Slaying your dragon - Learning from ultra running!

I have to admit Ultra Running has been something I have admired from a far until more recently. Any event when pushing yourself to the limit of your capability can be unbelievably testing and requires robust levels of patience, discipline and emotional control.


I remember reading the autobiography of the great American sprinter Micheal Johnson 'Slaying the Dragon' as he described his quest to reduce his 200m time by 0.5 of a second...a journey that took him 10 years!


We live in a very fast world now, everybody is looking for results.. fast! Football clubs sack their managers after a handful of games if results don't go their way, the over weight look for pills or crash diets to loose those extra pounds and as athletes we expect every work out to deliver those vital extra seconds that will help us towards our PB's or personal goals.


In my experience anything worth having takes time, I know that probably sounds like the kind of thing your mum would say, my mum definitely did! Short cuts to getting good don't exist, when you ask those overnight successes about how they did what they did you find out about the years of work behind the scenes, see my April post on Triathlons rule of 3.

I have over the past 2 years observed and got to know an athlete who for me really approaches his sport in a way that gives him the best possible chance for success and he is I believe a remarkable and incredibly unassuming athlete.

He is an runner and his name is Pat Robbins and he runs for our local Triathlon Club, Zoom, where I coach. For the last 4 years Pat has focused on ultra long distance running and in doing so has targeted his efforts around 1 big race per year, for the last 3 years this has been the Grand Union Canal Race. A continuous 145 mile run along the Grand Union canal from Birmingham to London. http://www.gucr.co.uk

In his first year Pat competed in the GUCR he came a very creditable 4th in 31:46. (31 hours and 46 minutes) The whole experience was incredibly new for him, his preparations were limited to a few 20 mile runs and many of his fellow competitors found this most amusing in the pre-race discussions. Most of whom were experienced ultra runners and members of the 'I've done 100 marathons or more club'. Unencumbered from the conventional wisdom Pat surprised himself and the field by a stand out performance for a first timer.

Taking the learning from this first event Pat built on his experience, training consistently and patiently. He maintained the things that had clearly worked well, interval sessions and short road races to maintain his speed. He added to this some race specific long weekend runs and course specific simulations.

He does seem to have remarkable powers of recovery but showed time and time again great emotional control in managing his recovery at club training sessions, not getting dragged into competitive intervals with other runners, leaving his ego behind and focusing on what was important. The result last year was a win and a new course record of 27:01.

Last weekend Pat won his third GUCR this time over the slightly longer distance of 148 miles (A few detours due to road works!) Again he broke the course record 26.24, with his closest competitor almost 5 hours behind him.

This year the consistency of his training has again been a key component in his success. He has avoided over training by mixing the science of Garmin technology and good old listening to his body. His patience has allowed his fitness to develop layer by layer like skins of an onion. Maintaining his speed was again key, in the winter Pat was running 5k's in a respectable 17.15 not bad for an athlete who's 'A' race will be over a distance 140 miles longer than that. Observing Pat's humility and almost ego free approach is a great lesson for any aspiring athlete wishing to develop the emotional control needed to get to the top in any sport or area of life.

Slaying your dragon might be over 10k or 100k, whichever it is remember your fitness onion takes time to develop.
Rob