scientific training

This is a personal account of my life as a runner. At the age of 30 I was just an average bloke. I was stuck in a rut with a stressful job that had long, unsociable hours. I was overweight, taking no exercise and enjoying a smoke and a drink. Then something happened: whatever it was – an early mid-life crisis or a sudden awakening of an inner competitive spirit – it eventually changed me into an international athlete. It is an unlikely tale but this is exactly what happened.

Not all of this story may seem relevant, but I believe it highlights a number of factors which athletes of all standards should consider in their pursuit of peak, or at least improved, performance. It shows why there is a need for careful planning, patience and progression in your lifestyle, training and racing. How vital the relationship is with your coach. How both athlete and coach have to have total belief in what they are doing and total respect for each other. Each has to have a full understanding of, and commitment to, the plan. Your coach has to understand you as a person. Yes, there are coaches who can motivate and inspire groups of athletes but to really coach an athlete takes time, energy, commitment and knowledge. I hope this article also demonstrates the need for the athlete to have personal responsibility for, and understanding of, their own training. After all it is the runner who does the running so, to my way of thinking, there had better be some good reasons why I am doing it! An athlete and a good coach should also be open-minded enough to evaluate and experiment with new and different training methods.

This journey would never have happened were it not for the support of my wife or the guidance, generosity and knowledge from physiologist and coach Dr Tony Trowbridge. I must also thank Bruce Tulloh and his wife, and the willingness of a group of world class Kenyan athletes, who allowed an unknown old guy to be part of their group and share in their training methods for two months.

It was a journey that would last just over 10 years. Along the way there were many unforgettable and exciting moments. There was also a great deal of hard work and disappointment. It was, without question, a journey that changed me as a person.

The first few steps of any running career need encouragement and motivation. I was lucky enough to start my journey on the trails and fells of Ambleside in the Lake District. Not only was the scenery inspirational, but there was also a very friendly, small, running club, Ambleside AC, who helped me get out and run. My running at that time was based on enthusiasm. It was simple: I just put my shoes on and ran. I had no knowledge about what I was trying to do. I had no idea of the changes my body would have to go through to become a runner. I had no concept of pace or recovery. I had no plan and no patience. Eventually this would lead to frustration and disappointment and in that unpleasant combination lay real potential for failure and it is a combination that has claimed many athletes – even good ones – in the past.

I was trying to run with people who were much better runners than me. I was running at their pace, often over difficult terrain. Yes, I was losing weight: I had weighed in at 190lbs and 22% body fat, and I was getting fitter but I was breaking down on a regular basis. Why? At that time I had no idea why. When I was on an ‘up’ part of the cycle, races and results were pretty good, I was finishing in the top 10 of medium-length fell races and I had run 31:05 for my first 10km on the road. For most people in their first year of running that would have been enough. But I was hungry for more. The problem was the downside: this left me feeling totally fatigued and despondent and wanting to give up running before I had even started. I went through a number of cycles like this before deciding that there had to be a better way.

I had started to read running magazines and became interested in articles on physiology and heart rate. I decided the control that these concepts offered must be of some help in my situation. I bought a heart rate monitor and was ridiculed by many fell runners for doing so, but decided I needed someone qualified to show me how to use it. I made several enquiries with various institutions and eventually had a meeting with Dr Tony Trowbridge who was in charge of the Medical Science department at the University of Sheffield. This was to be a major step in my athletic career.

I was fully assessed by Tony and his team. There were machines, leads and tubes everywhere. I ran to exhaustion and they tested everything: VO2max, running style and gait analysis, running economy, heart rate, blood lactate, flexibility, strength, body composition, diet, work and even sleep patterns. My life was about to change. The bar was about to be raised and I was about to train, and be looked after, like a professional athlete.

We discussed and planned our short-, medium- and long-term objectives. We discussed and planned my training routine. The discussion, questioning and understanding of the science underpinning each training session gave clarity to what we were trying to achieve.

It was important I understood why. Tony was not only at the top of his profession in human performance but he was a runner himself and devoted a great deal of time to thinking through and considering his coaching. Not only did he fully understand me as a person but he was also a coach who understood what it was like to do various sessions and could also explain to me why we were doing them.

My approach to running changed immediately and so did the size of my telephone bill. Training became a science. Other athletes thought I had lost the plot and enjoyed a joke at my expense. But I guess that’s the price for being different. The important thing was I believed in the plan and I knew it would make me a better runner.

Whereas before I had just run how I felt, now I knew every step was meant and controlled. I ran everything to a prescribed percentage of maximum heart rate. Each time I ran I knew exactly why I was running, I knew what was the correct intensity, the duration and what that run was going to achieve. Because I was training to a plan, I was able to enjoy my easy runs and days off without feeling guilty. Because I was refreshed, I was able to work hard and successfully complete a threshold, hill or interval session. I started to understand what I was doing. During harder sessions we also took blood samples which were analysed for lactate levels. It wasn’t always easy to get a few drops of blood out of a cold finger into a tiny phial on top of a Lakeland hill in the middle of November. However it was important as the blood lactate level, along with the heart rate readings, gave us accurate feedback about my performance and the intensity during the session. For the first time I understood why rest and recovery were to be counted as an important part of my training routine.

Why I became a treadmill trainer

Meanwhile, analysis of my body composition showed I was carrying too much body fat. For me my diet was always going to be the toughest part of my regime. I have a sweet tooth which has never helped my cause. Trying to lose body fat percentage as you trained through a northern British winter was as tough as it gets for me! I know deep down it was probably one of the areas where I could have been more dedicated. I managed to get to a race weight of 143lbs, which was good, but when I could lose those extra few pounds and race at 140lbs… then I was flying.

When I had my diet analysed, it was clear I was placing too much emphasis on carbohydrate. So what’s wrong with that? I hear you say. A good runner’s diet! The problem was that I had been eating very little quality protein for growth and repair. The analysis also showed that the overall quality of my diet was poor. The problems didn’t stop there: I was also in a state of constant dehydration because I was not drinking enough fluid. These were some of the reasons I had been feeling so fatigued and breaking down. Not eating a nutritionally balanced diet with the necessary variety of minerals or ensuring one drinks the right amount of fluid on a regular basis sounds like an elementary mistake. I have found from other runners, however, that it is an area where a lot of up-and-coming athletes have problems. It is an area that has such a fundamental effect on performance that it requires as much focus and planning as the physical training.

Another element that changed in my routine was the use of a treadmill in my training. This again set me up for more ridicule. But it worked for me. I was living the heart of the Yorkshire Dales which was great for good trails and quiet roads. However the weather was often poor with strong winds. The nearest track was an hour away and very exposed. We decided that having a controlled environment for my speed sessions was important. I had a treadmill installed in my garage. It was to prove a very useful tool and one that I would learn to use to good effect.

Fell running had been a good grounding: it had given me good leg strength, strong ankles and knees, good balance and really good leg speed from long, fast descents.

Treadmill running enhanced that leg speed. We found that I could run quality sessions in a controlled environment. We could make incremental changes in speed, gradient or recovery depending on my performance. We could also collect the heart rate and blood lactate information. Running on the treadmill gave me the opportunity to practice mental focus for races. It also allowed me to think about style and relaxation, concentrate on my running rhythm and pace judgement. I could do all this in the relative comfort in my garage. There were no climatic influences and I could wear racing kit instead of layers of protective clothes battling into a gale. Some may say that the latter is character building! They may have a point but I felt I got enough character building in my races.

My training also included good sessions of threshold and hill work. All this was done to a planned heart rate and recovery. I learned that my training now required a different mental approach: I had to be patient and initially slower doing the sessions governed by heart rate and that meant accepting whatever time or distance I got on the day.

Working in this carefully planned, patient and progressive routine, my body and performances responded. My body was able to accept the small changes without rejection or illness. Times and race results both improved. I was now able to plan race tactics based on my strengths. I learned that no matter how competitive I wanted to be mentally in a race, sometimes I had to be patient physiologically. If the pace were too fast at the start of a race I would produce a better performance by backing off a little and working my way through the field.

A good example was my first English National Cross-Country Championships. The start of the ‘National’ is traditionally a fast charge. The year I ran in South Shields, most of the course was dry and the early pace was vicious. I dropped off the pace because I knew that if I had gone with the pack my blood lactate levels would have been through the roof and it would have taken most of the race to recover. I knew this from training and had a good feel as to how hard I could push my body and yet keep lactate levels manageable. After the first half lap I was about 35th but I was in control. I then kept mentally strong and maintained a good, even pace while others around me suffered from the over-exuberant start. I eventually worked through to fourth, missing a bronze medal by just two seconds.

My results became more consistent and I was always in the shakedown at the quality road and cross-country races. We tried to ensure that I did not over-race. Tony was always very wary of returning to what he called ‘the valley of fatigue’ and always tried to freshen me up after a period of hard work. It worked as I went from running 31 minutes for 10km, and 50 minutes for 10 miles, to 29.04 for 10km, and 48.15 for 10 miles. Tony was reluctant to let me run many longer distances, being wary from his personal bad experiences of just how much races like the marathon can take out of you. He was also concerned about picking up long-term injuries. For that reason I never pushed him to let me try a marathon even though deep down I considered it the ultimate running challenge.

Coping with the loss of a coach

Dr Tony Trowbridge died aged 52. Ironically, he suffered a massive heart attack. I was in Portugal warm weather training. It was the saddest day of my life. He had been much more to me than a coach.

I have found that running has many more benefits than just physical fitness. My running helped me through this difficult time. I was fortunate in that Tony had fully involved me in the training process. If I hadn’t been so involved, then the story may well have ended right there. But it didn’t and it would have been wrong if it had.

However it was never going to be quite the same. Tony was the control factor; he always erred on the side of caution. I guess this was because he was a scientist and felt responsible for me as the runner. It was perhaps inevitable that I lost some of this control factor and definitely did get a few things not quite right from then on.

I decided to try altitude training and went with a Bruce Tulloh group including Richard Nerurkar (then the top British marathoner) to Font-Romeu in the French Pyrenees. I am not sure altitude training necessarily improved my performance, but what did work for me was the training camp life. It would drive some people nuts, but a simple life of training, eating and sleeping with no distractions was no problem for me. But there was a different problem: I was training too hard. Furthermore, I was not training for myself, but as part of a group. I was doing big mileage and hard sessions but there was not enough rest or recovery! I was basically in great shape and although I could get away with it in the short-term, it would eventually take its toll.

But I was still running well and about to turn 40, so I decided to try to earn some money on the American masters (veterans or over-forties) road race circuit. With a young family and a mortgage it was always a juggling act to balance the books. Running for money is not what I would recommend as it did affect my performance, but that is how I made my living. My sponsorship with Adidas also helped to support me as a full-time athlete.

I went to the US just after my 40th birthday in August 1997 and based myself outside Boston. There was a series of five good money races in a six-week period. I would train during the week and then fly to a race over the weekend. But my first big race on US soil was not good. I had gone from training very well 10 days previously, to really struggling. Yes, there was jet lag and the heat and humidity, which you have to experience to really appreciate. But I was just exhausted. I had fallen into the valley of fatigue. I did win my age category and capture the all-important prize money – but only just. I was hanging on.

After that I rested more and results improved dramatically. Not only did I win my category but I was usually finishing as the first non-Kenyan in 9th or 10th place overall and running close to world masters (over-40) records. However the cumulative effect of training, travel, racing and still too little recovery was starting to catch up on me.

I had decided that I would race again in America in the spring, as there was another series of good money races culminating in the Boston Marathon. I had never done a marathon for the reasons I have explained, but decided that I would give it a go. I was making my marathon debut at the age of 40!

What I learned from the Kenyans

I set up a trip to Kenya and had a wonderful experience. All in all, I spent two months in Kenya, most of it in Nyaruru. It was a very simple and humble existence but I had everything I needed. Great running trails, wonderful home-grown food and lots of rest and relaxation. I wanted to learn how to become a marathon runner. I ran with a group of 40 Kenyans every morning at 6am. There were many world and Olympic champions among them. They made me welcome and I like to think I earned their respect for the effort I put into my training with them. The great steeplechaser Moses Kiptanui was the boss. Even as a 3,000 metre runner he ran 21km each morning in November! I learned the value of threshold running and the emphasis the Kenyans put on hill running.

We tend to assume that the Africans are haphazard in their training methods. From my experience I have to disagree. They work very hard, running hills from November until April. They run some great threshold sessions. They never ignore speed. But they have made rest and recovery into an art form. They listen to their bodies exceptionally well. They also get a one-hour massage, of the most comprehensive type I have ever had, every day!

I returned to the US for what was to be the last time as an athlete. I based myself in Boulder, Colorado, and stayed with top American marathon runner Mark Coogan and his family. I trained and raced as before to earn money and the result was I ran a tired marathon in Boston. Still, I recorded 2:17:08 for a marathon debut, which was not bad for a veteran virgin. I think I was capable of a lot better but after an excruciating wait and against all the odds, the selectors picked me to run the marathon for England in the Commonwealth games in Kuala Lumpur.

For that race in KL I sacrificed everything. I did everything I could to run my best: I didn’t race too much; I trained at altitude and then acclimatised to hot and humid conditions; I planned my marathon race considering my fitness and the conditions. I felt under some pressure believing, rightly or wrongly, that I was running for all the 40-year-olds who may ever have a chance of running in a major Games. I desperately did not want to let anyone down. I feel my plan worked. The acclimatisation, my fitness, mental strength, pace judgement, patience and hydration plan all came together. In a field of much faster runners, I finished 10th at my first and only international Games.

For me that was it. It could not get any better than that. I had reached a level that 10 years earlier would have been unimaginable. I felt there was nothing left to give and I retired from serious running a couple of months later.

Looking back would I do it all again? Too right I would. But would I change anything?

With the aid of hindsight I think I would. Science would always provide the fundamental building blocks of the whole training regime. Without it there was no plan, no measured starting point and no measured improvement. However I think the training at times was perhaps a little too cautious because of our interpretation of the science. Perhaps I would run the same mileage but include more threshold work and definitely more Kenyan-style hill work during the winter months. If I had a choice I would have raced less for money but in the absence of handouts, I didn’t have that luxury. Finally I would have put that little extra bit of effort in on my diet.

I am writing this article from our apartment balcony in the French Alps. It is a beautiful sunny day and the mountains are covered with an early fall of snow. We moved here as a family a couple of months ago. I haven’t trained seriously for four years but I am now giving it another go at the age of 46! Why? Because I have the opportunity to see if I can apply my own revised training methods. It will be interesting to see if I can get it right this time with the aid of both science… and hindsight!

Keith Anderson