Ryan

How to make more races…races (as opposed to time trials)

September 26, 2013 / News/Elites / 2 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Parker Morse offers some interesting thoughts on the topic.

I like his ideas. The sport is far more exciting when you have head to head competition rather than essentially solo time trials or even mass time trials. Sure, the times might not be quite as fast. You might even get the occasional race that plays out like this year’s US Championships men’s 5000. That said, even that race was more exciting than watching a time trial with no real competition. Why do Boston and New York get more attention in the US marathoning world than Chicago, even though the times at Chicago are typically a fair bit faster? Yes, history has something to do with it, especially for Boston. However, I think the head to head competition plays a role. Chicago is typically a time trial with very little head to head competition and strategy. Without rabbits, Boston and New York have a lot more head to head competition and it’s exciting to see the different strategies employed by different runners play out.

The idea of incentivising head to head competition instead of time trialing by focusing more on qualifying races instead of qualifying times seems like a great idea. I doubt it will happen but, if I’m surprised, it will be a pleasant surprise.

I’m sorry about the lack of full-length posts this week. I have one nearly ready and intended to finalize it this week but things just got too hectic. I promise it will be coming next week.

Why Runners Don’t Get Knee Arthritis

September 25, 2013 / Health and Fitness / 1 minute of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I’ve never really bought the idea that running is bad for your knees. I know anecdotal evidence isn’t always sound but my experience has always been that long time runners who didn’t have pre-existing conditions were as healthy as, if not more than, less active people. Now, not only do we have evidence that the widely held claim that running causes knee arthritis is false. We have an explanation for why this might be.

Thank you Arthur Lydiard

September 18, 2013 / Miscellaneous / 6 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Note: I originally wrote this shortly after Lydiard’s passing. If I were writing this today, it would look a little different but I want to preserve what I wrote back in 2004. I still strongly believe that Lydiard played a huge, positive influence on distance running. However, I think his philosophies have been built upon and modified by others to produce even better results for certain runners who find themselves in certain circumstances. I have begun writing a post to explore some of these ideas and, when ready, will post that in the near future as a follow-up to this.

As everyone reading this probably knows by now, Arthur Lydiard, arguably the most influential person ever in the history of distance running, passed away on December 12th in Houston while on a United States tour. He was 87 years old.

I’m sure most people who know me know how highly I regard Lydiard. While I never had the opportunity to meet him – I regret not getting to his Chicago stop of the United States tour even more now that I know it was my last chance – he has been greatly influential in shaping my views on what works in training for distance running. No doubt, this is one thing I, as well as many other of the "common folk" of competitive distance running, share with many – if not most – of the greatest runners and coaches of the past half century, right up to today and surely into the future.

In this writing, I could tell you how Lydiard coached some of the best distance runners who have ever toed the line; runners like Peter Snell, Murray Halberg, even Lasse Viren and many other highly accomplished runners. However, writers around the world have already shared that story of Lydiard. I could tell you how his influence is felt even today from the elite level – where athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia, Japan, and many other parts of the world use his training techniques – to the collegiate level – where programs like Colorado, which recently won both team titles at the NCAA Championships, base their training on Lydiard’s teachings – but that has also been written about. I could also tell you how Lydiard was not just a visionary in competitive running but also a visionary in running for health, promoting easy distance running for cardiovascular health benefits back when people thought distance running was unhealthy and even dangerous. However, that has also been written about already. What I would like to write about is how Lydiard has influenced my running, which is most likely a reflection to some degree of how he has influenced thousands of distance runners who have strived to run faster over the past 50 years.

All the way back to the beginning of my running life, I had two very good coaches in high school. Little did I know at that time that they were already teaching me lessons from Lydiard. If you want to get better, just get out and run during the summer and winter. It doesn’t matter how fast you go. To an extent, it doesn’t even matter how far you go, although in general an increase in distance in the off-season will result in better performances during the racing season. When we got into season, those of us who trained through the summer or winter would maintain or even decrease our volume and begin with hill workouts before transitioning to traditional speedwork and then sharpening before the big end of the season races. Does any of this sound familiar? If not, I’d strongly suggest reading up on Lydiard’s training philosophy. Not surprisingly, those of us who trained through the summer or winter improved the most and usually found ourselves at or near the front of the team.

When I moved on to college, I was once again running under a very good coach. This time, though, his base training plan for the team looked less like Lydiard and more (actually almost precisely) like Daniels. As I still had not really studied Lydiard and Daniels had not yet published his book, all I knew at this point though was that the training was similar but different. Looking back, I can see where Daniels has his roots in Lydiard’s ideas but his ideas do diverge somewhat significantly. However, as I developed under this training plan, I realized the plan as it was given to me by my coach was not everything it could be for me. After talking with Coach, we came up with a plan to modify the training schedule for myself to more closely fit my needs and desires. Little did I realize at the time that I was taking our team’s base training plan and altering it to look more like a Lydiard-style plan. All I knew is that it led to better results for myself than what the rest of the team was doing. In fact, the results were so much better that I was voted by the team most improved runner my sophomore year, not long after we first started modifying my training.

Once I graduated from college, I wanted to take all I learned through my previous decade of running and come up with a schedule that suited myself. By this time, I had heard of Lydiard and knew who he was but didn’t think I knew much about his techniques other than the misconceptions of "God of jog" and "long, slow distance". I had been studying the ideas of the scientists and the modern day coaches, not realizing how heavy Lydiard’s influence was on the modern day coaches. Even without yet seeing Lydiard’s techniques, my training plans began making a shift away from Daniels-style training toward Lydiard-style training. By being a significant influence on the techniques of the best modern day coaches, Lydiard’s techniques were still guiding me.

Not long after I graduated from college, I came across the Lydiard Clinic and read it through completely. Shortly after that, I came across Bob Hodge’s webpage on Lydiard’s philosophy and read very carefully through that. I also got my hands on a couple of books written by Lydiard and read carefully through them. At that point, things began to turn very clear. All along, Lydiard’s philosophy and his huge influence on the running world had been guiding me since my first step as a competitive runner. Once I realized how much Lydiard had influenced me, my whole perception of training became much more clear. While many training plans that are out there are very good, they are what they are because of what they have taken from Lydiard’s ideas. The closer to Lydiard’s own techniques my training was, the better I ran.

Even after studying Lydiard’s philosophy for some time, it is taking me some time to completely grasp how much Lydiard has influenced my running life all the way back to before I had ever heard his name. I believe this is the case for a lot of runners. Even those who have never heard of him have been heavily influenced by what he has taught the running world. The whole world of running owes a debt of gratitude to Lydiard and should never forget the influence he has had on thousands of us, from Olympic champions and world record holders to "recreationally competitive" runners to those who are following "just to finish" plans that have names other than Lydiard’s on them all the way to non-competitive fitness runners. We are all benefiting from what he has taught the world running community.

Personal and Team HillRunner.com race report: Al’s Run

September 16, 2013 / Race Reports, Team HillRunner.com / 11 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

What a good looking team!

As most of the regulars here already know, Al’s Run in downtown Milwaukee is the big event for Team HillRunner.com every year. In fact, in recent years, it’s been the only event. I always get very excited about this event. Especially since I left Waukesha, it’s often my one chance a year to see many of the great members of the HillRunner.com community who live in the Milwaukee area and throughout south and east Wisconsin and even north Illinois.

This year was no different. In fact, if anything, I was even more excited than usual for this year’s event. As well as seeing familiar runners like Double, Cameron, Woody and Ed, there were three new team members (Laura, Steve and Tim) I was excited to welcome to the team and there were team veterans who couldn’t join the team last year but who were returning (Charlene and Rick) who I was happy to welcome back. Of course, I was also there to run. In addition to this, though, everyone on the team had requested a team uniform and I was very excited to see the new team uniform debut 10 strong near the front of the field at Al’s Run. I was also happy to see some discussion of pack running. We seemed to have two primary packs forming. One would be four strong looking to run in the mid-28s and the other would be three strong looking to run between 30 flat and 31 flat. Not only do I love team running, teammates feeding off each other’s energy, pulling each other along and battling it out together, but how cool would it be to see teammates wearing the blue to be packed up together along the course? That had me really excited to not just be running but to see teammates to run with during the race and to see pictures later with teammates working together.

After a team warmup, I got to my usual starting place on the line (on the left side of the median) and saw Woody. Everyone else seemed to be on the right side of the median. I prefer the left side because it’s less crowded and a slightly shorter route if you run your tangents right. Woody took off to the right side, saying he was going to let people know that the left side would be better but, just after he went, the one minute warning was given. It was time to line up. I felt there was nothing I could do at that point but take care of myself. With about 10 seconds to go, we got called up to the line, I toed the chip mat that was serving as a start line and listened for the countdown. I was feeling good, some foot and lower leg problems I had been experiencing weren’t even a thought, and I was ready to go.

As the race started, I got out well and was leading or in the top 2-3 on the left side of the median. There was a pack out ahead of me on the right side. Pretty much the usual situation. I took extra care to make sure I just eased into mile 1. This mile is mostly made up of a long, gentle downward grade toward the Milwaukee River. After the river, you go up a little before hitting the mile mark. It’s also right through the middle of downtown Milwaukee so you’re pretty sheltered from both the wind and the sun, making it a pleasant feeling mile. The one catch I’ve found to this mile is that it’s easy to go too fast. You’re amped up for this large race, there is a good number of runners ahead of you and that gradual decline lulls you into running faster than you realize you are going. So I was focused on being quick but very relaxed.

Late in mile 1, I had Rick on my right and Tim on my left. I couldn’t help but think how cool is this. Three teammates in uniform running shoulder to shoulder or in a slight V formation near the front of a large race through downtown Milwaukee. That is just awesome! I also found myself thinking about Steve. I didn’t see him around but I was hoping he was right with us. I would find out later he unfortunately wasn’t but it was still great to have three of us cruising together. We did cruise together right through the mile mark. I don’t have an exact split but I heard a split of 5:35 called just after we passed. Probably 5:33-5:34.

Into mile 2, we start the gradual climb away from the river. In the past, I’ve tried hard to maintain pace in mile 2 and that usually came back to bite me in miles 3 and 4. This time, I decided I’m just going to settle into a good rhythm and take what mile 2 gives me. I’d save the big efforts for the last 3 miles. Shortly after turning toward the north at the east end of Wisconsin Avenue, it felt like Rick wasn’t there anymore. Not too long later, up an incline that I just had no interest in pushing, Tim gapped me. I just let him go and figured I’d try to catch up with him in miles 3 and 4.

Mile 2: Nice teamwork! (courtesy RunningInTheUSA.com)

The rest of mile 2 just played itself out. I found a nice rhythm and watched the runners ahead of me, Tim included, planning to pick the effort back up in mile 3 and bring them back. I hit the 2 mile mark in 11:35 for a split of about 6:01-6:02. Wow, that was a bit slower than I expected. As soon as the math registered in my head, I told myself heck no and picked up the effort. Ever so gradually, I began making up ground on Tim and some other runners. To be honest, other runners more than Tim. We both were moving through the field a bit in that mile.

Mile 3 ends by going down Lafayette Hill. For those who don’t know Milwaukee, this is a hill that leads you down the bluffs from the residential neighborhoods overlooking the lake down to lake level. It’s a fairly steep and not extremely short downhill. I’ve always been a good downhill runner so I set my sights on all 3 runners who were ahead of me at this point, the last of whom was Tim. I made quick work of the first two, who started down the hill just steps ahead of me. Then I set out for Tim, who was a little further ahead. Near the bottom of the hill, I caught him and tried to say something encouraging, "Let’s go, hammer time" or something along that line, as I know mile 4 is one that can be really good if you’re aggressive or really bad if you let it wear on you. I wanted both him and myself thinking aggressive.

I rounded the corner and hit mile 3 in 17:12. Back to 5:37 for mile 3. That’s some good work in a somewhat challenging mile. Now, time to do some more good work. This mile for me is the time to lay it all out on the line. I always will find a way to get through the final mile but, if I’m not attacking and really pushing to my limit in this mile, it can get the best of me. The field is pretty spread out by this point but I just go to work, one runner at a time. My memory is a little fuzzy on this but I probably passed 2-3 guys in this mile and found myself gaining on a guy with a black and white singlet as we approached mile 4. I was getting really close to him but he seemed to be responding to some extent. He was not going to be an easy pass.

Late in mile 4: Did I mention I laid it all on the line in mile 4? (courtesy RunningInTheUSA.com)

One more from late in mile 4: This is fun, right? (courtesy RunningInTheUSA.com)

I completely missed the mile 4 split as this guy, apparently a UW-Milwaukee student, was passing some walkers with UWM shirts and they were cheering him on. He riled up the crowd on the pedestrian bridge that goes to the art museum and I stole a little of that energy to feed off of as I pushed ever so slightly closer. Around a right turn, then I caught him and gave it everything I had to put him away immediately so he couldn’t come back in the kick. He gave me an encouraging word, I was already breathing so hard I was grunting for at least a half mile at that point so I couldn’t respond. I just poured it on. There was another guy ahead but he wasn’t that close so I kept pushing to get as close to him as I could even though I knew I wouldn’t catch him. Around a left, a right, then another left, I kept reminding myself to not look back. I wanted to look back so badly to see if I had built up a suitable lead but I didn’t want to show any sign of weakness so I kept my eyes forward and kept driving, harder and harder, not wanting this guy to pass me back in the kick. One more left turn and I can see the finish line. I’m trying to read the clock but more focused on just driving as hard as I can. As I approach about 100 yards to go, I try to sprint. Drive the arms, push off as hard as I can, get the turnover as high as I can. My pace changed ever so slightly but it probably looked less like a kick than like the flailing final effort of a guy who was incapable of sprinting. Pure coincidence I’m sure. I got myself to the finish line without letting anyone pass me, then after stopping turned back to see Tim already across the line. It turned out he put up a good battle with that UWM runner but came up just short. Still, he ran tough and finished very well. It was great to have a teammate right there with me essentially the whole way.

Then I scanned for Rick and Steve. We were expecting them to also be in the 28 minute range but there was no sign of them. Tim and I started walking back up the course some to cheer our teammates in. Rick came along just as the clock was ticking toward 30 minutes. I had him right about 30 minutes flat. Then came Jerry shortly after him with Steve right behind. Our top 5 were all in by about 30:30. Next in was Woody, just over 31 flat, with Double close behind. Ed came in just under 32 minutes for another nearly 30 second PR, then Charlene came in about 30 seconds behind Ed. Laura rounded out our finishers with a very solid effort 6 days after running a draining half marathon in the heat and humidity and we began grouping up just past the finish line.

As several of us were cooling down together, chatting about the race, I couldn’t help but think about how great this team was. While a couple of us went home disappointed, from top to bottom, we all were top level competitors and I was proud to see these 10 people wearing that cool HillRunner.com singlet and representing this site so well. I still get chills thinking about this. These 9 people were willing to wear the blue and represent this place that I started so many years ago and has evolved into such a great online community. I’m truly blessed to have these people around me who are so willing to represent this site with so little given back to them in return.

The team as a whole got 3rd in the community division, only 1:43 behind the first place team. Seeing as we got moved to the more competitive community division, I think this is a great result. I also think it gives us a goal for next year.

The final results for the team are as follows:


  3. HillRunner.com

  1    28:23   Ryan Hill

  2    28:24   Tim King

  3    30:01   Rick Smith

  4    30:24   Gerald Cameron

  5    30:33   Steve Tietz

================================== 2:27:45 (  29:33)

  6    31:08   Marc Woodcock

  7    31:21   David Dehart

  8    31:54   Edward Pankow    

  9    32:28   Charlene Larson

 10    38:41   Laura Walsh

I can’t thank the team enough. This was a very special year for me, to see such a great group of people out there, all wearing the blue, having fun and running hard meant a lot to me. I still get chills thinking about some of the moments from Saturday.

Afterward, some team members were able to make it out to my place for a cookout. That was the least I could offer for all they did for me that morning and it was great to sit down, not wearing our running gear, and just have a casual chat with such a great group of people.

I think most team members went home happy with their performances at the end of the day. A couple were disappointed but I believe still put up great efforts in the face of adversity. I hope all can make it back again next year and maybe we can even expand the roster. Once again, thanks to these 9 wonderful people who were willing to represent HillRunner.com and did such a great job of doing so! I hope everyone here is as proud of them as I am.

If anyone else wants to share their own stories or pictures, feel free to either add them to the comments here or create a separate blog post.

A couple interesting links

September 4, 2013 / Roundups / 2 minutes of reading

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Alex Hutchinson weighs in at his Sweat Science blog on the latest in warmup gear. Interesting idea, though I’m not convinced of the benefit to long distance runners, especially those of us who are not elite. As I was reading, I couldn’t help but picture someone wearing these pants to keep their leg muscles warm while simultaneously wearing an ice vest to keep core temperature down. I guess I wasn’t the only one thinking that way.

I suppose that would be the ultimate tech fashion combo: a distance runner before a race wearing an ice vest to keep core temperature down, plus electric pants to keep legs warm. Seems a little much, but I wouldn’t bet against seeing that in Rio…

I wouldn’t bet against it either. Someone will decide to try the combo.

Mark Hadley weighs in on running by feel.

I already sent this link to a couple runners I coach. As anyone who has worked with me knows, I’m a big fan of running by feel. Coach Hadley does a good job explaining the benefits and giving some how-to at the same time.

Note: I’m going to try to post these on occasion. Essentially sharing links with a few quick comments. I saw these two today that I thought would be a good opportunity to kick it off. If you have feelings, pro or con, on posts like this, please share in the comments. I want to post what is wanted and I think these are of value but, if I’m wrong, I’ll stop.