Ryan Hall's Blog, page 377

My Summer Racing Schedule

Yesterday Sara competed in the final of the 3,000 meter steeple chase in Eugene at the US National Track and Field Championships, finishing fifth, which I thought was a huge success. It has been fun to watch her take on a new event this year. Even though her year is hardly over, after the race we spent some time reflecting on just how far she has come this year.

I could never imagine jumping over a steeple barrier, let alone doing it at the end of a 3,000 meter race. I must say, watching Sara race the steeple brings about a new level of nervousness compared to watching her in other races. I have seen to many gnarly pictures of steeplechasers taking headers into the water pits to be a relaxed spectator. I am always a little bit relieved when Sara finishes without any spills.

Now that USA's are behind us I am planning on heading out to the Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the US 10K National Championships. I have raced Peachtree in the passed and am eager to return to test out my 10k fitness. Then its off to Europe for a couple of weeks to watch Sara run in some meets. I will finish off the trip competing in the Castlebuono road race, which will be a first for me. I love Italians (my wife is half Italian) and their beautiful country so I am especially looking forward to this race. Lots of good things to look forward to!

How Many Miles Per-Week Do You Run?

I realize this can be somewhat of a controversial issue and some will disagree with me, but I hope to maybe stimulate some different ways to think about training. I feel like in America we are overly obsessed with mileage, or maybe I have been the only one. I have time and time again fallen into the trap of heading out the door for a few extra easy miles on Sunday so I could meet that magical 100 mile a week number.

Don't get me wrong. I think the principle behind mileage is important: we should run a lot. However, from my own experience I believe there are many great athletes and great performances that should have happened that are simply covered in junk mileage.

My perspective on mileage has changed a lot since those early years in high school and college from keeping copious notes on how many 100 mile weeks in a row I had build up. Now, when I look at a week I don't see the necessity for mileage, I see the necessity for hard, quality workouts followed by adequate recovery and even making sure to over-recovering (if there is such a thing).

So what does adequate recovery look like? The answer to that question is obviously individual. Some people can recover running an hour run twice a day, some may only be able to do one short run. I have learned to listen to my body and if I am not seeing improvement in my workout than I know my body is not absorbing my workouts properly. The art of running is learning when to push and when to rest, but in general I have found that when in doubt it is best to error on the side of rest.

Mileage can be a good thing if it encourages us to run more, but not at the expense of recovery. I have certainly learned throughout my career that it's not always necessarily he that runs the most mileage that wins the race.

The Runner's Life

When I woke up in my bed in Palo Alto on Friday morning I had no idea that in 6 hours I would be at San Jose Airport boarding a flight to Portland. I was enjoying a cup of coffee and reading my Bible when Sara got a call from her coach, Dena, informing her that a spot had opened up in the 1500 meters in the Prefontaine Classic (one the most competitive track meets in the country). We immediately headed out the door to get in a run before catching an afternoon flight.

Being spontaneous is an essential component of being a professional runner. Our plans are constantly in flux, making it very difficult to plan anything with friends and family. We had planned on spending this past weekend with Sara's family before going to her cousin's wedding. We were sorry to miss the festivities, but such is the nature of our sport.

As a teenager dreaming about being a professional runner I had a pretty narrow view of what the job would entail. I thought I would train, sleep, eat, travel and race. However I would learn that there was much more that came with the job. My last week is a pretty good illustration of what the pro life looks like. I raced and traveled back from Boulder. Two days latter I did an all-day photo shot. Two days after that I traveled to Prefontaine. After Pre I traveled directly to Orlando, Florida for an Asics function, in which I was to be a speaker alongside Bob Babbit.

I admit that my life isn't always this. There are times when life is, well, boring. I train, eat, and sleep. However much of the year is filled with travel, photo shoots, interviews, blogging, and various appearances-all of which, even though I didn't necessarily know what I was getting myself into, I love and have come to appreciate as part of the job. I consider myself blessed to have the honor to do all the things that come along with being a professional runner. It just requires some spontaneity at times.

Bolder Boulder

Yesterday I raced in one of my favorite road races. After racing for the first time in Boulder in 2008 I have been itchy to return so after my recovery went well post-Boston marathon, I was excited to get on the starting line. Training has been progressing nicely. I am obviously very early on in my preparations but with each passing week I feel my fitness increasing. My biggest concern was going from two months of sea level training at Stanford up to the altitude in Boulder.

This year I was excited to have my older sister, who has recently moved to Boulder, experience Bolder Boulder for the first time, which also happened to be on her 31st Birthday. Neither of us were disappointed with our experience at this years race. Even though she slept through her alarm, missing her wave's start time she still managed to sneak in another wave and had a great race. She said afterward that she was thinking about turning pro (she was mostly joking, however I think she could have been an excellent runner if she wanted).

I was very pleased with my result. Even through I ran slower than 2008 I think the conditions and course were tougher. I was pleased that my turnover felt very controlled, whereas in most cases I feel like I am sprinting all out in a 10k. I wasn't as pleased with my heavy breathing but that is to be expected when not training at altitude.

I guess what I learned from my experience at this years Bolder Boulder is that sea level training seems to be working very well for my speed development at the shorter distances, but if I am serious about racing at altitude I had better be training at altitude. Lucky for me, Bolder Boulder is the only race I have ever done, and hopefully will ever do, at altitude.

I must say that running into CU's packed football stadium was epic. I promise everyone, it is nearly as good as running into the Olympic Stadium. What I love about it is the crowd reacts with a deep roar to every runner that comes into the stadium. The race management has done a brilliant job in creating an out of the box race that makes all runners feel like super-stars. At four miles into the race I was hurting so bad that I remember thinking that perhaps this would be my last Bolder Boulder, but by the time I hit the stadium and ran the final stretch that thought had all but disappeared.

Congratulations to everyone who finished this years Bolder Boulder, to team USA women for finishing second, for my teammates on solid runs, and to the race management for letting us shine on the big stage!

Runners Amnesia

It is kind of ironic that I can't remember if I have previously blogged about "runners amnesia" but I thought I would touch on the subject since it is relevant to my last race. I first learned about runners amnesia on a shuttle bus back from the 2006 US Cross Country Championships on the radio station that the bus driver was tuned into. I don't know why I was actually paying attention to the background noise, but I was. The station was one of those typical overly loud sports talk shoes where most armchair quarterbacks rant and rave about nothing important. However, on this shoe they had a sports psychologist on who was touching on the importance for baseball players to develop instant amnesia. He used several of the greatest baseball players in history as examples of players who had developed the skill to completely forgeting all their shortcomings, which is typically seen as arrogance from outsiders, but to the player this "forgetfulness" leads to overwhelming self confidence.

As I thought about what the sports psychologist had to say it really stuck with me. I thought a lot about how I tended to brew on bad workouts and races for days, months, sometimes even years. I thought about how I let previous failures impact my future performances by going into races with zero self confidence because I was remembering all my previous bad races and workouts. It was then that I realized I needed to develop instant runners amnesia.

It has taken a lot of practice to develop runners amnesia, but I must be getting better at it because as I was thinking about what to write my blog about I started writing about going to Minnesota to watch Sara compete in the US 1 mile Championships, then I suddenly remembered that I was in the race as well. I guess I am finally developing the skill of forgetfulness.

Of coarse, as with most things in life, there is a balance here. I should obviously learn from my mistakes (like running the first 400 meters of a mile faster than I have run a 400 in over a year) but I shouldn't hold those mistakes against myself. This is were grace comes in. I have to constantly give myself the grace to mess up sometimes and not mull on it and beat myself up over it. Easier said than done for sure, and it certainly takes practice, but it can sure go along way in improving our overall joy in our races and it also builds the confidence that is so important in athletics. So next time you have a bad race or workout, take a deep breath and forget it.