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This I Believe (second draft)

The following the newsletter that I sent out to subscribers a month ago.  I shared the first three parts of it here and I thought I would be appropriate to share the rest of it.  I hope you enjoy it.  You can join the newsletter at the bottom of this post.

There is a project called “This I Believe” – http://thisibelieve.org/ – that is based off of the same series done by Edward R. Murrow.  Here is my list as it applies to training.  It is not a comprehensive list, but it’s close.

I believe if an athlete wants to run faster, they need to run.  The Law of Specificity for a runner means that you have to spend a significant amount of time running to get better at running.  Now, the ratio of running to non-running work may (and probably should) change throughout the life of a given athlete.  Early in a career, when the athlete doesn’t have a very good aerobic foundation, more running needs to occur.  When the athlete is in their late thirties and beyond, a bit more general strength (potentially weight room work) and a bit less running is probably the best recipe for success.  But the bottom line is that if you want to improve as a runner then you have to run.

I believe that the long run is the key workout for developing the aerobic metabolism (though many would argue that threshold training is better). [Read more…]

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Wild Things, Honesty and Race Specificity

Yesterday Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, passed away. I had the pleasure of listening to most of this insightful set of interviews he did with Terry Gross as I was driving. Quite a caracter.

Last night my 3 1/2 year old and I read the book and I couldn’t help but think of what was said in another radio essay on his life, specifically his honesty in storytelling.  Where the Wild Things Are is unlike other children’s book from that time because the boy is naughty and the mosters scary.  Other books had cute ducklings that were helped across the street by smiling policemen.  My mostly angelic daughter sometimes misbehaves and when she ran across the street last night I hope that her reprimand was somewhat scary.  Thus, childhood sometimes means being sent to your room with no dinner.

I think there is connection between the honesty that Sendak brings to childhood and his children’s storys and the honesty that runners should bring to their training.

For instance, a good way to view the marathon is that you’ve got to be able to a) metabolically use fat/lipid stores as well as carbohydrate (CHO) and b) you’ve got to be able to neuromuscularly run the pace your “engine” is capable of for the full 42.2k. I think Brendan Martin spoke eloquently about this when he said the group he trains in, Hansons Brooks, believes in accumulating fatigue and then doing workouts at race pace. Simple, straight forward approach that yields fantastic marathon results. [Read more…]

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Specific vs. General

I’m blessed that I’ve had a phone conversations and several email exchanges with someone who I believe is one of the best coaches in our country, Vern Gambetta.

I asked Vern to comment on Specific vs. General training and the balance between the two. He obliged with a post on his site (!!!) and I want to share part of it here.

What I think has happened especially in the last twenty years is that there has arisen an emphasis on general work to get them fit. Fit for what? Just making them tired does not make them better. This is alarming trend in middle distance and distance training where too much mindless circuit work is justified as “general strength.” [Read more…]

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