The thing about the “Coaches’ Couch” is it is one person’s opinion (mine) about the sport of running and geared primarily around our marathon and half-marathon clinic. Often the topics I choose are controversial – sometimes on purpose to provoke thought. Sport certainly has its share of politics. Coaching at times can be even worse.
I’m going to share a story with you I received in an email the other day:
Two Choices
What would you do? You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line… there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?
At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'when not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection… Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?' The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.' Then he told the following story:
Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps. I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'we're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'
Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.
At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?
Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over.
The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all teammates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.
By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball. The smallest guy on their team now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay' Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!' As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team
'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'. Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!
This is a beautiful true message about life choices. There was a question asked at the beginning: “What would you do?”, “Would you have done the same?”
My first reaction was, “No.” But then I thought about my similar situations in the past. I realized I had at times done basically the same thing; usually because it was always one game or competition out of an entire season. I guess because they were unimportant events to me in the grand scheme of things. In one time, at a “News Conference” track meet, I had won 7 first places between individual events and relays. When the athletic achievement award was given to someone else who had far less points than me, I just walked away. My dad asked me why I did that. I said that I knew I had won and that’s all that mattered. Plus in a few years from now, nobody would remember. Strangely, now I can think of many instances where I walked away.
I started off by talking about politics in sport and I see at times as seemingly unpopular a decision is, only time will tell if it’s the right one.
Approximately 47 years ago I started running. I discovered at an early age that running and walking seemed to be a natural escape for me. I was able to “go places” for a long time and just get away. I then discovered a few years later I wasn’t too bad at this “running thing”. I convinced my parents to let me join the South Fraser Track Club. I managed by the end of one season to make the provincial team and do a little traveling. I eventually I had to quit competition but I still ran as much as possible with the dream of one day doing well.
At this time, in the 70’s, there was very little information out there for the general public other than a few “esoteric” running books like “Run, Run, Run” by Fred Wilt or Joe Henderson’s “Jog, Run, Race”. Knowledge came from experimentation and recording what worked and what didn’t work. Like Edison said about discovering the light bulb, “I didn’t fail 10 thousand times, I just simply found 10 thousand ways how not to do it.” They say a wise man learns from his mistakes. Similarly this meant I took lots of time off to figure out how I injured myself “this time”… Often something may sound good and look good on paper, but until you try it you just don’t know if it will work.
Today we have volumes of training programs available built from the early experimentation of coaches and athletes. The programs that didn’t work are long forgotten. The ones that still exist have common threads.
- Running base(experience) pays dividends. You have to run, to run.
- The body reacts positively when you apply loads. Regular training.
- Strength allows you to improve and avoid injury.
- The benefits of training are realized on your rest days.
- It takes time to grow. Train within and at your current level(paces) and have patience to let your body adapt. There are no short cuts.
I’d like to expand on that last one as it is a point often missed. You can’t build a castle on quicksand. Most magazine running programs are like that. I’d love to say “all” magazine running programs are like that, but I’ve never read every one of them. I’d also venture to say “all” well-respected coaches would say that these programs are good finishing programs for beginner runners and that they also will say they (magazine programs) contain no foundation or future. What I mean by “foundation” is that they have no lead up to the program to form a proper running base. This is especially true of programs that misleadingly talk about doing less running and getting better results. To get more you have to do more. You can do it with less running but when you run you have to do more. A much easier path is to run less, but more often. It spreads the load over more days.
I work for approximately 150 novice athletes of varying abilities. Like everyone, there is a great deal of potential to get better. How far everyone goes depends upon many factors that have been discussed in previous newsletters. In those discussions we talked about what it takes to go from beginner to Boston and beyond. When I first started coaching this group my methods were immediately questioned by some. We continuously adjusted the various pace times to suit the wide variety of pace levels for the current condition the runners. Often this meant the pace groups would break into smaller groups. Questions were asked why the pace couldn’t be set so all could run together. “Watering down” the program just because someone was slower or that during the week the half marathon program was different than the marathon program wouldn’t benefit everyone. Just as there are varying running abilities so too should there be different training. This is the best road to improvement – train within your zone.
As improvement began many started making the biggest common mistake. I call it; “If a little bit is good, more must be better” syndrome. That is running every workout with an intensity that only allows you to recover from workout to workout and gain very little or nothing from them. In this way, most of the athletes would be always working beyond the point of receiving any benefits from their workouts. We saw this in races too. Many enjoyed successes when they raced; and wanted to race more. I confused them when I asked them not to race. There was an incorrect assumption that we didn’t like races. The point was any success comes from training and if you are racing you aren’t training. There is such a thing as a training race, but for many of our runners pace discipline is still in development. Most of our runners were consistently setting PR’s, or within a minute of a PR, race after race – those results are not indicative of a training race.... Instead we encouraged our runners to pick a goal race, hold off racing during training, stay focused and train for their goal.
The importance of running your long-slow run slowly was being missed by most. Perhaps it was the generation we grew up in. “If you want to get better you have to try harder.” Many believed that in order to get faster you have to run faster. This in part is true, but not at the expense of your endurance training. To run your long slow run at paces approaching your race pace will require more recovery – taking away from the benefits of next week’s training. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.
When introduced to the concept of an active rest day, it was like I was totally speaking a language not heard on this planet; and interval training less than 800 meters was considered not to be done by half and full marathoners.
Thankfully, there were many in the group game enough to try it and listen. As their personal success grew, a few more heads turned and decided to give these “different” workouts a try. But, you see, I never saw them as being “different workouts” because this was the way I was taught to run. In South Fraser I had a coach… Graham Cooper. In the Burnaby Striders, I was coached under Rick Scambler. With City Track, I worked with and listened to a coach (Mike Lonergan) who trained Olympic athletes. Between my coaching duties I had a chance to run with the big dogs too. At 41, I joined the Human Performance Centre at 8 Rinks in Burnaby to help rehabilitate a reoccurring injury and train for the 1998 US Master’s Half Marathon Championships in Las Vegas and finished 13th in a time of 1:13:49. Not great, but not bad either.
And there is more to come as we build layer by layer. As our athletes continue to improve and get stronger they become able to accept new things and changes – both physically and mentally. This is our multi-year approach. That is nothing to be afraid of. Most in our group have been doing it anyway – running for multi-years. We have put direction and future planning into our program unlike nay other program I am aware of.
So why doesn’t every one do future planning? Perhaps some coaches feel it’s because a lot of people may adopt running as a lifestyle, but very few want to make long-distance running performance a goal at a later stage in life. They will try it and move on to something else. That’s acceptable I suppose. But what about those who want to get better? The danger then is they end up trying to run with elite groups who are far above them, or try and run on their own, or never get a chance to reach their potential. Everyone has a different reason for running and what they want to get out of running. The bottom line is, if you want to discover how good you can be, you need some kind of a long range plan and give the plan it’s time and not rush it. As wine gets better with age under the right conditions (and more expensive too), so do runners.
Here’s a summary:
o We have a program for first time runners. It is not only a basic endurance program, but it also adds in elements of speed and strength to give anyone a foundation to move to the next level; if they choose to.
o We run 3 days a week. Everyone is usually doing the same program. On certain workouts one group may be doing something different than the other 3 programs. For the majority of the workouts, everyone is going to be running together.
o We are inclusive. We have 150 participants including 10 group leaders for different pace groups. If the group leaders cannot answer your questions, there are several people including myself who are available by email, phone, before or after clinic sessions to help you. All the workouts and paces are previously discussed via the workout program spreadsheet, weekly newsletter, and the pre-workout talk with time given to answer concerns.
o The program is based on a recovery philosophy. It’s not how fast, how far, or how much you can run. It’s how fast you can recover to do it again. The program is based on your current physical ability. If you are a 5-hour marathoner and you put yourself in with a 3:10 group you are going to have problems - clearly. But if you are a 5-hour marathoner and you run your 5-hour training paces, you will find it very manageable. Plus you will be running considerably faster by the end of the program. Some people think they will be faster by working harder and that the more they put into it, the faster they will be within the time-frame of one session. We neither encourage nor promote redlining. We give you the paces you should be training at.
o Our programs are clear. You should be focused only on the program you have chosen. We ask you early to set your goal; including your program. Indecision and confusion go hand in hand. Speak to Russ or myself before the clinic if you need help setting goals or deciding which program to do. Russ will also be giving a clinic tutorial to everyone around the January 2, 2010 starting date. Even though we encourage questions from participants and group leaders alike, we found there were many people who didn’t understand some of the basic operations of the spreadsheet in relationship to features to help you with your individual pacing.
o Our program takes time for athletic development. It is the safest way. You may be able to get what resembles a hamburger in a short period of time, but running doesn’t work that way. If you had never played before and picked up a violin today and started playing, it probably would not sound too good. Six months from now, it certainly would sound better, but still not as good as if you gave it a year… 2 years… 3 years, etc. If you took lessons, your progress would probably be faster and you’d learn a few technical tips that maybe you wouldn’t necessarily read about.
o You can start at any level you want. But… if you have never been introduced to our training program it can be likened to learning a different style of the martial arts. There are certain techniques that are critical where the basics have to be taught, but we start you at the paces, number of running days and the level that you are currently at and build from there. We have had “experienced” runners who have completed as many as 50 plus marathons around 3 hours get injured on our program because they didn’t respect that there are areas we work on to improve technique and form that have to be built up to.
o We do more than just run. Many runners feel that running is a complete exercise in itself. Although it is true that if you only ran, you would still progress. How many miles per week will it take before you realize that strength is also a big training element that allows you to run less and still progress? And, as one coach said, if these people who just ran added the strength element to their program, how much more would they improve? There is no formula for every single person out there, like if they do “this” they will get “that”. There are however more than 10,000 ways of not to do it. We left those out of our program. The biggest problem is when we have people who may have been running for years but have not done any sports specific training. They always want to start at the highest level and soon become discouraged or injured because they never trained the same muscle groups.
o For any plan to work well you have to include all elements external or internal. If you do more than just run you must integrate all your programs for greatest success. We may suggest that you choose other days to do some types of workouts or “de-tune” our workouts to allow sufficient recovery and avoid injury. We have a specific rotation that works specific muscle groups at specific times in order to allow a series of stress and recovery and still continue to train. It’s similar to a body-builder who targets specific muscle groups on specific days. They are still lifting weights, but targeting different areas in rotation. For example; we do short speed or strength intervals on Mondays and endurance intervals on Wednesdays. You would not be getting any rest if you are doing a heavy leg workout on the Tuesday. The problem we continue to experience is that there are certified personal trainers out there who say this isn’t a problem and the participant very soon gets injured.
There are probably 10,000 other questions other people have. These are some of the one’s that are frequently asked. Please feel free to email, phone, or come on down to the store. We have a new program starting January 2, 2010. If you have any questions, we are here to help when you’re ready to run.
Have a great running week! Lorne
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