If you’re reading this issue of POSSESSED because you’re considering getting started as a runner, I recommend you read this interview with coach Greg McMillan. Definitely read everything else in this magazine that makes Running World look like Cat Fancy, but first, read what the coach has to say. He’s brilliant.
Besides his own extensive list of achievements in the sport (he’s fast af), Greg McMillan coached the US Olympic Team in 2008, coached at the Olympic Trials in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012, and he has helped more than 10,000 runners qualify for the Boston Marathon. Ten Thousand.
Coach Greg has a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology, focusing on the determining factors of distance running performance, and his mentors include the late, great Arthur Lydiard, Olympic Coach Dr. Joe Vigil, Peak Running Performance founder Guy Avery, and USA Track & Field physiologist Dr. David Martin. He's the founder of McMillan Running, and he’s more than qualified to give you some tips before you hit the road. Let’s meet Coach Greg.
'I think it’s sometimes difficult to make people who don’t run understand how fulfilling it can be because when they first start running, you know, it’s uncomfortable; your body doesn’t like it at first. But if you get through that, then you really get to the rewards.'
Greg! This is the Start Today issue, so I’m going to ask you a bunch of questions as if I don’t run, but I’m interested in maybe running.
Great, okay.
My first question is, how did you get into running? Were you a track and field kid growing up?
Yeah, so I grew up in the country, out in Tennessee, so I was active when I was little anyway. And then in our elementary school, we had what we called the county-wide field day, and so, you would do all of these activities, from the long jump to the mile run to the softball throw, you know, all those kinds of things, and then you would get selected to participate in the county-wide field day. And I won the mile run at my school and got to represent my school, and then I won the mile run at the county, and then, of course, the high school coach, he goes and watches that meet, and he says, ‘Well, there’s my shot-putter in five years, there’s my distance person, there’s my sprinter, there’s my long jumper’—
Right, right.
So, when I got to middle school, he said, ‘Hey, you might wanna check out cross country and track!’ And so that’s how it happened.
Country kids are definitely more athletic, aren’t they?
Well, growing up on a farm, you’re just so active. And, you know, my best friend lived a mile away, so I was always running a mile to get to go and see him.
And I guess you kept running into early adulthood?
Yeah, I ran in high school, ran in college, continued to compete after college, and I even won a national championship in the trail marathon when I turned 40—
Wow!
So, I continued to compete year after year after year, and mostly because, like a lot of people, I find running really enjoyable. Painful at first, of course, there’s some suffering, but eventually you reach that euphoria and it becomes your therapy, your outlet, it becomes so many things, which is why people love it so much.
Right.
And I think it’s sometimes difficult to make people who don’t run understand how fulfilling it can be because when they first start running, you know, it’s uncomfortable; your body doesn’t like it at first. But if you get through that, then you really get to the rewards.
Okay, let’s just say I’ve never run and my dream—my bucket list item—is to run a marathon. Where do I begin, Coach Greg?
Well, the first thing is to just get out the door and don’t worry about anything specific. Really, for me, you go and you run; when you get out of breath, you start walking; when you catch your breath, you run again. And you try to do that for ten to fifteen minutes, and you establish a routine every week. Because the main thing for new runners is finding a routine that is sustainable and fits in your life. And the training will take care of itself, but you have to establish a routine, and usually it takes about four to six weeks for you to become disciplined and to get in that training.
Okay.
And again, it doesn’t have to be anything specific; you just have to get out the door. Every run is a good run in the first two to three months that you begin running. Once you have the habit, then you can begin to advance: ‘I’m going to run longer’ or ‘a little faster’ or ‘I’m gonna sign up for a 5K race, then a 10K, then a marathon...’ For new runners, though, sometimes they get overwhelmed with training programs and thinking they’ve gotta have all this gear, and worrying about what they’re supposed to be doing, and I say, ‘It couldn't be an easier sport! Just go run around the block, go run down the street,’ and, trust me, after two or three weeks, that ten-to-fifteen-minute run won’t be enough—you’ll wanna do a little bit more and a little bit more. And once you get to where you can run or run/walk for thirty minutes to an hour, then you’re really ready to do whatever you want in the sport.
'...usually what that is [with bad knees] is the muscular system struggling to stabilize the body while they’re running... which is why the run/walk system is better for that person. If they run/walk, their body will slowly build up; they’ll lose some weight, and they’ll get stronger in those areas that need more stability.'
How many runs a week are we talking?
Two to three times a week, at minimum. Three or four is great, but you’ll need those rest days so your musculoskeletal system can recover.
Okay, so how long would it take for me to start running and work up to a marathon?
Well, if you want to do a marathon, people do that after three or four months of beginning running. It’s possible to do it. Obviously, it’s probably better if you start with something that’s more approachable, like a 5K or a 10K, maybe a half marathon, as your first big goal, and then after six months to a year, you move up to a marathon—
Right.
But I’ve coached charity marathon groups where we had people coming off the couch, and then in three or four months they’re doing a marathon.
Really?
Now, they’re usually run/walking that marathon; they’re not doing it for performance, they’re just doing it to finish. So, it’s possible to do it, but to be honest, you probably want to establish a routine and not risk injury, and just really have fun with it for the first four to six months, and then let those bigger goals come into focus. I think the half marathon is a really appropriate first goal.
Now, you say two or three times a week, but what if my body feels good? Can I just keep running every day until it doesn’t? Or should I err on the side of caution and lay off?
You should err on the side of caution. What’s interesting about running is the musculoskeletal system adapts slower than the cardiovascular and the mental system. The first few runs, your brain is really screaming, ‘Fatigue! Fatigue! Why are we doing this?’ Your breathing is elevated and just feels really difficult. But that goes away fairly quickly. However, what doesn’t adapt as fast is the musculoskeletal system. And the problem is we don’t feel those injuries coming on until they happen; we don’t have the same sort of feedback mechanism. So that’s why, as coaches, we hold runners back a little bit because we know you’ll feel better, you’ll want to go faster, you’ll want to go farther.
Okay.
So, maintain a really sustainable routine. If you want to do a little more, then you’re training appropriately. If you’re training at the maximum level that you can fit in, then you’re probably training too much. I like no more than four days per week for people who have never been active and are really out of shape. Just establish a routine to start, and make sure that you’re not getting injured, because no one likes it when finally running is feeling good and then—boom—you can’t do it anymore because you’re injured.
One of the excuses for not running we hear all the time is, ‘Oh, I’d love to run but I’ve got bad knees.’ Are bad knees real?
Well, usually what that is [with bad knees] is the muscular system struggling to stabilize the body while they’re running. So, they’re not strong enough yet to handle running, which is why the run/walk system is better for that person. If they run/walk, their body will slowly build up; they’ll lose some weight, and they’ll get stronger in those areas that need more stability. It’s like if you said you were going to start swimming a mile every day—the muscles aren’t strong enough yet to handle that. So, people that have those issues—
Bad knees.
—they’re just not strong enough yet. They have to train at the level that allows the musculoskeletal system to get stronger. It’s an easy excuse for not running, but it’s probably not a valid or exact reason for why you can’t run.
What about ‘I don’t have a runner’s body’? Any truth to that one?
Ah, that is not true. All you have to do is go to any major marathon and watch the finish line, and you will see short skinny people, tall overweight people, and you’ll see everything in between. Certainly, if you’re not blessed with great genetics, you won’t go to the Olympics, but the fact is our bodies are meant to move us across Earth on two feet, and so no matter your shape and size, you can finish. There’s tons of examples of that. It really comes down to training smart, remaining motivated, and continuing to train through the inevitable ups and downs that come with trying to do something challenging.
Okay. Nutrition. What should I eat and what shouldn’t I eat?
You should eat like your grandparents or your great-grandparents did.
Really?
Yes. And that is a very healthy diet. Typically, that is a non-processed, nice portion of protein, vegetables, and a starch, and not a lot of it. That is what our grandparents or great-grandparents ate. That is actually a wonderful diet, and if you look at what the East Africans eat—like the Kenyans, who are really good runners—it’s basically farm-to-table for them. That food is just a basic meat, vegetables, and a starch. So, you don’t have to make it too complicated; you just have to make it a little more natural and not as much.
'You have onboard all that you need to go and train, but people look for supplements and equipment that will give them an advantage; they’ll look for all these ancillary things that can help them when, really, it’s just about getting out the door on a regular basis...'
Is carb-loading a thing?
Well, with carbo-loading, as you get closer to races or if you’re going to do an extremely challenging long run, then yes, you would increase the amount of carbohydrates, but to be honest, new runners, they don’t have to think about that, they just need to clean up their diet. Make it simpler, make it more natural and they will have plenty of fuel. They already have plenty of fuel in their body anyway; they want to try and burn off some of that fuel, if that’s the reason they started running.
What about if I’m a regular runner, not looking to lose weight, already pretty skinny, and I’ve got a race tomorrow—should I eat a pizza before bed?
You can if you’ve practiced that, but what I like to do is focus on a little extra carbohydrates in the three days leading up to the event so you don’t have to carbo-load and stuff your gut the night before; because there can be gastrointestinal discomfort from that, but if you increase your carbohydrates a little in the three days beforehand, your muscles will be stocked full of glycogen.
Okay, next question—and, again, I’m pretending to be a non-runner—is the runner’s high a real thing?
It is a real thing! It’s actually a brain physiology thing, but it sounds different than it is, right? People think ‘high’ like elation for a cocaine addict—
Right.
But it’s not quite that.
But it is real, and it does feel good.
Correct.
Do you train athletes to run ultras?
Yeah, we train for everything from 800 meters all the way up to ultra. And as you know, ultras are really varied because you can have road-flat 50Ks, which are kinda just like an extension of the marathon, and then you can have these grueling, 100-mile, high altitude, really challenging elevation, technical terrain ultras. So, they’re kind of their own beast with regard to getting ready for them.
And it’s not just a case of scaling up the training, right? You have to stop thinking in distance and more in endurance and the head game?
It’s a total head game. You have to prepare the body as best you can, but mostly the success is related to the mental state and then adequate nutrition and hydration. Because the pace isn’t fast, right? You’re not running fast; you’re actually running really slowly, power hiking hills, taking walk breaks, and all of that. An ultra really is just ‘How am I going to manage my brain for fifteen hours, thirty hours, fifty hours?’
Back to marathons and half marathons, what are some of the training myths new runners lean into? What doesn’t work?
Well, I think a lot of the time, if they’re looking for something outside of themselves, that is not a good thing. You have onboard all that you need to go and train, but people look for supplements and equipment that will give them an advantage; they’ll look for all these ancillary things that can help them when, really, it’s just about getting out the door on a regular basis, working through the good runs and the bad, keeping the faith, and just getting the work in. If you do that, you’ll be successful. It’s when people look outside of themselves or over-train and don’t respect the stress-rest cycle, or they begin to worry about what they can’t control more than they should. Because to be honest—and you know this as runner—just get your runs in! Some will be bad, some will be good, that’s just the nature of you not being the same runner every day. But if you just mostly get in your training, you’ll be fine come race day.
What if I get bored while I’m running?
Well, I think you’ve got to be prepared to create mental strategies for that. Some people will listen to music, some people will choose different terrain than they’re used to. Some people will meet up with a running group or a running buddy to help them go longer or faster... But with running, for a lot of it, you are inside your own brain for a long time. So, part of running is developing these strategies to deal with boredom or mental suffering or ‘Today I’m not having a good day.’ But that’s also part of the value in running, developing these strategies to deal with things when they’re not going as well as you wanted.
Right, right.
You have to acknowledge that your motivation, like everything in life, it waxes and wanes like the moon. So, you’re always going to have periods where you’re super motivated and periods where you’re not, and that’s normal for the human condition. But the thing is, if you can push yourself out the door when you’re not feeling motivated to go for a run, you might just have the best run you ever had!
That’s happens to me all the time! Okay, last question: Why are we running and what’s it all about this whole life thing?
[laughter]
I think it’s inborn, right? We are born to run, as they say, and there is some value that is hard to put your finger on because it’s sometimes different for different people. But there’s something that clicks deep inside of you when you’re moving across the Earth on your own two feet; there’s just something that brings the universe into accord in those times, and that’s why it’s difficult for runners to explain to non-runners why they do what they do.
It needs to be experienced.
Right. I probably can’t describe it to you. And that’s the value of running and why people become so impassioned about it. And it’s no exaggeration to say it becomes their therapy... I would say that running—and walking—are as close to a panacea for all of our ills—mental, physical, and emotional—as anything we have.
Greg, you’ve just sold running to me—and I already run.
