Reddit.com’s Running section hosted me for an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) interview on Tuesday in anticipation of his World Record Attempt on Sunday, April 19 at the Boston Marathon Expo. These are a lot of fun, as the users generate the content and I get to answer things in real time – interacting with lots of fans all at once! Quite a whirlwind, but a great time.

I’ve posted some of the highlights from the interview below. Have a read and don’t forget to support STRIVE’s projects by donating at our super easy online fundraising page!

There’s much more, but here’s a few highlights from the interview. You can read the entire AMA here.

 

zconnelly13: Is there anything in particular you did in your training given that you weren’t elite in high school?

Ty: This is probably the question I get the most and I think it’s one of the most important parts of my story.

The short answer is that I didn’t do anything that special. The one thing that I DID have that was extremely special and unique was a high school coach who was extremely supportive of me (and all his other runners), whether we were important or not.

This coach (Jon Waldron – who still coaches me professionally today, some 8 years after we first me, in addition to coaching high schoolers) urged me and my teammates from our first practice that running is all about self improvement – that is, improvement relative to yourself and not anyone else. He would celebrate the runner that ran a 4 minute personal best to run 24 minutes for 5km just as much as the top athletes who scored and ran 6 or 7 minutes faster.

So, he instilled in me from a very early age this extremely strong desire to strive for improvement relative to myself. And because I didn’t know much about the sport, I had no idea that there was this paradigm that to be a great runner in college or after college, it’s expected that you need to run very fast in high school. I guess I was lucky in that I never no one ever told me that, so to me, it wasn’t that crazy to think I could be an 18 minute 5k runner at 17-years-old and want to run in the Olympic Trials some day.

That’s part 1 (having a ton of support).

From a training perspective, I was also extremely lucky in that my body has responded very well to gradual increases in training volume and intensity over the years.

When I started running as a senior in high school, I promptly tried to run 65MPW and got a stress fracture in my femur. After that, my coach and I were VERY careful about building up volume over the next few years. Since that first stress fracture in 2007, the only major injuries I’ve had have been acute and often non-running related (I sprained my back moving a dresser during my junior year of college and got hit my a car last year). Otherwise, I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve been able to run very high mileage (now over 150 miles per week) without injury.

I believe VERY strongly in the continual, but gradual increase of training stimulus. So, each year I try to do a little bit more overall stress – whether that’s more total mileage, longer long-runs, faster workouts, etc. I think that’s how you get faster – train a bit harder, adapt to it, and repeat.

The balance can be really tough, though – making sure you make your load a bit harder each year without making it so much harder that you end up getting injured. A great coach is vital for this, as we athletes will often bite off more than we can chew 🙂

tl;dr: 1. Have a great coach who encourages you from you an early age. 2. Increase training carefully – consistent but gradual 3. Have that same great coach oversee step 2.

 

Mr. Rabbit: Hi Tyler! Looking forward to watching you break the record on Sunday! I’ll be there picking up my bib. So here’s my question:

  • How do you train to both 1) run a 48+ minute 10 miler and 2) place 2nd in the 50k championship in the same year? What do you do to keep you legs stretched while maintaining that kind of leg speed?

I assume there is a lot of brutal speedwork involved, but the more you can share about those days on the track the better!

Thanks for doing this AMA and good luck on Sunday once again!

Ty: Mr Rabbit – great question. I appreciate the difference between being in decent 50k shape vs decent 10M shape. And GOOD LUCK on Monday!! (and thanks for offering to come support me on Sunday!)

The truth is that it actually worked out (coincidentally) very well. I’m not actually training for 10M or 50k right now, but for the marathon (I’ll be racing in June). Both of these races were pretty early in my season, and we often start off by focusing on two energy systems:

  1. Very long runs at about 90% of Marathon Pace to develop muscular and aerobic endurance
  2. Intervals at about 105-110% of MP to build muscular strength and work on mechanical efficiency

So, these two types of workouts ended up corresponding pretty well to my training for 50k (long runs of 40-50km at about 3’30/km) and my training for 10M (fartleks and intervals focusing on reps at ~3’00/km).

So, in terms of keeping my legs stretched out – it’s all about making sure I touch both of those paces. A typical week in Jan/Feb might have been something like:

Wed – 15km of 1km @ 2’55-3’00, 1km moderate Sunday – 45km with the first 20km at 3’45/km, last 25km at 3’25/km

Luckily, I also had about 6 weeks after the 50k before the 10M, so that allowed me to feel a bit “faster” for Cherry Blossom. Still, I don’t feel like I’m someone who gets really beat up by heavy volume – I ran 14’29 the week before I ran the 50k.

Mostly, I just look at both of these in terms of my overall build-up which is really focused on the marathon, so each one is just a stepping stone.

 

aemkeiii: Hey! I think it’s great what you are doing. Have you been to Huaraz? If so, how did you like it?

Ty: Hey – yeah I actually have been to Huaraz (twice)! It’s one of my favorite places in Peru. I was there last summer with my girlfriend to do some hiking and climbing. The cordillera blanca is one of the most beautiful ranges I’ve ever been in. I’ve done a few multi-day hikes in the blanca and in the cordillera Huayhuash. If you like mountains, there’s no better town in South America!

PS – here’s a blog post I found from a couple years ago about running in Huaraz. (That was quite the rabbit hole to go down to find it though…)

 

staffel: How do you break down the race? Do you do X metres at Y speed and then increase? Do you just set it at a high average speed from the beginning and increase it as you get towards the end? Or do you have some other system? When I’m running my 5k on the treadmill, I tend to roughly increase it by .5 mph every 500m.

Ty: I’ll treat it kind of like a normal race. I have a goal time and pace that I’ll be trying to run, but I know that I often feel best when I start out conservatively and then increase the pace in the second half. So, I’ll probably start a bit slower than my goal pace and then hopefully run faster in the 2nd half and close quite quick in the last 1-2km.

We should have a live stream and live tweeting from the event which will have splits, so you’ll be able to see how well I actually stick to that plan 🙂

 

thenath90: Hey Tyler! Congrats on everything and best of luck on the half marathon. What do you do when things don’t go the way you wanted/planned, e.g. not doing as well as you hoped in a race, difficulty recovering from illness/injury, etc. How do you keep that from getting you down?

Also, puppy-sized elephant or elephant-sized puppy? 🙂

Ty: Hey Nath – great question!

Running can be tough because it’s often so black and white – there’s no other team, so you can’t say “oh they just played better than me.” It’s just about you and the clock.

So, being an engineer, I TRY to look at all races (and all runs really) as data. Data aren’t good or bad, they’re just interesting. Did I run way slower than I thought I did? Huh, that’s interesting – I wonder why that was. Let’s look at my training, at my sleep, at my diet – see if we can find something. To me a “bad race” isn’t actually bad if we learn something really valuable from it.

Does that mean I never get frustrated or depressed when things aren’t going well? Heck no! When I ran at the US 50km Championships in March, I pulled my hamstring about 14km into the race. I was in a ton of pain and slowing down but somehow I was still in a decent position, so I limped my way through the last 36km and finished 2nd. In the week following that, I could barely walk and I was stuck in the basement of my apartment building pedaling away on the stationary bike for hours a day. Did I pity myself? Did I wish I could just get back to running? Of course I did – I’m human!

But, I try to let those visceral, emotional reactions lead to real learning. To me, it’s only a failure if I get really upset about something and don’t learn anything valuable.

Plus, I have an awesome support network from my family and friends and my cat, Richard Parker, so that helps 🙂

Oh – and I would LOVE to have a puppy-sized elephant!

 

Gusiki: Hey! Thanks for during this ama. Im currently traveling in Peru, but i live in a very flat country. I have always wondered what would happen, if im training in high altitudes and then return to my flat country? Would I then improve, because I taught myself not to use as much oxygen? Hope you can give me some insight in the differences from high/low training altitudes. Good luck on sunday!

Ty: Hi Gusiki – that’s great that you’re in Peru! It’s an amazing country.

Regarding your question – yes! That’s the idea behind altitude training. Many runners (myself included), often spend time at high altitude to do just what you’re talking about. When you spend a long enough time (usually a few weeks or more) at altitude, your body begins to adapt to the air with less oxygen. For some people, this adaptation will make your body more efficient at transporting oxygen when you return to sea level, which can improve your running performance.

There’s lots of science about this and also lots of differing opinions. What seems to be the case (or at least what I believe) is that SOME people respond very well to altitude training and some don’t. I’m not sure I’ve seen a great explanation for why this is, but it seems the only way to figure this out is to try it for yourself.

For me, it’s always been a vital part of my training and I’ve responded very well. A big part of why I respond well is that I can run quite fast at altitude relative to my sea level ability (while some people are not able to train fast at altitude). Last year I lived in Quito, Ecuador at 9300 ft. and ran 30’59 for 10k at 7700 ft and 15’20 at 9300 ft. I also ran 40km in training at 4’00/km at 10,000 ft., so for me, being able to train fast enough has never been an issue.

Anyway – kind of off-topic, but it’s definitely something you need to try out to know if it’s for you.

 

HillTopper76: Hi Tyler -I guess I have two questions for you!

A) What do you think has been the hardest part of transitioning from a collegiate runner to a professional runner? B) Do you have a personal coach or are you self coached? What would you say are some of the major tenants in your training philosophy?

Ty: Hi Hilltopper – thanks for your questions.

A) Honestly, the hardest part is getting paid. People will talk about running for the love of the sport, but at the end of the day, it’s a business and it’s a VERY tough business to get into. Besides running well, you need to essentially sell yourself as a good investment by another company. How do you convince people that they should give you money just to run? You don’t – you convince them that you’re someone that can not only run fast, but can also be a strong ambassador for their brand.

When I graduated from college, I wasn’t fast enough to even be considered for sponsorship. But I thought I had the potential to be a good marathon, so I took a big gamble and bought a one-way ticket to Quito, Ecuador, where I had a part-time job in a hostel that allowed me to train at a really high level at altitude and the cost of living was low enough that I could live off my savings and meager race winnings that I got down there. That move ended up paying off, as I improved a lot that year and ended up getting a sponsorship in 2014, but it was tough-going for a while. There is no support network for people who aren’t good enough to get sponsored right out of college, so you basically just have to invest in yourself and hope for the best.

Now, not only do I train hard, but I do a ton of outreach to people to try to increase my value as an athlete. Sometimes, this feels like blatant and shameless self-promotion – and it is! – and that makes me cringe a bit and my old teammates probably laugh at my unabated enthusiasm, but that’s what I have to do in order to be able to do what I love!

Is it unauthentic? No, I don’t think it is. I think that people who aren’t naturally extroverted are going to do well in this business. In fact, I know of an AMERICAN who has run under 2h14 in the marathon who’s sponsorship is only gear.

Anyway, that might be a bit long-winded, but I think it’s important to say because I feel like very few people talk about the business side of professional running. Why is it that basketball salaries and sponsorships are so open and public (and widely discussed), but no one knows how much Galen Rupp gets paid or what kind of appearance fees are paid out by big races? I’m all about transparency and I think it would be really positive for the sport if people knew how much pros got paid (and usually, it’s not very much).

B) I train under the guidance of coach Jon Waldron. Jon was actually my coach in high school and still coaches HS track and XC today. He’s been an invaluable resource for me over these last 8 years of running and I owe a huge amount of my success to him.

I think some of the biggest tenets of our training philosophy are:

  1. Staying Healthy – always goal #1 is getting to the starting line healthy. So we’re very conservative when it comes to injuries and we do a ton of injury prevention in the form of strength, core, diet, sleep, etc.
  2. Consistent but gradual increase in overall training stimulus (doing a bit more each season/year, whether that’s speed or volume or both).
  3. Race specific training – focusing on the pace of the race. If I want to run a marathon at 5’10/M pace, we focus on running at that pace, making that pace feel more comfortable, and extending the ability to run that pace for a long time.
  4. Enjoying the journey! Despite my previous rant – I REALLY do love what I do (and I should if I’m going to sacrifice a “real job” to do this). Training can be really exhausting and if I don’t find ways to make it fun, I’m going to get sick of it. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, I run with friends, I try to travel to races and make an adventure of it. It’s all just as important as the training!