The Albon Way

Episode 1 - Jon in Limbo

In this episode of The Albon Way, hosts Henriette and Jon Albon discuss the intricacies of trail running, focusing on race preparation, recovery strategies, and the mental aspects of competing. Jon shares his experiences leading up to his upcoming 50K race in Nice, emphasizing the importance of race specific training, proper fueling, and the psychological balance needed to perform at one's best. The conversation highlights the significance of rest and recovery, as well as the need to enjoy the process.

Broadcast on:: 28 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Welcome to The Alvin Way, a podcast dedicated to providing practical and actionable advice to children of all levels. This podcast is hosted by myself, Henriette about Alban and my partner, John Alban. And we are getting better at this, hopefully. All right, John, how are you doing? I'm good, how are you? Right, it started snowing outside today, so that has sort of set the tone. I was hoping to do my first jog outside for a couple of days after an ankle sprain, but we'll see how tempting that is now. Winter is certainly coming. I actually had a race-specific session set for, well, to be honest, I think it may be it was set for today, but I've certainly moved it around a few times already this week. And today is Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday, so I've got two days left to get it done. And it's kind of an important one. Mm-hmm, how come is it so important? Well, I had, well, it's true two weeks ago now, and I've got niece in a week. So this was going to be pretty much my only race-specific session in between those two. And it's a really sort of strange period in the year when you've got races so close together, and what you do in between those two races can really make or break the next performance. Mm, it's interesting that you say that. But why do you say make or break? Well, I think you can really screw up in this time by getting back into too much training too soon, having not been recovered from the previous race. So there's not really much you can do on a fitness building front because the timeline is so short, but then there are certainly ways you can adapt your training to prepare specifically for the next event and also do lots of other things which aren't specifically fitness-related to try and give yourself the best chance of performing two expectations in the next one. Mm-hmm. So let's dive into this a bit deeper. So you had Wales Jubal, was it two weeks ago now? Two weeks ago. Two weeks today. Two weeks today. And you've got knees coming up in like a week. Exactly a week today. That leaves three weeks between two races. They're not like extremely long demanding alter races on your body, I suppose, so that's why you planned it that way or? Yeah, that's the only reason I could do another race so soon because Wales Jubal was, there's actually only 35k in the end with the bad weather course and half of that was on snow, so it was a bit softer for the body, but then the other half was on relatively hard surfaces, some roads and some harder trails and I was wearing thinner gripier shoes so that means there was some pounding going through the body in the second half. So I've certainly had to take recovery quite seriously in that week afterwards, both from an engine perspective but then also from the running impact side of the things. So, I mean what do you do when you finish that race knowing you've got another one straight around the corner? Do you sort of travel back home and then start looking at the next race immediately or what's your approach to that? Yeah, it really depends where the next race is and what your travel plans are in between. Luckily, we got to come home, which was great because I always find I recover best at home and it's at home that I know how my body should feel and how it should react to certain training or other life stresses, so that means I can get a good gauge as to whether I should be training or should take some extra days rest. So we got to come home, back down to sea level, that always speeds up recovery as well. And the first thing I tried to do was to do something else in my life, which might sound kind of strange to other people because they've already got lots of other things going on, but actually for me my life revolves around training and preparing for races, so sometimes you need to take a full psychological break and for me that means looking for something else to do and luckily we had some building projects going on around the house, so maybe not like the best recovery because it is still quite tiring to work in like an active kind of job like that, but then it's actually really quite good to keep moving and keep blood flowing, so I actually think my calves were the stiffest part of my body after the race and to be continually up and down and walking around on the calves actually kind of helped those, but then I was still quite tired in the evenings after a full days. Manual labour, so I was having to really take a good solid break from the training and not actually think of the sessions I was going out and doing as training whatsoever, weather was also really good, so I got out and did some nice scrambles, some nice climbs just out moving but not thinking it was training and that was really good for the soul as well, so I really enjoyed those trips out to be back at home and let my hair down a little bit, but as always I was kind of quite conservative coming back to the training after a race like that, like there's no point rushing into it, especially with the running, usually I've got a rule of thumb, but as soon as you feel like you are good enough to start training again, you take an extra day or two because that extra day or two isn't going to hurt whatsoever, but to start training too soon can really set you up for a downfall and it's always best to be a little bit more on the safe side. So you're basically taking a bit of a condensed off season in a way where you just do whatever you feel like, in this case you had the opportunity to do some work on the house which was just a nice mental deload for you and then you didn't really have a training plan in place, you were just going out doing whatever you felt like depending on the weather as well. Kind of, I mean there was a plan in place, I did follow the app and I have found over the previous years that I've often thought back to after a race, if I'd followed the app I would have been in a much better place a few weeks after the race, so I did have a glance at the app and see what it was telling me I should do which was pretty much a lot of nothing and then adapting it to what I thought I could do that day to get a similar stimulus which would be extra, extra recovery, so I do think I pushed the boundaries a little bit with the long scrambles and they weren't that wise, but then while Shribba wasn't that long of a race, like I said half it was on snow, the energy levels were still good and I got a lot of good endorphins from going out and doing those trips as well, so you've got away the pros and the cons and I certainly considering the weather now, I'm thankful that I got out on those trips. Okay, so at what point do you actually sit down and start looking at your next race? Or have you even done it? Now I have, like training has to be really made quite specific in this time, normally all sharpening training should be specific to the next race and if the races are going to change quite drastically then that means a little bit of a change in how you're executing the workouts, so when I planned in this week's training, which was a sharpening week, I had to then look at the race and then when I adapted the workouts to maintenance specific, I could make them specific enough, so the first thing I did was sit down and try and look at some maps of where the route would go and I've chosen to do sort of the 50 kilometre distance in Nice and the GPX file wasn't actually available on the website, on the UTME website, so that was a bit sort of like annoying because it means a little bit of extra work on my end, but then I went into Strava route planner, had a look at the heat map so I could see exactly where the best trails are and then had a look at the race map and planned it out as exactly as possible on the Strava route planner, which I think is the best place really for creating routes because they've got the best map of elevation available so you can really get a good estimation of the distance of the course and how much climb you're going to have, which for me is really important, so they also have the heat maps down there, so they show where people normally run, which makes it a little bit easier to actually plan your route because I mean normally it will be in a place where people are run so yeah for sure, quite often you'll see that the heat map might go off the trail, which is actually sort of like on the map and then you can actually tell that people have been running there instead of on the trail which has been recorded into the map so you can make the whole thing a lot more accurate and that's the programme I've used for the longest and think is the best for planning out routes, so that's the first thing is to try and get a good GPX file of the route and then actually within the app not a lot of it is public yet but we do have a lot of GPX analysing capabilities so I can put in the GPX file in and adjust a few parameters and see how long it might take me at a certain grade adjusted pace or put in a certain grade adjusted pace and see vice versa, so that can be really handy I can then also put in the aid station and see roughly how long it's going to take me to get between all the aid stations, so all this sort of analysis is really important for me because I've never run there before, I don't know the course, I need to make a kit plan and a fueling plan and unless I know how long is for example between aid stations is it going to be impossible to do that? Yeah and do you, I mean before a race personally I love YouTuby, the race and looking at the trails and sort of visualising what I'll be running on, what it looks like, what the climbs like and so on, it's amazing what you can find on YouTube these days so that's sort of my go to after the GPX file, have you done any of that? Not so much, I did watch one video of whilst driven, I watched a few videos of, to be honest like maybe Zagama wants just to see what the trails like but I've done that before, like a lot of the races that I do these days I have done before, Western I watched the documentary on, but to be honest I also kind of like to turn up and be a bit surprised but it does really help to see what type of trails you are going to be running on and what the climate might be because here we don't have the best running trails so to be able to see what you're going to be running on and then pick a trail at home which is somewhat similar is really important so that is part of my preparation I could probably improve on and if anything is just going to give you a good idea as to what shoes you should wear, so with the niece I'm not, I don't really know which shoes I'll wear yet and that is something I need to decide on soon, I mean I leave on Thursday I need to start packing soon and with the race specific session today I should wear the exact shoes I'm planning on wearing in the race so that's probably something I should probably be doing after we've concluded this chat. So you keep talking about your race specific session, what do you mean by this and why do you think that's really important to do like a week out from your race? So it's actually getting a bit close to the race to be doing the last big race specific session so I've like chosen a lower progression level of some of the workouts that I've been looking at doing I haven't really decided exactly which one I'm going to do yet but within the app we have a race specific training type of session which goes in actually in the shorter trail plans every single week and within there there's a few options of actual workouts you can do, one of them is a race simulation which is like the most important workout in sharpening that we usually try and get done two or three times in this sharpening but before a big race and it's a bit close for me to do that and also I did do while I'm struggle two weeks ago which in essence is kind of like a race simulation for NIS it's 35k with a similar sort of elevation profile so that's like a two thirds race simulation kind of for NIS which is going to be 50k so I feel like I have done some okay race pays very specific kind of running but I still have this race specific session so there's a few other options in there and I actually really do enjoy progressive runs there's something in there called the progressive trail lapse and I think I'll probably end up doing that one because it's a favourite it means you can get into the session gradually and make sure that you're running powerfully not not hard and sort of really building up to an efficient good running race pace rather than cheating the system going a bit too hard too early on so I mean you got a week until the race you've had a week of training during this time are you are you building any fitness with these sessions or what's the purpose of training at all I mean I wouldn't say I'm building any fitness at all if anything my fitness during the racing season is just gradually going down and down and down and that's not it's not such a bad thing because it has to go down so then I can train in base building in to make it go up further again next year so it kind of does have to go down at some point and in order to be fresh enough to do the workouts really well and have a high quality within the workouts you do kind of have to do less training load so that is sort of like a natural thing that does seem to happen throughout the season and it's important for me not to stress about that like I can still race well even though my fitness is probably less than it was at the beginning of the season because I've got other things going for me like my legs are going to be better prepared for the running on the trails and there's just different stuff that throughout the season you improve on even if your fitness does go down slightly so I'm not going to be building fitness in the next week but I am going to be kind of tuning the fitness so I do have to this next race so that means trying to make pretty much all the workouts not just that race specific session very specific so I've been trying to do workouts that are going to mimic the the race as much as much as possible yeah I'm actually excited about the race I think it's going to be quite fun it's a new place I haven't run before and that is always really it's interesting like it's it's a new challenge I haven't run there I haven't stepped foot on the course and that adds a whole nother area of stuff you can you can prepare for so like I really do enjoy looking at the GPX file studying the maps putting together a fueling plan I guess I should look at some YouTube videos and also just sort of like trying to get excited about visiting a new place and running on some some new trails so I am looking forward to it and that is important for me because I do have a tendency to stress out a bit too much before races especially really big important races so the most important thing for me between races like now is just to relax a little bit and try not to take the races too seriously and get stressed out about the situation I'm in so actually even yesterday I decided I wanted a complete rest day because I want to feel fresher now than tired and I want to feel like I've got some extra energy and I'm sort of like pecked up so yesterday turned into a complete rest day which for me isn't very usual and then even in the evening I went out and I bought a load of ingredients to make lasagna which is one of my favorite dinners and even bought a mini bottle of wine so me and him ready to enjoy glass of wine together and when I say mini it literally is it's a third sized bottle of wine and we had maybe half of it between us something like half a glass of wine each last night which is is not so much but it still makes a difference and it was pretty nice like the way there's crappy now so it's firing up season so we have a nice fire and sort of you know try and enjoy other things in life rather than just getting so bogged down with thinking about this this race coming up and making everything specific and you know getting too caught up in the racing world so I mean you're you're touching on some psychological mental aspects there as well I suppose in in the sense that you need to be in a positive headspace you need to be sort of yeah ready for what's to come like just yeah from a psychological pointers view of you as well yeah I think as an athlete why struggle with the most is the psychological style of things and that can lead me to either over preparing or preparing really well for a race so it can be a good thing to yeah like really doubt yourself before race and not think you're going to do well and get a bit you know serious about it but then it also it's quite important to relax and make sure you are enjoying the process and remember why you're doing these races which obviously is my job so I I want to do well from from that aspect but then also these races are to be enjoyed and we should all be trying to enjoy them you only live once and over the last months I've been trying to remind myself that I do want to live my best life I want to be the best person I can be and that doesn't just mean trying to win all the races it's sort of like how I execute everything in life and to remember that it's just it's not that important at the end of the day there's other things which are more important in life and putting the races into perspective is really important for me so I can relax about them you're just going to go follow some red flags right just going to go on follow the flags in the woods and then probably a pizza that would be nice other any other aspects which you've been particularly focused on over the past couple of days as you sort of transition into this next race other aspects well two things both centered around fueling the first one is something I've been trying to do better for a little while now which is fuel all of my workouts so that means that like I'm trying to get in enough carbs whilst I'm training to power that session which really improves how I execute the session but then also improves recovery afterwards as well and that is especially important during today's race specific session which is where I'm going to try and practice the fielding strategy that I have in place for the race so I can try and make sure that my body can absorb the amount of carbs I'm trying to put into it and then also it's sort of like gut trading to teach the body how to absorb those carbs so it's it's sort of like a little bit better prepared so that's that's really important to fuel workouts at this this time because if you go a bit empty on some workouts and get yourself in a little bit of a rut energy wise that's not going to be possible to pull yourself out of in such a short amount of time so it's important to sort of like stay on the positive side and then the other one is something which I think I haven't paid enough attention to over the previous years really and that's trying to get enough protein into my diet generally and this is something that I'm going to concentrate on moving forwards within my sort of training life I've often tried to pick very individual things that I can work on and just sort of like take them one at a time and at the moment protein is the is the item of choice so I've realized I'm not getting a veg one out window yeah well that would be maybe for the future protein seems more fun at the moment I think it is having a big effect to try and make sure I am consuming enough protein throughout the day and spread out enough that I can absorb that protein to help me recover from racing and training and it's something I don't think I've done well enough previously and I think I can think back to times when I have got myself in a bit of a rut and the body has stopped responding and that could be a cause caused by lack of protein or just not enough protein intake so actually within the app we made a beta function that I can use and test which is going to calculate how much protein I should be consuming in the day based on my training load in the past two weeks my body weight and a few other things so that's been really handy really fun to try and I think it is having an effect already I have noticed that I have gone down a tiny bit in body weight actually like feeling kind of like lean but still really good energy levels and feels kind of like a natural loss so I'm not sure whether that is just the time of year or whether there is something to do with a slight changing diet but it's been interesting to sort of like experiment a little bit but not drastically whatsoever like it is not the time of year to try a complete different diet or to like switch things up completely it's just a small tweak in my diet it's not like I'm doing anything that different it's just making sure that like maybe on a big training day I have like an extra bit of protein before bed for example just to sort of like get the level up to where it should be and yeah now it will be interesting to continue that through to the race and then see how it affects training through the winter as well which is where I can see it being most effective. Yeah I have to check back in with you further down the line to see how that protein experiment is going so that's quite interesting but jumping back into today's session then how are you going to field it how many carbs an hour are we looking at? I think in the race I'm going to aim for 80 to 90 grams of carbs now so that's what I'll be doing during the workout. I think the workout will end up being like around an hour and a half I would have thought so yeah 80 to 90 grams now for an hour and a half maybe up to two hours or take enough with me for the two hours and I'll probably wear the exact kit I'll be needing for the race as well. It's a UTMB race so the kit list is quite extensive so that means a race vest the silver fall blanket the phone the extra layers of clothing take everything with me so I'm used to wearing the weight and yeah I have the weight of those carbs with me as well so it's sort of like everything about the run should be very similar to how it should be in these but looking at the snow coming down I don't think this climate will be but still we'll see how it goes and as an extra treat for after the workout I think I'm going to go to the swimming hole in town and have a sauna afterwards to warm up and reward myself for getting a session done which to be honest is going to be horrendous I think but it's also can be fun that way as well if you've got something nice to look forward to afterwards. Yeah it's interesting what you say about the weather there I think I've checked the weather for nice I think we're looking at around 20 degrees potentially a bit of rain if you're lucky but it will definitely not be zero degrees in snowing so I mean is that how does that affect your fuel needs to actually today versus on the day itself. Yeah for sure like that is not ideal and the fueling is always going to have to change depending on the weather when it's cold I cannot drink as much as when it's hot obviously and that means I need to have a lot more carbs not in the drink so more gels and chews and things so I have actually done two heat sessions this week which we haven't talked about to try and sort of you know prepare the body a little bit for the heat but also teach the body or remind it how to absorb lots of fluid whilst training because I think the body quickly forgets how to absorb like a liter now which I don't think I'll have to in Nice but still it's good to practice and that is something I've done this week yeah the race sim it's going to be different fueling but still I'll try and aim for the same carbs now at least so something can be similar and I haven't checked the weather for Nice but I have checked the start time I think and we're going to start 7.13 in the morning and I'm thinking it's going to take between 4 hours 30 and 4.45 so we're not going to be running too much into the sort of real heat of the day and I don't think the heat will be as bad as it has been for previous races certainly nowhere near the likes of western states so if anything I'm looking forward to a bit of sun already cold dark Norway has been a bit of a shock on our return from a month in the Alps so I think it'd be almost nice to run in the heat yeah for sure alright well best of luck with your race sim which certainly won't be perfect but you'll at least get your legs spinning I'm assuming you'll go at a similar intensity to what race day will feel like hopefully maybe hopefully yeah I mean it's super hard to replicate a race in training like you just don't have the same excitement you don't have the same nerves you nothing is similar certainly not here where the trails are very technical worry wet and sloppy and it's not similar weather but still it's like it's good to get out to try and run as if it's a race and yeah practice breathing a bit hard I might also maybe try and start like with a little bit of a climb I haven't decided this yet it's just something we've been experimenting with maybe like do a climb before I start the session so I can tie myself out a little bit so then the race pace running feels a little bit more like it will do during the race when you are a little bit fatigued but we'll say I haven't sort of like planned the absolutely ins and outs of the session yet alright well yeah best of luck with that and to summarize then we've touched on a couple of key points which has been part of your focus over the past well week and a half that you've had in between essentially which is like a mental D load first of all doing your race research including the weather and getting into that mindset of okay so you're not building fitness you're actually just going to tweak it a little bit depending on what you have coming up you've done that through for example some heat sessions and also today's race sim is a key session for you out of the race and yeah don't under fuel fuel your workouts I think I've done that mistake before where I've just under fueled a workout actually like two weeks before a race and at the time I was like oh this is no problem I'll be fine come race day but actually you do carry that through when you sort of train going into that race and I think that just put me in a bad place and it did affect my performance so yeah do not under fuel make sure you fuel sessions at least 30 grams an hour for easy sessions and up that are beyond sort of 50 minutes to an hour I'd say and when you hit those race racing sessions you want to be looking at what you're going to be doing on race day itself to train the gut because the gut is also a muscle that needs training yeah and also like my rest day yesterday it wasn't in the plan to take a full rest day but it's something I felt I needed so I did it and that's like really important to roll with the punches sometimes you need to adapt the plan sometimes less is more and the important thing is when you do take a rest day like that you don't stress about taking rest day and how you're missing the training you're meant to do you actually relax and let the rest day work so you let it sink in because otherwise you could be so stressed and tensed and sort of in a bad mood because you're missing the training you wanted to do that the rest day is a lot less effective so try and enjoy the odd rest day if you feel you need it and then look forward to the fact that then from taking rest day like that then the next sessions will be better executed and probably more fun so it's not it's not all bad to take a few rest days at this time of year to realize it's never bad to take the odd rest day because then well I mean there's some people which say I never take a rest day I never miss a day running but to be honest if you don't take a complete day off running then you can't have another day of running where you run a lot you end up sort of taking tiny bites of the cookie all the time instead of taking big chunks and then leaving alone for a day so sometimes it is good to take a complete rest day so then you can better execute future training for sure and on that note we can round off with today's words of wisdom which is you only benefit from the training you recover from thanks for listening