The Racin' Season Be Upon Us: Race Recap(s)

Many moons ago, when Emily and I started this little blog thingy, I figured we’d just talk about what the two of us are up to. But, things have a way of changing, so here goes, a big ole team-wide race recap. And......BEGIN!

On Monday, Emily, Chass, Caitlin, and I took a little drive north to the New Braunfels area for the Labor Day “Whine Run”, a 5 mile race that Em and I won last year. Well not too surprisingly, old Chassy put the hurt on me, but I think we both put out a pretty good effort - him 1st in 25:45, me 2nd in 26:30. This was right as the cold front was still blowing in, so we faced strong, steady winds from the North - conveniently the direction that the uphill 1st mile headed. I haven’t had to work that hard to run a 5:26 mile since I was in high school. We knew it was a hard course going in, and the hills coupled with the wind kind of ruined any benefit the cool, dry weather might have given us. But, I’m not one for excuses, so the times are what they are, and at least we got to run rockin’ sub 5 last miles coming back down the hill.

Start of the Whine 5 Miler

Superstar Rob

Classin' it up with the wine!

Emily and Caitlin got 1st and 3rd in the women’s race, with some random master’s runner taking 2nd. Oh, but wait, that’s no normal master’s runner, it’s a THREE TIME Olympic Trials qualifier - Lori Stich, who was 47th, I believe, at the ‘08 trials in a time of 2:43. So that’s pretty cool, always good to see some elite peeps popping up at local races. Here’s an interview from the Spring of ‘08, where she talks about doing lower mileage with the Hanson’s team in Michigan: low as in 110-120. NICE. http://www.runmichigan.com/interviews/full.php/2008/03/27/lori-stich-hanson-brooks-odp.html

So while this was going on, Miss Liz Eder was off gallivanting around the east coast, hanging out on the Jersey Shore, working on her tan or something. In fact, she refused to leave the beach even to do a race, but it’s all good because she won too. WOOT.

Yep, all on the sand!

So that’s Monday. Then today (Saturday), unless my memory has failed me, we had our first post-collegiate foray into cross country, as Amy headed over to Seguin for a meet at TLU. The competition was pretty solid, with good teams from Texas State and UTSA, but Amy kept the hammer down until she was running solo, and ended up with a nice 20+ second win.

Coming down the home stretch

Congrats to Amy on the XC PR and Win

This week is exciting for 2 reasons: I’m kicking off marathon workouts for the 3 of us who have a date with the San Antonio marathon this November, and this Saturday is our first major race of the season: the Tour Des Fleurs 10k in Dallas, where Chass, Em, Liz, Amy, and myself will be shooting for some cash and sweet road PRs.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your...Fun?

Doubles. I doubt this term has any real meaning outside of the world of competitive distance running, but it's the topic of today's training talk. Outside of running they use terms like "two-a-days". The implication is usually that the two-a-days are out of the norm; a special, relatively short-term period of intense training. In distance running, this is not the case: for us, doubles are the norm.

I am, as a rule, a very hard person to convince of anything. Some have even said I have a tendency towards cynicism. But the argument for training twice a day is this: 99% of all elite distance runners, for at least the last 50 years, have run twice a day. Every day? Maybe not. But nearly all distance runners, who for the most part train very differently, do 10-13 runs per week. As the great Haile Gebrselassie famously said, "I run twice a day every day but Sundays and Christmas." And personally I don't see why we can't run twice on Christmas.

So why doesn't everyone run twice a day? Well I would guess that the bulk of weekend warriors, of which I count myself a proud member, just don't care to actually change into running clothes and sweat twice a day. Which I understand. I mean, I don't particularly enjoy these 100+ degree afternoon runs. And the fact of the matter is, we all make compromises between achieving our potential in a particular endeavor (in this case distance running) and having a good, balanced life. But, assuming that someone is actually interested in coming close to whatever their "potential" is, why would they not run doubles?

Honestly I don't really know. There's a weird misconception that running twice a day is somehow harder than running once per day. And maybe that's true if you really believe that running is some sort of arduous task; something you should fear. But I believe that once you've gotten used to the daily grind of being a runner - once you've really taken on the lifestyle of a serious runner, a 2nd run should be a nice way to loosen your legs, and an easy way to pack a little more mileage into your week, not some chore to be avoided if possible.

I'll close with an anecdote from one of the best and worst places on the internet to discuss distance running, letsrun.com. This particular post comes from one of the old letsrun regulars, "malmo", or George Malley, former American record holder in the 3000m steeplechase and half marathon. In it, he discusses training with a young Terrence Mahon, who would later gain more fame for coaching Ryan Hall to a 2:06 marathon and 59:43 half marathon than he got for his own athletic career.

"In 1989 Terrence Mahon was in the same place as many of you today. As a college freshman at the University of Oregon he sucked. He hadn't improved since his junior year of high school (9:13.6 2 mile in 1987). He decided to get serious and train for the Summer and asked me about how he should go about doing it. I told him to bump his mileage up and do doubles every day he could. Eager to improved he asked "what happens if I get tired?" I said, "IF? I know you'll get tired, it will pass." About three weeks later he reported back to tell me his training was going great and he was not feeling so fatigued anymore. Wud I say?

"Terrance went from being an unknown to his coach in June to All-America 5 months later in November. He ran a sub 29:00 10k in December of 89, which still ranks as a top 10 US Junior performances.

"Terrence had the same gift that many of you have back in May of 89. He just never bothered to use it until June."

I could post up a hundred more examples, from this year's 2nd place finisher at the Boston marathon to this year's World Cross Country Champion. But it's getting late, so I'll yield to old Malmo one more time. After all, I couldn't say it better myself:

"Runners around the world do doubles. You should too. Of the hundreds of athletes that I've known and trained with, I don't know any who ran singles."

Midget Twins DAUMinate Sunrise 10k

(First let me just clarify that Em came up with the title for this one)

Saturday, August 20th, 2011. A day like most any other. But this, this was no ordinary Saturday. On this day, our own Emily Daum and Liz Eder took to the streets of Alamo Heights to dominate the Sunrise 10k. Here's a picture of the aforementioned domination in progress from the start:

Start of the race

Emily came in at 36:27, and Lizzie followed soon after in 36:57. I ran this race myself 3 years ago, so I speak from experience when I say it is a painful, painful race. They start it pretty early, 7:30am, but there's no getting around the fact that it's still August. In South Texas. And then there are the hills. Lots of them. Just when you think you're done with them, the course takes a turn and oh look, there's another one. So I'm very impressed with where those two are so far. They both ran within 30 seconds of their personal bests, off of base training, on a course that's at least that much slower than a flat race, so I'd say things are going pretty well. I look forward to someday maybe taking them to some pancake-esque race with nice, cool weather, to hopefully make up for what could not have been a very pleasant last 2 miles.

Yes, they got matching sports bras...girls.

Winners!

We also have a new teammate. Amy Shackelford! She just graduated from SFA and is in the physical therapy program at the UT Health Science Center here in San Antonio. She was an NCAA DI Regional qualifier in the 10k and has impressive PR's of 35:08 for 10k and 16:52 for 5k. We're all really excited to have another great runner added to our crazy bunch.

Team-iness! Awwwwwwwww

Next race up is the Labor Day 5 Miler on September 5th, where Em and I both won last year. Unfortunately this year the competition will be a little heavier on the guys' side, as our very own Chass Armstrong will be making his season debut. As long as one of us takes home the bottle of wine, I'm happy, because I know Chass...he'll share.

We Finally Ran Down the Aisle!

So Jer and I got our amazing wedding photos back a while ago, it's just taken me awhile to get them put up. Since it's a running blog I should at least share some of the running related things we decided to incorporate in our wedding plus a few of my favorites : )

These are the professional photos from Sada Lewis. She brought her husband Reagan, as well as second shooter Mark Wright to help capture our special day. She's got a great blog too!

So first off we decided to get some racing bibs made up for the wedding as one of the party favors. I loved what the company ended up doing with the different fonts!

We had a bib for everybody

We spread some of the extra racing bibs around the reception area

The other favor we had was a delicious candy bar! There were 4 other jars of edible happiness.

Sada getting creative with the bibs

Someone call for some purple runnin' shoes?

Flying high with my awesome ladies!

Goofy dudes trying to act cool = goofier guys : )

Ok, so my dad insisted that we do the traditional "left foot together right foot together" march down the aisle. Below is when we realized that we were taking so long getting down the aisle that the music ran out! Everyone had a laugh, including us.

Jer and I while my Grandpa/the officiant was giving the opening remarks 

I might have gotten a little teary eyed during the vows

Here it is folks. We actually did it. We actually ran down the aisle! This wasn't planned. In fact, Jer had NO idea until after they announced us husband and wifeypoo. Melissa, my friend from middle school, came up with the idea at the rehearsal, and I didn't hear about it until the morning of the wedding. I forgot to tell Jer, but thought it was a cute idea. Our friends, Bryant Wright and Emilie Strom Wright, held the ends of the ribbon as we dashed for the finish line at the end of the aisle.

He got me with a head lean!

All my wonderful brothers...some doing more work than others.

Jer with the ladies, working a little harder.

Heels = Taller Emily

My dad sporting the racing bib!

I don't know what to say about the photo below. I'd like to say I was surprised he pulled out a stopwatch, but let's face it, he's my dad. He whipped it out during his speech to us about baby making or something ridiculous. At least he kept the cow bell and skeleton at home : )

Mr. Loeffler & Mr. Daum

I've never thrown a bouquet before. I caught one though, a couple months before Jer proposed in fact. I didn't think anything of it, but apparently it takes some skill to throw one. My first attempt ended up here...in the chandelier : ) It crossed my mind before I threw it that there's a slight possibility I'd hit it, but I told myself, Em, no worries, just go low. At least the priceless moment was captured so I can forever cherish my awesome backward tossing skills.

Melissa catching the bouquet

I think the guys might have been more excited than the girls

Mi abuelita having a blast!

Our handsome ring bearer Cooper came all the way down from Canada for our special day!

We'll call this the happy margarita dance

My "little" brother dancing with my mom : )

World, meet my cousins...they know how to party!

MT getting down!

Again, more cousins : )

SHOUT!!

How low can you go?

Having some fun with my girl Melissa!

This is a signature Emily move

Definitely one of the best nights of our lives : )

If anyone's interested in seeing the rest of the photos from the wedding they can check them out on my facebook by visiting the following links...

Pre-Wedding Photos

Ceremony Photos

Reception Photos

Photos My Dad Took

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.