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Training and Racing
The Power of Patience
By Roland RustSeptember/October 2003
For the Washington Running Report
Racing Faster
Some years ago I was running for a competitive running club in San Antonio, and we went to Houston to compete in the Gulf AAU 20K championships. Because I was more of a 5K/10K runner than a marathoner, I thought that my best chance was to sit back and let others take the pace. I did this, and as we passed 10K I couldn't believe how good I felt. It seemed as though we were jogging, and I figured my finishing speed would carry the day in the end. I gave my coach a "thumbs up" sign, because I thought I had the race won.
As we neared the final mile, the race came down to me and the top Houston runner. I was confident in my ability to out kick him. The pace seemed to go slower and slower. Finally, with just under a mile to go, I could hold back no longer. With a furious burst of speed I sprinted into the lead, and soon had a sizeable gap on my opponent. After awhile I began to tire a little bit, so I looked back to see whether the race was safe. It was not! My opponent had refused to give up, and was only 20 to 30 meters behind. Soon he started to close the gap. With about 600 meters to go he caught up, and then began a sustained surge to the finish. I could not keep up, and lost.
How could I have lost this race that by all rights I should have won? I was fit enough to keep up with the pace, and fast enough to sprint strongly at the end. I lost the race because I lacked patience. I should have realized that my greatest advantage came 150 to 200 meters from the finish. That was where my finishing sprint could not be answered. I needed to bide my time, answer any challenges (which I easily could have done), and then wait for the right time to sprint.
Patience is a theme that runs throughout distance running. At the broadest level, one must be patient about improvement. Fitness comes in leaps and starts, and is not constant and steady. The runner must accept bad races along with the good, realizing that staying with a solid training program will produce results over time. The great New Zealand running coach, Arthur Lydiard, once told me that the benefits of endurance training come the following year. The year the runner is building mileage; the stresses are sometimes too great to permit top racing performances. If the runner becomes impatient, abandoning solid endurance training in favor of quick results, then the runner may never reach his/her full potential.
Patience also plays an important role in interval training. Early in the season the runner will not believe how slow he/she is. This leads to a temptation to run the workouts all-out, which in turn leads to injury. Instead, the runner should be patient, running with a good effort, but not all-out, knowing that the body takes time to adapt, and that speed will come. I have found, from my running and my coaching, that it takes six to eight weeks of interval training before full speed is reached, or even longer if only one interval workout is attempted per week.
The day of the race, patience pays off again. The longer the race, the more patience pays. I remember my second marathon, in Durham, North Carolina. A fellow member of my running club, Bill Hall, who at the time held the US Masters record in the marathon, was in the field, and was the favorite to win. I had been running well in 10Ks, and looked forward to seeing what I could do in the marathon. I thought I would try to keep up with Bill and learn something about marathoning. The race started, and several of us burst into the lead. I was running easily by 10K standards, but soon it became clear that something was wrong. Where was Bill? I looked back and Bill was back in the pack, jogging along, and talking to some friends. I was astonished. I thought, isn't this a race? Eventually Bill gradually eased into his race pace and caught up with the lead pack in the second mile. He eventually eased into the lead, and won the race in record time. Bill was smart enough, and experienced enough, to know that the first mile could do him more harm than good. He made sure to stay out of trouble by keeping a relaxed attitude and biding his time.
Correct pacing in any race demands patience. Physiologists know that the most efficient way to race is to maintain even pace. Many runners translate this as meaning that they should maintain even effort his is wrong! Even effort will result in the runner being too fast at the start, and then slowing badly at the end. My rule of thumb is, "run the first half, race the second half." Actually, the first half of a race should be the most enjoyable part, because the runner should be running easily and just enjoying the event. True competition should be reserved for later in the race. It is best to inhibit one's macho tendencies and let the head rule the heart for the first half of the race. Later in the race, this is exactly reversed. The closer to the finish, the more the heart should rule the head. A finishing sprint often involves more agony than a rational brain would wish to contemplate.
Patience also plays a major role in recovery from injuries. Too many runners leap back into running as soon as they feel good. I find from experience that runners usually need an additional day per decade of age, after they already feel perfect. Thus, a 40-year-old runner should feel perfect for at least four days before resuming running. Then it is necessary to also exercise patience in the recovery itself. As a rule of thumb, the recovery should take about the same length of time as the injury layoff. Trying to come back more quickly may cause a setback that doubles or triples the total time off from running.
To summarize, for best running, it is important to respect the power of patience. Be patient about your training progress, racing progress, and injury recoveries, and also be patient when you race. Good things come to those who wait.
Roland Rust provides free coaching to a handful of dedicated runners. (His coaching resume can be found here .) He also compiles Washington Running Report's runner rankings. Roland can be contacted at rrust9@comcast.net.