Within Boundaries (Day 8)

Gym: 45 minutes, exercises - various

Not a running day, instead I was down in the gym for some strengthening (or accurately limiting loss of strength). 

Although some people’s Janathon challenge is to run everyday, for me that would not be wise. It would be doing much too much, all of a rush, after a less active period. It would invite injury.

I am fully convinced that most running injuries are caused by training errors, the foremost of which is doing too much when the body is not ready. It’s understandable when we have schedules and it is initially possible to overrule any subversive messages the body might send. We also have our pride -weak spots, well how could we have any? We  laugh in the face of weakness. But, and this is a big but, it is no good - we are bounded by our weakest link and cannot put too much pressure on it. We cannot, for example, be in the best shape of our life and have a tinsy winsy little problem with our knee that stops us running. 

Listening to your body is a wide ranging exercise that involves being realistic. This can be hard because in our heart of hearts we all dream of being better than we actually are (well I know I do anyway).  But we have to be clear eyed.

With that in mind, my plan for this month is not to try for any great mileage but build up overall strength. Today was upper body and core.

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.

2011 Streak 110/365: Evening stroll

2011 Streak 110/365: Walk - 2.7 miles, time - 55 min, Weather - the day had been nice but evening was a little overcast

I have written before about the best time to exercise and how research shows that people tend to be at their athletic best in the afternoon, whilst morning favours cerebral activity.

That is all very well and might be true but it takes no account of people (and here I am talking about myself) who wally around and put things off to the point of loosing interest. In other words, on some days, it can be difficult to get out of the door and if it goes on for too long the easy option is to put things off until the following day. 

I therefore run in the morning as a form of discipline.

To be quite honest it doesn't really matter if the hands of my body clock have not ticked round to athletic peak. I am so far from the cutting edge of performance that a few degrees up or down means very little. Doing something is more important than anything else and so I have to find a routine which makes it possible

However the wallying about is really a problem for running or cycling, where I anticipate working hard and feeling a little uncomfortable at some point. It does not apply to walking - or to be more precise - strolling. 

There is something incredibly satisfying about going for a walk at the end of a warm day and finishing with a beer in a country pub. 

Which is what happened today - easy, relaxed, and nothing like exercise.

The photo is of a redundant gate at Ashridge, where we went to look at the bluebells. As the light was a bit dull I will hold back posting a picture of them for a couple of days but they are spectacular.

Walk, woods, bluebells, country pub, beer - I must admit to feeling incredibly English

Going Slow

Today was a day to celebrate slow and for this I have to thank my wife.

We don't usually run together, differing schedules, and programmes get in the way but today was an opportunity we could take. We ran the canal tow paths around Berkhamsted, which are nicely surfaced (i.e. like a clay tennis court rather than flinty and uneven), as well as being flat, and we ran at a very easy pace. In fact it was all very pleasant: the vegetation was verdant, ducklings were little bundles of fluff bobbing around on the canal, barge owners were fettling about in their boats, carrying out tasks of minor maintenance. The weather was overcast but was warm enough and carried the atmosphere of calm mistiness. In fact if you asked me to present a picture of England in repose I would give you this canal, right here.

We ran at a pace to talk easily both to ourselves and some people on the barges, or stop to help a lady get her pushchair up some steps. We could take time to look at the passing scenery. I ran a bit longer but the combined result was that we both felt refreshed after we finished.

It was especially good because I had quite forgotten about the virtues of the recovery-run. They seem to have dropped out of my repertoire and I tend to do too many runs at the same sort of middling pace. I always remember Mike Gratton saying that he thought most people ran too fast on their slow runs and too slow on their faster runs; and I know I that is me. Things seem to bunch up in the middle and almost all runs are steady.

Sometimes I just have to step back and relearn the basic lessons - again and again. Today was such a day and I will now do more of this type of session. However they are easy. The other side of the bargain means I will have to do other sessions at greater intensity. Gosh that is almost getting a bit hardcore.

I will console myself with something I learnt from Joe Beer at the Algarve training camp two years ago. He said you don't need to do too many hard sessions. Research with successful athletes showed they did a surprisingly high proportion of their mileage at an easy pace. If you think of an 80:20 distribution and you do 30 miles a week then you should only by doing 6 miles hard (and even that was not strictly necessary – and certainly not at my standard).