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Law 4: Don’t Set Your Daily Training Schedule In Stone

September 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
marathon training, running coaching

Don’t set yourself a daily schedule; it is far more sensible to run a weekly one, because you can’t tell what the temperature, the weather or your own condition will be on any given day. You don’t know what the weather will be like on race day. You don’t know how you’ll feel. You don’t know what the temperature will do. If every time you encounter anything inclement, you fail to train then you are depriving yourself of many opportunities to develop mental and physical toughness. There are some runners I know (and I had a tendency towards this too!!) who will grab any excuse to postpone a training session. This is a charter for doing so!! However, there is also a sensible side to the law. There are runners I know who become so … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 15 Laws of training, goal setting, Training plan Tagged With:

“It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.” George Sheehan

July 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Cruise Intervals according to Jack Daniels

The first type of speedwork we’ll look at is threshold training. In the 1980s, Jack Daniels (the world renown exercise physiologist and running coach – not the whisky guy!) introduced the term ‘cruise intervals’ to runner. These, along with tempo runs have become the mainstay of threshold training. But what do the terms mean? Threshold training – during running, the muscles obtain fuel from a process called glycolysis. As a bi-product of this process, lactic acid can be formed. When exercising gently enough, the body is able to utilise this lactic acid to help fuel the running effort. However, once you start running harder, the lactic acid can build at a pace that the body is unable to clear from the muscles. The point where the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Speedwork, Threshold training, Training plan 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: , ,

Always Start With The End In Mind

June 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I know I run the risk of upsetting some people but running clubs often prevent runners from achieving their best performance. "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." John D. Rockefeller Many running clubs in the UK have a club championship – a series of races throughout the year where runners score points based on finishing position relative to other runners in the same club. With races spread throughout the year, many runners are often racing two or three times a month over varying distances. As a consequence, the training that many runners do fits into the gaps between the races. One of my favourite authors, Steven Covey wrote about the 7 Habits of highly Effective People. Habit #2 is ‘Always Start With the End … [Read more...]

Filed Under: goal setting, Training plan Tagged With: , ,
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