Archives // marathon

Yuki Kawauchi

Tuesday 8th March 2011

“every time I run, it’s with the mindset that if I die at this race it’s OK”

This week I was totally won over and inspired by the new Japanese distance running sensation Yuki Kawauchi.

Sunday 27th February saw the latest edition of the Tokyo Marathon, a race increasing in popularity and set to rival the world marathon majors before too long. The withdrawal of Haile Gebrsellassie meant that the race was wide open, and in its role as a Japanese trial for the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, was bound to be a competitive one.

Kawauchi’s story is compelling. On graduation from university, he rejected a contract with one of the Japanese corporate teams in order to run as an individual and be flexible with his training and races. He took a job in a school and decided to fit his training in around his 45 hour working week, often meaning that he could train just once per day.

Last weekend he took part in the Tokyo race where he had placed 4th the previous year. I will not try and attempt to describe what happens, as Brett Larner does it better than I ever could in his Japan Running News blog (the video alone is worth a watch). In short, he ploughs through the field in the last 10k, passing several professional runners – most notably the much fancied debutant Yoshinori Oda – from the corporate teams to finish third in 2:08:37, bagging himself third position prize money, a BMW and a spot on the Japanese team for the World Championships in Daegu.

But what makes Kawauchi’s story so inspiring? He didn’t even win after all, finishing a whole minute behind the Ethiopian victor Hailu Mekonnen. Why is the running world going crazy about a man who is just one of many sub 2:10 men in the world today?

The reason his story is so gripping is that people can identify with it. Though I could never claim to be a working class hero myself, his tale of dedication and perseverance combined with a ferocious work ethic in training strikes a chord with me as I try to fit my training in around a demanding job (in a school like YK himself, coincidentally). His training reportedly consists of a 2 hour morning session before his shift at school which usually takes place between midday and 9pm, with other sessions fitted in whenever possible. It was also reported that the morning after his heroics in Tokyo, he had to do his recovery run before 6am in order to get in early to process applications.

At the time of writing he is in the process of negotiating time off with his employers so that he can take up his place in the World Championships team in August.

His attitude is a throwback to the amateur era before athletes began earning money from athletics, and it shows that if you work hard enough and are committed enough to your training you can be successful. Clearly talent and luck play a role, but a minor one in comparison to hard work. My coach is well known for his assertion that running is “90% above the shoulders” and Kawauchi confirms this. It is heartening to know that by training your body and mind to go further and faster than ever before you can be successful. The look on his face as he storms through the final 3km of the Tokyo Marathon is a picture of agony, a picture of a man so far into the hurt zone that he’s nearly coming out the other side, but most of all a picture of dedication.

I won’t be running 2:08 any time soon, but every time I race I will be attempting to ‘do a Kawauchi.’

Yuki Kawauchi, I salute you.

Training

Tuesday 22nd February 2011

I’ve been training hard. I’ve run two 90 mile weeks back to back and yesterday was my first rest day in 19 days. It is tiring but the experiment with higher volume seems to be working for me. The main benefit I am starting to feel is that I recover from runs so much more quickly. Often in the past it was difficult to get any quality in until late in the week because of the lingering effects of the Sunday long run. Now I feel I am running my Tuesday and Thursday track sessions at a higher intensity than I was before.

Mentally, everything seems to be falling into place for London, which is now only 54 days away. I ran a hilly 21 mile loop with my club mate Martin on Sunday and we covered the distance in 2:06, faster than my previous marathon pace and only slightly slower than my target pace. What pleased me more than my capacity to run at that pace, which I didn’t doubt given the right conditions, was my ability to push myself and stay focused for longer. Last month I blogged about the merits of doing long runs in groups compared to solo efforts, and the group long run every Sunday is really starting to pay dividends. The first of these was Sunday’s 2:06, a time that led Martin, as well as some of my American fellow runners on the Letsrun Marathon training forum, to revise his prediction downwards from 2:35 to 2:30. This does seem like a big step, given that I only broke 1:15 for the half recently. I am racing in a half marathon next weekend and then testing out my pace in a 20 mile race the following weekend. These should be good indicators of the shape I’m in.

If I can run 1:12 I will know I need to be targeting about 2:32 and will set my pace (5:48 per mile) accordingly, but if the time is closer to 1:15 then I will stick with my 2:35 pace of 5:55 per mile.

Of course everything depends on how I run on the day. I could set off too fast, I could be tripped, I could get ill or injured the week before. You can do all the training in the world and still have a bad day. I just like to think of hard training as something that reduces the probability of that happening. As the famous golfing expression goes: ‘The more I practise, the luckier I get.’

Here are some of the entrants to the 2011 Robot Marathon in Osaka.

This made me laugh. Read about it here.

Better in the Long Run?

Sunday 16th January 2011

The key component of a marathon training schedule is the weekly long run. As far as I am concerned I can move other sessions around or even skip certain runs but the 18+ miler at the weekend is non-negotiable.

Heathens that we are, most runners choose to do theirs on a Sunday morning. This isn’t a deliberate affront to religious traditions, or isn’t intended to be at least – though the similiarities between running and religion are interesting. A post for another time perhaps. Personally, it is the most convenient day and doesn’t clash with work. I would find it very difficult to run for two and half hours having spent the day at work, or at least would struggle to put in a quality run. Sunday morning runs allow you to spend the rest of the day taking it easy, perhaps following the run with a gentle stroll in the afternoon, something I find helps my recovery.

Since joining my athletics club, I usually do the long run with a group of other runners, with all of us adjusting for the varying degrees of ability or fatigue by running off and coming back to the group or letting the others do the same to us. However, I am starting to question the merits of this approach. As I see it the long run serves two key purposes: to build and allow you to maintain a good level of endurance, and to train your mind to cope with the challenge of running a long distance. Unquestionably, the group long run serves the first of these purposes but what about the second? Are you training the mind enough in a group situation or should you be trying to develop the kind of toughness it takes to run 22 miles completely on your own on a dark January morning? Does an assisted effort prepare you sufficiently for when you get dropped at 19 miles and your calf muscles start knotting like a climber’s rope? At risk of sounding like Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, what is better in the long run?

As a conversation starter this morning I asked one of my training partners whether we should try running separately as a means of toughening up. He told me that as long as you’re pacing yourself right, you’ll end up in a group anyway – provided you’re in a large enough field, so you will be able to share the work. His point is a good one. Surely the idea should be to get your pacing strategy sorted rather than worry about how well prepared you are for running solo. On top of this you are still running those miles, be it on your own or not, and being in a group can undoubtedly help you maintain a good pace and level of intensity. Often when I run on my own I take my eye off the ball and lose focus. Maybe this is a fault that is unique to me or maybe it is an inherent human trait but whatever the cause, a mile run in 6 minutes is better than a mile run in 9.

I can see the merits in both. I like the idea of training the mind to cope with the rigours of a marathon race, and am equally convinced by the notion that you simply train better in a group. Whichever is right I can’t see myself changing my training too much. A good run with my mates is more enjoyable, which is really the point to all this running anyway.