On my second run for the day, a pleasant 14k trail chasing run in Kings Park, my mind wandered to why my I have been improving this year. As I mentioned in my previous post I put a lot of it down to a new training regime, the double up days but also I missed out another important factor, weight.

I am currently 69kg which ,for someone who is just shy of 6foot, is pretty ‘light’. This is 2-3kg less than my previous running weight and I feel this has been another factor in my current ‘second coming’. On my lunchtime run I started to think about the current African domination of the marathon distance and I am convinced a large part of this is weight, or in their case, lack off.

The last real marathon runner I would consider a ‘normal’ weight would have to be Robert de Costella. An Australian icon he held the World Record from December 1981 to October 1984. He also won Boston, Rotterdam and Fukouka marathons, and had a marathon PB time of 2:07:51. All this while weighing in at 65kg, on a 5ft11inch frame. In todays professional marathon running world he’d be obese.

I have been lucky enough to meet ‘Deeks’ on a number of occasions and he really is an oracle of knowledge on all things running and always willing to share his experiences and insights.

Another reason for selecting Deeks is he did suffer with injuries as he was a big advocate of the distance training and unfortunately broke down on a number of occasions. I would probably put this down to his slightly heavier frame than the average professional marathon runner and nearly 10k+ heavier than the Africans who dominate today.

In 1990, the average top-100 guy marathon runner weighed 59.6 kg (131.4 lbs); in 2011, he weighed 56.2 kg (123.9 lbs). That’s a big drop. They also got shorter, from 1.73 m (5′ 8.1″) to 1.70 m (5′ 6.9″). The drop in weight isn’t entirely explained by the drop in height, as their BMI also decreased from 19.83 to 19.42. Of course, it’s important to note that there was a wide range of values represented, with BMIs reportedly from 15.78 (a value that again makes me wonder about the accuracy of the data) to 23.05.

There is no way Deeks could compete against another professional athlete giving away 10kg.  Makes my 69kg look obscene. Must mention that to my Wife who continually complains I’m a ‘bag of bones’, perfectly formed marathon runner is how i see it.

Anyway back to my point. I’ve lost 2-3kgs, I’m training more intelligently and I’m training more; add in the improved diet with less sugar and it all adds up to PB’s. Simple really.

To prove my point I’ve attached a photo of me next to the winner of the Melbourne Marathon in 2012., Jonathan Kipchirchir Chesooi.  I look huge, I’d be probably nearly 20k heavier than Jonathan, easily accounts for the 30 minutes time difference. Maybe they should do an age adjusted and weight adjusted marathon time. I’d be world champion.

I was a firm believer in the 7 year PB rule that states whenever you took up running seriously you have 7 years of PB’s before you’d plateau and then start slowing down. This would obviously be a smaller window if you took up running really late of course. For me I would say in 2008 I started running ‘properly’ when I took on the Comrades ultra-marathon in South Africa. Before I had run a few marathons but no real consistency or long term strategy. From 2008 to 2013 I was pretty consistent in lowering my PB’s in all distances and had that luxury of knowing that nearly every time I put on a race number I would lower my PB time. This is a wonderful time for a runner as each race is a challenge and the reward of another PB makes all the training and hard work seem so worth it.

In 2014 I was coming off a great previous year and training harder than ever and was confident I was going to break the elusive 2:40 for the marathon. The previous year I had run a 2:41.xx twice and felt it was only a matter of time before I improved. My first marathon of 2014 was the Bunbury Marathon which I had won the year before. I was running great and confidence was high. Unfortunately the wheels fell off, I was racing in a group of four and setting the pace for the first 10k when I just mentally gave up. I was walking though the drink station at 14k and the second half of the race was a ‘slog’. I managed to stagger home in 2:54 in a race that I was in 2:40 form. After this my running stagnated and two more attempts at a sub 2:40 both resulted in failures. These failures in the marathons also then affected my shorter distances and before long I had given up on ever achieving the feeling if a PB.

Funnily enough when the time came I was actually more than happy to move on from my PB chasing stage of my running career to one that was more concerned with not slowing down too much, too quickly. The pressure of chasing the sub 2:40 was off and I could actually start just enjoying running for the pure love of running. I gave my 2:40 one more assault with the help of a coach, who did a great job rebuilding the way I trained but ultimately a possible stress fracture put an end to my last sub 2:40 attempt in the middle of 2015.

So fast forward to 2016 and with the pressure off and the lessons learnt from Raf at the Running Centre I start setting the challenges for the year. I decide to concentrate on shorter distances reasoning that there may be the chance of a PB as with Raf’s training I realised I had some speed left in the legs. Working with Dan Macey, a friend and ‘wanna-be’ coach, I set about chasing the 5k 16:40 time we had both talked about over the last few years. Running a few Park Runs ( www.parkrun.com.au) I managed to achieve this goal and then set about the 10k dream time of a sub 34minutes. (My PB was 35 minutes dead) I had not run a 10k for nearly 2 years so set about entering as many as possible. After a few false starts I managed to run 34:18 just recently in my sixth 10k of the year. So all of a sudden I was hitting PB’s again after assuming that stage of my running career was over in 2013.

What has changed since 2013 ? Changing the way I trained in 2015 with Raf was the foundation and he always said you would see the improvement but it would take time. What were the main things Raf taught me? Add distance was probably the main point but also vary your training. I was running 4min/k all the time pre-2013 and although it had served me well up to then its benefits certainly had plateaued. Adding in tempos, thresholds, recovery and fartleks reinvigorated my training schedule and success soon followed.

In the latter half of 2016, since a good Perth Marathon, I have added double up days daily and this has been the icing on the cake so to speak. With distance and the variation in training as the foundation for the improvement the double up days has been the final piece in the jigsaw. It has, in my view, added the stamina and cardio fitness boost that has enabled me to run faster but also maintain that pace through the race distance whereas in the past I would drop off.

So it looks like 2013 wasn’t the final curtain on the PB play, there are a few more acts still to come before the curtain comes down. Of course it means more training, more pain and more suffering but if it was easy everybody would be doing it. In the last Olympics you just need to look at Mo Farah who went back-to-back gold in the 5000m and 10000m and Usain Bolt who went one better with three gold medal performances at three separate Olympics. These guys have been at their best for many years so you can maintain your peak if you keep putting in the hard yards. It’s not rocket science…..