The Shake-Up Month
After weeks of running culminating in a big goal race, many of us are tempted to just keep grinding away for PB’s late into the fall. Coach Nicole Stevenson challenges you to reinvent yourself with this reinvigorating four-week plan.
I remember the late running guru Jeff Gaynor, who had coached my brother Avery and many runners in our hometown of Hamilton, Ont., used to do things differently. At the end of every calendar year, he would insist that all of his runners take three weeks to rest completely. Absolutely all exercise was forbidden. He believed that only with this period of inactivity would a r unner be f ully rested and recovered for the next season. Most of his group had a tough time with this notion, not knowing what to do with the extra time and energy. Runners like to work hard. Telling them not to run was more challenging than even the most devastating workout. Avery, I knew, broke protocol by secretly playing some basketball, all the time praying he didn’t turn an ankle, revealing what he was up to.
Many of the runners I coach today were cut from the same cloth of Gaynor’s athletes. Very few embrace t he idea of being sedentary for any length of t ime. Coaching Toronto’s BlackToe Performance team, I’ve seen the mere suggestion of taking time off running make eyes roll and secret plans materialize. This comes partly from a fear of losing fitness and partly from not wanting to abandon – even temporarily – the love of running. While I’m glad to share in my runner’s passion, just like Coach Graynor, I have to convince my athletes to not run. I think it is also a good opportunity for runners to take control of their running, when often it’s the running routine that controls us.
I spend increasingly more t ime explaining the importance of rest and trying to get runners to buy into the idea. You’ve got to admire the discipline and intensity of runners. But I’m a collaborative coach, not a dictator, so this, too, is a good challenge for me. With this in mind, I’m planning a different approach
to end 2014. Instead of insisting on complete rest, I suggest that runners continue their exercise schedule but change the content of their daily activities during this break. While cutting down on the mileage, the plan will include a lot of different exercises to stimulate the anaerobic system and activate all muscle groups. I’m hoping this compromise will boost recovery and satisfy the need to keep moving.
My objective is to break up the regular running routine and introduce healthy change, both mentally and physically. Typical running programs include one or two interval sessions per week, two or three easy runs and one long run. This post-season fourweek program will maintain five-to-six days of exercise per week, but it will break up the usual mile repeats and long runs by substituting them for power exercises that distance runners often neglect but badly need.
By changing the type of exercise, runners will stave off staleness and the burnout that often creeps in during the middle of training cycles when few breaks are taken even after weeks of hard work. This strategy will also catapult you to future success by introducing more anaerobic exercises that are rarely done by marathon runners but improve speed and strength.
One of the tricks here is to change the mindset of what you will do every day. For the next month, show the discipline to resist running as much as you would during a build to a goal race. This month will require more consideration than your typical run week. You’ll need to plan out where you will find the stairs, hills and grassy fields for these new challenges. Enjoy this break from the norm. You’ll feel stimulated by the different surroundings and different demands on your body.
After four weeks of easy, short runs on different surfaces and these power exercises, you’ll have changed up your run routine and you’ll also have stronger, more functional running muscles. This will prepare both your mind and your body leading into the next season of running.