Still Running (weakly). Issue 69

PAST – inspiration – “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.” So said Geraint Thomas, winner of the 2018 Tour de France, about training rides where he doesn’t eat any carbs before going out on his bike: “You are grumpy because you are so hungry, but it trains the body in a particular way.”

The things we do to succeed! You are probably familiar with the stories of Jonny Wilkinson and David Beckham practising penalty and free kicks respectively, ages after their team-mates had finished training and gone home.

Less well-known is the story of William Sichel, the multiple world-record holding Scottish ultradistance runner, who contracted testicular cancer. He wore his Great Britain vest to every chemotherapy session to remind himself of what he wanted to get back to!

PRESENT – perspiration – “I used to get asked: ‘Why did you park there?’ “I used to lie and just say it was more private up there but, the truth is, I knew Mark Richardson would finish his session at Windsor and then get to his car or go back to the nice indoor warm-up track, get a massage then go home.

“I knew when I’d finished training, I’d be sick. 40 minutes later, I’d finally be able to get my kit back on and then have to walk 76 steps back up to my car. My legs would be screaming, but I knew that no one trained as hard as me.”

Iwan Thomas, in his new book, ‘Brutal’, describes this routine for every 400-metres session at his Southampton training location, parking so that, even with the track-work finished, he still had to face that 76-step climb!

FUTURE – suggestion – What could YOU do, to enhance the value of your sessions?

Sprint at the end of a run? Do that extra hill? Run an extra mile? Do extra speedwork reps? None of this is easy, but it is comparatively straightforward to tack something hard on at the end of a session when you’re nicely warmed up and motivated – and it’s very satisfying afterwards!!

Of course, you can be as creative as you like about this. When I was training for 24-hour races, I would run 50 miles on each of the three days of a Bank Holiday weekend; to practise running overnight, I would occasionally get up at 2am, run a marathon, shower, go back to bed for an hour, then get up again and go to work; I would race a marathon and then carry on for a few extra miles; I would push the penultimate hour of a long run, condemning myself to an agonizing last 60 minutes, but effectively getting the benefit of an 8-hour run, say, from a 5-hour one.