Running Traps 5

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?

 So far, we've looked at:

Trap 1: Training Habits - as your, goals, capacity and experience change so your planning, and training should.
Trap 2: No Plan - plans provide direction and guidance, and shouldn't be confused with your program nor weekly routine
Trap 3: No Log, Journal or Diary - they're different things. Construct your own (by hand) and use the the feedback to feed-forward to plan, train and run better.
Trap  4: Lack of Athletic Intelligence - develop your smarts for, of and from your running, training, races and performance. Become a smarter, better runner.

There some traps that relate directly to your training, and are good follow-ons from Traps 1 & 2...

Trap 5: The Mish-Mash, Hodge-Podge or Bitsa training week: 

An interval session, a tempo or threshold run and a long run per week don’t make a run program. A swim session or deep-water session here, an elliptical or cycle session there, don’t make cross-training; a cross-fit workout here a boot-camp there, don’t make purposeful or targeted functional strength training. Training sessions organized as a weekly routine aren’t a program, nor a plan. They are simply a smattering of varied sessions – bits-of-this and bits-of-that,  ‘in hope’ of getting better:

• Get out: Train with purpose, flexibility and enjoyment. Appreciate that not all types of sessions need to be done each week, nor given the same emphasis each week of your program or plan. Avoid the same session that your entire squad does week-in week-out

• Prevention: Are you caught up in run-training culture and can’t see the forest for the trees? Construct or revisit your plan, and work your plan. The nature, structure and content of your sessions should be individualised, progressive and cyclic, and change (become more race specific) as you move through your development and season or year.  

     If you do little bits of everything you're likely to achieve a whole lot of not much. 

     How does your week, program and plan look? Bits of this and bits of that?

Athletic Intelligence & Pain - when to listen...

Athletic intelligence is about changing , altering or adapting what you do to the context of training and/or competition. Pain is one thing that you either need to manage, or it will end up managing you - particularly in relation to training, and getting better.

Once you've sorted out that pain is different to the Self-imposed Discomfort of training and racing (hard) and what to listen for, you need to know when to listen...

There are three general times to listen to your body.

Most importantly, listen when your body tells you something (new). It will send you signs, and you’ll experience them as symptoms. Be vigilant with anything that is sudden, acute or unusual that has a significant impact on your ability to move normally. 

Secondly, listen for *change in relation to warming up for a session, once you’ve cooled down, and upon getting out of bed:

• a change (increase) in how long it takes to warm-up 
• a change (increase in tenderness, stiffness, redness) once you’ve cooled-down (2-4 hours post session) 
• change (increase) in stiffness or soreness first thing in the morning – usually tendon, bursa or joint related 
• a change (increase) in redness, swelling, temperature on or near a sensitive spot
• a change in your/athlete’s manner, mood, technique and/or form, and body language (eg. stooping, facial expression, a limp, extra stretching, extra resting)
• a change in confidence in approaching particular types of training ,and racing

In my experience, these changes are usually indicative of pending injury and are warning signs of failure of an athlete’s body to adapt (maladaptation) to their 'load'. It can also indicate that an aspect of their training has been changed too quickly:

• sudden increase in volume, particularly running
• sudden increase in speed/intensity
• disproportionate increase in volume of intense training without a concomitant reduction in overall volume
• altered mechanics or technique due to posture, fatigue and imbalance
• sudden significant change in the volume or duration and/or speed/intensity to a 'new' surface (grass, athletics track, asphalt and concrete, sand) or terrain (especially steep hills)
• footwear, particularly the 'type' and make; and, the introduction of orthoses
• for triathletes and multi-sporters: significant changes in use of swimming toys (eg. paddles), cycling position or set-up, and running surface, terrain and footwear

The third deals with when training or during the main part of your training sessions – ‘training (and racing) by feel, or perceived exertion’ – and isn’t a focus here, at the moment.

Of course, knowing what to listen for and when are key pieces of this aspect of Athletic Intelligence. Another key piece, is deciding what to do...

I've GOT the formula to success...

I've been around running a long time.

Although I ran and ran as a kid - sometimes away from things, other times to things - I remember the day, place and time I officially became a runner. That was 32 years and some 835,000 kms ago.

I've learnt a few things in that time - read, listened too, heard, seen, attempted, tried, discarded, remembered, reworked, remodelled, reshaped, retried, and nearly retired. I still learn.

The formula to success in running is something I have always chased, and will continue to do. Not so much for myself, yet for others: those beginning or re-starting, those looking to get better - to go faster and further with more ease; for the experienced and the pros; for those returning from ill-health, for those wanting to prevent and/or come back from injury; and those I coach, mentor and consult.

And, for those prepared to listen, and act -  to learn quickly from what has taken me nearly a life-time to come to know, understand, value, deconstruct and reconstruct, contextualise and apply.

Until this morning, in reviewing some old coaching notes of mine, I'd thought that the formula to success in running was easy, simple, yet not complete.  I call it the GOT formula

• Get Out, Train
• Get Out There - now, wind, rain, hills, snow, sand, heat
• Go Often, Training
• Get Off The couch
• Get Over iT

You GET the idea, right?

Well, how about this then? From The Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sport, the proceedings of an International Seminar on the Art & Science of Coaching (December 1979)...

 To those who do have "the answer" or "the formula" good luck to you.  I'm still working on it, and have GOT to get back to it!

Planning: from Hope to Happening

“Plan your work, then work your plan.”

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You’ve heard them all before – the mantras about the importance of planning. You plan your holidays, plan your budget/s, plan a weekend away, plan a night out, plan a trip to the countryside or the city. You most likely follow plans at work. And, have plans for your kids’ education.

What about your training? And racing? Are they planned?

Maybe you follow a weekly training schedule or routine out of habit, and then “hope” that you race faster. Or, a monthly program rehashed from the internet, a magazine, or a squad coach, again provides your race-day “hope”.

Most recreational runners (triathletes, cyclists) simply want to be fast(er) now. They think that if they train a little further or longer, a little harder, for more days of the week, and take less rest, that they can have those big PB’s, stay ill-health and injury free, have life-balance, and get better from year to year. All in “hope”.

During running Performance Reviews, Program Revisions, and in developing Strategic Performance Plans for individuals, I always ask to see their  (current) training plan.

In some cases, I get a vague outline of a week’s training sessions. Sometimes I see a print-out of a loose schedule or routine. Or, 3-4 week’s of sessions presented in A4 landscape. Beyond going a little further or faster each week, each session is essentially the same. Again, in “hope”.

Sometimes I can tell the software program, book, or squad they’ve got it from. “Thanks, a program. Yet, where’s your plan?”

I often get “Oh, I thought this was a plan?”. Let’s clarify:

A training plan is a bigger-picture guide. It may be a Long Term Athletic Development plan over 6-8 years for a very good junior athlete/runner. It may be an Olympic or quadrennial plan for an elite competitor. It is usually an Annual or Yearly that guides and directs most triathletes toward and through their next competitive season. A triathlete that travels from north to south hemispheres may have two race-season planned into a year. These, along with extended lead-up periods of time to (longer events) of, say, 16, 20, 24 or 26 weeks duration, are usually referred to as macrocycles. Each of these plans are premised upon an aim, training objectives or outcomes, and various (objective) performance goals.

A training program supports the direction of your plan. It commonly, but is not limited to, 3-4 weeks of structured training sessions aimed to support key elements of your performance improvement. The sessions should not be ad hoc, nor should they simply require you to go further or faster in a weekly format. Each program should be reviewed, assessed and revised at it’s end, and the outcomes fed into the structure, content, methods and loading of the next program – yet, still based upon the direction of your plan. Ego interferes here.

A training schedule is a 5-14 day period of time where various training sessions are completed to meet specific outcomes. For most, given the structural demands of modern life – a job, family, study etc – a 7 day schedule is used. Different sessions, methods of training and loading (patterns) are used on different days to develop or maintain particular training outcomes.

A training routine is a training schedule where the same type of session is followed on the same day of the week. For some, it’s the same session from Monday-to-Monday or Tuesday-to-Tuesday and so on with 1 or 2 more reps, a few extra kms, or the same reps a little faster.

A training session is the working and practical component of your schedule. It’s work time. It, and it’s smaller training units, are what over time, should take you from HOPE to HAPPENING.

All that said:

•  a novice - a newbie - to running or, in particular, triathlons, without much of an endurance fitness background, will get better regardless of what they do – some training is better than none
• runners and triathletes improve over their first 2-3 years as they accumulate race-experience, and their body adapts to the increased demands of regular training
• habits are set up over the first few season/years too – some positive, some aren’t. The most common habit that has infiltrated running and triathlon training: “if some is good, more must be better”
• plans should not be too prescriptive. Providing guidance and direction, they’re structured to ensure you do appropriate types of training and recovery in optimal proportions, at strategic times, for defined periods of time…to ensure improved performance “happens”
• not all sessions should be strictly defined and have measurable outcomes. Many runners do train for enjoyment, fun and social reasons – don’t lose perspective on these
• a good plan, program and supporting schedule or routine, has built in flexibility

If you’re serious about getting better and being more competitive - plan your training, then train to your plan. Enjoy your training and racing more, and minimize burnout, boredom, ill-health and injury – plan your training, then train to your plan. Planning training and training to their plan/s – is bread and butter for true competitors and the elite. They make it “happen”.

Train smart. Train with purpose, and enjoyment. Plan. Training to ensure you don’t race in hope, train to ensure you improve and the racing will take care of it self. Make it happen. 

6 Keys to Successful New Year Resolutions

A New Year is here. It may be time for a change. Or, time to freshen up. Perhaps try something new. Make some New Year’s resolutions, and follow these keys to improve your ‘stickability’ through 2013.

1. Resolve: Accept that you’ll have good and bad moments and days. You’ll fall off the wagon. Get back on. Resolve to start again this afternoon, or tomorrow. You’re human. Humans make errors. It’s okay. When you repeat the same error then you’ve made a mistake. Giving up at the first or second hurdle is a mistake. Nothing good in life comes easily. Don’t look for short-cuts.
2. Make a Plan: Hope is good thing when it’s in your heart, but can be tough if you’re blinded by it. Habits and routines are at the root of most things you’d like to change – hence your resolution(s). A plan provides direction and guidance. Explore strategies to uncover your routines and habits. Try ways to reinforce new habits when working to break the cycle of past habits. Try a new outlook and new approach to an old resolution. Craziness is often said to be trying to get the same results from the same (unsuccessful) ways.
3. Break it Down: Break your plan into more manageable objectives or goals, and smaller periods of time. Focus upon one or two core elements; many others will then fall into place. Focus for a day, then another; then a week, then another. Aim to progress over time, not all the time.
4. Team Up: Do your homework. Talk with many, follow few. Work with your spouse/partner, coach or mentor, and squad members. Express your resolution as something you ‘want’ to do, not ‘need’ nor ‘have’ to do. You’re more likely to find support when those important to you understand it is something you want to do. Knowing it’s valued; rather than a compulsion or burden helps. If you usually find your own way, it may be time to consider a training partner, a coach or a squad.
5. Make it public: Promise yourself. Write it down. Write a blog. Construct a FB page. Tweet it. Follow up. Yet not every detail every minute every day. The glory is yours. Keep it that way for the most part. And, honestly, no-one really wants to know what you ate for breakfast, how many kilometres you cycled, or what café you’re at right now.
6. Build in success: Reward your progress along the way. Achieve smaller goals with mini steps along your journey. Focus on what you do to achieve each step rather than the final outcome. Graph it, tabulate it, draw it, paint or photograph it. Make a collage. Put it on the fridge. Have a t-shirt made: Front: “I made a resolution…”. Back:  “It wasn’t easy. I showed resolve. Success.”