Run Long, Run Yasso

You can't run fast what you can't run slow. In preparing for a marathon it is important to have some long runs under your belt. By long run I'm talking about 30+kms. I'm not fast so that's a big time investment. However, you either invest the time and do the long runs or you hit failure 15kms short of the finish line. That's a long walk home.

The purpose of the long run is to prepare the body for the distance. When I started strength training I couldn't do a one arm push up. My body didn't know how to do it and it wasn't strong enough. I had to develop and teach my body what to do. Same for the marathon. You can't skip the long runs. But, and here is an important but, the long run doesn't prepare you to finish fast, it only teaches you to finish.

Our bodies, like our minds, do what we have taught them to do. If I practice running long and slow guess what will happen on marathon day? I'll run long and slow. That's fine if my goal is to finish. But it's not. My goal is to finish with a better time than last time (without losing any lean body mass). Getting in enough long runs is essential to finishing but to finish in a better time I need to add speed.

I could simply run the long run at marathon pace but in practice that isn't a good idea. The marathon puts enormous strain on the body and training at that pace would lead to injuries and burn out. A different workout is required to help develop speed. Please welcome Mr Yasso.

I was introduced to the idea of running Yassos, and the story of Bart Yasso, reading The Runner's World "Complete book of running." You can read the same information online here and here. Essentially, you run and rest in minutes what you expect to run in hours, over 800m. When you can do 10 of these then you are in good shape to run the marathon in that time. Practically it looks like this: since I want to train for a 4 hr marathon I would run 800m in 4 mins, rest (slow jog) for 4 mins and then repeat 10 times. If I can do all 10 then I'm good to go. Assuming of course that I've been doing my long runs as well.

Not everyone thinks these are the best indicator or the best workout leading up to a marathon. Coach Jeff thinks that a fast finish long run is better than doing Yassos. Personally, I've never done the fast finish long run training but I do hope to include at least one of these going into this marathon. I have, however, used Yassos in the past and I find that they are a great workout and a great indicator, so I intend to stick with them.

To finish you need to train your body to go the distance. Do the long run.
To finish fast you need to train your body to run comfortably at a faster pace. Do Yassos.

12 weeks to go.

The right plan for the right goal

A good goal needs a good plan. If I want to get stronger in the chest then it doesn't matter how many kms I run nothing is going to happen to my chest. And if I want to get faster in my running then it doesn't matter how many push ups I can do. The right goal needs the right plan.

Post race swim at the end of the Kaveri Marathon

With one goal its often very simple to find a good plan. But life is way more complicated than that. Often there are competing goals in our lives and these goals require different plans - often these plans compete with each other. That's my situation here. I want to run a marathon while I keep doing my body building but these two goals don't match up. Here's why.

In order to build muscle you need to be eating more than your body is using. Our bodies use this excess energy to build muscle (and fat). Strength training tells the body to use the excess for building extra muscle. However, running burns a lot of calories - A LOT. In a 20km training run I burn up an entire day's worth of food. Putting on muscle and training for a marathon don't really go together. Goals need to be realistic so this isn't my goal. My goal is to maintain my lean body mass, that is, to keep all the muscle I have spent the last couple of years building. I need a plan that gets me to the finish line and achieve a PB over this course - hopefully a PB for all the marathons I have run. Two great runners have guided my planning.

Geoff Galloway, an Olympic runner, notes that "Research has shown that you need at least three days running per week for sustained improvement."  Galloway actually suggests the best option is to run 4-5 days per week. While 4-5 days would be better for my running it would cause havoc for  maintaining my muscle; I would simply burn too much energy. Also, I need time to do my strength training. Without the continued upper body strength training I'll definitely lose muscle. So I need to work around 3 days running per week.

Amby Burfoot, a winner of the Boston marathon in 1968, suggests the simplest running schedule I have ever seen:  "I do a Yasso workout in the middle of the week, a long run at the weekend and fill in the rest  of my training as best I can." The long run prepares me to run 42 km. The Yassos (I'll talk about these next week) help me run faster. These two runs form the backbone of my running. The long run gets me to the finish line while the Yassos get me there sooner than later.

This is my training plan. I believe this, along with my diet plan (to be discussed later) will get me a PB over the course and, perhaps, a PB overall. Do you have a goal you are working on? What's your plan for improvement? Does your plan and your goals match?

13 weeks to go.

The most important piece of equipment for making gains

Strength training doesn't require a lot of equipment. I started with Mark Lauren's book, You are your own gym which uses your own body weight. But even in his book there is some equipment that one needs for some of the exercises. With running you really only need a good pair of shoes (and shorts in most countries). There is the whole barefoot running movement, but even with this movement they still encourage some foot protection, the most popular being VibramFive Fingers. But shoes and weights aren't the most important piece of equipment for making gains - the humble notepad is.

The humble notepad, and her friend the pen, are the most important pieces of equipment for making gains.

With a fresh approach to exercise, whether it be cardio or strength, the gains are rapid. You run 1km in the first week - awesome. The second week you manage 2km - 100% gains. By the end of the 4th week you are running 5km - how good is this!! At some point, around the 2-3 month mark things begin to slow down. Progress becomes difficult. Your 5km time isn't getting any faster. The 10km feels too far. With a drop in progress so goes the motivation. Progress often equals motivation. That's where the humble notepad comes in.

The humble notepad doesn't lie. She just reports the facts. If you haven't put in the work she will tell you. If you have put in the work and you are making gains, she'll tell you that too. She tells the truth and tells it you straight. And when you are making gains, however small, she'll keep you motivated.

In strength training I record every exercise, every set, every single rep. It's not hard. I do a set, I write it down. In a single session I may do 4 exercises with 3 sets each. That's 12 numbers I need to write down. After each set I write down what I did. The next week when I redo the same routine I make sure I increase even if it's just 1 rep. Small gains are progress. One extra rep per week means that after 3 months it's time to add more weight - more weight means I'm getting stronger. Without the notepad I'm left to my memory of what I did the previous week - that's not going to be accurate. The notepad won't lie to me but my memory will.

As I prepare for the marathon I want to take the same approach. What type of run am I doing (Slow, HIIT, Yassos, Long, FastFinish)? How did it go? If I'm running Yassos then I want to record the number of intervals and the speed. If I'm doing more Yassos or doing them faster then I'm making gains. If my long run is getting longer then I'm making gains. The notepad won't lie - she will show me if I'm making gains or if I'm stalled.

Motivation in the beginning is easy because the gains come quickly. After the easy-phase progress slows down and motivation with it, unless I see gains, however small. How about you? Do you use a notepad? Do you prefer paper or electronic? How are you measuring your progress with the goals you have set for yourself? What difference do you think a notepad would make to your motivation and progress?  

Do what you can until you can do what you can't

When I first started body weight exercises for strength training I saw how push ups would move toward push ups with feet elevated to one handed push ups to one handed push ups with feet elevated. I had always wanted to do a one handed push up and I thought that perhaps, maybe, one day I would be able to accomplish a one arm push up - just one!

Fast forward 3 years. Yesterday I was doing my Push routine which includes push ups. I am current doing three sets of one handed push ups with my feet elevated. This means that I have far surpassed what I thought I would ever be able to accomplish. I was able to achieve this through small (very small) but consistent progress.

Whenever I do strength training I always write down what I am doing so I can see my progress but also so that the next time I do that routine I try to increase by one rep; just one rep. Once I get to three sets of 12 reps I up the exercise or weight so that I can only do three sets of eight reps. This means that every three months I'm adding weight or making the exercise more difficult. That's how I got to do one arm push ups. I did what I could and eventually I came to do what I couldn't do when I first started.

He did what he could until he could do what he couldn't
And then he ran the race and finished it - well done.

When I started push ups there was no way through sheer effort that I could do a one arm push up. Through consistent progress I am able to do them. This goes for other areas of strength too. I applying this same strategy to my running in preparation for the marathon.

There was a time when a 20 km run was a good start - no longer. For the past five years running has been almost non-existent. My 5 km run this week left me exhausted and discourage. This morning was my long run. My plan for my long run is to start off walking for 2 hours and build in running, moving to 3 hours and doing the same. 2 weeks ago I walked for 2 hours and was exhausted at the end of it. I felt discouraged, weak and disappointed. The idea of running and finishing a marathon with a PB wasn't happening.

I missed last weeks run because of this crippling thought but I was determined to give it a try this morning. Due to scheduling problems I could only get out for 1 1/2 hours. The thought of walking for an hour was ok but the thought of running for 30 mins wasn't helpful. But I could run for a minute and then walk for a minute. That I could do. It would be just like a strength workout - go hard for a minute then rest. Only I wouldn't go all intense, just run. And that's what I did.

It was awesome. For the first time in years I felt the joy of running. My body loved the run and loved the breaks. At the half way mark my mind was positively thinking about the marathon. For sure, there is still a long way to go but I made solid progress today and mind embraced it. My mind could see that progress will happen, that progress will get me to the starting line, and most importantly, I can enjoy the journey.

There are many tasks that appear beyond what we can imagine. From where we stand today they are not possible, not even remotely possible. If, however, we can begin the journey and make progress, however slow, step by step what was once impossible will slowly come within our sphere of possible. That happened for me today. What task is out of reach for you, a task you want to accomplish but seems impossible? What's one step you could take in that direction? What can you do right now that will extend yourself so that one day you can do what you can't right now?

On the journey