"Boston's Running Coach"

Ugh…are you injured again?  Just when you got over your shin splints; now your knee cant bend on an easy run.

We have all had that feeling. When we run a lot of miles and we combine that with the “sitting society” and we get injured.  (Sitting in chairs doesn’t help develop the muscles that will help you run).

I love how desperate when people get injured. They go out and buy those shoes with “the toes”. Haha.

What to do? How do we get back out there?

Here are a few tips on avoiding injuries.
#1- Progress your training slowly. I have a group of architects and all of them are different in their fitness history. But all of them are progressing slowly. We spend a number of weeks doing the same thing. some are doing 12 minutes of running with 1 minute of walking. They only progress to the next level after experiencing the run as “easy”.

#2- Go to the physical therapist before you get injured. Does anyone remember the Head & Shoulders commercial. “Why do you use Head & Shoulders, you don’t have dandruff?” “Exactly.”
Preventative work with stretching and strengthening muscles that are weak is important. A physical therapist can help identify muscle that need to be tightened or loosened.

#3- When you feel pain…STOP! Take a day of rest. Do something to repair your little pain before it becomes a big pain. There is nothing wrong with taking a week of rest when your goal is 4 months away.  As long as you get back out there.

I hope this quick advice will help you get less injured and get running!

Ok, let me preface this with some disclaimers. This may be controversial and you may disagree with me. But I am right, so until you dedicate your training to what I have learned you cannot disagree with me. Well, you can disagree but I won’t listen.
Marathon training comes down to four simple steps.
#1- Endurance. Almost everyone agrees that you need to run long to train for the marathon. Its tough to train with anything under 55 miles per week. Long runs need to be long. So if you do not have a good handle on endurance/long runs then you should not read any further. No need for speed if you can’t cover the distance.
#2- Runner efficiency. Now that you run long, I want you to run right. I feel like the only way to train running right is to do strides. This is the true speed work. Strides are an over exaggeration of your stride for 50m-200m. This effort is at 80%. So easy, short, overdone strides. I like to go from 5 of them to 10, to 15, up to 30. Doing strides will help anyone run more efficiently and encourage quicker feet, higher knee, and fast turnover. Do Strides!!!
#3 Long Intervals or tempo runs. If you can start to work with two paces: your marathon pace and your half marathon pace. I like to bounce from one to the other in workouts. I think anyone who is doing 10k pace or 5k pace for marathon workouts is wasting their time. A good 10 mile tempo run at half marathon pace will kick your butt and give you all the speed you need for your marathon.
#4 Strength work thru hills and body-weight exercises.  8 X 30s hills will help. Easy paced hill runs for 3 mins or rolling hills on an easy run will really help strength. If you have no hills, then do squats, lunges, and hip strengthening exercises to gain the strength you need. If you do a boot camp for marathon training: WASTE OF TIME.

Above is your speed work. Marathoners should be wary of training plans where you do 400′s hard or if you sprint at 100% effort. Some people may ask why I would even mention that. It’s because people are coming to me with these crazy workouts. I haven’t seen one of these magic workouts have any success.

Follow these 4 steps and you will run a faster marathon. I promise.

Here are some brief thoughts:

My clients are struggling right now because they are not doing the little things. It is naive to think that you can run 20 miles and not come into some trouble with your body. Lack of stretching can lead to some lingering pains that can lead to major injury. Tight hamstrings can lead lead to lower back issues. Please stretch. Take the time or do it while waiting in line at the customer service department of Kohl’s. That is what I did. It really passed the time and many people were freaked out by me.

I have had two clients fall on ice/mud pile in the last week. Falling is pretty common. Runners do not have good lateral support and tend to “zone out” when on long runs. Falls occur and when you are not alert, tired, and off balance. Keep yourself stimulated by hopping up onto sidewalks every once-in-a-while. I like bouncing around from different levels and terrain. It keeps me awake.

Good luck out there and email me with any questions. I have a couple of groups requesting to meet me. I am open to most groups as long as they are flexible and motivated. Happy New Year.

Hey Hog Joggers,

It was another wonderful summer day for the 2nd Annual Hog Jog in Sandwich, MA.  I was out-of-shape last year and my results proved it.  So I was eager to run this year to see my progress.  My one-month old son completed his first 5k (being pushed by mom).  Fun times.

"Boy am I tired."

I hydrated all day expecting the humid air of August.  Hydrating did nothing.  It was hot and there was no way around it.  As we drove down, I drank a Gatorade 01 series.  This was supposed to help me.  Not sure if it did.  When I arrived, I registered and then ran for 15 minutes and then did 4 strides prior to the start.  Unfortunately, I timed it wrong and was taking off my shirt as the gun/horn sounded.  I was in catch-up mode from the beginning.  I have to admit that I never felt comfortable in this race.  I had the Jello-leg syndrome.  I think it has a lot to do with the lack of training at this pace.  Bad news from the beginning.

Mentally, I was also beaten from the beginning.  I had lots of negative thoughts and could never break free from it.  Mile 2 was where I was feeling the worst.  Going into the last mile I set myself up for a boost with sprint to the finish.  I never finish a race weak. Always strong no matter what.

I finished 40 seconds faster than last year.  I had to feel pretty good about that.  My hope is to build my fitness up throughout the year and continue to beat my time year-by-year.

Post-race, was not great.  My left calf and both Achilles are sore and tight in a bad way.  I got to figure out how that can better.

Congrats to all finishers and here are some pics from the great day.

"Where's john?"

Last summer, I ran the first ever Hog Jog in Sandwich, MA see my blogpost about last year HERE.  It was a rough day because I was very out-of-shape.

This year is a different story.  I am in better shape after having an active year of racing and running.  The only thing holding me back is my lack of sleep from long nights staying up with my son Luke.  He is 5 weeks old and very unpredictable.  So my recovery has been up and down.

My goals for this race are more specific than last year.  I would like to break 19:47.  I would like to maintain a 6:30 pace throughout but more importantly I would like to push my heart rate to 180 bpm.  Normally, I stay around 171 bpm and it is very uncomfortable but I wimp out a little.  So this will be a good test.

The race will hard no doubt especially because I have not trained specifically for the 5k.  My body does not know 630 pace because all of my training runs have been significantly slower pace.  So it is a little unfair for me to ask my body to perform at a high level and a t a pace that I have not prepared for adequately.
Anyway, I will give you an update tonite when I return.  The race starts at 6:00pm in Sandwich, MA.

I became a dad for the first time three weeks ago.  People keep asking me how it feels to be a dad.  Well, I have a newborn so not much has changed and not much is required of me other than holding a bottle and changing several thousand diapers.  Most of my dad behavior has come in the form of dreaming of a successful future for my son.  A lot of my statements begin with “I can’t wait until…”

Then there is the whole subject matter around sounding like my parents.  Yikes.  I do not want to sound like my parents.  “What am I, made of money?”  But as a running coach, I already have been sounding like a parent.  My favorite line recently is: your workout is not complete until you eat.

Eating is tough for people.  People eat when they are hungry. People eat when they are said.  People don’t eat when they are nervous or when they are trying to lose weight.  Runners typically do not like to eat because they connect a line from eating to gaining weight to running slower.  This is a major problem and the reason why I say: your workout is not complete until you eat.

Have you ever played a video game where the character you are controlling has a finite amount of energy?  This amount of energy decreases of the course of the game and you either complete the level, find something that adds energy or die.  I want my runners to act like these video game characters.

Every human has a finite number of energy and we need to re-fuel after we have used that energy.  To breathe we use calories that would equal 10 times your body weight.  If you workout, you are going to have to consume a lot more to regain the energy lost from that workout.  Not to mention, your body is SCREAMING for food and nutrients immediately after a workout.

My job as a running coach is to change your mindset around a workout.  In many cases people just put on shorts and a t-shirt and go for a run.  I am trying to train people to think of hydrating and eating as a part of that run not just an add-on.  Unfortunately, I have to admit that Gatorade has done a great marketing job with this “3 series”.  They have three drinks you should use during the course of a workout.  #1 is used prior to working out, #2 is during the activity, and #3 is after the workout.  I love this and it highlights the importance of consuming as much as possible around the workout.  It is called “nutrient timing”.  It’s not what you eat it is when you eat it.

So when you workout be mindful of your body’s need to gain some input after some hard output of energy during the workout.  The more input of energy you can give your body the better you will recover and grow from the activity.  Good luck and remember, you are what you eat!

——

Dan Flynn is a personal running coach in Boston who trains a variety of different types of runners.  Beginners to people qualifying for the Boston Marathon, Flynn has been successful coaching the NCAA athlete to the stay-at-home dad to the young professional woman.  His success stems from building relationships with his runners and coaching them individually rather than handing out a generic plan.  Find Coach Flynn on www.flynnrunning.com; www.facebook.com/flynnrunnning; or www.twitter.com/flynnrunning.

Exercising is never easy.  It is hard, for most of us, to motivate ourselves to workout at the gym or go for a run.  It doesn’t make it any easier when the weather is not cooperating.  Lately, it has been warm outside.  Maybe that was an understatement. It has been hotter than the devil’s underwear this summer.

So if the Celtics couldn’t do it, how are we supposed to beat the heat?  I have four simple ways to cool off while we survive this unbearable heat wave.

#1- Hydrate.  I know what you are thinking, “this guy is telling me things I already know.”  I should never tell people to hydrate from H20-town.  I think it is important to start with hydrating but with a twist. The warm weather has caused all of us to sweat.  When we sweat, we release water from our pores to cool the body.  We also release salt.  When we lose salt we lose the ability to retain water.  Hydrating is important but it is also important to ingest salt to replenish electrolytes and help retain the fluid we take in.

#2- Workout in a mall- Have you seen these people?  They go to the mall and speed walk around the air-conditioned complex with a water bottle and a pedometer attached to their waist.  At first glance, I was a little judgmental.   But this week has been so hot that it finally made sense.  Go to the mall and get in power walk before you power shop.

#3- Take more breaks- I have a hard time convincing people to split up their workouts into smaller work bouts.  For example, if you must run for 30 minutes in the afternoon when it is 99 degrees outside take two breaks.  Run for 10 minutes and walk for 2 minutes and repeat.  This is a great way to accumulate 30 minutes of running but give yourself a chance to recover a couple of times.  Believe me, this works and it gives you that energy you need to run for a longer time.

#4- Buy an ice vest- I bet you weren’t expecting that.  Yes, I have said it.  Ice vests are the way to go.  When we get cold, we add layers.  When we get hot there is nothing we can add for relief until now!  I encourage walkers and runners to try out the ice vest and I assure you that you will be the coolest one on the road.

In all seriousness, most of us should use extreme caution when both the temperature and the dew points are high.  This week may be one of those times when we skip the workout and chalk it up to the extreme heat.  Don’t worry before you know it you will be skipping workouts because of a snowstorm.  Stay cool Watertown.

After my recent completion of the 2011 Boston Marathon, I was more impressed with the energy of the day. I did not qualify to get into the race (I received a special number given to me by a friend.) I only have more appreciation for those who did qualify. It makes me think that there are so many talented people running these days but moreover I am impressed with the incredible amount of work that has been put in by the 27,000 individuals.
I am now left with email after email from runners wanting to qualify for the next Boston Marathon. “What should I do?” they ask. Here are the steps to qualifying for Boston.

#1- Go to the Boston Marathon website to check the qualifying times in your age group.  This is always a sobering moment for us runners.  The times are very competitive and hard to actually break.  But with hard work and the right coach…

#2- Wait…I have to run a marathon BEFORE I run the Boston Marathon.  Yes!  You must have a qualifying marathon time from a certified marathon course.  Picking your qualifying marathon race is very important and something that I always go over with my runners.  So where is there a fast marathon course or the easiest course?  The Berlin Marathon is the fastest in the world.  Steamtown Marathon is one of the fastest on US soil.  Locally, people love running the Baystate marathon in Lowell, MA.  The one problem with all three marathons is the time they take place on the calendar.  The BAA changed the date for submitting your qualifying time.  It is now in the middle of September which wipes out a lot of “last minute” marathons.  Okay, so which marathon can i run right before?  That is a tough question because the summer months do not provide alot of options given the heat.  The one I found is on July 29th in Wakefield, MA during the 24 Hour Race.  Either way, picking a marathon is the easy part.  Training for it is a whole other bottle of water.

#3- Find a training plan FOR YOU!  You may notice that I capitalized “FOR YOU”.  I caution people finding a general training plan online and following it.  Ask any of my clients and they would laugh at general training plans because my training plans for my runners change weekly depending on a variety of factors.  How does a general training plan account for sickness, physical exhaustion, funerals, family, or an injury?  It doesn’t help the person who has a setback.  Find me a runner who has not experienced a setback and I will find you an available port-a-john before a race.

#4- Here comes the hardest part.  Follow your training plan and train specifically for your event for at least 5 months, but I would say that it takes three years to fully develop as a marathoner.  But who are we kidding?  No one waits three years to anything anymore.

#5- It is hard to figure out if you have the ability to run the qualifying time.  A good way to start is to find the pace of your marathon time broken down to miles per minute.  For example, my qualifying time for my age is 3 hours and 10 minutes.  I would have to average a 7:16 mile for 26 miles.  Logic would ask, can I run that for one mile?  Go out, right now, and see if you can run your mile pace for the marathon is a great indicator to see if it is even possible.  The classic progression is to maintain the pace for one mile, then a 5k, then a 10k, then for the half-marathon.  It gets tougher as you increase the distance, but I think you knew that.

Good luck on your quest to run in the most prestigious race in the world.  There is so much history, so much energy, and so many drunk college students along the course.  It should be on your bucket list because running down Boylston St. is a joyous and unforgettable feeling.  Crossing the Boston Marathon finish line allows you to say that you are one of the few instead of the many.  Take the opportunity and go for it.