The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon is just around the corner and I have been scrambling to get in some hill repeats workout. That little itsy bitsy climb up Sheares Bridge after 35 or so km can be a killer if you are not prepared. Not that the first 35 km before that point is any easier.
So off I went for my hill repeats at Seletar Reservoir last Saturday. I wanted to mimic the stress levels during the actual race, so I ran a good 5km before hitting the slope to the tower at Seletar Reservoir.
Hill repeats here but do not feed the monkeys. They have enough food in the forest.
The workout was:
– Short 2 km warm up at an easy 6:50 to 7:00 pace
– 5km at tempo pace, for me that would be 5:50 to 6:00 pace to the reservoir. This was to mimic the stress I would be be in before I hit the Sheares Bridge during race.
– 8 x 200 hill sprints, with a short recovery between sprints, downslope. I took a drink break after 4 sprints.
– Took a shot of the hill I just sprinted up 8 x for this blog.
– 5km at tempo again, retracing my route from whence I came.
– 2km cool down at easy pace.
– stretch
– beer
That was it. Nothing more. I was tempted to perform an extra 4 sets of hill repeats because I felt I had enough in the tank to do it. But I was reminded of the term Fanatic Discipline.
Jim Collins, in his latest book “Great by Choice”, studied 10x companies . 10x companies beat their industry index by at least 10 times. And they did it during chaotic environments. Jim identified 3 behaviours that characterised these 10x companies. One of these behaviours he termed as Fanatic Discipline, where you perform what you set out to do and nothing more. In the book, the example was of a march from San Diego to Maine. So if you plan to break down this march to 20 miles per day, do 20 miles per day in whatever weather or condition. If you were to reach your 20 mile goal before the end of the day, you should stop and rest. While you want to achieve your utmost, you do not want to over extend your resources and capabilities. For example, if you have the resources to only service 10 clients, taking on more may lead you to compromise service to your 10. Decline in quality of service can mean one or more of the 10 taking their business elsewhere.
In running terms, you want to be sure that you do not cheat yourself by underperforming. You will feel unfulfilled. But if you were to over extend your resources and capabilities, the danger is that you injure yourself. Jeopardising your ultimate race goal. It can also be demoralising. You doubt yourself. But if that happens, get back up, put on your shoes and run.
Set your training goals, achieve them, then go home have a beer and look forward to your next workout.