Topics that have to do with the operation of HillRunner.com.
This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.
I’m off enjoying the holidays with my family right now as I hope you also are. I just wanted to wish you a wonderful holiday season and the best for 2016.
This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.
It’s already been another 6 months. Here’s your open invitation to ask me anything.
Within reason, nothing is off limits. Ask about training, racing, my thoughts on any news in the sport. Ask about the site, the coaching service, Club HillRunner.com or anything else that’s going on.
If you want to ask publicly, you can do so in the comments, on Facebook or you can tweet at HillRunner.com (or tweet at my personal account). If you want to ask more privately, you can use the contact form or, if you’re friends with me on Facebook or you know my email address, you can reach me through those options.
So, please let me know, what have you been thinking about and wanting to ask?
This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.
I’m sure most of you have noticed some of the recent events that have been going on at HillRunner.com. I just wanted to fill you all in with what has been going on.
For those of you who don’t want the long story, scroll down to the Bottom Line heading.
For those of you who don’t know how small operations like myself handle our websites, we don’t have computers ourselves that they run on. I basically buy server space from a company that then hosts the website. The host then takes care of keeping the hardware HillRunner.com is on up to date, running and connected to the Internet 24/7.
Several years ago, I outgrew the host I was on at that time and transferred to a new host. At the time, the host I transferred to was one of the best in the business. They had a great reputation for reliability and top of the line service. Unfortunately, about 2-3 years ago, they were bought out by a parent company that tends to buy hosting companies with great reputations, then cuts costs in order to boost profit margins. Of course, when costs are cut, the first thing to go is customer service. The second is the latest, fastest, most reliable hardware.
Ever since the buyout, things have been gradually degrading. In the past few weeks, I hit my breaking point. HillRunner.com was not staying up reliably. My emails at times were not going through, especially to Yahoo and Hotmail recipients. Generally, things were just not working well. So I started researching other hosts to move to.
Just over a week ago, I made the decision of what host I would transfer HillRunner.com to. They have a great reputation for keeping websites up and customer service. In addition, they have cutting edge hardware that allows faster load speeds for websites they host. They also offer "no downtime" transfers.
A week from this evening, I pulled the trigger and began the process of moving HillRunner.com to the new host. As you probably know by now, the move wasn’t complete until 4 days later. Also, unfortunately, it was not "no downtime". There was an error in server configuration and HillRunner.com was completely down for most of the day Friday. It turns out I didn’t know all the details of how the new host’s support system works. Now that I do, I know how to get urgent issues looked at in a more timely manner.
However, the transfer is done now. We’re on a new server that, through the first few days once up and running on it, has proven to be a fair bit faster and much more reliable.
Bottom Line
I’m sorry for any troubles you may have faced in the past few weeks. Fortunately, those should now be behind us. HillRunner.com is on much better hardware and has a better support staff on hand in case the hardware or any of the systems on it fail. In addition, we should see speeds improve.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask.
This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.
Coach Conway: a big part of the reason I’m coaching now
A few people have asked me recently why I got into coaching and, specifically, why I got into coaching adult runners. I think that’s a very fair question so I’d like to share the story. This will also offer some background in my running.
In 1990, I got talked into going out for track by two friends. I didn’t really want to be there so I signed up for the sprints. I figured, in the sprints, at least it would be over quickly.
Fortunately, Coach Conway was the head coach of the middle school track team. He quickly realized that I didn’t have what it takes to be a sprinter but I might be a decent distance runner. Somehow, he convinced me to give distance running a shot and, as bad as I was at first, I stuck to it.
In high school, I still had Coach Conway guiding my running through my cross country seasons but, during my track seasons, I had Coach Knickerbocker. Both were incredible influences on my life, inside and outside of running.
I went on to college and had the opportunity to run under Coach Hall (now at the University of Chicago) who, like Coaches Conway and Knickerbocker, passed on an incredible amount of knowledge about running.
Along the way, I wanted more than anything to pay back all that my outstanding coaches gave me. However, all three were "pay it forward" kind of people. So I looked for ways to pass along the knowledge. That’s where HillRunner.com originally came from. In the spring of 1999, I decided it was time to establish a website where I could both learn from others and share what I had learned along the way.
As time went on, through HillRunner.com and other online sources, I saw a large segment of the running population that needed some guidance from experience. Many of us are runners who came up through the high school and maybe even college system. We learned things from our coaches that we simply take for granted. From generally what a year’s worth of training should look like to simple day to day things like how to avoid blisters and what to do if you get one or what to do if you twist your ankle.
However, many of us are also what I call "adult onset" runners. These runners didn’t start running until they were on their own. They didn’t have the benefit of having a high school coach to tell them all of these things. I tried sharing all the tips I could when I was asked or saw concerns raised but there was still something these people were missing. Through no fault of their own, they didn’t understand how to structure a training plan and how to adjust it as their training went on. They simply never had the guidance to learn such a thing.
In addition, I found that some runners who were coached at the beginning of their running lives either didn’t have the luxury of the outstanding coaching I was so fortunate to have or were typical high school kids and didn’t learn the lessons that were being taught. Or they simply wanted an outside perspective and guidance in their training, which can be a very large benefit for even the most knowledgeable, experienced runner.
In the interest if paying it forward, I wanted to serve these runners. I started working informally with runners in a limited capacity as early as 2001 or 2002. This worked well but my impact was limited. I could share some knowledge but I couldn’t really get in deep.
In 2010, I dove into the deep end. Not because I thought I’d get rich (I charge a lot more now than I did then but, if you shop around, I think you’ll still find I charge below market rates for someone with my experience). Because I was still looking to pay it forward. This blog itself is evidence that I want to continue to reach as many people as possible in a broad way. However, the coaching is a way to reach a relatively small segment of people in a very deep way through that close interaction that comes with a coach/athlete relationship. This year, of course, I also added a middle layer for people who want a deeper dive than the blogs offer but who feel they don’t need or can’t afford the full coaching option.
So that’s the story. For me, it’s all about giving back to the running community by "paying it forward" to thank the wonderful running community for all I was given by my coaches.
This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.
As I often say about our running, we need to balance our priorities.
I’m taking my own advice this summer. Living in Wisconsin, I need to take advantage of the summer weather while I can. I’m going to be giving myself more time to enjoy time with my family. Camping trips, trips to the park, evenings outside playing and so on. As a result, I’m going to go to a summer blogging schedule of one post a week, on Thursdays.
I’ll try to mix up the posts with some of the roundups that you normally see on Mondays and some of the original posts that you normally see on Thursdays but, to be honest, there will probably be more roundups.
I hope everyone understands and I hope everyone has a great summer. Monday posts will return on September 14, after the Labor Day weekend.
