Tag: training

running

Road to CIM 2025: Turbulence

beersandmiles

It’s a fitting title for the current moment and this past week. As I sit on my flight to Boston I have some time to catch up on how last week went and well, hopefully line this blog up with the current week that I had just finished. Or this beer I had will make me sleepy and I’ll push this off til Sunday. Let’s try this out.

Last week continued a shit week of weather in Columbus, Ohio. The dip in temps had iced over any snow that had landed over the previous couple days. Cold? Well, we were in for worse. Welcome to freeze hell, the worst week of the year for the Midwest. 

Tuesday. 10 degrees. Real feel of 0. How in the world you can find comfort running in this beyond me but dammit we found a way. Enough layers and some coverage from the wind did enough to make this feel okay. Heck it was just as fast a nice day. Things are looking up! I even started doing strength training. We’re back police? Hey. It’s Cris calling.

But the temperatures continue to drop. How about -6 and a real feel of -10. But three of us showed up to jog. This is far too cold to work out and too dark and icy to trust moving fast, so a shakeout it was. Again, enough layers and the help from some handwarmers was enough to make 5 miles in this faux tundra bearable. 

While I’m known my friends as someone with a habit of getting to things fashionably late, I do a reasonably good job at planning out my workout days. This wasn’t one of those days. 

I ran out of time before run club and decided to push the workout to Thursday. Tonight would be an easy 8 to get me 13 on the day. I was overwhelmed, frustrated, and just in a foul mood as I tried to get two miles in before I got around to doing announcements for the club. 3 miles solo after would be on the schedule. Great. Funny enough I thought to myself during the run that being upset during runs typically didn’t go well for me. It was distracting and it was an easy way for me to…

*pop* 

I rolled it. I fucking rolled my bad foot again. I’m 3/4 of the way back to bar. I can hobble home. Bad step. I almost go down from the pain. It’s fucked again. Dammit. Just what I needed. I just had a great week for myself. Everything was supposed to be looking brighter. 

I limped back to the brewery grabbed my stuff and went home. It was hard to hide just how upset I was and I felt like I didn’t need to be that kind of person in a place that is genuinely a place to relax and enjoy the company of others. I vented to my best friends about it and they pulled me out of it. I took the next two days off and focused on pulling myself back together mentally and physically. It was a little stumble but nothing that was any different than things I’ve experienced. 

By Saturday I was back to running. No pain, thanks to an ankle brace that I put on to stabilize my foot as I walked throughout the day. It was strange to have something hurt so bad and then just go away but then again I haven’t been able to really understand what the hell is up with this foot since I first rolled it two years ago. 

By Sunday I was good to long run again as though nothing happened. I tossed on some alphaflys and focused on a strong long run with some uptempo. 16 miles at 6:21 average with a couple miles rocking at 5:40s. We’re back police? You have another incoming call. 

In all seriousness though, while this week was frustrating and a small setback in multiple aspects, it was a reminder that it’s not always a straightforward path despite all the work we put into it. Sometimes the universe likes to toss a random hurdle in there to make sure you’re awake. And well it’s a wake up call. This block isn’t gonna be as simple as just getting out there and doing it. You gotta be ready for some turbulence along the route. But we’ve beat the worst two weeks of the year weatherwise so hey, we’ll take our wins where we can. 

That’s it for now. I’m sure this weekend will provide a lot for me to talk about.

running

Road to CIM 2025: Clarity

beersandmiles

Sliding in on Sunday to make sure I keep this streak alive. Sorry, had to finish Twin Peaks so I can get on with my life.

Last week I completed my first 70 mile week of the block. Now some would say that jumping from 29 miles to 70 is probably a bad move but considering the 10 days prior were basically a wash due to sickness, I’d say this isn’t that crazy of a move.

Now, Columbus experiences a couple choice bad weeks. 365 days around makes you forget about that until the realization hits you like a truck. Last week, well that was the start of one of them. The city had been smacked around by snow and the temperatures dropped. Snow isn’t bad. Ice? Yeah, that’s where it get’s a little hairy. That’s the thing, most of these runs aren’t going to be the vision of excitement of fun that you see plastered around social media. Sometimes it’s gonna just be you, and what’s gonna get you out there where there is nothing exciting about the next hour. And when there’s a solid chance that there will be very few runnable areas to cross in this hour? Well, anything helps.

22 degrees, real feel of 13. 10 on the schedule. Yuck.

I grabbed my headphones and put on a go to playlist I would listen to when I had to run at 5:30am before work years ago. This was one of the better Tuesday runs I’ve had in recent months. I felt in control for miles as I trotted through the city, one step after another, no pain, just a calmness as I ran through a quiet bike path into the downtown strip. I made the turn for home as the unforgiving wind blew directly into my face. On different days I’d probably be hoping to be anywhere but here but in that moment I felt good. It’s awful out yes, but that punch of cold air was enough to make a man feel alive. I didn’t mind being there. This was dare I say, enjoyable.

I just wish the rest of the run was enjoyable too.

A couple miles later as the sun started to set I saw my first person on the bike path. We gave each other a head nod before I dipped under the over pass. Hmm, wonder who he runs for I thought to myself before my body went into panic mode as my foot lost traction. Crash. I’m on the ground. I pause my watch and lay there for a bit while I try to survey the damage. If it was a little warmer I’d lay there for a second and just take a breather but every minute seemed to be getting colder.

I dusted myself off and kept going. A little banged up but stride didn’t seem too affected. Just about 400 meters til I got out of the bike path and got onto safer streets. Just one quick left up the roundabout and I’m home free.

I didn’t even have time to think. Crash. On the ground again.

I looked over to my left as commuters slowly drove on the highway next to the trail. Well I hope my fall at least entertained them on that shit drive. This one hurt a bit more. I slid a bit and now the opposite side was now evened out. Dust off and head home. Just about 2 miles to go. Stay on your feet and don’t kill yourself out there. Can’t say I shed a tear from those falls but I may have shed a tear when What Sarah Said came on. We got home safely thankfully.

That was cold? How about 5 degrees at 6am.

Yeah. I didn’t want to workout. I was just gonna go out and do a shakeout. I had an hour progression. But the other boys were working out and I didn’t want to workout after a day in the office so he we go, loops alone in temperatures cold enough to shut off your mp3 player. My face hurt. I kept worrying my contacted lenses would freeze. I oscillated between feelings of numbness and rhythm. I figured I had to be going slower with each passing mile but with each passing beep I was pleasantly surprised to see the paces go down ever so slightly. I bargained to myself that I would continue to go until the next mile seemed like it was just a little too much. These paces had no business being difficult but being layers and freezing made this a bit of a challenge. It wasn’t difficult by any means but 6 minute pace is typically fairly easy nowadays. I got to 45 minutes. From 6:39 down to 5:46. I jogged home to my warm apartment and got ready for work. Was this a character builder? It was something…

The next two days were days where you just bargain with yourself to get out there. Just 6 you tell yourself. Next thing you know you’re 5 miles in on an out and back and it’s another 10 miles in the bank. Theres a feeling in the back of my head that knows that I’ll get the miles in. I just need the loud voice to lie to myself a little bit to get over the lazy thoughts of watching another episode of the show I’m binging and staying warm. 2 days. 20 miles. 70 was in play.

I joined Breydon and Jamey for their run before jumping into my long run. 16 miles with 4 miles uptempo somewhere after 10. I put on some beater Vaporfly 2’s and hit some uptempo. I was quickly reminded just how stiff these shoes could be. Eventually I found rhythm again. 5:59-5:40-5:34-5:28. Just one more run ahead of me.

The cold and my laziness proved to be my enemy on this Sunday run. I pushed my run until after an event I had to go to in the early afternoon. Before I knew it, it was 4:15, I hadn’t ate since 11am and I was 30 minutes from home. 10 miles ain’t much anymore but I know that it’s enough to make the body feel crazy after not eating for a bit. So I called an audible. 10 piece wendys nuggets and a double stack, an hour to let it settle and then out the door at 6.

I hit the road at 6:10 and was greeted by about 30-40 minutes of snow flurries. The snow was consistent enough to stick. Every step was a gamble with the hope that whatever was underneath the next step was concrete and not ice. Pace was not going to be the focus tonight. It was going to be staying upright. This wasn’t gonna be a fast one but I’d also rather not be a speedbump for some innocent bystander driving down Goodale Boulevard that night. Nothing felt particularly bad thank god and I stayed on my feet. 10 miles at 8:21 average. But it was 70. It was a step forward.

Outside of running, this was a step forward mentally. For the last 6+ months I haven’t really been able to go through a day without the desire to take a nap and have had a lingering fatigue and brain fog as I went through my days. Running for some reason didn’t feel that fatigued. I didn’t feel like I was overtraining. I just felt a general feeling of apathy as I went through my daily life. The beginning of the year I decided to take a better look at my social media consumption. I realized that a lot of the things I saw on social media, whether it be running or otherwise, tended to bring on a negative reaction from me. I felt like a worse person in this past year because of it. So I actively avoided and unfollowed and well, last week was a massive difference. This series may be a way of me expressing myself now since Instagram just seems like it sucks the creativity out of me with copy paste like posts.

But here’s to another week. I’ll try to get this current week updated during the middle of the week so I can get things written out closer to when it happens. But for now, this is what we got. Another week down.

running

Road to CIM 2025: Time’s a Tickin’

beersandmiles

100 days to Boston.

Scrolling through Instagram last Saturday, that realization hit me like a bucket of ice water.

The last couple days had me piecing myself together following a week stuck in bed with whatever the hell this virus that had been going around. Speaking of a bucket of ice water? Well’s hows about a real feel of 16° for my run back after a week in Phoenix. Maybe it was the prior days of fighting off a burning fever but man was that first run shocking.

5 miles at 8:34 pace, slipping and sliding on ice as I battled a cough that just wouldn’t quit. The first run back following a couple unplanned “rest days” is something not unfamiliar with me.

Testing testing, is this thing on?

That first one is just checking in. Outside of sickness, my IT-Band/knee had been a lingering issue from before I went on vacation. Cold and limiting movement from long tights seemed to aggravate the problem. Toss in some ice and hard snow? Well, talk about a recipe for a setback. So this first one was as cautious as I needed to be. Run club provides that opportunity. Running solo is too much temptation to get away from control, especially if I’m in conditions I’d rather not be in. A pack just takin’ it easy and chattin’ makes me not worry too much about the time on feet.

Result? A little rusty from lack of movement but we should be back to consistency fairly quickly.

While the result of the first run back was solid, there continued to be a lingering voice in the back of my head to get back immediately to the milage I had been doing. But I knew that a couple more days doing “just enough” was necessary to survey any potential damage that a 5 mile run wouldn’t tell me. If that meant scrapping the long run for the week and just 7-9ish miles easy, so be it.

The reality of race day looming triggered a feeling I hadn’t felt since college. I was running out of time here. Before I knew it, it would be March and I’d be lining up for Project 13.1. While others are knocking out good long runs, I was out here trotting and not getting any work done.

I started to look at old training logs from 2023/24 to see what kind of mileage I had been at. I basically wanted to see what kind of hole I was in. To my surprise, I was at about 60ish for the week ahead of me in the last two years. That was a relief for me until I dug deeper into 2023. That 60 was a down week after I ran 8:33 for 3k and had been stacking 70 mile weeks. Welp. Not ideal.

These unplanned rest days present a mental challenge. It’s fairly easy to head down a spiral that leads to you feeling like your back is against the wall and you need to claw at any sort of fitness to get yourself back on track. Years of setbacks has taught me that sort of thought process is what inevitably leads to you being back on the shelf again. I just need to remind myself, I’ll be back to it quicker than I think I will be at this current moment. It’s not a mountain to climb, it’s just a little hill to stay composed through.

I was in the best shape of my life in that NYC Block, it’s there. I know it’s there. Time’s a tickin’ but I’m confident that in less than 100 days I’ll be ready to get after it. I just need to make sure I don’t get in my own way.

running

Perspective: Obsession to Happy to Be Here

beersandmiles

Running is a solitary endeavor post collegiately. It doesn’t typically lend itself to a very long shelf life. I am not a professional runner nor will I ever be. I’ve never been the fastest person on my team. I’ve never qualified for a national championship. I’ve never won a race that “mattered”. Running will never be my source of income.

With each passing mile, the voice that was once muted becomes louder. There are no teammates to lean on. No season to look forward to. Priorities change. Running is no longer an acceptable excuse to avoid your responsibilities. Countless hours of training for a seemingly arbitrary number that only makes sense to you. Those winter months trying to regain the feeling in your hands after an easy hour. Those early summer mornings where it’s somehow still over 70 degrees before 6AM. Why do we do this?

There’s no money to be made. Heck you may not even make it to the line in one shape. Your investment in this endeavor is a net loss financially. You’re literally paying money to run now. And for what?

I’ve given a lot of thought about my relationship with running, specifically my choice to dedicate myself to training at a high level again post-college. I, like many others, had a toxic relationship with this sport for much of my career. I’d obsess over let it completely engulf my sense of being and self-worth. Without it I was a wreck. When it wasn’t going well I was a horror to be around. Time away and a shift in priorities have provided me a fresh perspective that has made me a happier person. Running and my mental health are no longer intertwined like they once were. I have a bad run or workout? That’s all it is. It doesn’t ruin my day like it once did. Every day that I’m able to continue to do this is worth it in itself. It’s a hobby. Well I guess hobby would be an understatement if my end goal is to qualify for the trials… But I guess I mean that running is no longer something that has complete control over my life. I dedicate more time to it than more things, outside of my career of course, but it’s under my own terms.

Two weeks ago I raced again for the first time in over a year in a distance that I have not run a personal best in almost 9 years. It was more of time trail than anything. 5 of us on an empty dimly lit indoor track on a random Saturday morning. Everything in the lead up to it was not ideal to say the least. I had an awful night of sleep and awoke with a slight headache. On our drive to the track my buddy has a tire blow out on the highway. By dumb luck I somehow made it to the track. I was completely dehydrated with my only source of water left in my buddy’s car on the side of the road. I stood in the middle of the track nervous and a bit overwhelmed. I was flustered and unprepared.

Then something just clicked, Why are you letting this bother you? This is supposed to be fun, remember?

So I shrugged it off. At this point in a year without major events, there are not many opportunities to race. Why was I going to let myself ruin it because a couple things didn’t go my way. Whether it was a success of not, I was just going to go out there and just enjoy running fast and if things went right, PR.. That’s it, nothing else.

And so it went. I ran without panic. For those 15 minutes, my only concern was the next quarter mile. And the next. And the next. And as I started to labor I found comfort in the realization that I still had that competitive fire, but it manifested itself differently. Instead of ever passing second making me anxious; it brought an almost fun challenge. I was falling off a bit but if I just continued running at my current pace I would just sneak under. The question was just by how much.

This is not how I imagined this would happen when I ran my PR in 2012. For one, that it would take this long, and that it would happen in such an anti-climactic fashion. No crowd. Just a friend with a stopwatch and a couple of us hitting the track hard for no reason other than we had an open track to do it. And in some ways I’m glad it happened that way. As the years went by I’d be lying if I worried that I’d never run any faster. That particular personal best represented a different me, a different point in my life, and I am relieved to finally close that chapter on my own terms.

Running at this point isn’t very flashy anymore. We create small victories for ourselves now. Little highlights that remind us why this is all worth it. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 It’s not exactly the time I wanted, but 11 seconds faster than my personal best is more than enough to make me happy.

This August will mark 15 years in this crazy endeavor. I remind myself each day that regardless of the result, as long as I continue to have a good relationship with running, it’s worth it to me. And for now I still do.

running

My first marathon was easy, the recovery? Not so much.

beersandmiles

Have you run a marathon?

If I had a dollar every time I heard this I’m sure I’d be able to afford a couple pairs of Vaporfly 4%’s.

For over 12 years that question followed me throughout the entirety of my competitive running career. I heard this from friends and family that didn’t understand running. If I was running so much a day how was I not trying to do a marathon? The concept of finishing a race being the accomplishment had never been motivation. That’s not a knock on others, just for me personally, I did this because I loved racing, I loved feeling fast.

I began to hear the topic of the marathon come up more often as I joined local running clubs in the area.The majority of the people in these clubs were training for a half or a full marathon, looking to try and top an old personal best. Every so often I’d get the question asked again and at that point I had just answered with, “I don’t want to run a marathon.”The years of hearing that question had completely turned me off of it.

To me the idea of running a marathon or even running one was not anything I was interested in. When you actually have to pay for races, you begin to think about things a little differently. With the prices of marathons being significantly higher than some dinky 5K, if there wasn’t a chance to get something out of it, either through a fast time or some prize money, there just wasn’t a reason for me to run it.

Eventually that ended up changing. With a couple craft beers in me I finally decided to sign up for one. I told myself I had 3 months to get in shape for this. I was finally healed up from a bad foot injury in the winter and now I had something to motivate me to get back in shape. I set two goals for myself in this training block, I would have one 80 mile week off singles and one 20 mile long run. I was going to try to stick around 60s for the majority of the summer and focus on quality mileage.

My progression of mileage went like this:

Week of:
May 28: 19.3 miles (4 days of running)
June 4th: 19.1 miles (4 days of running)
June 11th: 21.5 miles (4 days of running)
June 18th: 9.1 miles (2 days of running)
June 25th: 15.4 miles (4 days of running)
July 2nd: 30.2 miles (5 days of running)
July 9th: 23.6 miles (5 days of running)
July 16th: 63.5 miles (7 days of running, 15.4 mile long run)
July 23rd: 18.3  miles (4 days of running)
July 30th: 70.7 miles (7 days of running, 18 mile long run)
August 6th: 27.3 miles (5 days of running, 14 mile long run)
August 13th: 80.1 miles (7 days of running, 20 mile long run)
August 20th: 23.8 miles (5 days of running)
August 27th: 31.5 miles (5 days of running, 10.1 mile long run)
September 3rd: 37.2 miles (4 days of running, marathon)

So much for quality mileage…

I struggled to get any sort of consistency in my mileage throughout this block. For the first couple of weeks I was very slow to start as I was hesitant coming back from injury. After a sub 16 3 mile effort later in June, that went away but I began to struggle putting together consistent back to back weeks of mileage. I was fine up until I hit those long runs and had a horrible time recovering. I almost passed out at the end of my 18 mile long run and followed that week running less total miles than I had in that one run. My  20 miles ended up being the best long of my life but I spent the next three weeks struggling to feel good. I had 11 miles in my legs the week leading into my first marathon. I took two days off before out of desperation. 20 miler or no 20 miler, I wasn’t ready for this.

The Race

I was extremely conservative with my first 10 miles due to my trouble the previous three weeks. I figured I’d stay around 6:30’s for 10 and then make a decision from there. Whether it was to move or to stay at that pace, once I made a decision I would have to commit to it. My race plan changed before we even got to 3. I was able to latch myself onto 6:20 pace without working hard. Aside from a quick pit stop at mile 8 for a tinkle, I was pretty much right on or under 6:20s. My legs wanted to move faster but I didn’t let myself go under 6:15. The time to commit would come. Mile 10 was soon approaching.

I pulled my headphones out of my back pocket and got ready. I had made my decision.. I had been chomping at the bit for a couple of miles already.  The pace change was almost instantaneous. I was tapping on the gas a bit, just enough to satisfy that craving for a little of the fast stuff. I wanted to really let loose but a lot could happen in the last 16.2 and the last thing I wanted was to implode after 20.

Miles 10-13.1 were very much like my first three miles. I spent most of my time making sure I was right on 6:00. I would reevaluate over the next 10 miles what I wanted to do. If i felt good longer into the race I would push a little. From 16-20 the pace began to come down. Mile 17 came, 5:46. Mile 20, 5:50. This was going much easier than I thought it was going to be.

The next 4 miles weren’t too hard but just like that last 1/3rd of a 5k, I was starting to feel it. At mile 24 the real struggle began. The run for home reminded me of that last kilometer of a Steeplechase, trying to survive across each barrier with each subsequent one looking 10 feet tall. These last two miles felt like I was running through peanut butter. I could have sworn I had imploded here. There was absolutely no way I was running under 7 minutes per mile. Turns out I didn’t falter too much, I dropped back to 6:09 and 6:07 for my final two miles.

I crossed the finish line in 2:41:07. I ran a four minute negative split over my first half.

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Finally done.

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8th overall and third in my age group.

The Aftermath

The moment I stopped running it was as though I had someone stabbing every inch of my legs. My muscles were spasming and it was the worst pain I’ve felt after a race. I could barely move my body, with the only movement coming from every muscle in my lower body twitching in pain. I struggled to walk over the next couple of days. In my 12 years of running I had never felt so awful after a race.

The pain eventually subsided and I attempted to return back to running after a little over a week off. About 3 miles back in I felt horrible popping in the tendons behind my knee. The marathon effects continued to make running almost impossible without a pain in the same spot. Even months later the pain from that marathon still lingers. While it’s not as bad as it was then it still continues to hamper my training.

My first marathon was relatively easy. I ran well considering the little amount of training I had going into it but the key point here is my body wasn’t ready for it. A large part of being in shape is the ability to recover. The ability to recover from a run, a workout, a race, and get back on schedule without too much of problem. Consistency is what I lacked in this training block and it led to some of the hardest months of running following the marathon. almost 3 months later and I’m finally starting to run steady without any issues. Our bodies can work through much of what we put it through. There’s a limit to these things though. Consistency in training and a reasonable progression in workload allows our bodies to be ready for how taxing a race can be. A stable training block doesn’t just allow for optimal performance, it allows for our muscles to be ready for the demands that come with it.

Next time I’ll be ready.

Boston will be that next time.

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