Featured Athlete: Larry Davidson
Marathon PR at age 49 on 25m per week
I thought I would share this feedback from M2 athlete Larry Davidson, from Orange County, CA, and whom I asked to reflect on his great 3hr19min run in April's Boston Marathon.
Larry is a veteran runner with whom I have worked now for about 16 months. Now approaching his prime running age of 50, Larry is banging out personal bests at virtually every distance
The keys to Larry's success are precisely those that I indicate to all new athletes:
1. Train Consistently
2. Follow the program and understand the workouts
3. Provide concise feedback
M2 Training Principles of Quality versus Quantity and Strong before Long apply to any endurance discipline. The marathon is not an exception.
Consider also that there is an important cross-over training effect from swimming and biking, so long as certain minimums are respected in the running. It is interesting to me that general tri-training dogma still fails to understand this basic point, and where much training time and energy is squandered "triplicating" training efforts - gotta build a base, only way to build a base is hours and more hours, must be done for swim/bike/run, gotta increase run frequency to 5-6x/week - blah, blah, blah.
I think most folks would agree that a marathon is hearty challenge and will cruelly punish those who enter ill-prepared. Sooooo, with that in mind, how does a veteran runner age 49 set a personal best on a tough course, while somehow training fewer hours.....might there be more constructive ways to train?
M2
From: Davidson, Larry [mailto:ladavidson@smscorp.com]
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 12:25 PM
To: M2
Subject: Boston
M2:
I had a great experience in Boston and wanted to share my thoughts and impressions. As you know, I have been doing marathons since 1996, and have completed a total of twelve. It is gratifying to be turning 50 this year, and I have achieved PR’s in 5K, 10K, ½ marathon, and marathon distance this year! This has been accomplished by running 3 times per week, with mileage of no more than 25 miles in any week.
The key to my success and better times in all distances has been to heed your advice, do the workouts as prescribed, remain as consistent as possible, and trust that this will improve my fitness and my end result. I predicted a 3:20 a few days prior to the Boston race, and could not be more pleased in the outcome.
I have really enjoyed doing the treadmill workouts, and the track progressions you have had me do. Honestly, I have always been a big over-achiever, and it is counter-intuitive to do so little run training prepping for a marathon. I had to trust that my swimming and biking fitness would help me through the day. I was able to accomplish a 7 minute plus PR, and run a 3:19 at Boston. I believe I ran the 2nd half of the marathon about 4 minutes slower than the 1st half. The Boston course is every bit as hard (technical) as everyone claims. The downhill’s in the first half really “work” your quad muscles.
I believe that my time on a “Chicago” style course would have certainly been “sub” 3:10, so that makes it all the more gratifying.
I would like to get my running to a point where I can run a Boston Qualifying split during a full Ironman. This would be a 3:35 time. I look forward to my next series of workouts as my season continues.
Regards,
Larry Davidson
