SUPER TRAINING BLOCKS: reach a NeW LeVeL OF FITNeSS

JanUary/FeBrUary 2014 // ISSUE 413

BETTER
ThaN eVer
ScheDULe a BREAKTHROUGH IN 2014
FIX WeaKNeSSeS
GaIN eNDUraNce
DeVeLOP TOP-eND SPeeD
PLaN PeaK PerFOrMaNceS

WINTER SHOE GUIDE

13 NEW TRAIL OPTIONS
KEEP YOUR FOOTING THROUGH
SNOW, SLeeT & SLUSh

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hOW a War, a cOach’S DeFecTION, aND a
reVOLUTIONarY TraINING SYSTeM LeD TO
The GreaTeST era IN aMerIcaN TracK

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Stephanie Howe
Ultra rUnner trains in
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 CONTENTS JANUARy/FEBRUARy 2014 // issue 413

FEATURES_

28 SchEdUlE A BREAkThRoUgh
This year, don’t settle for more of the same. Take time to retool, build new
skills, get stronger and emerge faster than ever. by Jonathan Dugas

36 Alpine Running: ViVe lA DifféRence

Trail racing in Europe? Plan for the challenge of a lifetime.

41 2014 WinteR tRAil Shoe guiDe

’Tis the season for extra traction. by Adam W. Chase

52 out of hungARy
How a brilliant immigrant coach and his protégés launched
the greatest era in American track. by Rich Elliott
62
colUMNS_

12 peRfoRmAnce pAge by Greg McMillan, M.S.

Mix It Up: Trying new strategies in 2014 could reinvigorate your running.

14 gRAnDStAnD VieW by Parker Morse

In Praise of Piracy: How race buccaneering is good for fans.

dEPARTMENTS_

04 EdIToR’S NoTE: Defining success and failure in the new year

06 lETTERS: True world championships, not a hypothetical, from the field
08 ShoRTS: 12 great reasons to run, Ryan Hill, Prague’s running mall
17
22
oWNER’S MANUAl: Supercompensation, gastrocnemius, protein power
collEgE: Advice from recent college graduates
52
24 MASTERS: Kristi Rossi
26 TRAIlS: Winter trail gear and accessories
From Top:  Ken Schuh/Ultra Race Photos  AP Photo  Kelvin Trautman/Courtesy of Transalpine-Run

59 RAcINg: Hill climbs, Stephanie Howe, historic female marathoners

68 ART oF ThE RUN: Agassiz Uphill Race in Flagstaff, Ariz.

COVER ART

36
Ultrarunner Stephanie Howe trains in Bend, Ore.
design by Tyler Beckwith / photo by Chris Pietsch

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 Editor’s notE
Contributors
Rich Elliott
In Praise in a race would seem appropriate, but this is
hard to assess, and even if we could, the mea-
sure is fraught with problems: Do you reward
was the first Illi-
nois high schooler
to break 9 minutes
of Struggle the best effort given today’s fitness? Or the
best compared to how much the runner has
in the 2-mile, and
he ran at Kansas
and Failure improved? Or the best relative to some mea- University in an era

T
surement of his or her potential? Even within when the track team was more famous
he beginning of a new year inspires our own assessment, the hardest possible than the basketball team. Elliott had
us to look back at the previous goal in a race is to do your best (your best careers as a high school English teacher,
year’s successes and forward to being the maximum of your potential), yet a coach and an editor before pursuing
new goals. When we assess suc- the phrase carries a stigma of wimpy justi- writing. He is the author of The Competi-
cess, however, what do we consider fication: You didn’t win, you didn’t meet the tive Edge: Mental Preparation for Distance
most important? goal, but you “did your best.” Running, and editor of the anthology Run-
Are our greatest achievements in areas There’s a reason for this: Competition is ners on Running: The Best Nonfiction of
where we demonstrated practiced and com- against others, and champions gain honor Distance Running. In this issue, he tells the
fortable skill, or areas where we developed and resources. In a Darwinian world, it history of Mihály Iglói and the Los Ange-
new abilities? Is it better to win a race easily, doesn’t matter if you did your best; if you les Track Club. “My first high school coach
or to struggle mightily and finish second—or fall behind the pack you still get eaten. had run with the LATC,” Elliot says, “and
1,002nd? Is it preferred to fail at an aggres- For most of us, however, who never stand so as a young runner I heard many refer-
sive goal, or to “be smart,” keep expectations on a podium or make a living from running, ences to Iglói and Beatty, who became, for
low and ensure success? we needn’t be tied to status or convention. me, these larger-than-life figures. In recent
An NPR story last fall explored how We can assess the success of our running years, I’ve been thrilled to see American
answers to these questions can differ among in the manner that serves us best. Perhaps distance runners do so well on the world
cultures in relation to education. Whereas we would do better, and be happier, to take scene. Their achievements got me think-
in a Western classroom, wrestling to grasp a more Japanese view of success, celebrat- ing about the breakthrough in American
a concept is often seen as a sign of intel- ing struggle as much as skill, or an Icelandic running in the 1960s. I felt there was an
lectual weakness, in Japan, struggling is perspective, risking much and relishing dar- interesting story about this rise that not
an expected part of the process. In a Jap- ing failures. too many people today were aware of.”
anese classroom, facing and overcoming Too often I fall into the good-as-your-last-
difficulty is celebrated, not something to race mentality. I measure my worth as a
be embarrassed about. The story told how runner by what I can do today, and spend my Jonathan
a student who failed to comprehend a prob- effort proving my place in the pecking order. Dugas
lem was called to the front to work it out on When this happens I can never have an “off” has a doctorate in
the board, and how he struggled all period period to recover and work on weaknesses, exercise physiology
until he got it—a process that would leave a nor can I take chances and risk ending up from the Univer-
U.S. student mortified. worse than my status quo. sity of Cape Town,
As I read the book The Geography of Bliss In this issue, we encourage you to treat where he worked
last fall, another cultural comparison made 2014 differently. As you set goals, don’t set- with Professor Tim Noakes. He is the co-
me consider my view of success. In a chap- tle for normal. Plan your year with building founder of The Science of Sport website
ter on Iceland, author Eric Weiner proposes periods and peaks, as laid out in “Schedule and co-author of The Runner’s Body. He
that one reason people there are happier a Breakthrough” on page 28. Dream of big currently works as the director of clini-
than people in other countries is because escapes and daring challenges, such as a cal development at The Vitality Group in
they have freedom to fail. “Failure doesn’t European alpine trail race where they don’t Chicago, is a Category 3 cyclist, and has a
carry a stigma,” the author’s Icelandic expect you to finish (page 36). Risk a train- 2:48 marathon PR. “Until I was exposed
informer tells him. “In a way, we admire ing overload to see if you can catapult your to periodization, my training was pretty
failure. We like people who fail if they fail fitness to a new level (page 17). Be brave. Be typical,” says Dugas, who wrote “Sched-
From Top:  Courtesy of Rich Elliott    Courtesy of Jonathan Dugas 

with the best intentions.” People are freer countercultural. Success is yours to define. • ule a Breakthrough” in this issue. “I bashed
to chase dreams. through my increasingly harder weeks
How do our views on struggle and failure Jonathan Beverly, of both intensity and volume, relying on
affect our running lives? Do we celebrate Editor-in-Chief motivation and my (young) age to keep
current ability, but leave little room for not- me going—even with minor injuries. That
ing improvement? Do we stifle progress by changed when I bought into periodization
dismissing those who fail to keep up on any and began to apply it. While injuries did not
given day as inferior or “has-beens?” Does become a thing of the past, I reduced their
our system reward gifted athletes—those occurrence by carefully building to the
who chose their parents well—more than edge and then incorporating rest to bal-
those who work hard? ance the heavy training. I believe everyone
Honoring those who overcame the most can benefit from employing this approach.”
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 LETTERS

TRUE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS an annual trail world ultra championship. In

IRON AND RUNNING: WHY IT’S IMPORTANT, WHAT TO TEST
The article, “Who is the Champion?” [Rac- 2013, the new IAU Trail World Championship
ing, October/November] asks a question hosted teams from 17 different countries.
about “ultra’s true championship race,” By contrast, in 2012, UROC hosted a few
referring to the Ultra Race of Champions athletes from Canada, Great Britain and
®

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 // ISSUE 411

UNLOCK THE (UROC) as a possible answer. The average one from Japan. The rest were Americans.
MARATHON reader might be surprised that a world cham- UROC, in its three years, has shown itself to
CODE
DETAILS ON KEY TRAINING ELEMENTS
TOP COACHES’ LATEST THINKING
pionship at the 100K distance has been held
annually for almost a quarter century, and a
be a fine, exciting, elite-focused ultra event.
But one could say the same about any of two
CREATING YOUR PERFECT PLAN
24-hour world title event has been held for dozen American ultras.
THRIVE ON a decade. Do UROC and RT mean to suggest It seems that the question “Who is the
ADVERSITY
LESSONS FROM ALASKA’S
BEST CROSS COUNTRY TEAM
that either of these “World Ultra Champion- champion?” and the suggestion that one
FALL 2013SHOEGUIDE
ships” is a “false” championship? new American event may hold the answer
MORE BOUNCE, To be fair, UROC focuses on a desire to is unwarranted and misleading.
LESS SQUISH
SHOES RETURN TO CUSHIONING have a trail ultra world championship, and
PM40063752
the established, IAAF-endorsed events are DAN BRANNEN/ MORRISTOWN, N.J.
road events. What is a top trail ultrarunning EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, A MERIC A N
JANET CHEROBON-BAWCOM

ULTR A RUNNING A SSOCI ATION

U.S. OLYMPIAN AND ROAD CHAMPION
TRAINS IN FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ., FOR
THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON specialist to do?
For the past five years the International
Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) has hosted

Ô WRITE TO US. Ô KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING.

Send your emails to [email protected] with your Join us on our forums. Go to:
address included. Letters may be edited for clarity and brevity. community.runningtimes.com

(ADVERTI

06 / RUNNINGTIMES_JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
 UPDATE FROM THE FIELD Jeffrey Eggleston, who wrote about his serial
NOT A HYPOTHETICAL Here’s how some of the pros featured on our racing in May 2013, was one place behind
In “About Time” [Grandstand View, Octo- pages last year fared at the 2013 New York Vail in 2:16:35.
ber/November], Parker Morse laments that City Marathon:
elites run for time too often and suggests Mike Cassidy, who told us about his training
special considerations be given to runners Diane Nukuri Johnson, on our October 2012 in our April 2013 issue Shorts, finished 22nd in
who win “regardless of how fast they need cover, placed 10th in 2:30:09, just seconds 2:23:46, hand in hand with Meb Keflezighi,
to run.” He admits, “Some might worry that shy of her 2:29:54 PR set at last year’s Bos- who was the subject of our January 2013
an increased focus on place instead of time ton Marathon. cover story.
would lead to more tactical races, sit-and-
kick affairs.” Priscah Jeptoo, poster child for having an
I’m not worried that it might happen; ungainly-looking stride in the September
it happened at every meet I watched this 2013 Owner’s Manual piece, “The Running
year. Elites now are more focused on win- Machine Myth,” again showed the effec-
ning than fast times, because winning begets tiveness of that stride by winning the race in
marketing, and advertising money is how 2:25:07, covering the second half in 1:09:07.
PhotoRun/Courtesy of NYRR

they afford to stay professional. Where is Mr.

Morse finding these races against the objec- Lisa Stublic, profiled for her zone training
tive clock, where athletes actually challenge system in July 2013 Shorts, finished 12th in
themselves for (gasp) the entire distance? 2:34:49.
I’d love to watch. Are we actually suggest-
ing that what the sport needs is for its best Janet Bawcom, on the cover of our 2013
Photo:

runners to slow down? October/November issue, had to drop out at

the 19-mile mark with a hip injury.
MARTY KLIPP / CEDA R R A PIDS, IOWA
Ryan Vail, highlighted in December 2013
Shorts, was top American, placing 13th in
2:13:23.

ISEMENT)

RUNNINGTIMES / 07
 shorts
medalist at the London Olympics. Ten meters
from the end, Mutai abruptly slowed to a
walk and checked his watch, thinking he had
crossed the finish line. As Anaya began to
catch the front-runner, he realized Mutai’s
mistake and gestured the confused runner
toward the true finish line, staying behind
the Kenyan to make sure he took the win. He
told El Pais later, “Even if they had told me that
winning would have earned me a place in the
Spanish team for the European champion-
ships, I wouldn’t have done it either. … Today,
with the way things are in all circles, in soccer,
in society, in politics, where it seems anything
goes, a gesture of honesty goes down well.”

3. New leGs, New start

In October, less than six months after
bombs exploded at the Boston Mara-
Gebrselassie (right) hangs thon, victims who lost limbs gathered on
with Farah (left) and Bekele Harvard’s Cumnock Field. They were at a
at the Great North Run. running clinic put on by the Challenged Ath-
letes Foundation, preparing to take their

12 Reasons It’s
first steps in their donated prosthetics and,
in one athlete’s case, carbon-fiber running
blades. Cheered on by two-time Boston win-
ner Joan Benoit Samuelson, the newly aided

Great to Be a Runner
amputees took early steps toward regain-
ing a small portion of all that they lost that
day in April.

Fast masters, elites who care and science that Alan Webb and
backs us up are just a few of the good things that Shalane Flanagan

happened in the sport in 2013. By rachel sturtz

I
n 2013, bombs exploded at the Bos- in England’s BUPA Great North Run last
ton Marathon finish-line. American September, but the best story of the race
sprinter Tyson Gay failed a drug test, was 32 seconds back. Journalists who used
followed by nine Turkish track athletes, the words “distant third” to describe Ethi-
three Kenyans, and Italian distance opian Haile Gebrselassie’s effort in the half
runner Devis Licciardi, who used a marathon discounted the fact that the
prosthetic penis to try to provide a clean 40-year-old had just run a 1:00:41, smash-
sample. Competitor Group Inc. stopped pay- ing the 17-year-old over-40 world record by
ing appearance fees for most elite athletes. 1:47. The slightly downhill course disquali-
It felt like the negative headlines in running fied it from being official, but Gebrselassie
far outweighed the positive. has already taken down two masters world
But even the glass-half-empty types have records in the seven months since he turned 4. Quick coaches
to acknowledge the many bright spots. These 40. Twenty-one years after his first interna- When Portland State University head coach
competitive moments, promising research tional gold medals at the 1992 world junior Ronnye Harrison hired Jonathan Marcus to
studies and episodes of sportsmanlike con- championships, the emperor still is among head up his Division I distance squad, his
duct from the past 12 months are just a few the sport’s best. new hire turned around and brought on
of the reasons why it’s great to be a runner. a couple of volunteer coaches: Olympian
2. FiNish liNe Fair Play and three-time American record-holder
1. Not GoiNG Quietly On Dec. 2, 2012, Spanish athlete Ivan Fer- Shalane Flanagan and 1-mile American
The finish-line cameras may have been snap- nandez Anaya was finishing a cross country record-holder Alan Webb. Not a bad pair
ping the furious sprint between 30-year-old race in Burlada, Spain, a distant second to of mentors for a group of aspiring harri-
Mo Farah and 31-year-old Kenenisa Bekele Abel Mutai, the Kenyan steeplechase bronze ers. The same goes for former 10,000m
 American record-holder Chris Solinsky
The U.S. men celebrate silver in Poland.
across the river at rival University of Port-
land, and 800m runner Mark Wieczorek,
head cross country coach at Gig Harbor
High School in Washington.

5. ruNNiNG is Good
For your kNees
You can officially tell all of your nonrun-
ner friends that your knees will be just fine,
thank you very much. Running does not
promote osteoarthritis, as armchair phys-
iologists suggest; it actually helps knees
and hips, according to the journal Medicine
& Science in Sports & Exercise. Data from the 8. sterliNG silver graduating from high school in 2012, Wilson
90,000 runners and walkers in the National For the u.s. MeN decided to skip college in favor of a contract
Runners’ Health Study and National Walkers’ In March, the U.S. men’s cross country team with adidas. This year, she set the 600m
Study found that running is no more likely took second at the IAAF World Cross Coun- world junior record of 1:26.45 and won the U.S.
to cause osteoarthritis or hip replacement try Championships, finishing behind Ethiopia indoor 800m title. In August, in her first major
than walking. In fact, it’s half as likely for and 2 points ahead of Kenya. It had been 29 championship race, Wilson took sixth at the
runners. Part of that is thanks to a runner’s years since the U.S. men had won silver at world championships in Moscow and set a new
lower BMI and possibly to the cyclical load- World Cross. The last decade has seen a re- 800m U.S. junior record of 1:58.21—besting
ing that comes with each step. Either way, emergence of American talent on the world the mark that Cain had set earlier in the year.
it’s research worth sharing. stage, and the men’s performance in Bydgo-
szcz, Poland, was proof. The four scorers were 11. aN early start
6. a Gold stoPwatch? Ben True in 33:11 for sixth place, Chris Derrick Running is alive and well in American schools.
After 37 years, Grandma’s Marathon race in 33:23 for 10th, Ryan Vail in 33:42 for 17th and According to the National Federation of State
director Scott Keenan is finally getting Bobby Mack in 33:40 for 19th. Beating Kenya High School Associations, outdoor track and
a break. Keenan retired last May from was a big victory for the men, but more than field ranks first among girls sports with
overseeing Minnesota’s oldest marathon, anything, it was a harbinger of things to come. 472,939 participants and second (behind
which has grown from 150 runners in 1977 football) among boys sports with 580,672
to 7,300 marathon participants in 2013 9. the healiNG Power participants. Cross country is sixth among
(17,000 total participants if you include oF coFFee girls sports with 214,369 runners and sev-
the half marathon and 5K runners). Dur- A cup o’ joe will do enth among boys with 249,200. Running
ing Keenan’s tenure, Grandma’s became more than wake might not be a glamour sport. But that’s not
a “world class race in a small town” that you up for your race. deterring young athletes from embracing it
eventually hosted the U.S. half marathon It will help muscles and discovering the joy of competition on
championships. Keenan also started the recover quicker afterward. the oval and across fields in almost every
Young Athlete’s Foundation in 1990 to pro- A study in Medicine & Science town in the country.
mote, develop and grow youth athletics in Sports & Exercise found that the
in the state. equivalent of two strong 8-ounce cups of 12. druG-Free Majors
coffee two hours before a race increased Thanks to a new set of policies, some dirty
Photos From Left to Right:  Nigel Roddis/Getty Images  Kim Spir  Michael Scott  Alamy/Corbis

7. you could Feel anti-inflammatory substances in the runners have tougher repercussions that will
the electricity body during and after a 15K race. In fact, hit where it hurts them most: their wallets.
Last spring, Schneider Electric SA, the spon- of the healing substances studied, one— The World Marathon Majors, which covers
sor of the Paris Marathon, had a bright idea. Interleukens 6—was 160 percent higher six races—Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, Chicago,
They laid down 25 meters of energy-collect- after the race and remain elevated two New York and London—has instituted new
ing rubber tiles along the Champs-Élysées hours afterward, when noncaffeinated doping policies that punish cheating ath-
to find out how much electricity could be runners’ levels dropped off. letes by suspending payments and making
generated from the footsteps of 40,000 them repay prize money, appearance fees
runners. Each step created eight watts of 10. Girls oN Fire and bonuses, even if the offense happens
kinetic energy on the Pavegen tiles, and as The media has been saturated with accounts years after their money-winning race. Found
a result, the race generated 4.7 kilowatt of the 17-year-old New York phenom Mary guilty, and they’ll never again be invited to
hours of electricity. Which isn’t enough to Cain, but 19-year-old Ajee’ Wilson from Nep- race. Proponents of these measures would
light up Times Square—it’s about enough to tune, N.J., has been equally impressive. During like to see the shoe companies that sponsor
power a flat screen TV for a day and a half— high school, she broke a 32-year-old world athletes do the same. Until then, the new pol-
but as the tiles become more affordable and junior 600m record, and she took gold at the icies guarantee we’re one step closer to 100
installed in more races, one day competitors 2011 IAAF World Youth Championships and percent clean racing and celebrating every
may run the race and the lights. 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships. After heroic accomplishment as the real thing. •

splits Ô Serena Burla, 31, ran 2:28:01 at the Amsterdam Marathon in October, the fastest American women’s time of 2013 on a record-eligible course.
 shorts

Finding His Identity 5,000m in 13:27.49. The clincher came during

the summer of 2013. Hill finished third at the
U.S. outdoor championships in Des Moines in
June, ran a personal-best 13:14.22 for a 10th-
When Ryan Hill finally abandoned the mile, he place finish in Heusden, Belgium, in July, and
then clocked 13:32.69 to place 10th in the world
discovered his true strength. By joe BattaGlia championships final in Moscow in August. It
was his first time making a national team.
“There is no denying that I am a 5K guy

S
now,” Hill says. “Coach Geiger always told
ince his adolescent days in North All-American in cross country and indoor me, ‘You’re best at the 5K.’ But the 2012 trials
Carolina, Ryan Hill has been try- and outdoor track, and he won seven Atlan- and 2013 U.S. championships really solidified
ing to figure out exactly what type tic Coast Conference titles at distances from for me that the 5,000m is what I am best at,
of athlete he should be. 1500m to 10,000m. and that’s where the future is for me.”
As a child, Hill’s sport of choice But for a long time, Hill was reluctant to After returning from Moscow, Hill began
was baseball, but he soon real- give up the more prestigious event—the his professional career as a member of Jerry
ized he wasn’t big enough to be competitive 1500m/mile —in favor of his best distance, Schumacher’s Oregon Track Club Elite group.
on the diamond. At age 12, in the summer the 5,000m, so he allowed himself to con- Now secure in his calling, Hill is focused on
before seventh grade, he turned to an ath- tinue straddling both. getting the world to realize who he is as an
letic strength. “I was always good at the mile “From an athlete’s point of view, you want athlete, starting this winter.
run in school, so it just seemed natural to try to do the events that are the most popular “There is a world indoor team to try and
and run track,” Hill says. and have the most notoriety,” Hill says. “For a make, so I have to shoot for that,” he says.
Although he had speed, Hill quickly dis- track and field athlete, that’s the mile. I think “As far as outdoors, I want to compete well
covered that the longer the race, the more that goes back to more of a cultural thing. at U.S. championships, and then the whole
competitive he was. By the time he graduated A lot of kids run the mile in school, and you Diamond League circuit. I am always look-
from Hickory High School, not only had he can then relate to the mile for the rest of your ing to make the next step, beat a couple guys
won the Foot Locker South Regional title, but life because of those early experiences. So who are Olympic-caliber athletes, so that
he had also won two North Carolina champi- you have guys who want to be milers even when 2015, 2016, 2017 come around, it is not
onships on the track at 1600m and 3200m. though, maybe, that is not their best event. new for me to be in the front of these races.
When he got to North Carolina State Uni- I absolutely fell into that trap.” “I think for me it is about exposure. Get
versity and the program headed by famed Hill had an epiphany of sorts at the 2012 to the big meets, the meets on television.
coach Rollie Geiger, Hill continued to excel at U.S. Olympic trials before the start of his Get to where the most eyes are going to see
middle to long distances. He was a 10-time senior year, when he finished fifth in the you. I think that will be my guide in 2014.” •

Essential Workout
WHO: Ryan Hill, 23
WHAT: A 2 x 4-mile tempo on the track with 4 minutes rest in between
WHY: A threshold workout that also gauges fitness and improvement before a big race
WHEN: Once per season or per training cycle
THE DETAILS: Hill first began running these workouts when he got to North Carolina
State, where the athletes completed the workout once each cross country, indoor and
outdoor season. He says it was the single workout that indicated you had made a jump
to the next level, when your tempo times began getting faster. As a freshman, Hill’s
tempos were around 5:10 per mile average with a 5:15 opening mile. He now opens
around 4:55 per mile and closes with four 4:50s.

“When you build your entire training cycle around this one big
workout, it ends up being a very big deal. Two-by-fours were
the thing that everyone got chills about. People brought their
‘A’ game to that workout. It didn’t turn into an all-out race, but
guys pushed each other to find out what they’re made of.”

Ô The New York City Marathon set a new record with 50,304 finishers, the most of any marathon in history. The 2011 version of the race had 46,795.
 Showcase Race
FoR LovE and Running
Races are cashing in on their share of
the great Valentine’s Day industry with
dozens of events around the U.S. and
Canada, some that feature scoring by
combined times or relationship status,
which can be an easy and fun way to
notch a new PR or a prize at a time of

Meet Me at the Mall

year when fast times are hard to come
by. Here are three recommended by
Running Times readers.

Czech runners find showers, footwear

and fellowship at a new facility
in Prague. By joe BattaGlia

S
ome of the most far-fetched ideas The ground floor houses a main reception
in history have taken shape after area, a cafe and water bar, an adidas store,
a few beers at the bar. Southwest the Emil and Dana Zátopek Conference Hall,
Airlines, the movie “A Few Good which will be used for running lectures and
Men,” the U.S. Marine Corps and instruction, and dressing rooms and show-
Love the Run You’re
the Ironman Triathlon are just a ers that serve as a launch pad for runs in
With 5K
FEb. 9, ArLINgTON, VA.
few of those sudsy success stories. nearby Stromovak or Letna parks, two of
Add Prague’s Running Mall, a first-of-its- the city’s leading running spots. A sport Your race bib denotes whether you’re
kind running facility, to that list. lounge equipped with treadmills and fitness single (Stupid Cupid), in a relationship
“Everything started in 1995,” says Carlo machines, as well as table soccer and table (Co-Dependent) or It’s complicated
Capalbo, director of RunCzech events, a tennis, occupies the lower level. The top floor (Love ’Em or Leave ’Em). Last year’s
popular race series in the Czech Republic. is the main base for the Prague International winners, Christopher Mills and 2012
“The idea to organize the first international Marathon team, which heads the RunCzech Great Britain Olympic marathoner
marathon in Prague was born when my Running League and the new RunCzech Claire Hallissey, finished in 14:51 and
friend, Gelindo Bordin [the Italian runner Racing Team, an international project 17:44, respectively.
who won the 1988 Olympic marathon], and consisting of young elite athletes of dif-
I were having a beer in a Prague pub. By the ferent nations and origins, training and
Fine valentine
next year we had 958 runners at the start.” racing together.
Couple’s Relay
FEb. 9, TucSON, ArIz.
In subsequent years, Capalbo had grown New York Road Runners president and
Photos From Left to Right:  Kirby Lee/Image of Sport  Run Czech  Swim Bike Run Photography

the Czech races, reaching 60,000 partic- CEO Mary Wittenberg, who attended a rib- Partner up for a 4-mile relay—the
ipants in 2013. But running life in the city bon cutting ceremony in May, was blown baton is a flower and each team
centered on those brief events. “Until now, away by the facility, saying, “The idea of cre- member runs 2 miles, including a set
we’ve only ever had a chance to meet up with ating a place for people to meet, which all of ramps at the University of Arizona’s
the runners for a few days during the year, runners can draw inspiration from, is abso- football stadium. To receive awards,
always around race time,” he says. lutely great.” couples need to show public afection.
That’s when he said the idea of opening the Capalbo cites the enduring appeal of
Running Mall occurred to him. “We wanted Czech hero Emil Zátopek, who won three
valentine’s 2 Mile Labor
to be able to interact with runners here every gold medals in the 1952 Olympics, as further
of Love Run
FEb. 2014, HIgHLAND HEIgHTS, KY.
day and to become more than just a race inspiration for the project to bring runners
organizer,” he says. “We wanted to create together in Prague. “He was one of the best The Runner’s Club of Greater
a complete running center with a variety of long-distance runners ever, a legend, but Cincinnati plays matchmaker. Single
services for the community.” also a great personality who relished new runners race in the Blind Date category,
In the spring of 2013, a three-story cor- challenges, and emulating him we have been assigned to a partner and tethered
ner building in Letná, one of Prague’s most encouraged to do the same,” Capalbo says. together for the race around the
beautiful districts, was transformed into a “He once said, ‘Great is the victory, but the Northern Kentucky University campus.
unique meeting point for runners. friendship of all is greater.’” •

Ô With his win at the New York City Marathon, Geofrey Mutai has won the last six road races he has started. The streak goes back to May, according to aars.net.
 Performance PaGe
TrY a neW Training Plan
3 There is no shortage of new training methods these
days. Though I find that most of them are just new packaging,
you can find some differences of opinion among successful
coaches. Many pros will use 2014 to experiment with new
training ideas. Why not do the same? Try something coun-
ter to what you’ve done in the past. Pick a completely new
plan to follow, or simply insert some different workouts that
you find intriguing into your current plan.
For example, if you’ve been a die-hard mileage junkie, how
about spending a portion of the year running lower mileage,
but more quickly on each run, and doing more speed work? If
Trying new strategies in 2014 could you’ve never tried high mileage, why not carve out a month
or two when you do no speed or races and up your mileage
reinvigorate your running. by 10 percent per week until you reach a new high that you
BY greg MCMillan, M.s. can sustain for a few weeks?
What about specialty workouts? Have you read about a
workout that an elite runner or famous coach uses? Insert it

I
in your plan a few times and see how it goes. You don’t need
t’s 2014. That means no outdoor world championships to reinvent the wheel, but you can use this year to be cre-
or Olympic Games for the pros. Many of them use these ative and take some risks.
nonchampionship years to shake things up. You can do I’m going to read a lot from coaches who have philoso-
the same and may find that a departure from your nor- phies different from mine—the more they vary, the better.
mal routine is just what you need to take your running As you look ahead through the next 12 months, mix things
to the next level in 2014 and beyond. up a bit. As an added bonus, you’ll find it is fun to break up
your routine and maybe even improve your performance. •
Work on Your Weaknesses
1 Every runner has weaknesses. For some, it’s physi- Greg McMillan is a USATF-certified
ological, like a low VO2 max or slow lactate threshold speed. coach. His new book, YOU (Only Faster),
For others, it’s metabolic, like burning too much carbohy- is available on his website:
drate at marathon pace instead of relying more on fat. Still www.mcmillanrunning.com.
others find that injury woes keep them from being their best.
And most of us have some psychological barriers when really
pushing ourselves to the limit.
In all cases, 2014 is a great year to tackle your issues. For
Mix and Fix
me, the next 12 months are all about injury-proofing my here are some common problems runners
body. That means hitting the gym twice per week to shore face, and possible solutions to try
up my strength and flexibility and improve my overall ath- during the new year.
letic ability. I also want to improve my fat-burning. Like most
speedster-type runners, I tend to rely too much on my lim- Ô Problem: I’m losing my speed.
ited carbohydrate stores. This is fine for shorter races, but Solution: Race. A lot. Using more frequent racing
when I move to longer distances, I need to spare these stores (particularly 5Ks) is an easy way to wake up your fast-
and burn more fat. I’ll be doing more long, easy runs with- twitch muscles.
out ingesting carbohydrates to help spur my body to do this.
Ô Problem: I’m hurt too often.
Solution: Lower training volume by 10 to 20
Find Fun neW Challenges
2 In a nonchampionship year, pros also experiment
percent and use that nonrunning time for a
daily injury-proofing session.
with new events. You’ll see some middle-distance runners
trying longer races. You’ll also see track athletes competing
Ô Problem: I’m getting burned out.
on the roads and marathoners returning to the track. Find
Solution: Go goal-less. Take a break from specific
a distance you’ve never run or haven’t focused on for years.
training and just run (and race) for fun. Two to
These events can boost morale if you set new PRs, and they
three months of goal-less running usually helps.
allow you to unload the usual competitive expectations and
simply see what happens. It’s liberating. Ô Problem: I’m busy and can’t
I plan to race on the track—it’s been more than a decade train like I want to.
since my last track race. I’ll also return to cross country, my Solution: If you can’t run a key workout during the
first love in running, and I plan to do some epic trail runs week, then use weekend races as your speed work. Two
like a rim-to-rim crossing of the Grand Canyon. All of these to four races per month will do wonders for your fitness.
get me excited and will certainly require a mixture of train-
ing to get ready.
 Grandstand View

which a bunch of professionals run a lot slower than they’re

capable of for 80 percent or more of the race distance and
then make a mad dash for the finish over the last 200m or
400m. One wag in the Barcelona press tribune, watching the
12-man 1992 Olympic 1500m final develop into such a jog-
fest, labeled it “11 stupid men.”
All kinds of things are wrong with tactical races, the big-
gest being legendary Villanova track coach Jumbo Elliott’s
observation that “the trouble with big kickers is that they
How race buccaneering is good lose to other big kickers.” But one thing right about tactical
races is that they invite piracy. And because grand race lar-
for fans. By Parker Morse ceny is also grand entertainment, anything that rewards a
certain buccaneering streak among professional runners

E
can’t be all bad.

‘
very normal man must be tempted at times to spit on The rehabilitation of pirates in popular culture is proba-
his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.” bly due mostly to Johnny Depp, but daring scofflaws turning
— H.L. Mencken the tables on the privileged and gifted is an easy story to sell,
The classic story of athletic piracy is the 1994 Los perhaps more so these days. The reality of piracy is probably
Angeles Marathon. Pacemaker Paul Pilkington hit the closer to Tom Hanks facing down a quartet of gaunt Soma-
halfway split dead on the requested 1:05, but with lis with Kalashnikovs, and the reality of race piracy is that
nobody around him. Pilkington opted to stay in the race, and, even the privileged and gifted in our sport are competing for
to the surprise of his pursuers, who assumed he would drop a paycheck they can’t always afford to lose. That may be the
out, took the victory in 2:12:13. biggest point in favor of piracy: It challenges assumptions. If
Here’s a more recent bit of buccaneering: An athlete you can’t afford to lose a race, it may pay to be reminded of
shows up for a race that is being set up as a record attempt how that loss might happen.
for another athlete. Our interloper tucks in behind the pace- In a world with a certain amount of piracy, nothing can be
makers, kicks into racing gear at the end, wins the race and taken for granted. The only way a runner can protect a race
sets the record. It was definitely piracy. It was also one of from piracy is to take greater control of his or her racing. That
the most fun races of 2010, the day Chris Solinsky stole the can mean working harder, planning more daring or asser-
race that had been set up for Galen Rupp and became the tive race strategies and developing the fitness to pull them
first non-African under 27 minutes for 10,000m. off (out-pirating the pirates), or simply racing more often, so
I’ve previously noted that one drawback to emphasizing the occasional loss to piracy is less damaging. These are all
place over time at the professional level is an increase in the good outcomes for fans.
number of tactical races. Tactical is a euphemism for a race in It’s not just runners who could stand to fly the Jolly Roger
more often. Race organizers, sponsors and federation
officials could benefit from the kind of risk-taking that’s
inevitable in a pirate venture. If there’s not much left to lose
from trying something, what’s stopping us from the kinds
of big gambles that change the status quo?
Pilkington, the larcenous rabbit, told the Boston Globe in
2000 that his Los Angeles win actually got him more pace-
making work than before. The reason? Race organizers, he
said, “knew no matter what I ran, the others were going to
go with me.’’ They had to. Pilkington wasn’t the first, nor the
last. Tom Byers won a European 1500m in 1981 in which he
was the designated rabbit. Ben Kimondiu pulled off the heist
at the 2001 Chicago Marathon.
Illustration:  Andrea Oropeza

It’s tempting for a race organizer, a coach or an athlete

to set up safe races, where the pirates aren’t invited. This
is a recipe for boring races. Pirates are competitive pres-
sure. They’re the cheetahs eyeing the gazelles, the circling
sharks, the wolves at the ridgeline. And they make their sur-
vivors better. •

Parker Morse is a running correspondent

based in Natick, Mass. He was Runner’s
World’s first online editor, and his work now
appears frequently at iaaf.org.
SEE MORE. ACHIEVE MORE.
TThe new TomTom Runner GPS Watch uses easy to read, full-screen graphics to help
yyou achieve your personal best time. So you can focus on your run, instead of on
yyour watch. tomtom.com/sports
 owner’s manual

Super
Training Blocks
Can an overload week in training
jumpstart a performance increase?
By Phil latter

I
n the fall of 2011, Wendy Thomas looked at her train-
ing schedule and grimaced. On the agenda was 31 miles
for the day, most of it at or near marathon pace. Scott
Simmons, her coach at the American Distance Proj-
ect, explained that the morning portion of this “special
block” workout would be highlighted by 8 x 1600m. The
afternoon featured a lengthy fartlek. Both sessions would be
preceded by a steady 6-miler. To make the special block even
more specific to the demands of the marathon, Simmons added,
she would not be able to eat many carbs in between workouts.
This type of training might have intimidated even the best
runners in the world, but Thomas hardly considered herself
in that group. She only picked up the sport seriously in 2009
as a 30-year-old stay-at-home mom with no running back-
ground. The jump to the American Distance Project only
occurred because she saw an online ad. Now, without even
a half marathon race under her belt, Thomas was about to
tackle the ultimate supercompensation workout.
At its core, supercompensation training is a simple, if rad-
Wendy Thomas competes at the 2012 Olympic marathon
ical, idea: on top of already consistent training, overload the
trials. She earned her spot with supercompensation training.
body with several mega-mileage weeks and intense, exten-
sive workouts. The goal is to push a runner beyond a training
plateau. This process of adapting to stress by becoming stron- Maybe not. David Costill, who has a doctorate in physi-
ger underlies all training—Simmons’ planned overload simply cal education and physiology, has studied elite runners and
took it to a new level. swimmers for almost 50 years at Ball State University’s
Thomas survived that workout and three other special Human Performance Laboratory and pioneered research
blocks like it in the three months leading up to the U.S. Olym- on the effect of doubling swimmers’ training loads for short
pic trials. She believes those workouts not only allowed her to periods of time. The results showed no improvement for the
qualify for the trials (achieved with a 1:13:48 half marathon extra-high-mileage group. “This is true for runners, too,” Cos-
that November), but to thrive on race day. “Everyone else till says. “You have an upper limit to how far you can adapt.
talks about hitting the wall,” says Thomas, who placed 12th in Once you get to a level where your cardiovascular fitness
her marathon debut at the trials in 2:34:25. “I’ve never expe- is optimized, you can do all the work you want, but you’re
rienced that, and I think that’s because I’d already done days not going to improve upon it. I would say the idea that it will
where I’d run 30, 32 miles. My body knew how to get past it.” supercompensate is bogus.”
But are all bodies alike? And is what happened to Thomas But experiential evidence calls Costill’s conclusion into
a fluke or a style of training that can reap benefits for any- question for those runners seeking the extra competitive
Photo:  Victor Sailer/PhotoRun

one looking to make a racing breakthrough? edge. Former U.S. 10,000m record-holder Gerry Lindgren
reported he performed best when upping his mileage as
a SharP ContraSt to high as 300 miles per week. Even more telling, recent mar-
ProgreSSive overload athon stars such as Olympic silver medalist Abel Kirui and
Serious runners dream of taking two weeks off from work, Moses Mosop, under the guidance of Renato Canova, both
renting a cabin in the woods and training to their hearts’ make frequent use of special blocks and well-placed high-
content. Surely there would be immediate benefits, right? mileage weeks to take their training to the next level.
 owner’s manual

SuPerComPenSation modelS effect by building up to running 2 x 3-mile or 2 x 4-mile at that

If you’re a durable, fit runner who is stuck on a training plateau, same pace with a short rest in between. Doing so teaches
experimenting with supercompensation workouts might get your body excellent pacing and increases the supercompen-
you over the hump. Below are three models to experiment sation effect. The special block workout Thomas tackled is
with that could help you make a big leap in your running. an advanced version of this idea.

Lowest Risk: incReased intensity ModeRate Risk: incReased VoLuMe

This is the most established form of supercompensation train- Upping your typical weekly volume 15 to 25 percent is one
ing and the most familiar to runners. After months of building way many athletes and coaches attempt to overload their
a solid aerobic base with long runs and tempos, insert a block aerobic systems. A runner who consistently hits 60 miles a
of higher-intensity workouts that overload a particular energy week might benefit from periodically increasing the usual vol-
system. Pete Rea, ZAP Fitness head coach, likes to challenge his ume to 70 or 80 miles, then backing off for a recovery week
5K and 10K athletes with a series of four workouts that push before returning to his or her usual volume.
the upper limits of their anaerobic (lactate) threshold and VO2 You can also consider upping this mileage for a longer period
max three to six weeks before their goal race. of time if your body adapts well. Randy Ashley, a private run-
“If we do those, and they come off fairly healthy, they’ll ning coach at rarunning.com and a two-time U.S. Olympic
have a big breakthrough eight times in 10,” Rea says. An marathon trials competitor, overloaded the mileage of his
example of these workouts is 2 x 2-mile, 2 x 1-mile, and top runner, Caroline White, by 20 percent for six weeks. As a
2 x half-mile. The pace starts about 10 seconds faster than result, White ran 2:37, a 7-minute PR. “This bump in mileage
anaerobic threshold and finishes at 3K pace or faster. Cos- increased her aerobic strength, and she was able to hold her
till agrees that runners who want to target improvement in goal marathon pace from mile one to the finish,” Ashley says.
a short period of time would do best by increasing the spec-
ificity of their workouts. HigHest Risk: incReased density
You can also amplify the effect of a workout by increas- Increasing the intensity of workouts and weekly volume simul-
ing the length of intervals while maintaining a steady pace. If taneously is by far the riskiest way to make large fitness gains,
you’ve mostly prepared for half marathons by doing 4-mile but for a select few it can be highly rewarding. This includes
tempo runs at your goal pace, consider increasing the training Thomas, whose brutal special block workout was folded into

Controlled Overload
your training background plays a large role in the type of supercompensation training you can safely
try. Below are some guidelines to consider before tackling any big workouts or weeks:

Mileage increased intensity increased VoluMe increased density

10 to 20 percent increase,
Add set of 5K race-pace intervals (such as 5
< 30 miles per week 1–2 times per 12- to Not recommended
x 800m with equal recovery) once a week
20-week training cycle

10 to 20 percent increase
Add set of 5K race-pace intervals (such as 5
30–45 miles per week 2–3 times per 12- to Not recommended
x 1,000m with equal recovery) once a week
20-week training cycle

Increase usual workout length by 25

1 high-volume, high-intensity
to 50 percent, keep pace constant, or 15 to 25 percent increase
45–60 miles per week week in training cycle, followed
add an additional interval, progres- once per month
immediately by a recovery week
sion or fartlek workout to your week

Increase usual workout length by 30 1–2 high-volume, high-inten-

to 60 percent, keep pace constant, or 15 to 25 percent increase, sity weeks in a training
> 60 miles per week
add an additional interval, progres- once every 3–4 weeks cycle, followed immediately
sion or fartlek workout to your week by a recovery week

Increase usual workout length by 30

1 special block of 24 miles
to 60 percent, keep pace constant, or 15 to 25 percent increase,
> 80 miles per week @ marathon race pace in
add an additional interval, progres- once every 3–4 weeks
two workouts on one day
sion or fartlek workout to your week
 no.
Wharton’s 14
Simple
Solutions
gaStroCnemiuS Strength
As the weather turns cool and crisp, marathon and cross
country seasons are in full swing. These trials of miles
often bring lower leg injuries, calf tightness and lower
leg weaknesses to their tipping point. The calf muscle, or
gastrocnemius, is a key player in foot push-of and also
flexes the knee joint on our swing leg. It’s rare to find a
runner who is flexible and strong in this region.

What it iS?
The gastrocnemius originates behind the knee on the
Coach Renato Canova advises Moses Mosop to implement high-
femur and attaches to the heel on the Achilles tendon. The
intensity, high-mileage blocks in his training cycle.
gastrocnemius, along with the soleus, make up the unit
called the triceps surae (commonly called the “calf”). The
a 110-mile week. Prior to joining Simmons’ training group, the gastrocnemius is made up of mostly fast-twitch fibers,
most she’d ever run was 70. To minimize injury risk, be sure while the soleus is mostly slow-twitch. This triceps surae
to listen to your body and adapt the workouts or training vol- generates the power to be transmitted to the lever of the
ume as necessary. And definitely don’t jump in unprepared. foot via the Achilles tendon.
“If you haven’t been running high mileage for a good long
while, you are going to be in real trouble from something like StaBilize it
this, and you won’t get any improvement from it,” says Nate Place a large book or small board approximately 1.5–2
Jenkins, a 2:14 marathoner who credits this type of train- inches high on the ground in front of a kitchen counter or
ing with spurring his greatest leap in performance when he high table. Place your hands on the counter or table, just
was competing. Jenkins, who was running 144-mile weeks under your chest. With your knees locked and abdominals
already, says that special block weekends “would still leave engaged, stand with the balls of your feet on the surface
me dead on my feet for days.” of the book or board and your heels on the ground (Picture
1). Elevate your body with your calves until you are as far up
reCovery ruleS onto the balls of your feet and toes as possible (Picture 2).
No matter what type of supercompensation training you You may gently assist with your hands if needed. Transition
try, the biggest key is adequate recovery. Supercompensa- your weight slowly and gently on the way down, which is
tion only occurs during the resting period. Pushing too hard, the eccentric part of the movement, as you return to start
too often, can only lead to sub-par performances and injury. position. Perform one set of 10–12 reps with your toes
“The thing people don’t understand is that when we were facing straight ahead, one set with toes turned inward, and
doing those crazy high-mileage special blocks, the next cou- one set with toes turned outward.
ple days weren’t that bad,” Thomas says. “They were actually
less mileage than usual.”
One way you can ensure recovery is by slowing down in the
days after a supercompensation workout. “I view it like ocean
waves,” Rea says. “When you do this kind of work, the tops
of the waves (the workouts) are much higher, so the recovery
days need to be much easier.” Jenkins, whose marathon race
pace was under 5:10 per mile, often did his recovery runs at
Photo:   Jiro Mochizuki/PhotoRun  Illustration:   Dan Hanafin

8:30 pace immediately following a supercompensation cycle.

Another key is upping your carbohydrate intake. Your gly-
cogen stores will be heavily taxed by this kind of work, Costill
says, so you need to maximize your carbohydrate intake in
the hours immediately after this type of workout. Super- 01 02
compensation workouts should definitely not be viewed as
a way to lose weight, and they are not compatible with low-
carb trends like the Paleo diet.
“You have to remember that you don’t get better by doing
one of these supercompensation weeks,” Jenkins says. “You
get better by fully recovering from one.” •
 owner’s manual

The Power of big fan of fish for go-to recovery. “I’ll spend
the few bucks extra to get that little better
cut of meat or piece of fish,” he says. “I find

Protein Timing
that in doing so I stay healthier, leaner, and
generally have more energy. A plate of fresh
salmon, quinoa, and a salad is my idea of a
perfect recovery meal.”
Suggestions:
Three windows to refuel the Ô Apple and 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese =
280 calories/25 grams protein
runner. By Caitlin ChoCk Ô Tuna melt: 3 ounces tuna, 1 ounce cheese,
one English mufn = 340 calories/27
grams protein

I
t’s critical for runners to keep track of (For a 500-calorie breakfast, get 43 grams dairy Protein Before Bed
how much protein is in their diets, but of protein; scale for your recommended Contrary to conventional wisdom, eating
it’s also important to eat it at the appro- caloric intake.) On days when you’re going before bed will not add unwanted pounds.
priate times to maximize performance hard or long, make it 25 percent protein and While some studies have linked weight gain
benefits. Here’s when to chow on this 60 percent carbs (31 grams of protein in a and late-night eating patterns, an extensive
key nutrient for muscle recovery and 500-calorie breakfast). Austin says that over- review by the British Medical Journal showed
become a stronger runner. all, runners need to increase their protein that this correlation only exists if you are eat-
intake for breakfast on most training days. ing too much or making poor food choices. In
riSe and Shine, Protein time Suggestions: fact, eating a protein-stocked snack before
Start your day with protein to ensure you’re Ô Four-egg omelet with spinach and tomato, hitting the pillow will do your training a favor—
properly fueling all that training. Sports two soy sausage links, and fruit = 520 it’s a bonus recovery window to stimulate
performance nutritionist Krista Austin, calories/34 grams protein muscle repair and growth. A 120-pound run-
who has a doctorate in exercise physiol- Ô Protein Pancakes (1 serving, adding 25 ner should ingest 20–25 grams of protein, and
ogy and sports nutrition and has consulted grams protein powder to the mix) and two- to increase the benefits of this window, opt
with the Oregon Project, says that runners egg omelet with spinach and tomato = 540 for a dairy source: The special enzymes from
who front-load their day with more protein calories/44 grams protein dairy enhance the benefits of this nightly
set themselves up for a more stable supply protein. Skim chocolate milk, the ever-popu-
the PoSt-Workout
Illustration:   Dan Hanafin

of energy, wind up feeling more satiated lar recovery drink, mixed with some protein
throughout the rest of the day, and enhance reCovery WindoW powder, is the perfect combination of dairy,
their moods. The goal is to keep pace with Protein is imperative for muscle repair and protein and sugar to aid restoration. Drink it
your energy demands, never letting your growth. Runners need to time protein intake right before going to bed to make tomorrow’s
body go into a deficit. to hit the 30-minute post-workout recov- workout more productive.
Match your protein percentage intake to ery window. Austin recommends that this Suggestions:
the type of training you have planned for meal or snack contain 25–30 grams of pro- Ô 16 ounces skim chocolate milk = 200
the day. All of her recommendations are tein. Scale proportionately to your weight. calories/16 grams protein
based on a 120-pound runner. On easy days, Chris Winter, a Canadian steeplechaser Ô Add protein powder of choice = 10 grams
eat 35 percent protein, 45 percent carbs. at the 2013 world track championships, is a protein •
 A DV E RT I SE M E N T
showed dramatic improvements in athletic
performance (as measured by VO2max and
running economy).
Since its release, competitive athletes have
raved about this new supplement, which o ers
all the beneÅts of greater EPO levels with none
of the dangerous side e ects or legal trouble.
Ricky Flynn, a seven time All-American
runner used EPO-BOOST in his preparation
for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
Having Ånished 12th with a sub-2:14 time,
Ricky stated that his performance and
endurance were substantially improved with
EPO-BOOST. “After using EPO-BOOST
for just a few weeks I felt stronger, especially
on harder e ort and higher intensity runs,”
said Ricky.
Mr. Flynn is not alone in his praise of the
product. Ursula Frans, a top marathon runner
from South Africa used EPO-BOOST in her
preparation for the Two Oceans Marathon.
Having Ånished in the top 20, she stated
that her performance and endurance were
substantially improved with EPO-BOOST.
A company spokesman, speaking o the
record, admitted that the product doesn’t
work overnight and that most athletes won’t
see the extreme performance enhancements
for a few weeks. In a world infatuated
with instant success, that kind of realistic

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RUNNER NEEDS IN 2014 you’ll have a much easier time achieving your
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BY MARK HANSEN back to your prior Åtness level faster, giving
you more power and endurance, and with

N
othing says a New Year like resolutions. Increasing red blood cell production has reduced next-day muscle soreness.
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Åtness regimen for the holidays or you are the body’s ability to absorb oxygen, which can use the product for a full 90 days and if
committing to training for the Årst time in in turn gives an athlete more strength and not completely satisÅed, send back whatever
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di erent because you will prepare your body achieve your running goals. spokesman conÅrmed a special o er: if you
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EPO is industry shorthand for erythropoietin, in EPO-BOOST increased EPO production time. Visit www.EPOBOOST.com or call
a hormone produced by the kidneys that by over 90% compared to the group taking 1-800-780-4331 to order today.
regulates red blood cell (RBC) production. the placebo.1 The supplement group also 1
Whitehead et al. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 17 (2007): 378-9.
 College
Currently: Training with Nike in Portland,
Ore., under coach Jerry Schumacher.

If I Knew Then …
Best Advice: Come in with a chip on your
shoulder like you have something to prove,
and don’t expect it to be easy. In my experi-
ence, college training was a significant jump
from high school, but my mentality was that
Elite athletes talk about how they I was just going to hang on and keep grind-
ing until I was as good as the guys around
would approach their college running me. That worked well. Don’t be too timid—
days differently. By John Kissane if you are on a team, it is because you belong
there, so just stick your nose in and see what
you are made of.

Y
Biggest Mistake: Not listening to my body
ou wouldn’t think that athletes is pretty powerful; there will be days where when it needed a little rest or TLC. All of my
who are fast enough to run pro- you think you won’t be able to run that extra injuries would start with a little soreness
fessionally would harbor regrets mile or finish that last interval. I can’t tell that I would ignore and train through until
about their undergraduate days. you how many times a positive attitude has it led to me being out for six to eight weeks.
But even for some top athletes, the helped me get through situations like that. There is a fine line between when it is good to
transition from high school to col- Tell yourself you can do it—never let yourself train through something and when it is wise
lege was fraught with missteps, overtraining quit. Above all, listen to your coaches. They to back off a little. It takes trial and error to
or injury. Running Times asked recent col- know what they’re doing. On the practical determine what your body can handle, but
lege standouts what advice they would give side, be careful in the dining halls. Try to eat you learn that sometimes just taking one
to incoming freshmen starting on a varsity like you did in high school, as if your mom or two days off to clear something up saves
team. Their advice can help runners of any or dad were making your usual dinner. And you from needing weeks off down the road.
age avoid some of the mistakes they made always, always wear flip-flops in the shower. In order to be elite, you have to train right on
and capitalize on the opportunities ahead. Biggest Mistake: In high school I stayed up that edge and know when to push and when
pretty late and woke up early, so freshman to take it easy.
year I had to learn that getting eight or nine
hours of sleep a night is vital to running
well. Sleeping can sometimes be tough in
the dorms, but a good pair of earplugs and
an eye mask can work wonders. And pulling

Photos from left to right:  John Barnhart/PhotoRun(1)  Kirby Lee/Image of Sport(2,4,6)  Mo Khursheed/TFV Media(3)  Victor Sailer/PhotoRun(5)

all-nighters studying doesn’t help. I did that
freshman year, and it just resulted in Face-
booking at 2 a.m. from the library, drinking
way too much coffee and being exhausted
by the time the test rolled around.

emma Coburn
University of Colorado, 2013 Dani stack
College Highlights: Six-time All-American; Iowa State University, 2013
2011 and 2013 NCAA steeplechase cham- College Highlights: Two-time All-American;
pion; 2013 NCAA indoor mile champion; 2012 fourth in 10,000m at 2011 NCAA outdoor
Olympic steeplechase finalist. championships; two-time Big 12 Conference
Currently: Represents New Balance and 10,000m runner-up.
trains in Boulder, Colo., under Colorado Currently: Training with Team USA Minne-
coaches Mark Wetmore and Heather Bur- sota under coach Dennis Barker.
roughs. She also works as a CU volunteer Best Advice: Be yourself. Just because some
assistant coach. seniors on the team are running 100-mile
Best Advice: Be prepared to work harder andy Bayer weeks doesn’t mean you should, now or ever.
than you ever have. You are at the bottom of Indiana University, 2013 Everyone is different in what they can han-
the totem pole, so it’s about slowly working College Highlights: 11-time All-American; dle, so don’t lose sight of who you are. But
your way back up. The only way to do that is 2012 NCAA 1500m champion; fourth in don’t forget to challenge yourself, either.
by being smart and training hard. The mind 1500m at 2012 U.S. Olympic trials. That’s what freshman year is all about.
Biggest Mistake: I thought the more weight This resulted in my winning a race that I
I lost, the faster I would run. It was true, probably shouldn’t have won. I learned that
but only for a short time. I struggled with there are more important things than win-
anorexia during my college years, and one ning at all costs. I never respected myself
day my body told me enough was enough. in winning that race. No matter what hap-
I finally admitted I had a problem, went to pens, you should be able to walk away from
a dietitian, sought out counseling and told a competition feeling good about the effort
my teammates to help keep me account- you put forth, without dwelling on what
able. Once I finally stopped the behaviors, I place you take. Just because someone else
began to see improvement, but my career as runs well, it shouldn’t diminish your per-
a collegiate athlete was almost over. I have sonal accomplishment.
learned that as long as I see food as fuel, I will
be able to accomplish my goals and dreams.

Meaghan nelson
Iowa State University, 2013
College Highlights: Four-time All-American;
2013 Big 12 Conference 10,000m champion;
fourth in 5,000m at 2012 NCAA indoor cham-
pionships; fourth in 10,000m at 2012 NCAA
outdoor championships.
Currently: Training in Boise, Idaho, with
Corey Ihmels, Boise State coach, who was
her coach at ISU. The Road Runners Club of
America named her a 2013–14 Roads Scholar
grant recipient.
Jordan hasay Best Advice: Commit to the program that
University of Oregon, 2013 you are given and buy in. It took awhile
Cam Levins College Highlights: 18-time All-American; before our whole team at Iowa State bought
Southern Utah University, 2012 2011 NCAA indoor mile and 3,000m cham- in and got on the same page, but when we
College Highlights: Six-time All-American; pion; 2011 NCAA cross country runner-up; did we became great. Also, it is not nec-
2012 NCAA outdoor champion at 5,000m finished third at 2012 NCAA cross coun- essarily the people who train the hardest
and 10,000m; represented Canada at 2012 try championships and led Oregon to the who become the best, but the people who
Olympics, finishing 11th at 10,000m and 14th team title. can train the longest injury-free. In the
at 5,000m. Currently: Training with the Nike Ore- beginning of college I would take three
Currently: Training with the Nike Ore- gon Project in Portland, Ore., under coach steps forward, get injured, and take two
gon Project in Portland, Ore., under coach Alberto Salazar. She represented the U.S. steps back. When I put in a solid year of
Alberto Salazar; represented Canada at the at the 2013 world championships. consistent training I made a huge jump
2013 world championships. Best Advice: Don’t expect to be the best in performance.
Best Advice: Don’t get too competitive with right away. As a freshman, so many things Biggest Mistake: I went to a state park to
your teammates when you aren’t racing. As are changing. Not only will your training go cliff jumping into water. I hit the bot-
freshmen we were essentially racing our be much harder, but your living situation, tom and messed up my foot, leg and pelvis
easy runs, which made it really tough to friends and academic situation are all dif- and wasn’t able to run for three months.
run as well as we could in workouts and in ferent. Be patient and smart and listen to But that mistake was a bit of a blessing in
competition. Plus, it wasn’t healthy for the your coach. You will eventually get back to disguise. I ended up redshirting that sea-
camaraderie that you should feel as team- being at the top. son and cross-trained like a mad woman,
mates. There is nothing wrong with being Biggest Mistake: Sometimes I got too excited and I came back in the winter for indoor
competitive, however. I think it’s a very help- and wanted to race a lot. I learned the hard and had a major PR in the 5K. Being injured
ful tool in motivating yourself and being able way my sophomore year when I did well at for so long really motivated me to become
to push your limits in races. the conference meet, so I decided to double my best. I was able to take another year
Biggest Mistake: In one conference cham- for NCAAs. That hadn’t been our plan, but we and get the best training of my career in
pionship I cut someone off to win a race. decided to go for it. I ended up too tired by the and become so much better than I ever
It wasn’t malicious, but I just tried to drift time NCAAs and USAs came around, having thought possible. •
toward Lane 2 in order to make it more dif- doubled at both conference and regionals. My
ficult for an opponent to pass me. I wasn’t advice is to plan ahead before the season For more advice from recent
very experienced and didn’t realize how close starts, stick to that plan and don’t get greedy. college graduates visit
he was to me, so I bumped into the other Careful planning can help you run well when runningtimes.com/jan14.
athlete, causing him to lose his momentum. it counts, which is later in the season.
 Masters
and restores my mental state to stay focused

Master of
and engaged,” she says.
Because cycling and swimming can leave
running legs feeling flat, Rossi avoids or lim-
its those activities in the week before a big

All Venues
race and increases them after a big race or
when she is otherwise in a recovery mode.
Rossi’s 2013 success follows her recov-
ery from a bike accident in the fall of 2011,
which resulted in a fractured foot and elbow,
Kristi rossi, standout on road and trail, a concussion, “hundreds of stitches,” and
facial plastic surgery. She was unable to do
stays on course by mixing swimming, anything for four months, but a year later
biking and running. By Mike TyMn recorded her marathon personal best of

Photo:  Captivating Sports Photos
2:58:10 at the 2012 Santa Rosa Marathon.
Even though she has been running for 25

L
years, Rossi set her personal best times from
ast spring, 45-year-old Kristi Rossi the road calls for a 12-mile run with eight the half marathon to the 50-mile during the
ran 2:58:58 at Boston to place fourth 3-minute segments at marathon race pace past year. She credits her coach, Korock, and
in her age group. Two months later, (6:50- to 7-minute miles) and a 30-second a more disciplined training regimen for her
she placed fourth overall with a walk interval between each. “If I’m training achievements. •
3:02:21 masters course record at the for a half marathon, I’ll hold a 6:20 to 6:25
San Francisco Marathon. pace,” she says, adding that it is harder than
“I didn’t taper all that much for the San
Francisco race,” Rossi says. “I was looking
it sounds, given her hilly courses. “I am dying
by number eight.”
Training
beyond that to the Tahoe trail run, because
I wanted to qualify for next year’s West-
She usually puts in 20 miles on Sunday
when training for a half marathon or mar-
regimen
Rossi’s typical schedule
ern States.” athon, but for Tahoe she was running 30 to three to seven weeks before
A week after San Francisco, Rossi fin- 40 miles on the trails. When preparing for 2013 Boston Marathon
ished third woman in the Marin Ultra 50K ultras Rossi also skips Tuesday’s intervals
MondAy: Swim 4,000 yards
Trail Challenge, and a month later achieved to do another moderate long run.
her goal of qualifying for Western States as Some say that it is better for TueSdAy: Run 12 miles (warm-up 2 miles;
fourth-place woman in the Tahoe Rim Trail a competitive runner to simply 8 x 3 minutes at marathon race pace with
50 Mile Endurance Run, a race that peaks run more rather than mix in bik- 30 seconds walk between repeats)
at more than 9,000 feet and saw temper- ing and swimming. “I agree with
atures in the 90s. Her success continued that if you are 28 and compet- WedneSdAy: Swim 4,000 yards; bike
in August, when she was the overall ing at the very top level,” Korock easy 25–30 miles
female winner in the Santa Rosa Mar- says. “I do believe that
ThuRSdAy: Run 12 miles (warm-up, 9
athon with a 2:59:40. a s you get older
miles tempo run @ 15 seconds slower
“The Tahoe race was especially you have to begin
than marathon race pace, cool-down)
difficult and challenging,” Rossi more cross-train-
says. “But I loved it.” ing. You keep the FRidAy: Swim 4,000 yards; bike 2–2.5
Whether she’s preparing for purposeful miles hours with hills
a half marathon, marathon, in your regimen
ultramarathon or triathlon, and substitute SATuRdAy: Rest
Rossi, 5-foot-6 and 118 pounds, the cross-train-
SundAy: 20-mile run, easy to
trains pretty much the same ing activities for
moderate pace
way, mixing in swimming and the easier stuff.”
biking with running. A typical Rossi, who was
week calls for three days of run- more of a swim-
ning, two of swimming and biking, mer than runner
one day of swimming only, and one during her school Born: April 8, 1968
rest day. yea r s, see s v a lue Lives: Hillsborough, Calif.
Best times: (40+)
STATS

“She really pushes the envelope,” in t he injur y-pre-

says Bob Korock, her coach. “I don’t vention benefits of Hm: 1:20:33 (2013)
know how she does it, other than that cross-training. She maratHon: 2:58:10 (2012)
she’s got a great work ethic and the also makes herself 50K: 5:24:11 (2012)
natural ability.” go to bed early during 50m: 9:03:43 (2012)
Rossi avoids track workouts. Her heavy training. “Qual-
usual Tuesday interval session on ity sleep heals my body
 T
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 Trails

Winter trail running shoes

If you don’t want to hassle with straps, bind-
ings and external devices that compromise
your footfall, winter trail running shoes are
the best bet to maintain your stride year-
round while still standing a chance against
the slippery terrain. In the backcountry, you
won’t glide over the thick stuff, and ice and
slush require excessive caution if you don’t
have adequate traction in your trail shoes.
On the downside, high-quality winter trail
running shoes can cost as much as cram-
pons and low-end snowshoes, with a limit
to how often you can use them.

No More Slip
Sliding Away check out:
Salomon and New Balance have made this
category more versatile by adding winter-
ized features to already successful standard
The right gear will keep you running on the trail models. The Salomon Snowcross CS

trails all winter long. By Myles schrag

($200) looks bulky but weighs a moder-
ate 12.6 ounces. It includes an inner zip
gaiter and water-resistant upper to keep
snow out, plus deep V-shaped lugs and nine

I
built-in spikes on the bottom to ensure ade-
f life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Snowshoeing Federation (ISSF) World Snow- quate traction.
And if Mother Nature dumps a moun- shoe Championships. The New Balance MT110 Winter/Boot
tain of snow, by all means get out and But you don’t have to have Scott’s creden- ($125) puts an integrated gaiter and dia-
make tracks. tials to justify the investment in traction. mond-shaped lugs (but no spikes) on a
That is what trail runner Jared Scott Today’s footwear options for battling snow minimalist trail platform with a 4mm heel-
discovered in 2010 when Flagstaff, Ariz., and ice are so good that no one has to slip toe drop and thin, firm cushioning, weighing
received five feet of snow in a week. around on regular running shoes. There’s in at 9 ounces.
“All we did was shovel snow off our roof for no reason to retire to a long winter’s nap or Icebug isn’t as well-known in the U.S., but
three days,” the Kahtoola-sponsored snow- turn to cross-training. the Swedish company is a leader in making
shoe racer says. “You couldn’t do anything if Winter running allows you to keep the winterized shoes, including the smooth-
you were just a regular runner.” cardiovascular fitness with less jarring. It’s running, waterproof and studded PYTHO2
Scott, who now resides in Dolores, Colo., much better than turning to a basement BUGrip ($150).
From Left:  Scott Mason  Courtesy of Icebug

is certainly no regular runner when it comes treadmill, allows you to work on your form,
to performance. After Flagstaff’s powdery and will have you feeling fresher and lighter spikes and craMpons
surprise provided him with a reason to when spring racing season comes around. Choose spikes and crampons for ice and
take up snowshoeing, he has added to an Those who want to glide over the snow, hard-packed snow, and for steep climb-
impressive trail-running résumé by plac- look elsewhere. Here are tips to ensure you ing near summits. The days of embedding
ing second at the U.S. National Snowshoe choose the proper footwear if you’re deter- sheet-metal screws into the soles of your
Championships in 2012 and 16th as the top mined to pick up your feet every step of the old training shoes are long gone. Spikes pro-
non-European in the 2013 International way, all winter long. vide a cheaper alternative to snowshoes and
close to a normal running experience. But snoWshoes
if you expect to encounter roads or rocks Snowshoes require the
along the way, spikes can wear out quickly most pre-run preparation
and dig into your feet, and they provide lit- and the most adjustment to
tle advantage in deep snow. With modern, your gait, but if you have to
portable crampon systems, one option is get through deep stuff, they
to mix and match with snowshoes to cover are your best bet to float on
your bases going up and down, as well as in top of the powder.
changing terrain. Be aware of the difference in
function between the lighter fitness
snowshoes, normally used on trails that
are groomed or packed down by racers in
front of you, and the heavier hiking or recre-
ational snowshoes used in the backcountry,
says Bob Dion, a Vermont snowshoe racer,
check out: who has his own line of snowshoes.
Kahtoola’s MICROspikes chain system ($65) “For running, you want as small and
remains hard to beat for ease of use and por- narrow as you can get away with, with-
tability. With no straps, you can take them out sacrificing durability,” he says. “The
on and off during the course of a run with goal is packing the snow, breaking the trail
no hassle. New this year are two additional and connecting the holes [floating across
spikes in the back for even better footing. uneven snowpack].” check out:
Hillshound builds on the Trail Crampon With today’s multitude of aluminum- Dion Snowshoes presents a modular design
model this season with its lighter Ultra ($70), frames, you often don’t have to sacrifice in which you choose the frame, binding and
featuring 18 spikes. durability for light weight, Dion says. That cleats that suit you and the conditions best.
La Sportiva offers an A.T. Hobnails kit allows you to focus on finding a narrow The teardrop-shaped Crescent Moon Gold
($53) to do what runners have done for years: option, which lets you get closer to a normal 12 ($185) provides an excellent balance of
add hex screws into the soles of their shoes. running stride, and cleats that give proper performance and durability. The taper in
The La Sportiva screws are a bit fancier, and traction for your weight. the tail allows for a more natural stride and
the kit includes a tool for adding or removing Follow a shoe’s recommended load, but makes up for reduced surface area by add-
them, but you can check out a number of trail don’t forget to include all your gear when ing two extra inches. Its acclaimed binding
runner blogs (including Pikes Peak ace Matt figuring your weight. Although you want to system makes midrun adjustments easy,
Carpenter’s www.skyrunner.com) for instruc- get the smallest size that will support you, even in the worst conditions. Experienced
tions on how to do this successfully with light, powdery snow requires bigger shoes snowshoe runners also recommend Atlas,
material from your local hardware store. to stay afloat than wet snow does. Northern Lights, Redfeather and Tubbs. •

RUNNINGTIMES / 27
 This ye ar, don'T seT Tle for more
o f T h e s a m e . Ta k e T i m e T o r e T o o l ,
build ne w skill s, geT sTronger
a n d e m e r g e fa s T e r T h a n e v e r .

SCHEDULE A

b y J o n aT h a n d u g a s

Y
ou’re a typical competitive road log shows that a week in November looks their strengths and weaknesses, and accept
runner. You race about once a month much like a week in April, or one in August. that these won’t change much. They may
from the 5K to the half marathon. It works; it is what you've done for years. play with different workouts or add new
You always place in the front third or so of And that is the problem. exercises, but they don’t back off from their
the pack, sometimes garnering age-group Your situation is familiar. In my years standard training to rest or to do anything
awards. But you find yourself dissatisfied alongside runners as a fellow athlete, I find truly different—unless injury forces them to.
with your performances, frustrated even. this an all-too-common thread in their Top runners, however, almost always
After you finish a race, it feels like déjà vu: stories. And as a researcher and director of structure their year into focused segments.
You finished in the same time range—as clinical development at The Vitality Group They take breaks, address problems and
always. Maybe you died near the end, or in Chicago, where I translate the science of hone new skills. During years such as 2014,
your stride faltered in the middle miles—as exercise to large populations as we create when they have no Olympics or outdoor
always. You’d like to be better, but you’re not wellness programs, I find that training, to world championships, many of them focus
sure you can work harder, given your injury many, means just running each week. It on new distances or back off from racing for
history, job and other commitments. is not planned out in a way to maximize a period. At the college level, some redshirt
You get in near-daily runs, work out more adaptations and benefits. These runners a year, taking a break from competition to
intensely once or twice a week, and try to fit have had an acceptable level of success, but become better runners. Even high school
in a weekend long run. A look at your training rarely see much improvement. They know standout Mary Cain, who made the final of
 EndurancE Blocks
If you've built a base of consistent mileage that you can sustain throughout the year,
you don’t need to spend months continuing to increase or maintain high mileage
and ignoring other elements of your running. Instead, you can safely complete a
period of high-volume running in six to 10 weeks. The hardest part of a training
period that focuses on high volume, however, is being disciplined enough to slow
down. Too often you will feel strong and be eager to push yourself harder, but you
have to hold back and keep the pace comfortable and easy.
Runners usually go at whatever pace they can sustain and think they have to
push themselves during each workout, or at least sometime during the week.
Slowing to a conversational pace and adding miles to the edge of your fatigue
threshold, however, allows the consistent buildup in distance over a number of
weeks. While the gains might not be apparent in the short term, be confident that
later on they will pay dividends.

EndurancE PEriod Plan

Start this training period fully rested and recovered. Over four weeks, cut all
intense workouts—intervals, tempo runs, fartleks—and increase volume by 10
to 20 percent each week. Back off in the fifth week, doing only a few easy miles to
keep loose, before increasing again for four more weeks in a row. Complete two
four-week cycles of increasing volume, each followed by a rest week, when you
cut volume to recover and prepare for the next training period. Increase mileage
by adding distance to each workout, as well as by adding running days each week.
Keep doing a weekly long run and, if possible, add a midweek longer run to help
get the required distance each week.
If you have a history of injury and are unsure about increasing your volume by
this much over four weeks, complete two three-week mesocycles. Stop after three
weeks if you’re unsure whether you can complete the fourth week of increased
volume. If you’re feeling fatigued, chances are you’ve stressed your system enough
to get some adaptations, so all is not lost by backing off earlier than planned.
Taking a systematic approach like this can mitigate the problems normally
associated with big jumps in volume. You can exceed the “10 percent rule,” because
you’re increasing over a short period of time, and you’re keeping the intensity low.
It is important to balance these hard periods of training with recovery weeks of
only a little easy running.

the 1500m at the world championships in year. Plan a year that not only maintains Taking full advantage of it allows you to
August, took the fall season off to improve your fitness and race times, but allows optimize your training time throughout
her form, with the goal of rising even higher. you to emerge a faster, stronger and the year and improve your performance by
For passionate, competitive runners who healthier athlete. pushing yourself in areas you might have
train for enjoyment as much as performance, historically ignored.
taking this step to get to the next level can ThE sum of A full understanding requires some
be a big ask. We can be fragile souls, and mYriad adaPTaTions background. At its heart, periodization
confidence in our running can be a delicate applies the work of Hans Selye. Selye,
thing. Trying something new broaches a To do so might require modifying how you Austrian-Hungarian by bir th, spent
barrier, beyond which lies the unknown. We view training and fitness. Most runners his professional career in the U.S. and
hold tightly to our ability to perform at an have heard the term periodization. The Montreal from the 1930s until his death
expected level on any given day. Doing the concept is often referenced in training in 1982. He was the first scientist to
same or similar workouts provides a steady literature for many sports, so it is widely describe how stressing our physiological
diet of confidence because we know how we known, at least in name. In practice, systems would result in adaptations that
respond. It can be a tough decision to stray however, not so much. Yet systematically are specific to those stresses. Selye’s
from the path that has rewarded us. applying the concept of periodization is work described stress reaction as being
Don’t settle for the status quo this something no serious athlete should ignore. on a continuum: At one end, with no stress,
there is no adaptation; in the middle, there the winter months ahead and the end of family trips, or week s with other
is enough stress to stimulate physiological the traditional racing season, the time is pressing commitments.
change; and on the far end, there is a failure right to map out the next 12 months of Pick the races you hope to peak for, ones
of the system (injury) from too much stress. training periods. that realistically fit into your schedule and
To produce favorable adaptations, you We mu s t r e m i n d o u r s e l v e s t h at , available training time. If your outside
need to exert sufficient stress to stimulate important as running is, it is not the only commitments are minimal and flexible,
your systems to form these adaptations. priority in our lives. Most of us are not this can be the first step in the planning
In other words, you have to get out of your earning our income from our running process. You can have more than one
comfort zone. Doing something you’ve done exploits, even if they dominate our time peak in any given year, but trying to peak
before, regardless of how hard it feels in the and energy. We have jobs, families, friends, more than two or three times makes it
moment, is something your body already and other life commitments that require hard to schedule adequate down cycles
knows how to do, so that activity will not our attention. and building periods leading to the peaks.
produce any meaningful adaptations. The t ypical approach is to declare As you lay out your year, plan periods of
Periodization applies these concepts that nothing will stand in the way of our intense, specific training when it will benefit
of stress, adaptation and specificity in goal, then fail at either our training or at your key events. Slot in other meaningful,
a systematic way—using different time keeping up with other commitments—or but perhaps less specific training, during
periods to work on unique aspects of your both. A periodized approach can help us longer periods between goal races.
running—to produce the changes you’ll schedule training segments of differing Periodized training programs tend to
need for top performance. Rather than lengths and varied intensities that fit our rigidly divide segments in days, weeks
seeing fitness as one whole, periodization available training time and accomplish or months using terms like macrocycle
presents your performance as the sum specific, achievable and meaningful goals (which can last many months), mesocycle
of many different adaptations. Using during those periods. And it can help us (weeks), and microcycle (days). These are
periodization permits you, over time, to be better spouses, employees, parents useful from a conceptual standpoint and
accumulate a larger sum of adaptations and citizens by giving us time to put those when designing detailed training programs,
than you could by working all areas of commitments first, without sacrificing any but not critical to understand at first. The
running fitness simultaneously. of our “serious runner” status. important point is to realize that a training
Looking at the full year, identify key period can be of different lengths, even
maP Your YEar time frames when you can devote more as short as a few days or a week. When
effort to training, and others when you you consider that, it can help you slot in a
Understanding how periodization works will have fewer hours and less energy. Plan series of workouts that focus on a specific
is one thing; doing it is another. Given recovery periods for heavy work times, adaptation for a short time period. When
balanced with the appropriate amount of
rest and recovery, you can then move with
relative ease between training and rest
facE Your WEaknEssEs periods throughout the year.
As you outline a plan, identify your perceived weaknesses and strengths as a As you look more closely at your calendar,
runner. You might identify weaknesses as an inability to kick during the last carefully identify focused training periods
mile, injury-prone knees, or perhaps a lack of endurance above a given distance. and how long each one will last. This helps
Common strengths might be an efficient stride or the ability to run at threshold you figure out how much training you can
pace for 20–30 minutes without undue effort. Taking a few moments to identify do during these times. For example, if
and record these is an important first step and will help you (and your coach if you you have a solid 10-week period between
have one) construct workouts that will address any weaknesses. peak races, you could plan two four-week
If you’re like most distance runners, you likely neglect your speed. Don’t. training periods with one week of rest after
Throughout the year, schedule some periods as short as one to two weeks to focus each one. Longer periods are necessary for
on workouts that address your power, such as 100m sprints or plyometrics. Don’t goals like building endurance. A shorter
be afraid to have days, and even short periods, when you do little or no aerobic period can be used for a specific, short
exercise but work out like a sprinter. Just be mindful of doing too much, too soon. cycle, like pure speed training to hone your
If you have not tried plyometrics before, keep it simple and progress slowly. kick. Use the scheduling guidelines in A
If general body strength needs work, schedule a period where you spend more Periodized Year to decide what elements
time in the gym for resistance training or body weight exercises. And don’t shun to work on when.
upper body exercises, including arm and shoulder work, for fear that adding
additional mass will only slow you down. Incorporating a relatively short four- to rEsT: ThE PuncTuaTion
six-week training cycle for work that targets the upper body can add strength to a of PEriodizaTion
torso that is atrophied from several years of focusing solely on running. Remember,
your running performance is due not only to a strong heart or strong legs, but is The most important step in adopting
also the consequence of your whole body being able to withstand the stress that periodization is to accept and schedule rest
running at pace exerts on you. times in your training. Resting between
Whatever your weakness, spend a period or two focused on it early in your stressful periods is the punctuation of
training cycle. Later, as you get closer to your race, you can do workouts that periodization, the key to making it work.
reinforce and affirm your strengths. Central to Selye’s work is that while stress
serves as a stimulus to create adaptations,
it can also accumulate to a point at which
 a PEriodizEd YEar
Each runner’s time commitments, goals, strengths and weaknesses will be different, so no cookie-cutter schedule will work for everybody.
This annual calendar, however, provides an example of how a runner might schedule various periods toward a two-peak racing year.

Time period Number of weeks focus NoTes

Four weeks of core and other

JaNuary 4 sTreNgTh strength/balance work with
low-volume running

Two three- to four-

february–april 8-10 eNduraNce week mesocycles of
increasing distance

Two three-week mesocycles

of intervals; aim for six to
seven interval sessions in
april–JuNe 8 speed three weeks, moving from
less-specific to more-specific
workouts related to goal race

Taper: maintain intensity but

JuNe–July 4-6 raciNg reduce volume between races

One three- to four-week

July–augusT 4-6 eNduraNce period of increasing volume

One period of intervals, could

augusT 2-4 speed be two, three, or four weeks

Two three- to four-week

choose based oN
sepTember–ocTober 8-10 training periods; finish with
prefereNce aNd goal
a taper and a fall event

Taper: maintain intensity

November 4 raciNg
but reduce volume

If you have the volume, pick

a marathon or half and do it
for fun at a relaxed pace—
december 4 fuN soak up the atmosphere and
do not compete. Or put in an
intense microcycle between
holiday travel and revel.

Planning PrioriTiEs
Choosing what to work on when is important. • Schedule running-centric periods closer to miles, as well as working muscles with
a few scheduling guidelines can help: goal races, and work on other areas, such explosive running, drills and resistance,
as strength, flexibility or form, during the before doing intense, race-specific training.
• First, get healthy. If you have a nagging off-season.
injury, take time for the rest and focus • Schedule blocks to work on running skills
needed to cure it and address the underlying • Work on areas of weakness early; focus on specific to goal races as you get closer to the
weakness that caused it. This rehab and strengths as you get close to your goal race. race. Work on the elements farther away
recovery can actually be planned into your from your goal race—toward extremes of
year as one or two training periods. • Build necessary strength by doing long endurance and speed—earlier in the season.
ThE
as efficient and smooth running, say, a ease with which his new team leader won
50-second 400 as when he’s running a 3:45 races in the fall of 2012. Kithuka continued

PausE ThaT
1500 meter. The more comfortable we could to impress during an indoor season that
get him at a faster pace, the better it was was capped by a 13:25.38 national title
going to be for him.” Though the end results at 5,000m, only 0.27 off Lawi Lalang’s

rEfrEshEs of a redshirt outdoor track season were

mixed, coach and athlete agree the move
brought benefits that will enhance Kithuka’s
meet record.
There was nothing to suggest Kithuka’s
performances would decline during the
final year of collegiate competition. 2013 outdoor season, and yet Murray
Strategic downtime can benefit
Kithuka arrived in Plainview, Texas, became convinced his star pupil should
all runners, even the elites.
from his native Kenya in early 2010 and step away from the highly intense, nonstop
immediately went about rewriting the routine of training and racing. He and
By John A. KiSSAne
record book at NAIA power Wayland Kithuka discussed the redshirt option and
Baptist University. That indoor season agreed it made sense.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It’s hard to find he set new school standards in the mile, “The college system, especially for
fault with this old adage, which seems so 3,000m and 5,000m, and won the NAIA
logical. So why did Texas Tech University national 3,000m title. Kithuka was even
distance standout Kennedy Kithuka, who more dominant during the 2010 outdoor
won all seven NCAA Division I cross country season, leading Wayland to a national
races he ran in the fall of 2012 by an average championship by claiming victories at
of nearly a minute, take a redshirt season 5,000m and 10,000m, lapping the entire
in the spring? 10K field for good measure.
After Kithuka romped to the individual Over the course of the next two years
national championship in November, he at Wayland, Kithuka was unstoppable,
moved indoors, where he ran his first sub- capturing NAIA cross country crowns
4:00 mile in January and then dominated in 2010 and 2011, in addition to several
the 5,000m at nationals in early March. more indoor and outdoor track titles.
No doubt about it, this was a world-class Though briefly hampered with a hip flexor
athlete winning with ease. injury during the 2011 indoor season, he
But to the surprise of many, Jon Murray, rebounded quickly and never looked back,
Texas Tech head coach, decided it was time except to avoid padding his mileage, which
for Kithuka to take a step back and change he felt caused the injury.
some ingredients in his training to take his In the summer of 2012, Kithuka moved 50
running to an even higher level. “We were miles south to Lubbock after transferring to
trying to pick up his top-end speed a little Texas Tech. Murray expected the transition
bit,” Murray says. “Obviously, he’s a 10K guy, to NCAA competition would go smoothly,
so it’s all relative. But Kennedy is not nearly but even the coach was astounded at the Kennedy Kithuka

the system is strained beyond its limits. defies a simple answer. Over the years Ty pically a week provides enough
The rate at which you accumulate stress many have tried to develop accurate ways rest, even after the hardest and most
is a function of how intense it is and how to measure training stress so that athletes taxing training periods. If the previous
long you are exposed to it, plus how much and coaches can use one simple metric to training period was not par ticularly
rest you get between exposures. Too many guide their decisions about whether to keep taxing, you might be ready to start a new
runners never schedule downtime in their pushing harder or to back off and recover. training period in just four or five days.
annual or monthly plan because they are A definitive measure remains elusive, but Equally as important as the duration
too tied to weekly mileage totals and the you should always err on the side of caution. of the rest, however, is what you do in
ability to perform at an expected level on The aim of each hard training period is to that period.
any given day. mete out training sessions that stress your T his is wher e t he a r t of t r a ining
You must balance the stress you place physiology nearly to the point of failure, comes into play. In the absence of a
on any physiological system with sufficient while being ever so careful that you don’t biomarker or device you can wear that
rest between cycles. You can push yourself go over that point. This level of stress is tells you exactly when you are ready to
quite hard in a given training period as long called overreaching, and represents the return to more intense work, you will
as you also give yourself adequate time optimal state of training stimulus. A little need to call on experience and how you
to recover from that training. This can more, perhaps one or two more hard days feel. As a rule, you should reduce your
mean literal rest, but it can also mean easy of training, and failure might occur. Instead, volume and intensity during a rest period.
running or other training for a week or two by retreating back into a period of recovery, Trying to maintain one or the other is
that permits recovery from the hard block your tissues and systems are allowed to not really rest. The real discipline is in
you just completed. regenerate and form the adaptations bac k ing of f a nd hav ing conf idence
When you should rest, and for how long, you’re seeking. t hat e ven i f you er r on t he side of
 distance runners, requires athletes to go one home meet on April 6, winning the minutes shortly before cross country
at a high level for long periods of time,” the 1500m in 3:45.82 and coming back to run season began, which indicated he was
coach says. “Taking a little bit of a break an 800m in 1:54.69. That month Murray ready to go. And ready to attempt another
competition-wise would allow us to focus successfully gained entry for his athlete undefeated fall campaign.
more on some different things in his into the highly competitive 10,000m “The main benefit from my perspective
training without the competitive, week- field at the Prefontaine Classic, set for was just being patient with what we were
in-and-week-out pattern, plus he could also June 1. “We thought it would be a good idea doing,” says Murray in evaluating the
concentrate more on academics. The short- to concentrate on one event down the road redshirt decision. “We’re ordinarily on
term objective was to improve his top-end while working on the speed factor and such a tight schedule with each season—
efficiency, and a long-term objective was to endurance, and not racing every week,” it’s just these 12- or 13-week cycles that
develop his ability to change gears during the coach says. keep going, and you’re always feeling you
a race.” In early May, however, Kithuka suffered need to get things accomplished or you’ll
Kithuka, now 24, saw the reasoning a hamstring strain that hindered his run out of time. So not having the deadlines,
behind the approach and did not hesitate. training. “He started really struggling we could tweak workouts or delay them
“I was running good times indoors,” he says, with his workouts,” Murray explains. “He when needed.
“but I thought the redshirt was a good idea, was wanting to run mid-27:00 at Pre, but “The 10K is where Kennedy is going to
because going from cross country to indoor based on the workouts he was doing in shine next spring,” Murray says. “If he can
to outdoor, it was going to be too much May it just wasn’t going to happen.” A week get in the right race and some people can
work for me.” before the race, while Murray was with the help out with the pacing, he’ll run very, very
Through April and into May, the revised team at the NCAA regional championships, fast. He’s gotten more efficient this last
training plan—70 to 80 miles per week Kithuka phoned to inform his coach that he year and can now handle that faster pace,
with a good mix of race-pace efforts and wanted to pull out of Pre. “The injury was and he can just run all day.”
faster intervals—worked well. “I never not that serious,” Kithuka says, “but my How much has the improved efficiency
have Kennedy do a lot of what would fear was that it might go until cross country helped? Kithuka’s busy regular season
technically be called speed work, 100s season, and that’s why I decided to give up consisted of five races in seven weeks,
and 200s,” Murray explains, “because the Pre Classic.” and he won them a ll by an average
he really gets out of his comfort zone M i s si ng ou t on a c h a nc e t o r ac e of 40 seconds. Rainy, sloppy conditions
with those. Plus the faster, more intense Kenenisa Bekele and many of the world’s at the Chile Pepper Invitational in early
workouts bring a much higher risk of injury. finest 10K runners was disappointing, October likely played into a narrow,
An example of a workout we did during that but Kithuka and Murray know there 7-second victory over Kemoy Campbell,
time was fifteen 400s with 90 seconds rest, will be other opportunities. Kithuka Arkansas All-American, but two weeks
and he did all of them between 58 and 60 cautiously took most of June to recover later Kithuka pulled away early from
seconds, just rattled them off. And that’s from the hamstring strain and rebuild his a deep Pre-Nationals field and rolled
here in Lubbock at 3,300 feet of altitude. distance base, gradually incorporating to a comfor table 33-second victor y.
So our goal last spring was to raise his some fartlek and tempo runs in July and At conference meet, it was much the
comfort level.” then a weekly hill session in August. He same: a 37-second victory, at altitude
K it huk a competed unat tached in completed a 10-mile tempo run in 50 in Colorado.

sPrinG BrEak
Though he wasn'T racing, kennedy kiThuka of Texas Tech had a
full agenda for his redshirT season. here's whaT he worked on:

1. His ability to change gears during races. 3. Consistent ancillary training, including core
work. Because he didn't have to travel for meets,
2. Efficiency and comfort at highest speeds. "He can Kithuka could stick to his routine every weekend.
run pretty fast now in the 10K, but for the future
he will need to be able to have another gear on the 4. Refreshing his mental outlook. "He is a great
last 800m of the 10K to be successful," says Jon competitor normally, but I believe the break
Murray, Kithuka's coach. "His efficiency has improved, in competition also allowed him to recharge
so we feel he is developing better in this area." that competitive spirit," Murray says.
focusEd
microcYclEs camP 1: racE To racE add one or two hard sessions. Start on
A big advantage of a periodized approach is Start with a local 5K or 10K on Saturday, Saturday with a 5K or 10K time trial or race,
that, with careful planning, you can use every giving it your all. Follow this by a long run on followed by a Sunday long run. Run easy on
last week to focus on some aspect of your Sunday at whatever distance is appropriate Monday. Tuesday to Thursday, mix up three
running. Consider the times, for example, for you. Each day of the week run 30–90 of your normal interval workouts. These can
when you have some days relatively free, minutes at varying intensities: an easy day, be 400s, mile repeats, or longer tempo runs,
sandwiched between travel or busy work perhaps a progression run, a rhythm run, a but pick three different workouts. Follow this
time that robs you of quality training. You fartlek. Finish the week on Saturday by doing on Friday with an easy day of 30–60 minutes
find yourself with an odd week during which another race or a 10K time trial on your own. and finish on Saturday with 45–60 minutes
it seems you cannot possibly do anything Rest well and feel your strength grow as your of tempo running before a week of easy runs
meaningful, so you opt for some cheap miles. soreness decreases during your following when you can fit them in.
In this case, running is a better option than busy work week. One hard week offers mental and
doing nothing, but the cheap miles add little physiological gains. If you’re rested
value to your overall arsenal of adaptations. camP 2: sPEEd mix beforehand and follow it with a recovery
Pack in some quality training. Just be Enhance a week of inter val training. week, you can take full advantage of a “spare”
mindful to follow any intense period with Normally you might devote two days to week that might otherwise have been lost to
at least a week of relatively easy training intervals, interspersed with easier days to low-quality miles. When you return to a more
so you can recover. Think of it as a training recover and ensure you can give your best routine schedule, you will have built fitness
camp. There can be benefit in seven days of effort on the interval days. Given just one that will benefit you as you train toward a
daily or twice-daily workouts. week of intensity, however, you can carefully specific peak.

caution and reduce too much, you are working on an endurance phase will
not doing yourself a disservice. Better inevitably sabotage the desired effect.
to be safe and cut back enough so that Be confident that dialing back on volume
you can start the next training period or intensity for a few weeks at a time is
fresh and ready to push yourself again. not going to derail fitness. This decision
to sacrifice current race-readiness for a
ThE couragE To changE long-term goal is the biggest hurdle for
many runners.
Adopting a highly periodized approach T h i s y e a r, l o o k a t f i t n e s s a s a
to training can add many more arrows combination of multiple factors, each
to a running quiver. Doing this, however, of which can be improved. When you
requires commitment and discipline. focus on them independently and
Trying to maintain a high volume during systematically, you’ll propel yourself
training periods that focus on speed or to a higher peak than if you cling to
strength can only lead to disaster. Or what you can accomplish in the
continuing to test your speed daily while short term. •
don’T lET
iT lingEr
runners often try to train through
these big-three injuries. This year,
get serious about healing.

by carl leivers

At the first sign of injury, most runners tiptoe position using both legs. At the top To get to the root of the problem,
have the same reaction: Ignore it and of this position, lift one foot so that your strengthening exercises are vital for
keep training. “There’s a bit of OCD with body is supported only by the injured leg. overcoming ITBFS. Kitto recommends
runners,” says John Ball, a chiropractor Slowly lower your heel until you’re back at holding the fire hydrant position (on all
in Chandler, Ariz., who works with elite a standing position. Then use both legs to fours, lift a knee out to the side so it’s
athletes like Lauren Fleshman and Andrew lift yourself again. Repeat for three sets parallel to the ground) for three reps of
Wheating, as well as recreational runners. of 10 drops. one minute on each side. Add three sets of
But most running injuries only get harder This training won’t fix all cases of Achilles 25 clamshells. (Lying on your side with your
to treat the longer you let them linger. Dan tendinitis, because other underlying factors knees bent to 90 degrees, lift your top knee
Bannink, a physical therapist in Lake Orion, may be causing the pain. If pain persists, a away from your bottom knee, engaging your
Mich., emphasizes this rule of thumb: “If it’s trip to the doctor is your next step. glutes to perform the motion.) Bannink
hurting, it’s not healing.” suggests sets of 10 to 20 shallow, single-
Ultimately, taking the time to find and iT Band fricTion sYndromE leg squats done in front of a mirror. The
fix an injury before it becomes a chronic (iTBfs) emphasis is on keeping your hips level and
issue will give you the foundation to train your knee coming straight out over your
injury-free throughout the rest of the year. stop or go? During the initial stages of toes, rather than focusing on the depth of
See it as a healing period that will give you recovery, you need to back off from running the squat.
the ability to train well later when you need and cross-train. “Pain that affects gait
to. Here’s what Ball, Bannink and other mechanics should be fixed,” Bannick says. PlanTar fasciiTis
experts say about three common injuries. “It’s an inflammation of tissue. Too much of
that over time and tissue gets changed— stop or go? Good news: Having plantar
achillEs TEndiniTis and not for the better.” When cross-training fasciitis doesn’t automatically mean you
with ITBFS, it’s important to pick exercises have to take time off. Treating plantar, Ball
stop or go? Achilles pain is an injury that that don’t irritate the area. Stay away from says, “is about bringing the training load
you shouldn’t try to run through, Ball says. the elliptical machine, Ball says, because it down until it’s manageable.” Reduce your
Continued stress on the area can lead to can place the hips in a position that puts running to the point that the injury doesn’t
Achilles tendinosis, a more serious and more stress on the IT band. As you recover, cause you to alter your stride while running
longer-lasting injury. To know when it’s safe start doing shorter, faster work such as or cause you pain that impacts your day-to-
to return to running, Pete Kitto, a physical strides first, because they tend to irritate day activities, he advises. Supplement your
therapist in Ann Arbor, Mich., who has the IT band less than long, easy miles, says running with cross-training that doesn’t put
worked with Ron Warhurst’s elite training Brian Fullem, sports medicine podiatrist additional stress on your feet—activity that
groups, recommends a simple test: “If your in Tampa, Fla., and former captain of the doesn’t irritate the plantar fascia can help
first step in the morning hurts, you’re still Bucknell University track team. promote healing. “Jump rope isn’t going to
injured,” he says. When that first step is treat it: Although runners usually reach get it done, but swimming would be great,”
pain-free, you can begin a conservative for the foam roller when dealing with ITBFS, Ball says.
return to running. neither Bannink nor Dan Selstad, a certified treat it: Kitto recommends traditional
treat it: Jay Dicharry, a physical therapist athletic trainer in Solana Beach, Calif., who wall stretches for the calf. Lean against
in Bend, Ore., and the author of Anatomy specializes in runners and triathletes, the wall, alternating with your back
for Runners, says eccentric training is a recommends it. The foam roller doesn’t leg straight and bent, for three sets
well-established method of working the address the underlying issues—usually hip of 30 seconds in each position. He also
Achilles tendon. Ball concurs, saying that and glute weakness, Bannink says, adding swears by pulling on your big toe while
this type of training, strengthening-while- that it is important to remember that even seated and stretching it up and back, three
lengthening, “is the best that we have right though the pain is felt at the IT band, “It’s times for 30 seconds, three times a day.
now. For the vast majority of people, that’s never the IT band’s fault. The pain is the “The literature shows it works,” he says.
the right starting point.” canary in the coal mine that points to a larger After the plantar fascia is stretched out,
At home, Dicharry recommends calf mechanical problem.” Selstad agrees. “The Kitto recommends using a massage ball to
drops. Start in a standing position with problem is the soft tissue that’s pulling on roll the area for five minutes, twice a day,
both feet on the floor. Raise yourself to a the IT band,” he says, not the IT band itself. for maintenance.
Trail racing in Europe?
Plan for the challenge of a lifetime.
 Lauri van Houten, executive director of the International
Skyrunning Federation, which includes 120 races in the
Who wouldn’t want a running vacation in Europe this year? U.S., Europe and elsewhere, says, “It’s quite simply the fact
Exploring the stunning geography and historic architecture that U.S. races are more runnable. The terrain in Europe is
of many Americans’ ancestral homelands on foot feels steeper and more technical, hence the bigger DNF rate.”
indulgent. But be warned, trail racing across the pond Gina Lucrezi, a U.S. trail runner who has raced overseas,
isn’t a morning constitutional followed by croissants and cautions that training on buffed American trails is
butter or a leisurely tour of the wine country. inadequate preparation for the aggressive terrain of the
Europeans consistently challenge themselves with Alps. “Alpine-style running is a whole octave higher in
running trails so steep and technical that a good percentage terms of footing and elevation gain,” she says. “When you go
of the competitors don’t cross the finish line. At least not to Europe to race, expect to hurt and really find your limit.”
on the first attempt. And they prefer it that way, valuing That challenge, depicted in these images, comes with
“failure” on a truly challenging course over predictable outstanding scenery and some of the wildest, steepest and
success on more moderate terrain. most rewarding trails you’ll ever enjoy.
 RUN BUFFALO!
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Memorial Day weekend, 7 a.m. start
Buffalo, New York
Register on-line at:
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Marathon hotline: (716) 694-5154

Ranked one of the highest Boston Marathon qualifier in North America

hat applies to footwear, especially in winter, when running water-resistant or even waterproof footwear becomes a cru-
ofen involves challenging, if not worrisome, conditions cial premium in the winter. The extra upper padding and
underfoot. To tackle those challenges, runners have found aggressive soles of trail-specific models, even if they com-
that small adaptations can make their runs quite pleasant. promise the weight and ride, provide that sumpin’ sumpin’
When you need to contend with puddles, slush, snow to make a run pleasant.
and ice, and both road and trails are slick and squishy The following selection of new and updated shoes has
underfoot, you want the security of a trail shoe. While breath- recently arrived on the scene to help you through this darker
ability is a focus for two or three seasons of the year, warm, time of the year.
 BROOKS
 Adrenaline ASR 10  $125
KaRhu
 Flow Trail  $120
($135 for Gore-Tex version)
WeIGHt: WeIGHt:
M 11.3 oz | W 9.0 oz M 8.9 oz | W 7.4 oz

Labeled by one tester as the “Humvee of trail shoes,” the Adrenaline ASR 10 provided After Karhu’s Flow and Flow Light Road were given overwhelming ovations from our
plenty of sturdy protection on sloppy terrain. Some of our testers tried the Gore-Tex test team, the trail version wasn’t as universally liked. On the positive side, the fit
model and found the waterproofing kept it dry without their feet overheating. While the and flexibility helped the shoe run naturally and free on dirt track and other soft sur-
outsole provided moderate traction and was versatile on road and trail, it isn’t suited faces, where the Flow Trail really, well, flowed. On technical trails, however, it fell
well for snow and ice, because the tread doesn’t provide enough bite. The rather stif short of expectations. One tester deemed it “not particularly performance oriented.”
ride ofered a solid shield from rocks and roots, but it also dampened the underfoot The midsole lacks a guard against protrusions, the tread doesn’t provide sufcient
feel required for nimble maneuvering. traction, and the loose upper lacks security for lateral stability. The shoe is best for
fans of the Karhu ride who stay on relatively tame terrain such as the paths around
Helsinki where Karhus are made.

Heel HeigHt 35.5 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 23.3 mm = Heel-toe Drop 12.2 mm Heel HeigHt 25.8 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 19.7 mm = Heel-toe Drop 6.1 mm

28 78
Flexibility: Flexibility:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
38 18
Heel CusHioning: Heel CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
54 37
ForeFoot CusHioning: ForeFoot CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

Similar modelS in performance: Mizuno Wave Alchemy 12, adidas adiStar Boost, Similar modelS in performance: adidas Clima Ride TR, Skechers GObionic Trail,
Karhu Strong Fulcrum Ride 2 Patagonia Fore Runner Evo

MEN’s WOMEN’s MEN’s WOMEN’s

tIGHter LOOser tIGHter LOOser

Similar modelS in fit: Nike LunarFly+ 2 Breathe, Under Armour Proto New Balance M1290, ASICS GEL-Trail Sensor 5,
Similar modelS in fit:
Speed III Trainer, Zoot Kapilani adidas adiZero Feather 2
 MizunO
 Ascend 8  $110
MeRRell
 Trail Run Ascend Glove  $120

WeIGHt: WeIGHt:
M 11.3 oz | W 8.8 oz M 8.2 oz | W 6.4 oz

Our testers deemed the Ascend 8 as a “go anywhere” shoe: well-padded, highly flex- Recognized for its comfortable upper, the Merrell Ascend “Glove” is no misnomer, one
ible, supportive and ventilated. Falling toward the “more shoe” side of the spectrum, tester observed. Ofering a wide, splay-accommodating forefoot, combined with a
the Ascend also ran about a half size large, requiring our testers to snug down the secure midfoot to prevent sloppiness, the Ascend Glove’s sock-free-friendly fit was
asymmetric lacing to gain more control on technical footing. The Ascend ran smoothly a hit with our testers. Although this is true minimalist footwear, the Ascend includes
and transitioned naturally between road and more subdued trails. The 36mm heel trail-specific features such as a stout toe cap and Vibram outsole that gripped rock
height—the highest profile of this test set—prevents it from being a shoe of choice well. The fast, lightweight feel from the lowest profile of this test batch was ofset
for technical terrain, although the outsole holds its own on most any surface and by the lack of cushioning, so they aren’t what our testers recommend for running on
sheds mud with alacrity. rocky, technical trails unless you are a nimble trail dancer.

Heel HeigHt 36.1 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 24.2 mm = Heel-toe Drop 11.9 mm Heel HeigHt 14.1 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 13.9 mm = Heel-toe Drop 0.2 mm

62 81
Flexibility: Flexibility:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
53 6
Heel CusHioning: Heel CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
58 6
ForeFoot CusHioning: ForeFoot CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

Similar modelS in performance: Brooks Trailblade, adidas adiStar Raven 3, Similar modelS in performance: Patagonia EVERmore, Merrell Sonic Glove/Lithe Glove,
Saucony Xodus 4.0 New Balance MT110 Trail

MEN’s WOMEN’s MEN’s WOMEN’s

tIGHter LOOser tIGHter LOOser

adidas adiStar Ride 2, Mizuno Wave Creation 12,

Similar modelS in fit: Patagonia EVERmore, New Balance MR20v2,
Similar modelS in fit:
Nike Zoom Structure+ 15 Breathe Reebok X-Wave Full DMX
 newtOn
 BoCo AT  $129
niKe
 Zoom Terra Kiger  $125

WeIGHt: WeIGHt:
M 10.1 oz | W 8.5 oz M 8.1 oz | W 6.7 oz

Newton has tried to make it of-road before, but its standard longitudinal outsole lugs Every several years Nike really hits it with a top-flight trail shoe. (You may remem-
created a slip-fest, and the protruding forefoot cartridges put ankle-roll risk on high. ber the Albis, Sertig and Humara.) The Kiger is one of those well-crafted jewels. The
Fortunately the BoCo AT addressed those concerns, and it emerges as a legitimate light and responsive, low-profile yet protective shoe got rave reviews from our test
trail shoe that still promotes forefoot running. Still, our test team was a bit mixed team, with call-outs for the comfort and ventilation of the upper, the midsole cush-
on the BoCo’s performance on technical trails, where some “struggled a bit” with the ioning, the outsole mud-shedding action, and the overall performance on most trail
uncertainty of the underfoot action and reaction. The fit was comfortable and the surfaces, as well as on the road. The only reservations with the shoe related to spe-
upper was deemed to provide solid security and support by most, while others found cific preferences: The forefoot felt less flexible and too squishy to be ideal for some,
it a bit too roomy in the toe box and forefoot. while others found the upper slightly insecure and the midsole a bit too malleable,
providing inadequate protection over rocky terrain. Several testers, however, said
they would adopt the Kiger as their next trail racing footwear.

Heel HeigHt 33.6 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 26.8 mm = Heel-toe Drop 6.8 mm Heel HeigHt 26.5 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 22.5 mm = Heel-toe Drop 4.1 mm

59 57
Flexibility: Flexibility:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
61 89
Heel CusHioning: Heel CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
43 84
ForeFoot CusHioning: ForeFoot CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

Similar modelS in performance: Under Armour Spine RPM, Reebok One Guide, Zoot Otec Similar modelS in performance: Nike Zoom Wildhorse, Saucony Peregrine 3

MEN’s WOMEN’s MEN’s WOMEN’s

tIGHter LOOser tIGHter LOOser

Similar modelS in fit: Nike Air Max Moto+ 9, Pearl Izumi syncroFloat III, Similar modelS in fit: The North Face Ultra 50, Brooks Glycerin 8, Saucony Mirage 3
Zoot Ultra Tempo 4.0
 niKe
 Zoom Vomero+ 8 Shield  $130
the nORth Face
 Single-Track Hayasa II  $110

WeIGHt: WeIGHt:
M 10.4 oz | W 8.2 oz M 8.8 oz | W 7.5 oz

The Vomero was tested in its Shield version, giving it water resistance, at least in The North Face received resounding praise for the improvements it made to the Hayasa.
light rain and dew or, in winter, snow and slush. Well-cushioned with Zoom Air in From its adaptive outsole and evenly cushioned midsole to the comfort and hold of
the fore and aft, the Vomero fit most of the test team’s feet comfortably, especially the seamless upper, the Hayasa II impressed our test team. “I loved the versatility of
in the midfoot, where the security was noteworthy. On the road, one tester said the the shoe,” said one tester. “For me it hits the sweet spot of being enough shoe with-
shoe’s “amazing cushioning made for an easy, almost bouncy run,” and the ride was out getting heavy, bulky or slow.” Another said it ran “like a dream” and called it “a
called “pillow-like” and “shock absorbing,” while still perceived as light. Said one tes- great shoe for all surfaces.” It does not have enough bone-bruise protection or trac-
ter: “It has turned into my go-to shoe for days when my legs are looking to recover.” tion for the most technical trails, nor adequate forefoot cushioning for heavy-footed
runners, but otherwise the Hayasa II excels as a solid, lightweight trainer. Concerns
over durability were the only negatives reported.

Heel HeigHt 35.4 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 24.0 mm = Heel-toe Drop 11.4 mm Heel HeigHt 29.5 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 19.4 mm = Heel-toe Drop 10.1 mm

80 81
Flexibility: Flexibility:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
87 87
Heel CusHioning: Heel CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
84 16
ForeFoot CusHioning: ForeFoot CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

Similar modelS in performance: ASICS GT-1000, Nike Zoom Structure+ 16, Similar modelS in performance: The North Face Hypertrack Guide, Montrail Rogue Fly,
Brooks Ravenna 4 Pearl Izumi Peak II

MEN’s WOMEN’s MEN’s WOMEN’s

tIGHter LOOser tIGHter LOOser

Similar modelS in fit: Salomon XR Crossmax Neutral, Salomon XT Wings 3, adidas adiZero Tempo 5, Saucony Kinvara TR 2,
Similar modelS in fit:
Reebok ZigQuick Fire Saucony ProGrid Peregrine, Montrail FluidFlex
 PatagOnia
 Fore Runner Evo  $120
SKecheRS
 GObionic Trail  $80

WeIGHt: WeIGHt:
M 8.9 oz | W 7.4 oz M 8.1 oz | W 6.8 oz

For those who want to be “one with the trail,” this highly flexible, lightweight, min- This minimalist approach to trail running has less than 3mm in heel-toe ofset, is
imally-cushioned yet comfortable trail shoe meets your needs. It is well-suited for quite flexible and falls on the lighter side of the scale, translating into a tremendous
hybrid road and trail runs where underfoot protection isn’t crucial. While some tes- amount of trail feel and responsiveness. That translation, unfortunately, proved prob-
ters deemed the feel a bit too unstructured, both in wrapping the foot and providing lematic when it came to running on any surface other than groomed or cinder paths.
underfoot support, others agreed with one tester who said the shoe “is ideal for some- The sparse protection left testers wanting a rock plate, and the upper fit was loose,
body looking for a lighter-weight, high-mileage trail trainer/racer, something with even sloppy. The shoe’s fit was so large, some testers sized down one size and then
adequate protection and cushion.” found it more runnable, particularly on dirt roads and bike paths.

Heel HeigHt 23.6 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 17.2 mm = Heel-toe Drop 6.4 mm Heel HeigHt 23.9 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 21.2 mm = Heel-toe Drop 2.7 mm

78 78
Flexibility: Flexibility:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
27 13
Heel CusHioning: Heel CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
15 25
ForeFoot CusHioning: ForeFoot CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

Similar modelS in performance: La Sportiva X Country, Merrell Mix Master Move, Similar modelS in performance: Karhu Flow Trail, Merrell Mix Master Move,
Skechers GObionic Trail inov-8 Trailroc 245

MEN’s WOMEN’s MEN’s WOMEN’s

tIGHter LOOser tIGHter LOOser

The North Face Hyper-Track Guide, Fila Improver,

Similar modelS in fit: Similar modelS in fit: Under Armour Assert, Pearl Izumi EM Road N1, Reebok One Cushion
adidas ClimaCool Freshride
 Learn from the Man
Who Got the World Running
DR. GEORGE SHEEHAN was a New Jersey
cardiologist, avid runner, and brilliant
writer whose unique approach to the joy
WNM`MZKQ[MPMTXML[XIZS)UMZQKI¼[Å\VM[[
boom in the 1970s. In this long-awaited
IV\PWTWOa\PMÅVM[\WN\PMTMOMVLIZa
Sheehan’s work has been collected and
organized for contemporary readers and
runners. From Sheehan’s thoughts about
training and racing to his musings on
the pursuit of excellence and on running’s
spiritual power, The Essential Sheehan
also includes reminiscences from running
immortals such as Alberto Salazar and Jeff
Galloway, loving tributes from Sheehan’s
family, and an illuminating foreword by
Runner’s World editor-in-chief David Willey.
Timeless and inspirational, this collection
is sure to strike a chord with all runners.

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 SalOMOn
 Fellraiser  $110
SaucOny
 Kinvara TR2  $100

WeIGHt: WeIGHt:
M 9.7 oz | W 8.8 oz M 7.8 oz | W 6.5 oz

Besides winning our nomination for best shoe name this year, Salomon’s Fellraiser won Saucony upgraded the fiber mesh rock plate in this second coming of the Kinvara TR,
praise from our testers for traction, comfort and lightweight runnability. The aggres- and our testers uniformly called it out as providing exceptional protection without
sive outsole dug into any loose dirt, and more than one tester praised its sticky grip dulling the Kinvara’s minimalist ride and fast feel. “Minimal weight, rock protection,
on smoother surfaces as well. The fit is well-padded, comfortable and secure, if a bit traction and agility” was how one tester characterized the shoe. The lightweight, flex-
narrow for some, and the performance nimble for a Salomon shoe, known for its cush- ible, close-to-the-ground, smartly lugged trail shoe made our testers want to race,
ioning and protection. Opinions were divided on the unique lacing system, and some and they showered its performance with praise. The forefoot fit is roomier than the
wished for more forefoot poke-through protection, but the consensus was summed first Kinvara TR, which improved the feel for most, while a few testers had problems
up by one tester who said, “This is my go-to shoe for technical mountain trails or any- getting or staying comfortable and secure in the shoe.
time I might be expecting mud.”

Heel HeigHt 30.2 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 20.1 mm = Heel-toe Drop 10.1 mm Heel HeigHt 22.9 mm — ForeFoot HeigHt 18.2 mm = Heel-toe Drop 4.7 mm

30 83
Flexibility: Flexibility:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
35 13
Heel CusHioning: Heel CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
35 15
ForeFoot CusHioning: ForeFoot CusHioning:
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

Similar modelS in performance: adidas adiZero XT4, Scarpa Spark, Skechers GObionic Trail, La Sportiva X Country,
Similar modelS in performance:
The North Face Ultra Trail New Balance Minimus 10v2 Trail

MEN’s WOMEN’s MEN’s WOMEN’s

tIGHter LOOser tIGHter LOOser

Similar modelS in fit: adidas adiZero Feather 2, Saucony Xodus 3.0 GTX, The North Face Single-Track Hayasa II, inov-8 F-Lite 230,
Similar modelS in fit:
Nike Air Max LTE 3 ASICS GEL-Trabuco 12 GTX
EXERCISE IS THE
BEST MEDICINE
Science shows that the biggest
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“This book is a must-read for everyone who wants

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past president, American College of Sports Medicine

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 VASQUE
— Pendulum —
$110
HEEL HEIGHT 32.7 mm — FOREFOOT HEIGHT 18.5 mm = HEEL-TOE DROP 14.2 mm

39
WEIGHT: FLEXIBILITY:
LOW HIGH
M 10.8 oz | W 8.9 oz 43
HEEL CUSHIONING:
LOW HIGH
33
FOREFOOT CUSHIONING:
LOW HIGH

SIMILAR MODELS IN PERFORMANCE: Treksta Sync, Mizuno Ascend 8, Montrail Fairhaven

MEN’S WOMEN’S

TIGHTER LOOSER
The word “solid” came up frequently in tester feedback for the Vasque Pendulum,
despite the shoe’s relatively light weight. The sole and upper provide solid protec- SIMILAR MODELS IN FIT: New Balance MRC1600, Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra 2 GTX,
tion and support, true, but the “solid” feel seemed to stem mostly from the lack of New Balance MW910
flexibility and high heel. The whopping 14.2mm heel-toe ofset detracted from the
Pendulum’s performance on more challenging trails, causing a couple of our testers Visit runningtimes.com/shoes for reviews of:
to rate it better as a light hiker. But others who prefer a more traditional shoe geome- New Balance 860 V4, Nike Zoom Structure+ 17 (Shield),
try found it a “great, neutral, all-around trail training shoe” and said it was “responsive Saucony Triumph 11, Saucony Xodus 4.0
and fast-feeling with excellent stability, control and support.”

Skip the Stairs, WHY KARHU?

It’s simple: independent research shows that runners bounce up and
Ride the Fulcrum down half an inch less per step in Karhu than in other running shoes.
Think of it like climbing stairs: runners climb fewer stories across
every distance with the efciency of Karhu Fulcrum Technology.

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Karhu on your 5 KILOMETER

Fluid3 Fulcrum
Out of Hun
How a brilliant immigrant coach, Miháhly Iglói, and his
protégés launched the greatest era in American track.

By Rich Elliot t
ngary
by the training of a Polish champion whose workouts consisted of
many repetitions of half-lap sprints. Iglói also followed the news of a
German coach, Woldemar Gerschler, who was developing a system
called interval training. Gerschler stunned the coaching ranks when
one of his runners improved in just four years from 2:04 in the 800
meters to 1:46.6, a world record.
Gerschler saw that strengthening the heart was the key to a dis-
tance runner’s improvement. He found that when a runner alternated
sprints with jog intervals, this gave a powerful stimulus to the heart,
and it was the interval that allowed this effect. By repeating short
sprints, a runner could manage a high volume of training at race pace
or faster. Gerschler theorized that interval training could also help a
runner cope with oxygen debt.
Iglói experimented on himself, and he spent time in Finland, Sweden
and Germany, studying how runners trained. Then World War II hit.
Iglói managed to survive the war and the siege of Budapest, only to
be snatched off the street by the Russians as he walked to the drug-
store. He spent five long years in Siberia.
When he was finally freed, Iglói restarted his life, became a uni-
versity professor of history, and began coaching at the Hungarian
Army sports club, where he had access to some of the best talents
in the country.
It wasn’t long before Iglói’s runners saw their times dropping dra-
n the night of Feb. 10, 1962, the world of distance running shifted on matically. In 1954, his team set a world record in the 4x1500m relay.
its axis. Iglói was so confident of setting the record that he had commemora-
The scene was the Los Angeles Sports Arena. American miler Jim tive cups engraved before the race, to the amusement of his runners.
Beatty was racing in the featured event of the night, the mile, along Tábori remembers how, when they returned home from track
with two of his Los Angeles Track Club (LATC) teammates, László meets, they were treated as national heroes. People stopped them
Tábori and Jim Grelle. The race was a carefully planned assault on in the street. Top officials held feasts for them. In András Kö’s László
the world indoor record of 4:01.4. Tábori: A Biography, Tábori recalls, “We were poor kids who suddenly
The veteran Tábori hit the first quarter perfectly. Beatty led the sec- became famous. Eighty thousand people shouted out our names and
ond quarter, coming through the half in 1:59.6. Grelle muscled the third gave us a standing ovation when we broke the world record. Could
quarter, and then with a quarter to go, Beatty floored it. The fans in this be anything but pure joy?”
the packed arena leapt to their feet and roared. A tidal wave of sound Iglói was crafting a unique brand of interval training. “You repeat
brought Beatty home in a record 3:58.9, the first indoor sub-4:00 mile. shorter distances with higher speeds, but how you put it together,
This world record in the mile signaled the first big success of the there is a secret,” says Tábori, recalling Iglói’s method. “It is very indi-
Los Angeles Track Club, a gang that would usher in the glory days of vidual.” Iglói broke the training into two speed sessions per day, 700
American distance running. Some of the LATC runners, and the run- sessions per year, customizing every session. His lab was the track.
ners they influenced, would set world records. Two would win Olympic He experimented with the length and speed of sprint repetitions.
gold medals. For a while, American distance runners would become, He grouped the reps into sets, and he tried different intervals. Some
arguably, the best in the world. They would inspire generations of run- workouts stretched for hours.
ners and coaches. And they would leave us with a persistent longing Iglói was strong-willed. His experience had taught him stoicism.
to return to the mountaintop. The training was fearsome. Tábori still calls his coach by the pet name
The irony is that the breakthrough in American distance running in the runners had for him—Naci Bacsi, or Uncle Nazi.
the 1960s may not have happened at all, if not for an unlikely series of In 1955, Naci Bacsi was 47 years old, and he was at the top of his
events—a political uprising thousands of miles away, a critical decision game. That year his runners had a season for the ages, setting eight
by a brilliant Hungarian coach and his gifted protégé, and ultimately world records in distance events and tying another. His star run-
the formation of an ambitious new track club in America. It is a story ners—Tábori, Sándor Iharos and István Rózsavölgyi—ranked 1-2-3
best told by those alive today who were part of that running revolu- respectively in the world at 1500m. Sports Illustrated ran the head-
tion: four former members of the LATC—Tábori, Beatty, Bob Schul line “Hungary Becomes a World Power—in Track.”
and Joe Douglas—and one runner inspired by the club, Billy Mills. Going into the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Iglói’s runners seemed
assured of winning medals. Then, four weeks before the start of the
When Hungary Ruled the World games, the Hungarian Revolution broke out.
“I don’t need a strong man,” Mihály Iglói would say. “I need a fast man.” Students and laborers rose up in rebellion against the hated
Photo:  Art Rickerby/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Tábori is quoting his old coach, the man who helped revolution- Communist government. Skirmishes flared throughout Budapest.
ize interval training. At his current home in Southern California, the Anti-government rebels fought with kitchen knives and gasoline
82-year-old Tábori is reminiscing about the early 1950s and the mirac- bombs. The secret police fired indiscriminately on crowds in the
ulous rise of the Hungarian runners. “He was himself a runner,” Tábori main square.
says. “He had a very strong mind.” Amid the chaos of the uprising, athletic training was impossi-
In Hungary, Iglói had started out as a gymnast before finding ble. Rózsavölgyi was shot at while simply walking down a Budapest
his true prowess in distance running. He was a good runner, a 1936 street. He and Tábori were thrown up against a wall by gun-wielding
Olympian, but he was an even better student. While studying phys- revolutionaries who believed the two were secret police. Their execu-
ical education at the University of Budapest, he became fascinated tion was averted when an onlooker recognized the two star runners.
 Right before the Hungarian Olympic team flew to Australia, Soviet anywhere near medaling in the last Olympics, prompting Sports
troops streamed into Hungary to crush the revolution. The reb- Illustrated reporter David Richardson to wonder whether “distance
els were no match for Soviet tanks. Thousands of Hungarians were running simply no longer fits into the American way of life.” The mar-
killed or wounded. quee distance runners in American meets were from New Zealand,
In Melbourne, the Hungarian athletes resumed their workouts. Australia, Ireland, and yes, Hungary. Meet promoters mostly used
They’d missed more than three weeks of training. They moved in a Americans to fill out their fields or function as rabbits.
daze, stalked by anxiety, preoccupied by fears of what was happen-
ing back home. The Track Club
“Mentally, you were not there,” Tábori recalls. “What the hell am One of those Americans, Beatty had been a 4:06 miler at the Univer-
I doing this for?” sity of North Carolina and an All-American. But since graduating, he’d
Iglói’s runners couldn’t live up to expectations. Tábori, his top placer, stopped running and had gained weight. In 1959, at the U.S. vs. USSR
got caught up in a wild last quarter in the 1500m final, a kicker’s race, track meet, Beatty watched a lackluster 1500m race that he felt he
and missed a medal by one step. could have won. An idea began to grow. The Rome Olympics were a
As the Olympics ended, the Hungarian athletes faced the question year away. Being a Catholic, wouldn’t it be great to make the team
of their lives: Should I go home? Sports Illustrated had orchestrated a and go to Rome? And he knew the coach who could get him there.
plot to help athletes on the Hungarian team willing to defect. Tábori “I always knew I was better than my record at Chapel Hill,” says
recalls the final critical days in Melbourne like it was yesterday. Beatty, who still lives in North Carolina. “I was always knocking on
He asked his coach, “What are you going to do?” Iglói, with his inim- the door.”
itable hardness, turned and walked away. So on a wing and a prayer, Beatty drove cross country to see Iglói.
On the day of the closing ceremony, Tábori got a telegram from his When he reached California, Beatty went straight to the track at San
sister. “If you can, stay for the time being,” she wrote, “or act accord- Jose State, where he found the coach.
ing to your discretion.” “I walked up to Iglói,” Beatty recalls, “and
Tábori made a fateful decision—he he said, ‘Who is this fat man?’
would defect. “I said, ‘Coach, you may not remember
When he reached the airport for his flight me; I’m Jimmy Beatty from the University
to America, he was surprised to see his of North Carolina. I’d like you to train me for
coach. “Naci Bacsi, what are you doing here?” the Olympic Games in Rome.’ ”
“We should stick together,” Iglói said. Thus began one of the most productive
He’d been to Siberia, and he’d had enough partnerships in track history.
of the Soviets. In the months before Beatty arrived, Iglói
“Naci Bacsi,” replied the protégé, “I’ll do and Tábori had found their bearings. Tábori
what you tell me for as long as I can run.” was taking evening classes and had resumed
Rózsavölgyi, Tábori’s friend and team- training. Iglói had been hired by the Santa
mate, decided to go home to Hungary. He had Clara Valley Youth Village, a sports club
a wife and child he could not jeopardize. The founded by Father Walter E. Schmidt for the
two teammates said little. “We didn’t talk express purpose, as he stated it, “to stim-
much about those kinds of things,” recalls ulate a revival interest in middle-distance
Tábori, “because it gets to you.” running, which will enable the United States
Tokyo Takedown / Schul, an Iglói disciple, wins to dominate these events, for the first time,
Men Without a Country gold in the 5,000m during the 1964 Olympics.
in the next Olympics.” Good runners began
Sports Illustrated sponsored the Hungarian showing up on Iglói’s doorstep, including
defectors for several months. Tábori and Max Truex, a former Olympian at 10,000m.
Iglói joined the U.S. indoor track circuit, meet promoters giving them Beatty was soon training harder than he’d ever thought possible.
a $3 per diem. A friendly coach at the University of North Carolina Tábori took him under his wing. “Trust the old man,” the Hungarian
offered them a base for their training. It was there they first met a remembers telling Beatty. “Just stick on me. Come, I show you.” In
young runner by the name of Jim Beatty, in his final year of college, return, Beatty helped the Hungarians with their English.
and they began a lifelong friendship. Within a few months Beatty was winning races and surprising
In the summer of 1957, when Sports Illustrated’s sponsorship ended, everyone on the indoor track circuit. “It was astounding,” recalls
Iglói and Tábori had to find a way to make a living in the U.S. The ref- Beatty. “It became a revelation to me. [Iglói was] the only man who
Photos From Left:  Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Courtesy of Laszlo Tabori

ugees moved to the San Francisco area. “The biggest problem was I had training down to an equation. He could project the training and
couldn’t even read English,” Tábori remembers. “It was like someone then tell you what time you would run at [a particular] date in the
dumped me in a big well.” future. I don’t know how he knew it.”
Biographer Kö tells how the star runner worked as a janitor, swept In June, with Tábori as pacer, Beatty set back-to-back American
floors, cleaned toilets. At times he’d get in his car at night and drive records in the mile and the 5,000m. Beatty then won the trials 5,000
a triangle from San Jose to Oakland to San Francisco, and then back and fulfilled his dream of going to the Eternal City.
home again. “I was really down,” says Tábori. “I didn’t know what In Rome, slowed by a foot injury, Beatty failed to make the finals.
to do.” “Watching other runners get medals, my disappointment turned to
In this era, national teams sponsored nearly all of the interna- anger,” remembers Beatty. “I made a pledge to myself—I’m going to
tional travel and competition for athletes. But Iglói and Tábori were come back next year, and I’m going to show them what an American
not yet U.S. citizens. Tábori couldn’t compete for Hungary or the U.S. runner can do.”
Iglói couldn’t be a national coach. They were men without a country. Meanwhile, Tábori, the man without a country, was having one
Meanwhile, the state of distance running in their adopted country of his finest seasons. On the European track circuit he ran 11 races
had been dismal for years. No American distance runner had come and won every one of them. Supporters pushed to get him accepted
into the Olympics. But the International Olympic Committee had no
structure for allowing stateless athletes to compete, as they do now.
So Tábori sat in the stands in Rome, where he watched his old friend
Rózsavölgyi win an Olympic medal in the 1500m.
For Iglói’s budding track club, the biggest surprise was Truex, who
placed a gutsy sixth in the 10,000m, an event long dominated by Euro-
peans. “Athletes from all countries came over to say a word,” Truex
told Track & Field News. “It was amazing and thrilling. Apparently they
never thought an American would run that fast.”

Finely Tuned Machine

The next year, Iglói and his disciples moved to Southern California
where he became coach of the Los Angeles Track Club. Iglói’s program,
fully reconstituted now on American soil, was hitting on all cylinders.
“We trained at Dorsey High School in LA on Rodeo Road,” Beatty
recalls. But it wasn’t like they were local heroes.
Every one of the LATC runners recalls the fence they had to climb
to get onto the track. “I was ranked No. 1 in the world,” says Beatty,
“and here I was climbing a 6-foot chain link fence in the morning to
work out.”
Iglói, in suit and tie, would already be inside waiting.
Morning workouts typically lasted an hour. Evening workouts
lasted two hours or more. In between, the runners were off to their
full-time jobs.
What were the workouts like? Iglói the autocrat directed every step
of the practice. Thirty runners all doing something different. He kept
it all in his head. The runners never knew what was coming next. Iglói
wanted to see how each runner reacted to each set of work.
What was the runner’s breathing like? The sound of his foot strike? Strategy Session / Tábori, Iglói and Beatty discuss tactics.
The runners did set upon set of repeats at varying distances,
varying speeds. Jan Mulak, a Polish coach, described the workouts
as “baroque.” Iglói believed, and he taught his runners to believe. According to
“It was a combination of the short interval speed workouts and Beatty, Iglói preached, “If you listen to me, and you believe in me, I’ll
the volume that served the purpose of two things … to increase your get you where you want to go and also where you think you can’t go.”
speed and stamina at the same time,” Beatty explains. Word spread about Iglói and his group. Some of the top runners in
There were no typical workouts, because Iglói made adaptations the country began to join the club. One was Bob Seaman. He’d been
for every runner. Beatty offers this session as an example, however: a fine runner, going back to 1956 when he ran the second-fastest mile
• One-mile jog warm-up, then 15 minutes of stretching by an American (4:01.4). But he felt he had more to achieve.
• 20 x 150m at medium speed, with a 50m rest interval Grelle was the most accomplished of the new members. He’d come
• 2 x 800m at an easy jog from the storied University of Oregon distance program, where
• 10 x 300m at varying speeds, with a 100m rest interval he’d been an NCAA mile champ. He’d gone on to finish eighth in the
• 2 x 800m jog interval Rome 1500m final. According to author and fellow Oregon runner
• 10 x 100m all-out on a football field, with the U-turn as rest interval Kenny Moore, Coach Iglói welcomed Grelle with 35 quarters in his
Most work was absent the stopwatch. The runners were told first workout.
to run by feel. Special terminology described each tempo: “fresh” Bob Schul came to Iglói’s group on the orders of Truex, his com-
meant relaxed speed; “good” meant 60 percent race tempo; manding officer at Oxnard Air Force Base. Schul had been a good
“fast good” was 75 percent; “hard” was 90 percent; “very hard,” college runner before joining the military, where he was allowed to
95 percent. resume his training.
Iglói harped on things in practice until the runners could hear him Schul remembers his initial two-week stint with Iglói’s group. “It
in their sleep. “Please, jogging!” (Iglói insisted the runners jog their was the hardest work I’ve done in my life,” says Schul, now living in
recovery intervals.) “Every day hard training make.” “Must have big Ohio. “Those two weeks with Tábori literally killed me. [But] I thought
goals.” “Must be patient.” to myself, ‘I’ve got to get back with this man because if there’s any-
When English failed, he shouted at his runners in Hungarian. body who can bring me to my best conditioning, it’s him.’ ”
A total of 12 to 18 miles for the day. The runners returned home to With the new additions to the club, the LATC had become the epi-
eat and collapse in bed and get up early the next day to do it all over center of the country’s distance revival.
again. Thirteen sessions per week, with one “play run” on Sundays.
“You either had faith in him or didn’t have faith in him,” Beatty Breakout
recalls. “And you also had to turn yourself over to him. You couldn’t By 1962, the groundwork had been laid for a magical season. A crit-
question anything. He would often say, ‘I know everything,’ and the ical mass of well-trained, talented runners had formed, and a chain
fact of the matter was, he did. Imagine being a runner and never hav- reaction began.
ing to worry about what the workout was going to be. That takes a Beatty’s indoor world record in the mile in February was merely
burden off you. What am I going to do today? You don’t have to worry the first shot. Beatty’s 3:58.9 was one-tenth of a second off his
what you’re going to do today. Iglói’s got it plotted out already.” coach’s prediction.
 Beatty proceeded to have one of the greatest years in American
distance running, setting the 2-mile world record and every Ameri-
can record from the 1500m to the 5,000m.
This got the media’s attention. ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” began
to showcase track meets to a growing audience. Few events that year
captured the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat like the U.S. vs.
USSR meet. More than 153,000 fans were treated to world records
and stirring finishes, including Beatty outkicking the Soviets in the
1500m. A sportswriter from the San Francisco Examiner called it “the
greatest track meet of all time.”
Later in the summer, Iglói brought his crew to Europe, where they
scorched the track. Beatty won all his races, Grelle and Seaman
notched personal records in the mile (3:56.7 and 3:58), and Truex set
an American record in the 5,000m (13:49.6) before Beatty reclaimed it.
Track observers were stunned by the sprinting ability of Iglói’s run-
ners. In training, the coach was experimenting with something he
called “swing tempo,” where his runners would shift to a faster speed.
“With Iglói,” Schul remembers, “we changed tempos constantly. A
very good part of the success was teaching the body to switch gears.”
Iglói was understandably proud of his group, even a bit cocky.
“Everybody said the American runner is lazy, don’t work,” Iglói told
Sports Illustrated. “Now the American distance runner is the best in
the world.”
During this breakout season, one runner from Iglói’s club strug-
gled. Ever the team player, Tábori helped pace Beatty in a few races, Running Away / Tábori (686) on his way to fourth in the 1500m at the 1956
but his motivation waned. He fought with Iglói over whether to Olympics, before defecting to the U.S. rather than returning to his war-torn country.

take money from meet promoters. “No,” Iglói would say, “we are
not professionals.”
“I’m working all day long,” Tábori recalls telling his coach. “I can’t Beatty says, “it started [to be] communicated outwardly that Americans
do it anymore. I don’t have money for even a hamburger.” can also be world-class, that Americans can also break world records.”
Just as American distance running was taking off, Tábori retired. Another LATC runner, Joe Douglas, recalls, “A lot of athletes started
doing sets of 200s with a 100-meter jog, which they hadn’t been doing
Far and Wide before. I saw coaches sit in the stands and watch us train.” Learning
Iglói was secretive about his methods, but aspects of his program fil- at Iglói’s side, Douglas acquired a deep knowledge of his methods.
tered out and began to have an influence. “Other athletes had to do Later, as head of the Santa Monica Track Club, Douglas would develop
something to stay with us,” Schul recalls. “At that time we were win- a who’s who of great runners.
ning most everything.” A young college runner by the name of Billy Mills was so taken by
“When they started finding out what Iglói was doing with our guys,” Beatty’s success that one summer he hitchhiked from Kansas to
San Francisco to try to find the coach. “I got caught up in the magic
of Iglói,” recalls Mills. “I had no [phone] number; I didn’t know any of
the runners out there.” Mills spent a week searching for Iglói without
success before making his way back home. But Iglói remained in his
thoughts, and after college, when Mills began training himself, speed
work became the main focus of his workouts. “Iglói definitely con-
vinced me that I had to get some speed,” Mills says, “but it was Iglói’s
athletes who were doing the convincing.”
At the University of Oregon, coach Bill Bowerman began to exper-
iment with Iglói-style workouts, after talking with former protégé
Grelle. In Bowerman and the Men of Oregon, Moore describes how
the coach used one Oregon runner, Vic Reeve, as a guinea pig, giving
Photos From Left:  Harold Filan/AP Photo  AP Photo  Ed Widdis/AP Photo

him “a hundred 220s at moderate pace in the morning and then fifty
440s in the afternoon.”
Some of Iglói’s early disciples were now getting into coaching them-
selves, and soon American kids were tackling Iglói-style workouts.
This reporter’s high school coach, Dick McCallister, was one such dis-
ciple. By his third year of coaching (1965), he had turned Proviso West
High School (Hillside, Ill.) into a running powerhouse, breaking every
high school distance relay record.
America suddenly became mile crazy. In 1962, six of the top 10
milers in the world were Americans. The following year, five ranked
in the top 10. This success rate has never been matched by U.S. dis-
Four-Minute Mile / Grelle becomes the fourth American to break
the 4-minute mile on April 28, 1962, at Mt. SAC relays. tance runners.
The media hyped each “new mile sensation.” A 17-year-old from
Kansas, Jim Ryun, became the first high schooler to break the 4-minute became the rage, sprint work was de-emphasized, and American top-
mile. Packs of runners were blowing through the 4-minute “barrier,” level distance running struggled for years.
an unprecedented eight in one race in June 1964. Sports Illustrated
described the track scene as “strong milers, fast milers, and most Epilogue: Continuing Legacy
surprisingly, young, young, young milers.” Not long after Tábori retired from racing, he was asked if he’d coach
Runners in longer distance events were also coming on. Schul ran the runners at San Fernando Valley Junior College. He stayed for 25
scintillating 2- and 3-mile times in 1963 before returning to Ohio to years. He ran the Iglói system because that’s what he knew, and like
finish college. He’d given a glimpse of things to come. his mentor, Tábori had success. “My J.C. guys won three straight
“I owe Iglói a lot,” Schul says. “He taught me how to train. He taught state championships,” says Tábori, “and every one of them got a full
me the mental aspect of how to force your body when it had to be scholarship.” He also coached some of America’s first great female
forced.” In the months leading to the ’64 Olympics, using Iglói’s work- marathoners, including Jacqueline Hansen and Miki Gorman.
outs as a template, he prepared single-mindedly for the race of his life. In recent years, Tábori has worked with the distance runners at
In May 1963, Beatty soundly beat New Zealand’s Murray Halberg, the University of Southern California. There, too, he developed some
the Rome Olympic champ, in a 5,000m. Then he went head-to-head fine runners. One of them was Duane Solomon. “I [was] teaching him
against Halberg’s teammate, mile world record-holder Peter Snell, in to kick, kick, kick,” says Tábori. It was a lesson that Solomon took to
two titanic races. In the first race, LATC runners tried to take Snell heart. Two years after graduating, Solomon ran 1:42.82 in the Lon-
out fast to blunt his scathing kick, but they fell short, and Snell dom- don Olympics 800m final, the second-fastest American time ever.
inated. In the second race, Beatty slashed his own American record “That fantastic finish in the Olympic Games!” says Tábori proudly.
to 3:55.5, but lost to Snell by half a second. Years later, Beatty still One more beneficiary of the Hungarian connection. •
regrets the lost opportunity. “It literally broke my heart.” —
Ultimately, Beatty would fall victim to a fluke accident. While tak- Rich Elliott is a writer living in Valparaiso, Ind. He is the author of
ing out the garbage in the dark, he gashed his foot open on a rusty The Competitive Edge: Mental Preparation for Distance Running and
piece of metal. It took months for him to recover, and the lost condi- editor of the award-winning anthology Runners on Running: The
tioning kept him off the next Olympic team. Best Nonfiction of Distance Running.
The heyday of Iglói’s LATC was passing. With Beatty and Tábori,
the heart and soul of the club, both gone, the team seemed to lose
some fire. But they’d set a tidal wave in motion that led directly to
the heroics at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where American distance
runners had their finest hour.
In Tokyo, Mills scored one of the great upset victories in Olympic
history when, with his newfound sprint speed, he outkicked all the
favorites in the 10,000m. And in the 5,000m final, Americans would
win a historic gold and bronze, Schul and Bill Dellinger, an Iglói man
and a Bowerman man.

The Tide Ebbs

By the late 1960s, Iglói’s methods were in decline, losing popularity
to Arthur Lydiard’s system, which focused on building an endurance
base through marathon training. Perhaps this was inevitable. Lyd-
iard shared his ideas relentlessly, while Iglói had no temperament for
proselytizing. Lydiard was as outgoing as Iglói was secretive.
Iglói’s critics claimed his system led to a high injury rate and mental
staleness. This is hard to dispute—so much sprinting on the track in
spikes has to increase risks. But few of Iglói’s runners agree with this
negative rap. They point out that runners from all programs got injuries.
“He pushed us hard,” Schul concedes. “Maybe I was fortunate I
pushed it to the right level.”
One drawback of the Iglói system was that it wasn’t easy to rep-
licate. Some elements got lost in the hands of lesser coaches—the
modulation of tempos, the focus on shifting gears, the mid-workout
adaptations, the setting up of paced races.
According to Steve Magness in The Science of Running blog, the
Iglói system became misunderstood “because it was portrayed as
the complete opposite of the Lydiard approach. The Iglói method got
seen as a high-intensity ‘anaerobic’ training system.” What got lost
is that “Iglói manipulated the intervals to create both aerobic and
anaerobic adaptations,” Magness concludes.
Iglói left the U.S. in 1970 to take a position as a national coach
in Greece. The LATC disbanded. Over the years, Iglói would coach
Greek athletes to 157 national records. He died in 1998 in Budapest.
He was 89.
Record-breaker / Beatty shatters the indoor mile record with a time
In 1972, Frank Shorter rode the rise of marathon training to Olympic of 3:58.9 on February 10, 1962, at a meet in Los Angeles.
gold. In the excitement over our marathon success, long slow distance
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 RACING

Athletes barrel down the first

descent at the 2013 Cranmore
Hill Climb in New Hampshire.

Earning Mountain Washington Road Race, the ever-popular

“Run to the Clouds” New Hampshire com-
petition each June.

Goat Status
It seems just earning the Mountain Goat
title and a T-shirt is enough reason for most
to embark on the effort, but Paul Kirsch, the
chair of USATF’s Northeast Mountain, Ultra
and Trail Running Division, says the connec-
Runners in New England compete in six intense tion to Mount Washington’s entry status,
which started in 2008, took interest in the
hill climbs to earn a coveted title. series to a new level.
By Evan ChadwiCk “Since that time, we have seen a big spike
in Mountain Goat runners, averaging about
50 per year when I started direction in 2006,

A
to around 90 today,” Kirsch says.
t the beginning of the first descent the toughest ascents in the Northeast to In addition to Cranmore, those compet-
at the Cranmore Hill Climb in earn “Mountain Goat” status. The Cran- ing in the series complete the Sleepy Hollow
Conway, N.H., this past July, a more course featured 840 feet of elevation Mountain Race, Wachusett Mountain Race,
stampede of runners let grav- gain and loss per loop—the men embarked Bretton Woods Fell Race, Ascutney Moun-
ity propel them in a fashion that on three loops, the women signed on for two. tain Challenge and Loon Mountain Race.
appeared to be just one bad step Race morning included a chairlift ride up Although pacing on this extreme terrain is
from disaster. the ski mountain to accommodate a “down- out the window, every second counts in scor-
“There were a couple of times that I almost up” course that made the race eligible to ing—the points are based on an individual’s
bit it,” says Joseph Gray, the men’s winner serve as the USA Mountain Running Cham- time as a percentage of the winner’s time.
at Cranmore, who finished the 12K in 56:23, pionship and the North American, Central For example, if the winner gets 100 points
“and if you ask anyone else out there who will American and Caribbean Mountain (NACAC) with a time of 41:08, a 42:21 is worth 97.13
honestly answer you, they will tell you they Running Championships. It was the qualifier points, and a 1:20:32 finishing time would
almost bit it a couple of times, too.” for the U.S. Mountain Running Team that receive 51.08 points.
Photo:  Scott Mason Photo

The race was the last stop for 82 peo- competed in Poland last summer, also on a Kirsch, who fell in love with hill racing
ple competing in the USA Track & Field New “down-up” course. after he participated in the Mount Washing-
England Mountain Running Circuit. From In addition to the Mountain Goat title, ton race in 1998, says that he has a unique
May through July these athletes completed those earning the status get to bypass the job in catering to the types of athletes that
six different hill-climb races on some of lottery for a coveted spot at the Mount enroll in the series. “It’s a great feeling to
 RACING

Morgan Arritola is on her

way to winning the 2013 U.S.
Mountain Running National More Cranmore competitors
Championship at Cranmore. negotiate the steep grade.

see people paying to kill themselves in these for hill racing. His strategy in competition? daughter-in-law to run Loon, and after-
races and then come up and thank me after- It’s all about reeling in the next athlete. ward she said she never wanted to talk to
ward,” he says. “Mountain running is unique, because the me again.”
One of these gluttons for punishment is time-per-mile is superfluous,” Gonner- Local runners start preparing for the
Michael Gonnerman, a 71-year-old Hanover, man says. “It’s all about passing the person summer of climbing before the snow melts.
N.H., resident who earned his second Moun- right in front of you. If I can continue to Lori Bliss-Hill and Ellie Ferguson, first-time
tain Goat title this year. “I feel ecstatic right pass instead of being passed, I know I am Mountain Goats, ran the Winter Wild Series
now,” he says, gathering his breath on Cran- in good shape.” together, a collection of eight races in New

Scott Mason Photo

more’s peak. “I got through it and I didn’t fall, At Cranmore, Gonnerman struggled England that allows athletes to compete up
so it has been a great day.” through the first two laps, only to pass sev- and down mountains using winter sports
Gonnerman uses his springtime Bos- eral runners on the final stretch of climbs to equipment of their choice, such as snow-
ton Marathon training and regular runs up finish second in his age group. “It’s impos- shoes. “We thought that if we could race like

Photos:
Mount Ascutney, located in southern Ver- sible to explain just how hard it is to run that in the winter, that we could also do it in
mont with a peak of 3,130 feet, as a base these races,” he says. “I persuaded my the summer,” Bliss-Hill says.

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 Competitors vie for the
Mountain Goat title at the
2013 Loon Mountain Race.

Although many of the Mountain Goats 12th-place finish at Cranmore that was 6 goodbye to a lot of dear friends that I made
had a plan in place long before the first race, minutes, 30 seconds behind Morgan Arri- during the series,” Gonnerman says.
Christin Doneski, 42, of Hopkinton, N.H., the tola, a Nordic skiing Olympian and top U.S. For the runners who had pressed through
woman’s overall series champion, elected to mountain runner who clocked a 42:31 on the the brutal closing climb of Loon Mountain,
take the last-minute route. “I signed up for 8K course. “Everyone out here has fun no the relentless ascent of Mount Ascutney,
most of the races the day of, because I didn’t matter if they finish first or last,” Doneski the near-100-degree heat at Bretton Woods
know if I would have the time,” says Doneski, says. “That is what kept me coming back. and all the other unique challenges each
a mother of two, whose children and hus- It’s a bond that you do not see as much in course on the circuit offered, however, there
band were waiting for her at the finish line. road races.” was one thing that these Mountain Goats
“I can honestly say that out of all the races I Most of the runners stayed hours after could fall back on in saying their goodbyes:
have run, I have never been as sore the day they finished at Cranmore to cheer on the They would all be experiencing the ups and
after as I have been with each of these races.” rest of the competitors and to share war downs again.
Doneski captured the overall title with stories. “I am happy that I finished, but this “I am bitten by the mountain bug,” Bliss-
583.63 points. Her series win included a being the last race, I feel like I have to say Hill says. “I’ll be back.” 

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RUNNINGTIMES / 61
 RACING

Breaking Out terrain. Over the course of many years, she’s

accumulated exceptional fitness and incred-
ible endurance. She has all the attributes an
ultrarunner needs to be successful. But that
Sudden success for ultra newbie Stephanie Howe success sometimes comes at a cost.
Less than three years into running, Howe
has her wanting more. Much more. BY ERIN STROUT has already earned her spot on the podi-
ums of some of the most recognized races
in ultrarunning. The Northface 50 Endur-

S
ance Challenge Championship? She was
tephanie Howe was set to race starting line. The ticket was rebooked. After second, her first race back after the cycling
this year’s Ultra Race of Champi- all, she’d missed UROC in 2012 while healing accident. The notoriously rugged Speed-
ons 100K in September. Then she a fractured hip, suffered after being hit by a goat 50K? She’s the 2013 champion, off of
wasn’t. Then she was again. car during a bike ride. about two weeks of training following a
It’s become somewhat of a pre- “Get me a hospital bed,” she joked, crossing three-month layoff with a stress fracture
race ritual for Howe, 29, who has the UROC finish line in second place. It was in her fibula. And, of course, she added the
battled serious injuries prior to just about the longest distance Howe had ever run, and 2013 UROC runner-up finish to her list, on
every major competition she’s entered. A for the first half of the race, she played leap- an inflamed foot.
week before UROC, she felt sharp pain in her frog with eventual winner Emelie Forsberg. It wasn’t until Howe moved to Bend in
foot while training near her home in Bend, “It actually helped that my foot was hurt— 2010 that she turned her attention away
Ore. A trip to the doctor compelled her to it kind of took the pressure off, and I could from snow sports to trail running, and she
cancel her plane ticket. Then she went for just go run my own race,” Howe says. “My didn’t mess around with 5Ks or the occa-
an MRI, where the technician recognized goal was to just get to the finish. I just took sional half marathon. With a long-standing

Chris Pietsch
her as a repeat customer—it was her third care of myself.” curiosity about the sport, she jumped into
MRI of the year. A Minnesota native, Howe is one of those her first 50K. It was the U.S. trail champion-
A few days later, the pain subsided and Nordic skiing converts. She’s the kind who, ships, and she placed second.

Photo:
the test results were clear. A little tendini- from a young age, became accustomed to “I suffered. I was whooped,” Howe says.
tis wouldn’t stop Howe from getting to the three-hour skis in foul weather on tough “And I wanted to do another one.”

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62 / RUNNINGTIMES_JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
 LEADING EDGE

Eventually she enlisted the help of a coach, On top of her training schedule, Howe
Ian Torrence, an accomplished ultrarunner is also working toward her doctorate in
in his own right, who works from his home exercise physiology at Oregon State Univer-
base in Flagstaff, Ariz. He quickly saw what sity, currently writing her dissertation. She
his primary role in Howe’s training would be: teaches classes in exercise science, she has a
holding her back. coaching business of her own, and she is also
“She took the transition from being a a nutrition consultant. Recently promoted
highly ranked skier to ultrarunner very to The North Face global team of athletes,
aggressively, and the pounding on the body her obligations in running have increased
has been a lot,” Torrence says. “She’s Type- as a result, too.
A—she wants to see the miles and hit the “If all you’re doing is running and it goes
paces. She wants to achieve. My job is to bad, it’s easy to get caught up in that and
back her off, because she is still young in age be depressed. I like to balance it out,” she
and experience.” says. “I’m a busy person, so my mileage
Howe averages about 60–70 miles per has to be quality. I don’t have time for
week, going as high as 90 miles and as low as junk hours.”
40. Unlike many ultrarunners, she includes As the new year approaches, Torrence
speed work, like 800s, miles and tempo says he’d like to see his athlete focus on
runs, twice a week. Her weekend long runs strengthening all those muscles and tendons
can range from 4 hours down to 60 minutes, to prepare for more volume and intensity.
depending on her race schedule. Howe goes “I’m essentially trying to keep her from
to a group strength-training session with destroying herself,” he says, laughing.
other Bend runners once a week. Howe is hoping to create a new pre-race
“I really needed an outside person there to ritual—one that doesn’t involve becoming
look at the whole picture and objectively fig- best friends with the local MRI technician.
ure out what’s best for me,” Howe says of her “I think in ultras a lot of athletes tend to
decision to work with a coach. “It helps that over-race,” she says. “I’m going to pick and
he knows when to pull in the reins.” choose this year.” 

for the city

for the celebration

for the spectators

for the scenery

for the
experience.
for the victories

for the families

for the welcome

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Canada’s marathon
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2014 KIDS MARATHON RUNNINGTIMES / 63
 RACING FOOTSTEPS

Women’s Marathon Founding heroine? Marathon precursor?

Showgirl? She was a long-distance running
pioneer. But the mysterious Violet Piercy
has lost her place at the top of the formal

Record Mystery world-record list.

Lists give us a sense of certainty, but
real history is often more like negotiating
a muddy lane on a dark night. Course mea-
Supposed 1926 showgirl loses title. surement was an approximate art until the
1970s. With the early women’s marathon,
BY ROGER ROBINSON things are even more unsure, as perfor-
mances were by definition unofficial, and

V
often officially discouraged or suppressed.
iolet Piercy is famous for running a Now the mystery woman has to move But we need a list to replace the one that
marathon. But did she really do it? aside. Research by Britain’s Andy Milroy and Piercy headed. So here is my best shot—
“Violet Piercy—GBR3:40.22.0 — Peter Lovesey, and America’s John Brant, not a formal world-record progression, but
Chiswick—03 OCT 1926” shows that Piercy in fact did a solo run, start- a timeline sequence of possible early “mar-
That entry tops the women’s ing at Windsor and ending at Battersea. It athon” performances by women. Think of
marathon world-record progres- was about 22 miles. “Marathon” at that time the destination women’s marathon we could
sion in David Martin and Roger Gynn’s classic often meant merely “long road run.” Piercy’s have if Greek scholars would only confirm
The Marathon Footrace (1979). 3:40:22 for 22 miles was admirable, in an the story of Stamata Revithi.
There have long been questions. That era when no women ran so far. But it can-
year, London’s annual Polytechnic Marathon not qualify for lists for the 26.2-mile race. 1896: Stamata Revithi (sometimes referred
from Windsor finished at Stamford Bridge, Piercy may have belonged to the Mitcham to as Melpomene) may have run the Athens
not Chiswick, and was on May 29, not Octo- Athletic Club, and if so would have been a reg- Olympic marathon course, but accounts vary
ber 3. Nothing else was known about Piercy. ular runner. From birth records, Milroy and widely as to whether she did it.
There was a suggestion that a variety show Lovesey have identified five candidates for
performer was called Violet Piercy, but no this woman—unless Piercy was her married 1918: Marie-Louise Ledru runs a “marathon”
link was forged to the marathoner. or stage name, or she was born elsewhere. in Paris, reported as 5:40, though there is no
certainty about the distance, as France was
slow to accept 26.2 as standard.

1926: Violet Piercy runs the first world mar-

athon record, in fact a solo 22 miles.

1931: Gazella Weinreich, age 16, attempts to

enter a marathon from Laurel to Baltimore,
but is excluded by the AAU. Later reports
suggest she may have run behind the men.

1959: Arlene Pieper completes the Pikes Peak

Marathon in 9:16.

1963: Merry Lepper and Lyn Carman jump

into the Western Hemisphere Marathon, Cul-
ver City, Calif. After dodging officials, Lepper
finishes in 3:37:07, though the course is now
(ADVERTISEMENT) believed to have been short.

1964: Dale Greig (Scotland) is accepted in

the Isle of Wight Marathon. She finishes in
3:27:25, the first documented world record
on a reliable course. Two months later, July
21, 1964, Millie Sampson runs an official
3:19:33 in Auckland, New Zealand.

1966: Lyn Carman wins the Santa Barbara

Marathon, the first of her three victories
there. Roberta Gibb jumps into the Boston
Marathon (unofficially 3:21:40). 

64 / RUNNINGTIMES_JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
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 Art of the run

Photo:  Ken Hamilton
Brian Tinder, 33, of Flagstaff, Ariz., is 200 yards from the
finish line at the Agassiz Uphill Race, held each February at
the Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff. With a base altitude of
9,200 feet above sea level, the race climbs 2,000 feet in the
first half of the 3-mile round-trip course. Tinder came in
fourth and remembers that the charge down the mountain
was “like running on a cloud” in the fresh powder.

“I love racing in the snow. I wore microspikes on the way up

and just good trail shoes on the way down. Every exposed
hair on me had frost on it. You can go balls-to-the-wall
without fear in these conditions.”

BRiAn TindeR
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