Aug
25
Six Keys to Being Excellent at Running
Photo credit: 04113-N-3799S-001 by Flickr user mashleymorgan, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.
This is one of the rare spontaneous posts I write – I had no intention of writing a blog post tonight (though I was going to add a little more to one that is in progress). But then, when scanning through my blog reader, I came across an article with a title I can’t resist, from one of the best blogs out there – Harvard Business Review. In Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything, Tony Schwartz refers to the oft-cited statistic that you need to practice something a minimum of 10,000 hours to become an expert at it. While this post is obviously aimed at a business audience, I couldn’t help but think of it from a runner’s perspective.
First, consider the 10,000 hours figure. I’m on target to run around 2,000 miles this year. At an average speed of roughly 8 mph, that will take 250 hours. Thus, it would take 40 years to become an expert at running if we only considered the direct training. But obviously there is the reading about running, the planning, the analysis of results, blogging, etc. This may triple, or maybe quadruple, the amount of time we spend on running in a given year, but you are still looking at 10-15 years of commitment. Now maybe “expertise” isn’t the right word for what we seek – but if you want to become the next Amby Burfoot, Bart Yasso, or the like, you may need to invest that type of time in running and studying running. But most of us don’t have “expertise” as the goal – we have fitness, or a BQ, or a sub-3:00 marathon, or finishing a 5K. Thus, the 10,000 hour figure shouldn’t intimidate as it is not relevant for most of what we seek to do.
But what I do think is relevant from this post are the six keys that Mr. Schwartz identifies. Thus, let’s address what they mean to a marathon runner (as honestly, the points seem a bit of overkill if your goals are primarily general fitness, or the 5K).
- Pursue what you love – this goes without saying – there is no way you will put in the work (whether study or training) without the love for what you do. If you lose that love, it is time to reconsider your priorities and goals, because you will never achieve “expertise” (or aggressive goals) without it.
- Do the hardest work first – this lines up perfectly with the theme of this blog – predawn running provides the least risk of distractions and the greatest satisfaction from getting the tough stuff done early. This is why I nearly always make sure to run speed work in the predawn and, what’s more, do it on Monday (also because Sunday is my rest day). If you start the day with the easy stuff (say, reading about running), then you risk finding excuses to avoid the tougher challenges (the actual running) later.
- Practice intensely for no more than 90 minutes – this seems about right, not just from a physical energy standpoint but from consideration of your ability to focus mentally. Obviously, the bulk of training runs are below this, so for certain types of workouts even 90 minutes is too long. But even on the long run, it would be tough to visualize more than 90 minutes of the run being at a specific, targeted pace (like your marathon pace). The rest needs to be a bit “freer” as your mind really can’t focus effectively for so long, except under race conditions.
- Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses – this is why I was hesitant to subscribe to Runner’s World, and why I don’t frequently seek out running advice online. There is so much out there, that it is tough to discern expertise from noise and the advice often conflicts. It is important to find a few trusted sources, have confidence in your approach, and only make adjustments one step at a time, when strong data suggests there is a need to do so.
- Take regular renewal breaks – any training program incorporates rest days and stepback weeks, as well as recovery periods after a race. But I think this concept goes further than that – in planning your yearly race schedule, you do need to allow some downtime to remember why you run in the first place, and set up some time where there is no specific training objective other than to stay in shape. If every workout is working towards a goal, it quickly becomes a chore, and you lose #1 above.
- Ritualize practice – another reason to center your training around and stick to the predawn run. As the author comments, counting on willpower and discipline is risky, as it is never in as ample supply as we think. Thus, practice or training needs to be scheduled and become a part of our normal routine, so much so that the absence of it creates some dissonance that we wish to rectify.
So no, we are not all out to be experts, and we won’t all put in 10,000 hours of practice towards our running over a reasonable time period. We all have our priorities, and maybe there is something else you need to invest 10,000 hours in first. But the six keys he mentioned are a vital part of any training program that targets a specific goal, and I think this is one of the most valuable “business analogy for running” posts I have read in some time. I just couldn’t resist staying up a bit later than intended to get these thoughts down in a post.
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