Sep 4, 2008
Paul Jellema - Post Crim Views- 2145

Paul Jellema was the 15th overall and 3rd Michigan finisher at the Crim 10 miler. Paul has been training with the Hanson/Brooks training group ever since graduating from Southern Indiana. Read on to find out more about Paul's thoughts on Crim and his transition from college to professional running.

RM: What are your thoughts on your race at Crim? What were your goals heading into the race?

PJ: I went out a week before and ran the course, but everyone I talked to said it was a lot harder to race than it seemed, so I didn't really know what to expect going into the race. I thought the race went okay though, I planned on going out right at 5 minute pace for the first 4 miles (which I did) and then just see what I could through the hills from 5 to 8, and then press hard the last 2 miles. Things didn't pan out as I had hoped, because I couldn't regain any speed after the hills, but I still am not too upset with how the race went. I would have like to finish higher or with a faster time, but rarely is that not the case in running.

RM: How does having such a competitive field ahead of you, effect your race plans and strategy?

PJ: To me having a competitive field has forced me to stick to race plans and actually make honest goals. In high school, and even in college a little bit, running with the leaders and following their plan or simply getting far enough ahead that if/when I died they couldn't catch me was a way I ran. Not only does that not work now, but I can't even run with the leaders yet. So I have to find my own pace and run it on my own, not ignoring the leaders, but also not allowing their plan to affect my own.

RM: What are your goals for this training block? Do you have a race you are shooting for as an end to the training block?

PJ: My next race is the US 5k Championships in Providence, RI. It's the race I've been training for all summer with hopes of qualifying for the Chiba team. I haven't even really planned anything beyond that, simply to leave it open and put all my focus on that one race.

RM: How has your training been going so far? How much have you been running weekly? Any special workouts or favorite workouts you have done this training segment?

PJ: My training has been going well thus far. My workouts have been solid for the most part and we just started shifting them from longer workouts to train for Crim, to shorter, faster workouts for the 5k. I've been hitting 95-105mpw pretty consistently for a while now and will hang around their until the week of the 5k. As far as workouts go, I don't really have any favorites. I loved the Michigan workout in college, but here I haven't picked out any strong favorites. One things I do love though, is to get on the track. We don't do it much when training for longer races, but I love hammering intervals on the track.

RM: What are your running/racing plans for the spring/summer?

PJ: This spring I'm hoping to jump back on the track and try and chase down 28:30 in the 10k. I'll probably run a few 5ks as well, but I've wanted to run a fast 10k for a while now and just haven't found the speed I know I have in a race, or haven't been healthy going in. Summer, I have no idea yet. I guess that depends on how the spring goes.

RM: How has your transition from running at Southern Indiana to training at Hanson's gone? What are some of the biggest changes you have had to deal with?

PJ: The transition has been good. I have the good fortune of being trained in a higher mileage program for most of my life. In high school I was running 70ish miles a week and then going into USI I ran 80-90 for the first year and a half and then went up to 100mpw, so the mileage hasn't changed drastically, the pace has however. I was used to running recovery days at 6:50-7:10 pace in college, now a real easy day may hit 6:45. Generally they are at least 6:30 though. That switch was the hardest for me to deal with. I was going into every workout tired, because I simply wasn't recovering, but didn't want to get dropped by everyone on a daily basis. I finally allowed myself to slow down some days and now I'm able to run with at least part of the group every day and still be recovered. Also the weekly mileage may not have jumped, but the workout mileage did. Doing workouts like 6x1.5 miles or 3x3 miles with jogging rest really shook me up for a while. The final thing was just being recently married and moving away from home. It was hard (more on my wife, but that made it hard on me too) finding jobs, friends and a church to attend. But now that the dust as settled everything is going very well and we're both very happy to be here and feel this is where we are suppose to be. I look forward to seeing how things go for me and the team in the upcoming years and plan on being here for a while. I don't want to look back and wonder "what if..."