Training

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

He knows what he’s talking about

If you watched the US Olympic Trials coverage on NBC, you may have noticed Ato Boldon repeatedly say that the fastest sprinters would "relax and let the speed come out". I was hoping he would use that line again in the Olympics but I didn’t notice it the way I did at the Olympic Trials.

Why was I hoping for the repeat? Because that advice Boldon was offering to any sprinters who were watching is also great advice for distance runners.

What does advice on sprint mechanics have to do with distance running? A lot.

Boldon’s advice is universal. When you tense up, your opposing muscles are working against each other, requiring more energy to do the same amount of work.

A simple way to think about this is to think of the opposing muscles of the upper arm, the biceps and triceps. If you’re trying to bend your elbow to lift something, you need to flex your biceps muscle. However, what you don’t always think about is that you also relax your triceps muscle. If you don’t, your triceps muscle is pulling to straighten your elbow and working against your biceps.

What does this have to do with relaxing to let the speed come out?

When you’re tense, your muscles are contracting. When you’re relaxed, as the term suggests, your muscles are relaxed. Only the working muscles are contracting.

When you’re tense, your contracting muscles are fighting against each other. When you’re relaxed, only your working muscles are contracting to do the job. There are no opposing muscles contracting to work against your working muscles.

In short, when you relax, you’re not spending energy to work against yourself. You can save energy and deliver more power into the work you want to get done (like propelling your body forward).

So what do we do now that we recognize how important it is to relax in order to let the speed come out? Practice, practice, practice. I see a lot of runners, myself included although I’ve been working on it in recent years, who strain and get very tense when working hard. Whether in workouts or races, you can see the strain in their faces and, many times, throughout their bodies.

In training, try to focus on fighting the urge to tense up and strain. Work on staying loose when the going gets tough.

Photo credit: Ato Boldon by Dhanika Ranasinghe, on Flickr

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Let’s be honest: it’s a little challenging to practice this, especially with crowds, anywhere but in a race

We’ve all likely heard the advice. Do nothing new on race day. Generally, that’s great advice and I’d encourage you to follow it. Practice whatever race day routines you can in training. Wear the shoes, socks, and gear that you plan to wear for race day in training. If you’re running a race that is long enough to warrant fueling, then practice your fueling strategy, ideally while running at least close to race pace, in training.

However, there are some things that we just can’t practice in training. It can be challenging to practice running in crowds. We can’t fully practice starting in an amped up atmosphere and holding ourselves back while the adrenaline is pumping. With some work, we can (and should) practice aid stations but, again, usually without crowds of other runners trying to get the same cups we’re going for and without volunteers handing cups to us in sometimes unpredictable ways.

This is why we should have tune up races. These are the races that are less important than the goal race but are still ones we should take seriously and, within the context of our training cycle, should be attempting to do our best at.

As much as possible, do nothing new on any race day. Ideally, do nothing at all new on the day of your goal race. In order to do that, plan some tune up races and do some new things that you just can’t practice in training at those races.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

This kind of roller coaster is fun – the running roller coaster is not

It’s theme park month for me. I recently visited Six Flags and have a coming trip to Wisconsin Dells.

Those are fun roller coasters. The running roller coaster? Not so much fun.

What’s the running roller coaster?

The running roller coaster is the training routine I see so many people get stuck on and I’d like to encourage you to break. It’s the pattern where you train very hard for a few weeks, maybe even a month or two, then you get burned out or injured. You reduce your training significantly or stop running for a while to recover, then when you start back up you feel like you’re behind plan so you jump right back in to very heavy training and the cycle starts over.

So how do I avoid the running roller coaster?

I find myself repeatedly saying that I’d rather see you training at 90% of your capacity 100% of the time than training at 110% of your capacity 80% of the time. You’ll get much better results with that consistency than you will pushing harder but breaking down and missing time.

Some people like workouts where you go all out. They say it teaches toughness or it instills some ability to push harder on race day. I don’t believe in that. I believe they break you down. I would prefer you finish your workouts feeling like you had a little more left. Likewise, make sure other aspects of training are sustainable. Just because you can do a 50 mile week once or twice doesn’t mean you should. You will be better served sticking with 45 consistently.

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t challenge yourself. However, do so judiciously. Make sure you’re not challenging yourself too frequently or too severely.

And save the all out efforts for race day.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Should I do a 15 mile long run or a 16 mile long run this weekend?

Should I do 4 strides or 5 before my workout/race?

Should I be doing my easy days at 8:20 pace or 8:30 pace?

Should I be doing my easy days at a heart rate of 150 BPM or 155 BPM?

Are these questions you find yourself thinking about? If so, stop for a moment.

Before asking those questions, you should be asking yourself the big questions. Are you getting in a long run on most weeks? Are you running on as many days as you can and need to meet your goals?

I see so many runners sweat these little details while missing the big picture. You may see incremental improvements by taking care of these little details. However, you’ll improve by leaps and bounds if you start asking yourself the big questions.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

I’m going to begin occasionally spotlighting some key workouts that I believe are important for running success. Given that this is HillRunner.com, it only seems appropriate that I start with something that focuses on hills.

The workout

This is quite simple. I hope you already have long runs in your schedule. Find some quality hills and take the long run to the hills. Keep the distance at what you wanted. Your pace will slow down some but, as I will mention below, you shouldn’t worry about that.

The benefits

I think we all know the benefits of the long run already. Building your cardiovascular system. Building mitochondria, the "power plants" of your muscles, where stored energy gets converted into usable energy. Building capillary beds that deliver oxygen carrying blood to your muscles. Building general stamina all around.

Likewise, I think the benefits of hill workouts are already well established. As Frank Shorter said long ago, hills are speedwork in disguise. They build your strength and, through that, speed.

Obviously, the hilly long run puts these two benefits together in one package. Double the benefit in a single run. Any time you can double up your benefits like this with no negatives, that sounds like a winning proposition.

How to run it

It’s pretty simple. Do you have a long run planned for this weekend? I hope you already do most weekends. Where can you find hills near your home? Don’t worry what the hills are like. Just take the best you can get and go that direction for your long run.

Don’t worry about pace. The great thing about hilly long runs is that you are combining two workouts that beg you not to worry about pace. For the long run, duration matters, not pace. When running hills, pace obviously takes a back seat to effort. Combine the two and you have the perfect reason to just run and focus on effort, not pace.

Where should the hills be placed? Wherever they fit. If you have a hilly race coming up, you may want to simulate the course if possible. For example, if you’re training for the Boston Marathon, you might want some early downhill stretches before some late run climbing, finishing with more downhill. More generally, though, it doesn’t matter. Just find the hills and run what is available. Depending on your location, this may mean long, grueling climbs or it may mean more rolling hills.

As you’re running, take some time at points to focus on form. Are you running tall with your hips forward regardless of grade? Don’t let your hips fall back on the uphills. Keep your hips as far forward as reasonable and let gravity help you on the downhills.

Photo credit: Mok Ying Ren by david albo, on Flickr