Keep things interesting the matter is your imagination

Over the almost 3years of coaching for a university team, I've seen many injured students who rush back to a team session without enough base preparation. At first, I thought they do so for fear of being behind others. Although that is partly true, as I had a conversation with them, it came to mind that they don't follow a proper process because they can't stand monotony. For example, there is less variety like easy jog long run in base training, and they get bored. Sure, some are good at focusing on their process while others struggle to find joy. 

For example, in my college days, the head coach gave one teammate and me that, for three months, our key workouts are only tempo run to strengthen our base stamina had we had injured a lot by then.

Tempo run intensity was relatively low but not comfortable enough. In terms of a physical point, it was manageable. However, when it comes to the mental side, especially for young age, it's tough to go through almost one hour at an even pace. Other students were training impressive workouts at the same place it distracted and temped me to pice up my pace and push hard enough.

Almost two months had passed by; I couldn't stand anymore and jump in a speed workout while the one teammate kept doing temp work.

In the short term, my inconsistent training regime seemed to work that I progressed my 5km time to 14'29 in the early of the season. On the other hand, the teammate of mine was slowly improved but consistent throughout his university time. I recurred injuries again and again, but he never had after that. His first 5km race was in 14'57 in his second year and chipping away his time little by little. In his last year of college, he smashed his 10k time in 28'50.

As a corporate team runner himself, his time is now 28'26, and he came in 9th place at the national championships.

We are still good friends, and we go for a long run every Sunday. We sometimes look back on our college days, and it occurred to me that he was focusing on what he "needs," whereas I was looking for what I "want" to.

He enjoyed his motivation variable, fiding comfortable stride, and taking an HR monitor as tools to make one training enjoyable. I think that difference between us was looking whether Internal change or external change. The matter was imagination to keep things interesting.

As I have talked to many runners from different backgrounds, I have refined the skill to bring a training idea.

At first, I blamed my lack of imagination at the time; however, as a coach myself, my miserable experience in university taught me how to approach students who are sick of monotonous and repeatedly make the same mistakes.

In the coaching part, keep training interesting is a valuable skill. I put the fact that how people enjoy is respectively different into perspective.

Once again, if you don't enjoy what you do, the matter is your imagination.

Try, error, and think

In the last month, I was watching my nephew making Lego.

He tried, demolished, and retried. He was enjoying his play.

Just getting Block of Lego for kids is not enough. Still, they learn some designs from others like youtube videos, front covers of Lego boxes, or watching someone assemble Lego on-site. Then, they give it a try, and most times, they fail to make a design what you imagined. But kids learn here that what blocks work for a goal design and what doesn't. 

 When they think of having not enough blocks to make a design complete or make it a better plan, they may ask to buy new parts. However, this time is different than the first time kids asked parents to get Lego. They get a new one because they know they need it, not just want it.

The matter here is if they can think after each try, no matter how the result is.

The same holds for running. Imagine when you race and the result is not what you hoped.  I see many runners who say, "I need to train more," and increase their volume or intensity. 

On the other hand, good runners think what ability is not good enough to meet your goal. It's not always a weakness of physical strength but also mental strength and race strategy. When they think the chance is in endurance, then they put more volume on the training schedule because they need it.

For the latter case, they plan how much volume they increase for a given period. But the former case, the runner's ideas are abstract, and often, an increase in volume or intensity is inconsistent. For example, some do a hard session the day after a race. 

The big difference here is whether they act in mind or emotion. 

From the book "Out of thin air."  A good quote from one Ethiopian coach is, "The successful ones are the ones who watch with their eyes and think with their minds before they move their legs. The ones who run on emotion only can't make it."

For the excellent thinker, both Lego kids and runners above, they think where you are and how far to their goal, then move on with a conscious mind.

Thinking after any experience is one of the most enjoyable parts. It leads you to a long quest, given that it takes a long time to top on your potential in any field, which is also the most important. 

Training matter or thinking matter.

Last week, I had surprising news from my prefecture athletics championships. 

Three students from the same high school Ekiden team ran under 3'50 for 1500m. More surprisingly, one of them is only 15years old.

When I was in the team 12 years ago, if there was one student who runs under  4minutes for 1500m, he could have been the ace runner. Just for a record, the high school is a public school.

Now the team has 10runners sub-4minutes for 1500m, what's more, 21 students broke 15minutes for 5km.

I asked my high school coach what's happening there, and he was laughing. He says " There is nothing different in training than what you did here ten years ago. But one thing I assume that the high schooler's record gets more and more competitive is there is a bunch of well-organized time trial races which allow runners to run easier than races decades ago. I never believe that students these days are more talented than yours."

I have no answer why students record rapidly improving these days even they do almost the same training what we did. But I believe the relationships between the students and the coach is the one contributor. 

When I was in high school, our team was always defeated by one rival team at an Ekiden race. So, we were somewhat doubly training like is this training effective or we can't beat them with this training.

On the contrary, the students have strong confidence and are highly motivated with their training. 

When you struggle with your poor performance or plateau, you might think that problem is in training. How actively you work on training plays a crucial role. 

Circumstances affect your mindset, therefore, whom you train and which team you train with is more matter than what training you do.

But don't get me wrong. The training method is essential, and I love learning it.

Find a place you comfortably train at and people whom you can share the joy with.