The last 6-month cycle (Apr-Oct) was Andrew’s best since becoming a Valiturus athlete. This is a list of what culminated in his success over the past 6 months and the changes we’ve made that have made the past 6 months so fruitful. He ran a fresh 10km PB at Taupo Marathon (33:52), finished 12th at NZ road champs and finished 2nd at the Auckland Marathon 11km traverse, in 2 minutes faster than 21 months ago.
Coaching Andrew for 2+ years. In the initial phases of coaching anyone, you’re figuring out what workouts they hate & love, what stimulus they respond well to, and what stimulus fries them. So what does Andrew respond well to? Mid-zone intensity, threshold/sub-threshold intensity is Andrew’s bread & butter, he performs best with that intensity. He can struggle with longer aerobic work and as we get closer to Vo2 max intensity it can be walking a tightrope.
Andrew having a large say in his training. The coach isn’t the driver; the athlete is. Coaches are here to navigate and keep the athlete on track. Plus, the athletes know themselves and their bodies the best. Over the past 2 years, Andrew has gradually had more say in his training and now feels comfortable voicing what he thinks is the right option. Which is great, he knows what he’s feeling at any time what he needs and how he’ll respond to it. I’m just there to keep nudging him the right direction.
Abandoning workouts if he’s f**ked. This year we’ve placed a substantial emphasis on abandoning or abbreviating workouts if he’s not up to it. Andrew has done well at this, letting go of guilt when he skips workouts if he’s not up to it, and realising the bigger picture. Digging a deeper fatigue hole when you’ve not already come out of it is not wise.
Flux workouts. Apart from recovery runs and our mid-week zone 2 run, every run has embedded flux elements. No workout is singularly paced. This has made a massive impact for physiological reasons, such as improving the lactate shuttle, metabolic flexibility, and speed flexibility. This means he can 1, shuttle lactate, a byproduct of intense exercise, to slow-twitch fibres or other organs to use as fuel, 2, he can seamlessly move in and out of different energy systems and utilize different substrates for fuel, and 3, he can better handle gear changes within races.
Consistency. Andrew would have to be currently the most consistent Valiturus athlete, and honestly, that’s the golden goose above everything else. The programme that is moderately in the ballpark is done with consistency, with an athlete who has belief and remains healthy. Will always beat a better programme done with average consistency or lack of belief. Because of Andrew’s mundane consistency this year, he’s been able to stack week on top of week. It’s not sexy, it’s nothing earth-shattering, it’s aerobic work on top of aerobic work, done to best complement Andrew’s individual needs.
Not progressing training when he’s not ready. Often if you rigorously follow a periodized model, you’ll move onto the next phase of training, regardless if there are still gains to be made doing what you’re currently doing. Or be in a massive rush to get from point A to point B. In this context, you’re not playing the long game and are leaving gains on the table. And moving to adding specific race work when they are not quite prepared for it yet, and would benefit from spending some more time doing “general” work. We’ve sat with the same stimulus for 2-4 weeks until we felt we got what was needed and was time to move on. Having this approach means we’re juicing the gains from the aerobic work and due to not being in a rush to progress he’s had limited training interference due to injury this year. Your body doesn’t follow a periodized training plan, it adapts at it’s own speed.
Improving his running mechanics. It is very complex deciding whether to start playing with someone's technique or not. There are many factors and nuances to play with before deriving a conclusion. However, Andy’s technique didn’t require a massive overhaul, so we chipped away at changes slowly. The changes we made centred around improving his trunk control, he lacked the ability to maintain a neutral pelvis and stack his trunk on top, maintaining good postures. This meant he spent too much time backside, and his leg would shoot through right before initial contact, where he would break himself and pull his way through the stride. Opposed to know where he’s more front side, he can whip his leg through earlier and higher, providing the opportunity to whip down and back, attacking the ground. End result: greater elastic energy return and greater RFD into the ground, meaning he can travel faster with a lower energy expenditure.
Greater polarisation throughout a training week. For the past 12 months, we’ve had a large emphasis on making sure easy runs are proper easy and Andy has fully embraced it. His easy runs are pure zone 1 trots, no strain. Anecdotally I feel this allowed him to bounce back from workouts physically and mentally faster. Resulting in us being able to stack week on top of week, as 2 days per week he can switch off and not worry about output.
Taking a step back from intensity. In 2022 we had a lot of critical velocity workouts, with some of these workout’s bleeding over into Vo2 max workouts. This was detrimental for 2 main reasons. 1, he was fried, and we left races in training, 2, with Andy still be relatively new to training, workouts only needed to be tempo or sub-threshold intensity to build his aerobic capacity and elicit changes like mitochondrial biogenesis. This year we’ve taken a step back and a higher priority on building the aerobic engine and playing the long game. We had less intense workouts throughout the last cycle and he ran faster.
Removing fluff in the gym. Andy’s gym programme is a lot more basic than what it used to be. It consists of A, warm-up, B, plyometrics/sprints/drills, and C, strength/RFD work. The plyometric/sprint/drills is the main sauce and if a runner is strong enough, this is where the bang for buck lies. Every session we bound, hop, dribble and sprint. These exercises have improved Andy’s mechanics, RFD and SSC (subjective observation and RSI data). Ultimately improving his running economy, allowing him to run faster at a lower energy cost.
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