You’ve got this. All your training. The big km weeks. The double runs. You’ve done all the hard work and it’s paid off. Only 6 more kms.
That was what Gene said as the 3 hour Pacer to help motivate me to run my first sub 3 hours at the Tauranga International Marathon.
Gene (behind me in photo) was trying to motivate me because he thought I had said ‘I’m not going to make it’ i.e. under 3 hrs. Actually, what I had said is ‘I’m going to make it….’ Anyway, I did make it. My first sub 3 hrs @ 2 hrs 56 mins and 42 seconds to be exact. Eighth place overall and I won my age group! That was my 18th Marathon at 46 years of age.
How I Became a Sub 3-Hour-Marathoner
Three weeks’ later, and I broke 3 hours again, this time at the Auckland Marathon – 2.59.52. This was very special for me, because the previous year (Auckland 2016), I missed out on a Sub 3 hr by 4 seconds – the first time I had set myself the goal of running a marathon in under three hours.
Changed My Mindset
How did I achieve my goal? The answer is simple. I changed my mindset – I actually believed I could do it. And with that belief, other changes followed..
I ran my first marathon in 2010, aged 39, and achieved a time of 3 hours 13 minutes, 12 seconds.. A pretty good effort for my first ever marathon. From there, I thought it would be relatively easy to get close to three hours. But the reality was that it took me seven years to achieve!
Until 2016 my marathon times were always somewhere between 3 hrs 10 mins and 3 hrs 28 mins. I was told by many people (usually part-time runners) that my times would only get slower as I got older, and that it’s just part of life. So suck it up.
“There is never enough time, especially with our busy lifestyles, work, children… We all just get slower… “ the mantra seems to go.
Secret Formula?
And yet, here I am, bucking the trend, and running marathons faster and faster as I move towards my late 40’s. Just like other runners, I wanted to get faster. I had my goal. I’ve always searched for the secret formula, by talking to others, reading the latest research in books and online, runners blogs. Then I found it…the secret formula is… having a growth mindset. The following is the process I went through to run marathons in under three hours:
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At the start of 2016, I first became aware of the Growth Mindset Philosophy. It was adopted as a school-wide initiative at the College where I was teaching, so I found myself living and breathing it! And that was no bad thing.
What I learned, was that, with the right attitude you can achieve your goals. I decided that at the age of 45, it was now or never if I wanted to crack the Sub 3 hrs. If I left it too much longer I knew that, realistically, I probably would never get there.
Change What I was Doing
I knew that I needed to make some changes – because as the old saying goes, “if you keep doing what you’ve always been doing, then you will get the same result.” So, I started my research into what I could do differently.
One Book that inspired me hugely was RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel, by Matt Fitzgerald. Reading this book helped me understand how some of the top athletes have achieved success. The biggest takeaway for me, was to:
Enjoy your Running and build confidence
Not a revelation? Well, to me, it was. Because it meant that I didn’t have to be rigid with my training plan. If I didn’t feel like or up to, a hard run, then I didn’t do it. Rather, I would change things up and do something else. This has meant that I no longer dread the hill workout, or the lactate threshold run. If I don’t feel like it on a particular day, then I no longer force myself to do it. Instead, I will do something different and tackle the hill workout or the lactate threshold run later on in the week when I do feel like it. And believe it, or not, I actually looked forward to the intense workouts!
Increasing Mileage
My typical mileage building up to my marathons was been between 75-90km. Occasionally, I would manage to build up to 100-110 km. Deep down I knew that I needed to increase my mileage by 20-30 km a week so that I was averaging about 90-110 km per week. In the past, when I had tried to run over 100 km a week, I was invariably finding myself afflicted with overuse injuries such as Iliotibial (IT) band syndrome and Planta Fasciitis. To minimise or prevent these issues, I had to keep my mileage down.
Runners Body
However, after five years of running, I felt my body had become more of a runner’s body. In other words, it was adapting to running, so that I could run further. I would say that my five years of training had resulted in a good base for pushing on. I would also say I would have developed a higher proportion of my fast twitch muscle fibres taking on the characteristics of slow-twitch fibres. This is a good physiological characteristic for endurance running.
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Obtaining the Evidence
A few years ago, a friend of mine – Vaughan Williams – who is into cross-fit training started raving about how you can perform on a low carb high fat diet. We debated the endurance aspect of running and how carbs are vitally important. Vaughan gave me some literature (1,2) that showed some remarkable results with running on a low carb diet. This started me thinking. Then, at the YMCA Running Club, I found out that a fellow runner, Gene Rand, had also been on the low carb high fat diet and had not only lost weight, but was running significantly faster! Was this because he was lighter? Was this because he wasn’t relying on carbohydrates for energy but, rather, a different energy source?
My Dilemma
Could I give up eating cereals? Could I do without bread?! I was already a non-meat eater for ethical reasons. My family and I are Pescatarians – meaning we eat fish, but not meat. Did I want to restrict my diet even further? It was not a difficult choice to make. I had to give this low carb high fat diet a go, and see where it took me.
So, I pruned my diet even more, and cut out all cereal apart from a small portion of rolled oats porridge with yoghurt and blueberries for breakfast. Fats and protein became my go to foods for fuel. Lunch typically comprised a handful of almonds (and a couple of sultanas to make them a little more palitable), cheese, carrot and a hard-boiled egg. My evening meal normally included fish or eggs, vegetables, and sometimes a small amount of kumara or sweet potato. Even since then (2016) I have made more significant changes to my eating and the use of fasting – see article on Keto Diet
Training My Body to Burn Fats
I then started doing my long distant runs without breakfast or supplements to train my body to use fats for energy instead of carbs. And guess what? No more hitting the wall and slowing down towards the end of my marathons, and no more blood sugar lows! I now burn fat efficiently for energy.
Yes, people outside of running think I’m a bit of a freak, but hey, if you want to get anywhere in life, you need to be a little different! During one of the YMCA Marathon Club famous LSD Sunday pack runs, a fellow runner, David Lear, said he couldn’t go without toast because, “How would I eat my peanut butter?” My response was “On a spoon!” See, there’s a solution for everything!…
Changing Routine
In order to increase my milage, I needed more time. That is a problem when you have a full time job and three small children! After work, it’s important for me to help out at home and spend time with the kids (family wellness). Which translates into very little afternoon running! So that only really leaves early in the morning for my runs. Research (3) shows that running at this time helps with fat burning during the day so, it’s not all bad.
So, my routine was to go to bed at 9.30pm and get up between 5 and 5.15 am for my run (growth mindset – remember.)
Putting it All Together
I truly believe that putting all these ingredients together resulted in a recipe for success when it came to achieving my goal of running a marathon in under three hours. In fact, I have never felt fitter or healthier. I also believe that changing my eating habits has played a HUGE role in my well-being.
Hi Matt
I enjoyed reading your article and you have always been a great motivator and been a great supporter to get me continue running. I am going to take on boardyour comment about not beating self up if I don’t actually feel up to a run that day it’s ok to not do it. Your “I love hills” mantra is used regularly on my hilly route. I am into week 10 of the 20 week training plan for Paris mArathon which myself and Stewart and kate our daughter are running on the day of our 40th wedding anniversary. Miss you at Sancta. See u on a track sometime.
Hi Margaret,
Great to hear from you! I am so pleased you are still doing something you love. I’m excited for you re. Paris Marathon!! And so special to have family running too… And wow, 40th Wedding anniversary – that is such a huge achievement on it’s own! Thanks for your feedback on my article. Yeah, I remember our conversations on “I love hills” and “Hills are your friend” hehe…. Hey, I am currently rehabilitating from a long term back injury – bent spine and disk issues (too much running). So, I’m having to be patient…not overdo it. Lots of chiro and core strength exercises. I achieved my longest run today for about 2 months… 18km…yay! Miss you guys at Sancta. Keep me posted with how its going… 🙂
Hi Matt,
Very inspiring post… You inspired me to get into running and I’m just getting towards the end of a 10km buildup program (almost there, but still lots more work to do afterwards if I want to do a marathon of course).
Keep up the great work and keep posting, it’s great to see. This stuff is inspirational!
Best regards,
Roger Moore
Thanks for your great feedback Roger! My goad with these blogs is to help inspire others. So, I’m glad to see you are building up towards a 10Km goal. Best wishes with that. Keep me posted with how it goes!
Cheers!
Matt