What to do on a bad day

Posted by simon on 2/22/2007 on simon's blog

That's the title of a great article by exercise physiologist extraordinaire Dr. Owen Anderson that rescued my workout today.

I'll see if I can get permission to publish it on the site; but there's a simple, lesson from it that I can share. Here it is: If you're feeling really, really "off" and don't think you can train -- do two intervals or seven minutes as fast as you can, THEN quit.

Today in Boulder was a summer's day. But I was so knackered (English expression meaning very, very tired, originating from what they do to exhausted horses) that I really wasn't up to what was on the schedule: a quality session involving quite a few reps at a decent pace.

Then I read Owen's article -- originally published in his Running Research News in 2004. He was looking at some surprising research on resistance/weight training that showed that, contrary to what everyone believes, the MOST benefit to the trainer comes from the FIRST set of exercises, not the third, or the one you do "to exhaustion."

Putting this together with some other observations led Owen to suggest that when it came to running: "It is likely that the first high-quality interval of an interval workout is the most crucial one in the entire session. That is, the mere fact that one has 'shouted' at one's muscles -- 'Hey, wake up down there! I expect you to be able to handle this kind of intensity' -- produces much more rumbling within the muscle than the next repeat (or repeats) of the 'message'."

Connecting a few more dots, Owen came up with his "two reps or 6-7-minutes" rule. Well, I'm not so feeble that I can't get myself out of the door to do a 15-minute warm-up and blast ONE and maybe two reps ... and I LOVED the idea that if I could just accomplish that, then I would get a lot of the benefits of having done the whole session.

As it happened, after two I felt so good, I did the rest. It was a HUGE psychological boost knowing that having done two, I'd already accomplished most of the session's work.

* http://www.runningresearchnews.com

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3 comments

baselbutt says:

This seems to jive with the logic that if you don't feel like running (or doing whatever - waking up, jumping in cold water, etc..), the first 7 minutes or so are usually the hardest part.. If you can get over that hump, you're golden.

I wonder if I could truly pull the trigger and "stop" after 6-7 minutes. Personally, once I'm up and running, the conversation I have with myself usually results in me deciding to punish myself for not feeling like being out there in the first place. At least this insight will give me some basis for argument next time I'm in a heated debate with my ego about whether to continue or head home.

"No wonder the first 6-7 minutes hurts so darn good"...

~BB

"if you run for yourself, you might let yourself down, but if you run for someone else, you'll never let them down..."

by baselbutt on Thu, 2007-02-22 15:40

simon says:

Bobby, you need a talking to. But don't do it yourself -- that's obviously getting you in quite enough trouble, heh heh.

I will steal another quote from Owen. Read and repeat until you get it: "Above all, don't beat up on yourself for 'performing poorly' during your workout. Remember that variation in performance is completely natural -- and that there are days when even the greatest Kenyan cannot perform up to capacity, for inexplicable reasons. If that were not the case for you, too, then something would be terribly wrong."

* Running Research News (Volume 20:5, June-July 2004). Back issues of RRN are $15: this issue also includes a stellar article on working out, and training with your vVO2Max (running velocity at VO2 max), which was the reason I was reading it in the first place :) ; plus "What to do when your brain imagines fatigue", and a research piece on vitamin E.

by simon on Thu, 2007-02-22 17:44

baselbutt says:

Don't get me wrong, I'm more apt to shorten or eliminate a workout completely if I'm not feeling up to it.. That said, "recent events" have forced me to accelerate certain aspects of my normal training schedule - in short : not a lot of time left to slack off..

To quote a famous person: "That which does not kill you, only makes you stronger".. (of course, a fall from a second floor balcony probably won't kill you or make you stronger...)..

"if you run for yourself, you might let yourself down, but if you run for someone else, you'll never let them down..."

by baselbutt on Thu, 2007-02-22 17:58