I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Training alone is tough. I never really had to do it for a substantial amount of time until I graduated from Trinity in 2009. Before that, I always had a team during the school year. While in high school, I'd go to the Roger Soler camp during the summer. Afterwards, in college, it was tough to get myself out the door during the hot months, but I at least had some motivation knowing I'd be with my team come mid August. Well graduation and my last trip to NCAA's came and went faster than I anticipated. I was in a new world...on my own with no sight of a team anywhere in the future. I knew I wanted to keep training and see where my new found love of the sport would take me, but the only way to do that was to get tougher...mentally tougher. I trained basically all on my own during the summer and most of the fall of 2009. Jer was trying to recover from an unknown injury at the time, so he'd join me on some warm ups and occasional workouts towards the end of the fall but I was basically on my own. I don't regret not having a training buddy then. It only helped to shape me into a stronger runner mentally and physically. Not only was I learning how to get through workouts on my own, but they were longer and tougher workouts than those in college.

But as much fun as toughening up all on my own was, the times they are a changin'! I have a team again and it is WONDERFUL! Caitlin just graduated from Trinity, Liz just moved back to San Antonio from Ft.Worth, and they're both living two miles away from me! It's amazing being back on the roads with two of my college teammates. Both girls were on the same team with me that placed  6th in the nation at the DIII NCAA XC Championships in 2008, mine and Liz's senior year. We're kicking butt and taking names on the workouts that Jer's giving us and I couldn't be happier to have them by my side. This past week alone we've been helping one another out. I felt awful on Wednesday's tempo, but Liz and Caitlin were powering through like they could go on for hours. It helped a bunch and led me to finishing on pace. Just three days later, on yesterdays long progression run, I was feeling on top of my game while Liz and Caitlin were struggling a bit during certain parts of the workout. This is one of the many benefits of having running buddies. I'm not going to feel great on all my workouts and it's wonderful to have amazing girls there who will help push me when times are rough. Don't get me wrong, Jer and I have been a very solid team of two for the past couple of years. He's helped me out more than he knows, but I always felt a little bad when he'd do my workouts with me. I know he sacrificed some of his own training just so he could help me. With girls, of the same ability level, there's no guilt. 

We're all training for the San Antonio Rock n' Roll in November. Liz and I are taking our second shot at the marathon, which means I'll have a great training buddy during those longer workouts. Caitlin's training for the half and she'll be doing most of our workouts with us just cutting some of them shorter. It's exciting to see us 100% focused on our training while now being grown-ups with real jobs (or the MAT program in Caitlin's case) and responsibilities. This means early bedtimes and starting the majority of runs before 6:00A.M. We'll be doing most of the same races during the fall so that means traveling together, racing together, and cheering each other on. Having 5 people (including Chassy and Jer) has added this extra element of excitement to training. It's not just about my training anymore, it's about all of us working together trying to reach our potential post-collegiately.

The only thing left now is thinking of a team name...

Coaching Confessions

As the number of people I'm coaching has grown from 1 (yours truly), to 2 (the wife), to 3 (my quasi-brother-in-law Chass Armstrong), and now to 5 (welcome to the team Liz and Caitlin!), I think it's good to reflect on my number one source of knowledge: mistakes that I've made. I like to think that part of the reason someone would trust me to plan their training and give them advice is that I fully accept responsibility for my own screw-ups. Being someone's coach, in my opinion, is more than just sending out some workouts and setting goal paces: it's keeping an eye on the big picture, and foreseeing problems before they happen. So with that in mind, let's take a look back at some classic Jeremy mistakes.

1. Coaching myself

I don't think this necessarily has to be a negative, I just haven't done a very good job on myself. I've changed I don't know how many workouts even after warming up, because there's no one else who knows or cares what workout I'm supposed to be doing. Don't feel like doing a tempo? Switch it to mile repeats. Supposed to do 6 mile repeats? Four is plenty. The fix for this is pretty simple. I need to bounce more of my own ideas off of Emily and Chass so that they're not crazy and/or stupid (if you give someone else a workout that's just dumb, they will likely tell you. But since I made the damn thing up, I might get halfway through it before I realize I'm being an idiot). I've also done a better job this year of recording what workouts I'm going to do in my log a week or two ahead of time, then sticking to that unless something major comes up. So I'd call this one improved.

2. Watch out for anemia!

More and more I suspect this has been an ongoing problem with Emily for the past year or so at different times. On July 20^th of last year she ran an 8 mile progressive run at 7 minute pace. This year on July 20th we did 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off and covered 9 miles at 6:39 pace. Her 5k race this summer was nearly a minute faster. Unfortunately it took a lot of struggling before either of us caught on that there might be a problem, as we would always put the blame on increased mileage, or needing more sleep. Around the same time that Emily got her test results back, Chass also realized that he was iron deficient. So that's two out of three athletes at the time who missed out on a big chunk of season. On the plus side, I will not make that mistake again. At the first sign of someone struggling to hit times they normally could, I am going to get to the bottom of it and make sure they don't spend any longer than they have to why things just seem a little “off”.

3. Remember strengths and weaknesses.

I can drastically increase my mileage and suffer nothing more than sore legs and drowsiness. This is not true of most people. It's easy to forget that things could go wrong when everything is going well, but you always have to be cognizant of what could go wrong. So I likely won't get a stress fracture. Neither will Chass. But he'll get sick if he trains a little too hard for a little too long, and I'll suffer hip and hamstring problems if I don't keep up with my stretching and general strength exercises. But damned if I don't forget to do those exercises when I'm running great, just like I forget which of my athletes is increasing their mileage just a little too quickly, because after all, their workouts are going amazingly well, so what's the worst that could happen? Well nothing this time, but I vow to always pay closer attention than I need to, because in my opinion the only way to have success in running is to stay healthy, consistent, and enjoy what you're doing, none of which is possible if your coach gets you hurt by upping the intensity and volume too quickly.

4. Be, dare I say it, inspirational?

I think the most important thing a coach can do is get their athletes to believe in what is possible for them: big things, even crazy, a little bit out there things. We've got five people now training seriously for fall races, and it is a distinct possibility that at least couple of them could run fast enough to qualify for the Olympic Trials Marathon in January. And even if that doesn't come to pass, I fully expect to see all five of us finish in the top 5 of our respective races at the San Antonio Rock and Roll marathon this fall (Liz, Emily and myself in the full, Caitlin and Chass in the half). When you're stuck in the down and dirty of day to day training, balancing working full time with getting your runs in, all the while doing your best to avoid the Texas heat, it's easy to forget that hard work can make magical things happen. Last year Chass ran PR's at every distance from 8k to half marathon in a single race! Emily once chopped 36 seconds off her 5k PR in one night! I think I need to do a better job of letting everyone know that they're doing great, and that big things are about to happen. Because I am completely confident that they are. 

Women's 5k Run!!

Yesterday I competed in the SARR Women's 5k race. Yep, a race ONLY for the ladies. There's something special about being in a race with women only on the roads. There were over 100 male volunteers...friends, fathers, brothers and husbands to most of the women in the field, which made the race special for nearly every one involved. Jer and Chassy couldn't volunteer because they had a workout that morning, but they did cheer me on at various points along the course and held off until after the race to get in their run. It marked the second year I've raced it, the last time being back before my senior year of college in 2008.

Start of the race!

The Women's Run was my second race of the summer, this time with about six weeks of solid training under my belt. My first race was the Carrabba's Relay where I ran an unflattering 3.07mi split at 6:09 pace. Yesterday I covered the hilly course at 5:44 pace for an overall time of 17:47.5. It's the exact same time I ran at the UTSA Diploma Dash in February, which was an easier course in more pleasant weather. It is also the first time I've ever broken 18 for the 5k during the summer. My splits definitely reflected the layout of the course: 5:28, 5:37, 6:03, 38. Yep downhill for the first mile of the race, rolling hills for the second, but then ALL uphill for the last mile. 

Down the Hill

For fear of it being a short course I decided to map it out on mapmyrun.com. SARR provided a lovely map during packet pickup and from all the great pictures that were taken it was easy to determine where the exact start and finish were, and luckily it wasn't a short course. Although this might seem a little OCD to some people, it brings me comfort in knowing exactly what pace I was able to cover a particular distance so when days like yesterday happen, in which I race better than expected, I'm able to really enjoy it! 

Up the Hill

Since it was just a fun summer race to see where my current fitness level was at, there wasn't a whole lot of strategy going into it. Just to go out there and have some fun! If any plan existed it was simply to go out hard, since the majority of the first mile was downhill, and take it kinda easy going up the major hills off of La Jara. I ended up leading the entire race (except the first 70m). It was interesting because they had a lead vehicle, but they also had three volunteers on bikes that were leading the race as well. However overboard it may have seemed at least I didn't get lost! I got to race with some amazing ladies! A couple of the Soler Divas came out, Cynthia and Rochelle, along with Emily and Janey Dunn who are the sweetest and some of the most determined girls I've ever met. 

Great Ladies and Fast Too! Top 5 Overall.

For some additional comparison: last year, during the exact same weekend, I ran an 18:40 5k in Houston. It was pretty much flat as a pancake, just a tad steamier. The 6 weeks leading up to the Houston race mileage was at 41, 61, 73, 78, 80, and 80 (avg 68). This year mileage was at 57, 79, 85, 93, 78, and 95 (avg 81). Things are starting to come a little easier and I'm adjusting to the mileage better as well. I'm really excited about where the next couple of months will take me in my fitness! Though days like yesterday make me wish I could race more often I know in order to do well down the line tougher workouts will need to take precedence over racing. Next race up is 5 weeks out: The Sunrise 10k in Alamo Heights! I can't wait!

Training Talk: Back in Shape, Finally

Today marks exactly 5 weeks of running for Emily and me since we returned from our 100% running-free honeymoon. During that time, Emily has been following the workout schedule that I wrote up for her: a nice, conservative plan involving gradually increasing intensity and volume. I, on the other hand, jumped up to 99 miles during my 2nd week of running. Why? Because I am not good at following my own advice. And I’m a little dumb sometimes.

But, it could be a lot worse. Luckily, getting injured from sudden increases in volume is NOT one of my weaknesses. So, I trucked through 99 miles that first full week, then dropped a bit to 91, then back up to 106, then 100 miles last week. During that time, I’ve mostly felt a little sluggish, and just generally out of shape. That started to turn around at the beginning of last week: I ran the last 8ish miles of my 15 mile run at my parents’ house in Houston at about 6:35 pace. Then on Tuesday I headed over to McAllister Park for one of my staple workouts: 1 on, 1 off fartlek for 2 laps of the park, or a total of 3.7 miles. I averaged 5:41 pace for the whole thing, which is fairly close to how fast I’ve done it when I’ve been in my best shape (I averaged 5:37 pace for that workout last spring, 11 days before I ran my 5k PR of 15:16). Thursday was a solid double of progressive run in the morning, sprints in the afternoon.

Then this morning, I finished turning the corner: I set out to do a “fastish” long run of 18 miles at anywhere from 6:35 to 6:45 pace. I hit the first mile in 7:08 - which is pretty damn fast for me at 6am - and hit 4 miles in 26:49, already 6:42 pace. By the time I got to the halfway mark, I was down to 6:30 pace, and without any noticeable increase in effort. I hit the last 9 miles in 54:26, or about 6:03 pace. The whole run was 18 miles in just a little under 1 hour and 53 minutes, a total average of 6:16 pace. I can’t remember the last time I was able to just relax and click down the pace like that, and it’s got me really excited about the next few months of training. So let’s hear it for a little bit of patience, because you never know when all the training you’ve done will start to pay off. With this little bit of confirmation that things are going well, it’s time to start really getting serious with training again, and see if I can do what it takes to break through to a new level this fall.

A Day in the Life

Sometimes at work, when people find out that I run anywhere from 80-120 miles a week, they ask something along the lines of “how do you do it?” Well of course I usually give some sort of glib answer like “left foot, right foot, repeat”, but here is the more practical (and detailed answer):

5:30am: Wake up, get dressed, etc.
5:40am: Out the door
5:40am - 7:05am: Run run run # 1
7:05am - 7:40am: Shower, dressed for work, grab some food
7:40am: Off to work
8am - 5:45pm: Work work work
6:10pm: Home again
6:30pm: Out the door for run #2
7:10pm: DONE!
7:45pm: Dinner with my lovely wife, play with dogs, relax, etc.
9:30pm: Bedtime

So that’s pretty much the gist of it. The thing that occurs to me is that this schedule would not really be practical if Emily were not also a runner. Even beyond just tolerating this absurd amount of time exercising, she also joins me on a lot of my easy runs, which means an extra hour and a half per day together to enjoy each others’ company. And who else but a runner would tolerate 9:30 bedtimes? The crazy thing is, there are plenty of runners out there with even more difficult/hard to manage schedules (not to mention kids!), so I try to never think “oh man, this is so tough.” I enjoy running, and I’d say on about 90% of my runs I have a pretty good time, so doing little things like going to bed early isn’t so much a sacrifice as an adaptation. And speaking of, Emily informs me that it’s getting a little late right now...