometrics

5/30 – 8.5 miles

5/31 – 8.5 miles

6/1 – 10 miles – Bel Air Town Run 5k – 17:47

Total – 50 miles