RODNEY BIZZELL

As a cross country runner in high school, I developed a love for running that has continued for 30 years. After high school, I ran just for fun without any formal training regimen. About 5 years ago, a friend told me about Tim Clark’s Complete Runner program at Capital Run Walk and I was re-introduced to a variety of workouts geared toward 10ks and half marathons. The workouts on hills, tracks and trails brought back a lot of great memories and I was excited to be running longer distances and improving my fitness and times. I also learned a lot about proper stretching, foam rolling and other techniques that were new to me at the time.

Another lesson I learned was that training harder didn’t always equate to better fitness and often led to injuries. After every Complete Runner season ended, I would train on my own, often ending up with strained muscles and frustration. It always seemed that just as I was beginning to approach a new PR, I would end up with a strained hamstring or lower leg injury. In December of 2014, I got my 5k time down to 21:30 and started to think I could eventually get down to a sub-20 minute 5k with continued hard work. But the usual pattern emerged and I was injured by the end of the year.

At RunRaleigh PT, Abby treated the immediate calf problem, but also noticed a lack of glute strength, something common to lots of runners. Many hours of sitting in an office chair had weakened my glutes, tightened my hip flexors, and created more strain on my hamstrings and lower leg muscles. We did a gait analysis, which uncovered some form weaknesses as well. I began glute strengthening exercises and other homework to improve my form, mobilize my hips and prevent over-striding. Without a doubt, it’s been the best investment I’ve made in my training program.

The calf problem cleared up in a few weeks and I have not missed any training due to injury since. By the summer of 2015, I began to think I could start training for a 20 minute 5k. Abby was very encouraging and we did a VO2 max test in June to gage my fitness level and develop a workout plan. I had always thought of VO2 max testing as something that only elite athletes do – not for the average athlete trying to hit a new PR. What I discovered was that VO2 max testing can tell you the optimal heart rate zones for various workouts. Now, my entire training program is based on the heart rate zones calculated in the VO2 max testing.

Abby gave me a customized training plan. Later, when Bobby Mack came to RunRaleigh PT, I took advantage of his core recovery classes and did some personal training sessions. All of my workouts are based on heart rate zones, so I almost always train with a heart rate monitor. Roughly 25% of my mileage is in the easy (conversational) heart rate zone while tempo and track workouts target higher heart rate zones. All in all, it is a much more balanced training program than my old style of packing as many hard workouts as possible into each week.

The 2015 Jingle Bell Run was a big day for me. I had been training for 6 months to break 20 minutes in a 5k. This was the day I was going to try to finally meet my goal. I’d been injury free for almost an entire year, and I knew my fitness level was at a peak. But I also knew that breaking 20 minutes would be an improvement of 1:30 over just a year ago. I finished the race in 19:38 – nearly 2 minutes faster than my PR from the year before! It was awesome to see all the training translate into real improvement. At the Run for Young 5k in January, I was able to run under 20 minutes again and place first in my age group – my first age group award!

It’s now been well over a year since an injury interrupted my training – the longest period of continuous training I’ve ever had! I hit another PR in the Florence Forth 10k in March and I’m looking forward to the Rock n Roll Half in April. I know the PRs won’t continue forever, but running is simply a lot more fun when you’re at your best, and I look forward to that for many more years!