Greek tragedies and myths are fantastic pieces of literature. They possess a poetic literary style, are captivating stories, and tell tales of heroes we can revere. More importantly, Greek tragedies are written as covert life-lessons we can learn from if we look close enough.
The story of Olympian Milo of Croton is a prime example.
Milo was a famous wrestler in the ancient Olympic games. Milo won six gold medals in six years – a feat never before accomplished.
As a small child, Milo knew he wanted to become the strongest and most prolific athlete in Greece. So, he took to the task of progressively and methodically making himself stronger every day. To achieve his dream, Milo found a bull calf and began carrying it around on his shoulders. Each day, he hoisted the same bull onto his shoulders and carried it around. As the bull grew in size and weight, so did Milo’s strength as it adapted to the ever-growing bull. As an adult, Milo was the strongest of all the Greeks and was able to lift a full grown bull with ease.
Of course, the tale of Milo’s childhood is likely a myth, but the story does illustrate the basic principles of progressive training. More importantly, Milo’s story highlights important lessons runners can learn from when it comes to how they plan and think about their training.
In this article, we’ll dig deeper into Milo’s story and show how you can learn from this ancient myth.
Don’t be intimidated by future training
When runners examine a training schedule, their eyes immediately go to the last six to eight weeks of training. They see the impressive workouts, mileage, and tough long runs and quickly get intimidated.
Not surprisingly, I quickly get an email that sounds something like: “Coach, you’re crazy! I can’t run x miles at y pace – I can barely do that for 3 miles now. Maybe you sent me the wrong schedule”
I understand the fear these runners face. But, let’s look at the story of Milo for advice.
As a child, or even a teenager, if you had asked Milo to pick up a full grown bull, he couldn’t have done it. If Milo had only considered the end result – picking up a full grown bull – he might have been too intimidated to start.
Your takeaway lesson
Don’t worry about the workouts, mileage, and long runs in your training schedule that aren’t in the immediate future.
Focus on one workout and one week at a time – not what you have to do in 4 weeks.
Each week, you’ll get a little stronger and a little faster and when those intimidating workouts arrive, you’ll be ready to tackle them head on.
Don’t get discouraged when you don’t see results every day
Once beginner runners get over the initial idea that running sucks because it always hurts, training becomes a consistent flurry of personal bests. You’re running your farthest distance and most total miles on a weekly basis. Almost every time you run the same route you set a new record for pace.
Running is fantastic because it’s easy to see that you’re getting better almost everyday.
Then, hitting these new personal bests starts to get a little harder. Eventually, if you continue to run long enough, setting a new personal best in training (and racing for that matter) is almost impossible.
You sometimes feel that you’re working hard, but not seeing any results.
I am sure Milo felt the same way and had a similar experience as he carried that bull around.
He must have felt like a f****ing bad ass walking around with that bull the first few weeks (I know I would). Then, the novelty wore off and he realized picking up the bull never got any easier. Each day it felt the same and he likely didn’t notice the bull growing bigger. He must have questioned if he was actually getting stronger
However, when Milo looked back on his former self as an adult, I am sure it was easy to see his progress.
Your takeaway lesson
Don’t measure your progress in daily, weekly, or even monthly blocks. Training adaptations don’t happen that quickly once you’re already fit.
Instead, reflect on how far you’ve come in the past year or the past six to eight months. Compare your pace, long runs, and how you handle training now to a year ago and I am sure you’ll see the signs of progress.
You have to start somewhere and there’s no skipping steps
In today’s culture, we’ve been conditioned to want and expect things to come instantly. In training, we all want to run more miles, qualify for Boston, or run our first marathon…and we want to do it now.
However, that mentality, and the type of training it fosters, inevitably leads to injury and overtraining.
Milo had to start at the beginning. He didn’t try lifting a full-grown bull on his first try and he didn’t switch out his regular bull for the heavier or more fully-grown bull mid-way through his endeavor. If he had, he would have likely become injured.
Each day, Milo took a small step forward and he never tried to skip steps.
Your takeaway
Sometimes you have to start from the beginning, even if the beginning seems so far away from your ultimate goal.
For example, if you’re constantly injured, take a step back and don’t continually hop from race to race. Start from the beginning. Build your aerobic base slowly and let your muscles, tendons and ligaments adapt to the mileage.
Likewise, don’t try to skip steps or take shortcuts. If you have a race coming up and you’re not ready, don’t force training you’re not ready to handle. Always take the next logical step in your training. If you do so, you’re guaranteed to reach you goal.
