Change through challenge: the university course in running a marathon

Bobby Maximus, a strength coach and author, says it takes 130 hours to build a base level of fitness. He developed this idea through training high-performance individuals to achieve impressive feats of strength and conditioning. In his book, The Maximus body, he provides two examples of how one hundred thirty hours can be completed; through one meaningful hour per day, five days per week for six months or over twelve weeks, two hours per day Monday to Friday and one hour on Saturday. The vital part is 130 meaningful hours of training, and some attention paid to quality nutrition and recovery. Budget your time, set your schedule, and do the work.

A college business module learning to run a marathon

Andrew Johnston, a GRIT and Business faculty member at RRCC and marathon runner, developed a similar idea but with a different target audience. Johnston created Change through Challenge, a 22 Week course for students that had never run before, with a final exam of running the Arizona Rock n Roll marathon. With a classroom session, a group run, and three individual runs per week; the training commitment probably came close to 130 hours.

In Johnson’s introduction to business class, his students asked local business owners for their keys to success; the most frequent answer was developing character and life-skills including a passion for work, work ethic, persistence, determination, and grit. According to Angela Duckworth, who wrote the book by the same name, grit is passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. As a keen distance runner, Johnston decided that his students’ best way to develop grit was to train for and then complete a Marathon, a challenge that, if you do not put in the necessary work and training, you are not going to finish.

Starting a business is a big goal that often requires the creation of a detailed, written, and time-denominated business plan that breaks it down into small weekly tasks to achieve the goal… That’s identical to a marathon-training plan.
Andrew Johnston

Each of the 22 weeks has a Monday classroom seminar, a Saturday morning group trail run, and three runs per week that students do independently to achieve the weeks running goal. The Monday night seminar covers three elements; Diet, training, and the discipline of the week. The twenty-two disciplines include goal setting, the power of consistency, and dealing with setbacks. Each is then related to the students’ schoolwork, business, and life. The Premiss of the course; all the life-skills needed to succeed in education and business can be acquired and mastered through training for a marathon.

My Change through challenge module

These two examples of time-based courses have me thinking about my next challenge. Can I package a physical challenge into a module? In my work, we typically package modules into 200 hours of learning, and I like the idea of going beyond the base level that 130 hours suggests and achieving something more significant. As I will be teaching myself, it makes sense to make this a problem-based learning module where I start with an open-ended problem and work through a series of steps, with other people to solve it. As an endurance athlete, I will set myself a training target of at least 10 hours per week, giving me around 20 weeks to complete the challenge I set myself—more on this to come.

You can learn more about Change through challenge through Andrew Johnston’s Tedx talk. Let me know on Twitter if you want to start your 200-hour Change through challenge module, and we can all create a group.

How Charlie Spedding helped me run a faster half marathon time trial

Today I ran the half marathon distance as a solo time trial. This run was the final test at the end of a year where I had committed to getting better at running, setting a target of running 2000 miles to force consistency and improve my times. I had planned to do a race, but with all possible events cancelled, I drove to Nottingham and ran the ‘Big track’, the council provided tarmac and gravel route down the canal and back along the river. My goal was a sub-one hour and thirty five-minute half-marathon. I missed by 9 seconds but beat my previous best time by over four minutes and my february time by fifteen minutes.

…the council had provided hundreds of miles of tarmac for us to run on, and in the winter they even made it floodlit.
Charlie Spedding

I got a Kindle a few months ago to help increase my reading volume and chose a running book on sale to be my first read. I had not heard of Charlie Spedding, despite him being a successful English distance runner, London Marathon winner, and Olympic medalist. The book is an honest account of Spedding’s career, and it has transformed the way I think about my training.

There are some running gems in the book. Spedding states that running well depends on physical fitness and your ability to perform. Their natural ability will determine each individuals peak level of fitness, but the aim is to get as close to that peak as possible with training. That individual’s ability to perform is determined by their confidence, determination, and motivation.

Spedding also writes about his self-image. He needed to move from a place where his subconscious self-image of ‘running quite well but not winning’ became one of someone that achieved great things. He went through a process where we changed his attitude towards what he was capable of and moved from just training hard to expecting more from himself and so doing things in a ‘better and different way’. He began to think of himself as a champion, and so his actions began changed to mirror this mindset.

But if I could get this right, when I thought about the big race I would say to myself, ‘this is a huge test for me, it will be very difficult, in fact, to do well I will have to run the perfect race.’ To this my subconscious mind would respond, ‘the perfect race? No problem, I do that all the time.’
Charlie Spedding

He began to focus on optimum training rather than hard training; ‘to do enough but not more.’ The word ‘optimum’ did not fit with his new mindset, so he changed it to ‘perfect’ training and set about perfecting his physical fitness and ability to perform. He would measure his improvements based on his previous performances, and broke his progress into stages by setting lots of goals.

…on my pad I wrote ‘I am going to think like a caterpillar.’ The caterpillar spends its time surviving. It hides from birds and eats leaves, but it is one of the most ambitious creatures on the planet because all the time it is thinking, ‘one day I am going to grow beautiful wings and I am going to fly.’ Charlie Spedding
Charlie Spedding

The most memorable part of the book for me was when the author finds himself in a pub with a notepad and a pint of beer and decides to make a plan. He writes three headings on the page; What do I want? Why do I want it? And How much do I want it? He then writes a list of what he needed to do; ‘Change my vocabulary. Aim for perfection, Know what I want, why I want it, and how much I want it. Use my imagination. Try to feel fantastic, and think like a caterpillar.’

Success is measured by how much I fulfil the talent I was born with.
Charlie Spedding

This book found me after my time with a coach had just ended and with no races on the horizon. I was struggling to keep up the motivation to run six miles a day to keep my annual milage target on track. After reading the parts about focusing on improving times based on previous performances and striving to fulfil personal talent, I created a set of goals to work towards as stepping stones towards being a better distance runner. I found a plan in Brad Hudson’s book to reach the next step on my journey – a 1:35 half marathon and focused on performing each workout perfectly.

Today was the day of my test. I had a quiet morning, I avoided any negativity (my newsfeeds), and I drove quietly to where I was to start running. I told myself that to run my goal time, I would have to run a perfect time trial, but that was ok because I had been practising perfect for months. I narrowly missed my goal today, but if it were easy, it would not be fun. The search for the perfect run continues.

Pick up a copy of From last to first by Charlie Spedding; you will not be disappointed. Let me know what you are up with your training on Twitter and connect with me on Strava.

Very short, very steep, very fast hill sprints

To get faster, you need to train all the muscles used in running, according to Pete Magill in his book Fast 5k. Most of us distance runners are good at training at multiple paces to support this idea but neglect the very short burst speed that develops power. Brad Hudson suggests in Running faster to add to your weekly schedule ‘very short, very steep, very fast hill sprints to build strength and power.’ Building power will produce a longer stride, a shorter contact time between the foot and the ground, and increase muscles resistance to fatigue.

There are two ways to increase strength and power; the first is to increase muscle mass; the second is to increase the percentage of muscle fibres that are activated in a given movement. High-performance distance running is highly connected to relative strength, so to get faster, it is better to focus on muscle recruitment rather than get more muscle. The good news is that most people can only recruit 50% of their muscle fibres at any one time, so there is a lot of room for progress.

Power is movement-specific as it is related to coordination. Running power needs to be trained through running or movements very similar to running such as single-leg strength and plyometrics once a base level of strength is achieved. Maximal effort sprints are a great way to train this running specific power. Performing these sprints up a steep hill will reduce the impact and reduce the risk of injury and force greater muscle recruitment.

Go to the steepest hill you can find and run up it as fast as possible for between 8-12 seconds. Walk down to recover and then repeat up to 10 times.

Adding maximal effort hill sprints to your week

The essential point is that to build power; the sprints need to be maximal. Maximal-effort means run as fast as you possibly can run. To help make these maximal, use the steepest hill you can find and recover by walking down to give your muscles a chance to recover enough to go 100% again. Maximal effort running will cause unconditioned runners to get injured so add these gradually to your programme, starting with a single sprit the first session. The sprints should be performed directly after an easy run, once per week, every week. Hudson suggests doing them the day after your long run.

A simple progression for maximal effort hill sprints

Sprints should be performed directly after an easy run up a very steep hill. Stop if you are no longer able to produce a maximal effort.

Week 1: 1×8 sec hill sprint
Week 2: 2×8 sec hill sprint
Week 3: 3×8 sec hill sprint
Week 4: 4×8 sec hill sprint
Week 5: 5×8 sec hill sprint
Week 6: 6×8 sec hill sprint
Week 7: 7×8 sec hill sprint
Week 8: 8×8 sec hill sprint
Week 9: 10×8 sec hill sprint
Week 10: 8×10 sec hill sprint
Week 11: 10×10 sec hill sprint
Week 12: 10×10 sec hill sprint
Week 13: 8×10 sec hill sprint
Week 14: 5×10 sec hill sprint

Running programme duration

I have just completed my final hard weeks of training in the sharpening phase of my half-marathon plan and now have two weeks of taper before my time trial on the 20th December. I am 25 miles ahead of my target 2000 miles for the year, and blogger Geek in the hills has suggested instead of taking half a week off after my virtual race, I should aim for 2020 for symmetry. We shall see.

With two weeks left of my current plan, I have started to think about what next. In last weeks Sunday Runday post, I talked about creating a plan, and the week before I talked about picking a peak race. This week I wanted to cover step two of programme creation and talk about plan durations and start dates.

With any plan, you want to prepare for an event to improve fitness significantly. The peak race must be far enough in the future to prepare for optimal performance but not too far away to lack urgency and motivation to train for it. Suppose your goal race is significantly in the future such as the end of the summer next year. In that case, you might want to commit to a more immediate goal, such as the next step on the distance runners progression and start the preparation for your goal event later in the year.

Choosing the ideal programme length depends on two things, your current level of fitness and the distance of the peak race. The fitter you are, the less time you will need to prepare so the shorter the duration. More extended distance events such as the marathon require more preparation time and so longer plans. Maintaining a base level of fitness at all times and never dropping training completed will allow you to skip the first few weeks of most programmes. The longer the peak event, the longer the recovery period after so remember to take at least two weeks of rest at the end of the year to recover.

Aim to peak three and no more than four times per year.
Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald

Optimal training plan duration by peak-race distance*

5k: 12-16 weeks

10k: 14-18 weeks

Half-Marathon: 16-20 weeks

Marathon: 18-24 weeks

*Running Faster, by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald

Spring in the UK starts on the 21st March next year and the start of the road Marathon season begins towards the end of April with the London Marathon (it has been moved to October again this year). If we start training at the start of winter (20th December this year), we could peak for a 5k in mid-March, or a 10k in April towards the end of April, a half marathon in May, or a marathon in June. These lengths could be shorter if you carry fitness into the new year but allow you to have an enjoyable festive season too.

Pick up a copy of Run Faster by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald and contact me on Twitter if you have picked a peak event for Spring next year and have started training already.

Creating a running training programme

At the start of the year, I aimed to get serious about my running. I have been running on and off for around five years, but I have never done anything more than 30+ miles in a training week and never followed a programme or put in any consistent volume. I completed several big races including the 69 mile Rat Race Wall in northern England, the 66km long, 4,400m of accent, Pirin Skyrun in Bulgaria, and the 49km long, 3,600m of accent Matterhorn Ultraks with my relaxed approach. Still, the aim has always been to finish rather than to race.

I decided in December 2019, with the help of a Percy Ceritty book, that if I was going to invest time and energy into doing long mountainous races, then I need to respect them by preparing correctly. I chose the Tromso Skyrun, a beautiful and remote event on the edge of my current ability as my target race and set about getting serious. I set an annual target of 2000 miles and got the five times winner of the event to coach me for the six months leading up to the event (The organisers cancelled it in the end). Jon Albon helped me build a strong running foundation, so after the six months under his coaching ended, I wanted to create my plan for the rest of the year.

Creating a training plan

In the book ‘Run Faster from the 5k to the Marathon: How to be your own best coach‘, Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald suggest eight steps to creating your training plan:

Choose a peak race and a race goal
Pick a start date and plan duration
Decide on appropriate running volume, frequency and weekly workout structure.
Divide your plan into introductory, fundamental, and sharpening periods
Plan your peak training week
Schedule tune-up races and recovery weeks
Schedule progressions for intervals workouts, threshold workouts, and long runs
Fill the rest of the schedule

For most people, picking a race and a goal for it in step one is going to be based on an event that gets them excited, but if you are looking for inspiration, check my post from Sunday last week on the progression of a distance runner.

If you want to get faster at running and do not have a coach, you should pick up a copy of Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald’s book. The book is full of useful advice, training plans, and more importantly, guidance on how to adapt a plan for your context and how you react to the training load on a day to day basis.

Contact me on Twitter if you have any questions or want to discuss ideas creating your own running training plan.

A distance runner’s progression

This year is the first year I have taken running seriously. In previous years, I have done some significant challenges, including Sky runs, ultramarathons, and 70.3 Ironman triathlons. I am not a naturally fast runner, I have done ok at the longer events, but I have not been fast, and not fully committed to the training so I never got near to seeing how good I could be.

This year I committed to becoming a better runner. I signed up for the Tromso Skyrun and several warm-up events, I convinced the five-time Tromso winner and OCR world champion Jon Albon to coach me, and set an annual distance target of 2000 miles (over twice the total I had done in the year before).

For the first month of the year, I built up to 40 miles per week and then ran a local half marathon event in early February, setting a slow 1:50 minutes, and a 48 minute 10K time trial solo on local roads. With these benchmarks set, I began working with Jon to build intensity in 2-3 runs per week and then slow down the rest of my running to comfortable distance pace. Events had been cancelled, but I managed to get my Half-marathon time down to 1:37 in a solo time-trial before my time with Jon ended.

The lack of events got me thinking about the progression of a distance runner. What benchmarks should I target at each stage of my training to keep it interesting? I started to look through books and read online about some targets to direct my training towards achieving.

The progression of a distance runner

The term distance running tends to cover events from 5km to Marathon. traditionally younger competative runners would start at the shorter distances, get fast, and then work up to the marathon later in thier career but as I am in my 30s already I can be a bit more created with my running progression. Run Britain have programmes for the following distances and target times. On their website, they list the events by distance, but I wanted to order them based on difficulty to create a ladder of events to target. I have listed these distance and time benchmarks in order of difficulty according to the equivalent race time tool of the Jack Daniels calculator:

10k in under 60 minutes
Marathon in under 4 hours
5k in under 24 minutes
10k in under 50 minutes
Half-marathon in under 95 minutes
10k in under 40 minutes
Marathon in under 3 hours
Half-marathon in under 85 minutes
5k in under 18 minutes

On the 20th December, I am going to time trial a half marathon to get under the 1:35 time. I had planned to do this in an event, but this has cancelled too. I have been following a Half marathon programme from Brad Hudson’s ‘Run Faster’ and can highly recommend this book and its included programmes.

Contact me on Twitter if you have an alternative set of targets that make training more exciting or to share your running progress. I am back to work tomorrow after a week off so the next few days will be focused on Learning Design. I will keep Sundays for running-related blogs.