Still Running, Still Writing: Part 1

Tucker Horan
7 min readAug 19, 2022

--

Last year, I ran the Colfax Marathon on October 16th. It was my only big race of the year. This year, I’m running the Detroit Free Press Marathon on October 16th. It’ll be my only big race this year.

As I get older and get more years of experience in running, I find that I really enjoy training for one (maybe two) big races each year. I prefer this now over racing 10 to 20 races each year. Putting my focus on just one race each year gives me more time to focus on my other passions throughout the year. I still run year round, but when I’m not training for my big race I can be more flexible with my training.

Training for just one race each year can be more motivating. Instead of spreading races throughout the year and caring about many different results, you can put all your eggs into just this one basket. This is the one and I’m going for it. For three months, I’ll be super focused on running and showing up each day to get better. After that, I’ll take a more relaxed approach.

Now that I am focused on training for the Detroit Free Press Marathon, I find myself once again seeing running as a reflection of life. “Life is a marathon, not a sprint” is a cliché that gets thrown around a lot, but it’s easy to see why. Training and running a marathon can teach a runner a lot about what it means be alive and human.

That’s why I am writing this. Running a lot of miles gives me time to reflect and working towards a big race makes me feel like I have something worth saying. I want to share my journey and I want something that I can go back and read years from now. That’s my goal for this series.

Training Update:

I’m a running nerd and I’m assuming most of my readers are running nerds as well. As a running nerd, I love numbers. I love reading people’s training logs and know what they are doing each and every single day. In the past, I’ve broken my training down by day. I think that’s a little mundane so my goal for this section is to just give the highlights. That should be enough to satisfy the running nerds but not too tedious for those not interested in the day by day training.

For the past three weeks, I’ve been averaging 65 miles a week. Each week I do two hard interval workouts and a long run (12+ miles). Everything else is easy runs, which I count as running at a pace where you can have a full conversation and not be out of breath (typically ~7:30 per mile for me).

The best hard interval workout I had was a two mile warmup, followed by 3 miles moderate in 18:24, a mile recovery jog in 7:41, 3 miles moderate in 18:23, a mile recovery jog in 7:34, a hard mile in 6:02, followed by a 2 mile cool down. I was really satisfied with this workout. The three mile segments I felt really smooth and in control. They were a little faster than marathon pace which is encouraging that I feel in control running that fast. I think longer intervals of 3+ miles are really good mental training for the marathon. Long reps for you to be smooth and engaged for a long period of time, which is what the marathon requires. Was hoping for a sub 6 mile to end it, but still really happy to run a 6:02 on the day when I’m already 10 miles into the run.

13 miles on the day and 7 miles of that was hard running. I think that is in the sweet spot for marathon training. When training for a marathon, you need to run a lot of miles and I think you need to practice running hard on tired legs. That’s the kind of situation I try to put myself in on days like this. On hard interval workout days, I want to run 10–15 miles and I want 6–10 of those miles to be hard. That’s the range I’ll keep the majority of my workouts in.

I had a really good long run that was one hour easy, 30 minutes hard, and then a ten minute cool down. Again, I think being able to push for 30 minutes after already running for an hour is really good mental and physical training for the marathon. Overall, I feel really good about where I’m at in training with a little less than two months to go.

Looking Backward:

Colfax Marathon, October 2021 is one of the races I’m most proud of but that doesn’t mean I looked good in the photos. Also, should I bring back the nose ring? Sorry Mom.

A big part of training is looking back at your previous races. During my buildup for Detroit, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking back to last October and the Colfax Marathon. After finishing, I told some people that may have been the best race I’ve ever ran. Ten months later, I think it’s safe to say that it is in the top 5 and is one of the races I’m most proud of. I have been examining why that is.

Here are the numbers: 2:48:53, 6:26 pace, 11th place overall. It was a 4+ minute personal best, despite being on a harder course than my first marathon and at elevation. When I was 18, I used to struggle running 6:26 pace for a five mile race. Now eight years later, I did for 26.2 miles. I came a long way.

But the numbers are only half the story. At mile 16, I saw my brother Cole and his girlfriend Marissa cheering me on. I looked at them and said “I’m in one right now.” Translated from marathon talk that means I was struggling. I felt like shit (by the way, Cole told me after the race he didn’t even know what I said to him there so I must’ve really felt bad.) But here’s the thing, I did not give up. Instead I kept fighting. For the last ten miles, I fought like hell. And anybody who has done that, knows how hard it is. That’s the thing I was proud of.

See, I’ve always felt like I was a little soft most of my running career. In every race, there is a moment when it gets hard for a runner no matter there fitness. In that moment, a runner has to decide whether or not to embrace the pain and keep fighting or shy away from it. The hard part is that when you embrace the pain and keep fighting, you have to consistently keep fighting until the very end of the race if you want to be your best. The majority of the time when I’ve been faced with that decision, I’ve ran away from the pain at some point. But not at Colfax. At Colfax, for ten miles, I fought the pain. Embraced it. Kept fighting. I was rewarded with a new personal best and a borderline top 10 finish at my hometown marathon. But more the real reward was feeling satisfied of my race. Feeling like I gave everything I had that day. That’s the best thing running has ever gave me.

So what does this mean for Detroit? It means that’s how I want to feel when I cross the finish line. In training, I spend time visualizing crossing that finish line knowing I gave everything I had. I visualize getting into the later miles of the race, feeling those heavy legs, and then making the conscious to keep fighting. Making the decision to not give in, making the decision to not run away from the pain. I remind myself that the hard workout days and the days I feel tired are in preparation for me to be ready for the fight on race day.

Employment Search:

I do see running as a reflection of life. I also know this writing is how a lot of people will get updates about my life, including a lot of people I care about. I want to write about more than just life and this is one section where I hope to do that.

For those that don’t know, I recently moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan with my girlfriend Sydney. She is starting school at the University of Michigan in the fall and I wanted to be here with her. Simply put, I think she’s my person.

This move does mean I left my teaching and coaching position I had for five years and I’m unemployed for the first time since graduating college in May 2017. Nobody panic, I am doing just fine.

My plan coming out here was to find a cross country coaching job and then find a job that I could schedule that. The reason is coaching has been my favorite I’ve ever had. I get so much purpose and joy from sharing running with young people and introducing them to the sport I love. Also, I think I’m really good at it. I think I’m far better at it than any other job I’ve had. I want purpose and I want to feel that I’m making a difference when working.

The problem is I did not anticipate how hard it would be to get a coaching job. I have a pretty solid resume but no one knows me in Michigan. I also think a lot of people want to coach. Instead of sulking about it, I know I just have to continue to put in the work to be a better coach. I need to make connections, I need to attend clinics, and continue to put the work in. That’s what running has taught me. After a disappointing result, you can either hang your head or you can go back to work. I choose to go back to work (yes very ironic from an unemployed man.)

Quote:

“Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving… you will come to a better place.” — Uncle Iroh, Avatar: The Last Airbender

If you’ve read my writing before, you know I’m a quotes guy. I recently rewatched Avatar and once again I was reminded how good the show is and how much wisdom Uncle Iroh has. Above is one of his many gems. In both running and life, we go through these tunnels and the key is to keep moving. No matter the obstacles, how hard it is, if we keep moving we will come to a better place.

As always, thanks for reading. Love you ❤

Tucker

--

--

Tucker Horan
Tucker Horan

Written by Tucker Horan

Just a guy who runs and tries to do some writing

No responses yet