Still Running (weakly). Issue 131

PAST – inspiration – “Shall we just jog in with Zola?” gasped Bob.  For 10 miles we had hammered each other on this out and back route in the Derbyshire hills.  When ‘Zola’ (as we called this runner because she looked a bit like Zola Budd) came into sight with about a mile to go, Bob came up with the most sensible course of action.

I was certainly near my limit.  We had another three days at this 1987 training camp.  Having done an easier hour that morning, we had done more than enough for one day.

But how much is enough.........?

A Personal Trainer of my acquaintance turned up to the gym one day with a shiner.  The explanation that I eventually elicited from him was less incriminating than I had hoped it would be!  “I was trying to squat 165kg and I burst two blood vessels in my eye.”  Too much!

“My favourite all-time workout goes like this: mile at 4:40; 880 jog; 2x1320 at 3:30; 880 jogs; 3x880 at 2:20; 440 jogs; 4x440 at 70; 220 jogs; 3x880 at 2:20; 440 jogs; 2x1320 at 3:30; 880 jogs; mile at 4:40.  At the finish of this, I’m usually completely dead and can hardly do my easy shakedowns.”

You don’t say!  There’s a reason why you’ve never heard of Bill ‘Mad-Dog’ Scobey – and workouts like that are probably it.

But, in considering what workouts may not be good for you, there is also the mental/psychological side.  I have talked elsewhere about Geraint Thomas, winner of the Tour de France in 2018, doing training rides where he doesn’t eat any carbs before going out on his bike for three hours: “You are grumpy because you are so hungry, but it trains the body in a particular way.

“But sometimes I like to test myself.  Instead of going three hours, I will go four.  Or five.  Sometimes I go six hours.  I am not even sure if that is good for you.  But it is about proving something to myself.”

This is telling, isn’t it?  Whilst he’s not at all sure a fasted session like that is physically good for him, he’s damn sure it gives him a psychological edge.

PRESENT – perspiration – “I think I could have done more,” said my daughter.  “Either a bit faster or another set – or both.”

She was phoning me on her warm-down jog after she had completed 4 continuous sets of 800 at 10km pace, 90 seconds rest, 400 at 5km pace, 90 seconds rest.  And she had edged those speeds down from 10km to 5km pace for the 800s, and from 5km to mile pace for the 400s.  Indeed the last set was more like mile pace for the 800 and 800 pace for the 400!

I said that not every session has to kill you.

An hour later, as her legs started to turn to pre-stressed concrete on the sofa, and the next day on her dawn 3-mile shakeout run, she was inclined to agree.

She had done enough.

FUTURE – suggestion – “The trouble with you, Stephen, is that you never know when to stop,” said my mother – probably on more than one occasion – during my childhood. 

Stephen sounds like a budding ultrarunner to me!

In running – as in whatever I was doing back then to incite my mother’s exasperation – there is of course a balance to be struck between doing too little and doing too much.

Now, as you know, I am an advocate of doing some very demanding sessions.  I think that they are the best way of getting to the next level.

But, if I had to define a rule of thumb here, I would say, ‘Make them as demanding as possible in terms of quality, rather than quantity.’

Back before the war (!!), I would do sessions like 8km on the track, consisting of 600 metres in 2 minutes and 200 in 1 minute, repeated 10 times.  This would work out at six-minute miles for the entire session.  It was demanding; it was quite long; it was satisfying in both its fast-and-slow mix and its overall speed; and I can’t ever remember being tempted to do more!

In my ultra days, I would occasionally spice up a very long run (of 30 miles or more) by performing a time trial on a track that I was passing, clocking an 18-minute 5km or a 5:20 mile, before carrying on with my run.  But I would never do these if I was straining on the long run itself.  And, when I was feeling good, I would stop before the voice that said, “You know, you could do another time trial before you finish,” won the battle with the other voice that said, “Great session – and that is enough.”

Ultras have to be about quantity, to a certain extent, but even here, I would emphasise quality.

So, Mum, I did sometimes know when to stop.

Training for a 100km, say, one could never run 100km in practice, so it was more important to finish a long-ish run still feeling strong.

At the end of the day, I think finding the right balance is more instinctive than definitive.  Tune into your runners’ intelligence and it will tell you if today is the day to push to your ‘quality’ limit, or if you’ve done enough.