NLC Coach Matt Long takes inspiration for this Friday’s session from Jake Wightman’s world championship gold in Oregon!
World Athletics Championships. 19th July 2022.
It was one of the unforgettable moments in the history of British endurance running. Jake Wightman had just overhauled Norway’s overwhelming favourite Jacob Ingebrigtsen to become the first British man to win a global 1500m title since Sebastian Coe in 1984 and only the second man from these shores after Steve Cram, to win the metric mile at the World Championships. But the camera did not fixate on his joyous face but panned away to project an image of an animated grey-haired stadium commentator onto the giant screen within the famous Hayward Fields. The familiar face was Geoff Wightman, who is perched on a gantry. As he understandably struggled to contain his emotion, the 61-year-old, with customary microphone in hand told the 20,000-odd crowd, “That’s my son. I coach him. And he’s the world champion!”.
Friday’s Session
In continuing our Loughborough theme for Friday night sessions, Jake Wightman is a University graduate (BSc Retail, Marketing and Management degree, 2016).
So can you train like Jake and get in shape to beat an Ingebrigtsen? The session you will face is as follows…
4 x 4 mins
Set 1
90s @ 8 out of 10 RPE
30s float
60s @ 9 out of 10 RPE
30s float
30s @ 10 out of 10 RPE
Set 2
30s @ 10 out of 10 RPE
30s float
60s @ 9 out of 10 RPE
30s float
90s @ 8 out of 10 RPE
Set 3
60s @ 9 out of 10 RPE
30s float
90s @ 8 out of 10
30s float
30s @ 10 out of 10 RPE
Note: Set 4 repeats set no.1
You have 3 mins walk recovery in between each 4 minute block of work where you can gather up back at the start line.
Session Rationale:
In his 2005 book High-Performance Middle Distance Running, the late English national coach for middle distance running, Dave Sunderland, coined the notion of the ‘tired surge’. This notion is to express the idea that a single interval can be ‘split’ and contain some kind of differential element. Too many athletes wrongly assume that when running for a block of time (in our case 4 mins) that they have to automatically lock into only one pace only. The notion of the ‘tired surge’ as practised by Jake Wightman, debunks this myth.
The aforementioned Geoff Wightman once said, “Every race is won by the athlete who changes pace the best”. So inherent in our ‘Oregon Gold’ session is gear change. Wightman senior has readily admitted to being heavily influenced by the work of the late founder of the British Milers’ Club, Frank Horwill. In his classic text Obsession for Running (1991), the charismatic coach formulated his notion of ‘multi-tier training’. The Wightman duo of father and son have adapted this believing that multiple paces or gear changes can be utilised not only within one session but within one single interval itself.
In the case of the ‘tired surge’, our session involves a ‘float’ element which will be effected by yourself at slightly faster than jogging pace. The second mistake athletes often make is trying to set the pace of the ‘float’ element of the interval. This is not necessary and a more qualitative yardstick is needed which is whether you feel you are moving biomechanically as a ‘steady runner’ rather than as a ‘jogger’.
The idea of a ‘float’ element within intervals has received endorsement from the groundbreaking research of the Oregon-based coach Peter J. Thompson who has done much to enhance our understanding of the notion of the ‘lactate shuttle’ (see thenewintervaltraining.com). This was originally conceptualized by Dr. G.A. Brooks in 1986 to describe the dynamic action of lactate as a metabolite moving about within muscles and the circulatory system in order to provide the body with metabolic energy. In simple terms the float recovery facilitates the use of lactate as a productive source of energy, hence the value of the ‘tired surge’ as a mode of interval training.
Note how the order of the efforts within a single 4 minute block of work change set by set. They are deliberately randomised not only for greater physiological benefit but also because its harder psychologically as our brains like set patterns and we are deliberately taking you out of your comfort zone.
The reason you are having a relatively generous passive mode of walking recovery in between each 4 minute block of work is because of the high intensities of the efforts- they are at 8,9 or 10 out of 10 on an RPE scale. This is well beyond threshold (7 out of 10) and pushes you into working your lactate energy system which will make you feel heavy legged and slightly sickly in your stomach due to what was called in ‘old money’ terms- ‘lactic acid’. You will need a relatively generous passive recovery in between the blocks of work so you can change gears within the 4 minute efforts and also critically maintain the float element.
Common mistakes to avoid in this session:
- Running the blocks at one continuous pace and failing to change up and down the gears, thus dulling the training effect.
- Not being able to ‘float’ the less intense 30s periods within the blocks of work and regressing to a mere jog or shuffle, again which is not in the spirit of what coach Peter Thompson referred to a ‘lactate dynamics training’.
The above leaves us with a checklist of questions:
- Why should I make sure that there is a different level of pace on the 8, 9 and 10 out of 10 RPE efforts within the blocks of work?
- How should I ensure that the less intense 30s phases of the blocks of work are effected as a ‘float’ rather than a mere jog?
- Which elements of my own training back home include a change of gear within one single session and what am I hoping to achieve by this?
References
For a further understanding of Jake Wightman’s training see the following.
Long, M. (2022) ‘That’s My Boy. The coaching of Jake Wightman. Par 1/3’. RunBlogRun. December 28th.
Long, M. (2023) Jake Wightman- From Boy To Man. Part 2/3. RunBlogRun. Feb 20th.
Long, M. (2023) Jake Wightman- increasing the pace. Part 3/3. RunBlogRun. March 13th.
NLC coach Matt Long has served as both an England Team Manager and Coach for the last 5 years, including here @ Loughborough University for the Commonwealth Games Development Camp in 2022.
