Financial Markets & Endurance Running?
What does trading the financial markets have to do with endurance running? I know, right – it is not obvious, but stay with me, and hopefully, it will be a bit clearer shortly.
About 20 years ago, I got excited about trading financial markets – shares, options, CFDs & foreign exchange, or forex.
I was fascinated by trading back then and have been ever since. If you know anything about trading financial markets, you know there are many methods and ideas and a lot of gurus out there trying to tell you how to do it.
Elliott Wave Theory
In my research, I came across a method of technical analysis for financial markets called the Elliott Wave Theory.
The Wave Theory and associated charts are a forecasting tool in financial markets. Many people think the Wave Theory also provides a measure of social mood. Perhaps more importantly for us, people also think Elliott Waves can describe natural growth patterns.
Elliott Waves offer a systematic approach to describe growth in terms of progress and pause. Progress occurs in a 5-wave movement, followed by a pause in 3-waves. Therefore growth is not linear and not constant, and the method allows for progress and pause during growth cycles.
I began to wonder if this Wave Theory idea of growth and pause could be applied to endurance running.
Things to Improve Upon
I had just finished my first 80k Margaret River Ultra in 2019. As usual, I was thinking about how I went and how I might do better.
Regular Patterns
I found myself thinking about the training programs I had seen and used. Most programs seemed to have either no lighter weeks or, more often, just regular patterns of heavy and light weeks. For example, three heavy weeks followed by one light week, or maybe two heavy weeks then one light week, depending on your age.
I wondered if there might be a better alternative to these regular patterns. After all, there is a lot of literature that says the body is good at adapting to regular patterns of training, and regular patterns in other things, like diet!
Calculation of Training Volumes
There is often discussion about the need for rest weeks or easy weeks, but from what I could tell, there did not seem to be a method to calculate the actual training volumes during those rest weeks.
It was also unclear if there was any method or calculation for heavy week training volumes.
Taper Volume and Timing
I also wondered if my pre-event tapers could be improved. I had tried both a linear and exponential taper in two different ultras, as these seemed to be the most popular methods. Strangely with both, I felt I had tapered to the point of losing condition by the time of the events!
Connecting Endurance Running & the Elliott Wave Theory
As I thought about this, I connected the Wave Theory and the things I was trying to improve in my running programs.
It seemed possible the Elliott Wave Theory might provide a systematic approach to the design of an endurance program.
Here are some of the things I thought it might do:
- Increase training volumes in a systematic, non-linear, non-regular way, using Elliott Wave characteristics to calculate heavy and light week volumes;
- Calculate heavy and light week volumes based on the overall target;
- Determine the timing of rest weeks based on the Elliott Wave (these would be non-linear as well);
- Create a taper that was not linear and not exponential, and tapering for a calculated amount of time. The taper would have appropriate training volumes, again based on the overall Wave targets;
- Finally, and importantly, there is confidence the training volume is sufficient because the week of the event and the event itself are all part of the Elliott Wave!
I am Just Painting a Picture – You Do Not Need to Know this Stuff!
I realise this might not be clear, and you have probably never even heard of Elliott Waves before. The good thing is you do not need to know or to understand Elliott Waves. This method is new, and I am just trying to paint a picture to get across the idea that these Elliott Waves might work.
Get Out the Spreadsheets!
So I got pretty excited because, conceptually, it looked as though it might work!
I pulled out my spreadsheets and did some calculations. And it still looked like it could work. All I had to do at that point was to give it a try!
2020 Margaret River Ultra
The 2020 Margaret River Ultra was the next event on my calendar, so I created a Wave Running training program and put it to the test.
I had done the same event the previous year, so I had a good baseline to compare results.
To cut a long story short, I bettered my time in 2020 by over an hour, having trained using my Wave Running program! The rest, as they say, is history, and Wave Running was born!
That’s How it Happened
So that is how a financial market tool came to be used to create endurance running programs.
Come On My Journey to 100 Miles
And right now, I’ve just started my latest training program – a 20-week program based on Wave Running. This program will take me to my next event – and my biggest challenge – the Feral Pig 100 Mile Ultra. It’s twice as far as I’ve been before, and it’s on the Bibbulmun Track, near Perth, Western Australia.
So, I’d love you to come on this journey with me – “A Journey to 100 Miles” as I train and get ready for the Feral Pig. Along the way, I’ll tell you more about Wave Running, and at the end of it, when the Feral Pig is done and dusted, I’ll be releasing the Wave Running app so you can create your own endurance training programs for your journey, wherever it takes you.
That’s it for Wave Running’s origin story!
Until next time
just keep going