I rolled over and grabbed my watch. It was 6:20 in the morning, 10 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. This is a frustrating feeling, but it saved me the excitement of trying to shut off my alarm quickly enough to not wake up any other camp staff in the cabin. The sun had already been awake for an hour, its heat shining through the window above my head and lighting up the room. The birds too had been awake and were doing their best to let the whole world know it. I checked the weather and slinked out of bed to go change into my running clothes.
My head still a little bit foggy, I put on my running shorts, tied up my shoes, and got a drink of water before heading out the door. I didn't bother putting on a shirt, because by the time I got to the camp mailbox I would be using the box for shirt storage anyway. Even though my legs were not ready, I started jogging down the gravel road. I could feel my shoes picking up dirt and flinging it onto the back of my legs and shorts, as it normally does the morning after rain. The only sound was the birds and my running.
My ears gradually adjusted to the sweet sound of shoes scraping against gravel. It is truly a unique sound that can put me into a good daydream just about any time. I ran along the road as it took a big turn to the northeast and out of camp past the mailboxes. Now I could see the sun shining brilliantly above the horizon, fracturing spectacularly off of the clouds still hanging above from the night's rain. As I headed north, I could see ahead of me a valley full of fog. To my right was a stunning small gorge headed down into the nearby lake. The cattle grazing there lifted their heads up to stare at me. Eventually they concluded I was safe, as they had every morning so far this week, and went back to grazing.
As the miles rolled by, full of long, easy, undulating hills on gravel roads, I loosened up and gathered myself into a groove. I allowed myself to daydream about the coming day when campers would come to camp for the first time this summer, I thought about next track season, and I thought about how great it could be to live somewhere like this someday. I went past my favorite fields to look at, more hilly valleys dotted with cattle, and was always accompanied by the sun illuminating the sleepy landscape. I had yet to see another human.
As I peaked over the hardest hill of the run on my way back, I could see a figure off in the distance. As I approached it, I could see the smiling face of Cassidy on her bike, out for a morning ride. She turned around and rode with me, commenting on the cows near the fence and how we had talked about them a few days before on a morning run/bike. She also mentioned how difficult it is to bike on wet gravel. I agreed. The conversation flowed, and I was lost in the beauty of it all. Before heading back into camp, I made sure to look around behind me to see the sun shining over the valleys, bouncing off the fog and spreading light everywhere. We came into the familiar camp and stopped in the parking lot. My time was faster than the last two days because Cassidy pushes me when riding her bike. I was wide awake now.
As we came to a stop in the muddy parking lot, I announced to her that I was going to do some hill sprints to keep building that strength. I would start by the lake and run up into the camp parking lot. I started walking through the soft, wet grass underneath a warm summer morning sky. I turned around to see Cassidy following me. She had her running shoes on. I smiled. The only sound was the birds.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Reflections on the School Year
Well because I like tying up loose ends and I won't be able to post as much this summer, I would like to compile a bunch of thoughts of mine together in one post to finish off the academic year.
The UND track team is currently in Washington getting ready to compete at the Big Sky Conference Championships at Eastern Washington University. Best of luck to them! Hopefully this weekend they can compete at a level worthy of representing this university and state, especially since this is one of the few conference meets the team will have that isn't at altitude.
As my language suggests, I am not with them. I had the marks enough to get into the meet, but instead I'm sitting in my practically empty and moved-out-of apartment by myself and typing this up, waiting for the Hoka One One Distance Classic to come on tonight*
On Saturday Coach and I were at the track, trying to see if we could salvage my season. After battling back from a shin injury, I had about a week and half healthy before my achilles flared up for really no good reason other than to smite my existence. Mentally I had handled the shin injury well and I was fully prepared to race my heart out at conference, however, the achilles crushed me. My body gave me sure and true signs that it was done for the season, but unfortunately the track season schedule showed differently. I held on, running as much as my leg would allow (which ended up never being more than 35 minutes a day) and doing some speed on grass. My body was tired, rehab was an annoyance, and my mind was in the gutter. I found myself wishing for my pain to stick around so I could get rid of the illusion of being able to compete well at conference (recall the Big Sky is a ridiculously fast conference for distance running). I hit the point where I couldn't even muster up the mental strength to cross train. We decided to have me not run at conference.
That, my friends, is burning-out and overtraining. And I've learned where it came from and why I'm 'injury prone'.
Due to my tame class schedule this semester I had an abundance of time to read, and boy did I READ. I read books about North Dakota settlers, historical figures, and running. Everything I read about running told me the same thing: everything I've been doing in my training is wrong. I wasn't eating the right foods, doing the right training, and I was doing extra things that weren't necessary. My first few years at UND looked like this:
1.) Wake up, eat sugary bowl of cereal
2.) Go to class and do 35 minutes of HARD cross-training on the bike/elliptical in the morning, leaving my legs exhausted.
3.) Eat at the dining center, which normally included at least one slice of pizza, desserts, and ice cream, with little-to-no fruits or vegetables.
4.) Afternoon practice, where no matter what we did I would go all-out, even though I was already tired.
5.) Back to the dining center for another bad example of a meal.
6.) Study, go to bed.
Woof. I look back at that and cringe. I wish my eyes would have been opened earlier! I was packing almost 2 hard hours a day into every day, 6 days a week. I can make it through cross country healthy every year, but by the time the grind of indoor and outdoor track rolls around, everything catches up with me. The reason I've only made it through indoor and outdoor without an injury once in FOUR years is because I don't treat my body right. I beat the crap out of it, neglect to give it the proper fuel for recovery, and then push it harder. Well eventually it breaks. I then take a break, go into summer training, come back arrogant and believing I can handle the world, and hammer it out even harder in the fall.
Why have I yet to get injured during the summer? I struggle at the Bible Camp to find time to get in my one run a day, and the food there is not unhealthy (there's better choices, but it's definitely not bad). I come into cross country healthy and with good miles on my legs, but most importantly they are not overworked. I do that to myself in my craze to be as fast as possible once the school year starts.
That's the juxtaposition of over-training. In the desire to push your body as far as it can go, you inadvertently do the exact opposite and set yourself back. Then mentally you chalk up the season as a loss, and once that happens you're pretty much done. I don't say all of this to invoke sympathy, but instead to shine light on the one incredibly important aspect of training that I learned about this year and have always neglected: recovery. I always thought that if I got my usual 9 hours of sleep each night (which I do), I could push and push during the day. WRONG.
WRONG.
WRONG.
Instead, recovery means that you are putting all of your focus into your running workouts. Whether you have two or three workouts in a week, those are what's important. Everything else- nutrition, sleep, easy runs- it all has the singular focus of making sure you are recovered for workouts. So I was getting enough sleep, but easy runs weren't being run easy, cross-training was hard every day, and I wasn't eating healthy. So it comes to me as no surprise that I end up 'injury prone'. The hard workouts were being done on an exhausted and improperly fueled body. As you may expect, this is all going to change next year. What I'm doing isn't working, so it's time for a change to a smarter and more generally accepted method of training.
(Note: this is not a critique of Coach Clay. Most of this stuff is a fault of mine, not what he assigned. Coach Clay is an amazing coach.)
As much as it sucks to be learning all of this information this late in my college career, it's awesome that I can pass it on to my teammates. We are all learning together now and really taking charge of the team. This UND distance squad is going to be strong in the coming years- watch out!
If you're still reading- I am impressed and hope you continue reading.
On a completely different note, this summer I have a personal goal to explore as many of the state's trails as possible. My Bible Camp is pretty centrally located in the state, so I can go exploring. The State of North Dakota does a fantastic job of maintaining state parks, many of which have hiking (or as I call them: running) trails. If you go to parkrec.nd.gov, they have a fantastic list of all the state parks and recreation areas, including all the trails and maps of them. I've been to a few of them already, and I can vouch for how well taken-care-of they are. My most recent visit was to the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area and WOW! it was amazing out there. A highly recommended visit for any runner looking for hilly trails.
So that's that. I'll be off the Bible Camp for the summer, where each day I try to squeeze my run into an already tight schedule, and my options are limited to an out-and-back run on the singular gravel road into camp. Every day I get to run on soft gravel in the country- I'm looking forward to that! And for next season- I'm looking forward to, for once, taking my training and doing it right.
As for all of you: get out and experience the beauty of North Dakota in the summer! Don't act like it's not there- go explore it! You'll be glad you did. Some of the most beautiful things in life are difficult to find, but when you do it's a thrill. I almost wonder if God created with that in mind.
Thanks for reading, have a great summer! Go UND!
*The Hoka One One Distance Classic (formerly the Oxy High Permance Meet) is a super-legit pro track meet with ONLY distance runners, and it's happening tonight and being streamed live on usatf.tv
The UND track team is currently in Washington getting ready to compete at the Big Sky Conference Championships at Eastern Washington University. Best of luck to them! Hopefully this weekend they can compete at a level worthy of representing this university and state, especially since this is one of the few conference meets the team will have that isn't at altitude.
As my language suggests, I am not with them. I had the marks enough to get into the meet, but instead I'm sitting in my practically empty and moved-out-of apartment by myself and typing this up, waiting for the Hoka One One Distance Classic to come on tonight*
On Saturday Coach and I were at the track, trying to see if we could salvage my season. After battling back from a shin injury, I had about a week and half healthy before my achilles flared up for really no good reason other than to smite my existence. Mentally I had handled the shin injury well and I was fully prepared to race my heart out at conference, however, the achilles crushed me. My body gave me sure and true signs that it was done for the season, but unfortunately the track season schedule showed differently. I held on, running as much as my leg would allow (which ended up never being more than 35 minutes a day) and doing some speed on grass. My body was tired, rehab was an annoyance, and my mind was in the gutter. I found myself wishing for my pain to stick around so I could get rid of the illusion of being able to compete well at conference (recall the Big Sky is a ridiculously fast conference for distance running). I hit the point where I couldn't even muster up the mental strength to cross train. We decided to have me not run at conference.
That, my friends, is burning-out and overtraining. And I've learned where it came from and why I'm 'injury prone'.
Due to my tame class schedule this semester I had an abundance of time to read, and boy did I READ. I read books about North Dakota settlers, historical figures, and running. Everything I read about running told me the same thing: everything I've been doing in my training is wrong. I wasn't eating the right foods, doing the right training, and I was doing extra things that weren't necessary. My first few years at UND looked like this:
1.) Wake up, eat sugary bowl of cereal
2.) Go to class and do 35 minutes of HARD cross-training on the bike/elliptical in the morning, leaving my legs exhausted.
3.) Eat at the dining center, which normally included at least one slice of pizza, desserts, and ice cream, with little-to-no fruits or vegetables.
4.) Afternoon practice, where no matter what we did I would go all-out, even though I was already tired.
5.) Back to the dining center for another bad example of a meal.
6.) Study, go to bed.
Woof. I look back at that and cringe. I wish my eyes would have been opened earlier! I was packing almost 2 hard hours a day into every day, 6 days a week. I can make it through cross country healthy every year, but by the time the grind of indoor and outdoor track rolls around, everything catches up with me. The reason I've only made it through indoor and outdoor without an injury once in FOUR years is because I don't treat my body right. I beat the crap out of it, neglect to give it the proper fuel for recovery, and then push it harder. Well eventually it breaks. I then take a break, go into summer training, come back arrogant and believing I can handle the world, and hammer it out even harder in the fall.
Why have I yet to get injured during the summer? I struggle at the Bible Camp to find time to get in my one run a day, and the food there is not unhealthy (there's better choices, but it's definitely not bad). I come into cross country healthy and with good miles on my legs, but most importantly they are not overworked. I do that to myself in my craze to be as fast as possible once the school year starts.
That's the juxtaposition of over-training. In the desire to push your body as far as it can go, you inadvertently do the exact opposite and set yourself back. Then mentally you chalk up the season as a loss, and once that happens you're pretty much done. I don't say all of this to invoke sympathy, but instead to shine light on the one incredibly important aspect of training that I learned about this year and have always neglected: recovery. I always thought that if I got my usual 9 hours of sleep each night (which I do), I could push and push during the day. WRONG.
WRONG.
WRONG.
Instead, recovery means that you are putting all of your focus into your running workouts. Whether you have two or three workouts in a week, those are what's important. Everything else- nutrition, sleep, easy runs- it all has the singular focus of making sure you are recovered for workouts. So I was getting enough sleep, but easy runs weren't being run easy, cross-training was hard every day, and I wasn't eating healthy. So it comes to me as no surprise that I end up 'injury prone'. The hard workouts were being done on an exhausted and improperly fueled body. As you may expect, this is all going to change next year. What I'm doing isn't working, so it's time for a change to a smarter and more generally accepted method of training.
(Note: this is not a critique of Coach Clay. Most of this stuff is a fault of mine, not what he assigned. Coach Clay is an amazing coach.)
As much as it sucks to be learning all of this information this late in my college career, it's awesome that I can pass it on to my teammates. We are all learning together now and really taking charge of the team. This UND distance squad is going to be strong in the coming years- watch out!
If you're still reading- I am impressed and hope you continue reading.
On a completely different note, this summer I have a personal goal to explore as many of the state's trails as possible. My Bible Camp is pretty centrally located in the state, so I can go exploring. The State of North Dakota does a fantastic job of maintaining state parks, many of which have hiking (or as I call them: running) trails. If you go to parkrec.nd.gov, they have a fantastic list of all the state parks and recreation areas, including all the trails and maps of them. I've been to a few of them already, and I can vouch for how well taken-care-of they are. My most recent visit was to the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area and WOW! it was amazing out there. A highly recommended visit for any runner looking for hilly trails.
So that's that. I'll be off the Bible Camp for the summer, where each day I try to squeeze my run into an already tight schedule, and my options are limited to an out-and-back run on the singular gravel road into camp. Every day I get to run on soft gravel in the country- I'm looking forward to that! And for next season- I'm looking forward to, for once, taking my training and doing it right.
As for all of you: get out and experience the beauty of North Dakota in the summer! Don't act like it's not there- go explore it! You'll be glad you did. Some of the most beautiful things in life are difficult to find, but when you do it's a thrill. I almost wonder if God created with that in mind.
Thanks for reading, have a great summer! Go UND!
*The Hoka One One Distance Classic (formerly the Oxy High Permance Meet) is a super-legit pro track meet with ONLY distance runners, and it's happening tonight and being streamed live on usatf.tv
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Why I Run #2- The People
(My first post of reasons why I run was my parents, and that can be found back in February.)
I've had two interesting events this week that have reminded me of why I love running so much.
The first was on Tuesday evening at the pool. I've been battling through a minor injury to my achilles, and as a result I have found myself aquajogging at the pool twice a week in an effort to maintain some level of fitness. On this particular night I was doing something that I do every time I go to the pool: standing on the edge, too afraid to jump in because of how cold the water is. During this time of courage-building, I was tapped on the shoulder, and I turned around to see none other than the familiar face of a guy named Justin that I raced against in high school. He had a lot more upper body muscle that he used to, but it was the same face and same voice.
You see, one of the benefits of growing up in the running atmosphere of North Dakota high school cross country and track is that you have more than just a general knowledge of who you are racing. In college, you can see the PR's of runners from other teams, but rarely do you KNOW someone you race against. You may share pleasantries after a race, but cooldowns with another team? Unheard of.
I ran for West Fargo high school, and Grand Forks Central was our biggest distance rival when I was in the latter part of my high school career. It seemed as if every year we would be counting points to see if we could beat them at conference, and yet we befriended them. We would on occasion go on cooldowns together, talk to each other before and after the race, and even converse on social media from time to time. I even knew their head coach and talked to him every now and again. When we raced, my goal was to beat them; when we weren't racing, my goal was to KNOW them.
This wasn't an isolated incident. Not only did I have a pretty good relationship with most of the top 20 in the conference, but they all knew each other too. It was like a bond that I can't really explain. In college, runners on other teams are just that: runners. In high school it was like racing against people, not runners. This may seem like a crazy guy talking, but I really miss the relationships I had with the people I raced against every week. Shane, Tom, Justin, Paul, Francis, Habimana, Tanner, Dana, Daniel, Jaden, Brandon, Francis, Shanley, and Owen are just a few of the names of people on other teams that I can, off the top of my head, remember having good times with at meets in high school.
To us, this was normal. We never thought anything of it. However, I learned in college that this was not a widespread practice. I started coming across teammates who didn't KNOW the people they finished next to at meets- they were simply names on the results. It was kind of like college in that the atmosphere of the team trumped all. In fact, I even experienced this when I played high school baseball, when I didn't know anybody on the opposing teams- that just wasn't the atmosphere presented.
So what's my point? When I ran into Justin at the pool and we got to talking, I was flooded with good memories from high school where running was less about winning and times (don't get me wrong, we still raced our hearts out to beat each other- I'm looking at you Paul) and more about having fun. I've started trying to do that in college- getting to KNOW people on other teams- and I've had a lot of fun with it! People are actually receptive if you go and talk to them and ask them questions that have nothing to do with running!
That's why I love running- the people.
The second event was just this morning while watching the live video feed for the Fargo Marathon.
First let me try to explain something. I've had an enormous problem with relating to the 'average' runner in the past. The idea of running a race simply to try to finish it is something I don't understand, because our training revolves around how fast to run the race- finishing is already assumed. Additionally, the paces that we train for are much faster than the times that hundreds and thousands of people run for their races. In fact, in my early college years I had almost a snarky attitude towards these runners, because I would say to myself 'what's the point of running if it's that slow?' ...How terrible is that?
Well now when I watch the Fargo Marathon, I become inspired. Look at all these people putting everything they have into the race! They don't care about winning- the race and what they are racing for is what matters. A quote from one of the announcers stood out to me: "Every single person has a story. I just saw two ladies cross the finish line holding hands- they probably have a story that would bring a tear to anybody’s eye." YES. Going into this week I started seeing social media fill up with posts about all the reasons that people are running: faith, family, friends, non-profits, assisting hunger, etc...and it got me pumped! On race day I saw all the jerseys people were wearing to support all the different organizations and it lifted me up. I saw the people in costumes having legitimate fun during their race and I was excited for them! I saw people from all over the world come to North Dakota for a great experience that only running can provide. Or should I say an experience that only people can provide?
What is a race without people to race against? What is a race without race organizers (in today's modern world anyway)?
What is a race without somebody to share it with? So many people in my life I've met ONLY because of running- no other reason would have me crossing paths with them. What I learned in high school is that it's ok to be friends with the enemy. What I've learned in college is that it's still ok to be friends with the enemy. Why? Because that's what running does: it brings people together in a way that few other things can. We understand each other.
And that's why I run: the great people to share it with.
(P.S. EDC guys- I wish I could say how much I enjoyed racing with you all)
Have a Great Day!
I've had two interesting events this week that have reminded me of why I love running so much.
The first was on Tuesday evening at the pool. I've been battling through a minor injury to my achilles, and as a result I have found myself aquajogging at the pool twice a week in an effort to maintain some level of fitness. On this particular night I was doing something that I do every time I go to the pool: standing on the edge, too afraid to jump in because of how cold the water is. During this time of courage-building, I was tapped on the shoulder, and I turned around to see none other than the familiar face of a guy named Justin that I raced against in high school. He had a lot more upper body muscle that he used to, but it was the same face and same voice.
You see, one of the benefits of growing up in the running atmosphere of North Dakota high school cross country and track is that you have more than just a general knowledge of who you are racing. In college, you can see the PR's of runners from other teams, but rarely do you KNOW someone you race against. You may share pleasantries after a race, but cooldowns with another team? Unheard of.
I ran for West Fargo high school, and Grand Forks Central was our biggest distance rival when I was in the latter part of my high school career. It seemed as if every year we would be counting points to see if we could beat them at conference, and yet we befriended them. We would on occasion go on cooldowns together, talk to each other before and after the race, and even converse on social media from time to time. I even knew their head coach and talked to him every now and again. When we raced, my goal was to beat them; when we weren't racing, my goal was to KNOW them.
This wasn't an isolated incident. Not only did I have a pretty good relationship with most of the top 20 in the conference, but they all knew each other too. It was like a bond that I can't really explain. In college, runners on other teams are just that: runners. In high school it was like racing against people, not runners. This may seem like a crazy guy talking, but I really miss the relationships I had with the people I raced against every week. Shane, Tom, Justin, Paul, Francis, Habimana, Tanner, Dana, Daniel, Jaden, Brandon, Francis, Shanley, and Owen are just a few of the names of people on other teams that I can, off the top of my head, remember having good times with at meets in high school.
To us, this was normal. We never thought anything of it. However, I learned in college that this was not a widespread practice. I started coming across teammates who didn't KNOW the people they finished next to at meets- they were simply names on the results. It was kind of like college in that the atmosphere of the team trumped all. In fact, I even experienced this when I played high school baseball, when I didn't know anybody on the opposing teams- that just wasn't the atmosphere presented.
So what's my point? When I ran into Justin at the pool and we got to talking, I was flooded with good memories from high school where running was less about winning and times (don't get me wrong, we still raced our hearts out to beat each other- I'm looking at you Paul) and more about having fun. I've started trying to do that in college- getting to KNOW people on other teams- and I've had a lot of fun with it! People are actually receptive if you go and talk to them and ask them questions that have nothing to do with running!
That's why I love running- the people.
The second event was just this morning while watching the live video feed for the Fargo Marathon.
First let me try to explain something. I've had an enormous problem with relating to the 'average' runner in the past. The idea of running a race simply to try to finish it is something I don't understand, because our training revolves around how fast to run the race- finishing is already assumed. Additionally, the paces that we train for are much faster than the times that hundreds and thousands of people run for their races. In fact, in my early college years I had almost a snarky attitude towards these runners, because I would say to myself 'what's the point of running if it's that slow?' ...How terrible is that?
Well now when I watch the Fargo Marathon, I become inspired. Look at all these people putting everything they have into the race! They don't care about winning- the race and what they are racing for is what matters. A quote from one of the announcers stood out to me: "Every single person has a story. I just saw two ladies cross the finish line holding hands- they probably have a story that would bring a tear to anybody’s eye." YES. Going into this week I started seeing social media fill up with posts about all the reasons that people are running: faith, family, friends, non-profits, assisting hunger, etc...and it got me pumped! On race day I saw all the jerseys people were wearing to support all the different organizations and it lifted me up. I saw the people in costumes having legitimate fun during their race and I was excited for them! I saw people from all over the world come to North Dakota for a great experience that only running can provide. Or should I say an experience that only people can provide?
What is a race without people to race against? What is a race without race organizers (in today's modern world anyway)?
What is a race without somebody to share it with? So many people in my life I've met ONLY because of running- no other reason would have me crossing paths with them. What I learned in high school is that it's ok to be friends with the enemy. What I've learned in college is that it's still ok to be friends with the enemy. Why? Because that's what running does: it brings people together in a way that few other things can. We understand each other.
And that's why I run: the great people to share it with.
(P.S. EDC guys- I wish I could say how much I enjoyed racing with you all)
Have a Great Day!
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