Reaching your potential – One on one Coaching Session with Mthunzi Dwanya

Reaching your potential – One on one Coaching Session with Mthunzi Dwanya

On today's episode of RUN with Coach Parry, we speak to another one of our CoachParry Online Community members Mthunzi. Coach Parry and Mthunzi talk all about Mthunzi's inspiration to start Comrades all the way to helping him reach for higher goals for all distances.

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Transcription

 

BRAD
Welcome back to this edition of RUN with Coach Parry, another one on one coaching session today with Lindsay Parry. And this time, he catches up with a 21 year who is a member of the Coach Parry online community that I mentioned last week, training for specific race and you'll find out all the details on today's podcast as well. If you'd like to be part of that online community, it's growing. There's literally hundreds of runners in there just like you asking some great questions learning from each other, encouraging each other and following each other's progress. Plus you get access to our coaches, you get membership discounts on training programmes, and a whole lot more.

And one of my favourite things that happens in that membership community is that weekly Ask Me Anything call with Lindsey and our coaches, we alternate. You get to literally ask any question or anything that you need help with. So you can get help on the call. It's a video conference that happens once a week, and it is part of the membership. It's a great way to touch base with the coaches and get the help you need so that you can get the results that you're after. If you'd like to find out more about it, simply head over to coachparry.com/join. But enough of me yakking, let's head straight into that one on one coaching call with Lindsey and Mthunzi.

LINDSEY
Okay, Mthunzi, so I know that you're not a stranger to the community you've been on our 12 o'clock calls in the past. So you have given us a little bit about your background there. But for the purpose of this call, the way we'll structure it is I'm going to ask you to just give us a little bit about your running background. I know you've given me quite a bit on your questionnaire, but just for the listeners out there, a little bit of background.

And then I have done a little bit of an analysis on your running based on your 5, 10, 21 K and so on times, which I'll then share with you. Then you get to ask me whatever questions you have on your mind. And then I'll kind of wrap up the session with a little bit of advice that'll hopefully help you and get you on your way to achieving your 4 hour goal. So let's start with you sharing a little bit about your running journey with us.

 

Mthunzi's running background

 

MTHUNZI
Alright, when I started running, it was primarily to run Comrades. So, you know, I would say up until the point that I decided to start that I had virtually zero interest in running. I did maybe gym just to retain my Vitality status type thing. So what actually I did in 2013, the Comrades was on but I was busy with other things, but the 2013 Comrades looked bad, even on TV. So you know, just interested to see how will it end. The other thing that was interesting about it for me was that a South African man was leading it, after a couple of years of foreign guys winning. So watching Claude then when you got to Polly Shorts, he actually took a walk, now it the first time that I saw somebody leading Comrades walking. I think at that point, a seed was then planted to say, you know, maybe this thing, I can do it myself. You know, he eventually went on to win it.

But yeah, I guess at that point a seed had been planted. We have colleagues who run, there was one that year who had planned to do Two Oceans but couldn't go in the end. One day when we were sitting in the courtyard over lunch, my boss challenged me, we were discussing training, and I've seen them, like in the morning run when I go to the gym. And we were asking them about their running experience and you know, she mentioned that they sometimes like do 30K runs at the weekend, which was like strange stuff to hear. So anyway, my boss and myself were quite amazed by this like training regime. And she said to me, if you can run Comrades in year one, I will run it in year two.

So you know, after the Claude experience, I just felt like, you know, the universe is talking to me, I must do this thing. Now, incidentally, I had no idea what's required for me to run Comrades. I made the inquiry, five hour marathon and so on. I didn't know if I could run a five hour marathon. But that year was the last year that work the top had a 30k walk within five hours. I did the 30 K and managed to do it. And so I thought, well, if I can walk 30 in five hours, I should be able to run 42 in the same time. So my first official run race was then the Wanderers 21k of that year and the marathon being the Jacaranda of 2013.

Now that marathon was a miserable experience for me, I ran and at 21 I was feeling good but probably from about 26 or so, you know, things then just went pear shaped, and I've completed it in about 5:37. Now, I had driven to Pretoria, I was actually just battling to walk back to my car and wondering how do I drive back to Joburg because, you know, at that point, my wife is also a runner now, but at that point, you know, she didn't understand this. Why I had the obsession for run and so on. Anyway, to cut a long story short, that was my introduction for running. I then did Comrades 2014, having completed marathon within five hours. In that year, I did Pick 'n Pay, but cramped at about 27 in the second round. I then just walk back to the beginning.

I also tried Edenvale which I only manage like 5:13. And I was getting worried at that point that, you know, I needed a confidence booster that I can actually run a five hour marathon because there Sukhwinder marathon it said it's an easy marathon and so on and so on. So I needed another marathon to you know, just to see, and maybe I pushed a little bit too hard preparing for Jackie Gibson. And then you know, I had a calf injury, which took me out for about three weeks in April of 2014. I then decided to go run Comrades, which was a down run. It was not bad, but I just couldn't go beyond 70. When we hit the end three. I was just working so much it became clear to me I wasn't going to make 25th cut. My Comrades ended there.

Then in 2015 I ticked all the right boxes, had Loskop and Om Die Dam as long runs. Also lost about 6kgs, because my first one I was 103kg's so I was now about 96 for the up run 2015. But now, what happened in 2015, after Loskop I contracted flu. I had entered to Wally Hayward, now I did not take sufficient break because I really wanted to do Wally. I had not completely recovered when Wally came around. I tried the marathon but ended up just doing the 21 because you know breathing was difficult. So I don't know, perhaps 2015 I just wasn't sufficiently rested when I started Comrades. But it also ended at 57. I just battled with the up run. Well, that year specifically.

And then after those two attempts, my wife decided, you know, she wants to see what scares me along the road for me not to finish this thing. She started running. We ran in 2016 together and that was my first finish. She also finished 2016 but you know she said she's not interested in up runs. Anyway, I did about 11:57, I mentioned it in the information sheet. Then 2017 I managed to do the up run. And then this year the down run again. But now when I did the down, my best run from the experience of running I would say was 2018 and I'm assessing that by the fact that I only cramped at about 86 into the run. So yeah, the feeling good about running, the 2018 was my best feel for running.

So anyway, what was different in 2018 is that I did a gym class regularly. I made sure that in a week I've got the gym class. The other thing is that I didn't get flu this year. Like the first time since 2010 that I'm this far in winter without flu. So I decided that I need to have gym in my routine. And also this year, you know, the section I would say maybe leading into Pine Town, I was running so well there in that section that in my mind, I thought you know, like an 11:30 was possible. It only fell apart sort of, you know, approaching the supermarket before 45th cutting. Yeah, where the cumber of the road is quite bad. And I just couldn't run as much as I wanted in that section. Then obviously after cramping, you know, running wasn't so easy anymore.

LINDSEY
Okay, so that's a really cool background. I love the way that you got into running. Watching one of our best ever Comrades runners walk made you feel like okay, well, if he needs to walk then this race is for anybody, I would have possibly had the opposite response. But I'm glad it got you on the road. So let me quickly take you through, and the reason why I always ask people what their 5, 10, 21 and marathon times are is because it tells us a lot about where your strengths or weaknesses or what you need to work on lie.

Okay, so if we look at your 5k time where you've managed to run a 25 minute, and your 10k time where you've managed to run a 52 minute, those two are pretty much your best relative performances in terms of running. Both of those that 5K and 10k time tell us that you should be capable of about a 1:55 half marathon and a 4:03 marathon. So that tells you that your goal of training for and getting a sub 4 hour marathon is a realistic goal, you've got the basic speed to do that. Now obviously, improving your speed a little bit will help, but for me, the main thing we need to improve is your endurance, because your actual best half marathon time is 2:04. So that tells me that from moving from 10 K's to 21 K's you are losing about 10 minutes. Then to the marathon 4:57.

So you're losing nearly an hour and your Comrades potential lies in the region and I'm doing just a thumb suck here but it lies between 10 hours and 10:15. You've had two failed attempts, you know, one, probably the disruption from training with the injury and the other one, the illness almost certainly had an impact. Then the two that you finished, you've only just finished and this year's one, your splits were excellent. So you've sent me your splits, the listeners don't have that but you went through basically an even split and considering that you're starting at the back of the field, you probably did run a little bit slower in the second half. However, you still ran a pretty good race in terms of the splits. And as you said, you only ran into real trouble from about 86 kilometres and you started cramping. So to summarise that, you have got the basic speed for that 4 hour marathon that you're targeting. I know 4:57 isn't your best, I think your best marathon to date is 4:20 something...

MTHUNZI
Yeah, it's a 4:21 Delloitte 2016.

LINDSEY
Okay, so certainly, we should get you quicker. And we will work towards that. Really the only way or the best way for you to do that is to maintain the consistency. I don't know what programmes you were or weren't following previously. But it certainly looks on paper as though there isn't quite enough in the way of long runs and total training volume. I totally agree with you that strength training is a crucial part of the mix. So from that point of view, I quite like what you have been doing. And I encourage you to keep up with it. But really the programme that you are following now, the sub four hour programme should get you very close to running a sub four.

You do have enough general running experience to add in some harder running. So what I would recommend and that's the kind of final change that I would recommend you make to the programme, but either with your club, if they have a weekly time trial, or if you do have a parkrun close by, I would add Parkrun or time trial every second week to your programme. I think the combination of being on a structured programme, getting in enough long runs, and just putting in a little bit of injection of pace into your training, I think that'll see you get under four hours. You've certainly got the potential for it. As as I say, your worst case scenario is that you'll be somewhere around 4:05, maybe 4:10 but you should end up with quite a nice PB. Okay, so that's a little bit of advice there, you hopefully had one or two specific questions for me, for yourself.

 

Maintaining paces on your long runs

 

MTHUNZI
You actually really addressed my questions, I think in training. My only fear or concern at this point is whether I'll be able to maintain, you know, the sort of average paces that I've got on the programme for the long runs. And if I actually managed to do that, won't I tire myself so that when I get to the eventual, you know, race itself, as in I'm tired as opposed to having trained.

LINDSEY
Absolutely. So you've hit the nail on the head there, what you need to do is in the short term, is not to push too hard to get to those paces. Do each session as it's prescribed. Don't worry too much about what the physical pace is, just make sure that you run easy within yourself, that you enjoy the the run.

Over a period of four to six weeks, you should then feel those paces getting much closer and the aim would be is basically just before you run the marathon, those paces should be feeling quite comfortable if you're in a position to actually run the four hour and if not, then you might want to adjust your goal slightly to go for 4:15 or 4:20. But you would have laid the foundation that you can go for it sometime next year.

 

Building up your weekly training runs

 

MTHUNZI
Okay, yeah, I think at the moment, you know, because initially my programme was going to be aiming for Jacaranda. But you know, based on your advice, I've then revised it to now be directed towards Kaapsehoop. So the programme will actually begin mid August and at the moment, I'm just really having like, you know, say a 15k on a Sunday, five to eight K, maybe they'll get a bit longer because it's warming up now in the week in the morning and then this Wednesday class that, you know, I aim to attend regularly.

LINDSEY
So I would keep that Wednesday class. Over the next two weeks, I would say that five, that kind of five to seven k run you're doing, build that up to about 10 to 12 K. I see you run to your class, do your class, run homes, so that's fine. Have another run of about eight to 10 K's and then on the weekend, try and build that run up to just about 20k's, doesn't have to be quite 20k's, but maybe 18 or so k's, then you'll be ready to start. Then it'll just build up over those 12 weeks. And then I'm quite confident that with your basic speed and with it being a downhill route, that you will get very close to breaking that 4 hours.

MTHUNZI
Alright.

LINDSEY
Alright, Mthunzi, you know where to find us. You've been on our Friday call a few times. So I'm sure we'll interact over the next 14 weeks or more. So please keep giving us feedback. Let us know how it's going. Very importantly, we need to know the result, we need to know what we did helped.

MTHUNZI
Certainly, I will, if I have further questions or things that, you know, changes that I want to make or whatever, I'll definitely communicate

LINDSEY
Awesome. Great. Thanks, Mthunzi.

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