Training

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

"Never try anything new on race day."

We’ve all heard this advice by now and I’m sure we do our best to live by that rule but how well do we do?

Many of us fall short because we don’t consider the corollary to that advice. Practice race day in training. Wear the shoes, socks and gear you’re going to on race day. If you’re running a race that’s long enough to require fueling, practice not just fueling but doing so with your race day strategy and with the equipment you will have on hand on race day. Possibly most important, do this at goal pace and on a route that is at least similar to what you’ll be racing on.

Why do all these things? Simple, you don’t want any surprises on race day.

Why wear race day gear? Hopefully the answer when it comes to shoes is obvious. You have to make sure the fit and ride are right or you could be in for a world of pain, especially as the race distance gets longer. As for the rest of your gear, you never know what stitch or piece of fabric may rub on you the wrong way and produce blistering or chafing. I’d rather find that out after a 10 mile tempo run than at the 10 mile mark of a marathon.

Why practice fueling? First, you need to make sure your stomach can handle whatever you will be taking in for fuel on race day. There are few things worse than getting sick mid-race due to the fuel you’re taking. Just as much, though, you need to practice with what I’ll call the fuel delivery tools you will have available on race day. If your plan is to take water or sports drink from aid stations, how good are you at drinking from the paper cups they will most likely be handed to you in? Are you planning to drink from a paper cup on the run? If so, you need a strategy for doing so in order to ensure more fluid ends up in your stomach than on your face and shirt and you need to practice that strategy until you can execute it to perfection every time.

Why at goal pace and on a route similar to what you’ll be racing on? Have you ever tried drinking from a paper cup at easy run pace? It’s not easy but not terribly difficult. Have you ever tried at race pace, especially if race pace is significantly faster than easy run pace? The first time you tried, you probably ended up wearing more of whatever you were drinking than you managed to swallow. You might have even choked on it. When running at race pace, your breathing is more heavy, you are probably not quite as smooth and you can’t adjust as well.

So get out there and practice race day in your training. By doing so, you can make sure that your execution on race day will be as flawless as possible and you won’t encounter any unfortunate surprises.

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

I’ve been quiet on my recent Monday and Thursday blog posts recently. Let’s call it a late summer break so we could all enjoy some free time. Here’s a short one to begin getting back on schedule.

Anyone who has received my advice or been closely following my blogging recently knows that I’m a big fan of treating and preventing injuries using a multi-faceted approach. Specifically, I think both strength training and flexibility/mobility training need to be considered. It used to be that everything was about flexibility. Get your soft tissues loose so they can pass through a full range of motion and they won’t be so tender. That makes total sense but here’s another thought: make your soft tissues stronger and they will be less susceptible to breaking down. Make sense?

It works for the IT band.

It works for PF.

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

Some time ago, I posted an "Ask me anything" post, soliciting questions. I’d like to continue doing this on occasion so, if you have any questions, keep an eye out (or ask any time if you don’t want to wait). One question I received was about strains:

During the last year I have tweaked/strained my left calf twice. I couldn’t tell you the muscle group but the long and short of it is I have had to ice and park myself for a few weeks and then start again. Any specific stretch or strengthening exercise you would recommend to stretch and strengthen that part of my leg?

First, great framing of the question. Muscle strains such as this are usually caused by a combination of inadequate strength/strength imbalances and inadequate flexibility/mobility.

As runners, we tend to let stretching and strength training fall to the wayside. We’d rather run another 2 miles than spend that time stretching and strength training. As a result, we get strength imbalances, don’t ensure our muscles and connective tissue are strong enough to support the repeated stress we place on them and allow ourselves to get tight to the point that we can’t pass through a normal range of motion without placing strain on our muscles and connective tissue.

This is a mistake. If we spend 10 minutes a day doing some form of stretching or range of motion work and 30-60 minutes a week doing strength training, we will be able to handle a higher volume and intensity of running.

Yes, it’s time out of our day. It may even be time that cuts into what time we have available to run. However, it’s time that keeps us healthy. I’d rather get in 50 minutes a day consistently than 60 minutes a day but miss a few weeks twice a year because I wasn’t taking care of myself. However, I’ve found that many runners can do these things without cutting into their running time. All the strength and flexibility/mobility training I recommend can be done in your living room with little to no equipment other than some space to stretch out on. You can do these things at home while watching TV or, especially for the stretching, as a way to relax before going to bed.

So what happened with the runner who asked this question? I suggested heel raises to strengthen the calf muscles and a Jim and Phil Wharton stretching routine (which can be found here) to stretch the muscles.

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with the individual who asked this question. He said the exercises I recommended did help him resolve the issues and he is actually recommending them to other runners who experience similar issues. I’m glad it worked out for him and, if you are experiencing similar strains, I hope this advice will also work for you.

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

Over the past two weeks, I went over how to define training capacity and how to find your training capacity, as well as what to do when you’ve found it.

This is the part 3 of a 3 part series on training capacity:

1) What is training capacity?

2) How to find your training capacity and what to do when you have found it?

3) Other training capacity considerations.

This week, in the final post in this series on training capacity, I want to discuss other considerations. Mainly:

1) Physical AND mental

2) Outside stresses

3) Your training capacity can and WILL change (don’t forget to address age)

4) Sometimes you’ll miss – adjust and move on

Training capacity is determined by physical AND mental capacity

We often think of the physical aspect. My body is breaking down, I must have gone beyond my capacity. My body is holding up, I’m doing fine.

That’s not all there is, though. How is your motivation? It doesn’t help at all if your body is holding up fine but you’re dragging mentally. I’ve seen it numerous times and you probably have seen it at least occasionally also if you think about it. A runner is running well, all is going right. Then, for apparently no reason to the outside world, the runner disappears. When the runner reappears, you find out there were no physical problems. Instead, the runner just lost interest.

Just as with physical capacity, our mental capacity plays a critical role. Just as with physical capacity, you can do things to increase your mental capacity but your starting point is no reflection on you as a runner. Some of us are easily highly motivated and will push through a grueling workload, others don’t have that motivation and need ways to keep things fresh and fun. Where you fall in that spectrum might affect your ultimate potential at the edges but it doesn’t have to predetermine your life as a runner.

Outside stresses play an important role

Are you facing an especially stressful time in your work or home life? This will affect your training capacity. If you don’t account for that, you will pay the price. Don’t be afraid to cut back some when stresses outside of running build up.

Running is a great release for many of us when we face stressful times but training at your capacity is also a stressor of its own type. Your body is only capable of handling so much stress at any given time. When one stress increases, another has to be decreased. The good news is that, when your outside stresses fade back down, you can increase your training load again.

Your training capacity can and WILL change

Our training capacities are always changing. As we gain fitness, we’re becoming more capable of handling a larger training load. If we lose fitness, our training capacity decreases. As we age, our training capacity is affected

To account for this, always pay attention to how you’re feeling and continue to reassess where your current capacity is. When you are gaining fitness and your capacity is on the rise, though, don’t be constantly increasing the load. It’s too easy to go too far if you do that. I like the idea of adjusting your load upward about once every 3-4 weeks.

If your training capacity is decreasing, though, make the adjustments immediately. As I’ve already mentioned, you’re better off at 90% of capacity than at 110% of capacity.

As much as we don’t want it to happen, as we age, our training capacity also changes. For most runners, the best way to handle this is to adjust the amount of time between hard days or, as I’ve seen work well, to take one of the weekly hard days and lessen the intensity of it.

Sometimes you’ll miss – adjust and move on

Hitting your right training capacity is a tough balance. Plus, with your capacity always changing as mentioned above, sometimes you won’t adjust right as the change happens. It happens to all of us. When it happens, don’t make a big deal of it. Instead, find your way back to equilibrium, pay attention to find that right balance again and understand what changed and why so you can keep watching for the same or similar things to happen again and adjust before problems creep up next time.

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

Have you found your training capacity? Are you sure? If you have, do you know what to do with that knowledge?

This is part 2 of a 3 part series on training capacity:

1) What is training capacity?

2) How to find your training capacity and what to do when you have found it?

3) Other training capacity considerations.

How to find your training capacity?

So we now understand that your training capacity is more complex than just how many miles a week you can run. It’s a measure of the total training stimulus you can handle. It’s taking into account both the volume and intensity of your running as well as the auxiliary training you’re doing. It’s a measure of the whole package.

With that more complex definition, how do you determine what your training capacity is? As the definition of the term gets more complex, finding what it is also gets more complex. Fortunately, there’s a way to do it that, while requiring patience and hard work, is very possible for all of us to do.

What is that way? Increase a little at a time and paying attention to how your body responds.

Sounds easy, right? No? Well, let’s dig a little deeper.

Start by holding a training load that you have successfully held recently. Now, build up some component a little. Maybe increase your weekly miles a little. Maybe add another workout or increase the intensity of a workout you’re already doing. Whatever you do, though, remember what I said about patience? Don’t do too much. How do you feel at the end of your next week? Still feeling good? Add a little more and reassess at the end of the next week. Beginning to feel a little strain from the training but still feel like things are sustainable? That means you found your training capacity. Feeling worn down or beat up? You just went too far. Back off immediately.

The key is that you want that delicate balance between feeling like the training is a piece of cake and feeling worn down by the training. You want to feel like you’re working hard but also feel like you could keep going for a long time at that level. When you found that level, you found your training capacity, the "sweet spot" you want to spend a lot of time at.

What to do with your training capacity?

Once you’ve found your training capacity, you want to stick with it. What if you need to change your training balance, though? Let’s say your racing season is nearing and you want to add more intensity. Then add more intensity but remove or cut back on something as you do so. Remove some volume, shorten your long run, cut back on the auxiliary training. Do something to keep things in balance. As you do this, again, pay close attention to how you’re feeling to keep that balance.

The main thing to remember is, if you’re getting close to that line between sustainable training and overtraining, you have to be careful to not cross over. That means, if your training focus is shifting, you have to take something away or cut back on something as you add or increase something else. It’s true that your training capacity may gradually build over time (more on that next week) but it won’t do so as quickly as we need to change our training focus as our season progresses. So don’t be afraid to reduce one variable to build up another. It’s a necessary part of finding the right training balance.

In the end, you want to ride that "sweet spot" as long as possible. Sure, you will venture a little too far at times and you will fall a little short at other times. When you do, don’t get worked up about it, though. Just adjust to get back into that sweet spot.

Next week, we’ll review some other training capacity considerations.