Chasing Glory:

Runners are, and are not,

Different
by Matt Taylor - chasingGLORY

By now, the greatest American road

race has been run — the men’s Olympic
Marathon Trials. Many of you already
know the results, some of you saw the
race in person, and a very select few of
you even participated. Unfortunately, the
editors here at Peak Running Performance
needed this story before the gun went off
on November 3rd, sending the deepest
American marathon field ever from
Rockefeller Center into Central Park.
But maybe that’s better; it frees this
piece from hindsight that comes from
knowing the results. You see, in the
weeks leading up to the race I had the
opportunity to observe many of the top
athletes as they prepared — some in
groups, some in isolation — for their
chance to represent the U.S.A. in the
2008 Olympics.
In the spring of 2007 I was asked by
the New York Road Runners (the
Marathon Trials host) to produce a
project showcasing the top contenders
— the athletes most likely to find
themselves on the marathon start line in
Beijing next year. Teamed with TV
analyst Toni Reavis and tasked with
creating a seven-week multimedia
experience for the fans, we coordinated
schedules with the athletes, charted our
course, and decided on a name for our
project — Chasing Glory. One week
later, on a hot, sticky summer morning,
we were in Rochester Hills, Michigan,
home to the Hansons Distance Project
and Brian Sell. In the ensuing weeks, as
we traveled from Rochester Hills to
Tucson to Boulder, it became clear that
running performance is not black and
white. There are many ways to reach
peak fitness. The key is finding the
variables that dovetail best with your
current life situation.
Runners are different, as the Adidas
ads used to say, but not as much as we
like to think, at least not in terms of our
desire to improve. Like an artist, a
teacher, or a Fortune 500 vice president,
runners imitate other, more accomplished
runners. If Ryan Hall does 80-meter hill
repeats, the thinking goes, then I should
do 80-meter hill repeats. While such
logic makes sense to many of us, it
doesn’t guarantee improvement.
Runners, as a group, are not different;
but each individual runner is. Our shape,
size, mental health, discipline, genes,
physiology — no two of us are exactly
the same. So why, in our quest for a new
personal best, would we imitate another
runner?
This principle — that each runner is
different — should dictate every aspect
of your training regimen. There are
general principles that provide the
foundation for any training plan, but
those principles are just that — a
foundation. They provide the base on
which you must build according to your
physical, mental, social, and personal
variables. What separates a starving
artist from a well-fed one is not just
technique — it’s creativity. What
separates a good teacher from the one
whose class every student wants to take
is not just the lesson plan — it’s the
presentation. What separates the career
vice president from the next CEO is not
just intellect — it’s vision. And what
separates a stagnant runner from an
ever-improving one is not just the long
run — it’s a personalized training plan: a
plan that takes into account every facet
of the runner’s life, including his or her
current work, home, physical, and
mental states.
As Toni and I traveled the country —
a running fan’s dream vacation — it
became very clear: even at the highest
level of the sport, no two athletes train
exactly the same.
The Hansons Distance
Project and Brian Sell
Brian Sell is a self-proclaimed
blue-collar runner. And with 150 miles
on the road and 20 hours working at
Home Depot most weeks, he earns the
title. He grew up on a farm in rural
Pennsylvania and graduated with little
fanfare from St. Francis University in
Loretto, Pennsylvania. “He’s a country
boy. He’s a hometown guy,” his wife
Sarah tells us. So joining the Hansons
Distance Project after a college running
career that raised few eyebrows made
sense to Brian. Even before he started in
the Home Depot Olympic Development
Program (which allows Olympic
hopefuls to work 20 flexible hours, but
be paid for 40), Brian worked in
receiving at the Hansons Running Store.
“Brian is a hands-on guy,” says Hansons
co-founder Keith Hanson. “He likes to
be doing physical labor.” That steady
grind of physical labor — running and
manual — has produced two 2:10
performances and one of the most
consistent marathoners in America.
The Hansons training philosophy is
one of volume and consistency: run a lot
of miles for many years and you will run
a good marathon. The results have been
impressive — the Hansons will have 13
men toe the starting line at the Olympic
Marathon Trials, more than any other
group in the country. But of those
athletes only Brian is considered a
contender to make the Olympic team.
The others — guys like Mike Morgan
and Kyle O’Brien — were decent
college athletes, but raised few eyebrows
at the NCAA level. Sound familiar?
Brian Sell is the face of the Hansons
Distance Project, and as such has helped
recruit a certain type of athlete to
Rochester Hills. But it doesn’t mean the
other athletes do exactly as Brian does.
Brian is the only athlete who works at
Home Depot. Some work in the running
stores. Clint Verran (5th in the 2004
Olympic Marathon Trials) has his own
physical therapy practice. Brian is
married and owns his home. Mike
Morgan lives with other runners on the
team in one of the three houses owned
by Kevin and Keith Hanson. Marty
Rosendahl rents his own apartment
because “having Kevin and Keith as my
coach, boss, and landlord confused
things.” While all the athletes lay the
same foundation — many miles over
many years in a team environment —
each one, often through trial and error,
must fill it in with the physical, mental,
social, and personal elements that suit
his needs. Only then will the athlete see
steady improvement over time.
Even within this highly structured
training environment, what works for
Brian Sell doesn’t necessarily work for
anyone else. But the common elements
of the Hansons Distance Project are
producing great results. What started
with three runners is now one of the
most respected marathon training groups
in the country. But does that mean you
should run 150 miles per week and take
a job at the local hardware store?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Abdi Abdirahman
The Tucson heat surrounded and
penetrated every inch of our bodies. To
say it was hot is an understatement. You
couldn’t touch the steering wheel; we
had to drive with a towel or ball cap —
anything that had been in the shade —
draped over it. It was miserable. “Hot
enough for you guys?” Abdi asked with
his infectious grin when we first met
him at the University of Arizona track.
He just stepped out of his black GMC
Denali with black leather seats and a
black dash. “Black on black,” Abdi
mused, “That’s not something you see
often here in Tucson. But I love it.” To
say Abdi “fits” in Tucson is also a gross
understatement. He is the selfproclaimed
Mayor to Tucson, the Black
Cactus. Like the saguaro cacti that dot
the barren hillsides on the outskirts of
Tucson, Abdi has adapted to, and thrived
in, his surroundings.
Originally from Somalia, Abdi
escaped civil strife in that country as a
child, finding refuge in Mombassa,
Kenya — a hot, arid location that
recently hosted the 2007 World Cross
Country Championships. In his late
childhood, he made his way to America
and eventually to the University of
Arizona. It was there that Abdi
developed into a top distance runner.
After graduating from the U of A, Abdi
decided to stay in Tucson to continue
working with his coach, Dave Murray. “I
knew right away that this guy had
potential,” Murray tells us. “You could
just see it in his stride, he was going to
be a marathoner.” But it wasn’t easy
convincing Abdi. “At first he said, ‘No.
No way coach. [The marathon] is
waaaay too far.’ But after that first one,
he was hooked.”
Today Abdi is a world-class
marathoner with a sub-2:09 performance
at the 2006 Chicago Marathon. But he
hasn’t forgotten his first love. “I love
[the track],” Abdi says with a smile, “to
run around in circles with all those
people watching…that’s great.” So it
was no surprise when Abdi decided to
run the 2007 Track & Field World
Championships in Osaka, Japan, just two
months prior to the Marathon Trials.
While other athletes were at home
logging 100+ miles per week on their
own, Abdi was in Osaka competing
against the best track athletes in the
world (he finished 7th in the 10,000 m).
“I can’t be dictatorial as a coach,”
Murray told us of Abdi’s decision to
compete in Osaka. “I would have rather
had him up in Flagstaff preparing for the
Trials, but when he told me, ‘Coach, I
can do this,’ I had to support that
decision.”
Abdi loves to race. Keep him away
from competition for too long and he
grows restless, bored. Running 130
miles per week with a 6-month buildup
before each marathon wouldn’t work for
Abdi. You can’t run more than two,
maybe three marathons each year, so for
him, 80–90 miles per week with highintensity
work on the track is the key.
It’s what allows him to never be too far
away from race-ready. Does than mean
you should race as often as possible
before your next marathon? Maybe.
Maybe not.
Dathan Ritzenhein
It’s hard to feel out of place in
Eugene, Oregon — Track Town, U.S.A.
“In Boulder the people are very active,
but with lots of outdoor activities, like
biking, hiking, and rock climbing,”
Kalin Ritzenhein tells on the back porch
of her and Dathan’s new home. “Here, in
Eugene, the people are also very active,
but they’re all running.” Even ESPN has
taken notice: during a recent Oregon
football game, they mentioned the late
Steve Prefontaine as a local legend and
rightly defined Eugene as a hotbed for
distance running and track & field.
But until recently it was Boulder, not
Eugene, which attracted many of
America’s (and the world’s) top distance
runners. So it was a surprise to most
when Dathan Ritzenhein packed up his
belongings and moved from Boulder to
Eugene. It wasn’t just the move — a
definite blow to Boulderites — that
surprised people; it
was the timing. The
U.S. Track & Field
Championships were to
take place in June, the
World Track & Field
Championships in
August, and the
Olympic Marathon
Trials in November.
Oh, and they were
expecting their first
child in September.
“I look at it like a professional baseball
or basketball player would,” Ritzenhein
explains. “They get traded in the middle
of the season and have to relocate to
another city. It’s no different for us.” But
he concedes, “To leave Boulder wasn’t
easy, especially with Kalin expecting our
first baby, but we tried to make it as
stress-free of a move as possible.”
“We aren’t turning our backs on
Boulder,” Ritzenhien’s coach, Brad
Hudson explained. “We made this
decision because we thought it was best
for Dathan’s career.”
Since enrolling at the University of
Colorado in Boulder after a stellar high
school career, Ritzenhein has shown
flashes of brilliance interspersed with
multiple injuries. “After each injury I
would make the changes that I thought
were necessary to prevent it from
happening again,” he explains. “After
the last injury, we finally said, ‘OK,
that’s it. We need to go to sea level.’ And
here we are.”
Ritzenhein has trained at sea level
before, with great success. “Now we’re
based at sea level and we’ll go to
altitude at certain times of the year,”
Hudson says. “Before we were based at
altitude and would use what money we
had to go to camps at sea level.”
It’s a move that Ritzenhein and Hudson
expect will pay big dividends over the
coming years. Ritzenhein is a notorious
trainer, hammering workouts that make
even other elite athletes cringe. “Dathan
has the capacity to push himself to his
physiological limits.” Hudson says with
pride. “It’s a gift.” But it’s also a curse.
Prior to the 2006 NYC Marathon,
Hudson believed that Ritzenhein could
contend for the win. Instead, he faded
from the leaders at mile 20, finishing
11th in 2:14:01. Respectable, but below
expectations. Always tinkering with his
plan, Hudson changed course. “The
marathon-specific period before New
York was too long. Because Dathan can
train so hard, he gets fit very quickly.
Leading into the Trials we’ll do a shorter
marathon-specific phase.”
With a new plan, a new training
environment, and a new baby (Addison),
Dathan Ritzenhein is back on course.
High expectations have followed him
from Rockford, Michigan to Boulder,
Colorado, and now to Eugene, Oregon
— Track Town, U.S.A. Time will tell if
this latest move helps Ritzenhein live up
to them. Does that mean you should
disrupt your life, pack up your belongings,
and move to a more suitable training
environment? Maybe. Maybe not.
Mammoth Lakes
The latest city to throw its name into
the ring of running meccas is Mammoth
Lakes, California. And why not? It’s
home to two Olympic medalists —
Deena Kastor (bronze, Athens) and Meb
Keflezighi (silver, Athens) — and
current American Record Holder at the
Half Marathon, Ryan Hall (59:43,
Houston). Located at 7,000 feet with
easy access to trails 1,000–2,000 feet
higher, Mammoth is the new altitude
hotspot. But wait, didn’t Dathan
Ritzenhein just move from altitude in
Boulder to sea level in Eugene?
“Mammoth is a great place to train,”
Ryan Hall’s coach, Terrence Mahon tells
us in the parking lot of the local coffee
shop.
“Yea, but it must be
tough to get anywhere,”
I counter. The closest
airport is Reno, a
winding 3-hour drive.
“Exactly. That’s
what I like about it.
When you’re here,
there’s only one thing
to focus on — training.”
As Toni and I
followed Ryan, Deena,
and some other
Mammoth athletes through Inyo
National Forest, the sheer beauty of our
surroundings gave us pause. So did the
hills. “If you can’t get fit here,” Toni
remarked as we were spit out by the
forest into an open, insanely surreal
landscape, “you can’t get fit anywhere.”
In many ways, Mammoth Lakes is a
runner’s paradise. But it’s not just the
scenic trails that draw great athletes.
Instead, what’s attracting the next crop
of American distance stars — like Kate
O’Neill and Kassi Andersen — is the
young tradition digging its roots in this
resort town.
“To train here with these athletes — I
mean Deena Kastor! She’s my idol. It’s
just such a great opportunity,” Andersen
tells us on the way to Lake Mary, a
beautiful lake around which a rolling
paved road runs, perfect for tempo
training. “But at the same time, we’re
not here to just copy what the others are
doing. Coach works with us on an
individual basis to make sure we’re
getting everything we need.” After the
run at Inyo National Forest with
Olympic medalist Kastor and American
Record Holder Hall standing by, Coach
Mahon spent 15 minutes working with
Andersen on her drills. Later, in the
weight room, he helped Kate O’Neill
refine the motion of a particular
exercise. This is not a training group that
revolves around one or two star athletes;
this is a group committed to developing
each athlete to his or her full potential.
Watching Ryan Hall click off intervals
at marathon-race effort in his preparation
for the Olympic Trials, it’s easy to see
the allure of Mammoth Lakes. Does this
mean you should move to a secluded
mountain town and train in relative
isolation with a small group of athletes?
Maybe. Maybe not.
The New Boulder
So where does all of this leave
Boulder, the one-time undisputed mecca
of distance running? “We went through a
period where everyone was training on
their own,” long-time Boulderite Pete
Julian explains as we drive alongside a
group of 15 athletes doing their long
run. “People were getting a little cagey,
like there were these big secrets to keep
from one another. We finally said,
‘enough is enough.’ It was time to get
everyone back together.” He can’t
control his smile. “We’re back.”
A few miles later, as former World
Record Holder Steve Jones hands out
water bottles to Julian, Alan Culpepper,
and a cast of other runners, a small pack
of Kenyans whip around the corner.
They and many other international
athletes would argue that Boulder never
left. Since the 1970s it has attracted
world-class runners not only from the
U.S., but also from Romania, Kenya,
Britain, Japan, and New Zealand. “It
feels like the 1970s all over again,”
James Carney explains after a hard 30-
minute run up Lefthand Canyon with
Eduardo Torres. “Boulder has definitely
contributed to my success because
there’s so much positive energy here.”
“For many years I did this on my
own,” Culpepper tells us from his home
in Lafayette, Colorado, a few miles
outside Boulder. “But I got to a point
where I just couldn’t do it anymore. I
couldn’t get out of the car when the
wind was blowing 40 miles per hour.
Not on my own.” Culpepper continues
to explain the new elite training group
he, Julian, and Steve Jones have formed
— Tempo Sports. It’s a way for athletes
like Alan to surround themselves with
the resources they need to carry on.
Another athlete taking advantage of
Boulder’s available resources is Fasil
Bizuneh. With the goal of finishing on
the podium at the Olympic Trials, Fasil
moved to an apartment complex on the
outskirts of Boulder to live with the
Kenyans of KIMbia Athletics (for more
on training with the Kenyans see Peak
Running Performance July/Aug ’07
16.4, and Nov/Dec ’06 15.6). There he
has some of the best marathoners in the
world as training partners and massage
and physical therapists on staff. “It’s a
great situation for me,” Fasil explains. “I
want to make the Olympic team and I
felt coming to Boulder gave me the best
opportunity to do so.”
Similar to the Hansons, athletes like
Bizuneh and Culpepper and Carney have
come to Boulder to be a part of a group.
But unlike the Hansons, they don’t work
second jobs. Instead, they’re taking the
single-minded approach to development.
Does that mean you should quit your job
and move to a shack in the foothills of
Boulder? Maybe. Maybe not.
Conclusion
Running is anchored in a set of
physiological principles that can’t be
ignored; athletes must develop the right
combination of aerobic and anaerobic
capacity for their specific event. Finding
the right mix has always been the Holy
Grail. But even athletes at the highest
level of the sport, with access to the best
coaches, the best technology, the most
suitable training environments, and the
most current information, differ from
one another in their approach.
Some athletes, like Ryan Hall, Deena
Kastor, and Alan Culpepper, train at
altitude. Dathan Ritzenhein and Brian
Sell feel that they can achieve more at
sea level. Abdi Abdirahman likes the
smoldering sun of Tucson.
Abdi runs less mileage but with higher
intensity, while the Hansons grind out the
miles. Abdi races more, the Hansons less.
Ryan was doing 10-mile tempo runs at
5-minute pace in high school; Dathan
was tearing up the track.
Abdi didn’t start running until he went
to college. Alan Culpepper won five
Texas state titles in cross country and
track.
So how can you determine what’s
best?
The short answer is: you can’t. Instead
of trying to mimic more accomplished
runners, maximize the resources in your
given environment. Lay the foundation
as the elite athletes do, but then build
your own structure on top of it. Runners
need to strive to achieve the same types
of physiological breakthroughs, but they
need to achieve it through their own
means, on their own terms. Remember
the basic principles of training, but don’t
be afraid to be different.