Training
Keep Firing in the Freeze
By Ray Orchison
There are two ways to approach training in winter : Sleep the winter away , or toughen up , get out of bed and set your body up for a few spring PBs .
The human body is an incredible machine . It only maintains the structures it believes are needed for survival . In other words , use it or lose it ! There ’ s nothing quite like hitting the snooze button and rolling over under a warm duvet on a cold or wet winter morning . And given that we ’ re out of the official running season , you can be forgiven for hitting the snooze button every now and then . The problem is when the snooze button becomes the norm …
Within seven to 10 days you lose your sharpness or racing edge when you stop training . It ’ s not a problem following a hard season or key event ( like Comrades ). In fact , it ’ s normal , as we allow our body to recover and repair itself before we begin to build up again . When you stop training for two to three weeks and longer , however , you begin to lose base fitness . This means that your endurance systems , which have been built over months of hard work , together with your muscles , begin to atrophy or waste away . So , if you go into full hibernation during winter , you come into spring requiring lots of hard work to get your systems back to where they were before .
The better approach is to allow yourself a few easy weeks with one or two extra lieins , but keep the body ticking over at a maintenance level . You won ’ t be firing on all cylinders , but you should maintain a level where , given a few weeks of focused training , you ’ ll be race-ready again .
The type of sessions will depend on what you ’ ve done over the months . If you ’ ve improved your speed , strength and endurance , then at this point you ’ ll possibly reduce your speed and endurance and work a little more at maintaining or even building your strength . If you ’ ve greatly enhanced your endurance , then this is a great opportunity to maintain a certain level of endurance while working on building your speed . Basically , winter is a great opportunity to work on your weaknesses while maintaining your strengths .
Motivate Yourself
This all sounds great … until that alarm goes off in the cold dark hours and all motivation goes out the window . It ’ s extremely difficult to get out of bed on a cold or wet morning when you have no purpose for doing so . So , one of the best ways to get motivated is to have a goal in place . For a beginner this might be to run your first 10km race . For a novice , it might be to move up to the half or full marathon distance . For an advanced athlete , it could be looking to PB at 10km or a half marathon . Winter also gives us a great opportunity to spend a little more time at the gym , to eliminate any muscle weaknesses or imbalances .
The worst possible thing you can do when the alarm goes off is to start thinking about it . The more you think about it , the more excuses you will come up with . When that alarm goes off , just turn it off and get up ! The other alternative is to put the alarm far away from the bed , so you have no option but to get up to turn it off . Once you ’ re up and out the door , it ’ s usually not as cold or as bad as you thought it would be , and before you know it , you ’ re back from your session , standing under a warm shower , feeling glad that you got out there and did it .
Winter Warming Tips
Try these winter-warming tips for surviving the cold months while still getting in your running fix .
1 . Dress Right
You want to be warm without sweating so much you get a chill later from damp clothing , so you should be slightly cool when you start your run . Wear layers of technical fabrics that wick sweat away from the skin , with zippers at the neck and underarm area to vent air as you heat up . Also , wear gloves and a hat to prevent heat escaping from exposed extremities . After your run , get changed out of cold , damp clothing as soon as you can , because your core body temperature drops as soon as you stop running .
2 . Warm up
Move around indoors enough to get the blood flowing , but without breaking a sweat . Run up and down your stairs , or use a skipping rope , and a speedy house-cleaning session works , too .
3 . Deal with Wind Start your run into the wind and finish with it at your back , so you won ’ t be blasted by cold air after breaking a sweat . Tip : To avoid a long , cold first half , you can break this into segments , such as running into the wind for 10 minutes , then turning to run with the wind at your back for five to seven minutes , and repeating .
Ray Orchison is a South African-born running coach and therapist . He has completed the Comrades Marathon multiple times and also boasts personal bests of 33:55 for 10km and 2:48:00 for the marathon . He has completed USATF and NAASFP coaching courses , and provides personalised training programmes to his clients . Now based in Perth , Australia , you can find him at https :// runetics . com . au .
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