Sydney Marathon Recap

At mile 23 of the Sydney marathon my phone started buzzing. My sister had spun up a FaceTime with the whole fam. She must have seen my descending splits and figured I needed the support as I chased down a sub 3 attempt.

I answered, and panting, gave them a status update, told them I was going for broke, and thanked them for the love. I could see my sister and her boyfriend Ryan were at the beach, my mom seemed to be at a dinner party with friends. I hung up and thought “How blessed am I to have my family tracking me, rooting for me in all my crazy endeavors”.

I finished the race and got this text message from my sister:

So it turns out that’s why she was calling 😂! I could draw a deep lesson from this, but for now, let’s just say we had a good laugh about it afterwards and we are excited to welcome Ryan to the family!

So, should Sydney become the 7th Abbott World Marathon Major?

I have to say, the Sydney race weekend experience was really special. Top 5:

1. The city is stunning. Beautiful weather, picturesque sights everywhere you turn. Sydney Opera House, Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, Harbour Bridge, the option to ferry to beautiful nearby beaches…

2. The energy - The excitement surrounding the race is real. Everyone who competed this year knew they were a part of something special and you could feel it. Everyone put in 110% to make the every piece of the weekend experience top notch.

3. Run club culture - Sydney run club culture is absolutely booming right now. Run clubs pulling 100’s of runners together for good health and good vibes. There were over 1000 people at the Unofficial Run Club shakeout.

4. It doesn’t matter where you stay. Escape the city vibes and enjoy beachfront living in Bondi beach. What other race can you go into the ocean after the race? The new Metro makes it super easy to get to the start from anywhere.

5. Get some cheap recovery in after the race. My friend Tom and I went to Bondi Icebergs after the race for recovery. You know this iconic spot from the photos. It’s $10 contrast therapy and I was shocked we were the only runners that seemed to be there.

Things I’m learning that you may find interesting:

1. Pre race and race nutrition will increase performance by 3%. 3%! here’s what to do. In Sydney I deployed the same strategy I’ve used in my marathons over the. past year, 90 grams of carbs per hour during the race. I’ve finished with great energy & recover well using this. Note - If you aren’t training for this, built up to it before sending it on race day.

2. Strength training is for everyone, always. Strong runners are resilient and fast. Building strength work into your training for the ENTIRE duration of your program will increase your running economy and reduce injury risk. Love this video from the coach of the US Mens Olympic marathon coach. I’ll be lifting Tuesday ahead of Sunday’s race in Berlin.

3. Fast is fast! Building on the prior point about strength making you faster, running fast also makes you faster (Insert collective “yeah duh dude🙄”). It’s felt like the last year and a half has been about zone 2 and the run slow to run fast revolution. The common miss in that was that you need to run slow so you are fresh when you need to run fast AND you should incorporate short bursts of high speed (think 10×20 seconds) multiple times per week to stimulate fibers that will improve running economy.

   David Roche who just broke the course record in the Leadville 100 Mile ultramarathon (which also features 15,000ft elevation gain and is in the mountains of Colorado) said that fast strides are the most powerful stimulus for runners, and of course backed it up with data. Look at this man cook!

mountainroche

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This cycle I’ve added Monday hill sprints (10×20 seconds) as a non negotiable staple. Will report back on the final results at the end of the season.

Something funny

There is nothing worse than 18 weeks of marathon prep and being PB ready only to have mother nature decide to turn up the heat! (cough, BOSTON 2024, cough). So in honor of a promising weather report for Berlin this weekend:

chafing_nips

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This was my first ever newsletter. The plan is to share information that’s valuable, and a bit entertaining, as we pursue our performance through running marathons. But I’d love to know, why are you here? What would you like to hear about? You can reply directly to me, I would love to hear from you!

And, since we love data, here’s a poll: