I won't watch 'Biggest Loser', why?

Run Training Traps - 3

Through 2010-14 I have held discussions, meetings, race and program reviews, and constructed strategic performance plans with over 700 runners and coaches (and 350+ triathletes). Here are the Top Ten Run-training Traps as a summary. There’s also a cure or ‘get-out’, and a long-term prevention strategy for each.

You want training to be what you want it to be, and effective. Yet, amongst the technology, self-professed gurus, and Coach-google, basic training errors are still made: many out of running’s present culture, some out of habit and ego. Are you trapped by these?

Trap 3: No log, journal or diary.

There is a difference.  A log is a simple objective recording of each training session, week, cycle and phase. It has two parts: a written record of each workout’s content, and a graphical (or tabular) representation of day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month summaries that plot changes in training load. 

A journal is kept in many formats. The simplest and most effective is that of a personal journal where subjective feelings about racing, training, and life are expressed: dreams, thoughts, inspirations etc.  These are reflective and introspective and provide links between the ‘real’ you, the runner you, and your training. They become predictive and constructive in the sense that you learn from them, coming to represent different plans, strategies and hopes for the future. 

A training diary is a combination of a log, and a journal.  A diary also includes a list of goals and objectives, strategies for meeting these objectives, short-term & long-term plans related to training, and various health and lifestyle information.

• Get Out: Use one: many printed and software based training diaries and planners are available. Shop around before purchasing, otherwise it will end up in the bin or on your  ‘desktop’.

• Prevention: Better yet, construct your own. Look for trends and cycles over time. Use the feedback to feed-forward for your next Plan.

     What type of log, journal or dairy do you use?

Why drive? Run...

Run Training Traps - 2

Through 2010-14 I have held discussions, meetings, race and program reviews, and constructed strategic performance plans with over 700 runners and coaches (and 350+ triathletes). Here are the Top Ten Run-training Traps as a summary. There’s also a cure or ‘get-out’, and a long-term prevention strategy for each.

Remember, what works for the pros and what are promoted as “the best”, “the most effective”, “the ideal”, “the latest” or “short-cuts ” are rarely what they are made out to be. They simply don’t work for most. Perhaps these are your trap?

Trap 2: No Training Plan. 

Training units and training sessions are easy. 

You may even have a weekly training schedule or routine (or 5, 8 or 10 day microcycle), essentially doing the same thing week in and week out.  A 3-4 week program may provide progressions in distance and intensity (speed). 

Few have a larger 16-24 week macrocycle plan, a yearly plan or a multi-year plan. It is these master plans that should provide guidance, structure and direction to your program, schedule and sessions. They ensure you get better over time.

•         Get out: ask, analyse and consider how any given session or schedule fits into the bigger picture. Flexibility and enjoyment included, each session should have a purpose and not be executed out of laziness, routine, habit or because someone else (said they) did it.

•         Prevention: Find a coach, or a mentor. Go beyond the big-squad approach. Construct a plan that suits you, your background, your lifestyle and ambitions. Keep an eye to the future, and the other on what needs emphasis each phase of your plan. 

Plan your work, then work your plan.

Run...a blast!

Run Training Traps - 1

We all got into running for one reason or another – some of you recently, a few of us many years ago. You enjoy the active and running lifestyle for your own reasons: health, fitness, wellbeing, state-of-mind, participation, performance, perfection or podium and, in some sense, pride.

Some things have changed; some things haven’t. Your training comes to reflect the reasons why you run. The basics haven’t changed: you still need to run to get running’s benefits: swim, cycle and gym are good, but not as good.

You want training to be what you want it to be, and effective. Yet, amongst the technology, self-professed gurus, and Coach-google, basic training errors are still made: many out of running’s present culture, some out of habit and ego. Are you trapped by these?

Remember, what works for the pros and what are promoted as “the best”, “the most effective”, “the ideal”, “the latest” or “short-cuts ” are rarely what they are made out to be. They simply don’t work for most. Perhaps these are your trap?

Through 2010-14 I have held discussions, meetings, race and program reviews, and constructed strategic performance plans with over 700 runners and coaches (and 350+ triathletes). Here are the Top Ten Run-training Traps as a summary. There’s also a cure or ‘get-out’, and a long-term prevention strategy for each.

Trap 1: Training habits: Many do what or how they were training when they started. You’ll improve for your first few years regardless of what you do, so you keep doing it.  Some habits are positive, some aren’t. As your body and experience change, so must your training.

 Get out: read, ask, listen, learn and, importantly, educate yourself about yourself and how you respond to different types of sessions, and how your body adapts to accumulated sessions (training)

Prevention: keep a log and journal. Use these, with race and test results to review, revise and re-work your training, races, and macrocycle or year. Plan to do differently next race (or season). Then act.

How have you been  'trapped' by your training?

What did you do to get out?

Run some...awesome

Running Form: You-tube drills the best way?

Wanting to get better, to improve, and keep injuries in the ‘not me’ drawer are great motivators for many.

Improving how you run, swim and cycle is a part of journey. How well you ‘move’ – or run - is based upon many things - including accumulated experience (years), expectations, and desire. Of course, your body size, leverage, various structural & functional aspects, and work capacity have a fair say.

It’s important to understand that running well - running economically, efficiently and effectively aren’t the same thing. Although economy and efficiency are related they require different strategies, different approaches and different time-frames to improve. And, your strategy needs to be different to your team-mates’, training partners’ and competitors’.

Wanting to improve running (swimming, cycling) technique comes into the equation too. Similarly, running technique, running mechanics and running form aren’t the same thing. Needless to say, ‘good mechanics’, ‘good technique’ and ‘good form’ aren’t the same.

Mechanics, Technique & Form:

Your running  (cycling & running) mechanics, technique and form provide the ultimate training conundrums. They are simple and complex: separate yet related. They relate to you, and can be impacted by others. Training affects them, routine and habit can wreck them. Again , they’re not the same things. In recent years the terms have become interchangeable: partly through culture, partly through popularisation, partly through ignorance.

Mechanics are the inherent ways in which you move. They are related mainly to your musculoskeletal (& neuromuscular) systems. To begin with, they’re related to height, limb length, joint shape, and muscle-attachment leverage. These, and how you move, are shaped by forces inside and outside your body. The latter includes: gravity, friction, and air & water resistance. Like this, they’re called biomechanics. These types of biomechanical forces cannot be changed. That said, how these forces impact your body, and how you move and adapt in relation to the forces can be altered. Beware the guru who offers to change your biomechanics though.

Mechanics have large phylogenetic (and individual) components. That is, they’re coded in your genome and are largely genetic and evolutionary and have been shaped over vast periods of time and many generations. Ontogenetic factors – those of intermediate or life-cycle periods of time – relate to developmental, learning, and loading mechanisms and, therefore, training and technique. Accumulated movement experiences, training loads and postural habits are ontogenetic factors that can and do affect your mechanics.

‘Here-and-now’ factors are immediate, short-term and dynamic. Being behavioural and contextual, they relate closest to training and competition form, and fatigue.

Mechanical factors are predominantly structural, related to the way you’re made. Over time, they can be influenced by functional changes or adaptations your body makes. Muscle dysfunction caused by weakness or inhibition, and postural changes related to habituation and loading can and often do affect movement type, quality and economy, technique and the likelihood of injury.

Technique is the learnt ways in which you run (swim & cycle etc). Some result from accumulated early life movement and sporting experiences. Part relates to your current training focus: execution, quality and quantity, that is, how you run (cycle, swim). Some are the result of conscious efforts to change and use an efficient technique to improve economy and performance.

Functional changes such as your ‘fitness’ and metabolic pathways can improve in as little as a few days, and two-to-three weeks. Structural technique changes (muscle, fascia, tendon, and bone strength) often take weeks to months. Because the former brings a sense of progress and success it’s often chased in preference to the latter. Training efficiency ('quick results') unfortunately is often preferred over training effectiveness '(better results'). Injuries and stagnation ultimately result.

Good technique relies on sound mechanics, intent and good awareness – using varied sources of input (contextual, and experiential) and feedback: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, proprioceptive and tactile, and pride. Developing good technique requires time, change, desire, systematic and developmental training loads & progressions, and positive postural habits.

Form is the expression of your mechanics and technique during training and competition. It is your expression of energy, confidence and technique. Strength, strength-endurance and fatigue-related awareness help maintain your form. Fatigue and lack of concentration negatively impact form - especially with ‘quirky’ mechanics and poor technique – and decrease economy. Form can change quickly - throughout the duration of an event, and is often cyclic throughout a season or year.

“Yeah, so-and-so is in good form at the moment!”

Mechanics, technique and form are inter-related. How they manifest themselves collectively is your individual style or sweet spot: your strengths, quirks, nuances and differences. Elements can be changed, yet they take time, and strategy.

Good "form" of the elite rarely (ie. doesn’t) relate to most of us!

And the approach to improving, altering or changing them needs to be different – and individualized – for running (swimming, cycling etc). Different courses for different horses.

The Best Approach:

I’m often asked “what’s the best way to?”, “what’s the most effective way to?”, “what’s the most efficient [quickest] way to..?”, “what’s the easiest/cheapest way to..?”, “what’s the most scientific way to..?”

The best (and only respectful) answer to this is, “it depends”. In short it depends upon:

•       who it’s for
•       where they’re starting from ie. what their background is - general sporting, movement, health, injury and current (specific sport/training) background
•       where they are now: current fitness, strengths & weaknesses, opportunities, capacity and willingness to change, resources, time (time to major event/goal, time availability), habits, expectations, persistence and patience
•       where they want to go: general aims & specific goals

It’s like a journey: you’re at a point now, you came from somewhere somehow, and you want to get/go somewhere.

That journey is – and needs to be – different for individuals.

Not necessarily different in process or principle/s, but different in:

·      starting point (assessment)

·      journey (application)

·      and arrival (aim, goal/s)

Yet few want to work through the journey, the process. They’d rather efficient (quick) results rather than effective (better) ones. They want and believe they can get it now.

The power in getting better lays in the balance between persistence & patience.

Skills and drills:

For running (& swimming) in particular, drills are often prescribed as a strategy for improving mechanics, technique and form. A drill craze is likely a new mecca of recreational running and triathlon hype. Arguably, it’s true about many drills in triathlon training.

I’ve swam for 20 years, run for over 30, and coached athletes in endurance and run-based sports for 25 years and have seen, heard, done, read, changed, altered, tried, discarded, re-tried, re-modeled, reconstructed, adjusted and modified more drills than I care to remember. I am stunned by the use of drills nowadays – or, more accurately by their inappropriate use. Swimming and cycling are more skill-based than running, and have to be learned.

Running, swimming, and cycling well can be taught, and drilled. Whether they’re learned is another issue.

What about You-Tube?

You-tube is what it is, and (often) what you want it to be: a source of entertainment, information, demonstration, recreation and learning. Of course, it can be a source of technique and form drills. Just because it’s an easily accessible source doesn’t mean it is ‘the best’ or a good, reliable and relevant source for you, and your journey.

If you’re serious about changing and getting better use it as a complementary (additional) source, not a supplementary (replacement) source for:

 (1) diligent process

 (2) experienced and qualified professional coaching and/or practitioners

 (3) asking, starting, trying, reworking, evaluating and repeating  - see (1)

I recommend you be cautious using drills from You-tube (or a book, or a magazine, or a blog!), particularly if you have little experience doing (or coaching) them; don’t understand nor value their background or development, variations and progressions; have no real access to feedback – both immediate and delayed, internal (knowledge of your performance or ‘how you feel doing them’) or external (knowledge of results or ‘how you did them’).

Why (not)?

•       many people aren’t ready (physically) technique, strength and mobility wise to do them properly
•       many aren’t prepared (mentally) to learn them properly, nor to learn to coach them properly; take the time to repeat, review and revise them over many months, nor restructure their plan, program or sessions; nor change habits and routines to make them truly effective
•       many aren’t willing to alter or change (reduce in most cases) their training load at relevant times
•       you shouldn’t assume the drills you see are actually performed/executed/done properly (trust me, many aren’t)
•      be wary assuming (given the above) that the drills your viewing – or Y-tubing – are the appropriate starting point, progression, or variation for you
• you assume they way you do/perform them is the same way they're (meant to be) performed, or as demonstrated on You-tube
•      your assuming they’ve been filmed, recorded and produced without the effects of parallax
• most simply are not designed nor modified (nor constructed) for you, or your athletes

Drills can be good tools to use, but not all drills for all people all the time – nor as a blanket approach to squad/group training, nor as a simple “these’ll make you better”

You-tube can be a good source of drills, but this doesn’t mean they’re ideal for you at this point in time. Sometimes, there even a good source of how not to do/perform and coach them.

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.

Good mechanics, technique and form take time, diligence and proper process.

Begin with asking the right questions, not seeking the right answers to questions you don’t know.

Then seek an assessment of your mechanics and technique before you worry about form.

A video assessment will be a part of this. Avoid eye-balling – see below.

Use video – iPads, tablets and You-tube for follow-up and feedback.

Then go to work, and train smart.

Seek professional advice and coaching , and make your time, money, effort and improvement worthwhile. 

Video Analysis vs ‘Eyeballing’:

If there’s something unusual in your technique, what you see/eyeball isn’t what’s “wrong” with your mechanics or technique. Rather, you see your compensation or reaction strategies around the actions that are ineffective, uneconomical or painful. Your body always aims to co-ordinate itself between minimising energy expenditure and reducing pain caused by either structural or functional instability and/or immobility (magnified by training load) to complete a task or movement.

In other words, in order to complete each arm cycle, leg revolution, or run stride, amongst it’s myriad of joints and movements, your body will find a way to make your swim, cycle or run gait possible. It may be a flick here, or bob there; an extra bounce here, a limp there; a crossover here, early rotation there; a lean here, and added rotation there. In biomechanical terms: an action there, and a reaction elsewhere.

So, importantly, if someone simply looks at you swim, ride and cycle and suggests you do that or do this, be wary, they’re most likely suggesting or recommending you change an action (or component) in your technique that is really a reaction ­– a compensation for a structural or functional mechanical problem that shows up in your technique. Video recording helps, but ensure it’s done professionally and properly (we’ll have more on this in a future edition).

If its true basis is mechanical, you most likely won’t be able to change it, unless it’s functional rather than structural. If it’s habitual it will take time and a systematic and progressive change strategy. Not too many want to invest the time required. Again, effectiveness is usually sacrificed for efficiency. And – wanting to get back to training and competing as soon as possible – usually with the same problem, or a secondary one, returning.

Athletic intelligence & Pain - What to do?

You've trained.

You've trained well, regularly and consistently. 

Hard at times, and trained smarter more often.

You've listened to your body. You've heard what it's had to say. 

Intelligently, you've worked your way through some changes, a few days off here-and-there, and some shorter and slower sessions, massage, mobility and strength training designed specifically for you.

Yet some persists. You're a little stiffer each morning, and you're taking longer to warm up?

What do you do?

Doing something is key. Exactly what you do really depends upon what you hear. Your athletic intelligence, experience, diligence and pride will impact to.

Your coach and/or health-professional should be your best (first) guides. See them.

 Signs and symptoms associated with acute, unusual and sudden pain and/or your health must be heeded. Stop what you’re doing, and seek guidance from your coach, an experienced and trusted athlete, and see your or health-care professional.

Reduce your overall training load, and intensity for a few days or take some days off for minor changes to your fatigue or energy levels, a cold (above the shoulders), persistent muscles soreness and stiffness. Get some more sleep and eat well. Consider the impact of other loads/stressors too as your body’s ability to adapt to training is dependent upon more than just your training.

Pain, stiffness and swelling that persist or are having a greater impact first thing in the morning, during warm-up or after you cool-down must be heard. These are often debilitating injuries waiting to happen, and could manifest into weeks or months off training, or surgery.

Your true limits:

Remember, successful training is about maximizing your adaptations so that you can perform at higher levels.  It’s not about maximizing training numbers.

Forcing your body at times is a part of hard-training. Smart training, and intelligent athletes don’t try and force more than they can handle. Poor results, fatigue and pain should not be cues to train harder.

Ignoring your body’s signs and symptoms and aimlessly pushing on under the guise of ‘mental toughness’, to rack-up-the-numbers or forge a new training-streak, can cause small, easily remedied problems to become debilitating. Obsession and smarts aren’t the same thing

True, the occasional minor injury is associated with pushing yourself and challenging your limits. Pete Ffitzinger once said, ‘learning to listen to your body and having the confidence and trust in yourself doesn’t imply a lack of toughness, but a willingness to find your true physical limits…injuries aren’t a badge of honor’.

It is rare that you don't hear 'anything'. No news is often good news, and silence often says much.

That said, “avoidance is rarely a path to success”. Avoiding training gets you nowhere, avoiding pain gets you less-where!