Nate Jenkins returns to Marathon

not him but I believe that would be Phil Wharton's Active Isolated Stretching routine

Considah the lobstah wrote:

Nate Jenkins writing style is like a blue collar David Foster Wallace.

Whoa man. I love nj, and he doesn't write like an idiot, but come on now.

Best of luck to Mr Jenkins, he certainly is fighting the good fight, and bless him for it.

So many clowns in this thread with no idea of Nate's injury history, past results and understanding of marathon training. If this man ever runs a 28:30 10km he will be a 2:10 or faster marathoner. He's as weighted to the pure aerobic end as you can get and he absolutely knows what kind of fitness he is in better than any random observer who is just checking in for the first time in seven years on his status. He dealt with the same haters and doubters after his debut at Austin and yet somehow he finished 7th at the Trials while running with coordination problems similar to Josh McDougal. Do yourself a favor and read up on one of the most passionate, strong-willed runners this country has before you blindly flame on him for offering insight into his training and headspace.

If you're interested, he gave an extensive interview on his training and injury history for the Cloud 259 podcast. http://cloud259.com/category/podcast/

Way to put it all out there brother! Go for it and best of luck. I'll be pulling for you on Patriots Day!

From his blog:

Trials of Miles. Guest Blog by Melissa

Today's blog is by Nate's wife, Melissa Donais. She is a nurse practitioner and runner, who prefers 5ks to marathons.

"The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals." -Hal Higdon

He came stumbling through the door like Rocky Balboa at the end of a prizefight. I had expected something like this, but I still wasn’t prepared for it. “Melissa!” He yelled in a garbled, distraught, exhausted voice. I ran downstairs to him, concerned that something was wrong, beyond the expected exhaustion.

“Where’s Ruben?” I asked.

“You gotta go get him. He didn’t make it back. I can’t drive.” He collapsed onto the couch.

“What? Where is he Nate?”

“Up by the church.”

The church was about a half mile from our house. Ruben couldn’t make it back from the church? I grabbed some juice, anticipating that poor Ruben’s blood sugar was likely even lower than Nate’s right now, and hopped in the car. At the same time I dialed my mom’s cell phone.

My brother was up visiting from Saratoga this weekend and my parents, Nate, and I were planning on having dinner after Nate’s workout. I had called my mom earlier in the afternoon and warned her that Nate’s workout was unlike any workout our running family had ever heard of, but she didn’t seem to understand. “That’s okay, honey, we’ll pick you guys up so Nate won’t have to drive.” Now my parents and brother were on their way to our house. My mom answered the phone, and in a rushed voice I said “Ruben didn’t make it back. You gotta help me find him. Nate left him by the church.” My mom said they were right by there and would start looking.

Meanwhile, I circled the rotary by the church, scanning the sidewalks and peering over snowbanks looking for Ruben. I didn’t see a soul. I drove up the street a bit, still no Ruben. It was dark, and about 18 degrees out. I knew it wouldn’t take long before hypothermia set in for Ruben. I called the home phone.

“Is Ruben back yet? I can’t find him.”

“No. He’s not at the church?” Nate’s words were slurred from hypoglycemia and exhaustion.

“No, Nate, he’s not at the church. You let your friend die on the side of the road and just ran home yourself? Where the hell is he? You left him at the church?” I demanded in frustration, as I feared we might be making a trip to the hospital, all because these two geniuses decided to attempt a “special block” and run two insanely hard workouts, totaling 36 miles, in a twelve hour span. It was stupid. It was just stupid. And this stupidity could lead to some serious health consequences.

I drove down Great Pond Road, thinking maybe Ruben tried to make it back to our house but missed the final left turn onto our street. No Ruben. Then my cell phone rang. My mom, “We’ve got Ruben.” Thank God.

I arrived home to a shaky and cold Ruben. Nate wasn’t much better. They took showers, my brother and dad checking in periodically because we were afraid they would faint. Then they both collapsed on the couch, huddled under blankets. We ordered food and they slowly, over a couple of hours, improved mentally and physically.

Later my parents and brother would tell me they drove past the church, and my brother noticed something on the steps of the church. He jumped out of the car, ran up the steps, and sure enough, saw a man curled up on the steps.

“Ruben?” he asked.

No answer.

“Ruben? Ruben? Nate sent me. I’m taking you back to Nate. You must come with me.”

Ruben, mumbling, reluctantly got up off the steps. In his cold exhaustion he had somehow convinced himself that curling up on the church stairs would be warmer than waiting on the side of the road.

This is the life of marathoners striving for greatness, following the Canova system of training, where specificity is king. If you want to run a marathon in 2:11 (I mean, who doesn’t?) then you better run an ungodly amount of miles at 5 minute mile pace, and you better not take much recovery between those miles, because you’re going to have to string 26 of them together on race day. Sounds simple enough. It’s the doing that’s hard.

There’s a lot of glory that comes with greatness, and a lot of respect and admiration for the journey towards it, but what most people don’t understand is the day after day fatigue and pain experienced by the journeyman, and what no one even considers is the worry and frustration experienced by the caregivers. It’s very easy to say that you’ll support your spouse no matter what, and it’s an entirely different experience when you’re living with someone who is trying to run 140 miles a week around a full time job (you don’t want to see our house; it will be a mess until the end of April).

You never know what to expect. A run goes well and you breathe a sigh of relief. He will likely be cranky, hungry, and tired, but the run went well. Phew. The run goes bad and you get a call on your way to the gym, you’re turning your car around and finishing the dinner that’s in the middle of cooking on the stove while your spouse heads to a 90 minute Bikram yoga class because his foot feels tight.

Yoga ends as you’re ready to head to bed and your spouse finally arrives home. You haven’t seen him all day. But you can tell by the look on his face that things are not good. “Boston’s over. I’m not doing it. If I miss a workout now it’s all over.”

“What?”

All because his foot is tight. I sat him down, massaged his foot, used a guasha tool to break up fascial restrictions, and sent him to bed (he refused the “hell bucket” of ice treatment). In the morning I kinesio taped his foot before he left for work.

You end up walking on eggshells, praying for good runs, and doing your best to provide reassurance when the runs don’t go well. I mean really, I sought out every possible fix for his right leg/loss of coordination injury, do you think I’m going to let a tight plantar fascia prevent a successful Boston run? No way.

It’s been hard for me and I’m not putting in the miles. The cult classic novel, Once a Runner, referred to “trial of miles, miles of trials.” All runners think they understand what that means but I think few truly do. The trial of miles is a man, injured for seven years, who has undergone multiple extremely painful nerve tests, a (very risky) spine surgery, and countless hours of physical therapy to crawl his way back to a sport he loves above all else, to get just a chance to run his heart out and be healthy on the day. It’s a man who is dedicated to his full time job, and consistently running over 100 miles a week around it. A man who still finds some time to cuddle with the dog and kiss me goodnight, despite trying to make the impossible possible.

It is nothing short of amazing, and it is the culmination of years of work and hope. We have days when we feel we are losing the fight, but on the good days the dream lives. It’s so easy for others to look in and criticize, but only the few who have tried to live this life will understand the day to day drudgery and the tiny hope for glory.

I never comprehended what went into making a great marathoner. Now that I know and I have lived it I have so much awe and respect for my husband and for those great marathoners who came before him. They are part of an elite group of people who have more will and guts than most of us. No matter what happens in April, the dedication to his dream, the solving of his longtime injury puzzle, and the insane training (that he loves and missed during his injury) that he accomplished are real victories. I am so proud of Nate for fighting the good fight.

Good stuff! Remember never let your passions become your obsessions!!!

I am a fan and do follow him but nothing from his training indicates he's in 2:13 shape. I don't want to see him crash and burn. Forget the 10k but the half marathon would be a better indicator and 66 would be good for him right now which would show 2:18 - 2:19 fitness. I know he is an "aerobic animal" but he has been injured for years and is running less mileage than he was when he ran 2:14 so he is not as aerobicly fit as he once was. He needs something to build off of and a 2:18 would be much better than a crash and burn effort per the Brojo's article on American's running positive split marathons. Not a hater just a realist. I also agree with all that he seems like a great guy and is "fighting the good fight".

Poster Formerly Knownas Goober wrote:

So many clowns in this thread with no idea of Nate's injury history, past results and understanding of marathon training. If this man ever runs a 28:30 10km he will be a 2:10 or faster marathoner. He's as weighted to the pure aerobic end as you can get and he absolutely knows what kind of fitness he is in better than any random observer who is just checking in for the first time in seven years on his status. He dealt with the same haters and doubters after his debut at Austin and yet somehow he finished 7th at the Trials while running with coordination problems similar to Josh McDougal. Do yourself a favor and read up on one of the most passionate, strong-willed runners this country has before you blindly flame on him for offering insight into his training and headspace.

Get a clue, Nate is not going to run 28:30, and no,2:10. He did well for himself, but that was off of a perfect storm, training incredibly hard for an extended period of time and hitting it right. It has not gone as well since then and at his age it ain't gonna. Time to be honest.

I don't understand the obsession with the miles for 2.11 many people have run this at around 100mpw once a day. That's roughly an daily average of 70 mins a day and a 2 hour run once a week. If you remember Jack foster ran 2.11 in his forties whilst only running once a day for around 70-80 miles a week. I was reading a book about the uk marathoning greats of the 80s and a lot were doing lower mileage than I thought. Rather than doing 160-180 I suspected they were doing, most were in the 90-120 region, some even on 70-80-especially the women. Ie lots of days of 5+10 miles and two longer runs a week of around 15-18 and a 20 miler but there there was also lots of quality, like mile repeats and unplanned group tempo sessions on the 10 milers where the last 6 would be sub 5 minute miles or less. Most of the mileage was also reasonably fast in the region 5.5-6 minute miles. To run sub 2.06 I understand the Canova approach-but really is it that dissimilar to lydiard? The main difference is the use of fartlek and an aerobic power workout like 6-10km time trial and some hill sprints, but like hodgie san has mentioned as well many people adapted lydiard training and added weekylish races of medium distance and some repeat workouts so really not as breakthrough as it seems. Also the main difference of the Canova workout seems that the long run should be marathon pace-however lydiard recommended similar-I think it is the american interpretation that the long run should be slower but long. Also the fast continuous that Canova has in his schedules is also in Lydiard training as well- the mid week 18 miler!

I know who he is but I'm still going to say it......Nate who?

agreed. this guy takes running nerd to a whole new level. he needs to calm the f down and just run

That blog entry makes him sound like an idiot and her sound like a fool. He is heading for a perma-**** injury.

lol so if you disregard the hill sprints, progression runs, 25-30km interval workouts at mp, special and specific blocks, and a much more nuanced fundamental and special phase then yeah they are basically the exact same. if you understand canova for a sub 2:06 then why not understand it for anyone slower? why train sub optimally because you're not top 10 in the world?

Anyone see this workout he got in with Ruben Sanca a couple weeks ago? A Canova styled special block http://levelrenner.com/2015/02/14/epic-workout-by-nate-ruben/ 2 x 10k in the morning (first in 33:09, second in 31:29) then in the afternoon 10k in 33:20 followed by 7 x 1k in 3:0x by Nate while Ruben tacked on a couple more

And he only ate six piece of toast that whole day. Good to see Nate's still in the habit of leaving his best races on the roads during training.

I don't really get how someone can obsess over training as much as him, spend all of his free time running or doing running related activities, and then ONLY EAT 6 FREAKING PIECES OF TOAST DURING A 37 MILE DAY...

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? How can you be so obsessive that you include a "cool down" after a 34 mile day BUT FORGET TO EAT? IT ABSOLUTELY BOGGLES my mind how often runners completely neglect their nutrition... WTF do you think your body runs on? DO you UNDERSTAND the BASIC CHEMISTRY reactions that enable your movement? YEESUZ!

No wonder he's been injured. The dude's malnourished. Stop having the eating habits of and treating your body like a 19 year old college freshman.

I don't know the specifics but I guarantee you he didn't 'forget to eat'. I'm sure like every other runner he's hungry all the time. My guess is that this has something to do with glycogen depletion and was intentional.

While I'm no expert, I do think that Nate is onto something with his training which is designed to push back the 'bonk' and improve the ration of fat to glycogen being burned at marathon pace. Was it Kenny Moore or someone who used to do like 30 miles easy then 10K at MP so that the body would get used to running at pace when glycogen isn't available as a fuel source, thereby teaching the body to rely more on fat for the 26.2 miles?