Day 1: Post-Collegiate Athlete

I haven't graduated yet, but I have stopped competing for the school. So that still counts as post-collegiate athlete, right?
It's not an eligibility issue, grades problem, or getting kicked off type of thing, but as of yesterday I won't be competing in college anymore.

I sat with coach and told him that this was the best thing for me to do and to my surprise, he was completely supportive and seemed almost as relieved as I am. For teammates and probably a few others, it's been no secret that my coach and I have but heads a bit during my time here at SOU and especially recently. This primarily is due to my decisions to pursue outside interests simultaneously as I train and compete, and his reactions to those decisions. Here's where I could go off and describe it all, but I don't want to, and thats not really the point I'm going for anyway.

Today is my first day as a post collegiate runner, and my run went great. 

Of course I had good runs before, but the increasing stress and lack of inherent joy in my running was getting to be more than I was willing to tolerate. So now I am here. I did a workout today and I am running a trail race this weekend. I am in full post-collegiate mode, and it is so freeing. 

To my teammates: Its not you, it's me... and coach. I am always ready to go for a run, so let me know and we'll meet up!

As for my future.... We'll see! I am so excited to have the freedom to pursue my running and athletics however I see fit. I haven't written out a training schedule or racing plan yet, and I don't think I will for a while. My headspace is clean and I plan to continue to just do the things I really truly want to be doing. 

More on the changes to my lifestyle, running and whatever else I think is good, later. 

Until then, quit your job if you hate it!

-Jace

More on: Consistency.

I mentioned before that I don't usually have new years resolutions. That is true but if there were an exception to that this year it is this: I'd like to average over 50 miles a week for all of 2015. 

Depending who you are, that could sound like a lot or a little. For me, this won't be the first time I have done it. In 2013 I was at 48 miles average and in 2012 I hit 55. I don't remember ever being more resilient or in better overall running shape ever before or after. Early in 2014 I took 2 months off to travel and spent much of the rest of the year trying to come back from that and dealing with injury because of it.

Heres a snapshot of a recent February week. The bottom right is the weeks total time and miles.

I could officially say I was healthy as of November/December 2014. This lined up perfectly to have a great 2015. So far, I haven't missed a run for any reason and have definitely averaged somewhere over 50 per week. This is especially exceptional because back in Southern CA (in 2012 and most of 2013), I was not running nearly as much weekly vertical gain so it took less time per week to get mileage in. I am now running similar weekly mileage totals but it is done in more time running.

Wait, that means you run slower!

Yea, it does. But, an increased intensity is there to help compensate for the slower average pace. I am beginning to realize as I prepare for my upcoming half marathon that I really do need to incorporate more faster paced regular runs. Averaging 9 minute pace for 55 minutes as an easy but hilly run is not doing my ability to run well under 6 minute pace for an hour+ any favors. In SoCal I'd often run 7 minute pace for 55 minutes and it'd be very comparable effort due a couple factors. 

-Overall training volume consistency was higher for a longer amount of time, which helped my recovery time.

-Running less vertical distance which allowed for faster paces at easier efforts.

-I had more personal freedom in setting my own running schedule + mileage.

-No Injuries (except for a broken wrist).

My conclusion here is this: My general focus for 2015 is to be more consistent in training volumes week to week, all year. 

What I hope to get out of this:

-Shorten recovery time necessary between running efforts.

-Become more resilient to injury (like I had been for years).

-Be near-racing-shape as often as is benefitial throughout the year. 

-Get in killer shape.

-Widen my racing distance range. 

-Run more (its good for my mind too).

The unrelated but very likable cover of my brand new 2015 running log :)

Upswing | Consistency | Balance | Stress

Upswing:

Running has been going great. I haven't missed any runs, double runs, or workouts at all in months. It's been difficult at times but I have been having a good time with it and have been seeing the results come through in my overall fitness. Workouts are getting better and faster paces feel easier in regular runs too. Racing is coming closer and closer with my half marathon coming up in under 4 weeks now and track meets starting immediately after that, its all lining up well. I am staying optimistic about running the qualifying "A" standard time in the half marathon that'll allow me to compete in the full marathon at NAIA Nationals in May. It will be no small feat to accomplish for me and I do have my hesitation in confidence of actually getting the time standard but focusing on training well and racing hard is my focus for now. Regardless, I am happily training and stoked to be healthy and fit in a way I haven't been for what feels like a really long time (about a year). 

Consistency:

-Daily easy runs near an hour.

-Running twice a day more often than once a day.

-Total weekly time spent running is higher than its almost ever been, and really high quality.

-Diet has never been cleaner and higher in vegetables intake than ever (Mmm veggies).

-Still not really stretching at all but eh whatever!

Balance:

I still watch a decent dose of netflix. I still eat chips just because I like the crunch. I actually bought some BBQ sauce even though I have this kinda odd (health related) aversion to bottled sauces and packaged seasonings... Well it is gluten free, vegan, sugarless BBQ sauce so its hard to feel bad about that haha.

I work, go to school and run, cook and have some sort of personal life, yada yada.. But I am having trouble balancing caring about all of it. I only have so much attention to offer all the things I do in a day or week or month. "Somethings gotta give" right? As long as I keep it all up through this term of school nothing has to give. At least thats the idea! The balancing act feels at times like a really huge accomplishment or skill that should be receiving a huge amount of applause from a giant audience staring in awe. But that is not what people get for the things they choose to do. All we get is the satisfaction of doing whatever it is we're doing. Yea monetary compensation for working, earning some knowledge for studying, etc but what about when it feels like these things are being done for other reasons, less great reasons? It can feel like getting the satisfaction for myself isn't quite worth all the work and the acrobatic balancing act of doing them. 

Have I taken on more than I can handle? The simple answer is yes. I'm glad to recognize this but right now I have to continue dealing with my initial misjudgment of what I can actually do (well) simultaneously. 

Did I mention I do have pretty impressive physical balance... like, an audience would probably applaud at least a little if I walked on a really long hand rail or something like that in front of them. But of course thats not the balance that I am really taking about, and clearly I need to practice this other type of balance a bit more.

Resolution: 

Stress:

I wish it felt more appropriate to write resolution as the heading of this section, but alas--- it doesn't. Stress stress stress. We need stress physically to build or bodies stronger and better than they were yesterday. But it doesn't work without rest immediately following it. A back and forth pattern between the hard stuff and the easy stuff. This pattern can be related to sooo many things. Perhaps the easiest to consider is the natural world. A raging natural forest fire eventually brings healthy and crucial regrowth and revitalization-like a reset button for the area. I like to think about how the shape of a creek changes from one rainy season to the next--or how it doesn't change, based on how much stress is put on it.
Minimizing stress is often times more important than what food we eat. I think so at least. Its just not as easy for me. I can feel hunger, see an apple and a bunch of bananas next to a burger and endless fries with a pit of as much barbecue sauce as anyone could want... And for me, its not very hard at all to eat the apple and bananas, but stress is intangible. It isn't so easy to identify it. And thats what I need to practice more of. Identifying stress that I can control or positively minimize, and then do it. Control the controllables is a common saying, but what I think people (including myself) can easily forget or look past is how much is actually completely controllable. There are very few things in my privileged, convenient, free and open life that I can't positively change and control if not completely then at the very least to some degree.

So, I think next term I may not register for 18 credits. I may improve my study skills and habits. I may find ways to minimize stresses. Maybe find a better way to facilitate the stress to recovery relationship. At the end of the day, I am glad to be actively trying and sometimes succeeding at  improving.

"Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress..." -Plato

Running Log

I keep a consistent training log. It's hand written and goes back to September of 2012 in the same book.  I am starting a new book up with the new year... though I cannot find a medium sized graph paper moleskin notebook anywhere in Ashland.... the search continues!

My log was about as exciting and enjoyable to write/read as my running had been through November. So, not very. I have thought about not logging anything for a few weeks or a month at a time just to relieve myself of the task, maybe of some residual stress associated with performing, documenting and seeing my running take shape in such a serious/set and written form. It sometimes feels like if I didn't write it down, it could be free to be different or better in some mysterious intangible way. But it comes back to wanting to eventually total things up and see what my year quantified up looks like in terms of mileage, time, or the always entertaining page flipping week to week for quick glances at workouts, long runs, and even pretty blank sections and reminisce about the good, bad, and indifferent times.

There had been a lot more indifferent times in 2014 than what is normal for a year in my running log. Now, this is only a running log for me so its not a diary or a journal. Its a written account of my training, primarily for training purposes and to make adjustments in the future. If it contained more personal information about my life maybe I'd find myself flipping back and seeing very clear reasons I felt so indifferent about training, or maybe not. Either way, I'm glad to say that in the last month+ things have begun to swing in the other direction. Things have become more enjoyable and more successful. I have a stronger, more defined motivation and now that I am a month or so into the training schedule for track season I can feel myself becoming much more balanced and strong physically as well which is something I lacked for much of the past year.

I am not often inspired or determined to stick to a new routine or set out specific resolutions when the new year hits. This year is no different in that way. I find that I do enough introspection on a normal basis to put efforts in place that will help change things for the better anytime I recognize something that could use a tune up. This happens on a small scale probably daily, but weekly sounds more believable so I'll go with that. This doesn't usually leave me with much that I feel needs hard outlining when Jan 1st comes around. One of the major things that I feel is different this year is a light. A light at the end of the tunnel. Its far but I can catch a glimpse of it. It is far off but it tastes like graduation. Its about an entire year away and I know it isn't always the great change everyone hopes it would of been once it happens but I'll see how that experience plays out when I get there.

In the mean time, I am motivated right now. I get restless doing the same things for too many sequential months. (Thats why my real full resume that would list all the jobs I have actually had would be 2-4 pages long depending on job task description lengths.) Having this light helps drive me. Knowing that having a dedicated coach and team and task at hand is one of few ways to get the best out of myself as a runner, I can commit and be motivated to achieve and push.

My running log is totaled for 2014. Its kind of awful. But I know it could be oh so much worse. I am excited to be starting 2015 how and where I am. I am (mostly) perfectly healthy and ready to set out and get things accomplished. When desire and action meet, peace can be achieved in my mind. Desire and action are nowhere near always aligned and thats for many reasons, but it feels balanced for now. So I will capitalize on progress and enjoy the process 'till the cows come home.

2014 totals:

First 6 months mileage: 803
Issues: Sick/Sick/Backpacking 2 months

Second 6 months mileage: 626
Issues: Hurt Foot/Crashed Bicycle/ Hurt Foot for a while

2014 mileage: 1429
Positives: Trained on a Bike a lot/Learned about life beyond running.

Ashland & Running Ratio

I arrived in Ashland late August and promptly put in a 10 mile running week! Buuut if you count my new elliptical routine and some biking I had logged almost 6 hours of quality cardio work. Having access to a gym has been great. As I've mentioned, I had a bike accident this summer and the danger factor of biking combined with the difficulty of getting in what feels like really good quality workouts is tough. So I was excited to be able to use an elliptical. Hard to believe? Well I'm serious, and its been fun. In the last few weeks I have logged 2-3 hours of great elliptical time per week in addition to running 30-ish miles. My foot hasn't hurt on the elliptical but I finally feel like I can get completely safe and great work in without any issues i.e: Bad weather, impact on foot, potential of crashing a bike, stopping at traffic lights etc. I have been alternating different "workouts" on the elliptical and its been enjoyable and reassuring for my catching up on fitness to get ready to race.

Fairly unrelated but this is a photo Carly took of some rock climb cross training  I got in with Mr. Wet Willy Hoffman at Emigrant Lake in Ashland recently. He taught me how to lead climb, it was great practice and a lot of fun.

I met with my athletic trainer upon getting to Ashland and after talking about my injury issues I got 3 options:

1. Stop running altogether
2. Just start running more on it
3. See a specialist

I wish I had seen a specialist over a month earlier but I think the way I was handling training was probably pretty close to what would have been prescribed to me. Ok lets be honest, I would have been given a much much more conservative approach and could just about guarantee a loss of this season of XC completely. My main worry was if running on it would elongate my recovery time or not. I had no way of knowing this. I was worried it was a stress fracture and I was balancing on a not broken foot / playing with the possibility of breaking it. But enough time had gone by with no or very little running that even if that was the case it could have healed enough to bring running in appropriately anyway. SO with all these thoughts and finally talking with my coach and following his advice, we went with running 5 days in the next week. About 30-40 minutes easy for each run, that was it. This was the decisive change that finally tipped my running ratio in the favor of actual running instead of mostly cross training.

The 5 days went well, still with some irritation but nothing worse or very bad. So the next week was 6 days and a longer run up to 50 minutes. That week went fine too, and I started feeling better about it all and running was feeling good, and fun. It was relieving to be able to really get runs in at all.

That brings us to this week. I'll be running 6 days again and ran a long run on Sunday of 65 minutes. I did one workout which was a sort of 15 minute tempo and I was (barely) approved to run our race today, Friday 9/18/14 in Portland. Obviously I am not going to blow the doors off in the race this evening but I feel good about it considering all things. Its a unique opportunity. There is no pressure other than what I place on myself (which I'm trying to manage as I type this). We still have 2 hours before lunch and we don't race until 5pm. I am wearing some fairly cushy trainers in the race to ensure I don't hurt my foot, and I am unsure about how turning sharply at high speeds will feel but I will figure all that out later today. I'm excited to be racing I just wish I was in better physical condition. But that is what I am working on daily.

I have space to add 1 more, hmmmmm...

A recent addition in my section of Carly and my "Goals" whiteboard is "do something extra everyday". What I mean by this is to do something daily that is beyond the normal stuff to help me reach my running goals. Some examples so far are, adding an ice bath when I normally wouldn't have. Icing my foot while watching a movie, and going through a thorough and long stretch routine. I went on a bike ride and explored parts of Ashland that I wasn't familiar with and I even went on a walk, just to loosen up from a long and tough day of Netflix-ing.

School still hasn't started yet and the job I've secured starts when school starts so I have had a lot of free time. I managed to get a part-time gig a few days a week though...... holding a sign on the corner for a mattress & appliance store. It hasn't been too bad, except the day I was out there 6 hours in the middle of the day. At least I had Carly's ipod, the only issue was it only had 40 minutes of music on it. It mostly consisted of her weird mix of really slow acoustic music and a few top 40 radio type songs. I just stood silently for an hour or more at one point.

See the post set on my foot? Apparently I could get a hefty fine for setting that on the ground, so foot it is!

Coaching in Mammoth Lakes & August Fitness

I haven't written here in about 2 months so heres the skinny:

I spent a mid August week in Mammoth Lakes coaching and hanging out with my old high school and our small but awesome crew of coaches plus some parents that came along. I unfortunately couldn't run too much due to the same foot issues I've had most of the summer but managed to get in some of the teams short double runs and I biked everything else with them. It turned out to be a low volume week of biking too though because I wasn't getting in all the commute biking that I was doing back home, but I didn't mind too much.
I had been wondering how volume increases on a bike may effect me weeks/a month or more later if I did an awful lot (for me). So having this lower week was kind of comforting. By the way, a big week of biking for me was/is 10 hours so take that however you wish but it seemed appropriately high for me given my inexperience with serious cross training for running.

Coach Todo, Clemons and Myself at the bottom of Mammoth Rock trail waiting for any stragglers.

Even though I only ran about 10 miles in the 5 days in ML, I was still very satisfied with the trip. I added up the weeks I've spent training in Mammoth and its now over 4 months, including a summer of 2 months and another of 1 month. Add in various 1 week trips and I have enjoyed and come to love this mountain town quite a bit. During this trip, I had a ton of fun and shared a cabin with Steve (a team parent) and a great group of guys. I tried to impart some wisdom with the little time I had left with these guys, as I knew I'd be heading north for Oregon at the end of the next week.
It's odd coaching only for the summer as I have for the last couple seasons. Its been a blast but I don't get to see all the work unfold through seeing them race and helping them deal with nerves and strategy and all the stuff coaches do. I'm really only there for 6 weeks in summer, whereas the summer training we do will help keep them improving from July all the way to the next June. I do keep up on some results from the season and get updates though. Honestly I am pretty busy training/competing and life-ing on my own anyway so its cool to see how things progress both for them and myself.

Some of the team at Mammoth Creek park. Either pre or post workout and ice bath. Weather was great, it was a beautiful week. Photo by Mama Clemons.

We went bowling! Around my waist is Lucan, a boy presumably raised by squirrels that we found running around the trails and streets of Mammoth(okay he belongs to the Clemons' and we brought him with us).  He beat me in the first game but I pulled through with a PR performance in game 2 for the W. Photo by Mama Clemons

Training and Fitness:
Through late August, I was incredibly unsure what to do in training. To run on the foot a little, not at all, or start to slowly bring running back in completely. I had a x-ray on my foot (and knee just to check from the bicycle incident) and the doc said there was nothing. After talking more, and with more people I realized that I should have continued to a specialist who could have diagnosed me better.... or at all. I was told by the doc that I had metatarsalgia which is just inflammation/irritation in the ball of the foot. So she just said to try and not run for 2 weeks then bring running back in slowly.
I told her I had done that twice already. To clarify... On two separate occasions I didn't run at all for 2 weeks then started bringing in running only to find the same foot irritations. So she just kind of got me out of the room and on my way and I kept biking with minimal running. Due to not running but still hoping to compete in the XC season, from early July onward I kept up with biking pretty seriously. For about 6 weeks I biked as little as 4 and as much as 11 hours per week. This was all what I called "quality" biking. If I biked to work and it took 45 minutes, I'd knock a few minutes off that for my training log if there was considerable coasting time because that isn't really "quality". This was how I was logging it anyway.

It was nearly impossible to prove but I felt fit. Despite not running more than 10 miles a week for about 2 months, I felt like if I HAD to, I could run a decent 5k considering all things. This was encouraging-which was great because if I didn't feel good about that, I wouldn't have much else to be happy about fitness-wise. It was hope. Hope that when the time came, I could begin transitioning my biking fitness into usable running fitness and put a season of XC together.

The coming weeks would entail making the move back to Ashland OR, meeting up with my team and coach and seeing where things went from there. Check back for the next update on being in Ashland and training...

Spoiler alert: I ran 30+ miles the week of 9/7/14!

Injured & Mt Baldy

I have been incredibly fortunate enough to very rarely have any form of injury keep me from consistent training. That is in part by design but in no way will I claim its solely due to smart training or "taking care" of my body by rolling out, etc. I believe its merely a matter of body composition, training habits, mental head-space (belief in my body's strength and durability), nutrition and lalala.

Well... I am injured and have missed a sizable chunk of training. I came back from essentially 2 months off of running due to a backpacking trip and admittingly was not training smart at all upon my return. Heres a breakdown of my initial mistakes:

5k race
+Running up & down a mountain (saddleback, 16 miles)
+Reintroducing barefoot running with very poor timing
(all within 3 days)
= Foot pain.

The foot pain was mild but it was there whenever I ran, so I replaced some running with bicycling.
It was working.

Then I crashed the bicycle into a chain that was locked across a trail I always hopped on to ride to work. It was totally stupid of me. I rode straight into a stationary object, but this was an un-gated and un-lockable passageway so I never had thought to be particularly careful when going through. But I had a routine and one day that routine's knee was hyper-extended and dangling painfully from a chain locked between two posts.

So my left knee took the brunt of the force and right when it happened, I really thought something was broken or my knee was literally bent backwards. Luckily that wasn't the case. But it definitely hurt.
Over the next few days I limped pretty badly but wasn't in much pain unless I straightened my leg too much so I went to work anyway. Working on my feet and walking around helped keep my muscles from becoming extremely tight and immobile. Over a few days I got a lot of mobility back which I thought was really encouraging because I was fairly clueless as to how long term this injury would be. Those few days became a week and I no longer was seeing further improvement. During the second week of no running or cross training and doing only some icing (and pull-ups), I could walk without pain and ran for 3 minutes after a 5 minute elliptical warm up at a gym that I kind of snuck into :)

Those 3 minutes turned to a 9 minute mile and a couple days later I was hiking up Mt Baldy.

View down a ski-slope section Andrew and Mark took on the way up. That's one way to do it!

 I had a small group planning to run Mt Baldy on this particular weekend and I knew I wouldn't be able to do it once the crash happened, but it turned out that I could walk with no pain at all and I could run up to 15 minutes without much discomfort so I figured I'd just walk most of it. I'm very glad I did it, it was awesome but certainly took a bit longer than the time in 2011 when I raced (pretty decently I might add) up it. I ended up hiking (and running parts) up most of the way with Cris and Carmille. Cris is getting ready for Angeles Crest 100 in a few weeks and I had a blast talking ultra with him and hearing his stories. Carmille and I go back a little farther so I spent most of the time just harassing her and cracking jokes-until will got to 9k or so and the conversation and pace slowed down!

It was a lot of fun and cool to get all this in and be home by about noon. I often forget how close-by awesome places are and I know I need to do a better job getting out to see them. The way down was super technical and consisted of some running but a lot of hiking too. My foot began to bother me so I slowed a bit and mostly walked the last 30 minutes or more. Hoka One One kept the foot pain away for a while but descending 3 or 4 thousand feet in a relatively short time and keeping nagging foot pain out may be too much to ask for even from the space shoes themselves.

The group: Cris, Mark, Myself, "Muscle" Mark, Andrew, Carmille at the top!

The Frustration:
The foot pain that was the beginning of all of this, isn't gone. I'd like to think after the 2 weeks of no impact the minor issue going on in the foot might magically disappear. NOPE. So now I am dealing with what seems like a very slow final healing process for my knee and the addition of a fairly constant and unknown ball-of-foot pain upon applying pressure (sometimes)......

I will say that I honestly am handling this pretty well (in terms of not getting the crazies and not giving the not-working-out Irritable Eye to whoever I may run into) but don't let my calm and collected countenance fool you--- this is really frustrating and a huge bummer.

I have absolutely learned several lessons from this already, so here are a couple quick ones if you haven't already gathered a list from reading all of the above.

-Don't run races (especially at race effort) when you're not in shape for it.
-Don't run races like the above in flats that are 7 years old that you found in a bin in the garage.
-Don't run up and down a mountain the day after running the above race in the above flats.
-Don't run a half hour barefoot on grass the day after running up and down a mountain the day after running the above race in the above flats.
-Don't crash your bike.
-Commute biking is great for the world and you, but don't try and get going fast enough to get some solid cardio in when you are in a place that may put a sneaky chain across a otherwise always-open passageway.
-Hiking can actually be fun.
-Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory, but tastes pretty bad when you put way way too much into anything.