The over/under marathon workout

Last Monday I spent a fun evening with the folks over at Running Forever in Taunton showing them the over/under marathon workout. It was the last of this springs Somerset Athletics Network sponsored development events so it was good to have a mix of coaches and athletes present from the Taunton area as well as a small group who came down from Burnham.

The workout is one I first used 10 years ago and the concept was introduced to me by Renato Canova though it has been used in various guises by many coaches. The basic idea when I was doing the session was to alternate a segment of running at just faster than my Anaerobic Threshold with one at my Aerobic Threshold. These terms get used in all sorts of different ways so to be clear, for me this meant about 3.05/km and 3.30 - 3.25/km (getting faster as I adapted), so corresponding to paces that I could hold for about an hour with a lactate level of around 4mmol and 3 hours with a lactate level of around 1.5mmol respectively.

Why these efforts and what is the effect ? The faster segment burns pretty much 100% Sugars (which starts to empty the fuel tank) and produces a manageable level of lactate in the blood which is available to the muscles as fuel. The slower segment using a proportion of Fats as fuel and this is where the body can also learn to recycle the lactate. So over the course of a long session (I used to do 20km continuous) as your sugars get depleted the body has to get better at using fat and lactate as fuel.

The 'watch out for' in this session is going to fast on either segment. Too fast on the fast ones and your lactate levels will get too high and you wont be able to clear it. Too fast on the slow segment and you won't be burning a sufficient proportion of fats.

So back to last monday and we had the runners aiming to run at 10km race pace (for 40-60 min 10k runners) and then marathon pace (for 3hrs+ marathon runners). Ideally we would be a bit more specific for individual runners but without a lot of lactate testing we had to use some best guesses.

The first few efforts were a real challenge as people struggled to adjust to the right pace. We started with some 200m efforts just to get the feel for it before stretching things out to 3 minute efforts on the track. in total the group did about 40 mins of running and the progression for workouts like this is to extend the total duration before starting to bring the pace of the slower segment closer to the fast segment. Thats all a bit counter intuitive from a typical approach of running faster as you adapt !

Of course one of the additional benefits of a session like this is learning to feel the effort and the pace judgement that gives you in races. In a day and age when everyone seems to have their face stuffed into Garmin you can't overstate the benefits of learning to run mor elike a Kenyan ! 

Winter Olympics lessons 1 - Dario Cologna and his rehab

The first week of the Winter Olympics has produced some exciting competition and challenging snow conditions. I've been lucky enough to follow the coverage on Swiss and German TV while also flicking back to the BBC for a beginners guide to sports that I know nothing about. While many of the events may bear little resemblance to track and field athletics there are some good lessons that can be applied across all sports and teh first one I'm going to write about is Dario Cologna's return from injury to win the Skiathlon and 15km 'Classic' Cross Country skiing events.

For the uninitiated Cross Country skiing, also known as Nordic skiing, has two techniques. Classic - where the skiis move in a straight line along pre-prepared parallel grooves in the snow and the basic movement resembles a slow running or bounding action (badly demonstrated by me here on the left). Freestyle - which is basically like ice skating but on skiis and takes place on a smooth loipe and is faster than classic. Both techniques use the arms to add power and hence XC skiiers have recorded some of the highest VO2 Maxes recorded - remember VO2 is a measure of the body's oxygen consumption so the skiiers use more oxygen than runners say (this also raises an interesting question about whether the limitiing factor in VO2 max development is the muscles ability to use oxygen rather then the heart/blood's ability to supply it - it would suggest that it is). And to give you a feel for the speed the men go at, the Engadin Skimarathon is won in around 1hr 20mins on good snow - so 2 minutes a kilometre or fast enough for drafting to play a part as in cycling.

In Sochi the course that has been built at the Laura centre is a tough one for several reasons. Firstly its at an altitude of just over 1400m which is just enough to feel the effectos of if you are not acclimatised. Secondly, its hilly which means athletes need more power to ski uphill and the downhills can be treacherous where speeds of 70kph are reached on narrow cross country skis which only have a front binding. And thirdly the snow has been soft which means that the skiis slide less effectively taking up more energy from the athlete and presenting a challenge for the 'waxman' who prepares the skis with the appropriate wax for the conditions.

So with the langlauf basics over lets come to Dario Cologna. 100 days before the games he badly damaged ligaments in his right ankle requiring surgery and 6 weeks in a boot to enable the recovery to take place. Unable to ski he resorted to an intensive rehab programme with a few twists - of which more later. In the first event, the Skiiathlon, Cologna was content to sit in the pack for much of the race and focus on staying clear of trouble on the downhills where his ankle was going to be severely tested on the corners. Skiathlon is simply 15km of classic followed by a ski change and then 15km of skating technique. And then with a kilometre to go he accelerated hard up the final climb (above) utlising his upper body as well as legs to create a gap over Sweden's Marcus Hellner. While Hellner was able to use his superior fitness and skating top speed on the flat to close the gap Cologna had created enough of a gap on the uphill to win the race.

So his rehab and why it may have made the winning difference. Unable to ski Cologna and his coach Guri Hetland were forced to get creative about how they trained. Ostensibly to maintain his aerobic fitness Cologna used a couple of techniques.

Firstly he used a sitting machine that was fixed to enable him to do upper body work to maintain aerobic fitness (above left) and then later as his rehab progressed he was able to get out on the snow on kneeling pair of skiis so that at least he could mimic the full upper body pushing action (below left).

What would turn out ot be most significant about this training is that I believe Cologna created a bigger training load on his upper body than his normal training would and therefore he got a bigger adaptation and ultimately more power. And it was this extra power that enabled him to gap the field on that final climb before the stadium despite his aerobic fitness in his legs probably still being slightly off where he would have liked it to be.

So what are the take outs for runners and other sports ? There are probably many and I just want to mention two of them:
1. A very big aerobic base can survive a lengthy period of rehab with just sufficient training to maintain it. For middle distance runners and soccer players this is particularly relevant when considering the type of training programme to follow. A big aerobic base will have you back competing at a higher level sooner.
2. A very intensive block of training on a part of your system that is relatively undertrained can pay big dividends. Why ? Because of the law of diminishing returns - When my Anaerobic Threshold is already at 3min/km and my vVO2max is 2min 45sec/km and i've done 60,000km of running getting even a 1% improvement requires a huge additional training load. However increasing my standing vertical jump by several % may be a much easier gain to make with a focused strength/power block of training. And this will convert into improved running performance without needing to increase my aerobic engine.

New marked running routes in Yeovil

If you are new to running or just fancy a new route that has been marked out then there are two new 3-2-1 marked routes in Yeovil.

The first is down at Ninesprings - one of my favourite training venues and definitely undulating and scenic ! The official course description is as follows:
 

Ninesprings is a picturesque, traffic free and easily accessible part of Yeovil Country Park situated close to Yeovil town centre.The network of paths and tracks with some steady hill climbs provides improving runners with the perfect place to improve their fitness. The Country Park is popular with walkers, runners and cyclists and is a great place to get active.

Ninesprings 321 is a 3km circular route, based on loose gravel tracks and some tarmacked pavements. The route includes some steps and would be unsuitable for wheelchair users or those with push chairs. The route is undulating with a few steady climbs to raise your heart rate, there are several benches along the route should you need a resting point!

The route is well signed using run england 321 way markers on oak posts and gates, with country park rangers on hand should you require any assistance.

The second route is off Lyde Road (left)  and goes down by the river which can get quite muddy after heavy rain. The course description is:
A picturesque, traffic free and easily accessible part of Yeovil Country Park situated on the edge of Yeovil in beautiful South Somerset Countryside.

The network of paths running alongside the river provides runners with a gentle prodominatly flat running route. Lyde Road 321 is a 3km circular route, based on loose gravel tracks and grassed paths.

And with a bit of basic navigation you join the two runs together to make a much longer effort ...

 

The importance of taking an end of season break

Hands up if you take a proper end of season break ? And I don't mean a couple of days cross training before launching into a slightly shorter long run. But more of a proper kenyan style 2 months back at the shamba catching up with friends and fattening up the animals as well as yourself ? Ok, so that's probably a bit extreme as well in the age of the professional runner who needs to race regularly to make a living but it does illustrate the point about when is a break a break.

Watching Mo Farah being interviewed on BBC this week was a good reminder about just how important this is. Asked about what he had been doing recently he said a couple of weeks holiday with his family, eating stuff he doesn't normally eat and adding 3 kgs. The interviewer looked a bit surprised at this and asked if he had been doing any running - No, none was the reply.

October is the time of year when people are coming back from their end of season breaks (or not) and watching how they are running is fascinating from a coaching pointing view. It tells you a lot about how they have recovered from their last period of training and more immportantly their prospects for the season ahead.

You've got the ones who didn't bother with a break because hey, rest is for whimps. They are still running OK and over the coming months will start to struggle with a plateau in performance then illness and injury before being forced to take the break which they should have had earlier. Inevitably the break will be longer and at just the wrong moment in their build up for a really important race. This will be put down to ''bad luck" and guess what, the pattern will repeat itself in future as the lessons fail to get learned.

Then you've got those who took a break but perhaps only a short one to recharge the batteries before launching into a fairly hard block of training. They are either running really well already as they add some extra endurance onto a summer base of speed or they got hurt almost straight away as they increased their training load again. The ones who navigated the transition and stayed healthy could well be flying by November and keep this going into the New Year. I did this in 1998 - PBs on the track in the summer, short break then spent the autumn/winter doing twice weekly Frank sessions at Battersea and racing brilliantly before running out of steam in Feb and breaking down completely in March. Some early season glory but I came up short when it mattered and missed out making the World Cross Team when I had my best chance as wasn't around at a all in summer when I should have been taking more chunks off my PBs.

And then their are a third group of runners who've taken a proper end of season break of 2-3 weeks, possibly added a little bit of weight (but still stayed in shape) and totally recharged themselves mentally as well as physically. Their return to training is a bit sluggish and laboured and they will often wonder how on earth they could be so far away from top fitness (in reality they aren't, it just feels like it). When they start up again the training is crucial. Remember the principles of training/de-training. One of the things that reverses fastest when you stop is the neuro-muscular co-ordination. So this means that those wonderful smooth/efficient/powerful movement patterns that you have spent time developing need re-programming before you increase your training load too much - otherwise you risk using muscles incorrectly and injury will follow. So it requires patience, perhaps a 4-6 week block where you focus on re-establishing great movement patterns and gradually building the training load (volume/intensity) before you really get down to the winters hard work.

So what gets in the way of taking the third approach ? Often its a simple anxiety along the lines of "if im not training hard then i'm losing fitness" which prevents people taking a proper break and then starting up again gradually. You need to think a bit longer term. Its like climbing a mountain. Climb up, establish a base camp, then climb to the next level before briefly dropping back to base. Climb again, return to Camp 1 etc, etc. A small step back in the short term enables you to go much higher in future.

Another barrier I see is pressure to race - which generally means clubs, schools, parents, friends telling people to race 'or you will be letting the team down.' And of course if you want to race you want to be fit don't you ? This is really difficult to deal with because in the absence of a support network that really gets long term development the athlete needs to be really strong of character to say no and do what is best for them. For school age children one way around this is to schedule their break at the start of the summer holidays after English Schools Track is over and then use August and September as a 'return to training' month before competion starts again.

So whether you are racing an autumn marathon, peaked for English Schools Track and have just enjoyed a summer of road racing taking a proper break followed by a well thought through return to training is absolutely critical to continued long term progression. And if you are still not sure, listen to Mo.

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Half Term activities in Yeovil

 

Were your kids inspired by Mo or Jess last summer?

On Mon 28th and Tues 29th Oct 2013 the popular Startrack Athletics camp will be back in Yeovil. Full details are available on https://www.southsomerset.gov.uk/startrack

Mo beaten by Bekele in classic Great North Run

If you didn't get the chance to watch yesterday's Great North Run then its well worth a watch on iPlayer for Bekele's masterclass in racing to your strengths and your opponents weaknesses. It should be compulsory viewing for the Kenyan 10,000m team before they next take on Mo !

Frequently a line up including 'former greats' quickly descends into an embarrassment as the legends sub-standard performance reveals the passing of time and this was my fear yesterday with Bekele injured and out of form for a few years now and Haile even older than me. And how they rolled back the years to put on a show. With Haile taking the role of pacemaker to keep things honest Bekele ducked and dived, fainted and weaved, like Sugar Ray Leonard on one of his mid career comebacks before landing a knockout punch.

I would love to know whether the Ethiopians talked tactics and my guess would be that they had indeed hatched a plan to test Mo to the limit. By 5 miles they certainly had me fooled as Haile was working hard and Bekele dropped off the pace while Mo looked like he was jogging. I bet I wasn't the only one who would have paid out on a Mo victory at that point.

As the race wore on Bekele worked his way back up to the two leaders looking very smooth and powerful - some of the side on shots were poetry in motion though I wonder how his leg extension and recovery (heel flicking his buttocks) is going to transfer to the marathon. He is one of those athletes with a dead poker face whereas with Mo and Haile they have subtle cues of fatigue and sure enough by 11 miles Mo was looked a little strained in the face and was starting to look around - sure fire signs of stress and something the opposition can exploit - and (note to Alberto) will exploit to the full in a marathon where its easier to read those signs than in a frenetic 5000m track race.

And then to Bekele's moment of racing genius. The downhill onto the sea front with a couple of kilometers to go. Its steep, and wet. And Bekele launched himself down the hill like the 7 time World Cross Country champion he is with a technique refined on the slopes of Entoto. It was calculated and fearless and you could sense the pressure on Mo as he held back and tip toes down the slope. By the time they reached the bottom Bekele had a gap and used his momentum to put the hammer down in a do or die bid for victory.

As the gap opened you could feel Mo's dejection and Bekele's growing confidence with every step and yet, with the gap at only 5 or 6 secs the race wasn't completely over. And then the grandstand finish as Mo remembered his track speed and kicked with 400m to go. With every stride the gap closed and as the finish approached the course got narrower. Just like the track runner holding the inside line to make the others run further Bekele picked his line to perfection meaning that Mo would have to make changes of direction to get past. And with a final burst they both went for the line with Bekele holding on.

As for Haile, well not surprisingly he couldn't match that finishing pace but a 60:41 clocking is pretty tasty for a 40 year old who is probably 43 or 44 in all reality. While the leg speed might have gone the endurance from 25 years of training is still there - the principle of reversibility in action.

What price all three lining up in London next spring ? I'm not sure Haile can do the training anymore to be competitive in a paced marathon but without pacemakers and in a good old fashioned race like today, well that could be another classic. So Hugh Brasher (and Dave Bedford if you are reading), ditch the pacemakers for VLM 2014 and put on a real race with some great personalities. Lets make road racing box office again.

I agree with Nick

One of the joys of the short English grass court tennis season is listening on radio 5 live to the wisdom of coach Nick Bollettieri. And with a very wet weekend at the Queen's Club Championship this weekend we had a bumper helping of Nick. Two snippets worth sharing touched on the coaching process and focus.

When the semi-final was interrupted by rain, the 5 live presenter asked Nick what the coach needed to say in the locker room to his player. The answer highlighted some of the arts of coaching and made me reflect on how I engage with athletes. While I can't do the full radio dialogue justice here are the salient points made by Bollettieri: "Every player is different, some need only a word, some need a full conversation and if its Tommy Haas then expect a verbal blast back if you say anything at all to him". So far so good. Then "why don't you start off by asking the player a question, the answer tells you what you need to say" and finally "if I need to say something, I keep it short and to the point". So obvious I hear you say and how often do we see this simple formula ignored, whether be sports coaches, bosses of even in normal family settings. I know I am guilty at times of taking the same approach to all and not taking time to ask a great question and listen to the answer.

The second gem came as Andy Murray was battling a bad ankle/groin and was behind in the final. The commentators question was about what Murray would be focusing on, how much would Wimbledon next week be on his mind. Nick was blunt in his assessment. Murray's focus would be on the next point of this match at Queen's, there was no chance he would be thing about Wimbledon. And if he was, then he would be toast in this final.

This ability to focus totally on the moment is one of the things that sets the top sportsman apart from the rest. One ball at a time, one step at a time. They can do it in practice as well as in competition and you see this in the quality of their training. They make every minute of practice high quality and meanigful - there is no time for worrying about what is coming next. In running Paula Radcliffe famously used to count to 100 when she got tired in the marathon as a way of keeping her focused in the moment rather than let her mind get sidetracked by what was still to come.

If you get chance during Wimbledon fortnight, switch the TV to silent andd get Nick on Radio 5 for some more coaching gems.