It’s OK to Want to Only Run 5K’s: Or any other Distance for that Matter!!

To start, this post is not to down play Ultras or lift up 5K’s but to step back and take a look at why we run what we run.

With the rise in popularity of Ultras, any distance over the marathon, it often seems that many that simply want to run shorter races, for whatever reason, may start to get the impression that what they do is somehow less impressive.  I am not saying those that run Ultras, or those that promote them, are seeking to create this impression, but it can often come across by how we build up those that do run longer races or how we speak of our longer runs.   Often with the talk of challenging ones-self and all the great, and they are truly great, personal inspirational stories it can be easy to begin to think differently about your own situation and look at it from the perspective of others and not from your own perspective.  What I want to do is not tell you what you should, or should not, run but share some thoughts that may help you look at why, and what, you run from your own perspective.

Let me start with what one might call unintended consequences.  By this I mean that often the pictures we see of Ultra’s are of those smiling and looking to have fun, and they may indeed be having fun, in amazing places.  I realize that most race reports share the lows as well but the saying  “a picture is worth a thousand words” comes into play that often the great pictures of an event leave a greater impression than the actual report.  When you compare this with pictures we see of, say, a 5K the aura put forth is decidedly different.  Often those in the 5K look somewhat distressed, a consequence, of pushing the limits for such a short race and on top of that most 5k's are on the road and lets be honest it is hard to make a road race look as enticing as that of a trail race.  On top of all this we hear great stories of people overcoming the many obstacle before them in longer races, stories often not heard with regards to a 5 or 10K.  To be fair we do hear such stories when it comes to marathons but our natural inclination is to, unintentionally, think that the longer the race the more there is to overcome – not necessarily true but something our minds tend to perceive it that way.  I am not saying those seeking to promote the sport of trail running and Ultra running are intentionally minimizing shorter races but I would say they have done such a good job of promotion that unintended consequence arise in that people are often enticed to the longer races.  I will add here I am probably guilty of this as well as many of the videos I share are of challenging races in beautiful and often remote places - but it is hard not to share them:) . So if I have unintentionally created the feeling that running longer and harder is better I apologize.

Next, is the idea that as individuals we need to challenge ourselves but in doing so look at our time and physical abilities and let them drive what we run rather than the latest inspirational article.  Yes, do not let preconceived limits limit you but do live in reality.  I use my self as an example: I have a nature that just likes to push the limits and thus how I moved to Ultra’s 43 years of running.  When I was younger I ran pretty well in the marathon and often ran 20 milers but had no desire to run Ultra’s but was also not influenced by the press on this as Ultras were basically an outlier sport and I also knew the pain many who ran them went through.  But when I came back to running, and after running  plenty of marathons, and hearing the stories and reading the magazines, seeing the videos and hearing the stories I was drawn to Ultra’s.  I never stopped to ask myself about the time I had to train and the toll my body may take after having been running for so many years, albeit not always running a lot.  Instead I went with the Ultra-Flow and did my first 50K which was painful but that made running longer even more enticing  - so I then looked to 50 miles.  My first 50 miler went pretty well in that I got 10th overall but my feet, mostly my current problem right foot, took a beating.  Instead of doing what I should have and ask myself about what was best for my body, at least at this time, and if I should go further or find my niche I then looked to run 100k or 100 miles.  Again, in all this I kept hearing stories, reading posts and watching videos of those running a 100 miles and even I who should know better allowed them to drive my direction rather than stopping to look inside first.  I then moved up my training with 100 miles in the distance as a goal and in doing this and running more 50ks and long training runs I looked past my foot issues- another of my less than redeeming traits as I often try and push through things when I should stop and reassess the situation.  The point here in all this rambling is I let the allure of running longer and longer drive my decision making and not a reality check of my body.  We need to challenge ourselves but in doing so live in reality and not denial.

Another aspect in this is to look at your goals with the races you run.  I say races but often for the majority of those entered in races are mostly racing themselves.  However, if you are one who is competitive and looking to do well overall, or in your age group, this may play into what you run and how far.  It is good to think this through since going in a direction because of curiosity or the allure may hamper your real goals.  As an example: for me I have a goal to run Boston in 2020 when I am 60 and then every 5 years so I am going to maybe run a 50K and one longer adventure run before the 2020 Boston race but everything else will be shorter to make sure I am healthy and ready for Boston.  Having goals helps, well should as often I let other things cloud the issue, to make decisions on what and how far to run.  Two runners who show a great understanding of what they are good at and what they want to run are Joseph Gray and Max King.  Joseph tends to run shorter mountain runs and while I am pretty sure he could run 50k’s or more he knows what it is he is good at and where his focus needs to be for now and does not let others drive a change.  Max is much the same as while I am sure he would do well at longer races most of his races are 50 miles or shorter, even running one obstacle circuit that is more “run-centric.”  The point being they know what they want to do and what will make that happen so are not drawn from that focus.

I would like to add that while I talk about enjoying running this does not preclude there being effort and some level of discomfort that may still exist.  It is often this discomfort that gives us the most satisfaction when it is overcome.  No matter the distance you run discomfort can be part of it.  I can truly say I have hurt more in a really hard 5k, even a mile when in HS and College, than in most of my Ultras albeit the discomfort in the Ultra lasted longer but rarely have my lungs hurt as bad as in a hard mile or 5K.  What this says is that if ones goal is to push through barriers then you can find them at any distance.  Yes, in Ultras often those barriers last longer and come and go more often due to the time on your feet.  But, in a 5K the mental aspect can be just as hard to get through.  I know for me the 2nd mile in a 5K is a mental barrier I need to push through as much as miles 10-20 in a 50K.  Both barriers are real and when I can break them both consistently I will have accomplished something be it in a 5K or 50K.

The above has just been some thoughts and as I have said this is not to dissuade anyone from an Ultra or talk people into 5K’s but instead is an encouragement to look at where you are and ask questions of yourself about why you want to run what you want to run.  So just ask yourself the following:

• Are running a race or distance because you want to or because others make you feel you want to?
• Are you ready, and have the time, to put in the effort to be able to have the best opportunity to complete your goal distance?
• Do you have any physical issues that may preclude you doing a particular distance and if done will hinder you even running shorter distances and enjoying life on a day to day basis?
• Do you race competitively or simply like to run in races for the camaraderie?  See how this plays into what you want to run.
• Do you have long terms goals and how does the run you are looking at play into those long term plans?

Bottom line is have fun, remembering fun can have discomfort, no matter the distance you.  No matter how far you run do it to because it is what you want to do and not because it is the thing the “Cool Kids Are Doing?  When you are done and have taken a hard look at why you want to do what you want do and find you want to run long and do Ultras then by all means do the work needed and go for it, maybe the Moab 240 is in your future.  But, if you find you only want to run 5Ks and have fun and enjoy the camaraderie at the races then go for that and do not feel any less than those that run longer.

Again have fun!!!!!

When Will I Learn – Take a Break Before You’re Broke

You would think after 45 years I would have learned my lesson but no, I keep repeating the same thing I am always telling other not to do.  So often I get a nagging injury and I take a day or two off thinking if I just rest a few days I can get back into it and not miss much.  But all too often I do this cycle over and over and the injury is still there till finally I have to take two plus weeks off.   To add insult to “injury”, pun intended, since my reason for trying to keep running usually is an up coming event so what tends to happen is the that I finally have to take time off right at the events date and miss the run as it is.  Now taking the two weeks off at the start, or just avoiding the injury all together but more on that in a moment, may or may not have solved the issue but it invariably would have been a better choice and leave me with a better opportunity to race later.

I understand why even experienced runners who can afford it have coaches because no matter how much you know there seems to be that element of “DO as I say NOT as I DO.”  When you coach others you can look at them from a perspective that often you cannot see about yourself and that loss of perspective can lead to decisions and directions that may end up being detrimental.  Now, even if you do not have a coach you can surround yourself with those that are not afraid to tell you to “take a break” which may also be able to help avoid the injury trap.  Now when I speak of injuries I am not talking about those that may come from other areas of life but those that crop up due most often to over-use or maybe just going to far too fast.  Whatever the reason it often takes a perspective that is detached from you to see the issue.  I do not say this to give myself an excuse but I have to admit I often from my perspective am not over doing it.  When I look back I can see that while I may not have been suddenly throwing in a 100 mile week after never running more than 40 but instead because I was feeling good I just kept going and did not take a break from training or racing as I should have.

The lesson I need to learn is that we need to take a break before we are broke – hey maybe I need to copywrite that but then again I am sure someone has said that before.  I was joking with my wife the other day that taking time off would be easy if I disliked running but then again I run because I enjoy it.  Thus, while I admit there are times I want a certain amount of miles or need to run a certain distance to make sure I can tick of my training box more often than not I cut my rest short just because I like to run.  That does not mean I enjoy every run but as a whole I just like to run.

So what of this latest issue?  While I do not have Plantar Fasciitis, yet, I do have a very sore heel where the achilles attaches.   If I look back the achilles issue did not come directly from too many miles but stems from calf issues that came about during a hard run after having quite a few miles.  The miles themselves were not necessarily high but looking back I can see I had not had a long enough period of rest when I needed it and not just wait till it is convenient.  Sad thing on my part was that I had this issue the year before and had talked about taking a break every 5 weeks or so but in the midst of travel and work and racing I just ended up not taking those needed days thus never taking a planned break.  Well my body said it is time for one and that is not the way I, we, should decide on when to take a break.

I had been struggling with calf issues and was trying to keep up the training as I had Hood to Coast coming up so tried to run through it and in many ways was able to but it was not always comfortable.  I had planned after Hood to Coast during a family vacation to take a week or two off.  Well my love for running and especially finding trials up mountains got in the way.  I had told myself that a 16 mile run up 3500ft would be no big deal and the previous 4 miler was just a shakeout run.  The issue is that what those runs did, while enjoyable with a little pain, was disrupt the rest so that while I may have only run three days during the week I did not get the consecutive days of rest my achilles needed.  To top this off we were driving back from Idaho across the county back home to KY and of course I had to run in Yellowstone as well as another run on a beautiful morning but the part I had not accounted for was how driving a few thousand miles would affect my Achilles especially when I would run in the AM then get in the car and drive – let me tell you that is a bad idea if you can avoid it do so.  I then took a week off of running once I got home before I had to go back out to CA for work and rode 3 days, telling myself that it was not running, but then I got to CA and was sore from flying and went for a short run – another bad idea and a stop to a week off from running before I actually got the week – do you see a trend here.  I then took one more day off and the heel felt a little better and I tried to run the next day and while sore it was not unbearable, that is until later that night and all the next day.  Man did it hurt the next day and it did not subside most of the day.

So that is where I am.  I wrote some time ago about having a long term perspective and that perspective is to run long term and while I do have “A” Races and Goals running for long into the future is at the top of my list.  When I see things from that perspective and put aside my pride in not running a race I had planned on it makes things easier, not easy but easier, to say whoa.  I am not one to enter lots of races and do not show up as I only enter races I plan on running but this year due to work and now injuries I have had to back out of a few races.  The reason I am going to shut it down for a month or so from racing and thus pass on The Bourbon Chase Relay in KY which I really wanted to run as well as the Colossal-Vail 50 Miler in AZ is that it is the wise thing to do.  I have some big plans for next year which include the Land Between the Lakes 50 miler in March 2018 and the Yamacraw 50K (this is a maybe as it is 30 days after LBL but may do it as a training run) in April then my first 100 miler at Tunnel Hill in 2018.  After that my current plan is to work to qualify for Boston at The Kentucky Derby Marathon in 2019 so I can run the 2020 Boston when I am 60.  I think taking the rest now and then training so that these events in the future can take place is what needs to be done.  There is a chance I may be able to run a 30K in mid November but only if I have no pain and also it will be a pretty much day of the race decision and it will be run in a manner that readies me for the future and not jeopardize it.

Also, when taking a look back at my last two years of trying I have had some very good weeks but I have a hard time making it to November as I had to DNS the Indy Marathon due to issues.  This tells me I am not taking the mid-season break that I need and will factor that in this coming year.  Also, in this coming year I need to work on more mobility and strength and not just say I will do it.  I just need to figure out how to make time even if it means running less.

Well that is a quick look at how things are ending for my year and I hope you can learn some Lessons from my mistakes.  I may not learn quickly but I hope you do.  Take to heart to that rest is much a part of training and the activity of training is and make sure you “Take a Break Before You Are Broke.”  Do not put off what needs to be done, rest, as your body will make you rest at some point and that point is usually more painful and often conflicts with what you avoided rest to try and do.  If you can afford a coach, and you may even find your company may even cover part of it like they do for some people with health clubs, do so and if not find people who will help you progress.  With this be careful not to surround yourself with people like you as often that means the advise will be “just gut it out”, or “work through it.”  It is OK to have those people but make sure you have those that will be honest with you and say take a break when you need it or will tell you to cut back when you are maybe getting a little over zealous.

Again -  “Take a Break Before You're Broke”

Follow on post on Recovery

Time For Review - Looking at the Path Ahead

If you are like me you plan your races and do them come what may.  The problem with that philosophy is it can be detrimental to your health if you are not careful. I am not talking about backing out of a race due to under-training or out of fear you will not do as you would like but when you have a health issue.  We are so ingrained with the “gut it out” mentality that often we do more damage than good from being “tough”.

Well that ended up being the case for the end of this year.  After what seemed like a really good 3-4 months of training I hurt my foot running a not so technical trail at the end of August that led to missing a trail ½ marathon I had been looking forward to in September.  Not running the race, while not what I wanted to do, was necessary as I could not run much at all due to the pain in my foot.  So I took time off and figured I would get ready for the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis in November.  Training was OK, not what I wanted, but all things considered it was going well.  Then I came down with the flu and was in bed for 36 hours with the result being when I got up I had a pinched nerve in my back that sent shooting pains down my right leg and caused my right knee to be a little week.  After some more time off and a few Chiropractor visits I thought all was good for the marathon with a week to go.  Well, I wake up 5 days from the race and once again my pinched nerve is back and I have a hard time walking without a shooting pain, let alone try and run.  I had thought about waiting a day or so to call things off but being honest with myself even if my back felt better by then it would not be wise for my long term health to run a marathon which is hard enough on ones body as it is let alone with a nerve issue.  Basically that led me to just call it a wrap for the year and take a few weeks off so as to then start up again to get ready for some races in March and April of 2017.

This leads me to what is truly important and that is taking the time to review the year and see if I could have avoided the way the year ended and seek to plan for the year ahead.  I have been running for 43+ years but to this day I still have issues with not getting things just right and it usually comes from not being as focused I should be on the overall picture.   One of the problems that can stem from running slower and focusing on MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function) is that you can tend to think you’re fine while the reality may be that you are still overdoing it.  While MAF training indeed can help you avoid injury it does not guarantee you will not over-train.  You can still run too much too soon and while you may not crash and burn as in the past when you were running too much too fast you can start to run so close to the edge that it does not take much to go over the edge.

In reviewing the preceding 5 months, before I got hurt running a fairly easy trail, I found I had run the following mileage:

• April - 125
• May - 157
• June - 189
• July - 195
• August – 229 (Including 20,000 ft Climbing to get ready for a trail race)
• September – 97.6

I share this not to pat myself on the back, hey many run much more, but because I should have seen
this was too much too soon based on my past year of running.  While I felt good the mileage increase left me vulnerable to injury or sickness and that is exactly what took place.  As some background my usual plan of attack is to run 3-4 higher mileage weeks, in this case 50 or so miles, running 5 days a week then take one week and run less mileage, 30 or so miles, and then repeat that.  My big mistake was in not looking at the cumulative affect, monthly mileage/hours, and the bigger picture.  I should have leveled off my monthly mileage and not kept letting it go up.  Hey, I felt good and was not running too fast, well at least did not feel that fast, so what could go wrong.  I had a few good 5ks mixed in there and some good long runs so all seemed well.  Till, as they say, the wheels fell off.

 Now that I think I have seen where I erred so what’s next.  Well the next step is to come up with a revised plan to help avoid the errors of the past year in the coming year.  With a 50 miler planned for March 2017, Land Between the Lakes, and a 50K in April 2017, Yamacraw 50, I need to work to not be injured by the time I get there but also trained as well as  rested.  The plan is to make sure I not only look at my weekly mileage/hours but also monthly totals o my mileage/hours are the most beneficial and not working to injury.

Another aspect I want to work on this coming year is some form of cross training consisting of using my bike trainer and also some lifting.   Using the bike to get MAF aerobic training in without the stress on my legs and the weight lifting to work some sorely under developed muscle groups which also may have contributed to my problems this year.  With all of this I need to make sure I do not slack on my active stretching and exercises to work my hips and such.  I am also going to take some easy days and run a mile or two in my Xero sandals to help strengthen my feet which I think is important.

That said I also am contemplating running less short runs, and with the cross training running less days, at least for some weeks.  For example I would be running 3-4 days getting in 40 miles with a day or two on the bike, still working to keep my workout days to 5.  As I am working towards a 50 miler I think running longer when I run and resting more instead of filling up those extra days with shorter millage may be beneficial.  The following would lead to a typical week looking something like this:

• Monday – 8-12 miles (65 – 110 Minutes) @ MAF
• Tuesday – 10 – 20  Miles Bike (35 – 70 minutes) @ MAF & some Weights
• Wednesday – 10 Miles (80 – 90 Minutes) @ MAF
• Thursday – 10  Miles bike (35 minutes) @ MAF & some Weights
• Friday – 15 – 20 Miles (120 – 180 Minutes) @ MAF
• Saturday and Sunday Rest or maybe do the long run here and rest Friday and Sunday
• Totals – 33 - 40 Miles Running (270 – 360 Minutes) /20 30 Miles Bike (70 – 105  Minutes)
• A rest week would be much like above but lower mileage and minutes.

As I get closer to the 50 miler I want to do a couple back to backs so they would look like this:

• Monday – 10 Mile Bike – (35 minutes) @ MAF & some Weights
• Tuesday – Rest
• Wednesday – 10 Mile Bike – (35 minutes) @ MAF & some Weights
• Thursday – Rest
• Friday – 20 -25 Miles (160 – 240 Minutes) @ MAF
• Saturday – 20 – 25 Miles (160 – 240 Minutes) @ MAF
• Sunday – Rest
• Totals – 40 Miles Running (320 – 480 Minutes) /20 Miles Bike (70 Minutes)
• This type of week would then be followed by an easy week with Monday and Tuesday off.

Of course these are just some thoughts on what I may do to work to keep my miles and time working out at a place that gets me ready for my racing but also keeps me healthy.  Another key to this is to not create a schedule that is written in stone and working to keep to it no matter what.  Yes I do need to make sure I get the work in but I also need to be flexible enough to adjust things as I go along.

I hope this post, if it has done anything, has made you think about looking over your training from the last year and seeing how you could improve it.  Don’t take my plan and use it but develop one for yourself.  I do want to encourage you to work on MAF training (see my article here: MAF: What is it?) as I feel it is a great way to train if ones health is a top priority.

Plan for what is ahead and be ready to adjust as need be.  Also, as I need to, make sure to re-evaluate on a regular basis during the year so you can see how things are going.

As the year progress I will work to update how things are going with practicing what I preach.