From the Reading: Distance Running, Lyden

Lyden's classic text scored from a used book store. 

I'm about halfway through this textbook-like tome with a simple title but very thorough content. I'll save review content for when I finish the book but for now here's a key item I've been considering in my own coaching that also came up in this book. 

This may be the best question provoked thus far through the first 200-plus pages. In a section on psychology of athletes, he poses three stages of mental development:

• immature athletes 
• maturing athletes  
• master athletes  

For me the best info here was understanding the need for helping the immature athlete move toward maturity by helping them understand how the off-season should look.

Lyden proposes it's the coaches responsibility to help guide this process. We as coaches should be creating a lifestyle where the habits ingrained during the season turn into a complete and consistent, year-round way of life. Obviously intensity, quality, and quantity of training change or completely cease. But the organization and control created by athletic discipline should continue if the athlete is to have truly gained maturity. 

Instead of binging on bad foods in place of healthy diet or slacking off in consistent sleep schedule, athletes should maintain these standards. The lifestyle of a committed athlete in the off-season will lack the demand of training and by virtue of continued healthful habits, will provide an environment where recovery will occur completely and wholistically. The demand for more sleep, proper fueling, and other areas maintained for peak performance will produce great recovery effect when the actual demand of training and competition is removed.  Additionally, the extra time opened up by lack of specific sport focused training allows the mind and spirit to process or escape the pressure of competitive sport.

I really valued this thinking even if it is obvious on the surface. The question remains for myself as a coach to develop this culture in our programs. 

My Best of 2016 List

Following the the turn of the new year and a few miles out on the trails I've had a chance to think of all the awesome things I most enjoyed in 2016. In no specific order and with no attention to category, here are a few items that highlighted the last 12 months.

Ragnar Relay: Great River 

Team Runnin' with The Wolves made my Ragnar Relay dream come true

In August I had the privilege of participating in the Ragnar Relay: Great River event. Myself and 11 of my friends or former runners loaded up 2 SUV'S and pounded out the epic adventure that is Ragnar Relay. 

It was the rookie debut for all of us and since all but two runners came from a competitive running background, we all had some level of expectation. Those expectations were quickly altered as we realized the awesome challenge ahead.  

We did a lot right and left a lot to do better should we team up to do it again. But rest assured we were all so thankful for the experience. My personal highlight was a 10-mile segment run between 1-2:30 am with only my headlamp and the tail light of a runner about 20 meters ahead to guide me. The runner ahead was far beyond the halo of my lamp and her taillight was constantly disappearing and reappearing as we rounded bends, corners or climbed forest lined hills. I managed my half marathon pace for the segment rated as strenuous but that was a rookie mistake. I was completely toast for my final run that was one of the toughest on the course and one of my teammates ended up run-walking with me through mid day heat and humidity.

Overall it was an incredible experience and I highly recommend it for anyone who has ever considered taking on the challenge.  

BOOK: The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage 

Thank you, Paul Elie.  (photo: Amazon.com)

This tome follows the life and career of Dorothy Day, Walker Percy, Thomas Merton and Flannery O'Connor. The text is woven together by the times and places these authors/thinkers/activists lives overlapped. Much of the book covers the ways each struggled to make their life and work unite with their Catholic faith. 

I simply loved getting inside the minds of these influential writers and how they struggled with the social injustices of their day and also with the writing process. I think every Christian social justice advocate of today would do well to understand the experience of Dorothy Day.

It took some time to work my way through this beast but it was a great read and my favorite non-running related book I read in 2016. 

RUNNING RELATED BOOK: 80/20 Running, Matt Fitzgerald  

 Not a new book but still worth the quick read. (photo: Amazon.com)

I've always enjoyed Matt Fitzgerald and this simple but insightful book was a good reminder for me. For myself and most of the runners I coach, keeping easy days easy so hard days can run well is the best recipe for success. 

In short and maybe slightly incomplete summary, tracking your RPE in a good journaling process and balancing training with an 80% lower to 20% higher intensity ratio is the way to go. It's worked for beginners, youth, masters, national and international level runners and it's likely to work for you. The key to racing success is consistent long-term training and Fitzgerald and his sources present a great way to achieve that end.

OTHER DISCOVERIES:  

EMAIL NEWSLETTERS (Running & Sport Performance related)

•   The Morning Shakeout- Mario Fraioli  @mariofraioli 
• Peak Performance- Steve Magness & Brad Stulberg

PODCASTS

• HMMR Media- Strength & conditioning info, track & field bend with special connection to throwing events but very worth any S&C professionals time. 
•  Runner's Connect- a wide variety of interviews by Tina Muir with the many awesome folks in the running community. 

Thanks for reading! See ya again soon. 

In the Reading: Running A to Z- An Encyclopedia for the Thoughtful Runner

One of my favorite running related activities is hitting up local used book stores to find musty, yellow paged gems of the mid century running boom. The Fixxs, Bowermans, et al. are often hard to find but others such as Joe Henderson's writings from a few years past the apex of the "boom" offer us a refreshing glimpse into the era prior to Map My Run, Polar HRM, iTunes and hashtags.

I am also always reading current writing related to exercise physiology and psychology. But that reading is less of a hobby and more of the work required to be a successful coach staying competitive in the information age where no one seems to sleep (don't get me started on what research says about need for sleep!). I love Matt Fitzgerald, Steve Magness and Greg McMillan and what they offer the inquiring coach of today. I have a book by each of them on my desk waiting for the weekends of summer where college coaches park the bus and hit the refresh button. 

There is simply no reason for a coach not to have logical, educated views on training runners. Later on I plan to address my thoughts on training but today I wanted to set the stage for future posts on my reading. 

Writing on running and training from the early 1980's will often come into conflict with much of what we think of today as common knowledge about those topics. Yet we are not any less subject to the trends and whims of the latest marketing. We laugh at swishy, pastel, nylon jogging suits or bulky transistor radio headsets or racing in something very akin to Chuck Taylors with a spike plate.

Yet our running clothing is no less unfashionable and our gadgets, while smaller in size have only made more room to lug additional baggage with us each time out the door. With the minimalist running boon of the last five years giving way to the Hoka One-One I am reminded of the Onitsuka Tigers that gave way to the first New Balance and Brooks trainers of the 1980's.

If you can clear the clutter of possibly outdated training advise you can find wisdom in the pages of these texts. My quote from today connects back to my recent posts on the need to simplify training from time to time. If it was true in 1982 during the era of Running Magazine, I think it rings even more true in today's noisy, busy, non-stop twittering world.

"The run can still be quiet. but you have to try harder now to keep it that way. Set aside one hour in 24 that is yours alone. Guard it jealously against all intruders, human or electronic. In all your other waking hours, your head is being cluttered with the information, opinions and demands of others. Keep this one hour as your time to remove that clutter instead of piling up more"

- Joe Henderson, Running A to Z: An Encyclopedia for the Thoughtful Runner (Stephen Green Press, 1983) 

Have a great run today and let me know your thoughts thanks for reading!