The truth
The content below was published elsewhere for new runners. However, as it turns out experienced athletes sometimes need base motivation and reminders. Also, many experienced runners turn to become coaches and sometimes forget that the beginning runners need the simple and concise truth about training.
The simplest, low-barrier way to learn to find joy in daily running and jogging is illustrated below in easy-to-grasp words and phrasing (but there is some jargon, hang in there, you can grasp it). The path that I write about goes against the grain of the modern jogger. As a coach, I cringe at some people’s approach to running and want to help them so much, that I would like to grab them by the arm and stop them in their tracks.
If you do not run or are a competitive runner reading this, you have seen the modern runner. He or she is wearing an armband with a device and Bluetooth to the ear or a wire, listening to a podcast or music to distract or drown out the pain or boredom he or she is experiencing because that person dislikes running but reluctantly does it for weight loss or general health.
Sad.
Don’t let this be you.
Jogging or running should be a joy first and foremost — yes, a joy (caveat: or if you cannot run: walk, hike, ski, cycle, swim or log roll)
Jogging should be a joy to you. And perhaps an expression of freedom or a competitive outlet if you want that too. If not, freedom and fitness are a lot and of tremendous value to the glands that secrete the good things in your body like the good mood elevator dopamine.
Physicians should write prescriptions for jogging (or endurance activity), not always going to pill-form anti-depressants. Fitness is an anti-depressant.
Fitness is awesome and may lead to more fitness and great social interaction or you can do it alone — I do both. Or, one may become immersed and want an athletic challenge. Either way, a person who cannot seem to make a consistent habit of jogging or running needs to check out the proper way to get going again and stick with it this time.
By the way, the reason I write “jogging” and “running” as separate things is because as you get started, you should jog. Which to me, is a slower, casual, light approach to running. Running is more purposeful, in that you may run at a specific pace or effort or time or distance. Or do a hard workout. Also, once you are fit, you cannot run fast all of the time, so jogging continues. Check this out: Super competitive runners (the people on TV and YouTube) run 75 – 90% of the time: EASY. Yes, I wrote that. Easy and light and joyful.
For the beginners…
- Starting slow and easy and without stress is important. You have seen the modern runner, always trying to run fast (fast for them). Ouch. Running fast all of the time causes injury, and burnout and is not always happytimes.
- Run naked. Yes. Not naked as in completely naked — no. But run with nothing more than the following: Shorts, shirt (and tights and jacket if cold), socks and shoes. Wear a toque if cold, or a vented baseball-style cap if blasting hot. but no devices. No technology. Wear a running watch, but completely ignore it and everything it says. When done running, have a look at the data for information purposes only. DO NOT LOOK AT THE WATCH WHILE RUNNING.
- No one cares. No one cares about your running. Learn this now. Guess what? Therefore there is no stress. You owe no one anything whatsoever. No one cares and no one is watching. If someone is checking out your running data online, you are making them want to run. Good for you, you beacon of joy.
- Run again. “But, I ran yesterday (or earlier today).” Sure you did. Good. If you feel like it, run again. If you are hoping to get better at running and have been running consistently for a few months, try a second run that day (but EASY and on grass or sand or dirt). Start very slow and keep it slow. If you are tired and don’t feel like running, try running for 10 minutes slowly. If you still do not want to run, go home. There, you have a 20-minute run in the bank (it does indeed count toward fitness). After a day of work, a run will wake you up. You just have to step out that door.
- Get your sneakers superdirty and stinky, they are not for show. Running on concrete, asphalt or similar surfaces is hard on the calf muscles and Achilles tendons. Do less of that to none of that if you can. If you have access to forests, dirt paths, boulevards, shoulders, parks, beaches, gravel, or mud run there. It is softer for the calf and Achilles and your shoes will last longer, they will just be muddy and maybe stinky. Listen. Do you see a surfer or diver wearing a dry and clean wet suit? Not if they have been diving and surfing! Get those shoes dirty. Running is not a fashion show. Feel free to wear no makeup, perfume/cologne, and let your hair be messy. No one cares. Don’t shave. Smile or grimace. Running is for you not for them. You are not responsible for the thoughts of others. Ignore.
- Don’t pass anyone on a daily jog/run. Okay, if you can’t help it because they are slow, let it happen. Pass them when you get fit and you can do so without straining. Otherwise, no passing or pacing. Just. Don’t. Do. It. No one cares.
- Run for transportation. Going to work and there is a shower? Put a spare set of running gear in the trunk of the car, because you never know when a jog or a run will present itself. I have run home from dinner out. Give the partner the keys and burn off the chipotle and cheesecake and beer or wine. Run to and from work. Run to drop mail in the box or deposit a cheque (check) at the ATM. Jog home after dropping the car off at the mechanic’s. Jog back to pick it up, and run around junior’s soccer practice. Etcetera.
- But will always running slow make me a slow runner? Yes, no.
Give it one year. Make it like brushing your teeth, a daily habit (you brush, daily, right?). After a year (or try running through all four seasons), then take the next steps to faster running. If you are under age 30, give it six months. - That was eight things. Sorry, there are five things below. The five Lydiard principles. It is the next step in your reading if you have got this far, and like what you have read.
- Oh, one more thing: Ignore almost every single thing you read on the internet about how to run. See how raw and basic this is? That is running. Running is not a fashion show and it is not a technology show and daily healthy, joyful running is not a race. Keep it dead simple and consistent.
Aphorisms of reality:
”If your doctor tells you to stop running, find a new doctor.”
— Arthur Lydiard.
”If your doctor tells you to start running less, start going twice per day.”
— Arthur Lydiard.
“All I want to do is drink beer and train like an animal.”
— Rod Dixon, four-time Olympian, NYC Marathon winner.
Fake news:
“Running is hard on the knees.”
No. It is healthy for the knees. This is a terrible lie created by people who do not run and have no idea what they are talking about. Running makes the knees healthier.
If you are a competitive runner and still reading, the content below is about the famed Arthur Lydiard method. You should read this too. Four-time Olympian Lorraine Moller vetted the article (below) and she approved it. She is the president of the Lydiard Foundation, won bronze in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Marathon, and won Boston and many other marathons. She started running barefoot with her dad. Lorraine first found running a joy, before her thirty-year international running career. Now that she is more mature, she is just like many of you: a jogger-runner.
She is a best-selling author. Her book, On the Wings of Mercury, is a must-read.
The five Lydiard principles explained: World-class training for all abilities (skip past the preamble if you must)
The legendary Arthur Lydiard training program is often misunderstood, even by people who believe that they fully understand his methodology.
Lydiard training may not be what you think it is.
Some of the most well-known coaches claim that they coach based on the Lydiard principles and practices. They may, however, on the surface, there seems to exist conflicting evidence.
At a 2011 Canadian Endurance Conference in Vancouver, Coach James Li of the University of Arizona, who is known for coaching the likes of Lawli Lalang (13:00.95 – 5,000-metres – 3:33.20 – 1500m) and four-time Olympian Bernard Lagat, stepped up to the microphone and started his presentation with, “I coach according to the Arthur Lydiard method.” After his presentation, he was followed by the legendary Alberto Salazar, coach of Olympic silver medallist Galen Rupp. He has also coached Kara Goucher, Cameron Levins, Mo Farah, and many other international athletes. Salazar also began his speech with the comment that he too coaches by the Arthur Lydiard method.
Salazar is known to stew over the fine details of his athlete’s training program. In contrast, when Li spoke at the conference, he said, “I am not sure how many miles Lalang runs some weeks, sometimes his friends will go for a run and he will take off with them on not tell me. I guess he runs about 60 miles per week.”
Li may have had some ulterior motive. Either he was hiding training details on competing coaches who were in the room or he was referencing a period of training that included more quality work — closer to race time. During the 1980s, when Sebastian Coe commented that he ran just 60 miles per week it set off a generation of repetition-based speed junkies and subsequently caused a dearth in quality performances in North America and parts of Europe. Thankfully that has mostly come to an end.
Salazar’s athletes run roughly double what Li was suggesting Lalang trained up to.
So you may ask, how can two highly successful coaches be so different, yet both claim to coach the Lydiard way?
Lydiard training is not a set program or a specific weekly schedule that applies to all runners equally. Although his books contain schedules, they were added at the insistence of the publisher. Lydiard did not want to publish schedules as each runner and their situation is unique to them. Unfortunately, schedules sell books.
