Down the Backstretch: You’ve got a streak going at the Superior 50K. Does that keep you coming back or does the race just fit in with your schedule?
Chris Lundstrom: Really
neither. It's just a run that I enjoy doing. I have done it a couple of
times as an over-distance training run leading up to Grandma's
Marathon, and I've also come off of other "peak" races like the Boston
Marathon and the American River 50 mile and just gone out and done what
I could do.
I do think it's a beneficial run in terms of building
fitness and not trashing my body too much. I find I'm sore in really
weird places after Superior, I guess due to the extreme variation in
the terrain. So I'm hurting for a couple of days afterwords, but then I
seem to experience a boost in fitness.
DtB: The reports were that the snow up north had melted by race time, replaced by mud. Was the footing an issue or is it pretty much the same every spring up there?
CL: Every
year is different, but it's usually somewhat muddy. I would say it was
more muddy than usual this year, but not the worst I have seen it.
Sometimes you have downed trees, etc., and that was not an issue this
year. The rocks and roots are a bigger issue as far as footing goes,
and they are always there.
DtB: You’ve done it all, track, roads, mountains, and trails. Any one discipline have an edge over the other? What adjustments do you have to make going from marathon training to ultra training?
CL: I have always enjoyed variety in running. Track has never been my strong suit, or something I've enjoyed as much as the other stuff. I do enjoy track workouts again now, after several years of avoiding them like the plague.
Trails are probably the best fit for my life right now, in
terms of what I get excited about and have the capacity to train for.
Mountain running is great, but living in Minneapolis, training for it
is a challenge, and not particularly enjoyable.
The road marathon has a
special place in my heart, but I hold myself to a pretty high standard
for how fit I want to be before I consider running a marathon. I guess
I am able to move from one thing to the next fairly easily just because
I keep a good mix of stuff in my training -- hills, tempo runs,
intervals, long runs, trails.
DtB: How do you fit in everything that’s “on your plate” right now. New dad, coaching, exercise physiology, eat, sleep?
CL: I just have to prioritize and consciously limit the time I'm putting into particular things. Also,
I have learned to say no. I used to try to do everything that someone
asked me to do, but I can't even try to do that anymore. The
number one priority is my daughter. My academic work, and trying to get
my PhD, was put on hold last fall as I stayed home to take care of
her. I started back up in January, and I really did suffer in terms of
sleep and nutrition. Summer should be much better, as I don't have any teaching responsibilities at the U.
I'm
doing better at carving out time to do the things I want and need to
do. For example, for several months I was just running either on the
treadmill in my house while my daughter was napping, or at night after
she went to sleep. Now, I have three to four days per week where I have a window
of time set aside to run.
It
might not be a lot. Sometimes, I only have an hour, so I'll get right
out the door and put in a good, solid hour. No stretching or messing
around. I do very little easy jogging, and I rarely drive to go run at
different places or even run with other people anymore just because of
the time efficiency element. Workouts
just have to fit in where they can.
I don't have the flexibility to
say: "Oh, I'm not recovered, I'll put it off until tomorrow." Those
windows of time are pretty fixed, so I just have to go for it when I
can. I end up doing a lot of altering of workouts according to how I'm
feeling. By the same token, my racing schedule ends up being dictated
by what I'm able to do in training, rather than setting a goal race and
working back with the ideal schedule of how I will peak for it.
I've
been pleasantly surprised at how well that has worked out. I ran faster
at the Irish Run 8K this year than last year, and faster at Get in Gear
10K than I had run a couple of years ago. Mentally, I think I'm easier
on myself now, so it's freeing in a way. I'm happy to make it to the
starting line when I do, and any performance I can pull off given the
limitations of my life right now seems like a pretty big success. And
frankly, it's a lot of fun and exciting being at races in a way that I
hadn't felt for the last few years.
DtB: Kinesiology is a big thing right now. Coaches are trying to help their athletes become more efficient, faster through better “mechanics.” Do you buy into that or are you still and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” sort of coach when it comes to form?
CL: My
field is exercise physiology, rather than biomechanics, so I haven't
gotten into analyzing joint angles or anything like that. I guess I'm
sort of old school in my approach to mechanics, where you look for
obvious wasted energy and maybe work on reducing those types of
movements. I do encourage runners to do a lot of form drills,
plyometrics, strength exercises, etc., which over time should translate
into more efficient movement. Most people don't like to do that stuff,
but I really do believe in the benefits. But no, I'm not a coach who
spends a lot of time making runners think about their form.
DtB: Has what you’ve learned in your graduate program helped your coaching? Your own running? If so, how?
CL: Ultimately,
yes, but it has also given me some insight into why a purely scientific
mind could be an absolutely terrible coach! I do have a much greater
ability to look at scientific research and understand what the
implications are. But perhaps more importantly, I can also see its
limitations and some of the problems with the way a lot of that
research is conducted.
Researchers and people who read research and
report on it sometimes make these huge jumps in logic based off very
short-term studies that don't have a lot to do with a real world
situation of an athlete training for the length of their career. I will
say that getting a deeper understanding of human physiology has allowed
me to take a broader view of training than I used to, looking at sleep
patterns, seasonal variation, environment, nutrition, and other factors
that could influence the way an individual responds to training.
Ultimately, it's still 90% about what the athlete is telling me, and
that last 10% is my contribution of trying to figure out what else
might be going on. I guess I have a few more tools than I used to,
that's all.
DtB: Do you have any views on the whole “minimalist” movement regarding running footwear? Not that you’d go minimalist, but as something that might be valuable for those you coach?
CL: Wearing
flats or spikes in workouts and doing strides in those type of shoes or
barefoot has long been a part of the culture of serious distance
runners. That's basically a minimalist approach. Some runners do more
than others in lightweight shoes, and some can't handle much at all.
I
tend to encourage athletes to do at least some workouts in their racing
shoes. I also encourage high school runners to start out in a neutral
type of shoe and go with that unless something occurs that suggests
they need more support, while at the same time doing some of the
auxiliary strengthening exercises that will hopefully guard against
injury.
My personal view is that unless an individual is walking around
all day barefoot or in a minimalist shoe (which is unlikely, living in
Minnesota), it is asking for trouble to put them in a lower heeled or
minimalist shoe for their run. The run is the most stressful activity
they'll do on most days. They don't need the added stress of
lengthening their achilles and taking away the arch support, etc. that
they've had the rest of the day.
DtB: Many coaches see the profession as something of an exercise in making oneself obsolescent—i.e. you teach your athletes how to coach themselves. Is that your philosophy, or do you see the coach/athlete relationship as something that can last for an athlete’s full career?
CL: To
a degree, yes. Even with my high school runners, by the end of the
season, I hope that they don't feel like they need me there two minutes
before the race telling them exactly what to do. Coaching is basically
education, and the best education is about giving people tools to work
with.
However, there's still a role for the coach beyond those basics,
and I'm finding that the most rewarding relationships are those that go
for years. I do feel like many of the athletes that I have coached for
more than a couple of years probably could guess what the training is
going to look like, and I believe that they would make good decisions
about what to do without me writing their program.
However, there are
always new situations that people encounter in their running career. I
coach a lot of athletes who are in their mid- to late-30's and 40's,
and might be finding that their body doesn't respond exactly how it
used to, so they need to change something. Or athletes continue to
build their aerobic fitness year after year, and can gradually handle
workouts that I would not have suggested when I started coaching them.
Other times, it's just new situations or opportunities that crop up,
and an athlete needs someone who knows them to bounce ideas off of, and
help them make some decisions. I'm definitely interested in the
evolution of the individual, not just as they reach the peak of their
career, but also as they sit at that high point and look around
wondering what's next, and as their life changes and the role that
running plays changes.
It's just as interesting to me to figure out how
to help someone be their best on six hours per week as it is to coach a
professional-type of athlete who has all the time in the world to
dedicate to running.
DtB: Any running “bucket list” for you in terms of things you still want to do as an athlete?
CL: Nothing
definite, though I do think it would be fun to complete some of the
classic trail ultras at some point in my life. JFK 50 miler, for
example. I also have always wanted to win a USATF National
Championship. That's clearly not going to happen in any shorter
distance race at this point, so maybe I'll go after that at an ultra
distance at some point soon, or maybe that'll be something I try for as
a masters runner.
I'm currently feeling like I might want to train for
a road marathon again. It's been a year and a half since the last
Olympic Trials, which was my last marathon, and I definitely needed a
break. But I'm starting to get the itch to give it another go. So,
if the summer goes well, I'll probably run Twin Cities in the fall. I
just enjoy being around the amazing running community in the Twin
Cities and Minnesota, and as long as I can keep doing that, I'll be
pretty happy.
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