Run With Coach Fischer

Are You  Ready for a Spring Marathon? The Boston Marathon is scheduled for Monday April 20th, 2020 and if you subtract 18 weeks (typical marathon training plan) then you find yourself at December 23rd. So why is that significant? Well, if you live in a location that is in a typically warmer climate zone then there is nothing too significant about the months of December through April. If you live in an area with snow, ice, consistently below zero temperatures, and consistently covered roads and sidewalks, then you might find yourself in a completely different situation. As I was dodging puddles, ice patches and cars on my run today I was reminded why I chose to not sign up for a Spring marathon this year. Playing the game of "How am I going to get my long run in today" or "Do I do my 10 mile tempo on the treadmill to ensure good footing?" was something I wasn't willing to commit to this year. Freezing temperatures, minimal sunlight and poor sidewalk conditio...

Here in Wisconsin there are multiple levels of cold starting at "Nice Cold" and extending all the way to "Polar Vortex." The cold might discourage some people from running outside but I actually find it to be quite enjoyable and a good way to experience even 15 minutes of daylight when I find the days start getting really long. I really only turn to the treadmill when there is a risk of injury outside (bad footing/icy/blizzard) or if I am running something where I need to hit a specific pace (tempo, mile repeats, etc) and the conditions just don't set me up for a good workout. I can only handle so much treadmill running. The weight room at school recently moved the treadmills from staring at a cement wall to staring at yourself in a large mirror (awkward)...so I opt to go outside as much as I can to keep my sanity I've put together my interpretations of the cold and my recommendations for dressing to stay comfortable and safe throughout the cold winter ...

This topic has been on my mind since I started this blog. It's taken me a while to formulate the words I want to say because this is SUCH an important topic and it's become more important in today's society than ever before. We all know why we compare - Instagram, right? I never feel more left out than during Spring Break when what seems like all of Central Wisconsin manages to dig up money to take their families on these two week long Spring Break extravaganzas. I am flooded with beaches, sunshine, smiles and big hats as I take on a 16 mile long run in the thick of marathon training surrounded by cold weather and a surprise snow storm. I digress. This isn't about my lack of vacationing. This is about comparison in all areas of our lives - both running and not running related. I've always been kind of an odd ball. I embrace it now but constantly being reminded of being different was and still is challenging. I took 6 years to go through undergrad, I was with a p...

Now that school is almost  back in session it is time for us teachers to get back to our school routine and derail all of the healthy habits we built up over the summer. Busy nights mean quick takeout dinners instead of making something at home or instead of hitting the gym we go home and crash into the couch with a bag of potato chips. I've been there. When I started teaching I have no idea how to manage my stress and eating habits. After signing up for a half marathon with a couple of co-workers I painfully got back into running. I went from being able to run a 5:20 mile to dying after running 3 miles at 10 minute pace. It was horrible, humbling and painful but from that point on I was focused on getting better. My first half marathon was 1:59 and in the most recent marathon I ran in April I crossed the half marathon point in 1:39. So now that I have had four years of better habits I thought I might share my insight with you. Let's start with excuses. I would but....

What do you do for running in between training cycles? If you have read my other blog post you might get sick of this answer... It depends. Mainly it comes down to what you want to accomplish and what your future training goals are. I mostly hear this question come up in marathon and half marathon runners so this blog post will address people in that situation. When you go through an 18 week training cycle and dedicate your LIFE to early bedtimes, hydration, nutrition and core work then at the end of the cycle after you complete your race you may end up feeling that you have lost a friend. So if you have decided to start the journey of chipping away at your full/half marathon time then this is for you. Welcome to being a year-round runner! Each year you really only get about one or two aerobic training peaks. With that, if you really want to see improvement then I would strongly recommend one marathon maybe two  each year that you want to peak for. Running multiple marat...

Overpronate, supinate, neutral, flat feet, high arches, wide feet, trail, EVO Foam, lightweight, zero drop, barefoot, heel drop...you've probably seen most of these when trying to find a pair of running shoes. Finding a new pair of running shoes can be like trying to find a pair of dress pants that fit perfectly (if you are a woman this is an extremely frustrating process!) There are so many factors to consider as well as the variety of brands, colors and prices that are out there. This is my take on finding the perfect running shoe for YOU. First of all, if you have some medical condition with your feet/knees/hips/back you should consult your doctor about what kind of shoe to wear. For the rest of you, let's start with some terms you might see while out shopping Heel Drop The Hoka Arahi 3 has a heel drop of 5 mm This is the difference in the height of your heel to the height of your toe. On a shoe like Asics or Brooks this is typically in the 12 mm range. On...

As a coach, a lot of the education that I focus on is focused on physiology, periodization, training structure, nutrition and strength training. One that that I have been missing both in my coaching and in my personal life is education on the mind. Things like decision making, perspective, moving forward, leadership and habit formation are all important things that bring together a successful training cycle. This can be seen as important on an individual coaching level or at a team level and what I like about these books is that you can apply these mentalities and strategies to any part of your life; I've just adapted them to coaching, training and teaching in my case. I have been reading/listening to four books this summer that are all written by different perspectives. The authors are all very different people but their strategies and methods tied together seamlessly to get a few different points across. This was initiated by a particularly rough year in my teaching. Everything...

I'm an ultra marathoner for a second time! Here's a recap of the weekend: The race was scheduled for Sunday with packet pickup on Saturday so I took advantage of the free camping at Belleville Community Park that night. I packed my car up and drove the 2 hours down towards Belleville, WI, a small but quaint little town just Southwest of Madison. I was determined to have a good experience this round. My first 50k was at Dances With Dirt in Baraboo, WI. I camped the night before, it poured rain all night, my tent got wet, I brought my old GPS watch (which had a dead battery and no charger), my phone died in the middle of the night and the course was extremely challenging (took me 6 hours and 41 minutes!). When my phone died my alarm also died and I woke up the next morning 10 minutes prior to the start of the race. I filled my water bag, put my running clothes on and drove to the 2 minutes to the start line with my shoes in my hand. They let me start as I was only about 4 m...

Imagine this. The new head football coach is hired at the high school. He steps into his new role eagerly and is ready to go through the inventory of equipment he has to work with and make a list of things that need to be purchased. He realizes that he does not have access to any of his equipment because its location and can only access things by asking one of the assistants to go into the room for him. That would seem absolutely ridiculous, right? Now reverse that. A WOMAN is hired as the head cross country coach but she cannot access any of her equipment because it is currently being stored in the boy's locker room. That's my situation. Now, the school I work in is in some serious need of upgrades, including updates in gender and handicap equality to the bathrooms/locker rooms and a lot of people are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. But quite honestly, this situation is put on the back burner because it is not seen as an "absolute...

Central Wisconsin is a quaint and humble area. There are no major natural disasters that occur in this part of the world. No sink holes, no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no tsunamis and really we have a large quantity of fresh water at our finger tips. The most fatal natural thing in this area is either the frigid temperatures in the winter or if someone gets pulled into the current of the rivers. We had a series of severe thunderstorms make their way through the area. Lots of people lost power, trees were knocked down and it was reported that there were nine tornadoes EF0 or EF1 that touched down in the area. I certainly don't want to minimize the damage that has happened and impacted people's lives. A barn was destroyed, trees fell on houses and various people who are seasonal campers lost a lot in the storms. The WPS workers have been working all hours trying to rebuild part of the electrical structure that was damaged to restore power back to people who have been in the dar...

There's no such thing as an "easy" day or a "hard" day. It's more complicated than that...                              The more I learn about training, periodization, plan design and physiological components of the body the more I realize that I have so much to learn. It's not that I am not confident in my current knowledge, it's more along the lines that I realize there is so much information out there and so much research being completed. The running world is constantly being updated and training practices are changing. We are discovering new things about stretching, recovery and nutrition. If you are a coach and you aren't keeping up-to-date on current practices then you're missing out. It's not that all things in the running world are changing. We still have long runs, pasta parties before meets, dynamic stretching, mile repeats and things like that, but we are learning how to place things together ...

Event: Dances With Dirt Half Marathon Location: Baraboo, WI - Devils Lake State Park Click for Link Dances With Dirt (DWD) puts on an overall great event. It's a trail race on a challenging course with stunning views. They offer the distances of 10k, half marathon, full marathon, 50k and 50 mile. After you finish the event you receive a medal, free beer and free drink ticket.  Course: This is a trail race so not a place where you will be going to hit a big PR. The half marathon course consists of mostly dirt trails with a couple of spots where you are in grass trails in the meadow. It consists of dirt trails, some pavement and a part of grass trails that go through a meadow. It's mostly shaded except for the grass parts where the July sun is blazing down on you. The course was challenging. The trails were wide but still slightly technical. Roots, rocks and mud patches keep your mind engaged throughout the race. The first four consisted of few rolling hills with...