From Resting to Racing

Training and racing in 2021 through early September had been going so well.  I was rocking workouts and had some really good race results.  I was excited for the opportunity to compete at the US 10 Mile Championships in Washington DC at the Cherry Blossom Road Race.  On Sept 12th, I eagerly lined up at the start line and the gun went off. But, just over a mile into the race my body just shut down and I dropped out of the race a couple miles later.  Unfortunately, I knew my body was telling me I needed to rest a little more significantly.  

When you’re training at a high level, it’s hard to know your limit until you hit it. Sometimes you can over-do it in training, racing, and/or life.  I may have been burning the candle at too many ends and not resting enough while having too much coffee to compensate for it.  So, I took a rest with basically an entire week off of exercise and then started building mileage back and workouts back a couple of weeks later. 

Those initial workouts were hard and I was running 15-20 seconds per mile slower than what I was doing in August and early September.  This is honestly one of the most challenging parts of the training process - when you’re getting back into shape after a break and you feel like you have so far to go until you’re back to where you were just before the break.  I tried to stay positive and focused on the fact that my fitness was awesome and those fitness gains are still there, but I needed the rest to allow my body to be able to race to the level of my fitness.  Weeks of mileage and workouts chipped away and gradually I got up to as much as 111 miles in a week.

I remember a conversation with my wife Kristin where I was describing how training/fitness seemed to have all of a sudden clicked, and my workouts were back to similar paces and efforts as when I was in my best shape. While mileage increases may have been linear, the ability to gain fitness and run faster is certainly not linear. As a first test of that racing fitness, I did the USATF Colorado XC Championships in early November.  At the end of a 101 mile week, I raced really well and was competitive at the front, ultimately finishing 2nd place in 17:55 for 6k and was just 3 seconds off the lead. One race and I felt like the confidence in my fitness was back.  It’s hard to race well off a 100mi week, yet I ran fast over a short distance on grass and felt strong.

Eight days later was the Horsetooth half-marathon, which served as the USATF Colorado championship as well. The elite field was strong, with a lot of tough competitors racing (https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/running/2021/11/09/horsetooth-half-marathon-what-you-need-know-2021-race/6353966001/).  I had run the race twice, once taking 2nd and another time finishing 6th. Both times I was the fastest person up ‘Monster Mountain’ (the first 1.8 miles climbs about 500ft) but faded in the second half. My best time on the course was 1:09:20 from 2017, the year I ran my marathon PR at California International Marathon (CIM).

When the race started this year, I didn’t go screaming to the front of the race or crush the competition up monster mountain. No...I hung in the pack and let someone else be aggressive and earn the title of ‘King of the Mountain.’ In fact, I was over 25s slower than my 1.8 mile split from one of those previous years.  As we started downhill the initial pack of 15 at the mile had become closer to 5. By the time we started hitting more uphills around mile 6.5 and 7-8, it was down to David Goodman (one of the top US guys in the steeplechase) and I. I pushed a little bit on the final uphill and had about a 3 second lead by the time we got on the Poudre River Trail around mile 8.5. 

From there on, I ran super consistent with mile splits from 4:59-5:05 into a pretty strong headwind.  I kept focusing on keeping calm and sticking with the mantras Kristin helped me with: “Be Present” and “Be Grounded.” I never looked back from mile 8.5-13 and ended up winning by about 90s and running 1:07:52, which was the 3rd fastest time ever run on that course (it was the 49th edition of the race too!). While there were portions that were more difficult than others with the hills and headwind, I felt quite strong throughout.  Considering I had only cut back to a ~90 mile week, I was pretty happy with that effort. I spent a lot of time reading/audiobooks and listening to podcasts to try and improve my mental performance skills, and I felt like I did a great job putting those principles into practice on the race course … which is something I might be most proud of from the race.

Now, we’re about two weeks out from CIM. I had expected a different build-up - one where I set a PR at Cherry Blossom and then finished on the podium at the USA 25K Championships. But, instead of that I DNF’d at Cherry Blossom and scratched from racing the USA 25K Champs because I wasn’t mentally or physically ready.  With some rest, better sleep, mental training and preparation, I’m now feeling in the best shape of my life and ready to compete at CIM.  Each marathon build-up you learn something from, and while this one didn’t go how I expected in the summer, I couldn’t imagine being in a better position two weeks out from a marathon!