Week 8 February 20-26

A lot of new runners logically figure that their program has to have some kind of balance between endurance, strength and speed. They do their weekend long run followed by a couple of speed workouts and weekly recovery runs and PRESTO! They have the winning formula. Well, all that work and design was only half the story because you can only truly work on one element well at a time. By element I’m referring to endurance, strength or speed. To challenge all 3 of these systems at the same time is to invite trouble. Usually this is in the form of over training or injury because while one element is recovering, another can be utilized but not to the point where you are recovering from everything at once. Now… don’t get me wrong, you can have all three elements in any program, but the intensity has to be adjusted according to the athlete’s fitness and for whichever element is being focused on at the time.  This gave rise to the periodization form of training.  Even the title should raise someone’s suspicion. It generally means that within a short 4 – 6 month period you are going to target all 3 basic elements and come out at the end some kind of super-star. Where this program is most successful is for elite level athletes in an educational setting because they are dictated by the competitive season. Hopefully the one thing you will learn about athletic achievement is that it can’t be done in 4 – 6 months. It takes years. Granted there are (as in music) “prodigies”, but they are very few and don’t last long at a competitive level. We have found over the years that periodization programs have caused more running injuries due to their short-term intensity and focus.

Our programs are divided up mainly into 101 through 401. The emphasis in 101 is what we call the “critical” stuff. The main purpose of this program is to build endurance and also to introduce strength. Because endurance is the major element, the focus is on slowly building up the long runs especially for the people who do not have an endurance background. We want to gradually build up the long run to the point where your longest run (22-miles in the marathon program) will take approximately the same amount of time as your marathon. We feel that most people do their long runs way too fast and never feel what it’s like to be out there for the same amount of time their race should take.  We feel this is the main reason for a lot of late-stage marathon discomfort.

We encourage our runners to slow down their long runs.  We call it “Slowing Down To Get Faster” and it works. As a runner progresses through our various programs (201 – 401), they will be adding on more endurance. Through training consistently and remaining uninjured we develop a type of exercise adaptation through muscle memory, if you will, that allows the program to add on more frequent longer runs and actually divert the focus to another running element. So, while you are adding on a few more miles to your weekly average through the long runs, your focus will mainly be in the following session on strength. As we mentioned, in the 101 Program, it also introduced strength. The strength is introduced in the form of learning proper running technique through various drills and exercises. In the following programs these are expanded upon and the volume of speed work is increased in the form of bulk endurance intervals. However, after 2 ½ years of people doing the program, we have yet to introduce “pure” speed work. Speed work has been defined as repeat intervals of under 50-meters or less at 90% effort with long recoveries. We may never get to that point. It depends upon the progression of the athletes. For now….  everyone on the program continues to develop at a satisfactory level. The key is to think “long term”.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have a goal or target you’d like to hit at the end of your program. You just have to be aware of what it will take to get there and what targets you need to hit along the way. Sometimes you have to work backwards in order to get ahead. Sometimes too, by working backwards you can see if your goal is still realistic. I have explained all this in previous newsletters, but sometimes another person can say it in such a way that makes it more understandable. Because goal setting is such an important part of the reason a lot of people are training, I will insert a copy of the newsletter from the International Youth Conditioning Association I received the other day from Brian Grosso.

GOAL SETTING

The whole crux of this system is reversing the direction of obtaining your goals.

That is, reversing the direction that most of us try to travel.

Rather than creating a goal and then establishing an objective or task list that moves forward, start with the end in mind and travel backwards. Establish your goal and assign it a 'due date'.

Next, itemize where you need to be in production of that goal by one month previous to its end point. Then, do the same for one month previous to that. Keep traveling backwards until you end at your current day.

What you will have established is a literal path that takes you from where you are to where you want to be in a successive manner.  The key is to understand where you have to be in one month in order to obtain your goal by the target date you initially set forth.

This 'backwards chaining model' allows you to create those markers quite easily and removes the burden of developing a giant 'to do' list without cause or reason for how or when each of the separate tasks will be completed.

This is worked for me in business, in my personal life and for hundreds of my young athletes who were working towards performance goals.

Brian Grosso

As I said in previous newsletters; most people train for a specific race.  But running for many of us is a life-long activity we wish to enjoy.  The purpose of training is to train more and the results of training more should be improved conditioning and performance. However, if there is a specific target you wish to do within a short period of time, then you require a “map” on how to get there. This takes a little planning. So often we hear people say, “I’m going to run a Boston qualifier this year.” When we ask them how they intend on preparing for it… the answer eludes some.  So, we sometimes just smile and say, “Good luck.” It’s great to have a dream. I received one of those “buy this,” emails the other day. It contained a little story that I’d like to share:

Lorne,

I was in Tampa last month, for some business meetings (kinda fun) and the usual "in your 20's" late-night debauchery (always fun and no, I'm not telling :-)

Between meetings and a killer visit to a massive Powerhouse Gym in Tampa, I found time to take a cab out to St. Pete to see Pro Strongman and occasional partner in crime, Elliott Hulse.

Cruising down I-275 with the windows down and the sun shining, I started talking to the driver.

A middle-aged and pretty humble guy, he had a slight accent on him.

"Where are you from man? That's an accent I haven't heard."

"I'm from Morocco...born and raised there. I just moved out here a year and a half ago."

After a brief laugh about my last name being pronounced the same as his homeland, he started telling me about his recent move to the US.

He told me that back home, he was a successful engineer. He had a nice car and a nicer house. He spent weekends traveling the countryside and partying on the beaches with some of the most beautiful women in the world...it all sounded like a damn good life to me, so... why would he leave?

"My younger brother had always dreamt of being a doctor, ever since he was 3 feet tall. And one day about 2 years ago, we got a letter from a school in America that was offering my brother the opportunity to study medicine and they were willing to pay for some of it too.

We had known lots of people from our area who had come to the US with promises from American schools that sounded too good to be true...like it was exactly what they wanted, only to find out that what they were promised turned out to be nothing but hype.

Even worse, they had spent a lot of money... money that they would never get back.

So my brother was naturally weary of this letter and this opportunity, but I reasoned him, "No. This is your dream, this is what you want...if you live your life ignoring and avoiding things that sound too good to be true, than you're going to end up living the exact boring and predictable life you DON'T want...you'll just end  up dying 5 miles away from where you were born like everyone else here...".

Within a month, we were on a plane together to the USA. And now, a year and a half later, my little brother is loving life and moves a step closer to becoming a doctor every single day.

I knew moving would be a major change for my own life, but I learned from a young age as a little boy in Morocco that if we live our lives sceptical of the things that sound "too good to be true", we end up never taking any chances or experiencing any of the incredible things life has to share."

< Mental applause from me in the back seat >

I’m always trying to find analogies to get the point across that running takes time. Some people say that they have been running for years but they can’t seem to get any better. When we look at their program, we start to see where things can be improved. Let’s take a look at an activity that we are all familiar with but never realized the big picture and maybe this “time” thing will make sense… at least it worked for me. Let’s look at the world of push-ups. Why push-ups? Because it’s an activity most people know how to do, but aren’t very good at. They also know they need a minimum amount of upper body strength and that it takes time to develop it. If you regularly do push ups, then you may appreciate the accomplishments of other people.

WORLD PUSH-UPS RECORDS

• non-stop: 10,507; Minoru Yoshida (JAP), Oct 1980 DETAILS
• one year: 1,500,230; Paddy Doyle (GBR), Oct 1988 - Oct 1989
• 24 hours: 46,001; Charles Servizio (USA), 24/25 April 1993 at Hesperia
  (new record claim, not yet verified: Jeffrey Warrick (USA), 46300)
• 1 hour: 3,877; Bijender Singh (IND), 20 Sept 1988 DETAILS AND NATIONAL RECORDS
• 30 minutes: 2,354; Rolf Heck (GER), 13 Nov 2000
• 10 minutes (women): 450; Alicia Weber (USA), 24 May 2009 at Clermont, Florida, USA
• 5 minutes: 441; Giuseppe Cusano (GBR), Loftus Road Soccer Stadium at the Fulham v. Portsmouth game on 24 Nov 2003
• 3 minutes (women): 190; Renata Hamplová (TCH), Record Festival Pelhrimov 1995
• one minute: Record claims up to 199 in one minute have been made. We do, however, not continue to publish these record claims, because it became impossible to judge about the correctness of the exercises at this speed.
• one-armed, one week (168 hours): 16,723; Paddy Doyle (GBR), Feb 1996 in Birmingham
• one-armed, 5 hours: 8,794; Paddy Doyle (GBR), 12 Feb 1996 in Birmingham
• one-armed, 1 hour: 2521; Paddy Doyle (GBR), 12 Feb 1990 in Birmingham
• one-armed, 30 minutes: 1382; Doug Pruden (CAN), 30 July 2003 at the Body Quest Health Club Edmonton
• one-armed, 10 minutes: 546; Doug Pruden (CAN), 30 July 2003 at the Body Quest Health Club Edmonton
• one-armed, on back of hands, one hour: 677; Doug Pruden (CAN) at the Body Quest Health Club Edmonton, 9 Nov 2005
• one-handed handstand pushups: Yury Tikhonovich (Russia) did twelve pushups while standing on one hand in June 2006 at the Starclub variete in Kassel (Germany). He repeats this feat almost every day in the rehearsal for his show VIDEO (AVI, 1.3 MB)
• on fists: 5557 (in 3:02:30 hours), Doug Pruden (CAN), 9 July 2004, Body Quest Health Club Edmonton
• 1000 pushups on fists: 18:13 minutes, Doug Pruden (CAN), 9 July 2003 at the Body Quest Health Club Edmonton
• on back of hands, 15 minutes: 627; Paddy Doyle (GBR), 8 November 2007, Stamina's Boxing Self Defence Gym, Erdington, Birmingham RECORD HISTORY
• on back of hands, 30 minutes: 1386; Paddy Doyle (GBR), 8 November 2007, Stamina's Boxing Self Defence Gym, Erdington, Birmingham RECORD HISTORY
• on back of hands, 1 hour: 1940; Paddy Doyle (GBR), 8 November 2007, Stamina's Boxing Self Defence Gym, Erdington, Birmingham RECORD HISTORY
• finger-tips, 5 hours: 8,200; Terry Cole (GBR), 11 May 1996 in Walthamstow
• one finger: 124 Paul Lynch (GBR), 21 April 1992 in London
• 100 push-ups with feet at a 80 cm [2 ft 7 ¹/₂ in] high table: 45.7 sec; Roy Berger (CAN), 24 Feb 2001 in Ottawa
• with a 50 lb [22.68 kg] plate weight on his back: 4,100: Paddy Doyle (GBR), 28 May 1987 in Birmingham
• with hands on raw eggs: 112; Johann Schneider (AUT) / a video can be downloaded here as Quicktime video (1.2 MB) or AVI video (1.4 MB)
• while balancing on three medicine balls (diameter: 24 cm), 1 minute: 61: Stephan Kristian (GBR) on 13 July 2008 at the Fitness First Health Club in Telford
• 4 hr relay (team of 10): 14907; Gatwick Airport Fire Service (Andrew Horstead, Clwyd Jones, Stuart Coxhill, Steven Bartlett, Jerramy Davison, Darryl Graham, Albert Lawson, Luke Philpott, Darren Hollman, Ian Mclean, Great Britain) at 18 November 2005 at Gatwick Airport

Each one of these people started with attempting one repeat. It took years to get to each one of these records. It wasn’t accomplished in 4 – 6 months like all the quick “personal best” programs out there promise. Each one of us is going to progress at a different rate. Some may be quicker than others for many reasons other than athletic ability. Consistency will be the key for everybody. We can appreciate life gets in the way, and that’s okay too. It just means its going to take a little longer and that’s okay too because you have a whole life ahead of you; even if you are over sixty when you started running. This again doesn’t mean you cannot have interim goals, but you have to look at the date of what you are training for, the amount of time you have and your current physical condition.

REVISITING GOALS

JUNE 12		JULY 17		AUG.  14		SEPT. 12		OCT. 10
Current Time	Current 5KM Equiv.	¼ Way	Current 5KM Equiv.	Half Way	Current 5KM Equiv.	¾ way	Current 5KM Equiv.	Goal Time
4:00:00	24:37	3:45:00	23:05  (-1:32)	3:30:00	21:32  (-3:05)	3:15:00	20:00  (-4:37)	3:00
4:00:00	24:37	3:56:15	24:14  (-0:23)	3:52:30	23:51 (-0:46)	3:48:45	23:28  (-1:09)	3:45
4:00:00	24:37	3:55:00	24:06  (-0:31)	3:50:00	23:36 (-1:01)	3:45:00	23:05  (-1:32)	3:40

You may ask why we chose this time to talk about this subject. Quite simply, no matter what we say, you are still in control of your goals.  It doesn’t matter what we say, you are still going to do what you think is best. Most runners realize as they age they are going to get slower so they have to run smarter to make up for it. All we can do is arm you with enough information so that you know you are making the right decisions and not getting injured. At least… that’s the plan.

In the above example we see our first case scenario wanting to go from a 4-hour marathon to a 3-hour marathon in a typical 18-week program. We chose the 5KM distance and times to test fitness because it is rather a short distance to race and will not take away from training. Remember too, the more you race, the more time you need to recover, and the less time you have for training. I’d strongly encourage the 1-mile distance used as a time-trial because it is even shorter, just as accurate during the conversion, and recovery would be within a couple of days at the most. You can go to the McMillan Running Tables at http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm and study the approximate race equivalent times for all race distances according to your current physical condition as you progress through your program. We also mentioned the 1-mile time trial because Peninsula Runners conveniently hosts the FRIDAY NIGHT MILE SERIES which begins March 5 and runs 40 times until November 26.  It’s held at 7:00 PM at the South Surrey Track. More details and registration information can be found on the Peninsula Runners web site.

You will see that in the second and third example that the 5KM equivalent times are challenging enough in order to reduce your marathon time by 15 – 20 minutes without having to reduce your 5Km time to 18:28 or by over 6-minutes! I’m sure this looks good on paper, but the reality of it happening is practically zero. Yet, people without a plan, start off with this in mind and if they can’t hit it, they get discouraged and quit. We’re not advocating stopping. What we are saying is you may have to readjust your goal and the sooner you can do it, the better it will be for you.

Racing isn’t the only way to tell if you are on track to meeting your goal. Are your interval times during training on pace? How do you feel after your long run? When you do your steady state and tempo runs, do you feel okay or thrashed at the end? The next day after a speed workout do you feel good, or do you still feel residuals? Are you going into your interval workouts feeling fresh and recovered after a day or two off? If you answered negatively to any of these questions, then you may want to talk to your Coach to discuss what’s happening. You cannot build a program on fatigue and you can’t keep pushing through your workouts ---> you will get injured.

Always remember that running is supposed to make you feel good and not hurt.

Have a great running week!

Russ & Lorne