Many runners and their coaches have a tendency to copy what successful elite and champion runners do in their training. They try and replicate the volume of mileage or the frequency in training or the type of training, in the hope that through emulating what the best do they too will become a world champion!
When you first look at this you think “Yes that’s a good idea” there is a lot of merit in the thought process; however the result is seldom successful! Because in trying to replicate the success of another athlete they fail to realise that they may not have the body type, or physical strength, or running mechanics or even the mental attitude to achieve the same success at that particular time in their training development.
What many athletes and their coaches must remember is that we are all individuals with different body shapes, running mechanics, running technique and in many cases what works for one athlete may not work for another.
I recently worked with a young middle distance runner who was progressing very well in her running, she was competing with girls 2-3 years older than herself and was ranked third overall in the country. Because of her school schedule she was training 2-3 times per week and focusing on the quality of her running technique, preferring to do short fast runs rather than increase the volume of her mileage.
Her coach was keen to increase the volume and frequency of training and introduce structured strength training into the training week. I did not agree with the sudden increase in volume and discussed the subject with the coach the athlete and the athlete’s parents, suggesting caution and offering an alternative approach.
During the off season the athlete increased her volume of training by 25% and began weight training twice a week. The result was quite catastrophic! Her race times rather than improving slowed down and half-way through the season she was diagnosed with a stress fracture and had to miss 3 months training. She is back with us now doing rehabilitation and we are teaching her how to run again.
This is an all too familiar story in athletics and running and is not unique even amongst experienced and elite athletes who think that by making major changes to their training programme they will get major improvements in performance. You need to know a lot of information before you overhall your training programme:
How does your own body work
Identify your strengths and weaknesses
Know your objectives
Know your priorities
When I get asked to develop training programmes for athletes and runners I tend to ask a barrage of questions before I develop a training programme:
What is your objective?
How much time to you have to train?
How many sessions per week?
How does your body react to an increase in mileage?
How does your body react to an increase in training time?
What is your recovery routine?
What is the current training programme?
What is your running technique like?
Where are the weakness and strengths in the running technique?
Current speed over distance?
Nutrition & hydration details?
And many more…
Why?
It’s not just a simple issue of increasing the mileage, or introducing a new strength training regime, or running for longer or trying to run faster- you have to look at all the above mentioned parameters together and a few more, before you make changes. The body is an amazing machine and adapts to an increase in stress gradually so it can cope, so the changes have to be phased in gradually and based on how the body responds every six weeks.
There is a phrase I use often: “if you don’t know where you’re going, how will know when you get there?”
