James Nipperess: Consistency V Variety
The journey of my sport is a yin and yang of consistency vs variety. Running is a simple sport in some respects, and to keep doing the things you do well and mixing up those that you don’t is paramount. I thought I’d share with The Long Run a few key factors of my athletic life that I will keep consistent and those that I look forward to varying in 2015.
Terrain:
Over the new years period I returned to a Falls Creek training camp for the 9th occasion. I’ve spent close to half a year up there over my life. After being elsewhere last year a part of me missed the mountainous scenery and the miles of aqueduct adjacent fire trail. Just this Wednesday however my workmate Ric Austen took me around his neck of the woods in Manly Dam – trail running. Trail running is a booming activity in Sydney, and being a guest panelist at a trail running seminar later this month I really had to see what all the fuss was about. But when people specifically say they are a “trail runner” and opposed to a runner, previously the naïve part of me would roll his eyes at them inside my mind, and say: “I’ve done cross country. I’ve done steeplechase…. I’ll be sweet? Right?” But woah. I seriously underestimated the dichotomy of the activities. My experience of trail running was breaking momentum and trying not to fall over rocks and roll my ankles half of the time, and scaling boulders with my hands the other half of the time… but I found it strangely fun. Every now and then mixing up the terrain where you run can be fun and this experience was a great strength workout. Although enjoyable, I certainly wont be joining Ric or training associate Dave Byrne any time soon in the trail races.
Diet:
Ask a Kenyan runner his percentage of saturated fat in his diet or daily caloric intake and you will more than likely be greeted with a very blank look. More often, western runners tend to over-think diet. With all our supposed knowledge and science we are typically slower. I was quizzed recently at an Athletics International event on my diet and to summarize the message I gave was “Don’t follow fads, mix it up and put in enough to support your training”. If you’re an endurance athlete your dietary needs are different from fitness models so eat up. Eating a variety of fresh foods is great, but keep in mind a consistent diet helps breed consistent results. I have been using the same pre run (Endura Rehydration) and post run (Endura Optimizer) for 12 years now. Overall, don’t buy into the advice of some kettle-bellend to cut out (insert currently untrendy marconutrient) because it supposedly help his ripped abs or sip gluten free biodynamic coconut oil infused Kopi Luwak coffee (or whatever the next buzz product is) just because it’s in vogue. There is no magic bullet, no short cuts. Don’t believe the hype. Find what works and stick to it. Train hard and eat enough. Simple.
People:
This will be my 8th year with coach Ken Green. People too often chop and change coaches for the wrong reasons or have the football mentality to blame the coach if things don’t go as well as planned. But I believe his programming and his squad environment have brought me my past success and I continue to believe this structure of the Asics Sydney Running Academy will help me achieve my future goals. But as much as I love spending long runs hearing km by km splits of the 2009 Beppu marathon (Courtesy of Jeff Hunt), training with new people every now and then is great. Having Canadian guns Kelly Weibe and Lucas Bruchet at our Falls Creek training camp was awesome. Their easy going yet hard working nature was a great boost to the squad at training and throughout Woodsmoke apartments between sessions, despite having to swallow my pride in devastatingly losing my FIFA 2015 title to Lucas.
Shoes:
Since beginning any organized training for distance running in 2003 I did the vast majority of my mileage (other than speedwork) in one make of shoe. I switched to the Asics Nimbus in 2013 and hope to be wearing these for another 10 years. I’m lucky enough to have minimized the time I have spent on the sidelines with injury over the years (touch wood) and the OCD athlete and physiotherapist part of me scream that if you run in a particular pair of shoes 90% of the time and its working then don’t change for the sake of it. In saying that, the track nerd inside of me is excited to try something new later this season with the innovation of the Asics Gunlap spikes (5-10% of my mileage).
Best of luck to everyone keeping on grinding away this season, I hope you find your own balance of consistency and variety in 2015.
Peace,
Nipper