Week 7 Day 1 So it seems that maybe I’ve been going like a bull at a gate with this running caper…walking with my partner the other night and we jokingly started to do the Cliffy or the ‘Cliff Young Shuffle’…for those who don’t know… Cliff Young is a legend in marathon running in Australia…
Cliff was a potato farmer who won the first Sydney to Melbourne ultra marathon (875km/543miles) at the age of 61! That’s pretty rad…but wait there’s more…He had never run an ultra marathon in his life before! He beat 10 other top athletes! And broke the record for that distance by two days!! Cliff Young started the race behind the leaders but when they all stopped and slept over night, he kept running! This was when he took the lead in the race and kept it and came in first … 10 hours ahead of the rest!
What kept Cliff going through the 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes of that race? He imagined He was running after sheep and was trying to outrun a storm! And I think, just quietly, an enormous competitive spirit that his competitors just couldn’t match in that particular race.
So for my first day of Week 7, with a bit of classic NLP behavioural modelling (basic outside modelling), I busted out with the ‘Cliffy’ and completely surprised myself! I didn’t get puffed, I didn’t get stitches and i didn’t run out of energy!! (On the flip side I didn’t feel like I was running! It was just too slow And clearly not painful enough to feel like I was doing anything…is that crazy?? Haha!)
I was keeping my eye on the ‘run average pace’ which drifted right out to around 10 min per km (my average has always been around 6.2ish) so I figured in the last 3 minutes I would go all out and really run! Wow! It was great! I felt like I really got to stretch out and expend a bunch of energy .. and it got my run average pace to 6.3per km. and only 870km’s to go to be truly anywhere near Cliffy ..Never going to happen!
I don’t know if that’s the ‘right’ way (or if there is a ‘right’ way), I just know that it felt awesome to run and not tire but to have a lovely rhythm but also to really stretch out at the end and run like the wind! …Ok, maybe more like a gentle breeze! At least I’m not exhausting myself and struggling the whole time now haha!
Which are you most interested in…a comfortable run or average pace, time or distance? What is a good measure of a run in your eyes or legs!
oh and here is a little youtube clip of Cliffy.
Cliff Young
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