The Boston Marathon

One of the biggest and most anticipated Marathons just happened this past Monday. The Boston Marathon attracted over 36,000 in this year's event. I live in New Hampshire, about an hour from Boston and everybody gets very excited for the event. Many drive into the city to experience the exciting atmosphere.

People always ask me, since I am a distance runner, if I will ever run the race. I would love to run the Boston Marathon someday. With a busy college track schedule in the spring, it is impossible to run the marathon until I am out of college. A 26 mile race takes a large toll on the body for a longer period of time that most people think. The body takes weeks to recover which is the reason most distance runners who like to compete in multiple marathons only run in a couple per year.

Someday I will run the Boston Marathon so I can say I ran in one of the most prestigious marathons in the world. I believe it is a special feeling to run the race and viewers respect the runners for it,

The Best Exercises for Improving Running Form

Distance runners focus on strengthening key muscle groups to become faster runners.  These exercises can make you a substantially fast runner by improving posture, lengthening your stride, and keeping you feeling tall when racing.

To begin, the abdominal muscles are are extremely important to prevent a runner from hunching over when feeling fatigue late in a race. I work my abdominal muscles every other day. I work my abs by doing 10 minutes of planks, crunches, bicycles, leg raises, toe touches, Russian twists, and many more exercises.

The second muscle group that is necessary to strengthen in order to improve performance are the gluteus and hips. Having strong gluteus can help you run with better form, therefor using less energy. It also allows the runner to have a longer stride on each step. If a runner can step a couple inches further on each stride over a 5 mile race, much time can be made up.

Having strong hamstrings is another very important muscle group to strengthen. These muscles can really help a runner with speed and running up hills. Whether you are running a 400 meter sprint or side by side with a competitor at the end of a 5 mile race, having strong hamstrings will help you sprint and beat out the competition. The main hamstring exercises my team does are weighted single leg Bulgarian split squats and single leg deadlifts.

Idolizing Professional Runners

The olympics is one of the only times where viewers who do not compete in or follow track and field actually watch the events and hear about the professionals who have been training for years.  People become very interested in the different track events and the individuals competing in them. For a track athlete like myself, I follow these athletes on social media and read about them every day. I idolize these professional distance runners because I can relate to how hard they train and the strict lifestyle that they live to be successful.

I also understand exactly how fast their personal records are. Some of the American professionals that I follow are Leo Manzano (ran a mile in 3:50), Galen Rupp (ran a 5k in 12:58) and Nick Symmonds (ran the half mile in 1:42.9) 

Knowing how amazing these runners are is the reason I am very interested in how they train, what their daily routines are like, how many miles they run per day, and what kind of food they eat. I believe that the closer I can match the training of these professionals the better runner I will be. 

Running with Teammates

How many activities can you think of become easier when someone doing it with you, pushing to working harder? With distance running, I find this one of the most important aspect to quality training. Running with teammates makes training easier. This goes for almost any sport because teammates push each other to improve and maintain the motivation. The unique part of training with other in distance runners is that is allows your body to push forward easier than your mind thought would be possible.

Who wants to do a 14 mile long run alone? Part of distance training includes a long run one time per week that is 3 to 5 miles longer than your usual run. This run can be awfully boring with nobody to talk with to pass the time. The long run can also be a struggle during the last 3 miles on some days. Running with a team makes the time go by much quicker while also maintaining the same pace throughout the entire run. Knowing that I will have my team to talk with, crack jokes and tell stories with on a 14 mile run is much more fun and exciting than knowing I will be alone in silence, constantly looking at my watch to see how many more miles I have left to run.

Reaching Peak Shape for the Biggest Meet

The biggest meets of the cross country season are the Big South Conference Championship, the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship and the NCAA National Championship. All of these meets occur one weekend after another during the end of October and early November. These races hold the  highest level competition and the the most meaningful races for HPU to perform our best at.

In order for us to be at our peak shape for these races, we build and train hard throughout the season. It is impossible for any runner to run his/her best at every meet of the season. In order to be strong at the end, we have to train through meets that occur during the early and middle parts of the season. When I say "training through" the early season meets, I mean we may be a little sore for a race from a tough workout 2 or 3 days prior to the meet. If we let up and had a whole bunch of easy days leading up to every race, it would take away from how fit we could be at the end of the season when it really matter.

Leading up to the Big South Conference Championship, our team takes the whole week leading up to the race fairly easy. We have easier workouts. Instead of running 10 miles a day, we may only run 7 or 8. We also stop weight training in the gym. This allows our legs to feel fresh and ready to go on race day.

Overcoming Time Off From Injury

As much as distance runners do everything we can to prevent injuries from occurring, sometimes they still happen. I stretch my legs every night, use a foam roller, takes ice path and do injury prevention exercises such as gluteus muscle strengthening to prevent injury. My approach to stay injury free has been a success since I began running 8 years ago with only a couple minor bumps along the way. Unfortunately, this winter track season, I got injured with tendonitis on the top of my foot.
The tendonitis prevented me from running at all for a full 2 months. Tendonitis is the type of injury that if you do not let it heal completely before running again, it will not go away and instead become more painful. Just because I did not run during these past 2 months does not mean I did not work hard to stay in shape. Every day I would bike or swim for a full hour to keep my stamina high. I would also do a 20 minute core workout every other day and workout in the gym twice a week. All of this work helps maintain a high aerobic base and muscles strong allowing for an easier comeback to running when the injury is gone.
I finally started running again this past week. It is always a tough start when you haven't run for a while. I have been running 3 miles per day this past week and plan only slowly working my way back up to 10 miles a day by summertime.

Staying Motivated Every Day (NO Excuses)

As I discussed in my previous blog post, distance running is a year round sport because we compete into the fall for cross country, through the end of the winter for indoor track, and finally, through the early summer of outdoor track season.

The day-to-day motivation to get out the door for a run, workout, or strength training session always changes. Over the past 8 years, I have experienced just about every reason to skip a day of training including, I am too tired, too sore, sick with a sore throat, it's too cold outside, its raining, its snowing, its dark out, its too late, its too early, I'm taking a trip into the city with my friends today, too much homework,  I have a test tomorrow or I ran further than usual yesterday.

These are none of my excuses not to run. During the season, besides an injury, I only take 2-3 days off per month. Any great college or professional distance runner knows, if you have excuses you're not going to be great. Whenever these excuses pop into my mind before a run, I immediately think about my long term goal at stake. I face the fact that every day of running is not going to be perfect. In fact, very few days throughout the year are going to feel perfect for a run. Distance runners do everything we can to make every situation as perfect as we can.

Distance Running - The Year Round Sport

Distance running is a year round sport. You train all summer long to be in peak shape for fall cross country season. After cross country ends in late November, runners take about a week off before slowly ramping up the training for winter track. We train over winter break so we are ready to compete from late January through the Big South Indoor Championship in early March. Spring track starts in late March so much runners only take a couple days completely off of running between the winter and spring season. Spring track can go all the way through late May if you are good enough to make it to the NCAA National Championship in Oregon.

To have the motivation to run year round, you either really love running every day, have high ambitions with huge goals that are months away, or both. As for me, I train hard and run every day more because of the desire to win and exceed my goals at the National level more-so than the enjoyment of running every day. My love for distance running is because of my competitive instinct. I would not go for a 10 mile run every day just for the enjoyment of running 10 miles. Each run an each workout pulls me closer to that end goal I set for myself and gives me an advantage over all the other college distance runners I compete against.

Team is Family

As a team, we are with each other for over 3 hours every day. We practice together, eat together, travel together, and hang out together. Almost everything we do is with our teammates. Because we live the same strict lifestyle, teammates are just like family. It is great having a close to team to train with for many reasons. The number 1 reason is because we motivate each other. We motivate each other to run on days 1 of the members does not want to run or push one another to get through a tough workout on a day of the the guys may be run down and tired. This is the most effective ways to become a better athlete and also push teammates to improve a fast rate.

Traveling to Competition

One of the fun parts about track and cross country meets is seeing a new school for the first time during weekend competition. Since my freshman year, I have raced at many different sites all over the east region and parts of the central region of the U.S.  Some of the schools and sites we have traveled to for races include, the Armory Track in New York City, Louisville, UVA, Arkansas, Tennessee, Clemson, and Coast Carolina at Myrtle Beach.

It is always fun seeing what different schools look like and also have and making the most of the trip. When the track raced in NYC, after the race, we went to Time Square for lunch and shopped for a little while before flying back to High Point. I enjoy short getaways once in a while. These trips give me something to look forward to on the weekend besides the race.

Impact of Diet on Running Performance

Having a good diet is just as crucial to run a fast mile or 5k as rest and training. Many people think distance runners can eat whatever we want since we burn over 1,000 calories a day on a 10 mile run. Although it is true that distance runners can eat all the desserts and junk food we want without gaining a single pound, the effects on daily energy level will drop and the runner's body fat % will rise which will also effect performance.

There are many benefits that eating healthy can have on the body including:

• Increased recovery rate between workouts
• Higher energy level
• More consistent energy level throughout the day
• Stronger muscles
• Better mood
• Feeling lighter when running
• More toned body

I became conscious of my diet during senior year as a high school distance runner. I began eating 1 bag of spinach every day to see if I performance would improve. I thought of this idea after hearing other runners talk about how green vegetables are so important for the body because they are rich in iron, and many vitamins and minerals I don't even know about.  My senior year cross country and track seasons happened to be my best season ever up to that point and I experienced my biggest improvement ever. As a competitive distance runner at the elite level, cutting 6 or 7 seconds off a mile time is huge. My improvement from 4:19 to 4:12 senior year is mostly a result from my diet.
I replaced hamburgers with sandwiches on wheat bread, fries with potatoes and vegetables, fish instead of pizza, fruit and yogurt for dessert instead of chocolate cake and grilled food instead of fried. In order to take fitness goals and performance to the next level, this is the commitment I feel was needed.

Staying Injury Free

Many people wonder how a distance runner can run so many miles per day/per week without constantly getting injured. Running over 10 miles a day or 75 miles in a week does take a toll on the body. The training requires me to get a lot more rest than the average person. I did not suddenly begin running 10 miles a day. Working up the intense training that my team and I do was a gradual increase over a long period of time.  I began competing as a distance runner 8 years ago when I was a freshman in high school.  Back when I first began running track, I only ran about 2 or 3 miles per day, or 20 miles in a week. Each year forward, I slowly increase the milage. I reached about 40 miles a week as a sophomore and between 50 and 60 as a senior. The same progression has occurred throughout college. The body adapts to small changes that take place over time and builds up the muscles around the knees, shins and ankles to protect the bones.

Even with the gradual increases in our training, many injuries that can occur that we work hard to prevent. Injuries such as shin splints, tendonitis, stress fractures, and pulled muscles can occur and we prevent these injuries from happening by the exercises that we do at the Biomechanics Lab located next to the Oak Hollow Mall. Many of the workouts we do at the lab strengthen our weaker muscle groups to take pressure off other parts of our bodies when we are running. Important muscle groups involved with running include a strong core, lower back, gluteus muscles, hamstrings and calves. Strengthening these muscles improves running form and help runners to become less injury prone.

HPU Biomechanics Lab

The Time Commitment

Division 1 athletics take up a lot of time during the day. As a distance runner on the track and cross country team at High Point University, a typical daily practice includes running about 10 miles, 20 minutes of stretching and foam rolling, 15 minutes of core/planks and ice baths. 2.5 hours quickly disappear from the day.  This amount of time does not include afternoon weight strengthening sessions, appropriate rest, team meetings and bus rides to off-campus running trails. Weekends track meets also take up a bulk of our time. We are easily gone for a full day to two days when traveling to compete at schools such as Louisville, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Penn State, Arkansas, and Columbia.

In this blog, I will continue to describe and give current updates on different aspects of what it is like to be a NCAA track and cross country runner including diet, practices, easy vs. hard days, balancing school work and athletics, competition and more.