However, I came to DC to race 10 miles as fast as I could. After a first mile in a large group, the Africans surged and I was not able to make the move to stay with.  I was temporarily stuck in no man’s land until I reeled in a former U of Oregon Duck and now Pacer’s Running Team athlete named Chris.  He stayed on my heels for about two miles until I pulled away and then ran the last five miles solo fighting the wind.  I had a goal of beating my coach’s time he ran when he was 40 years old (48:26), and after going through 4 miles in 19:20 I was slightly ahead of pace.  However, the strong wind and nobody to trade off leading into the wind made that time out of reach.  I pressed ahead and kept visualizing myself as being light and cutting through the wind.  At miles 8 you go around a park and head back in the opposite direction.  I rolled the next mile in a smooth 4:45 and had 8th place locked up. Less than five minutes later I crossed the finish line in 49:01, a new personal best time and my first personal best in any race distance since September 2011. Eighth overall and top American at the Cherry Blossom 10 mile in a time of 49:01 is definitely one of my best race results on the roads.  Especially when you consider that I ran 9 of the 10 miles without a group to share the work with, it felt like the hardest tempo run you could do rather than being in a dog-fight in a race.

I cannot thank the organizers, staff, and volunteers at the Cherry Blossom 10 mile enough for having me in the race and the generosity.  The pre-race dinner was outstanding and the post-race brunch was incredible. I hope to come back next year and run faster than Jonesy’s 48:26 from 1995!

I try to leave a message of something to learn from on each one of my blog posts.  This race was a really good example of doing things right.  I had fun during this trip and almost was never in the hotel room.  I was constantly out with other people having conversation, looking around the city, and engaging in the competition!  I see this happen too often where an athlete is stressed out and doesn’t have fun, or occasionally doesn’t make good athletic decisions and winds up tired or poor nutritional choices leave them in the bathroom during the race.  Always remember, racing is the celebration of the hard work you’ve put in during the training.  Enjoy it and simply compete to the best of your abilities.

Well I am off to coach a high school team to new PRs and learning that valuable life lesson that hard work equals success.  Thanks for a wonderful event Washington DC and hope to see you next year!

Best wishes for fast running,

Tyler

However, I’m quite happy with this result!  This was a very deep field and everyone is fit right now.  I put myself in it for as long as I could and ended up falling just short of being in the mix.  The best thing about the race was what I found out about my splits after the race from someone else in the lead pack.  I went 4:40, 4:35, and 4:35 for miles 2, 3, and 4.  I know this is downhill, but it still requires moving my legs that fast!  The Gate River Run course where I have my 15k personal best is an easier course even though it’s less downhill than this course.

This race was also an example of why I love the sport of road racing/long distance running.  I was fortunate to stay with a host family (Thank you Karpens!!) who were beyond generous and very friendly.  I enjoyed every bit of conversation I had with them and the rest of the Bandidos Running Club.  This club organizes the entire race all by volunteers!  In addition to being all volunteers, the club doesn’t even make a profit.  The cost to enter the race is low and they give out $11,000 in prize money, which is the largest in the state of Arizona!  They want to put on a race for runners by runners and did they ever succeed!  They had an excellent  and efficient post-race award ceremony that was one of the most well-attended award ceremonies I have ever been at.  Thank you very much to the Bandidos for organizing a fun event in Phoenix!

The largest fountain in the world! Great view from the award ceremony/finish line in Fountain Hills, AZ.

Another special thing happened over the weekend.  On my flight on Friday I was reading a journal article on Linear Inverse Modeling for my PhD research.  The guy next to me asks what I was reading and we get in a two hour discussion on education and valuable life lessons we had each learned.  It was a wonderful conversation and he gave a lot of great advice.  Most importantly, you need to ask yourself at the end of each day, “what did I do today to better the world.”  At the end we exchanged business cards and he said he would try to come to watch the finish with a buddy he normally gets Sunday coffee with.  As soon as I cross the finish line, there’s Ted waiting for me!  He congratulated me and texted me later in the day with the photo of me racing.  I love traveling and meeting new people, but this was above and beyond one of the most special new friends I’ve met.  He started the company, Thermo Fluids that is a responsible solution for recycling used oil.  Not only is Ted a phenomenal person, but he’s literally making the world a better place.  Thank you Ted for inspiring me to better the world each and every day.

Time to fly back to Colorado.  Tomorrow I have an early morning workout, then a kick-off meeting for a big project that my PhD work is involved in, followed by high school practice and then helping to host a seminar at Centaurus High School where Frank Shorter is going to speak to students about running and healthy habits.  I’m doing my best to make the world a better place and hope you are to!

-Tyler

Monday: 5 miles with 30 fast pick-ups, PM 8 miles

Tuesday: 5xMile on the treadmill in 5:00 with 2 min recovery, PM 2nd run

Wednesday: 12 miles on treadmill @ 6:05/mi @ 6100ft

Thursday: Fast tempo run in AM, PM 2nd run

Friday: 10 in 6:30/mi.  Easiest day of week.

Saturday: AM Hill repeats, PM 2nd run

Sunday: 2 hour long run

It’s great to write down in my athleticore.com training log how great I’m feeling, how fast the workouts were, brag on here about my workouts, and pat myself on the back for a job well done.  However, I’m not going to fall back into the habit of my training log being more important than racing.  I forget who said it, but the quote is “nobody ever won the olive wreath with an impressive training diary.”  This week I backed off and I feel good.  I’m ready to run hard and fast tomorrow in the Mountain to Fountain 15k in Phoenix, Arizona.  How fast do I want to run?  Well I want to run a personal best!  I haven’t run a personal best since Sept 2011 and it’s time to change that!  My personal best 15k is 45:19, which is 4:51.7/mi.  Time to toe the line and run 4:50 on the dot … right?  Wrong!

On President’s Day I competed in a historic road race in Honolulu, Hawaii where more than 20,000 people there on Monday morning to run from the Great Aloha Tower to the Hawaii football stadium 8.29 miles away.  The race distance is listed on the website as 8.15 miles, but the guy who measured the course claimed it’s 8.29.  Since the distance is not a PR course, I brought up the idea of racing without a watch to my coach Steve Jones.  He was all for it and recommended racing on instincts.

39:46 later I was the new course record holder at the Great Aloha Run.  I never saw or heard a single split or total time.  When I first saw my time it was upon entering the football stadium and seeing the finish line clock.  A big smile crossed my face as I knew I had competed to the best of my abilities and had come away with the win.

A couple of weeks before this I was out on a run at the Boulder Reservoir on a colder winter day.  I buried my garmin watch under a few layers of clothes.  I did my normal ten mile loop and focused on running with good form, feeling smooth, and effortless running.  Sixty minutes and ten seconds after starting my watch I looked at it upon finishing the loop.  It was the fastest I’ve ever run that loop on a standard easy day.

I’ll be the first one to admit I’m most of the time addicted to my garmin.  My coach will be the second one to agree that I have a slight addition to the garmin.  I’ve learned a few valuable lessons in the past month from experiences run and now a race where I was completely in the zone and not limiting myself by wearing a watch.  Tomorrow it’s time to compete.  If I compete to the best of my abilities I can run a personal best.  Remember, “Simple Aint Easy” … tomorrow it’s time to keep it simple, but not time to run easy!

Goodbye watch, hello better.

-Tyler

This past weekend I made the long trek to Honolulu, Hawaii for the Great Aloha Run. After running the Kauai Marathon the last two years, I’m always looking for competitive races on the Hawaiian islands!  The Great Aloha Run fit in my racing schedule this year, so I searched for the cheapest airfare and a place to stay off AirBNB.com. After one of the worst travel issues getting to Honolulu, I was the last person to get a rental car at 1:10AM.  The good news is that I found out when you’re the last person for the night, they let you pick whatever car on the lot you want for the price of the economy car!  A sweet premium Acura was mine for the next four days!  That set off a great trip that had a little bit of sightseeing, and 8.29 miles of running fast! Here’s a gallery of some fun stuff on the island…

I spent a few hours on Saturday and Sunday at the Kauai Marathon booth at the Great Aloha Run expo.  It was wonderful to catch up with Bob and Robin and share a few excellent meals at hole-in-the-wall restaurants that Bob knew.  I think the bacon wrapped asparagus takes the cake as the most delicious bite of food I’ve ever had.

However, I didn’t come to Hawaii for vacation.  I came for business and that business was the Great Aloha Run.  I’ve learned valuable lessons in staying relaxed before a race so driving around and seeing the sights was perfect, but after a 4am wake-up I was all game-on for 8.29 miles.  Note that the race is listed as 8.15 miles, but I’ve found out that the race course has changed a few times and now it is unofficially/officially 8.29 miles as the guy who measured the course told me.  I knew the competition was going to be tough as Sergio Reyes (former US Marathon champion in 2010) and Craig Leon (Mizuno-sponsored runner with a marathon PB of 2:15).  After parking my rental car and hiding my key on the top of my left tire…hoping that my car would still be there when I took the shuttle back after the race, I jogged to the start line.  After drills and strides I was ready to give it my best.  This was also the first race I’ve ever not worn a watch, Coach Steve Jones and I decided to race more on instincts.  This was a great decision as I just ran tough from the start with Craig Leon and I running side-by-side, stride-for-stride for 6 miles.  It was atrociously windy with steady 20+ mph winds and gusts up to 50mph!  Luckily it was at our side for most of the first 6 miles with about a 1/2 mile section where it was at your back and you felt immediately overheated.  It is Hawaii and the temperature was 75F and humid!

After 6 miles you turn to the north to head towards the University of Hawaii football stadium and the wind was straight in your face.  There’s a tough hill on the course after that and I pressed a bit with Craig tucking in behind me.  As soon as we hit the downhill I opened up and started flying.  About 100m later I felt I had a gap but didn’t look back until less than a mile to go in the race.  I wanted to run as fast as I could though so I kept the gas pedal down even though I knew I had it won.  The crowd started to get loud as I entered the stadium area and I smiled as I entered the stadium.  I smiled even more as I first saw the clock at 39:30 and knew I was going to break 40 minutes!  I crossed the finish line in a 39:46 to find out I had broke the previous course record by 3 seconds!  I was incredibly happy with this as that’s a stellar pace of 4:47 per mile for 8.29 miles!!!!  I couldn’t be happier with this race and I’ll go ahead and say this is my best race (non-marathon) since college!  There’s no more comeback from me, I am back!!

Yahoo! Sports News Clip of the Race and Interview!

Thank you everyone that’s supported me and sent me messages.  I’ve had a phenomenal month after a horrendous fall.  It feels so good to be competitive and improving again, not to mention winning significant road races!  I credit a lot of this to the support of friends and family, a very positive company in Newton, and a fantastic coach in Steve Jones.  As excited as I am about this race, I’m even more excited about the future.  Right now I’m on a roll and momentum is hard to beat.  As my college coach, Beth Alford-Sullivan, used to say in speeches, “momentum, momentum, momentum!!”

Next up is a 15k in Phoenix called the Mountain to Fountain 15k.  My previous best 15k in 45:19 and my goal is definitely to run a new personal best.  I haven’t run a personal best since Sept 2011 and it’s time to change that on March 10th!

Mahalo!

-Tyler

Getting a ride into Pensacola Beach! Just after 13k into the race.

As I mentioned in the last post after Naples half-marathon, I feel like I’m in personal best shape for races from 10k to half-marathon. Workouts have been going well and almost all of my miles have been much higher quality. I knew there were a couple of Africans showing up, including last year’s third place finisher Emmanuel Bor who has some impressive personal bests (3:41 1500m, 13:43 5k, NCAA All-American at Alabama).  I found a picture from 2010 of me competing against a handful of Africans at the Fairfield Half-Marathon when I took out the race hard and made them hurt, until a few of them pulled away from me.

Fairfield Half-Marathon … “I’m not afraid”

I tweeted my excitement the morning of the race within 140 characters, “Every race day morning before the sun rises reminds me of being at the lake with my Dad and Bro excited to see if we, or the fish, would win.”  My coach Steve Jones, who routinely makes use of a few select words to be a phenomenal motivator, quickly tweeted back “@TrackTy  The fish never win, you either catch them or you have a great day trying. Good luck today Tyler”

And the Double Bridge Race begins!

That’s an incredible view of racing – and exactly what I did in the race.  I quickly established a lead and it was down to Emmanuel Bor and I by the mile mark.  Fighting the headwind I kept pushing and pushing but Emmanuel wasn’t dropping.

Relentlessly pushing the pace into a 5-10mph headwind.

I felt a little weakness in his breathing and decided at exactly the four mile mark is a big hill on a bridge (to allow for large ships to go under) I would hammer uphill.  There was a lot of traffic noise so I couldn’t hear if I was successfully dropping him or not…

Making my decisive move up the hill on the first bridge!

…until I crested the hill when I couldn’t hear footsteps anymore…

Large gap within a half mile of pushing the pace. I had no idea how large the gap was at this time.

For the next two miles I kept the edge on pressing hard.  At 5k to go there were a ton of spectators who were the 5k runners waiting for their event to start and one of them yelled, “run faster they are right behind you!!”  Noticing that was definitely sarcastic, I felt I had built a pretty good lead.

Knowing I have pulled away and I’m on my way to winning the Pensacola Double Bridge Run!

However, you still never know what can happen over the last three miles and I wanted to run a fast time so I continued to focus on form and running as fast as possible.  When I came into the finish shoot I was all smiles knowing I had finally won the Pensacola Double Bridge Run!  You can see why in the post race interview I said, “I love this race!” My finish time was 46:12, albeit nearly a minute off my 45:19 PR from the Gate River Run in 2011, I was into a headwind and solo.  I looked back at the weather reports and when I ran 45:24 in 2011 here in Pensacola I had a 5-10 mph wind from the west (nice tailwind!) and when I ran on Saturday I had a 5-10 mph wind from the east (bummer tailwind).  According to Jack Daniels conversion tables, a 5mph headwind would convert 4:58/mi to 4:45/mi.  I doubt that it slowed me down that much but it definitely did slow down the times!

Smile!

Double Bridge Run Champion!

If you’re a frequent or occasional reader of my blog, you’ll remember I was running fairly poorly in the late fall.  Honestly, I haven’t been that happy with my running since training before the Olympic Trials.  I pulled off a few good races, like the Kauai Marathon, but generally have felt disappointed.  Now I have a great coach, a wonderful group to train with, and an excellent balance in my life working on my PhD in Meteorology and coaching high school.  AND, I just won one of my favorite races I’ve ever done.  I’m happy, excited, and enthusiastic about the future.  2011 was the first season/year I’ve struggled to improve and dealt with fatigue/over-training/etc. I never wavered in my passion and determination to succeed.  It feels incredibly rewarding to overcome these obstacles and win a major road race again.  If you’re struggling with not being at your best fitness, stay patient and passionate.  Do the little things and keep your mind’s eye focused on the future.  Trust me, it’s worth it.

Flying high again! (Visited the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola).

Thank you to the Pensacola Sports Association for a wonderful event.  I have been recommending this race for the past two years and will continue to recommend it for the people, the event, and the location!  Thank you to Charles Gheen and Jackie Brown for the hospitality, conversation, and being such good friends. Thank you to Newton Running who has helped transform my running form to be a more efficient runner. Thanks to my coach Steve Jones and my training buddies for making running hard a heck of a lot of fun. Thanks to anyone that reads the blog and hopefully learns something from my experiences.  Let’s all have a great 2013!

Enjoy the photo gallery below for more Pensacola fun as well as the videos from Pensacola News Journal below the gallery!

-Tyler

Award Ceremony Video

Race Video and Post-Race Interview

I landed in Fort Myers and after a long-time getting to Naples (long story, but an Ethiopian women told the taxi company holding up a sign with “Tyler McCandless” that she was Tyler McCandless and took my taxi…leaving me stranded for a couple of hours), I met my host for the trip Sean Nolan.  Him and his friends, the staff at the Gulf Coast Runners, are some of the friendliest folks on the planet. It was also Sean’s birthday!  A nice dinner and good conversation at a really tasty italian place left me tired and ready for bed.  Once back at Sean’s place I met the other athlete staying with Sean.  His name was Malcolm Campbell and is a very talented master’s runner.  I’ve met a ton of great people in this sport, but Malcolm is one of the nicest competitors I’ve ever met.  The guy is a wonderful role model for the running community and has a ton of good advice.  Like me, Malcolm coaches some athletes and was saying how he almost gets more joy of their success than his.  He also said how having a son (who turned 8 years old on Sunday) made him a better person and he loves being a role model.  I’m happy to say Malcolm won the Master’s division and is on his way to a great run at the Boston Marathon this spring!

Start line! Thanks to Sean Nolan for these great photos!

I was thrilled with this result and was happy to give an interview to the Naples Daily News while downing a much needed bottle of water.  A nice cool-down jog to see the Gulf of Mexico with Malcolm, then showered and was ready for the award ceremony.  After the award ceremony, I went to lunch with the crew from the Gulf Coast Running Club and some of their friends and lastly went to a BBQ at one of their houses.  Everyone was extraordinarily friendly and supportive.

It was a wonderful time in Naples and I would also make a vote for this to be the best half-marathon in the country.  A big THANK YOU to everyone who organized the event and to Sean for hosting me at his place.  Although I was only in Naples for less than 24 hours, it was a very successful 24 with a great competition, met a lot of new friends, chatted with other competitors who are friends as well, and started the 2013 year off very well.  I also want to take the time to thank Newton Running for their support.  This company is fantastic with the friendliest group of employees I’m lucky to be a part of.  The shoes have helped correct some form imbalances and I’m running better than I have in a long time.  In addition to the race, I recovered extremely well.  Very little soreness in the next few days is evidence that my running form has improved and I left Naples without a single blister!

In two weeks I’ll be competing at one of my favorite road races in the US – the Pensacola Double Bridge Run!  I can’t wait to go and compete there for the third straight year.  My 15k course PR is 45:24 and my all-time PR from the USA 15k Championships in Jacksonville is 45:17.  I am ready to go to battle trying to beat that time and win the Double Bridge Run!

Thank you for supporting me and reading this.

Goodbye limits, hello better.

-Tyler

*The African who finished 1 spot ahead of me in 4th place ended up having American citizenship but none of us knew this until after the awards ceremony.

Book #1 of 2013 is “Natural Running” by Danny Abshire.  As my last blog post was describing, I’m now a Newton Running sponsored athlete.  Danny Abshire is a co-founder of Newton Running.  However, this book is not at all an advertisement for Newton shoes.  The book highlights the role of the shoe industry in changing styles that previously had an increasing heel-to-toe drop.  The heel-to-toe drop is a measure of the height of the shoe below the heel compared to the measure of the height of the shoe below the toe.  Companies initially thought that more cushioning in the heel would save injuries because there would be less of an impact.  What the books shows is that by putting extra padding in the heel, the body compromises by heel striking more.  The simple analogy: if you were to go out and run barefoot on a cement bike path or sidewalk, would you heel-strike?  You’d likely land as light as possible on your feet, thus landing more on the forefoot.  The higher heel-to-toe drop also reduces proprioception as the body isn’t able to learn the most efficient way of running.

Here are two main points from the book and the reasons why I’d recommend buying it.  First, there are simple clues to slightly changing your form to be more efficient.  I finished the book right before going on a ten mile run.  As I mentioned in the last blog post I didn’t look at the garmin and just focused on these cues.  I ended up running faster than I have on an easy run in a long time.  The second reason for buying the book is the really good routines provided in the book.  There’s a series of strength drills/exercises to help you increase the strength needed for more efficient running form.  I’ve been following the drills/exercises for about two weeks now and I’m already seeing the benefits.  Specifically, I feel stronger when walking up stairs or even sitting in a chair. This is a quick and relatively easy read as well.

Book #2 is going to be Scott Simmons and Will Freeman’s book, “Take the Lead: A Revolutionary Approach to Coaching Cross Country.”

My website has been updated over the past few weeks to reflect the fact that I’m now a member of Team Alchemy, sponsored by Newton Running. This has been a major positive impact on my life over the past couple of weeks.  Another positive impact is the fact I’ve been coached by Steve Jones for six weeks now and I’m surrounded by a positive group of friends coached by Jonesy.  Six and a half weeks ago I did my first workout after a significant break.  On Tuesday I ran one of the fastest kilometer repeats I’ve done ever on the roads at altitude to finish a 6x3min workout.  The repeat was slightly uphill and into a headwind.

Although I do not consider it to be anything related to magic, I’ve certainly experienced a process of turning my running into great value again.  I haven’t felt this good in months…maybe even a year.  Yesterday I met a good group of friends out at the Boulder Reservoir for our usual 9.8 mile loop (we add on to get to 10, obviously). I’ve done this run many times over the past two years and generally have run about 65 to 67 minutes on a solid/moderate run.  I decided to keep my garmin watch underneath my jacket and not look at the pace until I finished.  I was solo and clipping along the last 6 miles of the run.  I’ve finished the book written by Danny Abshire (Newton Running founder) called “Natural Running.” The book highlights the benefits of proper technique and does a remarkable job giving form cues.  I was thinking of these form cues during the run and just keeping as relaxed as possible.  I ended up running 10 miles in 1:00:33 … which might be the fastest easy run I’ve ever done at altitude, and the last 10 miles averaged 5:50/mi.  Obviously there’s a benefit to not being a slave to the garmin, but this run went beyond that.  Right now, I’m healthy, I’m happy, I’m fit, and most importantly I’m recovered!

This Saturday I’m racing the Oatmeal Festival Quicker Quaker 5k in Lafayette.  This is basically a race in my backyard as I could warm-up to the start line.  It’ll likely be between 5 and 10F at the start of the race so I might want to have a little extra warm-up! Saturday is also the first race for me in 2013.  I feel that 2013 is a very exciting year for me.  I’m disappointed to say I didn’t run a PR in all of 2012. I’m extremely motivated by the fact I haven’t PR’d in over a year.  I’m doing everything I can this year to PR in multiple distances.  I’m going to share a lot of training, blog posts, and inspiration insights on the blog this year because I want to inspire and educate anyone that reads this.  I’ve done a lot of races in a decade of racing, but the most memorable moments are with the friends I’ve made by competiting against them, who have read this blog and connected with me, via social media, and other connections in the running community.

Earlier this week a high school student from Pennsylvania added me as a facebook friend.  He sent me a message that said the Penn State coaches told him that he reminded the coaching staff of me.  Someone who made Footlockers (or in my case All-American in college) through hard work and dedication, not raw talent.  He said his goal was to have the college career I did.  This was simply an incredible moment for me and also made me think deeply on my training, racing, social media, and blog posts for 2013.  I want people to say, “hey remember that Tyler guy from Penn State who ran at the Olympic Trials and finished a weak 50th place in 2012.  He didn’t PR for over a year. His shoe contract wasn’t renewed.  Instead of getting down, he turned it around and now is PR’ing consistently and winning races…I can do that too!! Team Alchemy!”

Here’s to wishing everyone PRs in 2013.  Let’s do this together.  I’ll reply to any comment posted on the website in 2013.  If you want advice, I’ll give you what I have.

Goodbye Limits, Hello Better

-Tyler