FAQ #2 - How should I train for my first 5K?

Once someone figures out that they are going to continue a new running habit, the itch to measure their improvement doesn't take long to emerge. One of the most common ways to measure improvement is to do something that would have previously been impossible or terribly painful. A popular way for novice runners to do this is to race a 5k.

First off, this is a excellent goal. 5k's (3.1 mile races) are a great way to give yourself a boost of enthusiasm for your new hobby and get to know other runners in your area. I wager that I've done close to 50 5k's over the years, and I still enjoy doing them.

If you've just started running and are following something like what I recommend in Running FAQ 1, you are probably already covering between 1-1.5 miles every time you run. Since your goal is to conquer a set distance, you'll need to find out just how far you have to go to be able to complete 3.1 miles.

Measure out a 1 mile course with a tool like MapMyRun. If you are running on a trail, find a park map or something of that nature that you can guess'timate off of.  Once you have your course, start by running the length of time of your typical jog on your measured course and confirm how far you are actually making it on any normal run. This is your baseline distance.

On your next workout, run 2 minutes past that point. Why 2 minutes? Because I said so. Why not say something like "run an extra 200 yards"? Do you want to eyeball 200 yards at the end of a run?

 Let's say you ran exactly 1 mile on your baseline test. The next run should be 1 mile (one complete course) and 2 minutes. Use a landmark (tree, mailbox, street lamp) to remember this middle finish point. On your next run, run 2 minutes past that point, and so on until you reach 3 miles.

As you may have realized, this means some of your runs will end a bit out from where you started. Walking is a great way to cool down and ease out of a workout. Eventually you will switch from walking back to the start to walking the rest of the course and completing another mile.

 Add 2 minutes until you get can complete 3 miles. Complete 3 miles at least twice before your race so you aren't worried about being able to do it on race day. This will also give you the confidence to turn on the juice coming into the finish and sprint past that snarky neighbor of yours.

Feel free to post questions if you have any.

Tailwinds!

Running FAQ # 1 - How often should I run?

Running FAQ # 1 - How often should I run?

I've been running for over 10 years now, and I've had a lot of people ask me questions about running during that time. One of the questions I am most frequently asked is how often should a person run?

This is a loaded question, because it often comes without any added details, like "I'm running because I want to..." or "I have/haven't run on a regular basis before", "my left ACL isn't 100% intact" and the like.

Assuming the person is in "good" health (read: I don't think they'll pass out bending over to put on their shoes), I generally advise them to start running every other day for 10 minutes. Just head out the door whenever you like and run at your own pace for 10 minutes.

Why 10 minutes? 5 seems like a waste of effort to most people, and 15 sounds too much like 20, which to most people sounds like an hour. 10 minutes doesn't seem like too much of a challenge, but it isn't something that everyone is 100% sure they can do. They seem to want to try it just to prove they can.

The next questions is invariably "So, I just run?". Yes. Take a nod from Nike and just do it.

Don't worry about speed or distance; focus on how running makes you feel. Do you have consistent pain in one area? Does one leg or shoulder cramp up near the end of your jog? How measured is your breathing? Signs like these will help you figure out what you need to focus on as you add more time to your every other day routine.

Next FAQ - How do I prepare for my first 5K?

I'm Back

So, I've been slacking in terms of both blogging and running. Both streaks are finally being broken.

In the last 2 weeks, I've managed to drag my sorry butt out of bed before 5:30 and run before work 5 times. The first few days weren't pretty, but I got through them.

The weekend forecast told me my plans for a long-ish Saturday run would be thwarted. God smiled on me and gave Lexington, KY the warmest day it has had in months. I ran 6 hilly miles - the longest I've been on the road for more than a month.

Getting back to my favorite sport is like returning to my home town. After the feeling that the old has become new again, I start settling back in to the rhythm of things. I remember what it feels like to be what I consider to be "me" again. And that is a most welcomed feeling!

The Need to Fall

I have fallen down on a run before. Most of runner have. Depending on the speed, terrain, and how far into the run one is, falls can take quite a toll on a runner. I've seen a fellow marathoner fall as we crossed a wet foot bridge. He got right back up and kept on going. I've seen a friend take quick slip down a hill that ended that days training, forcing us to walk back the way we came.

Falling seems bad. You were headed in one direction, and then you're not. You were doing what you thought was right (it is widely acceptable to move during a run), and now you're not. You weren't in any great amount of pain, and now you are. Falling seems bad.

So, why is this article entitled "The Need to Fall"? Who needs to fall? You do. We all do.

Sometime we are unknowingly running, physically or metaphorically, in the wrong direction. Sometimes we're just headed there too fast. Sometimes we're on the wrong path altogether, or one that is just too dangerous.

Why would we do such obviously stupid things? We're sinners, case you haven't heard, and that's what we do. Like it or not, we will lead ourselves down dangerous paths. Even those of us who love Christ with all of our hearts have taken our eyes off the cross and ignored the light on our path from time to time.


Falling forces us to stop, collect our thoughts, and make a decision about what to do next. Although we'll deny it, God knows we need to do all of those things more often than we'd like. Hopefully, the fall wakes us up to what He has probably been silently suggesting all along.


Anyone who has ever run towards the cross can tell you about times they have fallen. That's the story of belief. Anyone who still believes can tell you about a time they have fallen and managed to get back on the right path. That's the story of faith.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Best Training Tools I Know

I want to share the best training tools I have for just about every athletic thing I do. I'm going to try to make this useful and information without giving too much detail.

Pace Calculator -
This pace calculator thing is amazing. It can help you prepare for target pace workouts or give you a great breakdown of race performance.

Course Map -
 MapMyRun - Works great and is very accurate. Very few glitches.

Self Therapy -
My wife got me a Trigger Point Cool Roller last Christmas and it has quickly become an invaluable tool. Rolling is a great way to speed up recovery after a hard set or a really long workout. You can roll-out more areas of your body with a traditional foam roller  (cold stainless steel doesn't feel good on my hips and it's too small for my back), but the cold really helps large muscles in the legs.

Music -
I just have a regular iPod shuffle, but a waterproof one might be a good idea if you want to use it in the pool (Triathletes).

Running Headphones - I use iRun earphones and they work perfectly. I love the short cord. I hear great things about JayBird's and YurBuds.

Here's a tip -Combine the iPod shuffle and iRun earbuds (or something similar) and attach them to a thin, elastic hairband (like some soccer players wear) to hold the combo onto the back of your head. It works great for times when you don't want to wear a hat and it works MUCH better than attaching it to your shirt collar.

Protein -
I tend not to like products with 50 mystery ingredients, each consisting of 10-15 syllables, that were all created in a dark lab somewhere (call me crazy), so I steer clear of the typical protein powders. Raw Meal tastes great and is holistically good for you. If you have the wallet, Vega Sport products are supreme.

Diet -
If you have a smartphone, the My Fitness Pal app is a great tool. It has virtually any food you can think of in its database. You should still check the numbers out if you think something is way off. I found a few numbers that were wrong on a kind of pasta sauce I used and corrected my sodium intake by 500 mg.

Note - My Fitness Pal will let you input exercise to measure calories burned, but strength training and such will show up as 0 calories burned  no matter how of long of a session you input. You have to put that time in the Cardiovascular section under Circuit Training. I simply estimate the amount of time I spent "in" activity (not resting) and use that. This gets you "pretty close" and I tend to find it showing fewer calories burned off than seems logical.

I'll try to follow this post up with another installment in a few months.

Please post your favorite gear in the comments so I can try it out.

The Path Less Traveled

I love trail running. It excites me in a way that road running or track simply cannot. Trail running asks you to make your way back to the place you started following a single path that is always changing. Something about that appeals to me.

I've been reading more about the idea of a path or a way recently. An an Asian Studies major at Furman University (Go Paladins!) I studied many Eastern philosophical ideas that included concepts of a way. Most notably, the Dao De Jing speaks of how all things in the universe are connected to the Dao (way). It also heavily discusses the idea of Way-making.

As I understand it from the Dao De Jing, Way-making is something like living a just or righteous life. A life lived in the Way is a life lived in accordance with the laws of the universe. One of the central ideas is that one should have respect for everything (and I mean everything) in the world because all things are interconnect and depended on one another. There is no secret to Way-making; no step-by-step guide or score card to prove your Way-making worth. It's an intangible ideal at which to grasp.

There is a similar idea in the Christian faith largely based on the idea of righteousness. Christians are called to seek God's will in every decision in their pursuit for righteous action. Many people stress over major life decisions in fear that making the wrong choice will permanently move them off the righteous track and place them on the non-righteous or less-than-optimal righteous track. In this mindset, Christian Way-making, if you will, depends on each and every decision you make being the most righteous one available.

Pastor Ken Wytsma (a new favorite of mine) has taught on decision making and the will of God through Proverbs. After listening to his sermons, I realized that the commonly held belief  that righteous living can rest on any one decision, even a major one, seems at odds with the way God operates. Ken's teaching helped me see that God's view of righteousness is most likely more about staying on a righteous path than taking every single righteous step possible. Just like in trail running, the point is to get to the end, not to take every correct step as you move down the path. Trying to do that would be insane! Yet, that's pretty much what we are trying to do in stressing about every decision we have to make.

Christ's sacrifice paid for all of our sins, forever. His sacrifice protects us from God's wrath no matter how many missteps we made in our trek towards righteousness.The only turn we have to ensure that we make is to repent (Repent is a translation of shuwb; a Hebrew word meaning "to turn back") towards Christ. Once that turn is surely made, if you stay on a courses headed towards Christ, no one step can derail you.

Stop stressing, enjoy the views around you and focus on getting home in one piece.

God as a coach - A failed experiment?

Back in August, I wrote a post about Ryan Hall's performance in the 2012 Olympic marathon and what it meant in light of his special training method. At the time, Ryan was practicing faith based coaching; where a runner relies on his or her God to direct their physical training.

As you might have seen, Ryan recently announced that he will begin training under a new, mortal, flesh and blood coach. Ryan's new coach, Renato Canova, seems quite impressive, and I am certainly a fan of his rumored emphasis on hill work.

Although this isn't the first time Ryan has trained under a human coach, I'm excited to see what Canova brings out in him. I can't help but wonder, however, how Ryan will adjust to this change in his professional running life. Here's some of what he had to say about the change:

While this is certainly a new chapter in my career I don't feel like it's a huge departure from how I have operated in the past. - MSN Innovation For Endurance - 

Not a huge departure? Ryan used to be solely coached by God and now has a human coach? How is that not a big departure. Doesn't this mean he has given up on God to direct his running? Doesn't this mean that God failed Ryan as a coach? No, I don't think that's what this means at all.

I believe Proverbs 3:6 can be of good use here. The passage says "in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." If we are to truly enjoy life to the fullest as only God can provide, we must allow Him control over all aspects of our lives. I believe that is what Ryan Hall was doing when he placed his professional life fully in God's control. How did that work out? In terms of Olympic victories, not so great. But, what about spiritual victories? How can anyone but Ryan himself judge how many spiritual victories were won during this period of his life?

Maybe that was the whole point of his faith-based coaching experience? Maybe God wanted to train Ryan's faith instead of his running. Maybe now that Ryan's faith has been strengthened to the level God desired, God has put a fantastic running coach in Ryan's path so that his running can reach the highest of levels.

This is what I like to call "the head fake" - where someone asks you to do one thing in order to teach you something else. By submitting his running to God, Ryan probably learned volumes about faith and God's provision. One would have assumed that by submitting his running to God, He would have blessed Ryan's running. That just isn't God's style. He isn't that predictable.

So, before we all start cynically quipping "Ha, that God-coached thing sure didn't work very well did it?", we should ask ourselves, did we really expect God to train Ryan Hall in running when He had the perfect chance to train him in matters of Godliness?"

Gluten Free Snacks for Athletes

Were you this happy
at the end of your first
 10 mile run?

My beautiful wife is a new convert to the sport of running. She completed the Peachtree 10k last year like a boss and is already moving on to the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon this month. (Some how I convinced her that a 13.1 mile run is a romantic way to spend our 1st wedding anniversary.)

Although she doesn't seem to have any weaknesses (I put Kryptonite in her coffee once - nothing!) there is one thing that can really ruin her day: gluten. Her gluten allergy forces her to be extra careful about what foods she consumes.

Sadly, the options for gluten free training snacks that offer a good balance on carbs and protein can be hard to find.

Thankfully the good people at Competitor.com posted this sum up of a few of the best gluten free fuel options.

I highly recommend the Pro Bars but feel free to try them all.

Running Podcast from Clif Bar - Of Pace and Faith

Hello, my name is Phillip and I'm addicted to Clif Bars.

If you run, bike, climb, tri, or otherwise exhaust yourself, you know what a Clif Bar is. Many of you practically keep yourself going with these things. And why not? What could be sweeter, literally, than finishing off a nice trail run with the taste of "roasted macadamia nuts and scrumptious white chocolate chunks"? Dig the propaganda!

It's rare that my favorite foods get paired with technology.
The hamburger phone... eh, only so-so in my opinion.

So I'm thanking the tech-gods for this little find: Clif Cast Podcast Series. Basically, Clif Bar is publishing a podcast series on all thing related to running - health, training, nutrition, etc.

I think Clif is doing a great job with this series. The Ian Sharman one was most entertaining, and I found the Protein and Insights from Afar episodes very informative.

The quality is great and they keep things light, so there easy to listen to. If you're already pretty well read and experienced on these subjects, you won't learn a ton of new stuff, but the advice is solid.

So the next time you need a dose of running "shop talk", but can't find another endurance nut to jaw with, grab your ear buds and give Clif Cast a try.

Ryan Hall - Christian Runner or Running Christian

American distance runner Ryan Hall has been in the news a lot in recent months. Leading up to the London Olympics, he did several interviews that centered on his controversial coach: God. Yes, Hall is "self-coached" but he claims that he's not really alone. This isn't merely posturing. Many have heard how he once wrote God in as his coach on an official drug test form. When he was told by an official to list a real person, he responded with "He is a real person". Obviously Hall doesn't struggle with conviction.

The New York Times featured an in depth article detailing exactly how Hall manages to be a "legitimate" faith based runner. Apart from devotional acts that most would expect from a professing Christian (praying, reading scripture, etc), Hall even takes one day off from training to honor the Sabbath - itself a sin to many in the distance running world.

Hall doesn't get overly literal about this, however. Hall was quoted saying "The Bible is not going to tell you how to be a good runner, just like it's not going to tell you how to build a computer," It could be said that he relies on God more for inspiration than absolute direction. (Ex - Try to push yourself today vs Run 10x1000 at tempo). Not to say absolute direction from God can't or hasn't happened. That's a question for Hall to answer.

After his 2nd place finish at the US Olympic Trials, there was little doubt in the running world that Hall had a shot at bringing home some hardware from London. The final day of the Olympics arrived and everyone was ready to see him shine.

Then, it happened. Just 10 miles into the race, Ryan Hall dropped out of the marathon - a career first. I had never seen anything like it. Sitting on my couch in the early morning hours, I was simply shocked.

I went on Twitter later that day searching for people bashing Hall and his coach. What I found was much more uplifting.

"You continue to inspire me," with the hashtag #GodIsStillGood  - Ryan Hall to Meb Keflezighi, Hall's teammate who was the only American to finish the marathon.

While most would say Hall failed in London, I think he achieved something amazing.

Hall's motivation for switching to faith based training are well summed up in this quote:
“I was a runner who happened to be a Christian. I needed to become a Christian who happened to be a runner.” Simply - Ryan wanted to go from being a Christian runner, a type of runner, to a running Christian, a type of Christian.

If Ryan was a Christian runner when he toed the line in London, his goal would have been to win the race, and a DNF would have totally demoralized him. Since it's pretty obvious that, while he was no doubt shocked and upset, Hall found a silver lining in the outcome of the race and could put it in a bigger perspective, the label of Christian runner fails to define him.

So, Ryan, for what it's worth, it is this bloggers opinion that you should consider your task complete.
Ryan Hall, running Christian.

1st Corinthians 9: 24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.