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.

8 Keys to Giving Hills a Hiding...

Just like runners, run training sessions come in all shapes and sizes. So do hills. To become a better, faster and more resilient runner or triathlete, learn to use hills to your advantage - in training (and racing).

Here are my 8 keys to making hills yours...

 1) run hills -  ‘avoidance is rarely a path to success’

 2) plan them – execute a 4-8 week block of hill-related training before your race-specific phase, then only a maintenance session once every 7/10/14 days. Juxtapose your cycle and/or other (leg) training; hill running helps it

 3) run by feel and heed Mother Nature’s lessons – leave the HRM and GPS at home
  

4) prepare your body – with a 2-6 week block of strength training beforehand (2 days/week); or, if you're a seasoned runner, with twice a week for 2 weeks of easier rolling hills or 5-6x100m hill stride(r)s 

 5) prepare your mind  - ‘run over hills, not up them’. See hills as opportunity, not obstacle; as a challenge, not dread; as character and strength building, not effort

6) mix it up  - vary the hills and terrain you run.  Don’t risk getting better at running that one and only hill at the expense of becoming a stronger, more complete runner-triathlete. Use: long mountain walks; cross-country, trail and rolling hills workouts of 45-90minutes; tempo long climbs of 30-45 minutes; solid climbs in intervals of 3-5 minutes; sand-dune efforts of 20-45secs; and, hill strides (70-85%) and sprints (>85%) of 8-15 seconds. Use appropriate sessions to meet the objectives of each phase of your plan.

7) watch the gradient: above 6-8% and you begin to climb, less and you can still run with good technique and form

8) learn and refine technique for running up, over and down hills, and for how running over a hill differs from climbing a hill

     There is nothing new about running hills: champions, improvers, and beginners have and will continue to use them. 

     The trick is in getting them to work for you...

The Athlete in us all, 2

We are all athletes ... each and every one of us who runs (walks, swims, skates, cycles, rows, skis, bowls, hits, kicks, lifts or flips, and scores).

And the word athlete does have a romantic, albeit humble, origin. It is through this humility that true athleticism touches us all.

The Greek word 'athletes' originates from Latin, 'athleta' and 'athlein', which literally means to "compete for  a prize".

As runners we all compete for prizes and, in one sense, perhaps an ultimate prize. 

As we evolve as runners we learn that the prizes we compete for are no longer caught up in podiums and places; nor times and trophies; nor medals and muscles; nor ribbons, and ranting and raving. 

It is in the afterglow of competition and achievement, and on the reflection of a journey that started well before the starting line - somewhere way back with the courage to say I can and will do this - and on the journey, one step after another, km after km and week after week and year after year, we discover those prizes. Those prizes are the benefits of running and these are the essence and heart of why you and I run, and continue to run.

If competition is the basis for athleticism, we may ask the question 'what is competition?'. Competition isn't you and I competing (for places, or podiums, or prizes) against others, it is you and I competing with others, striving toward the same ends, striving together.
Occasionally I may finish in front of you, and (all) the others.

Competition comes form Latin 'competere', made up of com- (coming together) and -petere (to strive).

As athletes we strive together; we strive, not in rivalry or opposition, but as a community.

These are the people I coach.

Now...where did I put my drink?

The Athlete in us all...

As a school teacher I often got asked, "What do you teach?"

I'd cheekily reply, "I teach young people!"

"Yes, sure, but what to you teach them?"

"Oh...I like to think I teach them positive values and behaviours to use in different contexts, and that everyone has the right to be heard and prosper."

"Have you been drinking Paul?"

Laughing, I always knew what was coming...

"I do that through teaching skills, knowledge and appreciation through positive experiences with physical activity, maths concepts, and scientific principles...I teach Physical Education, Maths and Science."

I haven't taught for a couple of years now. I coach. Again.

When I tell people that, of course, I get asked, "What do you coach?"

Laughing on the inside, "I coach people. I coach people (who want) to get better. I coach athletes."

And the circle completes itself.

That said, good teaching and good coaching share much in common. They are both about building relationships and journeys - providing positive context and experiences (physical, social and emotional skills; sessions, activities) for others to develop or improve. Their journey: to reflect upon where they've been, their past; to become more aware of where they are, their present; and aspire and plan and build towards their future.

But what type of athletes do I coach?

Arguably, there are many types' of athletes: amateur, professional, commercial, weekend, casual and so on.

Between you and me...people want to hear that I coach football, soccer or volleyball or basketball, or track-and-field, or, god-forbid, runners and triathletes (LOL). I've been there, done that. I don't coach the sport any more. The skills, rules and physical capacities to participate and compete and win in their sport are tools for coaching the person. Thus, I coach people.

Yet, to me, we are all athletes...each and every one of us who runs (walks, swims, skates, cycles, rows, skis, bowls, hits, kicks, lifts or flips).

I used to think that the word athlete may come from a Greek or Roman God and that his etymology laid in a romantic Latin stem: someone like, say, Athletik or Athlus or Athlaton. Alas, no!

The word's origin is more humble. It has no deity status. It has no impropriety toward immortality. And for the better, as it brings it's roots undeniably closer to me and to you, to all of us.

More on this tomorrow...