My Story

By: Taylor Monts

  As I approached high school, my desire to run continued, as well as my competitive spirit.  I lettered (varsity) my sophomore year in cross -country and track, which was my first “big” running accomplishment.  Although I was a decent runner (16:32 for cross-country, 10:12 3,200 meters, and 4:40 1,600 meters), I was unable to compete with the top runners.  I had been “training hard” just like everyone else, grinding countless track intervals, but something still just wasn’t clicking.  After high school, I decided to put running aside; I didn’t feel I was “talented” enough to continue to compete in college.  It wasn’t until my senior year in college that I decided to train for a local 5k in hopes of breaking 20 minutes to win a bet with a couple of friends.  To my surprise, not only did I break 20 minutes, I ran under 18. As Orey Smith and I collaborated about training ideas,

Me on the way to a 5k PR 

I eventually managed a 30 second 5k PR with only five months of training. Why was this? I managed to better my high school PR that had previously taken me four years of training in just five months of running after four years away from the sport! (I will get into specifics on why as you read on).  As my consistency with training continued to improve, so did my fitness. I ran my first marathon, the 2010 Chevron Houston Marathon, in 2:53 on a measly 60 miles a week, which qualified me for the Boston Marathon.  This was accomplished without any interval training, just good old fashioned steady aerobic running.  Six months later, I ran the San Antonio Marathon in Texas in 2:39, which was good enough for 3rd on a warm day. Again, without any track intervals or gimmicky marathon workouts, just steady aerobic running, mixed in with a basic amount of specific stuff. This fundamental aerobic development gave me the strength to maintain my race pace throughout the entire 26.2-mile distance without ever setting foot on a track. Now, I’m not saying track intervals are bad, they are important actually, when used at the right time. The hard-core specific stuff should be used ONLY after an athlete has developed an appropriate level of aerobic foundation so he or she is able to efficiently utilize the event specific training sessions and get real benefit from the workout.