#46 - NYC Marathon with Bronwyn Morrissey and Khem Suthiwan

Welcome to Episode #46 of the Mile High Endurance podcast.  Mile High Endurance is your weekly connection to coaches, experts and pro athletes to help you reach your endurance and triathlon goals.   I'm your host Rich Soares with co-host Khem Suthiwan.  Today's episode is really going to be about the NYC Marathon and sharing the experience with you.  I am in New York City as we record this and Khem is holding down the fort in Denver.

Since our interview with MBE, I've been enjoying my 2 weeks in "taperville" as called it last week.  I did my 12 mile run as 5.7 and over distance pace and then the final 6 at my sub threshold pace with Tom Beal (the beer can trophy guy).    Sorry for the specificity of the 5.7, but Tom did not want to hear on the podcast that I ran 12 miles when I only ran 11.7. 

 

If you listened to the wrap up of last week's show you would have heard the summary of the marathon plan that I wrote and executed.  I want to make sure the folks know this was a plan that was unique for me and my goals and capacity to train for this marathon.  This plan was designed to take an athlete that has a decade of experience at long distance triathlon, marathon and ultra-marathon experience and transition them from short-course triathlon to marathon distance in less than 3 months.  For many athletes that ramp up might not be safe.  I would classify the plan I did as intermediate-advanced.  I will be making a Blog post with the basic tenets of the training plan and optional novice and intermediate, as well as an advanced plan versions.  The basic construct, including the combining of the L-S-D and Tempo runs in the Race Specific Preparation phase.  If you want to hear the description of the plan, please go check out the last 10 minutes or so of Episode #45.

Also in last week's show I mentioned some of our upcoming guests for "September" (yes, I said "September") but what I intended to say was November. Hopefully you all figured that out.  Still ahead in the month of November are interviews with:

Dr. Nate Williams	Performance Sport Chiropractic	Being proactive about strength imbalances and flexibility issues
Coach David Warden	Of David Warden Coaching and Tri Talk Podcast	Using the off-season to focus on technique and form
Dr. Bob Seebohar	Metabolic Efficiency Training	About the book Metabolic Efficiency Training and Testing
"Sherpa" John Lecroix	Human Potential Endurance	HPRS Race Series; growing sport of Ultra Running, and the necessary efforts to preserve the old school roots of the sport’s culture

Intro:

The guest interview on this week's show is a fellow NYC Marathoner, ultra-runner, yogi and good friend Bronwyn Morrissey.  Welcome onto the show Bronwyn.   Before we get into the discussion why don't you tell the listeners a little about your running background.

 

So Bronwyn and I met in our professional lives.  Bronwyn has been a business partner with Pulte Mortgage, and came out to watch and support the inaugural Pule Mortgage MBA Opens Doors 5K Fundraiser in 2014.  We got to talking about running and found that we had a similar passion.  Ironically 3 years later, both of us are given the opportunity to represent MBA Opens Doors Foundation at the NYC Marathon.  We are recording this week's episode from our hotel rooms in Manhattan.  The topic today is about the NYC Marathon in particular.  It is part "documentary", part "how to guide", and 2 parts "marathon training tips".

 

Before we get into the discussion on the NYC race in particular, why don't we take a minute or two to talk about the MBA Opens Doors Foundation, the work they do and the amount of money that we have helped raise for the Foundation.

• Official mission from website
• MBA Opens Doors Foundation covers the cost.  Every $1 donated goes to a family.
• Number of families helped each year
• Amount of money collected
• # of athletes running for MBA Opens Doors

 

• Discuss the experience of arriving in NYC and attending the Expo
• About the number of runners and waves - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/30/sports/new-york-marathon-in-six-charts.html
• Advice or Lessons Learned about navigating the NYC Marathon logistics 
• Top Training Tips - The main focus of today's discussion is for Bronwyn and I to share some of our marathon training tips.  I had originally had this ambitions idea of each of us coming up with our Top 10, but realized after preparing the outline that we should probably stick to 2 or 3 each.   With that, we'll take turns sharing out training tips or advice for marathon preparation.
• • Bronwyn - training tip #1  - Moderation and 10% progression
  • Rich - training tip #1 Hydration and hydration systems
  1. This is such an obvious item that I don't feel I have to explain the basic reasons for hydrating, but I will with you some of the things that I have experienced in my training and some of my suggestions. 
  2. I am a heavy sweater and have struggled with keeping up my fluid needs in hot races in particular.
  3. Start practicing early in your training.  For me, on a mild temperature day (say 60 degrees), I would not typically take any fluid for a run less than hour.   In hotter conditions, say 75 degrees or hotter I will likely take 6-12 ounces with me.  As you begin your marathon plan, you should plan to practice drinking to thirst and to need.  A lot of experts recommend drinking to thirst, but I'll tell you my thirst sometimes gets overridden by stomach jostling and/or lack of focus.  There are times when I simply did not get thirsty and still ended up dehydrated.  There are various protocols you can follow to determine your fluid loss including weighing before/after and noting fluid consumed.
  4. Practice taking in 3-4 ounces every 15 minutes or 6-8 every 30 minutes.  As your training runs start to approach and exceed 3 hours, heavy sweaters are more likely to notice effects of dehydration which include insert effects of dehydration.
  5. Make fluid available and convenient.  If you are training with a group like Team in Training, you often will have supported training runs with nutrition and water provided for you at aid stations.  If you are not fortunate enough to have a supported training session, you need to bring your fluid with you.  I have used a number of different hydration systems including waist belts with bottles (Fuel Belt and Amphipod), handhelds (Amphipod and Nathan), and hydration packs (Nathan).  I personally have found useful applications for all 3 types.  I personally prefer my hand held for shorter distances and racing on occasion.  I use my Nathan pack for anything over 10 miles.  My least favorite are the belt and bottle systems.  It's too much effort to fill multiple bottle and I have limited success keeping all of my bottles on my waist and end up having to stop and pick up a bottle if and when it is not properly secured in its holder/holster.  My Nathan pack can hold 70 ounces of fluid.  The pack itself is light weight, breathable mesh, lots of pockets for food, sunscreen and other supplies, including toilet paper and a cell phone depending.
  6. Make sure you clean it right away.  Nothing will ruin a hydration pack faster than leaving sports drink in your pack and leaving it in a warm garage for a week.  Even if you want to get off your feet after a long run, you will want to empty out remaining fluid and wash with warm water and dish soap.  Be sure to run the warm soapy water through the tube and mouthpiece.  It should drain out with the assistance of gravity if you hold the nozzle below the pack and bladder.  Be sure to rinse and drain out thoroughly and enable it to dry well.  Be sure when draining, to also open the mouth piece and allow the water to drain out the tube.  I then ball up half dozen or so paper towels and insert them into the drained bag so to keep the plastic walls of the bladder from touching and allow airflow in and out of the bladder.  I then hang it upside down so it can dry before my next long run.  So there you go. 

• Bronwyn - Tip #2 - yoga and rest
• Rich - Tip #2 Consistency
• 1. In order to get the most out of your training plan, you really want to be consistent about your training.  Keep in mind, the human body is an organism that responds to stimulus of stress and recovery.  To adapt, your body will recognize the training patterns and adapt accordingly.  If you are on a build phase, your body will recognize the increasing volume, expect and respond.  If you don't supply your body with a consistent and progressing load, the body will not respond to training it does not receive.  In fact it will regress.  Think of a plant that responds well to light, water and plant food.  Lets' say you are trying to grow a prize winning corn plant for a contest in the fall.  Would you intentionally rob it of light, water or  fertilizer for periods of time.  Probably not - you'd give it a steady supply of the stimulus it needs to grow.
  2. Plan ahead.  Make sure your figure out your real life constraints and work with a coach to design a plan around your life so that you don’t have competing priorities that rob you of the planned training.