Control Your Effort…not your pace! (Part Two of a Series of Six) Because of ever changing, and quite often uncontrollable, variables in your being human, it is wise to remember that you are not a machine that is always running at 100% efficiency. “I’m not a machine that can be wound up every day.” Herb Elliott, following his WR 1500 in Goteborg, Sweden, and being asked to run sub-4 the next night in Malmo. You will find yourself feeling better/worse depending on workload, weather conditions, lifestyle changes, etc., etc., etc. Therefore it is more important to run workouts and races by effort as opposed to pace. 6:30 pace may be 80% effort today and 100% effort tomorrow. Since consistency is the most important element in becoming the best runner you can be, this requires staying healthy and managing your workload and effort. “Remember to ‘bank’ your racing powers until you seriously require them, and you will then find that the interest is there as well as the capital when you start to draw on the account.” -Arthur Newton As you increase running “strength” through consistent, wise training from season to season, you will be more able to run closer to your max pace, with the same effort, more often. Your “rest” days will involve more activity. You should also become more efficient so you can increase your max speed with 100% effort (not to mention hold it longer because of the added “strength” you have been building!) “Never take the lead unless you really want it, and if you take it, do something with it…Once in the lead, you have only two options, either you are going to pick up the pace, or you are going to slow it down. Once in control, a fast pace usually insures the fastest runner will win, a slow pace perhaps the fastest runner will still win but occasionally the race will go to the best kicker.” -Tom Courtney, 1956 Olympic 800 champ As your training plan should be set up in cycles, to obtain maximum benefit of all aspects of fitness, your races should follow a similar plan. “I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head” (Patient!), “the middle part with your personality” (Persistent!), “and the last part with your heart” (Passionate!). -Mike Fanelli, club coach “After 5 or 6 laps I have read everyone like a newspaper, and I know who is able to do this or that. And I know what I am able to do.” -Miruts Yifter I like the perfect race plan to follow these principles: Race smart - control your effort and know that you can continue to increase it! Increase effort throughout - this may not mean faster pace, but it will be increased effort. Be a passer. Hold nothing back on your way to the finish - Embrace the feeling of running passionately fast. “At this point (the backstretch), I abandoned the studied relaxation. This is the moment when you stop consciously controlling what you are doing and pour everything into driving out the utmost speed.” -Peter Snell “When you experience the run, you regress back to the mandrill on the savannah eluding the enclosing pride of lions that is planning to take your very existence away. Not only that, but you relive the hunt. Running is about 30 miles of chasing prey that can outrun you in a sprint, and tracking it down and bringing life back to your village. It’s a beautiful thing.” -Shawn Found Since it requires more energy to accelerate than it does to maintain speed, it is best to run as steady of pace as possible. This requires more effort as you go, because you are constantly using up stored energy as you run. Less energy available = more required for same pace. This means that you want to control the effort of your race to match early effort and pace to be able to keep pace constant as effort increases. As mentioned at the start, this pace for a similar effort will change based on many variables. One that we can control, through consistent and wise training, your efficiency to run faster with the same effort and to be able to increase the amount of time that you can maintain a pace. “The idea that you can’t lose contact with the leaders has cut more throats than it has saved.” -Arthur Lydiard Another positive about controlling your effort is to allow your body the important element of rest. Since 90% of effective racing is mental, rest is not only important for your body, but also for your mind! Another positive in controlling your effort is that you have more enjoyment in being a passer. The hunter usually desires accomplishing the task to a greater degree than the hunted. It’s mentally more fatiguing to wonder about things rather than to see them unfolding before you. When you start going backwards it’s not only disappointing, but can be VERY painful. “Even (Glen) Cunningham, strong though he is, could not live up to the strain of setting such a pace, combined with the mental worry of having a lightly-stepping black shadow right on his shoulder, locking strides with him, almost breathing in his ear-for the trick of shadowing an opponent within sight and hearing is one of the more maddening and distracting forms of tactics that one can use in any race.” -Jack Lovelock, diary entry “At the bell, I gave just on quick glance behind me and took in the situation in all its ghastliness. The wall at my heels was thick…I had put in a couple of sixty second laps and almost everybody was still chasing me, damn it! I was the fugitive now, and I realized I had to flee as if my life depended on it…In the far turn I had the most frightening experience of my career. Some guy in black was forcing himself by me. It was Quax (of New Zealand), whom I really hadn’t reckoned very seriously…I found my last gear and it was just enough. The black shadow glided away from my eyes. The holy sanctuary of the finish line engulfed me-I had won!” -Lasse Viren on his 5,000 victory in Montreal In conclusion, I’d like to submit that as races require a strategy to develop most effectively, so also do seasons, years and lifetimes of running require a strategy to develop the most effectiveness. Take control of your effort to stay Healthy, Happy and Hungry! “Perhaps the most intriguing, yet at the same time most tragic aspect of distance running is racing strategies and tactics or the lack of them. A slight hesitance, a single step to the inside, a few seconds miscalculation of the right pace of the timing of the final kick, and any other years of careful preparation and sacrifice. The race is not always to either the swift or the strong, but to the clever, the skillful, and the constantly wary.” Ken Doherty This link is to the 5,000 in Montreal from the Kiwi perspective. Notice the range of Rod Dixon. https://youtube/watch?v=QB5DxltIkTI For Part One of The Six Cs of Maximizing Your Running...or most anything! See the Jan. 21, 2015 post.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 21:47:16 +0000
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