Running Traps 4

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 traps?

Trap 4: Lack of Athletic Intelligence. 

Smarts comes in all shapes and sizes. 

Information and knowledge are easy to find now days. Just ask Coach Google or Doctor Google. 

Intelligence, though, requires reflection, analysis, evaluation and then application in context. Few aim to understand why they do what they do, how long they do it for, how it effects their body and mind (and habits) for the next day, and an accumulation of many days. 

Race-smarts is tactical intelligence. 

Street smarts is accumulated experience and know-how; yet, not always constructive or positive.  

Science smarts is often limited in statistics, context and application. 

The best smarts is figuring out what works best for you, and leaving the crowd, the squad, the trends, and the backslappers to do what they do:

•  Get out: Don’t be a dummy. Ask good questions. Ask many, trust few. Avoid trends. There are no short-cuts. Measure what you can - properly. Use it. Listen to your instinct, or ‘gut’. Use it too. Work them into your plan.

• Prevention: Become reflective and analytical. Educate yourself about yourself, about running and about training. Understand and apply the difference between training hard and hard training - for here is the heart of Smart Training and Athletic Intelligence.

    How do you use your athletic    intelligence to advantage?

Athletic Intelligence - listening to your body (a)

You're a runner, triathlete, cyclist, swimmer, paddler, adventure racer...you live and breathe the endurance lifestyle for one or a variety of reasons: participation, performance, perfection or podium and, in some senses, simply progress and pride.

The basics: you still need to train: run, swim, cycle, paddle, and even climb safely, speedily and economically, and ‘transition’ swiftly in races. Strength and mobility work and smart recovery strategies help too.

Smart Training – the Intelligent Athlete:

Smart training is understanding and applying the differences between hard training and training hard.  Hard training is easy - go out and smash yourself. Swim, cycle and run longer and faster. Rack up the numbers. Anyone can do it. It’s not smart, nor necessary.

Training hard is different. And better. It is understanding what you are training for in a given period of time and training to meet the aim and objectives of that phase, block, cycle, week or session. It is training with identifiable purpose, and necessary flexibility.

Realising when training hard needs to outshine hard training, and vice-versa, all athletes need to be able to change, alter or adapt their actions, movement or skills to the context of training, and competition.  I call this ability to sense and mobilise change, athletic intelligence.

Athletic Intelligence involves listening to your body too: knowing what to listen for when, and what to do or change when you hear something.

What do you listen for, and when? And what do you do about it?

The Line...

It's that time of year.

It's Christmas. Christmas means different things to different people, for different reasons.

For some, it's the storm before the calm of a New Year; it can be the license to let your hair down and your stomach out before starting over; or, even the mayhem before drawing a line in the sand.




That line comes in different forms. It too means different things to different people.
It can be about:

• stating a point beyond which you will not go
• indicating a point where you've had enough (draw 'the line')
• highlighting a time when you're about to change direction, take a different tact; to change
• to highlight something new, bold and adventurous (to put in on 'the line')
• emphasising a point where any further effort is unproductive (end of 'the line')

Yet, I'm not sure if 'the line' really holds it's worth in gold, or sand. It's too easy to forego 'the line' as we frame it for ourselves, or others. While pausing from a cycle (sorry!) beachside this morning I saw a young boy, no more than 4 or 5 years old, drag a stick along the beach. He drew an impressive line: straight, and long. He called to his mum, "Mum, stop. Look!" He jumped from side-to-side over the line, then ran back to the start and did it all again. And again.

His line ended, yet was never-ending. Well, at least until mum got bored and needed her coffee. It was easy for him to make or profess his line in the sand. It was just as easy to step over it, and continue on his merry way.

As we come into the festive season, and the trimmings and trappings and turkeys of Christmas are bypassed for the resolutions of the New Year, what form will your line take?

      Will it be one of action, or of action stopped? 

Will it be one of drive or determination or passion?

Perhaps it will be another case of the never-ending line that fades into the distance, one defined by many and followed by many more? Will you do it because others have, or not do it because other's haven't? Will you follow this line and start again next year, and the year after? And the one after that, again?

Will your line in the sand truly mark a new beginning, or a new ending?

Or, will you - a day, a week, a minor set-back, a month, an injury later - step over your line and wander, walk or run on, back to your old path? And wonder why? 

You may not. But the running gods will.

Be wary, and toe that line!

Programs 101

"Do you know where I can find a good program for...?"
"Can you help me with a good program for...?"
"Is ABC a good program...?"

Ring-a-bell? They do to me. I get asked them almost everyday. Feeling cheeky I could reply, "Possibly", "Sure", and "Maybe", respectively. Those who know me recognise my wry grin.

They're interesting questions for two reasons. Firstly, no-one really wants a 'bad' or 'mediocre' program, do they? They want a "good" program. Secondly, what is a program?


What a program is depends upon your perspective, experience and, importantly, your expectations.


To some a program is having a weekly routine; to others, its a chapter or page from a magazine, a journal, a blog, a website or  a book; to some, it's a series of sessions repeated on a weekly (or thereabouts) basis; to many, it's a series of sessions that require them to go further, or faster, or run hills etc; some even consider it getting a tweet or email or SMS from their coach that outlines the daily session/s to complete; a few would consider it going out and training according to how they feel.

None of these 'definitions' or 'types' of programs are necessarily right or wrong. It depends upon how you look at them, and what you were expecting. It depends upon your context, and how you go about framing your view of a program.  (I return to 'context' and 'framing' another day).

To me a program has a number of fundamental or basic elements.

Firstly, a program is a journey. This journey is all of planned, reflective (is revised over time), reactive (or flexible, catering for 'stuff that happens'), respectful (individualised or customised), and robust (includes a range of elements).

A program is not a routine or schedule to be blindly followed or adhered to...it is a living, ongoing entity.

Secondly, like a journey your program has three parts: (1) a destination - your finish point, where you want to end-up, your aim or ultimate outcome; (2) it takes stock of your current position - where you're at, what your'e currently doing, and what you think you need to do; and, (3) it also considers your past - where you've been, what you've done, what worked and what didn't, and what you've learnt.

A program is not a schedule of sessions that you're given, or have been taken from a source, that aren't adapted to you and your context.

Thirdly, a program must be planned. This planning gives you direction. It respects where you've been, has considered where you're at, and points you in the direction of your destination. It provides guidelines. It highlights complementary elements to assist you in 'staying on track'. It highlights progressions and milestones in a descriptive and, sometimes, quantitative sense.

Each of these are based upon the demands of your event, and your capacity to progress to meeting these demands.

A program is not a serious of random sessions; it is not a routine of sessions completed a little further and/or faster each week; it is not a compilation of daily or weekly emails or posts or tweets or SMSs.

Finally, a program is based upon fundamental principles of training: individuality, specificity, adherence, progression, overload, recovery, variety - all based upon science, knowledge and 'known stuff', yet applied, combined, mixed, brewed or created with the deft wisdom of an artist.

Programs come in all shapes and sizes. They also come with various degrees of professionalism, effectiveness, and price-tag$.

An "effective" program for you, ultimately, is based around you and your progress toward the goal/s you wish to achieve. Where you start, how you get there, and how you manage the road-blocks, detours, road-works and accidents along the way - the journey - is the special aspect of your program. It is the "good" in a good program.


A program is your journey.

How does your current program stack up?
Alarm bells?