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Getting Back Up With Billy Shue

On November 18, 2017 Billy got into a cycling accident that caused a grade 4 AC joint separation in his right shoulder. Per the surgeon, his collarbone was "completely ripped off".

This isn't a story about getting injured, it's about how to get back up again.

For those of you that don't know, Billy is a local favorite in Charlotte. He's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. On top of that he's a blazing fast runner and a true advocate for the active community. Nine days before this injury, he was featured in The Charlotte Observer as our local favorite to win the Charlotte Marathon. Seven days after the race is when his cycling accident happened. He had no idea that the Charlotte Marathon would be the last time he ran for a while.

This injury set Billy back several months, and for an athlete, that can be devastating. At minimum injuries can be heart breaking and severely depressing. Whether he knows it or not, Billy has a voice in our community. He could have approached his accident many ways. Instead this is what he had to say to the community.

"Bottom line is this - I don't want anyone feeling sorry for me, as there are plenty, plenty more people going through exponentially tougher stuff who would trade places with me in a heartbeat. I'm going to go about my physical therapy just as intense, if not more, than I do my regular training. I will be coming back with a vengeance, which will include - at the very least - running a stellar marathon at the Charlotte Marathon next November and hopefully a half ironman PR in the fall. Competition be warned - you'd better have your A-game ready when I get back to the normal swing of things. #KeepPounding #HardHatLunchPailGetToWork #TheOutcomeWillNeverBeInDoubt"
November 20th, 2017

As you are seeing in our Working Out With Billy Shue series, it takes a LOT of physical grit, work, and determination to get to his level of competition. However, what Strava is not telling you is the heart it takes as well.

It's not as much about the accident and injury as it is your response to it; how you get back up. So as we look at another week of how Billy trains, here's a video of Billy returning to the scene of the accident taking it one step, one mile, and one smile at a time.

By the way, this picture is of Billy after the 2018 Charlotte Marathon where he came in 3rd place overall with a time of 2:38:52. ;-)

Monday 2/17

10 maintenance effort miles before strides in South Park
10.01 miles at an average 7:32 pace for 1h 15m

6*:22 strides with 1-minute recoveries
1.28 miles at an average 6:57 pace for 8m 58s

45-minute maintenance effort ride at the Harris Express YMCA
15.3 miles for 46m 12s

Lauren Melillo's barre class at Barre3
50 min

Tuesday 2/18

Warmup
2.64 miles at an average 7:47 pace for 20m 35s

60-minute progression tempo on 5+ loops of the Provincetowne Loop
10.33 miles at an average 5:52 pace for 1h 0m
This was definitely a progression in terms of perceived effort. First 3 miles at 6:02-6:00 pace felt extremely comfortable, but I was pressing hard on the last 10 minutes and could only manage low 5:40s-5:35 pace. It significantly windier today, than it was when I did my 40-minute tempo on this loop last Monday, and the headwind/crosswind seemed to be on the more downhill Rea and Reavenscrest part, which made it an extra challenge to pick up the pace when I was hammering on the last loop. Legs never felt like particularly heavy, but this was also the fastest I could go over those last 10 minutes. I think I could have done another 10 minutes trying to maintain the effort of Minutes 50-60, but I would have been pretty pooped after that. For having raced the 10-Miler Saturday, I'm definitely happy about today's effort and result. This went a million times better than the 60-minute tempo I did in the days following the Rocktoberfest Half in October.

Cooldown
2.7 miles at an average 7:24 pace for 20m 6s

Wednesday 2/19

Maintenance effort MLR through Blakeney, Ballantyne, and Carmel and back
13.13 miles at an average 7:12 pace for 1h 34m
Effort felt substantially easier than the pace today!

PT session at Architech Sports
1h 0 m

Thursday 2/20

8 maintenance effort miles through Northside and Derita
8.5 miles at an average 7:26 pace for 1h 3m
I left my Bible in the Northside gym last night after AWANA, so I retrieved it on my way back and ran my last mile with my "Sword & Shield" tucked in my arm like a protected football!

45-minute maintenance effort ride on the Air Assault Airdyne bike
16 miles for 46m 26s

Friday 2/21

Reign of Terror Tourstop: Providence Country Club
19.69 miles at an average 6:33 pace for 2h 9m
19-mile long run with 30 minutes easy, then 9*8:00 alternating medium (goal of 6:20-6:10 mile pace), hard (goal of 6:00-5:50 mile pace), and easy float (goal of 6:50-6:30 mile pace) every 8 minutes for 72 minutes of total tempo, and then cooldown until at least 19 miles total for the run. Felt awesome and was able to do this entirely on the roads in Providence Country Club for the 72 minutes of tempo! Could have easily done a 4th cycle of m-h-e today!! Fyi, on the 1st "easy" today, I missed feeling the vibration of my watch from the "hard" to the "easy" interval, so I kept going hard until I realized it. Fairly windy out there today, but the wind didn't seem to bother me too much today at all.