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Law 3: Train First For Distance Only Later For Speed

September 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment
marathon training, running coaching

If you are going to contest a 26-mile event, you must at least be used to 100 miles a week...As it is always the speed, never the distance, that kills, so is it the distance not the speed that has to be acquired. In the early days of training, you must endeavour only to manage as great a distance on each practice outing as you can cover without being abnormally tired..Your aim throughout should be to avoid all maximum effort while you work wit one purpose only and that is to achieve a definite and sustained rise in average speed at which you practice, for that is the secret of ultimate achievement....You must never, except for short temporary bursts, practice at racing speed. Newton’s ideas in this law are very close to the hugely … [Read more...]

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Law 2: Start Gradually and Train Gently

August 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Nearly all of us dash into it hoping for and expecting results which are quite unwarranted. Nature is unable to make a really first class job of anything if she is hustled. To enhance our best, we need only, and should only, enhance our average. That is the basis we ought to work on, for it succeeds every time when the other fails. So, in running, it is essential to take to it kindly. Many beginning runners experience their first injury fairly on in their running career. Often, after successfully completing their first race and full of enthusiasm, they increase their training realising that more miles equals better racing and end up at the physio’s. For most untrained people, the cardio vascular system will adapt to a training stress far … [Read more...]

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When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws. – GK Chesterton

August 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment
running coaching, marathon training

Dr Timothy Noakes is Professor in the Discovery Health Chair of Exercise and Sports Science Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town and is the author or co-author of more than 350 scientific publications and is on the Editorial Boards of 13 international scientific publications. He is also a veteran of over 70 marathon and ultramarathon events – so he doesn’t just study running in isolation, his studies are lived out in his own training. His book Lore of Running is widely praised as the most complete such book yet written - the "Bible" of running. Currently in its fourth edition, it runs to over 900 pages and covers every aspect of running. If you don’t fancy reading it, you could just use it for weight … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 10k training, 15 Laws of training, Half marathon training, Marathon training Tagged With:

Jack Daniels was wrong!?

July 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Marathon training

Well, not entirely! For example, a famous Swedish study where runners added a 20 minute continuous run at 10 mile race pace to their weekly training resulted in a 4% increase in Lactate threshold and improvements of 1 minute in 10k times all in just 14 weeks. However, it’s just half the story! Training at lactate threshold pace enables the body to become more efficient at running at that pace as the body ‘learns’ to produce less lactate at a given pace. The second half of the story though is that the body can be trained to improve the way it clears and uses the lactate already produced – if you can use it and burn it up more efficiently, you’ll be able to run at a faster pace for longer before you crash and burn right? Research … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 10k training, Marathon training, Run Smart, Speedwork, Threshold training Tagged With: , , , ,

“Do what you can with what you have where you are.” Theodore Roosevelt

July 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
running coaching

Runners come into the sport through many different routes. Some were runners at school, trained with a running club and kept up running through their adult lives. Others played other sports and took up running in later life. Others started to run to lose weight, get fit or support a charity. All runners have a different physiological makeup. They have different balances of slow twitch and fast twitch fibres. Many running books and training plans have a generic, one size fits all package that takes no account of the individual differences of each runner. So, how can we address the differences? I’ll give you an example. I have two athletes who are both training to run a 40 min 10k. In order to prepare for the race, I will include … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 10k training, Half marathon training, Marathon training, Run Smart, Training plan, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,
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