Coaching a Coach: Brendan Gregg CIM 2021

   This past fall I had the pleasure to start working with Brendan Gregg. Already very accomplished, Brendan was going through a transition and didn't want to be fully coaching himself but also wanted a lot more autonony than in his previous set up. My personal style is very hands off just by the nature of my life, I work full time and have a one year old and a three year old in addition to coaching. However I think the real reason Brendan contacted me was that he had done some experimenting with, and really wanted to explore, the Canova style of training more and he knew that was the school that I came from. 

  Coming into the cycle Brendan was quite fit. He had run a near PB 13:48 5000m on the track in the late spring, early summer and he finished his summer cycle with a solid 48:14 10 mile at Cherry Blossom. Prior to this cycle Brendan had already had a terrific career with a 2:11:38 marathon best from the 2019 Chicago marathon, a 28:03 10000m best from 2015. In addition he had a long line of national class performances going back to high school. This resume made Brendan far and away the most accomplished runner I had ever been asked to write a schedule for. I'm generally careful not to ask for too much info about why a runner is looking for a change. The assumption I made was that Brendan wasn't too happy with how his last two marathons had turned out. They were both solid, a 2:13:27 14th place finish at the Olympic trials and a 2:13:49 20th place at the marathon project, but my guess is that coming off a 2:11 he was probably expecting more. 

  Brendan was targeting a run at CIM on December 4. This was very much a hometown race for him and he had run there twice before. A 2:18:33 8th place in 2016 and a 2:13:28 5th place in 2018. Given that he was a local, his resume and that he already had a solid finish there before the goal for the race had to be to go for a win. Additionally I personally very much wanted him to get a personal best. I knew this might not be possible simply because the lead pack at CIM doesn't always run at a pace that gives you a real shot at sub 2:11:30 but given that the winning time does fairly regularly dip under 2:12 I was very hopeful. 

 Brendan had been following a fairly traditional Aussie system for most of 2021 up to Cherry Blossom and he had added in a couple of workout variations at my request when we first decided that I would do a training plan for him for CIM. These were an early marathon alternation session and a 30km fundamental tempo (aka easy tempo) at around 5:30 pace. 

  As I mention in the title Brendan is a coach. I used it as the title not because he does online coaching but because he thinks like a coach, talks like a coach and approaches his running like a coach. In fact he comes from a family of coaches as I believe his father was his coach in high school and perhaps it is this linage or perhaps it is just his way of approaching things but whatever the reason when I was talking to him it was sometimes hard to remember that I was talking to someone looking for help as an athlete not as a coach looking for support with his coaching. As such I ended up approaching working with him very much as I would with a coach. 

  We emailed back and forth a handful of times and then had a very good zoom conversation where we discussed exactly what he was looking for. Based on what he told me I wrote him a schedule that was very much a traditional Canova specific phase  adjusted to fit what Brendan had already found to be true for him. Namely that he was most comfortable running around 100 to 120 miles a week and that he did best with 2 days of lower intensity after each workout. 

  The only complicating factor in the schedule was the 25km Riverbank run which we agreed we would under focus on in favor of the marathon. In the end I think I over hedged the training away from speed and because of it Brendan underperformed here. That said I would much rather that outcome then missing in the other direction and have him run a burner at the 25km and then run out of glycogen at 22 when he got to CIM and have him crawl into another 2:13/14 type run. 

  Summary of Training by Week

(Sunday to Saturday)

Week September 12 to 18

Recovery week - 71 miles

Race- Sunday the 12th Cherry Blossom 10 mile 48:13

Workout- Thursday the 16th 1 hour moderate progression run average pace 5:19, starting around 5:45 and working down to sub 4:50 for the last mile plus.

Week of September 19 to 25

Back training- 102 miles

workouts

Sunday the 19th- 30km easy tempo (around 90% mp) 5:30 pace- quads still sore on downhills but controlled

Wednesday the 22nd- Deek's quarters(8x400 with eight 200m float recoveries for a total of 3 miles) 14:11 for the three miles. Recovery 200's ranged from 36 to 40 with most in the 38/39 range, "on" 400's ranged from 66 to 68 with most of them at 67. 

Saturday the 25th- Marathon alternations- scheduled as half mile on, half mile recovery but Brendan had a great 0.55 loop so he did 24 laps of that. The fast loops were at 4:35 to 4:45 pace. The "recovery" laps were at 5:15 to 5:25 pace. He averaged 4:58 for 13 and 1/4 miles.

Comments- This was the first real taste I got of what a workout monster Brendan is. Particularly the Saturday session. I would have been fine with that for the last workout before the marathon so to see that on the first go was startling. I knew he had been doing alternations via the Aussie system for his last cycle but it was still a crazy impressive session. 

September 26 to October 2

Tuesday the 28th- Moderate tempo run scheduled for 5:25 to 5:15 pace. Brendan started at 5:20 to 5:25 and worked down to the 5:05 range averaging 5:14 per mile for the whole run. He reported feeling heavy but not overly so. 

Friday the 30th- 10x1k at critical velocity, 2:50 to 2:55, Brendan reported that he felt like he could have kept doing this for quite a few more but that trying to run one in 2:45 would have been very hard. Which pretty much defines how you should feel during marathon training. 

October 3 to 9

Monday the 4th- 33km Canova marathon fartlek. 10km at 3:25 per km, 5km of 1min hard, 1min moderate averaged 3:05 (2:51/3:23), 5km moderate avg. 3:26, 5km marathon pace- avg. 3:02, 5km moderate, avg. 3:30, 3.2km(2 miles) marathon pace or max effort- 3:11 avg. You can see how Brendan was pretty cooked at the end of this. Now it was a warm day and he was very aggressive through the workout but I think this also highlights the problem with a lot marathon programs. You need a good number of these long hard marathon specific workouts to get the adaptations that you need to be able to really run a great marathon. This session shows Brendan was in great shape but not quite ready to rip a marathon, yet.

Thursday the 7th- 70min progression run starting out around 5:20 pace and working down to just under 4:50 per mile. 5:01 average for 13.95 miles.

A small thing of note. Brendan ended up with 119.94 mies this week. A big week for him. What I think is worth thinking about is that he didn't try to stretch a run or add a little jog someplace to get 120. When you are training really well the miles are just a number that happens not something that you chase or put much thought at all into. 

October 10 to 16

Sunday the 10th- 5x5k at marathon pace with 1km recoveries at around 90% marathon pace. This was scheduled as 4 to 5x5k and Brendan said after a couple of reps he was feeling like it would take all he had just to do 4 but that he felt stronger as he went on and ended up not ony doing 5 but finishing very well. This happens quite often when you start getting into marathon specific shape. splits- 15:22(3:25), 15:09(3:20), 15:12(3:22),15:15(3:21)15:08.  What matters in this session is the recoveries. If you can't hit the fast recoveries then you are not getting the specific impetus you need for the marathon work and by extension you won't be in shape to run the marathon you expect down the line. Brendan did this one perfectly!  This was the point at which I started to get very excited about this cycle. There is no where to hide in this session and he just nailed it. 

Wednesday the 13th Aussie Quarters- 8x400m with eight 200m recoveries run quickly as well so that the whole run is 3 miles. Brendan ran 14:06 which is a crazy monster session. This was very much done marathon style as he was "only" running 65 to 66 on the reps with recoveries at 37 to 40. To be clear that means he was recovering at 5:00 to 5:20 per mile. 

Saturday the 16th- marathon alternations- scheduled as 12 miles of 1/2 mile at 4:40, 1/2 mile recovery at 5:20 to 5:30. Brendan was very tired and considered dropping the workout but decided to give it a go and was able to do 10 1/2 miles, which is nearly the whole session. This is a spot where Brendan's coach like mindset really made a huge difference. Rather than feeling deflated because he didn't hit exactly what was on the schedule he was actually pretty pumped after this session because he did so much after feeling so tired on the warm up. Our point of view has a snowball effect on our emotions and that can make all the difference in getting through a heavy marathon training cycle. 

October 17 to 23

This week we took a down week to rest up for the USATF 25km championships. Brendan did a light 2 mile at race pace, 9:40, on Tuesday and then the race was Saturday. It was a disappointment. Brendan ran 1:17, 4:58 pace, at or just a bit slower than our goal marathon pace. I knew that he was unlikely to challenge for the win or run much under 1:15 because we were in deep marathon training so he wasn't going to handle lactic acid well and he was going to be fatigued going in but when I first saw this result I was really concerned. After we talked I felt much better. After an easy first 3 miles in 15:00 the pack surged and ran 14:00 for the next 3 which off normal training would be no big deal for a guy like Brendan but with little anaerobic capacity it shot his legs, and stomach. He actually ended up having to stop in a porto-potty. This made sense given how we had trained. I had hoped the Aussie quarter sessions would be enough to get him through this, and if the pace had been steady 4:50's give or take 5 seconds they may have been, but they weren't but given how it had unfolded I wasn't worried about his marathon fitness. 

October 24 to 30

The only workout this week was a light 10x1k at critical velocity, 2:50 to 2:55 per km, on Thursday which was a good indication that lactic acid was the problem at the 25km as Brendan nailed these running 2:50 for basically all of them and feeling easy. It was time to get back to work. 

October 31 to November 6

Sunday the 31st- 2 hours and 10 mins (projected race time give or take- I prescribe 2:10 for anyone looking to run 2:15 or under, 2:20 for those looking for 2:15 to 2:20) at 90 to 95% marathon pace. I prescribed 5:20's per mile which was a bit conservative and Brendan was more agressive averaging 5:14 for 24.9 miles. This is not the hardest session to do in the cycle but it is the most taxing on the body and recovery off of this one takes a while.

Wednesday the 3rd- 12 mile run with the last two miles at marathon pace. Normally this would be a super easy session but coming off Sunday I thought it might be surprisingly tough but Brendan reported it was easier than he expected which made me very happy because I worry a lot about not recovering well enough from that Sunday session. 

Saturday the 6th- Bill Squires' Tiger in the Cat long run- as you can tell from the name this session doesn't come from Canova but it is very much the same type of session as his long specific fartleks. This was a cornerstone session of many of Squires' great marathoners and also Charlie Spedding credited it with giving him the ability to race a marathon. You start with 2 miles at marathon pace then do a long fartlek of 1,2,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1 mins hard with 5mins at a good steady pace between each for recovery and finally 2 more miles at marathon pace. This is VERY tough.  Brendan ran 20 miles in the 1:45 that this took, so 5:14 pace again. That means his fastest 46 miles for the week averaged at least 5:14 per mile. He was ready. We just needed to stay healthy.

November 7 to 13

A much lighter week coming off the two HUGE long runs last week.

Tuesday the 9th, 15 mile moderate tempo run at 5:16 pace. This looks impressive at Brendan's paces but in terms of % of race pace many people run this hard every day. It holds back their progression but it does give you an idea of the effort level on this. Really just an uptempo regular run. 

Friday the 12th- We had the Aussie Quarters session schedule but Brendan flipped it out for a Monaghetti fartlek which he covered 4.17 miles in the 20 mins. They are very similar sessions and can be interchanged almost anytime. 

November 14 to 20

Monday the 15th- Scheduled for 5 to 6 x 5k at marathon pace but slick roads and heavy legs ended the workout after only 13 miles. Dissapointing for the last marathon interval session but you can't get through a cycle like this without bombing one. It is important to remember you are in the condition indicated by your best workout in a cycle. If conditions, or fatigue knocks you down that doesn't impact your actual fitness. 

Thursday the 18th- 80min progression run 15.5 miles, 5:09 pace- Started out in the 5:30's and worked down to 4:45ish by the end. It sounds like it was a wet rainy fall day that saps your will to start the workout but actually is enjoyable as you get going and I think this effort did a good job of washing away the memory of Monday's poor session. 

November 21 to 27

Sunday the 21st- the last real workout- 13.5 miles of 1/2 mile, on/off marathon alternations. Brendan's on's ranged from 2:16 to 2:23 and his recoveries ranged from 2:31 to 2:37 and he averaged 4:53 per mile for the 13.5 miles. This is just a savage session. It gave me great confidence that he would be very tough to beat.

Thursday the 25th- AM workout was a 7 mile progression run going from about 5:25 pace down to 4:40 pace and averaging 5:03. PM workout was 5 miles steady 5:40 to 6:00 pace then 3 miles at marathon pace- 4:50's per mile. These are both pretty light but combined you get 10 miles or so of marathon paced running without killing yourself which is nice.

November 28 to December 4

Wednesday the 1st- 5k marathon dress rehearsal - 15:13 nice and easy. Just a reminder of the rhythm as we close in on race day

December 5 RACE DAY!!!

2:11:21 Run away victory, 2nd place ran 2:12:52. There was a small group through the half in 1:04:58. Based on the official splits and the video clips I have seen Brendan was either in the lead or within a step or two of it from the start. He was the official leader at every split from the half marathon on. He reported that he felt very good but that his legs did feel heavy enough in the closing miles that he wondered if he could respond if someone came up on him. My guess is that if the pack had kept rolling he could have gone 1 to 2 mins quicker before reaching his real physical limit on the day but that is just a guess. It is possible this really was right about as fast as he could go on the day. My feelings are that this was a perfect outcome. When you can't win your focus on a time goal, when winning is possible then time doesn't matter. I was glad he got a PB but obviously given the pace of many of his workouts I think in a time focused race he could have run faster.

Lessons

Every cycle has lessons, good and bad. They also set you up with questions for further consideration. I think this cycle left me with a number of questions. For the bad we underperformed at the 25km. We knew it was a risk and though I would certainly have preferred a 1:14 there if getting it had meant a 2:13 at CIM that would have been a very poor choice.  The question is did we err too much on the side of marathon prep could we have done things slightly differently and have run better at the 25km without hurting the marathon. OR was it sort of the luck of the draw with how the race unfolded and we just needed a steady pace. 

Similarly the time. It was a PB but only by 17 seconds. Based on the workouts and the fact that CIM is a very fast course I would have really liked a faster time. Knowing this was his first cycle through on the system I wouldn't have necessarily expected that he could hold the exact pace of his workouts to the tape, which would have put him in the 2:08 to 2:09 range but I really would have liked a 2:10. That said this wasn't that kind of race. Show me a guy who runs 2:10 from the front and I'll show you a 2:07 marathoner. So though I can't ask anything more from Brendan's race it does leave me wondering a bit about his real fitness. This is unusual for me because I don't get to work with too many guys like Brendan. Generally my athletes are running in the pack and there might be reasons that they run a bit slower than they are capable, course, conditions etc.. but they are easier to quantify. 

In the end I think this seems most similar in my mind to the first cycle from another athlete I coached, Dan Harper. Dan also targeted CIM and he was also coming in with a decent PB, 2:22. He also hit nearly every workout and really over achieved my expectations. Then ran really well on race day, 2:19, but not quite what I thought he could do. With Dan the next cycle really allowed the gains to be locked into his system and even though he didn't really workout much faster than he had in the first cycle he ended up running a 2:17 at Grandma's. I hope that we can see the same type of progression in Brendan's second cycle. 

If you are interested in Dan Harpers training  he wrote a book about the two cycles that I referenced and you can get on amazon, https://www.amazon.com/My-Road-Olympic-Trials-Training/dp/B08YJ2VLVL 

I'm Coaching Again!

  I have joined Ruben Sanca's team at Lowellrunning.com.  I have been doing a little online coaching and this will enable me to handle more athletes and to a full spectrum of plans from ready made to the full service online coaching I currently do as well as everything in between.  Additionally Ruben has built up a whole system that from my end makes the work a lot easier and quicker, hence why I'll be able to handle more people, but also adds a lot of features and functionality for athletes.  There is a news letter, a private facebook group, youtube page etc..   This is the sort of thing I have wanted to put together myself but never had the time or expertise to do. 

  For me I'm really excited for this because I have really enjoyed this kind of coaching in the past and I have enjoyed the little bit I have been able to do on my own the last couple years but I haven't wanted to go back to doing it with some of the other groups I worked for mostly because I couldn't handle the volume that they need from a coach.  There are some great set ups for the full time athlete but for a fulltime teacher not so much.  If you are interested in personal coaching, by me or any of the other coaches, you can go to the link below.  I haven't created any of the pre-made schedules yet but I plan to steadily build up a library of those over the next year.  I would like to create a series of summer schedules of all levels of high school and college athletes.  Additionally I want to do schedules that are tied to all of the training systems that I discuss on here, Canova, Vigil, Aussie styles for many different race distances and levels.  So if that sort of thing interests you keep checking in.

Lowell Running Website

Training Blog August 13 to 19, 2018

 Another week another small step in the right direction.  I tried a tiny bit of tempo work this week and that went very well and didn't leave me nearly as sore as my micro track workout last week so that was a nice surprise.  My cross training continues to improve and I'm actually back to doing my normal lifts, squats, front squats, deadlifts and the some other basics mixed in with some wieght.  I did 6x6 of dead lifts going from 135 up to 185lbs.  I did 6x6 with the back squats going from 85 up to 135lbs.   So light but not just the bar or no wieght anymore.   Still walking a lot!

Monday PT- adding a lot of jumping stuff, broad jumps and even some side to side jumping.

Tuesday 1 mile jog warm up, just under 7mins, then 12x100m on the track with 100m walk recoveries.  Locked in on the 17's for these.  felt pretty good.  Also saw Anna befor this and did some lifting and core work. 

Wednesday 20 minute run on the rail trail with no walk breaks.  Covered 3.1 miles.  This was also my first time doing some running on back to back days.  I could feel my hip was quite fatiqued after 15mins and it was a bit of a struggle to hold form and what not but it was good given that it was kinda a double whammy of increases.

Thursday heavy cross training day in terms of exercises from PT and Anna.  Couple long walks.

Friday at the track. 1 mile warm up, just under 7mins, 1 mile tempo run 5:20- very even 80, 2:40, 4:00.  1 mile cool down just under 7:00.  I cut the walk after this one short because a thunder and lighting storm started.  So only about a half mile instead of a mile and a half like normal.  The pace for this is just what I would like my threshold workouts to start out at when I start doing a bit of training at the start of October.  I felt pretty confident it would be ok just because generally I am very efficent down to that pace.  Even at times when a 5:00 feels very hard to run I am generally able to run a lot of 5:20's in a row.   This felt controlled but a bit uncomfortable as I haven't done anything up tempo longer than 200m.  My hr only got up to 145 but it didn't feel that easy.   Not a time trial or anything but not walking either.

Saturday Another heavy cross training day.  I'm recovering better and am able to mix in a lot more of my exercises without getting super sore or being too fatiqued the next day.

Sunday 24 minutes with no breaks on the rail trail.  3.8 miles. This actually felt great.  Hip wasn't as fatigued as on the 20minute run on Wednesday and I think the tempo mile helped my body realize its fitness a bit and the effort felt greatly reduced.  Just a nice little run.  Yes I think I can actually call this a run!

Summary a nice step in the right direction.  I have a long way to go and the hip is very weak but I actually feel like I'm doing some exercise now in both my running and cross training.  I also finished up my first four week cycle of general strength and will start a new routine next week which will be an increase over the pedistal routine I have been doing which is on the light end.  The two big tests for the coming week are that I'm moving to a two day on, one day off routine and that I'm going to retry the 6x200m.  I'm hopeful that both will be ok.    I hope you are running more than me!!  Have a great week!

Training August 6 to 12, 2018

 Another small step forward this week.  The leg really feels the same to me which is to say, lightly sore and pretty weak.  The thing is objectively I can see that I am doing a lot more.  More PT, more core work, more running.  So I know I'm getting stronger but I think I was expecting it to make a big jump in strength and that hasn't happened.   Instead I seem to be inching along almost inperceptably.  I had a complete nothing day on Tuesday per advise of the PT as I had been getting pretty sore/tired.  It worked really nicely.  I also didn't do a 2nd walk on Sunday.  Other than that I kept to 8 to 10 miles of walking per day and doing about 3 miles of walking around each "run."

Monday 800m jog warm up, 12x100m strides with 100m walk recoveries.  Pretty much in the 17's and 16's.  I dropped one 15.5 and it felt a bit tough on the hip.  I also had PT today.

Tuesday had a ton of fun hanging out at the New England Prep Cross Country Camp at Northfield Mount Hermon.  I go out pretty much every year and I really enjoy it.   I mean who doesn't love cross country camp!

Wednesday 2x12mins on the track with 1min walk recovery.  Went a little over 4 miles which tells you I was moving pretty good.  In fact I felt amazing after my day of doing nothing.

Thursday cross training day.

Friday 800m jog warm up, 6x200m on track with 1min standing rest.  Felt strong and easy running but felt super winded in the first 20 seconds after each rep.  Hip was more tired than I would have liked after this but I'm not scheduled to try this again for almost 2 weeks so that isn't too concerning.  went 36, 35, 35, 34,34,34.  More aiming for 36 so not much pace sense.

Saturday cross training day and dancing at a wedding.

Sunday on Chelmsford rail trail.  15:11 jogging 1min walk then 7mins jogging.  I was very happy with the first 15mins as I was still a bit sore from the 200s.  I was fatigued during the last 3mins of the 7 min stretch but that was too be expected.

  Hope you had a great week and that the running gods are treating you well!

Training Blog July 30 to August 5, 2018

 A few steps more in the right direction.  Making a lot of progress with PT exercises but am pretty sore and certainly don't feel like I can increase any more quickly without having some trouble.  Walking 8 to 10 miles a day. Before and after every run I do 1.5 miles walking, which mean those days I cover about 7 miles in addition to the 5 mile morning walk I do.

Monday Physical Therapy

Tuesday 600m jog 200m walk then 10x100m with 100m walks in 19, 18, 17, 17, 17, then all 16's.

Wednesday no run but did a ton of PT exercises.

Thursday 2x8mins then 1x9mins with 1min walk breaks.  I was actually going for 8mins on all of them I just sort of spaced out on the last one so it must have been going ok.  Did this on the rail trail which was nice to get off the track.

Friday no running

Saturday 2x10mins on the rail trail with 1min walk break. got a bit too quick on the 2nd rep but settled it down when I noticed on the watch that I was about to run a 5:40 mile.

Sunday  no running.

  Step by step inch by inch.  It is slow but I'm making progress.

Training Blog July 23 to 29, 2018

  Still moving in the right direction.  Mostly I'm very happy with how my cross training and rehab exercises are going.  I'm getting stronger and addressing some of my weak spots.  Ankles are doing much better and that makes running in a way that is easy on the hip much more natural and easy.  I'm not sure where my weight is but I'm going to try to weigh in on Monday as I have an appointment with the surgeon and if they don't weigh me there I think my PT has a scale at her office and I'm seeing her Monday as well. 

  Also this week I upped the walking to 4 to 6 miles in the mornings and 3 to 4 miles in the evenings.  On days that I run I don't do a second walk but I do walk about 1.5 miles before and after the running, so on a day like today where I ran/walked 4 and a quarter miles I actually covered over 7 miles in the evening after a 5 mile walk in the morning.
 
Monday 4x4mins on the track with 1min walk recoveries, covered 4600m, that is 200m shy of 3miles. Felt like this was very much the maximum of what my hip could do.

Tuesday PT- added some light hopping and got cleared to do some deadlifts.

Wednesday on the track, 400m light jog, 200m walking then 8x100m strides with walk back recoveries, first 2 in 18, next 5 in 17, last one in 16 high.

Thursday no running

Friday 4x5mins with 1min jogs on the track covered about 5650m which is around 3.5 miles.  The last minute of the last 3 reps I could feel the hip was being worked.  This was super hard on my calves as my ankles have made a break through and I was actually toeing off properly. 

Saturday no running. calves ok, ankles didn't lock up which is awesome.

Sunday 4x6mins on track.  Actually bit better than the 5mins a couple days ago.  Hip felt challanged in the last minute of the last two reps but was pretty good other than that.

  So onward and upward.  This was week three of an 8 week build up.  After 8 weeks I'm going to hold steady at a very moderate training level for 4 weeks.   Then I'll do a fairly moderate but complete training build up with the target of trying to slip under 15mins for a 5k in December.
  Hope you are running more than me!  Have a great week!

Training Blog July 16 to 22

  Another moderate step forward this week.  Seeing big gains in what I am able and allowed to do in the PT exercises.  Still very mild bits of running but it feels smoother and more natural.  I can still tell I'm not ready for real "runs" and that sort of thing but it is really nice to be getting in a bit of it and seeing some progress.  I'm still walking 5 to 7 miles a day and trying to be as generally active as I can be.  Which translates into my garmin telling me I'm getting 16k to 22K steps and burning 4000 to 5500 calories most days. I didn't get on a scale this week so I don't know how the wieght is coming but I'm going to try and get on one towards the end of next week and I'd like to be south of 175 but at this point I'm not putting much into the wieght loss other than trying to be active.  If I can be under 170 when I start real running in October that is more than fine anything lower than that is frosting.

Monday No running

Tuesday 4x2mins with 1min walk breaks on the track, did a 1.5 mile walk before and after this.  Covered 1.5 miles during the run walk portion as well.

Wednesday No running- did have PT and was able to add some speed latter exercises.

Thursday again did 1.5 mile walk warm up, then some light exercises, then did a 200m light jog, and a 200m walk.  then 6x100m strides with 100m walk recoveries.  100m strides were in 19, 18, 18, 18, 17, 17.  Walk recoveries were pretty much all 59 seconds. and as usual 1.5 mile walk after.

Friday No running

Saturday per the usual a 1.5 mile walk warm up but I was tight on time so after I only walked about a quarter mile back to the car.  On the track I did 4x3mins with 1min walk recoveries and I covered just over 2 miles.  The rest of the day was set up for and then participation in a Baby shower/cookout which was a ton of fun.

Sunday No running today.  I've done one walk so far and will sneak out for a 2nd this along with the other no running days is also the day I do a lot of PT exercises.  Say about 30mins which leaves the glute med quite tired.

  Hope you had a great week and your running more than me!

Canova Marathon Training VS. Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning

 I thought I would take some time to get very specific about how Canova's marathon training varies from the traditional American system.  The best example of that system for the marathon to my mind is Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas.  This book to my mind represents the american marathon training system done about as well as it can be done.  To be clear I think that the best individual group/system from the USA for the marathon was that of Bill Squires in the late 70's and early 80's but sadly his system is not what has inspired the training of most Americans in the last 30 years.

  Sources

  My understanding of Pfitzinger's system comes entirely from my copy of his Advanced Marathon book, the first edition.  I  have not yet bought the Second Edition so if they made any updates to the system in that edition they are not reflected here. 

  For the Canova side of things I am mostly using Marathon Training: A Scientific Approach by Renato Canova and Enrico Arcelli which they originally wrote for the Itilian Athletic Federation and which the IAAF published  in a bunch of languages.  I am also using the PDF Marathon Training Methods by Renato Canova which can be found here: Marathon Training Methods by Renato Canova  Additionally I reference a schedule Canova published in a german running magazine which I have used google translate for and you can view here: Canova 2:09 Training for the European Athlete

 It is not my intention to do a detailed analysis of both systems.  Instead I want to highlight how they are the same and how they are different.  My basic thesis is that Canova's system is a natural progression from Pfitzinger and by extension the training most serious american marathoners are doing.  Both men are scientists and approach the training from a scientific perspective.  I would say that Pfitzinger seems to me more influenced by the traditonal Lydiard model, which would make sense given his connections with New Zealand and Canova tended to take from a much wider array of sources. 

  Similarities

  The first and most striking similarity comes in the physilogy of marathon performance.  They both essentially dedicate a chapter to this, which makes sense given their shared science background.  What is striking is how similar they are.  Honestly you could swap these chapters from the two books and not have any change in either book.  Really the only difference is the quality of the writing which is much better in Advanced Marathoning.  They both say that in order to excel in the marathon you need to build on five basic areas.

1. Aerobic fitness- broken down into improved mitochondrial activity and quantity in the cells, improved blood profile, improved heart performance, improved capillarization in the running muscles. 

2. Improved use of lactate as fuel in the muscles. 

3. Improved lactate threshold speed.  

4. Improved glycogen storage and lipid consumption

5. Improved VO2 max

  The key thing I take from this agreement is that Canova has not found a new area of fitness to develop. Nor does he view the physiological needs of the event differently.  So the difference must be in either the types of workouts that he uses to improve these physiological areas or in how he combines the workouts for them in his training system and in fact we see that he has made, sometimes subtle but always important, adjustments in both areas. 

  The next similarity that I was drawn to is how they both approach mileage.  Which is that athletes should be running high mileage but to not be particularly committed to a number that represents high mileage.  Instead putting the focus on specifics elsewhere.  Essentially they are both saying you should be doing high mileage for you but that mileage is different for different people and that it should not be the major focus of your training. 

  Another similarity is the pace of long runs.   Both Pfitzinger and Canova believe that in order to get the physical adaptations you are looking for in your long runs your ideal pace range is genenrally from 80% to 90% of your marathon pace.  However they differ greatly in exactly how this is accomplished.  Pfitzinger likes to view all long runs as a very light progression where the early running is done around 80% marathon pace and the latter stages are done around 90% marathon pace.   Canova is much more structured.  In the base phase he generally starts with shorter, 10 to 12 miles, long runs at 80% of marathon pace building them up in distance over the early part ot the training cycle to being very long, 22 to 25 miles, then reducing the volume and increasing the pace to the 90% range.  To be clear both these systems are using these long runs as a means of improving fitness but Canova does not see them as or use them as specific prep for marathon racing and here we find a large difference.  Canova moves his long runs in the specific phase to being much more specific workouts involving a huge amount of running between 95% and 105% of marathon pace and additionally incorperates a lot of running in the 90 to 95% of marathon pace as recovery portions in long run workouts.   Pfitzinger does incorporate some marathon paced running in his specific phase long runs but not nearly with the same frequency as Canova and there is essentially no running in his prescribed training where the athlete runs between 91% and 99% of marathon pace.  That is a KEY difference that we'll get to in a bit. 

  The final similarity I would like to highlight is the use of periodization.  Though both use different names and have some differences in how exactly they break down the training phases they both use distinct and in the end very similar periods of training with specific physiological goals in mind as stepping stones to their final phase of training which is focused on maximizing marathon race performance. 

Key Differences 

  Often times when discussing differences in training I think people have a tendency to focus on minutia or differences that are unimportant and miss the really big differences.  I.E. Looking at two workouts of quarter mile repeats I often see a lot of focus on the quantity of the reps.  "Well group b did 10x400 at 5k pace and group B did 12x400 at 5k pace."  When in reality the number of reps is generally a flexible and somewhat inconsequential peice of information.  More importantly changing the number of reps does not change the physiological goal or effect of the workout.  However changes in the pace of the reps, or the type, pace or length of the recovery, and the difficulty training in the days leading into and following the workout can make huge differences in the physiological effect of the workout.   It is with this perspective that I am approaching these two programs.  I am not looking for differences in style, vocabulary (a tempo run by any other name is still a tempo run) or technique.  I am looking for differences in the physiological adaptation that is being targeted, the amount of focus that is put on each physiological adaptation and how each system attempts to induce those physiological adaptations. 

  Key difference number one we already talked about.  Workouts that involve running at paces ranging from 91% to 99% of marathon pace.  There is exactly none of this prescribed in Pfitzingers training which is not to say that an athlete following this program would not ever run this pace but it certainly would be limited.  In Canova's system running in this pace range shows up in a number of different ways.  It is used in long specific runs of goal race time to goal race distance, it is used as recovery between blocks of running at marathon pace during specific marathon workouts and sometimes as recovery during either VO2 max or lactate threshold paced running.  This pace range is seen by Canova as one of the key marathon training paces with two goals of physiological adaptation first and foremost this pace range increases aerobic lipidic power, the amount of fat that can be burned for energy in a minute.  If you are buring more fat then you are burning less glycogen and since in terms of marathon performance glycogen stores are a key limiting factor and fat stores are essentially inexhaustible, a 100lb runner with 4% body fat would have enough calories stored in fat to run at least 10 marathons, that is an awesome trade to make.  The second goal is increase aerobic fitness.  This pace offers no special benifits in this departement that running at 90% of marathon pace or 100% of marathon pace can't offer so this is not an advantage I see over Pfitzinger's model except that it increases the total volume of running that works on this very important adaptation. 

  The second key differences is quantity of running at marathon goal pace.  Pfitzinger's more than 70 mile a week 12 week training schedule only calls for a total of 14 miles of running at marathon pace in the whole program.  A 12 mile run at marathon pace fit in a 20 mile long run, a great specific marathon workout by anyones standards, and a 2 mile dress rehersal run at marathon pace as part of the taper.  In comparision, though Canova doesn't get into specific detail in his book about how much of this to do in the specific phase, though it is literally the ONLY workout pace he specificly references in his section ton training during the specific phase, in a schedule for athletes attempting to run a 2:09 marathon that he wrote for a German running magazine he included a 9 week training cycle that called for 174 kilometers, which is about 109 miles, of marathon paced running.  This is almost an order of magnitude greater than what Pfitzinger is calling for. 

  In fact during the Canova specific phase essentially every workout that an athlete is doing includes either marathon paced running or some running at 90% of marathon pace or faster.  This comes in many forms.  An athlete could be doing repeats that are faster than marathon pace but with recoveries that cause him or her to average marathon pace.  They may be doing a fartlek that involves many different paces including marathon pace.  They may be doing repeats at marathon pace or they may be doing a long run at 90 to 95% of marathon pace.  Other paces, lactate threshold and VO2 max most often, do show up during the specific phase but always as part of a workout that includes marathon paced running or running at 90 to 95% of marthon pace. 

  It is my personal belief that in these two differences we can boil down why athletes training this way have been able to take world class marathoning from the 2:07 to 2:10 range that it was essentially stuck in from the late 1960's until the early 2000's and suddenly blast into a realm where the new world class is the 2:04 to 2:06 range. 

  However it does leave us with an important question.  If Pfitzinger is not doing all that marathon specific work in his specific phase what is he doing?  Certianly if Canova was just having his athletes add a hundred plus miles of marathon paced running on top of what Pfitzinger was suggesting all he would be getting them would be injured.  So what is the trade off?

  First athletes attempting Canova do get hurt much more than those on a Pfitzinger plan.  Canova calls for a lot of very hard workouts and this increases the risk of injury.  To reduce this risk Canova puts much greater modulation of effort into his schedules.  So yes the hard days are much harder but the easy days and easy runs are much easier and much shorter. 

   Second Pfitzinger calls for a lot of workouts in the specific phase that are VO2 max or lactate threshold workouts, five and six respectively, in the 12 week schedule.  Many of these are in the last 8 weeks which would be the specific phase in a Canova schedule.  To my mind this almost makes the training schedule more of a 5k schedule than a marathon schedule.  I mean if you have done one real marathon workout and five 5k workouts which event do you think you'll be more adapted for?

  This is not to say that no running is done at VO2max or lactic threshold pace in during the specific phase in the Canova system but it is instead mixed into marathon focused workouts.  An example of this would be a session of 10km easy, 5km of 1min hard 1min easy (that is your VO2max pace), 5km easy, 5km marathon pace, 5km max effort.  A slightly more attainable workout from a different program would be 12 miles easy, 5km marathon pace, 6x400m at 5k pace with 100m jog recovery.

  Conclusion

 So if I have convinced you that Canova is the way to go or you were already convinced of that before you read this but you just don't know how to go about it or you have already injuried yourself in attempting Canova in the past.  Or perhaps you have had good success with Pfitzinger and you're wondering if a switch to Canova could lead to even more. What the heck are you supposed to do?  Canova schedules are not easy to find and they are almost always designed for athletes at the absolutly highest level who are training full time.  Frankly the average or even well above average athlete has no prayer of completing them even if they correctly adjust them to their own pace.   The great advantage of Pfitzinger is his schedules.  They are so well written, so balanced, so accessible.

  My suggestion would be to use the Pfitzinger schedule that fits your mileage needs and input Canova style workouts on the workout and long run days, in the specific phase, from 8 weeks until 2 weeks to go, of the schedule to change the balance of your training from 5k focused to marathon focused.  Now these marathon workouts are much longer than the lactate threshold and vo2 max workouts in the Pfitzinger schedule so you can take miles off the days after your workouts and long runs to balance this out.  I'll do an example week below to show you exactly what I mean.

Pfitzinger week 

Monday AM 6 miles PM 4 miles

Tuesday AM 6 miles PM 4 miles

Wendsday VO2 max 11 miles with 6x1k at 5k pace with 2minute jog recoveries.

Thursday Medium long run 15 miles

Friday AM 9 miles PM 4 miles

Saturday 8 miles and 6x100m strides

Sunday 20 mile long run 

87 miles for the week, zero miles at marathon pace, one VO2 max workout, runs at easy, moderate, vo2max, alactic paces

Pfitzinger adapted to Canova week

Monday AM 3 miles easy PM 3 miles easy

Tuesday AM 6 miles PM 4 miles

Wednesday 2 mile warm up, 12 miles of 800m at 105% marathon pace, 800m "recovery" at 95% marathon pace

Thursday AM 3 miles easy PM 3 miles easy

Friday medium long run 12 miles progression from 80% maratho pace to 90% marathon pace

Saturday 8 miles and 6x100m strides

Sunday 3 mile warm up, 5x3 miles at marathon pace with 1 mile recovery at 90% marathon pace (22miles)

 80 miles for the week. 27 miles at marathon pace, kept the easy, moderate, and alactic running, added some running at lactate threshold, lost the VO2 max running.  Lower volume.  Probabaly a harder week. I would be careful to make the midweek workout a bit easier the following week. 

Postscript 

Finally I was obviously very lax in my sourcing of this with no footnotes or use of AMA formatting as such I figure the least I can do is provide links to where you can buy these great books for your own use.  Advanced Marathoning

I have no idea if you can buy the Canova book anywhere.  I got mine by sending a check to the IAAF in Switzerland and it came in the mail which kinda shocked me apparently as late as December of last year you could email the IAAF your credit card info and get one see the 9th post in this letsrun thread.

Canova book thread

Training Blog July 9 to 15, 2018

  Finally doing a little bit of running.  It feels ok but I'm very weak.  I certainly don't feel like I could be pushing the hip all that much more than I am.  Still I am getting stronger everday and week over week the difference is quite shocking.  I mowed the lawn for the second time this week and it felt normal.  When I did it ten days ago it was super challenging and super NOT normal. 
  I'm still walking 4 to 6 miles a day in one or two walks. I am getting on the eliptigo most days and being generally active.  The wieght it starting to come down, I am at 178 at last check.

Monday, 4x1min with 1min jogs on the track.  I did about a 15 minute walk before this and after it. The jogs were at high 7min pace.  I did a feldenkrais movement lesson before it.

Tuesday Physical Therapy day

Wednesday 6x1min on flat road with 1min breaks, 10 mins eliptigo warm up, no cool down

Thursday XT day.

Friday 4x ~100m strides on flat road after a 2 mile walk. run at around 5:00 pace.  The first one did not feel good, a walk is not enough warm up.  After that they were fine and each one was a bit faster than the one before.

Saturday  Great day in Bar Harbor.

Sunday 4x90 seconds on the carriage roads, first two downhill second two uphill with 1min walk breaks.  Did this at the end of about a 3.5 mile hike.  The downhill didn't feel great.  The uphill was fine but, sadly, a bit tough aerobically.

  Hope your training is going well. 

First Bit of Running!

  On Saturday I was able to go out and try to jog for the first time.  I did 4x30 seconds with 1min walk recoveries. I have to keep it very flat and avoid any poor footing so I went to the track.  The first rep felt a little rough particularly in the glute max, I had surgery on the glute med. so that was ok.  On the following reps I settled into a more natural stride and did a better job of having a bit of a natural lean forward and the glute felt totally fine.  I did have some very noticable tightness in the I.T. band but overall I was very happy.

  I expected to end up sore from the little bit of running but I actually am more sore the days after I do my hip hikes so that was a very nice surprise.  My only concern is that I'm not getting great pronation on that foot but it was just the first little bit of jogging and I have a LOT of rehab to do before I'll be doing any real running so I'm a long way from being freaked out about that it is just a heads up that I need to put some time into my ankle range of motion and get that I.T. band loosened up.  On the plus side the list of what I'm allowed to do for rehab greatly expands this week so I have a lot more options for attacking those two things. 

  I'm a long way from regular running which I hope to start in 12 weeks but I've taken the next real big step in that direction. I fully expect some set backs in the next few weeks but I'm pumped about how the first little bit went.

  The other check in I got this week was on wieght.  I don't own a scale so I very rarely wiegh myself.   About 6 weeks ago I did wiegh myself and I was 187lbs.  That is equal to about the heaviest I have ever been.  Now I have been in the 185lb range a number of times over the years.  Mostly during college when I was having injury trouble.  I consider race wieght to be 162lbs though I'm rarely that light.  Generally my "normal wieght" range is 167lbs to 177lbs and I'm fine starting real running anywhere in that range.  I have been able to get active enough the last two weeks to feel like I was hopefully starting to cut into the extra wieght.  At the end of a cookout, not ideal wiegh in time, I was able to use a scale at my in-laws house and came in at 182.  Five pounds in the right direction.  Still very heavy but also moving in the right direction. 

  Now full discloser I'm not doing much to lose wieght other than exercising more.  Melissa was laughing at me the other night because I was complaining about being fat while eating a hersey bar.  Generally I eat a lot of good for you food but I do sneak some junk here or there.  I certainly am not dieting. However if I'm still heavy when it comes time to start running for real I would consider it as it would be very tough on the muscles to run any volume at over 180lbs.

  Hope you are well! 

Canova, Sondre Moen and the lack of marathon progress in the USA

  My training is still very much the same jogging 4 miles once or twice a day so it hardly seems worthwhile to post it here so instead I figured I would talk about something else.

   At Fukuoka last weekend Sondre Moen of Norway ran a European record of 2:05:48.  This followed up a sparkling 59:48 half marathon in October.   Sondre has been a successful runner for a few years having run in the 62 minute range for the half marathons each of the last few years and he had run 2:11 before he started working with Renato Canova last fall.  I want to talk about him because of two factors.  First the jump from 62/2:11 to 59/2:05 is shocking and almost unheard of outside of the rift valley.   When I see a jump like this mid career my first thought is sadly drugs.  In this case it is certainly possible.  Despite my personal admiration for Canova I do not know him well enough to say for sure that he and his athletes are totally clean.  I am also aware that some of the released schedules from his athletes have recovery intervals are shockingly short.   That said my personal experiences of breakthroughs with his methods tell me that huge breaks are possible without chemical enhancement.

  It is also not that I think Canova has a corner on great running training, I don't.  In fact I think an argument could be made that the best training for the 1500 to 10k is currently available from coaches in the US.  When you consider the success that USA athletes have had at the Olympics and world championships in those events over the last couple of years and that many of the coaches in charge of those athletes are working with very small stables of athletes thanks to are inability to find a financially viable way of creating large well funded training groups, in comparison to Ethiopia, Kenya and Japan where literally a thousand or more post collegiate age athletes are able to give professional training a go and training groups of 30 or more are fairly common. 

  What I do think is that as a country we have massively underachieved in the marathon. Rupp and Flanagan's wins this fall notwithstanding.   There are a number of factors that I feel have a play in this.  The first is that most americans run marathons in the US and there are very few fast courses with consistently favorable conditions.  According to ARRS Houston is the fastest marathon in US based on race time bias and it is only the 16th fastest in the world and it is one of only 3 USA races considered faster than the average or break even time point.   So often we have great American marathoners who is not viewed as being as successful and fast as they would be if they were running races like Berlin, Dubai, Tokyo or Fukuoka instead of New York, Boston, Twin Cities or, with the dropping of pace setters, Chicago.  Also when Boston gets a tailwind we are quick to dismiss a fast time by an american, IE Halls 2:04:58, while we don't tend to put non-american times under the same scrutiny.  I actually read an article once that made a point in saying that Hall's real PB was 2:06:17 from London and then went on to refer to Gebre Gebremariam as a 2:04:53 man.  This is funny because that time for Gebre was run at Boston the same year as Hall ran his 2:04.
 
  This judging of americans by time when they generally run on much slower courses means that often very good americans are judged as being less than they are.  To think that calling Meb a 2:08 guy or  Rupp a 2:09 runner, or Jason Hartmann a 2:11 man is a fair assessment of their success as a marathoner is ridiculous.  These men could easily have PB's 3 to 5 minutes faster if they had focused their energies on the very fast pace set races that the africans dominate.

   That said there is little doubt that we are underachieving in the marathon as compared with the track.  I think that a parallel can be drawn between current american running and the level that the Kenyans were at in the 1990's.  At that time many, many kenyans were running under 27:30 and 13:20.  A good number were under 61, 27 and 13.   Yet almost none were running inside 2:08 for the marathon.  In fact only a fraction of the number of Kenyans were under 2:10 as are today.

   What happened.  Well to listen to many in the sports media tell it the Kenyans stopped fearing the distance and started attacking the marathon.  This is to my mind the stupidest assertion I have ever heard.  The kenyans always attacked.  They had been roaring out at fast paces at marathons from the moment they turned to the roads in the mid 1980s.  The question is why did they stop blowing up?

  My arguement is that Renato Canova, and a couple other coaches, started to do professional development with coaches in kenya.  Traveling the country working with athletes and sharing infomation like this, http://mymarathonpace.com/uploads/Renato_Canova_Marathon_Training_Methods.pdf, with coaches.  This lead to a seed change in how the Kenyans prepared for the marathon.  I think the general fitness that came with this kind of work also lead to greater performance in the half marathon but there the difference was far less.  A 61 man was now becomeing a 60 man.  In the marathon however it was stunning.

  In 1998 the 10th fastest Kenyan marathoner ran 2:08:52, this was a great year for the kenyans in the marathon at that time.  By 2008 the 10th best was 2:07:21.  A solid improvement but the bigger difference at that point was up front as the world lead had gone from high 2:06's to 2:03's.  This meant that big improvements were needed to win and so more and more athletes and coaches adjusted their training accordingly.  In 2015 the 10th fastest Kenyan ran 2:06:19.  A startling time that is under 3:00 per kilometer pace and that no man had ever run faster than prior to 1998.

  My personal experience is what makes me believe so fully in this system.  In the fall of 2005 I had never run under 24:30 for 8k.  I had a 1:07:28 half marathon best.  I began training in the most rudimentary way with Canova workouts and systems and by the end of spring in 2006 I had run 23:26, 1:03:44 and 2:15:28.   Later on after the Olympic trials I was able to get Canova to send me a training schedule.  You should be able to view the schedule here, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m0aEpBDKhfjEmKKzGvWPBkxVZKx1qfYyxPqRLFiT0mw/edit?usp=sharing

  I was already struggling with my coordination issues and as such I never ended up racing off of this training.  I did however find myself in the best shape of my life by far at the end of a month of this training.  I cannot say for sure how fast I would have run I can say I felt confident I would be able to run under 1:03 for the half and in the 2:10 range for a marathon in reasonable conditions, not tailwind, at Boston. 

  So what are the Africans, and a guy like Moen doing that I believe that we Americans are not.  I think the four major things are, one, truly specific marathon workouts in numbers.  So not doing one 16 mile long run at marathon pace and otherwise training like you are getting ready for a half marathon or 10k.   In this type of marathon training the athlete runs a lot of marathon paced work every week, sometimes in multiple workouts per week throughout the training cycle with 15 to 30 miles of marathon paced work run each week during the specific phase.
  Second long hard runs of around marathon distance run at 90 to 95% of marathon pace.  These workouts start much shorter, around 20k, in the base phase but build up to around 40 to 45k during the specific phase.
  Third alternation style workouts where the athlete averages marathon pace for 10 to 15 miles but does so by alternating between running slightly faster than and recovering slightly slower than marathon pace.
  Fourth moderate medium length, 10 to 18 mile, light tempo runs at an effort slower than marathon pace but faster than a reasonable training pace.

  Many top american groups are implementing some of these strategies.  The fourth one is very much like Schumachers' rhythm runs for example.  Meb did a marathon paced tempo run pretty much every week during his marathon build ups.  I think in the marathon the big one most americans tend to fall short on is the specific work.

  Finally I think that one area that the Africans excel at and that much of the rest of the distance running world fails at, myself very much included, is the balance between training very hard generally but not fearing to take complete rest or to half ass workouts. 

  I read an article where a 2:05 Kenyan marathoner was asked why he felt the Japanese could not compete in the marathon with the Kenyans.  He said he thought that if the Japanese trained like the Africans  they would be the best in the world.  When asked what he thought the Japanese were doing wrong he said they were training too hard.

  Similarly when I followed the linked Canova plan, which was the first time I didn't have to figure out my own paces for the workouts, I was shocked how EASY most of the workouts were.  In a two week block there were 6 or 7 "workouts" but 5 of them would be barely harder to do than a basic training run.  Then one or two of them would be savagely hard.

  This is not to say that I think we should make a return to the under training that plagued the 1990's.  I think the tricky key is that the athlete needs to train extraordinarily hard in the macro sense but that they need to be able and willing to reduce the effort in the micro sense.  Doing more workouts, and very high volume, but realizing that those workouts might be quite easy and that is ok.

  I watched a documentary following an athlete who eventually finished 4th at the NYC marathon and the thing I found most different about him compared with myself was that when faced with hardship he opted to half ass his training for a while as a sort of compromise.  He skipped the harder workouts, mixed in days off and then when his body came around he got serious again.  My coordination issue has defied all my attempts to solve it so I doubt that a similar attitude would have saved me from it but I do wonder if I had been a bit more like this if I could have run more consistently well both during my short time of being on the national level and fully healthy, 2006/2007 and in the shorter distances over the years that followed.

  Finally I think that the very top americans are making some changes.  Schumacher's ladies have run better in the marathon this year, though sometimes what is effective training for women in the marathon does not carry over to men because we are less efficient with glycogen, and Salazar has obviously had more success with the marathon of late, seen both in Rupp's very effective running but also in Suguru Osako's 2:07:19.   However I think that there is still an opportunity for one of the second tier groups to stun the US distance world and dominate the top of the USA marathon rankings and perhaps take the majority of the spots on the U.S. Olympic team.

  I think that if you are running more than 5% slower than your half marathon best on similar terrain in the marathon you are under achieving and if you have shown a predilection towards the longer events than that conversion should be closer to 3%.  So for a mid 1:01 half marathon athlete, of which there are now a fair number in the USA that means running in the 2:06 mid to 2:08 mid range.  Obviously in good conditions this would likely fall short of what it would take to beat a guy like Rupp but certainly you could take a spot on the team.  Furthermore a group that was slowing like this would expect mid 1:02 half marathoners to run in the 2:09 to just under 2:11 range.  Think of the impact on american marathoning if one of these groups with 3 to 5 sub 1:03 guys got each of them to run in the 2:09 to 2:10 range in the next year.  I also believe that Moen shows that if they make these changes it is likely that athletes will not only race the marathon closer to the equivalent of their existing pb's in the other events but it is quite likely that they will see a jump in general fitness as well.   In which case perhaps some of our consistent 62 minute half men could find themselves running 59:42 and 2:05:48 in a year or two like Moen has.

Training for last two weeks, November 6 to 19, 2017

   If you are looking for the cliff notes it is basically a whole lot of not much.  I see a specialist on the 27th but that will likely just be a meet and greet and a ticket to an MRI.  I had an X-ray which unsurprisingly didn't show anything.

Monday AM 4 miles, 29:58, with Uta
PM 4 miles, 29:10, with Uta

Tuesday AM 5 miles with Melissa and Uta, 38:13
PM 4 miles, 27:14, 6 strides

Wednesday AM road 4 with Uta in 29:00

Thursday AM 4 miles with Uta in 27:53
PM 1.6 warm up and 3x mile on Phillips fields, the watch may have been a bit wonky on these, 5:18, 5:14, 5:12, 3 mins recovery.  1/2 mile cool down

Friday AM road 5 with Uta and Melissa, 39:13
PM road 4 miles, 25:57

Saturday AM 4.2 miles with Uta, 32:06
PM 2 mile warm up, strides, some drills, some stretching, tried to do a 2 mile tempo in 10:00, felt great aerobically but hip started to hurt so I stopped after 8/10ths of a mile in 3:58 and jogged in.

Sunday 4 miles with Melissa, 27:53


Monday AM 4 miles with Uta, in 29:11

Tuesday AM 4 miles with Uta,  31:00
PM road 4 with Uta, 26:23

Wednesday AM 4 miles with Uta, 29:10
PM  5 miles with Uta, 34:07

Thursday AM 4 miles with Uta, 28:45
PM 4 miles with Uta, in 26:28

Friday PM road 4 with Uta, and first 1.2 with Melissa, 28:05

Saturday AM 4 miles with Uta and Melissa, 29:32
PM road 4.3 with Uta, 27:52

Sunday AM road 4 with Uta, 28:23
PM 4.3 miles, 28:30

Summary I guess it is what it is.  I'm happy to be running a little.  I really haven't lost much fitness.  Obviously the hip doesn't feel that great but it is liveable and hopefully in another 8 weeks or so it will be healed up...
  Hope your well.

Throw back 2007 Olympic Trials

  Just over 10 years ago, on November 3, 2007 I finished 7th at the 2008 Olympic Trials marathon.

   On November 2, 2007 I was very fit.  I had come through a very up and down year.  I started the year in the greatest shape of my life thinking I was ready to breakthrough to the upper echelon of US distance running.  Shortly there after I began experiencing my coordination problem, runners dystonia, and around the same time I came down with Mono.

  After 7 or 8 weeks of no running I started back with my fitness very much reduced.  Over the rest of the build up the dystonia was a problem here or there but not everyday.   By late summer I was again quite fit but had a spasm in my calf/achilles that lead caused me to drop out of the Falmouth road race and miss a week of training.   In October my fiance at the time broke off our relationship.  I was so focused on the trials at this point that my honest to goodness biggest worry was that being upset about that would hurt my race.  As I dealt with that I was also dealing with the dystonia.  I had lost coordination at the end of most of my hard marathon workouts.  I couldn't find a source of the problem or even anyone who had any understanding of what I was dealing with.

   The night before the race I was extremely worked up, like all the competitors I suppose. Around 10pm my roomate, Miguel Nuci, and I shut off the light and tried to sleep.  I actually fell right asleep.  Around 1am I woke up and had to pee.  After that I didn't fall back asleep and I could hear that Migual wasn't sleeping either.  Around 3am I suggest we get up and Miguel agreed.
 
  A couple hours later we took a bus on the empty streets for less than a mile to Rockefeller center for the start of the race.  I was sitting a couple spots behind Abdi Abdirahmen and it seem Nike had put posters of him in nearly every window along the way and I remember wondering what dealing with that kind of pressure was like.

  We went inside at Rockefeller center and we had plenty of bathrooms and it was warm.  I went out for a warm up. We basically had a 200 meter road that was blocked off and I did about 2 miles back and forth on it. It was actually a pretty neat experience with about a hundred runners who I knew by reputation and looked up to all going back and forth in this little area.  The best part was when a fan leaned over the barrier right into my face and yelled "Good luck beating Brian Sell!".   I went back inside did my stretching and made a bathroom trip.  Thirty minutes before the start they kicked us all out.  This was less than ideal for two reasons.  First it was very windy and the temps were in the 40's.  Second there was only one porto potty outside.

  I went out in just about all the cloths I had with me in hopes of staying warm to the start.  Very quickly we athletes decided that the porto potty was for sitting only and if you needed to pee you had to find an alley or bush, not easy in Rockefeller center but it was still dark out which helped.  I did witness a hilarious little dance where Ryan Hall who had to pee but was being followed by a film crew finally kneeled down and took a quick piss while his wife Sara stood between him and the camera as a physical block. Now Sara is five foot nothing and weighs 90lbs soaking wet so she wasn't exactly a wall which made it all the funnier.   All in all it was an extraordinarily well organized event I have no idea why there was only one porto john out there.

  Soon enough they lined us up.  I was shocked to see some of the B qualifiers or guys with qualifiers slower than mine elbow and push for a front row spot.  Mean while a few of the quite famous big guns took spots in the following rows.  I joined them. It was a marathon afterall.  I remember seeing one guy sort of shove himself in front of Meb and thinking, "dude, unless you push him two miles back he is gonna beat your ass."  In the end an official went by and pulled the big guns up to the front row.  I ended up in the second row next to Jacob Frey, another 2nd tier Saucony guy who I had hung out with a good bit at the Utica Boilermaker back in July.

  When the gun went off it was immediately slow.  Very slow.  It felt like an easy group run.  Mike Wardian jumped out to a lead while I was in the middle of this huge slow pack.   I thought about going out on my own and getting up with him as his pace seemed more reasonable but with it being so windy I thought better of it.  Also I was surrounded by some of the greatest runners in American history and figured we would get after it sooner or later. 

  On the city streets it was unbelievably windy and I remember thinking if it wasn't more broken up in the park we would be in for one hell of a hard day.  We hit the mile in 5:40 something.  Unimaginably slow.  We picked it up only slightly and Mike stayed out in front by a good bit.  About a mile and a half into the race we tucked into the park and I was relieved that the wind was reduced but unhappy to begin the hills.  For anyone who has run central park it isn't really hilly, it just doesn't have any real flat spots.

  As we moved onto the park roads the untenable nature of our slow pace started to become apparent.  With  more than a hundred guys in a 5 or 10 second span surrounded by motorcycle cops and camera men as well as dozens of bike riding course marshals on the tighter and very curvy roads things immediately started to get rough.  At one point I actually banged into one of the motorcycles with a cameraman sitting backwards on it filming.  I was fine but I was shocked the driver was able to keep them from going over.

  At three miles Mike Morgan and Kyle O'Brian of Hansons took the lead and drove the pace down to just under 5:00 pace.  They had both run the world championship that summer and it was pretty obvious they were leading to ensure a quicker pace for Brian Sell who would likely have little chance against some the other favorites in a race that came down to a very fast last 10k.

  Pre-race I had told myself that my speed limit was 5:00 per mile.  It was ok to dip under it here or there but not to stay there as I knew from my workouts I wasn't in shape to run under 2:11 and that things got hard fairly quickly when I was clicking off sub 5:00's on rolling terrain.  Mike and Kyle seemed to lock in at just under 5:00.  I think we maybe ran one 4:55 but really we locked in the 4:56 to 4:58 range.  Initially, though I was a bit stressed that the pace was a shade faster than I wanted, I was mostly just enjoying the whole event.  We had crossed the finish at Tavern on the Green and the crowd in the stands there was already quite large.  On top of that I was just blown away at the group of National champions, NCAA champs and generally amazing distance guys I was rubbing elbows with.  I had done a number of national level races at this point but to see this many super stars in one place and to be running with them was really something special. The reality of the Olympic Trials is that everyone there is amazing.  Generally speaking if you are at a race with 10 or 15 Olympic Trials qualifiers that is a big deal.  Well now the whole field is qualifiers and there were a couple dozen guys who had made at least one Team USA and a few american record holders and a world record holder. On top of that the spectators were over the top.  There were signs and screaming and just a huge number of the Brian Sell face on stick that Brooks must have mass produced for the event.  In additiona Mbarak Hussien was quite popular and as long as he stayed in the pack, which was out past 10 miles you seemed to hear someone yell "Age is just a number! Go Mbarak!
, every few seconds.  At one point Ryan Shay fell back suddenly for some reason I thought he had hurt his hamstring.  I didn't think about it at all.  I have thought about it uncountable hours since.

  Just after 5 miles I passed a blonde woman screaming and cheering her head off and realized just as I went by her it was 3 time Boston marathon champ, Uta Pippig.  This was no normal race.

  At this quicker pace the first real stressful moment was the "bubble" Just before mile 6.  To make the course hit the exact distance we had to take a 90 degree left off the road and onto a sidewalk go less than a 100 yards and take two quick 90 degree rights come back to the road and take another 90 left.  The pack was still 50 strong and we were banging into each other and the barriers.  It was really a remarkable piece of teamwork that no one went down.

  Shortly after that we turned back onto the main loop just past the finish line to do the first of 4 'long' loops. As we went up the first hill back on the main drag I felt a bit of acid in my legs.  It scared the hell out of me.  We had 20 miles to go and we had only been running at a decent clip for 3 miles and I knew damn well I was under my agreed upon speed limit for the those 3 miles.  I had to make a call.  Stay in the pack or back off.  I decided that if I had gone out too fast the damage was done so I had made my bed and now there was nothing to do but lay in it.

  After a couple of uneventful miles Abdi got sick of the 5:00 miling and shot off the front right at the 9 mile mark.  Hall, Meb, Ritz, Bizuneh and I believe Dan Brown went with him.  I hung back with the second pack.  The pace of the lead group seemed crazy fast and given that Sell, Khannouchi and Culpepper were in my pack I felt pretty confident.  Once again we passed Uta Pippig and as we did she shouted "stay with them cutie!" and I could have sworn she was looking at me. As we approached the 10 mile mark I was worried because I was starting to hurt a bit.  When I saw the split, 4:47, I knew why I was hurting.  We settled down but almost immediately I got a pretty bad side stitch.  I buried myself back in my head and put all of my focus on just trying to breath and staying with Culpepper.   As I stared at his back and rode out the stitch Khannouchi and then Sell with Lehmkuhle went off the front after the lead back.  Bizuneh, who I considered a threat to make the team because he had joined the Kimbia team, came back to us and we went right by him.

 All the while the side stitch was really all I could think about.  Running low 5:00 miles over rolling hills was actually pretty easy at this point but not so easy I could do it without breathing.   Finally just as we were coming up to the Tavern on the Green finish area marking two laps to go the stitch quickly faded out of existence.  Right about that moment Culpepper dropped out.  I was stunned.   Honestly I thought he was the single most likely guy to make the team.  Meb was better but had some calf problems in his tune up and I thought he might be hurt.

  As I absorbed the shock that I had outlasted Culpepper I also became aware that my huge pack was now quite small.  Only a small handful of us were left and they were all guys I knew.  Or more correctly knew of. Peter Gilmore who was on a string of really top notch marathons took control of the group with myself, Matt Downin, a two time National Cross Country Champion, and Josh Rohatinsky a sub 28:00 10k guy who had won an NCAA cross country champion who many thought would be a dark horse to make the team in his debut, following behind.   I was both excited and in awe that I was in this place and frankly feeling really good.   Over the front side of the course the hills were a little tougher and things seem to happen fast.

  Peter Gilmore who was leading our crew suddenly seemed to lose all steam and come to a crawl.  Downin took over and surged a bit but in less than a mile he seemed to pick up a limp and it was just me and Rohat.  At this point the adrenaline was really kicking.  First these were big names falling by the waste side.  Second we were running decent splits on a very tough course and third I felt GREAT!

  Shortly after Downin dropped back I decided to push.  I had read that Rohat had done some great workouts in the build up including a very fast 20 or 22 miler so I didn't think I could get away from him only 17 or 18 miles in but I was thinking we were in the top 10 now and others had been more aggressive and there would be bodies on the road so perhaps I could jump start our pace and we could work together to go after the lead.

  It is important to note I had no idea that Ryan hall was dropping 4:30 miles out front!  I was basing a lot of my expectations on the previous trials, where a 2:11 on a very flat fast course was good enough for the win, and the results of the top americans over the previous couple of years, which were significantly better than the past but still left me thinking if you ran in the 2:12's on this course you would make the team, particularly with Culpepper already gone.  I also was feeling like 2:12 was still on the table for me.

  I pushed the pace back down under 5:00 pace.  I think miles 18 and 19 were 4:57 and 4:54 respectively.  It felt like Rohatinsky didn't even try to stay with.   At about 18 miles I could see a guy walking on the course in front of me and as I closed up on him it was apparent that it was Abdi.  This played right into my thoughts that the super fast middle miles would tear apart the lead group and a guy like me could do some damage picking off the pieces.  On top of that I wasn't just soldiering to the line I was flying.  I couldn't have been more pumped.

  Then, in what could be a microcosm of my whole career, it all came crashing down around me with a funny sensation in my hip and hamstring and then the loss of control of my right leg right at the 19 mile mark.  My mind raced.  I had only one recourse.  I needed to stop and stretch.  Sometimes stretching would bring the coordination back for the rest of a hard workout, sometimes for only a few miles and sometimes not at all.  Just past a water stop I stopped suddenly and stretched for 10 or 15 seconds until Rohatinsky caught me.  I jumped in behind him as he went by and almost held my breath.

  My darkest nightmare was visiting me on the road.  The coordination was still gone.  I had little control of my right leg.  Running even this reduced pace was suddenly impossibly difficult.   I  locked on to Rohatinsky back.  It was all coming apart.  Very quickly my motivation went from having the race of my life to promising myself that if I was going to fade back through the field I was going to make everyone who was going by me bleed to do it.

  I had Rohatinsky to control pace and I was going to limp, peg leg and fight with everything I had to stay right on his back.  It was a bit of a dark moment.  Then we went by Uta Pippig again.

  There was no doubt this time, she was talking to me in her german accent "Stay with him cutie!  Race of your life, cutie!!"

The race might be going to shit but it was sure one hell of an experience and a day I would never forget already.

  As we came by Tavern on the Green to enter the last lap I got final confirmation that I wasn't going to make the Olympic team.  The jumbo tron at the finish showed Brian Sell who was flying and it said 4th place.  If Rohatinsky and I were going to limp up through the field at our speed they would have to be completely cracked.

  Entering the last lap the task seemed completely overwhelming.  I was limping.  I had little control over my right leg and felt like I could fall with every right foot landing.  I was doing everything I could do just to hang on Rohatinsky's shoulder.  I was taking some confidence from having stayed with Rohatinsky for a couple miles but the task in front of me, 5 more miles like this with every stride awkward agony, seemed impossible.

  I just kept taking it literally one stride at time.  Then on an uphill just after the 22 mile mark Rohatinsky began to slow noticeably.  I almost didn't know what to do.  I was so convinced the most I could hope for with the peg leg was to stick to his back but I could still taste the blood in the water so I pushed by and he had no response.

  The after the elation of that moment the stress of the hobble and the pain it was now causing and the reality of how far I had to go settled in.  My left calf started to spasm and I had to start forcing myself to land on my heel, as if my stride wasn't awkward enough already.  I also was worried by the pain in the front of my hip from pulling my leg through, as I was almost doing that with my abs, because at least I had control of them. 

  As I crossed over and began the journey on the back side of the course coming up to 24 miles I saw a diminutive man coming back to me.  With Abdi out it had to be Meb.  I was sure he had hurt his calf, as that was his recurring injury to that point in his career.  I had no idea his hip was far worse than mine.  Inch by inch I closed the gap but it was so far and I was limping so badly.  It seemed time would run out but it gave me a target and a job to do and when you are trying to convince your body to do something beyond its limits that is something you very badly need.

  Again I went by Uta Pippig, she was jumping up and down screaming "You are doing it cutie!! Go get Meb, cutie!!"  Shortly after that I passed Glenn Stewart on the side of the road.  Glenn was president of the Greater Lowell Road Runners who I had run for after college and who I did some coaching for.  He was a friend.  I was hurting in bad way knew I looked bad.  I wanted to give Glenn some sign that I would finish.  So I did all I was capable of, a weak thumbs up.  Glenn went wild!  I didn't understand.

  He thought I was trying to tell him I would catch Meb.

  Though that was not my intention it was reality.  Just as we hit the sign that said 800m to go I caught and passed Meb.  The man who had just four years before won Olympic Silver.  He was in a bad way and I was going to hobble by.  I had a moment of elation.

 A few yards later Meb went back by me.  I was crushed.  This man was too damn strong.  I didn't know then just how strong, but I had a moment where I wanted to quit and let him beat me in.  Then I realized here I was on the home stretch of the Olympic Trials Marathon fighting with the reigning Olympic Silver medalist.   I had no doubt Meb would beat me but I was going to go back and forth with him as many times as I could and make the most of the moment and so I lifted myself for another peg-legged push.

  Back by Meb I went, I was shocked he didn't go back by and now I was climbing up the final bit of the course.

  I don't remember finishing.  I do remember Meb a bit after he finished.  I thanked him for returning Americans to the world stage.  I did an interview or two over the barrier.  Then I began to shuffle to the gear collection area.  I couldn't believe I wasn't being drug tested.  I mean I was the 20th qualifier and basically a complete nobody and I finished in the thick of the big guns and yet no one thought, hey lets get that guy to piss in a cup?

  I got to the area where our cloths were and began to get dressed.  As I did I saw a young guy on the other side of the barrier almost shaking and he seemed painfully familiar.  It took more than a few moments to figure out he was my brother.  I was so destroyed that I didn't instantly recognize my only brother.

With the Moulton twins in the recovery zone

  That seems like as good a point as any to stop.  It was a great day though tinged with regret because it should have been more.  Again a microcosm of my career as a whole.

Training Blog October 30 to November 5, 2017

Monday AM road 4, 26:58
PM road 4, 26:13, dead lifts

Tuesday AM road 4.1, 26:46
PM 4.7 miles on road, 30:15

Wednesday PM 28:04

Thursday AM 4 miles, 28:50
PM 4 miles 25:50, massage with Anna after this run

Friday AM road 5 with Melissa and Uta, 41:09
PM road 4, 27:02

Saturday AM 4 miles on road in 26:21, squats
PM road 5 with Uta, 31:47

Sunday AM road 4 with last mile at tempo effort (4:58), 25:22

Summary  Happily took a small step in the right direction this weekend  and am now able to run 5 miles at a normal pace without the hip area locking up.  I was also able to do the tempo mile and have that feel fine too.  I didn't run in the afternoon today just because I had a ton of crap to do and basically never got around to it.  I had so much to do because after my run this morning I spent close to 3 hours screaming at the TV screen for obvious reasons.  It was amazing to see a girl I remember from HS win at NYC and to see an amazing run by Abdi and Meb's last go.  Where exactly Meb and Abdi belong on the USA all time marathon great lists may be up for debate but they have to be 1 and 2 for American Masters marathoners without any question. 
  As an odd extension with Shalane's win Melissa and I may be the only married couple who have both scalped NYC champions of their respective genders.  I'm not sure if Abdi and Diane Nukuri are married yet, I would assume that they have done it.  Maybe Ryan and Sara Hall?  Anyway I keep loose tabs on my odd life accomplishments and this one sure fits that category.

Training blog October 16 to 22

Monday AM hurting couldn't drag my ass out of bed...
PM road 6 with Uta who was in the mood to hammer, had to stop around 5 miles to stretch hip. 37:16.

Tuesday AM 4 miles with Uta, 29:14
PM 5 miles with Melissa and Uta, in around 40mins then 8? strides with jog back recoveries.

Wednesday AM 4 miles, 28:07
PM 6 miles light fartlek, 38:18, light jogging first mile then light fartlek efforts, not even sub 5 min mile pace mixed in for rest of the run.

Thursday AM road 4, 28:33
PM 1.5 mile warm up with a couple of strides, then 3 x mile in cemetery with 3 mins jogging rest, 5:08, 5:05, 5:06, these are a light effort kinda tempo repeats.
Anna for some light xt'ing and massage

Friday AM 4 miles, 27:48
PM 6 miles 38:07

Saturday AM 5.4 miles with Uta and Melissa, 39:57
PM 2 warm up, bunch of drills, 5k threshold tempo run on part of Phillips' fields,  15:57.

Sunday AM on Chelmsford rail trail, 5 mile light progression run after a bunch of drills for warm up, 5:35, 5:33, 5:24, 5:15(with a few seconds lost to a stop to stretch the hip/glute), 4:59

Summary- this is basically how I would like to approach my running until the hip heals up.  The progression run didn't work and because I ran while the hip was locked up pretty good the last half mile or so it left me feeling I had done a bit of damage instead of really feeling fine like I did after all the other runs so I likely won't do this next week.  I may try a couple of 5 mile runs with a 5:00 last mile instead.   We'll see though...