Lets start with a topic that is close to the heart of many runners around the world, and that is the subject of time management, i.e. not enough of it.
This post will be the first of two suggesting ways to overcome the problem of time management. We'll start with 30 minutes as a base line time frame, and move up to the big stuff later.
There’s a term I commonly use to combat that awful feeling of uselessness when you feel that time is not on your side, and there’s simply not enough time to run a "decent" session: “If you’re time poor, run rich!” Keeping this in mind can help to motivate and reassure you that even short amounts of time spent running can be not only beneficial, but extremely valuable to your performances and fitness.
There are numerous examples of research, and tonnes of anecdotal evidence that suggests that a lot can be achieved in 30 minutes of running, be it slow or fast.
So, what can you do in 30 minutes that will help lead you to the attainment of your goals?
Firstly, lets cover aerobic conditioning. Granted, when we talk about aerobic conditioning, we usually think about spending large blocks of time (lets say 45 - 120+ mins) running relatively slowly. However, benefits can be achieved in a shorter amount of time. Even 30 mins run at around 75% of max HR produces necessary physiological adaptations. It certainly beats 30 minutes wasted, complaining about a lack of time.
Moving on to more interesting and “running rich” workouts, I have a number of suggestions I have picked up or created through necessity my self. One of my absolute favourites for a number of reasons is a quality session that a fellow runner, triathlete, and travel friend of mine discovered. The story goes that one day while in Queensland, he went to his local track to discover Wilson Kipketer, long time world record holder and multiple world champion for the 800m (in a staggeringly fast 1 min 41.11 seconds), performing a sprinting session on the infield. Kipketer would gracefully glide diagonally across the field from one corner to the other, pivot, slowly jog the top end of the field to the other side, and repeat. How long he did it for, we don’t know, but we arrived at 15-20 mins to be well and truly hard enough and beneficial, and called it ‘corner to corner’. The truth of it is that it was conceived by non other than Brother Colm o’Connel, the legendary trainer of countless kenyan champions. His prescription was “30-35 minutes of diagonals to improve leg turnover”, as part of a training session. Hey, we thought we were awesome doing it for 20 mins, and enough to be a regular charaqcter building, hard-core run. We even used Trigonometry to determine the distance run and counted our reps. Sometimes I put on my Garmin forerunner and do the session for 2-3 kms, and this variation also fits perfectly in this category of 30 min runs that count. Looks good on Google earth as well.
One race I have always wanted to do, but haven’t quite made it to is the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. This 89km distance running test of truth was won 9 times by Bruce Fordyce between 1981 - 1990. One of his bread and butter workouts was a hill session for leg strength run with his running mates up a steep 400m climb called the Sweethoogte hill. Fordyce would run from his Johannesburg home to the hill, meet his friends, and they would complete some 4 - 7 repeats depending on their level of fitness. Not that i have done this exact session, but i have found that in 30 minutes i can run a warm up jog of 10 mins, fit in 5 - 7 200m meter repeats on a relatively steep hill, and still make it home in time to keep my 30 minute promise. Thinking laterally, I have devised other hill workouts that can be completed in my half hour. Borrowing from the Ethiopians I have a short very steep hill that adds a plyometric flavour to the training effect. After 2 sets of 5 60m ups and downs, with a few minute breather between sets, I’m left with not quite the finishing kick of a Gebrselassie, but a well stretched and switched on set of pistons. I’m sure the variations are endless depending on availability of incline. Fordyce, The Comrades King, also ran up a long flight of stairs for a change in routine, but achieved the same results. If you have available to you a variety of inclines, see what you can come up with in 30 minutes.
There are numerous examples of research, and tonnes of anecdotal evidence that suggests that a lot can be achieved in 30 minutes of running, be it slow or fast.
So, what can you do in 30 minutes that will help lead you to the attainment of your goals?
Firstly, lets cover aerobic conditioning. Granted, when we talk about aerobic conditioning, we usually think about spending large blocks of time (lets say 45 - 120+ mins) running relatively slowly. However, benefits can be achieved in a shorter amount of time. Even 30 mins run at around 75% of max HR produces necessary physiological adaptations. It certainly beats 30 minutes wasted, complaining about a lack of time.
Moving on to more interesting and “running rich” workouts, I have a number of suggestions I have picked up or created through necessity my self. One of my absolute favourites for a number of reasons is a quality session that a fellow runner, triathlete, and travel friend of mine discovered. The story goes that one day while in Queensland, he went to his local track to discover Wilson Kipketer, long time world record holder and multiple world champion for the 800m (in a staggeringly fast 1 min 41.11 seconds), performing a sprinting session on the infield. Kipketer would gracefully glide diagonally across the field from one corner to the other, pivot, slowly jog the top end of the field to the other side, and repeat. How long he did it for, we don’t know, but we arrived at 15-20 mins to be well and truly hard enough and beneficial, and called it ‘corner to corner’. The truth of it is that it was conceived by non other than Brother Colm o’Connel, the legendary trainer of countless kenyan champions. His prescription was “30-35 minutes of diagonals to improve leg turnover”, as part of a training session. Hey, we thought we were awesome doing it for 20 mins, and enough to be a regular charaqcter building, hard-core run. We even used Trigonometry to determine the distance run and counted our reps. Sometimes I put on my Garmin forerunner and do the session for 2-3 kms, and this variation also fits perfectly in this category of 30 min runs that count. Looks good on Google earth as well.
One race I have always wanted to do, but haven’t quite made it to is the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. This 89km distance running test of truth was won 9 times by Bruce Fordyce between 1981 - 1990. One of his bread and butter workouts was a hill session for leg strength run with his running mates up a steep 400m climb called the Sweethoogte hill. Fordyce would run from his Johannesburg home to the hill, meet his friends, and they would complete some 4 - 7 repeats depending on their level of fitness. Not that i have done this exact session, but i have found that in 30 minutes i can run a warm up jog of 10 mins, fit in 5 - 7 200m meter repeats on a relatively steep hill, and still make it home in time to keep my 30 minute promise. Thinking laterally, I have devised other hill workouts that can be completed in my half hour. Borrowing from the Ethiopians I have a short very steep hill that adds a plyometric flavour to the training effect. After 2 sets of 5 60m ups and downs, with a few minute breather between sets, I’m left with not quite the finishing kick of a Gebrselassie, but a well stretched and switched on set of pistons. I’m sure the variations are endless depending on availability of incline. Fordyce, The Comrades King, also ran up a long flight of stairs for a change in routine, but achieved the same results. If you have available to you a variety of inclines, see what you can come up with in 30 minutes.
So, there's two very running rich ideas that will help greatly.
Next post I'll suggest two more ideas, and put in place a short program you can try out.
Thoughts?? Other ideas?? Let me know.
I also have a 30 minute 'quality' session I run with my school running group, which we squeeze into lunchtime every Tuesday. We head off at the start of lunch for a 10 minute warm-up, followd by 4-5 200ish sprint jogs (sprinting 200, jogging 200)at a nearby oval, totaling approximately 10 minutes. To finish off we make our way back to school at a slow jog, getting back just in time for our allotted 30 minutes and the school bell.
ReplyDeleteAnd if 30 minutes is 15 minutes too MUCH time, you can always try legendary American running coach, Fred Wilt's workout for the person who is truely pressed for time. Totalling 3.2k, he would run four laps of his local track as a warm up, followed by four laps running 200m hard, 200m easy, the last half a lap serving as the cool-down.