I will get back to logging soon. I am training hard. Reading a book on training for running. I know what you are probably thinking. I'm a lifter on a lifting site, fuck running. Bear with me. His thoughts on training ring true for me in both lifting and running.
The book is Personal Best Running by Mark Coogan. He was an elite runner in college but the big time titles eluded him. He said in training he left it all out on the track every training day. He rated his workouts as A Plus. He and several members of the team sometimes left personal bests on a training day. Come race day he ran well but many times not as good as some of his training days. As he tried to make Olympic teams and get a spot on the national cross country teams but it always eluded him.
I can relate since I came from a track back ground in high school and college. I was proud of my work ethic. I grew up with Rocky and Arthur Jones. Want to be the best you have to out work everyone I thought. That's also in my immigrant DNA. I remember another runner who I thought dogged his workouts. He rarely trained hard while I left it all out there everyday. Come race day he was always faster. I thought he was just more blessed with innate talent. Probably true but he wasn't entering a race completely depleted either.
Back to the author of the book. After college he ran with an elite post college running group composed of top shelf Olympians and other elite runners. One thing shocked him. The training runs weren't balls to the wall. He thought what the hell is going on? They ran hard but never to the limit. He was discouraged training with this group. Then came races and he started breaking personal records beating some members of a who's who in racing.
Not to put words in his mouth but he said something to the effect that consistent B plus workouts with an occasional A plus will beat a version of yourself that does nothing but A plus workouts.
Having workout growing up with Mike Mentzer, Arthur Jones, Casey Viator and all the rest of the HIT guys I was proud of my work ethic of balls to the wall workouts. Many decades of using heavy weights back then. During those decades I still ran on the occasion but it always was a secondary thought. I couldn't do a consistent running routine. I was too exhausted from lifting. Lifting was my priority.
Now I feel I wasted my talent for being a good runner trying to be a good lifter through the years. Now I'm 65 and wonder if I could ever get back to decent running? I feel running does more for your health than lifting but that's a topic for another day. The best thing to lesson the risk of ill healthy is probably a combination of the two.
My goals are changing. I want to be a hybrid athlete that has a good cardio gas tank and lift at the same time. How can I achieve that? I'm going to have to use lighter weights and avoid going to failure on most of my sets. Exhaust the muscle through volume, short rests between sets and more strict rep performance. Best laid plans often fail but that's what I want to do. Again I spoke to Bill Pearl about this topic and he said, "You're a smart man.", lol.
Today I started a high intensity workout after a week of daily hard 5 mile runs. After the third exercise going red in the face feeling faint going to failure I started to think this isn't sustainable if I continue running like I am. No way could I run a hard 5 mile plus then go to exhaustion on every weight exercise. On my third exercise of failure I was leaning on a wall breathing like a race horse thinking about what kind of hell did I put myself in? What if instead of doing say one set to failure of seated cable rows I did four sets of cable rows fast where the first three are stopped at say ten reps and the fourth is a failure at 9 reps might be a better route. The fix for me might me as simple as using my two sets per exercise at a lighter weight not going to failure.
These are my thoughts for this Monday. Hopefully soon I will start logging again.
