Peter forwarded me his previous piece to proof, not because he needs my editing or approval. In reading it, which I must emphasize I absolutely agree, I felt compelled to write a bit of an addendum. While I’ve written many articles on the benefit and need for solid training, again to maintain and grow aerobic fitness, I don’t recall ever writing about the gap from the end of indoor to the beginning of spring track.
Let’s face it, the six weeks that make up most of February and the first two weeks of March can be some of the most difficult weeks of the year to get out there and run. Slippery roads and sidewalks, bitter cold and the hurdle of no competitions on the horizon, not to mention “normal” practices, keeping the momentum going can be difficult. But like Peter said, it’s important.
Now I don’t think either of us is advocating “training” per se, but rather mitigating against detraining, so eloquently outlined in his article. But certainly easier said than done. I want to offer one belief I have and one concept that I’ve created to help athletes be prepared to begin the spring track season when the spring track season begins.
First let me offer up the concept, and that is our Dead Possum half marathon. It is true that most of our athletes tend to be distance runners, so a singular concept focused on distance running certainly may not cover you or your fellow athletes. But for us it gave my athletes something else to focus on and set some goals around. Certainly the half marathon distance has no specific training benefit for those running 800 meters to the 3200. But it certainly is over distance. Not to mention likely for a first time Possum goer to be the longest they’ve ever run, and there is at least some mental benefit in that. Not to mention a running based activity to captivate them over these tough weeks.
The Dead Possum is right before the season starts, this year March 14th. We have bailouts available too, at the 5.5 mile mark and 8 miles, just in case. When I was coaching I’d have the athletes work off a six week, crash course for half marathoning that would get them up to running a couple two hour runs, enough to get them through the DP. I didn’t mention the course has a lot of elevation, with the last mile pretty much all uphill. The course is not nice.
And truth be told, the goal of the DP isn’t about running fast or training to do so, it’s really about finishing, and hopefully feeling like you’ve accomplished something. Often times those participants are athletes just learning they are distance runners, and are finding things out about themselves they didn’t know were hidden inside themselves. Not to mention that after running a hilly half marathon there is nothing at track practice that is truly that hard.
The other belief that came to mind is around the need for time off. Please don’t string me up quite yet but I’m going to offer up a counterintuitive view on taking time off. While I don’t have any specific against time away from the sport, I think sometimes we forget that we can take time off from training and still run. I think too often we overlook that, equating if you don’t stop running for a time you are not recovering. If that is someone’s true opinion then it implies running is harmful and needs to be measured and checked. I feel that is an inaccurate depiction of running.
As a coach I built a day off into our weekly schedule for a couple reasons. Most parents didn’t have a great grasp of the sport and would have felt running seven days a week as torture. Also, our community puts a strong value in faith, and scheduling Sundays off worked well for that. Not to mention that by scheduling a day of every week certainly helps mitigate against those overuse injuries that tend to creep up on athletes that haven’t totally given themselves over to becoming an endurance athlete.
But I also gave the athletes the opportunity to do more. I didn’t discourage them from running on their “day off” but rather worked to steer them towards understanding what they need in training, and after a serious build or compounding stresses, they would need a day off. And that comes from learning your body and understanding the inherent rules around training, that when broken, means a lead up to injury.
So like my friend Peter says, do not forgo this opportunity to maintain your fitness. Let’s face it, you spent the first part of the winter building it up, it would be foolish to waste these next six weeks and backtrack on all that work. Get out and find a way in the space between.
I’ll see you out there.
