I said a month or so ago that I was happy with my decision to get on board with Richard as coach, and further that I was moving from a place of blind trust to belief in the program and his abilities as a coach. And last week was an interaction that continues to solidify that belief.
Normally I can't make it out to practice on tuesday nights due to school commitments so Richard had prescribed a hill workout for me to do on my own, but my class was canceled so I decided I could make it out to practice which was scheduled to be on the track at Minoru. Track is the bane of my existence, however I feel that it is important to work on your weaknessess so I took the opportunity to join Steve, Mosley and Tom for the workout. As is the case 95% of the time when I am on the track I either get in over my head, have a bad day, or both, and this was a typical case, couple that with my persistent evening running induced bowel problems I became furious in short order and after the 4th 1200m rep I walked off the track and told Richard I was never running on the track again. As much as I believe working on your weaknesses is important you have to weigh not only the good points of the exercise but the bad, and the mental beating that I take just isn't worth it. I am at the point in my running career where I am not willing to spend time disliking running, so, althought it was a decision in the heat of the moment, it was firm.
It is kind of funny, but during the rep where I decided to quit I was thinking 'thats it, I am never running on the track again, I wonder if Richard will still want to coach me?' But sure enough after I quit he came and talked to me and said that his gut told him earlier that day (when I told him I could make it out to the track) that he should tell me to do the hill workout anyway and forget about the track. Here I had thought he wouldn't like my decision not to run on the track and sure enough he had previously come to the conclusion it was a bad idea for me to beat myself up on the track. I don't know much about coaching but I have to say this is a sign of a good coach, when they know what you need before you know. So I am grateful for that and happy to hit the hills and work on my strengths and things I enjoy rather than beating my head against the wall. Yes there are benefits to the track, but taking everything into account my time and efforts are best spent on the hills.
This may seem trivial to some but for someone who has not been coached much it is important.
In other news, I am starting to get regular massage treatments which is exciting for me and even more exciting is that I am starting to bring up the mileage and training in general, to higher level. Ottawa will be here before I know it.
coaching cardinal rules rule no 1 and 2:
ReplyDelete1) the athlete must first believe in what they are doing 2) make the program suit the athlete...not the other way around....and for the sake of all one really needs to know is #3 which is don't hurt the athlete......the rest is all window dressing.....
If I may add to that: Do you have any track races planned in the near future? My guess is probably not. So why do you need to train on one? The age old training philosophy of "we do so-and-so because we always did it that way" has long been dead, and with good reason.
ReplyDeleteIf we race on the road why then run on trails? If we race on the trail, why then do we train on the track and road? If we race on any of these, why do we run on treadmills? If we race on the track why do we do hill work? Why do we go to the gym, why do we do yoga, or pool run? Why do the worlds best runners, or any athlete do so many other things than exactly what they compete at? A certain amount of variability in training is extremely important, and that is tried, tested and true. To suggest that we do track 'because we always have' is a misplaced assumption in this case.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm pretty sure you know why we run on hills, the pool, train in the gym, do yoga etc. Because they all serve an important (and necessary) purpose....much more so than simply adding variability (OK, trails and tm maybe). The point I'm trying to make is that while you do need many of these other training forms, you don't "need" the track, particularly if its not making you happy, you don't race on it, or worse, its causing injuries. You can quite easily find a pancake flat strip of trail, road or whatever to do "controlled" stuff on. In your blog you sounded pretty fed up with the track. So I suppose I was really just trying to support you and your decision to forgo the track. Maybe my comment has caused you to re-evaluate your relationship with the track? Either way, best of luck friend.
ReplyDeletemy relationship with the track definitely still stands! Thanks for the support, take care,
ReplyDelete