"There's only one rule: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins. Period. Because you won't die. Even though you feel like you'll die, you don't actually die.
"Like when you're training, you can always do one more. Always. As tired as you might think you are, you can always, always do one more." --- Floyd Landis
Monday, July 31
Seeing Elvis
Just back from the 10 minutes x10x10 workout -- did it on grass at the futbol pitch -- what a great session!
This is a test of will-power as much as anything, and builds in the ability to surge even when you are "dead". As part of the cunning plan it is also constructed so that if you are aiming to run a mile in five minutes, say, then that is just what you will cover, at speed...
OK, so to translate the equation. You set your watch to bleep every ten seconds (or your GPS monitor to screech, which mine does).... you sprint for ten seconds, jog for ten seconds, sprint for ten seconds and so on -- until you have been running for ten minutes and/or are starting to hallucinate.
My coach Gabino Toledo, who sets this torture up, refers to this hypoxic state as "seeing Elvis" -- because, you know, sometimes you do!
Well this felt really good... especially I think as I was doing the workout on my own and it was getting dark... so I tapped into the British runenrs' racial memory of Pirie, Foster, Ovett, Coe -- all the hard nuts who often trained on their own, in the dark, while others slumped in front of tvs.
It has given me a lot of confidence for the Pearl Street Mile -- now only about two weeks away, as this teaches you to GO when you really, really don't want to, and I think that's the situation I am going to be in.
This is a test of will-power as much as anything, and builds in the ability to surge even when you are "dead". As part of the cunning plan it is also constructed so that if you are aiming to run a mile in five minutes, say, then that is just what you will cover, at speed...
OK, so to translate the equation. You set your watch to bleep every ten seconds (or your GPS monitor to screech, which mine does).... you sprint for ten seconds, jog for ten seconds, sprint for ten seconds and so on -- until you have been running for ten minutes and/or are starting to hallucinate.
My coach Gabino Toledo, who sets this torture up, refers to this hypoxic state as "seeing Elvis" -- because, you know, sometimes you do!
Well this felt really good... especially I think as I was doing the workout on my own and it was getting dark... so I tapped into the British runenrs' racial memory of Pirie, Foster, Ovett, Coe -- all the hard nuts who often trained on their own, in the dark, while others slumped in front of tvs.
It has given me a lot of confidence for the Pearl Street Mile -- now only about two weeks away, as this teaches you to GO when you really, really don't want to, and I think that's the situation I am going to be in.
If Henry Rono can do it...
Kenyan runner Henry Rono, one of the world's greatest distance runners, has announced he is attacking the world mile record...
no change there then, except.... that Henry is now 53, weighs 200lb, hasn't raced seriously since 1978 and is putting his life back together after dropping almost to the bottom.
Henry announced his intention and has been posting his training progress in an inspirational thread on letsrun.com. So inspirational that I decided if he can do it, so can I.
So, like him, I am going to attack the world mile record for Masters athletes aged 55-59 or, if I get in the right sort or shape early, 50-54.
no change there then, except.... that Henry is now 53, weighs 200lb, hasn't raced seriously since 1978 and is putting his life back together after dropping almost to the bottom.
Henry announced his intention and has been posting his training progress in an inspirational thread on letsrun.com. So inspirational that I decided if he can do it, so can I.
So, like him, I am going to attack the world mile record for Masters athletes aged 55-59 or, if I get in the right sort or shape early, 50-54.
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