I have a week off now totally only for me finally with no outside expectations. No work on the house, no obligations of doing other stuff either, still no kids :D and have no guests either. We had guests for 7 weeks man, I was having a hard time, finding space to be, finding space to train.
So just to reply to the complaint to elite athletes about how hard the life of 100% runners can be ! Honestly, I know this from my cycling times. This is the best ever time a person can have. I mean it is so easy to live like this. Train, eat, train, eat, train sleep. 3-4 mobility sessions a day, 3-4 breathing sessions. In the meantime you are listening to interesting and self improving podcasts, you watch a small 30min documentary at the afternoon, before your 30min nap or meditation. Your water bottles are planned out for the day, including the obligatory 3L to drink and the rest for your runs. Your meals are planned out for every day, like a high fat coffee at the morning, a giant salad with sardines at the afternoon and quality meat with veggies at the evening. 2-3 herbal infusions during the day. Time spent upside down, hanging, compex, inversion table, acupressure sheet, 2-3 ice cold showers and cold immersions.
When you have 15hour long days, let's say 5 am to 8pm and due to your wholistic approach, your diet, hydration, sleep patterns, your breathing, cold and hot training sessions, your meditative state, you are just a beast ! You can do so freckin much, without getting tired. A lot of runners do 2 x 90minutes of training and they stay horizontal the rest of the day ! Wtf ? After a big interval session, I feel like just more and more energised and want to paint the house or do some extra work on my book or podcast ! I have been like this since my diet and lifestyle changed last January ! I had some failures in races, I had some low points of cumulative neural fatigue from crap going on in work, however my motivation to train, learn and be stronger, faster, more adaptive human overall never changed. After all my ultra-marathons since this last January I mean Jan. 2015, I was doing a 1 week of recovery protocol and then I was back to the regular 5am wake up process !
I of course talk about ultra running here, but I think if training periodisation is correct this kind of approach can be had for professional marathon runners too. Their training routine must be changed up, focus more on endurance instead of speedwork, speedwork, intervals, tempo-runs on the road and so.
As a PRO ultra runner and trail runner of course, I state this here : if training is done well and races chosen properly, it is not that hard to podium in every single race you do and win a couple of them as well!
I just checked back my 2012 and 2013 season when I worked as a cyclist. I was riding between 20 to 40hours every single week, while running 150km weeks. I was podiuming like 30 to 40races in that 2 years time ! I was over racing and over training, yeah for sure, but if it was me who chose when to ride and when to race, I would be just winning 10 of them every year !
So, I am asking a question here, of pro runners getting into injury cycles and mental problems. Do you try to get rid of that injury, by doing the most possible ? Do you think that you really do ? I work 35 hours a week, but if injured I am all in, doing a mobility session of 5 to 10minutes every single hour, I would do 3 to 4hours of big yoga, pilates, mobility workout every single day, with many breathing and ice cold water immersions and cold showers. I would put on the compex 2 times a week, foam roll, massage and create herbal night patches and would use herbal and mineral concoctions every single day, till the injury is gone. I would still do a low impact cross training, like road cycling, nordic walking or swimming.
I mean a pro runner, who has nothing to do outside of running and has the resources to live freely, can do anything ! But the thing is, they want cars, what are expensive to maintain, they want a big house, so you need to pay a lot after it, you want to eat in restaurants, instead of growing your own food and go hunting, you want to crosstrain to mimic what others are doing, like ski mountaineering and mountain biking ! You know how expensive those sports are and to maintain the quality of your equipment ? A gym membership might cost you only 150 to 200bucks a year in an underground weight room ! I mean, when you cut down budget to the minimum, pressure goes way down ! I mean way freckin' down ! Why do you need the latest I-Phone, if you could get one of the best androids for one 10th of the price ? Why are you not doing product endorsements and proper testing about your brands articles ? It is so easy, just do one article a week and work on it 30minutes a day with a small video and some tweets, instagram and facebook post.
A pro runner, who has his full day ahead, can read a book every single day of his life, but definitely at least one book a week for self improvement. He could do an educational online course about anything. Imagine if you were injured ! You could actually read 6-7 hours each morning, while taking notes from 5am to 12am, and then work with what you learnt ! Pilates books, Warthon stretch books, kundalini yoga books or all the sport articles downloaded on your kindle !
Why do I rant about this ? Cause I see professional runners, complaining all the time about a lot of stuff going on ! I am always injured, what can I do ! Freckin' educate yourself ! Do you still not understand, that running that fast, that often on the road, all the time, is what causes your injuries ? Do you know at all about Alberto Salazar, whose athletes do not ever touch the pavement, but once or twice during marathon preparation (not once or twice per week, but once or twice during 12weeks) ? I am always tired and feel lethargic, what can I do ? Can you not see, that you don't eat enough and go to sleep 22:00 every night ? Eat more and more from the good stuff and go to bed at 19:30 ! This is too early for me, I cannot fall as sleep, I need to watch the TV with my wife - well, just educate yourself and your wife, to live both of your lives to it's full ! Last one. My testosterone is low and I have also some low iron and B12 issues, I have bad genetics ! No, you just push too hard too often and your lifestyle habits are not correct either ! But I tried other diets and used supplements, but nothing helped ! What do you mean nothing helped ? Did you try all alternative medicines for as long as a year, while changing your training 100%, choosing racing wiser, racing less and all as long as 1 to 2 years ? No, what you did is a small 2months diet protocol, while you were still training to your old routine, still did not drink that 3-5liter of water daily needed for your efforts, still not slept early, still were spending all your free time on phone and computer, still drank that one beer every night.
Do not be afraid to change anything by 180° ! Not just athletes, but people in general are slaves of habits !
- This 2 a weekly hard interval training is the spine of my macrocycle, I cannot drop it !
- Well, you must get into a 100% aerobic cycle, until you build back your fitness, strength and mental presence, otherwise you'll drop like a fly, off the racing scene ! Nobody ever, ever, ever slowed down, by doing only 100% aerobic training. Even for 5-6months ! You might loose, finishing sprint speed, but your body will remember overall race speed. You might need to change race strategy to still be on the front and eventually win. It is only a mental challenge, to be in the first 5 all the time or start at 30th place with the pace of the overall winning time and go to that podium only the last 5% of the race, passing all the runners ! It is a choice !
What do I want to say with this ? If you are a pro runner, who is somewhat paid for his/her effort ! Just embrace it and love running ! Instead of loving the money, the cars, the house, the possibility of travel and so, just love the outdoors, the nature, the ability to move fast through time and space. This is the freckin' reason that Killian Jornet is so good ! He epicly loves the mountains ! He wants to be there to be inspired every day. Even the day after a race !
I am more likely a nature guy, not a high mountain goat. I love flora and fauna, I love running on a single tracks with tons of trees surrounding it, collecting wild herbs, watching animals run around and be inspired by the colours of flowers, the smell of a new breed blooming, the knowledge of wild fruits and weeds and the free flowing springs and streams ! After a race I might not grab my ice axe and crampons, but a back pack with an interesting podcast in my ear, go for a walk and collect weeds to dry out or for a wild salad !
Either ways, what this whole article is about, that if you are a pro runner, stop complaining, get active, proactive, reactive and educate yourself all day, every day instead of watching TV waiting for your next run ! You had that much of time on your hand, you could learn a new language every year ! If you don't, I am ready to take your place and many others do so ! If I could train for 30 to 40 hours a week and recover from it due to my overall free time spent well, I would be smoking all the races !