Grant’s Half Marathon Went From 1:45 to 1:35… Here’s Why [CASE STUDY]

Welcome back to another case study episode where we break down a specific athlete's improvement and what we changed specifically to help them. Today's athlete is Grant, a super strong cyclist who decided he wanted to try his hand at running. Alarm bells always go off for you, dad, when someone comes to you with quite a radical shift like this. To go from a high level cyclist to basically a beginner runner is no easy task. And he actually came to you and said he wanted to do the marathon, but you talked him out of that and settled on the half marathon. So take us through that starting conversation. What was this new ambition about and what was the first conversation you had with him about what this was going to require?

Just a little backstory. Brandt is an exceptionally talented athlete and over the journey he has been at the highest level. He's won the Australian national time trial championships as a time trialist. He's won quite a lot of road races, been very successful as a road racer, won teams time trial, Australian titles. He's also jumped on the mountain bike and gone to Europe and raced at the world titles in a teams event in mountain biking. And his next ambition was to be a runner. And so he certainly loves to play the field of sport. And when he said a marathon, I was sort of taken back a bit because, you know, he hasn't done a lot of running and, and just straight out, say marathon, I was thinking, well, maybe, you know, just see how you go with 5k or 10k before we, we jump into a half marathon and then, you know, let's look at a marathon down the track. And, and now he's pretty adamant that he wanted, really was enthusiastic about, just love the, the aura around marathon and just he, you know, anything that's going to test him and, and create some, some endurance that he has ample amounts of his fitness base is incredible. And he was absolutely keen to pursue the marathon and it took a lot of convincing to point out that, you know, if you want to do a really good marathon, first up, then, then you need to have a lot more time than you're giving yourself. I think this was, you know, middle of May, June sort of thing and the marathon is October, so you've really only got June, October, June, July, August, September. You've got literally 16 weeks to train for a marathon. In my opinion, that's just not enough. But anyway, he'd entered the marathon before talking to me and found out that when he went to enter that it closed, it was full, there was no more spots. So he entered the half marathon and I was quite relieved we didn't have to pursue that, that conversation any further.

Because even a half marathon, 16 to 20 weeks out is still a big task for a beginner runner. So, I mean, that's, that must be set. But yeah, keep going.

We started training that way and we'll talk about that in a minute. But he did point out to me a couple of weeks later that he was still on the waiting list for the marathon and he wanted to know whether if he got accepted, could we switch from the half marathon to the marathon? And I just blatantly said, no, that's just, that's just not a chance, so don't even worry about that. And he really was, you know, I don't care about the time too much. I just want to do the experience first up. And so as always, I'm always going to be on board with whatever my athletes want to do and I'll just try to guide them as best as I can. So I said, okay, if, if, if you get a spot, we need to do a couple of training sessions before I would actually let you do that. And he goes, yeah, yeah, that's fine. What do you got in mind? I said, well, you need to run a 30k, you know, between now and the next two weeks and if you happen to get a spot from being on the wait list, then we can consider that after you've done this 30K. And he went out and to be fair, he did a great job of running 30. He ended up running 28k and he was pretty consistent and did a great job. I've got to take my hat off to him. He performed quite well. So I was a little less worried, but I still tried to give him the voice of reason and said, look, you know, you've got all this work trip stuff where you're going overseas and there's so many interruptions to your training where you're going to be jet lag for a lot of it. You know, you want to go skiing during the winter. So let's just, let's just really forget about that. Anyway, he agreed to that and we finally got to knuckle down and, and a couple of those longer runs where he done, you know, some good two hour, and that two hour 30 run, I think that was really turning point in, in his ability to perform better come October. So it was a really good, a really good discussion to start with about what he should and shouldn't do.

And to clarify the timeline there, you didn't say, you weren't saying just in case anyone was confused, you weren't saying go and do it. This 30k attempt a few weeks into the program, this is much later, towards the back end, coming up to the race where people were getting selected spots off the wait list. And he had a good base of endurance underneath him that you've been training for. So he was able to cope with that 30k kind of attempt just to see where he was at that wasn't just off a few weeks of running because that would be irresponsible.

So this is, you're right, George. This is only, this is only four or five weeks ago and he'd already done, you know, three or four AR 40s, our 45s 52 hours and 2 hours 10. And so this was a jump from there to 2:30.

Yep, yep, exactly. So he wasn't a runner. So we had no real previous times to go off about what he was capable of. But you gave him a practice half marathon in the preparation again once he kind of really built up his fitness and he ended up running a, a 145 in that practice marathon, which isn't all out, but that kind of showed where his ability was at. And then come race day he's run a 135. So we're going to break down that gap and how he managed to achieve this, being a beginner runner and where you come from, because the risk of doing a half marathon program like this and getting to race day fit, healthy and executing like that, there's a lot in that for someone who's relatively new. So coming from a cycling background, how did you transition him to running? What, what was the process?

Yeah, and knowing that he's got an enormous fitness base for a cyclist and as, as everybody knows from listening to the podcast SP Specific. It's specific to what? If you do a lot of, you know, cross country skiing, you'll be quite good at that. And there is a cross reference from a lot of aerobic endurance sports. But the actual specificity of running compared to cycling or compared to swimming, even though you might have a fit cardio system, the nuances and the muscle responses are quite dramatic and you would be incredibly sore if you just started running a full on running program and didn't allow your body to absorb the load, so to speak, as you progress. So we used his cycling and we continued his cycling training to try to keep his intensity with some training cycling sessions and just started him with some really easy running and he'd done a couple of runs before he started and we really started down the track of a little bit of walk running and really not pushing him as a runner, but just getting him used to running 20, 30, 40 minute easy runs. Once he'd established that he could cope with 20 minutes of running without stopping in the meantime, we were still pushing him with some intensity on the bike. We couldn't do any endurance running because his body wasn't ready for it. So trying to get some two or three hours on the, on the bike to keep his endurance going and some, some leg strength, some he'll, he'll, he'll work on the bike, some strength work. That was the stuff we did very early in the program until we got to a point where he was able to run 50 minutes, 60 minutes without getting sore and pulling up with some niggly injuries. And that worked a treat for the first probably eight to 10 weeks. And then the switch happened where we did less riding and more running because his body could cope with it. And, you know, he's a bit of a really good, you know, strong, athletic type of a guy who really looked after himself his whole life. So it's not like he's had a period of time in activity. He's always wanted to push himself no matter what sport he selected, like I said earlier. And so, you know, his body coped really quickly. And the bank of fitness that we talk about so much on our podcast was made to be realized so quickly here by the fact that he could run 50 minutes, 60 minutes and 70 minutes without really pulling up sore. And so we were able to progress quite quickly. And at no point were we trying to run hard. At no point we were just trying to run longer. So the duration of his, if he's running sessions just gradually got longer. And I would say to him, you know, just run easily, run, run comfortably, enjoy the running, enjoy the wind in your, in your hair and the sun on your back and just enjoy the scenery. And, you know, making sure that we're doing a little bit of intensity still on the bike, but less of that. And, and just getting his body to adapt to the load and getting that endurance running in was the key. And then we introduced some hills. And once you start doing some strength work in your legs as a runner, you are going to be able to hold the pace that you want to from start to finish. That is the key reason why the athletes that we coach, as runners, as cyclists, as swimmers, they can hold the pace because they've got the strength to. And it comes from these heel repeat efforts that we are absolutely banging on about not only midweek, but on the weekend. When you do your endurance run, you slow right down and you just find as much elevation as you can. We've said that many times, but a lot of people still do their endurance run where they've got 40 or 50 meters of elevation instead of 200 or 250 meters of elevation in their run or more. We're not asking you to run hard on those endurance runs, but we want you to get used to running up and downhill. So your leg strength is the thing that's going to carry you when you're tired at the back end of a 10k or 5k half marathon or a marathon. And it's so noticeable. The athletes who, for example, just competed in the local Melbourne Marathon festival, which had, which had all three disciplines, 10K, half marathon and marathon, the guys who had that strength in their, in their running were able to hold the pace from start to finish. Of course, execution comes into it as well. If you, if you pick the wrong pace to run at, no matter how strong you are, you're going to fade. So as long as your, your execution of the plan is right, then you will be able to hold the pace. And ironically, the, the race that he did, it was a really average day with wind. It was a, a bit of a headwind, 10 to 15 kilometers, gusting up to 20 to 30 kilometer headwind for the last 5 or 6k and finish with some hills. So it wasn't the easiest course to actually execute. And if you tried to finish with a fast finish like we try to get a lot of runners to do, this is not the course to do it. And Grant's ability to trust the process from all of his coaching through the years that I've been his coach, he's a great listener and he executed unbelievably. So much so that some runners who are way better than him, one of the guys only beat him by a minute and a half and I would have predicted they would have been at least 12 minutes different. And it was purely on execution.

We'll talk about the course and execution in a second, but I just want to hone in on some of the specifics of those training sessions. So you said the key was one of the hill interval sessions. What is the structure of that? What did you go to with Grant in terms of length of time, rest and volume in those sessions?

Yeah, so we really want to warm up well with those heel repeats. So it starts with a 10 or 15 minute easy warm up where you're basically Running from a really easy pace and just gradually building the pace as you get into the warmup, as your body starts to react better, the blood flows around a bit better, you start to generally increase the pace, but you're not running fast at all. And a lot of those sessions I would ask the guys to do a little bit of a stride out where they're doing 3:30 or 3:22 efforts, where they'd stride out just to pick the pace up so that when they start to run the hill repeats, and these hill repeats are anything to start with from 4 by 2 minute hill repeats with an easy jog back down to the start. And the average gradient of the hill shouldn't be any less than 3% and it shouldn't be greater than 6 or 7. So somewhere in that range, if you can find a hill that goes for two minutes, and I'm always telling people to pick a marker to start with and start with that point. If you're going to use those same hills every time you do that session, pick that marker and, and find out where two minutes is in the first training session and that pick a mark where you end of your two minutes is. And that's your two minutes from that point on. And you get great feedback after six or seven weeks of doing that when you get to the finishing post and you get there in 1 minute 52, because that was a 2 minute heel repeat when you first did that session. And that's great feedback. Without even looking at your pace or your heart rate, you know straight away that you're so much fitter than you were six weeks ago. So we do that over a period of weeks where we build from four repeats to five to six. Then you have a recovery period where you do some testing, then you start the next block, you do another three blocks of those three sessions where you go, you know, six, seven and eight, eight repeats, two minutes on easy jog back. And we're not asking you to run flat out up that hill for two minutes. We're asking you to run where you couldn't have a conversation. And at the top of the hill you're not going to have to fall onto the ground in exhaustion. You can turn around and jog back down comfortably. So we want it to be uncomfortable but not exhausting. And you want to run similar pace from the first two minute to the last two minute, whether it's the eighth rep or the sixth rep. So that's the structure of that session. And then if you can run 10 or 15 or 20 minutes to cool down, depending on how much time you've got. So the session ends up being an hour up to an hour 20. And the warm up and the cool down are really a part of that, to get the actual endurance session out of that, that particular session. And so the, the two minute hill strength work is the key. The warm up and cool down is just to get the volume for sure.

And you can tell if you stuffed up the execution, because on the first effort you might do two minutes to the pole, and then the last effort it might take you 212. When you go, you've really blown up and you've really gone too hard in the first one. So that's a really good marker for you. So talking about Melbourne marathon specifically, it was on the weekend he did the half marathon. He felt really prepared. What do you think the key to that preparation was? And he's obviously got great execution experience as a cyclist, and he was ready just to have a great race day.

I think Grant and I have a great relationship and we had a bit of a phone call post race, which I always love to do with athletes if they want to talk through the race and have a little bit of a post race analysis. And we've often talked in a lot of the podcasts about that victory drive home. And for Grant, this was almost that exact. He didn't win the race. He was in the middle of the pack. You know, it was like a victory to him for him to run, you know, pretty much 10 minutes faster than his previous half marathon. And even though we predicted that he could probably run a lot faster than he did in training on race day. But he'd have to do a lot of things well. And, boy, did he do a lot of things well. But that conversation on the way home was fantastic. It was a bit humbling, actually. And, you know, it's not often that I'm stuck for words because I do ramble on a lot on these podcasts. But, yeah, look, he took me back a bit and he just said straight out, look, I am wrapped with today, but I am wrapped with our relationship over the five or six years we've been working together. There isn't a sport that you haven't coached me to where I haven't been successful at. And here I am telling you that I wanted to be a runner. And all of a sudden I'm now feeling so confident in my running ability. I cannot wait to do this marathon. And I'm super excited. Everything you told me that was going to happen happened. You prepared Me the right way. The training was unbelievably accurate. Even your race strategy and race plan. I felt super comfortable the whole way through, and I finished so strong, passing so many runners, and I just felt exhilaration from executing with a smile on my face. And he said, I just want to thank you. I'm just so grateful that I've actually met you, and I'm part of Trivalo. And for me, that's a conversation I'll never forget. I've had many of those conversations, but for someone like that, no, I never get tired of them. And it was great. And look, I've got to say back, you did all the work, Grant. I'm just directing you. But he won't have a bar of that. He was just going, no, just take the. Take the gratitude, please. So that was great. And, yeah, look, I've got to say, he followed the race plan to a tee, and that was his first ever real competitive, proper race. I mean, he'd done some local stuff, but that was his first big race. And I would have had a lot of expectation that he would struggle to execute because it was a really difficult day. There was lots of tailwind where you could run too fast early and lots of headwind when you. Where you didn't have enough left to finish off. And. And that takes a lot of discipline to do that. And. And it was incredible how he went from 4.45pace and finished, you know, 405pace pretty much.

Yeah. Yeah. Much better way to run it. Yeah. And if you look at the. The pro guys, you know, liam Adams ran 2. 15 or so when his PB is 208 or 209. Um, I can't remember exactly off the top of my head, but that shows that it's a. It's a bit of a slower course, especially with the wind the way it was that day. You know, the wind is all around 214 to 215, but his indication specifically shows that. And so for it to be a slower course, but for Grant to run so far above his predicted time really shows his preparation, that his body was prepared for it and his execution. And I think your preparation will show in that last 3 to 6k of the half marathon and the last 8 to 10k of the marathon, uh, if you're elite, less prepared, if your body isn't strong enough and you use that word, strength before, you will be fading there and you will have a. A much worse time. Whereas he was doing the classic tribalo thing and coming through the field and Getting stronger and stronger and feeling better and better. And that is why you are so adamant about, you know, doing the training this way and getting your body so well prepared to the point where he could do a solid 28-30k training run that gets him prepared for the actual half marathon distance.

Yeah, and, you know, I keep saying to people, just don't underestimate the strength you get from. From that style of training. And, and it's a boring, repetitive training session, but we're not trying to reinvent the wheel. We just want to use sessions that are going to give us the outcome we want. And you can, you know, you can do one and a half minutes or two and a half minutes or three minutes up to still get the same outcome. But, you know, we know that this actually works and we know that running your endurance run at a lower intensity but getting as much elevation as possible. They're the two key sessions. And sure, we did other sessions where we're doing some tempo runs at your half marathon pace that also contributed to it. So it's just not those two sessions. And we did lots of other things in the program that helped him as well. But, but if you're thinking about trying to improve your running capacity and your times, you need to get stronger. And the only way to do that is to, you know, do some strength work as a runner and also not as a runner, do some strength work in the gym as well. And it's really important to get your super strong. There's no better way to do it than actually with your running shoes on. Um, but. But the other strength work can contribute. There's so much evidence to tell us that.

Yeah, no, it's a great story. It's a great case study. Basically from walk running 20 weeks ago to a half marathon in 135, which is well above his predicted time and pace. And yeah, I think it's just a great testament to the type of program that you can achieve and the results you can achieve when you're patient at the start. And a lot of people would make the mistake of not being patient at the start, and then after 16 or 20 weeks, they wouldn't actually get there. So it's a great case study, great story. We love giving you these examples of what people have done specifically, what training we gave them specifically to get the ideal results. So that's it for this week. We'll see you next week for the normal episode and next week's case study as well. Cheers.

Sam.