Hadd has passed away

Old Man by the Sea wrote:

Can anyone share how he ended up in Malta ? Where was he from originally ?

He is from Glasgow, Scotland, and his family is from Wales like many people there. He was a Celtic Glasgow soccer fan.

He lived in many places, including UK, Italy, North Africa and Malta.

Rest well my good friend. Throw the ball for Panda.

drugged to the gills wrote:

Black page is way over done.

But a mention with a link to this thread and a news article or two would be appropriate.

I'm going to e-mail Wejo - I hope others do too.

Dear John Hadd.

I just want to say how i love You brother.

Quotes from one book that you are familiar with.

(….) If you want to read a letter from the Buddha's world, it is necessary to understand Buddha's world. (…)

(…) At high noon or in the dark moonless night there is a light. Can you see it? And, by the way, who are you? (…)

(…) I have discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea... In constantly seeking to actualize your ideal, you will have no time for composure. But if you are always prepared for accepting everything we see as something appearing from nothing... then at that moment you will have perfect composure. (…)

Shunryu Suzuki-roshi

From the book “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”

PS - Thanks for all you give me.

wow, truly bad to hear this.

Any news on cause of death ? (probably too soon I suppose)

When someone is so young, so healthy by most parameters, exercises regularly, and appears to watch his diet very carefully, and then drops dead, it certainly is a jolt.

His death would not be in vain if whatever the cause was can be determined and then can alert others to awareness of the causes/signs/risk factors.

This obviously might not have anything to do with it (and sorry to surmise without knowing much about this), but I certainly have read that heart attacks are both more common in the morning, and that if you have an arrhythmia or some other underlying similar issue, while running is protective in general (overall), acutely it can trigger an event. So if he had such an underlying cause, a hard, very early morning run might have been a trigger.

I was shocked and saddened to see this news this morning.

I was one of the lucky few to be coached by and meet John (Hadd) in person. Through his generous and effective coaching, I was able to enjoy a much better "comeback" in my late 40's than I had any right to expect, given my very limited talent. John was not only an excellent coach, but an insightful and wise human being. He will be missed by all who knew him.

My thoughts are with his wife, Carol. I am very sorry for her great loss.

Mike Gruber

IJN)*%&YGV( wrote:

Really sad. My thoughts go out to his wife.

Since we are all mentioning the great threads he contributed to, I wanted to point out that he was still contributing during the summer of 2011 as Summer Blueprint:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4068677

John, you will be missed.

Truly a great loss. It is funny to see that thread. Even as popular as he was as a contributor, he wanted to post anonymously.

Right on, Pants. Between the incredibly inappropriate use of the Solinsky photo after Galen's AR and their complete failure to even note the death of one of the greatest posters to ever post on this site, I think one can only conclude that the Brojos are absolutely tone deaf.

"All we are trying to do (and this goes way back to Lydiard's words) is make what is currently a pace that requires too much anaerobic contribution into a more-fully-aerobic pace. We are not trying to get "faster". 5.00m/m is still 5.00m/m before and after training, but the pace after training will be done with lower lactate. And hence we will be able to keep it up for longer: so that what used to be best 5k pace becomes in time a sustainable 10k pace simply because the anaerobic percentage to maintain this pace has been reduced to manageable levels. And, as should be obvious in that situation, 5k pace itself now becomes "faster".

To put it very simply, if we could run 5.00m/m for 5k and this was 10mM lactate (all we could physically sustain for the distance), then if we can reduce the lactate at this pace to 8mM, then we can again push to 10mM for the length of a 5k and this might now result in a faster pace of 4.50m/m (and a new PR).

"Relentless is a word I often use to describe the kind of fitness I am aiming for, and the kind of race performance good training can lead to. You just become a runner that cannot be burned off. The absolute worst type of adversary."

"Patience is not perceived as a "sexy" attribute to have, but it beats boom-n'-bust every which way. Cultivate it in spades.

You want to be like the big ole tomcat not taking his eyes off the canary. Not smiling. Not blinking. Just waiting. And knowin' that nothing can stop it from being his... and real soon too."

~ John Walsh aka Hadd

Heart attack was the cause of death. At his age and level of fittness there was no hard training only in his terms 'slow-ass jogging'.

Great quotes, Dan!Classic Hadd - brought a smile to my face. He had a great way of writing.

danm wrote:

"Patience is not perceived as a "sexy" attribute to have, but it beats boom-n'-bust every which way. Cultivate it in spades."

Love it!

Wow... I remember some of those threads and how revered he was for his knowledge, but like most people I'm sure had no idea just how much he contributed to the running community. We were so lucky to have had him... and man I wish I'd seen that canary quote back when I ran competitively.

I'll leave the rest to those who knew him better. Please keep sharing your stories of this man who I now know was the stuff of legends. My thoughts are with all who were touched by him.

Tryon Creek wrote:

Right on, Pants. Between the incredibly inappropriate use of the Solinsky photo after Galen's AR and their complete failure to even note the death of one of the greatest posters to ever post on this site, I think one can only conclude that the Brojos are absolutely tone deaf.

TC, I think Wejo just didn't know. I e-mailed him (finally) last night and awoke to JEH having the quote of the day and a link to this thred. I had only politely asked for him to mention it in the news feed. So big props to Wejo for mentioning his death, linking here and even giving the honour of QOD too.

Maybe an actual Hadd quote tomorrow..? :)

I've been reading through some of my old private messages from Hadd and found a few classics:

"I will do all I can. If I ask for 100% during training and the race, I believe the athlete has every right to expect the same from me in setting their training. Although this is all online and we've never met and all that jazz, I never take any runner's hopes and dreams lightly."

"Hardest thing I find to do: see someone doing something badly (with their whole heart) and not do something to help. I'm a sucker for a trier and ignore primadonnas."

"I know I'm one of those guys who detests "encouragement" and would shoot anyone in the head who offered me a "pep talk". If I need to get my ass down to doing something I totally dislike, I'm well aware that at the end of the day I alone am gonna hafta to find whatever mojo is required inside of me to get it done. Ra-ra cheerleaders don't do it for me"

"I am perfectly capable of giving whoever needs it a right earful... but it's always from the heart. It's only ever done to break thru the runner's (wrong) mentality and smack some sense into them FOR THEIR GOOD.

I hate doing such things. I always try the quiet, common sense way first... but if it gets ignored repeatedly, well, I've got a good pair of lungs and can cuss and blind in 5 languages :)"

"In your last 5m and 10k races your lactate was probably 5-6mM. Yet you were passing others who could have had up to 10mM or higher. Which was better?

Lactate gives you NO advantage in a marathon (or a 10k or a HM). It is using up your precious glycogen at a phenomenal rate (you get 2 units of energy when used anaerobically, compared to 36 units when burned aerobically) and contributing zero to your pace.

It sounds paradoxical, but it isn't. But elites have got their aerobic ability so high that they are aerobic for almost all of a race at 10k pace. Which explains why they can kick in the final lap like they do, because their lactate until that point has been low. (I'm talking african elite here, european runners have much to improve)."

[Note: this was 2004]

"Just think of anaerobic ability as being able to borrow to buy something... everybody knows it is loaded with danger if you do it too much. You HAVE to live within your regular income. If you CAN'T, then see how you can increase your regular income (aerobic ability), but NEVER borrow."

Lots of other less quotable, more personal stuff, but it made me smile a LOT going through those old messages. He was truly a great man.

RIP- it's amazing how people on an anonymous message board can have an impact on your life.

I did not know the guy, yet this makes me sad.

What you thought of his training methods, agree-disagree, he had the passion, and that I admire.

He seemed to know that sharing is part of being a competitor.

This makes me sad.

i hope his wife can find solace in continuing to run.

Sad news about John.I am 67 years old, running nearly fifty years and June 12th had a heart attack while on a run.Luckily I survived and now have two stents in my heart and I am running again. We runners think we are bullet proof but we are not.Wish John had been as fortunate as I.My sympathies to his family and friends.Arturo M.

"Unwilling to believe that despite being full of piss and vinegar, logging up to 137 mpw of training, and having enough grit and determination to stop a locomotive he would never race faster than the average Joe, Hadd quit work, closed his home, and put himself through grad school; a man on a mission to find out why."

And what he found, he freely and publicly shared with us. I, like many others, was profoundly influenced by his writings. Ironically, his grandest contribution is perhaps having extended the lives of countless runners. He did this by masterly teaching how to both avoid and outrun an incoming locomotive.

http://www.letsrun.com/2008/bio/haddbio.php