Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The Greatest Workout of All Time????....!!!!

As I have noted many times I have become an amateur historian of the sport of running/track and field over the years. As a result a combination of always trying to reach a synthesis of information, (isn’t that what most amateur historians do???) I’ve come across many variations of what one would term harder sessions. I’ve always viewed these as starting points on where training begins, but what how you analyze that training is where it ends.

All interpretations of training require critical analyzing a handful of information from 1) science 2) methodology and 3) personal experience. Having acted in a coaching manner at various times(with a variety of abilities and levels) in combination with observing personalities, physiology, strengths, weaknesses, etc…. I’ve come to various conclusions.

In this instance my conclusion would be if I could only do one workout and advise one workout what would it be…. The answer to the questions I often ask myself take time. I am always considering events specifics, mentality, reality, compatibility, etc…. But in this question the answer sticks out at me like the proverbial sore thumb, and that is the session I have determined one can 1) do all year round, 2) has variations and 3) is doable in any circumstance. I figured since my last post was on the Clohessy Creed that this post should pay homage to a component of the ‘complex system’ of training that Clohessy began. The workout should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me and that is the monafartlek.
Named after famed Australian Steve Moneghetti it originated when Mona’s coach Chris Wardlaw told him to do a 20min fartlek session. Mona apparently wanted to know more than a 20min session and Wardlaw told him 2 x 90, 4 x 60, 4 x 30 off equal med paced running. Mona worked that out to 18mins so Wardlaw added 4 x 15 sec and voila there was the 20mins.

The Monafartlek(sometimes spelled monofartlek) is one of those sessions Mona did/does all year around on each Tuesday. He did the fartlek around a 6km lake loop near his house. Of course success breeds imitation and many others who watched Mona’s success copied said workout. What Mona and everyone else who did the workout was that a 20min fartlek sounds easy but doing it properly is another different story. The information I’ve heard said that the hard parts were 4:30 mile pace or quicker pace, while the med parts were 5min/mile pace or quicker.

In my years of doing the monafartlek I’ve found it to be the single greatest workout, for the reasons that 1) anyone from a miler to a marathon runner can do it, 2) you can suit if to the time of the season (egs early in the season you can make the med paced the priority, while later in the season you can pay more attention to the harder sections and be more anaerobic) and 3) it can be suited to individual strengths and weaknesses while doing it ( egs a fast twitch athlete might pull away on the quicker paced, while the slow twitch athlete works the jogs, or even the opposite where the FT athlete makes the easier parts quicker and work on their weaknesses) .

The key to the monafartlek is simple and it’s what I call ‘focused variability’. If I am having a bad day I only need to get through 20mins…. If I am getting ready to race I might take it easy the for the first 10min and hammer the second half…if I am getting ready for a later season race I make the easier parts slower, but on the other side if I am training through I work the jogs…if I want more tempo I make the med paced sections hurt….I am sure you get the idea.

Even variations can be done like doing a ‘back half monafartlek’ if you are in taper mode (do 2 x 60, 40 x 30, 4 x 15). I’ve adder some sections to it when needing more speed (egs monafarltek-2min rest 6 x 30 sec hard-60 sec easy) or longer (egs 2 x 3mins off 2min and then a monafartlek for 30mins of running). Even my taper for 5-10km is based upon the monafartlek (a 9min fartlek of 3mins of 30sec hard-med, 3min of 20 sec hard med and 3min of 10 sec hard med). In the end you can get what you need out of it. Besides it may also be the most enjoyable hard workout out there….

Training:
Mon: 66mins
Tues: 5 x mile tempo (pick up a little over tempo the last 60 secs) plus 2 x 3 min 30 sec off 30 sec
Wed: 70mins
Thurs: 66mins
Fri: 68mins
Sat: AM 3 x 10mins tempo-5mins a little slower plus 4 x 60sec hard-60 sec easy-30 sec hard-30 sec easy PM 32mins
Sunday: 2hr 10 mins

Monday, January 18, 2010

The Legend of the Clohessy Creed

In my last post I chatted about ‘the big workout’, but I also talked about the Clohessy Creed. Growing up as a little kid and teenager, I was fortunate to be around during a time of running craziness. By that I meant there seemed to be a lot more energy and focus on running when it was on the teevee. It was during that time I came across three runners who I ended up emulating. One was marathon record holder Steve Jones, another was Oly bronze medalist Rod Dixon and the last was Rob Decastella aka Deek.

Now Deek came into fruition due to winning the very first Wld championship marathon. I was able to see those championships on teevee, but knew little about him. As I’ve stated before getting a history degree meant I also approached the sport through a historical perspective viewpoint, which meant if I didn’t know something I went out of my way to research it. Deek became one of those projects. I was finally able to provide a full conclusion to Deek when I was able to obtain his autobiography. His autobio is okay, but if you pay attention there are snippets here and there which give you some insight into both his philosophy towards running, but in his case of his coach Pat Clohessy. The chapter that stuck out at me most was the ‘Clohessy Creed’.

Clohessy was Deek’s coach from beginning to end, but what one needs to know is that Clohessy was no slouch himself. I came into greater contact when I got my first Lydiard athlete autobios of Peter Snell and Muarry Halberg. Clohessy spent time travelling with the Kiwis in Europe after going to school at the Univ of Houston. It was Houston that Clohessy learned how over the top interval training could destroy a runner. It was after experimenting with some of Lydiard’s ideas he found that the buildup of mileage was kept to athlete development.

On his return to Australia Clohessy began working with young athletes and found that they didn’t need much anaerobic work to get fit or fast. His Clohessy creed was evolving.

What many don’t know is that it was Clohessy who was setting up the training for an unknown American native runner named Billy Mills. Mills of course would ironically go on to beat Clohessy’s countryman , the great Ron Clarke at the 64 Olys. The basis for Clohessy’s training was good constant aerobic conditioning mixed in with small aspects of anaerobic work (in Mill’s case a lot of Lydiard style 100 hard-100 float for 3-5km).

But Clohessy’s greatest pupil was still to come and that was of course Deek. In Deek’s autobio he goes into great detail how Clohessy helped him with progressive training from a teenager (50miles per week) and still had him progress as he became a Sr athlete. Of course deek wasn’t the only success story. The other one who has had a major impact was Chris ‘Rab’ Wardlaw, a 2:11 Oly marathoner training partner of Deeks.

Of course Rab would go on to many other successes as a coach that being Steve Moneghetti and a handful of other great Aussie distance runners (Shaun Creighton and now Craig Mottram). In the end the lineage of Lydiard lent itself to Clohessy’s interpretation,the shock of Billy Mills (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QaDQL0rMWw), the toughness of Deek, which turned into Wardlaw’s ‘complex’ system’ tweaking, and Mona’s championship pedigree, who also coached Lee Troop and on and on and on…..the ‘Clohessy Creed’ continues.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Big Workout.....

Sometimes topics for this blog come in waves. Others sit on a shelf for a while, until I actually get around to taking the time to really go into details. Others come naturally, while others sometimes don’t come at all. This one is probably one that has been in the back of my mind for about 15 years. Yeah 15 years…

In a previous life when I was a pure track runner I felt as though I was ready to go to the next level. I had learned my lessons, but had unfortunately, ran out of races to make the 94 Commonwealth Games. But, I also felt that I was ready to take the next step into international style running. My how things can change quickly.
I was in my car when these two young guys hit me. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but in retrospect I wished I had taken the rest of the year off. I had some minor pains, but not much. Instead I continued to go out and train hard. But the part that almost killed me was that I was getting to a point in the season where I was so mentally tough, that I had the ability to hurt myself.

And hurt myself I did. Part of the reason was the compensation of the accident…the other was approaching each workout as though it was ‘the big workout’ (now referred to as TBW). The end result was that by the end of the season I could barely walk. I could actually run races, but once I stopped I was a mess. For the next 2-3 years I spent my running career trying to train more than 2 months without my back going into spasm. It was easily the most frustrating time of my running.

I realized then that the concept of the TBW had to be tempered. In that respects I came to realize that TBW had to be planned. Rather than every week being TBW…the TBW would instead be used sparingly.

Now TBW can be defined in many ways. As a middle dist guy TBW was our peak session of 600-400-300 full out off 10+ mins rest. It was the sort of session I loved and had the fear of god put into me all at once. But I had used it sparingly as a younger athlete.

During my preparations for the Wld ½ marathon in 2005 I was also preparing for a possible Commonwealth Games marathon race. It was then that I also approached my TBW in an overzealous manner that summer. Once again my back flared up to the point where not only did I not run a marathon, but I was a barely able to complete the ½ marathon and then had a disappointing season after that time.

The lessons I learned from paying too much attention to TBW was that I had to approach it sparingly. By that I meant that the physical and mental toll from trying to do TBW too often was the kiss of death. In the end it meant approaching my training from a more casual approach until it was time to really race. In that respects I guess it means picking and choosing when you need to get ready to race. For example in my 10km preparations I always approached TBW as 5 x 1600m off 2-2 1/2mins and 5 x 1000m of alternating hard and easy 200s, a 9min fartlek run I do, and a 20min tempo run. I had done these sessions earlier in the preparation, but it wasn’t until mid and later in the season when these became TBW.

In that respects they became mental and physical workouts all at once. They became special and provided with my final mental focus I needed to race. Until that time I typically raced mediocre at best. But then again that was always my plan…race well when it counted

Although the physical toll of TBW can be tough I also find that the mental toll is just as detrimental. It’s one thing to be having some good sessions, but it’s another to do TBW week in and week out. I found that if I did this that I lost some mental edge to my racing. I needed a race to do my best, not TBW. Trying for too many BW meant I was not only physically fired, but mentally tired to really compete at my best. I might run okay, but certainly not my best.

In Bill Squire’s training book (former coach to Bill Rodgers among many other great runners) he really stresses this point in his workouts. His intervals seem reasonable in both distance and intensity.

On the other side of the world I have always taken into account the ‘complex’ system of the Aussies (Clohessy and Wardlaw) that advocated short sessions that left the athlete ready to be both physically and mentally refreshed (only 20-25 mins of total work in hard workouts). It’s not that they didn’t do TBW. They did, but it was only used sparingly and even then it was not too extreme (either ran in a race to prepare along with some 10milers for the marathon). Clohessy's rationale came from coaching young kids who didn't need a lot of hard work to get fast. He then used that same model for adults and found it worked in a progressive manner.

Either way I have always considered TBW as something one doesn’t use often and when in doubt be conservative.

The week (a planned down week so meant to take Wed-Sat easier with a sandwich of long runs and tempo intervals as bookends):
Mon: off....remind me not to take Mons off ever again. I am trying to take one day off every 3 weeks and taking Mon off is way to easy when i really need the day off later in the week.
Tues: BBY Lake 10 x 3mins @ tempo HR off 30 sec. Consistent and solid. best part was my HR stayed the same and i got faster. I call this a tweener workout. I run at tempo pace so i can in more volume without tearing myself down.
Wed: 66mins
thurs: 70mins
Fri: 67min
Sat: 37min hills (on avge 50-70 sec). Knew I needed some 'form/strength' work and had this planned far far in advance. PM 32 mins
Sun: 2 hr 2 mins at SFU trails. Nice run and felt from from the hill session

Friday, January 8, 2010

Throwing up all over oneself....

Discussions on why one runs always come up. There's always the typical fitness, it makes me feel good, I like to compete, etc....arguments made, but alas I seldom like to fit myself into some running category. Hell I hate wearing running shorts.

But when this subject of why one runs comes up I have found no better way to explain it then by a section from a golf book. John Feinstein is easily my favourite sports non fiction writer. He's best know for his classic "A Season on the Brink' in which he followed Bobby Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers around for an entire season (Knight was not a happy when the book came out). Feinstein has put out many more books over the years (my personal favourite is the 'The Last Amateurs', but his next most famous book is a golf book entitled ' A Good Walk Spoiled' in which he once again followed a handful of PGA tour players around for an entire season. In his introduction he mentioned a story about Curtis Strange (2 x US Open winner), who had been playing poorly for a while. Strange had somehow positioned himself into a situation where he was one stroke away at a US Open, but over the last hole he hit a poor shot and missed a playoff.

Rather than be angry or even disappointed Strange had IMHO the best description of what competing really means....and the one I've always used to explain why I still run:


They all want to be there because they know the work that goes into getting there. Shortly after Curtis Strange had come up one stroke of making a playoff at last year’s US Open , I ran into him in the empty locker room at Oakmont.
I asked him if he would sleep that night.
“Probably not,” he said. “I’ll probably go through every shot and every thought.”
He smiled . “But you know what? That’s okay. It’s disappointing, but goddamn it, I was there. I hadn’t had that feeling in a long time. This is what you play the game for – to get yourself in a position on Sunday at the US Open so you can throw up all over yourself.”
He was glowing. “My God,” he said, “it felt great.”
He hadn’t won. But he had had a chance right to the very end. All the work was worth it, just to have that feeling. That’s what they all search for: the chance to be there on Sunday afternoon. They live to have the chance to choke. At Q-school; at Hartford or Memphis; at Augusta or Oakmont.



....so if you ever hear me talking about 'throwing up all over myself' it was probably not due to a long night......

Monday, January 4, 2010

uh oh.....

...Carter has started crawling and that means load of fun.

One might assume (if they read this regularly) that training has been going poorly because I haven't been posting. Actually it is quite opposite. I was able to get back into some semblance of discipline after my November meltdown and even hit around 100 miles this week (having the week off was nice, but it really wasn't a week off). In fact I would even say I purposely backed off so that i wouldn't overdo things.

If anything I've gone back to my more traditional approach of 'secret training' (as Joseph Kibur used to put it when we didn't see him for a while). It's not any secret, but rather that I sometimes forget I need to struggle to get my behind in gear. If I have realized anything in my years of running it's that the athlete has to make the decision. Last year I made some poor decisons in rushing parts of my training that I have felt I always needed to race well. These things aren't always physical hence why I find I need more of the mental process. That's still one of the issues regarding group vs personalized training. You can caught up in the group atmosphere (where it can be much easier to train) and forget that sometimes (and some people) require different approaches tp get to where they need to go.

I used to say to my old coach Mike Lonergan that 'you can get me fit, but you can't make me fast'. By that I meant it was mine and mine only decison to make a choice on whether I was committed to the process of racing/training focus. There can always be legitimate reasons to not train (I've had a few over the past year or so), but most of the time one can work it out if they really want.

Topics for the future: 'why throwing up all over yourself and is a good thing' and 'the concept of the 'big workout'.

Last 4 weeks:
1) 77
2) 75
3) 85
and this week (4)

Mon: 68 mins
Tues: 30min plus 3min 20-30 sec hills fartlek PM 35 mins
Wed: 66 mins
thurs: AM just under 1 hr 40mins with Tina PM 30 mins plus drills
Fri: 51min
sat: 3 x 15 mins off 90sec easy jogs done in 5min pickups (5 below MP HR, 5 at MP HR and 5 at tmepo HR PM: 35mins
Sun: 2 hr 3mins at SFU. Good as felt decent from the start and got better as i went along