It's finally over. And by "it," I mean the 5 month training journey I embarked on earlier this year where I set out to come out of retirement in Olympic Weightlifting, and run my first marathon... within the same 14 day window. And to add to it, I set a goal of time capping the marathon with a minute time limit equal or lesser than my total in the Weightlifting Meet. Because of it's odd nature, I named the program "The Kilogrometer."
This whole process started this spring, after I completed my second ever half-marathon with my fiancé (now wife), brother, and sister. I had dropped 11 minutes off my time in the half marathon in less than a year, and naturally people started asking me if I was planning on doing a marathon. I kept saying I'd think about it.
Shortly after I got married, I took one of my athletes to a Weightlifting meet, where I ran into a number of old lifting friends who started to ask me about coming out of retirement. I'd never actually meant to retire, I just had stopped signing up for Weightlifting meets after competing at the 2019 National Championships while I dealt with some mental health issues and decided to get my personal life in order. Then my friend Jacob, the founder and head coach of Endless Strength Weightlifting, said he'd love to have me join the team as they headed to the Carolina WSO Championships in October.
This happened right around the time my brother and sister (who I'd run the half-marathon with) committed to running the City of Oaks/Raleigh Marathon. I looked at the dates: the Weightlifting Meet fell on Sunday October 20th, and the Marathon on Sunday November 3rd. And so in talking with some folks, as I saw more "hybrid training" posts getting traction on social media platforms, I decided to do both.
Before I tell you where the time limit idea came from, I have to admit the only reason I committed to both originally, is because I couldn't mentally handle coming out of weightlifting retirement and not winning or being at my previous best. I'm highly competitive, and wasn't sure I could handle it. So doing two very competing things gave me "an out" for poor performances for both. So I consulted a few friends in both arenas of training (Jacob for weightlifting, and my wife for running) on how possible they thought doing both was. They agreed on something: you're not going to excel in either, and there's a likelihood for overuse injury, but it's possible.
I had made up my mind about doing both, when I started noticing the trend about the "Hybrid Athlete" trend I was seeing on social media.
Most people were doing Powerlifting and Bodybuilding as the strength aspect, which are more force dominant sports, and far less skillful than Weightlifting. And most strength feats were being accomplished in a gym to non-competition standards around the same time.
And to add, most were good numbers in each, but they still had some lopsidedness to them. I decided to test where I was at in my competition and strength lifts, and got a rough estimate of where I was at fitness wise for running a Marathon. I came out to being a 265kg Weightlifting Total, and a 4:30:00 (270minute) Marathon. So I came up with a goal (being someone who has to have numbers in mind): the total number of Kilograms lifted would be the number of minutes I'd get to run the Marathon in. This is where "The Kilogrometer" got its name.
With the goal set, I had to lay out a plan.
I started with strength, knowing how hard it would be to add strength once Marathon Training Distances started to pick up. I had 20 weeks from start date to Weightlifting Meet, and 22 until the Marathon. Based on traditional Marathon training plans tend to go, you need to hit your longest run 3-4 weeks out from the race. And I knew it would take away from strength to run those 19-22 mile long runs. So I decided I would get as strong as a I possibly could before the mileage took a spike.
I spent the first 12 weeks getting as strong as I possibly could, and refining technical pieces of my Snatch, Clean, and Jerk. I basically did a 5-3-1 structure across those 12 weeks. Four weeks of 3-4 sets of 5 reps on strength movements, then four weeks of 3-4 sets of 3 reps on them, then dropped to 3-4 sets of 1 reps for the last four weeks. That took me from the middle of May to the middle of August. My Olympic Lifts spent the first six weeks as doing 3-5 sets of 3 reps, and then dropping to 3-4 sets of 2 reps.
My mileage in running during those first 12 weeks started at 13 miles per week (with 2-3 runs, one of them being "longer" in the 7-10 mile range), and culminated in those first 12 weeks at a peak of 26 miles in one week (longest run was 12 miles).
At this point, I was snatching in the 120kg range, and Clean & Jerking in the 150kg range (what I'd need to hit my 270kg total). At eight weeks out from the meet, I had to just hold on to the strength. My lifting turned to sets of 1 on everything. I had one technical day for lifts (Monday), a Power Output day for the lifts (Wednesday), and a Competition day (Friday) for all of these lifts.
In the last eight weeks leading up the meet (10 weeks prior to the Marathon) my mileage took a steep incline, as I aimed to increase my capacity for distance. My long runs (normally Saturdays) increased from 10-12 miles, to a sharp increase to 15+ miles. As an aside to this, I had also taken a new job and moved at the 10 week mark of the program to an area which was ~10 degrees hotter and ~10-12% higher humidity than where I'd been living. As a result I shed about 10lbs in 4 weeks as mileage (and my daily step count) increased. It was so noticeable people started commenting on it.
As mileage increased, my strength took a pretty steep downturn as well. I started the training process at a bodyweight of 205lbs, and just under 11% body fat (via hydrostatic/underwater weighing). At this point, I was waking up just under 195lbs and estimating about 8-9% bodyfat. I started missing lifts left and right. I originally planned to open at the weightlifting meet with 115kg/143kg/258kg (Snatch/C&J/Total), but it was around this time I started missing every attempt at those weights. I also had to drop a weight class. Things really took a downturn when I crossed into what my wife calls "stupid distances," which is realistically anything beyond 18-19 miles.
My first time beyond 19 miles it was in the low 80 degree range in temperature, and about 75% humidity. I at mile 15 I hit a wall, and by mile 17 I started seeing things. I finished 19 miles, hobbled back to my car, and made it home. When I got home, my wife looked visibly concerned, as I was still profusely sweating, and I was cold to the touch. I felt nauseous and extremely thirsty. I got in the shower, which I turned up full blast and still felt like I was in an ice bath. It was shortly after that I started vomiting up all the fluids I'd consumed. It took almost four hours to get my body to accept fluids without feeling nauseous, and to hold food down. I'd done a pre- and post-run weigh in, and had lost just over 8lbs of weight in 19 miles.
That was on September 7th, six weeks out from the weightlifting meet. I started missing more lifts, and things got worse. At this point, I was only doing 1-2 sets of 1 reps on things. I was just trying to hold on.
I fixed my intra-run hydration and nutrition to help combat the issues of my 19 mile run, completing 21 miles the following week without suffering nearly as many issues as I'd had before. Typically, you hit your 20-22 mile run in Marathon training (based on plans I'd seen), ~3-4 weeks out from race day. I hit it 7 weeks out in order to compete well in the weightlifting meet. It was also around this time my wife mentioned how "crazy it would be" if I surpassed my goal and ran a sub 4:00:00.00 Marathon (which is a major milestone).
I took a deload week from running and had some of my weightlifting athletes come lift with me for a competition day. At which I missed my opening 115kg Snatch three different times, and missed my 143kg opening Clean & Jerk once. This was four weeks out from meet day. I took two easier weeks on the running, skipping long runs in favor of multiple mid-distance runs focused on speed (6-8 miles), before hitting one last long run. I hit 17 miles two weeks out from the weightlifting meet, and set a pace PR for training.
At this point, I had to trust things were in the bag. I showed up to the Weightlifting meet on October 20th, and dropped my openers to 110kg and 140kg. I felt confident with those enough to get me on the board. I also had time on my side, as I had typically trained at 6:30am, and my lifting start time was 3:45pm. It was as I was warming up when I realized I hid tapered off really well.
I hit 110kg easily, then talked with my teammates from Endless Strength about making a big jump. We jumped to 117kg, 2kg more than I'd been able to lift at any point in the previous six weeks. It was around this time my experience starting kicking in. I hit 117kg easily, then we made the call to go for it and load 125kg/275lb onto the bar, about 5kg more than I'd hit in over a year. After making it, and celebrating I was quickly made aware of the downside of being the last to snatch, and opening low on my Clean & Jerk. I was one of the first people to lift, and after a seriously rushed warmup, I ended up missing my opening Clean & Jerk. I had to get on the board, and I needed 145kg to lock in my 270kg goal total. I reattempted 140kg and made it, and made the call to take 145kg. Then the teammate who was handling me (the term for coaching at a lifting meet), asked me if I could make the jump to 154kg to take down the current state record. I hadn't hit anything over 145kg in training, but in already having a 265kg total and feeling confident I could run a marathon within that time frame, I elected to go for it. After what felt like an eternity, I finally took the attempt and (somehow) walked away with a good lift. Finishing out at a total of 279kg.
With the time limit set, I walked into the marathon with a big weight off of my shoulders (literally and figuratively). I had carb loaded and hydrated well, and when I looked at the forecast, I hit the jackpot on weather: high of 65 degrees and very low humidity. When I tried to get into the starting corral, however, I got blocked in. I'd made the strategy to get with the 4:15:00 pace group (marathons often have pacers who assist like this) and hold on as long as possible. But I got stuck right behind the 4:30:00 pace group due to the number of people. The gun went off, and I was able to get behind someone who was weaving through the crowd well. By the four mile mark, I finally caught up with the 4:15:00 pace group and was able to hang with them. It was shortly after the 10k/6.2mile mark I realized I felt really good, and the little voice in my head starting replaying my wife's words, "It would be crazy if you broke the 4:00:00 mark." I left the pace group behind and started to push myself a little harder, and made a plan to see how I felt at the half marathon mark. When I crossed it at 1:58:28 mark, I made the same call as I did at the weightlifting meet: leave it all out there and go for it, no matter how much it hurts.
Those last 13 miles were some of the most brutal I'd ever run. And the sigh of relief when I crossed the finish line at 3:59:12 was one of the mentally best, and physically worst, feelings I'd had in a while. And it was a sweet cap off of what was one of the more unique, and brutal, training endeavors I've ever set out on.
And now it's over, and it's left me with a much different perspective, and profound gratitude for what is possible in training. We'll dive into those more in the coming weeks as I revamp the blog, and I hope you stick around for it!
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