Category: racing
How to run.
My world is immersed in running. My paycheck comes from selling running shoes. I have run thousands of miles, yet I started just like many of you. I was out of shape. A friend said I should come run. I am sure I was terrified at how bad I was going to be stomped into the ground by my running friend. Just like you. So while most “writers” will say, you shouldn’t give away the farm in the first paragraph, I’m going to do just that. The secret to running is this. Take the first step.
It’s simple really. As kids we spend countless hours running around. In fact, most kids seem to run everywhere they go. They run to the car, they run to see friends, they run around and play. Heck, they hardly walk anywhere.
But it’s frightening. I remember meeting my friend at the lakes for my first run with someone else. I had started the Couch to 5k program from www.coolrunning.com and was up to running 2 miles or so. He was an avid runner and multiple marathon, and Ironman finisher. We met on the shoulder that ran up to Baton Rouge beach on Stanford and got out of our cars. He told me to follow the lakes around and it would be 4.2 miles. We ran to where it turns onto the jogging trail, about 200 yards, and he took off. 47 minutes later I was back at my car. Two min later he showed up, but there was a subtle difference. In the same amount of time, he had run two miles further. Talk about a morale boost (this is sarcasm).
Over the next 4 years, I met him almost every Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30 a.m. to run the lakes, and never once completed a run with him if he didn’t allow me to. But that’s not the purpose of meeting really. It’s about accountability and showing up.
To run you have to simply take the first step, but I realize that it’s also about facing your fears. About possible embarrassment. “What if I can’t run more than 5 minutes? 2 minutes? 1 minute?” “What if I do it wrong?” So many questions, that are all answered by simple taking a step, then another and running. Running like a kid. Feeling the burn, feeling good, and feeling bad, but still continuing to run.
There will be more about how to improve your running if you stay tuned to this blog. The first steps are the hardest, but with local running groups abound, (Happy’s Running Club, CYJ’s Sunday Runday, and Fleet Feet and Varsity Running groups) there are plenty of supportive outlets out there to fuel your fire and journey. One step at a time.
An Endurance Father’s Day
If you think for a second this list is not self serving, well then you would be wrong. I will be sending a link directly to my wife, family, friends, and hell, anyone looking for an extra father if I think it may get me some killer schwag for Father’s day. While everyone says that it’s the thought that counts, this is like 67% true. 33% is straight up based on coolness factor and how much you spend, the only exception to this being homemade gifts from your kids. So ladies-take heed.
If you have read this blog before, you know that I have to fight the urge to not make lists in every post. But this bad boy is just aching to be, so without further adieu…
1. YOLO Stand up paddleboard-$800-1600- I dig on this so much. Think large surfboard with a paddle. You can use this on a lake, bayou, river, ocean, ditch, or wherever there is 18-24 inches of water. It is so easy my son could paddle by himself at age 5. Great core workout and peaceful way to see lots of sunrises. Click HERE to visit their site. And you can click on this to see my now 7 year old son paddle us along while I film standing behind him.
2. Mercury Race Wheels Specifically the M9 ($2400). Deep dish wheels are fast and new aero studies are proving that 25mm wide rims are both stronger and more aerodynamic in both straight ahead riding and cross winds. I ride a set of 85 mm Mercury Rims with a Power Tap hub all the time. These are bulletproof. Oh and the owner of Mercury, Chris Mogridge is a fine upstanding gentleman.
3. A membership to a beer of the month club (starts @ 36.95 per month)-Here’s one right HERE! Few things are more intertwined than beer and endurance athletics. I like beer, and the thought of having beer delivered to my house is almost as awesome as THIS. My work here is done.
4. Garmin 910xt-($350-$400)-Garmin is the Apple of performance sport watches in my opinion. The damn thing is so intuitive that a history degree holding triathlete can figure it out in like 2 mins. Plus I have seen 3 people jump in the pool with the non waterproof versions of this watch before and come up $350 poorer three seconds later. Consider the waterproofing, tri-guy stupidity insurance. I would go on about all the features on this bad boy, but you are a grown up. Click right HERE and get the skinny
5. Father’s are mostly old. Old endurance guys are all crooked and stove up. First go to Trigger Point Therapy and at the least, buy your old guy a GRID. This thing is the bomb and has kept me knot free when I have the good sense to use it daily. It is also good for a 7 year old to train on for log rolling and inevitable falls during said training. There rest of their trigger point kits are awesome as well and will keep your man from looking like a bent over 90 year old (unless he’s 90 then it’s likely too late.)
6. BETABRAND This is one of my top 10 sites on the web. Seriously. Disco ball pants-I own em. Vagisoft blankets (that’s serious softness). Drinking and Smoking Jackets, bike to work pants and my new favorite SOCK INSURANCE!! This team is so freaking creative and fun, and their products are awesome too. Go for 5 mins, turn around and an hour has passed. It truly is awesomeness.
7. Rudy Project Wingspan Aero Helmet-aero helmets go fast. Faster than non aero helmets. I currently ride with a Specialized and it is truly awesome, but if I am being honest, I want one of these neon green bad boys as well. HERE is a great review from a guy in Chicago. That’s in Illinois for all you rednecks.
8. Steak- Protein aids in making you a better athlete. Steak tastes awesome. If you are in Baton Rouge, you can get a great steak at Sullivan’s and support my boy Leo Verde. While I have not been paid to endorse any product listed so far, I am emailing Leo a link to this blog post exactly 8 seconds after I publish it in order to ensure I get free steak.
So that’s what I’ve got for you. I could go on and on and on, but this should keep you busy for a while. I’ll save some for my first annual “Buy Pat Fellows Something on this List” post for my approaching birthday.
Remember-before you go straight to the online world of shopping (Besides Betabrand) check out a local run/bike specialty or outdoor store for the above items. You’ll be doing a good thing.Hugs to the haters!
PF
This hurts me more than it hurts you-aka training with friends-or the shadenfreude affect
It is not a secret that training is an integral part of my being…what is also known to many of the folks I have trained with over the last decade is that I enjoy pushing them to a place they don’t likely want to be. Let me be very clear though, I am not the fastest guy out there, and I do try to train with those who will push me outside of my comfort zone. Truly, I think that this is something that is inherent to training in general. After awhile, everyone gets a satisfaction from hurting there peers. I’ll call this the shadenfreude effect.
I remember when I first started riding back in 2001 and had a good friend names Warren McDonald (affectionately, Uncle W). He was a stud on the bike and the run, and I would endure countless hours of riding, hanging on for my life. The first spring and summer of 2001, I would meet him at his house at 5:20 and we would ride 20 or so miles completely in the dark with barely any lights. I would get dropped in the first 5 miles and ride to the turn around point on a bike that was two sizes too small. There they would catch me on their way back and I would hang on for another 3 miles or so only to get dropped and limp home. I made it my mission that summer and fall to not get dropped. I am pretty sure it was Uncle W’s mission to try and drop me. FInally some day in 2002, I not only didn’t ever get dropped, but I was beating him in races.
For the next 10 years I have tried to spread this pain evenly out to all my friends. There is a guy I swim with who would get mystery calf cramps whenever a set got hard. It became my goal to push him to those cramps in every single workout from the moment of this discovery until today. Regardless if I was in shape or not. I can grade the success of a workout on this. If he cramps=success!!
On the bike it is the same. If ever someone speeds up, it is my duty to continue this speed, but to also ratchet it up another notch. Even if it is an off day. It is a matter of principal (and likely the worst way to train). It’s like I can’t help myself.
And I’m not alone, my buddy Chuckie G is a closet practitioner of the schadenfreude training affect. On our rides he likes to act like someone else sped up and that he just held the pace, but there are plenty of documented cases of him being the instigator. By plenty, I mean hundreds. Always one to downplay it, Chuckie G blames it on me.
What is also interesting is that I enjoy getting abused nearly as much as abusing. There have been plenty of times when both riding and running,I didn’t think I had another ounce in me and I am cussing whomever it is I am with as I search for another gear. This happens a lot when I am running with my co-workers from Mizuno. We will go out for an easy 30 mins that will turn to them chatting away holding sub 7:00 pace with me 4 strides back about to vomit a lung. I like when they chime in “You are looking strong!” or some other lie. 50 minutes later, the 30 min easy run is over.
The moral of this story, is simply this. If you want to improve your training. Poke a bear every once in awhile. Train outside of your comfort zone. Push someone else outside of theirs. Everyone will hurt and everyone will benefit.
Train safe-
PF
The Fine Art of Managing Race Expectations
First and foremost, thanks for all the reads and shares of the Galveston post. Didn’t expect all that, and know I really appreciate the kind words. It is my intent that you get something positive out of all this. Now on to the next one.
After last weekend, the notion of managing expectations both in preparation for and during a race. Let me be the first to say that besides last weekend, I am the worst at it. I have for the past decade gone out too hard in all but possibly 4 races. I have maintained a level of fitness for the past few years that is just below the level in which I try to race, and at the least have blown up in 50 races. That’s a fantastic record of failure. In fact, if I were that unsuccessful in anything else, I’d have quit long ago. Alas, I am a glutton for punishment.
So how and why did I pop almost every race. First, if it is a triathlon, my strengths are swim then bike then run. I have led until mile 2 of a sprint and still lost many times. Racing from the front is hard. You feel like you have got to put in all the time you can and get out as far as possible to hold on to the run. Since I have never won a race, suffice to say this tactic has never worked. Inevitably, I blow up. Sometimes to the point of walking 9 miles.
Luckily, I have a running career as well. It is nearly as dismal, but luckily I am not fast enough to even worry about winning anything, so I can languish in my “almost fast” state in peace.
So why do we do this? As adult athletes, most of us are fairly capable of setting sufficient goals that push us outside of our comfort zones. In most cases what I think happens is we start to have a little success and then our eyes get wider. We start to see just outside of our current abilities, begin to see our potential and then push our goals out farther. For me what happened is I mentally jumped two or three levels of “potential” and then did what most do. I assumed I could get there, but didn’t plan or train correctly to get there. This is the crux of the problem for a lot of people. They say “I want to run a 24 min 5k,” but when asked, they usually can’t even tell you what pace that is. In addition, they don’t do any specific workouts at or faster than their race pace and on race day they go 24:19 and wonder why.
Unrealistic expectations are sure to be fulfilled. Go ahead an quote me on that one.
There is a pretty easy way to combat this, that when you read it will likely make you cringe in stupidity and bafflement. Wait for it….wait….A PLAN!!!
Here is a 3 step plan (I love 3 step plans btw) to get you to your next race mentally and physically prepared to meet and exceed your goals.
1. Set a time goal and calculate all your paces per mile. This is the biggest mistake I have made. In my first 70.3 race I got to the run and had to run a 2 hour half marathon to go 5 hours. Too bad I didn’t figure out that that was 9 min pace as I ran 4 sub 7:30 miles and walked ran the remaining 9 miles in 2:06…
2. PLAN-Follow a training plan and mimic the above paces at the correct effort levels. If you want to run 6:30 miles off the bike, then you sure as shit better have run 6:30 miles off the bike in your training. Have a mental plan, have a nutrition plan, have a “What to do when I decide to quit plan.” And then plan a little more.
3. ROLL WITH IT ON RACE DAY AND STICK TO YOUR PLAN. Shit happens, your plan can go awry, it can be windy, you can get a blister on your taint, you can get kicked in the face and numerous other things can happen to bust your groove. After something goes awry, it is easy to try and make up that time lost immediately. Instead, slow down, think about your plan and stick to it.
D. Yes I said I like 3 step plans, but this one is muy importante. Don’t go out to fast. There is no better feeling in the world then running your last mile fastest. I have done this once and it was like I was smart for one mile in my life. No race is won in mile one, but 100’s are lost (you can also quote that one on fb).
So maybe the title for this post is a little off, but it felt right and since it’s my blog, I’m sticking with it.
Go ahead and start setting those goals and get your plan rolling, it’s race season.
patrick fellows 
