The Daily Run: Here's your chance to meet Virginia's new track coach

There is going to be a special “meet and greet” community evening with new UVa Track and Field Coach Bryan Fetzer this coming Monday Feb. 6 at 6:30 in the clubhouse above Ragged Mountain. Coach Fetzer is looking forward to introducing his new assistant distance coaches to us community neighbors and to share his vision of a community partnership. We do hope folks will make an effort to come join us as this is the perfect opportunity to thank Coach Fetzer, and the university, for so generously allowing us, the running community, to use their new seven million dollar track facility!

And speaking of the new track facility, it should be open by sometime in early March and according to Coach Fetzer will be available for public use from 5:30-10:00am every day. Wow, that’s good news!

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Former Albemarle standout Anthony Kostelac continues to look really fast in that blue and orange UVa uniform, as he blazed to a 4:05 in the mile over the weekend at the Penn State Invitational. Kostelac’s p.r. time makes him the 10th fastest freshman miler in UVa history.

And current Albemarle sophomore phenom Ryan Thomas outkicked a stellar mile field at the Christopher News Invite with an outstanding 4:21 clocking.

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One of the biggest mistakes, big enough mistakes that quite often lead to injury, made by runners who are in training for long distance races is not paying close enough attention to their “recovery” days. For me, as a coach, these are by far the most important, yet, sadly, the most consistently abused days of the week. The purpose of the recovery days are simple: to give your body a period of rest, so as to give it ample time to repair and recover, so as to be properly prepared to handle the next “hard” day. We call these hard runs “Q” days, as in “quality” runs that tax the body beyond the norm.

For most of my athletes, many whom are in their forties and fifties, they have two “Q” days, which consist of a hard speed workout on Wednesday and an extra-long run on Sunday. For some of my younger athletes, they have three “Q” days, which consist of some sort of a speed workout on Tuesday and Friday and a longer distance run on Sunday. So, the purpose of the recovery days is to safely guide the athlete from one “Q” day to the next. Sort of like an easy day bridge that spans the two taxing days. I want my athletes going into their “Q” day workouts feeling refreshed not tired, for the more fatigued they are the more their natural gait mechanics are off, therefore the greater the risk of injury.

So, instead, what I’ve been seeing a lot of lately in the days after a quality workout, are folks pushing the pace much faster than their AHR (Aerobic Heart Rate) or running too much mileage or trying some sort of cross training that taxes them way too much, like a long bicycle ride or a long swim. No, I didn’t just say that cycling or swimming were bad sports…on the contrary, they’re such good taxing forms of exercise that they actually aren’t good recovery day modes of exercise for someone training for a long distance running event like a marathon!

So, a good formula for success is to run slower and shorter on these very important recovery days or, if you’re feeling tired enough, to take the day off all together. Many of my marathoners run in the deep end of the pool on their recovery days, giving their legs a real break from the pavement pounding. Kenny Ball, one of my fastest yet most cautious marathoners, runs two days in the week in the pool to give his 54 year old legs a rest, so he always goes into his “Q” days feeling refreshed!

Please feel free to call me at 434-293-3367 or stop by with any questions you might have about your own personal running.