The Malmo Manifesto (Read 1282 times)

Yep, I am a big fan of Malmo and his teachings/philosophy. I always remember his philosophy/two cents on tempo runs. He feels most of us runners run our tempos too fast or race like. He states tempos should leave you feeling invigorated not exhausted. That is something that has always stuck in my head from Malmo.

malmo's manifesto has been posted thousands of times on just about every running board on the Trenternet. Still I never tire of re-reading it. Also good is the summer of malmo.

Emil Zatopek:

Runner's World Daily: How do you compare the modern runner with yourself? Emil Zatopek: The athlete of today is not an athlete alone. He's the center of a team--doctors, scientists, coaches, agents and so on. My running was very simple; it was out of myself. Perhaps sometimes I was like a mad dog. It didn't matter about style or what it looked like to others; there were records to break. Two months before the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, the doctors said I must not compete. I had a gland infection in my neck. Well I didn't listen and what happened? Three golds. The sportsman, the real sportsman, knows what is inside him. Haile Gebrselassie impresses me very much. He seems to run from within himself.

I had someone give this as a response to this topic once: Ah, yes, but for the regular folk not blessed with the genetics for this stuff, like me, the following would run me right into injury and out of a season.... 1. Run twice a day, as many days as you can. Hopefully five, six or seven days a week. 2. Run more. How much? I dunno. You figure it out, but find out for yourself. 3. Run it faster. Unfortunately, it's that sort of thinking that makes running complicated. That it revolves around some predetermined innate ability.

As someone who's trying to break out of the slave to numbers mentality, I find this brilliant. Part of the problem that beginner runners have (I'm assuming I'm not alone) is that we're just not sure how hard we're supposed to be working. Run twice a day as many days as you can? A lot of folks are goign to focus on that and feel that anything short of that is failure. Run it faster? But I've been told training days are for training, racing day is for racing. How much faster? Preformed numbers give us a framework with which to define our training when we don't know enough to provide that framework for ourselves. Throw in to the mix the fact that periodization, peeking, low HR training and other concepts provide solid results for some folks, many of us are perfectly happy to attach our wagon to a concept that's worked well for others. When elite, or even accomplished runners, are asked about their training, they usually answer with numbers - something we can all identify with. Throw into the mix the fact that, while I do love running, at my very core, I'm a lazy person. I try not to be, but I am. Numbers give me a quantifiable measuring stick to gauge my battle against laziness. 48 MPW is less lazy than 38 MPW for example. Running "as much as I can" is a bit vague.

As someone who's trying to break out of the slave to numbers mentality, I find this brilliant. Part of the problem that beginner runners have (I'm assuming I'm not alone) is that we're just not sure how hard we're supposed to be working. Run twice a day as many days as you can? A lot of folks are goign to focus on that and feel that anything short of that is failure. Run it faster? But I've been told training days are for training, racing day is for racing. How much faster? Preformed numbers give us a framework with which to define our training when we don't know enough to provide that framework for ourselves. Throw in to the mix the fact that periodization, peeking, low HR training and other concepts provide solid results for some folks, many of us are perfectly happy to attach our wagon to a concept that's worked well for others. When elite, or even accomplished runners, are asked about their training, they usually answer with numbers - something we can all identify with. Throw into the mix the fact that, while I do love running, at my very core, I'm a lazy person. I try not to be, but I am. Numbers give me a quantifiable measuring stick to gauge my battle against laziness. 48 MPW is less lazy than 38 MPW for example. Running "as much as I can" is a bit vague.

Mr. Inertia, I think you described me there. I'm in the same boat as you - trying to make the transition from number slave on a canned plan - to learning to run kung fu style. Malmo lays out some basic ground rules for that. I may try some of that for the next base phase. I like mikeymike's philosophy even more though (for simplicity's sake) - "Runners run". Doesn't get any simpler than that. I'm not sure my OCD running number addiction can handle any of that yet. I may have to join a Garmin-free 12 step program before I'm ready for either approach.

For the second time since I started this, my relationship with my running just changed. Thank you.