I’ve been told by several people, most importantly my coach, that the marathon will be my best event, but I’ve not been convinced.

Each year that’s gone by I’ve naturally upped my training and delayed doing a marathon, since it would have taken more and more work to do myself justice.

As I started out racing my 5k to HM times always lined up well, but I actually thought 5k was one of my stronger events. One thing is for sure though, I don’t have much natural speed. I’ve never done any pure speed work in training and I’ve never run a sub 60s 400m. I remember in the Armagh 2020 race being in the lead group chasing Zalewski and on the last lap I was feeling great. I knew I was able to bridge the gap to him and it’s a regret of mine that I didn’t and just go for it earlier.

As it happened even though I was strong, I got destroyed in the sprint finish. Of course, lack of natural speed is no guarantee of being suited to the marathon, Kipchoge definitely has good natural speed!

All the eggs in one 26.2 mile basket

The Marathon is intimidating. For me it’s not the distance though. This build up has included three long runs over 24 miles and each saw good recovery afterwards. It’s the pace that you have to hold for such a long time that makes it so hard.

Trying to establish a goal for the Marathon Trials has been especially difficult with no races around to gauge fitness, something I think may will elate to. Instead, it all has to be based on training sessions, for a distance I have never raced before.

Training has been going really well and I know I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in, that’s for sure. It’s just a bit of a shame that I can’t bank some of that training by knocking out a good 10k or HM, but instead everything will rest on one race. The eggs are all in one marathon basket.

I am grateful that I’ve had a race to aim for that I was confident would go ahead as the Marathon is a lot of work. What I could never be sure of was that I wouldn’t get COVID in the build-up, or another illness which would have almost certainly spelt the end. Even now my participation all hinges on a negative Lateral Flow Test!

 Have faith in your own process

Over the last year, I’ve found it’s very important to have faith in your training and the sessions you know mean you’re in top shape. It’s also important to run controlled and by feel rather than chasing paces.

With no races around and no doubt a flood of “check out this session by XX on strava” in your running WhatsApp groups in-lieu of any race results, it can be demotivating when you compare with your own training. But you must have faith in yourself.

The only person relevant for training comparisons is you.

For me, it’s as simple as a 10k tempo. It might not sound much, but if I can do it in under 32mins at tempo effort then I know I’m in top shape. I did it before Armagh in 2019 (31:39), Armagh 2020 (actually failed here with a 32:30!) and GNR (31:23). One thing we’ve all seen over the past year is how variable GPS is depending on what watch you have and what loop you run.

Again, this is where it’s important to be able to directly compare by running the same loops and for time trials I’ve not kidded myself, I’ve measured them beforehand with Satellite tools which I’ve found to be very accurate. In fact, when I measured my old tempo loop that I did those 10ks on, I found they were ~130m short!

So, whilst they gave me confidence, I was blissfully unaware they weren’t as quick as I thought. My training in this build-up has used measured courses and I’ve been running quicker.

Nigel training in all conditions with his strong group. Still shorts weather for most though… Photo: Dave Proctor

No group training, but still a good group around

Whilst there’s been a lot to learn and no group training allowed, I’ve had plenty of help. On my longer sessions, my partner Laura has kept me company on the bike. In the first 24+miler we got caught in a heavy snow storm and Laura had to abandon soon after 15 miles and almost got hypothermia! (Don’t worry I was fine).

The second run included 20mph winds with a -10oC wind chill! Somehow, Laura still came along for the third. (You must just be brilliant long run company Nigel – Ed.)

I’ve had race nutrition help from Robbie Britton who I’ve been regularly pestering. When Robbie informed me there’s a crucial difference in whether you put in the powder or water first when mixing Beta Fuel vs Maurten, I knew I was talking to the right man!

My coach, Norman Poole, has been in regular contact and provided my training plan. Amongst many others Norman coached my clubmate Matt Bond to his 2:15:32 at London in 2016. Unbelievably Matt managed that time off very low mileage, I think peaking only around 80mpw.

He did do a lot of cross training, but that’s a lot less than I’ve been doing. I’ve averaged about 85mpw over the last 14 weeks. Certainly not as much as some of the people I’ll be competing with, but I know I couldn’t have sensibly done more. My training is certainly not as impressive as a lot of others either, but I respond strongly to training and as a result my easy runs are generally very slow – more on that in another article.

Racing 3000m is now a distance memory, but it’ll all come back on Friday. Photo: Dave Proctor

The ins and out of training

In terms of marathon sessions, I’ve followed a bit of a hybrid Pfitzinger/Canova approach. I’ve tried to do plenty of miles at or very close to MP (Canova), doing very regular long tempos of 10+ miles or so. But my long runs have been focusing on 80%-90%+ of MP, which is more in-line with Pfitzinger.

Canova style special block training is totally out of the question for me. There’s no way I could handle that and I’d either get injured or just get nowhere near the paces. Have a read of this blog to get a flavour for it – It took him 10 days to recover from that during which he managed only easy runs, so yeah, not for me!

In this last cycle I’ve done a long run just shy of 25 miles with about 23 miles at 80-95% MP feeling very comfortable and 60mins at race pace definitely not feeling comfortable! Looking at Matt Bond’s training I know I’m able to do the same sessions and actually bigger volume, so it will just come down to the day and finding out if I’m a marathon runner or not.

It won’t be an easy debut, most of the others have nothing to lose and have done marathons before. I’m expecting two groups, the 2:10:00 (top 2 or die) group and the still very challenging Commonwealth Games 2:13/2:14 group. If you don’t go with them, you’re probably on your own, which isn’t where anyone wants to be!

With little more than a week to go I’m looking forward to it and whilst I’m very grateful for the opportunity for this unique event, I’m also really looking forward to a more normal racing calendar later in the year!

I’ll be posting another blog post marathon and depending on how the marathon goes it might be sooner or later!

The post The journey to a debut marathon appeared first on Fast Running.

They’re like marmite; you either love them or you hate them, except, even if you love them, you still slightly hate them deep inside. Whether you do them slowly or as fast possible, they also still somehow cut deep and hurt all the same.

That being said, they provide the base for one of the best winter sessions there is to help you get strong, fit and running fast, all at the same time.

If you hadn’t guessed already, I’m talking about hills, and I LOVE them. Bizarrely, I love lots of reps. I don’t get bored and I am a creature of habit, so my favourite session has to be a short tempo followed by 3 sets of 7 hills (roughly 50 seconds long). The long “boring” sessions are my favourite!

Why are hills so great?

No matter what distance you race over, hills can be an effective training session for all athletes. I find, even when I feel in great shape, the hurt is still very much real. If anyone can complete a hill session without feeling dead at the end, they definitely aren’t doing it properly!

They’re painful, but so satisfying, and, however fast or hard I run on the flat, nothing compares to that burning feeling I get in my legs 3/4 of the way up a steep hill.

The fact that you can’t complete a hill session without getting ‘jelly legs’, is why I love them, because I know my body has gone to the limit. I love the feeling of running on the flat after hills – because I feel like I’m flying. This is why hills are great for getting faster!

If I can push myself against the resistance of a hill, hopefully, when I return to the road or track and give the same effort, there may be a PB in sight.

Natural conditioning

Hill sessions are great as they combine running and S&C in one. They are a fantastic way of building strength, as the hill acts as a natural form of resistance. I don’t have a fancy treadmill with lots of different settings, so instead, I head to my nearest hill and nature does it for me!

Hill training strengthens everything from my calves, quads and hamstrings, to the all-important glutes, hip flexors and even my mind. Whilst the gyms are shut, there’s no excuse for losing strength. Hill reps are essentially the most running specific “gym” session there is.

Mixed benefit

I also mix hills up to get different physiological and psychological benefits.

Sometimes I do short 10-15 second hill bursts to work on my power and speed, and other times I do 60-90 second hills to work on my endurance. Whether I’m running fast or slow, the resistance of the hill remains the same, so I’m guaranteed a hard (painful) session.

I also tell myself, if I’m doing the full length of a hill as opposed to time, the hill doesn’t get shorter, so, the slower I go, the longer the pain goes on for. This makes me run faster! Sometimes I get adventurous and spice up the terrain I do hill sessions on.

For softer cross-country type hills, I head off-road and sometimes spike up, but when they become too slippery, I go on the road to work on my full body drive without the worry of ending up flat on my face!

Getting specific

The last reason why hill training is great, is for cross-country. Whilst the 2020 season may be non-existent, this doesn’t mean there won’t be cross races to prepare for next year.

If I am going to race in the mud and up hills, I need to train for it. Ultimately, a cross country race without mud and hills, isn’t a true British course (take Parliament Hill for example), so I want to be prepared for some brutal conditions.

A year round session. On the hills on the XC course in Falesia. Photo: Tom Craggs

Why do I love hills?

I think it’s the challenge I enjoy. I love having something other than myself to work against. Don’t get me wrong, I love all sessions and enjoy pushing myself, but there is something about working against an unrelenting hill that just makes me feel great. The faster you go, the quicker you get to the top, but the pain remains the same.

With hills, it’s a case of being brave and not shying away from the hill. It isn’t going to move, so I have to be confident and just “get over it”- literally. If I approach the bottom of the hill and doubt myself, I’m not going to make it disappear, I’m only going to make the journey up it harder, physically and mentally.

Thus, it’s the challenge of believing in myself and approaching a hill with confidence that I enjoy. It is more than just a physical challenge, it’s a mental one, and I like that.

Finally, like I said earlier, I love it when you get to the top of the hill and your legs feel like jelly; a feeling that just can’t be echoed to the same extent in any other session. Sometimes it kicks in pretty quickly, other times it’s nearer the end of the session, but it always hits.

Getting it done

Top three tips for tackling hills.

1) Don’t approach a 1-minute hill rep like you would 1 minute on the flat. I’ve learnt from this mistake. A minute of running up hill is actually pretty long, especially when you start too hard!

2) Drive with your arms and maintain good posture. Use your arms and all your body to help power up the hill. If you crunch over and allow your form to become sloppy, you’ll make yourself heavier going up the hill and also risk tripping.

3) Be positive and confident. It’s just a hill, you can get up it!

One of my favourite places for a hill session is The Chantries in Guildford. It’s tough and brutal and never fails to push me. It’s off road without being slippery and pretty damn steep! There’s hills of different lengths and steepness’s, so it always has what I need. On the odd occasion I’ve felt brave enough, I’ve also gone to St. Martha’s Church nearby and done reps on the SAND!

Whether you love them or dread them, hills are a staple part of winter training, so it’s easier to embrace and enjoy them, they aren’t going anywhere.

Please note: The pain/hurt I am referring to in this article is that when you are pushing your body to the limit when running, NOT excruciating pain caused by injury or illness.

Want to run faster? For just £30 per month athletes are provided with a Final Surge plan for each day of the week, coaching advice from Robbie Britton and Tom Craggs, as well as access to the unique Fast Running Performance community.

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The post The marmite session appeared first on Fast Running.

It’s exactly 40 years ago this week (26th July to be precise) that a man wearing number 279 crossed the finishing line in the Lenin stadium in Moscow to upset both the applecart and his arch rival Sebastian Coe by unexpectedly taking the Olympic 800m gold medal.

Then editor of Athletics Weekly, Mel Watman, would describe his victory as evidence of his status as the “supreme racer”. So let’s take a look at the philosophy of training which underpinned the work undertaken by the last British man to win an Olympic title over two laps.

The Influence of Percy Cerutty

Ovett is described as having been ‘coached’ or ‘mentored’ by Harry Wilson, whom as an athlete had been Welsh 6 mile champion in 1958. Wilson went on to become National event coach for 800m and 1500m.

Evidence suggests that Wilson’s coaching philosophy was an eclectic mix from some of the all-time greats of the sport. In his book Running Dialogue (1982) he acknowledges the influences of the German coach, Gerschler, who developed Josy Barthel, the 1952 Olympic 1500m champion.

Secondly, he developed ideas from the Hunagrian –Igloi, whose athletes once held every world record 800m-10,000m and thirdly he took inspiration from Stampfl, who most famously worked with Roger Bannister.

These three men aside, Wilson’s greatest inspiration came from a man who he described as an, “eccentric Australian,” in the form of the great Percy Cerutty, who worked with 1960 Rome Olympic 1500m champion, Herb Elliott. Cerutty would leave, “an indelible impression” on Wilson after their chance meeting at 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.

Athlete-centred coaching

Wilson met the 16 year old Steve Ovett at a Southern Counties AAA training camp at Crystal Palace in the autumn 1972, in joining the endurance group from a sprints background.

Wilson was immediately taken aback at how the Brighton and Hove AC youngster could hold his own with much older youths, including the likes of Julian Goater, who would go on to take a bronze medal over 10,000m at the 1982 Commonwealth Games.

Despite being influenced particularly by Cerutty, Wilson realised the necessity of designing the young Ovett a training schedule which was specific to his individual developmental needs.

He would say, “The difficult part of middle distance coaching is making sure that technique and training are adapted to suit the individual”.

Foundational and Fundamental Development

In being individually-centred, Wilson was able to work on the Foundational and Fundamental skills which the Varndean Grammar School pupil had engendered through his involvement in high jump, long jump, hurdles and sprinting.

Whilst Ovett was still young in chronological years when he began to focus on middle distance running, he had by this stage developed a considerable training age across a variety of track and field disciplines. One of his earliest successes, for instance, came in the sprints event group, with AAAs youth 400m win (49.1s) in July 1972.

Progressive Overload in the context of Long Term Athlete Development

Part of Wilson’s understanding of how to build on Ovett’s foundational and fundamental athletic development was his enlightened approach to progressively overloading the young athlete’s work.

A session, for instance of 2 x 600m, undertaken as an 18 year old, would become 2 x 600m plus 150m sprints at aged 19. Likewise, a session of 3 x 3 x 300m in 1973 would become 4 x 3 x 300m by 1974.

Aerobic endurance

If the Australian Cerutty was credited as the major influence, then the great New Zealander Arthur Lydiard, who most famously worked with Peter Snell and Murray Halberg of course, must have informed Wilson’s thinking in terms of the necessity of aerobic base training.

It would not be uncommon for the senior Ovett to regularly top 120 miles a week for instance and this attention to volume was facilitated by his long term progression from daily to double-day sessions. England Athletics Coach Education Tutor, Colin Lancaster, who sported impressive PBs of 1m51s for 800m and 3m51s for 1500m had the privilege of training with Ovett, when the former was 17 and the latter 22 years of age.

The man who now plays a leading role with the UK Lydiard Foundation recalls that,

“We went out and basically had a lot of fun”. In particular he remembers regular trips to conduct 10 mile runs over the grass and trails of the South Downs , recalling that “We all ran together and kept it ‘chatty’”. He recalls once running with Steve when,

“He had a white coat with baggy armpits. He was quite broad shouldered and barrel chested. People had never heard of Nike so they saw the back of his jacket and thought it read ‘Mike’- so they’d be shouting ‘Come on Mike’ as he passed them in the streets. He saw the funny side of it by the end of the run you could tell he was fed up!”

Good company

Much of Ovett’s aerobic training was conducted with Scottish schoolteacher and county level runner, Matt Paterson, especially in terms of them pounding the pavements of Brighton early mornings.

The early morning training partnership and friendship would blossom to the point that Paterson travelled to Moscow to be with Ovett during the aforementioned Olympics where they would routinely run 15-20 minute recovery runs the morning after his 800m and 1500m heats in order to maintain the habituation of his double day routine.

Even when conducting work which challenged the lactate energy system through repetition based training, Ovett would more often than not take a gentle aerobic run to these sessions in Stamner Park at Sussex University. Perceptively, Harry Wilson would state that, “Provided you keep the speed work going and do about 10% anaerobic work, you don’t necessarily lose your speed during heavy mileage”.

Periodically some of this aerobic work took place at altitude, most typically in St Moritz or alternatively at South Lake Tahoe in Nevada, where Ovett would train with athletes with tremendous aerobic capacity like Tony Simmons and Ian Stewart, the latter of won an Olympic bronze medal over 5000m in Munich in 1972.

Significantly, and in line with the philosophy of Arthur Lydiard, he would run at a variety of aerobic paces. At the higher end of the spectrum long intervals of for instance 6 x 1000m (1 min) were conducted in the winter prior to his Moscow Olympic success. In addition, Steve was not averse to road racing and indeed he once ran the fastest long stage leg at the Southern Road Relays.

1980; Moscow, RUSSIA; L-R SEBASTIAN COE, STEVE OVETT, and NIKOLAI KIROV after the final of the 800 meters.KEYSTONE Pictures USA / Alamy Stock Photo

Strength endurance

Critically Ovett was encouraged by Wilson to undertake cross country racing with the latter maintaining that, “If a runner does cross country races during the winter, this in itself will provide the necessary proportion of anaerobic work”.

This was something ingrained into the psyche of the future Olympic champion and world record holder for the 1500m, mile and 2 miles, from the early seventies, where he would show early promise by medalling in English schools cross country championships.

Significantly unlike many middle distance athletes of today, he kept this going throughout his career, running in both National Cross Country and Inter Counties races and mixing it with the likes of seasoned internationals like Dave Black, Bernie Ford and Mike McLeod, the latter of whom would go on to win Olympic 10,000m silver in Los Angeles.

Diabolical dunes

In a training context, nowhere is the influence of Cerutty more evident than the trips Wilson and Ovett took to Merthyr Mawr which became a Spring “annual ritual” in the words of the coach. Wilson described the infamous Big Dipper as, “a diabolical dune capable of testing the most seasoned athlete”.

Benefitting from the subcultural element of group training, Steve would undertake a mixture of what would today be referred to as Kenyan hill circuits as well as more conventional hill reps. With a second nod to Cerutty, nearby Southerndown would provide the group with the location and sand to effect 300m repetitions during these weekends away.

The above is significant in that not only did Ovett’s consistent use of grass and sand to train on help him avoid impact related injuries in the late 1970s but these surfaces along with the mud of the country were a key facilitator of strength endurance.

Indeed the aforementioned Colin Lancaster recalls that, “he would undertake Wind sprints around the Preston park cricket pitch. He’d do sprints with a float in between using the flower beds as markers”.

High intensity repetitions

Whilst undertaking a significant volume of work at a variety of aerobic bases, at key points of the periodisation cycle, namely the pre-competition and competition phases, Ovett undertook a variety of speed endurance sessions designed to challenge his lactate energy system.

Typically he would undertake work which involved 200m-300m reps with very short recoveries. The volume of reps in terms of their number could be increased due to the work being grouped into sets, which allowed for much longer periods of recovery after a series of specified efforts. Examples included the following:

5 x 3 x 200m (27″/28″) [30″, 3 min]

4 x 300m (30s rec) 200m (5 mins).

4 x 5 x 100m (14″/15″) (starting at 30 secs on the first set to 5 secs rec on the last set)

Differential pacing

Critically, whilst not following the kind of Frank Horwill articulated 5 paced multi-tier training of his arch rival, Sebastian Coe, who would of course beat him to the 1500m gold 6 days after Steve’s 800m win in Moscow, there is evidence that Wilson shared Peter Coe’s (Seb’s father and coach) concern about not ever being locked into one pace.

More often than not there was a differential pacing element to Steve’s speed endurance work which may help to explain why he was able to run a sub 51s last 400m on his way to Olympic 800m gold after a relatively pedestrian open lap of 54s. Colin Lancaster vividly recalls a session of 8 x 400m conducted in the later 70s with a group who were average 54s.

He tells that, “Unbelievably Steve was getting faster on each and every rep. By time of last rep he so far ahead that he was stood there hands on hips waiting for us at end saying ‘What took you so long boys?!’”.

A further example of ‘split interval’ type work includes a Spring 1980 session of 4 x 400m (first 200m 28″/29″, last 200m 23″/24″)) [5 min]

#OnThisDay, Steve Ovett beats Sebastian Coe to 800m gold at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games pic.twitter.com/mKFURo3HMV

— Team GB (@TeamGB) July 26, 2018

Diversity of speed endurance work

As well as Wilson’s conviction that high intensity repetitions and split intervals were paramount for summer success on the track, critically it is the sheer diversity of speed endurance sessions which is impressive in terms of Ovett’s work.

The late national coach Dave Sunderland, who was a colleague of Wilson’s in the British Milers’ Club would in High Performance Middle Distance Running talk about;

(1) Quality repetitions. These were characteristic of race pace specific work with a complete recovery in between, an example for Ovett being 2 x 600m with a complete recovery. To further Sunderland’s ideal typology of modes of speed endurance, Ovett would undertake;

(2) Tired surges- he might conduct work in sets whereby he would run 400m in 49s with 100m ‘float’ and then continue to run 100m flat out;

(3) Pace Injectors- the man who would later help found Phoenix AC would often operate over 600m (200m in 26 sec, 200m in 24 sec, 200m and the final 200m in 26 sec) to cope with mid race surges.

(4) Pace Increases- again in operating over 600m (200m in 28, 200m in 26 and the final 200m in 24). These modes of sessions explain Ovett’s predictable but extraordinary ability to kick hard off an already fast pace and close the proverbial show as he did coming off the top bend and into the home straight in that Moscow Olympic 800m final.

Under distance and over distance racing

As well as the differential element to pacing in his training, Colin Lancaster recalls Steve building this into his approach to racing, at least a club level. On 30th April 1977, for instance,

“He raced 800m, 1500m and 3,000m on the same day at a National League at home in Brighton. I just ran the 3000m that day but I remember him lapping me after he’d already run the 800m and 1500m! “(Steve would run the 800m 1m53.9s; 1500m 4m04.0s; 3000m 8m18.8s).

With a rueful grin Lancaster continues that, “I trained with Peter Elliott and was always worried he would hit me if I overtook him. I always admired Steve Cram and thought what a talented athlete he was but Ovett- it was like he was living in a different body”.

Whilst a middle distance runner and event group specialist over 800m and 1500m, throughout his career Ovett would continually use both under distance and over distance races in order to maintain a differential pacing element to his work. Under distance races over 600m or the odd appearance in a 4 x 400m relay race were not uncommon and significantly the latter was done just 3 months before his finest hour over two laps in Moscow when he ran for the Southern Counties at Crystal Palace in April 1980.

On the other hand, by the time he climbed to the top of the podium on 26th July in the Russian capital it’s worth remembering that in terms of over-distance training he had already run two races over 3,000m that year at both Welwyn Garden City and Texas, recording 7:52.4s Stateside.

If you’re going to finish, finish strong

That’s exactly what Steve Ovett did #OnThisDay in 1980 as he beat Seb Coe to 800m gold pic.twitter.com/hWF3pG99Oi

— Team GB (@TeamGB) July 26, 2019

Alactic work

Whilst Wilson’s philosophy made Ovett lean towards developing aerobic and strength endurance over the winter and speed endurance over the summer, it was always a question of balance and significantly at no point of the periodisation cycle was work utilising the ‘stop-start’ alactic energy system abandoned.

Wilson was crucially aware of how to train the neuromuscular pathways and ATP-CP system, pointing out that, “When Steve was in the middle of a 100 mile a week schedule, he was still running 60m indoors in about 7.2 or 7.3 seconds off a standing start”.

Either at the end of a session or sometimes purely as a stand-alone Steve would sprint 6 x 100m or 8 x 15s with generous walk-back recoveries so he would avoid the build-up of acid in his muscles and not over stress his lactate energy system further more.

We have already alluded to his use of 4 x 400 relays as evidence of under-distance work and in addition his participation at club level in 4 x 100m events in his younger days was a key facilitator of alactic energy system development.

Regeneration

You will have gathered by now that Wilson was a coach who implicitly understood the cycle nature of periodisation cycles and Colin Lancaster recalls that it’s often overlooked the part that rest, recovery and regeneration play in this cycle. For those of you who train all year round its worth reflecting on Colin’s memory that,

“Steve would take 4-6 weeks off after the track season and then come back slowly with jogging a couple of miles along the Brighton pier. I remember when he was coming back from his annual rest, I ran with him one week and three weeks later he was back at the front of the group chatting and messing around.

It was obvious it came so naturally to him. I was with him once when he was door-stepped by the press and my abiding memory is he turned to me and said, ‘I don’t understand why people are so interested in me. All I can do is run fast around a track!’”

Questions for self-reflection

1. How am I attempting to take a long term view of progressive overload in my training as Steve Ovett and Harry Wilson did?
2. Like Steve realised, why is it crucial I develop my aerobic base as the underpinnings for the work which may be more event specific?
3. In what ways am I developing my aerobic, lactate and alactic energy systems at all points of the periodsation cycle as Harry Wilson advocated?
4. How does my speed endurance work allow me to operate at differential race paces like Steve could operate at?
5. Why might I benefit from periodic use of both under and over distance races?
6. What can I learn from Steve’s approach to regeneration and how do rest and recovery play an inherent part in my periodised plan of training?

Matt Long is a former winner of the BMC Horwill Award for Coach Education Research and author of more than 250 coaching articles. For support and to unpick this article he welcomes contact through mattlongcoach@gmail.com

The post The training of Steve Ovett appeared first on Fast Running.

This article explores a small difference in the planning and recording of training sessions that many athletes tend to subconsciously overlook. Some runners don’t even keep a training diary, but for those who do, a subtle change in the way you write things down could lead to a longer and more prosperous running career.

“Jerry Miles”

For those of you that follow American distance running, you may be aware that Gwen Jorgensen, the 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist in Triathlon, switched to the marathon after the Rio Games.

For the past three years Jorgenson has been training with the Bowerman Track Club under the tutelage of esteemed American distance coach Jerry Schumacher. Schumacher is also the coach of American Olympians Shalane Flanagan, Matthew Centrowitz and Evan Jager, as well as coaching British 5,000m ace Marc Scott.

In a recent YouTube video on Jorgensons channel, Jorgensen explains in detail how she and the rest of the BTC record their weekly mileage. Instead of using the conventional GPS measured method, BTC athletes use a system devised by their coach that they refer to as “Jerry Miles”.

Faster miles have a different impact on the body and the mind. Photo: Talbot Cox

This system quantifies a mile as 7 minutes of running for the elite men and 8 minutes of running for the elite women.

In the video, Jorgensen goes on to explain that the system is used to allow for the changes in external factors that may effect the pace of a run, such as altitude.

The system, whilst simple, is effective in allowing the athletes to train without the pressure of running a certain mileage, and ensures they have no reason to run their easy jogs harder than necessary – a problem many a casual runner seem to experience.

Why shouldn’t I run for mileage?

If the knowledge that some of the elites run for time rather than miles doesn’t stop to make you think, maybe this will. Let’s talk about over-training.

Over-training is the main cause of injuries amongst the usual keen, enthusiastic and determined folk that participate in running and planning your runs by distance can be a factor in this. Miles are a cruel and unforgiving mistress that take nothing else into account but distance.

Think about it. How many external factors affect the intensity of an “easy” run? There’s weather, terrain, altitude and elevation gain to name a few.

Adidas Terrex’s Holly Page certainly covers plenty of miles harder than your average road loop. Photo: Golden Trail Series

Are you going to be feeling exactly the same for your easy five miles the day before a session as you do the day after a session? No, not at all. Before a session, the run may take you 35 minutes, but afterwards if you’re listening to your body it should take you 40, but you push harder than necessary to run it in 35 minutes again.

There are always going to be discrepancies between a five mile run on grass and a five mile run on asphalt, or a three mile shakeout around a flat loop compared to a three mile run around a hillier one.

Does that mile know how you day went?

Miles never take into account how you’re feeling on a given day, but time does. If you routinely run a 30 minute run on a Tuesday, it doesn’t matter if during a hard week at work you only manage three miles when the week before you ran four miles, you’ve still got your prescribed 30 minutes done!

By running for time, you are always taking into account other factors that are affecting your training of which you may not subconsciously be aware of. Weather, terrain and the previous days training all have an effect on the speed you run, which doesn’t matter on a 40 minute run, but turns a five mile run into a longer and thus more stressful training session than you had planned.

Over time, the extra duration and increase in exertion takes it’s toll on the body and has a negative impact on your future training and racing.

Stuck in your ways?

Many people find change daunting, and moving from miles to time may seem strange. Besides, there’s something romantic about the concept of “mileage”, and most runners are bound to have a lot more respect for a “100 mile per week” athlete than some “12 hour a week” nut job.

When planning your training by duration, you don’t need to forget about the little weekly mileage toll you keep, you just need to be adaptable. Swapping the regular Monday 8 miler for a 60 minute easy run may do you a world of good, and lead to a running career of longevity and good health.

Besides from potentially preventing over training, running for time can free you of a lot of pressure through simplifying your running.

You’ll save time because there will be no waiting for GPS signal or hours spent on Strava. Photo: Natalie White

You can forget about your GPS watch, wanting you to focus on all the data under the sun and more, the average pace display pushing you harder and harder. All you need is a simple watch, running with just a timer almost feels like running with no watch at all. This is where the freedom of running comes from.

Take ownership of your training and stop being a slave to the miles, you may reap the rewards. You might even enjoy it.

Tomos Land is an 18 year old runner from North Wales and has represented Wales at the London Mini Marathon, SIAB Schools XC and at the British and Irish Mountain Running Track. Currently remotely coached by Liz McColgan and have been since January 2019. He has his own blog and can also be followed on Twitter and Instagram.

The post Not all miles were created equal appeared first on Fast Running.

In this article I build on the concept of athletic docility that I explored in my previous Fast 10 article, and advocate that coaches encourage athletes to take ownership of their running.

Specifically, I consider how the way we train, the way we understand training, and the way training programmes are administered, can either limit or enhance the fulfilment of our potential. 

At the outset of this article, I should state that the concepts of athlete engagement and ‘coaching mentality’ are highly complex and layered phenomenon, which cannot be fully explored in a magazine article.

Moreover, I also understand that the classic volunteer-led coach-athlete relationship, which keeps grass-roots British athletics alive, is usually a highly time-constrained environment; however, I would say that there should always be time for flexibility and compromise. 

Finally, to keep this article concise, my commentary centres on athletes who already have an understanding of the need for different components of a training programme, roughly when to apply them and, in turn, how they respond to said practices i.e. they are an experienced athlete who races regularly. 

Completing the programme: control or collaboration?

In a previous FR article, Coaching the individual, Tom Craggs explored how training should be individualised to an athlete’s body, motivation, lifestyle, and, crucially, how they physiologically respond to training practices.

Indeed, we know training programmes should consider the FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type) and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant/Realistic and Time-bound) principles, but how often do we think about how programmes should be administered, and the coach-athlete power relations behind them?

The temptation for many coaches, and especially those who coach at a distance, is to enforce strict control measures to prevent disruption to the programme.

However, such control measures have the potential to bind an athlete’s perceived degree of success too closely to their compliance with a training programme, often to the detriment of the athlete’s enjoyment and development. 

Bound to the king

The classic example of ‘the programme is king’ type attitude, can be found in abundance at Britain’s Universities.

Here club coaches, maybe wary that their talented athletes might be led astray by their newfound freedom or the ‘atmosphere’ that surrounds university coaches, often impress the importance of following their programme to an even greater degree; after all, “it’s how we got to where we are”. 

The ensuing rigidity and repetitiveness associated with a highly centralised form of coach-led control that is intended to ensure compliance (and thereby results), ironically has the potential to produce demotivated, disaffected and at worst disordered athletes.

Here, the athlete’s lack of ownership of their running can, too often, tragically reduce their love of the sport.

Just following the plan

On a practical day to day basis, following a programme without considering the environment it is completed within, can, for some athletes, mean an existence on the margins of a training group, neither fully engaged in the team dynamic nor reaping the benefits of training together.

For example, I have personally witnessed athletes of similar abilities, training at the same time on a track, doing nearly identical sessions (e.g. 8 x 800m and 6 x 1km at 5km pace), but not running together. Is there really any sense in that? Now, more than ever, we all know how difficult isolation can be, and value the camaraderie and training benefit a group can bring.

Whilst training plans should be tailored, and group running is inherently generalised, reasonable compromises should be made to cater for athletes mental as well as physical fulfilment. To put it simply, I take the view that training should be a flexible part of our lives and the situations we find ourselves in, rather than a timetable imposed upon it.

This flexible approach to training, has allowed me to develop as an athlete. Indeed, although I belong to a really strong training group at Cambridge and Coleridge AC, I also train with the Cambridge University group and the various alumni that are dotted about the city to suit my training needs.

Taking this one step further

The next step beyond simply adapting a plan to an environment is getting the athlete themselves to take ownership of these changes and start to understand the reasoning behind the sessions.

It has been said that a good coach aims to make themselves redundant through creating an athlete-centred environment and educating their runners. Thats the second half of Jack’s article coming later this week.

Are you a fan of Fast Running? Then please support us and become a patreon. For as little as the price of a monthly magazine you can support Fast Running – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

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I have had the privilege of training with a number of successful clubs throughout my running career. Additionally, by the medium of Strava, I’ve also followed the training and progress of a much wider circle of athletes up and down the country.

In this time, I’ve made an observation surrounding the training of many good, club-level athletes and only recently have I begun to act on it to my advantage. The observation is this….good club-level endurance athletes (at least in the UK) train VERY similarly;

We are good at smashing sessions.
Most often Tuesdays (shorter reps) and Saturdays (longer reps) or sometimes Wednesdays and Saturdays. Many opt for an additional tempo-like session on Thursday or Monday for each arrangement respectively. In my experience, athletes are very good at burying themselves in these types of group sessions all year round.

We switch to speed work and drop to lower mileage around May time.
In preparation for dropping down to 3000 – 10,000m track racing.

We easy run at very similar paces.
Typically 7-7.30 minute miling although some athletes will regularly run quicker than this.

We reserve Fridays for resting or our easiest run of the week.
Actually the whole week structure is very similar between different athletes but Fridays seem particularly sacred for rest days / very easy running.

We long run similar distances on Sundays.
Typically 1h 30 – 1h 45 at easy pace although again there is some variation on this even amongst non-marathon runners, many opting for a ‘steadier’ pace closer to 6 min miling.

We begin to double at a similar threshold of mileage (on similar days).
Over about 60 miles per week athletes tend to start doubling. Typically these are done on midweek session days. Much above ~75 miles additional doubles are often introduced.

Group training is good but personalised training is better

There are many good reasons for individuals to stick to the largely universal training formula I’m about to dissect. I would even go as far to say that this training formula is possibly one of the best-advised formula for clubs to advocate to amateur athletes at a group-level.

What I mean by that, is that if you have (hypothetically) 100 athletes and you have to suggest a universal training schedule for them ALL to follow – then maybe this status quo training regime may well succeed in benefitting the highest proportion of them versus alternative strategies. After all, many fast athletes from very strong clubs have enjoyed a lot of success in following subtle variations of this formula.

Therefore this is absolutely not a criticism of any clubs who adopt similar training strategies when catering for large number of athletes. On the contrary, I believe it is the athletes’ responsibility to start taking ownership of their training by modifying pre-existing club training set-ups according to their individual needs.

Finding your optimum

My argument is this – any universal training programme is not going to benefit everyone equally – regardless of how successful it is at the group-level. There is simply too much heterogeneity between different athletes’ physiology, psychology and work/social lives for this to be the case. A universal programme is very unlikely to be optimal for any particular individual athlete.

We therefore have a situation whereby many athletes may be benefitting from a training routine the majority of their club mates follow. However, at best many are still not training optimally or at worst aren’t benefitting at all; instead getting continually fatigued, injured or ill due to their club-plan being at odds with numerous aspects of their life. I fell into the latter category until January last year, achieving marginal, unpredictable gains despite maximum effort at the cost of frequent illnesses.

I argue that gains can be made, at least in a subset of athletes, by exploring different training strategies that are more personalised to their racing goals, work-socio-life balances and particular athlete needs (we don’t always respond equally to the same training stimuli).

I could provide a whole load of detail on each routinely incorporated item on my aforementioned list that I believe should be challenged or at least justified from time to time. However, for the sake of space and succinctness I’ll provide detail on only one component with just a few lines for the remainder. The art of hammering sessions.

Case study: Smashing sessions – the good, the (potential) bad and the personalised.

The good: Putting yourself in the pain cave is an important part of training. Just like ‘going to failure’ in weight-lifting regimes, smashing sessions by running to the limit provides the maximum amount of stress/stimulus to your body in order to gain the maximal amount of training adaptation.

Psychologically, it is also important to develop that pain-tolerance come race day when you really do need to empty the tank. As for the choice of days – its obviously important to lock down the same days of the week for sessions to facilitate big groups which push us to work harder. But do we need to be red-lining all year round?

The (potential) bad: Distance running isn’t like weight-lifting, to improve it’s not just as simple as being able to cope with increasing amount of weight each week with adequate recovery time in between.

It’s also about developing the aerobic engine with those mid-week sessions and long runs, it’s about putting in those threshold runs and, more holistically, it’s about putting it altogether into a sustainable weekly structure that can promote consistency over a period of months.

Red-lining in sessions week-in-week-out can potentially jeopardise both these factors. On one hand it may leave us too fatigued and sore to implement the other training ingredients (i.e. the long easy miles and the tempos) effectively. On the other, we increase our risk of niggles and infection because we are constantly throwing ourselves into full-scale recovery twice a week which can put paid to any consistency.

My personalised alternative: The majority of the year I train at 80-90% in sessions. I get a lot of the session’s intended benefit and subsequent adaptation with minimum fatigue allowing me to string together largely uninterrupted blocks of training prior to a racing period. I don’t judge my progress on comparing absolute rep times.

Compared to a previous session, running similar rep times at a lower perceived effort (or heart rate) or with additional reps, shorter recoveries or even off the back of a higher volume training week are all alternative metrics I use for confirming progress which doesn’t rely on increasing intensity alone.

Around 2-4 weeks out from a target race I wring the towel on my training and get back towards 100% effort. I’m able to do this far more easily, because I’ve gotten myself very fit with a good block of consistent training – it’s a self-reinforcing cycle.

During this more intense ‘crunch time’ training period I allow myself an extra day recovery opting to train on Fridays instead of Thursdays. For a marathon crunch block I’ll maximise my recovery time even further by training hard only on Sunday and Wednesday. Shifting my week around like this does make for some lonely sessions but I’m often stronger and tougher as a result.

A four second video to illustrate what it means to have just clocked 2.21 at Frankfurt marathon. Over the .

HM negative splits: 71:27 / 70:27 so couldn’t ask for much better than that! #sub22 #frankfurtmarathon #runtheskyline pic.twitter.com/KIgtcUxsrY

— Alexander Bampton (@ABampton) October 27, 2019

Challenge the rest of your training plan

There are many more things which we should try to be more flexible about from time to time. Here’s just a short-list of some of the other fairly universally incorporated training items I’ve challenged with a few accompanying lines for why each component may not be optimum for everyone and how I’ve personalised it to my own needs.

We switch to speed work and drop to lower weekly volume around May time.

I refer you to Will Mycroft’s elegantly written, statistically supported FastRunning article exploring why UK athletes race faster on the road than the track. Is there something special about Armagh and Ipswich 5k or are we just fitter in Spring before we dramatically drop our volume and switch to speed work?

We easy run at very similar paces.

It’s been known for a long time that Kenyans are content jogging 9+ minute miling on easy days. Dropping slower than 8 min/mi (occasionally 9+) on recovery days, whilst more boring and marginally more time consuming, really freshens up my legs on recovery days which is the point after all!

We reserve Fridays for resting or our easiest run of the week.

I think the reasoning for this one is as much psychological as it is traditional. It’s the end of a long tiring week and seems the best time to relax or at least run a bit less. Although again, not everyone is the same – for a start not everyone works Monday – Friday and, even for those that do may not actually be at their most physically fatigued on Fridays.

I’m a night owl. My sleep pattern is hit hardest on Monday after a weekend of sleeping a little longer, then there’s a few days of mild sleep deprivation before my circadian rhythm catches up with itself again and by Thursday/Friday I’m more or less synchronised. Hence, I actually prefer to backload my week with longer runs or sessions Thursday / Friday following my lightest day of the week (Wednesday) after a Tuesday night session (which itself disrupts sleep).

We long run similar distances on Sundays.

Many athletes who step up to the marathon report that they smash their half, 10k (and sometimes even 5k) PBs along the way; often regardless of how they actually perform in the marathon itself. One reason for this may be the additional aerobic gains made from stepping up those long runs. I decided to make 2 hours my staple long run most of the year round and feel it’s a strong component in keeping me strong in the latter stages of any endurance races.

We begin to double at a similar threshold of mileage (on similar days).

Doubles can allow us to increase our overall weeks’ mileage whilst maintaining a reduced risk of injury. Many athletes also like to warm up their legs earlier in the day on session days. However, once again this may not be the most optimal strategy for all athletes wanting to maximise their aerobic gains.

I pretty much abandoned doubling nearly 2 years ago. Firstly, I’m terrible first thing in the morning so much prefer to opt for a little more sleep before work. Secondly, I have found I have gotten very fit by running ~ 70-85 miles per week in singles without feeling excessively fatigued. Maybe I’ll double as my average weekly volume continues to creep upwards, but there’s no hard and fast threshold for when that should be.

Summing up

Of course, I don’t advise altering all these components at once. These are just some ideas for how an athlete might start to think about personalising their training regimes a bit more to match both their personal circumstances and racing plans over the course of the season.

We tend to associate improvement with more intense training and/or increased mileage. In this article I hope I’ve formulated an argument for a third source of improvement – that of being more efficient with the amount of fast running we are already doing.

You can check out Alex’s blog for more of this thoughts on training and racing and keep an eye on FastRunning for more from the Highgate ace. 

Are you a fan of Fast Running? Then please support us and become a patreon. For as little as the price of a monthly magazine you can support Fast Running – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

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All Kenyans and Ethiopians run fast for the marathon, every club runner in the ‘80s ran all their training below sub six minute mile pace and if you have a dodgy moustache like Steve Prefontaine then you must be quick. If you belong to a certain group, do you adopt the characteristics of the pack?

How we see ourselves in society may well have an impact on how we run. Identify as an elite runner because you run twice a day and only wear short shorts, then this actually might make you a quicker runner. A sense of belonging to a certain group and what we feel this entails can affect performance. Let me try and explain.

Some science that’s kind of related

Okay so this is a study about planking by Carly Priebe and Kevin Spink, but bare with me here. The researchers undertook a study with 68 regular pilates enthusiasts (only nine of whom were male to have a nice bit of female focused research for a change) and asked them to perform two planks to exhaustion.

The plank is a core exercise that just involves holding your body parallel to the ground in almost a press up position and can get a little tiring, especially if you’re not used to it. The study group was told they would do two planks, with a three minute break in between, and they would be given an average time for the two.

As expected the control group were unable to hold the plank for the same amount of time the second time around and dropped performance by 18%.

The other group were told that the majority of people like them (same age, gender, experience) are actually able to hold the second plank for longer and they were expected to have a better second performance than the control group. They actually outdid their first effort by an average of five per cent!

So what?

Just because they were told that their peer group should be able to outperform expectations, they actually came up with the goods. The subjects believed they were part of a social group that could hold the plank for longer in the second attempt, and so they did.

So what does this mean for runners? Could the Confucius saying “those who think they can and those who think they can’t are usually both right” be scientifically proven?

When a runner went down to the club back int he 1980’s they got there and likely saw a whole bunch of their peers, with similar age, build, jobs, hobbies etc. all running quick times. The fastest chap at each club was just like them, so they must be able to achieve the same things. The power of self belief.

If we were to tell a pack of runners that they should be able to run X because this is what their peers can do, then they should be able to perform better because of this. Your social identity can be used to push your own boundaries further.

The same could be said of Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes, although there are certain biological aspects that are highlighted in David Epstein’s The Sporting Gene that make a large difference too, but the self belief is there. It’s there for Jamaican sprinters, New Zealand rugby players and Scouse footballers (just kidding, I meant Brazilian). The stereotype oft born from great role models in the past creates a deep inner belief that they too can achieve in a certain discipline. 

How can this help?

On a personal level it might just be about finding a group to belong to that has positive habits. What can you do to be a little bit more like them? It might be training twice a day, rocking the club vest every weekend or always getting your stretching done before and after each session. If you’re in a social group that takes the things seriously, then you do too and then your subconscious will start to believe you can run as quick as everyone else in the group too.

Look at Sean Tobin’s comments about the Melbourne Track Club or Jake Shelley’s focus on the group he used to run with in the US at University. It’s not just having company on your run, but belonging to a high performance group that makes you expect more out of yourself. Feidhlim Kelly’s Dublin Track Club pictured above show is another fine example.

If you are part of a club then look for a role model, but also be a role model for those around you too. Help others feel like they belong in the group, something runners are great at, and that sense of belonging will bring with it a boost.

If you’re new to ultra running then even just doing things that make you “feel like an ultra runner” or like me training for Valencia marathon I donned my club vest as that is what fast club runners do. They represent their club and when I put on the blue and yellow North Norfolk Beach Runners vest I felt like I belonged more to a system that had produced so many great British marathoners in the past.

Find a way to identify with where you want to be. Help others do the same. Being in a great training group let’s you see first hand that those running quicker are just like you, therefore you can run quicker too.

Team NB Manchester can be as much about how it makes the athletes feel more professional than just a sponsor

Get to know those you train and race with

If you’re not part of a club then find other quicker runner to train with or race in your local area and try to get to know them. Those you might have previously put on a pedestal will become even more human. You can run as quick as them.

Look online for role models you can relate to. Seeing Mo Farah or Jakob Ingerbritsen run quickly might give a glimmer of inspiration but will it help you believe? Role models need to be relatable. The likes of Dewi Griffiths, Sonia Samuels, Robbie Simpson and Sarah Tunstall are all excellent British runners who I look up to and know that I’m not that different from. 

Head down your local club and get know the people there. We’re all after similar goals but meeting someone who has already achieved what you’re after can show you that it’s possible. Instead of focusing on the fantastic Instagram lifestyles of the super elite, look at the role models in your own social groups.

Start to believe you can achieve brilliant goals is the first step after all. Look at Big Nige. You might say he only ran sub 14 at Armagh International because it was just what his social group around him was doing. It was his normality that day. 

RELATED: Running faster than I’d ever believed possible

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The group run can be a brilliant thing, a mixture of abilities getting together to just chill out, enjoy some easy runs and shoot the shit. It’s a huge part of any athlete’s training. The easy mileage make up a big part of the volume and it’s great to share. 

But share those miles with the wrong person, or even just getting over eager yourself, and the training race begins. 

Half steppin’

So it only takes one half stepper (someone who always has to be half a step ahead, regardless of pace) and a sprinkling of ego for the pace to start picking up. Be it an easy, progression or tempo run, the conversation flows and the pace gets faster every mile.

Someone like myself, a certified half stepper, only need be with another competitive runner and before either of us know, it’s a training race. Living and training with Paul Navesey we both had to make sure the training race wasn’t too common a feature. But it’s not always a bad thing.

Using the training race

Training in groups is generally always a good thing, even when it gets competitive, if you’re sensible. 

It might be that you both have a progression run or if one athlete is just faster than the other, you can accept the pace will ramp up and plan it like that. The same with tempo running, although at least one of you needs to keep an eye on over doing it. 

When a whole bunch of half steppers are involved in a group run or session then things can easily escalate. This competitive edge can be great for an intervals session, pushing each other to your limits and enjoying the sharing of hard work. 

It still takes a sensible head not to get carried away, as smashing yourself in every hard session isn’t the way to go. You don’t always have to go to the well in every session, even the faster ones. 

With consistency being the key to progression, going a few per cent easier in tougher sessions might be the difference between getting injured and having months of uninterrupted training. 

Solo training race

You don’t need company to have a race. With everyone wearing a GPS watch and the world of Strava, you can be having virtual races all the time.

It normally starts as an easy pace but half way though to notice you’re on for a good average pace or a new PB for this loop. At first you ignore it. It’s an easy run, you’re well rested, just take it slow. Then the average pace drops again. It’s race time.

Before you know it you’re in a progression run and your easy 45 minutes is going to be a 36 minute 10k. Hammer time. 

Strava

Strava takes it a step further. I wouldn’t suggest that everyone reading this is a #StravaWanker who researches local segments to go “crush”, but every time you upload you see where they are. Your regular loop has regular segments. 

It’s good to see your own progression over months and years. It’s less beneficial to see it as a competition every time you step out the door and then charge up your favourite hill. These solo training races can leave you exhausted.

The middle ground

What training racing can leave you at risk of is doing all your running in the middle ground. Everything is ‘steady’ or ‘average’. Scientists like Stephen Seiler in Norway have highlighted the importance of polarisation in training.

The biggest difference between elite and non-elite runners wasn’t mileage, pace or hours, it was polarisation. 

The whole 80/20 theory championed by the like of Matt Fitzgerald come from Seiler and other’s work. 80% of your running should be easy and the other 20% at a high intensity.

Do too much in a mile ground between these two and you don’t get either right. You never really get enough easy running in, nor do you get the best out of yourself in the higher intensity sessions. 

Training races are the perfect place to go too hard for your session. Every session should have a purpose and if that’s to go a bit steadier then invite your half stepping mates. If it’s an easy recovery then maybe run solo.

And remember. We all know a training racer. If you can’t think of one, then you are one. Take it easy.

The post Are you a training racer? appeared first on Fast Running.

The joy of a good track session or some sweet single track time is never to be outweighed by such things as an empty fridge after your run, but if you’re not slightly irritated by the five things below, you’re more of a zen master than most runners.

1) Running on empty cupboards

You’ve just run the session of your life. That last 400m effort was offensively fast and you barely managed to stay conscious on your cool down. You’re dreaming of all the food you’re going to eat when you get home.

Then you open the fridge and there’s just a month old tub of coleslaw and one of those bags of salad that’s never opened. The cupboard has some dry lentils but they’ll take hours to cook.

When it comes to running and fuelling, a little planning goes a long way, but forget, and it’s a stagger to an all-night supermarket and eating half your groceries on the way around. A supermarket is a dangerous place to be when you’re ‘rungry’.

A hotel buffet can end up as a danish pastry massacre.

2) The black hole of safety pins

Most races give you safety pins for your number. These build up somewhere and each of us probably owns thousands upon thousands of the things. Yet when it comes to a race without safety pins provided there are ZERO anywhere.

Darting around minutes before the start with one rusty safety pin you found in the glove box of your car, asking all and sundry if they have any spares.

Where do all the safety pins go? Answers on a postcard.

3) Last season’s cross country vest

It’s been the muddiest and wettest cross country season yet. You chuck all your wet kit into a carrier bag and then promptly forget it’s existence. Fast forward a couple weeks, months or a whole track season and your favourite club vest has it’s own ecosystem.

The same can happen when you forget to take a number off post-race. You might lose the safety pins that time, but the sweat and tears combined will rust horrible marks into your top. At least you’ll know where to pin it next time.

4) The bus run

The 6am club can be an important, nay vital, part of marathon training. Up early before work to get those easy miles in before a rushed breakfast. You’ve managed to stop sweating, change into your work clothes and are en route to the bus stop.

Then it comes round the corner. It could be the earlier bus running late or yours running early. You can’t take the chance so the sprint is on. Tired legs take a few seconds to get into stride, especially as you’re wearing brogues/heels now. Surely the driver has seen you?

You get close enough to see the contempt of the unfit and an unhappy busman’s face as it turns to a grin.  Trying to style it out as if you weren’t running for the bus, but just stretching the legs, you wait for the next one.

Then the sweating starts. Your body was already a bit warm from the morning’s run and now it’s just like someone turned the taps on. FML.

5) Bloopy nips

Last, but by no means least, chaffing. You see plenty of newbies at the London Marathon with the trademark thin red line from each nipple, but it doesn’t happen to an experienced runner like yourself… does it?

A new t-shirt, a particularly humid day or just a scream protest from your neglected teats, it can be halfway through a race and you start to feel them rubbing. The armpits are getting sore too. You thought you were over this and had decided vaseline wasn’t necessary.

Even worse between the legs. You’ve worn those shorts one time too many on sweaty days without a wash. The salt crystals have teamed up against you and suddenly you’re running like John Wayne.

RELATED: Why every runner should love Yuki Kawauchi

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You may have heard it said before that every run you go on needs to have a specific purpose or otherwise it’s just ‘junk miles’.

Junk miles is a horrible term and does a disservice to the beauty of running a mile, whatever pace or reason you’re running.

The purpose

Many feel that every run should have a specific purpose though. Each outing should target an energy system. This is a run for your VO2 Max, this one is for lactate threshold and this slower one is to improve aerobic capacity. 

It’s as if runners can just turn off other ‘systems’ and pinpoint what they are doing on one particular day. If running were such an exact science we wouldn’t need coaches, just scientists with data sheets and a live feed of our insides. If anyone wanted that they would have become a cyclist.

There may well be a main focus for each individual session but the human body isn’t as simple as we sometimes might like. It is also the complexity that makes us great. 

The holistic approach

Holistic is a term that gets chucked around all the time. “The belief that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole” if you use Google. You cannot train one element without affecting the whole. 

Yet why stop at only the biological factors of training. What about the biomechanical? The psychological? 

A sprinter needs to work on their biomechanics, we all know this. Distance runners do too. If you have a great engine but terrible efficiency then you’re not going anywhere.

It’s one reason why a world class cyclist can’t just trash the marathon world record. Did you see Chris Froome try to run uphill when his bike broke?

Psychology can matter even more. If the mind isn’t prepared for race day then the body will never reach it’s potential. It can all be trained. 

Double, even triple, purpose

There is no limit to the purposes a run can have. Take for example the lowly ‘easy run’.

One might say it was simply in place to improve endurance. Another might suggest it is there for recovery, running efficiency, base building, enjoyment of running, building volume or any host of other reasons.

Why would we limit the purpose of a run to one? Surely there should be at least two or three reasons you’re lacing up those shoes and heading out the door.

As an ultra runner, it’s even easier to add more purpose to your easy running. Practising pacing, nutrition, kit, mental strategies or even just enjoying the environment around you will all benefit you on race day. 

The fast stuff

It can be useful to think of the purposes of your session when planning. If you’re a 5000m runner or a marathoner, having multiple purposes in mind will make your training more effective.

Look at Elsey Davis’ recent favourite session article. In there the South West based athlete is training specifically for 10,000m running. There is 10,000m of volume for the efforts but not every effort is done at 10,000m pace.

Different energy systems are stressed with mile efforts and shorter race finish sprints. But the purposes don’t stop at the physiological. The biomechanical element of shifting to different speeds on tired legs is in there too. Then the tactical and mental benefits come in.

The practice of tactics

Training at a range of speeds within one session, as Davis spoke about, can be a great place for mental training too. One can visualise the tactics of past or future races and how you react. Imagine the leader kicking from 1600m out or the final dash to the line. 

Preparing your mind can often be underrated, but it can provide the edge an athlete needs on race day.

It’s not just on the track either. An easy run could be a place to imagine moving well over the final section of a 100 miler or a progression run in your local country lanes can become the run along Pall Mall at London marathon.

It takes no extra effort to add psychological training to your run. Although some days you do need to just run and enjoy it.

The purpose of fun

Back we come to the idea of ‘junk miles’. What constitutes a junk mile to someone? Many would say it was something slow and meaningless. Why run slow when you could just run fast?

Yet studies have shown that low intensity running is an integral part of any runner’s training. The slow miles certainly aren’t junk.

Equally, if a mile is run for enjoyment then it is good for the runner too. If you’re just out to jump in puddles, shred some single track or enjoy the company of friends then those miles have a purpose. 

Consistency is key and we need to enjoy our running to keep the consistency coming. Social interaction is vital to motivation too so having a run with friends can be part of keeping motivation high too. 

The real junk

Personally, the only real junk miles are the ones where you don’t think about the purpose. You’re not running easy, you’re not running at any particular pace, but it’s just hard. Many athletes just go out and run as hard as they can all the time, but that’s not smart. 

If you can think of a purpose, be it simply enjoyment or a super specific reason, then your run has a purpose. It’s not junk.

Look at the bigger picture and remember that goes beyond even just your running. Everything in life can be linked to training if you can think of a purpose.

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