Are you Running SLOWLY enough?

I get such great questions on my website that provide an opportunity for me to spout my opinion on my blog. This one should be of use to many runners & triathletes.

"Bobby, I have attended several trainings by you. Which I have taken a lot out of each one. I am an endurance coach. I was wondering if you could answer a training question. It seems my faster athletes do not have a problem doing their easy runs, easy....say 45sec or more per mile, slower then their Marathon pace. But the athletes at the other end, the 9:00 MP runners always seem to struggle with at their V-Dot predicted easy pace. They complain about running so slow. I am concerned they are spending to much time in the grey zone. What are your thoughts? Thank you."

This is a complex question & I am very glad you asked it – it is most challenging for the slower runners, they ARE going too fast & in that grey zone - diminishing their chances of transcending their current plateau & here’s why:

Their easy pace is too close to their race pace – a common challenge for marathon coaches of the masses. A vast majority of marathoners run their easy & long runs at their marathon pace. In order for them to super-adapt they must find a way to change this & initially the answer is for them to go slower in training & trust it. In this way, pretty soon, they’ll start to adapt & their projected marathon pace WILL go up (faster) & then their training pace will also. This is a mental skill also – teach the ego to shut up & then teach the body to train for adaptation. It can take years for this adaptation to take place fully. See if the following points help out – they do for my runners & triathletes:

· I have had success with teaching the slower runners at altitude to NOT run until they can run at less than 70% of their actual heart rate reserve (i.e. using their resting HR as an evening factor). They walk brisker & brisker at that sub 70% until they can run, or they run on the downs & then flats & walk the climbs (which brings them into grey if they try to run), until they adapt. It can take 18 months – but most can do this in about 6 or so weeks
· I use the walk/run method a LOT (even with elites) – this helps them run a bit faster (as they’d like), but keeps the HR down – they slow to a walk when it begins to exceed 70-75% of HRR. This helps with fat metabolism training also. Check out my webinar on USAT website, from a couple of weeks back on walk/run: https://usat.confedge.com/ap/registration/home.cfm?i=register&e=f7413f5f-8e53-4c04-b8ad-51d0b3d3e63f&grp=Archive&newRegistrant
· Have them do ever increasing hikes & get more & more hilly with these. I start with 45min & work up to even 4+ hours.
· Finally, check out the latest triathlete magazine (p106), for something that I have used & believed for years - 12 – 15% grade (on treadmill also) walking. Is exactly the same as running without the impact & HR is easily controlled

Good luck & please let me know if this helps,

Best wishes,

Bobby McGee

The Fast makes me Furious

In the recent 70.3 world championships Tim O'Donnell, who was unbeaten at the distance this season up to this point, was given a 4 minute or so time penalty. He took it well, as all great athletes do, but ended up some 4 minutes back of the winning time & losing out on some significant income. In the women's pro race the lead bunch of men caught up to the lead women & most of that pack tagged along for a ride that turned out to be the fastest ever for women. Need I say more?

Years ago race walking reached an impasse that almost led to the demise of the sport. The technique of the top athletes had developed to such an extent that the naked eye could no longer determine if the athletes were actually competing according to the rules of the sport & the clause "apparent to the naked eye" was introduced into the rules.This meant that the athletes could now "cheat", which would be visible in slow motion video, but not to the eye of the officials.

Similarly, after much fighting about "true" triathlon, which implies that the ride is a non-drafting event & no rider may slipstream behind another rider & so gain as much as a 30% advantage in doing so, the Olympic movement decided that the Olympic triathlon event would be draft legal & a criterium style ride was instituted. There are various reasons for this, some of which may be that the event became more exciting from a spectator standpoint & much less controversial in the application of the drafting rules which have changed somewhat over the years.

Non-draft racing makes sense for the masses of age groupers because it is much safer. Though I still believe that a draft legal event should be offered to suitably qualified age-groupers. This would help the Olympic sport immeasurably. However the issue of policing the pros has become a major bone of contention over the years, as so often a good swimmer will see their hard earned position rapidly evaporate as a pack of poorer swimmers "work" together & catch the lone swimmer on the bike. So too the less effective biker may "sit in" & do less work on the bike & be able to have fresher legs for a superior run.

Most of my work is with the Olympic style of racing, where tactics, team tactics, superior bike handling skills & crit-style cycling smarts can make or break an athletes performance. My own competitive years were spent racing triathlon as the proverbial "race of truth", as the time trial on the bike has been called - a wholly solo affair. I therefore have no opinion either way as to which may be "better" or purer, each sport is unique, but where I am really biased is in the disadvantage experienced by the honest racer.

If the margin is so slim & the field so full that effective, fair, across the board draft officiating becomes impossible, as definitely seems to be the case in the pro sport of half & full Ironman races & the big money non-draft Olympic distance races, then the good name of the sport is falling into disrepute & becoming something of a farce.

I am close enough to many of these professional triathletes to know that a lot of money (relatively speaking) is at stake here. These athletes earn a meagre living relative to their stature, expertise, hard work & talent when compared to sports like football, baseball, basketball & hockey - even track & field & road running. There are not that many opportunities either - how many of these gruelling races can an athlete do at the very highest level in the course of a career? The sport has so many variables & a myriad things can go wrong on the day & dash months of careful planning & masses of hard work, without the spectre of either (unfair) disqualification or being beaten by a cheat being added to the mix.

I know that race directors & many influential individuals in the sport care, but what needs to be done is a review of each event to determine the number of participants that the specific course can handle & still be fairly marshaled. Clearly this is often NOT the case - it is hard enough to be a pro triathlete & have to decide, "Should I go with this pack as my competitors are doing, or should I play by the rules & end up with a position inferior to my true ability?"

Of all the non-pro athletes I spoke to who ran in the New York Marathon this year - the biggest marathon ever, the complaint was the same - "a magnificent experience, but I could never really run freely & ended up with a time between 10 & 40 minutes slower than I was capable of". The race was too crowded for a runner to actually run to ability.

In this case my advice is, "you have to run the great races, have an adventure & don't expect a great time, unless you get seeded in such a way as to be able to have an open run. If you want to run a PR, choose a smaller, less crowded event." But in the case of the pro triathletes, what are they to do?

My point? I dunno... maybe a cry to those in power to think of the long term health of the sport & find a way to have the best athletes win cleanly, whether that be in draft legal or non-draft races. I do NOT think that either type of event should consider changing to a different format, but clearly the policing & the problem MUST be reviewed & addressed - the current system is NOT working!

Bobby McGee

Meb is True Blue

Boy does it ever sicken me! What do people want? After reading Gina Kolata's article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/sports/03runner.html?_r=1&emc=eta1) (reporting on the web traffic saying that Meb Keflezighi is not an American & therefore not the 1st American in 27 years to win the New York marathon). I am so deeply saddened, that even amongst runners such racialism still exists. Hats off to Alberto Salazar coming out & saying that he too was born in another country & he was the last American to win NY!

I wonder how many people know that Meb's physiology is that of an elite distance runner, but no more so than any number of other elite American runners. His secret is EXTREME dedication & commitment. His attention to detail, his self-discipline, his work ethic are legendary to those in the know.

Meb, from my side, "Way to go my man - what a wonderful run, after the travails you have been through since your silver medal in Athens, this qualifies as one of the greatest comebacks of all time!"

Bobby McGee

Run Free Friends

I get so wrapped up in my work with runners & triathletes who wish to improve their mechanics that I sometimes forget that the reason why most of us run is simply as an escape to a more child-like time. I watch my son run & it's always with simple & sheer joy! When racing it is important to always keep this in mind. The voluntary nature of what we do allows us to tap into areas of motivation that are different than toughness, or competitiveness, or even a winning mindset, but rather a peaceful, balanced, rhythmic process, fueled by amazement & gratitude. So in the spirit of this I refer you to a laugh out loud YouTube clip of Friends so that whether you are a serious runner or just a happy-to-be-out-there runner, you can tap into power & motivation that is available from the not so usual sources of plain joy & fun. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_0Ta_DIWuU&feature=related

Bobby McGee

Further to New York this weekend

Another note to you intrepid New York Marathoners:

I am excited for you all as you launch down the streets of New York this weekend.

If you get this next week right I believe that all that stands between you & a big breakthrough is the mental component of overcoming the inevitable bad patch. If you closely follow your plan of starting conservatively, but ensuring that you DO get into the running as soon as you can, then typically there will come the precipitous moment where you have to decide to push through at a level perhaps only achieved in the marathon once before & then get all of it out of you in those final miles – racing, rather than hanging in there.

It’s when you are at that point when the decision becomes, “I break through with a mindset that this next part is/will be particularly challenging, but relatively brief”, & then take up another challenge & that is to “compete” over the closing 6 – 8 miles with an understanding that you are physically able to do so even though you may have no recent marathon experience in support of this. Trick is to trust the training & yourself & believe that tough patches & especially that tough patch is still temporary & finite & to shake off the shock of it & have prepared a way to restart & then race the final section, i.e. succeed at the access game.

Those that do, joyously recollect afterwards as best they can, what they did when barging through the door of opportunity. Those that don’t, observe themselves as they stumble. Have Spirit & self join hands in a truly merry dance through the perceived valley of shadows that needs but a bold flip of the switch to illuminate this great festival of delight that is the willing application of mind through body to access soul.

Bobby McGee

Have a great run in NY everybody!

“Poetry, music, forests, oceans, solitude – they were what developed enormous spirit & strength. I came to realize that spirit, as much as or more than physical conditioning, had to be stored up before races”. Herb Elliott

Running the NY City marathon is a lifelong dream for many runners. You have been storing up spirit for NY for a long time – through other marathons, through your career as a marathon runner, through your desire to run this race, through your willingness to have had the discipline to beat the heat & cold, the dark & the social resistance, the disappointments & the successes, the bad GIT moments & the frustrations, the obstructions, the joys, the people; meeting the demands of job & life – in short all the moments have either prepared or slowed you down for this moment & it all now lies in the moment by moment decisions you make along these last few days.

I ask you to consider an approach that goes way beyond ego – an approach that cannot be held captive in mediocrity by the subterfuges & constructs that so much of everyday life holds, because it lies beyond their influence.

I ask you to create a race time span that may be used as an epitaph to a marathon runner – one that you may be proud of yes, but more; one that will remind you of a series of unforgettable moments – etched into your heart & soul as the most enjoyable doing, a process that you wanted never to end. Imagine & pre-experience a time of unbelievable, other worldly experience – something so melodious, so in tune with a rich life’s rhythms, so in vibrational harmony with your soul, that it needs not description nor explanation, only a statement perhaps like this: “You would have had to have been there, in order to understand.” This followed by a smile so deep, so eye-wellingly emotional as to leave no doubt to the observer that self-transcendence has taken place.

Can you do that for yourself? You many runners, whom I have observed for so long, have done it for me – I ask you to do it for you.

Bobby McGee

Getting schooled on pacing

Hoo boy, pacing really is where it’s at right now. Probably has been for a long time! Anyway, just after answering the question from Australia on pacing, it turns out that the new wisest man in exercise physiology & its interpretation, my friend Ross Tucker, is in Chicago for the marathon this weekend & they are going to try, instead of the usual 5km by 5km analysis, a 1km by 1km analysis, which would bring into much starker relief the whole issue of what these great runners, like Sammy Wanjiru, current Olympic champion, who ran an impossible 2:06 in the heat of Beijing, actually do out there.
I highly recommend you read this post for Thursday Oct. 8th: http://www.sportsscientists.com/
When you compare this, to what I had to say yesterday it becomes clear that the great modern runners are running closer to even pace & that the mental component is far from resolved – it is clear that we are approaching human limits & that the great breakthroughs in world records will become less & less & that the mind will play an ever more increasing role when it comes to accessing our human limits & determining winners & also rans.
Boy is it ever humbling & a great learning experience to be involved in endurance sports in this modern day & age.
Good luck this weekend to all of you running the Chicago marathon & taking part in the Ironman world championships in Kona, Hawaii.
Bobby McGee