Total Running

Total Football is a term used to describe a fluid soccer team, where any outfield player can take the position of another in the knowledge that his behind will be covered. The concept doesn’t directly apply to running, but I’m coining ‘total running’ as a phrase for myself to work on every aspect that could be beneficial to performance. The idea to leave no stone unturned to get the most out of myself. In general I’m quite a lazy guy – I like to think that I get the job done, but typically by finding the path of least resistance - no more work than necessary. In relation to running, this has meant training hard but frequently neglecting other areas. There is obviously a clear direct correlation between training volume and intensity to racing performance, so that’s always been my focus to date. The benefits of other aspects like nutrition, flexibility, core strength, mental strength and rest are ambiguous as there are always anecdotal stories to leave the benefits of these additional areas subject to debate. From experience I now know that when one area goes wrong you need all of the others firing to maintain training and performances.

I find myself in a situation where I’ve advice and facilities at my disposal that I may never have again. Being part of the Marathon Mission squad is a huge benefit. The management team are really doing everything within their power to improve Irish distance performances. As an example, we now have facilities at DCU open to the squad, including all kinds of testing (blood, lactate, VO2, body fat, etc), nutrition analysis & advice, physical therapy and core conditioning advice. They’re getting some results now too, with some recent quality performances. I’d highly recommend for anyone with aspirations of top level endurance performances to focus on getting a squad qualification time. Our Rathfarnham coach, Adam Jones, is also using his recent qualifications to recommend a programme to target my current or potential weaknesses. Rene Borg is preparing a training plan based on Lydiard foundation principals. As I've mentioned before Vinny Mulvey is also there for advice & massages. All-in-all I’ve a support network around at the moment to enable peak performance, so it’s time to deliver. Discipline required – something I’m only occasionally good at delivering on – time to change a habit of a lifetime :)

Training is slow progress – patience essential. I’m not even close to where I want to be. I’ll spend the next two months building a base, essentially going back to the work I started in Colombia. Frustrating to start over, but it’s a necessary evil. I hope to run some hill races during this building phase, as I did in 2010, but only if it’s aiding performance improvements for the key targets this year – national track 10km and Dublin marathon. I’ve thrown myself in already in the first IMRA Leinster League race in Bray, finishing second behind Tom Hogan. Disappointing to lose, but it’s good for me from a motivation perspective and it’s good for the league. Hopefully I’ll improve every week and get performances back to where I want them to be. Time will tell ...