Jan 11, 2019
Jay Motley, 38 years old from Greenville, South
Carolina, is one of our Extramilest Facebook Group members. He has
had a dream for a long time to qualify for the Boston Marathon. He
trained hard and long, but always fell short of the Boston
Qualifying times. He was often injured and feeling drained. This
all changes recently, when he tried a different approach to
training and racing. Last month he improved from a 3:11 marathon to
a 2:50 marathon, a huge PR and his dream of being able to run the
Boston Marathon came through.
In today’s episode we discuss in detail about Jay’s
learnings over the past 10 years of Marathon running, what changes
he made to his training to qualify for Boston, his race strategy
and actually race day execution and much more.
This episode was brought to you by PATH projects, it
is my favorite running clothing out there and the only shorts,
liners, shirts and hats that I run in. Check them out at www.PATHprojects.com
SHOW NOTES
- How Jay started running to lose weight at age 20
[3:07]
- How Jay lost 50 pounds in 12 months and maintained
his weight ever since [4:30]
- The first marathon Jay ran in 2008 in Nashville,
TN, finishing in 3 hours 35 minutes [7:42]
- His learnings from his first marathon training
cycle [11:30]
- Jay’s first marathon that he actually enjoyed
running [13:35]
- His experience with “Furman FIRST Program”, all
high intensity hard runs [15:15]
- His previous PR at the New York Marathon in 2014 in
3 hours 11 minutes [16:30]
- What happened after Jay missed his race goals
several marathons in a row [19:40]
- What Jay enjoys most about running [21:00]
- Jay’s journey to start thinking about qualifying
for Boston again [23:22]
- Jay describes coming across a Sub 3 Hour Marathon
article by Floris which changed his training approach [24:55]
- Jay’s initial experiences with Heart Rate Training
and MAF [27:05]
- How Jay decided the right Heart Rate to train with
according to the MAF 180 formula [29:48]
- Floris talks about more details of the 180 MAF
formula [31:00]
- Jay’s MAF test to measure aerobic progress on a
monthly basis [32:00]
- Importance of consistency and comparing apples to
apples [34:35]
- Flo’s thoughts on correct execution of the MAF test
[34:50]
- Jay’s progress with MAF tests over his training
cycle to Sub 3 marathon [36:40]
- Jay’s feeling of increasing training volume, while
slowing down his pace on most runs [38:38]
- How Jay added in speedwork after a few months of
low heart rate runs only [40:00]
- When Jay ran his MAF test with the Nike Vaperfly 4%
shoes [42:38]
- The most amount of speedwork Jay ran the last 2
months before his Sub 3 Marathon [44:10]
- How Jay trained on some downhill miles to get ready
for his Marathon in Hawaii [46:20]
- Jay describing his taper and what he would do
different for his next training cycle [47:00]
- Floris’s thoughts on the marathon taper
[49:15]
- Jay’s strategy going into his Sub 3 Marathon and
how it worked out on race day [50:40]
- How mile 18 - 20 felt during his Sub 3 marathon
[56:08]
- Some struggles Jay ran into during his Sub 3
marathon and how it overcame it [57:05]
- Jay describes the feeling of finishing in 2 hours
50 minutes, a 20 minute PR [59:06]
- The importance of listening to the body and mind
during training cycles [60:28]
- Jay added yoga for strength, flexibility and mental
training. Helped focus on his breathing 1:02:00
- What Jay would do different for the training cycles
+ races [1:03:30]
- Floris’s thoughts about the Boston Marathon
[1:05:00]
- Tips by Jay to qualify for the Boston Marathon, run
a Sub 3 Hour Marathon or Marathon PR [1:06:38]
- How we learn from both good and bad runs
[1:08:50]
LINKS
www.extramilest.com
Extramilest Facebook Group
Jay Motley Strava
Jay Motley's 2:50 Marathon on Strava
Floris Gierman Strava
Maffetone 180 formula to calculate
your Heart Rate Zones
How I trained to run a Sub 3 Hour
Marathon
Boston Marathon Preparation and Race
Report