Why You Need A Training Partner

September 27, 2024

By Ray Glier

If anyone is not convinced of the value of finding a training partner—read this.

Dr. Reggie Mason, who is a pulmonologist in Atlanta, took a silver medal in the Men’s 65-69 400 meters at the 2022 USA Track & Field Masters National Championships. Then 67 years old, he ran 1:06.74, finishing second to John Brooks and his 1:05.54.

“If I had had my training partner the last few months, I probably would have won this race,” Mason said. “I would have been pushed and learned more.”

His training partner since 2015 is fellow Atlantan David Wilkes, who injured his calf in the 2022 USATF Indoors in New York in March and subsequently had a blood clot in the calf, which restricted his training.

Would a training partner helped make up less than a second Mason lost by? Maybe. A well-meaning push from others is all it takes sometimes.

While Wilkes, 65, does the 800 and 1500 in track meets, he trains with Mason, who is still a 400 runner at 69, and Jesse Caudle, who is a middle distance runner.

Last Sunday, in 90+ heat, they did a set of four 150s, took a five minute break, and then four more 150s.

“Reggie said, ‘Let’s do these in 31 seconds’,” Wilkes said. “Whenever you have a training partner, you always push each other to go harder than what you might have done on your own.

“We did them all in 30.”

David said a big key is finding a training partner body who is at least plus or minus 10% of where you are physically so you can push each other.

“If one of you is much stronger than the other one, there's not as much benefit,” Wilkes said.

Here is the bonus: David and Jesse, 800 guys, get speed work. Reggie gets endurance work for the last 50 meters of his 400.

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