brandon and once a runner

[doc]

just gold  matty just gold

[Matthieu O’Halloran - "M@"]

Hey well this one is not very Kenyan, but i heard it in Kenya.
But very good point none the less.

So sometime in my 5months.
This tall Aussi fella named Dirk came into camp.
He was there to get away from him job as a lawyer in Perth.

I asked him if he knew how to count?
He did not get it, then i went on about the 2000 ITU world champs in Perth.
Where Carol Montgomery got robbed of a world title by the people who responsible for the bell lap.

After that we hit it off right away.
He treated me like his younger brother.
We chatted about all sorts of stuff.

One day on an easy wake up run.
He toldme about Rob Decastella.

How he was the best Aussie marathon runner ever.
And that during this one race, while leading.
He suddenly started to water and sponges his quads and glutes and hammies.

Rob went on to win that race, and many more!

But soon after that one race, there was a craze that went on.
Where all these runners started watering/sponging their legs during racing and training.
Regardless of the heat or water temperature or even liquid used.

All sorts of theories.
Theres glands in your inner quads.
You cool down your crotch therefore core temperature.
It will help buffer lactic acis.
Will loosen your muscles and give a second wind.
All that stuff and more!!!

Then big Dirk told me.

A few years later, when Rob was retired.
In a book or an interview, he got asked about that "quad watering method"
During that one race hed won.


Rob sayed:
"Mate, I shit myself near the end of the marathon"
"So I washed it away with cups of water and sponges"
"Coz I did not want to cross the line covered in shit"

 

[doc]

hahaha
mat your on fire and that can lead us into the deek  tri stories as i knew him ran with him a few times
and when national tro coach for aus asked him if our guys could
do his famous sunday in the stromlo forest run , that was a big learning curve for the boys i can tell you
along kenyan lines .
i can tell this  thread is going to go on and on but all brilliant stuff

[cervelo-van]

I asked him if he knew how to count?
He did not get it, then i went on about the 2000 ITU world champs in Perth.
Where Carol Montgomery got robbed of a world title by the people who responsible for the bell lap.

I remember that race, what a bummer as Carol was a member of our running club. She had real bad luck at the Olympics as well, got caught up in a bike crash and had to pull out of the triathlon and the 10K which she had qualified for as well.

[Matthieu O’Halloran - "M@"]

Hey, this not about running but its maked me.
When I was hanging out with the Germans.
We all became friends with a young Kenyan runner by the name of Joseph.

Joseph was a just a bit younger than me.
He lived in near by Eldoret at lower altitude, about 30km from Iten.
And had so many questions about Canada!

He would spend the week working and living with his mother and sister in Eldoret.
And on friday night he would run 30k up to Iten and stay with some friends for training camp.
Then run back to down Eldoret on Sunday evening.

He was a poor runner in all senses.
But had a huge heart and pretty developped mind compared to many locals.

So I used to have appointemens with him in Eldoret during the week.
As I wanted to go shopping and not get ripped off.
So a short Matatue ride down and he was there waiting for me with big smile!

On our very first meeting, he wanted to take me to the best chicken/rice resto in town.
He sayed hes never been because it was to expensive, but had heard lots about it.
As it was always busy.

So we went in and ordered the house special and sat outside over looking the land.
Once our food came, he started eating right away!
He did not use his utensiles.
When I offered them to him, he sayed he found it easier to eat with his hand!

He told me when your right handed you always eat with you left hand.
And Vice versas.
But its very rude to eat with both hands.

So me, like most Canadians, I made use of my utensiles to eat.

When we where both done.
He grabbed my plate, and asked:
"Mathiew, are you done with your chicken?"

I sayed yes!

He then grabed both chicken legs and started to eat whatever meat was left on them.
At first, I thought he was being rude.
But then I noticed how much chicken I had actually left on the bones.

I keep talking about food in Canada.
But studdered a bit as I felt embarassed for myself.
I did not really stare, I simply turned my head right, and looked to the left corner of my eyes.

Once he was done.
I picked up the bill.

We both got up and with the biggest smille on his face.
He sayed " That was the best chicken I have ever eaten"

On the Matatue ride back to Iten.
I realised how much food I have waster in my life.
And I have never looked at chicken, or food in general the same way......................

[DamienC]

Unfortunately, it is a sad reflection on Western life, just how much is wasted.  It is one of the reasons why I can't watch programs on TV like Survivor - watching them, eventhough they are "hungry", wasting food left, right and centre.

[DrDubs]

I used to do a weekly run with an american olympic hopeful marathoner. he was around 2:12-2:14 at the time.

After a poor run at trials and an inability to get under 2:12, he decided to pack up for Kenya and see how they did it. A few weeks later, he was back. When I asked him how it was, he said it was the hardest training he had ever done in his life.

when I asked him why he came back, he said it was too hard and he didn't feel like it was the best thing for his body... I was stumped. I pressed on if he was going to continue with some of the things he did there with his training and he said NO. He felt he just needed to stick to the plan that he and his coach came up with (you could almost hear his coach talking through him) adn the results would come...

they never did.

2:12 was the best he ever ran.

To this day I've never understood that thinking. He was so good and so talented, there was no reason he couldn't have run under 2:10 or even faster.

[Matthieu O’Halloran - "M@"]

Hey DrDubs im sure hes not the first or last to fall victim to Kenyan running dept.

One thing I also realised while up there.
Is that as someone who came from the first world.
And strait into the raw 3rd world.

I quickly noticed what particular luxury are essencial to my good mood.
And which are absolutely useless in my life as a human and athlete.

Since the Kenyan way is oh soooo simple!

[doc]

k i  s  s

keep it  simple sutto 
they used to call me to try and upset me , id walk away with a smile and say "thank you for the compliment "
they snigger at me , and you could hear them  say simpleton doesnt even know  we are having a go at him and his now method .
 while i was saying  "there goes some more morons blinded by their class room education"

[Scott DeFillipis - "Scott D"]

So I have been mulling over this post for the past few weeks, mostly while training as out here in CA 99% of my training is being done solo...But today I really gave this post some thought as one of my athletes has shared his training with his mates on the inter webs and of course the questions came pouring in...why so many reps?, what percentage of LT is that?, what percentage of marathon pace or 10k?  blah, blah, blah, blah... and consequently the doubts start or shall I say questions start popping into his head...I had quite the chuckle as I read through it and discussed with him in private why we do what we do and after all, he asked for the tough sets, no cupcake works for him...But this triggered several thoughts and once again I mulled over it for a few days.  It is my observation that many people have big dreams but when it comes down to it how many are willing to do the hard work that is necessary to realize such dreams?  Some see the long hard tough sessions and think its crazy, they can't wrap their heads around it, just as Dr.Dubs pointed out earlier with the American kid going to Kenya only to come back to the U.S. like a kid who had a shot at the big leagues but decided after spring training he would rather play in the minors...

I need to look no further than my own family for such correlations.  Lets have a look at my older brother, in my opinion far more talented than I however he lacked the work ethic, or shall I say he never had a real coach show him how to work...I can remember as kid watching my brother click off 70 mile weeks as he trained for his marathon debut thinking to myself how impressive it was and couldn't understand why he crashed and burned in all of his attempts at the marathon.  As I grew older, ran more, and studied the sport I started to give my big brother a bit of advice, as I was now a college boy running 80-90 miles week and my 10k p.b. was now over 2mins faster than his.  Fast forward a few years and young Scottie is now running 100-120 mile weeks and having a go at the marathon, taking 20mins into his big brothers p.b.  At this point big brother Rob has all but retired from the racing scene and has sets his sights on a career in coaching.  O.K. great I thought, your big shot but bro, you gotta get your kids running more, yes develop the speed I understand that but they are weak, slow them down on the easy days, hammer on the track, and run em 2 hours on the weekends.  Once again falling to deaf ears.  How about the group of post collegiate women you train?? How much are they running?  All grown women, shit there are house wives in Alamosa, CO running 70 miles a week... for fun.  I even got an old girlfriend in North Carolina that runs 60 miles a week because she likes running 10 miles a day and you got your chicks running a measly 50 and they want to run what for the marathon?? Not a chance!!

So 2 years ago I get my big chance, my sister in law wants me to coach her as she has decided that being coached by her husband is a bad idea.  O.K. I agree but here's the thing, your dream is to break 3 hours in the marathon o.k., very achievable based on the speed you have, however you lack the strength.  You're gonna have to put in 70 miles a week and it may take 2 or 3 tries o.k.?? No way I can't do that, I have been running for 20 years and I know my body and it can't handle any more than 50 miles and it is 1 more marathon and done... I got this wrong with my hips and that wrong with my feet and my orthodics this and my over pronation shoe that...O.K. I say I will do my best but....No guarantees..So we work together for 6 months and she completes some great sessions and is making progress but the belief isn't there, and neither is the strength, come race day a disappointing 3:15 or something in that range.  But in my estimation where I thought she would fall...O.K. I think good build up lets keep it going, maybe increase the mileage...Nope it was never brought up...weeks were taken off and I went off to camp..

So I come back this summer and I hear Christy is training hard, hard, hard...From the whole family, you would be so proud of her, she is working her tail off.  O really, yep she is running Chicago, real flat and fast course.  Alright sounds good....done that yasso 800 set, she indicates she is ready for 3 hours.  Oh yeah? Good set that yasso workout,  what was done after it?? Did she run an hour and half to build the strength??  No, a quick 10 minute cool down and then a day at the beach.   Yup 3 hour shape alright on that flat fast course...but the long runs have been real good 20 miles in the heat.  Great, how much pace work??  You get the point by now...So I keep quite and wait for race day....result = 3:24 or :25...Yup I had her over done....so what happened this year??

Now I am not bashing my family I am just giving my 2 cents as I believe the 2 of them have fallen victim of bad coaching while growing up, both descent high school runners but went off to the same University, same coaching, same results...Now here is where is gets tricky and you gotta look at who you are working with especially in the triathlon world where may age groupers are paying big bucks to be coached by someone...I believe there are 3 categories that coaches fall into and Doc can correct if I'm wrong...

1. The ex-athlete that wasn't good enough to make it on their own so they turn to coaching because they have a passion for sport but most don't really know how much work it takes because they never did themselves or were never exposed to the hard work.

2. The super talented athlete that has retired but can't relate to the others because it came very easy for them..

3. The ex-athlete that had the work ethic but got run down so they turn to the sport science methodology and are now too afraid to train their athletes beyond their training zones because they too will fall victim of over training...

Now lets have more more look at my much older wiser brother...I send him this link and say, read this bro i think you can learn some things from it.  I don't even get a reply who know maybe its a pride thing, can't take a little advice from his younger brother or maybe he is too busy reading the running forums, researching race results, mapping out the plan for the his kids all to have that perfect day and a championship is won...Now I am not bashing my family as i love them very much and do think my brother does some great things as a coach but his dream is to coach at a University, full time and i want to see him achieve that goal but he isn't listening...Here he has his younger brother being mentored by one of the best coaching minds in the world and he ain't paying attention....Mean while Scottie Boy is getting closer and closer to pipping his marathon p.b. after swimming 2.4km and riding a 180kms

Point being many think there's an easier way and they will always find someone who agrees with them..So together they go from race to race waiting for that perfect day but as we have seen with Yobes, results speak for themselves and when you prepare like he did, the results become automatic, thus no more waiting around for that perfect day to pop out of thin air...

[Fegan]

Planning on skipping a 1/3rd of the swim coach?
Nice post, pity that cupcake client.

[doc]

3 good points .
1/ there is a person that doesnt make it , doesnt ha ve the talent but was willing to work , but no one put the time in to him as he or she was not quite good enuff , so he had to settle for not making it but inside burns the thought if i had a coach who cared and worked with me i could have been better
this group is where 90% of the great coaches come from .
they intuiitively know where ,they were lacking but no one would listen to em , and they accepted the coach was right .

2/  little brothers dont listen to big brothers either , but some times an intermediatary can get them thinking .
my dad too k my little brother to task on more than one occassion , on why you will never be as good as coach as your big brother " i won 6 australina championships , he could barely make it across the pool"
my dad answer but he got the best team in aus, and you dont listen to a thing he says , as a coach
you should be listening to who ever is doin the job , now my bro  never admitted he started to listen but in the end , he became a sensational coach and crowned his career after big bro went to triathlon, by becoming the head mens coach of aussie swiming no small feet .
i said to dad , i so pproud of him and dad said  im so relieved  you went to triathlon , so the big dick started to listen to you , that only happened once you were out of swimming ,
i said but he still dont , dad  , dont kid yourself , when you left  he consumed every thing you ever wrote .
3/
people are now taught to fear every thing , why this why that , it takes a certain individual to swim against the tide of peer group  knowledge.
special people who believe in  what is best , is go for your limiits, then knock em down .
its not easy in todays world give em a break .
just dont expect break thrus but rather break downs.

[Keegan Williams - "kiwiman"]

Nice Post Scottie
I remember you telling me about your sister in law when in the Phillipines
And you where already hitting your head against the wall

I will give you another little Lydiard story, in his joggin book I think
He talks about a runner he helped out when he was in his teens, he said he had no
talent, any was only midpack and thought he was destined to be there his entire career
Now this young runner obviously liked running and kept at it, kept at it, kept at it
And 15years later he ended up winning the New Zealand Marathon title in a 2hr15min
Not a bad time for someone with no Talent

So thats a big people cant get over in todays society, the NOW factor
we need everything NOW, not in 2 year time or 10
I think every athlete is guilty of it

And the above just shows you,
No one actually really nows how much aerobic potential to improve your body has
Everyones rates of improvements are so different
Some fast and some slow

[doc]

great , and i mean great email  from our friendly sheep herder , keep contributing sir
as you dont say much  but when you do its pearls of wisdom.

[marco.polo]

@ matt...found your stories very helpfull...ive struggled with long runs since the day I started triathlon...Being the racing season already...im wondering what you suggest for a second wind before my a race...Biggest problem is that i always slow down at the end because im big guy...thanks...