Obsessive Compulsive Running Behavior part 1

Dear Keely at RunCute.com,                                                                                                   5/9/2011

Here’s my responses to your questions, in order. Thanks and feel free to contact me w/ any questions. Feel free to edit as needed, just run it by me.

1.       FastEddie, please give my readers some background info on your participation in the running lifestyle. How did you get into running, where did you learn all that you know about the sport and what keeps you going/motivated nowadays?   

Always athletic, I had been mountain climbing, biking and playing basketball when I visited Park City in 1993 and read an article in the Record about a great first marathon, the St. George. So at 41, I decided to train 3 months, ran at 3:29. A year later I ran a 3:07 at 190lbs., and was hooked. At 46, I injured my knee playing basketball, was advised to quit running. I ran another 40 marathons after that before getting a partial knee replacement last June. I have run 58 marathons, probably 35 or so as Boston qualifiers, at a relatively heavy 190lbs.

Because of my athletic background, I very early disavowed the status quo training methods, which seemed old fashioned, and more dogma based than scientific. With another great friend, and large runner (210), Dave Nemeth, we rejected common assumptions and trained as if we were not really ”runners”.   Our mutual experience was that there were too many miles and other errors in programs designed by underweight “GGGS”, (genetically gifted, genetically sifted), role models that had little or nothing to do with average athletes, especially runners. We started training using methods that have now recently been “discovered” by many in the community. Old ideas, never the less, die hard.

Our ideas are still often rejected, and high mileage, unbalanced junkies are impervious to input. (can you spell Alberto Salazar?) It has been my feeling that a majority (over 50%) of runners at the sub 3:30 level for men, and the sub 4:00 hour level for women, engage in some form of obsessive compulsive training behavior. The sport attracts and encourages such individuals. However, it is very dangerous to train and to lead a rounded life when measuring one’s self against this alleged “peer” group. Further, I believe even these OC’s could perform much better if they could free themselves from the self imposed “chains” of OC behavior, besides being more fun to be around. As I often state, “Your gravestone will not mention your marathon time”.

Motivationally, I follow this axiom: “Ordinary people view everything as a blessing or a curse, Warriors view everything as a challenge.”  Therefore, my mindset is not some arbitrary numbers set by the GGGS, or even the Boston Athletic Association, but rather based on the belief that I want to maximize performance per my own set of variables and personal needs over a broad spectrum of my own life’s goal. (family, job, VO2 max, age, weight etc etc.). I have a new knee. A Boston qualifier is currently untenable, but may not be in the future. I like to ski and ride. I am almost 60. What are REASONABLE goals for me right now, and how can I achieve them with MINIMAL injury risk? Once I remove arbitrary goals, I can dispense of arbitrary training programs, and free myself of the burden of “imposed”  programs that actually defeat my peak performance. Remember, MOST folks in the running community are OC, and seem successful because they are GGGS, NOT because they are optimally trained. Whew! Here comes the hate mail!