I reviewed this interval training mix for Blogcritics last weekend, figured I'd post it here as well. The cool thing is; even since that time I've continued to shave significant time off my best speed during intervals. Now I'm sure some of it's the natural progression of the training, but I'll tell you, I think Lance is helping!
The Lance Armstrong Run Longer Coaching Mix
An icy spring wind howled across New Hampshire, down the Merrimack Valley and into the athletic complex at Manchester’s Livingston Park. When Lance Armstrong and I stepped onto the track, a few walkers, bundled up in parkas with scarves wrapped around their faces, were trundling around the oval, heads down against the early evening gale.
I was there to run. Lance was there to run the stopwatch for 40 minutes of high speed and recovery intervals, spin some tunes and make occasional motivating comments such as, “You’re halfway there. Stay strong and steady.” I was cold and tired, feeling burned out after a long day at work. Lance, riding along inside my MP3 player, didn’t say how he was feeling. But he sounded cheerful enough. Probably recorded this thing somewhere warm, like Texas.
I know what you’re thinking … guided audio workouts, aren’t those just used to line the bottom of the home entertainment-center drawers of people who don’t work out? That’s what I thought, too. And I was skeptical of a running coaching mix for a couple of reasons: Isn’t Lance Armstrong a cyclist? And why should I expect we have the same taste in music? And why would I assume that he’d have a good voice for motivational speaking?
Some of these reservations were accurate. Lance is, for example, no Mickey Goldmill (you remember, Burgess Meredith’s character in Rocky?) or Winston Churchill when it comes to vocal delivery. He doesn’t even sound particularly like the coach of your local cross country team. On the other hand, this turns out to be a good thing. He sounds like a guy; the guy from the office you go running with at lunch sometimes. And he doesn’t talk that much anyway. He tells you when you have a minute left during a specific interval. Urges you not to slack off. He gets the job done without being distracting. Lets you go with the music.
Which is pretty good. The mix includes tracks from bands including Wolfmother, Audioslave, Beck, Keane, Weezer and Queens of the Stone Age and others (see track listing below). The mix does a great job of upping the ante in tone and tempo during the hard intervals and bringing it down (without coming too far down) for the recovery segments. When “Woman” by Wolfmother comes blasting out of your earbuds at the start of the first fast interval, man, you can’t help but start cranking.
As for Lance’s running cred, since retiring from cycling he’s been running and racing for fun. He finished the 2007 New York City Marathon 2:46 and is currently training to hit the mid-2:40s in Boston and New York in the 2:30s after that. You can read more about his marathon training schedule in the May 2008 Runner’s World. That combined with his mythic reputation as a cyclist certainly would (over) qualify him to say things like, “One minute to go, keep your stride strong.”
All in all, as a runner I’m both fickle and independent about what my MP3 player is doing while I’m on the road. From audio books to old blues compilations, from Iron Maiden to NPR, I have to go with what my mood demands.
Which is why I was surprised to have enjoyed this workout as much as I did. Having someone else keep time for you, along with a mix of good, hard but broadly appealing rock tunes, and Lance Armstrong’s pithy remarks (“Pain is only temporary, quitting lasts forever…” which sounds good when you first hear it but may, upon reflection, triggers some cognitive dissonance), turns out to be a motivating experience.
So motivating that, despite the wind, the cold, and the post workday fatigue, I turned in my fastest minutes-per-mile average interval workout ever. Now granted, I started running late and have been running for less than a dozen years, and running seriously for far fewer than that, and I’m still hitting new PRs at all distances with some regularity, so this isn’t exactly a testimonial from a peak-career Paul Tergat, but still… I was happily surprised. If you’re looking for something to spice up your interval training, it’s definitely worth checking out.
The Lance Armstrong Run Longer Coaching Mix is available from iTunes for $13.99. You can also buy it at NikePlus.com.
Tracklisting:
1. Island In the Sun (Weezer)
2. Dance Inside (The All-American Rejects)
3. Love It When You Call (The Feeling)
4. Woman (Wolfmother)
5. 3's & 7's (Queens of the Stone Age)
6. Yesterday to Tomorrow (Audioslave)
7. Move Along (The All-American Rejects)
8. 155 (+44)
9. Is It Any Wonder (Keane)
10. Say It Ain't So (Weezer)
11. Everybody's Changing (Keane)
12. Loser (Beck)
13. Sewn (The Feeling)
