Before dawn, the sky black at the edges, stars number enough to reveal individual leaves' outlines in trees. As the star quilted sky sweeps into view from above the house’s eaves, a meteor tears across the southern sky, extinguished and then reignited briefly, insane speed and energy dissipated mutely. Orion hunts, slowly arcing from horizon to horizon. The time before the beginning of a day.
Several hundred cubic fathoms of beer, immeasurable megawatt-hours worth of sun exposure, inundation in two each of ocean and great lake, multiple minor non-running related injuries involving jellyfish, rope swings, sidewalks, waterfalls, and physical feats a by definition athletically one-dimensional distance runner generally just shouldn’t be attempting, and 14 additional pounds of baggage later, I'm back to running after a cathartic six week break. I needed it. I sort of limped through the outdoor track season on a crutch of ibuprofen, running on a hip with internal workings that just, well, couldn't even.
Motivating my recent demotivation were two people: the great Kenyan marathoner Paul Tergat, who purportedly took several years off every fall and gained innumerable kilograms, returning to running just rarin to rip heads off. His running career lasted at an international level well into his thirties. And Pete, our coach at Zap Fitness, who told me I needed to finally let my usually pretty not-injury-prone physique actually rest for more ten days for once, for crying out loud. He had good reason.
Lucky enough to never have suffered from anything worse than achilles tendinitis (knocks on skull), I've never taken a break from training of more than twelve days since high school. Many runners would kill a fly for that kind of durability, but those long term injuries replenish your physical and mental energy stores. Beside allowing the soft tissue in my hip to heal, pure off time would let the head scratching inducing symptoms of long-term overtraining subside. I imagine fatigue from one season rolling over to the next season across relatively short ten to fourteen day breaks and compounding a runner to death later on. Simulating a major injury and taking several weeks off could be the change in training I needed having spent several seasons on a plateau running similar track and road performances. So Pete applied a jackhammer to my shins.
Just kidding. But for 42 days I wasn't a runner, or even an active human except for some hiking and canoeing. And Pokemon Go. Sue me. Going cold turkey is hard, but I reminded myself that even though my lifestyle closely matched that of Jaba the Hut, minus the weird frog things he heats, the runner within was being given a breather for the work and competition to come. Whenever thoughts of training started leaking in, I'd reach for another beer. At two weeks the strangeness of not running faded as hormones stabilized, the metabolism slowed down, and my body got used to not being stressed each morning and afternoon with a run. At a month I was the one shouting run Forest run. But in the third trimester of my training holiday, with the Olympics on full blast and inspired by the hugely successful US distance and middle distance olympic teams, I was ready to return to running like I never have been before.
Week one was rough. “left, right, left, right, port, starboard” I told my legs, ambulating at greater than three m.p.h. for the first time since early July. It made me respect the fitness I’ve retained continually for over a decade. In fits and starts my legs have come around since the break ended. As uncomfortable as the first few runs were, being “out of shape” provides a good point of reference. It’s kind of fun to feel the tangible gains made almost daily when you’re starting from a lower point: sure, you have a long way to go, but runners are happiest when we’re climbing.*
Last month’s Cameron Bean Memorial 5k and Magnum Mile in Chattanooga, Tennessee provided a timely mental and spiritual boost for the return to being a runner. Normally we wouldn’t race or work out so soon after returning to training, but I couldn’t miss Cam’s run. It’s been almost a year since our Zap teammate Cameron died, and getting to run that morning with Zap team mates past and present, Zap campers, and over 650 people who knew Cameron and to hear how he inspired them in life completely reassured me I’m doing the right thing by working to achieve the kind of goals Cameron set and lived by. Despite it being so early in training, I ran the evening’s very well put on Magnum Mile event balls to the wall because Cam would have done the same. I was pretty happy with a 4:25 road mile off no training, although my legs were not pleased the next day.
Team at Zap Fitness has been another big source of energy and inspiration for me in the early stages of this new buildup. Running after college is a hard road/trail/track, and the team has changed a lot since I started running for Zap over three years ago. I have a good relationship with everyone who’s run here and moved on, and I draw on the young energy we now have on the roster. Like Count Trackcula. Johnny Crain, Matt McClintock, Brandon Doughty, and Aaron Nelson all moved into our facility and campus on Blackberry Road late this summer, and their excitement for training at this level and competing on the professional circuit spreads to the seasoned members of the team, keeping things fresh and in perspective. When you live, run, eat, cut the grass, and sleep together†, good interaction within the group begets good living and effective training.
This was a natural transition year between being an early post collegiate runner and being a better experienced and hungrier athlete not afraid to set lofty goals. The best running is ahead. For now I’m training until November, when I’ll run two road races, including (my favorite) the Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving morning. In December we’ll begin our cross country campaign with Zap as we run for the team title at the USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee. In January we’ll compete in several cross country meets across Scotland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal in preparation for February’s US Cross Country Championships held in Bend, Oregon. With lots of cross country on the schedule, I’ll enter the outdoor track season strong and prepared to race into the end of the summer.
So we move into one of my favorite times of the year: when the smell of leaves and decay on the dry breeze and chilly mornings bring on olfactory nostalgia and mean hard, long training runs on dirt and grass and other rustic surfaces‡, and when those first anxious memories of competitive running formed for a high school freshman who didn’t know where this after school activity would take him. You fall§ in love with the tired, sore feeling in your legs that pervades your days. The feeling of accomplishment as you train for those short and rare moments when your goals are at their most vulnerable, ripe for breaking. The trail to those days is long and full of switchbacks, manticores, man, a lot of core, and as I’ve said, many Coors. Our objective is to run faster times, qualify for bigger meets, and win championships, but you can’t forget who climbs the trail with you, and even those who conspire to beat you to the top, because they have a funny way of becoming your friends too. Without them, there’s no one to share the glory of running with.
Thanks for reading. Here's my upcoming race schedule:
- - - - - - -
Digressions
* The derivative of my fitness with respect to time is positive and large, and right now I might even venture to say that its second derivative is positive, meaning my fitness is increasing at an increasing rate. All of this provides good momentum against the inevitable cooling off the second derivative into negative territory and the slowing of my fitness increase to zero hopefully exactly when I want it to, say next summer at an important competition, again ideally at an absolute value of fitness greater than I’ve ever reached before.
† In extended stay hotels and European dorm rooms
‡ How to say 'soft surfaces' with class
Several hundred cubic fathoms of beer, immeasurable megawatt-hours worth of sun exposure, inundation in two each of ocean and great lake, multiple minor non-running related injuries involving jellyfish, rope swings, sidewalks, waterfalls, and physical feats a by definition athletically one-dimensional distance runner generally just shouldn’t be attempting, and 14 additional pounds of baggage later, I'm back to running after a cathartic six week break. I needed it. I sort of limped through the outdoor track season on a crutch of ibuprofen, running on a hip with internal workings that just, well, couldn't even.
Motivating my recent demotivation were two people: the great Kenyan marathoner Paul Tergat, who purportedly took several years off every fall and gained innumerable kilograms, returning to running just rarin to rip heads off. His running career lasted at an international level well into his thirties. And Pete, our coach at Zap Fitness, who told me I needed to finally let my usually pretty not-injury-prone physique actually rest for more ten days for once, for crying out loud. He had good reason.
Lucky enough to never have suffered from anything worse than achilles tendinitis (knocks on skull), I've never taken a break from training of more than twelve days since high school. Many runners would kill a fly for that kind of durability, but those long term injuries replenish your physical and mental energy stores. Beside allowing the soft tissue in my hip to heal, pure off time would let the head scratching inducing symptoms of long-term overtraining subside. I imagine fatigue from one season rolling over to the next season across relatively short ten to fourteen day breaks and compounding a runner to death later on. Simulating a major injury and taking several weeks off could be the change in training I needed having spent several seasons on a plateau running similar track and road performances. So Pete applied a jackhammer to my shins.
Just kidding. But for 42 days I wasn't a runner, or even an active human except for some hiking and canoeing. And Pokemon Go. Sue me. Going cold turkey is hard, but I reminded myself that even though my lifestyle closely matched that of Jaba the Hut, minus the weird frog things he heats, the runner within was being given a breather for the work and competition to come. Whenever thoughts of training started leaking in, I'd reach for another beer. At two weeks the strangeness of not running faded as hormones stabilized, the metabolism slowed down, and my body got used to not being stressed each morning and afternoon with a run. At a month I was the one shouting run Forest run. But in the third trimester of my training holiday, with the Olympics on full blast and inspired by the hugely successful US distance and middle distance olympic teams, I was ready to return to running like I never have been before.
Week one was rough. “left, right, left, right, port, starboard” I told my legs, ambulating at greater than three m.p.h. for the first time since early July. It made me respect the fitness I’ve retained continually for over a decade. In fits and starts my legs have come around since the break ended. As uncomfortable as the first few runs were, being “out of shape” provides a good point of reference. It’s kind of fun to feel the tangible gains made almost daily when you’re starting from a lower point: sure, you have a long way to go, but runners are happiest when we’re climbing.*
Last month’s Cameron Bean Memorial 5k and Magnum Mile in Chattanooga, Tennessee provided a timely mental and spiritual boost for the return to being a runner. Normally we wouldn’t race or work out so soon after returning to training, but I couldn’t miss Cam’s run. It’s been almost a year since our Zap teammate Cameron died, and getting to run that morning with Zap team mates past and present, Zap campers, and over 650 people who knew Cameron and to hear how he inspired them in life completely reassured me I’m doing the right thing by working to achieve the kind of goals Cameron set and lived by. Despite it being so early in training, I ran the evening’s very well put on Magnum Mile event balls to the wall because Cam would have done the same. I was pretty happy with a 4:25 road mile off no training, although my legs were not pleased the next day.
 |
| Aaron, Brandon, and I running a 7-6-5-4-3 fartlek on Bass Lake in Blowing Rock last week |
So we move into one of my favorite times of the year: when the smell of leaves and decay on the dry breeze and chilly mornings bring on olfactory nostalgia and mean hard, long training runs on dirt and grass and other rustic surfaces‡, and when those first anxious memories of competitive running formed for a high school freshman who didn’t know where this after school activity would take him. You fall§ in love with the tired, sore feeling in your legs that pervades your days. The feeling of accomplishment as you train for those short and rare moments when your goals are at their most vulnerable, ripe for breaking. The trail to those days is long and full of switchbacks, manticores, man, a lot of core, and as I’ve said, many Coors. Our objective is to run faster times, qualify for bigger meets, and win championships, but you can’t forget who climbs the trail with you, and even those who conspire to beat you to the top, because they have a funny way of becoming your friends too. Without them, there’s no one to share the glory of running with.
Thanks for reading. Here's my upcoming race schedule:
| Date | Race Name | Location | Venue / Distance |
| November 12 | HCA 8k | Richmond, VA | Road 8k |
| November 24 | Manchester Road Race | Manchester, CT | Road 4.748 miles |
| December 10 | USATF Club Cross Country Championships | Tallahassee, FL | Cross Country 10k |
| January 7 | Great Edinburgh XCountry ‖ | Edinburgh, Scotland | Cross Country 8k |
| February 4 | USATF Cross Country Championships | Bend, OR | Cross Country 12k |
- - - - - - -
Digressions
* The derivative of my fitness with respect to time is positive and large, and right now I might even venture to say that its second derivative is positive, meaning my fitness is increasing at an increasing rate. All of this provides good momentum against the inevitable cooling off the second derivative into negative territory and the slowing of my fitness increase to zero hopefully exactly when I want it to, say next summer at an important competition, again ideally at an absolute value of fitness greater than I’ve ever reached before.
† In extended stay hotels and European dorm rooms
‡ How to say 'soft surfaces' with class
§ Pun premeditated
‖ Qualification required
‖ Qualification required
