Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 99, October 2017 | Page 24

By Norrie
Williamson
Struggle
brings Success
We are all in search of that Personal Best, yet we often don’t adopt the two very basic and simple steps that will assist us.
Now rewind your mind to your very first running,
perhaps as a kid, or as a late starter. Chances are you
started with visions of getting to that landmark and
back, but your inexperience probably meant you went
off too fast, and were forced to stop to recover. Kids
do this naturally: They run fast and fluently, and stop
or rest when they are tired, but using this approach
nevertheless soon brought greater fitness and an
ability to run faster for longer.
Such programmes tend to see runners operating
around 15 seconds per km faster or slower than their
current marathon best, and doing between 50km
and 70km per week. It’s all about ensuring that an
“acceptable distance” is achieved each week, and
is often driven by being able to give an impressive
answer to “so how many kilometres do you run each
week?” However, fitting five or six days of running into
a week is no easy task for those with work, family and
social commitments, but this is not the sort of struggle
that will bring success. It was only when we were introduced to the prospect
of a long race, such as a marathon, or the lure of
Two Oceans and Comrades, that we realised that
we needed to run slower to run longer. It meant we
started to work within our ability all the time as we
sought to satisfy our mind that we could cover the
distance. We started to settle for the comfort zone, in
order to reach the distances that logic (and running
lore) stated were necessary to ensure a finish.
The Need to Struggle For many, running has therefore become stuck in a
comfort zone, and this training is taking us backwards.
It was the over-reaching of incorrect pacing, the
alternating of excess with rest, that brought us the
rapid increase in fitness as a kid or novice, and it is
our ability and speed over the short distance that
determines our potential finish in a 10km, 21km, 42km
or any ultra up to 100km. Simply put, the faster you
are over 1500m or a mile, the faster potential finish
you have in all distances up to 100km.
Since all the running, except perhaps the race if it is
short enough, is run at a similar mid-effort pace, the
runner does not progress or grow, and arguably can
instead lose fitness and ability. Imagine as a weight
trainer, you can do 10 lifts with 60kg. Now you go to
the gym twice a week and train by doing 3 sets of 10
lifts with just a 20kg bar. How much progress do you
expect to see when you retest in four weeks, or six
weeks? Chances are you may not be able to repeat
the 10 lifts of 60kg, simply because all your training
has been within your ability: There has been no
‘struggle,’ and no growth.
Change of Mindset
Clearly, therefore, the focus
should be on getting as fast as
possible on the shorter distance,
and this is achieved with short fast hills,
interval sessions from 150m to 1500m,
improving leg strength and elasticity,
and those fartlek sessions that we used
as kids or as novices. While these will
decrease the total weekly kilometre
About the Author
Norrie represented Scotland and Great Britain in
numerous ultra-distance events, then emigrated and
represented South Africa in triathlon. He is an IAAF-
accredited coach and course measurer, has authored
two books (Everyman’s Guide to Distance Running
and Every Beginner’s Guide to Walking & Running),
and counts 21 Comrades medals amongst his more
than 150 ultra-marathon medals. More info at
www.coachnorrie.co.za.
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ISSUE 99 OCTOBER 2017 / www.modernathlete.co.za
distance, such ‘struggle’ sessions two or maximum
three times a week will incur the (minor) damage that
is essential for growth and progression.
In turn, to enable recovery, we need to replicate
the hard/easy nature of our early running, by doing
75-80% of our weekly running at an easy pace –
about 45-60 seconds per km slower than our best
marathon pace – and the remaining 25-20% faster
than our 10km, 5km and 1500m best pace. These
‘struggle’ sessions are the ones that bring growth and
progression, while the easy sessions develop true
endurance, and together they will let us achieve our
potential in races.
Perhaps the greatest challenge for many is to break
away from the typical ‘South African runner’ mentality
of chasing mileage, and instead sacrifice distance for
the self-challenge – and recognise that we cannot
expect different results if we continue to do the same
things.
Jetline
F
or many, running is a predictable and routine
activity, particularly in South Africa where there
is an obsession with distance cultivated by the
dominance of our ultra-running heritage. The weekly
schedule is built around a belief that distance begets
fitness, and fast distance begets race speed. It is
therefore common for weekly training to be centred
around one-hour runs, with a long run or race on the
weekend.