Goucher beats Chad Ware into 2nd - Ware ran 2.20 this year - Is Goucher in that shape?

Great Race Chad!! Thanks for sharing! Your story is really inspiring to some of us less speady/more endurance type guys. I was wondering if you would share your tapering strategy? I also prefer high mileage and training through all pre-marathon races but have yet to find a good taper from 120-130 mile weeks. Thanks and have a great wedding!

ian

I figured I would jump into the posting since I ran the first 5 miles of Sundays race with Kara's group and finished 5th overall in the race. I talked with Chad and Kara after the race and I must say that they are both very impressive individuals. Kara will be the best in the World in the marathon either this year or in the next few years. Chad will reach his goal of the 2012 Olympic Trials and hopefully I will be in that select group as well. I was thinking on my run this afternoon about whether to post or not and I think this forum should be about elites, sub elites, sub zero elites, masters, regular runners and couch potatoes all setting goals and reaching those goals. The great aspect of our sport is that anyone can sign up for a race and run with the Michael Jordan's of our sport (Kara Goucher, Ryan Hall, Frank Shorter).

I ran competitively in High School and was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to run at IU-Blooomington in college. I threw that opportunity away after one semester to party and pursue other interests. I regret every minute of that decision, but I am lucky that two years ago my wife inspired me to pursue my endurance gifts again. At 26 I decided to train for a Ironman event in Austin, TX. I dropped my weight from 205 to 165 in the process and after completing the Ironman I decided to jump into the 07 San Antonio Marathon. After that experience and watching the 08 Trials I started to believe that I might have a shot at 2012. I had already signed up for Ironman CA in March of 2008 so I continued to train for tri's, but after that Ironman 70.3 I decided it was time to devote 100% of my efforts to running. Last summer I started with 50 miles a week and graduallly built up to 70 by the end of 2008. This year I started to build again from 70-80 a week up to 90 and now 100-110 miles per week. I am working with a great coach now and I am on track to meet my short term and long term goals. My short term goal was to qualify for then elite Top 100 corral at the full Chicago in October. The time to hit for that qualifier was a 1:11 or better half marathon and I just made it with a 70:33. I am so pumped that in October I will be escorted to the front of the race to start with Sammy Wanjiru and the other superstars!

I share my story to maybe inspire others to get out and train hard to achieve your goals. Two years ago I was 205 pounds of pure overweight happy hour guy---meaning I was working, stressing, drinking and not trying to be the best I could be in any aspect of life. Now I am 145 pounds, fit, healthy, happy and training over 100 miles a week to see how far I can go in this great sport.

Get up and get after your GOALS!

Thanks for that inspiring post,Dan. This is the kind of information that should fill this forum. Good Luck!

P-O-D*!

*D=Decade.

Thanks for the contribution, Dan. Great story, and you've got the right attitude.

Dan, best wishes in your quest. Trai consistently and keep progressing slowly. A very inspiring post!

gonna bump it because i want to hear more from chad!

Chad,

How did the wedding go and are you now on your honeymoon?

If so - how much are you training?

I would also like to hear about the reasons behind your taper and how you are coached?

Wedding was great. On the honeymoon in Breckenridge. Getting 2 runs in/day at about an hour each (not too worried about actual distance based on the mountains and altitude).

I just try to run as much as possible and taper for marathons, so I don't taper much for other races, as I was saying earlier. I will drop down to 70 or 80 miles the week before a marathon. I tend to run better when I am running a fair amount, so dropping down much more than that has made me sluggish. Gotta go.

About my coach, I will share what I can about who coaches me and some of the things we do, without getting into too many details:

Tony Houchin, the cross country coach at UNLV, is my coach, and has been since I graduated from Butler. He was one of the assistant coaches for my first year of competitive running (my sophomore year of college), and I linked back up with him once I finished my time as a Bulldog. He was the coach at McNeese State for a while between his time at Butler and UNLV.

Tony sends me my workouts over the internet and we talk through instant message or occasionally over the phone, and I keep a record of all of my runs (especially specific splits, weather, and feel for hard workouts) so that he can easily view them. While seeing my coach face-to-face would be ideal, this system has worked well given the circumstances, and I would not trade the relationship I have with Tony nor the improvement that I have made under him for anything else. We bounce a lot of ideas off of each other, and my workout schedule (2 days easy to recover from every 1 hard day) has been one of the results of working together to figure out what works for me and what does not.

Usually I plan my race schedule based on school, Army obligations, and the races I want to run, and Tony structures my workouts around all of that. Tony has also helped me develop my speed to bring me from being a 15:25 5k guy to 14:45, but that is still my biggest weakness.

Not that anything is top-secret, but I do not want to get into too many nuts and bolts of my workouts other than to say that they involve a healthy dose of "tempo" runs, marathon specific long runs, and track intervals. Another part of the equation is that I usually double every day except the long run day. This helps me get up to 120-130 mpw. I also do a fair amount of core stability and weight-lifting. I thank God for limiting my injuries thus far, as many people do not handle that volume as well. I am in no way saying that I cannot get injured, but the fact that I haven't has been a blessing.

I hope that answers any questions about my coach and how he and I work together.

Thanks again for being interested. I never knew a thread involving me would catch fire as this has. I hope it can be an inspiration to some people who are looking to improve and are willing to put in the time and energy to do so.

God bless!

Chad

Thanks Chad.

Great info on your running and it is inspiring to see someone improve so vastly 'AFTER' college. I am always inspired by what Weldon Johnson did after college in the 10km and think that, although the NCAA system is great for creating team spirit and providing race opportunities, it can also be a hindrance to some of those athletes who aren't quite caught up when they get to college. Basically, a lot of talented runners get to college and are always playing catch up to the top 6 or 7. Therefore most training is based on guys a lot faster and the guys in the background never get a chance to build up or progress at a rate that suits them.

It must have been tough at Butler as I know you had all the British guys on the team who were older and already established.

Does Tony Houchin coach anyone else outside of UNLV?

Also, what is next in your racing schedule?

I figure I may as well chime in here.

Part of Chad's story that he doesn't tell is that he didn't run in high school. He was a baseball player... a baseball player who ran 11:50 for a two mile time trial. That's the extent of his running. He has come such a long way... and he's done so by living the life. He has exhibited a level of dedication that I haven't seen almost at all in any endeavor. I knew when he approached me after he graduated that he would live a spartan lifestyle (based on his conduct at Butler)... and I LOVE THAT!!! I don't see any problem with putting all your eggs in one basket. See how great you can be. You don't want to look back when you're 50 and say you woulda/coulda/shoulda... decide to be great and trust that you've made the right decision. Chad has made that decision and the results have been nothing short of amazing. Also consider... Chad has never (and I'm not saying he can't) broken 60 for 400m. If everyone showed the discipline/passion/dedication that Chad has... where would they/we be in distance running?

In response to your question as to whether I coach anyone else... I do.

I coach my wife Mary Houchin (formerly Duerbeck). She ran at Arizona State University. Walt Drenth (an amazing coach) developed her from a 5:22/11:42 runner 16:23i/33:53 runner her 5th year. More importantly... he instilled the love for the sport... and empowered her with the knowledge/discipline/work ethic to pursue it afterwards. Look at all the successful post-collegian athletes/NCAA Coaches that have been in contact with Walt (Jason Dunn/Stanford; Corey Ihmels/Iowa State; Kelly Strong/Washington; Louie Q/ASU; Jeremy Rassmussen/Illinois)... AMAZING. Anyways... Mary and I met in Indianapolis when I was at Butler University (working for one of my now best friends Joe Franklin, who is now at New Mexico... who is also an amazing coach). I started coaching her shortly thereafter and she's made two US teams for the NACAC Cross Champs and one US World Cross Country team.

I also coach Damien Bateman. He's an Irishman that I coached at McNeese State in Lake Charles, LA. When I started coaching him he had only run 3:53/15:25. But this was his passion... he really wanted to get better and was willing to put the work necessary in to do that. He has since run 3:44/13:52, all in about 2 years of working together.

Chad, Damien and Mary are three of the most dedicated athletes I've ever been around. I can only hope I come into contact with athletes that have been as much fun to coach as these three have been. My coach/athlete relationship with these three (uh... as well as the husband/wife relationship with Mary, ha!) has really kept me going during the tough times I've had in coaching over the past several years.

There are a few others I work with but these have put out the most notable results.

And there will probably be the haters out there that will point out the performances of UNLV in the past (even recent past)... well, look at where UNLV was when I showed up and where we are now. When I got here we had 3 distance runners and fielded the rest of the cross team with long jumpers/sprinters. It's been a building process... but we're way better than we were, and I think this will be a significantly better year than any of the previous three that I've been here.

And if you (you being ANYONE) are ever in Las Vegas, drop me a line. There's amazing running to be done here. You just have to drive to it.

If you want to know more about me, UNLV, Las Vegas or anything... you can email me at

anthony.houchin@unlv.edu

Man I went off on a lot of tangents... I can ramble on, huh?

Isn't Courtney Allen (one of the top runners in Northern California) running at UNLV?

Yes. She is one of the incoming freshmen we have this year.

anthony.houchin@unlv.edu

UNLV is a party school

Tony, good to have another coach on this forum.

Is there any insight into your training you could share with us? Why have Chad and Damien improved so well in what is a relative short time of space?

i.e any secrets to success.

I'm glad tony answered that because he clearly knows more about his other athletes than I do.

About my racing schedule:

I am running a small 10k tomorrow (Dekalb Cornfest 10k), mostly looking for a win, maybe a PR if I have a good day. I may do another race or two in September. I would like one of those to be the Chicago Half Marathon on September 13, but if I don't get a comp entry, I might not run it because it is another high-entry-fee-no-prize-money race for which this newly wed grad student does not want to pay (just telling you how I feel).

But the only big race on my schedule right now is the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 11. That date is circled in red in the virtual calendar in my head. Sub 2:19 or bust. I pray that God keeps me healthy and I run for his glory, whether I hit the time or not. Not that I am super talented, but I believe God has blessed me with the ability to run and run well, so I am going to keep going for this running thing until he calls me in a different direction.

Chad, thanks for posting of all this. Your story is inspiring for those of us who entered into the running scene late.

Good luck at Chicago and congrats for the wedding.

Kara Goucher does have very good potential in the marathon but her training was wrong for a world championships style race.