Summertime - Sweating The Small Stuff

It's getting a little ridiculous. Can someone please turn down the outdoor furnace...please?

I've barely had time to get over the disappointment of missing a spring marathon before I'm blasted with the heat and humidity that is often associated with mid July in the city this past week. Seriously, what is up with that? It's barely the first week of June and my colleagues already feel as if I've had enough sun to pass as a Hispanic!

But aside from the ever climbing temperatures and the chariot of fire climbing ever higher into the sky, there is another way I can tell that summertime is indeed upon us. Interesting, this one does not involve the weather or even taking a look outside. Instead, I can tell that summer is squarely upon us by the e-mails, phone calls and twitter messages I receive asking for training plans, coaching advice, and general guidance for running a fall goal marathon. It is quite funny that even though I haven't yet begun to think about my own training for Chicago this fall, I've already been ironing out the details and putting the finishing touches on training plans for the same marathon for a few of my friends. Obviously, we have different goals (as my clientele, if I can them that, consist solely of those who have either never run a marathon or have just done one or two and looking to improve...in other words, I'm not dealing with any veterans or elite runners here!) But still, it is a challenge to schedule workouts and build a plan in preparation for a marathon that I know so little about. To circumvent this predicament, I've given out only 4 week assignments and asked them to return for the rest. This will give me some time to research the course, devise an appropriate training strategy and build my own plan before constructing one for others. I will also use this time to gauge their individual and personal commitment to marathon training. If they have problems sticking to a 4 week 4-5 runs/week basic regimen, How would they fare for 12 more weeks with more mileage and higher intensity?

My point in all of this is to relate how insanely crazy it is that so many runners are already planning for the fall when summertime, as much as it pains me to say, has barely begun. There is something to be said to living in and enjoying the moment, which I'm trying to do by taking a short interlude from marathon training and instead focusing on "Summer of Speed". There will be ample time afterwards to adequately plan, train and prepare for a marathon that is three to four months away. For if there's one thing that my traumatic misadventures this spring has taught me, it is that the training itself cannot merely serve as a means to an end. Rather, we as runners must enjoy and learn to appreciate the training as part of running, because in us, the process of transformation is just as important as the final result. We ought to never lose sight of that.

Never Been Coached

Thanks for all the insightful comments on my last post. I’m sure I shocked some people with that one. Yes it’s quite uncharacteristic of me to speak of running as if race PRs is all I’m after and to speak of early retirement as if it’s happening tomorrow. But not to fear blogosphere, for there are many more marathons to complete and race finishes to cross and runners to meet and running-related experiences to explore before I hang up these running shoes forever. Besides I think all the people I’m coaching to run their first/second marathon (not to mention some of my bloggy friends!) would probably kill me if I suddenly decide to drop out of the running scene right now. All I was trying to accomplish in that last post was to be refreshingly honest and record my momentary musings on the conditions of my eventual retirement from running, even if it’s a little uncomfortable to think about right now. It was also my way of hinting that in the distant future, if I should ever decide to drop off the face of the earth and not run and not blog, and just…disappear, I want you all to know that I’m okay, and probably in a good place both physically and emotionally and not to worry about me. (In my mind, I’m imagining it to be like it is portrayed here at the end of this clip from Good Willing Hunting – no goodbye, no see ya later, no nothing…) Just FYI.

Speaking of running and coaching, I’ve just been recruited by a couple more blogger friends this week to be their marathon advisor/coach for their upcoming fall marathons. Apparently, word is getting out that I’m some sort of marathon guru that really likes helping people achieve their long distance goals. Silly people. Whatever gave them that idea I’ll never know. Haven’t they read my race report from Boston? Don’t they know I’m already considering retirement? But since I’ve got a reputation to uphold and am pretty good at what I do, I decided to throw them a bone and help them out. Besides, I’m still holding out hope that my “Pay It Forward” campaign will soon sweep the country into a running frenzy so complete that my doorman will have a bottle of Gatorade ready for me to run and grab every morning at 5AM as I pass through the lobby and there’ll be a different person every day for me to run with in Queens (seeing as how there were NO runners out the day before on a perfect Friday afternoon!). Well, that is my dream anyways.

But I do think that I’m pretty unique as a runner and a coach because unlike the majority of people who run my kind of pace at races, I’ve never actually been coached myself. I never ran during high school or college and didn’t join a running club until April of last year. And since I can count with 1 finger how many runners I knew when I started running 5 years ago (and he wasn’t back then as yet a marathoner) everything I knew about running I had to learn on my own – some via books, magazines, and online sources, but mostly through trial and error. So most of the principles I teach and preach are really the aftermath of experiments I’ve conducted on me. Some lessons came to me early. Others are taking forever to sink in. Either way, they are all a part of a bigger process of learning, experimenting, and self-discovery. In the end, I think that concept epitomizes the true essence of running for me and explains why I love coaching even though I’ve never been coached myself.

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Marathon Training Update:

Because of my 5 mile race, I got a little distracted by the speed last week. I’m back to my “running longer, running slower” plan this week. 53 miles planned; 55.7 miles ran. Highlights included a 11.5 mile run with 5 miles at tempo pace of 6:22 min/mi on Thursday, and 20.5 mile long run yesterday with friends that incorporated Summer Streets, the Brooklyn Bridge and an outer loop of Central Park. I kept the pace slow for the first 14 miles (~8:30 min/mi pace) and pushed a little for the last 6 miles (7:19 min/mi pace). All in all, I’m pretty comfortable with where I am in my training so far. Five weeks in, two 50-miler weeks and 20-milers complete with no injuries to report. I’m anxious but excited to see how I’ll handle the rest of this crazy schedule. Here’s my updated grid for those interested.

Mission Accomplished in Las Vegas

In case you haven’t heard, FL rocked the Las Vegas Marathon and punched her ticket for the 2009 Boston Marathon with a sensational time of 3:37:40. It turned out she really didn’t need my help all that much as she ran her own pace, managed her own fuel/water, focused her own thoughts and pushed herself through the difficult miles all the way to a fantastic finish and marathon PR! I for one am very proud of her as I know how much training, both physical and psychological, it took for her to reach her lofty goals. She went from a broken pelvis in her first marathon to a B.Q. in less than 365 days, for crying out loud. [As an aside…I’m trying to convince her to publish a book about that…it’d be a bestseller!] If ever there was a reason to believe that anything is possible if you are smart, have a good plan, and are willing to work hard, this would be the prime example. It is such a great and inspirational story that I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn't come and got to experience it firsthand. (Please go over, if you haven’t done so already, to congratulate her on a job well done!)

As for my own marathon experience, which is really beside the point as far as this weekend goes, it went as I had predicted. Finishing time was 3:15:09. This was my second slowest marathon finish ever. I had a late start, spent too much time bobbing and weave amidst the crowds and ran the race without a specific goal in mind. At multiple points during the course, whenever I would pass by a fast food place, I would think of sneaking in, grabbing a burger and sitting by the road to wait for FL. I knew she’d kill me though so I didn’t dare bother. I spent the bulk of my race worrying whether she was still on pace or not. I ended the race really struggling today, but just kept reminding myself that this marathon really wasn’t about me – not my pace, not my time, not my finish. There will be other races and marathons for that. I was running today for a higher purpose, and when that purpose came rushing through the finishing line about 20 minutes later, I was emotionally choked up and as happy as a clown because I knew I had done my job this day.

Congrats FL for a fantastic marathon and allowing me to share in the experience of your magic carpet ride through the streets of Las Vegas!

A Coach’s Dilemma

While making my travels around the city this week, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend settling into the metropolis that has left me rather alarmed and somewhat perplexed. Well, it’s not the whole metropolis per se, rather just the places I frequent and the people I see. For some reason, in the midst of daily conversation and the usual pleasantries exchanged between my running friends, I’ve been hearing a whole lot of cuss words and sensing an extraordinary high level of animosity. The average New Yorker would have you believe that it’s nothing usual, or rather, that it’s just a sign of the times. Under the tough current economic climate in which we live and following day-by-day the stressful emotional roller-coaster that is the New York Mets playing baseball, it’s a wonder that there are still any tourists left in this town. Ah, but only I know that it hasn’t got anything to do with Wall Street or playoff baseball or the presidential debate or premieres week on TV or Dean Karnazes running for 2 days straight on a treadmill or even David Blaine hanging upside down from a string in the middle of Central Park for 60 hours. Maybe that’s because all the anger and animosity, hatred and venom, and all the cuss words that I haven’t dared use since my mouth was last washed out with soap twenty years ago were all directed at ME!

Yes people, you heard right. I’ve found myself on the wrong end of a profanity-laden tirade for more times than I can remember this week. So what have I done to deserve this onslaught of defamation of character? Umm, nothing much. I just foolishly agreed to take on the task of playing running coach for a few of my friends who are running the New York City Marathon a few months back.

It’s a thankless job really, I’ll have you know, in case some of you out there are thinking of doing the same. First you have to spend countless hours familiarizing yourself with the strength and weaknesses of each runner. Then you have to look up race results and figure out appropriate training paces for everyone. Then you have to figure out their work schedules, weekend plans, extracurricular time commitments, sporting demands, relationship obligations, pet affinities, menstrual cycles, astrologic signs, and the like as you build a marathon training plan that will carry them through the summer and fall towards their individual goal marathon. Then, as training initiates, you have to set aside personal time to run with them as you impress upon them the virtues of form and technique, rest and recovery, as well as the basics of proper hydration and nutrition. As the weeks roll by, and the mileage increases, injuries mount and you have to do your best to play doctor and psychologist as you listen and advise, commiserate and persuade, and teach to run strong yet taper each step of the way. And now, when the marathon is just five short weeks away and everyone is at the peak of their training, is when the job gets really tough. Now is the time when everyone and their mother will be mad at you for something or other. Your runners are swearing at you up and down for making them run more miles than they’d ever done in their lives. Their boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, and wives hate you because they think their mates are secretly having an affair because they haven’t seen them since the last calendar year. Even their moms will call you up and demand to know why their little Johnny or Mary is walking around with black toes and limping worse than a paraplegic forced to walk with a cane. Meanwhile, no one knows or cares how you’re running because to them relatively fast and a little experience equals invincibility.

I can’t wait for five weeks from now when not every sentence I hear will be along the lines of “Oh hey, I was just done cursing you out for the last five miles of my twenty mile long run.” Yet every year I find myself in the same place, helping more, encouraging more and recruiting more to run a marathon and in the process be more fit than they ever thought they would be. That is until late September when I’ll once again be frustrated by the climate of antagonistic and bitter feelings that I’ve created.

In this world full of uncertainty and instability, it’s nice to know that some things will never change. Carry on. I seriously do hope everyone’s training is going well.