I knew things where going to be tricky this week when the weather hit. It could have been the perfect excuse to take an easy week, but with my motivation still good and a two week break approaching (In which I intend to live on mince pies and trifle) I managed to knock out a reasonable week. My biggest disappointment of the week was missing the final week of ‘lappers’. A session I’ve been doing with the Cambridge Harriers for the past 8 weeks. The session comprises of 10 x 1k on a twisting undulating course with just 30 seconds recovery between each. I’m convinced that this session has taken my running to the next level, and I now have a much higher expectation of my running potential. So what is it about the session that has brought about the improvements in both performance and mind set? This extract from Trifuel goes a long way in explaining
HYPER-SETTING
This phenomenon is used frequently in the business world by typists looking to increase accuracy. Say a typist wants to touch type at 100 words a minute with 100% accuracy. To do so, they will practice typing at 120 words per minute. This will bring about more errors but when they then lower their typing back to 100 words per minute they will now feel like 100 words per minute is slow. That means they have a perception of having more time and as a result accuracy increases because they no longer feel rushed and out of control.
In the context of sport we can hyper-set all skills (and – another very important factor - we can hyper-set for pain too but that is the context of a whole separate article and exploration of Dr. Tim Noakes’ work on central governor theory).
The process of hyper-setting allows us to more easily achieve a zone-like performance or simply enhances our feeling of control. By performing at above-race-pace we teach our bodies to perform faster than they need to, then when we come to perform at race pace we are given the perception of extra time/ease. Running at race pace now feels much more controlled, we do not feel so rushed and stressed, thought processes are more relaxed and as a result that feeling of being in the zone is enhanced.
If like me you’ve made the mistake of not addressing speed as a skill I’d strongly recommend taking the time to read the whole article. Then no matter what the time of year take the time to teach your body to run quicker.
‘Speed: a key skill for every endurance athlete’
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