Still Running (weakly). Issue 56

PAST – inspiration – With the Olympics now so close, athletes are attempting to achieve the delicate balancing act between reaching their absolute peak on the one hand, and not under- or over-training on the other.

My mind goes back to a story about Lasse Viren, double-double Olympic champion in 1972 and 76. Before the 1976 games, he was not as fit as before 1972. His coach made him to do tests, including running 5,000 of sprinting 50 metres and jogging 50 metres. He ran 13:32, a world-class time, but his pulse was only 186.

An all-out effort should have produced a rate of over 200. He needed more speedwork. It was only 8 days before his first Olympic race, but Viren believed his coach when he said there was still time to sharpen.

So he undertook (limited) speedwork, and the rest is history. Fine margins!!

PRESENT – perspiration – Well away from the Olympics, watching the Cheddar Gorge Marathon and the Hangers Way 50km in recent weeks, I have certainly seen perspiration, though perhaps less evidence of preparation and demonstration of execution.

Many runners started too fast for their fitness; some, though wearing the latest hydration vests, obviously did not replenish themselves sufficiently along the way, and likewise found the going tough.

One runner, who had trained well, caught the eye in the 50km, as he started conservatively, ate and drank regularly, and overtook half the field in the last two-thirds of the race.

Getting the result that your training deserves also demands intelligent application on the day.

FUTURE – suggestion – Books, songs, poems, videos to get you inspired. You will have your own favourites. Just a few of my own include – in the way of books – Another Hurdle by David Hemery (the best I have found into what it takes to get to the mountain top – other books have promised this!!) and Feet in the Clouds by Richard Askwith (brilliantly funny and moving survey of fell running.)

Songs must include Born to Run (Springsteen) and Chariots of Fire, but, being an ultrarunner, I also like the protracted agony evoked in Everybody Hurts by REM, and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Racing Cars.

If by Rudyard Kipling is possibly the best-known inspirational poem, but Invictus by William Ernest Henley gives it a run for its money. Less well known are To an Athlete Dying Young by AE Houseman – “Now you will not swell the rout/ Of lads that wore their honours out,/ Runners whom renown outran/ And the name died before the man” and The Song of the Ungirt Runners by CH Sorley – “We run because we like it/ Through the broad bright land.”

My choice of videos includes three by Salomon – Of Fells and Hills (beautiful footage), Mount Marathon (crazy 5km mountain race in Alaska), and Trail Dog (just a runner and his dogs.) But Google “Steve Jones Brussels 1983” and select the 2:38 video for some true grit.