Macca's Unusual Training Ideas (that I love)

Dirtbag

Barefooters
Oct 17, 2010
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From Ironman World Champion Chris McCormack's blog on his website:

"Most of the time in training, especially when I go to a new town, I often test myself by doing the following.

I leave the hotel room for a run and check the clock before I leave. I then say to myself, okay, I am going to go and run for 1 hour. When I come back I try and see how close to that hour I actually was. I take no watch with me nor do I set any preconceived pace. I run freely and try and feel my way to understanding just how long I have been running by my surroundings and my pace and effort. Funnily enough, the fitter I get the better I am at getting very close to the hour. Early in the season I have gone for what I thought was an hour run and been only 45 minutes. Its crazy how skewed your perceived effort and time can be without the use of tools sometimes. Now I feel very confident I can nail a 10 mile run on feeling without relying on a Garmin to tell me and I could run 90 minutes pretty close to the minute without relying on a watch. It is something I enjoy testing myself with weekly and the more you do it, the greater you will start to feel this freedom of exercise and this tune that you have never paid attention to before. It is this understanding sometimes that will be your biggest strength in a race."



Great idea! I want to try this. It meshes very well with how I'm feeling after reading RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel (the review can be found on the front page of the BRS or at my own blog here). And taking advice from a two-time Ironman World Champ can't be a bad way to kick off my next training cycle, can it?
 
This is a fun thread!  My

This is a fun thread! My shod running club did this at our last club grand prix. They gave us each a piece of paper with a time on it. Each person was given a different time; mine was 30:30. Our activities guy told us to run wherever we wanted and return to the start/finish point as close to the time on our sheet of paper. I returned in 29:26. I think I won my age division, but I am not sure, since he hasn't posted the results yet. I think I did so well because I am a slow runner. I've learned what I am capable of, and I am pretty consistent with it, that is being slow. Turtle me. Winner me. ;-)
 
Hey DB maybe we could have a

Hey DB maybe we could have a BRS contest...Lets see who can get closest to their target time for this week!

I'll start tomorrow...I'll try a 1.5 hour barefoot trail run tomorrow with no watch...I think I can get within 15 minutes.
 
That's cool, TJ. Way to

That's cool, TJ. Way to go!

Good idea, Mokaman. Should we set a general time, like 30 minutes, and see who gets closest?
 
Well, pooh!  The results are

Well, pooh! The results are in. I came in 4th! Pttttth! The other three were like 6 and 12 and something seconds from their target times. Good for them.

This could be fun. So everyone target 30 minutes. Start at one point and either loop or do an O&B, but get back as close to 30 minutes as possible. (Mokie wants to go for 1.5 hours, so he can do that and see how close he gets there.) Let's everyone give it a try and meet back here with your results. I may not be able to run again until Monday though. We're going boating.

So who's in? So far we have:

Dirtbag

Mokie

Me
 
I'll see if I can remember to

I'll see if I can remember to do it on my next run, Monday morning. To be true to the idea it should be an unfamiliar route. I could do my usual route, which takes me about 33 minutes, and just shorten it a little, but would that be cheating?

I was using a stop watch but lately it's been bouncing in my pocket and stopping. This is a good solution--just leave it behind.
 
  I tried this on my noon

I tried this on my noon time run today, 3 out and backs on 3 different trails at the same park. The only funny business was I noticed I started to run faster towards the end of each leg so I could see how close I was.

I did do slightly better than I expected 10:10 total for 1.5 hours. Like randcoot says I think I'll have to try this in a different place everytime...it would be much easier on the courses that I know really well.

1st - 31:08

2nd - 35:26

3rd - 33:36
 
Apparently, you were

Apparently, you were targeting the hour hour mark.
 
Yeah, you have to do it

Yeah, you have to do it somewhere you don't normally run. I know my regular route much too well to run it there.
 
I came in short at 25:34. I

I came in short at 25:34. I did a loop which I don't do too often with a spur added, which I haven't done before. Also, it was a flatter route, so only walked uphill once. This and the humidity worked well enough to confound my guesstimate.
 
I tried again today on a well

I tried again today on a well known road course, I wore a watch but didn't look at it. When I thought it had been 15 minutes I hit the lap button for four 15 minute laps. What I found out is I can't really tell much of how long I run, my times are random... so here is what my watch says.

1st lap = 20:19

2nd lap = 10:08

3rd lap = 11:57

4rd lap = 14:53
 
Yeah, you're all over the

Yeah, you're all over the place.
 
But there's learning there!

But there's learning there! Now you know what those paces feel like and will be able to use that information next time.