When he was a kid, he did all the sports available in the US; football, baseball, basketball, and track, he was also a golfer.
Meet Troy Jensen
Most recently, I was an Ultimate Frisbee player, the overuse-injury nature of that team sport helped me decide to leave it behind after 15 years of many tournaments, travel, and team workouts.”
Fun Fact: Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate is a fast-moving, non-contact team sport. It is played with a disc on a grass field or a beach field.
The objective is to score points by receiving the disc in the end zones by passing it among the players on a team (a player with the disc must remain stationary).
If the disc touches the ground or is intercepted, possession switches to the other team who then has an opportunity to score by passing the disc into their end zone.
Troy decided to take things slow and run more slowly after that. He began running along the canal path near where he lives in the UK.
After a couple of years of plodding along, he ended up completing the Bath half marathon a few times and then took a bigger step and completed the London Marathon in 2010.
I find that my mental states are more positive and focused when I’m also training for a race.”
Troy told us that it also doesn’t hurt that he can eat what he likes during training periods… within reason 😉
He’s been doing meditation for several years and finds that he can achieve a state while running, that feels like ‘standing back and letting the run happen’. “This is a nice place to be.”
Troy’s Recent Personal Record
He ran the Rat Race Wall run in 2021 after waiting almost 5 years for a naggy Peroneal tendon issue (inflammation along the outside of your ankle & foot) and then covid.
I had no idea if I could complete the distance and I did, but not in the time I’d hoped for; just under 19 hours for 70 miles.”
But recently…
Troy managed to take a whopping 3 hours and 17 minutes off his previous time!!!
He said that he owes it to the coaching as it was incredibly helpful.
Note: The Rat Race Wall run is the UK’s most iconic ultramarathon containing 70 stunning miles through historic Hadrian’s Wall country.
Watch a snippet of the start of the race here.
This was Troy’s forum post…
“Thank you guys so much!! 3:05 PR
Guys: happy to do more download later but just crushed my 70-mile PB by 3 hours +. … lots to say about how helpful you have all been!!!! Hell yeah!!!!
Final gun-time was 3:17 faster!”
Tj
Why Troy Joined Coach Parry
Troy had been a Coach Parry member for about a year not. He mentioned that he joined because he wanted to get his Ultra time down to a respectable number.
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The Biggest Contributor To Troy’s Success
Firstly, I was doing strength training all wrong…”
He says that the core program in his Coach Parry plan made a HUGE difference… not being injured at the back end of the race helped him take over an hour off his previous time.
The core training also helped him with the middle session of technical hills.
Secondly, not killing himself with training miles and paying better attention to recovery was important.
I was able to run faster, further into the race without crunching fatigue this year. – Another hour off my time here.”
Troy’s training plan was a 4-day intermediate plan, and he beat the time on the plan by 2 hours by just sticking to the plan and trusting the process.
Thirdly, our YouTube videos preach: relax, go slow, 80% easy in a relentless manner.
This is precisely what I needed (I’d read all the books, but continued to make all the mistakes that the ‘mistakes’ video talks about), as Ultimate kind of trained me to think in terms of ‘Death or Glory.’ “
Troy says that the consistent messaging and good explanations around why training shouldn’t wear you out were really good contributors to him achieving this goal.
What’s Next For Troy
He is thinking about doing the Majorca Marathon in October.
Troy also found that he enjoyed the hills sessions a lot so he’s thinking of entering some 5 & 10K races just to see what he can do there.
Struggles Along The Way
I had to not get injured!”
After 5 years of Peroneal Tendonitis, Troy was pretty wary of what happens when you can’t do exercise.
He also had a cold 2 weeks before the ultra – “Freaking out a bit, I posted in the forum and the response was ‘you have enough time, it’s no problem’”
He says that the response calmed him right down and he made his way to the race without any consternation about… “I did all this training and a stupid cold at the last minute……. Blah blah blah’ … so that was helpful!”
Another challenge was that TroyI needed to train in -10F and at altitude in January. He described it as running underwater and in a blizzard at the same time!
In the race itself, he experienced nausea for the final 4 hours.
I had to keep pounding calories and was sure that they were going to come back up at some point.”
To end it all off, Troy said that he decided to trust the Coach Parry plan and the coaches at the beginning…
“So, I just did everything (mostly) on my plan and it worked really well!”
What an incredible achievement and story Troy! We are so glad to hear that you have seen the benefits of the training.😁
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