On a chilly June Sunday, some twenty four hours after a personal best cross country performance, Chubasco Juries went for his usual long run. Covering around 17km in a shade under 90min, such a regimen would be considered pretty much standard fare amongst his peers. No big deal. And then like many athletes, he noted down the session in his training diary, just like he does for each and every run. But this is where the similarity to others stops. You see, Chubasco is not your usual athlete. Yes, he trains consistently and yes, he is meticulous. Yet most of his training is done barefoot. And almost exclusively up and down his yard at home.
There have been many examples of athletes training in confinement. The pandemic and associated garden jogging notwithstanding, there are those who have sought to complete their training sessions in spite of their respective locations. From UN pilots on mercy missions in Afghanistan jogging around their mess hall to one former Ironman champion completing his scheduled two hour run at midnight around a hotel tennis court, lack of suitable training locations hasn't been a problem for the super-motivated. But the majority of these cases were out of necessity rather than choice; needless to say life returned to normal once back in their usual environs. But what if "training in confinement" was in fact beneficial? And actually improved athletic performance? Crazy, right? Well not so, according to Chubasco Juries.
'I don't think that I would have seen the leap in my performance had it not been for the lockdown,' he says. 'While I was forced to train up and down my yard, I was soon intrigued by the gradual improvement. Suddenly, my training was more consistent because I could do it right here at home.'
Running up and down a 15m yard might sound insane for most, especially when considering Chubasco's usual weekly mileage is around 50km. But as he attests, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
'I just carried on doing the same after lockdown because it was so convenient,' he explains. 'I'm not limited by darkness or bad weather. Plus the psychological benefits are huge. Sometimes the answer you are looking for is right there in front of you. For me, lockdown was actually a blessing in disguise in a purely athletic sense.'
Something that stands out when it comes to Chubasco's running times is slow and steady progress. And it is these small increments of improvement over approximately two years that has seen him take his 5,000m time from a shade under 20 min to a personal best of 17:43 at the SA Masters Championships this past May.
'There were times when I wanted to quit running,' he admits. 'I had some chronic injury problems, which were holding me back. But I started to learn more about my body, what I should and shouldn't do, and, more importantly, reign in my vigour to improve. Once I took a step back, things started to improve again, so much so that this whole year has been a dream.'
So what does a typical training week look like for the ever-improving barefoot warrior? Well, apart from his weekly long run of 17-20km (1,333 laps of his yard!), two hard 10km runs make up the bulk of his intensity. Add in a weekly Parkrun and another 5km at home and that pretty much is the sum total of his weekly regimen. True to form, though, that 5km at home serves a greater purpose, one where small gains are being made to improve a tangential goal.
'I include an 80cm barrier to work on my jumps,' Chubasco says. 'I really like the steeplechase event but battle with the hurdles. So I'm working on that with a barrier that slightly increases in height every month or so.'
