Mona had a bloody great engine, something that both he and his coach Chris Wardlaw continued to build on every year. How? Day in day out he ran, Falls Creek every year for a top up and some solitude in the mountains.
You can do the same..... The tempo run is one element and the wombat believes that the long run is another element. The long run builds the strength in the legs to stay upright for a long time... Mona was big on it, his coach was big on it, Deek was big on it. Lance Armstrong did big mileage rides why? because it builds physical and more importantly mental strength. Its how you keep building the engine.
I remember when I was a young furry wombat and Deek came to Perth to have a crack at the world 25km record around the course at WAIT. Myself, OTFBD and Jussi Vaalsta all followed him on bikes, he was flying and he was doing it by himself. He missed the record by 15.5 seconds running 1hr 14min 13.3 seconds missing the record by a mere 15.5 seconds after being hassled by a dog and running into the back of a car when it passed then stopped in front of him. After the event Clayton Clews introduced me to him. He spoke with me for a while and at one point I asked about all the things he did. one of his responses was " You don't get better at running by going bowling" When I asked my dad what he meant dad explained that he was saying if you want to get better at running you run.
That's how you build your engine, you run. You build a base by running. As you get stronger you run faster for longer at training. This is often easier said than done because it is a fine line between running fast and running too fast. Only you can judge that point of fast and too fast.
One way to do that is consider how you pull up the next day. If you are smashed then it was too fast. If your all good then you are on track.
With the long runs in pace and the tempo runs in pace the next thing is to run every day if you can... Small runs at first then slightly longer. For a runner with a solid base (1 year behind them) they can add some multiple elements at the same time. They may increase their daily average as well as add some fartlek.
Again a word of caution "Don't be impatient" Get the mileage steady and hold it. Add another element , say a fartlek session and hold this for a couple of weeks. If all is smooth sailing increase the length or style of the fartlek. over time you can add another element. Over time you will get to the stage where you have such a base that you can remove and replace the different aspects of a distance program without fear of injury. (Having said that you can go from months of road and trail running then switch to track suddenly and throw in a track session in spikes. I get my guys to initially do a couple of session in their flats then switch over.)
Good luck wombats keep building that engine... While it may not make you a Lance Armstrong , a Mona , Deek , Paula Radcliffe, Geta Waitz, Bikila or a Haile G/Selassie. It will enable you to reach new limits with your running... patience and building blocks that what its all about.
Barrel on Wombats...
No comments:
Post a Comment