Hadd has passed away

MAYEROFF wrote:

I didn't know that the gentleman's name was John Walsh. If this truly is the famous Mr. "Hadd," then the running world has truly lost a good man. Hadd advised me on my training when I ran 2:18 in Berlin and called me at my hotel in Germany after the race. Very sad news. Jason

Jason - Even though I corresponded with Hadd for quite a while, and your 2:18 was quite a sensation here on the board, I don't recall him ever mentioning that he had anything to do with it. He was truly a humble and generous man who, like someone above said, could not bear to see someone do something badly - but with all his heart - (that's me to a T) and not want to help.

I firmely believe that you Pete, Mayeroff, etc. have a lot of things about Hadd to share with us. And we really want you to do it. It's such a lost...

I firmely believe that you Pete, Mayeroff, etc. have a lot of things about Hadd to share with us. And we really want you to do it. It's such a lost...[/quote]

Several of us who were part of a private, web-based coaching group to which Hadd devoted an unbelievable amount of time and energy are trying to figure out how to best to share more of his teachings and writings. Needless to say, we also need to talk to his wife, but now is not the time. We will do the best that we can.

Did you guys even know where Malta was before this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta

An island even smaller than the garden isle of Kauai

in Hawaii, with a population over 400,000.

Finding a place to train for distance

must have been a unique challenge.

Appreciate your Coach now, while he's here...

you never know when he will be called away.

For those older than junior high...

look back at all those that have helped you, mentored you.

You could have had a Jr. Olympic Coach, a club coach,

a jr. high coach, a high school coach, a college coach,

an elite development club coach, a professional coach

or independent advisor...in another town, state or country.

Have you contacted them lately?

Tryon Creek, Pete, JEH, and others who were privileged and blessed to be coached by John:

Please put together an overview of John's system (let's call it that) that includes his complete cycle of training methodology) so others can benefit too. It'll be one of the best way to honor him and continue, in a way, his mission.

It doesn't have to be a long piece of work (you can do that later), but if you can put together something in the next few days, that'll be great. Chances are that you'll forget in a week or so, and we'll all be very appreciative.

Thanks and may John rest in peace!

very sad to hear. He meant a lot to many of you. In the age where everyone wants to make a buck on their knowledge, even running, he remained like so many of the greats, eager to pass on his training philosophy in hopes of assisting those in reaching their athletic dreams. Feels like he died way before his time. Thank you Hadd for your gift of time and knowledge.

Hadd's ideas have helped me as a master runner and also many runners I coach. Ramp up slowly and build up strength. Sad loss. 16x - nice to see you post.

First heard of Hadd in 2003 from my friend Chris. He mentioned the famous letsrun "long" thread. I was 45 and it was an Aha moment. Hadd's clear and inspiring picture of training sparked eight years of log books filled with doubles and joyful racing, and led to reading other great letsrun mentors like Malmo.

Sadness and gratitude.

"I used to watch one kid puking every week doing intervals (like I once had) with his HS coach (a hard driver with a voice like a bullhorn). One day he came up to me and asked to join us. Within 12 months we got him from having to kill himself to break 9.00 in the 3,000, to where he could run close to 8.20. He was a talented guy. Even today I still wonder how much more we coulda got from him, but he was a complete ditz behind the wheel of a car. A magnet for accidents. It wasn't long before he had pins in his femur to hold the bones together and a knee that wouldn't bend right. Too, he had a bad scoliosis in his back and in the 18 months or so we were together the amount of training we had to cut back due to back pain was incredible. He used to get high lactate on training nights from his back going into spasm! His legs and cardio would be fine, but his lactate would be way high and we'd have to curtail the session because of his back."

~Hadd

The world needs more people like Hadd.

... Just to give people a sense of what an amazingly generous person Hadd was with his time, I just found this exchange that I had with him back in 2004 (in his private coaching group that I was lucky enough to be part of. This is one among MANY:

A couple of questions for you, Hadd, if you have time: First, at what pace should I be trying to do my long runs? Recently, you said the ideal pace is M+15 seconds. Once last January, you recommended that I stay in the 140-145 HR range. And once you said that we learn to burn fat the most efficiently at between M+20 and M+40. Should I be trying to run at, say, a 7:15 clip? (I would like to be trained for a 6:45 M pace.) Or should I be guided by HR zones?

Also, if you could give me a work assignment for next Wednesday, that would be great. I am going to skip the 15K tonight, but will race a 10K next Saturday, the 7th.

Here's what I've done so far this week.

Mon. - 6.4 AM -52:43 ahr 132; 5 PM - 42:02 ahr 130

Tues - 6.4 AM - 53:04 ahr 131; 6.4 PM - 52:54 ahr 133

Wed - 6.4 AM - 51:06 ahr 136; 5.4 PM - 44:20

Thur - 7 AM - 57:55 ahr 132 - tonight I'll do 5, real easy

Is this too many easy miles? I find that this is a style of two-a-days that I love and find quite easy. But I am concerned by BR's first caveat to Pete's summation of your system. As you know, I tend to get fixated on miles, and I love to get up above 80 mpw because I know that has worked for me in the past. Am I overdoing things?

Good questions, TC.

I like long easy distance to be M+75 to M+90, this should require a HR roundabout 71-75% HRmax (assuming good training). Maybe even lower.

For training fat-burning pace (always assuming well-trained runners) is between M+20 to M+40 pace. BUT, this will (obviously) require a higher than easy HR (more like 80-85% HRmax). Training in this zone will improve the rate at which you can burn fat (convert fat to energy)

Obviously, these two training paces (70-75% and 80-85% HRmax) are doing different things. Once I know that someone can run 20-22 miles at long easy pace without falling apart, and do them regularly like it's no big deal, I usually (as you'll see on some threads) like them to begin to run the 80% or M+40 pace within (some of) their long runs. So you'll sometimes see 1hr45 easy including 60 mins at 80% HRmax. Although the following Sun you might see 2hr+ at easy HR again.

Putting the two together in one run (21 miles including some time at M+30 pace) is usually too tough / requires too much muscle fuel. Hell, just running 21 miles is often enough for most folks, without asking them to run some of it at the higher intensity (M+30). So, I'd say either run 21 miles at easy HR (75%±) (and do a 85% work session during the week as usual—not before Thurs after a 21 miler on the Sun to have time to refuel) or run shorter on Sun (say 2hrs) but include 60 mins straight at 80%± HRmax. One of the other, but not both.

Your mileage looks fine. It is the intensity that is usually the problem for people, not distance. It might be that BR (to use an example) gets caught up with some fellow club runners and gets dragged into paces faster than might be good for him (knowing he has a work session the following night and his buddies will take it easy).

If you are dealing with the mileage okay (not whacked during the day, mentally sound, no aches and pains) it should be ok. If you are just dragging ass all day long and the training becomes a chore, it's too much. You need to find what works for you. Unfortunately what works this week might not always work, because other facets of life can often get in the way (stress, etc). So, you gotta continually monitor yourself vis a vis mileage and intensity. Don't forget frequent down weeks of reduced mileage (and days off) and reduced work sessions. Regularly checking your morning rest HR is a great way to see how your body is responding to the daily training. Higher than normal resting HR, back off till it drops to normal. Learn how it works and you couldn't ask for better feedback.

With a 10k race on a Sat, I would just have you run easy all week. So my advice is no work session on the Wed. So, only run once per day on Wed/Thu/Fri (like 60/45/45mins) and give yourself every opportunity to race well.

Have a good 'un.

Please pay your respect on the following page...I'm sure we can get the likes up.

I'd be greatful to all.

John has been my coach for 20years.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/In-Memory-of-John-Walsh/140116819418740

Tryon Creek wrote:

I firmely believe that you Pete, Mayeroff, etc. have a lot of things about Hadd to share with us. And we really want you to do it. It's such a lost...

Several of us who were part of a private, web-based coaching group to which Hadd devoted an unbelievable amount of time and energy are trying to figure out how to best to share more of his teachings and writings. Needless to say, we also need to talk to his wife, but now is not the time. We will do the best that we can.[/quote]

Thank you

Just wanted to pass on my sympathies to the family and friends of John "Hadd" Walsh. I'm sure there are a huge number of people who read his guidelines and appreciated his words of wisdom. Thanks for what was, imo, the best explanation of why aerobic training is so necessary.

I exchanged some emails with John after I tried his system, which didn’t initially work for me, and he was kind enough to go through in some detail the errors I had made. I last contacted him at his yahoo email address in late 2008, but think he must have closed that down as there were no responses from 2009 onwards. I hadn't even realised he was from my home city of Glasgow until reading other posts.

So, in the spirit of sharing the wisdom of John to help others, please find attached below his advice for “ST types” wanting to run a good marathon.

"Hi Jamie,

Sorry for taking some time to get back to you... some other queries to deal with promoted by the Cabral/Hadd thread and just plain old life getting in the way.

Where to start? You've obviously got some useful talent there, and are someone I tend to class as "more-ST" as opposed to "more-FT". In other words, it looks like you do not have a high ability to create lactate (you are not an 800-1500 guy), and that your performances will get better as the distance lengthens (this keyboard sucks, so excuse any typos - it's a borrowed machine...).

Yes, in the absence of intense training your HRmax will fall. I had one athlete whose HRmax dropped from 196 to 182 (over a 5-year span of too much attention to marathon training). So always keep some intensity in the week.

Yes, there are 2 thresholds (you must have got good advice), we call them LT (lactate threshold) and LTP (lactate turnpoint). The former relates to and correlates best with your Mpace, and the latter (aka: OBLA or MLSS) correlates better with HM/10k/5k performances.

My whole long thread from 2003 was to encourage people to move the LT. Phase IIa (not yet discussed online) works at improving LTP.

ST's like yourself have to be wary not to do too much sub-LT work without a healthy dose of LTP and faster work. In your case, it would certainly be true that long slow running makes long slow runners.

The first thing you want to do is develop the ability to run 45-60 mins at ~140-144 and see the pace is steady (ie: you do not have to slow to stop the HR rising).

However, you should also include some faster work every week. This can either be in the form of 6x150m AFAP (As Fast As Possible - without doing any damage) with a long-ish recovery 3-5 mins WALK. And you can do these after an easy run.

Or you can plug some short quick aerobic capacity work into your week like 8-10 x 300m (at slightly faster than 3k pace) with 100m jog in 45 secs. (So this is a continuous run).

At the same time, go long on sunday... maybe alternate 1hr45, 2hrs, 2hr15 (repeat)

So you might get a week like this:

Tue: 8-10 x 300 with 100m jog in 45s (jog 8 mins) 10k at 135-140 HR

Fri: 3x20 mins building to 60 mins straight at 140-144 HR with steady pace

Sun: Rotate Sundays as above - look for hilly routes (1hr45, 2hrs, 2hr15 (repeat))

All else easy at 65-70% HRmax and build up mileage to a good level (depending on work, etc, and target event)

I like to see ST's get in 3-5k shape before going for marathons. And that would generally mean that to be in sub-2:25 shape you have to get in sub-15:30 / 5k shape FIRST... then just add on Phase IIb training which aims at improving fat-burning and last 6-8 weeks pre-marathon.

Hope this gives you some ideas of where to start.

Feel free to write back if you have other questions.

I hope to expand on some of the topics here on the Cabral/Hadd thread... but it might take some time to get there.

Keep training, it sounds like there is more to come off that Mtime.

Thanks for writing,

Hadd"

RiP Hadd and Gollum!

I had the chance to be in his group but never did since I didn't want to wear a HRM. I did really enjoy his posts and passed on his Phase I training to at least a hundred people. GREAT STUFF!

Hello Jeh,

You have managed to make me cry. But I cannot help but agree with all you have said.

Jeh, do you know what the word Hadd means? It is a maltese word.

Carol Walsh

Hello CD,

I remember you. Thank you for your kind thoughts.

Carol Walsh

Hadd means Sunday.

Carol,

He told us it in Colorado that it means "nobody" .... An appropriate anonymous message board handle. :-)

Mike