Jonathan Pierce's Journal

May 22, 2008 (Posted May 27, 2008)

I’ve been procrastinating writing this journal for quite some time now, planning that I would have some sort of big-time racing breakthrough to discuss. Unfortunately, instead I’ve spent the past few weeks with my tail between my legs, frustrated with sub- par performances and some slight injury troubles. It is truly amazing how quickly the tide can change in this business because it seems like just yesterday I was cheerily packing and heading off to World Cross ready to take on the World (literally and figuratively) and then about a month later was down in the dumps, worried that my season was ruined and getting pep talks from just about anyone who would listen to me grumble. Now is the time to write this because things are coming around again and I’m gaining more perspective on the first part of my spring. Now, where to start?

Ah World Cross-, of course! Scotland was a great trip but it was definitely a rude awakening, and while I didn’t race as well as I thought I should, it wasn’t a necessarily a blowup. I wrote it off as a good learning experience and returned to the Appalachians ready for bigger and better things and races. The only problem was that my calves and plantar, which had been a little stressed before, got really tight and sore after running in all that mud with long spikes. I took a down week and then starting gearing up in a serious way for the 10,000 at Cardinal Invite, intent on knocking off my first Trials qualifier of ’08. The training went seemingly very well, I was running well into the 110 mpw range and feeling strong in workouts but my right plantar was still nagging me. It was manageable though (with lots of ice, massage, and other treatments) and waited until about lap five of the race to really get bad.

I’m not trying to use an injury as an excuse for my mediocre performance of 28:43 (a pr so far) but I was trying to run much faster. I really thought I could but instead of buckling down and racing, spent the whole time getting reacquainted with how hard the 10K is and trying to not think about my foot and dropping out. Moral of the story, I needed to fix this plantar, but mostly get back into competitive track mode.

So that brings the timeline well into May, and I spent the next week recovering and getting treatments. The most helpful of these was a two-hour session with an osteopath in Asheville whom I’m pretty sure is a miracle worker. He adjusted my hip and more importantly my ankle and immediately my foot started feeling better. Between the adjustments and a cortisone shot things started to really turn the corner and we hesitantly decided to enter a steeple at Georgia Tech to get a rust buster (it’s been two years) before I run a fast one.

Typically I do not open very well in the steeplechase and the race last Friday night was no exception, but I was able to run the whole race without any problems and I’m having a great week of training coming off of it. My next race will be a steeple at the Reebok Grand Prix and I’m excited to get back to my home state and rip a good one. I am trying a new approach these next few weeks as pressure mounts and the Olympic Trials loom ominously for those of us without qualifiers. I realized today that I am not going to worry about times and numbers on a list but instead just maximize what I can do and race well. It’s very easy to get carried away at this point but I like this time of year because of the excitement. I know I’ll run to my potential and if that’s not enough to get me to Eugene then I simply don’t deserve to be there and that’s that, however I’m confident this isn’t the case. I’m honestly not interested in just making it to Eugene, but more in what I can accomplish there. It’s an exciting time to be fit and feeling fast, maybe next time I’ll have that breakthrough to write about!

March 20, 2008 (Posted March 25, 2008)

Since my last entry a lot of things have been happening, and it seems like much longer than a month has past. I’ve traveled to Ireland and New York City, run three races and gotten in some really good training so its been a pretty good use of time I suppose.

I had a really good time with the trip to Ireland, which ended up being a pretty good cultural experience in addition to the racing. The first race over there was a road 5000 six days after US cross. Unfortunately, I made a foolish tactical mistake and ended up getting worked pretty well, finishing eighth in 14:15. The cross country race, Ras na hEireann went much better as I finished fourth over the 6K distance. The American team, composed of Pat Tarpy, Ryan Warrenburg, Thomas Morgan, Jeff Caron, Christian Hesch and myself won both team titles, which was also nice. The event was part of their sport and culture week, sponsored by the Irish Government and Tourism counsel. I was really impressed with the way that the town of Armagh and other local communities pulled together to support this event. They were terrific hosts and I’ve rarely felt so welcomed or appreciated anywhere. The highlights for me were mingling around with locals in the town hall after the races eating sandwiches and drinking hot tea, attending various musical performances of traditional Irish folk music, and the huge spread at breakfast every morning (which of course included blood sausage).

After the 24 hours of travel home which included several delays I spent a low key week getting readjusted to being at ZAP (after about seven weeks away) and hanging out with my girlfriend before she returned to Michigan. Since then I’ve had a few really good weeks of training, hitting upper 90s for volume with some good workouts. I also ran in the US 8K championships last weekend in Central Park and had a solid result finishing 12th in 23:21. I had hoped to do a little better but the field was quite strong and it was a tough race, I remember feeling like I was practically sprinting while getting dropped and looking up at the pace car, realizing that I had at least ten more minutes left to run, Uhoh!! The New York Road Runners were amazing hosts and I felt spoiled the whole time I was there, so naturally I can’t wait to go back. All in all it was another new positive race experience for me and as Pete often reminds me, I’m healthy and ready to roll for this upcoming track season, which is the most important thing.

Finally, the other recent notable is that I’ve been selected for the World Cross team after all. I had completely forgotten about it and was gearing up for a 10K at Stanford when we got the call last week. I’m really excited to be on my first national team but it’s not under the circumstances that I would have wished for, with Dathan having to pull out. I wish him a quick and full recovery but in the meantime I’m ready to step up and represent the US as best I can. World cross country is one race that I’d made a goal of being in at some point in my career so its somewhat of a coup to be there my first year out of college. My training hasn’t changed much with the new racing schedule because what we’re doing this time of year is great prep for 12K cross country (mostly lots of hills and long threshold work) but I’ll be on the grass a bit more the next few days with my last key session Tuesday before I leave.

Overall, I’m pretty content with my season thus far but there’s tons more work to do and a lot more to accomplish this season so with that in mind, I’m going to wrap up and go to bed. Bring on Scotland!

February 18, 2008 (Posted February 20, 2008)

USA Cross Thoughts

As I write this I’m on the way back from Atlanta to Charlotte after traveling back there yesterday from San Diego. The past few days have been a blur of activity and fatigue, so it’s nice to be feeling rested and get a chance to reflect on the weekend at the USA Cross Country Championships. While it looks like I came up just short of my goal, which was to qualify for Worlds, it was still a great experience and I’m pretty pleased with how I ran (11th-place in 36:18). It was a tough race, and being my first 12k I was trying to be patient and stay relaxed early on. I spent most of the first half in the teens and then moved up into 10th or so, which was exactly my plan. I then spent the second half battling in 10th or 11th with Scott Bauhs and Andrew Carlson and some others. I remember mostly just trying the whole time to relax but also gain on people in front but not succeeding because the chase pack had broken quite a gap open. If I could do it over I probably should have been more aggressive to go out with that group. Still though, I executed just about as well as I could have at the time so I cannot be too disappointed. I simply need to raise the expectations for next time and use the experience to my benefit.

Leading up to the race my training had been going pretty well, despite having a bad week when I got the flu a few weeks ago. We were fortunate to spend the past five weeks in Tallahassee so it was easy to log the miles and run on grass, but still I didn’t do many impressive workouts while we were there, mostly because the aftereffects of my sickness held me back when I tried to run hard. I went into the race having run only one workout that I felt was better than average in about four weeks of training.

One lesson that really stood out from this weekend is that consistency in training trumps anything you can do in one single week or one particular session. Usually I would be running more impressive workouts but would be tired a lot of the time. The past few weeks I was consistently over 95 miles per week and didn’t even taper down for the race like I normally might have in the past.

Moving forward from here will be exciting because I know I’m in great shape and ready for more breakthroughs. I’m leaving tonight to head over to Ireland for a 5K road race on the 21st and one more cross country race for the year (6K at Ras na HEireann) on Sunday the 24th. I’m also planning to run the USA 8K championships in NY as a tune-up for an early 10,000 out west where I’ll kick off the track season. After this weekend I’m really anxious to get back out and race again, luckily I don’t have to wait that long.

Introductory Entry (Posted January 2, 2008)

My first few months as a post-collegiate athlete have been rewarding and the transition has almost gone smoother than I’d hoped. Coming off a frustrating past year it’s been a refreshing change to move into the mountains and simplify things a bit. Still I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about living in what I considered to be the Deep South, and having nothing but running to focus on. Even though I haven’t been at it that long, I think I’m learning some valuable lessons about running professionally, the biggest one being patience. I need more patience in training but also in my approach to running. My coach, Pete, is always working on me to think more long term and be patient, which is a hard thing to do.

As a collegiate athlete there is so much racing to do in nine short months that it’s hard to build a real base, something I didn’t appreciate really until this fall. I’m used to always having another big race or season looming immediately so it’s easy to stay “up” all the time, which in the end I find pretty exhausting. I think professionals need to be more intrinsically motivated and keep an even keel most of the time, which is what I’m trying to work on. I also think that’s where having a training group like ZAP comes in and I’m fortunate to be here.

The training this fall has gone very well. I mostly did a three-week cycle of two weeks up around a hundred miles, then one down around seventy-five to eighty. We focused on base work, staying injury free and did lots of tempo, fartlek, and long-sustained hilly runs. My favorite workout was run up this mountain to a fire tower that lasts about 31-32 minutes and climbs steadily the whole way with switchbacks at the end. In October we did lactate-threshold testing in our lab. I hadn’t done that before so I’ll be interested to see how much I improve when we test again in the spring. Other highlights of the fall were having the Texas team come to visit, hang out and race in a local meet, winning USATF club nationals, and our nightly, post-dinner foosball battles (Joe Driscoll and I crushed).

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming season and all the training that comes with it. We’ll be in Tallahassee for about five weeks in January and February for winter camp and it seems that it’s going to be the place to be with other groups down there as well. Also, I’m about to kick off the Olympic year in style in a few hours as I’m in New York City to run in the Emerald Nuts Midnight 4 miler put on by the New York Road Runners.

It’s an exciting time to be a young distance runner in America and I’m constantly looking forward to all the things to come, but with a patient mind of course.