Taking It Deep
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Today we write about one of the greatest captains to have led the Indian Cricket team, MS Dhoni, his approach to the game, and in particular, to a chase. Some of these gems gleaned in one sport can very well be applied to another. Now, which sport could that possibly be?
This is a relatively longer post, so relax, put them tired feet up, and enjoy!
Taking It Deep
Running is about handling pressure.
Pressure from our body - a variety of parts, our feet, legs and back telling us how much they’re hurting.
Pressure from our mind - a calculator constantly churning out an estimate of our reserves of energy, how much we have left in the bank, and the distance to the finish.
Pressure from the clock - an incessant reminder of our target at the start of the run, and our previous best.
Pressure, a stream of water gradually accumulating against the dam with each passing second, ready to burst forth and crush the will.
So, who better at handling pressure than one of the greatest captains to have led the Indian cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni!
We, at Team WCL, have been fans of cricket since childhood, and see numerous similarities between the game, and distance running.
We have learnt immensely from MS Dhoni’s approach to the game, and in particular, to a chase, and have tried to apply some of those aspects on our long runs.
After all, isn’t a marathon akin to batting second in a one-day international?
We’re chasing down a steep target over a few hours of physical and mental exertion, carefully managing the number of batsmen left in the pavilion (our reserves of energy), the rate at which the team scores runs (our speed), and the distance still to go to the target (time), while the required run-rate creeps upwards on the scoreboard!
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“Why does MS Dhoni always take the match to the last over?”
A question which has plagued (and most times brought cheer to) many an Indian cricket fan for several years - MS Dhoni’s masterful ability to take the chase as deep into the game as possible, at times appearing to drag it purposefully into the last over, and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Often coming in to bat lower down the order in One-Day Internationals and Twenty 20s, it was usually up to ‘Captain Cool’ to absorb the pressure, sometimes even in situations where all hope is lost, usually in the company of tail-enders at the other end of the wicket, and emerge victorious.
Having run ten marathons between us at Team WCL, we can safely say, most of them have been an excruciating endeavor to only reach the last kilometre still standing, let alone emerge victorious.
A multitude of our races have ended much before the finish, sheer physical and mental exhaustion overwhelming the mind, reducing the run to a walk, and the walk to a crawl.
Until we tried something different. Why not apply some gems of information gleaned in one sport, to another?
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Small Targets
“It's all about setting ‘small targets’, he says, “and showing an amount of self-control. I think what's important is to break the number of runs into small, small [requirements]: these next two or three overs, we need to take ten runs or fifteen runs or even eight runs.”
A marathon isn’t run in a day, it is the culmination of hundreds of kilometres of practice over a few months.
This may seem like a tall order at the start of the season, but we only need to break this down into small weekly and monthly goals.
Concentrate on the task at hand, and stay in the present. Do your hill climbs, speed training and long runs, and not worry about the big picture.
On a long run, how many of us have found the 42 km distance intimidating? Too much to do, almost an impossible task if you think about it.
Covering on foot the distance from Colaba to Bandra, and back. Even a drive over the same distance takes about an hour in light traffic.
How many of us have, on the road in the latter stages of a long run or a race, with the body and mind close to shutting down, resorted to “Running till that next tree I see, and then walking for a bit” or “Taking it a kilometre or two at a time”
Well, we are only following in the great man’s footsteps at one time or another.
Small targets, a kilometre or two at a time, stringing them together, not getting ahead ahead of ourselves, in trying to reach the finish in a hurry, or expending all of our energy.
At the the same time, never letting the required run rate (required speed to finish within our target time) get excessively out of hand. The first pillar of running.
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Practice, Practice, Practice
“[In the railways] We were taught to bat for 20 minutes without getting out and then to challenge ourselves with game situations to which we had to adapt.”
Running a marathon is about building confidence in your abilities. The more we run, and expose ourselves to situations which simulate race-day, the better prepared we are to handle any situation which emerges over the course of the race.
This could mean practicing and having contingency plans for a variety of scenarios.
Will you last 42? How does your body react after the 25k, 30k and 35k mark? How much food and water do you need, and at what points in the race? What happens if on race-day, an unexpected turn of events occurs. The more long runs we try, the more we discover about our body and about ourselves.
Can you sustain a higher pace for a fast finish? How long can you sustain a higher pace? How late should you leave the acceleration? How much time should you leave for the last 1-2k sprint? Speed training, long tempos and intervals through practice help us know.
We know what to do, if we have faced it before. Repeatedly facing the same situations, and exploring different angles of attack, make the best option an instinctive reaction.
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Rotating Scoring Duties
"Today [Suresh] Raina was batting well and that took the pressure off me. What is important when chasing targets is if [the form of] one is cold, the other has to take over and you have to run well between wickets, that's key.”
A running buddy or group through training and on race day is invaluable.
Over three to four hours on a run, we all invariably have our ups and downs - good phases in which we fly, and not-so-good phases in which each step is a struggle, and the mind poses questions like “Why are we doing this at all, why not quit and head home to the comfortable sofa?”
It helps when there someone beside you, with an encouraging word at your ear, ready to take up pace-making duties, while you can follow along in-step.
Someone to remind you of all the effort taken in training, all the pain endured over a few months, to get to that day of the race, and how slowing down or stopping would be akin to throwing it all away.
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Think Several Times Before Expending Energy
“You can't get runs just with the big shots, the reason being batting at No. 6, there's only maybe one batsman after you and it puts pressure. The top one, two, three can play their big shots, but if you go in at six or seven, you have to think maybe three times before you play the big shots.”
Every step on a long run is a small debit from the bank account of energy, and you wouldn’t want to run it dry before the finish.
Over the first half you’re sitting pretty, confident about your reserves. In the latter half of the race, every kilometre of pushing for speed is a risk, every uphill section is a dangerous bowler you need to see out and shouldn’t attack, lest you lose your wicket.
Every long run is a continuous calculation of how much energy to expend, to minimize the risk of not making it to the finish at all.
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Isolate the Opposition - A Battle of the Mind
My aim is to leave it (the game) till the bowler and me are on level ground, to the point at which he is under as much pressure as me. Then we see who can handle it.
Not Dhoni against the sun. Not Dhoni against a whole attack. But Dhoni against the last bowler standing.
A marathon is a challenge of massive proportions. It isn’t easy to identify the real opposition.
In the initial stages of our preparation, it may be the punishing work schedule or the weekend binges which impede our progress. You against the trappings of a late Saturday night, or a lazy Sunday morning.
As the routine and discipline settles, an injury may rear its ugly head, setting us back by a few weeks. You against the body, or against the temptation of resuming too early and too fast.
On the day of the race, you may think it is you against thirty thousand other runners, or you and the bus against the clock. Your target time, your PB.
But, these are all diversions.
Every marathon, in the last five to eight kilometres, boils down to one thing only. You against the road. A battle of the mind.
One of the two usually cracks before the finish, the other wins.
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Taking It Deep
For the most part, especially in limited-overs cricket, Dhoni made you feel something was up, something was possible, that his team was never out of it till he had a say left.
Most races for us at Team WCL have been over (in the mind) well before the finish. Yes, we have crossed the line, but well behind our target time.
A walk for a short rest in the latter half the race, which turns into one every few kilometres thereafter. With the mind and body crying out for relief, the momentum failing to return.
We have finished yes, dragging our tired bodies and minds which have given up, across the last few km, it has not been the proud moment we all envision.
‘Taking It Deep’ was the one of the few changes we tried last year. Just staying in the game, biding our time, and not reaching a point of exhaustion. Minimizing the risks, rotating the strike.
Not pushing hard at all over the earlier and middle stages of a race, but instead safely seeing out the more difficult phases, the hills and stretches of road without any shade, postponing as much as possible the point of switching on the magic, until the last over, until its only you against the road.
And then, MS Dhoni takes strike. He has already been at the crease with a sedate 26 off 23 deliveries. Full concentration on the road and the finish, every delivery a possible six. No target too high, nowhere for the bowler to hide.
An explosion of energy, the blur of a bat dispatching the ball into the stands on all sides. The last 18 balls of the match fetching 47 runs, and an unlikely victory. The opposition shell-shocked, while the best finisher in modern day cricket walks off the field, and into the sunset.
What We’re Reading
A beautiful ode to a legend of the game, by Sidharth Monga at ESPNcricinfo. If you watch Indian cricket, you’ll love this one.
What We’re Watching
Some of MS Dhoni’s best finishes while chasing, to win the match
Fun Feature
The follow up to ‘How people Run’. - Social media brings us “How people grab water during a race”!
Which one are you? :D
Race Update
Organizers have postponed the 2021 Hong Kong Marathon, originally scheduled on January 24th, 2021, due to the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19.
The Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association (‘HKAAA’) is now coordinating with relevant departments and the authorities to determine an alternate date for the event.
The HK Marathon is among the first of the 2021 races being postponed.
With September bringing little visibility on when the pandemic will subside, and most races till the end of the year having been either postponed or moved to a virtual event, there is a likelihood that the Tata Mumbai Marathon 2021 (scheduled on 17th January, 2021) may also be affected.
That’s a wrap from us!
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