IT WAS THE FRENCHMAN Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) who invented the concept of the essay. The word comes from the French ‘essayer’ – to try – and describes a piece of writing that can be best thought of as a flirtation with a different way of thinking, rather than a wholesale commitment to a new ideology. It’s trying on the outfit of a new thought in a store’s dressing room and picturing yourself wearing those clothes in different situations: how does the world look to a person who wears white jeans or a black turtleneck?
This short essay is an exhortation to take a Montainesque approach to running too – to flirt with different disciplines and dwell upon the experiences. Because whether you’re a miler or a marathon runner, running is a broad church, and every denomination has something unique that we can appreciate, cherish, and learn from to make us more intellectually curious, athletically versatile and physically resilient as lifelong runners.
THE AMERICAN PHYSIOLOGIST, Professor Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic has boiled the intricacies of running training down to a memorable 5-7-5 haiku. It goes:
It’s simple, it’s precise, and it allows ample room for creativity, individuality and experimentation. I think it’s strangely beautiful. It’s also entirely true.
Training volume is the best predictor of performance. If you want to be the best runner you can possibly be over the aerobic distances (which for argument’s sake, let’s call 1500m and above – where the majority of energy is produced aerobically) you absolutely need to cover a lot of ground in some shape or form. Running a lot of miles is the primary step towards becoming a better runner and no amount of hacks, supplements or courage can make up for a lack of basic mileage.
It’s not until we’re calloused to the rigors of daily running and approaching the volume of training where non-runners start expressing concern for the health of our knees, that most runners begin to add some intensity: running at a pace that’s close to or faster than race pace. But what is race pace? Marathon pace is likely more than a minute-per-mile slower than an all-out mile. The second line of Joyner’s poem again allows a huge amount of space for personalization and experimentation.
Of course, the real secret to any training regime is to remain injury free, engaged and happy for long enough for positive changes to compound in-line with consistency. That’s where rest comes in. Maybe you start with two rest days per week and progress to only requiring two rest days per month? Whatever. The trick is to ease off the gas before you’re derailed and put out of action for weeks or months on end.