As I sit here, taking a time to recover from my long run (albeit in a recovery week), I find myself preaching to my running partner of the day. My father in law, who graciously accompanied me on the run.
Having been ill this week and struggled, stressfully to force in all the training that was due, in the short space of time I had available, it gave me pause to think back to last season. It was a very enjoyable one, without illness or injury. I had just discovered Dr. Phillip Maffetone. He is well known in the endurance world and even trained a few horse successfully (they have a similar ability for endurance as humans). He trained Mark Allen, who famously was a relaxed person after spending time with the Doctor.
Dr Maffetone is famous for preaching about balance and ensuring overtraining prevention. He believes that even reducing your recovery time, i.e. not affording enough sleep, will lead to overtraining, even if you seemingly have a balanced active training schedule. It was indeed, in my opinion, this reasoning, or lack of, that has lead me to the illness and injuries that have occurred this season. Admittedly, the ankle was the result of falling, but arguably would not have occurred if i had not been trying to push the training (and run in the dark).
I am currently re-readining his book - The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing - and rediscovering the training methods that lead me to an enjoyable season last year and, most importantly, an injury free one. Balance is everything. From training, to recovery, to diet and so forth. That is the attitude I am re-adopting and firmly believe that will set me well in the future.
I have also decided to run the Twin Cities marathon in October. That is all!
Good luck to us all!
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