To understand the impact training has we should first look to nature:
Take the Chinese Bamboo tree – do you know what happens after you plant the seed of this tree?
Absolutely Nothing, for 4 to 5 years absolutely nothing. You water and feed, water and feed, but you see no visible evidence of anything happening. Nothing!
You see for 4 to 5 years (sometimes longer) after planting the seed of this tree you get no satisfaction. At this point your patience is really tested, in fact quite some time before this.
There must be something wrong, a dud seed perhaps, not feeding it correctly, even self doubt about your ability to grow bamboo.
Now If you didn’t know about how the Bamboo grows you would think all of the above and give up right?
But, in reality, what’s happening is that hidden from your eyes underneath the ground there’s a massive root
system that’s forming. Then, all of a sudden in the 5th year, the Chinese Bamboo Tree grows and grows and grows, really tall in a very short time.
Now you might think what has this got to do with Running and Performance, well performance improvements sometimes grow like Chinese Bamboo Trees.
You train and train regularly, going out on your training runs, doing varied sessions, giving your all, even contemplating giving up as self doubt creeps in, but sometimes it takes months, even years before you SEE the growth.
Like the root system of the Bamboo tree all the while you’re making deposits into a secret account that all of a sudden begins to pay off.
You suddenly start to perform brilliantly, posting PB’s, running light and easy feeling really good.
You’ve started to grow
..
Provided you are running with correct style, doing the correct and right volume of training and resting you will improve no matter what age you are. Remember you need to be consistent and above all patient.
I will shortly be running a few Run Clinics at various venues across the UK concentrating on running Style/Posture
These clinics will be combined with training sessions incorporating performance improvement.
Watch this blog for more details coming soon.
Till next time
Gordon
