Running On The Spot

The Fling came and went… and I didn’t exactly have the day I was hoping for. Despite being well ahead of PB schedule and running well,  just before Beinglas farm, my head, body and stomach all decided they’d had enough! I finished in around 9 hrs 37 mins, somewhat off my PB from two years ago, but still respectable. The heat beat me. Full stop. Anyway, looking forward…

As I climbed off an exercise bike in the gym on Tuesday, a very hot and sweaty mess,  I bumped into one of the Navy’s PTIs (Physical Training Instructors) that I’ve spoken to before. He asked how the running was going, and I told him about my exploits in the Fling.  He’s a runner himself and the chat developed into PBs and training (I can take him over any distance above 13.1!), and I voiced my concerns about being a submariner and maintaining running fitness. “Let me show you something”, he said.

We walked back to his office, and then he handed me this book…

He explained to me that he had been in the USA and Canada as part of the crew on HMS Ark Royal last year, and had met a US PTI. He had exchanged his beret (The US Navy don’t wear them, but think they’re great) for this book. I wasn’t sure what he was getting at, but this is actually a book about running ON THE SPOT! Apparently ideal for a submariner like me, but despite the author of the book’s forward, I needed some convincing… he lent me the book…

Having skimmed through it, the whole idea of the book would appear to be based on the Sports Psychology principles of Schmidt (for further reading see, ‘Motor Learning & Performance – From Principles To Practice’ by Schmidt, R.A, 1991 - I was a PE student remember!) which suggests that any practice/repetition, is better than none; i.e. practicing putting on the carpet to improve your golf,  is better than not practicing at all. It’s a very interesting read, and I ran a mile on Thursday night in my cabin! There’s an annex to the book which gives suggestive running times per mile (‘On The Spot’) based on your average run/race times, each mile being approximately 1.5 mins slower to equal the energy/calorie expenditure of a normal run.

The book also discusses barefoot running, and how we can use ‘Running On The Spot’ techniques, as a means to improving our running performance.  i.e. as with barefoot running, we can improve our running form through running barefoot, ‘On The Spot’! Given the need for silence onboard a submarine, I was particularly interested in this chapter! 

There are also chapters on running ‘uphill’ on the spot, and running ‘speed sessions’ on the spot… I’m yet to be convinced by these, but if you apply Schmidt’s principles (of which I’m a great believer, and wrote my dissertation on), then there must be something in it! It’s a fascinating book, and I don’t want to give it back… as I (surprisingly, let me know if you can – I scanned the above) can’t find it online, it’s photocopying time at work!

Keep on running friends… but apparently ‘On The Spot’ will do!