Ryan Hall's Blog, page 254

Out There: I Can, I Will, and Kiss My A–

Columnist Susan Lacke shares the mantra that will change your outlook.

When I suddenly lost my hearing as a child, my parents were told I’d never be “normal.” I’d need to be enrolled in a school for the deaf, learn sign language, and otherwise be okay with being an outsider in a world full of sound. There weren’t a ton of options for deaf people back then, so my mom and dad faced a constant refrain of “she can’t,” “she won’t,” and “don’t even bother.”

You know what they did? My parents, in all their awesomeness, responded with “she can,” “she will,” and “kiss my ass.”

Most parents tell their children they can do anything they want or be anyone they aspire to be. When you have a disabled child, however, it can be hard to say it and actually believe it. But my parents said it anyway – loudly and often, to drown out the naysayers.

I wanted to be on the swim team, but couldn’t hear the starting gun? Cool! They recruited one of the coaches to tap me on the ankle when the gun went off.

I wanted to play saxophone in the school band? Fantastic! I got seated in front of the big bass drum, where the beat reverberated through my body.

The kids at school were making jokes about my deaf accent? Beat them to the punch line! My childhood was a crash course in using humor to defuse stereotypes.

You see, instead of letting other people draw the roadmap, full of roadblocks and safe cul-de-sacs, I was encouraged to blaze my own path. It’s a philosophy I now apply to all areas of my life, from my career to the goals I set as an endurance athlete. It doesn’t matter what the goal is: I refuse to accept “I can’t,” “I won’t,” or “don’t even bother” as acceptable self-talk. I certainly don’t let anyone else talk to me that way.

Those three words – kiss my ass – form a powerful act of defiance that bubbles up in your core and infuses confidence in the blood rushing through your veins. Just saying them makes you sit a little straighter, push a little harder, and smile with the assurance that you’ll show those naysayers, yes you will.

Maybe those naysayers declare you’re too fat/old/out of shape to run, that marathons are a dumb waste of time, that you’ll never bounce back from this injury, or that you’re too slow to even consider chasing that PR or qualifying for Boston. Maybe they’re people on the internet who write mean comments, or maybe they’re people sitting directly across the table from you. Maybe they exist only in your head, taunting you with self-doubt: You can’t. You won’t. Don’t even bother.

Sit there. Listen to what they have to say. Agree that there is a normal way to do things, and you’re not choosing that path. Let them set up all their roadblocks of “you can’t,” “you won’t,” and “don’t even bother.”

Then stand up, smile, and very calmly state the truth:

I can. I will. And kiss my ass.

* * *

About The Author:

Susan Lacke does 5Ks, Ironman Triathlons and everything in between to justify her love for cupcakes (yes, she eats that many). Susan lives and trains in Salt Lake City, Utah with three animals: A labrador, a cattle dog, and a freakishly tall triathlete husband. She claims to be of sound mind, though this has yet to be substantiated by a medical expert. Follow her on Twitter: @SusanLacke

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Workout Of The Week: Push the Tempo (Run)

Tempo runs can be boring, but for someone training for a half-marathon or longer, they're important. Photo: www.shutterstock.com

The tempo run is one of the best training sessions a long-distance runner can do.

If you’re planning to do an endurance race such as a marathon or half-marathon and have hopes of performing well, then you need to train effectively and make sure your training reflects the demands of the event. One of the best ways to do this is to incorporate tempo runs into your training.

A tempo run is a sustained effort at or just below threshold intensity and lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours, depending on the specific event you are training for. Here are five reasons why this workout is one of the best training sessions you can do.

Realistic Goals

Because they are longer efforts, tempo runs can help you set realistic pace goals for your marathon, half-marathon or other event. The longer you can hold a strong pace for a length of time similar to what you’ll attempt on race day, the more confident you’ll be that your pace goals are within your grasp. On the contrary, these runs can also help bring you back to reality and help you set more realistic pace goals if your training is not going as well as you hoped.

RELATED: Tempo Runs The Hansons Way

Concentration Skills

If you ask most runners, they might tell you a tempo run can be irritating and uncomfortable. This is both good and bad. It’s bad because a tempo run certainly is a tough session mentally, but it’s good because a tempo run will build an athlete’s mental skills, allowing him or her to focus better on pace, intensity, technique and the ability to juggle all of these during the tougher portions of a race. Make no mistake, this is a skill. Just like any other skill, if not practiced, it becomes rusty. After just a few sessions, an athlete can make dramatic improvements in this area alone.

Race Specificity

There is no workout more race-specific than a tempo run for marathons and half-marathons. Race day is not made up of intervals, it is a continuous effort, so your training must reflect your ability to run continuously and do it effectively. This is a specific fitness and should be respected in training.

Track Progress

If you start with a shorter tempo run and build the time you run over many weeks, you will have a great opportunity to track your progress and increase excitement, motivation and confidence — all important but underrated training and preparation components. Training is hard enough, so getting something positive in return for the hard work is important. Tempo runs are an easy and objective way to get feedback on how your fitness is progressing.

RELATED: Tempo Run — With A Twist

The Missing Link

Most athletes don’t like the tempo run, so they avoid it. Since it is perhaps the best and most specific workout for endurance races, if you’ve been avoiding the tempo run, it’s likely the missing link in your training and race performances. Try to do a tempo run workout once a week for eight weeks starting about 10 weeks out from your race.

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Shoe Of The Week: Salomon Sense Pro 2

The Sense Pro 2 is fast and flexible with just enough protection against rocks, roots and other trail debris.

Light, fast and versatile, the updated Sense Pro is a jack of all trails. While it’s amply cushioned in the heel, it serves up a low-to-the ground, agile feel in the forefoot. That combination allows it to be comfortable running slow or fast over short or long distances. The low-profile sticky rubber outsole lugs provide great adhesion on rocks and wet surfaces, but they’re smooth and subtle enough to stay out of the way while running on hard-packed dirt roads. (They’re less helpful in slick, sloppy mud or wet grass, though.) A slightly bolstered toe cap and a slice of protective film underfoot offer just enough protection without inhibiting the flex and nimble feeling of this shoe. It has the fit, feel and ride of a road shoe with just the right balance between proprioceptive feel for the trail and protection. Our wear-testers really appreciated the one-pull lacing system, which snugs the shoe down with equal pressure from all points to create a reliably secure fit. A few testers thought this shoe had too cavernous of a toe box, so be sure to try it on before purchasing.

This is the shoe for you if … you’re looking for a versatile, well-rounded shoe with a race-ready demeanor and very reliable fit.

Price: $130

Weights: 9.2 oz. (men’s), 8.5 oz. (women’s)

Heel-to-toe offset: 6mm; 23mm (heel), 17mm (forefoot)

Info: Salomon.com

RELATED: Shoe of the Week—New Balance Vazee Summit

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Strava Introduces Live Segments For Mobile Devices

Strava, the popular GPS tracking app and online community of runners, cyclists and triathletes, is introducing a new feature for Premium members—Live Segments—on mobile devices. Live Segments, which launched last summer on Garmin cycling computers, offers real-time audio cues and visuals of an athlete’s current effort on a segment, their personal record for that segment and shows the person they’re chasing at the top of the leaderboard.

“Last July, we launched Live Segments for Garmin cycling computers and saw that athletes really enjoyed the feature. We wanted to extend that positive experience to the millions of athletes who use their phone for riding and running,” says Aaron Forth, Chief Product Officer at Strava.

So how does it work? After starting a run through the app on your phone, the screen automatically changes to Live Segments mode and shows a map of the upcoming segment, including a notification bar with segment name and start location, when runners or cyclists approach a starred or popular segment. The feature also provides audio cues so athletes can listen to their progress on a segment, and color coding makes it easy to view progress on the screen.

RELATED: Can social apps hurt your training?

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Legendary Feat: Steve Spence Records Sub-5:00 Mile for 41st Consecutive Year

Photo: PhotoRun.net

When Steve Spence was a ninth-grader at Lower Dauphin High School in Hummelstown, Pa., he went out for cross country and, during a race, ran a mile in under 5 minutes. No big deal, lots of teenagers do that.

No one, however, has done what Spence accomplished May 11, when he ran a sub-5 minute mile for the 41st consecutive year. Spence clocked 4:54.0 on the track at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where he was a collegiate star and where he has been the head cross country coach since 1998, was a past head track coach, and is still the assistant track coach.

Spence, who turned 54 two days before his mile, was paced by “Ship” assistant coach Matt Gillette, a past U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier with a half marathon personal best of 1:04:37. Spence was cheered on by roughly 40 of his student athletes, who had an easy training day before traveling to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships at Mansfield University the next day.

Spence said he felt strong the entire way, running the mile aerobically without having to over-exert himself to reach his goal.

“It was a beautiful day,” Spence said. “I gave the team a bit of a warning before their shakeout run, that if my warm-up and strides felt good I will try for the sub-5. Team members then took over, as they have done before. They grabbed stop watches, got ready and set everything up.

“It’s become a tradition. They get excited to do it, and it was the last opportunity before the summer (break). They definitely get excited about it and yell, cheer and stuff, and hopefully got fired up before their conference meet.”

It must have helped, as the Raiders won both the men’s and women’s conference crowns, continuing their own impressive streaks. The Shippensburg women won for the seventh consecutive year, and it was eight straight for the men.

Spence’s splits were 75-74-74-71 seconds for each of the laps.

“The 75 first lap felt comfortable,” Spence said, and after that first 440 “there was no stress or doubt in my mind that I would not make it. I felt good and was confident. Matt cranked it down (on the second lap), maintained it and on the last lap, I thought, ‘alright, let’s get going and close it out,’ It felt good. I never got in trouble.

“I was just happy that I got it done and I did not have to struggle too much. After a few minutes I was recovered and actually felt stronger than before the mile,” he said. He says he’s excited about his level of fitness as he gets ready for the summer road racing season.

Spence did not feel so good when he squeezed in his 2015 sub-5, last December. However, six months of working on stretching with Phil Wharton, the well-known physiotherapist, made all the difference.

“When I did the mile back in December, it did not benefit me, it tore me down more than helped me,” Spence explained. “Phil just lives over the mountain from here and volunteers (with the team). He got me back on the stretching and that has really helped. He got me going in the right direction.”

Spence has been going in the right direction since starting running. After graduating from Shippensburg with two NCAA D-II titles to go along with a degree in Business Management, he went on to become one of America’s top marathoners, taking the bronze medal at the 1991 IAAF World Championships marathon and winning the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon. He also had the American road records for 12K and 15K.

During those years, the affable father of four, including elite runner Neely Spence Gracey, ran for himself, for fast times and prize money. Running fast was his profession.

Now, he runs to inspire others.

“My motivation now with running is to help other people a lot more than myself. I make it about others and not about myself,” Spence said in a phone interview from the Inside Track in Mechanicsburg, Pa., one of four central Pennsylvania running stores owned by his buddy, Mark Amway. Spence was there to talk with store manager Jim Agate, who is going to attempt to break 17 minutes for 5K; Spence is going to help him.

What does Spence attribute his remarkable streak to?

“Clean living,” he said. “I try to take care of myself. I try to eat well and take my supplements and get plenty of sleep and rest. Right now it is something for fun, I don’t necessarily have huge goals. I take it as it comes and try to have fun with it.

“I also feel inspired by the young women and men that I interact with on a daily basis. They have many more distractions than the runners of my era and much more is expected of them academically, but track performances at all levels are off the charts.”

Spence weighs about 135 pounds, just as he did when he was a professional runner and less than his high school and college weight. Watch him in this YouTube video from his sub-5 last December and see how he has retained his world-class form. On a recent run, journalist Scott Douglas told Spence, “’You look the same, your stride still looks the same,’” Spence recalled.

That is what Spence strives for.

“As an elite athlete, you push the limits of what the human body is capable of doing and hopefully inspire people along the way. I am still doing that to some extent, but in a different way. I am still hoping to inspire others to a healthy lifestyle and to go after their goals.”

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Adidas Boost Boston Games Will Be a Track Meet Like No Other

Meet director Mark Wetmore holds an artist's rendering of the track which will be used for the first adidas Boost Games to be held in Boston. Photo: Chris Lotsbom/Race Results Weekly

(c) 2016 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission. 

BOSTON — The visual is captivating: imagine Olympic medalists in full sprint coming down one of the busiest streets in all of Boston, the vibrant Boston Public Garden on one side and the iconic Boston Common on the other. This will become reality on June 18, when the adidas Boost Boston Games debut here in the Massachusetts capital. This week, Boston mayor Marty J. Walsh joined Mark Wetmore, meet director and president of Global Athletics & Marketing, as well as Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder Maurice Greene to celebrate the meet’s inaugural year.

“Boston is thrilled to welcome the adidas Boost Games,” said Walsh, speaking to a small crowd at Boston Common. “We are thrilled to witness Olympic and world-class champions racing down Charles Street. We already know that Boston is a championship city, home to some of the best sports teams and sports fans in the country. The street meet will showcase our spirit and passion to the world in a new and exciting way… We are always looking for fresh fun ways to achieve and activate our public spaces in the City.”

This summer, a slice of Olympia will come to Boston and take center stage in one of the most popular sections of the city. The two-day meet, which in essence replaces the former adidas Grand Prix in New York City on the calendar (though is not part of the IAAF Diamond League), is geared towards reviving the sport of track and field. It will be televised nationally, and is a key tune-up for many Olympic-bound athletes.

Split into two days, the meet offers two distinct themes that organizers say will enthrall spectators. First, on Friday, June 17, events of 400 meters and longer will be held at an evening meet at Somerville’s Dilboy Stadium. While this may sound like a typical meet on the surface, it will be enhanced by an open barbecue and fan-fest for all attendees, complete with opportunities to meet and take pictures with athletes after they’re done competing.

Professional events on the schedule as of today include the men’s 400m and 1500m, as well as the women’s 400m, 800m, and 5000m. The iconic adidas High School Dream Miles will also play-out, in addition to youth, prep, and masters events for local athletes.

“After the track events are done there, then we are going to have a post-event festival, a barbecue where everybody who comes to that event on Friday will be invited to eat some good food, hang out with the adidas athletes, do selfies. It’ll be that kind of atmosphere,” said Wetmore. Wetmore noted that the adidas High School Dream Miles will feature the traditional top-notch level of competition, though he has no idea if a Drew Hunter-Michael Slagowski match-up is in the works. Meet sponsor adidas selects the high school fields directly, and they will be announced sometime in the coming month.

The next day is when track takes over Boston’s Back Bay and Downtown neighborhood. A 150-meter Mondo track—currently being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean from Italy to Boston—will be put on top of a 30-inch platform running down Charles Street. Youth athletes through Olympians will all take to the track and adjacent field event pits for a four-hour long showcase meet, bringing both die-hard fans and those walking through the city together. Charles Street has played host to major races before –including the B.A.A. 5K, B.A.A. 10K, and Tufts 10K for Women—though never a track meet.

“We don’t have a lot of stadiums in the U.S. that could host a Diamond-level league event. We’re trying to create a stadium almost on the day, which is very difficult to do,” Wetmore said, speaking to the unique atmosphere he seeks to develop. “We have an event here which is going to have finish area seating, but the rest is going to be completely free and open to the public. Just like it is in Manchester [Great Britain], you can walk up to the side and you’ll literally be an arm’s length away from Olympic heroes. The pole vault and long jump are going to be on there, too, and [the fans] will be able to see all the events here.”

Seats closest to the finish cost $50 to $100, however the rest of the straightaway will be free and open to the public.

Olympian Greene, taking part in the event as an ambassador for adidas, believes that street meets like the adidas Boost Boston Games could lead to increased popularity in the sport, especially if they are marketed correctly. While he never got to compete in one, Greene thinks the unique setting can gain fans attention in a positive light.

“This is the first one in America like this. Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of it?” Greene said. “I think this is going to bring new energy to it. There have been a couple of this type of meets throughout the world and they’ve shown a lot of great promise. To do it here in Boston for the first time, you’re going to get some fans who are curious about it and you’re going to get the regular fans.”

Later Greene added: “When you have any type of track and field event, as long as it’s marketed and publicized, you’re going to get a lot of people to come out and see it… I think as long as people know about it, it’ll be a great event.”

Interestingly, the meet only took shape a mere two months ago, when Wetmore approached adidas and the City of Boston with the idea. Adidas was on-board from the get-go, and was keenly interested in the prospective of an outside-the-box type meet. While the adidas Grand Prix Diamond League meeting was successful in many ways, it was time for a shift in direction. Wetmore believes this meet can be an enhanced version of that meet’s legacy.

“We were really wondering what the next generation was going to be with the Diamond League. We’ve enjoyed being part of the Diamond League, but we and adidas wanted to do something different,” he said. “I presented this idea to them basically at the end of January, without really knowing what I was going to do, and they said sure just go ahead and run with it. We looked at the possibility of doing it in New York, along Fifth Avenue, and we looked at the possibility of doing it up here, and adidas really liked the idea of doing it up here. Literally, it just kind of started and we spoke to Mayor Walsh’s office right away and things started moving very, very quickly.”

City officials praised the meet for connecting Boston’s sporting tradition with the city’s parks and public places.

“This is another way how we bring sports and culture in our city together to inspire us,” Mayor Walsh said. “When we talk about making sure we activate our city and bring fun events to our city, this is what we’re talking about. We were able to bring this together in a very short period of time.”

In describing the meet’s impact on the City of Boston, Mayor Walsh used words like innovative, inspiring, and world-class. Rather than sit back and host a typical track meet, Wetmore, adidas, and the Global Athletics & Marketing team have tried to tap into what could be a future installment of our sport. Athletes have expressed strong support, according to Wetmore, and are eager to try something new.

“I think that’s true, that you talk about sponsorship within the sport—people like adidas—it’s a forward thinking way of reaching consumers,” Wetmore said.

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Salomon Running TV: Outliers

The latest episode of Salomon Running TV explores individuals who have allowed the mountains to guide their values and lives. Their approach to the mountains is a form of expression, as they continually strive to refine and simplify their experiences.

The complete multimedia feature can be found here.

RELATED: Salomon Running TV: Trail Dog

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Shalane Flanagan, Amy Cragg to Run the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon

Photo: PhotoRun.net

Training partners Shalane Flanagan and Amy Cragg are preparing for the Olympic marathon in Rio—and there’s only one race on their calendar between now and then.

The two confirmed that they will run the Suja Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon on June 5th as a training tune-up for the Olympics. It will be the only tune-up race they will do before heading to Rio for the marathon on August 14.

The pair ran Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio last December as a tune-up before the Olympic Trials marathon.

“We’re so excited to run another Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon as part of our buildup on the road to Rio,” Cragg said. “Racing at the San Antonio half before the Olympic Trials gave us an opportunity to work together and test our fitness. We are looking forward to pushing ourselves again, this time in San Diego.”

Flanagan and Cragg are teammates sponsored by Nike, and have trained together since the build-up for the Olympic Trials marathon in February. In that race, the two broke away from the pack early on, only to see Flanagan struggle in the final two miles on a hot day in Los Angeles. Cragg desperately tried to encourage Flanagan to keep up, but in the last mile with Desiree Linden and Kara Goucher approaching, Cragg went off on her own and won the race in 2:28:20. Flanagan held on and finished third to make her fourth Olympic team. Linden, Cragg’s college teammate at Arizona State, finished second.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll was our good luck charm on the way to LA, so hopefully it will have the same effect this time,” Flanagan said. “We’re happy that San Diego is our last stop before Rio.”

Flanagan and Cragg will take part in a full weekend of running, which includes a 5K on Saturday, June 4th and the marathon and half marathon on Sunday, June 5th.

The 2016 event will feature a revamped course with a new downtown finish line at Waterfront Park. The half-marathon course will take off from Balboa Park and travel through the San Diego neighborhoods of Hillcrest, North Park and Normal Heights. In true Rock ‘n’ Roll fashion, live bands, enthusiastic cheerleaders and spectators will line the race route, concluding with a celebratory finish line festival and post-race Toyota Rock ‘n’ Roll Concert Series headlined by Gavin DeGraw.

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Colorado Woman Wins Her First Marathon At Age 53

Heidi Lozano breaks the tape at the Colfax Marathon on Sunday, winning the overall title at age 53. Photo: Colfax Marathon Facebook Page

It’s often said the marathoners tend to get better with age. Just ask Heidy Lozano of Boulder, Colo.

The 53-year-old, who works for a nonprofit that operates community mental health centers, won the Colfax Marathon in her home state on Sunday, breaking the tape in 3 hours, 10 minutes and 41 seconds. It wasn’t the fastest marathon of her career, but it will certainly rank among the most memorable.

“I did it for all those people who battle all of that — depression, anxiety — because I feel like I have a gift that I am able to overcome,” Lozano told The Denver Post. “I just thought, ‘At 53, why not?’ So much of that is what’s in your mind, what you put in there, what you wake up with each day. I did it for them, to be an inspiration to never give up on yourself.”

The win was the first marathon win of Lozano’s competitive career, which amongst its accomplishments includes finishing as the top Masters runner at the 2007 Boston Marathon. She’s living proof that it’s never too late to lace up your running shoes—or break the finish line tape for the first time.

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LOL! VOX Video Explores ‘When Running Was For Weirdos’

Check out this hilarious (and historically accurate) video from VOX that takes a brief look back at how the jogging craze of the 1960s and ’70s led to the running boom of today.

 

 

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