“Ideally, I would like runners to be up to 15 to 25 weekly miles before starting to train for a marathon. Not every new marathoner possesses this much base, but that would be ideal, considering that the long run in Mile 1 of my 18-week Novice 1 program is 6 miles.”
-Hal Higdon*
In deciding on our approaches to teaching and implementing Lean for our clients, we were influenced by Hal Higdon’s ideas on training for marathons. He has an 18-week program that starts with 6-mile runs and a 30-week program that starts with 3-mile runs. How you get to running 3 miles non-stop is up to you.
The reason he gives for this is that there tends to be a wide variation in how an individual works up the skill to run 3 miles without stopping and that particular undertaking is so personal that writing up the approach in a book does not make sense. However, once the 3 mi mark has been reached, the process of training for the other 23.2 miles tends to be somewhat similar for everyone, can be standardized, improved upon and deployed at scale.
So, where does that leave you if you haven’t yet run your 3 miles?
Unlike a book with a fixed program or a large firm with a rigid scaled toolkit, we offer both an optimized toolkit that we have refined over decades of work and a more tailored approach for those just starting out.
One difference between our approach and the approach of scaled larger firms is that we rely on a compelling idea to ensure change happens and change sticks rather than on a brute force approach using a repetitive process like a daily meeting. We like to impact belief to influence behavior organically rather than behavior alone.
We have Green Belt Classes, Lunch-and-Learn sessions, One-Day-Problem-Solving Sessions for those looking to become aware of what Lean is. If you just want to talk about the many ways our clients have arrived at their 5K with us for 30 minutes, give us a call.