Growing up in Adelaide, Australia, Jason Moore has always been sporty since his childhood days, getting his feet dirty by trying out all types of sports, such as running, athletics and basketball.

Said Jason, 28, who works in retail at 2XU Australia, “I started doing athletics when I was younger so I played a lot of sports. I realised I did not have the speed for the short distances so I tried out the 800m and the 1,500m and I found that I had enjoyed doing those.”

Jason Moore (in orange) speeds ahead.

Jason went into basketball for a while

Today, Jason is based in Melbourne, Australia, and I had managed to chat to him last weekend at an East Coast Park parkrun event, when he had been on a short holiday in Singapore with his family. parkrun is a weekly 5km time trial that takes place in several locations worldwide.

After being on his school athletics team for a while, Jason had then stopped competing in athletics and decided to gravitate towards playing basketball. But he picked up running again when he quickly realised that running would help him in basketball as well, so that he could run harder in order to chase the ball. So Jason took up running again, and began doing his own runs.

Cross country running

Due to his love for running, Jason then went into cross country running, taking part in 2- 3km races for his school. In high school, Jason was introduced to umpiring with the Australian Football League (AFL) and he realised that his running training would come in useful there as well, as he had been required to run around the outside of the pitch throughout the course of a match.

Said Jason, “So I then focused more on my long distance running and that included going for runs of about 5 – 15km to build endurance and stamina. At the same time, I incorporated a bit of speed work, that is, 200 – 300 metre reps of the track.”

Running helps him to de-stress

Today though, Jason has firmly fallen in love with running, and he finds running to be a great way to destress himself after a hard day at work.

Said Jason, “If you are stressed up after work and you want to have time to yourself, just go out and run for 30 – 45 minutes, or as long as you want, to clear your mind. Back home in Australia, I have so many places to run; the trails, the hills or the beach. I am a person who loves to run along the beach with a mate. During the warm weather it’s really nice as you have the ocean breeze, and it’s a flat track so it’s easy to just lose yourself in your running.”

Likes to focus on the 5K these days

Jason, who has a 5km personal best of 17min 10sec and a 10km personal best of under 40 minutes, likes to focus on the 5K these days as his preferred distance of choice.

Said Jason, “That’s because the 5K is one of the main benchmark runs and we are assessed on that every pre-season as an AFL umpire. So I gear all of my training towards running a good 5K. That means running 10km – 15km on training runs.”

Runners at a recent east coast park parkrun in Singapore.

To test himself regularly at the 5km distance, Jason tries to take part in parkrun on a weekly basis, where he regularly gets in the top 10 overall. At last weekend’s East Coast Park parkrun in Singapore, he finished in fourth place, having completed the hot and humid run in about 20 minutes.

He added, “I have done a couple of half marathons but I still prefer the 5K. The 3K is all right but that requires a bit too much speed for me, whereas for the 5K I find that you can get into a quick pace that is both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time.”

How Jason Trains

During the summer months in Australia, Jason tries to get in at least one run a day. For a typical 5km race, he would do about 70 – 80km of mileage per week as he strongly believes in training above and beyond the distance of a race.

Said Jason, “If you are running a 5km race, I think that you need to be training about 10 – 12km if you want to get better at the 5km distance. This means that when you come to do the race, you will be used to running twice the distance you’re racing, so this means that you’ll be able to speed up your running on race day.”

In all, he would do a mid-distance run session on Tuesday and intervals on Thursdays. Sundays are reserved for his longer runs of about an hour to 75 minutes, and the rest of the time is spent doing either cross training sessions or easy runs.

Strongly believes in cross training

But during every second or third week though, Jason would substitute a run for an additional cross training session, that is, usually swimming, cycling or gym session as he strongly believes in cross training and its benefits. Sometimes, doing cross training sessions also helps Jason to complete two workouts a day, about least twice a week.

Jason explained, “Sometimes if I have done a 30min run in the morning, I would go for a 30min swim in the night. I may also do a short bike ride in the morning and a 45min run in the afternoon.”

Added Jason, “To me, the bike and the swim sessions are mainly for cross training. I find that doing so, keeps me off my legs and I can feel fresh but at the same time I am improving my cardio fitness. As well cross training is good because it keeps your routine fresh. The body has to keep adapting and you do not feel as though you are in a rut. Also, you can go out hard for your swims and bike rides without constantly pounding on the pavements or the trails so in this way, it takes a toll off the body yet you can still train hard without killing the body.”

He does not train with an athletics or running club in Melbourne, but sometimes Jason runs together with the other umpires on training runs.

Thinks that most runners lack speed training 

Most runners though, according to Jason, are lacking speed training, and he thinks that this is why runners are not able to improve their run timings.

Jason (in foreground, orange) thinks most runners lack speed training.

He said, “Runners are not doing speed work but that may be because they think it is too intense. It also depends on your running goals too but I think that speed work’s really crucial regardless of what race you are targeting, if you want to improve yourself and get faster.”

For speed sessions, Jason recommends that runners do say, 10 reps of 200m or 300m at all-out effort with a short recovery time in between each rep.

He said “This helps the body to get used to running at a higher speed than normal so that when you race, you will be able to hold that faster pace and a higher intensity and you will run faster. This is what I had learnt over the past two years for my own running.”

Long runs are just as important as fast training 

Besides fast training, Jason also feels that doing long runs are important to becoming a faster runner, as well,  this helps to train endurance.

Said Jason, “Long runs helps the body to get used to running for long periods, and this will help you to get faster in the long term. For me, I struggled with my 5K for a while. I kept on hovering round 18 minutes and I could not break the 18-minute barrier. I discovered that it is a matter of putting in the works and getting the effort in, to become fitter. Once you are fitter, you will get quicker too.”

On average, Jason recommends that runners should run between four to six times a week, and make sure that they have at least one day off.

He added, “But ultimately though, it is about getting the training runs in.”

Know your pace and do not start a run too fast

As well, Jason also adds that pacing and knowing one’s pace is important for runners, as he has noticed that many tend not to pace themselves well at races and when they are running.

Said Jason, “You have to learn to pace yourself. That is what I notice about runners. They go out too hard. It is a good thing to see runners wanting to push themselves but they tend to start at a pace that they cannot sustain. Hats off to them for trying to have a crack at it, but sometimes the pace that they are running at, is too big a jump from the pace that they can sustain.”

Runners need to know their pace.

He added, “The more you learn about your pace, you will know how hard you can go; you want a pace that you can sustain, and still have the energy to give it your all at the end of the run. You do not want to go out so hard that you just die on the way back. Take say a 5km race, the best way to run it is to run at an even pace for the first 4km and then push and give it everything you have got left for the final 1km. Even if you are absolutely knackered by then, you will run faster because you can see the finish line right up ahead.”

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