Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Craig said the five is far enough

A mate of mine reckons I'm like the drummer in a band. You know – the person who can't read music but likes to hang out with musicians. This so-called mate says I run and coach because I like the company of athletes.

Running is similar to music in that anybody can have a go. Just as you don't need talent to pick up a guitar and start strumming away, nobody's stopping you from lacing up some shoes and running. Ours is a sport which accommodates people with different talents. Fast and not so fast. If you're fast, you sprint 100 or 200 metres. If you have natural endurance, you might run from Sydney to Melbourne. I'm not so fast, but I don't want to run that far. I'm a lazy drummer. I wish I had the talent of Joe Morello, then at least I'd have the reflexes to approach Speedygeoff's magical 180 strides per minute.

Photofinish of the 5000m final in Osaka
Athletes usually find a niche event. One to which they're best suited. Janeth Kipkoskei runs the 800 metres because she can win by running away from the best 800 metre runners in the world. Catherine Ndereba runs the marathon because she's physiologically suited to the event, and is too slow to win gold medals at 10,000 metres. Through trial and error, I've found my best event is somewhere between 800 metres and the marathon. I like the 5,000 metres because Craig Mottram said "the five is far enough".

This is a roundabout way of answering my blogging friends Bruce, R2B, and others who wonder where all this Hadd training is leading. The guess from Miners was very close. I want to use my theoretical higher lactate threshold from Hadd, to run a good 5,000 during the coming track and field season. How do I define a good 5,000 metres? I selected a goal of 20:46 at the beginning of the year, so that would be good. Robert Song's age calculator suggests this is equivalent to 18:29 were I not so crusty.

My first 5,000 will be some time in October. I'd like to maintain my current volume (100k per week) until the end of November. I don't have a particular target race. To practise running faster, I'll also do shorter track races during a long season which ends in March 2008.

19 comments:

speedygeoff said...

I can't write so I hang around with bloggers.

Rob said...

Boy O boy! did I love that clip. That Joe Morello is terrific.
If you could run as well as he drums Ewen..........

Anonymous said...

So what you're saying is that training for a marathon will also put someone in good stead for when running the shorter races after the marathon.

In my case I'm wanting to break the sub 40 for 10. I'm close.

By the way, age is only a state of mind.

Robert Song said...

I believe knowing what your target race is a must. Firstly, it dictates when you stop your base building and start the other phases. I know you know the Lydiard phases.
Secondly, I don't think it is ever too early to be start mentally preparing for that big race.

The way you are training now, I'm sure you are going to pull a big one out for that 5k race whenever it is.

Runner Susan said...

the only race i ever won was a 400m dash. and marathoning is sooooo darn far. maybe i should stick with the shorter distances.

Hamburglar said...

Your a tough man - 5000m are too tough and hurt too much. I will be reading with anticipation to see the effect of Hadd.

Cheers!

Superflake said...

Counting more than 10 laps is too hard. I like the 3000m race. So track season leads to Six Foot. Are you after a faster time?

2P said...

I think you only want to do 5,000m so you can hang around other tall people - nice clip ;-)

Stephen Lacey said...

Great post Ewen!!

I agree with robertsong. I would also add that I think the secret of the speed and coordination phases lies not so much in "practicing running faster", but in relating it to the physiological model that Mike's mystery coach talks about. That is, the Hadd/Lydiard endurance/stamina phases are to build capillaries, muscle fibers and mitochondria...oxygen processing capacity. The Lydiard hills phase is for leg strength. The speed phase is to maximise the delivery of oxygen across cell walls. Thereby you reach your maximum combination of O2 delivery + O2 (energy) processing + strength. Anyway, thinking of it like that makes sense to me and helps me mentally associate a specific physiological purpose to each run (and to different phases). I'm sure that "practicing" is also a helpful way to think of it.

TD said...

Hey Ewen, you don't miss much in reference to your comment on my blog. That was indeed 'Ma' and 'Pa' in the photo, not that I knew that until those more experienced with the area pointed it out to me.

I will try to forget I read that pointed reference to Queenslanders in one of your earlier posts. Haven't you had enough of Hadd!

Tesso said...

Hmmm, not sure what this says about me. I'm off for a drum lesson tonight.

Two Fruits said...

Buster runs 180 km per week to go fast for 5000 mtrs. Must be something to this aerobic stuff. CJ had lost a couple of wheels but I think she has found one. Not for me to say anymore, she will tell all in her own time.

Grellan said...

"Ours is a sport which accommodates people with different talents".

Ewen, That the great thing about running and in particular in races - you can compete with yourself while in the company of others. While I will never win a race the mirco-competition which goes on with those around me in a race is enough competition to keep me interested and focused.

Unknown said...

What a treat to hear Dave Brubeck's "Take Five"! A nice subtle connection!

Anonymous said...

you're the keith moon.

why don't they have skipping? why isn't that a sport? sit on your tuchas and drive a car fast? that's a sport. plug your nose, stick your toes up out of the water at the same time as a bunch of other women? that's a sport. curling? ice dancing? they're sports, but do i get to competitively skip? no. oh, but i could walk!

pah!

Bruce said...

okay so how many k's a week would you be running if you were training for a marathon? At least if you opt to throw a marathon in there somewhere this sumemr you will have the base.

Lulu said...

I'm not sure I've found my running niche as yet! I think it's running to the physio actually..

Looking forward to reading about your triumph over the 5000m.

Two Fruits said...

Good day out at CTFR, well done, I like those even kms including the uphill parts.

Toasty said...

i can run to the beat of your drum ..... and if i can't sing, then i'll just have to hum