Follow the Method, Run Tall Run Easy

Luke with a legend !~

My oldest son Luke with an Olympic legend, Carl Lewis, summer 2009 at the track in Ocean, NJ...

Monday Monday

Monday is my off day from running. Today I will strength train (Heavy day) with Russian Kettle bells.

     I had a lovely time at the movies today with Luke and Sam. This was Sam’s maiden voyage to a major movie theater. We had a great time seeing Tooth Fairy with Dwayne Johnson. It was a perfect movie to see on a cold, windy winter’s day when the boys are on vacation.

 Have a great day one and all… g’nite dad, I miss you !~ 

Easy like a Sunday morning !~

 Excellent and very challenging Kettle bell workout last night.

  Roads still very difficult where we are and whilst I prefer to run in hills in preparation for Boston, my instincts were that the only possible place to run outside today without driving a long way north was Ocean Ave. in Spring Lake and Belmar. I set out at 9.30am to drive over there. I wanted to be home by 11am to watch my beloved Chelsea in a huge game versus Arsenal (which they won 2-0) !!  I arrived in SL to find my theory quite accurate. I set about a run in 25 degree temps with a 10-14mph wind from the NW which I had in my face in the first half. I was bundled up pretty well and did not feel the cold too badly and the bright sunshine helped. The road the further north I got towards Avon became better and better. I had a beanie and full face ski mask on. I went north for 3.5 miles in 26.07 (7.28 pace) and returned back to the start in a surprisingly good rhythm given the cold, 22.57 (6.33pace) – this does not tell the whole story as I did not bring it under 7 min pace until probably 2 miles to go so the last mile and a half or so were fairly swift. I was very happy to salvage such a good run on a day when I was not even sure I would run at all. It may not be the 13 that was on the schedule but it keeps the engines ticking over. It will be light calisthenics later before the Super Bowl !

  Have a great day one and all… g’nite dad, I miss you !~

Saturday Dr. Zhivago !~

Wow, did we get hit with the second doozy of a snow storm here in southern Monmouth County this winter. It wiped out any chance of track which is a shame but for all bad there is equivalent good. In this case, it meant Kathleen did not have to go to work and the boys were home and we all had a little sleep in, breakfast together which is rare. I even had coffee in bed before breakfast today- luxury for me ! and rare ! last night I cautiously planned to go to the indoor track at Monmouth Univ. this morning but driving was too hazardous so I bailed.

    After brekky I did more schedules for our UPS racing team followed by taxes, so I am super happy that is out of the way.

     I shoveled some with Kathleen outside and the boys are having a blast outside with the other kids from the hood in the snow…. I went heavy kettle bells yesterday so I am about to go light today and make it more of a cardio strength workout.

     We had a great time with pizza and a movie last night and ‘ This is It’ is incredible. Whether one is a fan of Michael Jackson and his music or not, one cannot fail to be impressed by his commitment to detail, his professionalism, his amazing talent and his ability to remain humble under pressure. Something I can learn, as can we all.

           A relaxing night at home on tap with my family and then we wil see if I can manage a scheduled long run tomorrow.

             G’night all, enjoy the Super Bowl tomorrow. I am looking forward to it and I will be rooting for the City of New Orleans but have great respect for Payton Manning and the Colts program. Before that game I will be rooting for Chelsea in their London derby against Arsenal live on FSC at 11am est…

            G’nite, Dad, I miss you !~

Rip it !~

    From the Catskills to the Cotswolds, from the Sudan to Siberia, from Scotland to Singapore, people around the world lace up their running shoes and head out the door. Running is the anytime, anyplace no nonsense, no need for excessive equipment sport that is one for all and all for one ~~

      In this techno age enviroment that we now live (and for the most part appreciate the comforts and luxuries that this technology affords us) it is still gratifying to know that in running, a pair of shorts, t shirt, socks and shoes and we are on our way..... roads, tracks, trails or a combination thereof and we are good to go.....

       Now many of you know that I love to surf and there was once  a time that I would have said that no other element would have provided me the spiritual satisfaction that running provides (well nothing with my clothes on) but now I have to qualify that statement as surfing and connecting as one with the force of nature that waves and swells  provide also has its own unique sense of spirituality. However running is also unique to me in its primal sense of movement- the need for human locomotion with no other equipment or element to move us except the force of our own strength generated against Mother Earth. On that cool misty night where the air is rich and the oxygen thick and absorbable, where attention and awareness to our own rhythm and beat of the night excites us to the point where we give ourself goosebumps as we see that finish line approaching in that imagined state of mind, a fantasy of reality; perhaps a previous experience. I have finished the marathon of Napa 1998 in my head hundreds of times in my mind, perhaps my most satisfying race, I have relived the moment over and over again like rewinding a movie and it never fails to live up to the joy that it gave me at the time it was happening- or perhaps a run in the cool dawn as the sunrises over the ocean or the mountains with the only sound the sound of your own heartbeat and the closest visible thing to you is the vapor of your own breath....simply magical...... no equipment required (perhaps an IPOD) -in fact outside of the optional IPOD there is entirely too much equipment used by people these days- people beeping and squeaking all along the road with this latest gadget or that latest gadget.... that is just my opinion but I cannot be a hypocrite because the law of running says that you can do as you please- it is your world to explore and your life to lead, so beep and squeak away with a GPS or Distance pod or fifteen water bottles splish splashing there way down the road snuggly tied to your back. We are told what to do too much in this life, by this product to help you sleep, this product to help you gain weight, this product to help you lose weight, this one to improve your sex life or whatever other non sensical gizmo they are trying to shove down your throat- I say go run a hard 5 miles and have the libido of your own Casanova baby, pull back into your house after a good track workout like freakin' James Bond  ~!  products be damned- who needs 'em?Not me. I am the simple elitist purest runner, whose only concession to technology has been to the almighty Ipod, a gizmo that would make my old coach Brock cringe at the very thought of it..... Hey, I said pure, not perfect !   it is still the simple element to me to match up the sweet melodic sound of your fave song to the sunrise, sunset or midday sun experienced by only the hardy, foolish or Mad Dogs and Englishmen !   I like the Penguin but to heck with that approach, run easy when it is time to run easy and run hard as a Greyhound when it is time to grip it and rip it !  Race to the Rocking Chair and run free as the night- its the only way to rock and roll..... its your choice- a lifestyle that you and I can identify with each other- it is what I am - who I need to be and what I crave to always remain, a free spirited elitist for the sound of my own feet making the drumbeat on the earth with the strength and force of the Bagpipers of the Black Watch paving their way through the night to higher ground. Running my friends and athletes is time immortal - no health club fad, here today and gone tomorrow- it is a sport I inherited and a sport that I hold dear to my heart and one that I will pass on to my children and my children's children.

               ......So through rain and wind and shine, lace 'em up and get out that door and run free and run pure !

                               Coach GP......................Dare to Fail !

The calm before the storm !!

Overcast, about to snow- no wind at all – temp mid 30’s….. calm as calm can be and almost perfect for an easy distance run.

 Ran from home down to the beach, along the boardwalk in Manasquan and then up Main st into town and then across the Brielle hills dropping down into Brielle, clipping along at 7 min pace- covered about 8.5 miles in the hour. Finished at my boys school where I picked them up and walked home with them which was great.

    I felt great on the run. Especially pleased after the beating I took this morning at UPS for four plus hours. What a workout !!!!  speaking of workouts- I had a good kettle bells session last night and will do some more strength work later today..

     There is a ‘storm a coming’ – perhaps a foot of snow so track is cancelled for the morning but I hope to work out indoors at the Monmouth University track.

     Our family is all so busy during the week so Friday night is family night. Kathleen makes pizza and we watch a movie together. Tonight we are watching ‘This is It’ The Michael Jackson movie which Kathleen and the kids have seen and love….

       G’night all – G’nite dad, I miss you !~

Thursday progression run !~

    The course:

Today I went back to the senior circuit.

Today’s conditions.

 Temps in the high 30’s but with a steady fresh 15mph wind out of the west it felt harsher. A west wind sets up badly on this course.

The agenda.

     As per last Thursday, today was not a tempo run. For a tempo run on the 10k course, I do a two mile warm up including strides as I would for a track workout.  Today was just a light progressive run, from marathon type effort down to threshold. As per last week I wanted it to be a quality, controlled and somewhat relaxing and smooth progressive run. I started out from my house heading west into the wind. The conditions seemed ok but chilly for sure but sunny. I wore ‘Ronun’ flats, tights and Under Armor ¾ sleeve stretch shirt and a high tech Mizuno long sleeve shirt over the top. After about 3-4 minutes I arrived at the course and started the 1^st 1k into the first hill and into the teeth of the wind just like last week .I felt ok in the first mile, actually better than last week but was slower in  7.08 caompared to 6.05 last week… I was relaxed but not swift at mile two in 6.48.29  compared to last week’s 6.47.48. I felt ok and relaxed but did not have the turnover of last time out and hit mile three in 6.43.61 to last week’s 6.36 and now it was time for the 4^th and toughest mile. I arrived at mile four with a  6.40.27 to 6.34 last time ( this was my most satisfying mile of the day) and feeling pretty good at this point- mile five in 6.25.70 to the previous 6.17, then mile six which is mostly up hill for the first 1200 meters and bang into a strong wind was achieved in a very satisfactory 6.32.00 to last week’s 6.18. The total time for the 10k including the last .2 was 41.28 to last week’s 40.47…

    Here is the lesson for you young athletes !

    It was about engendering the adaptaton. It was about recreating the effort of last week which was spot on… I just did not have the turnover of last week (although the fitness is there) but I did not force the issue. I could have got frustrated and upped the pace to match or surpass last week but this would have increased the effort on the day to tempo level and that was not the plan. The plan was light progression working down to lower end of threshold. It is about keeping control of the ego- I achieved the goal and matched the light progressive effort of last week without straining, it was just that the effort yielded a slightly slower turnover today. That is why I put the comparative splts in so that you can see the comparison between today and last Thursday !~ All in all it was a very good run and just part of the developing process !!

  Time to hit Russian Kettle bells now and then get to sleep for a 3.30am wake up call for my work at UPS….

G’night all – G’nite dad, I miss you !~

Wednesday run

A nice relaxing run. At my age of 46 I
  typically take two days off from training after a run of longer than 20 miles such as the 21 miler I did in Miami on Sunday. Back at home today it was 40 degrees, light west breeze, pleasant running weather and after a mile or so I found a nice relaxing groove to get back in the swing of things. I enjoy my Wednesday runs on my local challenging 10k course in Brielle while my sons take yoga. The days are getting noticeably longer each week :) Today I just ran sections of the course.A night with my sons ahead and then a 4am start at UPS ~

GP with Ryan Hall Part 2

Remember this is just video from my FLIP video camera of the actual interview footage being shot by Comcast - when you see me look down at my notes that is not actually seen on the TV as the film crew is close up on Ryan at that point and then pan out when I ask a question - obviously the sound quality on their production compared to mine is flawless. One of the producers was kind enough to get some footage for me with my camera so I could show my family and friends. You can see the camera filming but you cannot see the big crowd that gathered to watch the interview that are being held back behind the camera.

GP with running Rock Star Ryan Hall part 1

ING Miami marathon weekend 2010

ING Miami marathon 2010

 Well where to start?  What a weekend.

  I arrived in South Florida on Friday afternoon at 5pm. I arrived to the Intercontinental hotel at 6pm and immediately set about changing, stretching and going for a run on a lovely warm 75 degree Friday evening with the town a buzz with the race weekend, the Pro Bowl, the upcoming Super Bowl, a Miami Heat game in town and also the theaters, restaurants and cruise ship passengers. I ran out by the cruise ships in Miami Bay and had a wonderful five miles.  Then shower, stretch and off to Camillas for my annual sojourn to my favorite Brazilian restaurant to meet with my friend and elite athlete coordinator Miguel Dias..

     The Hotel is also the hotel where the New Orleans Saints were going to be staying so the hotel was a buzz with anticipation and there was Saints memorablia everywhere.

     Early night and up Saturday morning for a 5.30am TV call for the 5k which finishes at legendary Nikki Beach. I did pre race interviews, especially amazing was an interview with Desmond, a graduate of the CPHI (Community Partnership for the Homeless). Desmond was in the military but after returning from tours of duty, he fell on hard times and was devastated by the loss of his Mother and  his life spiraled out of control.

He spent the next ten years homeless in Miami before finding help through CPHI and now, Desmond speaks to groups to help them, attended school and has actually now applied to Harvard Law School…. Amazing !  it was a great TV interview….  Then on the beach  I  interviewed many finishers including Elva Dryer of 2004/2008 USA Olympic track fame. A super lady and more on Elva later..

    It was then I had a moment of inspiration… more on this later…

      I then left Nikki Beachwith the TV crew to go to the expo where I prepared for what would be a packed house for my lecture in the middle of the expo at the ING lounge.  ING came up to me and said their techs would be doing live FaceBook and Twitter updates about my lecture while it was happening.www.facebook.com/ingrunnersnation & www.twitter.com/ingrunnernation    After my lecture I was interviewed on camera by ING themselves…   then it was back to my TV duties where I had to interview Ann Glover ING’s Marketing Director for the Americas about the company’s sponsorship of the race.

      Then, perhaps the highlight of the weekend….

      On TV ( and while a good size crowd gathered including John Brodsky and Laura Demeo, two friends of mine from NJ) I was to interview USA running sensation, Ryan Hall. I was to ask him questions about his running and his involvment with Nissan and their Masterhift program http://www.mastertheshift.com/  .

     I also spoke to Ryan  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Hall_(runner)) about his and his wife Sara’s ‘Follow The Steps’ charitable program that includes providing aid and relief to Haiti earthquake victims.

   I will post some video of this.  It is not that great quality but it was shot with my Flip video camera whilst we were being filmed by the television crew.

   I will post some other videos of the weekend too.

    Later that evening I was off to the elite athlete technical meeting followed by the dinner. I was joined at dinner by Ronnie Holassie my great friend and two time Olympic marathoner that lives in Florida. He just won the marathon for Palm Beaches in December and is looking to defend his 2009 at the Gasparilla marathon later this month.

   Earlier in the day I chatted with professional US runner Matt Downin about Team Strands that had a huge presence this year at the event.  www.Strands.com

    It is a very cool training log site and techno virtual clubhouse where all kinds of training and fun information can be exchanged. Visit and/or join our new group there Stingersworldwide . I will keep a training log there and you can also visit to see my various race PR’s.

      I had dinner Saturday evening with a number of the Strands runners including Michael Ash, Josh Moen, Meghan Armstrong and Elva Dryer. I was also with Jaime Calzada, Alana Vinitskaya, Gabriel  Rodriguez and Michael Wardian.  I really enjoyed meeting Meghan who was a 2008 Olympic trialist in the 5000 and a definite contender for the 2012 Olympic team and also Elva Dryer, a two time US Olympian  (2000 – 5000m – 2004 -10,000 and lives with her husband  Russ and five cats near Boulder Co. Elva is a character and everyone therewas extremely gracious, enthusiatic, fresh and full of positive life and energy.  After dinner I visited with Ronnie his wife Dee Dee and their delightful two year old son Jeremiah (who can run like his dad) and then it was to bed for an early night and also with Miguel.

    At 4.30 am Sunday I met my TV broadcast partner Dave Ragsdale for what would be our 8^th year together. Humid and warm temps met the runners and I will post some video later.

      A great time covering the event and doing post race interviews. Meghan won the half marathon in sub 1.17 effected by the heat. Two weeks ago she ran 1.13 in Houston.  After the race we all ate like champs in the ING Vip Tent and then cheered the children on who were completing their final mile of the ING Run for Something Better program  http://www.orangelaces.com/

     After all was said and done, it was back to the hotel stretch and out the door for a 21 mile run over the Venetian Causeway from downtown to Miami Beach where the place was especially vibrant with all kinds of holiday makers and of course Super Bowl stuff everyhwere. Temps in low 70’s, windy at times and breezy at others- it was awesome… I had a really strong run with no problems and a good confidence builder for Boston.

     Later that night my friend Dane Rauschenberg of 52 marathons in 52 weekends fame and author of the great book about his incredible story ‘See Dane Run’ , Ronnie and I went to the ING Miami marathon post race party at the Hard Rock Café downtown Miami and had a blast.

         The next morning I grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and the Saints were in town and all was very exciting. I caught a ride to the airport with Ben Nemser and Steve Mendleson. Steve is in charge of security communications   for the NY marathon, the NY Jets and the ING Miami marathon. Last week he was on the sideline in Indy during the Jets/Colts game.

    So I mentioned my moment of inspiration…

   Years ago I was urged and encouraged by my athletes, especially the Iron Maidens  to write a book.  As you all know, it eventually happened. I have been asked for a few years to turn the book into a DVD.  I would like to but have been at a loss as to who should or could film it.  It hit me in Miami… the same TV production company that I have worked with since 2003 at the Miami marathon. I broached the subject and they loved the idea….  We are working on the concept and on all the logistics but I can tell you that the Run Tall Run Easy DVD will be shot in Miami late 2010 or early 2011. I am absolutely thrilled !