Commentary — It’s the intensity, not the distance, stupid

JoeEnglish - 10:51 pm | 1

running advice bug Commentary Its the intensity, not the distance, stupidI find it so interesting whenever I the discussion that follows, which I’m sure many of you have heard as well. I’ll tell someone that I’m doing a short race, say a 5K or 10K, and the person on the other end of this conversation will say the following: “why would you want to do that? You’re a marathon runner. That must be so easy for you.”

I usually just sort of nod and say something like, “well, it’s part of my training.” But in truth, I really want to put one hand on each side of their head and shake them a little and then say, “it’s not the distance, it’s how hard you run it!”

I’m thinking about this, because I ran in another 5K race this weekend and once again got these same quizzical inquiries from neighbors and friends that we’re sorting of asking ‘why bother’ with all these short races that I’m doing. But there is something important here that you runners can get from hearing me explain the answer as it really should be explained to them.

Let’s take this particular 5K race. It was small race with just 500 runners. But in that race the top 29 runners broke 16:00, which is 5:08 minutes per mile. That’s really moving. In fact, the top 74 runners completed the 5K with an average pace of less than 6:00 per mile. That’s a lot of people that were pushing really, really hard. Now, let’s factor in that the temperature was 85 degrees during the race and that ratchets things up yet another notch. For those folks, there was nothing easy happening out there in that 5K.
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Racing — What does flat and fast really mean?

JoeEnglish - 3:44 pm | 3

running advice bug Racing What does flat and fast really mean?Race organizers love to use the terms “flat and fast” to describe race courses. Those terms are designed to bring in runners looking for good conditions to run a fast time or perhaps are personal best. But does flat on a elevation chart really mean flat? And is flat always fast? That’s my topic today and the answer is “no”.

This weekend I picked out a race to run the way I often do at this time of year, by looking through the race listings and trying to pick one that’s close to home. I was just looking for a workout and wanted some competition to spur me on through a quality run. There were two races close to my house, so I had to get down to the finer details in choosing. I ended up picking the one with those magic words: “flat and fast”. This event race course even suggested that it might be a “good course to set PR”. The later language is always something that makes me very skeptical, because honestly the place for a PR is on a track, but I’ll come back to that in a minute.

Indeed, looking at the course map and elevation chart, it did look flat and it had another aspect that can lead itself to be fast — few turns. But when I arrived at the site and began to run my warm-up, I quickly figured out that this course wouldn’t be either flat or fast.

Bumpy vs. Hilly
We all know what it means for something to be hilly: those long inclines or declines climbing over something. Think Boston Marathon or Nike Women’s Marathon. You look at those courses on a map and you see actual topographical features that are being traversed. Everyone would agree that those suckers are hilly. But a piece of flat ground on an elevation map can take on another aspect, that which we might call “bumpy”. If you’ve ever played golf (or run a cross-country race on a golf course) on a flat piece of ground, but found your quads burning walking up and over short rolling bumps, you’ll know what I’m talking about here.
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Racing — Kipchoge, Defar Win 2010 Carlsbad 5000

JoeEnglish - 6:06 am | no comments

running advice bug Racing Kipchoge, Defar Win 2010 Carlsbad 5000CARLSBAD, Calif. – World Record Holder Meseret Defar of Ethiopia became the first three-time women’s champion of the Carlsbad 5000, presented by Nuvasive, Sunday afternoon, winning the women’s elite invitational in a time of 15 minutes, 4 seconds over the 3.1 mile course. In the men’s race, Kenya’s Eluid Kipchoge crossed the finish line in 13:11, fourth fastest time ever run over the 25 year history of the internationally renowned road race.

Defar MeseretFV Carlsbad10 thm Racing Kipchoge, Defar Win 2010 Carlsbad 5000

Defar Meseret wins 2010 Carlsbad 5000

Kipchoge, 25, a two-time Olympic medalist over 5,000m, came to Carlsbad with a world record on his mind, and gave a record-worthy performance under overcast, but breezy conditions. He led the lead pack through the first mile in 4:10, pushing the Ethiopian trio of Dejen Gebremeskel, Bekana Daba and Markos Geneti. The group of four continued together, battling a coastal headwind, reaching the two-mile mark in 8:25, when Kipchoge made his move to victory.

“This is a fantastic course and a fantastic crowd. I felt ready to run a 12:58,” said Kipchoge, after running his debut 5k road race and becoming the third fastest individual all-time. “The wind was too much and unfortunately I didn’t get it, but it’s not the last time, I will have to try again next year.”

Second place went to Gebremeskel in 13:18, with the defending champion Daba finishing six seconds back in 13:24. The top American was Joe Gray of Lakewood, WA, who took 10th in 14:37.
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Racing — Elite Field Heads to Carlsbad for Carlsbad 5000

JoeEnglish - 5:58 pm | no comments

running advice bug Racing Elite Field Heads to Carlsbad for Carlsbad 5000CARLSBAD, Calif. -– Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, one of the world’s most decorated 5000-meter runners, will headline the elite international field at the 2010 Carlsbad 5000, the 25th running of the event. Winner of both a bronze (2004) and silver (2008) Olympic medal, Kipchoge will chase after what is, arguably, the most impressive record in all of road racing, Sammy Kipketer’s 13:00 road 5K mark set in Carlsbad in 2000 and tied the following year.

“Nobody has come close to Sammy’s mark since 2001,” recalls running historian Toni Reavis, 20-year broadcaster of the race. “That record has taken on a Beamon-esque stature in the ensuing years, especially Sammy’s first miles in under 4:00!”

Since its inception in 1986, no other road race in the world has set as many world records as the Carlsbad 5000. To date 16 world records have fallen at the T-shaped seaside course, and the race renowned for fast runners once again welcomes a stellar field on Sunday, April 11.
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Racing — Defar and Chebet Lead Carlsbad 5,000 Women’s Field

JoeEnglish - 11:45 pm | 1

running advice bug Racing Defar and Chebet Lead Carlsbad 5,000 Womens FieldCARLSBAD, Calif. -– Going for an unprecedented third Carlsbad 5000 women’s title, world road 5km record holder Meseret Defar of Ethiopia returns to the streets of Carlsbad for the first time in three years on April 11th as the top seed in the 25th Anniversary Carlsbad 5000, presented by NuVasive. Having set the still-standing 14:46 record in the first of her two-straight Carlsbad wins in 2006, Defar is coming off a fourth consecutive win at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships 3000 meters in Doha, Qatar.

Defar Meseret FH8 Carls5ksmall Racing Defar and Chebet Lead Carlsbad 5,000 Womens Field

Defar Mesert wins 2006 Carlsbad 5000

“Now, I will focus on world records at 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters outdoors!” said Defar following her win in Doha on March 14.

The Carlsbad 5000 marks the first of those record opportunities. But Defar, who first came to Carlsbad in 2003, taking fifth place, will have to overcome the challenge of 24 year-old Emily Chebet of Kenya, who won the senior women’s 8km title at the March 20th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland one week after Defar’s world indoor title in Doha.

And not to be forgotten is defending Carlsbad 5000 champion Aheza Kiros of Ethiopia, who looks to join Defar (2006, 2007), Britain’s Liz McColgan (1988, 1991), and America’s Deena Kastor (2000, 2002) as a two-time Carlsbad 5000 champion.
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Training — Tips for developing your kick at the end of a running race

JoeEnglish - 4:28 am | 1

Coach Joe English

Coach Joe English

I’ve had a number of people that have asked me recently how to develop their kick — or closing speed — at the end of a running race. Usually these questions come early in the season when people are running a lot of 5K and 10K races and they’re in more pitched battles than in marathons or half-marathons later in the season. For the sake of this post, I’ll focus on developing closing speed in shorter races.

What we’re talking about here is the following scenario. Let’s say you’re in a 5K road race. You’ve made it through the first 2.5 miles and you’ve found yourself in one of two situations: 1) you’ve just caught up to someone ahead of you and you decide to overtake them, or 2) someone has just caught you and you need to decide whether you are going to challenge them.

These present themselves somewhat differently. In the case of catching someone, you’ll likely have the element of positive energy and adrenaline that may take over and carry you forward. If you’re being passed, you’ll have to first make a split-second decision as to why you’re being passed (are you slowing down or did the person behind you speed up, for example) and defensively decide what to do. In either case, let’s assume that we’re 1/2 mile from the finish-line and we’ve decided to go for it. It will now come down to what you did to prepare and how you play the next 30 seconds!

Those first 30 seconds
Those first 30 seconds are so critical, because you have the ability to blow the whole finish of your race apart in how you react. As we’ll get to in talking about your training, you must have trained at higher speeds to be able to sustain higher speeds over more than a period of a few seconds. If you haven’t done that training and you pick up your pace to a speed that you can’t sustain (let’s call it a ’sprint’ for now), you’re likely going to carry that speed for about 30 seconds or so and then dramatically slow down. In fact, you’ll probably slow down to a speed even slower than you were running before you took off — because you will have plunged yourself into oxygen deficit and will be suddenly panting or find your muscles screaming at you.
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Racing — Dan Browne, Sally Meyerhoff win USA 25KM Championships

JoeEnglish - 4:42 pm | no comments

running advice bug Racing Dan Browne, Sally Meyerhoff win USA 25KM ChampionshipsGRAND RAPIDS -2004 Olympian Dan Browne (Beaverton, Ore.) won his third U.S. 25KM title as Sally Meyerhoff (Tempe, Ariz.) won her first at the USA 25 km Championships Saturday in Grand Rapids, Mich. This marks the 16th year that the championships have been hosted by the Fifth Third River Bank Run.

In a field that also included open international athletes, Browne and Meyerhoff each finished second overall in the respective men’s and women’s divisions. Browne was timed in 1:15:56 and Meyerhoff ran 1:27:28. The overall titles were won by Kenya’s Isaak Kimaiyo in 1:15:36 and Genoveva Kigen in 1:27:16.

Due to local flooding, race officials were forced to use an alternate course that had significantly more hills than the traditional course, which had most of the top athletes talking about a more conservative approach to the early miles. This combined with a steady rain at the start to lead to a relaxed opening mile of 5:03.

As a lead pack of nearly 20 men approached five miles, the pace dropped to 4:42, as Browne was tucked in a pack that included Kimaiyo, and his countrymen, Linus Maiyo and Emmanuel Korir along with U.S. several contenders including Ryan Sheehan (Rochester Hills, Mich.), Jason Hartmann (Boulder, Colo.), Fasil Bizuneh (Flagstaff, Ariz.), Josh Eberly (Gunnison, Colo.) and Antonio Vega (Saint Paul, Minn.).
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Commentary — Winners Don’t Make Excuses; Learn From Those Winners

JoeEnglish - 4:37 am | 2

Coach Joe English

Coach Joe English

I had the most interesting experience this past weekend that happened after a race. I had been asked to pace a young high-school runner in a 5K road-race. My job was to run a precise time, which was fairly fast — but a bit slower than I would have expected the winner of the race to run. Me and my young friend talked before the race and we decided to take the pace out right on our target and just let anyone ahead of us go. I told him — as I often tell runners — that most people start out too fast and that they may fade, so it’s best just to let them go.

To further set the scene, this was a medium-sized race with — I would say — 15 guys there that looked like they were “in it to win it”. That’s a competitive group; a pretty typical local road-race.

The race got underway and we went out right on pace. There were a smattering of other people around us and two guys that got out ahead of us. I cautioned to “let them go” and “stick with the plan” and that’s just what we did. We went through the first mile on schedule and then, turning back into the wind, the young man that I was pacing faltered a bit. He started to fade. I was going to run right on our predicted time, but since he was in trouble, I continued on at pace to bring it home.

Then with about a mile to go, I decided that I’d try to chase down the two guys at the front, figuring that they’d probably fade as I’d predicted before the race. In the next half-mile, I reeled them both in and found myself on the heels of the leader. I paused for a second or two and then went on past. I accelerated out of the last turn and put ten seconds up on him in the last quarter mile. He had nothing to counter with and I cruised in to win the race.

So now that you’ve got the background, here’s where the really interesting thing happened. After the race the guy walks up to me and asks somewhat confrontationally, “where were you the first two miles?” I explained that I was pacing someone and had come from about ten seconds back to catch him.
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Racing: Huddle wins 2008 USA Women’s 10KM title

Joe English - 10:20 am | no comments

BOSTON – Molly Huddle (Providence, R.I.) unleashed a powerful kick to win the open race and the USA Women’s 10KM Championship Monday at the Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women in Boston. Huddle edged out Aziza Aliyu of Ethiopia by less than one second, running 32:52 to win her first U.S. road crown and the title as well.

More than 7,000 women took to the streets of Boston for the 32nd edition of the traditional Columbus Day event, which hosted the championship for the 14th time.

Passing the first mile in 5:15, Huddle was positioned in the front of a pack that included her Providence-based training partner Amy Rudolph, 2008 USA 5 km runner-up Renee Metivier-Baille (Flagstaff, Ariz.), Rebecca Donaghue (State College, Pa.), and 2008 Olympic steeplechaser Lindsey Anderson (Ogden, Utah).

Running along Memorial Drive in Cambridge, near the 2-mile mark, Rudolph began to edge to the front of the pack, and just before a turn-around approaching 4 miles, she had opened a 10 meter gap on Huddle, Aliyu and Tebya Naser (ETH).

As Rudolph continued to press the pace, the chase pack began to cut into her lead and at four miles had reeled her back in. After four miles, crossing the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge back into Boston, Huddle had moved to the lead but was followed closely by Aliyu, Naser and Rudolph.
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Racing: Terefe Zewdie, Vivian Cheruiyot Win Carlsbad 5000; Webb drops out

Joe English - 9:10 pm | no comments

Elite Racing, Victah Sailer CARLSBAD, Calif., (April 6, 2008) – In a tight men’s race to the finish line, Ethiopia’s Terefe Marego Zewdie edged out England’s Mo Farah to win the Carlsbad 5000 today in a time of 13 minutes, 34 seconds. Vivian Cheruiyot ran uncontested to the finish in her debut on the oceanside course in 15:14. American Alan Webb dropped out of the men’s race with approximately a half-mile to the finish.

In a conservative race, Farah, 25, took the men’s pack through the first mile in 4:25. After the first of two hairpin turns on the course, Farah looked smooth as he quickened the pace. Haron Lagat, 24, from Kenya challenged Farah off his left shoulder as the two men lead the pack towards mile two where the pace dropped to a 4:22 mile.

Tucked in behind the leaders, Zewdie seemed to slingshot around the last hairpin to join the leaders. Farah and Zwedie pushed the pace as the men approached the final stretch, towing Lagat and Australian Collis Birmingham.

With a brief glace to the side Zwedie opened up a one-second lead on Farah before he broke the finish tape.

“The crowd was very encouraging,” Zwedie said. “I knew at the turnaround I would win the race.”
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