Commentary — You’re Prepared, I Promise (or ‘My First Marathon’)

JoeEnglish - 5:28 pm | no comments

running advice bug Commentary Youre Prepared, I Promise (or My First Marathon)I was talking to a group of runners the other night before their first marathon at the Rock N Roll San Diego Marathon. I was repeating my mantra to them — “Don’t freak out” — and telling them not to worry. “You’re prepared, I promise” I told them. One of them came to me afterward and asked me, “how can you promise that we are prepared Coach?” I answered her by telling her the story of my first marathon many years ago. In the age of the Internet, great web-resources, astonishingly detailed race web-sites and fleets of personal coaches, think about this next time you wonder whether you are prepared for your next race.

Let me take you back to 1989. I was the tender age of 18. I found myself at the time running with the University of Puget Sound, where I was spending my Freshmen year in college. I was a lean (read: scrawny) teenage (read: stupid) runner (read: fast) with tons and tons of racing experience (read: almost none in reality). I could talk a good talk with runners though. One day, precisely seven days before the Portland Marathon, someone asked me if I wanted to run the marathon the next weekend. “Sure!” I exclaimed. “That sounds great.”

I had no idea at that moment what a marathon would entail. In fact, I didn’t know how long a marathon was. In those days, there was no such thing as a half-marathon. I had raced plenty of 5K and 10K races. I was well prepared for those distances, which is to say I had a giant blind-spot for anything longer than that. I didn’t want to ask anyone how long the marathon was, because, well, I didn’t want to look stupid.

In those days, we didn’t have the Internet, so I went to the library. I looked up the word “marathon” in the dictionary, which is a big, thick “book” made of paper that normally was the place to start in doing research. Here was the definition of the word marathon: “An endurance contest. . . Something (as an event, activity, or session) characterized by great length or concentrated effort.” Thanks Noah Webster for nothing. In went to another set of “books” called encyclopedias and in them I found out that someone in ancient Greece had once run from the a place called Marathon to Athens and had dropped dead at the end. Great.

I proceeded to make my preparations for the event. I filled out the entry form, which didn’t ask for my e-mail or cell phone number, because we didn’t have those things at the time. The only information I had to give was my mailing address, which I presumed was so the race organizer could mail home the bodies of those that dropped dead at the finish.
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Mental Games — Dealing With the Middle Miles

JoeEnglish - 4:12 pm | no comments

running advice bug Mental Games Dealing With the Middle MilesThe middle miles are always the toughest. You’ll be working through a race or workout and get to the half-way point and feel a real sense of relief. And then a few minutes later you start to have this sinking feeling of despair, “I’m only half-way done!” I’ve personally always hated this feeling and I know that whether you’re an Ironman, marathon runner or even training for shorter races, it has happened to you too. Don’t worry, I can help you fix this one.

The Middle Miles syndrome crops up primarily for the the same reasons that we’ve been talking all year here on the blog. Our thoughts shape our feelings. Our reactions to the physical stimuli around us are shaped by those feelings. So whether you are normally a “glass-is-half-full” type or a not, if you’re feeling dread around those middle miles you’ve moved your thoughts into the “glass-is-half-empty” zone. Once we begin to think about how far we have left to go, then everything we experience, from a little pain or a rain-shower, starts to make us feel bad.

Remember that we always craft our experience and our journey through our thought processes, so when you thought-space moves to “I have so far to go” then the natural reaction to difficulties is “I can’t go on” or “this is hard.” We need to move our thoughts back into a positive space and think “these miles are no longer than the ones I have done,” or “it’s just a little rain,” or “I’ll work through this pain in legs and feel better in a while.” We control our thoughts and thus we control the feelings that we experience.

But there are two other ways that can impact the way the Middle Miles feel in addition to moving our thoughts into a more positive space. The other two are 1) pacing and 2) nutrition. If you take all three of these items together, they form a three sided solution to that sinking feeling in that tough middle portion of the race.
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Mental Games — Balancing ‘Should’ Versus ‘Want’

JoeEnglish - 3:52 pm | no comments

running advice bug Mental Games Balancing Should Versus WantI’ve told the story countless times about how I ended up a runner. My mom had put me in sport after sport, so the story goes, and my soccer coach pulled her aside. “Ms. English,” he said, “your son is a terrible soccer player, but outruns everyone on the field. Perhaps he is a runner.”

JoeJulie3 350 Mental Games Balancing Should Versus Want

About the time I started running (Circa 1972)

I always tell this story to get the chuckle that invariably comes when the coach says that I was a terrible player. This is likely true. I’m one of the least coordinated people that I know. In fact, I often refer to myself as a “big dumb engine” — turn me on and I just go. But there is another side to that story that I’ve never really talked about. Another response my mom could have had was, “well, is he having fun?”

It occurs to me that we are often so focused on being “good” at things like sports that we forget that we can do them just for the sake of having fun. At the young age of six years old, should it have mattered that I was terrible at playing soccer? Should it have mattered that I might excel at running? What if I loved the game of soccer and hated running? Should we always be in search of the things in which we are most competitive?

I’ve noticed a bit of language that I key in to related to this these days. When I’m talking to runners and triathletes, they often use the word “should” — as in “should I run another marathon?”, “should I try to qualify for Boston?” “should I do another Ironman?” What underlies these questions is a sort of obligation. ‘Should’ implies there is a some reason or duty there. ‘Should’ could be interchanged with “must” pretty easily.
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Triathlon — Three Things I Remembered at Ironman Australia

JoeEnglish - 5:27 pm | 1

running advice bug Triathlon Three Things I Remembered at Ironman AustraliaI’ve done more triathlons and duathlons than I can recall, but seven years ago I did my first Ironman and vowed never to do another. Ironman Australia was my second (and surely the last?). I came away feeling the need to share three things that I remembered during the race. These were sensations that I don’t think are boiled down into any text that I wish I had in my head before setting off on this latest long-distance adventure.

DSC 5732 350 Triathlon Three Things I Remembered at Ironman Australia

Coach Joe on the bike @ IM Australia

Lesson 1 — Swimming with thousands of people is unpleasant. Every book and coach will remind you to get out there and swim in open water, because open water swimming is different than swimming in the pool. That it is. You can’t follow that convenient black line on the bottom of the pool and there are no breaks every 25 meters to interrupt your stroke. These things are true. But to me the revelation (again) was that swimming alongside that many people is a really JARRING experience. You have legs and feet in your face, people throwing what feels like punches in your noggin, and the water is churning around like a damn washing machine. Forget the fact that you don’t have the wall every 25 meters. That wall has instead been replaced by a living creature that whacks you in the head, causing you to pull your head back, gasp for breath and throw a punch of your own.

My sensation about two minutes into the swim was this: “I can’t do this for the next hour. I will drown if I don’t slow down, catch my breath and stop being kicked in the head.”

But the learning from this race was the same as in my last one. The craziness does eventually subside. The field spreads out and you do find some calm water. It’s never like swimming in a pool and suddenly out of the blue someone will swim into you and pound you in the head in the middle of the race, but it does get better. If you can try to find clear water, get there. If not, then just bear down and hang in there. It gets better.
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Mental Games — Feeling Average While Doing the Impossible

JoeEnglish - 5:46 pm | no comments

running advice bug Mental Games Feeling Average While Doing the ImpossibleTell almost anyone that you’re doing an Ironman Triathlon and watch the expression on their face. They almost can’t believe it. Actually they just can’t understand it. “How far is the bike?” they ask and even when you tell them they have no comprehension how far 180KM (112 miles) really is. Sometimes I tell them by relating it to a distance they would understand — “It’s from here out to the beach and back.” They still don’t get it. The physical task is, simply put, impossible for them to understand.

DSC 5356 350 Mental Games Feeling Average While Doing the Impossible

Coach Joe before Ironman Australia 2013

But then you go out and do your Ironman or your marathon and you’re somehow feeling. . . “average.” You look around at 2,000 people crashing into the water, pedaling along the highway and running through the night and you start to think maybe this ain’t such a big deal. It’s not like you won or even came close. In fact, the winners were finishing the race before you probably got off the bike. You hear others talking about the race: this is my 50th, they say, or their fastest or their third this year. They are 65 years old and just finished their first one. It’s not only very possible, but almost common place.

Last weekend at Ironman Australia I had this very feeling. Although I was doing what most consider impossible, I was feeling quite average. How can this be?

I talked with my favorite psychologist this weekend and she helped me understand this a bit. First, both our own comprehension of what we do and that of the people viewing it is shaped by our own experience. What this means is that the person hearing about your tale of physical world domination can’t comprehend the task, because they have no experience with which to understand it. And our experience leads us to form an opinion based on all that we’ve done. In other words, we have a basis to compare against while others don’t.

Second, we’re competitive creatures. That’s why we participate in these crazy marathons and Ironman triathlons to begin with. Our competitive drive shape our impression of how we feel about our endeavors. The self-talk of the athlete quickly goes from “I am just trying to finish” to “I could have gone faster if only I had. . .” This inner self-talk, which ultimately is a source of our desire to improve, takes us from thinking that we’re doing the impossible to thinking that we could do it better the next time.
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2013 Long-Course Duathlon Nationals (Mt. Rainier Duathlon) Course Preview

JoeEnglish - 6:02 pm | no comments

running advice bug 2013 Long Course Duathlon Nationals (Mt. Rainier Duathlon) Course PreviewWith the 2013 Long Course Duathlon Nationals (AKA Mt. Rainier Duathlon) coming up next weekend, I spent some time riding and running the courses yesterday to give you a sneak preview and some advice on how to approach the course.

UP7512 2013 NtnlChampLogo LongCourseDU Date 2013 Long Course Duathlon Nationals (Mt. Rainier Duathlon) Course PreviewI’ll start by saying that there is a lot about this course that I like and I think that everyone should find something that they like about it. The course offers a great deal of variety, but is not highly technical. The hill climbing on the bike will favor strong riders, but there is enough other terrain to help even that out a bit as well. In short, I think this is a fair race course and should be good for well rounded athletes.

Run Course 1: At just over five miles (5.12), this course isn’t quite a 10K but is long enough that it should slow down the sprinters a bit. Looking at this on the map, I thought that it would be totally flat, but the race organizers managed to find the one hill in this part of town to incorporate into the course. The hill starts after a hard left turn right at the 3 mile mark and climbs quickly up a rolling set of inclines. The hill is short but steep and I think this is going to separate the girls from the women so to speak. If anyone has gone out too fast, they will pay for it here. There is a nice recovery coming back down the other side of the hill and then the course flattens back out in the last mile.

My advice as always is to pace yourself wisely in the first run. Your running pace should be a pace (effort level) that you can keep up for the entire duathlon — not just for that first run. Most people go out way to fast in the first run. Remember that you have a lot of riding to do after you transition, so take it easy. Work your way up the hill and then use the down hill to recover and get yourself set for the transition as you come back to the start/finish area.

Bike Course: The meat of this race is going to be on the bike. At 28.88 miles this feels quite short for a “long course” race, however, the hilly terrain makes it challenging and it will feel longer. I think the way to mentally approach this course is to divide the laps into three segments: 1) the first portion of the race until you hit the bottom of the climb (0-6 miles), 2) the climb (miles 6-8), and 3) the recovery and descent (miles 8-14). You’ll do two laps of the course.
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Join Me at the Boston Marathon in 2014

JoeEnglish - 7:03 am | no comments

running advice bug Join Me at the Boston Marathon in 2014I feel so strongly about the events of this past week at the Boston Marathon 2013 and our need to keep moving “Forever Forward” that I’ve decided to personally run the 2014 Boston Marathon. It has been five years since my last trip to Boston and I think next year is going to be the most important year in the history of the race for us experienced marathon runners to show the world that we will not be deterred.

In that spirit, I am announcing a very special group training program for those that qualify and would like to train as part of a group for the 2014 Boston Marathon: I will coach you for free. Yep, you heard it right, but there are some restrictions and important details, so please keep reading if you’d like to join my team.

What you have to do:
– You have to qualify for the 2014 Boston Marathon.
– You have to register and be accepted for the 2014 Boston Marathon.
– You will have to pay all of your own travel expenses to the race, including the race registration fee.
– You will need to join the group before the start of the season (to avoid having to adjust training schedules for late starting participants).

What I will do for you:
– I will provide a group training schedule appropriate to Boston Marathon caliber runners.
– The training schedule will be provided by my on-line coaching tool and administered over e-mail as is typical for our on-line coaching programs.
– I will provide a weekly status and inspiration e-mail to help keep you on-track during the training season.
– The training season will last five months (20 weeks), commencing approximately mid-December 2013.
– I will meet with the group on-site and we will go to the starting line together.
– We’ll have a party after the race together.
– There will be no coaching fees charged to join the group.

If you need coaching support for your Boston Qualification visit the following page on our web-site for more information:

If you want to join our movement to go back to Boston in 2014, you can join me and I will help you with your training. Further details on how to sign up for the program will be posted in October 2014 on our web-site.

So get your qualifying time and sign-up for the race. Then let’s go to Boston together in 2014.

Coach Joe English, Portland Oregon, USA
Running Advice and News
www.running-advice.com

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Commentary – Lost Dreams at the Boston Marathon

JoeEnglish - 1:32 am | no comments

running advice bug Commentary Lost Dreams at the Boston MarathonI realize tonight that as something of a thought leader in the world of running, I’m expected to say something about today’s tragic events at the 2013 Boston Marathon. It’s hard to find a place to start writing about something that left me absolutely speechless. I’ve seen the video of the bombing over and over again. I finally had to turn it off. As the evening draws to a close, I wish to share with you some of my thoughts on this horrible day for the running community.

First, this is a day of lost dreams. Foremost among them for those that were killed or injured, but for thousands of runners this was “their” Boston Marathon experience and that experience will forever be marred. As my friend Steve Harper once told me, Boston is unique in that it is the one time that regular people can compete in an athletic event on par with the Olympics or the World Series. It’s the chance for the mere mortals among us to walk onto a world stage and be welcomed as conquering heroes. Only a handful of people will play in the World Series, but if you work hard enough and keep trying, Steve told me, you can go to Boston. This is the dream. Today, those that worked so hard to get there have had their dream stolen from them.

Second, I have stood on that finish line in Boston. I have photographed it. I know what it feels like, looks like and even smells like. It is surreal for me to watch the bombs exploding just a few yards shy of the end of the race. Whether we realize it or not, the finish line of the Boston Marathon is an enduring historical landmark. In its 117th running, the Boston Marathon is one of the more enduring sporting events in America. Countless thousands have crossed that line and countless more have stood by to cheer on their friends, loved ones or colleagues as they finish their race. That landmark is now forever changed. It is stained with the blood of those that were in the stands today. We can never look at it in the same way again.

With that said, the timing of the bombing tells us something about the motives of the attackers. The race clock showed 4:09:50 on it when the first bomb went off. For the greatest media spectacle, the bomb would have needed to have gone off two hours earlier when the race was being covered live around the world and the winners were finishing. (The winning time this year was just over 2:10:00). From the timing, we could suppose that this attack was directed at the spectators and the middle of the pack runners.

Third, the feeling in the final mile of a marathon is something that I have on my mind tonight. After running for such a long time, the body finally goes through this amazing and joyful release. It is a letting go of the pain and doubt when the runner realizes that they are indeed going to finish the race. This happens to runners at every level and it is something different from what you may think of as the “Runners High.” It is a moment of euphoric mental fist-pumping that every runner does when they’ve “made it.” My heart sinks to think of those runners today making the turn onto Boylston Street or being diverted or hearing the news from spectators. Those hundreds or thousands of runners that hadn’t yet finished must have felt such despair and confusion. They didn’t reach that release point and tonight I pray that they are not forever stuck in a terrible state of limbo between where they were going and where they ended up. Embroiled in a news story that they didn’t ask to become a part of rather than having their moment of triumph.
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Broadcasts — 2013 Boston Marathon Live Coverage Information

JoeEnglish - 6:47 am | no comments

running advice bug Broadcasts 2013 Boston Marathon Live Coverage InformationThe 2013 Boston Marathon will be held on April 15th, 2013. One of the greatest marathons in the world is right here in the US and you can watch it live on the Internet and TV. Here’s the scoop on where and when to watch it:

Internet Live Stream
The 2013 Boston Marathon will be streamed live online for free at http://watchlive.baa.org/ starting at 9:30 a.m. ET. April 15th, 2013.

Local Boston Television Coverage
WBZ-TV will carry live coverage of the race from 9:00AM to 1:30PM ET on April 15th, 2013.

Re-run of the race broadcast will be shown from 8:00PM to 12:30AM ET on MyTV38 on April 15th, 2013.

Universal Sports Network
Universal Sports Network and UniversalSports.com are the exclusive national television and digital media homes of the legendary Boston Marathon.

— Sunday, April 14, 2013
- 5:00 p.m. ET: Preview Show

— Monday, April 15
- 9:00 a.m. ET: Pre-Race Show
- 9:30 a.m. ET: 2013 Boston Marathon
- 12:30 p.m. ET: Post-Race Show
- 4:00 p.m. ET: 2013 Boston Marathon Wrap Up Show

For video highlights and more, go to www.UniversalSports.com.

Enjoy the race and good luck to all of the runners.

Running Advice and News
www.running-advice.com

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Training — Preparing for the Dumbo Double Dare

JoeEnglish - 11:07 pm | no comments

running advice bug Training Preparing for the Dumbo Double DareOne of the coaches that I am advising came to me with the following question regarding an event called the Double Dumbo Dare, which combines a 10K on day one and a half-marathon on day 2. First the question and then I’ll share with you my thoughts on preparing for such an event.

“I was just assigned a group of people who are doing the Dumbo Double Dare (10k Saturday, 1/2 Marathon Sunday). What should I do differently in coaching a half-marathon training program to handle this so that they are prepared for the extra challenge?”

First, you have to love the name: “Dumbo Double Dare.” I thought that “Goofy Challenge” was funny, but Dumbo is really saying it, isn’t it! We’ve written about the Goofy Challenge in the past. Goofy involves a half-marathon on Saturday and a full-marathon on Sunday. That’s no small challenge. The Dumbo Double Dare is a shorter in distance, but still presents a significant challenge, especially for those that aren’t used to running longer distances.

There are two skills that are at play here for which you are preparing participants. These skills are 1) the ability to run when fatigued and 2) the ability to pace properly to avoid over-running the first race (and thus killing oneself in the second).

As a side-note, preparing runners to “double” itself isn’t a new thing. In track meets, the athletes often have to run 2, 3 or even 4 times over a couple of days. In an event like the Olympics, the runners will have to run qualifying heats, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final events — all of these are their maximum speed. But often in these situations, the distances of the events are the same for each heat. So the twist here is that the two races are different distances and thus this puts a wrinkle in learning to pace the two events.
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