Why I resisted a running training programme

24 February 2024 | Running Ramblings

I debated whether the title for this running blog post should be punctuated with a full stop, exclamation mark or question mark.  Is it a question I should be soul searching an answer to, or a question I am posing to you, maybe it should have been an exclamation that made me realise what a fool I had been so for long.  In the end I left it without a punctuation, once you read the article, I’ll leave it to you to decide what best fits.

I ventured back into a gym last October, I’d not stepped foot in a gym for many years, decades.  Apart from when working away from home and I found myself in a place where it was not easy or sensible to run at 5am, then I’d wander down to the hotel gym and pound out a few miles on the treadmill.  But as far as actually ‘going to the gym’ I had discounted this as a ridiculous idea.  Why did I need to go to the gym, I was a runner, I had shoes, shorts and a Tee and the road or trail was my gym.

Steve Middleton - Strength Coach

So, humour me as on one October day in 2022 I did ‘go to the gym’.  It was to start a journey with Steve my Strength Coach, a guy I now hold in high regard, and hang off his every word.  One of the first utterances I made to Steve on that first visit was ‘I just run, I hate structured programmes, so I don’t have or follow one.  If I want to run, I run.’  Oh man how that was about to change.  

Why then did I find myself at the gym?  It was after my run to Land’s End where I realised there was some weakness in my ankles which during the run manifested itself as a rather painful left foot.  I was running on rocky, rough trail, ankles being violently thrown this way and that.  I guess it was a bit like Uri Geller ‘bending’ spoons, apply enough pressure and it’s going to break at some point (anyone under the age of 50 YouTube Uri Geller spoon bending).  My foot didn’t break, thankfully, but it was clear from the pain I had applied a lot of pressure.

"The gym was about preventing this from happening again"

It was pure chance I met a gym owner and coach who is a British, European and World Champion Powerlifter.  But Steve is way more than that, he understands the body, how It moves and often how it doesn’t.  I embarked upon a weekly session with him, two sessions as it turned out to be, one lower and one upper body.  We both learnt and adapted as my body revolved to deadlifts, kettlebell lunges, split squats, and the myriad of other activities we subjected it to.

This post isn’t about the gym or strength training, so I won’t rattle on about that here.  But the gym was showing me that following a structured programme would yield results.

So with that thought I embarked upon a structured running programme, and a few months later two marker pens, Green & Red, would dominate my life, and define my running.

Tempo, Intervals, Hill Repeats, Strides, Easy Runs, Long Runs – this running lark can get super complicated very quickly.  Don’t we just put on our shoes, pop one foot in front of the other, collapse on the sofa 6 miles later and vow never to do anything like that again.  It seems not.

Here’s Dave (my Alter-Ego) for a run down on what each of those are

Dave explains running

I had never and I mean never done anything but simply run, at a pace I felt comfortable with that day.  Tempos, Intervals and all the other structured types of running had not featured in my life.  It was simple to answer why, and that’s because I was never chasing time, I just loved the act of running.  To date I have never stood at the starting line of a marathon, being around that many people just doesn’t interest me.  I have completed and do have scheduled several 100K ultras, I enjoy the challenge of the distance, the whole atmosphere of the day and that you can find yourself running alone, which looking at BBC1’s coverage of the London Marathon would definitely not happen over the 26.2 London miles.

My gym time was delivering results, stronger legs, less post run soreness, increased power up and down hill and Steve had us following a programme, which as ever was adaptable depending upon what we saw and found my body was doing.  A programme, a structured programme….hummm.

And so, it was I decided to introduce a running training programme for my first 100K in 2022, the London – Brighton. 

The initial programme was straightforward and just focussed on distance, I adapted a 100K programme I’d found online making a few tweaks here and there to distances.  I was also in the mindset of being flexible with it, sometimes life would throw up challenges that meant distances had to be adapted that day, other times an opportunity would present itself and I’d run further than the plan said.  

In my Training for your first 100Kblog series I talk more about this approach to adaptability.

Blog on training for your first 100K

"...really, really hated the red dots..."

When life throws challenges at you it is very easy to talk yourself out of running, finding the motivation to run on days you are tired, stressed, busy or if the weather is foul, can be hard.  My motivation came in the form of two-coloured marker pens, green and red.  I’d put a green dot on each day of the programme spreadsheet I’d printed out to indicate I’d achieved it that day and a red dot if I had not.  I hated, really, really hated the red dots and would do anything to prevent one from going on the sheet.  These two pens are now my absolute staple of motivation every day.

As I came out of the London 2 Brighton programme and went straight into the Race to the Stones one and then into training for Tour du Mont Blanc.  All the programmes gave structure around the distance but not the effort.  As September rolled in my mind shifted toward a winter maintenance programme, something to see me through to January when I would pick up the 100K training again.

This was the first-time colour, other than the red and green dots, appeared on my spreadsheet, cells of red, green, grey, purple and yellow.

Two pens dominate my life

It was time to switch up the training, adding more structure around the types of run, tempos and intervals and see what difference this would make.  I was conscious not to lose my enjoyment of running, which is why I had resisted this much structure around my training for so long.

Next was the hunt for some programmes for each of these efforts.  I did in all fairness have some for short intervals of hill repeats as I had done some in the lead up to Tour du Mont-Blanc, a run of 145K with over 26,000ft of climbing, but not with the focus and regularity the winter programme would see me do.  

Chris, a fellow runner I am connected with on Instagram, I say connected with and not follow as I think saying I follow someone sounds very creepy.  He uses Nike Run Club (NRC), it’s a free app with near 300 run programmes and having tried quite a few like tempo and internal ones can say it is excellent.  Pop in my Airpods and I get coached all the way through the run, even by Paula Radcliff as I discovered on a recent tempo effort.

Nike Run Club

I also have some treadmill programmes that I found and adapted from various Google searches.  If I like one, I’ll keep it, if not it gets binned.

And what is the outcome.  Pretty dramatic, I am stronger, faster and recover quicker.  My VO2 max has been on the steady incline, and I noticed when blowing up balloons for a recent household birthday that a single lung full is enough to make the balloons an impressive size, so lung capacity is increasing too.

Back to the question – Why I resisted a running training programme.  I’ll leave you to decide on the punctuation, but my answer is, because I was an idiot…

…or was I.  Perhaps it was now I had a vision of the runner I wanted to become.