Breaking 1: Base Training Week#1
STOP IT.
So, last week Béné sent me this video which made me laugh so hard.
Basically, a patient walks into a therapist’s office and expresses an irrational fear. The therapist gives her a two word advice: “STOP IT!”. Just stop feeling that way. I found that exceptionally funny and profound at the same time. While running or during life in general, my brain tends to drift off and I often find myself preoccupied with things which aren’t quite on topic. On late afternoon Monday, I went to buy some business shoes (yes, I don’t just wear running shoes all the time) but apparently they don’t make shoes in my size (which is funny because I am a size 42 in Nike and have nearly 50 pairs of shoes at home). I also wanted to buy a spring jacket and have been leaning towards buying a leather jacket (with ethically sourced leather, which is my way of justifying it atleast). I have always wanted a leather jacket because most of my early heroes are heavy metal gods, who wore leather jackets.
After a fair bit of looking for shoes and failing(on which I have a lot to say about the salespeople in Switzerland, maybe later), we instead found one jacket which I fell in love with. It was a beige bomber jacket in suede. A couple of issues with it though were: 1. Though the fit was good, the arms were a tad longer which might be “the” fashion right now but 2. The price tag was so high that justifying the long arms felt a tad unreasonable. (Long arms of the law maybe) Plus, I was wearing a suit with a tie because I primarily wanted to try shoes and see how they go with my suits. I would rather wear a jeans and t-shirt to try the “heavy metal look”.
Side note: Yeah, I am fashion-obsessed. This attention to clothing is omnipresent, even while running. I once joked that I might not be the fastest runner but I am the best dressed. I love to shop and I really like Italian and French clothing. In general, Europeans are excellent at clothing and food but the Italians in particular, their food is exceptional and their taste in fashion suits me. The Italian men tend to be skinny and so the fit of the clothing is designed as such. The fact that my new employer has a style guide and I will get to wear my suits delights me. I don’t believe looks are everything but they definitely impact your first impression. In my current office, some people wear track pants to work or couple formal clothing with sneakers which is just a bit odd. Actually I have stronger opinions on these points but I will keep them to myself.
Anyways, we got back home and cooked dinner. Then Béné had her activity for the evening, so I had time to read and stretch. But my mind over dinner and after dinner kept going back to the jacket. It was like a virus, I was trying to read but then thinking about how I can schedule my day on Tuesday so I can visit the shop. Béné also found a cobbler in Lausanne, who makes custom shoes and for me that’s like a dream come true. If it was upto me, everything I wore would be tailor made. I am not rich enough to do that yet but we live and dream. I read that Roger Federer is friends with Anna Wintour, Vogue’s chief editor and that she helps him on fashion. If any of you is really into fashion and wants to talk, let me know. I want to grow into an elegant old man. Funny story, once I was leaving work and a girl passed me and I felt her gaze transfixed on me and her mouth moving. So I took out my earphones, a bit concerned that I might have offended her but she just told me in French that my outfit looked fantastic. Trés magnifique. Made my day.
I digress. The point is that I was really distracted because the mind loves to go over things it cannot control. Thinking about a jacket or my shoes wasn’t going to alter the future but it was definitely affecting my present. I am reading a great book the famous therapist couple Julie & John Gottman on better ways to behave during conflicts with your significant other. (More on that later). I wanted to be present with the book and focus on the stretching pose I was holding, not thinking about the shoes and jacket. So much like Bob Newhart, I yelled “STOP IT!” to my brain. And funnily enough, it snapped back to attention. I had to yell a couple more times for it to come completely back to focus but hey, it worked.
I feel this is the same during racing. Like mentioned once before, Jake is the master of this technique of coming back to the present moment. He mentioned that during a race, especially if you are pushing towards a challenging goal or racing, it is bound to put you out of your comfort zone. Unless you’re racing 5 year olds, you will have to contend with your brain yelling things at you and being a bit whiny about how it feels uncomfortable because the people surrounding you will be strong and in good shape. You might be in good shape too but given we aren’t professionals, we might not have had a good week leading into a race. If we choose to show up to the start line, we need to accept that it will hurt irrespective of how you feel. If your goal is important to you, you need to tell your brain to “STOP IT!” and get back to the act of racing. You can’t fight physical ailments, you cannot magically overcome a cramp or a side stitch and you cannot just magically become fitter than others. But if you show up to the start line already defeated, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Might as well not compete then. What’s the point of prolonging your misery? Racing hard and hitting your targets, which I am sure are challenging require this focus.
Plus a lot of things our generation tends to whine about, our parents generation would laugh at. It’s not to undermine our suffering and yes, all of us have this unique journey but listen your suffering might necessarily not be the hardship you’re making it out to be. It might just be something happening because of the choices you made and most probably, your brain is just being dramatic. Most things we complain about are not worth complaining about. We are too soft and too privileged to notice how good we’ve got it. For most things, we can train our brain to respond with a calm nod instead of an agitated shake. I’m not saying become an unfeeling robot, but I think despite the general lack of self-awareness we can all distinguish between a tantrum and a real-issue. You being in exile from your country because of a lack of human rights is an issue for example, you getting upset at your grocery store not selling the flavour of ice-cream you like, that’s a tantrum. Many of the issues we face are of the tantrum variety. I mean, how bad is your life really if you are reading this blog on your smartphone? You already are:
1. Educated enough to read.
2. Rich enough to have a smart phone or another digital device.
3. Free to read what you want.
That’s already putting you above a huge percentage of the world’s population. Life is good man. Yes, I know your job sucks and that your boss is an asshole. So is mine. But those are choices you can make changes to. I didn’t even have that freedom until January because I didn’t have the correct type of permit. But I learnt the language, passed the exam, filled in the right papers and then applied to get out of the toxic mess I was in. I did complain but didn’t become bitter. I was able to stay calm and work through the problem. Maybe there’s a solution, maybe you need to abandon the problem. But either way, life is not so bad. You’ve got this.
PS: Note on the leather jacket. In the end, I blew all my budget on shoes because I just couldn’t convince myself to spend money on a leather jacket. There are ethical reasons why I wouldn’t buy one but then if I find certifications for the sourcing of the products, that concern is alleviated. But, even though it has been an exceptionally cold & rainy spring, it is bound to get warmer. Maybe it would make more sense to blow money on a leather jacket with colder climate approaching. Also, just check out the shoes. They are just works of art:
What is Breaking 1?
If you are a new reader, welcome. If you were wondering why the blog is titled: “Breaking 1 Base Training Week 1”, it’s because I like to christen my training blocks with names so it makes it easier for me to blog about them. Breaking 1 basically refers to my deep seated obsession with breaking the 1 hour mark in a local race here in Switzerland called Morat Fribourg (more details in this blog here).
The race is on 6th October, which means I have 19 weeks to go. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t calculated the duration before beginning to write this blog. Come to think of it, 19 weeks might be a bit far out to start doing intensive training. If I already start doing endurance runs and running high mileage, I will gain fitness quickly but then peak too early. And I am trying to peak for this race and then think about Valencia marathon on 1st December. These early weeks I will use this opportunity to get a good rhythm started, getting 2 workouts a week and build a decent mileage base. Then in the weeks leading to the race, I’ll add more race specific work. Following Morat-Fribourg, I will go straight into training for the Valencia marathon. I will already be gaining fitness by doing thresholds, track work and hilly long runs. The only transition from Morat Fribourg to Valencia will be increasing the size of my long runs and doing a few doubles to add to the mileague. 6th October to 1st December is 8 weeks, which is perfect if I use 4–5 weeks to do a massive training block and taper for 3 weeks. One rabbit at a time though. We’ll think of Valencia when times comes to train for Valenca.
So for now, the best idea is to do a threshold and some semblance of speedwork and keep the rest of the runs aerobic. Maybe add more climbing per week and continue to do the strength training and calisthenics I have been doing. I had read an interview with Emile Cairess, 2:06 marathoner who mentioned he incorporates strength work and ballistic movement workouts(or High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) )in his training. I used to do a lot of HIIT specific to the ballistic strength of legs like Burpees, Star Jumps, Jumping Lunges, Kick-throughs, Squat jumps etc. Then I stopped because of some bad advice by this ridiculous physiotherapist I saw just preceding and during my injury phase. (PS: Don’t listen to random people like I did. If you go to a physio, make sure they do your sport or at the very least, understand it and understand your relationship to it. And even so, you know your body better than anyone else. Blindly listening to anybody’s advice is equivalent to accepting Garmin’s training readiness during your workout and slowing down even when you feel good).
I did a rather ridiculously difficult workout on Monday (as it was a light running day) which included a fair bit of HIIT training and though I felt tired, I also felt better while running. In the end the success will come from the miles you do, but reinforcing the body through others means is very beneficial too and can help you avoid injuries. As I realized that I don’t need to go insane with my training plan, I ran easy aerobic runs on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, I decided to run 20' lactate threshold. Per usual, it was raining (I think it just rains when I decide I am going to run threshold) and I was feeling a bit mentally drained. Last week I ran 4 miles in 22:13, averaging 3:27/km and I was like “I need a nap”. Today, despite being drained and drenched, I got in 20' @ 3:24/km. Still nowhere close to peak fitness, but hey, one step at a time. On Friday morning, there were more than 15 vehicles on the narrow lakeside road I run on and it thoroughly annoyed me.
On Saturday, I went to the track for a Vo2 max session for the first time since October 2023. The goal was to get back into it, but not doing long reps yet. No matter how well you can swim, you can’t expect yourself to swim 10k if you haven’t swum for an year. Or you can, but it won’t be good for the body. Trust me, I have lived this analogy during my Ultraman preparation. I decided to begin with 3 sets of 5*200, 200 recovery between reps and 4' between sets. I was more expecting to run 35–36" for the 200s, given that I was running about 16–17" for the 100m strides. I averaged 34" for the 1st set, 33" for the 2nd and 32" for the 3rd, closing it in 31.6. Not fast by elite standards but very decent by my own standards and the lack of Vo2 max efforts in the past 8 months. I don’t know if this is an ambitious goal for me, but I would like to run a Sub 9 3k soon and this felt a step in the right direction. On Sunday, I went for a long run in a very rainy Lausanne. I was a bit annoyed to see it was raining but then I thought of the advantages: NO people by the lake. I hope it keeps raining. It was still 14 degrees and despite the rain, I was able to run in shorts and t-shirt, the humidity kept it warm enough. I was almost surprised by how good the legs felt until I began to climb back. Funny feeling of fatigue after the 1st session back. Eventually I hope to be as strong as Alistair who smashes a session on Saturday and then an epic long run on Sunday (and runs an 8:27 3k).
Sports Roundup for the week
I cried a lot on Monday afternoon. I am going to repeat a story I have told before: Back in December 2004, I saw this article in Sportstar magazine about this 17 year old phenom who beat US open champion, Andy Roddick in Davis Cup and the article was titled “Future Grand Slam Winner?”.
In June 2005, as this phenom became an “adult”, he fulfilled that prophecy and won his 1st grand slam in Roland Garros. He would go on to win 13 more Roland Garros and 21 more grand slam titles. He might be World No. 275 right now, but Rafael Nadal will be №1 for me, forever
For a teenager doing a sport, their sporting heroes mean a lot to them. I was a Lance Armstrong fan back then (still am but I do not condone his actions), along with Nadal, Roddick and Ian Thorpe. (I didn’t watch athletics until quite later). Nadal’s insatiable desire to chase every ball and win every point drove me during those long hours in the pool. I watched his matches without moving from seat. My mother is a Roger Federer fan and my household was bound to have one upset person after most grand slam finals. More recently, in January 2022 I remember being out for a walk with Béné next to the river Aare, in Bern. Nadal had made a spectacular run through the Australian Open, but he was playing Daniil Medvedev in the final and had lost 2 sets and I was so annoyed, I told Béné let’s just be outside. But then during the walk, my curiosity kept having me take out my phone to check the scores as Nadal won the next 2 sets 6–4, 6–4 and was a break up on Medvedev in the 5th. I think we have never walked faster. We arrived to see Nadal get broken but break Medvedev again and break Roger Federer’s record of 20 Grand Slam titles.
On Monday, as luck would have it Nadal was drawn against German giant, Alexander Zverev who is perhaps in the best form of his life having just won Rome Masters. Before the match, I had been listening to Andy Roddick’s podcast and he literally screamed when he saw Nadal plays Zverev in round 1. The thing is that if Nadal managed to beat Zverev, he would have a great run to atleast the semi-finals because Zverev is seeded 4th in tournament and therefore, has a great draw. But like Roddick, I also knew the chances of Nadal winning that match were less than 10%. It was more probable he would suffer a crushing defeat.
Seeing him do his warmup, come up the stairs to Philippe Chatrier stadium where he has won 14 finals brought up a lot of my childhood. Was very difficult to see my hero walk out for perhaps his final match. The crowd was magnanimous in their welcome. Nadal gave a good fight but lost to Zverev. Honestly, he moved far better than what I expected him to do. He even broke Zverev once, which was impressive but I guess the lack of match play and facing such an in-form guy so early was difficult for Rafa to overcome. His speech stirred hope in all us Rafa fans, he definitely will be back for the Olympics and maybe he continues to play. If he doesn’t, I will just say that his career was a remarkable feat of human achievement but he did more than just be an incredible athlete. His conduct on or off court was exemplary and he is a fantastic human being.
Thank you Rafa.
Diamond League News:
So this week, there were two diamond leagues: Oslo on Thursday(30/05) and Stockholm on Sunday (02/06). Oslo was lit. Stockholm DL will be on the evening of Sunday and I prefer to publish the blog before, so Stockholm will be covered in the next blog.
For me, Oslo topped every single Diamond league so far this year. First of all, the Norwegians love their athletics and it was so cool to see a packed Bislett Stadium despite the rain. There were many events which frankly, I didn’t care so much about: Men’s 100, Women’s 800 (when there’s no Keeley Hodgkinson or Mary Moraa or Athing Mu, there’s no point) and Women’s 400 Hurdles (again, no Femke Bol or Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone, no point). And the women’s 200 was a disappointment, especially because Shericka Jackson seemed like a shadow of her 2023 self. But we go to see Swedish discus thrower, Daniel Ståhl smile for the 1st time in his life (maybe not, but atleast 1st time for me). In the women’s 3000, Georgia Griffith took down the Oceania record by running 8:24 and in a much anticipated 400 hurdles men’s event, Karsten Warholm went up against Alison Dos Santos.
Warholm went out hard but Dos Santos kept his pace. Warholm took down the 10th hurdle, got destabilized and Dos Santos managed to beat his great rival by running an excellent, world leading time of 46.63. He defeated Warholm on his home turf, in the stadium Warholm trains. The Olympic 400 meter hurdles will be EPIC. Last Olympics, Warholm had run a barely believable 45.94 seconds to win the Gold and shatter the world record. This year, who knows what will happen but the stars are aligned for another epic showdown.
Also in the last event of the night, Jakob Ingebrigtsen ran the world lead in the 1500, just 5 days after coming to Oslo from Eugene having run a 3:45 mile. And he won the race against a resurgent Timothy Cheruiyot by…. diving! Cheruiyot ran a great race clipping Jakob’s heels until the last 200 and then drew level with him. It felt like a repeat of the 2022 and 2023 World champs finals, but Jakob ensured he only loses to Scots by diving at the finish line and winning by a mere 0.03 seconds:
The 5000 meters deserves a long write up. First of all, the field was stacked. There were the last year’s duellers: Yomif Kajelcha and Jacob Kiplimo who both ran 12:41.73 last year in Oslo only for Kajelcha to be given the win (because he is taller I guess). There was the world record holder in the 5000, Joshua Cheptegei. There was Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet, the bronze medalist from Rio 2016 5000 meters. And basically the entire field was stacked, Dominic Lobalu, Andreas Almgren, a French sexual harasser who happens to run etc.
Australian Callum Davies and Ethiopian Addisu Yihune were the pacemakers with the wavelights set to 12:41.73 to break last year’s meeting record. The race started with the 2 pacemakers up front with Kajelcha in 3rd, Cheptegei in 4th, Kiplimo in 5th, Guatemalan Luis Grijalva in 6th and Gebrhiwet in 7th. Passing through 1k in 2:33 not much changed but the men looked on pace for good showing. Kajelcha’s face often reminds me of the uncle your mother warns you about, who went off the rails and now you avoid him in family gatherings
But he happens to be the uncle who I wished adopted me. The dude has always performed well and it seemed to be the case as Kajelcha clipped Yihune’s heels as they went past 2k in 5:07.05 (2nd K in 2:33.92). Post 2k, Davies dropped off and Yihune moved in the front while the order behind him remained the same. On Lap 7, Gebrhiwet moved ahead of the rest and tucked behind Kajelcha. Cheptegei and Kiplimo were in 3rd and 4th, but the race seemed to have slowed down a bit as the 3rd 3k came in 2:34, the group passing 3k in 7:41.05. Kajelcha had been yelling at Yihune to pick it up and now he just moved ahead of Yihune on Lap 8, dropping a 60.32 lap. Gebrhiwet stayed in 2nd and Yihune, instead of quitting moved to №3 ahead of Cheptegei and Kiplimo. Kajelcha continued to squeeze the field, dropping a 60.21 lap on Lap 9 and this saw Kiplimo move ahead of Cheptegei, who seemed to be faltering a bit. Lap 10 really broke the group with Kajelcha in the lead, Gebrhiwet in 2nd and Kiplimo in 3rd. Yihune, remarkably, was still running (usually pacers just drop out) behind a faltering Cheptegei. 4k came through in 10:11.86 with the 4th kilometer in 2:30.81.
At this point, I remarked to Béné how insanely comfortable Gebrhiwet looked, tucked behind Kajelcha, almost clipping his heels, running 60s laps. Just before the end of Lap 11, Gebrhiwet came shoulder to shoulder with Kajelcha and just before the bell was sounded for the last lap, he attacked. So far, I hadn’t really noticed that Gebrhiwet had gotten braces for his teeth because he had been so comfortable. 12 minutes and 10 seconds into the race, you saw that he got some braces as he gritted his teeth and continue to press on. Behind, Kajelcha had no response for this incredible attack. Far back in the field, Joshua Cheptegei must have been worried that his world record of 12:35.36 was in danger. Gebrhiwet drove to the line, clocking an astonishing 54.99 lap and became the 2nd fastest 5000 meter runner of all time, breaking the Ethiopian national record in the process and running 12:36.73.
The laps for the race were as follows:
61.50
61.64
1k in 2:33.13
61.61
61.71
2k in 5:07.05 (2nd k in 2:33.92)
61.35
61.70
61.90
3k in 7:41.05 (3rd k in 2:34:00)
60.32
60.21
60.53
4k in 10:11.86 (4th k in 2:30.81)
59.62
54.99 (For Gebrhiwet, 2:24.87 last k, last 2k in 4:55)
Kajelcha became the first man to run Sub 12:40 and actually lose a 5000 meters. He ran a remarkable 12:38.95 to finish 2nd and move to 4th on the all-time list. Behind him, Jacob Kiplimo ran 12:40.96(8th all time). Then there was a huge gap to 4th in 12:48.10 by Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo. In 5th was the pace Yihune, who ran 12:49.65. Remarkable. 12 out of the top 13 set personal bests, there were 6 national records and 13 men broke 13 minutes. What has this world come to?
For me, even though Cheptegei ran “just” 12:51, I remember him talking about him not chasing fast times this year because he is medal focussed. Yes, in the Olympic final you will also have Berihu Aragawi, the Olympic 10,000 meters champ, Selemon Barega and Jakob Ingebrigtsen but historically speaking, the Ethiopians run a very stupid tactical race. The championship races are run without rabbits (pacers) and the Olympic 5000 will be in peak summer, which is bound to make it slower. The depth of the talent 5000 is remarkable and while 12:51 doesn’t bode well for Cheptegei (who is the defending 5000 m Olympic champion, but says he doesn’t care as long as he can win the 10,000), like I said the Olympic 5000 will be run differently. I can’t wait. It will be epic.
Hats off to Gebrhiwet. I got so fired up from the race, it just made me want to do a fast session. I am so much more passionate about this than anything else in the world. I hope you enjoyed reading this long blog. I leave you with a picture of my Chilli plant:
