Finding Motivation- "How long can I do this?"

     Heavy... Slow... Struggling!! Some of the more positive examples of the types of words ringing in my head in the weeks after my last marathon as I plodded through short base runs like an old and fat version of my long lost fit self. Most of the Boston Marathon was a nice and smooth "jog" at around 5:25/mile pace and here I am, well after what should have been plenty of recovery time, working hard for a minute slower per mile. Where are my lungs? Where are my legs? My glutes? Power? Speed? Hell, I'll take basic endurance at this point! And the list goes on...

     What I'm feeling, like probably about 100% of athletes have also felt at some point, is just a bit of shock. Like a "how the heck can I have gotten this out of shape so fast?" type of shock. I am also fully equipped with an arsenal of answers to my own dilemma. It's just the typical recovery process, hyper compensation, healing, restoring.... Blah, blah, blah. "Thanks coach, now please shut up so I can comprehend the amount of work, and pain, that lies ahead!" Ah yes, sound familiar?

     Along this journey of ups and downs and peaks and valleys, it can become a bit like being on a perpetual journey through space and time. But... It is in these moments that we must remember that in reality, it is actually the exact opposite of that. WE WILL NEVER BE HERE AGAIN! There is nothing perpetual about the human experience. Every moment, every breath, is an opportunity. The feelings of pain, even the shitty, slow, out-of-shape workout type of pain... That IS the glory.

     Sometimes we ask ourselves, "How long can I do this?" "When is it enough?" Well, whether it's a job, sport, family, whatever battle you find yourself in, I say the answer is in our own mortality. The fact is that we aren't here for very long. Maybe a better question is "How long can I inspire myself, how long can I truly live?" "How long do I GET to do this?"

      Here is where we find the will to push through hell and high water. Here is your motivation!

     We have an opportunity, with each breath, to define ourselves through the adversities that present themselves just as much as we do through life's easier moments. Stay in the moment. Embrace it. After all, this is your story, all the goods and bads included! Stay with the pain, even if it's all you ever have, you will have lived it. And if you come out on the other side... Every ounce of victory is that much sweeter!

     To me, this is one of life's great romances. The pursuit. Of what? Of it all. Of the destination and the journey. The pleasure and the pain. The joy and the hurt. The love and the loss.

     So what say you, shall we train for another marathon? Just to see... Just because... Think about it. Let me know. I'd love to share the journey with you brother, sister.

     I'll leave you with this, one of my favorite quotes from the movie Gladiator...

     Always remember...

     "WHAT WE DO IN LIFE, ECHOS IN ETERNITY!"

Quality or Quantity? Do we have a WINNER?

Run more? Run better? Let's pick a WINNER!

Oh how I love this debate! The question: Is it better to run more miles or better quality miles in training for distance running? I'm sure you've had this conversation before... What makes the argument ongoing, and interesting, are the successes that coaches and athletes have had on both sides of this "line in the sand". You will find elites like Bernard Lagat, who has peaked at 60 miles per week for his entire, world record setting, career and you will find others like Kenenisa Bekele (current world record holder in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter distances), who is currently hammering 150 miles per week in preparation for his, first ever, marathon. Lagat and Bekele have always been mid distance specialists, from 1500 meters to 5,000 meters (up to 10,000m for Bekele), and are World Champions in the 5,000, both having run under 13 minutes in the distance. So it would look like both high volume and high quality programs work, right? Yup! So is either one better? And what should YOU do? I think we have to compare the two approaches so we can discover the similarities and differences in order to choose a winner!

The thing both programs have in common... the focused, key workouts. While Bekele is chillin' well over a hundred miles per week, you can bet he doesn't miss the hard, pace specific workouts. Bekele and Lagat are probably doing some of the same workouts on some days, while on opposite sides of the planet, with very different goals. Why? Because when you want to run fast, you have to teach the body what it's in for... by running FAST! Intervals broken into shorter distances than a given race distance allow runners to work on speeds that cant be maintained for longer distances. This ingredient, we'll call it "speed development", is the single most important ingredient for runners as a whole. You may say, "Duh!!"... But it's really a common misconception that we should all build this huge base of miles before adding any speed work. So it sounds like I'm arguing for quality over quantity, right? Not exactly, not yet...

Higher volume in training has a positive effect on a runners aerobic capacity, meaning the ability to take in oxygen during exercise. The more oxygenated the body, the more fat is utilized for energy demand and the longer one can go before energy depletion. Besides the more well known aerobic benefit of improved endurance and overall economy, a large aerobic capacity is important for a couple other reasons, as well:

1. It allows for faster recovery times during sustained speed interval workouts. Fast recovery means more specific work can be achieved in workouts. 

2. Because of the oxygenating effect of these runs, the aerobic workouts themselves are a way to recover the body in between hard workout days. The muscles and connective tissues benefit from the increased blood flow, leading to faster muscle recovery.

So who is the WINNER? The winner here, if there must be one, is quality over quantity.

There is a place for high volume. In my opinion, high volume should be reserved for advanced runners only, when an improvement in pace is the goal between 5k to the marathon. Hard and easy days together are a winning recipe. You really can't have one without the other if you want to build a winning machine. It would probably be better stated to say "start with quality, build the quantity". Whether a program is high or low in volume, it should include a balance of aerobic and pace specific workouts and dynamically adjust the ratios of each according to the phase of the program (base, sharpening, taper, etc). I believe that if an athlete is recovering well between workouts and can handle  more, progression in volume is appropriate, regardless of what the current mileage is. 

The Application:

Here's the gospel... Every runner should include every training stimulus into every week of training! This is true from middle school through middle age. Speed Development, Sustained Speed, Aerobic Development, Strength and Skill are the 5 ways I like to identify the stimuli. Many workouts can incorporate elements of more than one but its important to know how to use each stimulus to positively affect the others. For example; if you do a strength workout leading into a speed development workout the speed will suffer and the affect wont be positive on the overall progress of the athlete. 

Start low and build. Start your training programs at a volume that is realistic and allows you to recover fully from the speed and strength training.  Developing a strong body that can handle the rigors of running should be the first concern. A well rounded program does this naturally. As you progress through the program, increase the overall volume, with the highest percentage of work being aerobic development (this is true at every stage of training to different degrees). The key workouts, which I consider to be everything besides aerobic development, will also increase in volume and intensity as you get stronger, raising the overall volume but keeping ratios relatively the same. To simplify this, think of it in ratios.

Example: you may start at 40-50 miles per week and 80/20 split aerobic/skill work. By the second month of training you may be up to 60 miles per week and the ratios are still 80/20 aerobic/skill. Then 6-8 weeks out from your race, starting a sharpening phase, the milegae may still be in the 60s but the amount of skill will increase so you have a 60/40 split of aerobic/skill.

Remember: even in low volume training plans, aerobic running makes up the greatest percentage of workload. The biggest mistake comes from phasing out the other elements completely.


Good luck out there, be smart and when in doubt... consult a COACH!! :)

Blue

Race Day Nutrition Strategy

In case you don't know, I am not a registered dietician or nutritionist but, rather, a curious athlete, coach and trainer who has studied the affects of how we fuel our bodies within my own study. As a professional trainer I have been lucky enough to be exposed to some very astute pros in the field of nutrition and have had many great conversations on it's affect on performance in athletes. As with everything we know, it is only ever just pieces to a puzzle that we may never fully complete. So, as with most things, we do the best to understand the whole picture with the information we have. There are a couple basic principles that I believe in when it comes to nutrition. The first, that each person has a unique set of nutritional requirements based on genetics and body type. The second, that fueling the body should directly correlate to the level and type of activity in which a person is trying to perform.

Maximizing your nutrition, for sport performance and overall good health, is to identify and understand your basic nutritional needs and the foods that work best with your body to fulfill those needs. Once you have that knowledge, your daily responsibilty is to adjust and control the volume and ratios of those foods to accomodate the workload of your sport and/or lifestyle.

That all in mind, the purpose of this blog, is to point out, through a couple of experiences, what I feel is a sound strategy in fueling for racing in the MARATHON, my favorite sport, and perhaps one of the most difficult to manage energetically.

Running 26.2 miles is not always the same. It is almost always a different experience, even for the same athlete, from one course to another and from one day to the next. One's level of fitness determines just how fast one is able to complete the distance relative to their own boundaries. So we train and train and train... Always looking for the highest level that we can possibly achieve, compelled towards greatness. But as you may have experienced yourself, even when we are extremely well prepared and fit for a marathon, too often things start to unravel somewhere around that famous mile... MILE 20... THE WALL! So the question is, what really is THE WALL? Why is there so often a point when the entire system seems to just shut down on us? And most importantly, how do we keep that from happening?

I think there are two fields of popular thought in running and fueling.

The old school, which I agree with in many ways, is all about conditioning the body to run hard and fast regardless of weather, gear, fuel, water or anything else for that matter! I love this. It is RAW. It is WILD. It is FREE! Dependance on anything other than yourself is a weakness of sorts. I'd like to think, if my shoes tore apart and my shorts ripped, that I could run naked, free from every material comfort to the horizon... And while I'm at it, run straight up to the heavens to show the gods that I wont be held down by anything!! Okay... Slowly descending back to Earth now, head still slightly in the clouds, I realize that is only one side. This perspective is important because it embodies the power of the will and the human spirit but also, it reminds us that in order to become great, there are no magic tricks. We must train as hard as we need to in order to achieve our greatest potential... No excuses!!

And then there is the new school, a scientific approach that explores the physiology of the body and what is happening energetically during exercise. To me the new school would be foolish to ignore, as I, and probably most of us, need as much help as possible in order to continue along the road of progress. The long and short is this: We dont store enough glycogen (sugar) calories in our bodies to run anaerobically ("without oxygen" or otherwise know as "hard and fast") for distances over about 20 miles. When we are running hard and fast and there isn't enough oxygen coming in, the body uses primarily sugar for fuel (compared to an oxygenated or "aerobic" state, where the body efficiently breaks down and uses fats for a large percentage of fuel). Now, if you look at the amount of sugar calories that can be stored in the average person, say it's somewhere in the range of 2,000 calories, and the you burn about 100 calories per mile, all of which are coming from sugar... BAM!! Game over at 20 miles!! 

So lets say you take a gel that is supplementing around 100 calories. The math doesn't really start to work until you are in the range of 5-6 gels (500-600 additional calories)... That puts you at every 5 miles for taking a gel during a marathon. For me, that sounded like a lot when I first heard it. I would try to take 2-3 but never really paid much attention to it. I wondered how much of a difference this would, or could, really make.

So this year I tried an experiment. I had a really solid training cycle leading into the fall season and was ready to go for a PR. We had trained most of our runs with the old school approach and hadn't used much gel support. So I went into the Chicago Marathon in October, fit and confident, ready to test myself... without taking ANY gels. Yep. That was the plan and I stuck to it.

Part 1- Chicago: I had a great race, holding back to 5:30 pace to keep it comfortable. I felt smooth, I felt good! And then... I didn't. Somewhere around mile 20 my pace fell, I held on... Figured it was just a little wall. It got worse. I slowed more... It got worse. Mile 23 was hell but I hoped if I kept focused I could get a second wind. It never came. The last mile I closed my eyes and ran for an eternity... More tired than I can ever remember being. 4 minutes slower than my goal time, all lost in the last 6. I wasn't expecting it to be THAT bad... At the finish line I drank a smoothie and was instantly revived. The sugar was back and I felt like I had done a hard 20 with a cooldown, that's it. So I set my sights on CIM a couple months later and started training, I didn't even need a day off after Chicago. While I didn't think the crash was going to be so hard, the outcome of the race wasn't a surprise.

Part 2- CIM: I posted a detailed account and race report of CIM in my last blog so I won't go too much into the details. The training was, once again, perfect leading up to the race. So I implemented the fueling change, took 5 gels with me, knocked one back every 5 miles through 20 and another one at 23. I felt clear headed and focused all the way across the line. The last mile and a half was a battle but I held pretty close to my goal pace all the way through. Three and a half minutes faster than the Chicago experience with way more elevation up and down, much colder temps and, most importantly, I felt GREAT all the way through!


In the end, I learned that which I had already known. For me, I love the first-hand experience because it let's me share it with you in a way that is more visceral. If you, too, like experimenting... I welcome you to conduct a similar experiment. It can be... Uh... Fun? Or, just take my experience as a little piece to your own "puzzle of progression" and see how much better you feel when your brain has enough sugar to stay focused. Even if there is no muscular function benefit, which means you still need to train like the old school, the mental benefit keeps the brain from shutting everything down just when you need it! And that is golden in a race!!

I had a long conversation/interview (in it's entirety on YouTube) with Josh Cox at the 2013 Malibu Marathon expo and we discussed the whole nutrition thing in detail. The biggest shocker to me was how much nutrition both he and Ryan Hall take in during marathon races. Every 5k, which is about every 15 minutes for them, they take a mixture of Powerade and gel... Every 5k!!! Kind of mind blowing but it makes sense. When the engine is running that hot, the caloric expense is even higher. A lot of people think these guys are just genetically gifted and wake up one day and run a 2:10 marathon. It's not that easy. They work hard, really hard... and, being professionals, they know what they are doing! 

I have friends who prefer to think "less" about the science and technology when it comes to running and I get it. Running can be spiritual when it's just you and the birds out there on the mountain, floating along a trail with the wind in your hair, chasing the sinking sun into darkness... Why take away from that? Well, that's easy... Because I want to run FASTER!!!

Good luck out there! Hope this helps you findyourFAST!!

Blue

2:24:59 California Int' Marathon Race Report and Rule Breaking

2013 Cal Int Marathon. Eric Noel (L) and myself  

Its been a couple of weeks since wrapping up my race season at the California International Marathon (CIM) on December 8th. I had kind of a back to back-ish marathon training cycle this fall because I'd trained for the October 13th Chicago Marathon and instead of taking a break, just continued training into CIM. The biggest difference in the two races for me was simple- race day nutrition (keep an eye out for my next blog on "Race Day Nutrition and Performance Fueling" for more on that). I ran a 2:28:20 in Chicago with a pretty major "bonk" at about mile 20 that I never recovered from. CIM went much better... Here's my race breakdown.

CIM breakdown:

So I decided to break a cardinal rule in marathoning before the race this year. Well, actually, I almost always break this cardinal rule. The rule is to "never change anything for race day". The thing is, for me, the marathon is a great place to experiment, a testing ground of sorts. So, I broke the rule a couple different ways...

Gear (experiment #1):

I had been getting feedback from many of my friends and fellow runners regarding the cold temps and what to wear from the waist down. The overwhelming consensus seemed to be to brave the 25 degree starting temps and wear shorts with a sweatshirt on top. Not many seemed to support my idea of running in full 2XU Compression tights. But I just had to know what it would be like, and this was the perfect weather to try it out, so I went with my gut feeling... as I tend to do, for better or worse. The night before I solved the problem of "junk support" (without all that extra fabric between the thighs) by buying Calvin Klein jock strap type underwear. It seemed the perfect solution to what was my only worry about the tights. I didn't want any skin loss or blisters in new places at mile 20. Waist up (see photo above) was my LASP singlet over a long sleeve with hoodie, sunglasses and gloves. I also picked a half zip wicking runners fleece to start the race in and potentially throw away.


Nutrition (experiment #2):

Because of my previously mentioned "bonk" at mile 20 of the Chicago Marathon, and after a lengthy conversation with friend and "distance running Jedi", Josh Cox (US 50k World Record Holder, 2:13 Marathoner), I decided to take a gel every 5 miles of the race. Josh and Ryan Hall do almost twice that amount and pre-mix every gel with Powerade (every 5k or 15 minutes in a race), but for me, taking a gel every 25-30 minutes would be way beyond my usual! Check out my full chat with Josh on training and fueling here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFsYKVWovEE

Race Day:

As predicted, race day temps were a balmy 25 degrees fahrenheit. I got dropped at the start and met LASP teammate and training partner, Scott Wandzilak, at the startline. We warmed up for five minutes, stared at our frozen breath in the air, and toed the line, throwing my Malibu Marathon beach towel (extra warmth) to the sidelines. Two of Scott's college running cronies from Nebraska (Eric Noel and Tom Nichols of Lincoln Running Co.) had flown out to meet up and shoot for a PR with us, shooting for sub 2:25 finish time. The clocked ticked over and we were off.

The lead pack seemed to be about fifty strong through the first mile (5:31), by far the deepest talent I've seen in a marathon this size. After the first mile mark the pack split up as about 35 of the front runners picked it up to a 5:15 pace. Lincoln Running Co and the LA Speed Project were happy to let the front runners go, as we stuck to our 5:30/mile pace goal.

I had a race strategy of slightly negative splitting each 10k starting at 5:30/mile pace. Mile 5 came in no time and I told Eric the last thing I wanted was a gel. He reaffirmed the wisdom of it and I swallowed it down, followed by a Powerade ice cube launching straight into my nose from the frozen water at the aid station. Yep, it was still about 25 degrees! No surprise. All is good, keep it rockin.

First 10k mark passes and we are on a 5:29 average pace.

The second 10k was when I started to feel the ups and downs. It felt within my control to power up the hills and glide down them. I started to remember that David Olds had told me it flattens out after the halfway mark, and I was happily awaiting that section. My glutes were feeling the extra propulsion of the ups at mile 10 and I was happy for the 2nd gel. Luckily, it went down easy and I started to play a rewards game... Every 5, I get a gel!! Sweet!

2nd 10k split... 5:28 average

The third 10k felt great! The pace felt smooth, the weather was probably around 30-35 degrees and there was practically no wind. Halfway mark passed (1:11:30 split) and I was rolling with Eric and one of the elites, Alexander Battaglino, who was my leap frog buddy. I would pass him every uphill and he would pass me on the downhills. It wasn't for either of us trying to edge the other, rather a difference in strongpoints as runners. Alex's long stride was better when he could open it up, while my shorter legs were able to keep the power and turnover tighter on the climbs. It was a humorous back and forth after about 16 hills of it. Mile 15 passed and my third gel went down nicely with a little sip of water. I ditched the half zip fleece around mile 16, was still the most covered-up runner in our group, and we were at 18 before I knew it. The course had definitely flattened out.

3rd 10k split... 5:27 average

Going into the 4th 10k was a great feeling. I felt strong, clear headed and focused. Its about that time when you start to find out if its going to be a good day. At mile 20 I took the 4th gel and decided to see if I had any extra kick for a negative split. I peeled away from Eric and realized it might be a bit soon for a surge but it was my race plan to pick it up for the last 10k. Mile 23 is when I felt the pain set in. I took my last gel, because why not, and started to work. 24 and 25 passed and I couldn't look at my watch because I was working as hard as possible so it didn't really matter what the numbers were. Alex passed me and said "Come on! Let's pick these guys off!" Other runners were dropping like flies and we had moved into the top 20. The last mile was tough! I was still moving but it was a battle! Eric passed me and I did my best to go with him. We picked off a few more as we passed mile 26 and my girl, Cassidy, was there to run me in. We rounded the corner and when I saw the clock I realized the 2:25 was way to close so I sprinted the last 10 feet to squeeze 2:24:59 and 20th overall.

4th 10k split was 5:33 average. I wasn't able to hold it for a negative split in the end. The last couple miles actually were in the 5:40s. That kick at mile 20 may not have been the wisest move but I stuck to the plan and all said and done felt great with it.

I walked to the fence where Cassidy stood and my body went into shock for about 5 minutes as I huddled under my heat blanket. After that, I stood up and we walked straight to the nearest indoor coffee shop we could find. It was like instant hypothermia with temps barely above freezing at the finish. Scott finished right behind me with a 2:27:32 and new PR.

Conclusion:

Gear review... From the waist down, race start to race finish, my Nike Flyknit Racer, 2XU Elite Compression tights, Calvin Klein jock strap-combo was a bomber A+!! Couldn't have felt better. Experiment gone right! It's nice to have a good, fast race in the tights. I'll happily be adding these to my race gear options. With race temps between 25 and 35 degrees, I was surprisingly comfortable, start to finish. Waist up: long sleeve, 2XU singlet and gloves, beenie and half zip fleece... perfect. Cold weather race gear... Dialed!!

Nutrition... 5 gels kept my head in the game, start to finish. A special thank you to long time sponsor Pacific Health Labs for providing me with the best gels out there... Accel Gel!! I had chocolate and vanilla this time and, as usual, they tasted great and went right down (not to mention the much needed performance aid of those 500 extra carbohydrate calories). 

In the end, we feel very well prepared for our race performances because of the training program we follow. Feeling prepared and confident by hitting our key workouts, allows us to focus on all those other little variables (like gear, nutrition and strategy), so we can do what we train to do when it counts.

I was averaging around 80 miles per week for this cycle and felt great. My glutes and hammys are still beat from the 1400 ft gain and 1700 ft loss but I look forward to some rest over the remainder of the month before entering the hurt locker once more as I fall into 90-100 mile weeks and another cycle for the 2014 Boston Marathon. And I'm sure that, by then, there will be another experiment that piques my curiosity... Lucky for me, I'll get to break that "never change anything" rule, once again! Keep looking... Keep searching... it's the only way to ever #findyourFAST!!

Blue

The Recipe- The "Whats" and "Whys" of Marathon Training

As distance runners we do a lot of running. And that is the gift. We GET to do a lot of running. But if we want to get better at running, some things must change. Too many runners, including myself not so long ago, get caught up in the intermediate category when they are capable of so much more. This is largely due, in my opinion, to a lack of contrast in the type of running an athlete does.

For years I would hold myself to 6:15-6:20 per mile pace on every run and push it when I could or when I felt good. The result? About 10 marathons over two years where I couldn't break 2:42:00 for 26.2. It was a combination of working on my stride patterns and adding some missing elements to my training that has allowed me to continue my progression.

The gospel is this: save your energy for 3 specific workouts each week and the rest of the time run easy, probably easier than you think. So the question is... What are the 3 workouts? When should you do them? And why?

The three workouts are "Speed Development" (short distance intervals at maximal running speeds), "Sustained Speed Work" (commonly known as tempo workouts, fartleks, lactate threshold runs, etc.) and the, more commonly known, "Long Runs". At www.LASpeedProject.com we like to assign each of these workouts to a day of the week so we can guarantee that we consistently incorporate all of the elements into our training. The breakdown is "Track Tuesdays", "Tempo Thursdays" and "Weekend Long Runs". Once you incorporate this outline it allows you to put your head down and get the work done, day in and day out, without having to worry too much about it.

The "Whys":

I think it's important to know, from an energetic perspective, the basics of why we don't just run hard and fast 7 days per week. When we are doing the easy or "base" runs, our bodies are aerobic, meaning the intensity is low enough that we aren't operating the muscles in an oxygen deprived state. This allows for a greater volume of training to be done without taxing our adrenal system, the ever important "feel good" hormones (while simultaneously improving the body's fat burning ability). The hard workouts do just the opposite. During Sustained Speed (Tempo Thursday) workouts, we are operating in an oxygen deprived state, or anaerobically, which increases cortisol levels and drains adrenal hormones in the same way a lack of sleep and stress do. But for those of us trying to run marathons FAST, we are preparing the body to operate anaerobically for the entire race, so these anaerobic workouts are VERY important. They are actually the MOST IMPORTANT workout we do besides the long, hard run. Its during these runs that the body is introduced to fast speeds that can be sustained for progressively longer chunks of time. It is here that the body, and the mind, begin to find comfort in these fast paces. The deal is, if you drain the tanks too much, too often... You will likely discover something called Adrenal Burnout. And if you keep pushing... Overtraining Syndrome. Keep pushing still... Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. All of this equals a potential end to your endurance career and, at the very least, a massive reduction in your performance level. But don't let this scare you away from hard training. Most people don't do enough of it and only a small percentage of people do too much. Follow the outline here and if your body isn't responding well, take a little time off until you feel ready to push hard again. Under this outline, you will have only two workouts each week that have any sustained anaerobic intensity. The Speed Development (Track Tuesday) workouts have such a brief exposure to high intensity that they count as aerobic workouts.

note: Anaerobic workouts are sometimes called lactic acid tolerance workouts, or lactate threshold workouts, because the increased production of lactic acid is thought to be a muscle function inhibitor. Of course, it is a bit more complicated than that and there is debate on what is actually causing the fatiguing effect. Here is one of the latest hypothesis on the Lactate Shuttle System: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactate_shuttle


The Workouts:

Track Tuesdays are typically interval workouts between 100 meters and 200 meters, in order to reach maximum speeds to recruit maximum muscle fibers throughout the legs and to develop the motor skills of fast running, all without taxing the adrenal system due to the brief amount of time spent anaerobic and the full recovery between repeats. Exmp: 20 x 100 meters, 100 meter jog recoveries

Tempo Thursdays have the broadest range of possibility from an outline perspective. Workouts are usually directly related to how far off your target race is and what the target race pace is. I like to think of it as maximum effort at the prescribed interval distance. These workouts could be anything from an hour run with every 6th minute run fast, 5 minute recoveries, to a sustained race pace effort for an hour. Often we will do 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy for 60 minutes, or 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy for 60 minutes. Most of these runs are run faster than marathon race pace and help us find new levels of speed and hopefully a level of comfort while sustaining such efforts.

Weekend Long Runs. Because we are trying to prepare the body to combine both long and hard running, we always have both elements in these runs. In preparation for marathoning we run anywhere from 20-30 miles in these runs and always have elements of speed built in. Nothing can prepare you mentally and physically for a marathon better than a 22 mile base run followed by six, 1 mile repeats at race pace directly after! Or three times 10k, progressing the pace with each split, followed by 4k all out! We rarely complete the workouts entirely, due to total muscle fatigue, but always try. These workouts are designed to simulate the challenges of racing the marathon. We are preparing to deal with fatigue, mentally and physically, and the ability to continue to perform in the late stages of a race.


One final ingredient in the recipe worth mentioning is progression. This is a progressive build in overall weekly running volume. Starting from wherever you are currently comfortable and building as high as possible in a four month program. We use 10% gain each week for three weeks, followed by a week with reduced volume. Each month is a new cycle that picks up from the highest volume week from the previous cycle. The rule of progression is Quality Before Quantity! If something has to give, reduce the volume, just be sure to hit the three key workouts as prescribed. In the inevitable week where you miss a key workout, don't try to make it up. Move on as if you never missed it. A couple missed workouts wont ruin your entire training cycle.

Stay healthy and rested as much as possible to allow you to really bring your game on the workout days. There is no such thing as too easy on the base days if you are truly pushing yourself in the workouts! Be patient and, over time, you will see serious improvement with this type of training. Believe me, I'm one of many living examples of it! Have fun and #findyourFAST

-Blue

Why we do short distance track workouts... All the damn time!!

So I often get asked the question "Why don't we mix up our Tuesday track workout from the usual 100 meter and 200 meter repeats?" Variety is said to be the spice of life! Yes, I would agree, it truly is. Consistency + variety in your training is the key to continuous progression. I believe in variety but we, as long distance runners, use the track workout day to specifically work on our leg speed turnover. While there is a multitude of different length track workouts one can do, we reserve the longer range intervals for the road and save it for our "tempo day". If we did 400 meter repeats on our  "leg speed day" on the track on Tuesday, then did 60 second fartlecks on the road on Thursday, it would be the same workout two days apart. More importantly, in my opinion, it would be too much anaerobic training in one week, especially since we always incorporate tempo work into our weekend long run. It's important to know '"why" we are doing each workout and what the ultimate effect is on the body in doing so. Each of the three key workouts in a week should be very different by design. Top end speed development, sustained speed training and the long, hard run should each have their day of the week. There's your variety... Now stay consistent and the future is yours!! #findyouFAST

-Blue

note: Fartlecks is a word of Swedish origin that means "Speed Play" and is used in the running world to refer to all road speed interval workouts.