My name is Joshua
Pauley. And I am taking a small first step.
This spring I will be
racing Grasslands 50 miler as a tune up for my focus for my goal race
- Possum Kingdom 52 miler. I have had a lot of thoughts about training. There are
so many ways to go about things. This
post is about what I have decided for my running throughout the winter and
spring training blocks.
To understand what I
believe in regards to my training you must understand where I have been with my
training in the past. It is on the
success I have had thus far that my foundation is formed on. It is on the success I have had thus far that
my confidence is found in.
My dad is a coach and
teacher; and these are roles that he has always played directly for me as
well. Because of this I grew up doing
all sports. Through high school I played
football, basketball, cross country, and track.
My training was never very focused in high school. I came from a small East Texas school, with
an enrollment of 200 kids, at these schools distance running is not something
that is focused on. With my dad as my coach through much of my high school
career I made it through. I made the run
through district, and regionals, and state. I did all that jazz. I was not
particularly fast coming out of high school (1600m: 4:36, 3200m: 10:00, &
5k: 16:45). With minimal training and experience in high school – I accomplished
my goal of being recruiting and running at the collegiate level.
My freshman year I did
ok. I made the travel squad for our
cross country team (top seven) and I survived through indoor and outdoor track. But I was not great…and to be completely
honest I would not even say that I was good. Sophomore year rolls around and I
had put in a solid summer and as a result I had a decent cross season. But I had come up short and found myself
dissatisfied. At the end of the fall
semester I went to my head coach, Jacob H. Phillips, for a talk.
I think as runners, and
as people, we eventually have to choose – do I want to be the runner that I
currently am or do I want to be the runner that I dream of being? We have got
to ask ourselves this and then take action. So that is what I did.
I told Jake that I wanted to do something bold and to be someone else. A different runner. I told him I wanted to run 100 miles a week. His response was “How about 110 miles per week?” I set off that winter to go hide out and become someone else. I returned for the spring semester a different runner…and I set fire to the track. I toed the line at every race, and I would look to my left and look to my right. And I knew I was going to beat most of these people. I knew I had done more work. I knew I had bled for that opportunity. I PR’d in every race I ran that indoor and outdoor season (thanks coach).
The mileage is not what made me great. It was the work I was able to do as a result of the mileage. Mileage is just a means to an end. A way to train harder. A way to callus over. A way to go numb to the world around you.
The following summer I began putting in the most intensive base and summer I ever had all in hopes to win a conference title. Weeks upon weeks of high volume. After that I had the best season of my college career. I won the individual conference title and my team won its third consecutive team title. Things were great. I was running a lot. I was strong. I was having fun.
Indoor season did not go great. I did not have a lot of “pop” in my legs – which would make sense because you’re not supposed to have a lot of “pop” in your legs. But it just did not feel the same. I struggled that season – running slower than I had in my entire career. I decided to redshirt my outdoor season. And I hit the reset button.
I ran and I ran a lot. If I love doing something why not do it as much as I can? So that spring I just played. It was a spring of mileage, fartleks, and tempos. If I remember correctly I did six weeks at 120 mpw. It was good to run free, unstructured, and get back to my roots. It was fun. After the spring the entire process started over. Long steady runs and high mileage. Hills and tempos. And then repeats in the last four to six weeks of my senior cross country season (DBU won its sixth straight conference title on the girl’s side and fourth straight on the guy’s side).
Jake has always preached that “strength is speed.” DBU is a Lydiard based training program. They believe in high aerobic capacity sprinkled with some speed at the end. I have had success with this and I support it completely.
So how does this carry over to training for my winter and spring training block?
Strength…obviously. For this first training block I will only max
out at 120 miles a week – which I have done consistently before and I’m
comfortable with it. I will be doing weekly
tempo runs within my long run (to help develop depth in my running and to adapt
to race situations). I will also do fartleks
to develop speed and leg transition.
Hill repeats and hill circuits, which are my disguised speed work. I will do back to back long runs on the
weekends. As you’re reading this you might be wondering where my intervals
are. But they are there.
In “Intervals” Dakota Jones writes about some of the training he has done and talks about some of the interval reps he has done. He writes: “…depending on the race for which I am training, those have fluctuated up to 4 x 12 minutes, 4 x 20 minutes, and even a few 2 x 30-minute intervals.” All this is is 4x2 miles, 4x3 miles, and 2x4 miles of hard effort in the middle of a regular run. This is very similar to what I am doing. I am just titling this work different. You can read the sited article here: http://www.irunfar.com/2013/10/intervals.html.
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| Dallas Skyline from Trinity Trails |
Over the last three weeks I have been able to talk to Paul Terranova and learn from his career and his training. I think one thing that really impresses me about Terranova is his durability. He just had his 40th birthday and he is not showing any signs of slowing down. After talking with him I have decided that this is a big testament to cross training and recovery days. So I want to make sure that I personally do a good job of recovering and doing the strength training – because he is proof that it does pay off. I want to enjoy this process and have a long life in the sport.
After building up to 120 miles a week I will be on a three week cycle. Two high weeks and then one down week. I will go through 2-3 of these cycles. It will be interesting to see how things go. I’m not ready to do any crazy mileage (140+). I train in Dallas, so I do not have any mountains to run up. But I will make use of what I have. Week to week I will post a write up of my training from the past week – and that will be more specific about what I am doing.
We can always be who we are now. Or we can decide to go for it. To risk everything. I for one want to risk it, and go for it – and training is just the first step.
Thanks for following me and showing an interest in what I have to say. Also thanks to Paul Terranova, Joseph Hale, Jacob H. Phillips and all the other people in my tribe for all of your contributions. It is going to be a long road, but I know great things can happen.
~Bump the Lamp,
Joshua
“A journey of a
thousand miles begins with one small step.”
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