My Intersection with Alberto Salazar

As most of you know I spent 12 years working at Road Runner Sports. During that time I was afforded the opportunity to build good relationships with many in the running and running shoe world. One of those relationships was with a running hero of mine, Alberto Salazar. The first time I met him he came to RRS for a Nike event with our very large sales staff. I was asked to give him a tour of our facility which was one of my favorite things to do. He was a regular customer of ours and it was fun to show him where his packages were put together. He bought some training/recovery things from us that Nike didn’t make or that he couldn’t buy in Portland.

Not long after that we took a trip to Portland to visit the Nike Campus. It was his time to give us a tour. We spent the day with Nike product team and either before or after dinner we drove out to the Altitude house. By this time Alberto was starting to have some success coaching runners. Through was is today the NOP (Nike Oregon Project) he bought a house. He had each bedroom in the house set a different altitudes. He prescribed for his athletes which altitude they should be sleeping in. The idea was the well known method of sleep high, train low. An athlete slept anywhere from 5,000 feet elevation to 10,000 feet elevation. These were not altitude tents these were completely sealed rooms.

As we walked into the kitchen we saw a runner running on a treadmill that was submerged in the pool in the back yard. Alberto walked us out and introduced us to Galen Rupp who was I believe a Junior in High School at the time. Galen was dealing with an injury and was just coming back to running. The treadmill in the pool took the pounding away. Galen was running 12 miles that night. After his run we spent a good while talking to Galen in the kitchen.

These three stories tell us quite a bit of what we are hearing today. The purchases from RRS were for his athletes to help them recover from the training. The altitude house was created because the competition was living in Eldoret, Kenya situated at 5,000 feet above sea level. The treadmill in the pool was the precursor to the treadmills today that suspend you so that maybe you are running with only 50% of your body weight at foot impact. Alberto from day 1 was constantly looking for that edge that let his runners recover better so they could push harder during training. It’s fairly simple to understand.

There is a story from today where one of the doping agencies is quoted saying “no coach in our history has ever called us so much to make sure he was doing things legally”. That very fine edge of just being on the right side of the doping line. At some point during all of this according to the recent ban, Albert crossed the line and went from the right side to the wrong side. It’s a really sad tale for the sport of running. It’s a story we’ve seen too much. Some success breeds the need for more success. The IAAF (Track and Field) and the UCI (Cycling)  are full of these stories.

This is not over. The fall out of this one event this past week will go on for years. Mo Farah and Galen Rupp went 1-2 in the Olympic 10,000 in London. They were training partners working with Alberto. This week at the World Championships Sifan Hassan set the track on fire. On day one she won the 10,000 covering the last 1500 meters in under 4 minutes. To put that into perspective only 9 women this year had run the 1500 in under 4 minutes. Then this past Saturday after two qualifying rounds of the 1500 Hassan pulled 8 runners under 4 minutes. She won the 1500 in an astonishing 3:51.95. The 10,000/1500 double is unthinkable. The two races are completely different disciplines and then there are the qualifying rounds of the 1500 to deal with. That’s 4 races in less than a week. On the surface we should celebrate the greatness but Hassan is part of the NOP. There is a forever could over her double this week.

This is just another reason to respect performance but not worship. I met my running hero only to be disappointed. I once road bikes and had dinner with Lance. At the time he was a brash, gifted athlete on his first continental cycling team. He was just a guy. Many in the world hero worshiped him and look how that ended.

Big Weekend
I wrote my wife’s training program on a single sheet of paper. She signed up for the Marine Corps 50K which takes place at the end of October as part of the Marine Corps Marathon. In August she burned her foot really badly while she was off volunteering in Lebanon. She had to take a great deal of time off running. Her only request was to have at least one run that was 4 hours. She wanted the confidence. I built her plan to load up running on the weekends. Last weekend she had a 1 hour run on Friday, a 1 1/2 hour run on Saturday and 4 Hours on Sunday. She killed it. She ran 22 miles on Sunday in that 4 hours. She’s still nervous about making the cut off. Oh the coach-athlete relationship.

It’s a good life.....

Nike Vapor Fly 4% Flyknit and Next %

What a week in endurance sports. It’s championship season and the athletes are putting on a show. The cycling world championships did not disappoint and the track and field world championships are just getting started. The best thing all week was Sunday in the Berlin Marathon.

Keneisa Bekele is the most dominant runner we have ever seen. 11 times he won the World Cross Country Championship. He still holds the World Record for the 50000 and 10000 on the track. The one place where he struggled if you can call it that is the marathon. He had run very fast and won a few races but he ran into the greatest marathoner we’ve ever seen in Kipchoge and it affected his running. He changed all of that in one race on Sunday. Nobody expected a world record type day. Kipchoge wasn’t racing and nobody in the field was close to 2:02 on paper. The opening stages of the marathon proved that out. At 25K into the race Bekele and Berhanu Legese were on 2:02 pace not world record pace. Things changed from there. Legese ran 14:09 between 30 and 35K putting a gap on Bekele. Bekele ran 14:20 for that same 5K which was his fastest of the race but put him behind. Bekele wasn’t done, he ran 14:15 from 35 to 40k passing Legese and all of the sudden he was on world record pace. It was a beautiful thing to watch, 2:01:41! Two seconds off the World Record. Watch it below.

The women’s race was something special too! It came down to a sprint through the Brandenburg Gate but the camera work was terrible. Ashete Bekere won in 2:20:14, Mare Dibaba was second in 2:20:21.

As I said, the cycling world championships were simply fun to watch. Team USA shined the entire week. You can read all about them at www.velonews.com. The conditions on Sunday for the professional men were down right extreme. Cold rain might be the worst conditions to ride a bike in. By the end of the race there were only 20 or so who actually finished. If you aren't going to win and you don't have a teammate who might win there is no point suffering in those conditions.

My Weekend
I raced twice this weekend.

Race #1 - Crazy 8's 5K
The race was held in the park where a young runner named Chelsea King was abducted, raped and killed. A week or 2 after that happened 3,000 people showed up to finish Chelsea's run. It had been almost 10 years since that day and almost 10 years since I had been back in that park. I had to catch my breath as I started my warm up.
This was the 3rd cross country race for me this year. The first 2 were solid but I was finishing behind people I thought I should be able to beat. Saturday the race came together well for me and I finished ahead of everyone I thought I should. I wore the Reebok Float Ride Fast a shoe built with a Pbax midsole with a really good outsole on grass and hard pack sand. The shoes worked great.

Race #2 - Mission Bay Triathlon
My first and only triathlon for the year. I chose the sprint distance which was a 500m swim, 17K bike and 5K run. The swim felt comfortable. I swam hard and my swim fitness responded. Coming out of the water I realized I had forgotten how tough that parking lot is. My feet were not liking the surface. The race is such that you have to leave transition in the morning by 6:30. My race didn't start until 8:10. I run up to my bike surprised that someone has set their bike on top of all my stuff and set up his towel and shoes in front of his bike and mine. I got my wetsuit off easy put my helmet on and started wheeling my bike out. Oops, forgot my shoes were not attached to the pedals. Back to the rack put shoes on then wheeled my bike out. It took me about a minute to catch my breath on the bike but then I found a rhythm. I passed some guys in my age group and some guys passed me. The bike was over before I knew it. Off the bike barefoot my feet were still hurting from the first transition. They liked the second even worse. Get to my running shoes and the guy has thrown his wetsuit over my shoes. Whatever, I struggle to put my shoes on but finally get them on. The run is on concreate the entire way. I thought after my hard race the day before this one would hurt. It didn't, in fact it felt great. I was flying and passing lot's of athletes. I think I passed 4 in my age group. I finished 40th overall and 4th in my age group. A good solid hour of racing. The reason why my legs didn't hurt is the Nike Vapor Fly 4%. It has the same midsole material as the Reebok with the carbon plate in the forefoot added in. It's the shoe that Bekele used in Berlin. I felt at the finish that I could keep going at the same pace I was running. It's not that I didn't push hard enough because I was pushing the run hard. It's simply that my legs didn't hurt.

I knew that about the Nike shoes. Most runners say this about the shoe "I don't know if I am running faster in the shoes but I know I'm not beat up like I would be". I had done one run in the Vapor Fly's. I didn't feel it then buy I do today. My legs do not hurt!

Hiking in Place of Running

On December 1st this year I’m signed up for an end of the year 50K trail race. On Friday I did one of my key workouts leading up to the race. I’m not “training” for the 50K I am simply preparing my body to have a good day. So, Friday a friend and I drove out to our local mountains and did a 5 hour hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. It was all done between 4,500 and 5,000 feet of elevation. The goal was simply to put time on the feet. We were home by 12:30 in the afternoon and in general I felt really good. Nothing was aching, I wasn’t starving and I think I did the hydration correctly.

On Sunday we ran on our local trails. The goal was to find as many hills as we could to run up and down. My biggest issue in the 50K will be the down hills. They will beat me up. Right now I’m working on building some resilience in my legs by running down hill. Our run covered 9 miles and we climbed and descended 1,l00 feet on really soft wood chip trails. We had 3 climbs just over 10 minutes in length and a bunch of shorter ones. The run felt outstanding and gave me really good confidence from the hike on Friday. 90 minutes of running doesn’t seem too long after 5 hours on the feet two days before. 

Looking forward the next couple weeks from a sport perspective. This week are the UCI Cycling World Championships from Yorkshire, England. Next week it’s the IAAF Track and Field World Championships from Doha. 3 Weeks from now is the Ironman World Championship and the Chicago Marathon. 

The hype leading in the the Ironman World Championships is growing. Probably the biggest event leading into this year happened on Saturday. Cam Wurf destroyed the field at Ironman Italy. The most glaring figure is his 2:45 marathon. His task is quite simple in Kona. Swim well, ride to the front by Hawi and then ride away on the way back. . Finally he needs to run strong from the start. He doesn’t have to run 2:45 but it wouldn’t hurt to run 2:45 for a really long time putting pressure on every body behind him. One thing for sure the conditions won’t be overcast,windless and cool like last year. The windier it is the more it favors the really strong cyclists which should be good for Cam.