The Rebuild, Entry 07: How I Came Back to Running After 7 Years Off

Welcome back to my weekly blog series, The Rebuild, Entry 07! Let's talk about this past week. Also, if you want to check out the beginning, go here: Entry 01!

In this entry, we'll look at my race this past weekend at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and how I'm reflecting on this training block and everything else in the Training Log.

The Number

This week's number is 8, as in the 8 years it took me from when I came back to running in 2011 to when I broke my collegiate 5K and 10K PRs in 2019 in the same race. My half marathon and marathon PRs came a lot more frequently during these years because I did not run those races in high school or college. Breaking the PRs from the races I did run took a long time, a lot of dedication, determination, and mental resilience. I was 38 years old when I broke these PRs, which I set when I was 20, again a reminder that age is just a number and it doesn't really define you at any distance. That said, I could not touch my mile PR no matter how hard I worked, so maybe age did matter a little bit for that particular PR, haha.

The Week

This week's mileage was a good old 0.0 miles of running. It was all rest, more sleep, a lot more food, and a couple of walks here or there. Recovery is so important to me from a physical perspective because my body had a lot of wear and tear going into race day, but also mentally. If I am going to ask my body to continue to chase my potential and grind out more and more training blocks and lock in, then I need to have periods where I can just zone out and not worry at all about running. No part of me is worried that the fitness I created in this training block won't be there to build on when I start the next one. I am 100% confident it'll still be there. The rest here will be the foundation that lets me build on it and stay consistent and locked in with all the hard work in the months ahead. I already have my first race of the winter season lined up, but more on that at a later time.

The Thread

By 2011 I had moved to Maryland and I had really gotten out of shape. Once I stopped running after college, I barely ran at all those 7 years. I still followed the sport, but I did not train or go for runs, and in many ways I stopped exercising altogether and gained a bunch of weight. When I moved to Maryland, I got back into running because other exercises weren't exciting to me and I knew running was something I could do. I had no idea of the trajectory this decision would take me on. In that moment, I just wanted to lose some weight and meet a friend to go for some runs.

Later that year, after getting hooked back in, I decided to run a marathon. I was about to turn 30, I had always had a goal to run one before I turned 30, and I figured I could make this happen. I trained with no clue what I was doing. Someone told me to take fuel during runs, so I grabbed some gels and took them occasionally. My longest run in my build for my first marathon was 15 miles. I didn't do any speed work, and I struggled a lot with the Baltimore summer heat compared to NJ. I also only knew how to be a competitive runner, so I showed up to Wineglass and decided my goal was to BQ, having no clue what that pace felt like. The goal time was 3:10, I thought, although when I got to the starting line I was told they had just changed the standard and it was now 3:05. I said, ah well, I'll just run with that pace group now. The story goes as one would expect. I felt amazing until mile 20 and then rode the struggle bus to the finish. I managed to squeak out a 3:11 first marathon and only took 2 gels because I had no clue what I was doing, but I was hooked. Interestingly enough, about 10 runners from a local running group were also in that race with me and running around me at various times, but I had no clue.

That began the next chapter of my journey. I met my friend Ryan McGrath through Twitter and joined a local running group called Falls Road Running, and I started to make friends in Maryland, something I had been unable to do since moving here in late 2010 because, how do you meet people as an adult? I started meeting up with this group for weekday runs, track workouts, and long runs. I finally got a community back, which was what made running in high school and college so special to me. I had friends to do almost all my runs with, and it was making it easier and easier to get out and do the work. The trickier part was that a large portion of this group were runners who ran similar PRs to me in college but never stopped running. It was very hard at times to see what could have been from my running and not try to rush my fitness back to where they were. In many ways, it was the thing that held me back the most. I tried to rush the process, knowing full well that if I just showed up and did the work, the fitness would come back.

I spent a lot of time doing workouts that were well past my fitness. I might survive some of them with an all-out effort, and in others I would collapse late and blow up. In races I constantly did the same and ended up fading late because I went out too hard. That was in every race except the marathon, where I seemed to have a can't-miss vibe. I ran 6 straight marathon PRs, getting my PR down to 2:37 by 2016. It felt like at that distance, since I didn't have all this baggage from the past messing up my mental game, I was able to just vibe and run great. At all the other distances, I spent my time comparing myself to my past self and running too fast in workouts and races. That was until I finally got my own coach, David Roche, in 2017.

Me at Richmond Half smiling my face off while running a 1:10

David has become quite the amazing coach in the world of running over the last few years, which, let's just say, is no surprise to me. When I started working with him, there were a lot of people who didn't believe in the way he approached things. His emphasis on fun, going by feel, and the mental side of running, or The Happy Runner, as his book with his wife Megan is called, was seen as the exact opposite of the killer mentality you need as a runner chasing their potential. But to me, he was exactly the kind of coach I needed. In fact, one of the first things he worked on with me was to stop doing track workouts and do all my workouts by time and effort instead of focusing on a pace and getting in my head. It was hard to adjust at first, but I found myself becoming much more calm in every workout I did. In a lot of them, I would end up not even knowing what my workout splits were, just that I worked hard. Instantly I felt less anxiety and pressure on myself to perform, and more focus on growth, getting better, and enjoying it all. At my breakout race in Richmond in 2018, I literally ran the entire thing on vibes, since earlier that week I had fallen down my stairs and thought I broke my back. On race day I just ran, with no clue on my time or pace, constantly waving to the crowd and smiling and vibing. I ran a 1:10 half, an almost 4 minute PR. I followed this up at CIM with a 2:30 marathon and the same energy. I had no anxiety going into the race and I knew I was going to run a great race. I literally didn't even really have a goal time. The entire race I ran smiling and engaging with the crowd while others looked on very confused. It had all changed, for the better.

Me after my Marathon PR Spelling my name to the reporter

This chapter taught me so much about my character. I learned how resilient I was, that I could come back from so far lost in running, and that I could work hard throughout my adult life, even while becoming a father. But it taught me most that I can run great and chase my potential without putting immense pressure on myself to do so. In fact, in many ways, the more I took the pressure off myself, the better I got. My calm energy, my smiling, and my good vibes were carrying me to the best races of my life, because in training I could always do the hard work. I was called a practice champ in college for a reason. Everything that happened in this chapter, from comparing myself to older versions of myself and my teammates to wanting to rush the process and constantly failing, gave me the life lessons I needed to lead me to a coach who absolutely met me where I needed to be. It wasn't the training that changed me. It was a person who saw my barriers and helped me work through them and get over the hump. It's why, 9 years after I started working with David, I put such an emphasis on the human side of being a coach, because it can truly change someone. I didn't just grow as a runner. The anxiety I had as a runner was throughout my life outside sport, and as I got calmer in running, it changed me in many ways as a human. To this date, I am still so happy I made the decision to pursue running again as a 29 year old.

Next Week

So that's the story of how my high school and college running set me up to work through so much in chapter 2 as I made my way back. In 2019 I finally broke my 5K and 10K PRs, but the story above is how I was finally able to do it after all those years. For next week's article, I will get behind the desk and talk about run coaching and how working with my running coach changed so much about me as a runner and as a coach. So stay tuned for all of that, and I'll see ya next week!

Also, if you're looking for a 1:1 coach, I have openings this fall, so hit me up at this link and let's see if we're a good fit.

About the author: Nick Klastava is the CEO and head coach of Running Explained. He is a USATF and RRCA certified run coach and a masters runner with a 2:30 marathon PR and a Boston Marathon finish.