So, what alternatives are there to boost performance at the end of a race?

In my track days, I mainly raced 400m hurdles. To gain strength, I often trained with a group of 800m runners on the Oxford University track – the track where Roger Bannister ran the first four minute mile. The group was coached by Mac – a retired fire fighter – who devised one of my favourite sessions.

We would run 200m at a fast float (running fast but not flat out sprinting – around race pace) then walk 50m and then sprint 150m. A session consisted of 4 repetitions with 3 minute recoveries.

When I began coaching road runners, I looked to adapt the session so that it followed the same principles but at paces and distances that were more appropriate to road runners.
We ran 550m @ 5k pace, walk 50m, 150m fast finish.
3 minute recovery.
4 reps.

The session is excellent for a runner sharpening before a race. The 5k pace is at 100% VO2 max and boosts that; the fast finish replicates finishing a race fast and will also generate some lactic acid. By the time the third and fourth reps come around, the body will be struggling to clear the lactic acid in the 3 minutes and so the runner is forced to run fast while there is a lactic acid accumulation in the legs – just like the end of a 5k or 10k race. This is a great fun session to do in a group on a good grass surface.

What about in the snow???

Daley Thompson told how he would train on Christmas Day just to get a small advantage over his rivals who would not be so dedicated. Training in the snow is a bit like that! With that in mind, today I went out for some drills and strides on the playing field – if you look closely you can still see my footprints!!

So, given the weather we’ve been enduring, I present the Running Coaching top tips for running in the depth of winter.

1. Wear appropriate clothing
Cold and wet weather are rendering infinitely worse by a driving wind. Have you ever been out in the rain when the driving wind has made every raindrop feel like a needle in you? It is essential to wear clothing that will enable you to maintain your core temperature. Many companies nowadays manufacture clothing designed for freedom of movement in the worst of weathers. You will also need to pay attention to your footwear. Today I was wearing cross country spikes for extra traction on a snowy field.

2. Stay warm!!
Intrinsically linked with #1, is keeping warm. Cold muscles are much easier to pull; cold bodies are much more susceptible to infections and viruses. Warming up is also very important in the cold. I did some kettlebell exercises inside in the warm today before braving the snow to warm up the muscles and get the blood flowing. Once back inside, out of wet clothes, a quick stretch and then into a warm shower.

3. Choose your running surface
Mainly runners spend most of their time running on tarmac. Once covered with compacted snow or a heavy frost though, tarmac can become treacherously slippery. When conditions are like that, the risk of injury is again very high. Running off road is a much better options. You could run laps of a sports field or diagonals of a football field where you run fast from one corner diagonally to the other corner and then jog along the goal line before repeating. If you have the option of running on trails or cross country, so much the better.
 
4. Use a treadmill
For runners who are members of a gym (or are likely enough to own a treadmill!), this is an option. The great marathon runner Ingrid Kristiansen did a lot of her training on a treadmill in the depths of the Norwegian winter. This is not entirely without problems though. Some gyms get a mite upset with you if you want to do you Sunday 20 miler on their treadmill preventing others from using it. I was once a member of a gym who introduced a time limit of 3 minutes per piece of apparatus!! The biggest cautionary note though is for those runners who don’t usually run on a treadmill and start due to the inclement weather. Any change of running surface presents an elevated risk of injury. When you start you treadmill training program, cut back on your mileage for the first couple of weeks to allow you body time to adjust.

5. Cross train
For those of us not in training for a Spring marathon and with no important races on the horizon, it can be beneficial to use the bad weather as an excuse for some cross training. If you have had a long period of sustained training, you body will benefit from some respite from the pounding running gives it. A couple of weeks of cycling or cross country skiing on an exercise machine in the warm will result in little loss of fitness but may prevent an injury from occurring.

What’s your best tip for keeping fit in the cold weather? Please leave a comment and let us know.

Train Smart!

2. I believe that life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.

3. I believe that my family are the most important thing in my life.

4. I believe that hard work and dedication are qualities that are seriously undervalued in today’s world.

5. I believe it is better to educate and encourage than it is to bully and belittle.

6. I believe that there is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells out the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

7. I believe that there are few greater pleasures than the sensation of running fast with the sun on your face and the wind in your hair.

8. I believe that smiling is contagious.

9. I believe that everyone would be healthier if supermarkets did not exist

10. I believe that Paula Radcliffe will win gold in the 2012 London Olympic marathon

Eating an appropriate diet
Getting the right amount of sleep
Avoiding physical effort that it not training related
Reducing work stress

A professional runner has systems in place to manage these things. Masseurs and physios help with recovery between sessions, diet is closely analysed and managed and our runner has no other exertion to concentrate on other than training. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us do not have the good fortune (or talent!!) to be in that position.

Some of these areas may be very difficult to manage giving other conditions in your life. For example, as a parent of a young baby you may not be able to get the right amount of sleep. In my day job, I work a rapid rotation shift pattern that means I spend a third of my working life working nights. Even though I have had more years than I care to remember working shifts, I still regularly struggle with my sleep pattern. Until I retire, I will continue to face that. Therefore, I need to consider the holism of training and account for my variations in sleep in my training. So, I concentrate my hardest training efforts on my days off and on those days where I know that I will struggle for sleep, I either train very lightly or take the day off.

Similarly, a person working in a job involving considerable amounts of manual labour will need to manage their energy levels to ensure that their training is having a positive and not negative effect on their overall health and fitness.

Why is this important?

Many running books contain training programmes that are written by coaches who coach runners who are full time athletes or full time students – people who have very little stress to manage beyond their training efforts. For runners with full time job and family responsibilities, the stresses of all of life’s challenges have to be considered in conjunction with the stresses from running and the level of training needs to be modified to prevent overtraining and illness and to maximise performance.

Train Smart.

So, what do we need to include in our log?

The date
The time of day
The route run – most runners have a limited number of routes that they use making comparisons easy. Routes over differing terrain will affect the average speed.
The details of the session – how far, how fast, rest intervals etc
Shoes worn – many shoes will be deteriorating prior to showing outward signs of wear. By logging those shoes worn, you will be able to measure how many miles you have done in each. Dependant upon how heavy you are on your shoes, they will need to be replaced every 500-1000 miles.
Weather conditions – poor weather will slow you down
Waking pulse rate – an elevated pulse rate is an indicator of over-training or the onset of illness. A pulse rate that decreases over time indicates improving fitness
Early morning bodyweight/post exercise bodyweight – although it is not too much of an issue in the UK, in areas where the temperature is generally higher, most daily reductions in bodyweight are a good indicator of hydration status.

There are other areas that can additionally be recorded eg how the run felt, effort rating, enjoyment rating, bedtime and hours of sleep. These are good measures to determine the effects of training and can be used to provide an early indication of overtraining.

There are mainly online and computer based training logs as well that will also record and calculate training load and follow and measure heart rates using heart rate monitors. I have known runners who kept a detailed spreadsheet of a multiplicity of variables from their training. If you have the time and the knowledge to do this, it can provide an excellent basis to analyse your training and make the necessary adjustments to maximise performance.

For me, I recently cleared out a cupboard and found some old training diaries lurking at the back. I spent an enjoyable hour reliving various races and feeling very old as I considered my current performance against what I was once capable of!!

Train Smart!

Newton was certainly ahead of his time in recommending rest before a big race. There are numerous tales in athletic history of runners being prevented from training by illness and injury and then returning with a breakthrough performance. Prior to the 1950 European Games, Emil Zatopek trained so hard that he made himself ill and spent 2 weeks in hospital. He was released two days before the 10000m race which he won and lapped all the other runners in the process. He also went on to win the 5000m by 23 seconds. Carlos Lopez of Portugal was prevented from training by an accident for ten days leading up to his victory in the 1984 Olympic marathon.

Carlos Lopes

Very few programmes advocate tapering for shorter road races eg 5 or 10k. However, various studies have shown improved performance when mileage is reduced significantly (by up to 70%) provided the remaining mileage is carried out at a brisk pace. Measurable performance gains were demonstrated in a study in 1994 by Houmard and others where average daily mileage was reduced from 10km to 1.5km and the training was based on 400m repeats at 5k race pace.

So, despite the evidence that a dramatic taper will improve your performance, it is often overlooked. Probably the greatest reason for this is a mental one. Having spent weeks training for an event, getting into the habit of regular training and knowing that training will improve performance, it is sorely tempting to cram in as much training as possible right up to the last minute before the event in the belief that it will improve performance. As in Law 12, it is necessary to have the mental strength to rest and recuperate prior to the event to achieve maximum performance.

Train Smart!

For those of us at a less rarified level, the mental aspect of running is often neglected but equally important. From goal-setting to completing events, recreational runners can improve performance through improved mental toughness. Coach Roy Benson, coaching advisor to Running Times, advocates occasional extreme training sessions specifically for the purpose of developing mental toughness. At 18 miles into a marathon, mental toughness is the thing that gets you through. One of the greatest milers ever, Herb Elliott
Was no stranger to training to develop mental toughness. He wrote, “If you emphasize the physical side of training you may become superbly conditioned but mentally not advanced at all. On the other hand, if you concentrate on the mental aspect, it is inevitable that the physical side will follow.”

My favourite thought to remember when struggling in a race is “Pain is temporary, glory is eternal!”

- to provide inspiration and support for the athlete
- to provide an objective analysis of when the athlete is doing too much
- knowing the athlete and providing the appropriate mental and physiological stimulus

Of course I am going to strongly support this law. For many recreational runners, it is difficult if not impossible to have a relationship with a coach on an individual basis. The danger then is that the runner picks up bits and pieces from books, magazines, other runners and the Internet and applies ALL of it!!

As I’ve previously posted, my coaching ethos is to train Smart. In the coming months I’ll post detailed guidance of what that looks like in practice.

For all my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving and Train Smart!

Bill Bowerman, legendary US coach