Engineered to Run

This week, I'm going to take a look into more of the mental and emotional side of running, and in particular explore one of the primary reasons that running has become such a fixture in my life. There are a number of reasons why I run, and many of them I have mentioned in my previous blogs. I enjoy the camaraderie that I experience with my running partners. I appreciate the benefits to my health and physical fitness. And I also love setting goals and striving to better my times; it helps fill a competitive void in my life that was created when I stop playing team sports. All of those are great reasons to run, and I'm sure many other runners share those and could list a number of additional reasons. I am going to take some time now to delve into one more, and this one is more of a feeling. In order to properly do it justice, I need to provide some background. When I ran my first Tely 10, I did it on only 3 weeks of training. I was inspired to run due to a fitness tr...

One of the best things about running with other people is that you are able to avail yourself of the knowledge that they have accumulated through their travels. The title of this week's blog is one such tidbit of advice that I picked up from a training partner, and one I struggle with at times: Don't Be a Slave to the Schedule! For me, I find having a training schedule and a routine to be key to my success. I take comfort in knowing when I will be running, what type of run I'll be doing, and what distance I'll be covering. I attribute many of the gains I have made over the past two years to my ability to follow a regimented training plan. So, obviously I find benefits to following a schedule, and I would never deter someone from setting a schedule and following it. The important thing is that you leave yourself some room for flexibility. Some days, it may be fun to just go out and run an unplanned route and distance. Or maybe join a group who you don't normally ...

At the end of last week's blog, I mentioned that this week I would discuss my REALLY long-term running goal. As the title suggests, it involves a lot of running and just as much travel! Most of my running goals are relatively short-term, and pretty much all of them are based on goal times. I've always been a competitive person, and I find that having goals like that helps keep me focused and on point with my training. I really admire people who run simply for the fun of it and keep getting out on a regular basis; I have not gotten to that place yet! Last summer, I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw a medal that I had never seen before. As runners, we all tend to love the bling that we get at the end of a race. This was something completely different though, and as soon as I saw it the wheels in my head started to spin thinking about how I would begin my journey towards getting one. For those who aren't familiar with it, that is the Abbott World Major Marat...

Last week, I took a look back at my results from 2017 and posted my goal times for 2018. This week, I'm going to give a brief outline of my overall training strategy for 2018. When I plan my training for the year, I generally break it down into blocks ranging from 2 to 4 months in duration. Each block has a different focus, and the training is structured to work towards the main goal at the end of the block. From November through January, I typically schedule my running off-season. During that time, I only run 3-4 times a week, with greatly reduced mileage. This allows for some recovery time from the grind of running, both mentally and physically. It also gives me time to do some strength training, which I enjoy and which I also feel benefits me as I progress through the harder training blocks as the year goes on. My first race the last couple of years has been the Boston Pizza Flat Out 5k in early April. I have run it twice, and I was admittedly not in good running form either...