Janathon 2012 Day 9: Walking as training

Janathon 2012 Day 9: Walk - 7 miles, Time - 1hr 54min, Weather - greyish but not oppressively so

I liked today's Running Free weekly report today as it contained a quote from Arthur Lydiard, which explained exactly what I am doing at the moment:

If you are not enjoying training, stop all anaerobic training. Go out for a long jog, so slow that the old ladies with shopping baskets go past you. Do that until you start to enjoy it!

When writing my training diary yesterday I reviewed the week and asked myself what I had enjoyed the most and what the least. The session that gave me least pleasure was easy to identify, it was the run where I could not keep my heart rate down and I felt everything was falling apart. i came away with the conclusion was that I was not even fit enough to run slowly!

Something has to be wrong with that conclusion but how to counter it?

Now Arthur Lydiard was the trainer of top class athletes who in no way ran slowly (it is a myth that Lydiard was an early proponent of Long Slow Distance). I am a low level athlete who in no way runs fast. I might have to ratchet things down a bit: to build up my endurance I might need to walk.

If I am going to use walking as training (as they did in the early part of the Twentieth Century) then I had better make sure it has some substance i.e. be something more than a stroll round the block.

This links-in with what was last weeks most satisfying session - my 6.5 mile walk along the canal. Now it could be I was unduly influenced by the weather (a sunny day with a deep blue sky was such a relief amid all the dull, rainy days) but there was real pleasure in striding along, paying attention to my surroundings and going long enough to feel it involved effort.

So today I thought I would repeat it. The weather was not as good but I enjoyed it just as much. So Huzza I think there is some progress to be found here.