Still Running (weakly). Issue 110

PAST – inspiration – “Good things come slow, especially in distance running,” said Bill Dellinger, Olympic bronze medallist in the 1964 5000, and University of Oregon coach, who died on 27th June at the age of 91.

As coach, he mentored both Steve Prefontaine and the now disgraced and banned Alberto Salazar.  Pre came fourth in the 1972 Olympic 5000, and Salazar won the New York City marathon three times (1980-82) and Boston once (1982.)

Dellinger was a great believer in what he called ‘callousing’ sessions: for instance, every Thursday, he got Salazar to run 5 miles in about 23 minutes, deliberately very early in the morning and also deliberately on a bumpy old cinder track rather than the modern tartan version that was also available to them.

Such callousing also led Pre to make such remarks as, “A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest.  I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.”

RIP Bill

PRESENT – perspiration – Those quotes remind me of other words that have inspired me over the years, many of which I have already shared with you.

Like Juma Ikaanga of Tanzania, New York City marathon winner 1989: “The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.”  Like Billy Bland, Bob Graham Round record holder 1982-2018: “You pulled on your shorts, and you did what you thought was right.”  Like the Eagles: “Take it to the limit one more time.”

Like: “Nurmi was remarkable, but Zatopek was unique.  He was a revolutionary; and he did it all himself, driven by his own energy and curiosity.  No one else could have done his training and enjoyed it,” from Ron Pickering and Norman Harris’s 1972 Olympic preview book.  And from the same tome, about race walkers: “They do not train especially for technique – only to be, like distance runners, faster, fitter and tougher; especially tougher.”

FUTURE – suggestion – But how do you get tougher?

Every run, every session, every repetition, every time you set yourself something to do and you do it, will make you a bit tougher, but how do you really galvanise your mind to support what you’re asking your body to submit to?

I think it comes down to always doing the session – and almost always all of the session – even on occasion a bit more than was planned – unless you have a cast iron reason not to.

Make yourself into a person that no one – least of all you – expects to give up.  

In that way, it is also true that bad training sessions are in some ways more important than good ones.  Anyone can train hard when you feel good.  It’s what you do when you “are not feeling it today” that separates the sheep from the goats.

Perhaps it is true that, on bad days, you don’t do as much as you would do if you felt good (though you will often find that, once you start, your pride will take over and you will do it all), but you do something.  Because it is not always about what happens in the workout – though this is obviously crucial over time.  It is about developing yourself to have the sort of mindset that does not quit.  It’s about becoming the type of person who does not miss sessions.

Easier said than done, I know.  But here are some steps. 

Firstly, set yourself the right long-term target, the one that is just about out of reach, but the one that inspires you and compels action.

Secondly, plan your way towards it – what sessions do I have to do?  How many miles do I need to run each week?  How fast do I do each run?  What races must I do?

Thirdly, when you are setting out on the most difficult runs, do one thing at a time – start your warmup jog, do your strides, stretch, do the first rep – or set out on your long run and focus solely on the first quarter.  Devour the monster one mouthful at a time.

Around all of this very difficult, very demanding stuff, make life as easy as possible for yourself.  Try not to have too many other things going on around those crucial sessions.  My daughter was delayed getting away from work the other week, so she missed the track session at her club.  Even so, she got home (very late), changed, jogged down to her local track, and did the prescribed session there instead.  That takes incredible self-discipline, because she had the perfect excuse to skip those dreaded intervals.

But the path of least resistance is so often the path of least achievement.

In practical terms, if you are intending to run early in the morning, say, get everything ready the night before.  As I have said before, when your willpower is being stretched to breaking point anyway by the difficulty of the session – and the hour – the last thing you need is not being able to find the right shoes or having no milk for your coffee.

I hope these ideas are useful but, willpower is a muscle that you can exercise to get stronger over time. 

There is really no substitute for making sure you get out there and do it day after day, so that you never really get a day when you consider not getting out there and not doing it!