An Experiment ...

One of the things that I like to do as a coach is test out little theories I have on myself before I inflict them on my athletes. So, this fall I conducted a little experiment and the results confirmed those from the last time I conducted a similar test back in '94.

First a little background .... at the end of the '93 season, I decided to stop racing in the men's elite division as 1) I wasn't happy with my performances 2) I was getting burned out 3) I'd stopped enjoying racing 4) I was finding it difficult to dedicate the time to the sport .... and so on.

So, I made the decision that in 1994 I would focus on running with a goal to bring my marathon time below 2:40. This shouldn't have been beyond the realm of possibility: I was running sub-7s on my long runs; my easy runs were at 6:30 pace and my hard runs started getting hard when I went faster than about 5:40. I'd been introduced to Dave Moorcroft (the former 5,000m world record holder) and he'd given me a "oh-my-God-I'm-gonna-die-if-I do-another-rep" interval set of 4 x 1 mile in 5 minutes with 1 mile "jog" recoveries in 7:30 ..... don't try this with a full stomach! Looking back at my training log for 1993, I was averaging 12-15,000 meters a week in the pool, 100-120 miles on the bike and about 30 miles of running. I'd typically run 3 or 4 times per week. Mondays were the hard day: intervals like the 4 x 1 mile set or a 6-7 mile hard run with guys who were a lot faster than me. On Wednesday I ran long: 11-15 miles and on Saturday I did a tempo (or sustained run as we used to call it then) which was another 6 miler. I'd also throw in a fourth run of 8-10 miles at a steady pace if one of my bike sessions got rained off (a not infrequent occurrence in Britain!)

So in 1994, I more or less gave up swimming and biking and increased my running mileage dramatically: a 50+ mile week became the norm and I managed to log a few 70 mile weeks in the Spring of 1994.

So what were the results?

Firstly, I got injured. Particularly, when I did high mileage weeks. Nothing serious but, I was always getting little aches and pains and twinges that would force me into additional rest days.

Secondly, and most importantly, I didn't really improve as a runner. I tested myself at the Rutland mini-marathon which is a 16.5 mile event and I only improved my time by 4 minutes over the previous year. Now, OK, this is 15 seconds a mile quicker which is nothing to be ashamed of but, and it's a big but, the previous year was the first time that I'd run the event and I wasn't familiar with the course. All I knew was that the course was hilly and that there were a couple of long nasty hills. This meant that the first year I ran pretty conservatively, I knew that the last big hill was at 12 miles so I didn't really start to pour on the effort until the last four miles. In 1994, I knew the course and was able to ration my effort a lot better .... my feeling is that 3 minutes or my 4 minute improvement came from pacing the race better, rather than being a better runner!

This fall I decided to repeat the experiment with a view to competing at the cross- country Nationals and having come off of decent triathlon season. In the tri- season, I'd run around 20 mpw increasing to around 27 mpw for a six-week block before the State Championships. In doing so, I'd also increased my average running pace from just over 9's to around 8:20 by increasing the amount of speed work and running four days a week rather than 3.

Two weeks after the end of the season, I won my AG at the Witch's Hat 5k with a time of 20:29.

I then gave up swimming and cut down biking to my Sunday ride only while ramping up my running mileage to an average of 50 miles per week which, included 6-7 runs rather than the 3-4 that I managed during the tri season.

So what happened?

Well, firstly, I got injured! Again, it's nothing that actually stops me running: I've got a swollen "runner's knee", but I need to ice it and it's quite painful on occasion.

Secondly, once again, I didn't get much faster. I've improved my 5k time to 20:11.

So what's the takeaway from all this? My view is that I've confirmed the findings of the Firman Institute and I'd recommend reading "Run Less, Run Faster". They've done a lot of research that shows that 3 high quality runs per week PLUS cycling and swimming as cross training is better that 6-7 runs per week for most age-group athletes. (NB .... age groupers refers to everyone who a) isn't in the National team or b) doesn't get paid to compete i.e. more or less everybody).

Why is this? The research indicates that most of us don't do enough quality runs because we're too tired to do them properly i.e. our fast days are too slow and our slow days are too fast.

Having now done the experiment twice and got the same result both times, I think I'm ready to incorporate the Firman principles into my own triathlon training plans.