Being a relatively injury resistant runner, (always knock on wood when you say something like that) I've had the ability to run "pretty high volume" (mileage per week) throughout my career. Injury proneness places a definite upper bound on volume depending on the person, but there's a gray area just underneath where an athlete is made or betrayed. By themselves.
For me, volume has always been somewhat of a question mark - I'm still experimenting with how much feels best. And when you try to isolate variables for results that take seasons and years to produce, the process is not simple.
For me, volume has always been somewhat of a question mark - I'm still experimenting with how much feels best. And when you try to isolate variables for results that take seasons and years to produce, the process is not simple.
Sometimes you just gotta do less, Pepiopi. |
This is Smileage. |
I had a lot of fun during the next track season. Non stop personal bests, tapping into speed in the 1500, breaking school and Ivy records, winning two Penn Relays wheels, qualifying for outdoor nationals and nearly the Olympic trials all indicated that I had figured something out. The increased amount of iron in my diet probably played a substantial role, but being more savvy with when to train hard and when to recover is what I think really caused the breakthrough.
When it comes time, I let myself just run, doing what feels natural. Lifting the burden of having to maintain a certain amount of smiles every day is enormously relieving. I put the displaced effort into workouts and races, using distance runs for recovery more than for aerobic benefit, their purpose in the base phase. I forget about mileage goals - the miles runs themselves and just add up appropriately. I do everything with the singular goal of feeling good.
Nigel knows about volume |
I think some people forget that the point of competitive running is racing. They focus so intently on training that they eventually prefer it to competition, in the worst cases developing a fear of racing because they feel more in control while training. The worst thing to do after a poor race performance is go home and amp up the volume or intensity in an attempt to 'get better'. The instinct should be the opposite. Amongst athletes who naturally harbor extremely hard work ethics and competitive tendencies, freshness is totally underrated. Smile : )
The term "smileage" copyright Tommy D., 2009
The term "smileage" copyright Tommy D., 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment