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