Next month I’m racing my tenth City to Surf marathon as one of only 20 or so runners who have completed all the previous nine running’s. ( http://perthcitytosurf.com ) It is very rare in a runners career to be able to enter the inaugural marathon of a big city and although Perth has the West Australian Marathon Club event, which has been going for nearly 40 years, the City to Surf event only started in 2009. It holds a special place in my heart as it was my first sub three marathon and I’ve been lucky enough to finish top 10 on a number of occasions and even ran with the No1 bib a few times. There was even the year I ran with a named bib after my mate Rhys nabbed the No1 bib, I had to go one better and convinced Rhys numbered bibs were so ‘last year’ and it was all about names now. It did feel good to run with ‘Matthews’ on my chest, maybe not running the Kenyan times but it made one balding, bearded old runner feel like a Kenyan, albeit on the inside.
My first sub 3 marathon in marathon #11. A very, very special moment in the life of any runner. Would have been quicker with my ‘speed beard’ of course !!
Although there are some hills on the course I consider them marathon friendly in that they are short, sharp inclines followed by long drawn-out declines. This allows you to gain back any lost time and maybe even bag a few extra seconds. Of course there is ‘heartbreak hill’ at the 39k mark which is a 2km hill of pain asking some serious questions. Of course there is a 1km stretch to the finish after this ‘tester’ that allows you to explode into the finishing chute. ( Funny story with that finishing stretch, I’m sure every year they move the finish further and further down the road as my ‘finish sprint’ seems to become a tempo/steady run by the end, whereas years ago it was a threshold from start to finish ? Maybe it’s just me ?)
Of course there was the infamous short course of 2017 where it was not accurately measured and was probably 500m short. Trust me I personally was not that worried and even managed to sneak under 2:50 for the marathon thanks to the generous course. Of course I was outside my PB by nearly 10 minutes but my friend Mark C. ran a PB but always has a hard time defending the result to us ‘true marathon runners’. (He also has a dubious half time on a short course as well, maybe he’s just lucky ?) Unfortunately I hear this year the course has been re-measured, pity
The City to Surf has also been my fastest marathon on two occasions and , on average, my fastest full stop. I’ve ran 2:58, 3:03, 2:49, 2:45, 2:41, 2:49, 2:48, 2:41, 2:49 , the only blemish running over sub3 was in 2010 when my Garmin stopped at the start and I fell off the back of the pack at around 15k leaving me to run the rest of the race alone with no idea of time. The day was also humid as hell and I was wearing a Chevron sponsored top which didn’t fit well. I gave myself lots of reasons not to run sub3 that day and , with hindsight, could have done things differently. For the next few years I ran with two Garmins just to sure this never happened again and have only recently started to run with just one Garmin as my co-pilot.
The photo below is one of my favourite of the 2010 event with Jon realising I was dropping off the pace and ‘encouraging‘ me to speed up. Around this time in my running career I would use Jon as my pacing yardstick and would try and stay with him for as long as possible before he scuttled off into the distance and left me to finish alone. It took until the City to Surf marathon in 2011 until I was able to beat him to line and that was only in the last few hundred metres where I felt gravity helped me more than Jon due to my long legs and extra weight. Truth be told I felt a bit guilty as we were together for the fist 41k and even discussed our finishing strategy but as soon as I smelt the finish line and saw the ocean it was ‘on for young and old’ and all previous conversations were forgotten, that’s racing.
Jon laying down the law….
Another bonus of the City to Surf marathon is the marathon tent which, as the name suggests, is for marathon finishers only. In the good old days of the Oil and Gas boom (the event is sponsored by Chevron.) this tent was a magical place filled with muffins of all flavours, sports drinks, massage tables, changing rooms (well a changing room?) and a tribe of helpers who attend to your every need. Unfortunately those days are long gone and the marathon tent even disappeared for a year before a public outcry persuaded the organises to reinstate this ‘business class’ lounge of the running world.
So anybody who is reading this in Australia needs to get themselves to Perth on August 26th and take part in one of the most scenic marathons on the planet. From the website :-
The Marathon is considered the most picturesque course in Australia. Perth’s best natural assets are on show starting from the colonial heritage of the CBD on St Georges Tce and finishing on the lush parklands of City Beach. The course traverses past the crystal waters of the Swan River and the iconic Old Swan Brewery, through the beautiful grounds of the University of Western Australia and alongside the botanical wonder of Kings Park.
It forgets to mention the ‘Surf‘ bit of the City to Surf, in this case one of the best beaches in Perth, namely City Beach, where me and the boys normally meet every Sunday morning before setting off on another long run pre-pancakes at Clancys cafe, when they are on the menu of course. The other option is the infamous waffles which is good but not in the same league as the pancakes. I hear on the grapevine that pancakes are in at the moment so I’d recommend you pop along quickly…
A runners reward, great coffee, great pancakes and great company Life really is that simple sometimes.
After the Australian Masters Championship in April this year my running literally fell off a cliff. All of a sudden I was struggling to make 10k and pulled the plug on quite a few training runs early. Now this for me is unheard off ! A few times I even had that ‘sit on a fallen tree trunk and ponder ‘why am I doing this ?’ feeling’. As anybody who knows me will testify this is not what I do. I love running and for the last 10 years have made it my goal in life above all others to improve, everything has been sacrificed for this and I mean everything. They say you can do two things well and for me it’s running and family, though maybe my kids will disagree on the second point. The first point though is something that nobody can argue I don’t put in 100%. Dark nights, early mornings, hot midday runs are all taken onboard gladly and I’m always looking to the next race as one I will try and run faster than I have ever ran before. As I have said many times if I have a bib on my chest ‘it’s on for young and old’ , every race.
After a couple of visits to the Doctors and a blood test it was confirmed I had just run myself down with a poor diet of late not able to sustain my running program. This was purely self inflicted but a big lesson to learn. (My skip lunch diet and just eat free fruit at work is one to avoid apparently. You may drop a few kilos but feel like ‘weak as akitten‘ constantly and are unable to run. Not one of my brightest ideas!) No matter how good the engine if it runs out of fuel you stop, you can be the best runner in the world but with no fuel you still stop, simple really. I have said it so many times nutrition and hydration are so important and it really is common sense but sometimes even the most experienced runners forget this. Cost me 3-4 weeks of running on empty and generally questioning ‘why I was doing what I was doing’.? A few steak dinners later and a small fortune on supplements (still not sure about these but just in case….???) and my running is back, albeit curtailed by Plantar Fasciitis lately so mostly round and round grass ovals.
For racing success you need the grind of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly training, it doesn’t happen over night unfortunately. Once you reach a certain standard your goal is to maintain or improve.Of course other factors start to creep into the equation. I remember reading recently that the reason Kenyans do so well in marathons, and running generally, is their life is uncomplicated. Not for them the worry of mortgage payments, second cars, interest rates, credit card bills, private education or college fees for our American cousins. All these eventually start to wear down the Western runner. All the Kenyans worry about is should they have two teaspoons of sugar in their tea or should they splash out and have three, bless ’em. ? (I suppose in the back of their mind is always the possibility of getting eaten on their run but we probably have more chance of getting run over ? Swings and roundabout really…) An uncomplicated life makes a happy, better, runner and unfortunately we all seem to have forgotten this.
Happy little future Olympic Champions…with three sugars probably?
This week was the perfect example of this. So far this week my weekly total is 10k where I planned at least 50-60k as I’m tapering for the Perth marathon. (I digress but this aways reminds me of my mate Mike Adams who would always produce all these weekly predictions of massive totals and more often than not come nowhere near to hitting them, a lot of the times just flat lining with an injury. We joked that in planning there are many curves to record progress, the early curve, late curve, bell curve etc.. We always reckoned there should be the ‘Mike Adam’s flatline’ curve , basically just a straight line moving along the date axis on zero. The things you talk about on long runs. Sorry Mike ).. What happened you may ask ? Life just got in the way. I’m just about to complete a four unit development and as the same time we are submitting a tender at work in which I am heavily involved. Add into the mix the worst weather in Perth for many a year, what the English would call Summer, i.e. constant rain. Finally a head cold and Plantar Fasciitis finished me off and my running was a non starter. On the bright side I had enough sugar for my tea so at least that was a positive and we even managed to find a carton of Yorkshire Tea bags at work, best tea in the world accordingly to my mate Steve Dale ? This also explain this being the first post for nearly a month. The image below of my last few weeks sums it up perfectly, all consistency out the window, and as I have always maintained consistency is the key to running success.
Not a good few weeks…no consistency which will end in tears me thinks?
Right, the point of this post is to improve your running you need to work on the mental side as well as the physical and to this end make your life as simple as possible. Concentrate on good diet, as much sleep as possible and an uncomplicated social and professional life, basically make running your number one priority. As I mentioned at the start of this post you can do two things well in life, make one of them running. (Maybe best to keep that last snippet of information to yourself and not mention it to your significant other, just saying.) As always this ain’t rocket science but sometimes it just needs someone to state the obvious for you to take stock and reevaluate. I’ll say it again but the old saying ‘if the furnace is hot enough it’ll burn anything’ is basically crap, concentrate on your diet and make it the best it can be, within reason. Let’s face it you’re probably not an Olympic athlete and thus do not need to make the sacrifices they make but if you are serious about your running and want to be the best you can be then a good diet is paramount to success. Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise so lets make some easy inroads and watch what we eat. (and that doesn’t mean eating with your eyes open !!!….)
The City Beach version? Please note this is the old carb-loving Jon, he’s a lot thinner now !!
As I seem to have lost my running mojo at the moment I am unable to post anything new and feel after a morose post last week I cannot continue down this path. Thus I’ll do another trawl through the archives of my previous posts in 2016 when I had a following of one, thanks Mum. This post from December 2016 explains the main road to improvement is doing what we all love to do most, that is run. No real pressure of pace just pure distance. This is the number one rule in my nine golden rules of running, 1. Add distance. There really is no alternative really, if you want to be a good runner you need to run as much as possible and if you want to see improvements you need to run more than you are running now.
It amazes me how coaches can come up with all different scenarios on how to improve and authors write all new books and papers on the subject but, trust me people, if you run more you will improve. I am certainly proof that this theory is sound after a big 2016 and 2017 resulted in times I though beyond me as I turned 50 years old. Even now in 2018 I am still setting track PB’s and distance PB’s for 100km races, even Australian records. I put all this down to distance and double-up days. As I have said many times running ain’t rocket science. (They don’t call me Sherlock Holmes for nothing!)
Of course a good coach will use other methods to aid in the improvement process but I don’t know anybody who say ‘don’t bother to run to improve, let’s concentrate on <insert exercise here>‘ , doesn’t happen. Of course there are great cross training exercises that will help but when we take it down to the bare basics of improvements doing more is the number one benefit, the most bang for your buck so to speak.
So to improve look at your weekly or monthly totals and add more , be it 10% , 25% , 100% , any percent really. I’ll even go so far as to say ignore the +10% rule for adding kilometres to your weekly totals. As long as you’re slow and don’t stress the body too much you can add as many kilometres as you can make time for. The only caveat here is you must listen to your body and at the first sign of a ‘twinge’, ‘tear’, ‘niggle’ etc., drop back or take some time off. It is good to add distance but you must make sure you don’t get injured (golden rule number 3). Injury will set you back to square one and you’ll be starting again so it is imperative you know when to step back. This is when some cross training can help. (my favourite cross training is my Elliptigo of course. http://www.elliptigo.com.au )
As 2016 draws to a close the one thing I can say for sure is distance is king when it comes to improving your running. Arthur Lydiard got it spot on and his method of training has been mimicked by most of the successful coaches ever since. From the article below “For Lydiard, running to your potential is about having a substantial mileage base and not overdoing your anaerobic training.” Matt Fitzgerald, as you will know my go-to man, also advocates this method of training. ( http://mattfitzgerald.org ) and I recommend you purchase any of his books. This year I have managed to achieve times I though beyond me on a number of occasions and far from slowing down has refocussed my goals for 2017 on faster times and more PB’s.
What changed for me in 2016? Distance, plain and simple. I achieved the extra time on legs by running twice a day as much as possible and since June this year averaging nearly 140k a week and 10-12 runs. Pace wise I slowed down in the week but tried to race at least once a fortnight, sometimes more often. This allowed me to move into the Matt Fitzgerald 80% slow and steady and 20% at pace training split. I’ve attached a typical few weeks blow taken from my Strava account ( you have to be on Strava, http://www.strava.com , and feel free to follow me; search on ‘Big Kev’, Perth.)
It’s all on Strava, always.
The yearly totals for 2016. Please note I intend to run one more time this year. Not sure I’ll make it a 90k I need for 6000k….
Last year was a record year for me as I managed to break 5000km for the year, this year I’ll be over 5900km’s and this extra 1000km, I believe, has been the major difference, coupled with the twice a day running. It seems with running the more you do the better you are, it really is that simple. Of course you can add tempo, thresholds, VO2 , Mona fartlek’s , progressive etc. to make the training more interesting but in the end just put on your trainers and get out there more. Of course there is always the issue with injury waiting in the shadows to pounce when you are at your most vulnerable and by adding all the ‘exciting‘ training methods you leave yourself susceptible to falling victim. Common sense dictates you are more likely to get injured straining your muscles on quicker paced training runs but it really is a two edge sword as the benefits can be worth the risk. Distance running does minimise the risk of injury as you’re putting less strain on the muscles, increased fitness purely by repetition.
Maybe improving isn’t that simple after all ? After reading the last paragraph again I realise that there is no magic bullet for improvement but running distance is probably the best way to stack the odds in your favour. It has many benefits, you get to do what you love most, i.e. run, a lot, it minimises the risk of injury and it is a sure fire way to improve. This is good enough for me. The adding pace bit is a necessary evil I suppose and worth the risk. After all the whole point of this running thing is to improve and run distance faster, isn’t it ? To do this you need to understand what your goal pace is and also be able to better it at shorter distances.
An article below is a good starter on the Lydiard method and I recommend you adjust your training accordingly. If it can help an ageing runner like myself achieve times beyond my wildest dreams it can make a difference to your running. Finally remember, the best part of this training is you get to do what we all love doing in the first place, run a lot.
Forty years ago at the Rome Olympics, athletes guided by legendary New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard made history. Among Lydiard’s protégés were a total of 17 Olympic medalists, including Peter Snell (800 and 1,500 meters), Murray Halberg (5,000 meters) and Barry Magee (marathon). Lydiard, now 82, toured the U.S. last fall, speaking to runners on the Lydiard method of training. He was as passionate as ever about sharing the methods he developed 50 years ago.Lydiard hasn’t changed his training advice over the decades, and why should he? His ideas work. Moreover, if you look carefully at the most popular and successful programs today, most have a Lydiard emphasis. For Lydiard, running to your potential is about having a substantial mileage base and not overdoing your anaerobic training. There are no shortcuts.
A Revolutionary Method
Lydiard discovered running for sport when he struggled to run five miles with a friend. Forced to confront his own unfitness, he self-experimented with training, including running more than 250 miles in one week. He developed a plan that he felt confident in using with other runners. Central to his method was the importance of training in phases and peaking for major events.According to Lydiard, any successful training program must culminate in a goal race or racing period. This means planning several months. The ideal training schedule is at least 28 weeks: 12 weeks for base conditioning, eight weeks for hill training and speed development, six weeks for sharpening and 10 days for tapering/rest.Phase 1: Base Conditioning/Aerobic Training
This three-month period is the most important in the Lydiard system. If you want to give yourself every opportunity to reach your goal, you must commit to developing your aerobic capacity, says Lydiard. Why? Because although every runner has a limited anaerobic (speed-building) capacity, that limit is largely set by one’s aerobic potential—the body’s ability to use oxygen. Thus, the aerobic capacity that you develop determines the success of your entire training program.
The foundation of Lydiard-style base conditioning is three long runs per week. These are steady runs done at more than recovery effort. To determine your pace, choose a relatively flat course and run out at a strong pace for 15 minutes, then run back. The goal is to return in the same time or slightly faster. If it takes you longer for the return trip, you paced yourself too fast. The objective of these runs is to be “pleasantly tired,” says Lydiard. Running slower will produce positive effects, but the results will take longer. Do not run to the point of lactic-acid buildup.
An ideal training week during this period includes a two-hour run and two one and one half-hour runs. On the other days do short, easy runs; one run with some light picking up of the pace; and one 5K to 10K tempo run (below lactate-threshold pace). Decrease the times and distances if you don’t have the mileage base to start at such high volume, then build gradually.
Phase 2: Hill Training/Speed Development
Lydiard-style hill training, the focus of the first four weeks of this period, involves a circuit that includes bounding uphill, running quickly downhill and sprinting. These workouts develop power, flexibility and good form, all of which produce a more economical running style. Ideally, you should find a hill with three parts: a flat 200- to 400-meter area at the base for sprints, a 200- to 300-meter rise for bounding and a recovery area or moderate downhill segment at the top. Alternatively you can work out on a treadmill with an adjustable incline.
After a warm-up, bound uphill with hips forward and knees high. Lydiard describes the stride as “springing with a bouncing action and slow forward progression.” If you can’t make it all the way up, jog, then continue bounding. At the top jog easily for about three minutes or run down a slight incline with a fast, relaxed stride. Then return to the base of the hill for the next bounding segment. Every 15 minutes (after about every third or fourth hill), intersperse several 50- to 400-meter sprints on flat ground. These sprints mark the end of one complete circuit. Lydiard recommends a total workout time of one hour (plus warm-up and cool-down). Do this hill circuit three days per week.
On three of the four remaining days, focus on developing leg speed. Lydiard suggests 10 repetitions of 120 to 150 meters over a flat or very slight downhill surface. Warm up and cool down thoroughly.) The seventh day is a one and one-half to two-hour steady-state run.
During the second four weeks, shift from hills to traditional track workouts. The objective here, says Lydiard, is to “finish knowing that you could not do much more nor any better.” This sensation of fatigue matters less than how many intervals you do at what speeds, though the workout should total about three miles of fast running. Perform these track sessions three times per week. Use the remaining four days for a long run, leg-speed work and sprint-training drills traditionally done by sprinters to develop strength, form and speed.
Phase 3: Sharpening
How many times have you died in the last half of your race? Or alternatively, finished with too much left? Sharpening allows you to test for your strengths and weaknesses as you prepare for your goal race. Three workouts do not vary. The first is the long run, done at a relaxed pace. The second is an anaerobic training session done at a greater intensity and lower volume. Lydiard suggests five laps of a 400-meter track (about seven to eight minutes of running) alternating 50 meters of sprinting and 50 meters of easy, but strong, running.
The third consistent workout is a weekly time trial at or below the distance for which you are training. A 10K runner would do a 5K to 10K trial; a 1,500 meter runner would do 1,200 to meters. Ideally, do this workout on a track and record every lap to determine your weaknesses, and work on them throughout the rest of that week and the following week. For example, if the second half of your trial is slower than the first half, run a longer tune-up race that week and a longer time trial the next week. If the pace felt difficult but you were able to maintain it pretty evenly, work on your leg speed.
Round out your training week with a sprint-training session, a pace judgment day (4 x 400 meters at goal race pace), a leg-speed workout and a tune-up race. All these workouts should be geared to your goal distance and pace.
Phase 4: Tapering and Rest
Lydiard calls the final 10 days before goal race “freshening up.” This involves lightening your training to build up your physical and mental reserves for the target competition. Train every day but keep the faster running low in volume and the longer runs light in effort.
Unquestionably, Lydiard’s program tests your commitment and desire, and it requires a solid understanding of your individual needs. If you are serious, start counting out those 28 weeks.
Christine Junkermann has a 10K PR of 33:34 and lives in Woodbridge, CT. She recommends Run the Lydiard Way and Running With Lydiard, both by Arthur Lydiard with Garth Gilmour, for more information on the Lydiard method.
After so many positives posts on this blog, probably just about all of them, it’s time for a not-so positive one. Wow, that really was a pretty poor opening line, I’d actually be surprised if you’re still reading but assuming you are here goes.
Just over a week ago I managed to win four gold medals at the Australian Masters (as well as four state gold medals). This had been a goal of mine for the last few months and a big release when I finally finished the cross country on Sunday morning after four days of racing. Truth be told I had underestimated the mental side of racing and the affect it can have after the event. Of course I expected the ‘runners low’ and have described this feeling in a few posts over the years but what I didn’t expect was the total local of motivation that became a by-product of the Masters event.
All smiles, but what price have I paid for the ‘bling’ from the Australian Masters ?
I’m talking more than a runners low here, this was a ‘sit down’ in the middle of a run and contemplate ‘why am I doing this ?’ type feeling. Legs heavy and unresponsive and mentally just not enjoying the whole running experience. Couple this with plantar fasciitis and a blister from the depths of hell and you have one unhappy runner. On my recovery week I managed four runs for a grand total of 41 kilometres, on a normal week I call that Tuesday ! There was no running at all over the weekend and even on week two things have only improved marginally. I have managed to lace up on both days so far this week but begrudgingly at best and the runs have been a chore. (albeit good company today running with my work colleague, so if you’re reading this don’t take offence at my morose tone)
What worries me is this feeling has been brewing since I left my family home of 10 years in May last year, it seems becoming a property developer can play havoc with your running. Of course the real reason is when you have so many issues outside running to deal with, life in general I suppose, it can start to affect what you love to do. Running can suffer just because you have too many other distractions, I remember reading an article on why Kenyans are so much better than American runners and one of the main reasons was their ‘uncluttered life’s’. All Kenyans do is run, sleep, drink sweet tea and eat carbohydrates disguised as food. There is nothing else, everything is about running and the search for continual improvement. Of course we, as amateur runners, cannot afford this luxury and have to at least pretend to be interested in life around us be it a career, family matters, paying the bills or the latest episode of the ‘Games of Thrones’. (I have no idea what the Game of Thrones is about but believe it is popular with normal people?)
One of the main reasons I believe my mojo has deserted me is after the house move I lost my ‘old faithful’ run. This is one where I just fall out of bed into my trainers and next thing you know I’m home after running 10k and excited about the lunchtime run ahead of me. This last 12 months my morning runs, which were daily, have become quarterly, so many times I have planned to get up and run and thought of an excuse not to. This is still an ongoing problem unfortunately and one I don’t expect to solve any time soon. (Bar my Thursday morning Yelo progressive run but the coffee and muffin at the end makes that run a no-brainer. Maybe I need to do this every morning , could be the answer but probably not an ideal solution ?)
Did someone say muffin and coffee, the Yelo progressive Thursday morning run may save me?
So assuming I can’t run from Yelo every morning (more’s the pity?) what is the answer ? For me I need to get ‘fixed’ physically and mentally. I have a small case of plantar fasciitis which, although it hasn’t stopped me running, is making it uncomfortable. Mental issue is the real problem. I have been hitting my racing targets this year but each one seems to take a little but more effort than the previous one and a lot more effort than the previous year. Times are holding fast but it really has become a big task to achieve this and any thoughts of PB’s are well and truly shelved, probably for good. Am I returning to the pack after such a long time at the front ? I hope I’ll get a bit longer but at 51 how long can I hold off the tide of ‘slowing down’ due to ‘getting older’, who knows, a few more years, maybe even fight to last until I’m nearer sixty where I hear you really do ‘jump off a pb cliff’ when it comes to running times, in a bad way unfortunately.
With the Perth Marathon coming in June I need to pull my finger out as I certainly ain’t ready to give up my marathon sub 3 streak, currently sitting at 27 (I think?). At the moment confidence is high as this is just a temporary road bump on the highway of running and once I negotiate over, or around it, it’ll be back to smooth sailing (on a highway, you get the picture?). i have 4-5 big weeks of training but need to build slowly. A couple of weeks of running once a day but consistently running, improvement is all about consistency. After two weeks I can start to aim for some bigger weekly totals, maybe nudge a 100 mile week towards the end of this training block.
Funnily enough the Bk crew is suffering as well, Mark C. has returned from Boston, where he ran a great marathon, with the same ankle injury he left with, he’s out at the moment. Barts and Mark L. both have issues with blood clots and their hearts, so they’re out. Phil returned to the UK for family reasons, so he’s out. The T-train is out there somewhere doing secret men’s business (and you didn’t hear that from me!), so he’s out. Gareth has hammy issues, so he’s out. Dean has a bad knee apparently, though he just ran a 2:04 for the Perth 32 and third place finish so that knee issues may be more mental than physical,? That’s half the crew missing, luckily Jon, Ross, Damon, Jeff and Mike K. are all fighting fit so I have some company when I find my mojo.
Tonight, to cheer myself up, I ordered a couple of pairs of Nike Air Zoom Pegasus trainers, retail therapy it seems works even for us runners, we’ll see. Certainly feeling a lot better than 10 minutes ago ? It’s amazing what a couple of pair of trainers can do for someone’s mojo, maybe it was there all the time, hiding in my wallet next to my MasterCard ?
So finally some tips to get your mojo back and make reading this sorry post worthwhile.
Find like minded people and go run with them, if you can persuade them to drink coffee and muffins afterwards that’s a bonus.
Retail therapy. Buying running related items may be the boost you need, works for me and shoes ?
Give yourself a goal race to aim for, remember without a goal we morph into ‘joggers’. !
Start slow and give yourself easily achievable weekly targets. Nothing boots your confidence more than hitting goals be it a certain pace or weekly distance, running is goal orientated and the more goals we can achieve the happier we are. Some of my favourite runs have been ‘smelling the roses’ type outings where it’s all about just enjoying the sensation of running and enjoying your surrounding without the constant pressure of that annoying Garmin watch.
Treat finding your mojo like recovering from an injury because this is where you are really albeit a mental rather than physical injury. Slow and steady for a few weeks to gain some confidence back and also, more importantly, rekindling the joy of running.
If you need time off than take it. Go spend some time with your family and friends as this can often remind you why to run so much in the first place, to avoid such un-pleasantries. Only joking but seriously take some down time and maybe even let yourself go for a while, instead of walking past that dunkin’ donuts stand, shaking your head, go and indulge, see what all the fuss is about. This is basically the same thing you’d do after a marathon or ultra, a down week. (Just make sure it’s only a week as those dunkin’ donuts can be addictive, apparently?)
Try some cross training, maybe some crossfit classes to work on the core or even dust down the bike, or better still the elliptigo ( http://www.elliptigo.com ) Anything to get the heart rate up and maintain the cardio fitness while you take a sabbatical from the thing you love most.
I think this is a Runners high after finishing the 6 Inch Ultra-marathon, or it may be the start of the runners low. Hard to tell.?
After an outstanding four days of completing at the Australian Masters in Perth I have been spending the week contemplating the next goal in my never ending journey of ‘running’. I have mentioned on numerous occasions all runners need goals otherwise they morph into joggers or even worse get taken by the dark side that is triathlons. All joking aside I respect all forms and types of exercise, really anything that gets the heart pumping faster and burns a few calories is fine with me. (Note: keep it clean people, my mum reads all my posts religiously. Hi Mum ..) I admit to trying and enjoying triathlons in my younger days but found I was a back of the pack swimmer (at best, I have British roots remember) , a middle of the pack cyclist but a reasonable runner. This , in my view, is the perfect way to run a triathlon as you spend the whole time overtaking people. Not to say maybe the odd swimming lesson wound’t have gone a miss as I swim like a brick attached to another brick; and thats probably being kind to me not bricks.
As always I’ve digressed, the point of this post is to highlight that after the runners high you need to experience the runners low. Yin and Yan, chalk and cheese, night and day, Trump and common sense; you get the picture. After training for an event, and completing it, the high you experience has to finish and you ‘come down‘ to quote drug addicts everywhere. (I’m assuming this is the case, we run a clean ship here.) The runner’s low starts probably the next day proper, or maybe a few days after, the main event. Suddenly the memories of the finish are fading and all you have is muscle soreness and some shiny bling. You normally take training easy the week after (unless you follow the Tony T-train’ Smith method of recovery , which normally entails threshold pace the day after a marathon, more to wind me up that serving any purpose I’m thinking?) and struggle to find the motivation to make those early morning wake-up alarms. The main issue here is normally we haven’t set a goal and so we are like a rudderless ship floating about on the ocean without a destination, becalmed even. We need to get some wind in the sails and to do this we need to search the internet and enter another race, preferably longer and harder than the last one. This gives you your next challenge and a reason to make that 5AM wake up when it’s dark, freezing and uninviting outside. With your new goal you will be oblivious to the elements , focused on the task ahead, and the end race, where yet again you will experience that runners high we all crave.
Like a heroin junkie working towards that next big hit of quality ‘smack‘ us runners crave that feeling that only finishing a marathon , or better, gives us. On the bright side the harder the race the better the runners high, I feel sometimes maybe I should try a marathon with little or no training, maybe add a few kilos, how good would that runners high be then ? Unfortunately not so much, as with all drugs the quality is important, (apparently? , I watched Trainspotting recently thus all the drug related references are from this film ) just finishing with no real challenge would be nice but not satisfying and here lies the crux of the issue. You have to earn it to really experience the full monty of the runner’s high, you have to have trained to breaking point, put your life on hold, upset you family on a number of occasions and generally ostracised yourself from the world in general. Then add a goal time to aim for, and make is very, very difficult to achieve this, then and only then will you experience the runners high.
So the runners low will hang around until to have that new goal, allowing you to start to move towards it, one step at a time. You don’t need pace or even distance to start, just slowly start moving in the right direction. Momentum will come as move closer to your goal and a good training plan will help you plan the structure of the assault on your next race because it is an assault and you need to be prepared for more of the same, just the way we like it. If it was easy everybody would be doing it , right ?
I have attached a post I wrote on this subject in October if you need to keep reading but not too long mind, you have a runners high to work towards…..
After the Runners high comes the Runners low…
Everybody talks about the runners high, this sense of euphoria one experiences when they cross the line at a major goal event. I’ve discussed what I feel it is, a sudden overwhelming sense of relief, or release, after you achieve something after putting yourself either under pressure or into the ‘pain box’. Anyway, after this ‘runners high’ you can sometimes come a cropper and experience what I term the ‘runners low’.
This feeling is the same in all sports and happens after achieving something you have worked so hard to do. There’s a classic scene (there are so many classic scenes in this movie of course.) in ‘Chariots of Fire’ when Harold Abrahams has just won the 100m gold and everybody else is celebrating while Harold himself is reserved and alone in the changing rooms. What Abrahams is struggling to come to terms with is success after so many years working towards that one 10 second race. All of a sudden he has no purpose, no target, no reason to do what he has been doing for so long. It must be daunting ?
The same can be true for us recreational marathon runners, albeit probably not as severe. Once we have completed the marathon and achieved the ‘runners high’ the next day all of sudden we have no goal. No reason to put in that early morning 5am start, no reason to double up or run a threshold until your lungs feel they are about to explode. There is no purpose after so many months of having something to achieve, a target to overcome. This feeling , coupled with the emotions of the previous few days of finishing a marathon, makes the runners high seem so long ago.
There is hope though and it as easy as getting on the internet and searching for the next goal, the next target, the next reason to structure a long term plan. Before you know it you’ve signed up for another race and it’s back on. Another phase begins towards another goal race which will probably have a target finish time just that little bit quicker than the previous race. Let’s face it we don’t do all this to slow down !
So my advice is to get back on the horse (so to speak, if you actually get on a horse you’ll probably get disqualified, remember this is a running blog!) and set yourself your next goal. It works for me, no off season, the next race is normally a few months away at worst but I know it’s there for me, waiting. Admittedly after a marathon I do feel low for a few days because I love to run marathons and the feeling you get when you finish one is why we do what we do. It has never let me down in 40 runs so far . (and the 16 ultra-marathons have also delivered of course)
Remember we are runners, we need a goal, something to make those 5am alarm calls worthwhile. What else is there to do at 5am in the morning anyway?
WA Athletics Stadium, home for the four days of competition.
As I mentioned in my last post I intended to run four events at the Australian Masters Competition in Perth . I had entered the 10,000m on Thursday, the 3,000m Steeplechase on Friday , the 5000m on Saturday and the 8,000m cross country on Sunday. My target was a top three age group finish in all four with a stretch goal of a clean sweep age group gold medals to mimic Usain Bolt on the Olympics. (If only in the number of goal medals.)
So I took Thursday and Friday off work and toddled off to the West Australian Athletics Stadium to run my first event, the 10,000m . Not knowing the calibre of competition for this event my game plan was to start like a scolded cat and hang on for as long as possible to my mate Ross’s shirt-tails. Ross was in good form and would certainly break 35 minutes. My track PB was 35:35 (I think? ) so I knew somewhere along the way I would be jettisoned from behind Ross but the idea was to make this inevitable event as late as possible in the 25 lap race. Secondly I would checking the bib numbers on the back on all athletes ahead of me as I was really only racing the clock and anyone in my age group, there is no prize for the first three runners, it’s all age group determined, with a 1,2 and 3 in each age group presented with the gold, silver and bronze medals. Looking around at the starting group I could see a few runners in my age group and made a mental note to track them if they dared run ahead of me !
As soon as the gun went off Ross and I set the early pace before being passed by a 55-59 runner, this may have been a knock to the ego, being passed by an older runner, but he was in a different age group so I wasn’t racing him. I managed to hang on to Ross for around 10 laps before he started to pull away and I was left chasing the older runner who had taken 5-10 metres off me. No worries, I was happy enough in third place , happy in the fact I was running in the age group gold medal position. This continued up to the halfway mark when , as always, I realised I had gone out too quick and dropped deep into the pain box and I mean deep. I always say the 10,000m is one of the hardest races you can run as you always race it at 5k pace and at 5k you find out why it’s called 5k pace! Normally I can hold out until about 7k before I start too question my sanity and asking why I shouldn’t just stop and let the pain go away. Unfortunately today I was at that stage of the race a few kilometres earlier than normal, joy, some real pain box time.
I continued on to the finish counting down each lap and giving myself small targets to aim for, last 15 laps, single figure to go laps, last 5 laps , 2 laps to go and then finally last lap. I find in this race this helps, anything to take your mind off the pain. Eventually I finish in a new track PB time of 34:40 and third overall but more importantly I had won my age group by just under 5 minutes, the benefit of hindsight would have been useful but as I said earlier you really racing the clock and the age group runners. Of course I could have slowed towards the end and still won comfortably but that’s not racing, as I said many times when you put on a bib it’s on like donkey-kong, pain box time. Today was extra painful but, at 51, to get a track PB there was no other alternative really.
One down, three to go. 10,000m age group gold. Jeff Gray second and Lindsay Scholle third. Presented by local legend John Gilmour.
Next on the running menu was a new dish, the 3,000m steeplechase. I mean how bad can a 3,000m race possibly be, I was about to find out ! Truth be told I knew nothing about the steeplechase and it was only chosen as I suspected that chances of a medal would be high. This was confirmed when the competitor list was published and there was only three other runners in my age group, better still on the day one runner scratched so I was on the podium if I finished. I did make an effort to do some pre-race training on the Wednesday before the race but couldn’t being myself to jump the water jump when it was empty. Trust me people it is intimidating as the drop is extremely large before the slope back to track level. I decided to wait until the race proper before I launched myself over the hurdle into the water, what could possibly go wrong ? Thursday evening was spent researching hurdling techniques and avoiding the ‘when steeplechase goes bad‘ videos on YouTube. This gave me a new found confidence and I was confident on race day that I could at least finish ? I also found out that there are four hurdles plus the water jump per lap, so with seven laps and a half laps there was 30 hurdles to clear. Again seemed a reasonable amount , boy was I about to get a shock. !
We set off at breakneck speed as always, c’mon 3,000m what was there to hold back for ? I managed to clear the first two hurdles placing my right spike on top and leaping off , (Did I mention that half-an-hour before the race I brought a pair of spikes, my first ever pair. Seemed like a good idea at the time ?) managing some forward motion but I remember thinking that was quite high , higher that it looked on YouTube. No worries I had the water jump next and this was my first time so I decided to land two footed and just at least get round one lap comfortably. As you can see from the photograph below my technique was not text book, little forward motion but I survived.
No technique but I managed to move forward, albeit slowly? I call this the ‘crucifix’ method..
Funnily enough the hurdles seemed to be getting bigger each lap,I was sure as I went over them someone was sneaking behind me and moving them up a few inches each time. I remember looking at the lap counter with 3 laps to go (remember this is only a seven and a half lap race!) and thinking I was in trouble as the legs had well and truely gone. The last few laps I’m not sure I made any forward progress as I jumped over the hurdles (and I use the word ‘jump’ in the broadest sense of the word.) In the end I finished in 11 minutes and 24 seconds but my 1k splits told the story, 3:26, 3:56 and 4:01 . It was not pretty but I had managed fourth place finish and more importantly age group gold medal number two. Please note I have officially retired from steeplechasing, it is without doubt the hardest thing I have done in my running career, never again !
Steeplechase podium. Lindsay pipped Jeff this time.
Next was the 5,000m and I knew I had some serious conception. Doing my research on the competitor list I found a world recorder holder for the 1,500m , albeit 6 years ago and another runner with a sub 17 minute recent PB. I knew if I was going to grab gold I would need to run sub 17 minutes. On a normal day that would be quite do-able but my legs were destroyed from the 10,000m and the race from hell. (otherwise known as the steeplechase?) I put my trust in my Nike Vaporflys 4% as these had got me a track PB a few days earlier and certainly seem to work on the track. Again my game plan was to hold onto Ross for as long as possible , the basic ‘scolded cat‘ start, why change a winning formula ? So when the start pistol went off so did I , like a rocket. The first kilometre was 3:05 which was way too quick and I knew this would come back to haunt me. The next kilometre was slightly slower but I knew my time in the pain box was coming and boy I wasn’t disappointed. It was starting to heat up on the track but I was in a good position with my nearest 50-54 age group rival behind me and dropping back each lap. In the end I ran just under 17 minutes, 16:54, which was another track PB, couldn’t be happier. Fourth overall and again an age group gold medal. Three down, one to go.
5,000m podium with some serious Victorian competition. Robert Schwerkolt and Luke Goodman.
Finally day four we had the 8k cross country. The course was mainly on grass with some sand sections but no real hills to talk off. Four laps of a 2k course which infact turned out to be slightly less, turning the 8k into a 7.4k, after three days of competition I was more than happy with the shorter course. As with all previous events I was racing the clock and anyone in my age group. I noticed Jeff Grey from the previous three days but no one else. Could this be my fourth age group gold ? As it was I worked hard for the first two laps and then seeing no one anyone near me cruised home in just over 27 minutes. I say ‘cruised’ , my legs were gone and it was the steeplechase all over again but this time with grass and sand. Got to love multi day events ?
Mission accomplished, four days, four events, four age group golds. Jeff Gray in Silver and Rob Italia in a bronze medal position.
Finally how good was it to find these Australian Championships were also the Western Australian Masters Championships, so as the first WA runner in each event (in my age group) I was entitled to four more gold medals. So Mr.Bolt it seems I managed to acquire eight gold medals at the Masters, not the original four I was chasing. Seems like a fair deal because trust me I earned them ! As someone commented on facebook I look like a modern day Mr.T, albeit a tad thinner ?
You can never have too many Gold medals ? So stoked.
So would I recommend the Masters to all runners over thirty ? Very much so , the four days ran like clockwork and I’m a big believer with improvement linked to racing, so the opportunity to race at so many distances over a short period of time will certainly help your running. (not sure about the steeplechase mind, that one may take a bit of convincing once I mentally recover from those last two laps !) I met some great people over the four days of competition and even my first African (Algerian) follower (I’m assuming?) of my blog. Yassine Belaabed was just beaten into second place in the M65 8,000m cross county and I’m sure he can find the 13 or so seconds he needs to put Giovanni Puglisi in his place at the next games in Melbourne. That’s the thing with Masters, there always next year and you know what, I may even be there to watch Yassine do it, when it comes to Masters racing age is just another opportunity to level the playing field but really it’s more about the camaraderie of competition, amongst like minded people, doing what they love.
WA Athletics Stadium 400m track, home for the weekend.
On Thursday I’ll compete in the Australian Masters Athletics Championships in Perth. It’s a four day event and I must admit to getting carried away with entries when I first registered. I mean I was offered so many events it was easy to click here, click there, next thing I know I’m running four days straight in events I’ve never ran before some with hurdles and water jumps, what could possibly go wrong ? If it’s half as good as the World Masters in 2016 it will be an awesome event. Back in 2016 me and the boys put on the Green and Gold and did Australia proud with some great results in the Marathon as well as other events. It was a unique experience to be running for the same country and you certainly felt a huge sense of pride and solidarity as you all worked towards the same cause, on the same team.
World Masters 2016 Team Aussi!…. (Truth be told in the photo you have the T-train, English, Mike K. Ukranian English, myself English, a token Australian in Mark L, Brett a South African and Mark C as Scottish as sleet and snow!) We’re a diverse lot us Australians.
This time it will be for my state rather than country but I’m hoping the feeling of togetherness will be the same as the Worlds. If nothing else I’ll get to run on the track which I find challenging but in a nice way. Twenty five laps on Thursday for the 10,000m and then seven and a half laps Friday for the 3,000m steeplechase. On Saturday another twelve and a half laps for the 5,000m before concluding on Sunday for an 8k cross country . Doesn’t sound that bad does it ?
The steeplechase will be interesting as I’ve never ran it and truth be told I don’t remember every leaping over a hurdle or water jump. It will be a baptism of fire on Friday but I’m hoping to master the technique tomorrow afternoon when we are allowed to practice on the track. Just to be sure I also watched some YouTube footage this afternoon at work and it looked very do-able. (Well the 20 something American track team made it looked easy enough?) I must admit to avoid the videos showing ‘when steeplechase goes bad‘ because no point focusing on the negative right ? Maybe I should wear speedos under my shorts just incase I spend more time in the water on the water jump than planned. I could always borrow Jon’s floaties that he was made to wear on the first hill of the 6 inch ultra after falling in the one and only puddle on the whole course the year before, actually I think he fell in twice if I remember correctly. Not sure the pink would go with my WA singlet though and they don’t look very aero-dynamic ?
Maybe I need to borrow these for the water jump?
Competing in a four day event will be good fun, assuming I can avoid pulling a hammy on Friday leaping like a young gazelle over that water jump and hurdles, and I’m targeting a top 3 finish in all events for my age group. It’s important to keep yourself honest when you enter a race and the best way to do that is to let people know what you’re aiming for, can be the difference when you’re suffering and need to pull yourself together. Think about the water cooler conversation if you achieve your goal time or alternatively when Sharon from accounts gives you grief for falling short, nothing worse than verbal abuse from Sharon from accounts I can assure you. I wonder if Sharon reads this blog and, if she does, I’d better prepare myself on Monday if I fail to podium four times over the event.
Right I got more Youtube videos to watch , I really need to nail that steeplechase , I mean imagine if I slipped, the family jewels would never forgive me, now that would be a post worth reading ? (assuming I could type from the emergency ward?)
Finally today I went segment hunting on Strava. ( http://www.strava.com ) This is where you target segments and then you and your friends see who can get the furthest up the leader board and/or ahead of each other. This is good race preparation as the segment will force you to run as though you have a bib on your chest and are being chased by Lucifer himself. At work currently there is some rivalry between two of my colleagues, Chan the Singaporian Scud missile and Sascha the South African Stallion. Sascha had bragging rights over Chan and myself until we both decided to bring our times down on a segment close to work in Kings Park. Today I managed to sneak a quick time in to put myself above my two colleagues but the Stallion was disappointed to only draw level with the Scud Missile. There was much head shaking and look of bewilderment in the afternoon as Sascha checked and double checked Strava. I’m sure on Thursday as I’m racing at the Masters Sascha will be planing his next assault on that segment and probably gaining those extra few seconds needed to wrestle that 2nd place from the missile. The point of this is you can find excuses to race everywhere and with Strava you can track your times and compete against your fellow runners. Hell if you get lucky you may even find a few segments Sharon from Accounts has run but I’d probably avoid running faster than her times, she can take things personally and she controls the purse strings and the water cooler conversations…..
“Suns out, Guns out” … well maybe a couple of pistols ?
It’s a flashback Friday post today. This is where I look back at the blog and find interesting articles I wrote when only my Mum followed me. (Truth be told my readership is probably not that much larger 18 months later but Mum always like a mention.)
All runners can relate to this post on weight. If you run , and worse, run competitively, you worry about weight and this then goes hand in hand with nutrition , another one of my favourite subjects.
Have I discovered the perfect diet yet, after many years of looking, the answer is no but I have found opportunities to improve my diet, lose weight and run faster. Of course this means sacrifices but this is a ‘runners lot’, what we do demands sacrifices. Friday night drinks with your work colleagues, sorry ‘going long’ Saturday. Game of kick around on the oval, no way baby, tight hammy’s ! Chasing kids around the back yard, are you mad, all that lateral change of pace, has long term injury written all over it . You get the picture, a runners life is one of sacrifices but these are sacrifices I am willing to make. (Never been one for Friday night drinks anyway and my footie kicking is poor at best!)
Diet unfortunately is another form of self sacrifice that can return dividends. The old days of the ‘if the furnace is hot enough, it burns anything’ approach is flawed and if you really want to improve your running you need to look at what you are using for fuel. Of course there will always be the runners that seem to survive on junk food but constantly produce jaw dropping times but these are few and far between and are normally just blessed with natural talent and genetics. I am not unfortunately, like 99% of the running population it is just plain old boring hard work that gets me where I need to be. Again I’m ok with that and must admit to enjoying the runners post long run pancakes or waffles as a form of recovery; it’s not all bad.
Carbohydrates or the high fat, low carb diet, I’ll leave it to you to decide but the most important final statistic is your racing results. Get it right and hit your racing weight and you’ll see the benefits, too low or high and you’ll also notice the difference. We’re all different of course but lets face it , when’s the last time you saw an over weight runner at the front of the pack. Sorry people the ‘just escaped form a concentration camp‘ look is the way to go, much to my Wife’s disgust. She often encourages me to put on weight, drink more and tries to butter me up with digestives (normally with dark chocolate!) , not many men can say that about their partners. I of course rebuke her advances and proudly mention I am at racing weight and have no need for any extra muscle as it serves no purposes for us runners. Muscle or fat are merely an extra weight we have to carry around the race distance and this need to be jettisoned as soon as possible. Sorry Karen but the ‘Schlinders List‘ look is what all us runners aspire to and no amount of chocolate digestives is going to derail me…..
I have mentioned weight in relation to running a few times on this blog but with all good subjects there is always another good article to highlight. It really is common sense that the lighter you are the faster you will run with the same amount of energy. My Dad use to always sprout ‘It’s Physics Son‘ at me on so many occasions over the years for numerous different scenarios, in this scenario it really is.
So to improve with the same amount of training all you need to do is put down that donut (Jon !) and pick up that lovely celery stick, Yum ! Hang on, to quote Homer Simpson ‘Donuts taste good‘ and I agree with Mr.Simpson whole heartedly but to work off a donut it’s about 30 minutes of moderate exercise, and who can stop at one donut which is why you buy Krispy Kremes in boxes of 6 or more. That’s 3 hours of running nearly a marathon for 10 minutes of pleasure. (Would you have to run the 3 hours straight after eating 6 donuts or can you wait, either way I would probably envisage trouble ahead.)
I can certainly testify that at my racing weight of 70kg I am considerably faster than if I let myself go and hit 72kg. You feel the difference and also in training with every step you moving that extra 2kg, remember physics, not a runners friend when he’s been embracing his friend Mr. Kreme.
So the answer is to find your racing weight and stick to it. How easy is that ? Actually not easy at all as your racing weight is always so damn low and to get to it in the first place you normally starve yourself or have to avoid all the food groups you love. Then when you hit the racing weight you spend all your time worrying about putting weight on. No one said being a runner was easy, we train hard in tough conditions, give up our social life, friends out with running are ignored and even sacrifice family time but to forego the donuts or worse the Yelo muffin, life is cruel.
Is there an answer to the weight conundrum, there may be. Rather than try and maintain your racing weight all year you can train using the periodisation technique. (Is it a technique or just a way of training, you decide?) . Periodisation is the theory and practice of how to vary a training program over time to bring the runner to a physical peak for major competitions. It is considered simply as planned and organized variety. The periodisation variables we can manipulate include frequency, intensity, recovery, variety, specificity, and duration of training. I suggest part of this could also involve Krispy Kreme donuts, though when Arthur Lydiard, first started experimenting with periodization in 1947 I’m not sure he had donuts at the forefront of his mind.? Anyhow you could define periods of your training when you can add a little weight and enjoy life a tad more than normal before then starving yourself back to your racing weight.
It would be easier of course if we didn’t have a sweet tooth and we could maintain our weight by enjoying the good things in life like cabbage, celery, carrots, swede or my favourite green peas. Not going to happen, so until they make chocolate calorie free it’s back to my old friend ‘hunger pains’ and the odd Yelo muffin when I can persuade myself that running 100 miles does justify one muffin as it normally contains fruit (mixed in with the chocolate)
Amanda MacMillan wrote this article for Runners World in 2014 but it still holds true today unfortunately. Worth a read but we all know what we should weigh, it’s our decision whether we reach that goal and when we do how long we can hold it for. That is of course until chocolate becomes calorie free then it’s on for young and old…
The root of all evil…
It may have been a while since you’ve stepped on a scale.
You’re fit, you feel great and you run, a lot. So who cares if your abs aren’t as flat as they used to be? Even if your weight’s not on your radar as a health issue, though, it should be as a performance one. Because there’s a good chance you’re not at your ideal racing weight—that is, the weight at which you run your fastest and feel your best.
Perhaps you have always had the same body and never considered what adding a few pounds of muscle or dropping a few pounds of flab might do for your performance. Alicia Shay, a professional runner and nutrition counselor in Flagstaff, Arizona, says weight shouldn’t be overlooked. “Anyone who cares how fast they’re running should consider their weight part of their overall training strategy,” she says.It’s most common for runners to find their weight has crept up over the years. Pete Magill, author of Build Your Running Body, didn’t think much about his own gradual weight gain until, at 44, his usual 15-minute 5K times began to suffer.“When I ran 16:20, I knew I was in trouble,” Magill says. “I’d been racingat 170 pounds since starting masters competition, almost 10 pounds over my race weight back in my 20s.” He couldn’t train any harder, so he went on a diet and dropped to 164. Over the next few years, he set the American men’s 45–49 record for the 5K, at 14:34.Magill’s not alone. “I can’t imagine you can talk to a competitive runner who doesn’t have a weight-loss-equals-faster-time story,” he says.But getting to that ideal number can be hard work—especially if you’re already logging major mileage and are used to eating whatever you want. And it’s a delicate balance: Dipping below it or losing weight in unhealthy ways could put you at risk for injury, illness and disordered eating behaviors.Why Lighter Equals FasterAs a general rule, runners move most efficiently when they’re at the low end of what’s considered a healthy body mass and body-fat percentage. “Running is really just a form of jumping,” says Matt Fitzgerald, certified sports nutritionist and author of Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. “You can’t move forward without moving up, and the more you have to lift against gravity, the more energy it requires.” Imagine running with an extra 5 pounds strapped around your waist, he explains.Body weight affects performance in running more than it does in other sports, such as swimming and biking, according to a 2011 Swiss study on Ironman triathletes. And lower body-mass index seems increasingly important as race distances get longer: A 2014 study found that the optimal BMI for male 800m runners was between 20 and 21, while it dropped between 19 and 20 for male 10,000m and marathon runners. (Generalizations about BMI shouldn’t be used prescriptively, Shay says, because it doesn’t take into account lean muscle or body fat.)There are other reasons lighter means faster: Larger people are less efficient at delivering oxygen throughout the body. Losing weight doesn’t change your lung capacity or function, but it does mean that each breath doesn’t have to go as far.Leaner athletes can dissipate heat better, too, because they have a higher surface-area-to-body-weight ratio and less insulating fat tissue. They also burn carbohydrates more efficiently. So while weight isn’t everything, it’s certainly a big thing. “Four factors determine how fast you are,” says Sean Wade, a top masters athlete and coach of the Houston-based Kenyan Way running program. “Genetics, form, how hard and smart you train, and your weight—and not necessarily in that order.”
Age Makes a Difference
Masters runners may have the hardest time losing weight—no matter how much they run. Fred Zalokar, 54, averages more than 100 miles a week and for years oscillated between 170 and 180 pounds. But since he cleaned up his diet four years ago, he’s dropped more than 20 pounds, increasing his speed and turnover along the way.
“Weight loss has never just happened for me, even when I was regularly running ultras,” Zalokar says. “If I’m not consciously cutting my calories, I can make up for all that mileage without a second thought.”
That’s because adults begin losing muscle mass in their early 40s, which can impair performance and decrease metabolism, says Emily Brown, RD. Getting enough physical activity (including resistance training to maintain muscle) is especially important, as is cutting back on junk food and oversize food portions.
Tom Storey, 50, who has run Boston seven times, attributes his first qualifying run, in 2007, to weight loss. In just more than a year, he went from 205 to 150 pounds and shaved more than 30 minutes off his previously 4-hour marathon time. Today, maintaining his weight requires sacrifices he’s willing to make. “There aren’t a lot of things I can do to make myself a better athlete,” he says, “but if I can keep my weight down, I know I’ll be faster.”
Crunching the Numbers
Finding your ideal weight—the healthy weight at which you really perform your best—takes some time. “You can’t predict your optimal race weight beforehand,” Fitzgerald says. “You can move toward a goal, and when you have the race of your life, you weigh yourself and get your body composition tested, and there you have it.”
Andrew Lemoncello, 2012 Olympian for the U.K. and a coach for McMillan Running, didn’t find his ideal race weight until going pro after college. “I used to live by the saying, ‘If the furnace is hot enough, it will burn anything,’ “ he says. “I ate healthy foods, but I also loved desserts and never paid attention to my portions.”
When he began spending time with other pro runners, Lemoncello realized he needed higher-quality fuel for his furnace to run at its most efficient. He began planning his meals and stopped mindless eating, and he dropped from 150 pounds to 145. “I started setting PRs and had more energy and confidence,” he says. “If I’m eating well and training hard, that’s the weight my body naturally gravitates to.”
For any weight loss or gain, it helps to have something to aim for. Several online calculators, like Fitzgerald’s at RacingWeight.com, will estimate your ideal racing weight based on your age, gender and current fitness level. In this case, ideal is defined as what you would weigh if your body fat was at its lowest attainable-yet-healthy percentage, Fitzgerald explains.
Then there are the stats about how much quicker you’ll be by slimming down, like the commonly cited 2 seconds per mile, per pound you are above your ideal weight. But this will vary from person to person, says exercise physiologist Paul Vanderburgh, creator of the online Flyer Handicap Calculator, which helps runners see how their race times stack up against competitors of other ages and weights. Based on VO2 max estimates, it computes your predicted time if you were 25 years old and a scale model of yourself at 110 pounds for women or 143 pounds for men. “It’s strictly meant for comparisons,” he stresses, “not for figuring out the weight you should realistically be to hit a certain time.”
In Build Your Running Body, Magill and his co-authors plot a chart of estimates based on VO2 calculations—for example, that a 200-pound runner can shave 19 seconds off a 20-minute 5K time by losing 5 pounds. Wade takes a simpler approach: “One minute slower per 1 pound overweight is what I tell my marathoners,” he says.
These tools can be good motivators, according to Rasa Troup, a certified specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD), a 2008 Olympian and current nutritionist for Team USA Minnesota, but she adds that athletes shouldn’t take them as gospel. “My biggest concern is that they distract runners from listening to and understanding their own bodies, because they’re caught up in reaching some number,” she says. “It’s more important to be aware of how tired hungry or sluggish you are feeling.”
Kimberly Mueller, CSSD, owner of San Diego-based Fuel Factor Nutrition Coaching and a 2:52 marathoner, warns that calculators can skew too low with body-fat goals, as well. “Some have estimated my ideal body composition to fall around 12 percent,” she says, “but I know I lose my menstrual cycle if I fall below 14.”
How Much is Too Much?
Many runners could benefit from shedding a few pounds, Troup admits—but only if they have excess weight to lose and only if it’s done in a way that supplements their training, rather than sabotaging it. “Well-fueled athletes will perform well, and well-fueled means something different for every person,” she says. Of course, losing weight isn’t a good idea for all competitive runners. For those who are naturally very lean or who work hard to stay at the low end of their healthy weight, the threat of falling below that point at which you race your best is real.
Stephanie Bruce learned that the hard way when she finished a disappointing 16th at the 2013 Boston Marathon. She and her husband, pro runner Ben Bruce, have spent years perfecting their race-weight strategies, she says, and weigh themselves daily leading up to a big race.
“We didn’t have a scale in Boston, and it was difficult to get in as many calories the day before as I would have been able to at home,” she says. (Bruce has celiac disease and has to be careful about eating food prepared outside of her own kitchen.) “I was probably under by only 2 or 3 pounds on race morning, but it made a huge impact. I had no power; I just couldn’t hold the pace.”
Bruce says she works hard to maintain a healthy weight and has never dropped so low that her health has suffered. But many runners, without enough calories or nutrients, can develop weak bones and compromised immune systems.
That’s what Brian Rosetti figures happened to him. After he graduated from college, he spent two years training almost full-time. His mileage was increasing, but he was focused on low weight instead of nutrition for performance. Just as he made a breakthrough in his training, and as his weight dropped to an all-time low of 146 on his 6-foot-1 frame, he suffered a sacral stress fracture. “My bone density was below the median level, and I don’t think I was getting the right nutrients,” Rosetti says. “I was focused on keeping as light as I could. That’s a scary place to be.” The injury, in effect, ended his career.
Fitzgerald says impaired performance is usually the first sign that a runner has dipped into dangerous territory. “It’s the canary in the coal mine—your body’s signal that it’s under too much stress.”
For women, a missing menstrual period is also an indication of an unhealthy and unsustainable weight, with potential complications like infertility and osteoporosis. And while it’s less talked about, competitive men can struggle, too. A recent Southern Utah University study found that almost 20 percent of male high school cross country runners were at risk for disordered eating behaviors like bingeing and purging. Some boys expressed a desire to gain body weight to be more attractive, while others wanted to lose it to improve their running.
To keep your weight loss from becoming detrimental, the American Council on Exercise recommends maintaining a BMI that stays at or above the normal weight threshold of 18.5 and a body fat percentage above 14 percent for women and 6 percent for men. Some elites dip below these guidelines, Troup says, but it’s not recommended without careful monitoring.
Fitzgerald also recommends tracking your performance. “If you’re getting skinnier but your times are getting worse, you’ve passed the point of beneficial weight loss,” he says.
And above all else, Shay says, listen to your body and your mind. “If you’re starving all the time or you’re irritable and cranky or you’re bonking on runs, you’re probably being too ambitious and getting too light.”
Timing is Everything
The time to prioritize weight loss is in a four- to nine-week period before you start ramping up your workouts, while you’re building your base. “You can’t maximize fitness gain and weight loss simultaneously,” Fitzgerald says.
Mueller agrees. During a competitive season, athletes shouldn’t restrict themselves by more than 500 calories per day. For those who want to lose only a few pounds, 200 to 300 is even better. Stop restricting calories the week of a big race, she adds, because your body will perform best on a full tank.
Bruce says she goes into her training cycles about 3 to 5 pounds over her racing weight, a product of relaxed eating habits and less exercise during her offseason. “I like to have a reserve to pull from, because once I start working out harder, I lose it pretty easily,” she says.
Lemoncello follows a similar schedule during his training period, gaining 5 to 10 pounds when he’s not racing. “It’s good for my running,” he says. “The break helps me feel energized, and I come back motivated.”
On Monday Yuki Kawauchi shocked the running world and won the Boston Marathon against a world class field full of faster Kenyans. how did he do it, mental toughness and good old fashioned heart. The conditions were horrendous but the same for all runners and Yuki just put his foot down at the end and destroyed the field of Kenyans, winning by nearly three minutes. There really are no superlatives to describe this legend of the marathon running elite world. He has run over 79 marathons under 2 hours 20 minutes, a World Record, and Boston was his 4th this year with many more booked in for the later in the year. I’m sure the $150,000 pay day for wining Boston will come in very handy for the ‘citizen runner‘ , plus the millions he is probably going to earn in endorsements now, and every cent well earned and deserved.
So what’s his secret ? How does he do what he does while holding down a full time job, with no sponsorship and self coached ? The answer is distance, with his tempo/thresholds reserved for racing. Lots of time on feet, jogging, as he calls it. To me I call it the Maffetone method, the foundation of his running built on ‘time on leg’s , albeit only once a day rather than the two or three times reserved for the ‘normal’ elite athletes. Yuki has built a massive aerobic fitness and by racing marathons and half marathons on a regular basis he takes cares of his anaerobic needs. Very similar to the way I train , though he seems to be a bit better at it, I put that down to his age and can only assume if I was thirty I would be competing with him , at least for the first 40-50 metres ! ?
2018 has been a busy year for Yuki.
With more of the same to come in the later half of 2018….
One of the nicest guys in running… and Yuki , the citizen runner. Perth 2015.
As you can see from his weekly training 80% is at nice and easy 5min/k (well easy for Yuki anyway.) (80/20 now there an idea… https://mattfitzgerald.org) Around 80-100km at this relaxed pace with one day of speed work in the middle of the week and then racing and/or trails on the weekend. Probably running between 130-160k a week. Nothing unusual about this bar the results. Truth be told he runs a similar week to me but the end results are chalk and cheese. Must be natural talent I’m missing, only explanation surely ? This backs up many of my posts on ‘time on legs running’ as well as the benefits of racing with a bib on your chest. Both of these training tips are ingrained in Yuki’s training program, so it’s not just me.
What else has Yuki got to make a difference, a heart of a lion. He regularly pushes himself to his limit and this is another one of my main golden rules, mental toughness. Marathon racing is as much a mental race as a physical one. You need to master both to succeed, it doesn’t how much training you put in when you are a marathon there will be time in the ‘pain box‘ and you choose how long you can spend in there, the longer the better.
I met Yuki in 2015 when he ran the Perth City to Surf Marathon as defending champion after winning in 2014. He won of course and went past the Kenyans on the last hill like they were standing still, apparently. I was a few minutes behind (about 30 of them !) so only have the words of spectators to go by. It summed up his running, waiting until the last few kilometres before making his move. This is the way he runs, asking the questions to his competitors in a similar way that the American middle distance runner Steve Prefontaine would do in the seventies. It’s a pity the Perth City to Surf dropped the prize money in 2016 as Yuki was then unable to come over and go for a three-peat. Remember he has a full time job and only travels if there is prize money to justify his trip. To further cement his legend status after the race he accepted an invite from the TRC runners for a few beers. ( http://therunningcentre.com.au/ ) He then held court, with a translator, before hot footing it to the airport for an evening flight to get to work the next day. (I’m assuming he took a taxi?)
So to sum up the point of this post, nice guys can and do win, Yuki trains like us mere mortals and achieve amazing results with his mental strength. I’m not saying we can match his achievements but we can learn from his training program, training once a day , time on feet runs and plenty of racing. He may have been the last one standing on a Boston Marathon that was brutal due to the weather conditions and it may have played into his hands but he still had to step up when the chips were down. His mental strength was there for all to see as he out kicked a top class Kenyan in the last two kilometres of perhaps the biggest marathon in the world. Next time you’re racing and things start to get tough think about Yuki and ask ‘what would Yuki do‘ ?
What a legend. Nice guys sometimes finish first. Boston Marathon 2018.
In January 2017 I wrote a post on slowing down to speed up. Basically I was saying that by slowing down and running more aerobically, governed by the heart rate, you could, long term, speed up and race faster. I proved this by using Strava ( http://www.strava.com ) data to show how on one of my favourite runs I had actually slowed down but at the same time my race PB’s had improved, this the title ‘Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up’. I recommend researching the Maffetone method of training. ( https://philmaffetone.com )
After the Bridges 10k this weekend I had more evidence of this theory. This was the 6th time I had run the bridges and my first sub 35 minute finish, and top 10, at the ripe old age of 51. My Bridges times are :-
2010 36:40
2011 35:59
2016 35:50
2017 35:12
2018 34:59
What has changed over time to see the constant improvement, albeit small, and the answer is experience. In 2008 I really started to run seriously while training for the Comrades ultra-marathon ( http://www.comrades.com) and I completed this race in the subsequent two years as well. Those three years gave me the foundation and spring board to racing success and I have built on that annually, each year running more and longer. This has allowed me to continually record PB’s (PR’s to the American’s among us) even into my fifties and infact the last couple of years have been the most productive with times I thought well beyond me.
So what is the holy grail of running that allows you to keep breaking records well into your fifties. ? Truth be told there is no single thing unfortunately, if there was and I knew what it was I would be a rich man. It is a combination of so many things but each one helps to build the PB running machine you need to be. My 9 Golden rules sum up most of these and if you follow them you will certainly be well on track to at least improve your running and that should translate into quicker racing.
Run Further. Add distance, not speed.
Run Faster. This is about adding pace after you have got your foundation after rule 1.
Don’t get injured. This is the hardest rule to obey as you always want to do more of rule 1 and 2 which can result in an injury. (I even hate typing the word!)
Nutrition, nutrition and nutrition… Did I mention nutrition. It’s all about the proper fuel.
Weight. So important, use to believe because I ran 100k+ a week I could eat what I wanted. Not true.
Baseline, document and evaluate everything. If it isn’t on www.strava.com it didn’t happen. Once you set a goal you have to be able to know how far you have come to achieving this, small steps but constant feedback. So buy a Garmin and start recording , everything !!!
Sleep. So underestimated but the bodies way of refuelling and preparing for the next day of running. Common sense but so often ignored.
Consistency. No point running 100k one week and then nothing. Marathon fitness is built up over time and this works hand in hand with rule number 1.
It’s all in the mind. After 32k a marathon is down to mental strength and the ability to persuade your body you can still perform at your desired pace without falling to fatigue, which is the minds way of protecting itself. Never underestimate the power of the mind in long distance racing.
The rules themselves are common running sense but running ain’t complicated, do more and you will get better. I have said this on a number of posts over the years ‘running is the most honest sport I know’, there really is no shortcuts. When was the last time you heard someone say, after a marathon, ‘well that was easy and with no training, a 30 minute PB‘….. sorry people, doesn’t happen ! You get out what you put in, that should be the ultimate meme to running.
There are plenty of extra rules I could add but my mate Phil reckons rules need to be odd numbers and nine sounds better than eleven; and thirteen is getting too many, it’d be like being back at school. It’s a pity because I want to add a rule about double days being so productive , albeit time on feet only to protect yourself from injury (I hate typing that word.) . They certainly helped me in 2016 and I’m a big fan still, we run cause we love running so doing what you love twice a day, instead of once, its a no brainer really. ?
There’s also the Yelo effect. Our Thursday 14k morning progressive runs, starting and finishing at the Yelo Cafe in Trigg , (http://www.yelocornerstore.com.au ) has certainly helped my running times and those who join me. Is this the running session or the coffee and muffin afterwards ? A tough question and one I refuse to answer as there is no way, no way, I’m giving up Yelo muffins. Maybe this is rule number 11, eat Yelo muffins. Unfortunate for my global readers who live out with Perth but a bonus for the lucky runners who follow me who live close by.
Is the Yelo muffin the reason for my longevity?
Of course all of these runs are available on Strava (if it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen, Golden rule number 6 ) and if you want to follow me feel free to click on the link below, lets you get an idea of what I do and also check out more photos of me and the boys sitting around eating muffins and pancakes mainly?
