Training

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

You don’t need a watch on race day if you practice running by effort in training

As anyone who is or has been coached by me knows, I usually target effort in workouts. I often assign workouts such as mile repeats at 10K effort or a tempo run at half marathon effort or 1/2 mile repeats at 5K effort. While some people naturally gravitate toward working in accordance to efforts, I think I drive others crazy. "What pace should I be running?" "Should this by my target pace or the pace I think I could run right now?" "I don’t know my 10K pace/effort."

As I usually do my best to explain, what I’m targeting is truly effort, not pace. I want them to become more independent, not as reliant on the watch or whatever other aid they may prefer and more reliant on themselves and their bodies’ responses to their efforts.

But why do I prefer to prescribe workouts by effort and not pace or some other parameter and how do you do a workout by effort?

Why do workouts by effort?

In my opinion, there are a lot of good reasons to focus on effort, not pace or some other parameter, but I’ll focus on a few key reasons.

Training by effort allows you to refine your ability to race by effort: Running by effort, whether in a training environment or a racing environment, is a skill. Just like all skills, it needs to be practiced. There are some race day skills that can only be developed on race day. For those we can develop in training, we should to the fullest of our ability.

But why race by effort?

Training and racing by effort allows you to better handle variables out of your control: You’ve trained through this brutal winter we’re having. You know what paces you’ve been running but, when the better weather of spring rolls around and your first race shows up on the schedule, what do those winter paces mean? Nothing. You know you’re more fit than those paces. Further, what if the race course is more or less hilly? What if it’s windy, unseasonably warm or you’re dealing with some other weather variable? Paces can lose a lot of meaning in many scenarios. However, if you know what the effort should feel like, that’s a constant you can rely on.

Running by effort removes your susceptibility to technical glitches: Batteries, especially for high tech devices, wear down rapidly. What happens if your GPS device battery dies on you? What happens if your GPS device doesn’t lock into satellites correctly? Everyone I have talked with about this has had at least one run where their paces and splits were all screwed up or their battery died on them. What do you do if race day is that day for you?

How do I do workouts by effort?

The idea is to think of the workout you’ve been prescribed and break it down into its components. Then, target each component to its corresponding segment of the first 1/2 to 2/3 of a race.

For example, if I saw 3×1 mile at 10K effort, that first mile should feel just like the first mile of a 10K, that time where you are definitely extending a good effort but you’re still feeling controlled, relaxed and smooth. The second should feel like the second or third miles of a 10K, that time where you’re working hard, you’re breathing hard but it’s still rhythmic and controlled and you’re settling into a tough but controlled pace. The final mile should feel like the third or fourth miles of a 10K, that time where you’re pushing pretty hard, challenging yourself, but you’re still under control, you still feel like you have some gas left in the tank for those last 2 miles. As I also mention often, I think almost every workout should be finished feeling like you could have done at least one more repeat if you had to. You may be simulating a race effort but you’re not racing. Save the feeling of the last mile or half mile of a race, that all out effort to reach the finish line as quickly as possible at all cost, for race day.

If I saw 8×1/4 mile at 5K effort, I’ d break it down to each repeat corresponding to its 1/4 mile segment of the first 2 miles of a 5K. For the first, I want to get out quick but be under control. For the second through the fourth, I want to work the pace but stay under control. For the final 4, I want to dig deep but feel like I have something left.

The most important part, though, is that I don’t want to get too caught up in my splits. I don’t want to target a pace. Maybe I’m tired from the past week’s training and my paces are a little off what I think I could run in a 5K race right now. That’s fine. I know what I’ll be capable of on fresh legs. What matters is I just simulated the effort I was targeting in this workout.

Give it a try next time you’re planning your workouts. Target a race effort and don’t worry about the splits, just aim for the effort. There will be a learning curve but getting on that curve in your workouts just might help you to a better result when race day arrives.

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

You don’t win these in workouts

I believe it was my junior year in college when our coach was having a terrible time keeping guys from running too hard on our tempo runs. Sure, we were young invincibles but we were racing almost every weekend. We couldn’t afford to be racing our Tuesday workouts also. I remember Coach saying something along the line of you don’t get awarded All-American honors on Tuesday, you do at the end of the season. He started calling guys who overran their tempo runs Threshold All-Americans, illustrating the point that they were racing their workouts, which would harm their races. Even this didn’t seem to be doing much good.

After a couple workouts with guys trying to be Threshold All-Americans, he came up with a way to put it to an end. He said anyone who doesn’t go through the 3 mile mark ahead of their target pace but finishes on pace gets a t-shirt and gets announced as a Threshold All-American the next day at practice. Almost everyone accomplished this, even the guys who had been running too hard. I’m not quite sure why but all it took was that one time and everyone did a better job staying on pace on future workouts.

These days, I understand the importance of what Coach was doing for us and I see many people, sometimes myself, making the same mistake many of the guys on the team, myself included at times, were making back then.

It’s easy to get pulled into running harder than you should in your workouts. You’re feeling good, you’re gaining fitness rapidly, you feel like you’re on top of the world. Your workouts are feeling easier every week and you feel like you need to keep pushing, to keep challenging yourself, every week in order to keep getting better. The problem is this perception of the workouts getting easier isn’t what’s really going on in your body.

The problem is you begin to get ahead of yourself, especially as your confidence grows. You feel like you’re gaining fitness and you should see those results in your workouts. So you think, if I ran my mile repeats at 6:30 this past week, I should be able to do 6:25 this week. Next week, you’re thinking 6:20 or maybe 6:23 if you’re being "conservative". Even though you feel like it is, your fitness isn’t improving enough to be doing your workouts measurably faster every week.

This continues until you’re racing your workouts and you’re not building yourself up. You’re breaking yourself down and not recovering adequately enough between workouts, usually exacerbated by the fact that you don’t want to slow down on your easy runs. Eventually, your body gives in and you fall off the cliff.

Don’t fall off the cliff. Know that some workouts, I would argue even most workouts, shouldn’t leave you feeling like death at the end. Sometimes, even hard days should feel relatively refreshing. Don’t be a Workout All-American. Save your race efforts for race day and do your workouts at efforts that allow you to continue moving forward for months to come.

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

Over the past few weeks, the cold and flu season has caught some serious momentum. With the bad weather keeping people indoors, it’s likely this may continue for a while. Runners aren’t immune. Several of the runners I coach have recently dealt with colds and I got hit by one last week (which is why my blog is a day late this week).

So what do we do during this cold season? Obviously, the first step is to try to avoid the virus with all the usual precautions that we have all heard a million times and I’m not going to bore everyone by repeating. What happens when that isn’t enough, though? It’s the age old question that runners face. Do I run through this cold or not and, if I do, how much do I have to back off?

I know some people like to say if it’s above the shoulders, keep running. If it’s below, don’t run. That’s a decent general guideline but sometimes we have bad head colds and would benefit from a day or two off. While more rare, sometimes we get a chest cold that isn’t too severe and some easy running won’t be harmful.

How often do I say listen to your body? Well, here’s another case. Your body will tell you how to handle the illness. If you’re feeling run down before you even grab your running gear, how do you think your run is going to go? It’s not going to be good and what are you going to accomplish? You’re better off giving your body some extra rest so it can fight off the virus. If you are feeling up for trying a run, go for it but pay attention to how you feel while running. If you’re feeling fine, keep going but consider skipping hard or long workouts. If not, then adjust as necessary. Keep your pace very easy, just go short and do something to get your blood flowing, which can help you fight the illness if it’s not too severe.

As an example of how we may apply this, I’ll offer my training from last week. Monday, I woke up early in the morning with a sore throat. I knew immediately what was going on but, other than the sore throat, I felt fine so I went out and got in a good 9 mile run. Tuesday, the congestion started but again wasn’t bad. I felt fine. I went out and got in another 9 mile run, though not quite as fast. Wednesday, I felt fine while not running so I went for my run. Once running, I instantly knew my energy levels were very low so I just did 5 miles at about 2 minutes per mile slower than my prior 9 mile runs. Thursday, I felt a little better but my energy levels were still low so I did another 5 miles barely faster than Wednesday. By Friday, I felt better and my pace was returning to normal but I wanted to play it safe so I just did 6 miles. Since the cold was still lingering over the weekend, even though I felt fine while running, I continued building slowly, adding a mile a day while making sure I continued recovering. By Monday, I was back to my usual 9 mile run at a pace that was very solid given the conditions. I still have a few lingering symptoms but, by backing off when my energy was low, I ensured the cold didn’t develop into something worse or drag on, draining my energy for longer than necessary. Now I’m back into my normal routine less than a week after the cold first began affecting my training.

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

This weekend, I did something with every runner I’m coaching that I think surprised at least a few of them. I asked them to think about and send me two primary goals for 2014. I was looking for not just time goals but everything associated with running. Why did they hire me as a coach? If it was just for time goals, then let me know those goals specifically. If it was for more, what else was it for? To avoid injury? To find a running/life balance that would allow them to do certain things in both running and the rest of their lives? To learn more about training theory? To take their training to the "next level" in whatever way they may think it’s been lacking?

Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t overlooked talking about goals previously. It’s something I’m always thinking about and it’s one of the first things I ask a runner about when the runner contacts me with an interest in coaching.

What I was looking for were two short, precise points of focus for 2014. I am adding these to a private page I keep with links to training logs so, every time I go to look at someone’s training log, I’d see that person’s goals also. I’ll be constantly reminded of the end result we’re going after.

Why does this matter? Sometimes, when in middle of a long block of training, we get so focused on today, tomorrow, next week that we forget to think about the big picture. We forget the ultimate target. While it’s important to focus on the process, it’s also important to ensure the process is pointing us toward where we want to go. It’s easy to get away from that when you’re too focused on the moment.

For the record, I also performed this exercise on myself. One of my goals is not a race time. It’s to be running strong in September and October. In recent years, I too often found myself peaking in July or August and just hanging on as the fall races rolled around. This year, I’m going to have that "Run strong in September and October" goal in my face every week as I lay out my week’s training plan. I’m not going to overextend myself in May and June because I’m going to be reminded that I want a more sustainable training approach that leaves me running well in the summer but even better in the fall.

Seeing this goal every week is going to keep me honest. It’s going to help me ensure I plan sustainable workouts that will build fitness without breaking me down prematurely. It’s going to help me be honest with myself in those workouts and not run them harder than I should. It’s going to leave me running my best during my favorite time of the year to race. I’m hoping I have enough left in the tank to even consider expanding my fall racing schedule.

As for the runners I coach, I will have their top priorities in mind every time I’m developing long term training plans as well as every time I’m sending them short term plans. It will allow me to better tailor their training plans to their specific needs and desires.

So what do you do? First, think seriously about what your goals are. Not just racing goals but your overall running goals. What do you want out of your running this year? Then come up with two specific goals that you can express in short, concise sentences. Finally, keep those goals in front of you. Always be thinking about where you want to go. Focus on what you’re going to do today but in the context of how it’s going to get you to where you want to be three, six or twelve months from now.

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

Note: This is again an article I wrote a long time ago. I would probably write it much differently now than I did back then. However, I don’t want to shy away from my historical views. They were important steps in the progression of my views on running and played a role in shaping my current views.

This is a very popular question during the winter, as people gear up for the coming year. High school runners are between cross-country and track seasons and are wondering what the most effective way would be to improve their times for the spring track season. The rest of us are waiting for spring and summer track, road racing, cross-country, basically pick your poison. We are all looking for the same thing. What can we do during our non-competition months to best prepare ourselves to rewrite our personal record books when the next racing season comes around?

The answer for us all is simple and easy if you are willing to do the training. The off-season is the time to establish your aerobic base. Why would this be such a simple answer? Why would it work for the high school middle distance runner as well as the veteran marathoner? Simple: everything starts from an aerobic base, an aerobic base takes time to properly established, it can be maintained during your racing season fairly easily once established, and continually and repeatedly building your base stronger during the off-season is the most effective way to gain long term improvements.

Why is an aerobic base so important? For long distance runners, the answer is actually pretty obvious. For races of 5k and up, the race itself is nearly all aerobic. In a 5k race, about 85% of the energy your body will burn will be burned through aerobic processes. Only 15% of the energy you burn, give or take, will actually come from anaerobic processes. Even for races of as short as 800 meters, the race has a meaningful aerobic component. Aerobic training offers many benefits along this line, such as increasing the number of capillaries, the smallest of blood vessels which go through your muscles and directly deliver oxygen to your muscles for energy production, in your working muscles; increasing the number and size of mitochondria, the aerobic power plants of the muscle, within your working muscles; and increasing your body’s ability to burn fat at higher rates, meaning you save your less readily available glycogen for when you really need it. The last one may not be of high importance for races of shorter distances but can have positive effects across the board. On top of that, building a strong aerobic base will allow you to get more out of your harder workouts you will be doing later with less risk of injury. The better the base you get in, the stronger your muscles, bones, and connective tissue will be, increasing your body’s ability to handle the punishment of hard workouts as well as its ability to avoid injury. On top of that, your body will be working from a higher level of fitness, allowing it to work harder, get more improvement from each workout, and recover more quickly and completely between workouts which means you can get in more workouts.

How do you establish a good aerobic base? It’s actually one of the easiest parts of distance running training. All you do is get out and run easy. How far? As far as you can go and still be able to run tomorrow. How fast? Go by how you feel. Sometimes, that may mean fairly fast. Other times, maybe it means quite slow. In fact, leave your watch at home and just enjoy the scenery if that’s what you want to do. According to Arthur Lydiard, there is no such thing as too slow for these runs, only too fast. I’m not totally sold on that but I do believe most people, myself included, come much closer to too fast than too slow. How frequently? The more the better. Once a day every day is great. Twice a day is even better. Many of the best runners do 13 runs a week. That’s twice a day 6 days a week with a long run once a week. Of course, gradually build the number of runs you do. Don’t go straight from 4 runs a week to 13 runs a week without giving your body time to adapt. How long should you do this for? Ideally, as long as you can. The longer, the better. I would say a good guideline for minimum in most situations would be 2 months for distances that would be standard track and field distances, 3 months for longer distances such as the marathon. Why so long? Well, it takes time to establish a good aerobic base. Aerobic fitness takes time to build, it’s not something that can be gained as quickly as anaerobic fitness.

Fortunately, aerobic fitness also won’t be lost as quickly as anaerobic fitness. Maintaining it during your racing season and your preparations for your peak race isn’t too hard. With a good base built, it can also be easier than if you don’t have a good base. All you have to do is cover some distance on the days between your hard workouts and once every week or two get in a long run. Again, the same rules apply as when building the base with one little twist. Remember that you have to be well rested for your workouts. Still, pace doesn’t matter on these runs. Just cover the distance, which is the most important aspect. What does matter is making sure you are adequately rested for your workouts. That may mean not running quite as far and backing off the pace some. How frequently you run also may or may not change. Some people will still do 13 runs a week, others will remove some of the 2 a day workouts and some even feel the need to take occasional days off. Experiment to find what works best for you.

Building a base is a very simple but very important and frequently overlooked part of training for all distance runners. Many runners seem to be totally focused on intervals, intervals, and more intervals then wonder why their times stagnate after a while. The answer is simple. Intervals are important for reaching your highest level of performance on race day but they will only take you so far. You need to take a look at the whole picture and a large part of the picture for any distance runner should be building an adequate base to support the later high intensity training that will take you to your peak. As my cross-country coach when I was in in high school said, running is like building a pyramid. The larger the base, the higher the peak.

Some great sources on base training:

Summer of Malmo (discussing summer training for high school and collegiate runners but works for any base training, I frequently do my revised version as a "Winter of Hillrunner&quot

Lydiard Training Guide