My current attitude is one of "I want to travel a certain distance, it doesn't matter how fast I do it in". This isn't really helping towards better fitness because I'm not really pushing myself to do better. I have no targets except finishing. I'm thinking that I need some kind of measurement of how well my run went. Time is the obvious measurement; it is definitive, easy to measure and accurate. However, it doesn't really guage how hard I am trying in my run. It will only measure how much my jogging pace has improved.
I think the attitude I need to adopt is one of exhaustion. My semi-informed opinion says that fitness will be improved if you are more exhausted at the end of your runs. If you finish a run on the edge of collapse, the same run in a week or so will start to become easier. So now, instead of measuring how far I've run (I'll still do that to honour the Janathon code of ethics) I'm going to measure how exhausted I am at the end of a run. If I'm not really that tired and could've tried a little harder (much like today) I'll try harder next time. Sooner or later this better attitude should get through my thick skull.
I'd also like to think I can learn lessons from the Janathon, so here's what I've learned so far:
- Don't use the word attitude so much in a blog
- I don't really try hard enough when running
- Strengthen my smaller muscles more. My "core" muscles and my calf muscles are killing me
I wouldn't say you have the wrong attitude - unless you are doing speed work or hill training or a race I wouldn't run to exhaustion. Still a measure of effort is a good idea
ReplyDeleteMy quote of the day from http://t.co/B8EJMkk "If you've got time to wipe away the dribble then you're not working hard enough". But that's training for Ironman contests, so you have to be a bit tapped to start with.
ReplyDeleteThere's different subjective measures that you can use to measure how you feel duringeasy/hard runs, but I'd agree with buryblue and say whatever you use I'd say that you still need 'rest' days. Especially during Janathon.
I would definitely echo the above, it's not a great idea to run to exhaustion. If you're not training for an event, there's nothing wrong with running for running's sake. Indeed there's a lot of sense in simply building up mileage (and therefore some basic aerobic endurance) before trying to add speed and strength work into your runs.
ReplyDeleteThe other consideration is that your muscles will respond to training a lot quicker than tendons and ligaments, which need more time to adjust. If you suddenly go full on, you may find that the same run is quicker next week (thanks to training effect on muscles), but that you are overstraining the slower-responding parts of your body, which could lead to real problems in the longer term...
I like to run hard enough to improve [endurance, lactate threshold, VO2 max] but easy enough that I don't spoil my next training session. There's plenty of different runs for different training goals. Exhaustion has never been one of mine.
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