The yearly cycle of training and racing

[Editor] What is your feeling about the yearly cycle, in terms of runners?
[Toby] My philosophy is a little different: the bad thing about New York is we’re in a never ending cycle here. We perpetually go from race to race to race. Whereas, I come from the system that has cross country from September until March, and then you do a couple of road races, and then you go into track season. Then you would have a break before you start cross country again in September or October. I like to have a break during the year, and I find it very difficult when we’re in a system where you have club points races every month. You don’t really have any down time in New York.

The NYC Marathon defines a yearly cycle

[Editor] Would you say the NYC marathon — for those who do one only — defines a yearly cycle?
[Toby] I would say so, especially in this city where you have a race that’s the greatest in the world. And it’s absolutely downright miserable to go out and do long runs in January where it may be 10 degrees below with ice and cold and wind. It’s very bad for the body too, your body says let’s do less over the winter, and we should actually listen. I like to see runners who want to do one marathon, to have it in October or November and take it down over the winter and keep your running easy. If you keep racing the whole time you actually get worn out and you get less out of your training. It’s good to have a time out for a couple of months.

The elites are no better off

[Editor]What about at the elite level, the Olympians?
[Toby] At the elite level, running is the hardest sport. In a team sport you don’t have to rely 100% on yourself but if you’re going for something like the Olympics and someone’s telling you in the year 2012 on July 10th you have to be in your best possible shape, it’s very tough. Between undertraining and training too much at that level leads many, many people to actually not give their best performance in the Olympics. But as Paula Radcliffe said “when you're a little kid and you’re growing up, that’s what you dream about – you don’t dream of being a world champion even in running, you just dream of an Olympic medal because that’s really the only prize”.

Two marathons a year starts to get tough

[Editor]What about those of us who run 2 marathons in a year, say Boston and NY, How would you suggest they fit that in.
[Toby] Definitely the cycle of doing one in the spring and one in the fall can be a problem. It’s not so much the 2 marathons but the weekly and monthly races in New York that don’t allow for down time between them. I always feel that people do too much in this city. If you look at a runner, for instance Felix Remo – he does 2 half marathons a year. But you find people in NY they’re doing 6 , they do one in each borough, and now they’re doing the NYC half too. And the half marathon actually takes a lot out of the body. So two Marathons a year is tough, Two a year in the New York City running scene is very, very tough.

And you should study those who are running well, not because we’re all going to run like Haile Gebrselassie. If we’re studying math, we look at the principals of Newton, It’s the same in running – look at how they’re actually running. If you look at the mileage they do and you look at the racing we do, we do a lot more racing at longer distances compared to the mileage we do. Someone like Gebrselassie is running 160 miles a week and will only do 2 half marathons a year.
[Editor] So the training miles per race he does is much, much higher that what we do.

Racing philosophy

[Toby] Yes, and the problem is when you get to Central Park in a race and you’re feeling a little bit tired, you say "naaaah", I’ll do it next week. I’ll push next week , I’ll give my best effort next week. And next week it could happen again. You never really say “today is the day I give my all”. To me racing should be something special; it’s almost like a treat. If I coach athletes individually, sometimes I’ll pull them off racing and say, "No racing for you for a month; you’re not hungry; your going to the race like it’s painting your back garden wall." So if you do go into a competition, you should do your best effort. It doesn’t matter what position you come in, but it does matter that you give a full effort.

Tonight's workout: hills and marathon pace

[Editor] So what's going on here in the workout tonight?
[Toby] Tonight’s workout is this hill (bridle path south of Tavern on the Green) it’s a nice slope and I like the dirt which is easier on the legs. The dirt hill by the Delacorte Oval is also good but it's usually too crowded. The average runner gets into the mind set of running up a hill and reaching the top and then resting. What I’m trying to get them to do is when they reach the top of the hill, they turn and run down with no rest. You’ll often see in a race people will get to the top of the hill and they die — so I’m trying to change that philosophy so when you get to the top you keep on pushing — and that’s tough. They’ll be more tired from this workout than they think.

Those who are doing Boston are doing marathon pace for 5, 10 and 10 minutes with 5 minutes cruising in between. They’re running the lower loop, which is undulating like the Boston course. It’s important for the body to fall into a comfortable marathon pace and to know what it feels like. Much of training and racing shorter distances involve either going slower, or faster than marathon pace. So in preparing for a marathon you should always do some marathon pace workouts. Mile repeats at marathon pace is similar. But for any of these to be effective, you have to do the long runs.

Your racing calendar

[Editor] How would you help someone plan their racing schedule?
[Toby] In terms of racing, try to plan out the calendar instead of letting the calendar plan you. Yes, it’s hard with all the demands of points races and races every week. But if you want to reach your potential, you sometimes have to be a bit selfish and plan your own schedule and not get sucked into someone else’s schedule. If someone came to me and wanted to plan a racing schedule I could work with them. I would also be honest and tell them if I thought their target distance was not right for them. Yes, it seems everyone wants to be running the marathon, but let’s face it, some runners would be much better off working on shorter distances.