By Sam Winebaum
I have been running for 48 years. It just seems like yesterday when a very, very unathletic kid whose passion was archaeology and reading had to “pick” a sport. My high school required athletics of some kind five days a week, and putting one foot in front of the other was all I was capable of, literally. I enjoyed hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, so maybe that helped prepare me.
I was very lucky as I had a legendary high school coach, Ralph Lovshin, who for decades scooped up the “leftovers” who weren’t ball team material and developed championship winning cross country and track teams at Phillips Exeter Academy. I was also lucky as the early ’70s were a running boom, and Nike established its first R&D center and manufacturing in my hometown of Exeter, New Hampshire, bringing all kinds of runners to town who became my off-season mentors.
I was launched! My shoe geeky side emerged and flourished as legendary Nike running shoes were created around me, and I got to test and give feedback, leading all the way to today to my RoadTrailRun review site. I also had wonderful mentors who raced with me on New England’s very fast and vibrant road race circuit of the time and took me along for long runs on the road and especially trails.
By my senior year, I hit 100 miles per week, ran a 2:37 marathon, and captained two teams. I was hooked! Four years at Dartmouth College had me on the cross country team to the NCAA DI championships in 1977. It also brought me out on the trails around Hanover, New Hampshire and in the White Mountains on the run and nordic race skis, a sport I picked up there after training with the nordic skiers in the Whites and still my favorite sport (sorry running) and favorite and only winter cross training activity.
In a pretty much drunken stupor, two of us from the track team ran from Moosilauke to Hanover all 50 or so miles of it senior week in under ten hours to break the ski team’s record (as far as we knew), my only “ultra,” but there were just two of us.
Tom (left) and I racing in the 1970s.
As running and moving through the ages is what this essay is all about, Tom Tomai and I, who ran with me in 1979 across New Hampshire, did a 16 mile plus hike overnight leg of the same trail with another old track teammate in a relay with classmates.
Otho another cross country teammate hands off the class flag as (left to right) John, Tom, and Sam set off for the overnight leg.
My running story continued through the decades with time in Sun Valley, Idaho after college, three years of incredible running in the Alps when I lived in Switzerland in the early 1980s where mountain races were all the rage, hundreds of them and mostly shorter and uphill focused. Then reality intruded.
As I worked in a family business 24/7 and had a young family, I gained weight, slept little, and my running faded to jogging. Heck, in less than three years, I went from marathon times in the 2:30’s to barely breaking 4 hours. I was exhausted and really had poor balance in life. I kept at it, but it was painful and discouraging. I knew, though, that running was my solace no matter what. And it was sort of.
As I approached my 50’s and after several tech oriented startups, I made a change. I had started writing a blog about tech and occasionally running gear. Some consulting took me for several years to Salt Lake City, and I loved being back in the mountains and on smoother, more clumsy Sam friendly trails. Age and new age groups, the ’50s and ’60s, became something to welcome, not fear. I set a simple goal about ten years ago: break 1:40 for a half as long as possible and occasionally qualify for Boston. I don’t care much for marathon training despite the now dozens of marathons I have run over the years. Mostly I have stuck to this “program” of a half under 1:40 and at 60 ran 1:35 and some change and last year at 62 ran a relatively easy 1:39 flat.
You may note the word “program.” In recent years and really never other than when I was shooting for 100 miles per week in my “youth,” I have never followed a set program in my training. I just consistently run 30 to 40 or so miles per week, six days per week with only one or two harder efforts per week and have done this for many years now with increases to 45 to 50 miles per week during a marathon build up or when running on leg friendly groomed snow trails in Park City. I have found listening to how one feels in the moment, going left instead of right because why not, or going hard all of a sudden as my trusty Garmin Performance Condition metric says +4 or slow if it says -3 is key to running pleasure and longevity. I also closely follow my Nightly Recharge metrics on a Polar Vantage watch, helping inform and often change my day’s plans.
Only three times in 48 years have I had to stop running for more than a week. Two were in the month of April. In both cases, I was in truly superb shape after a winter of running on snow and transitioned to fast running and racing on hilly pavement. A rapid change in terrain was the cause. I believe the vast majority of injuries are caused by a rapid change in terrain, volume, and or intensity. The first “snow to pavement” injury was a stress fracture in 1979, the second, around 2007, Plantars. In agony for close to six months, it went away overnight after running a trail marathon in Utah.
The last stoppage was due to trekking. An overly tight boot day one led to foot problems then eventually knee issues during a 200 mile trek across Switzerland. Three weeks rest and easy running, and it was gone, no PT, shots, etc.
Just give the body time to heal and keep moving as you can is my approach. Add in sleep quality and, to a certain extent, diet (kind of overrated I think beyond balanced) and keep changes to any and all of these parameters reasonable regardless of program, coaches, or training friends, and you will for sure stay healthier. Will you achieve the ultimate performance without stressing yourself? Probably not. Pushing it is good, but ever harder, ever faster and longer day in and day out with the rest of life’s stresses in the mix is a recipe to not making it to the race start line in one piece or at all.
Of course, I have been sore in various places and near injury, but I always “treat” it the same way. Take it easy right away, ease off a bit, don’t go where I had planned. Works every time so far!
The only cross training I do is hiking along with nordic skiing and snowshoe running in winter. I don’t lift weights and don’t ever go to the gym. I have a beautiful Nordic Track treadmill I reviewed a few years ago, rarely used because, in winter, it’s outside for me!
Runners are competitive, and I am too! If I pay the entry fee for a race, I go as hard as I can. In training, I rarely compete with myself or others, training mostly alone, but I love to occasionally run with others, especially faster friends.
“I love exploring new places on the run.”
So what keeps me moving and decently so for an old guy? I love exploring new places on the run. I stop and take pictures if I see something neat or for an article or review. As I wrote this article, an old teammate, a guy originally from the suburbs of somewhere, coincidentally reached out and wrote: “You won’t remember this, but on a distance run before the Heps, it’s you, me and maybe three other guys. We get to a ridge and there’s still some spectacular fall colors and you say “look at that, it really has been a beautiful fall.” I’ve never forgotten that. It taught me to enjoy the experience, something you don’t do as an immature but focused high school runner.” So, run with nothing in the ears, take in what is around you, stop and enjoy nature, and most of the time, keep those runs conversational!
Of course, I am always working on testing shoes and gear for my RoadTrailRun site with my team of 25 plus wonderful testers worldwide. Every run is pretty much a test of something new and maybe different, so I am acutely aware of what I am feeling underfoot. Yes, I do “watch my watch,” but I focus mainly on average pace for the run and current heart rate, and in the mountains, the vertical done and to go.
Do I just daydream and flow along? Of course, I do, but I am also and have become acutely more observant of what is around me. I used to test run audio gear for a major magazine, but now I never run with music or podcasts. I want to hear my breathing, see and hear what’s around me, even take note of the sound or lack of it from a shoe I am testing that day.
I am grateful to (still) put one foot in front of the other and will keep doing so. I am sure I will eventually slow to a walk, but that’s okay!
Keep Exploring! Park City, Utah.
Looking back, what would I tell my younger me?
Enjoy and keep it fun and varied. Running should not be a chore, but sure some days will be tough. As I look back on 48 years of running and still running, I enjoy it as much if not more than the first day when I awkwardly put one foot in front of the other running around the junior high ball field.
Balance. Keep your running and life as balanced as you possibly can. Happiness, fun, health, and results come from that. Don’t try to do too much of “everything” all at once as I attempted to do in college and ended slower as a senior than as a freshman (although I was the last distance runner in my class still competing by the end of senior year).
Be consistent, and make those increases in volume, intensity, or terrain change gradual.
Explore. Go left on that trail or road when your habit is to always go right.
About the Author
Sam is the Editor and Founder of RoadTrailRun. He is a 1:38 half marathoner on a good day and didn’t mind at all going into his 60+ age group in 2017. He has been running for 48 years and has a very, very dated marathon PR of 2:28. Occasionally, he can still run fast as he clocked a 1:35 and change half in 2017 and a 3:40 Boston Marathon qualifier in 2018, a surprise helped along by the Nike Vaporflys. He runs 30 to 40 miles per week along the New Hampshire Seacoast and on Park City, Utah trails. Always a geek, and after a career mostly in technology oriented companies, Sam was also the Senior Contributing Editor for Wearable Fitness Technology and Music at Competitor Magazine and has also written for Motiv Running and China Fire Bulletin.
