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That four letter word

It’s a 4 letter word that sparks a lot of controversy.

One that causes genuine offence to some.

A real slap in the face.

(No, not that one.)

But one that has people verging on questioning your sanity when you mention it to them.

“You mean I have to…

REST?”

Yes, you do.

Your training isn’t the most important part of the process.

What you do when you aren’t training is.

For all our obsession with exercise choices…

The intensity…

The frequency…

Cardio or lifting?

Your training isn’t where the magic happens.

Nope…

The magic happens when you get your rest and recovery on point.

When you are taking it easy and allowing your body to catch up with everything you’ve been doing.

All the plans I’ve ever written emphasise recovery.

And having a minimum of 1 rest day every week

And the only people who only get 1 day off are the experienced, well-conditioned athletes.

Everyone else gets 2 or 3 depending on their experience.

And every plan places emphasis on the importance of;

1. Getting to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning…

2. Making good food choices that fuel your training and your recovery…

3. Hitting your 10,000 steps every day.

Because each of these help lay the foundations for improvement.

They enable you to smash the hard sessions that create the need for change.

Get your recovery sleep, food, and basic activity on point and you set yourself up for success.

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The “Warren Buffet” Training Method

Warren Buffet is a boring old man.

With all the wealth he has he still lives in the same house he bought in 1958…

He’s driven the same Cadillac XTS for the last 7 years…

And he didn’t own an iPhone until 2020.

In fact, he’s even pretty boring when it comes to the very thing he’s famous for.

Not one to go for the “get rich quick” he invests in companies with his eye on the long term.

Because it’s a strategy that works.

Ignoring the new, bright and shiny thing he invests in companies with solid foundations. 

Foundations that will allow them to ride out the upheavals in the stock market. Providing a return for their investors over the longer term.

And that’s exactly how you should view your training.

It doesn’t matter what you do.

You want to ignore the Instagram Influencers and stick to tried and tested methods.

Because you want to invest your time and energy into the things that will have the biggest long term payoff…

Not what’s “on trend” today.

It doesn’t matter what you do.

You want to invest your time and energy into the things that will have the biggest long term payoff.

Things like easy, zone 2 runs.

Or lifting in the 70%-80% range.

This builds your durability. 

Meaning you can tackle your training with greater confidence.

This less intense work is a bit like compound interest; it can take a while to see the benefits. 

You can still sprinkle your training with faster, harder, heavier work.

But keeping the more intense work to a minimum makes it easier to recover.

Which in turn means you can train more…

You’ll pick up fewer injuries…

And you’ll build the foundations for future success.

Take the long term view and watch how effortless it all becomes.

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Don’t be a weekend (only) warrior

“Jump in the shower

And the blood starts pumpin’

Out on the streets

The traffic starts jumpin’

With folks like me on the job from 9 to 5”

I bet you’re singing along in your head with Dolly as you read.

At the time Dolly was starring in the film 9-5 office working hours for many were morphing into 8-6 and beyond.

And, at the same time, we were seeing the start of the first real fitness boom. (Funnily enough helped along by her fellow star Jane Fonda.)

But with time through the week in short supply more and more people started to double up at the weekend. 

And the idea of the weekend warrior was spawned.

Unfortunately throwing the kitchen sink at the weekend and trying to cram all your activity into two days is a bad idea. 

One that is likely to set you on the path to injury.

So I had to laugh when I saw a piece in Runner’s World about “crash training”.

Crash training has its roots in cycling and is where you do 2 or 3 days of harder than normal training.

This can mean longer or harder sessions or longer AND harder. The idea is to do more than normal for a very short period of time.

But this is done off an already solid base of work. 

And every now and then it wouldn’t be the worst idea I’ve heard.

Yet the article was talking about it being a good idea if you have a job that makes big time demands on you.

That chucking in a couple of big days at the weekend to make up for doing nothing through the week.

And it’s one of the more stupid things I’ve heard. 

It’s a terrible idea for anyone in that situation.

The last thing you need if you’re putting in long hours is a crazy hard weekend of activity.

Far better would be to “Micro-Dose” your training across the week.

If you are time poor through the week I’d much prefer you did daily short sessions with a little bit more at the weekend.

Cut things right back.

And, ideally, get the sessions in before work.

If you’re lifting pick 2 big movements, 1 lower body and 1 upper body, and do some solid but not hard work.

Conditioning? A 30 min easy run before work and you’re done.

Then at the weekend, you can put in a single bigger session if you want to…

Or you can relax with your family knowing you’ve hit the bases through the week.

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How Ray-Bans can help your training

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the lovely sunny weather recently.

Annoyingly I’ve discovered I’d lost my sunglasses.

So I thought I might treat myself to a pair of Ray-Bans and Ray-Ban Aviators in particular.

The iconic Aviators have been around since 1937 and, as the name suggests, were designed specifically for pilots. 

The lenses are deliberately large and curved to cover the whole field of vision to keep the sun out of the pilots’ eyes.  

But aside from the inferred coolness of being designed for pilots and them being Ray-Bans.

Ray-Ban Aviators are cool for another reason…

They use science.

By applying a chemical filter to the glass the original Aviators filtered out the blue light. 

The process massively cuts down the amount of light reaching the eye and helps maintain a sharp image.

Then later they introduced a polarised lens that prevents all the horizontal light from reaching the eye.

And this polarising effect isn’t restricted to just your sunnies.

You can apply it to your training.

The idea being that you have a big contrast between your training sessions.

Where polarised sunglasses will cut the light that reaches your eyes in half we want to go further with your training.

And have more of an 80/20 split.

Something that all elite athletes do but is perhaps easiest to see with elite runners.

They stay away from the middle ground. Making sure that each and every session is either hard or easy. 

With the biggest chunk being easy. 

To determine what actually is easy or hard is simple.

Easy =  a Zone 2 heart rate throughout the run.

Hard = either a Zone 4 or 5 Heart rate depending on the type of session.

If they tried to run the way most everyday runners do there’s no way they could clock up 100+ miles a week.

Fail to apply this simple concept and you’ll be plagued with aches and pains…

Regularly injured…

And constantly fail to achieve their goals.

So as an Everyday Athlete this is one of the few times you want to copy what the elites do in their training.

Where normally this would be madness…

A  fast track to injury and the treatment room.

By applying this idea of polarising your training you ensure the complete opposite.

It’s got a proven track record for getting the most out of our training especially if you want to…

Avoid injuries…

See consistent results…

And enjoy your training more…

Because it makes it easier to recover.

And it doesn’t make any difference what type of training you’re doing.

Lifting in the gym?

You need to limit those sessions where you’re hitting weights in the 85%+ range.

So NO maxing out every week.

You can even apply it to something like BJJ.

When you’re rolling aim for 1 hard, evenly matched battle, out of every 5. 

The others can be easier, more technique-based.

You’ll recover more easily between sessions and improve faster too.

So take inspiration from your sunnies and apply it to your training and watch your performance take off.

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The art of suffering

“The life of an elite athlete is, in the end, the art of knowing how to suffer”

So says Killian Jornet.

If you don’t know who Killian is, he’s probably the best ultra runner in the world. 

And if you want to run ultra distances, knowing how to suffer is the difference between finishing and getting a DNF.

So it’s safe to say Killian is a man who has honed his ability to suffer.

But what is the “ability to suffer” and is it something you can train?

In some respects you can.

Let’s think of the ability to suffer as an override button.

One that allows you to take “manual control” of your body.

We, obviously, have a well developed system for self preservation. One that lets you know when what you are doing is jeopardising your ability to function properly.

There are times when you will automatically override this, such as if you injure yourself when running away from a  tiger.

At this point getting away from the tiger is much more important than your sore knee.

But what if there is no tiger?

If there’s no tiger, then it comes down to you deciding what you are doing is more important than your sore knee.

You have to consciously tell yourself to “man up” and ignore the danger signals.

And it is exactly what Struan did.

Struan is a soldier and an ultra runner.

He was training for the Hardian’s Wall coast to coast ultra and had popped in a few times to keep the niggles at bay.

Race day came and I messaged him the day after to see how he got on.

“Hurt my hip at mile 15. Told myself to “man up” and get on with it. Finished in a disappointing 14hours”

 

It was a perfect example that you can develop a manual override that works just like your automatic one.

As a soldier, especially an infantry soldier like Struan, this is part and parcel of your training. 

Every single soldier I’ve worked with is able to do it.

They all have a place they can go so they can keep on trucking.

And it highlights that it is a very trainable ability.

It’s not that they don’t feel the pain, it’s that they can ignore it.

Now let me say this ignoring pain just so you can finish a race will always come with consequences.

That said…

There are lessons to be learned from what squaddies go through in their training.

You can take the general principles of their training and apply them to your own.

That is to say you make your training progressive.

The squaddies are exposed to increasing demands in ever more challenging environments.

As the demands increase so does their mental toughness and ability to switch the pain off.

For you as an everyday athlete, this still applies. 

You might not want to tackle the Hadrian’s Wall Ultra or go into battle but developing the ability to block out the pain is an asset.

One that you develop through gradually increasing the demands of your training.

It’s like the idea of boiling a frog.

If you drop a frog into boiling water it’ll jump out.

But put it in a pan of cold water and slowly heat it up…

It’ll happily sit there until it dies.

It’s why you start any programme well within your capabilities.

If you jump straight into a heavy duty programme of crazy, hard sessions you won’t last long.

Very shortly you’ll either quit because it’s way too hard or you’ll get injured.

But start off slowly and gradually build up the volume and intensity.

Until you get to the point where you’re sitting in the metaphorical pan of boiling water.

That is how you build your ability to suffer…

To tolerate long, intense runs…

To not say fxxx that to near max loads in a back squat.

And to not only tolerate them but benefit from them.

Now I’m off to do an easy session as I blasted myself with some intervals yesterday.

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The Most Important 2 Minutes Of Your Day

We’ve all seen those annoying posts on Facebook or Instagram. A load of shite about morning rituals and how important they are?

That you must meditate for an hour before the sun comes up. 

And get in a killer workout before getting ready for work.

Prep all your food for the day before a bird has sung a single note.

In other words, get up before you went to bed. 

And then you realise that it’s all written by someone who doesn’t have a life. 

Don’t get me wrong, there’s value in making a point of doing all of the above…

If you can make it work.

The meditation and meal prep are big time savers, not time wasters.

And if you have the ability to train first thing in the morning then your workout is done and dusted before “the day” can de-rail it.

In fact rituals and habits play an important role in how successful we are in pretty much anything.

And your training is no exception.

Yet one of the most important habits or rituals you can have is often overlooked.

And they are, perhaps, the most important 2 minutes of your training day.

Let me explain…

You can turn your legs to jelly on hill reps…

Sweat so much on the Erg you look like you’re actually rowing on a lake..

Cranking out the reps in the gym for a burn so deep you look like the “Human Torch”…

None of it matters if you don’t get this part of the session right.

Well, I’m exaggerating a bit but it is important.

Be it a hard or an easy session the last few minutes are every bit as important as the rest of the session.

You see, once you’ve done the hard work you want to calm things down as fast as possible.

Because the good stuff, the adaptations that make you stronger, faster and generally harder to kill only happen once you’re finished.

It’s the recovery period between the sessions that you make your gains.

And we want to get into the recovery zone as fast as possible.

To do this finish your run with a couple of minutes of gentle walking.

This should see your heart rate drop below 100 bpm.

Then once you’re inside you want to lie down and pop your feet on a seat and breathe.

Nice and gently, in and out through your nose. 

Pause after the inhale and again after you exhale.

Or spend some time in the “Child’s Pose”. 

A couple of minutes spent in either of these will bring your heart rate right down.

Flipping the off switch on the production of all the hormones associated with exercise and flipping on the switch for all those that help you recover.

Give it a try after your next session it’ll help speed up your recovery.

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Running Repairs – a guide to successful running

One of the great things about running is that it doesn’t require any special equipment or gym membership. A bog standard pair of trainers, you really don’t need to be spending £100+ on shoes, shorts and a t-shirt and off you go. Unfortunately, running injuries are ridiculously common.

The big issue that is often forgotten about is, and let’s be honest, running is hard work.

Running at a moderate pace you are looking at 1200-1500 steps in a kilometre.

On an easy run, the forces that we absorb are around 3 times body weight on each foot strike. Or around 320,000kg, strictly speaking, it’s 320,00N but we’ll stick to a measurement we can all relate to.

Continue reading “Running Repairs – a guide to successful running”