30/05/2023
What's the perfect session? Is there such a thing?
Well, in broad terms, the perfect session is the one that you do, rather than the one you don't. Now, the form and content of that perfect session could well (should well) be different in Week 1 of your progression to Week 20. But, in essence, the activities that are logged in our diary are what defines our success at the end of the process, and less so what we didn't do.
So, what motivates us to lace up our shoes, to step out onto the street, the track or the trail? It will be a number of things, presumably, and it will be different for each of us depending on what our lifestyle demands of us. We each have our set of influences and we each have degrees of motivation. What we need to do is harness the positive influences and the positive drivers to convert a session on the fridge door (never to see the light of day) into a session that we bank in our training diary.
Here's how you can turn the tables on the 'fridge door' sessions:
(1) REINFORCE THE POSITIVES: We can replicate success by reviewing what has gone well in the past. This is dead easy. Look in your training diary or your Strava log and pick out the sessions that you've run well in the past or have just loved doing. Do those again! Very easy. If it has motivated you before, chances are it will motivate you again (within reason). Running success is not achieved overnight, it's developed over weeks and months, and so this success will be driven by what we do most. Our consistent effort will come in the form of a staple diet (a long/er run, a hill session, mile repeats, a progression run, a tempo run...etc). We don't become successful because once upon a time we did a track session or a fartlek session. We become successful because we do a small selection of things a lot of times (A LOT of times!). Finding the strengths in your armoury will serve you well, so don't ignore what you are already doing well.
(2) COMMIT TO A PROCESS: Pursue a progressive training programme and commit to it in the long-term. This is by definition a slow process, so give yourself months not days. From a standing start, you will take longer than if you've already got a decent base, so be realistic. The progression approach means taking a relative view not an absolute view of your training. What does that mean? Well, talking about 'Marathon Pace' or '10km pace' is just a tool to differentiate between quicker and slower pace. It doesn't imply that your 'Marathon Pace' or your '10km pace' is fixed. Far from it. If you follow a progressive training programme, your 'Marathon Pace' on Day 1 will not be the same as 'Marathon Pace' on Day 180. If that were found to be true, then it might suggest that your months of training have been fruitless, that you haven't actually made any progress. It might also suggest that you could have run the Marathon on Day 1 with the same chance of success that you had on Day 180. Use the relative terms to help define the level of effort that you're putting in and the relative performance at that point in time. As you become fitter and your capacity and tolerance improve, the marathon pace or 10km pace, (or whatever pace) will change and it is only at the end of the long progression that your true racing form will reveal itself. So don't expect too much of yourself at the outset but be justly optimistic that at the end of the process, your fitness and form will be a long way ahead of where they were at the start. It should always be a rewarding process if you have put in the work!
(3) TREAT A SESSION LIKE A RACE: Put the session in your diary and stick to the appointment! Rest enough beforehand, hydrate well, ease up slightly on the days before if you like - treat it like you are about to do a race. Put yourself under a little pressure in this sense but do so with genuine motives - to treat the hard session a bit like a full dress rehearsal. Don't give yourself opportunities to opt out or make excuses at the last minute. For good or bad, you will get the session done, that's what you tell yourself. Then, afterwards, review what went well and log it in your diary to replicate it in the future; equally, take a note of what went less well, and learn from it.
(4) TAILORED SESSIONS: If you often ditch a session part-way through or you never actually tackle it at all, consider what the parameters were in the first place. Was the session designed specifically for you or was it a group session for a range of abilities? Was it bespoke fitting or an off-the-shelf thing, one size fits all? Generic sessions can have their place but are fraught with uncertainty, so be careful if you choose a '12-weeks to....' guide or a pull-out from a magazine. They might have lots of good ideas in them but they won't account for your particular circumstances. Your individual lifestyle factors will influence your day-to-day performance and have an effect on your rate of progress. That's why a personal programme will always take account of such influences by making adjustments as you go along; whereas the prescriptive terms of a generic programme can never have that granularity of detail. Think of yourself as a 'Study of 1', rather than just one of the masses.
(5) SET TARGETS WITHIN A RANGE: Related to Point 4 (above), this is about setting the balance between ambition and caution. It's sometimes a difficult balance to strike well, but it's made much more difficult with a rigid training structure. It's better sometimes to offer a target range for a session, with a minimum and a maximum number of efforts to be achieved. If, for instance, you set out to do 4 x 1mile and your times are tailing off dramatically halfway through the session, there will be limited training value in doggedly persisting to the end, just for the sake of it. Yes, well done for finishing and showing your commitment, but what have you actually achieved? You've probably run 2 great miles and 2 awful miles. A better approach would be to say, I'll do a minimum of 3 miles and a maximum of 5. If I get to number 3 and am struggling to hold the target pace, I can call it a day. If I'm holding the pace really well, I can add 1 more effort. If I'm still holding the pace well after that one, I can add 1 more. There is an inbuilt safety mechanism in the session and there is also scope to add developmental efforts on, using a dynamic approach. Apply caution if you're having a tough day or push your boundaries by degrees if things are going well. This approach helps to protect the balance between a demanding coach and a willing athlete. For the coach who always wants more and the athlete who never says no, the 'range' structure provides useful protective measures.
These are just some of the techniques that you might apply to turn sessions from fantasy into reality and to generate motivation when you feel as though you're enthusiastically bounding towards some sessions and timidly backing away from others. There is no single solution, and it might be rare for you to lack motivation (you clearly have star quality!!) but when the going gets tough, sometimes it's helpful to take a polite nudge towards those harder sessions.
Let us know how you're getting on and if you've got any cast-iron tips for training success. Have fun! :-)
