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Law 15: Understand the Holism of Training

February 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
4952532_blog

I have to confess that I have a bit of an obsession for buying books about running, predominantly about running training. If I were to pick one area that was consistently undervalued, it would be the holism of training. Many runners obsess about how many miles they’ve done without ever consider what happens during the rest of the week when they are not training. Noakes identifies the four main factors that impact performance when training hard: Eating an appropriate diet Getting the right amount of sleep Avoiding physical effort that it not training related Reducing work stress A professional runner has systems in place to manage these things. Masseurs and physios help with recovery between sessions, diet is closely analysed and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 15 Laws of training, Nutrition, Recovery, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Law 12: Train the Mind

February 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When you begin training you will find that the longest and most strenuous mental and physical exertions all come at the start…It seems to me that stamina is just as much a mental attribute as a physical one. Make your mind healthy and it will do the rest. If it is not normally healthy, you will never make a decent job of anything. One of my favourite maxims about training is that the most difficult part of any run is the bit between the sofa and the front door! Mental toughness is, I believe, essential in all forms of running in order to be successful This view is echoed by Noakes and Newton. Noakes devotes an entire section of his book to the mental aspect of the sport. At the elite level, often it is only the mental aspect that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 15 Laws of training, Mental training, Run Smart Tagged With: , ,

Law 11: Train With a Coach

November 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Bill Bowerman, legendary US coach

This is another law that is proposed by Noakes but was not one of Newton's original laws. To summarise, Noakes lists the benefits of having a coach as: - to provide inspiration and support for the athlete - to provide an objective analysis of when the athlete is doing too much - knowing the athlete and providing the appropriate mental and physiological stimulus Of course I am going to strongly support this law. For many recreational runners, it is difficult if not impossible to have a relationship with a coach on an individual basis. The danger then is that the runner picks up bits and pieces from books, magazines, other runners and the Internet and applies ALL of it!! As I've previously posted, my coaching ethos is to train Smart. In … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 15 Laws of training, Run Smart Tagged With: , , ,

Law 10: Prevent Overtraining

November 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
radcliffe_1514485c

Perhaps one of the chief points is to regulate your training so as to be sure of always being on the safe side: the least sign of overdose will surely lead to trouble. Go so far every day that the last mile or two become almost a desperate effort. So long as you are fit for another dose the following day, you are not overdoing it. But you must never permit yourself to approach real exhaustion; you must never become badly tired. A good way to judge whether you are overdoing it is by your appetite. A really fearsome thirst is a definite sign that either the pace or the distance has been too much. Not only are you unbearably thirsty but your appetite disappears entirely, even for many hours after the event. For professional runners, their … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 15 Laws of training, Recovery, Run Smart Tagged With: ,

Law 9 – Incorporate Base Training and Sharpening

October 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Peter Snell winning Olympic gold

This rule implies that peak racing performance only occurs when a period of high-intensity, low volume training (peaking or sharpening) follows a prolonged build up period consisting of low intensity, high volume training. The godfather of this approach to training has got to be Arthur Lydiard. Greatest of all the runners coached by Lydiard was the double Olympic champion and multiple world record holder Peter Snell. Although Snell was predominantly an 800m runner, during his base period, he would regularly run 100miles per week. The Lydiard approach would then have the runner adopt a period of hill training before a brief sharpening phase to prepare for the main competitive races of the season. Following this style of training … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 15 Laws of training, Run Smart, Training plan Tagged With: , ,
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