Some Thoughts on Training

This is why I run: Lingmoor Fell looking towards the Langdales.

I run for fun. I've always loved the outdoors and being in the hills and in my late fifties, I discovered the joy of hill and trail running. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. I know I'll never be fast and I don't really care. I don't enter races with the dream of winning, I simply want to have a good day out on the hills in the company of like-minded idiots. 

However, I've also discovered that I enjoy my running more if I am fit and strong. To get the best out of it (and to finish some of the long-distance stuff), I actually need to train. This is particularly important in my sixties as muscle mass decreases with age. With the best will in the world, I'm not as fit as I was in my thirties and it takes me longer to recover. I just wish I'd discovered hill running thirty years ago.

Inspired by reading Fast After 50 by Joe Friel, and some of the training advice on the Run to the Hills podcast. I've started to think in terms of blocks of training that focus on specific issues. My main goal is the Spine Flare race next summer, but I have an intermediate set of goals with a few ultras before then - the first one is the Tour of Pendle in February. 

For Ultras, I basically need to be able to keep going for a long time over rough ground. It's nice to be able to go fast, but the key is being able to stay on my feet. However, there is also a need for overall strength and aerobic ability and those are the things I'm concentrating on in my current training block. I'll tweak this as I learn more, but my current training regime is supposed to look like this:

Daily

• Stretches. If I don't stretch regularly, I get piriformis syndrome, so I just need to get on with this. I also foam roll regularly and have a weekly visit to Iain, my physio who is actually a magician. 
• Biceps curls. My arms aren't as strong as they should be. Biceps curls probably don't do everything I need, but they are convenient exercises for someone who works from home. I have a set of dumbbells in my office.
• Ankle Strengthening. I have a foam pad next to my desk and I stand on it on one leg for a minute at a time. This helps with rehabilitating my broken ankle and also improves my proprioception (the sense of your body knowing where it is) which is essential for someone who runs on rough ground. 
• Clams. Apparently, my glute muscles are very lazy, so I do some clam exercises with an elastic band between my knees to get them working. When I'm organised, I also do single-leg squats. 

Monday

In another situation, I would probably go to a gym on Mondays, but I'm Covid-phobic and broke, so that's off the agenda at the moment. As it is, I do a strength routine which involves reps of weighted squats, lunges, quad-exercises, planks and press-ups. I finish off with a Tabata session involving kettlebell swings, jumping jacks, gulps of air and the urge to vomit.

Doesn't every theologian's office look like this?

Tuesday and Thursday

These are my easy run days. At the moment, I'm just doing a gentle four miles offroad, but when I stop focussing on strength, I'll ease these out to around ten miles.

Wednesday and Sunday

Hill rep days! I start off with a gentle one-mile jog to warm up and then I sprint up our lane ten times, jogging back down again, finish off leaning against our gate and wanting to die. As I get stronger, I'll start working on a steeper section of track. Once I start looking at building distance again, Sunday will turn out to be a medium distance run to back up what I do on Saturday.

Friday

Apart from my daily stuff, I don't do any particular exercise on Fridays.

Saturday

This is my long run day. For these few weeks, I'm mainly running on roads. It's not as much fun as being offroad, but it does allow me to build speed and to concentrate on the running, rather than breaking off to walk over tricky terrain or wade through the bogs. I've built back up to comfortably running fifteen miles with 2,000 foot of climb. Tomorrow, I'll push that a bit further. I'm pleased that my training seems to be paying off as I've managed to run up a couple of really steep hills that normally have me walking for a while.

Come mid-December, I'll drop down to one hill rep session and concentrate on longer runs as I prep for my February ultra. At that point, I'll also move my Saturday runs back onto the fells. 

Further Down the Line

In order to get "hill fit" I plan to include a weekly run up the steep side of Ingleborough on a Tuesday or Thursday as part of a six-week training block in the Spring. I'm fortunate to live within easy driving distance. I'm also considering moving my hill reps to a bit of the moor above our house where there is no path, partly because it will be harder work, but also to build my confidence. I'm still not fully recovered from this.

One last thought that I picked up from Run to the Hills was to have adventures as part of my long runs. There is some really nice running from our front door, but I plan to drive into the Dales or to the Lakes for my Saturday runs and to do some exciting things that I wouldn't do otherwise. As I said at the start, I do this because it's fun.

That all sounds much more organised than it is in practice and I don't beat myself up if I miss a session. 

I'm writing this down, partly to sort out my own thoughts, but also because I'd value any thoughts that others might have. How should an elderly, slightly tubby, gent go about building a training schedule?