As January passes the half way point, we all start looking ahead to Spring racing. Well, OK, in the Lower Mainland of BC races have already started. Southern Vancouver Island too. But, the ‘real deal’ of racing season is still a little way off. That said, one of the premier races in Vancouver is the First Half Half Marathon and I have personally been leading a pace group in a training clinic which started in late October and went right through Christmas/New Year. The coach is a real driver!
All that said, a lot of people do use the cooler, snowier, wetter months to at least dial back and take some recovery time – not necessarily the same thing as a complete break. Even though I have been leading the pace group mentioned above, I have been doing my own version of dialing back by reducing total distance run and taking intensity out of the other workouts. How can I do that? Easy, I’m not actually running the First Half. As a former race director, Pacific Road Runners club member and this time – stage MC on event day, I expect to be too busy with race work. No, my (big) personal target race at this point is the Eugene Marathon in April. In fact, I am just in the process of getting back on track with a full training program. Maybe that is what got me thinking about this topic.
One thing that did come to mind, largely because I decided it was time to hit the training accelerator, is the rolling training week. I’m not at all sure I coined that term, but am pretty sure it is not in common use. I think it should be. I know that it has caught me off guard more than once. The idea is pretty simple and sometimes is the total explanation for how you feel and whether or not things feel like they are on track. As I would define it, a rolling week is the last seven days ending with ‘today’. That is for a clear record of recent effort. The next seven days would naturally be for planning and in fact, any seven consecutive days can also be the rolling week. This latter approach can be very instructive with regard to what you should do next in context of what you have just done.
In my opinion, this idea of the rolling week is important to all runners, but particularly to new runners and the seasoned, especially the well seasoned, runners.
“Why?”, you ask.
Well, we all tend to fall into a bit of a trap of looking at our calendars and thinking in terms of the standard seven day week, generally starting either Sunday or Monday. I know when I am training for something I plan to run a certain total distance and perhaps a defined number of particular workouts. In addition to recording them in my running log once completed, I also set up a table with the seven days of the week and the days on which I will do a specific workout – LSD, Hill, Speed, Tempo, etc.  If you are running more or less every day, this all matters a bit less with respect to the ‘rolling week’. However if you are on a 3 or 4 day training plan, there is room for workouts to shift about and thereby cluster together a bit. I know that more than once I have felt completely knackered, when according to my calendar week I am about right. Done the planned distance. Done the planned workouts. What could possibly be wrong? The main thing is probably that while you did what was prescribed, you did not do it as scheduled.
 Looking at a rolling seven days, which takes in part of the current (calendar) ‘week’ as well as part of the last ‘week’, you sometimes see you have done two quite lengthy runs and a hard speed workout and all in maybe just 3-4 days, not seven. Naturally, what wasn’t noticed was that the runs had bunched up when you just look at the actual seven days (or far less) within which they had been done. So, the planned distance for the two calendar weeks involved may be bang on, but because of actual scheduling it turns out you have run 50% more than planned over the seven days immediately around those runs. Just for illustration, you may have planned to run 35km in week #1 and 40km in week#2, but because of precisely when the specific runs were done, it turns out you have done 50km of hard running over a rolling seven day period. Just made those numbers up, but it isn’t too hard to see what I’m getting at. Throw a hard race into the middle of all that and LOOK OUT! Actually, in Running in the Zone: A Handbook for Seasoned Athletes, contributor Bart Yasso discussed the TEN day plan, which can also help get away from the standard week ( a somewhat ‘sacred’ construct according to Bart).
Do this bunching up thing once and you probably won’t do much more than make yourself a bit tired and flat for a few days. Do the same thing a few times in a row and damage could follow. You certainly won’t be getting the anticipated good out of your training. The best answer is to try to stay close to your training plan and definitely take care of what is happening if you do have to shift workouts off of the planned schedule. Many highly respected coaches will tell you how important rest and recovery is to effective training. That is all relative, depending on your personal circumstances. For some it really means doing nothing. For others it means going easy or keeping distance a bit shorter. From a personal perspective, as I get older I do notice that recovery takes longer and injuries take much longer to properly heal.
Total (recommended) training distance run in a time period, say a week, has shifted all over the place through the years. One thing to remember is that the elites are a whole different breed, and just because some of them may do 150 miles a week it sure doesn’t mean it is something most of should do. As you truly get older, you reach a stage where too much is, well, too much. Average runners will generally need a different strategy from the elites if they expect to optimize at a personal level. At the clinic mentioned above we are following a plan of running less to run faster. The key is doing the minimal number of workouts according to a plan and making sure the quality workouts do not get glossed over and turned into easier paced runs. This plan is specifically for half and full marathon training. It includes the long slow distance (LSD) where we are admonished to respect the ‘S’ component – SLOW. It is about endurance, pure and simple. Too many people doing the long run seem to want to test their race fitness in training. As a pace group leader in said clinic, one of my biggest challenges (and that includes me) is to hold the group back to the planned pace based on our target race result. While not necessarily exact, the general intention once the long run nears race distance (never actually gets there) is to be on the road for about the time the race is expected to take. It is all about letting your body know what it is like to be running for that long.
Pace and speed come from the other workouts. And, a little cross-training is encouraged too. I won’t go into the various specific workouts but the clinic plan addresses all aspects of preparation for the target race and distance. BUT, the big thing to note is that while it is as minimalist as some of the shoes we like to wear these days, it is very demanding with regard to adherence. There is a bit of luxury in volume, in that you can sometimes ‘cheat’ a little without much consequence. When the plan is minimal but precise, you need to do your best to stick to the plan. Note: that is not to say you should run when you are sick or injured, just because your schedule says you should, but all things equal, you should not dumb down a hard workout for no reason other than that you may be feeling a bit lazy. Again, let me add a note of caution. Mostly we do all this for fun and pleasure. If you really need to back off, that is your choice. Sometimes it is very much the right choice. However, while the minimal training regimen may produce the desired result if properly followed, you must take responsibility for your own decisions re how closely you can/will adhere to it. I know I have set out at the beginning of a training period with a race goal in mind, only to have something intervene along the way. Mostly, I have been able to take a realistic approach to the actual possibility of achieving that particular goal. That said, I have toed more than one starting line with an unrealistic (based on actual training) finish time in mind. I am pleased to say though, that I have always been able to see the truth after the fact and accept both the outcome and who was ultimately responsible. That would be me.
The final point to make this time flows from the discussion of realistic race goals. Training is easy to understand as a physical thing. Run so many LSDs, ramping up to some near-race total, so many hills, tempos, speed drills. Part of training is planning and even practicing race strategy. We all know of the unicorn-like, mythical thing called the ‘negative split’. I nearly did one once – quite recently, as it happens, but alas I only caught a glimpse of it flying away as I lumbered through the last mile or so of the Victoria Half Marathon last October. I believe it was actually riding on one of those unicorns!Â
OK, let’s get serious. My very real point is that you can train all you want but you still have to run the race and you have to run it smartly. How many of us begin a description of our last race result with ‘Well, I think I started out a bit too fast……”?Â
For my own part, I have even started such commentary that way when my result was actually quite good (relative term). Managing a race is as much a part of a great outcome as is a fabulously successful training program. I am not going to go on and on about how you should do that, just that you SHOULD. Many factors will come into your race strategy including how well you have prepared, the course, the conditions on the day and whether you are trying to simply complete the race or win it, or just beat a rival or two. Maybe that rival is the former you – that is, you are shooting for a PB or course PB for this particular event.
I know that after pretty much 30 years of running/racing, there are only a handful of races that really stand out as excellent results in my own career. One was my very first marathon, which to this day I consider my best race ever, and another was the half marathon I just ran in Victoria this past year. The reason I rate them so highly is HOW I ran them, not how fast. As it happens and in relative terms, those races being some 25 years apart, they were both pretty good results in terms of finish time, but the reason the result was good was as much as anything, the WAY I ran the race – my race management. Now, if I could just do that more often!Â
The real message here is – whatever your goal may be, you need a race management strategy and you need to work on that during training, not as you come under starter’s orders.
Here’s to a great year of training and running! Go get ’em!