Still Running (weakly). Issue 130

PAST – inspiration – “I lay on the floor of the shower, cursing the marathon and its suffering.”  So said Lasse Viren of his 1976 Olympic experience.

The Finn, who had won 5000 and 10,000 golds in Munich 1972, had repeated the double in Montreal, outkicking Carlos Lopes (1984 Olympic marathon champ) and Brendan Foster in the 10, and staying ahead of the black shadows of Dick Quax and Rod Dixon from New Zealand in the 5.  Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand of West Germany had in fact dived past Dixon for the bronze.

The day after that particularly draining race, Viren tried to do a Zatopek and win the marathon as well.  ‘The Czech Locomotive’ had won all three events in Helsinki 1952.  But it was too much to ask even for him.  Nevertheless, he wound up an extremely creditable fifth, behind the doping East German Waldemar Cierpinski, Frank Shorter, who had won in Munich, Karel Lismont, the Belgian who had won silver in 1972, and Don Kardong of the US.

His schedule was the worst possible way in which to warm up for a marathon, with two 10,000s and two 5000s in the eight days preceding.  And so the pain to which it gave rise elicited the above unusually candid quote from the taciturn Finn.

Controversy has continued to surround Viren.  Was he doping?  Especially as his contemporary compatriot, Martti Vainio, was caught.  Viren said his secret was reindeer milk.  But it may just be that he only tried to peak once every four years – for the Olympics.  His only other major medal was bronze behind Foster in the 1974 European 5000.

PRESENT – perspiration – I was delighted to see Jake Wightman return to form this year.  Having won World 1500 gold in 2022, he suffered a series of injuries in 2023 and 2024, even contemplating retirement. 

But this year he very nearly repeated that World gold, losing literally on the line to Isaac Nader of Portugal.  And Jake, son of Geoff, sixth in the 1990 European Marathon, and Susan, nee Tooby, 12th in the 1988 Olympic Marathon, is a lovely, self-deprecating bloke, to which my children, who bumped into him in a London art gallery, can attest!  They obviously move in far more cultured circles than their father.

One thing I particularly admire about Jake is his tactical intelligence, which has allowed him to win six major medals: as well as World gold and silver, he won bronze in both Commonwealth and European 1500s in 2018, and Commonwealth 1500 bronze and European 800 silver in 2022.

On race day, he usually starts with a little 10-minute shake out in the morning, just to loosen the legs a bit.  But, “I’m funny with what I eat on race day as I like to keep it as plain as possible.  I eat tortilla wraps on their own, which makes me look like a bit of a weirdo”!

FUTURE – suggestion – What is the correct warmup?  I have remarked elsewhere that, even after you have sacrificed so much to prepare yourself to run a personal best, when you actually arrive at the race venue on the appointed day, the last thing you feel like doing is warming up.

But you know it’s got to be done to give yourself any chance of hitting your target.

And it’s got to be done right.

I have seen so many runners sabotage their chances of a PB by running a warm-up that is simply too tame.

If you are trying to run a 19-minute 5km, say, you are going to have to run 6-minute miles.  Therefore your warm-up must include work at that pace and faster.  How else is your aerobic system going to cope with the ‘red-lining’ it will need to endure, or indeed your skeletal structure deal with the stride length and impact that will be its natural result?

There is no earthly point in jogging around at 10-minute miles and doing a bit of stretching.  Yes, you need to ease into it, BUT, once you are warm, you must perform at least 4 efforts of over a minute at faster than intended race pace.

Another example might be someone going for a sub-50 10km.  Their warm-up would include at least 4 efforts of at least 200 metres at 7-minute mile pace (a minute faster than target speed.)

As the distance gets longer, the need for this sort of warm-up reduces, but a half-marathoner should still perform a bit of race-pace prep, whilst the marathoner – unless elite, where sub-5:00 mile pace is required from the off – could probably get away with just jogging.