 your racing times get faster over the past two to three years. I'm always talking about patience as runners. The hay is in the barn as the saying goes, okay, today's run the last longer run of this entire Humberg now DGR virtual races, the marathon races that are coming up this weekend. It's amazing. Who would have thunked at the beginning of this training block in January that, oh gosh, nobody could have predicted what's happening right now. But sure enough, this is the reality and we're going to get this marathon done together. Half marathon, 10K, 5K, it's exciting. So today I didn't do any filming because I needed to be efficient. Also, I want to dive right into the half marathon discussion, how I was able to drop my time so much over the past 18 months. I'll get into that in a minute. But first, today's run was the last six miles of my marathon course for Sunday morning. And by the way, isn't it kind of nice? You don't think about it, but sometimes getting to the starting line of a race can be a little stressful at times. Maybe you hit traffic on the way. Maybe you oversleep. Who knows? Maybe you can't find your bib number. But on Sunday, for me, Sunday morning, you can get out the door whenever you want. You know what? Coffee, it's going to be nice. So anyway, here we go. So last six miles, about seven minutes a mile for today's run for 12 miles. So I went out six miles and then back six miles and I feel so confident now. In the course, it feels like a huge relief. Again, I'm a big fan of previewing the course as much of the course as possible. And now I've previewed the entire 26 miles from this entire training block, just kind of taking it section by section. So I feel good and it's a good mental relief knowing that I'm not going to get lost. And yeah. So anyway, I'm excited. Hope you're excited. Oh my goodness. I think we're about to pass 2,000 registered runners. So it's amazing. So obviously you all are spreading the word because the registrations keep going up. And I want to give you a little background as to how, what I believe, I've been able to go from that 111, 112 range for my half marathon PR in late 2018 to 18 months later. Fast forward to the present to basically a 106, 107 half marathon PR. Like what's going on here? Considering again, I'm not really a speed guy. Okay. So let me give you a little background real quick. And you know, forgive me if you've heard this before, but I think it's important because there's always new subscribers coming on board. Welcome by the way. But I want to give you the background on my time at the University of Colorado and then transitioning to the mountain running and then transitioning to the US Olympic trials, et cetera, et cetera, attempting to get to the US Olympic trials. Okay. Here we go. So I went to, I walked on to the University of Colorado's cross country and track team in 2005. My sophomore year of college, I was, I went more, let me on somehow, but he let me on. And I went from 65. So when I walked onto the team for all the high schoolers out there watching just so you know, I was training right at about 70 miles a week. Okay. That was the volume I was training at per week when I walked on. All right. Just so you know. And then over the next three to four years, wetmore built my volume up slowly, very smart. Okay. Basically 10 miles per year. So from 70 to 80, 80 to 90. And then eventually landing in that 90 to 100 miles a week range as a senior at the University of Colorado. All right. And then I graduated, took time off, but I decided to hop in a half marathon. And this is where it gets crazy everybody, but I hopped in a half marathon, the Colfax half marathon here at Elevation here in Denver. And I think I ran, I already, I showed this to you a couple of weeks ago, but I think I ran like 119, you know, not very fast for me. I ran 119 training at about 40 miles a week. So again, pretty low volume after the University of Colorado. And again, I just needed a break. Now what's crazy is that after that half marathon everybody, my next road race. And I do believe I'm correct in saying this. I was just really going back into the archive and looking at Strava, looking at all my bib numbers. My next road race was nine years later at the Amsterdam marathon. What is crazy? So after that half marathon, I frankly everybody, I took two to three years of time off and very, very, very, very low volume running, meaning 10 miles a week, 30 miles a week. I needed a mental and physical break. And I'm so glad that I did. Yeah, I just, I just needed a break. And, you know, also I was getting married and having, you know, Joseph was born and buying a house and all these things are happening. So I was just not running very much. I believe it was two to three years. Fast forwarding to 2016, 2017, roughly. My brother, Joseph, shout out to Joseph. He basically, I'm giving him a lot of credit because he kind of, he basically kind of reignited my passion for running. He kind of gave me the spark again by basically inviting me to discover mountain running, particularly through this adventure called Nolan's 14. Okay, here's some footage of us training for Nolan's 14. It's a crazy mountain adventure. I've got vlogs on it here on the channel. And through that invitation, I really kind of, I rediscovered that wait a minute, I can kind of still run decent and pretty fast. So I started to do mountain running and mountain racing, the Pikes Peak Ascent. But keep in mind, like this is seven years removed from the University of Colorado. Okay, now fast forwarding again to late 2018. This is, this is all coming to a head here. Okay, bear with me. So, and I tell you this backstory just so you have the full picture on my half marathon progression too. All right, so here's what's actually, this is hilarious. All right, you ready for this? You ready for this? So here is a half of my original Nike Vaporfly 4% flying it. This is amazing. So the shoe is released, you know, the Breaking 2 project with Kipchoge. It's a big deal. The carbon fiber plate, you know, revolution is happening in the running scene. By the way, I'm doing daily vlogging from 2016 to the present. So all this old footage I have. And so this is when I just started to make the transition on this YouTube channel a little more focused on running. Okay, and frankly, I'm going to say like the 4% flying it was a big reason that I think a lot of runners discovered this channel because people were intrigued by the shoe. So I decided after doing mountain running for years at that point, like big mountain running, why don't I see what? And I was not ready for going out and racing a marathon mentally or physically, but I did say to myself, okay, I'm going to go to Wash Park in Denver, lace up in the 4% and just see what I couldn't do. All right. So I believe in that time trial, I'm going to try and find it on Strava. I believe I ran right around a 111. Okay, roughly. All right. There it is on your screen if I can find it on Strava. And I was ecstatic because I was going from a 118, 119 half marathon down to a 111. Like I was very, very happy with that. So that was 2018. And now transitioning to the present. Well, fast forward a year to 2019. I actually get serious about, kind of serious about road racing and I tell myself, you all saw the whole story unfold in 2019, me attempting to qualify for the US Olympic team trials in the marathon. You know the story. I did not run 219. First of all, the Cleveland marathon ended up with a foot injury and then going to Amsterdam, running the 106.53 at sea level. I should also clear, you know, Denver's at elevation. So I've heard that from Denver down to sea level, you can get around, you know, people are pretty generous. I think it's closer to, closer to about six minutes, six seconds per mile. Some people say it's like eight seconds, maybe even 10 seconds per mile. I don't know. Anyway, you can run faster at sea level is the bottom line. So I ran 106.53 through the first half marathon in Amsterdam, Jason Butter. And I felt very, very, I was, I was again, blown, blown away that I was able to go from that 111 range down to 106. Well, now in this marathon training block, what was it three weeks ago? I did the time trial here solo at elevation and managed to run a 107.20. All right. So there's the backstory. Now I want to talk to you about how I think that I've been able to do this. What I believe is really, really helping me drop my half marathon time so, so much. And again, this is not going to be quite as applicable to 5Ks and 10Ks, but definitely to, if you're passionate about running faster for half marathons and marathons, this has been what has worked for me. I've increased my aerobic capacity, meaning my endurance, my stamina. Also, you know, I know I live at elevation. I feel fortunate about that. I know some people don't live at elevation. Even though I do think you can seek out elevation wherever you might live, like even in like, okay, I'm just going to throw out like Georgia. I know Georgia has some hills and I know it's not high altitude, but even just seeking out vertical, I think is a great, great thing for running. So I think one reason that I've been running faster over the past 18 months, dropping my half marathon PR time is I'm going to call it my old man strength, right? There you go. Old man strength. What do I mean by that? I don't mean doing squats in the gym. I don't mean, frankly, doing any heavy weights in the gym. I mean, getting into the mountains, seeking out vertical. Yeah, that type of running, okay? Now, I'm going to put a caveat on that in a second, all right? So that's point number one is old man strength. Like I'm getting stronger. Like at the University of Colorado, we lifted. And I was, I thought I was pretty strong, but I'm telling you, everybody, the vertical experience over the past four years, I feel, I just feel in control of my body, if that may, I feel in control of my stride. It's such a, it's a balance. It's not, you know, it's not gym strength. It's, I'm not a professional lifting coach and I'm not using the right terminology. But anyway, I just want to put it out there. Like I feel in control of my, of my stride of my body. Okay, that's point number one. Point number two. Yes, you know the drill. Long threshold runs. Long threshold runs. Okay, so what do I mean? You know threshold runs. So to find your threshold pace, you take your 5K PR, you divide it by three to get your mile average pace. And then you add that. Okay, you add 15 to 20 seconds. I like to keep it actually a little, a little closer, more of that 10 to 15 seconds. So if you run, let's just throw out 21 minutes for your 5K PR. That would be seven minutes a mile. So then your threshold pace would be about 720 to 730 per mile for your workouts. Okay. And what do I mean by long threshold runs? So for Amsterdam, my long threshold run was a half marathon. That was my, quote unquote, tune up race leading into the Amsterdam marathon. And sure enough, I ended up breaking my half marathon PR by a lot. Granted, I was at sea level and on a very, very flat course. Okay. So long threshold runs is point number two. Point number three. Oh yeah, long runs. But I mean extra long runs. Okay. In college at CU, we did 20 mile long runs basically every Sunday. 18 to 20, the seniors did 20, sometimes 21. But now I am discovering as I've gotten older and stronger and after years and years of being patient, that is a big hashtag patience. I feel really, really confident that my new long run distance getting ready for marathons and half marathons is no longer, you often hear 20, you know, you want to get your Boston qualifier. You need to run at least 20 miles in your long runs. I think that's great. But I think over time, and I'm talking years and years, that can be bumped up to that 21 to 23 range for your long runs. And frankly, I feel really confident going into the half marathon, the marathon this Sunday because I hit three 23 mile long runs in this training block. So anyway, just putting that out there. I'm really a big proponent of long, long run and point number four. Consistent plyometrics. All right. Consistent plyometrics. Absolutely. Whether it's in the gym, whether it's in a park, wherever you're at. Again, going back to your form. I am so excited for racing in the future. And I'm going to race on Sunday, of course, but racing against other runners in person, just to see how my form and my stride and my foot strike and cadence and all of that that goes into our biomechanics as runners, how we move our body, our arms, our legs, how we hold our head in position, how it will work against other runners on the starting line. Okay. So that is my fourth point is plyometrics. It's been so, and I have not been perfect. I'm going to be honest. I have not been perfect over the past, let's say 12 months of sticking to my plyometrics as consistently as I would like, but I aspire, right? We're always aspiring as runners to get better and better. So that's my fourth point. Once again, stronger, not gym strength, just stronger. Okay. A long threshold runs, long, long runs and plyometrics. Now I'm going to put a big, a big note down here. Notice I did not say interval training. Why? Because that has not been my reality. I have not done interval training very much. Although I'm excited to do more. Okay. Dabble more. I'm just talking about 111 to 106, 107. Now, if I want to go from 106, 107 down to 104, maybe I'm going to need to incorporate more interval training into my next training blocks in the future. But right now I have done everybody less than, less than 10 interval sessions over the past 18 months. Okay. So again, you all know, like if you watch consistently, I'm not a big proponent of interval training. I'm more of a proponent of aerobic capacity, long runs, of course threshold runs. And yes. So anyway, I just want to put that, I was trying to think of something else, but it's really, that's how simple I have kept it over the past eight months for my half marathon progression. And so with all that said, I know I just talked for a long time. Thanks for listening to that. But I hope you have a better grasp now on what I'm doing and kind of giving you more of that bigger picture, really 30,000 foot view from the University of Colorado, all the way to the present, mixing in the mountains in the process and now transitioning to the roads and just seeing like, okay, what's working and what have I not been doing as well? Question of the day. And I realize we're all at different stages of life, different stages of training, but I do want to ask, are you seeing your racing times get faster over the past two to three years? I'm always talking about patience as runners. And so that's why I want to look at the bigger picture, a two to three year window. Do you see your times getting faster? Because it is a game of patience, as I'm always saying, that's the question of the day. I'll be curious to hear, and if you want to share a little bit about your training philosophy, how you train, let me know down in the comments. Thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. Half marathon PRs, onward and upward. Hey, hey, if you want to toss out your half marathon PR, I should have asked that as well. If you want to toss out your half marathon PR, please do, please do. All right, butter my bread, onward and upward. We're going to toss it back to, we'll toss it back to the 4% testing, testing out the 4% back in the day. There it is, there it is. If you want to go back into the archive, oh man, good times, good times on YouTube. All right, thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. See beauty, work hard, and love each other. See you tomorrow.