on the run ... with sara hall

Happy girl after a pain-free run on my favorite Mammoth trail- Horseshoe Lake, 10,000 ft. elev. #Huff #Puff

A photo posted by Sara Hall (@sarahall3) on Jul 27, 2013 at 11:34am PDT

what's it like being married to one of america's greatest distance runners?

you could ask ryan hall that question.

sara hall is in every way an elite athlete, having won a Pan Am gold medal in the 3000m steeplechase in 2011, twice been a member of both the US world cross-country championships team and world indoor track and field championships team, posted a 4th place finish at the 2015 half-marathon championships and most recently crossed the line as the second place finisher at the 2015 falmouth road race outduelling such notable runners as amy cragg, neely gracey and tara erdmann.  2015 also marked sara's first foray into the marathon distance, competing in the LA marathon along with her husband ryan.

while running is a hallmark (pun intended) of her life and career, sara is also most active in the hall steps foundation, a charitable organization she and ryan founded to help alleviate the impact of global poverty through promotion and provision of better health.

. . . . .

1.  In preparation for the 2015 LA Marathon you spent some time training with Ryan (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmq8uKhq0pc) - what were some of the most notable tips and tricks that you picked up from his marathon preparation/insights?

(a) Easy days easy, hard days hard

(b) Start fast and stay aggressive

(c) Listen to your body

(d) Appendix is good? Good!

(e) Other

SH:   'C' - this is something Ryan always encourages me to do. In this buildup the training felt much easier and I responded to the high volume much better than expected so it allowed me to be more aggressive.  Even though the race was disastrous, I don't see that being a result of my preparation but more the course and day I faced.

2.   The work that you are spearheading through the Hall Steps Foundation makes your life direction much bigger than just your running goals. How are these two facets of your life connected?

(a) Both are an expression of faith and an act of worship

(b) Elite athletes should use whatever platform is available to them to effect positive change in the world

(c) I've gotta have something to keep me busy after my running career winds down!

(d) All of the above

(e) None of the above / Other

SH:   'A' - definitely. I try to have my entire life be ministry and worship unto the Lord.  My compassion for people who live in extreme poverty comes from God's love living in me.  My passion for running is also something He created me with and I believe He delights in seeing me use these gifts He's given me.

3.   You've experienced success in a variety of events, from winning the US National Road Mile Championships, to steeplechasing to taking the 2012 American title at the US Cross Country championships. What's left on the bucket list for Sara Hall?

(a) Ironman, baby!

(b) Taking to the trails in something like the Western States 100

(c) Still have sights set on the US Olympic Marathon Trials

(d) Stepping into a coaching career

(e) Other

SH:  'C' - I'm planning to race a marathon this fall to get a feel for the event since I didn't feel like I really got a sense of it in LA.  After that, I'll decide if the marathon trials will provide a viable option to making a team.  If not, I'll focus on the track trials!

4.  There must be some rather unique dynamics in terms of your training situation - while you don't run with a team, you're married to a world-class competitor (who espouses faith-based coaching) and are being coached by Steve Magness (author of The Science of Running). How do you integrate all of these pieces together?

(a) They just all seem to converge on the same principles

(b) Steve is my guy - although he's distracted by the Nike Oregon Project exposé right now

(c) Ryan's approach inspires me

(d) I pretend to listen, but in my head I'm thinking about what recipes I want to try next

(e) None of the above / Other

SH:  'C' - it's been great to be working with Steve the last 3 years, and now that I'm starting to run marathons, it has been kind of a collaboration between him and Ryan and I, especially when I am in a season of marathon training.   Ryan is the one who creates a framework for my main marathon workouts.  Steve is the constant through the different seasons whereas Ryan takes a more active role when I'm doing marathon work.  And he's the one with me on a day to day basis to really process the training - I'm a verbal processor!  Working from afar it really is up to me to tweak things based on how my body is feeling and communicate what I feel I need.

*** for more on sara and the journeys that she is taking on her own and with ryan, visit their website http://ryanandsarahall.com/. many thanks to sara for taking time from her busy schedule to connect with all of us at The Rendezvoo Point!

on the run ... with sara hall

will the real ryan hall please stand up?

i really like ryan hall.

he could well be one of the most intriguing figures on the elite marathoning scene.  as well as one of the most polarizing.

he's truly an affable guy - watch any video interviews with him and he comes across as the kid from high school who could get along with just about anybody.  his wife sara is a gem too, good-natured to the core.  and together they have been the driving force behind the hall steps foundation which is focused on responding to the issue of global poverty.

he's a rebel, march-to-the-beat-of-my-own-drummer kind of athlete.  while he's worked with terrence mahon, renato canova and even the iconic jack daniels he seems to regularly prefer being self-coached and gauging his workouts and development by feel (or 'faith' as he would describe it).

and of course he's an outstanding talent - from posting the fastest ever debut marathon time for an american (2:08:24) to the fastest ever american marathon time at the 2011 boston marathon (2:04:58), the guy has shown that he can step up to the plate against any runner from any country or continent.

so what's his deal?

since the record setting boston marathon achievement, he's woven in a series of DNSs (did not start) and DNFs (did not finish) that have left his fans and colleagues scratching their collective heads.  the 2012 olympic marathon.  the 2012 new york city marathon.  the 2013 boston and nyc marathons.  and just yesterday, the 2015 LA marathon.  granted, there were various mitigating circumstances (most notably injuries) that contributed to this spotty record, but for anyone interested in seeing again just what ryan is capable of achieving this has been a barrage of disappointing blows.

were his accomplishments in the early part of this millennium just a bunch of flukes, as some have suggested?

is his body just too way injury-prone to produce any more world-class results?  one of the things that i did notice from the start of sunday's LA marathon was that ryan's trademark low-and-at-the-side arm carriage seems to have changed a bit to swing higher and a little more across his body.  i'm not sure if that's an attempt at compensation for other physiological stressors.

could his approach to training and racing be so off-the-wall that it's actually double-crossing him?

i don't know.  i wish i did.  i wish he did.

but after all's said and done, i still like ryan hall.

and i really hope to see him excel again. 

will the real ryan hall please stand up?

the sounds of cadence

blonk.  klop.  boing.  whirr.  ping.

i know, it sounds like the noises that might come from some cool new kids toy.  or your car's transmission just as it's about to blow up on you.

but have you ever paid attention to your footfall while running?

admittedly, it's far from scientific ... but i think that one of the markers of my running progress has been just how i visualize (or perhaps auditorialize) the way in which my feet impact the ground during the running gait cycle.
 

image taken from here

when i first started taking to running as a form of exercise (mid-2009) i simply didn't think about it.  as such i tromped along, slapping my foot onto the tarmac with each stride as if letting my feet fall like dead weights (wearing the heaviest tennis shoes that i had in the closet probably didn't help any) was the best way to maximize my fitness ROI (return-on-investment).  it was heavy, jarring, and makes me think of *blonk*.

the next iteration of my footstrike pattern came when i started to believe that the most natural (!) and effective way to run was to land heel-first, roll along the mid-foot and then toe off.  this reminded me of the way that a wheel contacts the ground, and actually was the way that i used to explain the functionality and science of Nike running footwear to our patrons while i worked for Nike's retail division.  the word that i associate most closely with this style of running was/is *klop*, as even though the technique is depicted as a rolling motion it often winds up being more of a slapping-the-ground movement.

watch dr. nick campitelli talk about the perils of 'toe-off'

  
when i was first introduced to the idea of forefoot striking (courtesy of my friend trevor and dr. mark cuccuzzella) i transitioned to loping around on the front pads of my feet.  the immediate kinetic feedback was that i was activating the springy tissues (e.g. tendons and ligaments) as well as relying on my muscles to serve as shock absorbers and energy-returning pistons.  i had braced myself for the inevitable "you'll feel unusually sore" response to making this kind of a change, and while it did happen it didn't last very long.  i had done it - made the move to a more 'natural' method of running.  each day i took to the roads with a *boing*.

and then i read a little something about vertical travel.

at the time i was not only a fan of american distance runner ryan hall (and still am!) but also did my best to model my running style after his.  when i read this article detailing how if you measured the distance of vertical travel or 'bounce' that ryan had over the course of a marathon it would equal something like 1.24 miles - quite an unnecessary expenditure of energy.  in my attempts to mimic ryan i was quite unwittingly also bouncing around - as noted by the pacer i ran with at the 2012 hamilton marathon road2hope.

just as surely as a pendulum swings back and forth, my next 'adaptation' was to try to limit the extent of vertical travel during my stride cycle and mimicking what it would be like to "balance a dinner plate on your head".  my running form got closer to a shuffle-like movement, staying low and level ... something of a *whirr* effect (think 'road runner') across the ground.  a corollary effect of this transition was to turn my attention to increasing my cadence since (at least in my mind) i was going to cover less distance while airborne.

the most recent change in my running form has been a more modest one, and has come about as a result of watching and studying the speed and lightness of 2014 NYC marathon winner mary keitany.  in a post last month i commented on how there was much to learn from watching mary run, and perhaps for me one of the most remarkable aspects of that is just how effortless she appears while in motion (contrast that with the discernible chugging effort of someone like meb keflezighi or the flailing form of lelisa desisa).  i've characterized this footstrike as something akin to a *ping* - rapid, reflexive and light.  the intention behind this adjustment is all about economy of motion.

of course all of this only exists inside of my head ... i've not had any kind of video evidence or filmed analysis to corroborate the notion that the way that i run has changed at all, or that (apart from the Road2Hope pacer's observations) i even do half of the things that i think that i've done with regard to running form.  but if visualization counts for anything at all i will continue to think of myself as pinging my way to faster race times.

 

*** GIVEAWAY TIME ***

now you know that i hear voices (or at least imaginary footstrike sounds) in my head.  that's partially due to the fact that i don't listen to any music during any of my runs, of any distance ... but maybe you do!  if you'd like to enter to win a 2GB iPod shuffle just use the rafflecopter form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

the sounds of cadence

mississauga marathon 2013 - race report

i simply can't start out this race report without a series of thank-yous.

• to my family, who have been full of understanding (for this madness called training) and my biggest cheering squad
• to my intentional motivators and training partners:  trevor morgan, mike st. john and stan ong
• to the hansons marathon training plan
• to my friend sarah flemming who got me onto this running thing in the first place (back in 2010)
• to all my facebook friends who have encouraged and rooted for me throughout this particular leg of the journey.

now to the bottom line - two little letters summarize this race experience:  

PB.

perhaps not the two letters that i would like to have headline this report (and for those who would otherwise not know, those preferred letters would be BQ), but i will gladly take them.

now for a quick rundown of the weekend's happenings ...

the expo
kind of a non-report here, as the expo for the mississauga marathon is, well, functional.  it serves its purpose as the point for the race kit pick-up, various sponsor and vendor booths, and opportunities for promo teams from other races to try to pique some interest.

that said, the three times that i've attended it it has been staffed very well (kudos to who knows how many volunteers) and run quite efficiently.  i managed to get in, pick up my kit and trevor's (without any hassle whatsoever), purchase some gels on 'race-special' deal, and clear out in a matter of 12 minutes.  the only negative comment to share was the distinctly vomit-like smell hovering around the end of the directional pathway through the expo. 

race morning
trevor and i were commuting down to the race together (about a 60 min. drive), and it takes about 25 min. to get to his place so i woke up at 4am after a fitful night's sleep (which was to be expected).  after a quick shower, breakfast ensued - peanut butter and chia seed bagel, banana, and water.  i loaded up an extra banana for the ride, as well as the complimentary nutrition bar from the expo goody bag and my powerade-beet juice concoction.  bib was pinned on the singlet - headband, gloves, and throwaway sweatshirt were packed - timing chip affixed to my skechers gobionics.  green light go.

trevor and i made it to the start area close to 6:30am - exactly according to plan, giving us a good hour to make full use of the facilities (at least twice) and settle into the chute before the 7:30am start.  i find that the hour before is perfect for me to get into the right zone - enough but not too much nervous energy, wander around and try to pick out the triathletes, the first-timers, the (obvious this year) boston runners, and the odd person that i would know but not have anticipated seeing at the race.

in the chute, i managed to locate and introduce myself to the 3:15 pacer (peter - or as he happily announced, "peter rabbit") with my usual "i'll try to stick with you as long as i can".  during this time trevor was warming up with strides alongside the chute but on the other side of the barricade, and as all the racers started to cram in shoulder-to-shoulder i feared that we'd become lost to one another and would somehow have to try to relocate during the first kilometre, but he found me just prior to the national anthem.

a quick point here - i'd noted to trevor that one of my favourite moments of the race start was the singing of the national anthem by a local celebrity, actor michael burgess.  he'd starred as jean valjean in the long-running toronto production of les miserables.  having seen him in that performance four times in the 1990s, his voice still sends shivers up and down my spine.  well, this year for reasons unknown to me they had a youth choir sing the national anthem - and while they did an excellent job, it just wasn't michael burgess.  modest letdown.

first half
trevor had mapped out a pacing strategy that accounted for the overall time goal, congestion at the start, and major elevation changes along the course.  trusting his detail-oriented mind, i watched 'peter rabbit' chug on into the distance over the first km wondering if we'd ever make up that ground.  but consistently through the first stretch i heard trevor say "we're right on target", which gave me confidence.

i took nearly the same approach to aid stations as in previous marathons - choosing to walk for a 5-8 second break at each of them. the difference this time was that i decided to grab my drink on the run and then slow down once past the tables to avoid causing any bang ups.  this was my first opportunity to practice this technique for nabbing drink cups on the run, which seemed to work well.

it only took about 6km for trevor and i catch back up to the 3:15 pack, and without any real noticeable increase in effort.  the pace was well within the comfortable range, trevor was consistently telling me "we're 45/60/90 sec. ahead" and regularly reminding when to take a gel.  the plan was working out marvelously.

second half
all the way up to the 31km point trevor and i were consistently ahead of the target 3:15 mark.  i was pleased as punch to have had trevor stick with me through to this distance, as he'd not trained intentionally for a marathon and only surmised being able to pace me through the first half.  but at 31k he knew that it was time to separate, and so he left me with these parting words:  "keep at this pace and you'll have your BQ".

it must have been a curse of sorts.

let me just reiterate what a great job of prep trevor did for me.  from scoping out all the details to gel intake intervals to printing off a paceband, he'd set me up to win.

did you read that?

printing off a paceband.

the one that i left in my sweatshirt pocket.

the sweatshirt that i took off and left in the starting chute.

so from 31k onward, i tried to 'go by feel' at keeping the pace that i'd so comfortably held up to that point.  except that i didn't have the benefit of trevor's consistent reassurance that we were on track.  and what's worse is that when i checked my watch at 35k and saw 2:42, i figured that i could still run 5 min. kilometres and finish well within my 3:15 goal.

math was never my strong suit.  but here, it was made worse by a form of mental bonking.

panic set in when i checked my watch again at 41k and read 3:12.  clearly my calculations originated in the nether realms and now i had to somehow try to bust out 1200m in 3 min. - which was plainly not going to happen.  still, i tried to channel my inner yuki kawauchi and just turned on whatever afterburners i had, grit my teeth and went for it.

i knew that i'd stepped up my output because all the blood was rushing away from my brain and toward the larger muscle groups.  my face was all tingly and a lightheadedness seeped in, but my stride was stretching out and my leg turnover increasing.  it was a good way to finish.

final result:  3:18:30 (gun), 3:18:05 (chip)

post race
i felt quite good crossing the finish line - physically i was spent but upright with no muscles seizing.  while still missing my BQ by about 3 min., i'd posted a personal best by 10 seconds and improved over the same race last year by 6 min.

trevor crossed the line at 3:34:35 - a great job considering he really hadn't trained for the marathon, and had blisters at 5k and muscle spasms for the final 10k.  we spent a good half hour at the medical tent making sure that he got patched up to walk to the shuttle buses back to the car.

when i got home, there was a congratulatory banner waiting for me (although the wind had taken it off of its original location on the garage door):

final thoughts

• i think that i had it in me to hit the 3:15, and i almost ran to my potential at this race.   i was modestly impressed with the results of the hansons marathon training plan, but am considering going back to a modified 'ryan hall' plan for the erie marathon in september.
• jury's out as to whether or not the beet juice had any real impact - but it certainly didn't hurt me none!
• very pleased with the skechers gobionic as a race day shoe!  they did exactly what they should have done - i never had to think about my feet once, and i did not notice them the entire race long.  i will say though that i feel like i enjoyed wearing the merrell road gloves (v1) more during the hamilton road2hope marathon, and probably still hold them up as my favourite shoe in which to train.

so it's recovery time - no running this week until saturday, and then easing back into things before firing it up in two weeks' time to start getting ready for the next race.  as much as i need the time off, this not running thing is driving me crazy.

mississauga marathon 2013 - race report

fail to plan, plan to fail

never having run (for all intents and purposes) prior to the spring of 2009, i can safely say that i didn't know what i was doing when i agreed to a friend's challenge to run a half-marathon on labour day that year.

up until that point, all that i'd managed to do was to make it through a music video or two (from the 1980s of course) while on the treadmill.

since then, i've managed to complete three half-marathons, one 30k race and three full marathon distances - and generally speaking, i've been progressively getting better/stronger/faster ... (cue Six Million Dollar Man music)

i'm sure that part of this has been a result of now a couple of years of conditioning myself as a runner.  last week marked a milestone as i completed my first 60+ mile week of training, and today my mileage in 2013 has eclipsed 1000 km.

but i'm also confident that part of my steady improvement in racing is attributable to the training plans that i've followed.  i find this area of conversation very interesting, as it forces me to assimilate all sorts of things that i've heard and observed about training and coaching. for instance:

• various elite distance athletes train without a coach (e.g. jason hartmann, and until recently ryan hall)
• the kenyans and japanese distance runners tend to run and train in groups (whereas i tend to run and train alone - maybe it's because i'm such an introvert)
• the great haile gebrselassie once said in an interview that racers should not be nervous standing at the start line, because at that point it's just about showing off all the work that you have already done in training
• it was said about patrick makau (current world record-holder in the marathon - 2:03:38) that he "trains to race fast, not to train fast"
• i had the privilege of meeting and getting to know paul hefferon, who finished 2:16:46 in his debut marathon at the 2012 olympic trials in houston running with the hansons brooks distance project
• my friend (and planned pacer at the 2013 mississauga marathon) stan ong is a sub-3 hour marathoner who trains by feel
• if it's been said once it's been said a million times ... when it comes to race day, you have to trust your training

to date i've tried to followed three different race preparation schedules.  for my first two half-marathons, it was a training plan for the disney half-marathon that was sent over to me by a co-worker who had raced at disney world.  then for the 30k and first full marathons, i used a version of the runner's world intermediate marathon plan.  for the last two marathons, i worked with the 'ryan hall marathon training plan' as published by nissan's innovation for endurance program.  and now, spurred on by mostly positive reviews and my friend paul's association with the hansons brooks distance project, i've been using a modified form of the advanced hansons marathon method plan.

this plan that i'm currently using has (in my mind) two distinctives about it: 

1. the principle of cumulative fatigue - the idea that every run is pretty much executed on tired legs.  this is the first program that i've tackled that has me running six days out of the week, and the premise is that training within a maintained level of fatigue simulates the final 15k or more of the marathon, thereby acclimatizing you to pushing beyond 'the wall'.
2. the 16 miler - most programs will include a 16 mile run, just not as the longest run in the schedule.  the hanson brothers and their teams have found that making sure that the longest run in any given week is not disproportionate to the total number of miles logged in the week (e.g. not more than about 25%) emphasizes the importance of each training run (and type).

so far, so good.  i'm pleasantly surprised at how i've managed to sustain the 6-days-per-week schedule, and while i'm not clearly seeing gains in pace, i have to admit that this is really the first go at training where i've given myself specific times in which to try and complete specific distances.

i'm always curious to hear about what other training plans have worked for other people - feel free to weigh in on my experiences or your own.  for now, i'll finish out the hansons marathon method and bring the definitive update after may 5 in mississauga.

-----------------

[i selected this post to be featured on Running Blogs - please visit the site and vote for my blog!]

fail to plan, plan to fail

monkey see, monkey do - runners that i follow

there are all sorts of learning styles, and i find that when it comes to athletics i am very much a visual learner.  specifically i've taught myself tennis, volleyball and golf by watching the technique and form of particular competitors that i enjoy watching and who excel in their respective fields.

the situation is no different when it comes to running.  i've never had a coach (except for motivation) and did not start any kind of running until the spring of 2010 - nothing in high school, and only the occasional once around the track in university if i saw a pretty girl worth following for several hundred metres before i passed out.

here are just a few of the runners that i've paid close attention to, for various reasons:

• haile gebrselassie - IMHO the greatest distance runner of all time.  a dimnuitive figure with gobs of talent and just as big of a heart.  depending on how old he might actually be, he may have set the world record time for a male marathoner when he was 40.
• geoffrey mutai - the person with the fastest finish of any marathon ever and arguably the best living marathoner. makes every race look like a easy jog in the park.
• ryan hall - one of the US' best distance runners, and outstanding man of faith.  gives back to people generously, and i have tried in the past to mimic his form.  his marathon training plan also helped me to achieve my current PB in the marathon (3:18:15).
• meb keflezighi - currently the #1 marathoner for the US.  at 37 he's still kicking butt, having won the 2012 US Olympic Marathon trials and placing 4th at the London Olympic marathon.  another inspiring man of faith too.
• desiree davila - i have a friend who trained with desiree as part of the hansons brooks distance project in michigan.  desiree is one tough competitor, and now in the top three female US marathoners.  i've adopted her arm carriage style in my own running.
• mary keitany - the favourite in just about any race in which she's entered.  a powerhouse.
• tsegaye kebede - this guy is about the height of my honda civic, but probably has the stride length of a cadillac.  unbelievable runner from ethiopia, having captured this year's chicago marathon in 2:04:38.  i've adopted his leg position and stride pattern in my own running style.
• yuki kawauchi - my new favourite runner ... known as 'citizen runner' because he's the only person on this list who's not a full-time athlete (he holds down a day job just like me).  runs like a maniac - having put together back to back marathons last fall within two weeks of one another, forking out $6000 for a plane ticket to a race in egypt because he missed the plane that the organizers paid for, and five out of the first six marathons he ran he ended up in the medical tent after crossing the finish line.  he's told interviewers "Every time I run, it’s with the mindset that if I die at this race it’s OK." now that's a racer i can look up to. 

so who do you admire/follow in running?  i've only listed the high profile types, but maybe for you it's someone local, or in your family line.  feel free to share the names of those who inspire you as you run!

monkey see, monkey do - runners that i follow