Tuesday, November 29, 2005
A runner again...
Briefly contemplated abandoning the decathlon on the weekend. Not because of injury or loss of motivation, but because I saw some of "Can't Stop the Music" (Louis minding duties combined with Mrs Sparkie's iron rule of the remote control prevented me escaping, before you ask). Those upwards of 35 will probably remeber this was the "Village People" movie, and it ranks up there with "Purple Rain" and "Xanadu" as one of the worst movies ever made (although as a 9-year old, I loved it). A lesser known fact is that this movie marked the acting debut of 1976 Olympic decathlon champion and 3-time world record holder Bruce Jenner. The fact that Jenner never acted again gives an idea of how successful this cross-over was. Anyway, if this is where decathlon leads you, perhaps I should reconsider.
Then again, Glenn Morris (1936 Olympic champion) played Tarzan with some success, and I've been looking for an excuse to wear leopard-skin shorts...
After Thursday's 15km effort, the combination of some planned rest for injured hamstrings and ribs, rainy weather, and a hectic social schedule, saw a long-weekend break from training. But as I do every Monday morning, I vowed that this week would be different, and with some additional motivation yesterday, have got my act together on the training front.
The plan for the double-decathlon was always to focus on being a good 800m runner, as the training for this distance combines aerobic conditioning - allowing good peformances over 3000m-10000m, and low-end speed - which helps with the sprints (and by association, jumps).
On top of a standard low-key (ie once a day) 800m program, I intend to add technical training for jumps, hurdles and throws. So with the technical events on hold for a few weeks, it is time to start training like an 800m runner.
Although I could go through the process of putting together a schedule based on my rudimentary knowledge of exercise physiology, or gene splicing the umpteen programs in my three shelves of running books, I've decided that any program based on sound principles will deliver benefits, and take away the guess work, the desire to tinker, and most importantly, the scope to skip important workouts under the guise of being 'flexible'.
Having just finished a book on Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe (The Perfect Distance), I decided that despite Seb Coe's better record, Ovett was cooler (and had a greater range of distances), and so have by-passed Peter Coe's (Coe's father and coach) over-detailed Better Training for Distance Runners for Harry Wilson's (Steve Ovett's coach) easier-reading Running My Way.
"Running My Way" has a number of training programs in it, and I have opted for the "2 minute 4 second 800m runner" schedule. My last two attempts at 800m (back in 2002) were 2:05, so this is close to the mark (although I hope to be running something more like 1:56 come April). Unlike nearly all running books, Wilson actually proscribes a full 12 month program (which provided it is not adhered to slavishly, provides a very good backbone around which to customise a program).
Although my training to date has not mirrored the "base-building" phase in his program, I am probably in good aerobic shape for a 2:04 800m runner, so I feel that jumping into the pre-competition phase is not a bad decision. For the next three weeks, my training will look something like this:
Monday: 9km steady (4:10/km)
Tuesday: 5x600m @ 5km pace (1:54-1:57) 1 min recov.
Wednesday: 7.5km made up of 4.5km hard (16:50), 1.5km easy (7:30), 1.5km hard (5:15)
Thursday: 8x300m (48 seconds), 300m recov.
Friday: 8km (36 min) easy (optional)
Saturday: 7.5km fartlek (30 min.), sprint drills (30 min.)
Sunday: 16km easy (72 min)
At this stage, this looks pretty comfortable - the fast work is at about the pace I was comfortably doing 200m intervals in a month back, and the repetitive nature of the schedule (3 week blocks) should reduce the temptation to be constantly trying to go faster every week. One change I will be making is adding a 1-2km warm-up at about 5min/km before my faster road sessions. This will prevent me either jumping into a quick pace cold, or running the first km or so at limbo speed (ie not the target speed of the session, but not the right speed for a proper warm-up). Ditto for the cooldown, which currently consists of walking a couple of hundred metres.
The first two sessions this week have been spot on, but I will outline them in a post that needs padding, unlike this mind dump. However, I will indulge in some photos of Louis enjoying his Christmas present, back after a long absence:
Then again, Glenn Morris (1936 Olympic champion) played Tarzan with some success, and I've been looking for an excuse to wear leopard-skin shorts...
After Thursday's 15km effort, the combination of some planned rest for injured hamstrings and ribs, rainy weather, and a hectic social schedule, saw a long-weekend break from training. But as I do every Monday morning, I vowed that this week would be different, and with some additional motivation yesterday, have got my act together on the training front.
The plan for the double-decathlon was always to focus on being a good 800m runner, as the training for this distance combines aerobic conditioning - allowing good peformances over 3000m-10000m, and low-end speed - which helps with the sprints (and by association, jumps).
On top of a standard low-key (ie once a day) 800m program, I intend to add technical training for jumps, hurdles and throws. So with the technical events on hold for a few weeks, it is time to start training like an 800m runner.
Although I could go through the process of putting together a schedule based on my rudimentary knowledge of exercise physiology, or gene splicing the umpteen programs in my three shelves of running books, I've decided that any program based on sound principles will deliver benefits, and take away the guess work, the desire to tinker, and most importantly, the scope to skip important workouts under the guise of being 'flexible'.
Having just finished a book on Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe (The Perfect Distance), I decided that despite Seb Coe's better record, Ovett was cooler (and had a greater range of distances), and so have by-passed Peter Coe's (Coe's father and coach) over-detailed Better Training for Distance Runners for Harry Wilson's (Steve Ovett's coach) easier-reading Running My Way.
"Running My Way" has a number of training programs in it, and I have opted for the "2 minute 4 second 800m runner" schedule. My last two attempts at 800m (back in 2002) were 2:05, so this is close to the mark (although I hope to be running something more like 1:56 come April). Unlike nearly all running books, Wilson actually proscribes a full 12 month program (which provided it is not adhered to slavishly, provides a very good backbone around which to customise a program).
Although my training to date has not mirrored the "base-building" phase in his program, I am probably in good aerobic shape for a 2:04 800m runner, so I feel that jumping into the pre-competition phase is not a bad decision. For the next three weeks, my training will look something like this:
Monday: 9km steady (4:10/km)
Tuesday: 5x600m @ 5km pace (1:54-1:57) 1 min recov.
Wednesday: 7.5km made up of 4.5km hard (16:50), 1.5km easy (7:30), 1.5km hard (5:15)
Thursday: 8x300m (48 seconds), 300m recov.
Friday: 8km (36 min) easy (optional)
Saturday: 7.5km fartlek (30 min.), sprint drills (30 min.)
Sunday: 16km easy (72 min)
At this stage, this looks pretty comfortable - the fast work is at about the pace I was comfortably doing 200m intervals in a month back, and the repetitive nature of the schedule (3 week blocks) should reduce the temptation to be constantly trying to go faster every week. One change I will be making is adding a 1-2km warm-up at about 5min/km before my faster road sessions. This will prevent me either jumping into a quick pace cold, or running the first km or so at limbo speed (ie not the target speed of the session, but not the right speed for a proper warm-up). Ditto for the cooldown, which currently consists of walking a couple of hundred metres.
The first two sessions this week have been spot on, but I will outline them in a post that needs padding, unlike this mind dump. However, I will indulge in some photos of Louis enjoying his Christmas present, back after a long absence:
