Coach's Corner - Find Your Strong

[cewait]

Find your Strong

I must be hooked on shoe ads. This is the theme of the new Saucony ad that I saw over the weekend while watching the Tour de France.

What is strong?

Is it muscle? Or is it something more? Is it measured in miles or milliseconds? Is it your best time or your worst day? Maybe strong is just what you have left when you've used up all your weak...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KPPtmE079M&feature=related

What is strong in endurance running? You hear a few folks at the side of the road yelling “looking strong!” What brings you to the start line healthy, rested, ready for the day and Strong. What gives you the strength to get through mile 20? Or maybe your mile 20 turns out to be mile 15, where do you find the Strength to push on? What is it that makes you just keep turning the legs over…step after step after step after……

There are several thousand ways to get to the start line on race day. We are all and experiment of ONE. We each started the journey that brings us together the first weekend of January from 45,000 different points…. Yet we are all at the line together to celebrate a victory, the victory of getting to the start line and through the day, whatever day we have. Part of our training is strength training. Sure, you read about hills and how they are speed work in disguise, how mile intervals get help give you strength to run stronger and faster and we all make a decision at some point about how far is enough to assure we have enough miles under foot to make it through to the finish. I think we all know what strong is – physically.

So what is strong?

What will give you strength to get from mile 1 to 26 (or 13). I think it really comes from training. Not from those days where everything clicked well and you thought you would never need to stop. No, it comes from those days when you head out the door and Mother Nature says, why not go back to bed? From those runs where you really want to turn around at a half mile and go home, even though you have 15 more to go. Strong comes from the learning provided through all those tough or even failed runs we have through the year. These ‘failures’ provide the toolbox needed on race day that allows you to say ‘been here done this’ and I know how to get to the next mile point. Strong is what allows you to run on race day and forget all the nay sayers who tried to tell you this could not be done. Strong may be knowing that it’s time to pull off the road at a med tent and say no more. Yes it can take strength to understand that pushing on may not be in today’s cards.

Strength comes in 45,000 ways over the race weekend. It comes from the love of a father who provides motive force so his son can race. It comes the from the wounded vet who must run with a tether since the loss of his sight. It comes from the memorial pin on a purple jersey as we run our own race. It comes from the Brazilian leading the race…but even more so from the person who pushes with all their might saying to the sweeper following closely “Not Today!” Strong comes from each of us as we inspire someone in the hundreds of thousands along our way (from training through the end of the race) to do something extraordinary in their own way.


I think maybe strong is all you have left when you use up all your weak.

Find your strong!

 

[windwalker]

Finding your strong when it comes to seriously racing is a very individual thing. For me it's knowing just how hard I can go and not run out of gas before the finish. I know that sounds simplistic but most people who do a race have a lot left and then sprint the last couple of hundred yards. If they had just gone a little harder, used your energy more evenly over the distance you would have a lot better time.

Not really what this was about but advice that works well for me when I'm in shape to race hard.

Dave

 

[SAHDad]

Finding your strong when it comes to seriously racing is a very individual thing. For me it's knowing just how hard I can go and not run out of gas before the finish. I know that sounds simplistic but most people who do a race have a lot left and then sprint the last couple of hundred yards. If they had just gone a little harder, used your energy more evenly over the distance you would have a lot better time.

Not really what this was about but advice that works well for me when I'm in shape to race hard.

Dave

It depends. I had a couple coaches try to grind that out of me during my HS running years. Even a few seconds per mile faster than my race pace, however, not only left me unable to sprint, but actually added to my pace on the second and third miles. (And would have added more beyond that.) I have always been able to sprint, to find another gear, to red-line it for the last hundred yards. I have gone from running barely faster than a walk at the end of an ultra to a dead sprint for the final 100 yards. And then to utter collapse, about 20 feet past the finish line.

YMMV, of course.

 

[windwalker]

It depends. I had a couple coaches try to grind that out of me during my HS running years. Even a few seconds per mile faster than my race pace, however, not only left me unable to sprint, but actually added to my pace on the second and third miles. (And would have added more beyond that.) I have always been able to sprint, to find another gear, to red-line it for the last hundred yards. I have gone from running barely faster than a walk at the end of an ultra to a dead sprint for the final 100 yards. And then to utter collapse, about 20 feet past the finish line.

YMMV, of course.

Yep that's why I said it was an individual thing.

Dave

 

[GBBTomorrow]

Thank you for your reflection, Coach. I have to confess to getting a little weepy as I read that. Your comments about failed runs put me in mind of one of the most underrated Disney movies: Meet the Robinsons. In this movie, they have a party to celebrate every time someone fails. What a great lesson and a great truth. Those runs that are hard are the ones that move us forward.

In the words of Uncle Walt, and what my husband and I write on our legs for races, "Keep Moving Forward."

 

[FFigawi]

Finding your strong when it comes to seriously racing is a very individual thing. For me it's knowing just how hard I can go and not run out of gas before the finish. I know that sounds simplistic but most people who do a race have a lot left and then sprint the last couple of hundred yards. If they had just gone a little harder, used your energy more evenly over the distance you would have a lot better time.

Yes! My coach is always on my case about not going for it once in a while just to see where my cliff is. I'm usually too conservative for the first part and no matter how fast I run the second, I'm still not out of gas. I'm slowly learning to start faster than I like and push myself to the limit by the end. It's all mental, needing to be mentally strong, as Charles put it.

 

[cewait]

Finding your strong when it comes to seriously racing is a very individual thing. For me it's knowing just how hard I can go and not run out of gas before the finish. I know that sounds simplistic but most people who do a race have a lot left and then sprint the last couple of hundred yards. If they had just gone a little harder, used your energy more evenly over the distance you would have a lot better time.

Not really what this was about but advice that works well for me when I'm in shape to race hard.

Dave

I can write a whole paper about the physical side of strong..... Ideally, one will run/walk a marathon at a pace that produces a negative split... front half verses back half; not just in the last half mile. maybe knowing how to meter energy should be a fall Coaches corner. I will generally pass hundreds of runners in a long event in the last quarter of the race.

This year was amazing for me. My local running buddy's first words were "See, you really do not need to train." I finished Goofy 2011 8 seconds slower than Goofy 10 with a very low level of training. While I knew I was in for a tough weekend, I was able to keep everything in check for most of the race. The amazing part of the race was that I ran the entire weekend with the blind veteran I spoke of above, a guy in a really large cowboy hat and a couple fairies. We all had similar pace profiles and we did start to fall off in the last 4 miles on Sunday. The funny thing was that I passed Galloway at mile 6 and then he started catching me around mile 15.... then dropped me at 18. OK, dropped sounds like we were racing, he just upped the pace when I dropped it.

I am one who will generally pick up the pace around mile 24 at Disney and tend to act as the pied piper as we cross the canal at the Atlantic Dance Hall. I will tap folks and encourage a run if they are walking. We generally get a group of about 40-60 running as a pack through Epcot. It's just human nature to pull energy from a large group that catches and passes you late in a race.

 

[paxsarah]

I am one who will generally pick up the pace around mile 24 at Disney and tend to act as the pied piper as we cross the canal at the Atlantic Dance Hall. I will tap folks and encourage a run if they are walking. We generally get a group of about 40-60 running as a pack through Epcot. It's just human nature to pull energy from a large group that catches and passes you late in a race.

I love this! Your coaching spirit is so evident here on the boards - I can only imagine how infectious it is in person.

 

[hotblooded]

I will tap folks and encourage a run if they are walking. We generally get a group of about 40-60 running as a pack through Epcot. It's just human nature to pull energy from a large group that catches and passes you late in a race.

Now that's something I'd love to be a part of.

To me, strength is getting out of bed in the morning on race day even when it would be easy to roll over and go back to sleep. I'm not accountable to anyone but myself because I race alone, yet I still do it.

 

[John VN]

Finding your strong is what Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans did today in Le Tour de France.

I've enjoyed my bicycling for years and now my walking so it is easy to find my strong whenever I go out. The sweat, the rapid heart beat, the muscle pain, the deep breathing, the rhythmic tap when my feet hit the pavement or the sound of the chain over the sprockets all encourage me to find my strong.

Not sure if the above makes sense to others but it is what keeps me going strong as far as my body will allow me. I love being able to accomplish goals that I have set forth, but if I don't, I simply remember that I am not anywhere near as young as those individuals in the ad and then have a chuckle.

 

[cewait]

Finding your strong is what Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans did today in Le Tour de France.

I've enjoyed my bicycling for years and now my walking so it is easy to find my strong whenever I go out. The sweat, the rapid heart beat, the muscle pain, the deep breathing, the rhythmic tap when my feet hit the pavement or the sound of the chain over the sprockets all encourage me to find my strong.

Not sure if the above makes sense to others but it is what keeps me going strong as far as my body will allow me. I love being able to accomplish goals that I have set forth, but if I don't, I simply remember that I am not anywhere near as young as those individuals in the ad and then have a chuckle.

Strong - knowing that today you tee it up AGAIN but steeper followed by a time trial on Saturday.

Amazing demonstrations

Andy took off so early - but I think it was a pre-planned spot. It was a section of road where he had 3-4 really quick turns on an elevation change making it easy to get out of sight. Strong - riding a 7-9% grade with two gears left to downshift to. Wow.

Then Cadel.... pulling the train and Voeckler back into yellow. He was on the rivets for a long distance yesterday

 

[stitchfan18]

What will give you strength to get from mile 1 to 26 (or 13). I think it really comes from training. Not from those days where everything clicked well and you thought you would never need to stop. No, it comes from those days when you head out the door and Mother Nature says, why not go back to bed? From those runs where you really want to turn around at a half mile and go home, even though you have 15 more to go. Strong comes from the learning provided through all those tough or even failed runs we have through the year. These ‘failures’ provide the toolbox needed on race day that allows you to say ‘been here done this’ and I know how to get to the next mile point. Strong is what allows you to run on race day and forget all the nay sayers who tried to tell you this could not be done. Strong may be knowing that it’s time to pull off the road at a med tent and say no more. Yes it can take strength to understand that pushing on may not be in today’s cards.

I've had people tell me that the bad runs are more beneficial than the good training runs before, but thanks for the reminder. I've been struggling with whether I'd be able to run a full marathon or not lately since my last 2 long runs were the toughest runs I've ever done. At least I'm getting practice and pushing through the wall when I reach it.

 

[paxsarah]

It was my 26-mile training run (yes, I ran the race before the race) that most made me doubt my ability to finish the marathon, as contradictory as that might sound. But I also think having had that feeling helped solidify my ability to actually do it.