Notes from Mile 22

Email notes from John Ellis keep me moving

I'm not sure you could say I had used a training plan the first time I went out and ran a marathon. I had put in a lot of running and maybe even logged a few long runs but back then my goals were vague and my preparation was even more obscure. During the race I fought severe leg cramps during the last 6 miles and hobbled in with a finish time to reflect my focus. Not so good.

For my second attempt I stepped it up just a little bit, which is to say I did...something. I went to the Runnersworld website and printed out their training plan for an intermediate runner. I stuck to the program mostly, scaled back on the speedwork which had been my mainstay and started doing more distance runs and working on my strength. Somewhere during this time I started to catch on to the idea of AT thresholds and the like. Later that year I went up to the Human Performance Test Lab at OHSU and scored a V02 max of51.3. All the running was doing some good.

Last year I had the unbelievable good fortune to catch the eye of John Ellis who is on the staff at the Bill Rogers Running Center in Boston. John has a long time association to that place and an even longer involvement to long distance running. He lives along the course and just 4 miles from the finish line of the Boston Marathon. John will sometimes take a few folks under his wing that he thinks have the dedication and passion for endurance running and offers to help them with their goals. He does this for nothing and it seems that his only real reward is in seeing the improvement of those he advises. John's expert help has been nothing less than amazing. He is so dialed in to what I can do and just how much to push me and when to let me rest. Many times his advice will be so specific as to ask me to run at a 7 minute 58 second pace for instance. Not an 8 minute mile.

I've noticed many times that his notes to me will be written very late in the evening after he has gotten home from his day job and spent time with his family. Just last week I got an email from him while I was online at 9:30 pm west coast time. He was up past midnight working on my workout for the next week!

Last year John helped me for more than 4 months, first helping me stay consistent with base training and later working on very specific aspects of my race needs. Back and forth the emails flew, he feeding me weekly updates and me asking simple questions like, "what's a surge"? I not only learned a lot about running but I got into really good shape.

Last year when I ran my most recent marathon, I set a personal record of 3:44:01. Honestly I could have done several minutes better had I not had a barrage of "issues" that day (call them excuses if you want). But it's still a time that I am darn proud of because I know how much work, time, sweat and sacrifice that I put into it. It's a personal thing that only I can roll around in.

The last few weeks I've hooked up with John again. Once again I'm looking forward to that weekend email from him that will set out in an thoughtful, easy to follow, simple format just what I will run next week. Doing it wont be easy and working it into my schedule will be anything but simple. But turning John's words into action just might help me set another PR in Sacramento this December. All thanks to John!