The trap of coaching yourself is getting really good at the thing that stopped working.
So back in November 2025, a masters runner about to hit 60yo reached out to me to help me coach him to qualify for his last Abbott’s Major – Boston Marathon (shouts to my podiatrist Trent Salkavich over at Biomechanica in Balmain, Sydney, Australia for linking us up). The runner felt like he’d gone as far as he could coaching himself and he needed to run sub 3:50 (but actually lower – more on that shortly).
He ran a 3:46 marathon two years back, then a string of everything between that and 3:55. At the 32km mark (20 mile) that’s when the wheels would fall off in races. His pace would slow just a bit, his body and hips would get tight, hi
He has been running for the last 15- 20 years with many marathons under his belt. Those marathon times are really consistent for anyone, let alone someone turning 60.
But Boston qualifying doesn’t care about consistent. It cares about results and time.
So while sub 3:50 is the technical time he needs to qualify, if a bunch of runners in the 60-64yo age group run 3:45… he needs to run sub 3:45 to make sure he gets in.
And I’m not going to lie, my first thought after talking to him was “what more can I even do with this guy?” (spoiler: I shouldn’t have doubted myself).
So here’s what I did:
- Went back through his last two marathon builds. Found the problem in about 30 seconds.
He was running about three times a week.
Two 10ks (6 miles) and a long run that ramped up to 35km (22 miles).
His long run was 50 – 80% of his whole week, which, from a lot of studies, means a high risk of injury.
I actually laughed, then got really excited because it was so obvious.
But if he could see it himself, he wouldn’t have needed me, duh. - Once we started working together, I tested everything. LT1/zone 2 heart rate aerobic fitness tests, 1 mile, 2 mile and 5k (3 mile) time trials to get heart rate zones, pacing and to calibrate his internal effort meter.
- I rebuilt his week. More easier runs making his aerobic base even stronger, introduced specific/precise/faster/harder interval and threshold work, strength training in the gym, plyos, hill sprints, strides after most runs
- Got him used to using the elliptical, bike, and treadmill as “Cross-training tools” early, so when we need to recover at the slightest hint of a nagging thing, we can immediately do it with no friction.
- Watched him respond faster than any runner I’ve ever coached. Five months in he’s so fit that we now do one big up week, then one full down week so he doesn’t peak too soon (a problem I’ve never been mad about having).
The guy is running better than most runners half his age that I coached. In his words: “I have Yoda Daren in my head saying, ‘ Believe in the process. And I now I really do.”
It’s not that I’m a genius – I followed all the science and training methods of coaches and runners way smarter than me. I also gave him what has been working for me over the last 30 years of my distance running career. He just showed up for 99% of his sessions and was open to changing what wasn’t working. I’m in the passenger seat calling out turns like a rally car co-driver. He does all the driving.
Unless something catastrophic happens, I don’t see any reason why sub 3:41 or faster won’t happen at Sydney Marathon in August 2026.
I rarely push my coaching to people but this whole thing got me wondering how many runners are one small fix away from something big like this guy. I made an application form to see if runners really need help with reaching their goals.
