This is a fairly apt description as movement up Pen Y Fan at pace is most definitely not a run and it is most definitely not a walk. Tab, jog, prance whatever you want to call it, it's a good one for the Heart rate.
I decided to put the "kenyan" marathon training concept from my last post into practice for this event, as duration wise they are not completely dissimilar.
The goal was to "prance" as much of the route at goal pace or slightly above. In this case, I was going to do half of the route, 12km just to the turn around with 10kg of weight.
I have to say it was hard but I did like this as a training run. I did half of the route in 1hr 41 and finished it with a certainty that I was not going to go back up the hill again.... so what to do in this instance, but BREW up some coffee and walk on to the nearest YHA for a Guinness and a sleep. Unfortunately night nav got the better of me and turned my "short" recovery amble into another 30km.
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| Bergen weight allowance: espresso maker |
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| LOST AGAIN |
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| A collection of brecon moments (top left, clockwise). Clag, happy, sun and bog! |
I find when training for any running endurance event, lots of slow long distance running becomes very injuring. Walking is a mechanical action which relies more on muscular action, whereas fast running/sprinting at the other end of the spectrum becomes more reactive and plyometric where a larger contribution comes from stored energy in the tendons. Depending on where your running speed falls on this spectrum, tendon vs muscle action will be used to varying degrees.
This very simplistic explanation may help explain why slow running where you are spending a relatively long amount of time on foot, can make muscles sore, especially quadriceps and hip muscles.
You can't get away from the fact that load bearing marches therefore require a huge amount of strength, because not only is the pace relatively slower to running but you are carrying (+kg) of weight.
Training I have found useful
Weight training
I have found weight training 4-5 times a week (4 sets of 12-15 reps), with whole body compound movements and a simulation of the Fan Dance (various distance and weight) every couple of weeks has helped enormously. The strength built in my VMO (vastus medialis obliquus) has also prevented any knee issues occurring.... so hooray to bodybuilding training.
Below is a short snippet of examples of exercises I might do.
Don't train the event distance
Clarence Callender, the sprint coach who trains the 7 elite boys at Track Academy, where I do my work placement never trains the distance the boys will compete in. He will train them in anything up to and over 100m but never 100m. I quite like this idea, as that distance then becomes something special, reserved only for race day. They need to have that hunger for that distance and not be bored of it. I think the same applies with this event. It's important to keep the motivation and drive to do that distance and event.
Train at goal race pace
Try and maintain the pace you want to obtain for a set distance and try and maintain that. If you fall off the pace, walk for a few minutes and go again. Jeff Galloway, a running coach was a proponent of walking in running training. For most runners it is the cardinal sin, but actually it makes perfect sense and allows you to maintain goal pace for much longer.
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