Today our Western Michigan correspondent, Richard Mach responds to the following article which appeared in this week's New Yorker magazine (Sept. 7, 2021) by Jacob Sweet. You can open the article, with a bit of effort, in the link below. I would strongly urge you to first write down your own ideas, then read the article, then compare your ideas to Mr. Mach's. George
Why Were So Many Running World Records Broken During the Pandemic?
The shutdown led to unusual circumstances that helped runners excel like never before.Read in The New Yorker: https://apple.news/
Richard Mach's interpretation.
What the article seems to tell me is we're looking at a contextually significant difference, namely that without the subsequent every week to 10 days big race to prepare for, one could instead race the clock to get beneath the OLY standard while racing with his or her equally talented mates.
Because I have not at all followed distance training techniques methods and protocols across the past 30 yrs or so, I am unsure if whether there is an underlying method in all that possible madness; such as you training within an inch of your life, then tapering before the more important or challenging competitions. And you usually point for one or two races within that season throughout the year that has the most meaning for your career or future and so develop your training plan around that, so that you peak in terms of racing fitness at -- hopefully -- just the right time.
However there are truly so many variables. both known and unknown, to keep track of, that it is difficult to imagine being less than outright lucky to modulate the entire ensemble right down to the nth degree and arrive bright and shiny on that race day and knock out a big one.
Perhaps it is a kind of prematurely inborn talent few have who not only listen to but hear their very souls talking to them that manage to extract the very last drop out of their training. We do know one thing : Much of the demand on the competitor was clearly reduced despite the uncertainty. One could cease racing because there were so few first rate contests last year. And delve more safely into what his or her true limits were. The kid who grew up just down the road enunciated something like that in the article: Grant Fisher.
And for giving it your all, you were not penalized in the next few races because you hadn't recovered, because there were no new races. So, it could well have been a time of experimentation. And actually getting more rest, especially psychologically, because travel was way down and the myriad of travel-based adjustments to food and time zones and promoter demands simply weren't playing.
So, most of all, in order to achieve not only world class times, but to achieve them consistently; and not only world class but world record times, the magical ingredient is actually not hammer 'til you die, but hammer selectively and get plenty of rest and as we learned this year -- stay racing fit by racing. Hard. Every time out. And rest in between. Scary and tricky? Yes, because it is not often done.
Most of all I'd like to talk to another guy down the street, the one living in Ann Arbor or as we say it here A Squared, namely Nick Willis, the Kiwi and perennial world class 1500 m guy now 38.4 yrs old and ask him as an assistant coach at Michigan U what he makes of this article and what things in his long and illustrious career he can reflect on around what he has come to and used himself.
Gentlemen:
Have you forgotten the term "tactical races"?
Take care,
Tom Coyne
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