Are You at Boiling Point?

In my experience as a runner and as a coach I’ve come to believe that keeping your training simple and getting the basics right is all too often overlooked.

Running, improving, performing, and being coached is simply about changing behaviour, a tweak here, a tweak there that will enhance your running performance.

Isn’t the goal to becoming a faster runner simple learning how to run with as little effort as possible while being more efficient?

However, a pervasive outsider, at times an invisible force, has appeared to mesmerise us, alluring us to change our values, our sense of reasoning and rationality, and I feel, the change has been underappreciated and consequentially we’ve neglected to notice this subtle, yet pivotal change. Why?

Because we’ve been living in this change as it happens, like frogs in cold water that slowly get heated up without trying to jump out until it’s too late, the running community (and our world) has slowly been getting heated up without us really being aware of it. How? Technology has changed how people run and more importantly how people train. And whilst, unlike the frogs, we could jump out of the modern technological world, it’s quite difficult to do so and still feel as though you are part of this new, modern, running community. 

The run didn’t happen if it isn’t on Strava? Right? Be honest, how often do you let the influence of posting your run onto social media impact whether you followed the training advice given or the plan written because you couldn’t be seen to be “slow” or “lighter than your normal session” or you didn’t “smash” the run or you didn’t finish the run with the most amazing sprint finish. How much of what you do is because you’ve seen Joe Bloggs run their run faster than yours? And do you, more importantly, know that you are doing it? How is your training working for you? Are you constantly injured or does it feel like you are going around and around in circles, constantly exhausted, pushing yourself because of the social media audience?

Tracking our lives has become the norm - calories, weight, sleep, steps…and before we know it, numbers become the route to self-improvement.

But technology and the latest hacks don’t make you run fast, training, and recovery enable you to run faster. Training is an accumulative process and success doesn’t happen overnight, each session in a training plan is of subsequent benefit and included for a reason.  A goal race is the culmination of a training plan, not one run.

Get the basics right!

Kipchoge is the fastest man in the world, he ran consistent splits when he ran a sub 2hour marathon and when he heads out for his training miles, his pace drops considerably.  He does a lot of his miles approx. 2 mins slower than his race pace. 

The principles are the same for all runners, easy miles form the backbone of most training plans, when running easy, slower miles, you use slow twitch muscle fibres and you will work on your cardiovascular strength, these are essential for ALL runners, no matter how far you plan on running.

Learn to listen to your body; (slowly lift your head out of the boiling water) ignore the Strava status and go for an easy run, earn to differentiate between what YOUR easy and YOUR hard runs are.

Keep your easy runs comfortable and conversational, about 5/10, if flat out max effort sprint was a 10 and a walk was a 2.

Of course, we should spend a portion of our time running at speed, I love running fast, but have you heard of the 80/20 rule whereby 80% of our time is running easily and only 20% running at speed. Learning to be disciplined within these parameters will develop you as a runner, learning to be disciplined means you get the best out of each session and meet the objective of the session.

Interval sessions are where you run harder for a short period of time then take a rest between each rep.

Tempo sessions or threshold runs are where the middle section of the run is run at a pace that should be hard but not too fast that you can’t maintain it.  It’s the point where you “feel” the lactate rise significantly in your blood during your run, but it stays at a constant level, it doesn’t tip over the edge.

And how do you know where my tipping point is? This is where you listen to your body, you should just be at a pace that you feel if you went any faster you would tip over to the point that the lactate hits you; fatigue will come at you, full steam, your legs will feel heavy, you’ll slow down and feel sluggish. This is when you’ve tipped over, and you must feel this, you must tip over to know what it feels like; otherwise, how will you know? But it’s taking this point and becoming disciplined with it so that instead of looking at numbers, you FEEL your tipping point.

General aerobic runs – moderate effort but still within the easy zone, the main purpose of these runs is to enhance your overall aerobic conditioning through boosting your weekly miles.

Long runs – the main intention of the long run is to improve your endurance whatever your goal is. Long runs shouldn’t be slow runs during which you just accumulate time on your feet.  The long runs should be run on feel and as you gain experience you will learn what and how other variables impact your pace; see below

You are not a machine; the following factors may influence how your pace feels.

Under-eating – Not eating enough makes training a pointless activity. Your body needs fuel and energy to adapt to training and repair itself.  Many or all the potential benefits of training are simply wasted by an inadequate diet.

Recovery – training is not actually what makes you fitter – what makes you fitter is the adaptation your body undergoes after it has experienced the stimulus of training.

Sleep – poor quality sleep impacts how you perform.

Heat – the heat has a direct impact on how your pace feels.

 Have a look and see if the water is boiling rapidly underneath you, it might be without you even realising it, jump out, life long running, improving your performance is a lot more enjoyable.