The Race That Got Away

Martin did not make it to the finish line, and I am smiling

Martin did not make it to the finish line, and here is why I am smiling.

I will get to the point so you can either stick around or unsubscribe.

Sometimes I like it when runners have a really crappy race result.

Just in case that did not cause you to run, let me go a step further.

The worse the result on race day, the bigger my smile. It might even be a smirk.

Especially if it is the worst case scenario. They Did Not Finish (DNF).

Did. Not. Finish.

Savage, I know. Hear me out.

Who I coach, and why they are hard to coach

The people who walk through my door are focussed, driven and ambitious.

They have got to where they are in life because of these attributes and an element of grit.

On the days when life has pushed back on them, they have pushed back twice as hard and shown what they are made of.

I would also go so far to say that loved ones would describe them as "a little bit stubborn" on occasion and someone in their life probably (definitely) describes them as "quite a-type."

Let's recap. Focussed. Driven. Ambitious. Full of grit. A-type. And stubborn.

Cool.

How easy do you think it is to coach this person? Especially when time, energy and attention are finite resource in a 50-plus hour work week?

It is actually quite easy, once you have got their attention.

But attention must be earned and is never assumed.

Martin, six months ago, and the espresso ritual

Take Martin who started working with me 6 months ago. Martin is 100% okay with me sharing this as we have discussed at length over a post workout espresso, a ritual I have come to really enjoy.

With the 2025 New York Marathon in the pipeline, Martin first walked into my gym about a year ago to complete a Diagnostic.

There were a couple of factors that led him to see me. Recurring niggles and drift in his performance (speed) over the past couple of years. Essentially he was frustrated that it felt like he was going backwards in training and New York was the big comeback he was hoping for.

Martin was right, but only partially

Martin was adamant he simply needed to do more focussed Strength and Conditioning (S&C).

And he was right. Partially.

After two hours of looking at how he moved, breathed, recovered, lived and most importantly worked, it was evident there were various qualities we needed to improve, with the most important one being how Martin regulated his nervous system.

There was a lot of stress in Martin's life.

Not a bad thing. Stress is necessary to achieve big goals.

But Martin had ridden the wave of asking his body to just keep giving more for too long. And the signals beyond the recurring injuries and drop in performance were evident.

Waking up at 4am anxious. Snappy with his team. Struggling to switch off around loved ones.

The call I made, and the call he ignored

Martin had 4 months to train for New York. He had a good base of miles in his legs, but I said I would only coach him if he deferred.

"I still can't believe you did that," he quietly side-eyed me last week over our espresso.

Most of the coaching with Martin happens over that post-session espresso.

But then he smiled, because he knew I had to, as time was not on our side to develop the qualities he needed to successfully adapt from the training stimulus he would have hired me to achieve.

Lifting weights is the easy bit. Putting the body into the right state to recover, adapt and get stronger takes time and patience.

That is what we needed to work on, not a sub 4 hour marathon.

Opposing goals do not share a training block. One always wins.

Mile 20 in New York

The reason he smiled at me is because he learned that lesson 20 miles into the New York Marathon, where he was forced to give up because he had pushed his body a step too far.

There was no injury. There was no lack of determination. His body simply stopped and said no more.

And that experience led him to message me the next day and say he wanted to start training with me as soon as he got back.

I smirked. Not because I got to say "I told you so." I finally said that to him last week.

But because I knew from that moment, working with Martin on making his comeback in 12 months, was going to be collaborative and focussed because I had now earned his attention.

Build the body that can be pushed

My point for you is this.

Most of the runners I work with arrive having spent years asking their body for more.

When the body finally says no, it is not weakness. It is a load you have not been trained to handle.

This is why I make people defer when the timing is not right. Not because I am tough for the sake of it. Because the alternative is the road teaching you the same lesson with interest. The 20 mile DNF. The race you cannot stop thinking about.

Martin learned it on his way back from New York. He is now 6 months into a training block that is actually building the foundation he needed in the first place.

Most of my clients come in carrying their own version of Martin's race.

Yours might already be on the calendar. Or it might be one that is still living in you years after the medal was supposed to come home.

Either way, the question is not whether you can push harder. The question is whether you can build the body that can be pushed.

Coach

Work is Load // Train Accordingly