Marathon: The Greek Lager Beer

Photo: My two favorite things!

Matt M. Registers for Ironman Florida

They day after watching his partner Mindy complete Beach 2 Battleship, Matt made the ultimate commitment.


Photo: Nov 8th Matt got on the computer.



Photo: Then he paid an exorbitant sum of money within a narrow window of minutes.



Photo: Now he is the lucky recipient of a race number for Ironman Florida, 2010.


AFTER registering, he e-mails me this (in his own words):


Hey coach:

I might get scolded for this, and good or bad, I registered yesterday for Ironman Fla. I already know what you're thinking, but there are 2 things I know for certain 1) I CAN do it and 2) You're the coach to get me there. I know everything happens for a reason which is why I believe this is my destiny and the start of a very long journey. There is a reason I got a bootleg copy of "Fundamentals of Swimming" and a reason I ended up with you as a coach....All these things together equal me reaching my goal.

I won't be able to do it if I don't have you as a coach. I'm asking for your help and after watching you crush the B2B course I know you're not only up for it, but are ready and willing to beat my ass in to submission along the way. If you agree to help, I agree to give you 100% effort and promise never to tap out.

You ready? I am. I've figured out how I'll be able to manage work and workouts and work. I wouldn't want to do this without you.

9:17!!!

Stephen Taylor finishes with a 9:17 at Beach 2 Battleship in a sprint finish for 3rd place.

On the weekend of Nov 7-8 STtrainer had over a dozen athletes compete in half and full iron distance triathlons.

Complete results to follow.


Photo: Kevin Clouse after finishing his first iron distance.

WSMV Channel 4 Nashville

Fitness Creeping

Author Stephen Taylor, in the gym.

This article is targeted to a year-round endurance athlete. If you are wanting to get in shape for the first time, this concept may be foreign.

Most endurance athletes appreciate the importance of strategy. You need to work hard towards your goals, do the right workouts, and persist on your efforts. I am going to describe a "big picture" strategy, which involves periodization. This concept means that you train differently at different times of the year. A systematic progression of key workouts will provide better results than a homogenous approach where training varies little from month to month.

The concept I want to highlight is that you should start now on building "Creeping Fitness."

For everyone except Australians and a few December marathoners, it is the off-season. Instead of hitting the cheetos bag, ice cream, and couch, you should be doing workouts that allow your fitness to creep. Likewise, don't just go do some more biking and running workouts. Make the switch-up described here. Don't let another year go by letting the resolution to get leaner and stronger pass you by. Start now by building the perfect foundation. Creep.



What workouts creep your fitness? It is exactly the workouts that you do not have time for during the period of formal training. When you are doing lots of conditioning training ( endurance and speedwork) there is little time for strength training, core abs and low back, and stretching. Do that stuff now. Find the muscles that haven't been worked all year. If you don't know where they are, I will show you using nothing more than a stretch band and stability ball.

"But I don't enjoy lifting weights," you might say. You don't like lifting weights because it is unfamiliar and you don't get "in the zone" when you do it. Get on a good strength program and stick with it long enough to see some results. I guarantee that you will be enjoying it by that time.

Continue doing some endurance training, but revert to a minimum baseline "maintenance" level. After you have "upped" your level of strength, then start increasing your endurance training. This is when you will truly feel the Fitness Creep. You will feel that you are not in peak fitness yet, but you will be fit. Very fit. That is the goal of the fitness creep: to gradually get into great fitness but in such a way that you can subsequently get into even better fitness.

Now keep in mind that while I am arguing for a period of strength/stretch emphasis, my true love is endurance. I don't care how much one can bench press, or how huge the deltoids are. The weight room is a highly effective means to an end.

The opposite of a Fitness Creep is the Short-Term-Fast-Payoff (STFP) approach. I have been a fitness trainer endurance coach for 10 years and I know all the STFP strategies. Do lots of high intensity intervals. Do explosive strength training before you have done an adequate period of strength-base training. Yes these strategies are appealing because you get fast results, but the crash is unpleasant. You plateau too fast. I coach my clients to reach their long term max potential, not a "12 week max results" approach in the middle of the off season.



If you implement a Fitness Creep you may initially be discouraged as it seems others are fitter than you. In January. But lay the proper foundation and you will be in the perfect position to do the really intense training required to get to your best preparation. You are getting ready to train, to get in shape. First things first.

Again, if you are out of shape right now, this may all sound greek to you. Creeping fitness? Periodization? What you need to know is that to get into really really great shape is a long term project that requires patience. Progress is not continuous. Rather, it involves periods of gains, followed by consolidation and even time off. Use a good strategy and expect the best.

Fall Fun

Fall is the period of the year when the serious training and racing is done. It is the off season and you should be having fun, while staying in some kind of minimum fitness. Or maybe you are not a hardcore racer and you prefer a fun event to motivate yourself. In either case, these events are pure quality.

Try doing a fun event like one of these:

Columbia Missouri:

The Monster Bash from Off Track Events on Vimeo.

XCX - Cross Country Xtreme from Off Track Events on Vimeo.

In Nashville:






Gulf Coast:

From the New York Times

The Benefits of Group Running

By Liz Robbins

Jessica Dimmock for The New York Times Running with others can offer a new take on training.

Long distance running may be the ultimate individual pursuit, offering a time for peace, solitude and communion with one’s body. But for many runners, distance running is the epitome of community, a true testament to the uplifting spirit of the sport.

Liz Robbins

Gill Schumaker, 68, who started the suburban Chicago running group Team NorthShore, says he used to be one of those people who savored running alone and didn’t want to be dragged on an unfamiliar pace. But when he moved from Cincinnati to Chicago, he formed a running group to help make running the area’s flat trails more interesting.

A Race Like No Other

Liz Robbins explores the people and culture of the marathon.

“And now, it’s like I can’t run without a group -– just the camaraderie, and experiencing what’s going on with them,” Mr. Schumaker said. “I learned how to run fast by being with a group. What it was, is that I wanted to be with those people.”

He vividly recalls a morning run a few years ago when members of the group, including an ex-officer of the United States Air Force, the Israeli Air Force and the Russian army, broke into song, each extemporizing a verse about the joys of running. Chanting in perfect cadence (”I don’t know, but I’ve been told…”), they charged to the end of the run.

Rob Udewitz, a clinical and sports psychologist in Manhattan, said many runners change their pace when they run in a group. “There is a phenomenon of running with people where you run faster and easier,” he said.

Call it motivation. Competition. Or accountability.

“It’s easy to roll over and go back to bed if it’s just you,” said Gail Kislevitz, an author of running books and coach of Team for Kids, the New York Road Runners Foundation team that raises money for youth fitness. “You know if you have a group waiting for you on the corner, you don’t want to be the one not to show up.”

Sometimes just joining the group can be the hardest part. “There’s a lot of intimidation for beginning runners early on to go into a group,” Mr. Udewitz said. “They think it’s like gym class and they’ll be the slowest, or be last. But that quickly dissolves.”

When Ms. Kislevitz decided to run her first marathon, a friend elected to help her get through the unknown of the long run. She was hesitant, not wanting to sacrifice her private time where she wrote many of her articles in her head. But then she and her friend started the run.

“We fell into the same pace, and before I knew it, the ten miles were over,” she said. “We were talking about our kids and our marriages and I thought, ‘This is amazing, how could I ever run a long run alone again?’”

She added: “You don’t really notice the pain. If you start whining, someone is going to tell you to shut up.”

The benefits of training with a team extend beyond encouragement to peer analysis, too. “If you do more intense workouts, like interval workouts, that kind of work is so much easier with a group,” Mr. Udewitz said.

Often, the group is formed because of a common purpose like a charity. Sometimes the post-workout socialization is the raison d’etre. (Powered by Dim Sum is my favorite named team in the New York area).

Of course, every runner trains the way their mind, body and schedule works best. The two-time New York City champion Jelena Prokopcuka trains only with her husband, Aleks, in the Latvian beach town of Jurmala. Many Kenyan runners, whether training in Boulder, Colo., or in the Rift Valley of Africa, work as a team in practices.

Time and geography may limit people’s ability to join teams. One woman, Patricia Plasencia, told me how she trained for the 2006 New York City Marathon by herself at 4:30 in the morning in Del Rio, Tex., before she went to work as a physical therapist’s assistant. Every day she would sprint past a pack of wild dogs near the Laughlin Air Force Base until they got used to her scent. Having joined Team for Kids, she used online coaching to prepare for her first marathon. The following year, Ms. Plasencia was the first name chosen in the lottery.

For runners who train in New York’s Central Park, the pack mentality can tend to tip to extremes. On some summer Tuesday evenings in the thick of marathon training, those who do not belong can get swept up in the chaos. Runners from teams, classes and clubs all seem to be rushing in opposite directions on the bridle path and park drives.

So much for the loneliness of the long-distance runner.