Yesterday, when I was running with Elizabeth, I told her that I ran some intervals with Jason on Saturday (which was supposed to be an easy slow day). She cautioned me to be careful and not to overdo it on those days.
I stumbled across this article titled "The Secret to Running a Faster Marathon? Slow Down" which certainly caught my eye and reminded me of this conversation with Elizabeth.
Here are a few of the best parts of the article:
“Work hard,” he said. “But not every day.”
I stumbled across this article titled "The Secret to Running a Faster Marathon? Slow Down" which certainly caught my eye and reminded me of this conversation with Elizabeth.
Here are a few of the best parts of the article:
“Work hard,” he said. “But not every day.”
Slowly Slowly
Back to Kenya. Watching Kipchoge’s group at work, I saw that they never did two intense days back to back; they were always committed to developing their fitness, in the Kenyan parlance, “slowly by slowly.” Patrick Sang, Kipchoge’s coach and a formidable presence in the athlete’s life, explained to me the basis of this philosophy as he stood at the side of the track with a stopwatch in his hand and his red-and-black hoodie fastened tightly around his head. Our conversation had begun when I asked Sang why Kipchoge’s group were doing a 12 x 1,200-meter session on that day.
Back to Kenya. Watching Kipchoge’s group at work, I saw that they never did two intense days back to back; they were always committed to developing their fitness, in the Kenyan parlance, “slowly by slowly.” Patrick Sang, Kipchoge’s coach and a formidable presence in the athlete’s life, explained to me the basis of this philosophy as he stood at the side of the track with a stopwatch in his hand and his red-and-black hoodie fastened tightly around his head. Our conversation had begun when I asked Sang why Kipchoge’s group were doing a 12 x 1,200-meter session on that day.
Sang said this session was to build “speed-endurance”—the ability to maintain a high speed for a long time. But if you thought about only one workout, you missed the point. The idea of a training program, Sang told me, was to improve every aspect of a runner. The approach was holistic. If you scheduled a speed-endurance session for a Tuesday, you needed to make sure that the following day would be light, so that the guys had time to recover before the Thursday long run. Friday would again be light, before a different kind of speed workout on Saturday. Sunday was a day of rest. A good day of training was worth little on its own, but a good month was worth plenty. Slowly by slowly, the athlete’s shape came. “Every session is a building block,” Sang said.
I love this. "Pole. Pole" as they say in Kiswahili.
Praying for you today, Taylor, that every day can be a building block and that God would continue his good work in you.
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians1:6
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