Dr Timothy Noakes is Professor in the Discovery Health Chair of Exercise and Sports Science Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town and is the author or co-author of more than 350 scientific publications and is on the Editorial Boards of 13 international scientific publications. He is also a veteran of over 70 marathon and ultramarathon events – so he doesn’t just study running in isolation, his studies are lived out in his own training.

His book Lore of Running is widely praised as the most complete such book yet written - the “Bible” of running. Currently in its fourth edition, it runs to over 900 pages and covers every aspect of running. If you don’t fancy reading it, you could just use it for weight training!!

In discussing running training, Noakes refers to the 15 Laws of Training. Prior to the development of sports science in the 1970s, very little scientific investigation had been carried out into how the body adapts to training. Most knowledge was gained through trial and error and information passed down through generations. One of the first people to write extensively about running training was an Englishman called Arthur Newton. Newton ran competitively between 1922 and 1935 and wrote extensively about his training. From these writings and his knowledge of sports science, Noakes has compiled the 15 Laws of Training. Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at each in detail and see how whether they are still valid today and, if so, how to incorporate them into an overall training strategy

Train SMART!

Runners come into the sport through many different routes. Some were runners at school, trained with a running club and kept up running through their adult lives. Others played other sports and took up running in later life. Others started to run to lose weight, get fit or support a charity.
All runners have a different physiological makeup. They have different balances of slow twitch and fast twitch fibres.

Many running books and training plans have a generic, one size fits all package that takes no account of the individual differences of each runner. So, how can we address the differences?

running coaching

I have two athletes who are both training to run a 40 min 10k. In order to prepare for the race, I will include race pace sessions peaking at a session of 5 x 2k, each 2 k run in 8 minutes with 60-90 seconds between runs.

Runner A has been a track runner all his life, is used to running speed sessions on a track and has progressed to road running from middle distance running. He is a predominantly speed based runner.
Runner B started running for charity and caught the running bug. He has only just started serious training but is used to running long distances at a steady pace. He is a predominantly endurance based runner.

For runner A, running at race pace will be easy but maintaining it over time will be more difficult. Therefore, the progression I would use with him would be 5 x 400m at race pace. When that can be completed easily, extend the distance to 5×600m, then 5×800 and so on.

For runner B, covering the distance will be easy but the speed presents a problem. Therefore the progression I would use with him would be to start at 5 x 1k but at a slower pace – probably 4:30 miling. When he could complete 5x 2k at this pace, I would then gradually increase the pace of the runs until he was comfortable with 5×2k pace.

This is just a simple example but there are lots of factors that effort each individual runner and need to be taken into account in planning training.

Train Smart.

Wednesday evening was always club night. A group of somewhere between ten to twenty runners would set off, usually running nine miles at about seven and half minute miling. It was intended to be a social run and would always start with a lot of banter. However, normally at about the six mile point, one or two of the guys would gradually start to wind the pace up. For them it was almost a point of honour to be the first one home. Everyone else seemed to get carried along and what had started as an easy social run often finished with guys running faster than race pace just to keep up!!

That is not running smart!! When training smart, every time you start a run, you have a clear idea of your session – how far, how fast and what training response from your body you are trying to elicit. Many runners run their easy runs too hard and their hard runs too easy!! There’s nothing wrong with running hard. The 40/30 session I describe in the free e book was used by Steve Prefontaine as a test to see how hard he could push his body. But he used to recover afterwards! By running recovery runs like some of our Wednesday runs used to turn out, any of us planning a recovery run were wasting our time.

So, in order to train smart, always know what the session is designed to achieve and then complete it in order to achieve that. I know there will be those that say, some days I feel great and just want to run fast. If that is the case, run fast today and run easy tomorrow. Then, re-evaluate the plan. Are you including too many easy runs?

Equally, on those days where you get out the day knowing that you need to run fast and you feel awful, warm up first and if you feel no better, reduce or ditch the session. I’ll post later on about techniques for adapting your training on the hoof!!

Have a great weekend! Train hard and train smart!