SMASH YOUR GOALS!
THE SIMPLE PLAN TO CONQUER EVERY DISTANCE
What we can learn from the coach who changed
the face of British distance running
FRANK HORWILL was born near Wembley in 1927 and was a good club-level athlete before moving into coaching. From the early 1960s to his death in 2012, Horwill coached more than 50 international athletes from 800m up to the marathon, with five of those running under four minutes for the mile. One of Horwill’s best known athletes is Tim Hutchings, two-time world cross-country championships silver medallist and fourth-place
finisher in the 1984 Olympic Games 5000m; he is now a well-known athletics commentator. While Seb Coe was being coached by his father, Peter, he spoke publicly about the influence of Horwill on his training; in fact, with his books, articles and talks, Horwill could be described as a true coach educator. He was awarded an MBE for services to athletics in 2011.
Horwill was still early in his coaching career when he founded the British Milers Club in 1963. The club was established to improve the world standing of British middle-distance running by providing quality races, support for athletes and coaching education. The club remains at the forefront of British endurance to this day, and its races are the breeding ground of the current generation of top British middle-distance talent.
Horwill’s five-pace system
•
As a coach, Horwill is best known for his ‘five-pace’ or ‘multi-tier’ training system. This means that over a short training cycle (eg 14 days), runners run their faster sessions at five paces – at goal race pace, two adjacent paces faster and two adjacent paces slower. Confused? Below is an example based on the 5K; I have used the terms ‘speed pace’ and ‘endurance pace’ to makes things clearer: → Speed pace 2: 1500m pace → Speed pace 1: 3K pace
→ Race pace: 5K pace
→ Endurance pace 1: 10K pace → Endurance pace 2: ‘60-minute’ race pace (or a bit slower if that’s your 10K pace)
Each harder session a runner completes would be based on one of these paces. Around these harder sessions you include easy and steady running or cross-training, and so your plan starts to come together. The idea is that by training across a broader range of paces, runners can develop more tools in their armoury and avoid getting stuck with too narrow a range.
The system also operates in a logical way. Using our 5K example, to run a faster 5K you need to be able to run at 3K pace; in order to be able to run at 3K pace, you need to be able to run at 1500m or mile pace. You also need endurance that is specific to the event you are racing, so you work at 10K pace a little slower to help extend your paces for longer, but in a way that is never too far from race pace. In this way, the system has logic for those who aren’t as interested in the physiology of training – it’s a very ‘demands-based’ approach.
Calculating your paces
•
In pre-GPS days, Horwill developed a system of pace calculation known as the ‘four-second rule’. It works on the premise that races from 1500m up to marathon work on a fairly linear regression in pace of roughly four seconds per 400m. So 3000m pace will be roughly four seconds per 400m slower than 1500m pace, 5000m pace will be four seconds per 400m slower than 3000m pace, and so on.
Most of us run slower than the athletes Horwill for whom developed his system. I would say most non-elite runners might be more like six secs/400m slower, but it’s not a bad rule of thumb to think about. Most people reading this will work in minutes and seconds per mile or km, but I will leave you to do the maths. If you use Horwill’s method to calculate your paces, work from current race pace, not a goal race pace. So, if in our example above you are a 21-minute 5K runner, but hoping to get to 20 minutes, work your five paces from your 21-minute pace, not 20-minute pace.
The interesting thing with these pace calculations is that they can also give a clue to your strengths and areas for development. Start with the distance of your goal race and then your PB or fitness level at that distance. Then work out your ‘five paces’ – do yours slow down in a linear way or do you notice that, comparatively, you are much faster or much slower on your speed-side paces compared with endurance, or vice versa? That tells you something, and it’s information can use to improve your running. Consolidate your strengths, work on your weaknesses to become what Horwill called ‘a balanced athlete’.
Applying Horwill’s ideas
•
Like any training approach, the five-pace system should be used as a guide, not a tablet of stone. By adopting some of the tips below, you can help incorporate some of the key elements of Horwill’s approach and make it work for you.
Careful with cramming: Some of us don’t run often enough to include five hard training sessions, each with a different pace, in a 10-14-day period. Some of us need two or three easier days between harder sessions to recover. Consider extending this cycle over a longer period – easy and steady running should still form the backbone of your plan.
Blended sessions: Another way to cover your five paces despite lower volumes of running is to include ‘blended sessions’, where you mix paces in the same session. For example, running five sets of: four minutes at 5K pace, 60 seconds’ rest; and 75 seconds’ at 3K pace, with two minutes’ rest between sets.
Beyond pace: Horwill’s is a pace-driven system, but pace on a track or GPS watch can be deceptive. Environmental conditions, underfoot conditions and your levels of tiredness mean you might be well served to aim to run a five different ‘intensities’ based on effort rather than pace.
This might take some getting used to, but will allow you to mix up the terrain you run on and respond better to how you feel.
Specificity: Where you might find the five-pace system particularly effective is in the crucial six-to-eight weeks before race day, where the paces you are running start to align more and more with what you want to do on race day.