For many white people, the cruel and unnecessary murder of George Floyd by an American police officer in Minneapolis, has been an uncomfortable reminder that the pandemic of racism continues to infect and pollute our society.

But what is racism? Racism is like a virus, and some of us may not realise we are infected. Racism is one of the most complicated theoretical concepts to define, understand and explain due to its constantly changing nature.

In general, understandings of racism have historically centred around notions that races can be separated by biological differences. However, it would be wrong to misunderstand racism as one absolute concept. Instead, racism is discursive, with diverse origins and multiple manifestations interwoven with other aspects of our identity and tailored to suit the motives of persecutors.

Regardless of how you understand racism, the ultimate goal of its poisonous ideology is to facilitate the dominance of those who are racially or ethnically different; the ‘others’.

Within sport

Some of the racism that we see in sport today can be traced back to the repulsive past of the eugenic sciences, which have been used to justify the subjugation and murder of so called ‘inferior peoples’.
One of the most prevalent theories to emerge from eugenics, was that physical strength (‘brawn’) was inversely related to intelligence (‘brain’).

Put simply, the bigger and stronger you are, the less intelligent you are likely to be. In the early 20th century, black men in particular, were often constructed as purely ‘physical specimens’ who were devoid of ‘character’ and needed ‘management’ by their ‘white superiors’.

Covert racism?

The murder of George Floyd was a horrific example of overt racism. As the description suggests, overt racism is public and visible and ranges from callous racial slurs, to the enactment of physical violence based on nothing more than the colour of a person’s skin.

Racism is still prominent in the world of sport, and I implore you to watch this powerful interview from the BBC with Welsh sprinter Sam Gordon on his experiences; however, in this article, I focus on the notion of covert racism.

Covert racism is a form of racial discrimination that is apparently disguised and subtle and can even be expressed in a so-called ‘positive’ way. So, let’s stop, and think; what traits and descriptions come to mind when we think about, for example, black long-distance runners?

Naturally talented? Effortless? Unnatural? Endurance “beasts” or “monsters”? “the Africans”?

I’m sure you will have heard and even said some of the words listed above, I know I have. That’s the thing about covert racism, it takes racial biases and hides and even rationalises them within an explanation that society is willing to accept.

Born to run

Indeed, the hugely damaging notion that black people are “born to run” and excel in sports that require power or endurance, is routed in eugenics and closely shadowed by a notion that black people were not born to think. This is evidenced by the ‘stacking’ of athletes in certain sports or positions based on racial stereotypes.

From the marketing materials of sportswear giants to the conversations in clubhouses up and down the UK, East African endurance athletes in particular, are depicted as possessing a naturalised aura of invincibility; a dominance cast as a cultural symbol of their region, rather than hard work, skill, intelligence, collectivism or their approach to training.

How often do we see black athletes described as being ‘enabled’ by racialised descriptions of natural and thus effortless athleticism? Adverts are regularly constructed to show elite East African athletes entwined in vegetation and alongside murals of animals in their “natural environment”. These representations evoke notions of the fictional ‘jungle’ that has been constructed by colonial powers to “represent the savage, untamed and wild”.

The animalization of black people has a long history, which is ultimately rooted in slavery. Here, to justify slavery, black bodies needed to be dehumanised, for if a man or woman is inferior or ‘sub-human’, it becomes morally justifiable to treat them as objects.

Endurance dominance

Now, it would be wrong to ignore the dominance of endurance running by athletes from East African nations, but the domination of individual sports by countries or regions is not unique and nor is it new. The presumed causes of such domination are often recycled, out of date, and based on misinformation and myths.

Genetic inheritance is commonly stated as an “obvious” cause of East African dominance in distance running, just as it was used to explain how Scandinavian distance runners dominated the sport in the first half of the 20th century. Here, the Scandinavian (and particularly Finish) environment of lakes, forests and mountains was wrongly seen to give their athletes a ‘natural’ advantage.

Not the only people born at altitude

Today, being born and living at altitude is often reductively touted as the recipe for East African success. This is despite the differences in athletic performance observed between areas of similar altitude. For example, why don’t we see more Nepalese, Mexican and Tibetan endurance superstars?

Although living and training at altitude results in a variety of physiological adaptations, the exact nature and relative importance of these adaptations to the success of athletes from altitude are yet to be concretely evidenced. They should not be treated in isolation from social and cultural factors.

Out of our control?

Accusations of doping aside, sports scientists, coaches and runners who dedicate their time to improving athletic performance, seem to be all too ready to accept that the modern-day dominance of East African distance runners, is due to factors that are out of their control.

In doing so, East African runners are too often cast as unnatural ‘others’. This expresses a connection between race and ability, and suggests that talent is innate rather than earned. Is it so hard to believe that many East African nations have not only made distance running one of their national sporting priorities, but that their athletes simply train smarter and work harder than everyone else? Defending East African distance runners is not a popular position in the British running community, but I ask, should we not switch our default position from suspicion and stereotype to admiration and appreciation?

The forms of covert racism discussed in this article are endemic and normalised within our language, but they ultimately infer a belief that you can understand someone based on what you ‘know’ about their race.

So, it pays to remember that even if you think the way you understand a black athlete is ‘positive’, if you express a connection between race and ability, you are mirroring the ideologies that justify oppression and dominance.

Said, Edward W. (2000). “Jungle Calling”.

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The post The “Africans”: covert racism in long distance running appeared first on Fast Running.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic began, we’ve been repeatedly told that Covid-19 does not discriminate and that we, as humankind, are “all in this together”; however, if you scratch the surface, you’ll find this discourse is a thin veil, behind which inequality festers. 

But how does this relate to running? Well, whilst the lockdown restrictions are universal, our experiences of them are unique. 

In this article, I consider how the current ‘lockdown’ is disproportionately affecting how women experience the sport we love. I argue that rather than being an ‘equaliser’, the lockdown is exacerbating existing inequalities.

I specifically explore how lockdown has stripped away some of the ‘coping strategies’ female runners use to ‘deal’ with the discrimination they face every time they lace up their trainers (and before they even get out the house, if they can).

Privilege disclaimer

Now, I should acknowledge that I am a white, middle-class man who will never be able to fully understand the lived experiences of female runners, and also that women’s experiences will be further separated by their race, sexuality, class, age and religion. 

To improve the quality of my understanding, I have spoken with a number of brilliant women who participate in our sport, in order to understand how lockdown has shaped their training. Furthermore, I believe that making our sport fairer and more welcoming is the responsibility of us all.   

My conversations with inspiring women, of differing ages and abilities, broadly revealed two types of “Covid constrictions”; those that reduce the opportunity to train, and those that degrade the experience of running itself. 

The famous picture of Kathrine Switzer being forced from the Boston Marathon in 1967.

During the run

Regardless of the lockdown measures, if you’re a woman who runs, you are likely to experience public heckling and other intimidating behaviours far too regularly.

You are also more likely to be ‘judged’ more frequently and harshly than your male counterparts, whether it concerns what you wear, how your hair looks or even what kind of ‘game face’ you pull. 

Talk to any female runner, and they’ll have most likely been inappropriately sexualised: “nice arse, love”; fat-shamed: “thunder thighs”; or judged for the kit they were wearing within the last week “put it away, you slag”.

These are just some of the insults that female runners, within my peer group, have experienced in just the last few weeks. 

I thought I knew about the challenges that women face when out running, but speaking openly with my friends showed the quite staggering amount of crap they have to deal with on a regular basis.

How we react

The way we respond to such afflictions falls into a number of different types of behaviours. These behaviours are typically reactive: ‘responding or escaping’; or proactive ‘avoidance and employing safety behaviours’:  

• Responding: lashing out in response e.g. putting your fingers up to a cat-caller;
• Escape behaviours: leaving or escaping from a situation; this might cause you to end your run prematurely after a negative experience, or change location mid-session;
• Safety behaviours are designed to limit your experience, enhance your control and increase your protection from a given situation; this might include running in a group or carrying a deterrent; and 
• Avoidance involves the complete avoidance of the feared situation. Ultimately, this may mean choosing not to run alone after a negative experience or a perceived threat. 

It’s worth noting that these behaviours are not isolated and can manifest simultaneously and sequentially.

For example, one might justifiably respond aggressively to a cat call, and then cut short a run because you feel upset and vulnerable afterwards. Alternatively, these events might occur sequentially; here, you may feel intimidated running on a certain route, and choose to avoid it in the future.

Credit: Tom Craggs

How has lockdown affected this?

So how does lock-down come into this? After speaking with several female runners, I’ve identified two themes associated with the lockdown:

1. A reduction in natural surveillance: when usually busy locations are quiet, and runners feel more ‘exposed’; and,
2. The inability to run with a partner or group: when spaces that once felt relatively safe in a pair or group, become potentially threatening to an individual. 

I have included some of my respondent’s experiences below: 

Respondent 1 (mid-twenties, lives in suburban area and is a club runner):

“Although there are a lot less cars around, I feel like the number of idiots (in cars) has gone up. People seem braver, they think it’s okay to speed and cut you up, and I’ve definitely had more people shout stuff at me when I’m out (running) too…”  

“Has it made me change how I run, well, err, it’s nothing that new, and I wouldn’t say I had actively made a choice, but I suppose I have stuck to the routes in my local area where there are more people around”

Respondent 2 (mid-thirties, lives in a city centre area and is a recreational runner):

“it’s just so eerie in town, don’t you think? It sought of makes me feel uncomfortable and I know it sounds silly, but I just think all the dodgy characters might still be around, and if you’re on your own, well it’s, it’s a bit less safe!

Respondent 3 (late-twenties, lives in a suburban area and is a club runner)

“For me the biggest thing has been running alone, it’s so hard and I’m less motivated… but, well, well you know I’m pretty confident and loud, and stuff, but there are places I don’t run when I’m on my own… 

I know that’s not much to complain about, if you compare it to what some people are going through, but it’s not fair that I should have to change my behaviour, because of, well, things I shouldn’t have to think about in 2020” 

Barriers to running 

In the preceding section of this article I explored some of the challenges that women face when out running. Next, I consider how entrenched stereotypes and the imbalance of caregiving combine with life under lockdown to restrict training opportunities. 

Entrenched stereotypes insist that men are breadwinners whilst women are homemakers and caregivers. As a result, women across the world spend up to ten times more time doing unpaid care work than men, according to a United Nations study. One of the most time intensive elements of unpaid care is, of course, raising children.

So, we know that in two-parent households’ women generally tend to bear the burden of childcare and household admin, but, as one of my correspondents highlighted, this time constraint is further exacerbated in single-parent households and for her has become “virtually all consuming”.

Impact on single parent families

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the proportion of families with children headed by single parents is approximately 25% in the UK. Importantly, a staggering 90% of single parent households are led by women.

Firstly, I should state that single mothers are amazing, and there is little evidence that growing up outside of the ‘nuclear family’ has a detrimental impact on children’s cognitive development, it’s more the dearth of financial support that’s the problem! 

One of my single-parent respondents expressed her frustrations at being trapped in her house, with an ability to find any time for herself, let alone run:

“My training has virtually ground to a halt because:

1) The children are home all day and they are not old enough to be left home alone while I run;

2) I will always choose to use my daily permitted exercise to go out with the kids rather than run solo;

3) When the kids go to their Dad’s house, I need to use that child-free time to get my work done. I’m self-employed and charge clients by the hour, so if I don’t do the hours, I don’t earn! 

4) In the rare time that I’m not mothering or working, I have other essential tasks that need to be prioritised above training – shopping for food, housework, planning home-schooling, admin, cutting the lawns, calling friends/relatives (essential as I have no adult contact during lockdown) or just recharging my batteries”

Take a minute to think

Women are supposed to gratefully embrace the toils of childcare, because “that’s what good mums do, right?”, but imagine being isolated from adult contact, still working to earn your keep and also being a full-time carer. Another respondent expressed how stressed she was feeling, and how deeply she lamented the inability to feel the exhilaration and stress busting qualities of training:

“The lack of time for training has had an effect on my general wellbeing and mental health. Training is the one thing that was ‘mine’ and it’s pretty much gone, for the foreseeable future” 

Lockdown is tough for all of us, and everybody is feeling some form of stress whether it’s from job insecurity, loneliness or being at risk of infection; however, many groups in society feel the current social and financial pressures more keenly. 

Ultimately, running is not a big issue, but it does offer a form of escapism and a valuable stress-busting activity that you can call your own; the fact some people cannot ‘run free’ because of who they are is something you should be angry about. 

Jasmin Paris after winning the Montane Spine Race overall. Photo: Montane Spine Race

An appeal

Finally, I’d like to make an appeal, if you think lad culture and sexualised banter is, well, just banter, you’ll be disappointed to find that it’s actually a form of verbal assault that changes the way people live their lives.

Countless studies have shown that ‘lad culture’ can be directly associated with sexual harassment and violence. It’s your responsibility to extinguish it, not just abstain from it. 

Normally we have an appeal to support Fast Running at this point, but how about supporting the great Women in Sport charity instead? Learn more about their work or make a donation here. 

The post We all have a role in sporting equality appeared first on Fast Running.

The humble tempo run (or lactate threshold run) has featured prominently in the training plans of some of Britain’s greatest distance runners. However, despite ringing endorsements from some esteemed athletes, the tempo run is often neglected, misunderstood or mislabelled.

In light of this, a good place to start is defining what we mean by a tempo run. Taking the definition of renowned exercise physiologist Jack Daniels, I consider a tempo run to be:

• A training run of at least 20 minutes volume ran at a consistent pace;
• Approximately 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than your current 5K race pace; and,
• Bloody hard – approximately 6-7 out of 10 for your rate of perceived exertion (RPE).

So, if your 5k PB is 16:00 minutes (5:09ish pace), your tempo pace is roughly between 5:35 and 5:40 pace per mile.
Why should you run a tempo?

Physiologically speaking, the point of the humble tempo run is to lift the ceiling of your lactate threshold. Put simply, your lactate threshold is the point during exercise when lactate builds up in your muscles and blood faster than it can be removed. When you venture above your lactate threshold, you can expect your discomfort to rise rapidly! Sound familiar?

Finding your tempo

So how do you find your tempo, and what should you avoid doing?

• Don’t just rock up: you should prepare for a tempo run as you would do for any other hard interval session; meaning: a warmup, strides, drills and activation exercises. Don’t take the approach of ‘easing into it’, start on pace, finish on pace and achieve your goals. Furthermore, if you’re putting your body through a significant slog of ‘comfortably hard running’, you want to ensure your core and glutes are firing nicely.

• Don’t run in no man’s (or woman’s) land: the zone between your steady running pace and your tempo pace is, in my opinion, a dead zone. Here, you’re not running hard enough to develop the physiological adaptions you seek, but are breaking your body down more than you would during a steady run. Think of it this way, it’s dangerous driving at 45mph in a 30mph or 60mph zone, so keep it legal.

• Don’t label a bad race as a tempo run: the aim of the tempo run is to be consistent. Therefore, calling a race where you set off too quickly and hit the wall ‘a tempo’, isn’t doing you any favours. If you’re not up for the race, don’t toe the line.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Today I got my first taste of marathon training sessions … As many of you will know my aim is to compete in the marathon at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022. So, with 2 years to go, I thought it was about time I started doing some proper marathon sessions. Today I started with 8 miles, 4 miles, 4 miles at 5:05 pace off 2.5 minutes recovery. It was a long old slog, but I’m chuffed that I managed to pull it off My training has progressed nicely since coming back from injury, and even though there is no tangible race to aim for, my hunger and desire are strong. But for now, I’m just looking forward to more in the garden cheers! #metricmarathon #marathon #26.2 #marathonsesh marathoncontinues #marathonprep #Runnershigh #berlinbound #hokaoneone #hoka #timetofly #trainhard #resteasy #ukrunchat #runasone

A post shared by Jack Gray (@raverunner93) on Apr 25, 2020 at 2:18pm PDT

When and where to do your tempos?

In my opinion, you need a traffic-free route devoid of any potential ‘interruptions’ to successfully complete a tempo run. I choose to complete my tempo runs on grass circuits of between 1km and 1mile. Grass circuits work best for me. They reduce the impact on my legs and provide feedback through features on the loop. For examaple I know my watch should read approximately 2 minutes when I pass the ‘mouldy bench’, or 2 minutes 30 when I pass the ‘flower bed’.

Please note, if your tempo loop includes hills or rough ground, or the weather is awful, this will inevitably slow you down; this is where the importance of judging your effort e.g. 6-7 out of 10 is important.

Due to time-constraints during the week, I choose to do my tempo runs on Saturdays; this gives me the time to prepare properly. I particularly value my leisurely Saturday morning coffees. I like having the time to indulge myself doing drills and activation exercises before I get going.

Personally I love the grind of tempo runs, and the ability to lose myself in the zone. Even the attrition is alluring, as I deliriously think to myself “was that 11 or 12 laps?”. This weekend, I did a 10 mile tempo (30 mins, 3 mins jog, 20 mins), keeping my splits on my 3 minute loops within 2-3 seconds of each other.

Getting it done

If you’re just getting started, here are a few tempo session ideas:

• 3 x 10 minutes (off 2 minutes recovery). Run this session at the faster end of your tempo range;
• 15 minutes (3 minutes recovery) 10 minutes. Run 15mins at the slower end and 10mins at the quicker end of your tempo range;
• 20 minutes straight through. Run this session at the slower end of your tempo range.

Tempo sessions often feel good at the start, but the fatigue really creeps up on you. For that reason, they are perfect preparation for those races that gradually grind you down, like the 10k, half-marathon and marathon.

I firmly believe that introducing a hard tempo run into my weekly training programme has given me the requisite physiological adaptions and mental fortitude to take my running to the next level.

What’s the take home message? I implore you to respect and understand the tempo, not to fear or neglect it. So, this week, as part of your lockdown learning, calculate your tempo pace. Prepare properly before you set out for your tempo. Race up and get ready to make your distance running foundations rock solid.

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The post Pushing the tempo appeared first on Fast Running.

In addition to promoting the collaborative administration of training programmes, coaches should also encourage athletes to engage with their programmes at the micro-scale i.e. through understanding the purpose of their daily sessions. 

Personal experience has shown me that training plans devoid of variation, and input from the athletes that perform them, can struggle to achieve buy-in in the long-term.

To explain, if an athlete’s training is controlled by a coach in an overly regimented pattern, and the reasoning behind training sessions isn’t explained, the act of training can become a process of “getting it done”. To avoid this philosophy taking hold, coaches could provide a basic description of the physiological purpose of each session, and how this relates to the broader programme.

These descriptions can be short and simple, and should be adapted to an athlete’s level of understanding, such as: 

“Thursday’s tempo session is designed to increase your lactate threshold. The purpose of this session is to delay the build-up of lactic acid in your legs, and give you the strength to keep pushing towards the end of a race; this will complement the largely anaerobic 3k pace speed work we’re doing on Tuesday.”

Not just about “smashing out the session”

Unfortunately, the “getting it done” mentality has become associated with being a ‘hard man or woman’ and is often lorded (on certain social media sites) as being the bedrock of the golden years of British endurance running.

Although it was acceptable in the 80s, from a coaching perspective, I believe this philosophy can neglect the need to engage the mind as well as the body of the athlete.  For example, in a 10 x 400m session, what should the athlete primarily be thinking about?

1. Getting to the last rep, and completing the 4km of volume; or,
2. Running the session to work on their speed endurance and thinking of that key 3000m race?

Whilst we inevitably look forward to finishing a gruelling session, having the latter mindset (or being reminded of it), I believe, is more conducive to an athlete being able to challenge their perceived limits and capabilities. 

To achieve this level of engagement, the onus is also on athletes to actively engage with their training programmes and make the effort to understand the importance of each training element.

Indeed, we live in a time where we demand results immediately, but the foundations of success are built on more than miles in the legs. You, as an athlete, may be willing to spend 10 hours a week pounding the streets, but how many of you spend half an hour thinking about why you are doing it?

Simply put, the more aware the athlete is of their body and their true limits, the more likely they are to fulfil their potential.

Reshaping the Recipe 

As the cliché goes, variety is the spice of life. However, simply rotating sessions predictably is perhaps not ambitious enough; instead, I advocate for smarter training plans that actively aim to destabilise the disciplinary impacts of training, and the quagmires of motivations they can induce.

The first step should be to reduce the monotony of training, both in terms of locality and the form of the session; this is something I need to work on myself [Although that might be a struggle at the moment – Ed.]

Below I have included a few practical examples, some observed at running clubs in the UK, that could be used to keep runners on their toes:

1. Sessions ‘a la carte’: provide athletes with a menu of sessions when they arrive at training. This will keep athletes on their toes, and reduce the time they spend agonising over splits. Athletes will also be keen to prove their choice was right, after all, nobody likes to be proven wrong.
2. Reinvigorate time itself: no, this is not a flyer from the latest yoga craze, but a move toward changing how time is used in sessions. For example, rather than prescribing 4 x 1km, a coach could ask their athletes to run as many metres as they can over 2:50, 56, 41 and 57 (or an average of whatever their usual KM splits would be). This approach could help to break the often limiting combination of time and distance and encourage athletes to develop a better understanding of their own fatigue.

We just thought a picture of Jack winning a race would be nice at this point in the article. Look how happy he is! Photo: Stephen Lee

Inevitably the introduction of new practices, such as running odd distances, has the potential to cause controversy, and, of course, they can become normalised too.

Therefore, in order to curb the rigidity and stagnancy of repetitive regulation, coaches could look to continually make small modifications to keep athletes alert and challenged. The movement towards unconventional uses of time and distances will also require monitoring from coaches, both to ensure athletes are not overdoing it, or finding the changes too stressful.

In addition to the benefits outlined above, learning to train dynamically has the potential to change the athlete’s perception of fatigue. Here, a movement away from training sessions that are dictated by markers of time and distance could enable the athlete’s experience of fatigue to become more sensual i.e. the athlete should begin to ‘feel’ when they are approaching exhaustion, rather than being intimidated by hitting a mile marker at a certain pace.

Conclusion

This article does not provide a recipe for a successful coach-athlete dynamic, for which there is none; instead, it advocates for the development of thinking athletes.

Central to developing thinking athletes is moving beyond an understanding of the athlete as a machine that can be controlled by a mathematical formula. To achieve this, I have suggested that coaches avoid using training plans as procedures to simply control and regulate the development of their athletes, and implored athletes to actively engage with their training plans to understand the importance of each training element.

So, I’m asking you to be an active athlete, who is continually learning how to break your constantly expanding barriers, rather than one who is working within their perceived limits. 

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The post The engaged athlete 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.

The post Bound to the plan appeared first on Fast Running.

**editors note – this article was written before Coronavirus started to impact on UK race schedules. Whilst there is a chance that Jack might need to wait a touch longer to test his fitness we hope that you will enjoy the article just as much!**

When runners get injured, our first two questions tend to be:

1) How long until I can run again?

2) What training can I do in the meantime?

Then, when we get permission to bob up and down in the pool (aqua running), stare bleakly at a wall whilst cross country skiing our way to nowhere on the elliptical, or churn too big a gear on the bike (that we can’t handle very well), we think of the fitness we are losing/retaining.

In the first edition of this two-part article, I document my own cross-training journey and my return to ‘terrestrial’ running. In the second, I test how much fitness I’ve lost through the medium of the Mid-Cheshire 5km. 

Slippy winter training

For me, December 2019 was a time of too many mince pies, pigs in blankets and miles for my own good.

A slip during a cross country session, and my short-sighted neglect of recovery time as I pushed to get ready for the World Half Marathon trials, led me to develop a crippling gluteal injury, which was compounded, a few weeks later, during an icy cycling accident.  

It was no coincidence that I sustained my injury when my partner, and brilliant physiotherapist, Becky Hair, wasn’t around to keep me in check. Upon her return, Becky instructed her ‘hobbly’ partner to resist his urge to cross-train and prescribed a week of rest, followed by a week of gentle glute activation exercises.

After the calm of a rest period

Following initial rest, I began been mixing up the cross-training, jumping between aqua running, cycling and spinning, and, my least favourite, the elliptical. Although one might argue aqua running and the elliptical are more running specific, the traumatic incident of witnessing a lifeguard inelegantly fish a toddler’s stool out of the pool, a mere 13 metres away from my head, was the only excuse I needed to isolate my cross training to my second love, my bike(s). 

I’ve always loved the sensation of cycling, and living in Cambridge has compounded that even more, to the extent that I now sit on a saddle at least 6 times per week. Feeling at one, even in love, with a piece of carbon or aluminium, is a sensation that’s hard to explain, but, ultimately, I’d sum it up as follows: 

On your bike you can power yourself for miles and miles, go on adventures and see more things than are usually possible in a pair of trainers, and, for the sadists among us, you can break yourself hitting impressive speeds; then, the next day, you can do it all again.  

In practical terms, my sessions on the bike largely mimic my running sessions, but they are longer and include less recovery time, with my shortest ride being 50 mins or so on a turbo trainer. For example, after some extensive warm up / steady riding I may do 24 x 45 seconds hard off 15 seconds spin, to replicate a 16 x 300m session off 1 minute. 

After 7 weeks off running, I plotted my return to hardcore karate chopping action (reference to Jack’s unique running style), with a simple and sensible plan of action: the couch to 5k programme. Although frustrating, initial slow progress was made more tolerable by workouts on the bike, and after 3 weeks of “slowly, slowly”, I received permission to start ramping things up.

Running strong again

I’m now at a point where running is my predominant form of exercise again, and I’m using the bike to make up for time lost on my feet. For example, I am now running 30 miles per week, but cycling for 5 to 6 hours to make up for the missing 50 miles or so of steady running.

Unlike many runners, who focus on ‘building a base’ upon their return to injury, I prefer to get back to the speedy stuff as soon as possible. Although getting back to higher intensity workouts straight away exposes your lack of fitness, and limits the number of miles you can run, I have always seen interval sessions as the most important part of my training and have never been afraid of a challenge. 

Hence, my strategy is to replace proportionally more of those base and ‘junk’ miles with quality workouts on the bike, in the pool or at the gym. In my eyes, this enables me to become accustomed to ‘fast running’ more quickly, whilst reducing the impact on my body and actively strengthening my weaknesses. 

This injury has served as a reminder that I can succeed on lower miles. Therefore, once I get back to full fitness, I’m going to avoid those tokenistic 4 to 5 mile easy runs, and, instead, I’ll put on my cycling shoes, clip-in, and spin as fast as my runners’ legs will carry me.  

Looking ahead

After successfully completing my first few interval sessions in early March, which yielded promising results, I now have 7 weeks to build-up to my first ‘key race’, the Mid-Cheshire 5km. Over the coming weeks I will document my return to running, and, on the 1^st May, find out just how fit I am.

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It’s fair to say that the best way to use any new tool is with an accompanying application of rationality and common sense. I mean, take vehicle parking sensors, the little bleeper is a brilliant assistant, but (I hope) you wouldn’t park without checking your wing mirrors.

Parking sensors aside, how often have you heard another runner (who had a respectable education, and holds down a good job) question the length of a road race, and occasionally the length of an athletics track, because their “watch says it’s short”?

The point being, technology can be a brilliant aid to our running, but it should be used to help guide us on our journey, rather than set our course.

A question of accuracy

So how accurate are GPS watches? Garmin claim that with a “strong signal” the GPS position reported by an outdoor watch can be accurate to three meters. Therefore, if your watch is recording a GPS location every second, and you do not pause an activity while standing still, your watch can record movement of up to 180 meters in one minute. Moreover, for those of us who run among tall buildings, under dense tree cover and bridges, or make sharp turns, GPS is often significantly inaccurate.

The docile athlete

Whilst an extreme over-reliance on GPS watches is harmless, and certainly gives me a good laugh, does it pose a broader question about whether technology and GPS watches in particular are beginning to regulate the behaviour of runners?

Indeed, the increasingly advanced function of GPS watches now advise us on rest, recovery, recommended sessions and even when to “MOVE!”. Although these functions can be useful, especially for those making their first steps as a runner, our watches are arguably moving from passive to active technologies.

These active or interventionist technologies prescribe self-control, obedience and conformance to rules, which some will adhere to over the advice of a coach or experienced club mate. Here, the advent of GPS watches, for all their brilliance, has arguably turned watches from machines designed for calculating time into disciplinarians that regulate time and the way we experience it.

No GPS can help you here…

Induced behaviours

Taken to an extreme, the constant feedback from our watches when we run, could be constructed as a form of social technology that is starting to effect how we run. Here, the greater emphasis on regulating and controlling our running time, through the often addictive qualities of data feedback, influences the way in which people act. There are many examples of these watch induced behaviours (WIBs), and I’ve listed a few common ones below:

The clock watcher: pushing too hard on a steady run, because 6:37 per mile doesn’t look quite as nice as a round 6:30.

The cruiser: not pushing hard enough on a session, because their watch says they’re ‘on pace’, when they might not be!

The obsessive: “I’ve done 13.7 miles, but it won’t hurt if I make it up to 14”

The plonka: misjudging a race by relying too heavily on the pace function of your watch. This one is for all those runners heading over to the Armagh 5km.

As Albert Einstein said “information isn’t knowledge”, and nor does it procure wisdom. Therefore, if you take anything from this article, please use your GPS watch, and its outputs, as a guideline not a barometer. Don’t believe the data, believe in yourself.

Some concluding thoughts

Satellite watches are amazing, don’t get me wrong. I personally use a GPS watch to log my miles and GPS technology is a wonderful tool that has helped countless runners simplify their training plans and run with a greater degree of flexibility.

The statistics and feedback that such technology provides also gives us a wealth of information that can enable runners to make more informed decisions, share their efforts with friends and in many cases push their bodies further with a greater degree of confidence.

However, I believe a drive toward ever more information, data and technology is not always the right choice, even when it appears to provide a solution to an existing problem.

Finally, on a personal note, I think technology can lessen the beautiful simplicity of running. Running takes us into a space of disconnection, where we cannot receive emails, instant messages or notifications, a place where we are alone with our own thoughts or the company of others. Therefore, does the increasing colonisation of this space with gadgets, perhaps detract from our wellbeing?

Jack Gray is a sub 29 minute 10km runner and a member of our Fast10 team for 2020. He is supported by Hoka One One. 

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The post That track is bloody short appeared first on Fast Running.

Always someone to take on a race from the gun, we love his down-to-earth attitude and that the Cambridge & Coleridge man isn’t afraid to put his goals out there for all the world to challenge. We also think his first Fast10 blog should be solely about the story listed under “Fun Facts” below.

Profile

Name: Jack Gray

Age (Jan 2020): 26

Hometown: Birmingham

Club: Cambridge and Coleridge

Main discipline: 10km

Other disciplines: 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, Cross Country… I love it all to be honest.

Full-time athlete/work/studying: Full-time transport planner.

Goals or targets for 2020

1)    Qualify for the World Half Marathon Championships and break 63 minutes;

2)    Debut in the marathon;

3)    Run 28:30 for 10km; and,

4)    Become a national champion.

Past Running highlights: competing for GB at the Night of the 10,000m PBs, and becoming the England Champion of the Roads in 2019.

Jack celebrating being fast at parkrun.

Interesting or fun fact: I once had to run a sub 15min 5km to evade a pack of dogs in rural Ukraine, fuelled by fear, vodka and cured horsemeat.

I run because: I love the thrill of competitive sport, and the sense of camaraderie and sportsmanship that the running community is blessed with.

Favourite training session: 5 x 5 min hill reps (2 mins recovery).

Least favourite training session: anything that involves really short reps and long recoveries, and me desperately trying to hold off 15 year old speed merchants.

Favourite pre-race food: Porridge.

Favourite post-race food: Haddock and chips.

Favourite runner or runners: Marc Scott. He’s bloomin’ fast, but he’s down to earth and a lovely lad.

Brands or organisations that support me: HOKA ONE ONE shoes 2020.

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

The post Fast10: Jack Gray appeared first on Fast Running.