GUEST BLOG: The Art of Getting Your Ass Kicked
My career arc in distance running is pretty unique. I was a decent runner in high school, but I never made the state track meet, and I didn’t have any Division 1 offers. Yet seven years later, I was toeing the line at the Paris Olympics. How did I make that jump? Great coaches, teammates, and support staff all had a huge impact. But I think there was one major differentiator between me and other runners at my talent level: I got my ass kicked a lot.
The bottom line is that getting your ass kicked makes you a better runner, and the more you get cooked the better you’ll be. For highlights of me getting my doors blown off you can scroll through my TFRRS. But before you get your ass kicked on race day, you have to get your ass kicked in practice. I ran collegiately at Carleton College, and nowadays people assume I was the best kid on my team right away. But I was far from it; my freshman year I routinely got dropped by guys like Donson Cook-Gallardo and Lucas Mueller (real D3 sickos will know these names). Lucas was a strength guy. He ran 5:00 pace with his mouth closed and did 100 miles per week with a timex by assuming that every easy mile was 8:00 pace (they weren’t). Donson was the other side of the coin, one of those pure speed types that could run a nasty 800 and still finish on the podium in XC. I couldn’t hold a match to those guys when I got to Carleton, but every day I tried to, and that was the important part. Lucas made me stronger, Donson made me faster. My first 5k at Carleton was 15:16, and three years later I ran 13:55.
After Carleton I chose to grad transfer to Minnesota. I made this choice because I wanted to get my ass kicked by Alec Basten, who had just finished 2nd in the NCAA steeplechase. And I did; Alec was the kind of guy to let you hang with him early in a workout, and then slowly turn the screws on you until you were toast. But as that season went on, I would hang with Alec for longer and longer, and eventually we would do entire sessions stride for stride. My steeple PR went from 8:44 to 8:25 in a year, and I finished 8th place at NCAAs, right behind Alec.
Everyone knows that running is about challenging yourself. But as athletes, we want to maximize our chances of success, and so naturally we avoid situations where failure is likely. But as the cliché goes, you have to fail to succeed, and that’s especially true in our sport. To go one step further, seeking out situations where failure is guaranteed will make you a better athlete in the long-term. After college, I moved to Flagstaff to train with Under Armour Dark Sky, one of the most elite distance running teams in the country. After the first month there, I was convinced that I was the worst runner in all of Flagstaff (and I might’ve been). But by training with guys way stronger than me (Edwin Kurgat, Lalo Herrera), way faster than me (Vince Ciattei, Kasey Knevelbaard) and way better at hurdling than me (Isaac Updike), my fitness skyrocketed, and I was an Olympian a year later.
Getting your ass kicked stings, and nobody likes getting dropped. But when this happens, it’s important to view it as the positive experience that it is. It starts with having the right anticipatory attitude. Something like: “this is going to be really hard, but it will make me a better runner”. Mental framing in this way will make that ass kicking sting a little less, and will help you remember your long-term goals. And after getting your ass kicked, I recommend using the adage that running royalty Eliud Kipchoge has hanging above his bed: “Never lie to yourself”. Take a deep dive into your shortcoming, truly get to the bottom of why, and define actionable steps towards improvement. It could even be something as simple as: “those guys are just better than me right now, I need to train harder”.
If you can do this without burning out, then you’re guaranteed to get better. Rinse and repeat, seek out more ass-kickings, and keep doing the things you’re scared of. A practical example: I always try to start my season with a race that is out of my wheelhouse. This year I ran the US cross country championships, and finished 21st. A lot of people might view that as an ass-kicking, and it was. But in the finishing chute I was almost as elated as the guys that made the World team. That’s because I exceeded my expectations, and had confirmation that I was improving in an area that has always been a weakness (long, messy races). With the wrong attitude, I could’ve left that race thinking: “I suck at cross country, I’m never doing that again”. Instead I thought: “That was awesome, I’m totally running 8:05 in the steeple this year”.
I should probably note that this process doesn’t happen on the day-to-day level, and that rest and recovery are essential to fitness building. Staying within yourself in training is highly recommended…most of the time. But if you can balance this with getting your ass kicked every once in a while, stacked over years and years, improvement is assured. In short, surrounding yourself with teammates and coaches that are going to kick your ass is a surefire way to get fast.
