Many men go fishing all their lives not knowing it is not fish they are after –Henry David Thoreau
Specialisation nowadays is a necessity. Modern exponents have raised the standard to such a height that nothing but intensive specialisation can put a fellow anywhere near the top. Before the 1914 to 1918 war, the marathon was considered an event for only the favoured few who had unusual toughness and stamina.
It takes anything from 18 months to 3 years to turn a novice into a first class athlete. You will have to drop the bulk of your present recreations and spend the time in training; anything from 2 to 3 hours a day will have to be set aside. Athletics must be your major engagement for at least two years on end, your business or means of making a livelihood being at all times of secondary importance.
What Newton anticipated has now come to fruition in the ranks of international competitors. It is inconceivable nowadays that anyone other than a full time runner would be able to win a big city marathon or a medal on the world stage.
However, what relevance do his ideas have for the keen amateur?
Specialisation is a key plank of Training Smart – to run your best 10k, you have to train and prepare to run 10k!! While many runners enjoy training and want to race two or three times a month over a variety of distances, they will never achieve their maximum performance until they specialise.
The other key truth for me in what Newton says is that it takes 18 months to 3 years to develop into a first class athlete. Many runners are prepared to do the work, they follow the 10% rule and adjust their training upward. This is a general rule of thumb is that it is safe to increase the amount of mileage run by 10% per week. However, for a runner starting at 30 miles per week and increasing by 10% per week, they would double their mileage in 8 weeks and increase it 4 times over running 120miles per week by week 15 – that is assuming that they were not injured prior to this. Many runners will be incapable of running 100 miles per week. For some, their optimum mileage might be 60 miles per week. It would be far better to take 18 months for our runner to progress to 60 miles per week than 8 weeks!!
Train Smart!